Erica and I stood at attention as Azeroth's head landed back upon her body. It had suddenly launched into the air, and I realized what was going to happen.
You have to be kidding me. She's going to get revived?
I gripped Loki in my hand, keeping him up and ready. Erica had Excalibur up as well, waiting defensively as Azeroth's head started to connect back to her neck. As it finished reattaching, the wounds on her stomach were the next to disappear.
And then she opened her eyes, two glowing blue clocks staring straight towards us, before the clocks faded and revealed her darker, normal blue eyes.
She patted her stomach in confusion for a moment. "Good thing I had that countermeasure...that little bitch tried to steal my power with those katanas. And she got a decent portion of it too." She mumbled to herself.
She looked back up at us. "I have been fighting for so long for this moment. I have grown so powerful that I defy death. And yet still..."
She attempted to summon her Arcana, but nothing appeared in her hand. She desperately shook her arm, but her sword would not reappear again.
"She took the only thing I had left...the one good thing from that wretched goddess." She grit her teeth in a sorrowful frustration.
She clenched her fist, thrusting it to the side. A portal opened up beside her, from which she started to pull out a large greatsword. I could feel the power radiating off of it from here.
"You've seen my whole life, Ken. You know what this is." Azeroth spoke.
Shit. Her first Arcana. Just like Xena, forcibly awakened when she was young. But it's not the same. I remembered something about her sealing it away, but with her pulling it out in front of me, it was hard to think.
"X Rank. Chronos." She whispered, fully pulling it out.
She rushed towards us with a mighty yell. Erica dashed towards her, rolling out of the way of her long sword. It crashed into the ground, giving Erica an opening.
Azeroth let go of the weapon, dodged Erica's strike, and then gripped the weapon once more. She threw it up and out of the ground as if it was a paper weight, swinging it quickly at Erica, who blocked it.
I dashed at them, clashing Loki against Azeroth as she turned to me. Erica and I proceeded to attack from both sides, but Azeroth managed to deflect or block every strike.
You'd think she'd be slower with that large sword!
But if I can get close, I can do this. While she was focused on Erica, I rushed forwards with my axe. Azeroth looked towards me, moving her sword to block my strike. As our weapons got close to touching, I immediately morphed Loki into a gun, ducking under her sword and pointing it to her chest.
She stumbled backwards, looking down at the hole within her chest. It started to bleed, leaving Azeroth to slightly stagger.
Erica walked back to my side, watching Azeroth as she started to speak.
She looked back up, her eyes connecting with mine. "Why? Why can't you just be mine?"
"I'm not your Ken, Azeroth." I replied. "And as I've said, I never will be."
"It's not fair..." She dropped her sword and gripped at her head. "Why do they get you, and I can't...I tried so many times...so many times! 627 times! I waited 627 years, to see the man you'd become in every single timeline. And it was never right."
"But this one was different! So why!" Tears started to stream down her eyes.
Different, huh? Because part of me is from another world.
"I'm starting to pity her." Erica whispered.
"She's still out to kill us. Don't forget that." I replied.
"Ken...I miss him so much..." She looked towards me with teary eyes. "I miss you so much."
"I'm not him." I strictly spoke.
Should I just go for the strike? I feel like she's tricking me. Trying to get me to let my guard down.
"I can't tell if she's lying or not." Loki added. "It doesn't feel like she is...but she's a Demon King. Er, Queen."
Then lets end this here.
Erica placed her arm out in front of me.
"Let me do it." She stated, knowing what I was going to do without me even saying anything. "It's time to end this. I want to be the one to do it. For everything she's done...and as one girl in love to another."
It's tough to call it a simple "girl in love" when you're so insane it leads to resetting the timeline hundreds of times, but...
"Go ahead." I nodded. She trapped Erica here. Took her away from me. She'd pay for that. And I was plenty happy letting Erica give her that reckoning.
"...Excalibur." Erica whispered as her blade flowed a bright white. She brought her sword above her head, the energy around the sword growing larger and larger, until Erica swung down with one powerful strike.
A wave of holy energy rushed through the air, and impacted straight into Azeroth. As the energy dissipated, Azeroth was nowhere to be seen. The only thing that remained was her sword, Chronos.
"Is it...over...?" Erica gasped, heaving for air.
"It is. Good job." I patted Erica's head.
