A few seconds after Gleam fell to the ground dead, Shana returned back to her normal form and cried as she sat down with her face planted on her dead mother.
"I know...that I shouldn't...be crying...and I know...I should...be mad," Shana choked through her tears. "But...I just can't...stop this overwhelming sadness... I can't stop it..."
Shana continued to bawl her eyes out, so I sat down and placed my hand on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry," I said. "I should've at least let you say goodbye to-"
"DON'T YOU DARE APOLOGIZE," she screamed. "None of this was your fault. I tried to convince her to stop many times, but she wouldn't listen to me. I've thought of running away countless times, but she was the only one the would ever want to take care of me. She convince everyone that I was Devil, so I couldn't run away from her. Please...don't blame yourself. If you want to blame someone then...THEN BLAME ME FOR BEING WEAK!!!"
I could see from the corner of my eye that the soldiers and citizens were ready to kill her. Xylvia and the others were about to try and stop them, but I was the first to speak.
And I started by laughing.
"Hahaha! Are you really the Sin of Pride?" I asked.
"...eh?"
Shana tilted her head in confusion, the soldiers and citizens had their eyes open wide with shock, and Xylvia and the others just simply smiled.
"You're calling yourself, the Sin of Pride, weak," I said sarcastically. "How can you call yourself Pride whenever you don't even have it?! You don't look like a sin, you just look like a normal girl who's scared and doesn't know what to do."
"What exactly are you trying to say," one of the citizens asked. "Shouldn't she be killed for working with that fake goddess?"
I didn't want to just bluntly give them an answer without any meaning, so I made sure to try and pick at their heartstrings.
"Do any of you guys feel like you were born into this world at the worst time?" I asked.
They all looked at each other then nodded.
"Well this girl's father, the first Sin of Pride, met the fake goddess, Gleam, and fell in love with her. They got married, had this girl as their child, and continued to love their happy life. But the a god from the heavens decided to kill the father out of jealousy, which started this whole war thousands of years ago, and that left the Gleam and Shana on their own. Gleam got pissed and wanted revenge, so she started planning while she took care of her daughter. Gleam then used Shana's Sin powers to become the goddess and take over this world."
Some of the soldiers and citizens looked shocked, but some of them acted like they had already heard this from someone else.
I decided to try and get to my point.
"Some of you have probably already heard this story and are wondering what my point is," I started. "Well my point is that Shana is just like all of you. She was born at the worst time and she didn't know what to do. And since everyone hated her, she had no where else to go. I know that she was Gleam's sword, but please try and consider what she had to endure."
Everyone started to nod and look like they were understanding, but some people didn't agree.
"SHE WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF THIS WORLD, AS WELL AS THE LOSS MANY LIVE!!!! She could've stopped whenever she wanted to, but...SHE LET HERSELF BE CONTROLLED BY THAT BITCH!!! I'M GOING TO KILL HER MYSELF!!!"
The woman screaming out her thoughts gripped tightly onto her weapon then started to march forward towards Shana.
I stopped her before she could get closer.
"Step aside or I'll kill you myself." she said to me, an ugly killing intent showing in her eyes.
I could tell that no matter what I said, she wasn't going to change her mind.
"Where's your family?" I asked.
"They all died a few months ago when our town got destroyed in the middle of the war," she said. "What's that got to do with anything?! Step aside kid!"
She got closer to me and pulled her sword out ready to strike.
"Tell your family that I..."
With a swift swing of my sword, I sliced the woman's neck open and watched as she bled to death on the ground.
"...said sorry."
The entire crowd watch in horror at what I had done.
"We've only got about thirty-five minutes left to live," I said with a bland tone. "Please don't make me cut that short."
And with that, I grabbed Shana's hand and walked away from the crowd of people; Xylvia and the others followed me from behind.
After we had gotten a good distance away from them, I sat down on the black ashes that was the ground and looked at the horizon.
All there was to see was an endless sea of black grass and a terrifying blood red sky.
Xylvia and the others sat next to me, not mentioning what I had just done.
"I'm so fucked up." I said, breaking the silence.
Nobody said anything. This was their way of silently agreeing I guess.
"I felt no guilt when I killed her. I even looked her in the eyes as she died, but I felt nothing."
Everyone still stayed silent. I could see Shana sitting down next to Xylvia.
"It's not like this is anything new. Back in my world, I had a cousin. I never met her. All I knew about her was that she was my age and lived somewhere in the country. One day, she died in a car accident and we held a funeral for her. Everyone mourned over her, but I didn't feel a thing. Heh...I really am fucked up."
"No your not," Xylvia said. "You didn't feel sad for her because you never met her in the first place. People die all the time, but we don't have time to mourn over all of them. We only have time to mourn over the ones we know and love. So don't think bad about yourself just because you don't feel sad over someone dying when you didn't even know them."
"Even if it's your own family?" I asked.
"Even if it's your own family."
I smiled and thanked her.
"Can you guys promise me something," I asked. "I know that we're going to die, but I want to say this in advance just in case."
"We'll always be there for you Hiro," Leonna said. "So what is it that you need."
"If we ever face a situation just like the one with that woman that I just killed again, please remember to knock me out before I do it again," I said. "I don't want to needlessly kill anyone ever again."
"Don't worry," Leonna said. "We'll be there to help you through the hardest times."
"Thanks."
I saw a huge wall of fire coming our way. The end of the world.
Dusk hugged her entire family tightly and started talking about, I assume is, their past memories with each other.
"I miss Dawn." Ash said.
"We all do little bro," Pitch said. "Don't worry. Soon, we're all about to see her up in the sky."
I saw Ray with the note that his girlfriend left him when she was still sane.
"I hope she's doing well in the afterlife." he said.
Leonna and Xylvia were talking about how they met me.
"He gave me the adventurous life that I never got to experience." Xylvia said.
"He always treated me kindly and made sure that I was doing alright."
Honestly, those two made a bigger impact on me than I did on them.
"Thanks for being my friend," Shana said to me. "I hope that we can still be friends even after we die."
"Don't worry," I said. "We will always be friends."
"Hey guys," Flicker shouted. "END OF THE WORLD GROUP HUG!!"
We all got up and hugged each other with Dusk's family.
"What's a better way to spend our final moments than with a group hug with the ones we love?" Pitch asked.
"I can't even imagine anything better." Ray said.
"Maybe a group hug with your harem?" I joked.
We all laughed.
"What's a harem?" both Ash and Shana asked.
We all laughed even harder.
My blade suddenly transformed into a tall man with a black beard, smoky grey hair, dark purple eyes, and a black trenchcoat with black jeans.
"So you've finally decided to come out." I said.
"I wanted to apologize to my daughter before we die." he said.
Xylvia looked up at the man, tears were raining down from her eyes.
"I...should be the one...apologizing," Xylvia said through your tears. "I always thought...that you...were a scumbag..."
"Please don't cry," Wrath said. I want your last face that I see to be of you smiling."
It took Xylvia a minute, but she was able to smile.
"There we go," Wrath said. "Now I can finally die happy."
Xylvia and her father both embraced in their own hug and we just huddled around them with our bigger hug.
I took one last look at everyone then closed my eyes and smiled.
Mom. Dad. No offense, but you guys have been pretty crappy parents. So please, be proud that you let me become a part of this world. Be proud that you let me meet all of these wonderful people.
Be proud.. because I sure as hell am. I hope I can meet you guys and introduce you to my family.
I felt the scorching flames growing closer to us until it completely engulfed us, turning us into ashes.
But even through the flames, the only thing that I could feel was the warmth of the beating hearts that surrounded me with love...