FGO Singularity 1950 Germany- The Road to Paradise

by ColinHayworth

A story in an alternate WWII singularity where its mystery still reigns and the mana were unusually dense for its age. It has allowed all those who were beyond 1900 to become heroic spirits as long as their deeds are beyond any comprehension of human beings. And now this is where all those who remains to reach the truth of what happened

21. Final Destination

Warning: This fanfic dealt with probably controversial themes and you may find it not suitable for you. If you still decide to read, then stay strong and brace yourself for what you are about to read. This story here happens in Arc 2 and thus may contain some spoilers.

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Chapter 21: Final Destination

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He doesn't know what is happening anymore. The dark and suffocating miasma that robbed him of his senses as he can't feel anything around him. He can't tell if he is standing or lying or even anything anymore. He is as good as blind in this hell.

"What do I have to do?" Arnold thought as he tried to find a way to break through the situation himself.

Suddenly, he felt something is changing... He turned behind and saw some sort of light piercing through the miasma as it quickly engulfs him.

"Huh?" Arnold said before the light blinds him.

In just a little while later, he found himself free falling from thousands of meters above the ground. Beneath him is just the ocean as far as he could see. Feeling the wind grazing across him at high speed with virtually nothing to stop the fall, he decided to brace himself and prepared for one brutal landing.

However, when he dived into the ocean, he can't swim back up at all. He tried his best to swim upward but for some reason, he is slowly being drowned as the more he tried, the faster he got dragged down into the depths. He felt desperate and his Servant's modifier seems to not working at all for some reason the moment he dived into the ocean.

Growing more desperate, he swings his arms madly in an attempt to save himself, the air inside him started to make him felt more suffocated and his consciousness would start to drift away due to suffocation. That is until...

A chain approached him as it started to wrap around his wrist. The moment it secured itself there, he was then dragged out like a fish that got hook, line, and sinker.

Dragged out of the water surface, he saw something that was completely unbelievable. It was Alfin and she is standing on top of a... battleship?

The moment he lied on the deck of the ship, he tried to let in as much of that precious oxygen that he didn't pay much attention until he was deprived of them.

"Huh...huh... Where are we?" Arnold asked as he finally got his breathing in control.

"Surprised that you may ask that... But what you are standing on right now is the king of the sea... The legend of the Kriegsmarine itself. The battleship... Bismarck!" Alfin said profoundly as if she placed her pride on it.

Bismarck... It was a force to be reckoned back in WW2. Fifty thousands ton of steels and manned by over two thousand crewmembers. It was made to cross the seven seas with an unmatchable dominance. The terror of this war machine left an unforgettable impression by those who witnessed its might whether it was friends or foes. And now... Alfin has completely control over this thing and can easily command it to do whatever she wanted.

"Where do we go now?... There is nothing here that could guide us where to go.". Arnold said as he looked into the vast sea around him.

"I don't even know... But there has to be a better solution than staying here and do nothing..." Alfin said as she herself has no idea of what to do even like him.

And just as when they are about to think of something, they heard something is moving in the water. And suddenly, a tentacle appeared as it started to wrap into the deck of the ship. Alfin responded swiftly by blasting it off with a howitzer that she created through the burning portal that she created.

And it wasn't just one, there is another then another one and soon they found the whole ship is being grabbed by something. Those tentacles were the size of an adult person.

"Quick! Get those things of the ship before it would drag us into the depths!" Alfin said as she quickly tore those massive tentacles of by the power of her artillery cannons.

"How!?" Arnold said as he tried to find a way to break those tentacles off.

In the department of strength, Alfin beats Arnold by miles ahead of him and she doesn't even resolve this situation fast enough. Just how much does she even expect Arnold to come close to her?

But he still has to try no matter what, taking out his T-Gewehr and anything that has closely enough power against those tentacles as he forcefully ripping them out from the ship. While he is making some progress, Alfin is still the one who is carrying the most of the bulk.

However, a tentacle caught him in its grasp as it strangles his body. Tried as he may, he couldn't break through its grip despite being a Servant. Alfin tried to find a way to break Arnold free but it would have involved friendly fire and harms him to a really bad degree.

Feeling its grip become tighter, he knew that it would crush him into grounded meat if he lets it go on like this. Forcing himself into a state of complete clarity, he shouted.

"Spirit Phaze!" Arnold shouted as loud as he could.

He then burst through its grip as the tentacle was splattered into chunks. He floated temporarily with the angel wings before landing on the ground. The butchered tentacle somehow shrieked violently before returning into the sea below.

"Arnold, are you alright?" Alfin asked when Arnold finally landed on the ground.

"Yeah..." Arnold said as he catches his breath.

The sky started to darken and the winds became more fierce, rain started to batter them as if something horrific is approaching them. An unignorable sense of approaching death overwhelmed the atmosphere as they turned around and saw the calm sea slowly turning into a whirlpool of death. Upon seeing what is going on, Alfin quickly jumped into action.

The Bismarck quickly steered away from the whirling tide but no matter how fast it may go, it couldn't escape its reach. The most they managed to do is to keep it even until they resolved this crisis at its core.

More of those tentacles sprouted beneath the sea's surface as they tried to drag the Bismarck into the depths through the whirlpool. Arnold and Alfin quickly try to get rid of them all but they keep appearing one by one for each time they destroy any of them.

Arnold used Spirit Phaze against one that is trying to latch him. He destroyed it in one swift blow but when he landed on the ground and look back at it, he shuddered at the sight behind him.

The tentacle... it regenerates back quickly. The severed parts dissolve into a sludge before completely washed away by the rain but those tentacles will return quickly as if nothing happened. Upon realizing that, Arnold tried to find a way to inhibit their regeneration capability as fast and effective as he could. If things keep proceeding like this, the Bismarck will fall into the depths.

"Something that would prevent them from regenerating back to fully healed... Just what is there do I have would prevent them?" Arnold thought as he tried to find a way for them to stop the tentacles from regenerating.

And then a flash of insight appeared in his mind, an idea that might turn the tides entirely into his favor. Reaching back to the weapon that he didn't use for a long time ever since he has a proper anti-tank weapon. The flamethrower... He holds the gun itself like a sword while the fuel tank is situated on his back. The familiar feelings came rushing back like a tidal flood but now is no time for nostalgia.

He turned the valve as flame came through the rain, the tenacious and undying heat within it carries the same power as the flame in his eyes. The tentacles in front of him perceive him as easy prey as they quickly came towards him. Arnold knew what is going to come and thus he put all of his power into the flame that is burning through the veil of storms.

Right when those tentacles lunge toward him, the flame of the flamethrower turned into azure. Arnold focused as hard as he could as he proceeds to charge toward them like a soldier running towards no man's land.

The azure flame burst from the flamethrower's muzzle as the intensity turned it into something similar to a blade. He swung the flamethrower in a wide arc as the flame rends through the tentacles in a swift moment. Those severed tentacles then dropped into the ground and the moving parts seem to be writhing as if the sheer intensity of the flame overwhelmed and fried its nerve, literally.

And one important thing to note is... They didn't regenerate, it seems that they have all taken a large and deep cut that it can't possibly wrap around the ship anymore. And with the flamethrower, Arnold basically cauterized them and thus they can't possibly regenerate because in truth... they are already fixed. Just in the worst possible manner.

Those tentacles then quickly retreated back to the sea and never seen again while the severed and burnt parts just remain there motionlessly. It seems that the dissolve mechanism may have been something unique to whatever monstrosity below the depths. Paying no more time standing around and pondering, Arnold quickly assists Alfin in taking down and eliminating all of those tentacles, and thus they managed to wipe all of them out before they dragged them into the center of the whirlpool.

Alfin accelerated the speed of the Bismarck in order to withdraw away from the whirlpool but even without the hindrance of those tentacles, the size of the whirlpool itself seems to expand arbitrarily from logic. It keeps expanding no matter how hard they tried to speed up the Bismarck.

And then the mastermind behinds this whirlpool finally appeared. But Arnold and Alfin felt completely bewildered at what they just see.

"What?" Arnold said as he is confused at what he is seeing right now.

It was a massive eldritch being and the closest thing it resembles is a squid but the thing is... It looks extremely out of place, like what exactly is the connection between it and Hitler? It is like suddenly equating a piece of rock with the sky, completely unrelated.

But that doesn't matter anymore, their task is one and the same. Kill whatever is stopping them from trying to progress and escape wherever Hitler dragged them into.

"Bismarck! Open fire!" Alfin said as she commands the whole ship to fire at her target.

And with her command alone, the whole ship's armament turned around and aim towards the eldritch monster at the distance. Like a thunderous roar, all of those guns on the ship opened fire on the eldritch being without care. Those explosive shells landed on the monster with the devastating blasts visible in the rain. But... it doesn't even faze the monster in the slightest.

Just when Alfin's opening attack faltered in the slightest, the eldritch monster started to charge the energy between its eyes if that orb of pure energy being concentrated there is any indication.

"Shit!" Alfin said as she realized what it is trying to do.

Reaching back for the Mourning Star, her Projection skill kicked into high gear immediately as the feeling of death is about to approach them. With the gun once more in her hand in just a second, she turned the firing mode into one certain level that would about to put her at risk. The gear then was pushed into "Critical Annihilation" as Alfin prepared to pull the trigger as fast as she could.

The eldritch monster unleashes a beam of unknown power towards her and Alfin responded by firing the Mourning Star at maximum firepower. Arnold who just happened to observe the situation ended up being the one to take most of the brunt from the attack. Two beams fired opposed toward each other ended up clashing and the annihilation blast ended up resulting in a blinding flash that Arnold felt he is looking into a supernova directly.

He felt the world is shaking from the clash between them as the whole surroundings are filled with blinding lights. Alfin still opposing the monster in front of her with everything she has as the gun in her hand is unleashing an immeasurable amount of power against that eldritch monster. None of them are willing to yield as they wanted each other dead.

And while they are still locking on the battle between the dominance of their beams, the Bismarck's armaments are still functional and thus Alfin still uses them to her advantage. Those guns still aim at the monster with such pinpoint accuracy despite literally being blinded by the blast between them. Those shells still fire with such fierce intensity behind them as if Alfin's will is imposed on them with such a degree like that.

Arnold, however, knew that such a continuous conflict like this is very much unsustainable. The Mourning Star would most likely drain her out entirely if she continues to use it like that. But before Arnold could say anything to her, Alfin looked at him as if she just reads everything he thought before focus back at that monster. She understood what Arnold meant in the first place and thus she will act accordingly to end this fight as decisively as possible.

The gunship completely halted its firing and then redirect its aim. Arnold doesn't know what it is about to do but he isn't going to make any wild guest. He then looked back at Alfin as she seems to do something inside her mind.

"Configuring firing mode, all armaments..." Alfin seems to chant something while still holding back against that beam of annihilation.

And right after chanting whatever it is, Alfin's eyes turned into the color of amber as she yelled towards the eldritch being at the distance. All of the armaments on the Bismarck have turned toward the eldritch monster by that moment. In the next moment, Alfin gave it a determined stare as she yelled one word.

Synchronize...

All of the guns fired towards the clash between them but what they fired aren't shells anymore. They fired the same thing that the Mourning Star fired, pure unadulterated energy beam that would obliterate anything in its path. Alfin yelled to the top of her throat as she channels a ridiculous amount of power through her across the whole battleship itself in order to allow this feasible.

The clashing point is being pushed back towards the eldritch monstrosity behind. Alfin started to show signs of struggle due to how much power she is being forced to handle. Arnold realized it and quickly came to her side to assist her.

"Alfin! Let me help you!" Arnold said as he tried to assist her by holding the Mourning Star up for her.

"Arnold! What are you doing!?" Alfin said as she finds Arnold's decision completely irrational.

"To help you, of course... This doesn't just involve you alone. I too am also stuck in this war with you!" Arnold said as he stabilizes the gun's positioning while feeling the gun could incinerate him at any moment notice.

Alfin looked at him in partial disbelief, thinking that everything ultimately falls on her responsibility without considering the others with her. She closed her eyes for a brief moment as she then nodded at him. Arnold understood what she meant without a word spoken to him as they quickly combine their determination to push this irritable nightmare to the side.

The Mourning Star's firing became even stronger and the push of the Bismarck's firings also tremendously assist the attack of the Mourning Star. The pushback started to become even more visible and the eldritch monster noticed the annihilation blast started to approach it closer and closer. It tried to boost its beam's potency but it would only work if it had done so in the first second of the battle. It is too late either way for it to turn the tide anymore.

With their final push, Arnold and Alfin yelled together in unison as the beam become visibly more powerful to the point that the eldritch monster's attack looks so pitiful in comparison. The Mourning Star eventually hit the eldritch monster in its face as the visceral scream that it screeches when the otherworldly pain registered into it. And just like that, the clash between them finally came to an end.

Alfin let go of her trigger of the gun as the heavy weapon itself dropped to the ground. The sky started to become clear once more and the whirlpool started to stop existing. They thought their vision is as good as ruined after using the Mourning Star to such intensity like that but just a little while later and their tripping visions finally come crystal clear.

They looked at the eldritch monster at the distance... or more exactly... What remained of it to be exact.

The steaming seawater around it indicates such burning temperature that was inflicted and the entirety of its upper torso is also gone. There's no regen from that after said attack literally meltdown a whole mountain range in a blink of an eye.

Its carcass then slowly fall into the depth of the sea and never meant to be seen again. Hopefully...

"Now that we are done with it, what should we do now?" Arnold asked as he sits on the ground and felt that his arms literally having a burn of a lifetime.

"Even after we finished it off, there is no clue for us to guide us where to go..." Alfin said as she tiredly sits on the ground.

They looked at the sea in front of them. It was so fierce and dangerous just a while ago and now it back to its calming state in such short notice that they would think their eyes are fooling them.

"Alfin? What's that thing flying towards us?" Arnold asked as he noticed an object flying towards their location.

Said thing then proceed to smack Arnold right into his forehead and knock him unconscious on the spot. Alfin didn't expect something like that would happen as she just gapes in disbelief.

"Arnold?" Alfin asked as she checked his condition.

Arnold pulled himself up as he felt something just ache in his forehead. It was a concussion but not too bad to cause real damage. But the current thing they have to worry about is what just hit Arnold in his forehead. Alfin checked the thing that hit him and examined it thoroughly.

"It's... a compass..." Alfin said as she opened it up and saw what's inside.

A regular brass compass that was used often by seafarers. But there is one detail that caught their attention. At one particular location of the rim of the compass is a red mark that seems to be there for some reason.

"Why is there a mark here?" Alfin said as she tried to think of the reason why.

"Who knows? But if I could hazard a guess, that mark most likely telling us the direction of where to go..." Arnold said as he hypothesizes.

"I'll take up on that. There's nothing left we could do by sitting here. We shall test if this compass would lead us a way out of this sea..." Alfin said as she commands the ship to move in the direction so that the compass is aligned with the mark.

And when they moved for about half an hour in their journey, they encountered a dense fog that seems to be appearing out of nowhere. They knew that this can't possibly mean anything well as they braced for whatever may appear in this unknown.

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Blast of the Past

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They moved and waded through the fog for who knows how long. Things may look calm on the outside but on the inside, the tension within the atmosphere are so high that they could hear their hearts beating anxiously. They don't know what to expect in this place as they put on their guard as much as they could.

"Alfin? Have we found anything?" Arnold asked her as he tried to have a look around but turned up nothing due to the dense fog.

"No... Even the radar is still as unresponsive... There's hardly any chance for us to tell where we are exactly.". Alfin said as she steps out from the captain's room.

Suddenly, their ship started to shake tremendously that they almost lost their footing when it happened. It seems that the ship has hit something and came to an abrupt stop.

"Arnold... I'll go ahead and check what is wrong, please stay safe..." Alfin said as she ran off on her own.

"Alfin!" Arnold said as he followed her.

When they noticed that the ship stuck in somewhere, they together risked it and jumped into the below. And surprisingly, they actually approached the land area. But they didn't jump in joy or anything. In fact, they felt more suspicious.

"This land... For a place that would normally be constantly battered by seawater would have turned into sand already. But nope... it looks like mushy dirt of a low river at worst." Alfin said as she examines the surroundings.

The place they found themselves in is what they guessed to be a forest, with fogs surrounding the place making it looks completely mystical. It felt like they stepped into a different world that is completely unknown to them.

