An Incomplete History

Chapter 12 - Hopeless.

Ryuma turns around and stares at Alecto, who has a grin of pure malice on his face. "What's your goal here Alecto?" Ryuma asks. "To have some fun? Is that so bad?" Alecto giggles, Ryuma looks at him with disappointment. "Well I plan on ending this quickly so don't get your hopes up too high."  Ryuma puts his hands together and draws a sword seemingly out of thin air, the sword black in blade with a brown polished wood handle. A light cross engraved on the hilt. Alecto grins, flipping a card up between his fingers and vanishing, just to appear above Ryuma. Alecto throws 3 cards in midair, Ryuma manages to dodge every single one, but as they hit the ground they explode. Alecto lands and bows, Ryuma blasts forward from the smoke and slashes Alecto's chest, drawing blood. Alecto vanishes again and reappears holding his chest. "You got me good there Ryuma, too bad.." Alecto vanishes into smoke and returns unharmed. Ryuma looks confused at the fully healed Alecto. "Jeez.. Boss really hyped you up, a threat to the Archdemons..." Alecto circles around Ryuma, smoke started appearing that disorients Ryuma, his vision going fuzzy. "But I can see now, you're so incredibly weak it's laughable, this entire journey will only result in your friends and you dying. If you beat me today, you'll have to fight people and demons stronger than your comprehension. It's too sad though, your potential held back because of your silly little morals, I heard from Boss that you once worked with an Archdemon! So you're no better than I am Ryuma!" Alecto grins. "Shut it." Ryuma's entire body gets engulfed in flames, blasting Alecto back. As the flames die down fiery orange cracks spread across Ryuma's entire body, his shirt was burnt off, in the middle of his chest lies a weird orb, bright orange, like a small sun. Ryuma's eyes are now a bright orange, his face riddled with cracks as well. " It's been a while I guess, thank you for warming me up" Ryuma launches himself at Alecto, grabbing him by the neck, and throwing him to the ground, as Alecto tries to flee to smoke, Ryuma blasts fire surrounding the two of them. " There won't be any more fleeing Alecto" as Alecto reappears, the damage hasn't faded, Ryuma draws his sword once more and uses his fire to shoot himself towards Alecto at a speed rivaling that of light itself. As Ryuma makes contact with Alecto, Alecto spits out blood. Alecto giggles, as he attaches a king card to Ryuma's chest, the card then sends a beam of light straight through Ryuma leaving him with a massive wound. Alecto laughs " really had me worried there damn" Ryuma looked him in the eyes as fire started branching to his wound. Ryuma's wound healing within seconds. Alecto's face goes cold. " Alecto, your strength is admirable, but I've seen way stronger than that. No wonder you serve the weakest Archdemon. Maybe if you weren't such a piece of shit you could be pretty strong." Ryuma starts walking towards Alecto. " Where's that smile? I miss it." Ryuma reaches Alecto, Alecto's face filled with despair. "Don't be so cocky next time brat." Ryuma kicks Alecto so hard he goes flying out of the building, and into the air. Ryuma jumps up and reaches Alecto who is now descending, punching him so hard he flies down creating a crater where he lies. Ryuma lands beside Alecto's unmoving body. "You'll live. But after today, I expect you to do something with your life. You're still young, you can turn this around."  The cracks surrounding Ryuma's body fade, his eyes returning to a deep crimson. The Sun-like orb on his chest fades into a dark brown sphere made of rock, the rock seemingly cracked deeply.

