"This place is dead."

Both Micaela and Ilias were agreeing on the matter, which was rare enough to be signaled. And it was true that the wastelands north of Sabasa were pretty inhospitable back in their own world. In this new world however, they were beyond lifeless. There wasn't the faintest breeze, the place was populated with apoptosis rather than monsters, and most of all, instead of a hopelessly blue sky accompanying a scorching sun, there was nothing. An absolute, black void was in fact surrounding the stretch of land the group was standing upon.

The only sign of civilization was a tower east of where the heroes arrived. The party started moving slowly, cautiously, before an earthquake shook them all up. It was not the result of a natural, geological phenomenon, but the throes of a dying world falling apart. The different members decided to enhance themselves with a few enchantments to make it faster there. When they entered the large, sturdy tower, the only presence they saw was a strange being that looked like the upper part of a woman who was dressed as a nurse on top of a wheel.

"WelCOme, mASter is waitINg for you. FolLOw me." Her voice was monotone and sounded half broken.

Luka and Sonya followed the strange creature directly, while Ilias was extremely reluctant and Micaela was moving with her sword drawn and was checking every corner with the experience of an immortal being having been forged in endless wars. As they progressed, they passed in front of a room filled with crates.

"ThIs is the storAge room. Where food and othEr utilitY items were storEd. It hAs nOt been visited for mOre than six YeArs."

Micaela looked suspiciously at the construction. "Wait, six years? How are the inhabitants of the towers doing then?"

"The last living humAn died twenTY five years agO. The lAst living monstER died six years agO."

Ilias gasped. "Wait. All of humanity is dead? What about Heaven?"

"The last angEl died eight yEArs AGo."

"No human, no monster, no angel… What is the master of this tower then?" Micaela passed a hand in her long hair.

"MAster is mastEr."

"But…" As if on cue, several alchemical creations started moving toward the group. "Huh. I should have guessed." The remainder of the group pulled their weapons and made front against the strange creatures. One was a tentacle filled iron maiden, while another looked like an amalgamate of dolls with numerous arms, legs, and heads.

"Actually…" Luka slashed at a few tentacles that tried to grab him. "She's an undead monster called La Croix." He pushed forward and launched a wind blade at the iron maiden, throwing it against a wall.

"La Croix…" Micaela parried each attack of the doll with a ruthless efficiency. "Shirome Artiste?" She counterattacked and cut two of the doll's arms. "She's a necromancer!" The seraph ducked as a wave of shadow came from in front of her. A bolt of light thrown by Sonya destroyed the new assailant. "We kept an active watch when she was banned from the Monster Lord's castle, and she started killing monsters to add to her own private collection! Are you sure this isn't just an act?"

Luka sheathed his sword. "No, no, she was legitimately defending the last inhabitants. You will see by yourself."

Micaela stared at Luka, trying to gauge if her nephew had finally lost it. "Shirome Artiste turned into a beacon of hope for the last inhabitants of this world. This is really the darkest timeline."

Ilias snarled. "She should never be. We just have to kill her ourselves then."

"When you scold the one walking down the path of evil, you should care to not let oblivion be the only else." Micaela glanced at Ilias. "Sounds familiar?"

The goddess stopped and almost started crying. "Why… why did I tell her that? If I knew what would have happened next…"

"Then you would probably not have kept Black Alice in the first place. Sorry for that, but we have to keep moving." Micaela turned toward the hallway that was splitting. One path was leading to stairs climbing up, while the other kept going before disappearing. "Which one?"

"There." Luka pointed at the stairs. "We have no reason to go down for now."

The party entered the next floor to see a large room covered with seals and other runes. Before anyone could ask what they were for, the robot started talking again.

"This is the antI chaOsizatiOn field. It is used to kEep ApoptosIs back and to slOw down the spreAd of chaosIzation. It is howEVer insuffisant to keEP Adramelech at BAy."

"Adramelech?"

"Class XX APoptosis. The highest leVEl identified and reGIStered."

"And we'll have to destroy her as we escape." Luka added on top of the explanation. "She shouldn't be too hard to eliminate this time."

Micaela sighed. "When I left Heaven I thought I had left my life of war and fighting behind. And now, even into another dimension, I get caught back by this."

The group crossed the room without being disturbed by one of the alchemical creation roaming around. They reached the next floor and saw the robot already waiting for them.