"We'll have to investigate this place eventually, I'll retract my Bismarck back into me because we have no purpose going for the sea anymore since the inherent danger there.". Alfin said before she raised one of her arms up into the sky.

The entirety of the Bismarck behind them started to collapse into smithereens spark as they quickly flow back into her. It has fulfilled its duty and there is no further need for it anymore and thus she'll use it for something else more suitable for whatever situation they may encounter.

The whole battleship behind them was soon gone and there is no longer any trace of it. Alfin absorbed all of those sparks and thus she steps away from where the Bismarck once was. Arnold looked at the behind for briefly before following Alfin.

However, he felt a chilling gust went through from his back. He turned around and saw the mist from behind has already dissipated and revealed whatever was hidden behind there.

"What?..." Arnold said as he couldn't believe what he was shown.

The water area that the Bismarck once was... It was just a small river, not deep enough to drown a grown person and certainly as hell that it can't accommodate a battleship the size of Bismarck itself.

Alfin turned around and stood there in disbelief. Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain went through her mind as something was forcefully awaken inside her.

"Alfin! Are you alright!?" Arnold asked in worry about her condition.

Alfin breathed heavily in those brief seconds before she stabilizes her breathing. She looked at that river with a solemn look that tells thousands of words with that gaze alone. Arnold knew this river must have meant something in order to shock her like this.

"That river... It was in my earliest memory of my childhood... I was drowning in it, helplessly wading my arms while trying to escape the suffocating hell I got subjected to..." Alfin said with those eyes as if she just went through her worst nightmare.

Arnold tried to calm her down while his eyes still remain not disconnect from the river. Just how on earth did a body of river turned into a massive sea that housed an eldritch monster that hellbent on killing them?

Then it dawned on him, that sea was in fact an exaggeration of the river itself. It represented what happened there through Alfin's eyes. This was Hitler's memory but with all of the bad parts horribly exaggerated to a dangerous degree. That sea represents the river that Alfin almost drowned in, the eldritch monster was most likely eldritch in appearance only as it represents the nightmarish experience Alfin has gone through, the near-death experience that has permanently scarred into her young mind and the thing was most likely twisted to such abomination by Adolf's Noble Phantasm.

In the end, your only worst enemy... was yourselves.

"Alfin... It's okay, there won't be any more of these horrible moments. I am here for you..." Arnold said as he reassures her while she is still sobbing from remembering them.

Alfin tried to hold back her own tears while remembering those hellish memories that are rushing through her mind like a bullet train. With Arnold's reassurance, she stood up and wiped those tears away while holding her head high. Those memories are of the past now, there is no changing it but to confront them directly with her conviction.

"Thank you... Arnold... Let us go now..." Alfin said as she steps ahead while seemingly know where to proceed.

Arnold turned back at the river once more and then he started to realize something. But he shut those thoughts off as soon as he could to spare him any shred of sanity for himself. When it comes, it comes... There's no avoiding it but to face it when the times truly come.

He then followed Alfin, hoping that there won't be as many horribly exaggerated turning points of his life. At least the noticeable and ones he remembered.

And just by walking for not even half a minute, they came across what looks like a small church. It looks like it was abandoned and left derelict long ago. When Arnold and Alfin checked the place for themselves, they placed their hands on the doors and the entrance falls apart on its own. The inside looks completely rot and dusty that it is clear it would collapse even with the most unnoticeable force placed on them.

"Let's investigate this place carefully, Alfin..." Arnold said as he tried to silently and carefully investigate in case the whole church would collapse on its own.

And while they were searching, they came across a skeleton donning priest clothe while leaning against a chair. He looked like he has been waiting for a long time for someone but they never came. Arnold noticed something on the skeleton as he reached out for it.

When he managed to obtain the item, he examined it and found out that it was a brass compass. But he felt strange for some reason because the compass seems to remind him of something.

"Why did I feel like came across this thing before?" Arnold said as he felt strange with the compass he obtained.

Alfin approached him and checked the compass that he found. That's when her eyes widened in surprise upon seeing what Arnold found.

"This compass... It was the same as the one that we used to get here!" Alfin said as she compares the two of them together.

"What!?" Arnold said as he sees the two compasses and compares them.

Those two compasses were one and the same, the only difference was that red mark on the one that hit Arnold in his head.

Alfin looked at the skeleton as if there is something Arnold can't see. She then closed her eyes as if she dug up something that was forgotten long ago as she held back her flood of emotions once more.

"This man... He was the one who saved me from drowning in that river..." Alfin said as she approaches closer to the skeleton.

This church was close by to the river and thus if something happened nearby, there would definitely be someone who would notice and takes action. The compass that was thrown to them is the symbolization of the act of his saving grace for Alfin back when she was a little kid. His helping hand that reached out to them has allowed them to escape that 'sea'.

"I wonder what would he thought of me after seeing the person that I have become... He must have been very disappointed that his saving grace ended up ruining far more things than how he ever thought..." Alfin said as she looked at the skeleton.

"Alfin... Nobody could foretell what your future would become... He only sees a kid that was drowning in a river and he did what he can by the volition of his heart. He certainly wouldn't be able to tell ahead of the future even by a second, let alone years..." Arnold said as he turned around.

Alfin takes in his words slowly but calmly. She soon suppressed the aching feelings inside and followed Arnold.

"Yeah... The past is now the past... There's no holding anything left but to brace for the present..." Alfin said as both of them exit the rundown church.

They left the place as the dusty atmosphere inside was suffocating. They most likely never thought a place like this would exit out of nowhere like this. But if a church is here then there has to be also a path that would lead to here and conversely. Their suspicions were confirmed just as when they looked at the gravel road that seems to take them somewhere.

"Let's go... " Arnold said as he walks down the gravel path that seems to take them downhill.

Alfin followed him but can't help herself but to look back for those brief seconds at the church behind. Feeling the lingering nostalgia behind her but she knew this world isn't a dream but a nightmare of the highest degree. She just happened to be at the momentary peace at the current moment and such peace can't last long... Whether any decision she made, she has no choice but to face the even more and more twisted memory of her past if she wanted to live...

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Damnation of Mother - Sins of the Father

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They walked down this mountain hill for who-know how long has passed. This mist makes the whole journey felt like an endless path through the unknown. While the weather is cool and all, they always felt anxious for whatever may hide behind this veil of mist.

"Hey, I think the steepness of the path has been reduced. We are probably getting close to the base of this hill.". Arnold said

And just a little hike and they finally saw a sign of civilization... concrete road... That's a hard enough proof that things have turned on their favor.

But the felt tense... they knew that this means they will come across the most unsavory part of this whole memory. The trauma of Alfin's childhood. Just even the normal one was already painful to experience, just what would they look like when Hitler twists them into even more hideous?

The whole town was desolated, completely empty, and devoid of anything... The mist that veiled in this place almost as if it shrouds the broken memory with lies, deceit, delusion... There is no telling what may spring up upon this twisted memory and they have no choice but to resort to violence if that happens.

It was both familiar yet completely foreign, it is the same town that they used to grow up but it felt like a painting that is completely devoid of any substance.

Their uneasiness is rising, it was a town with so many people living in it and now... It is nothing but a forgotten memory. One that is best to push away into the nothingness.

"Alfin? You look very sickly just now... Are you sure that you are alright?" Arnold asked as he worries about Alfin's well-being.

"I'm fine... Just that facing my own past is never something nice. Especially when it was nothing but a bloodstained mess.". Alfin said as she closed her eyes for a brief moment.

Alfin's family was nothing but a mess and loose connections of mental defects. One that ruled the authority with an iron fist, one that was too forgiving that it became a fault in itself... and one... that was the result of the shitshow called her own family. A shitshow that would eventually cost 60 million lives and set the world into a path of slow destruction.

"Don't worry, even if you will be facing the sin of the past, I'll be there with you no matter what because this too... is also my past..." Arnold said with assurance.

Arnold's advantage over her is mental fortitude. He isn't as easy to break mentally as her thanks to military discipline and thus he could handle the shit that would usually break one's mind with ease. He will pick up her slack if Alfin started to falter upon anything that may tightly related to them.

They walked with each other as they held their hands together. Their embrace is the only thing that was remotely considered warmth is this cold and bleak abandoned town here.

"Alfin? Isn't this-" Arnold said as he noticed a building that seems oddly familiar.

It was Alfin's old school and the creaking sounds of the rusted gates that tether on the wind. There's nothing left in there as they sensed nothing but emptiness.

"I think we should not get nearby it..." Alfin said as she tried to get away from the school building.

"Alfin... If we use this as school as a marking point. We could easily tell where to head back and-" Arnold said to Alfin without considering what might happen next.

In a brief moment of panic, Alfin accidentally let go of Arnold and ran off on her own when she was said told to go back to her old home. Arnold realized just how uncaring he was when he said that as he quickly pursues her so that they won't get lost in this fog.

They ran amidst this unending mist as Arnold felt unusually exhausted despite not running for even a hundred meters if he measured correctly. He catches his breath for a bit when he finally caught sight of her once more.

"Alfin!" Arnold said to her as he quickly approaches her.

She doesn't respond until Arnold touched her shoulder. By then in which she suddenly jumped away from Arnold in surprise.

"Wah!" Alfin said in surprise as she turned around to see him.

They looked at each other in the eyes for a bit moment before they realized what is going on.

"I... I'm sorry... that was thoughtless of me. I should have considered your mental condition before suggesting something like that..." Arnold said as he apologizes to her.

"No... That was my fault. I knew that there is no running from my own past and I should face it head-on. But... I... I can't help but run away from it... I'm sorry that you have to see me being so weak like that..." Alfin said as she also apologizes to Arnold.

They soon just accepted each other's apologies and make up for each other. But Arnold looked at his surroundings and he can't help but feel that something strange is going on here.

"Alfin? What do you think is a place that has coarse dirt for the land is?" Arnold asked as he felt something isn't right at all.

The mist started to clear up a bit and it revealed to them what is around. Gravestones are littered around everywhere in a tidy fashion yet they were abandoned for so long that the markings on them were faded away.

"This place... is a graveyard..." Arnold said as he steps around the place.

They then explore the area. They checked the tombstones around the place for any additional clue that would help them.

Many of the tombstones were faded from weathering the conditions here. Some were still detailed enough to tell who it is but it doesn't seem to have anything to do with them whatsoever. The overgrowth plants that were planted among the graves have turned into nothing but an overgrowth nuisance in their path. They were once flower plants that were made to honor the dead but they are now nothing but an obstacle to block their way.

"Just like any graveyard that you would find..." Arnold said as he stands on top of what looks like a statue.

And during their thorough exploration of the place, they managed to come across what looked completely suspicious to them. It was a lonely grave, one that is so plain simple that virtually anything looks better than it. The carving on the unpolished marble stone was deteriorated into almost unreadable, but the one that they can read is what revealed to them what it was...

"It's... Mother's gravestone..." Alfin said as she finally realized what it was.

Her mother died to an inhumane and cruel experiment that turned her corpse into an eldritch horror by a Dead Apostle. Her corpse is most likely incinerated to nothing so that there won't be any chance of something horrific that may happen and thus the grave is simply just something the church used to hide the cruel truth of what happened there. To think that such a kind soul like that ended up with the cruelest end of all things.

Arnold and Alfin took a silent moment to let out a prayer for their long-departed mother. But during their silent moment, Arnold looked around noticed something doesn't feel right to him.

The grave was placed completely isolated from everything else, there's nothing around it and it was completely devoid of anything present nearby. An ominous sense of dread started to spread in his mind as each second become tenser and tenser. Arnold felt the sweat on his temple started to drip as even the silence is deafening as something horrible could happen at any moment notice.

The ground started to tremble and Arnold quickly jumped into the fray. He grabbed Alfin by her arm and pulled her away from the grave as far as he could. The earth beneath sundered as something started to raise up from their mother's grave.

"Arnold!" Alfin said as she could harshly believe what is being displayed in front of her eyes.

It was their mother but she was twisted to the point that there is no word to describe. It was the same thing back at that faithful day where Alfin departed in regret but just even more hideous and larger than how it should be. Her limbs and bodies rotten to the point no amount of blight could possibly measure. They were hideously twisted to the point that they thought it was something eldritch literally break into their reality. The blighted black tentacles spewing through every possible gap on that rotten body tried to latch onto anything in may detect. The black poisonous sludge dripping from the body as maggots fall apart from the inside as it taints the ground even further with its corrupting presence,

Arnold and Alfin tried to get away from it as far as they could in order to think of a way to deal with it while the twisted corpse of their mother is rampaging through the graveyard and destroying anything it laid its rotten eyes on.

"Arnold! What do we do now!?" Alfin asked as she is completely clueless to how they may deal with something like that.

"What else!? Use anything that might be effective against it!" Arnold said as he takes out a T-Gewehr.

The T-Gewehr was then fired into the rotting walking corpse that was once their mother as the bullet pierced through the mangled body brutally. The corpse splattered into the ground and then ceased moving. Arnold slightly moves closer to it warily as he knew there might be a lot more trick up its sleeves.

The corpse shrieked loudly to the point he could probably feel his eardrum almost rupture. It then lunged toward him in which it was intercepted by a rocket that flew into it and blown its mangled body away and struck into an array of gravestones nearby. Arnold turned around saw Alfin holding a rocket launcher as it is still smoking hot from recent firing.

They knew one clear thing about it now. No amount of physical punishment would kill it as it would regenerate in mere seconds despite its rotting appearance. They need a different solution, a very different one.

Arnold took out his flamethrower once more and he sprayed flame upon its body. The thing shrieks in pain as it tried to get away as far as it could from the burning line of fire. Right at that moment, its body pulsed for a moment before lunging the tentacles toward him. Their ranges are deceptively long that Arnold could harshly believe such a thing is possible. Alfin then quickly push him away and both of them narrowly avoided its grasp.

Arnold lied on the ground and tries to reposition himself. But he found no time left for him as the thing then lunged its tentacles toward him. Arnold knew that he has no such thing that could help him to get away from it in a swift manner and thus he forced himself back into the state of clarity.

Time slowed down as the tentacles closely encroach on him. He then reopened his eyes as he chanted.

Spirit Phaze!

Angel wings sprouted from his back metaphysically as he then lunges toward the monster. And surprisingly, the tentacles evaporated themselves upon his contact with them during Spirit Phaze and he swiftly approaches the thing as he impacted through it with fierce power.

Penetrating through its rotting flesh, he made it to the other side and landed on his own feet. He knew it isn't enough as he turned around and saw the torn corpse started to regenerate quickly although the damage he inflicted is far greater than conventional weapons.

The tentacles on the thing lunged independently from the regenerating corpse towards him in which he quickly used Spirit Phaze once more towards it. The power that wrapped around him expelled those tentacles with ease as they disintegrated upon contact alone.

Landing on the other side once more on his feet. He knew he has to deal with it as soon as he can decisively. Taking out the flamethrower once more as he burns the hideous monstrosity in front of him with the purging fire. The horrid screeches it lets out almost make him want to commit die right at where he stood but he decided to endure whatever it may throw at him and continue to exterminate it.

The monstrosity in front of him can't take it anymore as it then quickly flees away from him. The fiery body of it rampages through the graveyard and razed anything in its path just to get away from him. And just like that, the way the battle goes shifted from Arnold... to Alfin.

The fiery monstrosity tried to get away from Arnold as it plows a path through the graveyard and destroy anything that it could see. And it stopped for briefly when it saw Alfin, standing atop of what looks like a monument. There were brief hesitant between them but such a moment didn't last long as it lunged towards her first like a beast about to devour its prey.

Alfin however swung something towards it just right at the moment it started to lunge towards her. In her hand was a still white-hot chain that seems to connect to something from far behind her within the mist. Just when it is about to reach her, a cross the size of an adult made out of marble stone burst through the dense mist and strike into the monstrosity in front of her with such an impact that even she can visibly feel it without being at a receiving end.

The thing upon receiving that earth-shattering blow got its body tossed through the graveyard like a ragdoll before landing to a halting stop. Alfin appeared in front of it once more as she stomped on the ground with a force that is great enough to cause a small tremor. Power surge coursed through the ground as the thing screeched in confusion.

White-hot chains burst through from the ground as they ensnared the monstrosity in searing heat. It screeches in pain as Alfin smashes the cross into it repeatedly. There was no mercy in her eyes as she beats that dead corpse with each blow becomes even more devastating that it eventually could sunder the earth. What Alfin is aiming for isn't physical damage but rather... conceptual damage. This monstrosity was the result of an experiment ran by that Dead Apostle who turned their mother's body into... this... and the holy power of things affiliated with the church may do better than just sheer brute-forcing with guns.