Ryuma heads towards the back diner where the remaining group is when a sudden explosion behind him blasts the front part of the restaurant off, Ryuma turns around to see Alecto, seemingly malformed, half of his face torn off and covered in a green flame. " You see, that's my power, I can sacrifice parts of myself to become immortal. Before I would just sacrifice my love for my family, or any form of empathy I had left for you guys. But now, my power has evolved, it's consuming me as we speak to make me stronger... So I must kill you before I die." Alecto rushes at Ryuma as Ryuma draws his blade to block. The two clash creating a blast that destroys the remaining sections of the restaurant. When the backroom is exposed Ryuma notices none of the group is in it. Before he can think of a reason Alecto rushes at him once more, his speed faster and faster with every attack. With green flame pouring out of every single cut on his body, he keeps bombarding Ryuma with attacks, Ryuma barely being able to keep up, a look of sadness fills Ryuma's face. Alecto dashes back and sends a massive slash that mirrors an X towards Ryuma. Ryuma, not even trying to attack, just blocking every single attack. Alecto attempts to hit Ryuma from above but is deflected, Alecto jumps into the air and slams into the ground. A thick smoke envelopes the ruins of the diner. Ryuma looks around but the smoke is too thick. Suddenly Ryuma can hear Makya's voice "Ryuma over here!". Ryuma darts towards the voice but is met with Alecto grinning. "And here I thought your age would make you wise." Alecto blasts Ryuma back with an exploding card to his chest. "a fight is not always about physical strength, it's about making your opponent feel so worthless, so weak you can just devour their remaining will!" Alecto laughs as more and more of his face burns, leaving a charred expression. "Ryuma I'm afraid you lost, which is funny because I really thought you got me there. But alas you really are too old for this." Alecto draws a 4 of hearts. "Out of honor for how much you actually managed to put up a fight, I'll end it quickly, this card here can give you an instant death. But if you resist I'll have no choice but to bring you in and you'll be tortured to death" Alecto crouches down next to Ryuma. Ryuma grunts as he tries to push himself up. "Poor baby, don't try anymore, you can give up now." Alecto mocks him. " Alecto... I'm impressed... You're strong, near the level of an Archdemon someday for sure. But you're way too arrogant. You didn't even notice her." Makya launches herself off of a remaining support pillar whipping a throwing knife into Alecto's neck. Alecto's expression goes into shock as he motionlessly drops to the ground. "My knives are tipped with a poison that stops the nervous system completely, unfortunately they don't kill you fast enough, so you'll be like this for another 15 minutes before your heart stops." Makya walks over and helps Ryuma up. "Where's everybody else?" Ryuma asks. "They proceeded deeper inside, I only came outside because I know you didn't want to go all out on a kid." Makya starts walking towards the backroom again. "There's a hatch we found. It leads into the hideout." Makya heads over to it. Ryuma looks down at Alecto, whose face has stopped burning. He lies there motionless but his eyes still track Ryuma. "Alecto, all that you sacrificed for strength, was it worth it? Was it worth feeding into the gluttony? Was it worth losing the humanity you once had." Ryuma looks into Alecto's eyes, searching for even a trace of humanity left in him. All Ryuma can see is a pair of eyes that want to be sad, yet are bound by the reality he finds himself living in. " Goodbye Alecto, you fought well." Ryuma rushes over to Makya holding the hatch open as people start to come see the commotion. Alecto's eyes still follow Ryuma and Makya as they reluctantly drop into the hideout of Gulosus. As all traces of them vanish, nearby people come and swarm Alecto looking over him asking if he's okay, sirens in the distance. Yet he pays no mind to a single disturbance.

Boss, this man you want to kill... Gale was it? Is it gonna be worth this? It feels almost hopeless. I don't believe we have a chance of beating them anymore. Maybe, you.. scelus... Can you do it... I failed... Why are you doing this Ryuma? What drives you? I could tell you weren't trying against me. Why is that? What did I ever do to deserve being fought against like I was a lesser person? My cards told me though... Ryuma you will die.. not to an Archdemon... But somebody with a power similar to you... Somebody close to you... I thought I could deny fate and kill you myself.. but I was wrong. Ryuma, may your death be as hopeless as mine... May you meet an end that leaves you as unsatisfied as me... Goodluck scelus.

Alecto’s eyes are unable to close, as his eyelids have been burnt off. His consciousness fades, in that moment he remembers everything from his past. Through every image he is shown, one sticks out more than the rest. A young Alecto, smiling at his parents, hope, excitement. He comes face to face with his former self. Alecto reaches out his charred hand, but his former self flinches, Alecto’s eyes widen but he feels a sense of guilt. Slowly he reaches out his hand once more. “I'm so sorry.." Alecto mutters. His former self looks up at him, almost crying. "A-are you me?” his former self asks, Alecto sheds a single tear. “Don't cry mister, life is too short for crying." His former self grabs Alecto's charred hand. Alecto's eyes soften, yet his heart is filled with regret. As he gazes into the eye of who he once was, he looks behind him to see a version of himself, about 46, two kids and a wife. The man hides both of his kids' eyes from Alecto. As all of this fades, he is left alone, no longer charred,yet still feeling like he's burning. Tears flood down his face as he stares into an endless abyss, his crying won't stop. "I'M SORRY!!” Alecto yells, but his voice is unable to reach anybody. Alecto's parents were killed by gluttony. He was taken by previous gluttony henchmen, trained until he was a top fighter. Even then he wasn't valued, but all he had was Gluttony, all he had was his own resolve to stop himself from feeling anything to stop himself from facing himself. When Ryuma knocked him down he wanted to quit, he wanted to turn around, but he knew if he did that, Gulosus would kill him, he would die either way. With his last bit of will, he breaks the poison's restraint on him, sacrificing his ability to see in turn. He draws a 6 of spades, infusing it with his last bit of power and shooting it towards the hideout, the card makes its way through the passageway and into Ryuma's back pocket without him noticing. Now we’re even Ryuma, kill him…please… His contract with gluttony is now ending. And so his life does as well. An ambulance arrives to pick up Alecto's body, as a group of two carry him into a stretcher they notice a pool of tears on Alecto's lifeless body.  “This poor kid. Did the explosion do this to him? He's the only casualty but witnesses say there were others here. Detectives will be here soon, no use digging into it.” One of the paramedics says.

Ryuma and Makya Rejoin Tomasi, Aquila and the now conscious P. “What's the plan now?" Tomasi asks. “We find Gulosus, and we eliminate him."  The card in Ryuma's back pocket pulses as they begin walking down the pathway.

[Chapter end]