"This is where SMArt people and smart monSTers lived."

Micaela looked at the content of the first room on her left. "So this is a living room then?"

Two very young girls, bored at a table, and two powerful looking yomas with them. Other people were wandering around or sleeping. One of the yoma came closer to one of the girl, and held out a teddy bear while smiling gently.

"Here, I found this in the storage."

"Yaaay! Thank you miss monster."

"You're welcome! Are you alright?"

"I feel… I feel…"

The girl suddenly transformed in an apoptosis like the ones the party kept fighting. The other recoiled back in a panic and started crying.

"Wuhaaaa! Save me!"

"Damn it! Come face someone your own size!"

Micaela shook her head. There were no girls, no monsters nor apoptosis in the place. It was a mess of furniture with the occasional toy and book spread around. The place had clearly fallen in disuse, which was not surprising considering it had not been used for several years now. She slowly stepped in, taking in what she was seeing now. A heap of trash was laying in a corner. She gently pushed it apart with the tip of her blade and lifted the teddy bear lying under it. When she grabbed it, the rest of the pile collapsed unceremoniously. The plush itself was of exquisite quality, made with the shed fur of a six tailed kitsune, and was consequently incredibly soft to the touch. The sensation was spoiled by the feeling of fear and sorrow Micaela could feel through it, and by the supernatural aroma of death that permeated the place. It was not the stench of decay that could mean a possible renewal for life, but instead one of a void that just was, of final nothingness in the midst of an empty nether.

"This got that bad…"

Luka nodded. "You may want to check the other rooms."

As they progressed, they checked every last room present in the tower. All of them were carrying the same feeling of terror in front of an upcoming annihilation, with people futilely struggling to find something, anything that could help them against the end of the world while some of them still tried to bring hope to their children. As they progressed, a feeling of determination was sweeping through the different members of the party. Their world shall not end like that.

Eventually, they reached the library. The place was now dusty, but the books were magically preserved, stopping their decay.

"ThIS is the place where the beST minds wroTE down evERything they knew. They said it was for the futURe generaTIons, but it was already cLEar that there wAS no hope… Radio doesn't undERstand why did kept GOIng then…"

Sonya stepped closer to the machine while smiling gently. "Because we need hope to continue. We need a reason to fight, so that even against overwhelming odds, we will still stand."

"This is what my friENd said… But they DIed… I dON't understand what I feel…"

"You're grieving for your lost friends."

"Radio is sad beCAuse she doesn't have frienDS? Would Radio not be sad if she had friends?"

"Yes, I can be your friend if you want."

Micaela smiled sadly at the scene. The sight of the priestess of Ilias teaching a mechanical doll about friendship in a desolated world was heartwarming. She then turned toward the library, when a realization slowly made its way through her mind.

"Wait, if the best of human, monster and angel scholars were here…" She briskly stepped in rows of shelves, muttering to herself all the while.

"Come on, I know you, you piece of work, you would certainly not be one of the first to die. At least not without a plan… Here!" She pulled out a book from a shelf and threw it onto a table. "Now, about me…" she walked with a firm step to another shelf and pulled another book she threw on top of the first. It lined up perfectly as it landed. "Now, of course, her… There!" She took a third one and threw it on top, and once again, it lined up perfectly. She lifted the pile upside down and handled it to Luka. Ilias eyed the books suspiciously.

"What's that?"

The seraph answered sarcastically. "Heretical literature." Luka took the pile. He could only see the fourth cover of the first book Micaela gave him, and it was richly drawn in the style of Yamatai, with a fox surrounded by runes in the center. He put it into his bottomless bag, where it joined its less than savory fellows.

"Heretical… Do you actually intend to corrupt my hero?"

"Quite the opposite actually. You all should read them as soon as possible. Everyone should actually."

"Isn't taking something from another world going to cause a problem?" The hero looked worried. Micaela glared at the hero and slightly pulled the sword gifted to her from its sheathe. "Really?"

Luka looked down, ashamed. "Sorry, dumb remark."

"Luka's right though. We shouldn't just run with these. Those will attract bigger dangers!"

"The only threats to those books are the most fanatic of your followers… And Promestein, but that's another issue entirely."

"Promestein… Wait, what are those books really about?!"