Right after that, the monster lets out a deafening screech that broke her focus for a brief moment as it then started to lunge all of the disgusting tentacles toward her. Arnold wasn't there to protect her at that moment and thus she took the full brunt for it. Because of the chains still ensnaring the thing, it can't move toward her to devour her and thus the tentacles were the only thing it could use. It was at that moment did she started to feel something... Something that was completely foreign to her.

The tainting corruption of those tentacles started to fester through her wounds. The pain she felt was excruciating, torturous, searing, agonizing to a whole new level that she can't physically comprehend as her mind is overwhelmed by the corruption. Every single part of her nerves being fried by the pain itself. That's just it for her... Nothing but an endless carousel of agony.

The monstrosity still struggles to break through the chain as Alfin looked at the thing with empty eyes. She tried to purge whatever is corrupting in her vein from the festering wounds that it inflicted on her. She literally heats her own blood up as she expels those filths away from her own blood vein. She noticed that the chain is about to break and that thing could lunge at her at any moment notice.

Time started to slow to a halt. Surrounding her was nothing but emptiness as far as she could see. That monstrosity's movement has already stuck into stasis from who knows when. Alfin felt nothing at all, no more pain, no more suffering, just absolute nothingness.

Only a complete tranquil scenery as she stares into nothingness. It was as if she just entered a state of complete clarity. She looked at beneath her and sees the whole place filled completely with blood that stretches to beyond the horizon. She gazed further into the nothingness and the nothingness gazed back to her. Memories started to flood back from the furthest depth of her mind.

Those days of suffering, her mother's death, the encounter with that Executioner, the Dead Apostle, that bloodstained room, the eldritch monstrosity that came forth from her mother's corpse... They all flash continuously through her mind like a film with its projector moving only to a specific point.

And then... it flashed through her mind. She was holding a double-barrel shotgun and blast a hole through that Dead Apostle from his back. The moment that memory ceased, she looked down and saw that double-barrel shotgun in her hand. She holds it carefully as if she once more returned to that faithful day.

Alfin looked at the thing once more and ponder... Remembering the mistake of that day, she knew that this has to be fate. There's no other way but to resolve that mistake with her own hands.

She approaches that eldritch monstrosity while it is still in stasis. Blood splatters beneath her own feet. It felt the same as when that Executioner tried to take away her memory of her mother. But this time... she is no longer too weak to confront her own past.

She placed the gun's muzzle right between the eyes of that corpse. The gun only has a sinner and an innocent's life taken away and this thing... will be its next sacrifice.

In...nocent... Sin...

Alfin said as she felt washed over by a sense of crippling fear at first but followed it was true clarity and relief... She pulled the trigger with no hesitation as the gun then blasted away the fabric of reality as everything from where its muzzle fired. Everything in front of her shattered like glass as the nothingness turned back into what it was supposed to be.

Right in front of her is what that monstrosity is supposed to be but with a huge chunk blasted away and torn apart. That double-barrel shotgun is still in her hand. The monstrosity shrieked as it somehow can't regenerate from what Alfin inflicted on it. And just like that, Alfin decided to finish this mess of her own childhood.

"Innocent Sin..." Alfin said as she smirked and continue to blast that thing repeatedly with the shotgun in her hand...

It shrieked as it tried to run away from her but Alfin then traced multiple of those chains and latches the thing back down into the ground. Immobilized completely, it shrieked in horror as Alfin turned the whole table on it. But this time, Alfin no longer finds any joy in tormenting it any longer. She decided to finish off what has tormented her life for so long.

Innocent Sin

Alfin said it with a voice of pure apathy and emptiness. She pulled the trigger and the shotgun in her hand obliterated the eldritch monstrosity into nothing but a splatter on the ground. After she finally killed the thing for once and for all, the mist finally cleared, at least in the graveyard area as she saw Arnold was looking for her.

"Alfin!" Arnold said as he quickly approaches her.

"Arnold..." Alfin said as she felt completely relieved from what has ultimately turned her life into.

Arnold embraced her and hold her tightly in his arm. He was worry about her and what that monstrosity may do and when he finally saw her completely fine. He can't help but be washed over with relief that she is okay.

"Arnold... I am fine, you can let go of me now?" Alfin said as she asked Arnold, although she would also admit that she is fine with him holding her like this.

"By the way, where was that thing go... Oh..." Arnold said before he noticed that scattered chunks of black gore and splatters on the ground.

Arnold let go of Alfin as the two of them then stand up and look at what was remain of that eldritch being. They stare at it and they don't even know why they are doing so, it is because of sentimentality? Or because they feel the regret of the past? They don't understand at all but they all know one thing... there is nothing left here to do.

Just when they are about to turn away, they heard a voice spoken to them. It was familiar and close. They turned around and saw something is rising up from the gory mess that was left behind. It was faint and illusional as if it was completely spiritual... or perhaps it truly is.

That spirit started to take shape and it was... their mother... But no longer that twisted and hideous form that was taken.

"Mother!" Alfin said as she approaches her so that she could embrace her warmth even if it isn't corporal at all.

Arnold tried to touch her but his finger phased through and thus prove that even if they could see her, there is no doubt that she is just a spirit remaining here.

"I... I am so sorry... That I have caused these whole things to unfold... This was all my fault..." Alfin said as she wanted to vent all her pent up feelings.

"Don't worry, sweetie. What happened, happened... There's no point in letting yourself drown in the sorrow of the past anymore. My life at that point was going to be near its end anyway." The woman said to them as she brushes through Alfin's silky long hair.

"I... I have no words to describe what I am seeing right now..." Arnold said as he could hardly believe what is being shown in front of him.

"I don't deserve such forgiveness... All those sins I committed, there is no erase them. How could I dare to bring my face towards you when I have..." Alfin said as she can't help but swallow her own tears.

"Alfin... No matter what you may have become, you are still my daughter no matter what. The world may judge you, but you are still my own flesh and blood." The woman said with such motherly kindness that Arnold can't even imagine any parent would be that selfless, but once again, he never has a proper parent just like Alfin.

Another spirit appeared as it approaches him. He takes a careful look and realized that it was the Executioner from back then but why is he here now? There is no doubt of his appearance but just why now?

"You..." Arnold said as he felt too flabbergasted to string a proper sentence.

"So you still remember me after all..." The Executioner said to Arnold in a calm voice.

"Yeah... but what business exactly do you have with us here?" Alfin said as she can't brush off the suspicion about him, especially now.

"I am here... to apologize..." The Executioner said to them.

"What?" Both Arnold and Alfin said in disbelief.

"That faithful day... My duty as an Executioner took precedent over everything else. My current job that the church assigned to me was to hunt down the Dead Apostle in the area, disguising as a Jewish doctor. I did everything I could to stop the crisis that would bound to happen if that monster was let off scotfree like that. And I can't let any general populace to become aware of our existence. But... if only... that I was less blunt in how executed it in that day." The Executor said to them.

"Tell us... Tell us everything..." Arnold and Alfin asked the Executioner politely.

"I failed to comprehend the fallout of the aftermath of that mission. I left thinking that there won't be any chance of something horrible may happen. I was wrong... so wrong... Throughout my entire life working as a church's Executioner... never had I thought about any conscience about what may happen but this very mission. And finally, years later... I saw hell for itself... Not a fiery pit that torture the sinners... but a small idea that cast a large shadow." The Executioner said with regret.

"A small idea that cast a large shadow?" Alfin said as she didn't exactly understand what the Executioner meant.

Arnold thought about it and tried to piece up any possible conclusion that the Executioner meant. However, he managed to reach to one possible conclusion. What would easily make an impact on one's impression? There is only one thing that Executioner is alluding to.

"The Third Reich..." Arnold said as if the implication is ominous.

The Executioner nodded in which both Arnold and Alfin braced themselves for what they might going to hear from him.

"On that day, when I saw you rise to power. When you make the speech that would forever alter the course of history, I saw only emptiness in those eyes. That is when I knew... that I have made a fatal mistake in that day. And that so many more lives will be lost more than that Dead Apostle or any could ever have. People are thrown into the flame of war and everything incinerated to ashes... And in the end, it only ended in further tragedy and heartbreak with nothing resolved. And I forever ponder... could I have done something different that day? The only answer I received was a deafening silence..." The Executioner said with regret.

Both Arnold and Alfin remained silent at what the Executioner said.

"Sir... I understood what you are talking about. There is no denying that I have as much blood on my hand back then just like now. But... Those tragedies that happened until now, I can't just let them be passed mere mistakes alone... I don't come here to ask you for forgiveness and I won't grovel for such a thing anymore. I may desire it but I won't let such desire to trample over my pride as a Heroic Spirit. Such a thing like that has to be obtained with my own hands and I won't accept fake forgiveness that was enforced by an iron fist." Alfin said as she reassures herself.

"Even if the whole world may vile us for being such deplorable beings, the cards were already dealt and we have no choice but to play it until the end. No crying until the end." Arnold said as he stood up for her.

Both the spirits looked at them and they smiled, Alfin's mother approached her and hug her. The Executioner

"You have grown into such a fine lady... Too bad that such a future like that isn't something I could imagine..." The mother said with such motherly love.

"And you... I have no word in my mind that I can tell how much you have grown as a person... If only that you could have become something better than what fate has ordained for you..." The Executioner said to Arnold as he pats on his shoulder.

Suddenly, the two spirits suddenly started to fade away. Alfin panic at that prospect as she quickly holds her mother's spirit back.

"No! Please don't leave me here! I don't want to be alone anymore!" Alfin said as tears flow from her eyes.

Arnold looked at the Executioner and noticed that he is also fading away. He tried to take hold of him but the Executioner signals him not to.

"It was inevitable for us... The arrows of time are still moving and thus our time here is brief and fleeting." The Executioner said solemnly even if his existence would be snuffed in just a few moments later.

"No matter what your future holds or what's ahead of you. Your only choice is to face it head-on with a smile on your face, no matter how cruel it could be." Alfin's mother said as she became more faded.

"Live strong... Stay strong..." Both of them said before they completely fade away into nothing but glimmering flights of dust in the wind...

Alfin at that point can't help but burst into tears, it was so long ago that she got reunited with her mother and this meeting was too short for her to let out her mess of emotions. Tears that fell into this ground where sorrow has already saturated everything. Arnold harshly believes this meeting itself but he got no choice but to accept what he heard as real.

Suddenly, he felt something. Those spirit dust created from the two spirits just now suddenly started to move toward Alfin... or more exactly... the double-barrel shotgun in her hand. Those dust fused into the gun itself in mass as the spiritual presence started to radiate from it. It all ended with one large flash as those spirit dust reforged the whole gun into something completely different.

The heavenly light that it radiated, it felt completely warm in this bleak and cold landscape. Alfin looked at it as if she is looking at someone who is very close to her. She sobbed but soon wiped those tears away. She stood with warm determination yet carry a steadfast composure, her mind is clear and free of those shadow of doubts.

"Live strong... Stay strong..." Alfin said as she said those words with a weak voice yet full of power.

The gun in her hand is like a beacon within a world filled with deceit. It has truly become... Innocent Sin... A girl who was abandoned by everyone yet desire love in any way she could. A child shunned by its people will burn them all down just to feel their warmth. It was a cruelty that everyone understood but will never stand for.

"Arnold... Let us go back to our old home... Whatever business still remains there, I will resolve it... for her sake..." Alfin said as she steps ahead of Arnold.

Arnold followed her, knowing that they have done all they could in this place. But when they think about it, they only came across this place by pure chance and they might have skipped this completely unaware if they decided to go to their old home.

"What miraculous twist of fate..." Arnold said as he followed Alfin.

And soon they exit the graveyard and retrace their step back to where they are supposed to be...

Within their aimless journey in this mist. They retraced their steps back to the school and from the memory of this place, they found themselves back at the place that they have sworn to never return.

The old house reeks of the stench of disgust and one will feel unwelcomed no matter who they are. The derelict and broken down home of their childhood carries little happy memories and the rest was just cold hard tormenting stigmas that screwed the rest of their lives.

They felt the atmosphere is so tense that they could literally cut everything with just their motions alone. The hatred, contempt, scorn,... They still everlasting even when the world no longer cares about what happened anymore.

Arnold and Alfin looked at each other then nodded, they slowly approaching the front entrance of their old house, cautiously as they moved in case of something may spring up from there. Arnold's hand reached for the knob when something started to happen before he even turns it.

The ground started to shake convulsively as the tremor started to get worse. Arnold tried to balance himself in this earth-shattering earthquake and he noticed that something is rising up from where they are right now. Upon realization, he quickly looked at Alfin to warn her.

"Alfin! Get off the ground now!" Arnold said to her as he tried to move away from the house.

Alfin heeded his words and quickly jumps off into the sky and levitated in the air before the ground beneath her collapsed. Arnold quickly used Spirit Phaze and flew off before the world beneath him collapsed into the abyss.

With the angel wings, Arnold looked at what is happening in front of him. Something is rising up from their old house, its figure is completely colossal as its shadow looming over the whole town.

"Alfin! What's happening here!?" Arnold said as he couldn't comprehend something like this may happen.

Alfin looked at what is rising and his words fell to her deaf ears. Her eyes were filled with sorrow as she couldn't believe what is transpiring right in front of her.

"It seems... we never escape his shadow after all..." Alfin said with sorrow.

Arnold heard what she said and he soon came to the conclusion himself. He looked at the colossal figure once more and see the face for himself, that is when he realized what Alfin is truly meant.

That thing... its face... It was their father... There is nothing that would point out the contrary and everything so far has played out into their expectation.

"We got no choice, we have to bury this failure of a father into the ground, again..." Arnold said as he quickly tries to rationalize the situation.

They however have little time as they noticed that figure's foot is on top of them. Realizing the danger of the situation, they quickly flew away before the foot would stomp them flatter than a paper.

The foot stomped into the ground with such power that it created a massive tremor, shaking the whole town to its own foundation. Even when they were in the air, they could still feel the impact behind it.

"Such insolent!" The titanic figure said with such disdain.

It is clear without a doubt that their father still hates them with such clear hatred that is beyond a shadow of doubts. His rage towards his own flesh and blood is so exaggerated to the point that it becomes far more twisted than a maelstrom itself.

Alfin quickly opened fire with the arrays of artilleries as they fired towards the twisted figure called her 'father'. Like a thunderous band of thousands of instruments, those guns fired in unison towards the titan and exploded into a deafening piece of orchestras.

But that was still not enough... Her father is still unfazed despite the barrage of artillery shells that she fired. She knew already that something like this might not be enough as proven by so many times before but she did it anyway because she has nothing else to start out with.

The titanic figure started to pull back its leg and then started to kick toward Alfin whose size is like comparing a lake to an ocean. It held nothing back as it then kicked towards her with such tremendous force that she could probably felt the fabric of reality shaken by its kick.

She knew what was coming and thus managed to evade it before she would be receiving the whole kick into her. But that doesn't prevent her from seeing the whole destructive capability that kick managed to do. The kick tore apart a huge chunk of the ground nearby her as she watches everything turned asunder. Buildings, roads, everything... Everything turned upside down as the chunk broke off into a rain of debris.

"How cruel..." Alfin said as she looked at the titan and strategizing what she should do to take him down.

"You good for nothing trash, I should have killed you from the moment you were born!" The titan said with an extremely angry tone that one would felt their spines shiver upon hearing.

Alfin knew how much hate that her father projected into her and she never once understood how he came to hate her like this at all. It was like this for as long as she remembered and it ended up influencing her worse than how she ever thought if WW2 is any evidence of it. But she quickly brushes it away as she knew words like that won't hurt her any longer. Especially considering where it came from...

Alfin used the power that Azerium granted her as she quickly flew around the titan that keeps swinging its fist to swat her down like a fly. However, she became agile enough to sustain flight without using vehicles directly thanks to Azerium.

She used everything she has among all of her arsenals. From cannons, artilleries, even Azerium-based weapons whose destructiveness can easily trump her own base power by a huge margin. The titan keeps its rampage go on no matter what she does even when visibly damaged if the blood that is dripping and splash to the broken ground beneath.

Her breathing became more visibly tired as she knew that sustaining flight without vehicles may allow her to become flexible but it is easily the most exhausting she ever experienced. She tried to catch her breathing and then suddenly, she realized that the titan's fist is already on its way to punch her. At that moment, she panics as she tried to get her out of its way and...

