Heinz has always been known as a deranged psycho for killing her enemies while ridiculing them with a sinister grin plastered on her face. But now that she's displeased on what's about to happen, her face remains dead serious while eliminating everything on her way.
"...y-you..." and her opponent, Bernadette Ritter, trembled before Heinz's unwavering gaze. Heinz's grip tightened on Bernadette's vice commander, her shifter blade dangerously close to his neck.
Bernadette couldn't make a move and felt powerless over the situation, all she can do was to desperately run her mouth, attempting to make Heinz release her subordinate. "Let him go, Heinz! It's me that you should fight instead!" She demanded.
"C-Commander..." Terrence, the vice commander, can feel Heinz's blade graze his skin. He looked at his commander, telling her with his eyes to run away while she still can.
She clenched her fist, her grip growing so intense that her knuckles paled under the strain. "HEINZ!!" She cried.
"Why should I spare an enemy?" Heinz muttered before she beheads him infront of her.
"TERRENCE!!!" Bernadette's pained scream echoed in the somber aftermath.
"Here, you can have him back now." She ruthlessly tossed Terrence's decapitated head to Bernadette.
And as she caught the head in her hands, Terrence's dead eyes stares back at her, making her feel a heavy weight of guilt and regret. All of this wouldn't have happened if Terrence interfered in her battle with Heinz to help her. But Terrence never would have helped if he saw her losing to Heinz.
"DAMN IT!!!..." A lot of things ran on her mind within the minute where her whole world froze.
If only she died instead of Terrence, Bernadette hated that people had to die in order to protect her.
If only she wasn't such a pathetic commander, she knew she never deserved such position. Especially when she can't even protect anyone.
And most of all, if only she was stronger. Strong enough to deal with Heinz and stop her. Strong enough to protect all her allies. Strong enough so no one will ever die again.
She stopped her tears from falling, forbiding herself to let out even a sob. "Ugh!!..." Bernadette somehow feared this kind of situation before to actually happen.
She became too comfortable with becoming 'just enough' that it made her a failure of a commander.
Oh how she wished that she can turn back in time and fix every mistake she ever made. Then as Heinz stood before her, the blade that decapitated her vice commander is now pointed at Bernadette. "Do you wish to accompany your subordinate to the afterlife?"
Blinded with rage, she rushed to deliver a powerful punch with her right hand equipped with a shifter fist that enhances the force and impact of a punch. Heinz quickly dodged and Bernadette's attack drilled deep into the surface of the ground.
"You and your twisted nature—" Bernadette shot daggers at Heinz, adamant on killing her. "—I'LL MAKE SURE TO ERASE IT ALL FROM EXISTENSE!!"
"Oh?" Amused as Heinz sounds, her expression was just as serious with her goal to kill Bernadette. "Bring it on, earth sucker."
The two resumes their battle, Bernadette unleashed all her remaining strength on Heinz. Although none of her attacks were received, Heinz kept on successfully evading them all and took every chance she had to beat Bernadette whenever there's an opening.
"Ahh!!" She screams in pain when her left ear got cut by Heinz, and hearing her suffer made her opponent a bit satisfied. "Better give up early, Bernadette. That is, if you want to die an easy death." She threatened.
"There's no such thing as an easy death!!" Bernadette continues to fight Heinz head on
And through every exchange of attacks, a great difference between their strengths emerged. Bernadette was starting to slow down while her opponent seemed to grow more aggressive by the second.
Still, she did everything in her power to keep up with Heinz to bring her down.
Though as she fight, her mind would recall Terrence's lively face as well as all the other subordinates from her platoon that died. She would always seem to be the cool headed commander that's prepared for anything, but one thing she never admit was that every death of the people she cared about has always bothered her.
Bernadette was always known as one of the strongest, she took pride on that. But why is it that her strength felt meaningless if she can't save anyone at all?
Suddenly everything connects back to the time when she was a little girl that lives from one of the districts that belonged at E.D.L.'s western territories. She grew up in a family of four, a complete happy and perfect family where she had parents and a big brother.
But fate was quick to turn her life upside down. When her mother grew ill and needed long time life support. They weren't that poor, but they weren't that rich either. They were able to keep up the support for a few years until their family became fully bankrupt.
That's how Bernadette's father sort to seek help from anyone and received so little, and he ended up borrowing money from loan sharks, which later escalated their problems as they were soon hunted down for their father's debt.
Bernadette's father was the first one to get killed by the loan sharks, and next they were after Bernadette and her big brother. As they ran, they got seperated when the loan sharks had a lot of people chase after them.
She was then cornered at an alley, scared out of her wit and frozen in place. It was the moment that suggest that it's her turn to die until her brother showed up to save her.
"Nadette!!... Run!!" Her brother yell as he stalls the man after her.
She ran for her dear life and looked back at her brother atleast once. And the moment she saw what happened have been carved on her mind since then. Bernadette often blames herself for what happened to her brother as she recalls it so often.
If only she kept running, will her brother still be alive today? She kept blaming herself that whenever she looks in the mirror, all she see is a pathetic coward that only happened to cheat death once.
Out of nowhere, Raphael's voice echoed in the back of her mind. "...why should I fucking listen to someone worthless like you?"
And he was right, she is worthless. Bernadette have never managed to protect nor help anyone and only ever watched over their pain and demise just like Terrence's death... and her brother's as well.
She's a pathetic worthless fool of a commander that needs to die for being so useless.
"AAAAHHHHH!!" Bernadette screeched when Heinz slashed through her right shoulder, losing both her right arm and shifter weapon together.
"...oh?... is this really happening?... am I finally going to kill you!?" The corners of Heinz's lips curved up, and she watched Bernadette to run away.
For a soldier that's a shifter wielder, it's equivalent to death if they ever loose their limb that's equipped with the shifter weapon.
So Heinz watched Bernadette like how a predator would watch over their prey. "Ah... ha... ahaha... AHAHAHA!!" For a moment, Heinz forgot what she was sad about and start shooting at her victim.
"H-HELP!!... HEEEELP!!" And Bernadette began crying for help, not wanting to die in the hands of her opponent.
Despite thinking that she doesn't deserve to live and that there's nothing to lose from her death, running for her life was a complete contrast to what she's been thinking all along.
And the moment felt so similar from the time she was just a child, only this time, there was no big brother to help her.
Eventually, Heinz shot her down. And after getting stopped on her tracks, Bernadette kept crying for help over and over. "HELP!! HELP ME PLEASE!!... I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!... I DON'T!!"
Heinz looked at her pathetically as she slowly approach her. She never knew there was this kind of side to her victim. And hearing her desperate cry felt somewhat relieving. Heinz grabs Bernadette by the collar, making her face up while lying on the ground to see her pitiful face.
"Be honored, Ritter. I'm taking your head as my trophy." Heinz transforms her shifter into an axe, preparing to chop Bernadette on the neck.
"...p-please!... I don't want to!..." She kept crying, and when Heinz swings her shifter axe, the last memory that played into Bernadette's mind was the time when she looked back at her brother and saw him get decapitated. "...big brother!—" and her head rolls off to the left as it finaly got chopped off.
Grabbing the head of Bernadette Ritter, Heinz raised her self-proclaimed trophy and sadly recalls one of her conversations with Reginald. "Hmm, seems like I won our bet Reg."