Someone loudly cleared her throat, stopping the debate in its track. "Sorry to interrupt you, but…" Sonya swallowed her saliva with difficulty. "Can we move on? I don't want to be here for when this world falls apart." She breathed in, before smiling nervously. "We always escaped, but then we never had saved Micaela before, so…"

"You're right. Let's go!"

The group climbed the last set of stairs and entered a large office filled with bookcases. There also were several makinas, and a small number of powerful-looking undead monsters lying around in an uncanny silence, waiting for an order to rouse them up from their supernatural sleep. Micaela twirled her sword around, wanting nothing more than to destroy these abominations, but she eventually stood her hand. Losing time while angering Radio's master was the last thing she wanted to do.

At the other end of the room, someone was waiting for them. A human sized figure, clad in a large black coat with a crow mask was sitting on a chair while writing on a book. The figure stood up and gestured dramatically around her.

"Ah, visitors from another world, welcome in what is the last bastion of... existence in this falling world. I am sorry I couldn't greet you more properly, but I wanted to be sure everything was registered before…"

She was interrupted by a new, sudden earthquake.

"ADramelech has entered the tower. Chaosization rate increasINg."

"Activate the barriers and regroup everyone for defense." She turned back toward the visitors. "I apologize, my name is La Croix and I am the master of this tower. You see, thirty years ago, a wound appeared in Remina. It was a strange effect that kept expanding, and every woman that approached it got turned into apoptosis while men simply died. The best minds started working on understanding the phenomenon and on how to eliminate it. However, despite our best effort, it kept growing, destroying everything in its way. We regrouped in this tower as a last ditch attempt to at least understand its root cause. We came to the conclusion that…"

Another rumble shook the tower.

"The first FloOR has been destroyed. Loss rates eXCeed 76%."

"Have everyone regroup on the second floor and activate every seal. They won't be useful otherwise anyway. As I was telling, we found out that this world did not follow the correct history."

Luka stepped forward and nodded. "Do you know what that true history is?"

"Indeed. We have made some observation that allowed us to get a good sketch of what happened, but there are still many variables." La Croix closed her notebook and handed it over to Luka. "Everything's here. You must find the me in the other world. I apologize, but the notes are extremely complex and nobody with a thought process different than mine would be able to make head and tail of it. It is that complicated."

Luka pocketed the book while Ilias shook her head from side to side. "Wait a second! You are telling me that the reason this world is going to be destroyed is because it didn't follow exactly the same history another one did?"

"Actually, this exact world shouldn't even have existed in the first place. However, an unknown event happened 30 years ago, which resulted in a deviation from true history. The biggest issue is that it didn't happen in this world here, but it got contaminated by another one which himself likely got infected by the one where the event originally happened. At this point, we can only conjecture on the amount of energy this event emitted to impact other dimensions so far away."

Yet another rumble shook the tower.

"I apologize, but time is short. You should leave by the portal back there. I only request that you do not let our effort go to waste. I suggest having Radio accompany you."

"We accept." Luka nodded again and started walking toward the magic circle.

"Thank you." La Croix turned toward the robot. "Change owner parameters to Luka."

"Change regIStered. Please take CAre of me."

"Hang on." Micaela readied her sword. "Why don't we stand here and fight this Adramelech?"

"Because soon, there won't be a world to fight for, nor even to stand on anymore. We had to accept it a long time ago."

Micaela solemnly nodded and joined the remainder of the team. They teleported into a beam of light to the entrance of the tower

La Croix sighed and removed her heavy coat, revealing a fully white figure with a torso covered in bandages. Her purple eyes scanned her room, and she could see small flickers where reality was starting to give up. She clapped twice in her hands.

"Come Cirque Du Croix. Our last representation shall start soon."

The six zombie queens slowly made their way to her. The tower rumbled yet again, and a new strange being stepped in the room. She looked like a doll with long hair, and her face looked split in the middles. Two lifeless red eyes looked at La Croix before an otherworldly voice echoed in the room.

"Class two world contact detected. Starting elimination procedure."

"Denied."

The zombies bum rushed Adramelech. Tentacles tore her legs apart, while a spear impaled her head and sword strikes after sword strikes cut her arms apart. The apoptosis body disappeared for a split second, before reappearing, intact. The zombies attacked her again, but she had time to strike back and damaged greatly the Scylla zombie with a heavy strike. Zenovia was moving eratically, but could still fight. In fact, she tore Adramelech's head from her body just afterward, killing the apoptosis once again.