Spirit Phaze!

The fist's trajectory was forcefully pushed out of her way as she saw angel feathers scattered upon the impact. It was Arnold... and he saved her from that extremely close brush towards death.

"Alfin! Are you alright!?" Arnold said as he stabilized himself in the air.

She simply nodded... Alfin realized that she can't afford to let her guard down no matter what, especially when someone is wanting her dead.

"Damn it... We can't afford to keep attacking him blindly like this! We need a cohesive plan if we want to swiftly take down this monstrous and titanic father of yours... Think of something! Something that could critically injure him in a way that our attacks wouldn't normally!" Arnold said as he yelled at her while the angel wings at his back are flapping.

Alfin nodded and Arnold quickly tried to distract their father away so that he could buy Alfin more time to find a way to resolve this conflict in a swift manner. She tried to focus her mind and digs up any memory of the past. No matter how traumatic and painful they may be, the key to end this madness and to kill this twisted image of her father lies in the shattered memory like a sea of broken glasses that would cut her if she dares to approach.

Even if means to tear her own mind apart in endless torture, endless agony, endless misery... She would still do it because Arnold is on the line for her sake... and she mustn't waste his own sacrifice like that because of fear.

She 'dived' into that mess... She felt her own mind is tearing apart by itself from trying to dive into the twisted and painful memory. It is like attempting to brute-forcing a steel door that was riddled with an endless amount of traps that would afflict her and its lock were broken. Tears of pain and misery were shed but she still chose to endure. Just thinking about it alone hurt her immensely but Arnold is the only reason why she is even trying.

And within that momentary lapse, it was as if her own soul were unbound from her body. She felt completely empty and the surrounding has become completely pure white with nothing inside. It was the same as when the eldritch being taken up her mother's corpse is about to kill her.

Time has turned into stasis and she felt virtually no interference at all. She decided to reach out to that memory and let her own will to lead her to it in a completely natural way... At least she won't subject herself to mental torture by doing so the hard way.

Her consciousness drifted away back into that faithful day... The day where she killed her own father... A debt that can only be repaid in blood...

She stood there in that memory... Everything was hazy and blurry as if this distant memory could disappear at any moment notice. She is there yet not... It was as if she is like a wraith in her past, one that exists yet no one ever felt or notice.

Alfin looked around and saw the younger her from back then, she quickly approached her. And right when she got close, the younger her in the memory quickly dashes and dropkicked her own father as he falls through the flight of stairs. She only managed to get to the basement's entrance when that happened. But what truly caught her notice was something else...

The position where her father got injured with each landing... It was the knee, the spine, and finally... the head... She got her answer now and thus all it takes is to return back to-

The whole world ceased moving... everything started to become more blurry and broken. Cracks started to appear as this broken memory can't hold onto itself any longer. Suddenly, the memory shattered and Alfin was once more left alone with the nothingness around her. She doesn't feel anything, just... emptiness.

She returned back to reality and saw Arnold is continuing his evasive tactic and managed to draw out their father for long enough. But it is high time for them to make a real breakthrough or else.

"Arnold! Aim for the kneecap! It is one of his conceptual weaknesses!" Alfin said as she tried to reach out to him.

Arnold heard what Alfin said to him and thus he quickly heeds her words. Not that he has any better option that was given either way. Using all of his focus that he has left, he decided to bet on one gamble alone that would change the whole tide of the battle. He doesn't always gamble but when he does so, it is when everything is on the line.

"Spirit Phaze!" Arnold yelled as he quickly lunges toward the kneecap of the titan at breakneck speed.

A sickening impact then followed as she could visibly saw the strike that disjointed the knee of that titan. It yelled in pain as such an injure like that was a sensation that is agonizing beyond this world. Arnold decided that is still not enough as he quickly takes out his pickaxe and puts all of his strength into that mortal blow that he is about to inflict.

Something was torn apart and she saw what looks like a chunk of something fly through the air just now. She took a closer look and found out that it was... the entirety of the kneecap itself. That bloody chunk of gore then splatters into the ground as it sprays blood wherever it landed and Alfin saw the geyser of blood that is spurting from where the kneecap once was.

The titan yelled in pain as its rage started to escalate from the injury. It swings its gigantic arms around as it tried to catch the culprit responsible for that grievous injury that was inflicted. Alfin noticed that Arnold is going to get hit if things keep going on like this and thus she quickly jumped to action.

It was as if she could foretell the future, a continental ballistic rocket burst through a portal she created and pushed away a sweeping blow that would land on Arnold. The hand of that titan received the full brunt of it as she could saw the burning flesh on the hand.

"Arnold!" Alfin said as she tried to pick up on his condition.

"I'm fine! But you need to quickly follow up on that plan of yours!" Arnold said as he makes a tactical disengage away from the titan.

Alfin could probably felt the wrath just from the atmosphere alone, that titan's mental restraint devolved completely into feral rage as it lunged towards her like a lion prowling its prey. She quickly evaded it as the titan missed its lunge.

And soon, the earth shook upon the landing of the titan. Everything was torn asunder on its path as they stood no chance against its monstrous might. Even when they were not on the ground, they can still feel it as if they were.

"Alfin!" Arnold said as he just barely managed to stabilize himself from the aftershock.

Alfin just looked at Arnold in worry as she tried to formulate a proper string of combat and tactic to take down that monstrous image of her 'father'. Arnold however noticed that the titan is getting back on its feet at an unusually fast pace that he didn't have enough time to realize that fact. And Arnold noticed something else that makes him shudder upon realization.

"Um...Arnold?" Alfin asked as she realized that Arnold isn't acting alright.

The titan behinds her is having one hand clenching something tightly and then it started to throw everything that was clenched there towards them at an ungodly speed. It was a fistful of rubbles, debris, wreckages that were thrown with a speed that makes a fighter jet looks like a snail compares to them. Those shrapnels shreds through everything mercilessly as the torn and ravaged town didn't suffer enough already.

"Shit!" Alfin said as she quickly tried to find a way to protect themselves from this storm of shredding debris.

When things turned completely bleak and hopeless... when their hope of survival diminish away into the downward spiral of disarray... Suddenly, time went into stasis... once more.

"What?..." Alfin said as she can't believe this is happening once more.

She received no response, everybody... everything... even the rubbles that would be flying at her and tore her body apart are also stuck there in the middle of the air as if time itself has ceased to exist.

For some reason... Everyone but Alfin ceased to move and aware...

Alfin...

Alfin turned around... She saw no one but Arnold and the monstrous titan that took the appearance of her father... There is no shadow here... Only a retina-burning nothingness that stretches beyond the horizon...

Yet... from somewhere, Alfin can hear someone is talking to her.

Alfin...

It was her mother's voice... It reached her even within the boundary of nothingness.

Even if your future is insurmountable... There will always be a glimmer of light within the abyss... Don't give up...

Alfin didn't fully understand what her mother just meant but she has no other choice left but to step ahead against any adversary she may face. The future may be treacherous but to be stuck in the present is to stagnate without any hope of changing.

She felt something... The arrow of time is starting to move once more. Alfin quickly assesses the situation and used her chain to prepare to forcefully drag Arnold out of the barrage of debris forcefully if it comes to that. The nothingness faded away and the debris quickly come forth as it normally was.

With such unbelievable preparedness, she quickly threaded through the barrage with Arnold in tow. What Alfin just did can only equalize as running under a tempest without getting wet.

Upon confirmation that she has escaped the storm, Alfin quickly threw two more chains as they quickly latch on to the fist that threw that throw the hail of debris toward them. The titan noticed what she tried to do and thus it threw its fist toward her with the intention that it would crush her into a bloody paste with its punch. Alfin however is the one who is leading the chessboard as she completely provoked it into her next step.

Arnold who was latched onto by the chain that Alfin created also got dragged along with her. He was then suddenly yanked towards her as he helplessly dragged behind Alfin like a ball and chain. In just a moment later, he found that Alfin is now holding his own leg as if she is going to hit someone with him as a weapon.

"Arnold! You know the attack that you used to severe those tentacles from before? Use it now because we only have one shot!" Alfin said as she uses both her hands to hold his legs.

Arnold realized that the titan's fist is about to collide with them if things keep going on like this. He quickly reaches for the flamethrower on the imaginary weapon rack. And just like that, they act in unison as Alfin quickly spins as fast as she could while Arnold putting as much power as he could into the flamethrower.

Fires erupted from the muzzle of the gun and Arnold's determination turned its flame into azure color. And upon the decisive collision between the two, the unbelievable happened. The speed that both of them spins turned the azure flame into a burning saw blade that sears a path across the titan's arm. Blood that was shed was then immediately cauterized by the heat of the azure flame. In just one quick succession, both of them rips apart the titan's left arm into half as that chunk falls into the ground with a sickening splash.

The titan yelled in agonizing pain and both Arnold and Alfin managed to halt their movement before they would fly off too far away from their target.

"Arnold! Threw me as hard as you can into the sky!" Alfin said to Arnold with assurance.

"You what!?" Arnold said as he doesn't get what Alfin is trying to do by being thrown into the sky.

"Just do it!" Alfin yelled to Arnold.

Decided that he has no other choice left to pick, Arnold puts all of his might into that one single throw as he grabbed Alfin's arm while they still descending midair. And right afterward, he launched Alfin into the sky above and soon her figure in his sight become too small to discern.

The titan yelled as it swings its other arm downward at him the moment it turned around and see him. The moment that downward smash of it connected, Arnold plummet into the broken ground below and impacted with such force that the shockwave it created was on par of a nuclear blast.

"Ouch..." Arnold said as he felt his limbs were broken although Spirit Phaze braced most of the impact for him.

Alfin meanwhile still flew upward into the sky and leaving clouds to kiss her dust. The speed that she moved is surpassing even re-entry speed as she quickly approaching the stratosphere level. The moment her flight is halted, she focused her power to reach for the weapon that she needed. A Wunderwaffe... with untold potential destructive capability.

The thing is that it has its weaknesses... It can't be deployed within Soulburst Forge due to its ungodly length and thus the sky was the only place where it can be used without hindrance.

Power coursing through her body, her eyes turned into the color of ember and light up like a rain of sparks born from an industrial forge. A portal appeared and the barrel of the weapon protruding through it and quickly descend through the air. Just at that moment when Alfin quickly took hold of it.

The barrel still comes through it and it was as if that the weapon consists of only the barrel itself. She has descended through hundred meters already and the whole gun still hasn't come out yet. From an outside perspective, it looks like Alfin is carrying an elongated rocket launcher while hopelessly descending through the sky.

But even then, Alfin remains absolutely calm no matter what. In her eyes, there stood only one objective, to kill her father... Or at least critically injure him with this weapon.

Feeling the high wind drifting through her body and the cold air batters into her... Within a sunless sky and a clouded horizon, her target soon appeared within her sight when she pierces through the final cloud layer. It was her decisive moment... Letting nothing that would ruin her chance, she puts all of her pent up feelings into the firing command of this gun.

"V3 Vengeance... Fire!" Alfin yelled as the rocket fuel within each chamber of the gun ignited at one same time as they propelled the shell through the massive barrel length.

The moment the shell escaped the muzzle, the whole atmosphere ruptured at its speed. The cloud formation turned completely into disarray upon the sheer vacuum that the gun's firing created. The shell is bolting down towards the titan at a speed that is breaching near the sub-relativistic speed with one singular target on the way. It was as if the Heaven sundered upon the might of her Wunderwaffe.

V3 Vengeance was originally a cannon that utilized multi-charge mechanic in order to propel ballistics across the vast distance at high-speed. The smoothbore gun fired a fin-stabilized shell that depended upon aerodynamic forces rather than gyroscopic forces to prevent tumbling. It was used with the prospect of dealing huge damage to infrastructure with simple to recreate mechanics and easily installed based on the area's geography.

And the weapon also has its name... Retribution... It perfectly encapsulates Alfin's desire to pay back her father for what he has done to her whole life and basically ruined it permanently even after his death.

The titan wasn't aware of the shell that is about came crashing down upon him and... The sound of the titan's spine was completely splintered upon the impact of the V3's shell as the sickening and nasty mess that was resulted in became visible for everyone to see. And due to the spine was completely splintered, some of its motor functions became completely disabled.

The titan yelled in agony once more as it is clear that the damage it suffered will heavily hinder any of its activity or even outright disable them. The extremely long cannon disintegrates into golden ashes the moment it fulfilled its duty as she descends from the sky. However, it wasn't the end yet as the titan grabbed as she was falling.

With her in its grip, the titan looked at her with all the contempt and hatred that it could muster. The burning rage and hatred in its eyes tell that it would want nothing but to crush Alfin into a bloody pulp while it is still in its hand.

Alfin meanwhile still in a delirious state after falling from such a height like that. She looked directly into the titan's fate and can't help but to let out a wry smile. The titan tried to crush her but the unimaginable pain and the shattered spine have basically turned this mere action that can be easily done by anyone into an impossible task. Alfin looked at the titan whose face resembles her father and watches as it tried to crush her by clenching its fist. Seeing how close it was to kill her yet so far away, it makes Alfin wanted to laugh at him like a spoiled rich brat from a noble and aristocrat house. But someone like him deserves no reaction from her.

"You know... It takes me back to that faithful day... when you bound me to a chair with rope and then forced me to kill my own dog... I should have shot you instead of aiming at nothing..." Alfin said as her eyes turned completely red. Red with the color of insanity as she shows the tyrannical side of her.

The titan tried to crush her but the agonizing pain and the shattered spine turned this completely easy action for a normal person into an impossible task. With its motor function heavily impaired due to the damage the spine sustained, it was a wonder that this titan still standing straight at all. Alfin can feel its grip slowly tightening but it was so pitifully slow that she lets out a mocking smile towards her father.

"How strange... You flaunt your iron fist authority towards those who were weaker than you and exploit them the moment they open up their weakness. And now... You show this sorry and miserable state of yours to a someone that you so oh despited. You put me through that torturous hell, making me suffer at every corner of my life. And even after you died, your punishment didn't end there but it continues even till my death. Why did you come to hate me, I wonder... Oh, it is because you can't control every aspect of my life like a puppet that dangles at your strings..." Alfin said with a ridiculing voice that would make anyone disdain her.

Suddenly, something happened. A miasma started to form from her surrounding at a rapid pace. It was as if she is changing the whole world around her and supplanted it with something else entirely.

Auschwitz's Ashes

The titan breathes the miasma in without realizing the consequence of doing so is extremely gravely. Its expression changed in a hideous way that literally no one could expect as the sensation it felt is literally burning and suffocating to the point death is a preferable alternative. The seared arm of it started to rot in an unprecedented way that it started to wither immediately into a nasty color.

The titan's feral rage clouded its judgment as it tried to crush Alfin after hearing her taunting him. But no matter what it tried to do, the spinal cord also started corrupted from the effect of Auschwitz's Ashes and basically fried its nerves and lock its muscle into stasis due to the feedback completely severe. How it is still holding Alfin in its grip is just a mystery that Alfin won't bother to resolve because she will bury the past, six feet deep into the ground.

"This whole being bound... It takes me back... Back on that day when you tried to force me to kill my only companion that would share my kindred spirit with... But there is one difference... I chose who to kill..." Alfin said with a voice that would break even the will of the most stalwarts soldiers.

Alfin whipped out the Innocent Sin seemingly out of nowhere and aims it at her father's head. With a determined look that penetrates even the hull of the King Tiger, she lets out a demented smile that would burn forever into everyone's minds if they saw it. Memories of her childhood flashed back to her as they all culminated to this very point.

Eternal Punishment

She pulled the trigger. And what came forth is a torrent of pellets that were fired with unbelievable and tremendous power behind it. Its power was so much that the shot shattered the reality around it like a pane of shattered glass. And behind it... was a pure white nothingness that was so bright to the point it could burn her retina.

And just like that a moment later, reality mended itself as if nothing happened. And in the place where her father's head once was, is nothing... The sheer power of the Innocent Sin alone shattered the irritable delusion and killed that titan right in its place when everything else didn't. The clearing of wind signals the conflict has ended and Alfin claims the rightful victory of this fight.

Ever since the earliest of her childhood, she went through endless abuse and suffered greatly because of her father. She was deprived of love and happiness as she desperately clings onto them. A little girl... who told herself that she is not alone so that she won't fall apart. Even after she killed her father herself, it wasn't even the end for her. The endless torture that she went through as her childhood has fractured her heart permanently and she forever never able to feel love for the rest of her life. The only thing she knows was sorrow, anguish, misery, agony, torment... And when she died, it only ended in further heartbreak and tragedy.