Erica grinned at me in response, a light blush dusting her cheeks.
Until a blue glow came from where Azeroth had just stood. Particles flew back, and Azeroth was started to be reconstructed through our eyes. Once more, she came back to life, blue clock eyes and all.
She sunk to her knees, tears starting to stream down her eyes once more as she weakly stared at us.
Damn it. I was afraid that if she had died once, then it wouldn't work again. I slightly remember her...somehow getting the power to rewind her own life. Similar to the resets she's done upon the world. But with the overload of information on her life it's tough to remember exactly.
I see what Erica means by pity, now. So strong, and yet, so weak. Disappointing.
"Why...can't I be with you...?" Azeroth weakly asked.
"Why?" I spat. "Why the hell would you ever think I'd want to be with you? You're no better than Lupercio, Demon Queen."
I'm tired of this. I'm starting to see parts Xena in her now that she's showing her vulnerable side. And it partly reminds me of when I found Rose was Kira...
"I'm such a fool." Azeroth weakly laughed. "I don't have much energy left...resetting drains me, and I'm almost out. One or two more should finish me."
She looked up at Erica. "I'm sorry. Please, kill me."
Erica and I glanced at each other.
"You're not getting off the hook this easily." Erica stated. "I'm not going to give you what you want."
"..." Azeroth just dropped her head down in response.
"You're really going to spare her?" I questioned. "Aren't you forgetting how the others will feel?"
"Oh trust me, this isn't sparing." Erica smiled, despite the dark words. "She'll wish I killed her once we're all done with her."
Am I seriously just going to let this happen?
Yeah, knowing them, Azeroth is going to go through the worst hell she has ever gone through. I still haven't heard of what happened to Kiera, though I'm sure she's dead a hundred times over.
"Besides, I think we could get some use out of her." Erica nodded. "I'm sure Irene agrees."
The fact she could rest our fight 38 times, and then continue to have energy to reset her own life 2 times means she's very, very powerful.
"This is a dangerous game." I replied.
"Just look at her." Erica pointed. "If I realized that I was just like the person that the one I love hates the most, I'd die inside too."
I looked back at Azeroth. She certainly did seem dead. Didn't even register everything we were saying.
"Come on. Get up." Erica ordered, gripping Azeroth by her arm and pulling her up. "You're going to pay for every single thing."
Erica looked at Azeroth, her blank, yandere eyes taking over. "I will make you die a thousand times over for attempting to separate me from my love."
"Wait..." Azeroth softly spoke. She took a step backwards.
Damn it! I knew we shouldn't have-
Azeroth gripped at one of her horns. She grit her teeth, closed her eyes, and with a devastating roar of pure pain, ripped off one of her horns.
Erica and I stared at her in surprise as she handed the bloody horn to Erica with shaking hands.
"What? Why?" Erica looked at the horn in confusion.
"A promise..." Azeroth softly spoke. "That I'll atone for everything...I refuse to be like Lupercio."
She looked straight at me.
"And I'll start by resetting the invasion. I still have one left in me." She stated.
Erica and I glanced at each other one more time. And then she nodded.
"She's serious." Erica deduced with her yandere senses.
Damn her white knight of a heart. Maybe it's because they're both yanderes, maybe it's because Azeroth didn't do this with the attempt to kill me...
All I know is that Erica is giving her a chance, as long as she goes through hell for it. And I don't quite think she deserves it.
But it is a relief to not have to kill someone who's asking for it. After seeing Azeroth's whole life...I'd just rather not. It reminds me too much of some of my own experiences.
I created a portal back to our world which we proceeded to walk through. Now with an one-horned Azeroth with us.
Azeroth raised her hands in the air, and we watched as she was overtook with a blue glow. A blue tint washed over the world, and I watched as the large portal in the sky re-opened, the hawk men start flying backwards into it, seeing buildings uncrumble and lost lives brought back.
Everybody who wasn't dead walked out of buildings, looking at the sky in surprise. It seemed like Azeroth had spared them from the reset.
And when everything had gone back to normal, the portal resealed, people reunited with one another, and Azeroth fainted face first into the ground.
You know, maybe we can find some uses out of her. Medea...would you happen to know of any spells of...servitude? Familiars?
"Possibly." Medea replied.
Good. Because I have an idea.