"Please come back as much as you want. After all, I just have to offer the others time to escape to win."

"Enhance Agility All!"

The group was starting to make its way out of the tower as the world was collapsing around them. Everybody was pushing himself or herself to the limit with every enchantment available. In fact, it was more correct to say that reality was gradually ceasing to exist. The tower was not merely falling apart. Huge chunks simply disappeared into nothingness to exist as the world was getting swallowed by a primordial chaos.

"This is the part of the adventure I hate the most!"

Ilias sneered as she kept running. "Oh, you prefer when monsters are groping you? Pervert."

"NOW IS DEFINITIVELY NOT THE TIME FOR THAT!"

The group was rushing through what remained from the world. After running for what felt like an eternity, they reached an unexpected snag.

"Crap. I remember that hole being smaller."

A huge gap of pure void was separating them from the next segment of the tower that included the exit.

"Don't tell me… WE'RE STUCK?!" Ilias's eyes desperately darted around for a possible other path. The void was clear of all other debris, as if mocking the hopelessness of the party.

"This is the first time it happened…"

"And this isn't the first time we heard that." Sonya looked across the gap. "You don't happen to have a retractable bridge in that bottomless bag of your?"

Roza, the zombie mermaid queen kept slashing at Adramelech at a lightning fast speed. The apoptosis took on the hits, but it didn't slow her assault on the fallen harpy queen. The latter was stuck, struggling under an amalgamate of squirming tentacles that came from the apoptosis's arm. A final blow from Roza removed the head of her opponent, making the apoptosis disappear. It was too late however, and the undead harpy queen was gone for good, her limbs unnaturally twisted.

"Well, it looks like this will be the last encore."

Adramelech reappeared once again. As soon as she fully materialized, she impaled the last member of the Cirque with a tentacle, and cast a wave of pure chaos upon La Croix. The necromancer tanked the hit and summoned a large symbol. A wave of alchemical fire sweeped upon the apoptosis, who grew several more tentacles. La Croix dodged several of them and summoned a shield to push the others back. Several symbols materialized around her, and released a barrage of energy, tearing apart the limbs of the apoptosis. The latter kept accumulating energy, and released a wave of chaos as sharp as a blade toward its opponent, interrupting her attacks.

"Heh." La Croix collapsed on the ground, cut in half. Adramelech was not even pushing her assault any further. The necromancer was looking at the ceiling, softly smiling as a small trail of fluid was leaking from her mouth. "Do you think that balances everything I've done in my life?" A part of the ceiling disappeared, replaced by pure void. "Probably not. Please forgive me everyone." She extended an arm toward the newly formed void. A tentacle suddenly ripped her limb apart. Her expression turned into a scowl in front of this rude interruption. She raised her other arm toward the apoptosis and showed it her middle finger. As if answering the insult, Adramelech stepped closer and grabbed the defiant lich's torso and pulled it closer. La Croix chuckled, as she looked at the bottom of the apoptosis's emotionless eyes. "I. Won." She turned her hand to reveal two small orbs she had managed to grab in her palm. One was pure, concentrated darkness while the other was so bright it almost hurt her eyes. She planted her palm straight in Adramelech's face, making them react violently and explode, throwing the remainder of La Croix across the room and making several bookcases fall. Adramelech herself was cracked in several places.

"New priority target assigned." The damaged apoptosis teleported away, leaving chaos to claim the room and the bodies of its past inhabitants.

"Time for plan B then." Micaela removed her left glove. "Always have a way out of anything." She proceeded to remove a small, simple ring from her finger. When she was done, her outfit transformed into a ribbon that barely masked the minimum of her modesty, while two pure white feathery wings appeared in her back. Her hair lengthened even so slightly. She caught the other party members in her arms, and, one lightning dash later, the group was on the other side. Micaela slowly let go of them.

Barely a second later, Adramelech appeared. Before she could say or do anything, a wave of light disintegrated the apoptosis. The group was still slightly shocked at what happened, but recovered fast enough.

"Thank you, Micaela."

The first seraph looked sternly at her nephew. "Don't mention it. Let's just escape this creation forsaken universe."