The punishment that her father placed on her... the one that stretches across her whole life... It was a cruel story that nobody sympathizes with.

Eternal Punishment

The Innocent Sin has one particular detail. Its strength increase exponentially depends on the mental state of the person. It gains expelling property or tremendous power based on her mental clarity with its most powerful at her state of nothingness or her extreme emotions like hatred and wrath.

Alfin's eye returned back to its hazy blue as she finally got her mind cleared of that intense hatred. She noticed that she basically just obliterated her father with one single attack alone.

She broke free of its grip and slowly descend by herself. Alfin looks at the remainings of that titan falls over to the ground and caused a final tremor that shook the remaining of the town itself to the foundation. By this point, to call it a town is a massive stretch as it resembles more of a valley that was ravaged to oblivion. The titanic corpse then faded away into the dust as they are bygone with the wind that blows through the clearing.

The fog that veiled this town disappeared away as there is no longer any lingering regret that left in this place, its disappearance revealed the dusky sky that shines over the tattered remains of the town. Although she ruptured the Heaven earlier and thus already ruined the surprise early.

Alfin landed on the ground but the first thing she did was to look for Arnold. She looked through all of those rubbles and eventually found a massive crater with Arnold lying right at the center of it. Upon seeing him like that, she quickly approaches him and checks up on his condition.

"Arnold! Are you alright?" Alfin asked as she pulled him up.

"Yeah... Just hurt a little..." Arnold said as he looks for the areas that were aching.

"Honestly... Any other Servants would show more visible damages than how you are displaying yourselves right now..." Alfin said as she can't expect to see his unbelievable endurance.

"To be fair, what actually did me in was the initial impact that the titan landed on me and knocked me into the ground. But at least that I activated Spirit Phaze to protect myself from the landing collision." Arnold said as he scratches his head.

"Unbelievable..." Alfin said as she closed her eyes and sighed.

"Either way... Where do we go from here? This whole town is sent to oblivion and I doubt we would found anything that still remains intact..." Arnold said as he looked around the place.

Suddenly... They found something lighted up in the distant sky away from them. It was a pillar of light that seems to come from somewhere.

"Huh? What's that?" Alfin said as she found noticed the pillar of light in the distance.

"I don't know... But we got nothing to gain by standing still here... Let's go..." Arnold said as he moves out first.

Alfin then followed him as they together move toward where the pillar light is. With the whole town in ruins, their journey was a relatively easy one with nothing complicated because the previous battle flattened the whole place into the ground and letting their vision soars to the horizon.

"Arnold... Do you know that this town was geographically close to Germany's border? Close enough that you could literally just walk to their territory?" Alfin said as she tried to humor in this long journey.

"That close? Honestly... I didn't think about it at all... But I guess that makes sense considering that you would need to go through a lot of customs just to pass through the border patrol but considering how close you were and the era at the time. It only makes sense..." Arnold said as the sounds of his footsteps on the barren land echoes through the empty world they are in.

"Yeah... In the end... The end justifies the mean but considering that I didn't even see it through, it is bound that I would receive nothing but ridicules..." Alfin said as she remembers the time that she used to be in charge of Germany's authority.

And just like that, the atmosphere suddenly felt heavy and depressing. Both sides don't know how to respond from there afterward because that was a touchy subject that shouldn't be brought up. Alfin knew that she shouldn't have said it but her mind glossed it over and now she suddenly stuck in her mental prison.

"Uhm... Anyway, let us make our way there quickly, shall we?" Arnold said as he tried to clear the mood.

Swiftly enough, they made it to their location, and surprisingly... the place remained as if nothing happened despite the scale of the conflict that just occurred before. Trees still have its branches moving among the winds, the concrete ground remained whole despite what can be considered the largest tremor to ever exist, the infrastructure still remains in one piece as if it was completely isolated from the chaos outside.

"I think I know what this place actually is..." Arnold said as he looked around the place.

"A train station... One that I made my departure to Germany..." Alfin said as she approaches closer to it...

They together entered the train station. It was so empty and desolated that they can't tell if this place still exists at all or just a figment of their imagination...

"You know... This is the place where I learned your true identity... Not a particularly good time I tell you..." Arnold said as he reminiscence about the memory of the past.

"Yeah... When I truly felt lost in this world... Walking aimlessly within an uncertain future... Truly the worst thing I ever felt back when I was still alive..." Alfin said as she looked around the empty train station.

The first thing they looked together at is the ticket booth which is now empty and gathering dust. There's nothing that would stop them from proceeding and yet... Even the first thing they did was approaching the booth and search it as if there are some sorts of secrets in it.

"It's empty..." Alfin said as she has done examining the booth thoroughly.

It was a dead given that there is nothing here but they did it just for the sentimental value either way. They tried to find a meaning of what they are about to do but there is nothing like a voice that echoes through the abyss but never returns back.

"Guess that we got nowhere else to go but ahead..." Arnold said as he steps further inside.

They together enter the train station, it was dim and atmospheric as if the place was left untouched for so long that they felt like they are disturbing a holy place or something. The particles that they could see flying in the air as the dusky light shines through the broken hole on the ceilings. But the main focus here is...

"It's..." Arnold tried to say but he felt something stuck at his throat and blocking him from saying it.

The thing in front of them was a train. But it wasn't your usual kind of train but rather those that were used to transport the most soldiers possible into the frontline in a single trip. It is not exactly something that one would take kindly of, especially someone who has personal experience with it.

"Arnold? Are you okay? You are looking pale right now..." Alfin said as she noticed something is looking off about him.

Arnold looks like he could collapse at any moment right now... Memories of his time at the front are rushing back like a torrent of a relentless flood that would sweep him away in its wake.

"Arnold?" Alfin said as she tried to get his attention.

"Yes! I am fine!" Arnold said in an unusual panicking voice that is completely out of characters for him.

Alfin knew something isn't right about this. Arnold is usually steadfast and not that easy to budge mentally. But the fact that he is being terribly shaken by the mere prospect of this train tells her that if it keeps going on this way, it would end in a really bad way just like how her reigns ended virtually nothing and only resulted in more problems.

"Arnold... Please be frank with me... I witnessed your memory too... It is about the turmoil at the front, right? How your journey there affected you and how you inadvertently pushed your own friends to their death unwittingly because you think that it is their only hope of escape, right?" Alfin asked with sincerity.

Arnold looked at her in the eyes as he doesn't know how to respond to it. The only answer he could think of is just a nod.

"You are afraid of confronting it, don't you?" Alfin asked as she was genuinely concerned with Arnold's well-being.

Arnold nodded and that's when the flood-dam of his emotion stability finally collapsed. Arnold felt the tears welling up in his eyes as he can't hold them back after the mentioning of them any longer.

"I once tried to do something meaningful in a meaningless war and you saw how it ended up, right!? I was nothing but a fool, an idiot that can't think of anything ahead of him more than a few steps and just go with the flow and you saw how it turned out to be, right!?" Arnold said as he sobs uncontrollably.

Alfin looked at him with sorrow. While she has her own fair share of problems, there is no possible way to compare his trauma to her as they are completely different sets of hoops for them to jump. They are one same person but with their memories split up and no direct exposure, they can't truly speak for each other at their truly despite being one and the same identity.

"After learning about the news of their fate... I wished that I have died in that forsaken battlefield, believing in a delusion that I have done something meaningful and that I managed to do something good for once in my life that everybody scorn so much. It would have been far better for me to have joined the rank of the dead than to live in a world that I am surrounded by people yet I felt completely alone no matter what..." Arnold said as he lets out all of his heartfelt feelings for her to see.

"This is cruel... Like forcing myself to see a broken reflection of myself. It is like trying to comfort a shellshock veteran while completely oblivious to what action I am supposed to do. Just what do I do?" Alfin thought as she tried to think of a way to comfort Arnold.

After thinking for a while, Alfin decided to come clean to Arnold. She may not exactly the best therapist one can have but she knew she has to do something for him.

"Arnold... The world has many soldiers... But you are the only one that I can trust completely with my whole life on the line..." Alfin tried to console Arnold by getting as close to him as she could.

"Let me tell you... Even when I sit on the high seat of the chain of command. I thought I finally sit on top of the world and I can finally make a real decision in my life. Turns out... No matter how fast or far I may try to run, I can't ever outrun the shadow of my own past. I persecuted that very same line of reasoning... Even the Holocausts and genocides that I committed. The only thing that I really did... were acts of pure insanity..." Alfin said as she spoke with her feelings.

Arnold looked at her as he wonders just what is he trying to get to.

"I spoke with many different people from all different backgrounds. As time goes on, I started to get more tired of the charrade of politics and ulterior motives. My fractured hearts blackened further upon seeing how far people are willing to go just to further their goals. Darkness started to shrouding my mind as I can't find myself trusting anyone without putting them away at arm's length to protect myself from backstabbers. And eventually... I became my own sworn enemies... The rest is history as you know it..." Alfin said with an expression that told Arnold that recalling all of them wasn't particularly nice.

"Alfin... What are you trying to get here?" Arnold said as he tried to decipher her own saying.

"What I am saying is that... I believe in you, Arnold... In a world filled with endless deceit, you are the only tangible anchor that held me from falling into the darkness of my own past. I can't allow myself to do that mistake again... I can't let those tragedies that happened to be swat away meaninglessly as a mistake... Arnold... You are my hope..." Alfin said as she burrows her head into his chest.

Arnold was speechless and felt that there is so much going on that he can't put anything in his mind into words. It was a massive and mesmerizing mess that he can't possibly resolve on the fly.

"Arnold... If you are so dead set on saving everyone... Why didn't you put yourselves among that list?" Alfin said with wallowing sorrow.

It was at that moment when he realized that he isn't alone in this world. The pain of loss that he felt all the time when he did so. He feared it so much that he forgot just how much does his decision could possibly do the same to the others. He thought of himself as a useless nobody that everyone hates for some reason but those cares about him would be hurt so much, especially with his impacts on their' outlook and fate itself.

"I... see..." Arnold said as he realized the flaw of his own mentality.

His selflessness was borderline on self-destruction. There are many times where he was so unreasonably selfless that it would have otherwise cost him dearly. And Alfin... will be the one felt most of it. She doesn't say it out loud to him but she would often and hiddenly feeling that sorrow whenever Arnold puts the others above him. His duty as a soldier is understandable but the Arnold in front of her is supposed to be far better than an obedience drone that would follow orders.

Arnold collapsed to his knee and embraced Alfin tightly to himself. Both of them cried with their whole-hearted feelings. Cry for me, cry for you... It doesn't matter if it is embarrassing or not, it is something the two of them needed right now if they wanted to face their future with their heads held high.

In a timely manner, they wiped away their tears and stood up proudly. They looked at each other in the eyes and nodded before boarding the train itself. Destination? Their final stop at the heart of the Reich... Berlin...

Alfin checked the locomotive and checked to see if it does functioning properly or not. It is a WW1 train after all and stuff like this is a complete antique to her. But even then, something has to be done if they want to proceed. After spending some time tinkering and working around with the antiquated control system, she finally got the train to move.

Its steam locomotive started to shriek as its gear slowly move on the rusted railway. Alfin smirked in satisfaction as she returned to the passenger car and wait for wherever this train may take her. Because this thing was a war transport, comfort was the last thing when this thing was designed and thus they knew this is going to be a rough trip that they might not enjoy at all.

The train slowly picks up speed as it then moves out of the train station in a timely manner. And soon... the thing moves to beyond the horizon and left the ruined town behind. Leaving behind the past as it takes them into the forsaken wasteland of the future.

---

"._.""._.""._."

Last Promise

"._.""._.""._."

---

They moved through vast distances and land, yet they have no clue where they are at all. The trip wasn't exactly the best in the world. But it beats moving on foot by far. While the locomotive was left unsupervised, the chance of anything else exists that would rob the train is just a big fat zero for anything even do so would get annihilated by them the moment they noticed.

Arnold and Alfin were sleeping as they lean against the wall. The roughness and constant shaking of the train cars wasn't something one would call comfortable but it is the best they could afford in a god-forsaken world. Arnold woke up first as he noticed that the train was going unusually smoothes. He gasped and then stood up by himself and check up the condition of the train.

"It still going... Probably not having anything bad happened at all but I highly doubt it..." Arnold said as he looked around to the outside.

Outside the train, the scenery still goes on, as usual, trees covering both sides of the way and the only discernable sounds are the sounds of the locomotive moving the whole train. The sky became cloudy and the atmosphere is filled with a mist that seems to serve no purpose but hindering their vision.

"Might as well enjoy this sight before it would abruptly turn into a no man's land that is riddled constantly with corpses and craters..." Arnold said as if he felt really tired at just envisioning that sight alone.

"Arnold?" Alfin said to Arnold as she rubs her eyes.

"Oh... You wake up? Did you have a fine dream or you literally grasping for control of yourselves within those ceaseless nightmares?" Arnold said as he has a hunch that neither of them has a good rest at all.

"I'll take the latter but I won't say the detail to you... Let me check the locomotive once more so that we don't suddenly just stop immediately or derail on spot like a stupid black and white comedy movie of the old-time." Alfin said as she checks up on the locomotive to make sure that it won't act completely out of control.

Arnold sighed as he watches her moving towards the locomotive and he decided to land his gaze back the scenery around him which are literally trees as far as he could concern.

But... he noticed something. The mist seems to be getting denser by each second and the temperature started to act abnormally. He puts up his combat stance and weapons as he looked around with watchful eyes. He thinks that something might try to get on this train as his experience is among things that he could put his faith in without fear.

An explosion was heard nearby and he turned towards it. With the direction that would lead to the locomotive, he started to fear the worst possibility that may happen, and what he saw is... Nothing happened... at the locomotive at least...

"Arnold! There's an explosion that occurred right in front of the track that we are moving on right now! Brace for the impact because we are gonna be derailed!" Alfin yelled at him as she grips the bar tightly to the point it becomes dented.

And just like that after her words came out of her mouth, the mist started to turn dense at an unprecedented rate as they were separated from each other's sight. Soon, he couldn't see anything even at a step ahead of him. He heeded her words as he quickly grabbed the railings as tight as he could and prepare for the impact.

But that moment never came... The train then moves smoothly as if it doesn't even move on a track anymore. Arnold knew something isn't right happened and he quickly moves toward the locomotive while stumbling around like a toddler who just learned how to walk because of how dense the mist is.

And within his attempt to reach her, he tripped over his foot and falls face flat into whatever was ahead of him. Right at the moment when he did so, the mist started to clear up and when he tried to clear his vision, he found out what he just landed his face on.

"Ugh... What happened?" Alfin said as she doesn't seem to be in a clear state of mind just now.

Arnold just landed right on her chest. There wasn't much to feel but definitely there. Arnold blushed in embarrassment as he quickly gathers back on his feet so that Alfin won't find anything suspicious while she is still delirious.

"Sorry! It was a mistake!" And just like that, Arnold admitted it himself when she wouldn't have noticed if he didn't tell her.

"What? But hold on... Isn't the train supposed to derail now? Why are we still moving and-" Alfin said as her senses are tingling in an unusual way and it was immediately cut off when their surroundings cleared up and reveal to them where they are right now.

There is no track... The train still moves on its own while their surroundings turned from a lush forest into a scarred battlefield that was ravaged and bombarded to the point that there is no hope of restoration. Dead bodies littered around like trash as the rotten smell and stench of the dead emanates through the air.

Nothing is being spoken and yet Arnold's mind is constantly filled with the screamings of those faithful days... Those days were horrors reincarnated as his life back at then were nothing but a rat that scavenges what was left in a land completely desolated into oblivion by warfare. Dark skies constantly raining like tears of those who mourned the dead, winds bellowing like lingering regrets, and yet those who remain... can't ever forget what has transpired in this slaughterhouse.

"Arnold... You don't look very fine there..." Alfin said as she worries about his condition, can't blame her for thinking like that because war PTSD is no laughing matter.

"Yeah... Just that I hope I could get out of this living hell... fast..." Arnold said as his eyes stare a thousand yards into the nothingness beyond.

Alfin nodded as she quickly approaches the locomotive and turned the handle into maximum speed. The faster they got out of here, the better. Just as when the handle reached its maximum acceleration speed, an explosion went off nearby. Not too close to do damage, but close enough to startle them.

