The Burden of Failure

When he was first sent to this world, Arata saw it as the same world he had read. Happy go lucky, with dangerous monsters and strong heroes that could defeat them. Now he was living in this world, and it ignored his preconceptions. This was just supposed to be a simple mission, save the Princess and go home. Sure, things looked bleak at one point but, the future was changed once they had Franz. There was nothing about this, nothing about losing Leona like that. Even as they rushed in and fought against the Scourge, the future he saw was of hardship yet, ultimately, success. How had that future shifted to this?

That’s when his mistake came to mind, a simple step out of cover, and they were at a bad ending, “it’s my fault.” He spoke weakly. Täter was now standing over him with the deleting brush dripping white on the floor. “Your turn, Hero.”

He was powerless to stop it, still recoiling from Leona’s deletion. But, Franz tackled Täter away before he could rid him of another friend. The two of them fell through the gap between Täter’s quarters and Niedlich’s pit and Plotgerät screamed for Franz. Täter recovered quickly but Franz was slow to plant his feet on the hard rock. The perfect chance to wipe him out, delete him from this world and from the Princess’s heart yet, the whiteout was no longer in his hand. The impact from the fall had knocked the weapon from his hand without him noticing. It was now behind the beast.

He did try and retrieve his weapon, Niedlich stood in the way and as he berated the creature, Franz had closed the gap. The punch was strong but rigid, hitting the shield between them. And as he felt the recoil the shield dropped and Täter returned fire with an uppercut sending the drunk knight across the room. Plotgerät watched the fight with her heart in her stomach, tears drying on her cheeks. Arata was still processing what had happened, like there was a way to load the save and replay it differently but, this world didn’t work that way.

“Oi… shadow…” he muttered, only the Princess heard his call and she looked at him perplexed. “Fix this, you gotta do something.”

“Sir Reinhardt?” Plotgerät queried, seeing nothing in his eyes. Franz was still fighting in the next room, fighting a losing battle. Yet he was standing each time. She couldn’t bare look anymore. The man next to her was gone, but she hated it. She shoved him, hard enough to knock him to his back. Fresh tears trickled down her fair skin and crashed into the ground, but her face was one of disappointment, a look he had come to know well in his own world. “Ah, there it is. It’s my fault, I messed it up… so this is my fate. To die a failure…”

It was as if she could hear his thoughts, as he felt a sharp pain hit his face. With a loud crack she’d smacked him with all the power she had, waking him from his slumber. “Don’t you even dare. You, the hero of our kingdom, you’ll sit there in self pity while he fights down there… while he… dies” the words choked her up as they left her lips, more tears flowed. “What kind of friend are you?! Leona is gone, you can’t bring her back… but Franz is still moving!” She moved closer, enough he could feel the heat from her breath as she grabbed his collar and yanked it up. “Help him!”

Still his eyes were blank, still not past the deletion. She looked back down, seeing Franz standing but being knocked back down again, blood pooling underneath him as his skin split.

“You can’t bring her back…” she cried, and the impact of it was that of a knife to the chest. “But it won’t just stop with Leona, Reinhardt. It’ll be him, it’ll be me… until everyone in the Kingdom is gone, separated from everything they loved by someone that can’t understand that feeling.”

“I… I can’t beat him… not alone.” Arata whimpered. Just his voice was enough, no longer was he in the deep fog, finally her friend was back. She tilted her head, enough to see Franz in the next room as he shakily stood once more. “He hasn’t given up. Neither should you.”

*-*-*

Each hit to the drunken hero was like a sledgehammer. Each one made his body heavier on his shaky legs. “Keep going” he told himself. She was looking down on him, he couldn’t give in. Leona’s deletion still fresh in his mind, he wanted to wail like a kid, he’d known her all his life and this scum just sent her away… far beyond where he could reach. Another hammer blow, this time followed up with another before he could fully stand. The lights were dimming, the colours fading. Everything ached.

Täter was starting to tire however. He kept himself up with his hands on his knees as he breathed deep. “Screw this.” He muttered under his breath, seeing the whiteout in the corner. He’d been unable to approach it to this point.

So close to the whiteout until Niedlich got in his way once more. Around its frame but again it moved to block him, and his rage boiled. “Get out of the way!”

The beast remained in place, staring straight through him. “Niedlich! Move!”

From being born, a tiny fur ball in the snows of the North. To the fire that engulfed his cave, and the burn searing his skin. To the mother that stood between him and an army of thugs, an army that would cut down the one most precious, and took him captive. Every day was a lesson writ in agony. Held by chains and barely fed, forced to fight and kill, forced to endure even as he grew to this size.

All of it burned in the back of those eyes, and the one responsible for it all

That was the man standing before him.

It moved to the side and Täter saw it as a sign of obedience, a mistake. He couldn’t lift his barrier in time, as the beast’s tail swung around and launched him into the wall. Franz watched it happen, dumbstruck as he’d only seen the beast now. He struggled back to his feet, falling back down after the first step. The taste of iron in his mouth and the numbing feeling in his legs, he still had fight left.

The scourge shook off the pain, but it was building up. Every hit had done some damage, every hit he had dished out tired him that little bit more. Arata had found himself by Niedlich’s side, to Täter’s disappointment the beast was not attacking him.

“Chose your side, eh?” He muttered.

“Reinhardt.” Franz called weakly.

“Yeah, I see it.” He responded. The impact itself was cushioned by his barrier, but there was a pointed spike that had dug into Täter’s skin on his thigh. It sliced shallow, but it sliced nonetheless and both heroes noticed it. “The barrier can only cover one side, but if he stretches it out he can cover more angles. The trade off is a thinner barrier, and concentrated attacks will punch right through it.” He confirmed.

Täter wasn’t fazed, he still had the upper hand. “One hero, and a walking corpse, and you talk about MY weakness like you’ve got a chance.”

It was a standoff. The air felt heavy enough to drown in, it was toxic. Täter took a deep breath, calming himself for the war that followed, readying himself for the final stretch. “When this is over, I’ll be the one they call Hero.”

“Nah” Franz replied, now stood resolute. “When this is over, they won’t remember you.”