The group reached the wasteland leading back to Tartarus. Only the thinnest of stretch remained between them and the anomaly they came from. Adramelech appeared once again in their way. Her mouth opened, and she emitted a strange, deafened noise that seemed to echo in the endless void.

Sonya suddenly stopped. Her voice mechanically echoed back. "Confirmed. Starting protocol." Both angels looked at the priestess of Ilias.

"What?!"

"What?"

Luka shook his head in desperation. No. No, no, no no no nononono NOOO! WHY NOW ?!

The priestess slowly metamorphosed into an outfit even less conservative in front of the dumbfounded angels.

"She's an apoptosis too, be careful!"

"You knew it and you didn't tell us?! GAH!"

Sonya grabbed the seraph's arm and started draining her. Her limb was cut off by a strike from Luka in the blink of an eye.

"She doesn't even know it herself in the first place!"

"We'll really need to talk about that one."

Adramelech jumped at the duo and started striking at them with her tentacles, offering the other apoptosis some time to transform. Luka and Micaela started parrying the tentacles and cut down any one that they could. Ilias shot a few arrows at the apoptosis, but most of them were reflected by a shield.

"Integration complete. Starting elimination." Sonya now looked like an angel exposing herself, and half her face was covered with her longer hair. She was wielding a spear like staff that she twirled expertly just before jumping in the fray.

"We can't handle them both if they just keep respawning! We must run away!"

Micaela and Luka turned moved around, so that their back was turned toward the exit. Gradually, as their assailants pushed them back, they got ever so slightly closer to their salvation.

Ilias started shooting arrow after arrow at the ex-priestess, but her skills only dealt limited damages. She ended up enraged at her own powerlessness and swore loudly. The fighters in melee were engaged in a deadly dance, as swords and tentacles blows were parried or dodged. Unfortunately, the hero's party started to suffer from a fatigue that their forever respawning opponent seemed to completely ignore. Analyzing the situation, Micaela came up with the only apparent solution.

"Luka, Ilias, you have to leave now! I'll hold her back!"

"It's out of question! I'll do everything to help you!" Luka launched a fire wave with his blade, slightly pushing Sonya back. He stepped forward with a piercing attack, but his opponent stepped on the side, and aimed for his arm. The only thing that prevented Luka to lose his limb was Micaela's blade.

"Then start running!" She turned toward the youngest hero as she parried a strike from Sonya. "I'm faster than you can imagine! How do you think I survived the Great War and your mother!? I'll be with you in a minute! Just run!"

Luka and Ilias started running away, leaving the seraph to deal with the two apoptosis. She kept parrying and elegantly dodging attack after attack. A pillar of light hit her, but it didn't even slow her in the slightest. However, Adramelech stepped back and Sonya rushed the seraph with a flurry of piercing strike. Micaela successively parried and dodged every attack, but couldn't do anything as Adramelech kept accumulating energy. The latter released a sphere of pure chaos, destabilizing the seraph. Sonya exploited the opportunity to pass the opponent and rush toward the two remaining party members. Micaela tried intercepting her, but found herself stopped by a blow from one of Adramelech's tentacle to the face, slightly scrapping her.

She passed her hand over her face and saw a small trickle of blood. "When was the last time I got wounded… Oh right, when Lucifina ran from Heaven. That was five hundred years ago already." She glared at Adramelech before making her statement. "Now you die." With a raging shout, she slashed at the apoptosis with all her might, cutting it in half. Micaela slowly exhaled, taking a second to recover, but Adramelech already respawned. "I'm only getting you more powerful, ain't I? Well, in that case…"

She dashed backward, but was suddenly stopped by a magical barrier. She struck at it with her sword, but it showed no sign of weakening. "No way… Even Tamamo didn't manage to do that…" She turned back and cut another tentacle that had tried striking at her. "Sooo, how many times do you want to die?"

Micaela charged back at the apoptosis with her sword raised once again. Tentacles and otherworldly metal kept clashing again and again in the dome in an endless fight between heaven and neither, as the world around them kept falling apart.

In the meantime, Luka and Ilias reached the portal that sent them back in the corridor of chaos. Even from there, the duo was feeling the ground rippling from the other dimension. They kept running toward the exit, when Luka suddenly sensed a danger behind him. Instinctively, he struck in his back and parried Sonya's spear. The apoptosis had finally caught back the duo. Soon, her spear and Luka's sword clashed repeatedly with destructive violence, the metallic noises echoing through the void. At a moment, their weapons locked, which Luka used as an opportunity to talk.