"Arnold... Something isn't right..." Alfin said as she recreates the Innocent Sin in her hand and prepares for whatever may appear.

Arnold takes out his MP18 and braced for whatever these fragments of memory may bring up against him. They may try to strike at the cracks in his mental fortitude but he won't fall no matter what because there are still those who are waiting for him beyond this nightmare.

Words of God: For this part, play The Meeting - Strike Force Heroes 2

Arnold turned around and saw something lunged at him. He can only notice the shadowy figure that is approaching him before his body would react accordingly. With a swift left hook, his punch decapitated it as he focuses on what he just killed.

The body was rotting and stained with an unholy mixture of blood and mud and everything in between. It was a soldier that he saw back in WW1 but why on earth is a dead body moved with such agility that it could lunge to a speeding train? And that was when Arnold realized what is going on.

He turned around and saw a massive horde of undead soldiers rushing towards the train like a mad horde of locust that would threaten devours anything in its way. The same could be said to the other side as he realized that they were surrounded.

"Alfin! Assist!" Arnold said as he fends off the horde of undead that was running towards them.

He realized something about them, their behaviors, and actions, it was similar to when they were rushing towards the enemy trenches in order to take their defensive lines. He knew that attacks like that often end in complete bloodbath and failure but this action still lingered into their psych even unto death itself. Not that it would change his mind about the fact that they are about to kill him if he lets his guard open like this.

Those undead soldiers lunged towards the train with such an ungodly reflex despite their supposedly stiffen bodies are another unbelievable thing stacked on top of an already huge list of them. But that doesn't matter to Arnold as his tasks to eliminate the invaders with all he has. Alfin quickly assists him by pelts them off with the Innocent Sin the moment they come any closer to the locomotive.

The very sight that is happening in front of them can only be described as the most twisted mental image that the mind could possibly process and conjure. Those hideously mutilated undead soldiers crawling onto their train is the sight of pure nightmare fuel as their unholy screeching and yelling only serves to make the chaos even worse. Some lost their arms, some lost half their torso, some even lost half of their faces and even their lower body. But one thing that is the same no matter what, they come to kill them and won't stop until their bodies were brutally crushed into gore and paste.

Among those undeads, they have combat uniform come from many nationalities like the British, French, German, so many that was mixed up in it but they were all stained with the mud that there is no way to tell which is which without specific details. It was as if that it alludes to the fact that behind each other's gunsight were still a human and the moment they killed each other, the mud that came from their conflict is the only ending they will ever receive.

"Damn it... Why do they have to come back now!?" Arnold said as he crushes them with his pickaxe as the undeads keep approaching him.

Some of them don't just come running to him, some crawl or lunged towards him so that they may catch him by surprise but his skill as a runner puts him up against the insurmountable odds no matter what as long as he held faith in himself and Alfin.

Alfin's Innocent Sin worked dependently on her shifty mood. Combat tension would bound to make her gun's more powerful as her extreme emotions accumulate but that is a double-edged sword, her gun's power would turn way too powerful at some point and she may accidentally destroy the train inadvertently because of it and thus she swapped out for less-powerful guns in case such events may occur.

But that still doesn't mean those weapons can't hold up against the horde. She recreated the MG-42, fresh out of her Soulburst Forge with an extremely long ammunition belt connected to it. She pulled the trigger while holding onto it one-handed and her armpits grip its stock tightly as one of those hordes are about to flood into the locomotive's control room. Like a saw blade that was revving, the gun ate through its ammo like hell break loose as her opposers are shredded to bloody chunks as she swathes through a vast amount of undead within mere seconds.

The MG-42... Nicknamed Hitler's Buzzsaw... Linoleum Reaper... Its ripping sound and capabilities to cut a grown person's torso like a chainsaw make it well-deserved such a name like that. If such a gun like that was present in WW1, there would bound to be more dead people and those who would remain in psychiatrist wards.

Arnold heard those ripping sounds in the air as he knew that there is bound to be leakage with such a large invading horde like that. He tried all his bests to kill everything that is caught within his range but there is only so much that the two of them could handle before things went off the rail for both of them.

Suddenly, he felt something within the air. He could feel something closely approaching him with such rapid speed that it shouldn't even be possible. It is different that your kind of sprinting and rather...

Something burst through from the darkness as it quickly approaches Arnold in a blink of an eye. Arnold's mind went overdrive as he quickly processes just what kind of monstrosity was he looking at.

It was obviously an undead soldier but something is completely different. Its body was twisted to the point that its torso faced upward and its head completely faced upside down. The limbs however are crawling towards him with such reflex that he would say that they have a mind of its own, completely disconnected from the head. He has a clear idea of whatever it is that is rushing towards him and thus started to act accordingly.

He evaded its sudden lunge towards him and he quickly fires his MP18 towards it as he tracked its position within the confined environment. But despite who tight the combat area is, it still somehow managed to avoid his precise aiming and quickly make a beeline towards him once more. Realizing its combat nature, he noticed that it reminded him of something, something that was familiar yet distant like a lifetime away.

Focusing on it and analyzing down even to a split of a second, he looked into its bodily movement as it slowly approaching him. Arnold also dived into the depth of his memory in order to find a reason why does he felt familiar with something that he just met in the first few seconds?

And then his eyes widened, two words...

Trench Raider

Same tactic, ambush from the dark at any unnoticing enemies. Quick... Ruthless... Will murder you on the spot for letting out even the tiniest weakness. He remembered that very experience itself back on that day. Now there is one question... How will he take down this thing?

Something unexpected...

A thought flashed through his mind, he took down the Trench Raider by doing something that the enemy didn't expect otherwise... Just what he could do to take it down in the same manner.

Time started to run out, he can only split that same second so many times before he would run out eventually. That monstrosity lunged at him as Arnold tried to reach out for something within his armory and-

*crack*

What followed was the sound of glass shattered as Arnold swung something right when it is at his arm's length. In Arnold's hand was... a bottle of wine. Something that it couldn't perceive as a weapon at initial detection... The sounds of broken glasses scatter on the floor as its content sprayed everywhere in the car. The hideous quadrupedal spiderlike monstrosity lying there and writhing on the floor in pain as Arnold approached it with each step contains far more power than how one could envision.

He looked down on it and-

Arnold stomped on it with all of his might as its entire body got crushed into nothing but blood and gore scattered throughout the place. A single curb stomp that is far more powerful than the sum force of an army in itself. Overkill is still an understating it...

"Damn it... Just what can they think up to stop me and Alfin to reach there..." Arnold said as he quickly moved back to the locomotive to assess the situation.

He quickly makes his way back but the horde's intensity tells him that things have gone progressively worse over time and the two of them alone won't hold up anything any longer. He knew that already but his heart held on that there might be a light beyond the darkness.

Suddenly, his body felt tense and he doesn't like it one bit at all. As if it started to react on its own and thank the heaven that it did because something is so apparently powerful that it punched through the steel car itself and forced its way through. Arnold managed to barely avoid it by a hairbreadth and he felt the air in his body almost left voluntarily on its own.

That humongous arm started to rip apart the wall and tossed it away into the wasteland. He stood there and watched in awe as that large figure's shadow looming over him. It roared as it throws its fist towards him in which he quickly evaded that blow in succession. Upon distancing himself away from it, he quickly retaliates by firing his T-Gewehr towards it.

Each shot pierced through its torso but it still relentlessly moves toward him as if none of his action is doing any real effect. A single swing of its massive arm tore open the whole roof open and revealed what it truly is... Arnold's eye widened but what he felt isn't fear but something that is akin to it but doesn't carry the same effect.

The giant figure before him was a horrendous amalgamation of those dead soldiers. Their face twisted beyond recognition as those rotten yet massive limbs are fully capable of tearing him apart if he makes any mistake around it. Even if none of those faces making any noise, Arnold felt he could hear their screams in pain and agony as this unholy fusion of corpses is killing them when their souls are fused together in the worst possible way.

The giant lashes out against him and Arnold suppressed those horrors away back into the furthest depth of his mind and focus on the task at hand. He has to find a way to exploit its limitation and weakness but just what exactly does he has that is capable of doing so? Time is running short and he has too little of it to make a proper countermeasure.

"Don't bother thinking, just act first and devise a plan after I managed to have first-hand testing against it..." Arnold thought as his body moves according to the enemy he is dealing with.

A single mistake and he will have a personal date with God himself. After a few rounds of clashing against it, he managed to make a simple behavior pattern from it.

"Okay... It seems that its only form of attack is to zero-in toward its target and hit as hard as it could. It will destroy anything in its path if it is in between its target and itself. If I could bait it to destroy something that would otherwise cause great harm to it and-" Arnold thinks about it before his line of thought got cut off by the giant's sudden attack.

It is a completely savage being that has no coherent thought of its own but to kill anything that it detected. There is no denying that it is powerful but strength without proper usage is just pure uncontrolled power. And thus its strength will be its own downfall.

Arnold with his sleight of hand quickly threw a pigeon into the sky and evaded its powerful swing in a swift movement that he managed to get behind it before it could detect him. However, whether it detected him by sight or motion or anything... It still somehow managed to realize where he was as it quickly turned around and rush towards him immediately without any additional second.

It is about to kill him. That's what it thought until...

Something collide with it and exploded. The result was a cloud of yellowish gas that started to fill that giant up from the inside and its external surrounding. It was mustard gas and Arnold has it personally deployed right into it. The movement of the train will definitely make sure that the gas won't be able to reach him.

The giant yelled in pain as its flesh pelt off from its own body due to the mustard gas. It tried to move towards him but with each step, its body started to fall apart. Arnold just looks at it when its body is breaking apart like a statue that was deteriorated to the point it collapsed on its own.

The giant that Arnold just fought, it was like the fifth wall from back then. It looks extremely tough and impossible to break through it with mere power alone. But the moment you corrode the foundation, the whole place will cascade and collapse on its own weight. The titan's body can't handle being melted with highly concentrated mustard gas and especially when its gigantic size is at play.

Arnold looked at it with his eyes. Those faces that were deformed so badly that they no longer can be recognized, just like those lives of 18 that were once crying and sobbing for their fragile lives in a cruel and bitter battlefield... and they forever disappeared into the mud with no more tears.

He looked at it as the trauma of his past flickered through his vision. An empty stares that held no emotions, he can't pick up any fragment of his emotions anymore as he has grown far too tired to ever do anything in a meaningful manner.

But...

He knew what he has to do...

He took out the sawn-off shotgun and changed the barrel for the Adamantium one, 'Oblivion'. He hasn't used it for a long time and this will be its perfect moment once more. With the 10 bore Adamantium buckshot shells loaded in and the underslung hookshot beneath the gun, with a gaze that carries nothing yet encompassing so many things... he pulled the secondary trigger.

The hook fired towards the rotting giant and impaled right into its heart. Arnold pulled it once more and the gun pulled him towards it with high speed. The moment he got close to it, he pulled the main trigger.

Pure unadulterated power was unleashed the torrent of pellets shreds through everything in his firing path with no mercy. What was once the body of that giant was disintegrated into nothing. Not even a chunk of gore, just gone... like never existed...

Arnold stares into the nothingness. Even the train cars that were connected to from behind are also gone. At least that there won't be any more undead taking advantage of the train's length.

He shook his head and realized what he has to do. Pushing back the darkness of his past, he makes his return to the locomotive posthaste before anything bad could happen.

With each step of his, carry the strength of one man... That man has nothing extraordinary on his own. He was a man that was tossed into something that was far more than how he could control.

*splat*

The sounds of blood splatters beneath his feet... The weight of his own condemnation forever lingers even when he moved beyond it... The only weapon he truly has... is his conviction...

*crunch*

Corpses scattered everywhere. Many of them were disfigured and butchered beyond belief, to call them corpses are still a massive stretch as the more correct terms would be ground meat. It was a complete bloodbath, a carnage of a scale beyond belief...

*gunshot*

Sounds of ceaseless barrages were heard and the further Arnold walked towards it, the clearer he can hear it. His walking through an ocean of blood is definitely not making it nice for his mental fortitude.

And eventually, he found her... Stood there tiredly while around her was butchered corpse. The machine gun in her hand has obviously seen use and he could probably feel its heat emanating even without being close.

"Alfin? Are you alright?" Arnold said as he started to feel worried about her.

"Arnold... Behind you..." Alfin said tiredly to him.

Like a flash of insight, Arnold's body acted far faster than how his mind processed and he ended up unknowingly swung his pickaxe and decapitated an undead soldier behind him. But what is exactly about it that Alfin acted that worrying and-

The body... there were dynamites attached to it... One wrong move with the gunfire and you detonate them. Can't trigger them with physical force but gunfire probably can and Alfin definitely didn't want to test that. And now he noticed... there are multiple detonation blasts around they were probably triggered by those dynamites undead soldiers.

"They probably were once field engineers, died in the line of duty while still having their equipment. It was quite haphazardous that dynamites don't exactly have an expiration date or affected by mud when they were sealed shut." Alfin said as she catches her breathes.

"Let me take this over for you... I can handle whatever they are about to throw at me. Just take any rest you can and keep the train going." Arnold said as he prepares his position and noticed that there are undead soldiers lunging towards this train.

Alfin returned to the control cab room and checks up on things to make sure they are still progressing. Despite being in a delirious state, she managed to make a perfect maintenance session and thus ensured their journey. At least until something busted the whole thing up...

And then she looked ahead and saw a massive body of water ahead of her. It was as if they are just literally about to drive off a cliff and into the depths below. Upon that realization, she went into a panic and quickly tried to find a way to turn it around but it is too late and they will still run towards it no matter what.

"Arnold! We are about to run off into a dead-end! What do we do!?" Alfin said to him as she ran off the control room.

And while she was holding up in there, Arnold just fends off another horde of undead again and he doesn't seem to be particularly having a nice time at all. But her words alone managed to rejuvenate him back to normal although he didn't hear what she said exactly.

"Alfin? What's wrong?" Arnold said as he takes a deep breath.

"Don't tell me that you literally gloss over all of my words..." Alfin said as she sighed in disbelief.

"Uhm... What?" Arnold confusedly said.

"We are about to run off a cliff..." Alfin said with a deadpan expression as if she resigned completely because of Arnold's unawareness.

And they are getting closer to it and the train isn't stopping at all. The undead from behind still pursues them relentlessly as if they have no concept of fear. Hold on... they are already dead... There is nothing left in them in order to restrain their instinct.

"Can you turn this train around? I mean, there has to be something!" Arnold said as he tried to focus on the undead horde from behind.

"At this velocity? No, I'm afraid that we are too late at that department already..." Alfin said with a serious look on her face.

Things are turning dire and Arnold doesn't like it one bit at all. As he desperately searches for the solution. Slicing a single second into as many as he could, he tried to stretch that very instant into eternity in his mind. Digging through every bit of memories he has, whether it was by dumb luck or just pure brilliance, a solution flashed in his mind.

"Alfin? Can you make the train go even faster?" Arnold asked her as he looked at Alfin.

Alfin stood there thinking for a moment before realizing what he is alluding to.

"I see... So that is what you are trying to get..." Alfin said before she quickly returns to the control room.

Upon her return there, she saw how much closer they are to the border of death. Pushing herself back to a state of clarity, she slammed the control system so hard that her palms dented into it. And just like that, her eyes turned to the color of a burning fire as she skillfully pulling the levers and things accordingly as if the whole train was an extension of her soul.

The train started to pick up more speed as it quickly making anything behind eating dust. The sudden burst of speed shook the whole train to its core as Arnold felt it to the point he almost lost balance. The undead horde from behind didn't handle it any better as they fall over each other into the ground and the speed started to make them drag behind and fall off the train. Any undead attempted to lunge into the train ended up turning into bloody splatters upon the collision that they landed upon the train.

The locomotive ignited into flame behind it as it ran off the cliff and jump into the muddy death below. That's what was supposed to happen but it never came...

"Huh?" Arnold said to himself as he tried to stabilize himself while trying to be accustomed to the extreme high speed that the train is moving.

The train itself is moving so fast that it ran atop the surface of this mud sinkhole itself. He could even see those undead soldiers from back at that cliff running off into the muddy sinkhole below them without a care. Arnold lets out a relieving sigh that there won't be any pursuer any longer.

"Arnold? Why are there tanks floating here?" Alfin said as she tried to ask him about the current situation.

As if she just hits him at a weak spot, Arnold quickly turned around and saw sunken tanks littered across the mud surface of this massive sinkhole.

