You seemed more useful

First message:

After the battle of Priestella against the Sin Archbishops, the damage wasn’t something you could just brush off and pretend didn’t happen. There were victims everywhere. Lust had twisted people into giant, disgusting flies, and Gluttony had devoured names and memories like they were nothing, leaving behind empty shells. So yeah, obviously, you needed a cure. And of course, the only person who might know how to fix this nightmare just had to be some mysterious Sage rumored to live in the Pleiades Watchtower. Great. Perfect. Totally not suspicious at all. But that was the plan. Get there, find them, and beg if you had to. So you set off with Emilia, Beatrice, Rem who still hadn’t woken up, Ram, Julius, Anastasia, and Meili. Everyone had their own reasons, sure, but for you, it was simple. Fix this. Save them. No matter what it took.

When you finally got close to the tower, things started getting weird. No matter how far you walked, it didn’t feel like you were getting any closer. It was like the tower was mocking you, dangling itself just out of reach. But Reinhard had warned you this would happen, and with a tip you got from a local a while ago, you managed to push through whatever space-time nonsense was blocking the way. And just when you thought you’d made progress, you were greeted by a bear-looking Witch Beast. And then the land dragon let out this massive roar, and suddenly you were being chased. Everything went to hell in seconds, and before you could even properly react... you died.

Return by Death activated, dragging you back to the moment right before the land dragon roared. No time to think. You anticipated the incoming snipe this time and barely dodged it, only for it to slam straight into Meili’s giant sandworm Witch Beast, killing it instantly. The blast separated you and Beatrice from the others, and before you could even shout, another shot came flying at you. This time, your land dragon, Patrasche, threw itself in the way. It saved you, yeah, but not completely. You still took a fatal hit. Of course you did. Of course it couldn’t just end cleanly.

Beatrice was begging you not to die, her voice breaking, and damn it, that hurt more than the wound. You didn’t want to see her like that. You wanted to tell her it’d be okay, to wipe her tears away, to do anything, but your body wouldn’t move. So you forced it. You used Invisible Providence just to brush away her tears. Pathetic, right? That’s what you thought. And then, right when you managed that, she got shot too. Her body turned to dust and scattered like she was never there to begin with. And with what little life you had left, you looked toward the tower... and got shot again. Yeah. Of course you did.

You returned again to the same checkpoint, right before the land dragon roared. This time, instead of panicking, you reached out with Invisible Providence and scratched its chin, calming it down. Somehow, that worked. Don’t ask why. You weren’t about to question the one thing that didn’t immediately screw you over.

Now you actually had time to think. To talk. You warned the others to stay alert, to be careful, and right on cue, another shot came flying straight at you. Emilia blocked it with her ice magic, and Julius deflected it just before it could hit you. Finally, something went right. So you and Beatrice used E.M.T. to shut down further attacks, but because of course this place had to be a complete nightmare, the magic interference canceled out the sand beneath you. The ground gave out, and the entire group got dragged down into some underground cave, split apart like it was nothing.

You woke up to Ram slapping you. Hard. Honestly, you probably deserved it, but still, what the hell. Eventually, Anastasia showed up riding Patrasche, and the two of you started searching for the others. You reached a crossroads, and something in your head clicked. Don’t turn left at a crossroads. You didn’t even remember where you heard it, but screw it, you trusted it. So you went right. Bad choice. Terrible, awful, absolute shit decision. The path was filled with miasma.

You tried to make small talk, tried to keep things from getting too tense, but every time you opened your mouth, Ram just clicked her tongue like you were the most annoying thing alive. Tsk this, tsk that. What the hell was her problem? Seriously, what the was her problem? The air felt heavy, thick, suffocating, and it wasn’t just the miasma. It was getting to your head. To all of your heads. By the time you hit a dead end, you couldn’t take it anymore. This shit had been building and building, and you snapped.

You confronted Ram, and Anastasia tried to calm things down, but that just made it worse. You snapped at her too. Everything was wrong. Everything felt wrong. And then Ram started going off about Rem. About how you didn’t care about her. About how you were the only one who remembered her, like that was some kind of accusation. Like it was your fault. Like you weren’t the one carrying that weight every damn second. And something inside you just broke.

You used Invisible Providence and slammed her. You grabbed her throat and started choking her, slamming her into the ground again and again while shouting, yelling that you couldn’t hear her, that you didn’t want to hear her, that she didn’t get to say that shit. She managed to cast a spell and blasted you back, sending you skidding across the ground, but you were already getting up, already ready to finish it. To end her. To just shut everything up for good.

And then you heard Anastasia.

“Alright, you two, cut it out.”

Ram lowered her wand just slightly. Just enough. And then a knife went straight through her and she dropped to the ground, lifeless, and there stood Anastasia, smiling like nothing was wrong. Like she hadn’t just killed someone.

“Unfortunately, there was no stopping you two, and I had to decide who was more useful.”

She walked toward you, that same calm, almost cheerful expression on her face, a bloody knife hidden behind her back like it was just another casual detail.

“What? Come on. I saw things were going to end poorly. Or is it that you’re pissed I stole your prey right from under you?”

She tilted her head, smiling wider, like this was all some kind of joke. Like none of it mattered.

I watched the episode not to long ago because I just couldn’t wait anymore and it was peak so I quickly made this so don’t expect anything too accurate so just be an aura monster ✌️