"Come on Sonya, I know you're in here…"

The ex priestess didn't answer. She pushed Luka back and attacked again with her spear. The hero kept defending himself, as he didn't want to hurt his childhood friend yet again. Sensing his hesitation, the apoptosis pushed her attacks on Luka. Ilias tried shooting from afar, but her attacks were still ineffective. Eventually, a powerful strike forced Luka to dodge his opponent's assault, and Sonya charged straight at Ilias, her spear at the ready. Luka rushed back to defend the small goddess, and hurriedly parried the attack. The apoptosis pushed her spear further and threw Luka down on the ground with his own momentum. Before she could strike the hero down, the apoptosis was suddenly slashed in two by a deafening strike.

"NOOOOO!"

A man revealed himself as the body of the apoptosis fell apart. He looked like Luka if his body was encased in a cybernetic armor, and was wielding a huge, glowing green sword.

"Luka, you must keep defending this world. I will defend all the others." Luka's father disappeared in another dimension without looking at his son. The hero remained there, immobile, even as the corridor kept rumbling because of the echoes from the other dimension being finally swallowed by chaos.

Micaela beheaded Adramelech one more time. She panted as the fight was starting to wear out even her formidable endurance, and used the time the apoptosis needed to reappear to meditate and heal herself slightly. The skill's effects started to diminish, and with the lack of time to recover, the seraph had still several open wounds covering her body. One of her eye was blinded by a stream of blood, her left breast was covered with blood, one of her wing looked plucked, and her left leg had gone limp.

Adramelech respawned again in all her chaotic glory, and not a second later she resumed her assault on the seraph. Micaela parried tentacle after tentacle wih her blade, but was slowly pushed back toward the magic barrier that was surrounding the fighters. As soon as her opponent could no longer move back, Adramelech sweeped horizontally the seraph mid section. Micaela couldn't dodge the attack in time and took the full brunt of the assault. She tumbled a few yards and ended lying, separated of the apoptosis by only a few meters. Adramelech started charging a powerful surnatural spell of raw chaos, while Micaela was trying to keep her only remaining eye open toward her executioner.

The very moment Adramelech cast her spell, Micaela suddenly took to the air. The orb of energy tracked her new movement and rushed toward her at great speed. The seraph then dived toward Adramelech at lightning speed, leaving only an after image behind her. As she met the projectile head on, she used her shield to parry the projectile and used a part of her own remaining energy to increase its power in the blink of an eye.

An heartbeat later, she was between the projectile and her target, rushing again toward Adramelech, her sword held like a spear.

At the precise moment the orb hit the barrier, Micaela impaled the apoptosis with her sword.

The barrier shattered in a deafening cacophony while the apoptosis dematerialized once more to respawn.

Micaela regrouped her last forces for a mad dash toward the magic that would lead her back inside the Tartarus. She didn't want to leave the apoptosis an ounce of a chance.

Just as she left the dying dimension, a tremor destroyed the physical place that connected the dying world.

Ilias filled Luka's field of vision as she grabbed him by the collar and started shaking him. "Luka, we have to move or we'll die too." Ilias tried shaking him again. "Luka! At least touch the door so that I can escape!" Eventually, she started slowly pulling his unresponsive body toward the door, half crying. She suddenly felt someone else carry him, and could see a heavily bleeding Micaela helping her carry the hero toward their salvation. The seraph almost threw the hero at the door.

As soon as the door opened, Micaela was greeted by a worried purple face which higher part was covered by a flower. She let the queen alraune grab Luka as another explosion echoed from further down the pathway. Finally, the door closed like an airlock, protecting them from any more echo and guaranteeing their safety for now. She looked sternly at the monsters surrounding her, but ended up collapsing in relief when she realized they were all residents from the Pocket Castle. The last thing she saw before her eyes closed were several worried faces surrounding her.

As several healers were now working on the group, Luka started crying, his mind in shambles from the ordeal.

Sonya died. She died and this is my fault. I should have found a way to tell her the truth. I should have warned Micaela. Why did I disregard that? It's because I thought I had it now. I wanted to show I got better. I wanted to help everyone. I wanted to change the world for the better. I should have run to get help. I was given a chance and I screwed it.

I was the one in control and I failed miserably.