"Shit! Avoid them! Steer the train away from them!" Arnold quickly said as he realizing what it might mean to them.

Alfin upon receiving his words quickly tried to steer away from the obstacles that were riddled in their path. She turned some levers and do something that just seems to be too complex for Arnold's understanding but it did something at the least.

The train steered away from the sunken tank that was on their path at that last moment and they narrowly avoided a fatal collision. They together let out a sigh in relief but the moment they did so, they detected the area ahead of them was littered with so many of them that even a sea of minefields is far easier to traverse than this atrocity of a sight that they found themselves in.

Upon realizing what is being shown in front of them, Alfin tried her best to steer the train out of the obstacles' way. But the speed that the train is moving caused the amount of time they have to do so is extremely scarce. And if they don't move fast enough, the train will sink to the depth below. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, the couple has very little choice of what they can do and the jaw of defeat is getting closer and closer with each second spent doing idly without a clear solution.

Suddenly, the train shook violently. They don't know if they just collided with something or the problem is in the train itself. Nobody here could spare any hand to check the cause since they are moving at a speed that might surpass even the Voyager somewhere in space.

At the speed they are moving, they are bound to make mistake eventually. The train easily obliterates any tank wreckage that was standing afloat on the mud surface but that is without causing heavy damage to the locomotive itself. Even the blazing aura of steelwork can't shield the damage completely as what would soon become of the locomotive became nothing more than a piece of scrap if it keeps going on at a pace like this.

Arnold held onto the train as tightly as he could while the train is tubulating like a snake swimming through a river. His mind screams like there is no tomorrow yet his mouth doesn't budge. Alfin started to go into a fever as her mind is heating up due to the ungodly processing speed that it is forced to endure. Her power is forcing the mechanism of the locomotive to react far faster and flexible than how it is supposed to be.

And eventually, they collided into another tank wreckage and it inflicted a huge amount of damage to the locomotive and may render it completely broken. As their moving speed started to slow down, both Arnold and Alfin were dazed from the collision and they walked as if their sense of balance was thrown away. Eventually, they fell to the cold hard surface of the train as they have grown sick and tired of this very place,

Alfin cleared her mind first and noticed that the mud's surface tension won't hold them up any longer if she doesn't resolve this situation right now and thus she quickly reaches back for the control panel and noticed that the locomotive has received some serious damage that she just can't repair on the fly. Even if the train could move, it would most likely just move on a straight line and hit something eventually, again.

Things appeared hopeless and without solutions. It appeared that it was an inevitability that they would be sunken to the depth of this mud. Suffocating for the rest of their eternities and left forgotten in there. Alfin tried to push the train forward but with so many missing parts, all of her actions would often render moot and pointless.

Alfin started to panic as the train started to get slower. The moment it gets slow enough, that would be game over for them. After all of what they did and the damn hardest that they tried, this is how they meet their end... How laughable...

After switching so many levers yet none of the combinations managed to make any change. Alfin started to feel that it would probably better for her to resign that there's nothing left for her to do but to accept that. But to do so after making it this far, she feels that it would mean to betray all of her efforts and the hardship she went through to achieve this in the first place. She stood in front of this dilemma as each precious second started to drip away from her hand.

Arnold opened his eyes as he still lies on the ground tiredly, he saw Alfin's figure stood there in front of the control panel. He knew that there is too little thing for him to be done here and he couldn't even muster enough strength to pull himself up at all. Suddenly, Alfin looked back at him and he quickly takes advantage of it in order to give her his motivation.

"Alfin... Believe... in... yourself..." Arnold said tiredly before his strength is completely sapped.

The moment he lets out those words, his eyelids closed immediately and he just lies there completely unconscious.

Alfin meanwhile trying to process what Arnold just said. To say that she understood it completely is a stretch but she gets what he is trying to get at. She just has to... there is no other choice.

Alfin proceeds to turn back to her control panel and watches at those broken levers that no longer served any purposes. It was a dead-end and yet... she chose to persevere...

Belief...

She started to believe in herself and-

She pulled one of the levers and the train suddenly turned back to 'life' in a completely miraculous way. And at that moment, she opened her eyes wide as they shine with bright azure.

Enigma Codex

Words of God: For this part, play Initial D - The Top

And at that moment, she turned the other levers which were completely broken as they were suddenly mended back to normal as if the collision never happened. With the train reaccelerating back to its top speed. Arnold was given a rude awakening as he noticed the sudden spike in velocity and thus grabbed to the railings in his attempt to held onto his dear life.

The train quickly moves atop the mud surface as she threading it through the littered land of wreckages with such swift momentum that it was like a needle through textiles. She turned the levers with a completely clear idea in mind that Arnold probably couldn't comprehend it at all. Not that he would bother to look because he is busier trying to hold himself away from being dragged to his death.

The locomotive started to reforge itself as an azure aura enveloped around it. With how littered the wreckages spread around the area, evading started to become a much more impossible task the further they moved in this atrocious place. It would eventually bound to the fact that collision will become an inevitability. But her newfound and awakened power, modifying this train to her liking is definitely not out of her capability.

Alfin smirked as her power surged through the train to the point it could shake everything around it. A massive front bumper forged and clad the whole front of the train with a layer of thick steel. And just like that, the situation also reached the breaking point when everything in front of them is just tank wreckages and no room to evade. Alfin pushed the throttle lever as she accelerates the train even further as she intends to plow through the field of rusted steel in front of her.

The initial impact came like the meteor that wiped the dinosaur, the mere tremor alone could throw everything apart and yet Alfin stood there as if it felt like nothing to her. Arnold meanwhile is shaking like a jackhammer while holding onto the rail as if the world around him is falling apart. Couldn't blame him because even this is probably too much for even Servants.

"Somebody save me!" Arnold screams for help in fear but no one responded.

The loud and sickening sounds of steel being crushed and pulverized are absolutely gritting as she doesn't let off any speed at all despite they are plowing through a literal junkyard. Steel scraps are tossed into the sky above from the sheer force that the train is plowing through them. The mere amount of those abandoned tanks could just make sure that they would just walk on them but Alfin's insistently decided to force her way through like a hammer that destroys anything that was in its way.

After so much amount of time spent plowing her way through the junkyard, they finally saw land beyond the endless sea of steel that stood between their way. And as her way to plow through the last stretch, she clenched her fist and grabbed the throttle lever. With a decisive moment, she pushed it down to the limit and watches as the train runs toward the land with a speed that would most likely end in a fatal collision, even if they pulled through it.

But Alfin has another idea in mind, she took a step back and-

She stomped on the furthest back of the locomotive so hard that she managed to vertically pull the train upward. Just at that moment when the train's wheel landed on the steep ground and it slowly pull the rest of the train up from the mud sinkhole. In just a mere moment later, they have passed what might have been their greatest hurdle yet...

After she confirmed that they have indeed made it through, she turns off her power as her eyes returned to its normal state and the locomotive itself return to normal except for the permanent modification that she did on it. She lets out a sigh of relief that she knew things have finally got under their control and turned her back to check up on Arnold's condition.

"Hey, Arnold..." Alfin said before she saw what has happened to him.

Arnold was curling up on the floor, looking completely devastated and shaken while mumbling something inaudible in his mouth. It is easy when you are in control of something and not so much for someone who was just happened to be caught up in it.

"Um... Are you alright?" Alfin asked as she approaches him.

"No..." Arnold said as he pupils dilate as if the whole WW1 unfolded in front of his eyes.

Alfin sighed then apologized for what she put him through so that they could make it out of this hell hole. She lends him a hand and Arnold accepted her help and pulled himself up. They affirmed that there is no more enemy after a thorough check of the surrounding.

"Guess that I can finally take a well-deserved break..." Alfin said as the tiredness started to become more visible suddenly.

And... she crashed and just collapsed into the cold-hard floor and slept soundly like a log. It probably takes a lot out of her and she finally let things go after that.

Arnold then picked her up and placed her somewhere safer since most of the cars behind them were demolished due to the previous events and thus the only place he could really place her is the control room itself. After he put her there, he stepped out of the place and hope that there may no longer be anything that might stop them dead in their track.

The thing is... There aren't too many places to place your hope in when everything around you is completely razed to oblivion.

A cold chill quickly spreads across the atmosphere. It was so sudden that Arnold felt like his spine was snapped in two before he even realized. He turned around but saw nothing at all. Other than Alfin and him, there is no one, right? That's what he thought until the entire world around him turned upside down in a completely supernatural way.

His vision distorted and his head throbs horribly as he holds his head in pain. His mind being forced to process through an ungodly amount of information to the point that it would melt his mind from sheer entropy alone. Intrusive memories of his past continuously play out until he decided to have enough of this agonizing pain and punched himself as hard as he could. The result was him rolling on the ground while holding his face in pain although he managed to snapped out of that horrible distortion.

He stood up and wonder what on earth caused such a thing and then he realized... It wasn't over yet.

He saw two figures... standing a little distance away from him, shrouded completely in a dark miasma that is impossible to discern its properties. There were distortions around them as if they aren't supposed to exist and yet... why... why do they felt so familiar?

Noticed the dreading aura surrounding them, he realized that he can't afford to have them getting any closer. He quickly rushes toward them with his fist prepared to land squarely on their faces. That's what he intended to but perhaps he should realize that dumb tactics like that won't work, especially when something is completely mystical in nature.

His thrown fist completely phased through the figures as he then stumbled face-first into the ground. And then he suddenly felt something just wrapped completely around his ankle and then...

He was suddenly pulled towards them and he felt something is lacerating his ankle apart. That's when he noticed that the ankle of his left foot was completely wrapped by barbed wires and he was then suddenly swung around and smacked into the ground repeatedly while his left ankle blisters from the laceration.

Arnold quickly draws out his unmodified Luger and shot the barbed wire. The bullet connected and he managed to get himself out of it. Although his left foot got hurt badly, he knew that he still has to do something about this or else.

He continuously fired his Luger at the shadowy figures in front of him. But for some reason, none of them connects at all. Arnold tried to aim properly but he soon realized why it is doing nothing at all. It wasn't because of them, it was him! His body was instinctively avoiding shooting at them as his hand jerked away from their direction.

"Damn it!" Arnold said as he tried to force his aiming towards them.

And even when he forced his own hand, the bullet still passes through them as if he was shooting at nothing. Cursing at whatever twisted beings that making a fool out of him, he quickly uses anything that may be able to harm them. Shotgun, submachine gun, anti-tank, anything... but none of them seems to even do anything at all. Those shadowy figures are as unfazed as before.

Those things then quickly approach him as his hands are as good as tied in this predicament. Those dreading figures or wraiths if that is the correct term for them are zeroing in on him and the dreading aura around them started to mess with his own sense more and more. Realized none of his physical armaments could probably measure up against these enemies, he decided to clear his mind up despite the distortion that is hell-bent on twisting it even further.

Focusing on any stability that his sanity still holding on, he took a deep breath and clearing any doubt and uncertainty that he is repressed to the deepest part of his mind. Like a torch that illuminates the darkest night, his vision of surroundings cleansed away in a blink of an eye as the reality around him incinerated into pure white nothingness.

Time stopped and the 2 wraiths in front of him ceased moving, he breathes heavily as he tried to take in as much air as he could to calm himself down so that he could formulate a proper plan. He has no one in this era that could assist him, he is truly alone in this place and the only man that would help him... is himself.

But Arnold decided that he must not let him down even if he is alone. He stood up despite his own pain while the suffering and trauma of the past are pushing him back like a white-headed tide. They wanted him snuffed away but he chooses to persevere no matter what. His own tired and numb leg that walked thousands of steps moved with tenacity. His own face carries an unfazed expression of a determined soldier. Even if what is separating him and tomorrow is an everlasting hell, he will trek through it if it means this nightmare will end.

He started to run towards the wraiths with his fist prepared to attack. The nothingness shattered and the reality settled back as the hands of time continue as if nothing happened. The conflict between the two wraiths and Arnold continued but something changed...

Behind Arnold's fist... is a trail of feathers that are being left behind. Those feathers have some certain aura or warmth that nobody could tell what it is exactly but it felt... angelic. The feathers shattered in to dust the moment it contacted into the ground but even before they did so, Arnold has already attacked.

The moment those two wraiths are in range, he quickly swings his fist into an arc that is bound to hit both of them. And as if it was enchanted, the fist successfully collide with the two wraiths and knocked them back by a huge margin.

When Arnold realized what happened, he looked down back at his hand and noticed a faint glow in it. Like a sudden revelation, he realized what it means. When he looked up again, he saw those two wraiths didn't exactly take that kindly.

Those two wraiths zero in on him once more but Arnold isn't defenseless like last time, he now has the mean to fight back. He quickly returns to his stance and continues his fight against the two wraiths in front of him. Each punch carries a power that is not mere physical power alone, it is his will conveyed through the fist as his determination burns brightly in his eyes as his face still as unmoving as before. Strengths that wasn't born from intense emotions... but tranquility even in harshest of condition.

With each impact of his punches and the wraiths attempt to ensnare him even in the subtlest way such as tripwire mines and unexploded ordinances that formed seamlessly into the battlefield without detection. But Arnold's ability as a runner allowed him to detect them and act accordingly without setting off any.

But the longer he goes into combat, he noticed something. The feelings that he felt during his fight against those two specific wraiths, distant yet familiar. Like a book that was shrouded with a wet rag. If Arnold could put any of those into words, what he would say is... resentment...

He has a feeling that those wraiths weren't originally this tainted at all. But rather... the war twisted them into these very shadowy presenting figures. The resentment, hatred, grudge, anything... They have turned whatever is there into something completely hideous but how would he exorcise them back into normal? That he would most likely never know and the only way he could clear them off is to purge them into oblivion.

The resonance of his attacks could be felt even from distance and just when he thought he finally cornered them, one of them quickly get behind him and rushed towards the control room with a sudden burst of speed that he didn't expect. Feeling the contingency of the situation, he quickly turned around and sprints toward the escaping wraith to prevent it from potentially harming Alfin who is in there leaning against the wall completely unconscious,

Just when it is about to get nearer to the entrance, he quickly lunged towards it with his fist prepared to smash it into the ground. He doesn't care what would happen anymore, he wanted that wraith destroyed no matter what. His fist lighted up with a white glow as a trail of feathers followed behind it.

But what he didn't realize was... It stopped at the entrance while he still continues to fly past it. Without realizing what is in front of him, his mind acted before his vision registered. With one single move alone, he smashed the entire control interface of the locomotive. The sickening and loud sound of metal being crush was heard by everyone and Alfin woke up suddenly upon it.

"Wha-" Alfin said nervously as her mind is processing what just occurred.

Arnold's mind was driven only to a singular objective. Kill the wraiths, no matter what may occur in between or the mean was used. And because of that, he saw nothing but him and his target. It wasn't any rage or berserk, but he was too focused to care about any collateral damage that may occur.

Alfin quickly approached the ruined control system and saw the massive dent on it. Alfin tried to check on the damage but when she interacted with them, they just immediately come off. The damage that was inflicted on it basically makes it near unfixable.

"Oh no..." Alfin mumbled as she realized what this means.

Enigma Codex... A Noble Phantasm sublimates from her True Name Noble Phantasm. The ability to actively modify anything she is using or created by her. If it was still active, she could fix it in a blink of an eye. But there is one thing, the Noble Phantasm has an astronomical cost of mana behind to activate and there are two things that reduced its cost and boost its effectiveness. Self-belief and tension... She could believe in herself as much as she could but nothing push it harder than the sense of impending doom.

And considering that she just drained herself and only have a 30-minute rest, the chance she could do this again at any near time is obviously out of the question.

Alfin turned around to the back and saw the ongoing battle between Arnold and the two wraiths. She was confused at what was going on but she knew that she has to do something before the situation would escalate out of hand. She turned around and saw a destroyed tank right in her path. Without any control to steer the train, all she could do is swallow her own breath and brace for the impact.

The collision then followed as the tank was pulverized into pieces upon impact. The locomotive held up thanks to Alfin's previous reinforcement but the glass window of the control cab wasn't that lucky as it shattered into fragments before they scattered among the wind.

The glass fragments flew from the cab towards the battle between Arnold and the wraiths. Within that split second, Arnold looked at the glass fragments that were flying past him and saw the reflection on their surfaces.

"What?" Arnold thought as he noticed the difference between this battle and the reflection that the glass fragments gave him.

The reflection of those two wraiths were... his old friends... Hans and Fritz who was killed in action in the final memory fragments if he remembered it correctly. Seeing them again gives Arnold conflicted feelings as his mind tried to process the paradox right in front of him.

He was fighting the twisted version of his old friends. It was such a cruel joke that Arnold could harshly believe it. He wanted to save and free them from this curse but how? There has to be a way yet it is like looking for a specific needle in the depth of a lake.

His heart felt heavy as his attacks started to become less professional. No longer able to put his mind into tranquility, his vision completely cleared as his mind returned to normal. It would be one thing if those two wraiths were some random mook that appeared out of nowhere but this is his comrade, brothers in arms that fought alongside him. And considering the fact that this is the memory of both of them but the bad side so horribly twisted beyond recognition means killing the two of them can potentially cause even more catastrophic results.

The rain started to get heavier and then... it was raining blood... Blood of those who died in WW1. The way he perceives this battle changed completely resulted from the revelation that he learned. Alfin senses that something is occurring when it happened and before she knew it, she muttered something.

As the rain of blood unveils my crimson cloak...

Alfin isn't him and yet because of their background, they are fundamentally one and the same and his ordeal is also her. Because of that, she felt extremely obligated to assist him in every form of manner she could. Even to the point that both of them can synchronize with one another.

Memories started to flash in her mind but the most recurring one were those that belong to the last fragment of WW1. The deplorable conditions of trench warfare and countless deaths make her body revolted in disgust despite she herself has plenty of skeletons in her own closet. And as she turned around, she noticed that the train is about to collide with a mountain right in front of them. With no control left over the locomotive, all she did is take a deep breath and curl up on the ground.

A massive tremor was felt as the result of the head-on collision between the train and the mountain. But instead of stopping there, the train continued to dig into the mountain with tremendous force behind without stopping. Alfin opened her eyes as everything is shaking so badly as if the world around her is falling apart.

She could sense something happening back at the train car behind and thus she materialized a flare gun and fired towards the back of the train car and revealed that the battle between Arnold and the wraiths is still going on and but it appears that the wraiths gained an upper hand due to the collision from before as Arnold seems to be attacking blindly without a clear direction until now.

One of those wraiths then grabbed Arnold by the head and then pushed his face directly into the surface of the wall. And the train then does the rest of the job by plowing across the tunnel's surface with Arnold's face. If it was just mud and dirt alone, that would be a different story. But what composed of this mountain wasn't just mud. It was everything that was used in trench warfare.

Feeling his face being plowed across the tunnel like a pickaxe, the only sensation he felt was pain and agony as his own face collided with many objects buried beneath this mountain of trash. Dead bodies, broken weapons, broken tanks, unexploded ordinances, sharp and dangerous stuff that isn't supposed to be handled in such a haphazardous manner.

'Crucified as if on a cross'...

Arnold was completely restrained as he desperately tried to break through the death grip that the wraith applied to him. His fist clenched so hard that one could probably feel the sound of his bone crack.

He yelled and then he quickly punches the surface so hard that its shockwave knocked both of them back and Arnold took advantage of it quickly as he got back on his feet. But this also resulted in one thing, the tunnel also started to collapse due to the punch Arnold delivered. From that moment onward, the tunnel collapses as fast as it was created.

Alfin noticed what was going on and thus she quickly reach out to the broken control system. She can't steer the train, deaccelerate it, or anything. Her control over it is basically non-existent and she has to devise another plan if she intended to take all of them out of this muddy grave that they dug themselves in.

Alfin then clenches her fist and punched through the already broken interface as hard as she could to the point that her arm was already elbow-deep into it. She then started to channel her power directly into the inner-mechanism of the locomotive. By amplifying the power of the locomotive, its speed will increase tremendously to the point that they will most likely move faster than the speed of collapse.

But that's the only thing she could do, accelerate... The moment they escape this mountain, this train will move at only this speed without slowing down... At least until the next collision with something.

The conflict that is going on behind Alfin's back can even be felt by her despite she has no participation in it. That is to tell just how much power a Servant holds and such strength will bring extreme collateral damage along with it. The shockwave of each Arnold's blow could sunder the whole place in a mere instant and yet it was a complete miracle that they managed to held out this long during their escape.

Tension keeps rising in each second, the only thing Alfin could do is just keep powering the locomotive up so that they won't be buried beneath this place. Her eyes fixated only on the hole that she punched through as mana surged towards the inside. Before she even noticed it, she felt something shine upon her and eventually overwhelmed by it. When her eyes are finally adjusted to the overwhelming light, she realized that she managed to escape as the mountain behind her collapse completely.

"Arnold!" Alfin said as she started to become more concerned about his condition and how this fruitless fight just keeps dragging on without result.

She was right. Arnold looks like he has gone through hell and back. His breathing shows that he is becoming more tired with each second passed. Without a clear solution to this battle and the objective isn't to kill things in front of you, it all becomes clear that unless decisive action was taken. It will all end in futility for both of them.

Those two wraiths in front of him don't exactly come out unscathed either. They look like they are going to completely disintegrate at any moment notice. Both of them and Arnold just stood there with their eyes locked at each other as the rain of blood still wash over them. Alfin can only look at them as she herself doesn't know how to resolve this situation any better.

Suddenly, a chill went up to her spine. She turned around and saw another massive mud sinkhole in her way. Unlike the last time when she still has control of it, this will force her to think up another way to get across without relying directly on the train.

Alfin then quickly gets out of the control room then proceed to jump to the top of the locomotive. She focuses and channels her power as her eyes turn into the color of wildfire. She then leaps and latches onto multiple areas of the locomotive with the chains she created before landing at the frontmost area of the locomotive.

She stood there tall with half a dozen chains in each of her hands. With a far-off look in her eyes as the rain of blood falling ceaselessly. With the train moving closer and closer to the mud sinkhole, she focuses all of her power as she pulls the entire train upward with her own might alone across the sinkhole. Of course that it can't cross the whole thing, but the derelict tanks and objects that were stranding there are what she intended to use to get the train across.

As the train soars across the air, she has carefully calculated how much power she should put into each pull so that the locomotive would always land on the stranding objects. It isn't the best option but what else could she do when she is no longer within the capacity to do active modifications?

The train landed atop the wrecked tank that is stranding atop the mud, the sheer weight and impact of the train caused a massive splash of mud that splatters across the sinkhole. Taking advantage of the sliver of times she was given upon landing, she quickly pulled the train's locomotive upward with all her might as it leaps across toward the next one in her path.

With the train continuously soars across the air as if it was a plane, the battle that Arnold is fighting suddenly turned into something else entirely as he holds on tightly to anything tangible around. The wraiths also don't take kindly to this act as they tried to latch themselves onto the car platform itself. There was no chance for them to attack when a single mistake may end them in a muddy grave.

"Again!" Alfin yelled as she pulls the train up again as its momentum keep moving it towards each derelict objects within its path.

Each landing created a massive splash of mud that splatters everywhere. As the blood and rain mixed with each other into an unholy mixture that painted the whole train the further they move. It was surreal as if witnessing a soldier of 18 tainted with endless bloodstain and filth the further he survives further into this war. Perhaps... it was a fitting symbolism for Arnold's life... Too tainted to ever return back to normal.

Alfin's gasping for air as she continuously gathers her might in order to pull the train up for each jump of her. She looks like she could collapse at any second right now but she continues to persevere because she believes in Arnold with all her faith. She believed that Arnold will bring this horrendous nightmare to its end no matter how atrociously difficult it may be.

Slowly approaching her limit, Alfin decided that if such a moment like that won't come naturally then she will make it inevitable. By putting all her might into the next pull, power surged through her body as she tugged all of the chains in her hands vertically upward. So much power behind it that it ended up soaring across the huge gap between them without any signs of dropping off.

After she did so, she collapsed into the cold-hard bloodstained steel of the locomotive while all of the chains are still intertwined between her hands. The initial leap of this jump ended up shaking the whole train apart before the take-off and thus the stability of any passenger on it is completely compromised. Not even Arnold's grip on the railings or even the wraiths' latches on the car platform.

Without the grip to hold on to, the two wraiths quickly slips away towards the mud sinkhole below them. Arnold who is still holding on to the railings noticed that the two wraiths are going to slip away into eternal suffering beneath there. His mind was then suddenly pitted against a contradiction. They have actively harmed him and most likely won't stop doing so but they were his old friends, the comrades, brothers in arms that have fought alongside him until the bitter end. His mind can't clear up the mess that is whirling madly in his head as he doesn't even know which decision is correct.

The amounts of seconds left can't be count beyond a single hand, Arnold has to make a decision or he will regret it for the rest of this life. Seeing what he was pitted against, he clenched his fist and gritted his teeth in frustration as he lets the off railing before he dives towards them. Reaching for the imaginary weapon racks, he grabbed the pickaxe as it materializes in his hand before he plunged it into the car platform.

The locomotive doesn't fall off but the same can't be said to the car platform. By not even half a minute, it was already facing downward into the muddy mass burial beneath them. Arnold grabbed one of the wraiths with his other hand and the other with his own leg as he dangles between life and death with just his pickaxe alone. And by the looks of it, even the wraiths seem confused at his own decision.

Alfin slowly woke up and noticed that she was knocked out for a while. Upon realizing that they might fall into the sinkhole, she decided to forcefully correct the situation herself. She quickly materializes an artillery cannon within the control cab of the locomotive and telepathically fired the thing so that she will use its recoil to give them a push towards the other side.

And the artillery isn't just any ordinary one, its payload was significantly jacked up to the point that a single shell could propel them upward into the stratosphere. Alfin quickly repeats this process as many times as it required until they finally reach the land beyond this endless grave. Arnold meanwhile still holds on to the pickaxe tightly so that he won't fall into something that he managed to make across when he was alive.

And by some miracles, they managed to find the other side within their sight. With one final fire, Alfin overcharged the artillery cannon and fired it with a force that blew the entirety of the control cab room up. But the recoil managed to assure their reach to the other side. The train soon lands and created a massive tremor upon landing. With the car platform behind finally stabilized on even ground. It then keeps moving as if it wasn't anyone's business at all.

The landing ended up scattered all three of them everywhere on the car platform but none was tossed into the mud sinkhole below. Arnold particularly landed nearby the locomotive... or what remains of. He stood up and saw those two wraiths whose form seems to start to become more tangible than before. Now, they look somewhat humanoid but still completely shadowy and shrouded in darkness.

"WHyy WHYyY whhYY WwhHyYHy..." The wraiths seem to keep saying something on repeat while the sounds keep deteriorating more than before.

They stood up as the dreading aura emanates the air. The resentment, hatred, loathing,... They have taken physical form as they became more foreboding with each second passed.

His vision distorted. The two wraths seem to launch something towards him. They were shards of something and they were as dark as the abyss itself. When they got close enough, he instantly recognizes what he is feeling about them. They were a mix of undiscernible negative emotions of all kinds. Hatred, sorrow, agony, everything... they were condensed into these black crystals that are making his nerves shiver in their mere presence alone.

Spirit Phaze!

A faint white glow enveloped his arms as he quickly deflects and shatters all of the incoming shards that were thrown at him. Each swing of his fist deflects every blow that those wraiths may send toward him but he knew that there has to be a way for him to resolve this situation without killing them. He knew that there has to be a way for him to do this...

Alfin slowly moves toward him, it seems that she didn't particularly have a good time if her expression tells him something. It looks like she is going to collapse at any moment just now. The fact that she is willing to even move towards the burning wreckage that is his attempt to resolve this situation is commendable.

Arnold... Your over-selflessness... was your own downfall...

Alfin said before she collapsed once more with her heavy eyelids completely shut on itself.

Arnold thinks about what she said. Selflessness? How does he exactly do it to something that shuns him away as far as it could and even go so far as to eliminate him?

With each second he looks at the wraiths, he felt pitiful... They were boiled down to an instinctive level... like watching a feral animal that lashes out at anything it sees. The intense negative emotions he felt, they were nothing but more a facade to push him away... and he understood it.

The wraiths tried everything it could, even tearing its own essence apart and propel them towards him in the form of tentacles or spires if that's what he thinks they are called. But Arnold still easily deflects them away as if they were nothing. He keeps watching them with sorrowful eyes, seeing the trauma of his past tearing them like that.

It was then that a flash of his past appeared within his vision. The A7V tank... the final fragment of that battle where he sent his friends into that tank without knowing that it would sentence them into their death. All because... he believed that it takes them to safety without realizing the risk of doing so. And... he paid the price for it...

Selflessness... He thinks too little of himself at the time that he is willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of others without realizing what it would mean to them. To abandon himself so easily like that, he is bound to hurt the others through his death. It was his own selflessness that killed his own friends...

Arnold keeps thinking... what were his own friends thinking when he chose to stay behind so that they can escape? They must have felt really painful to leave such a person like that behind and they most likely keep thinking about that even until their final moment.

At that moment, Arnold's feeling swell up inside like a bubble that is about to burst. He decided that he will break this nightmare with his own will. It may sound completely illogical but there is nothing to make sense within madness anyway. Just like how Azerium Ward turned completely useless in this illusional reality.

Arnold dropped his guard and just calmly approaches them. The wraiths continuously fire those shards at him and yet.. he still moves toward them unflinchingly.

Those shards pierced into his own flesh with some straight-up tore through his own body. But Arnold still walks toward them with that same pacing as if it doesn't matter to him at all.

"How strange... It doesn't even hurt at all..." Arnold said beneath his own lips while still being hailed with the storm of those shards.

Facing against those storm of negative emotions, like a lone ember within a blizzard. Despite going up against all odds, he harbors none of them. There is no hatred, no grudge, no sorrow... only...

serenity...

Arnold closed his eyes as the intensity of the hails started to turn for the worse. He just moves toward them like how his heart told him to do so. Ignoring everything that may push him away from his objectives, he chose to carry on no matter what. Why he even push himself to do something like this? Only he understood. Perhaps... it was for atonement.

As if time jumped forward. He found himself hugging those two wraiths. The two figures that he is embracing tightly have stopped attacking altogether as if what he did is something so unfathomable that the illusion itself can't make a proper reaction to this decision at all.

Meanwhile... Arnold doesn't look like he is feeling fine at all. The peaceful expression on his face and injuries on his body can't possibly create a much bigger dissonance than how it already is. It was a complete far cry

There was only a serene smile and teary eyes on his face, he looks like he was at peace and completely satisfied. The overflowing emotions of his just keep pouring as he is trying to keep himself from crying.

His body... he was impaled with multiple of those dark spires through his torso. Those spires are stained with his blood as the body they skewered through is bleeding profusely into the pool beneath his own feet. And yet... he doesn't feel any pain.

"I... I'm so sorry... I shouldn't have abandoned myself just for you two..." Arnold said as his tears can't stop flowing.

Whether it was a miracle or something else entirely, his apology reached his two old friends. Through the ear-piercing and distorting noises that exist just by those two wraiths existing, Arnold heard something beneath all of those statics.

I...i... I'm... Sor...ry...

Wee...e... for...give... u...

At that moment, a drop of tears on his cheek fell into the pool of blood below. From that drop, everything around him started to purify on its own. The blood beneath him turned away into tears, the mud around him expelled itself away as the surge of power purges any taint around it. And the most important part... the two wraiths that he held onto. They were cleansed of all of those hatreds as it revealed who they truly are beneath that shadowy veil that was emplaced upon them.

"Hans... Fritz..." Arnold said as his tears uncontrollably flow from his eyes and the sadness within his voice made it clear what he is feeling.

They were dead long ago and thus it is just their spirit that Arnold was embracing. But that is more than enough for him... He wanted to tell all of the feelings that he bottled-up and everything that his heart has to say.

"It's alright now... You don't have to cry anymore... The most important part is that... you made it through..." Fritz said to Arnold with a smile.

"No... You don't understand! I don't fight just because I want to live for myself... It is so that I can claim a future for all of us! One that we can together strive for..." Arnold said as his mind is trying to string a proper reply from a mountain of confusion and unsorted thoughts.

"Don't you find it too late for that already? You have already died but you at least reached the realm of heroes while we were destined to fade into oblivion, you have already achieved far more than us already so why-" Hans said to him with an expression that he is hardly able to find a word fitting for it. It bares nothing but he could feel the warmth behind it.

"That isn't what I am trying to get at... What I mean is-" Arnold cut in Hans's speaking as he wanted to recorrect what he is getting at before Hans speak for Arnold himself.

"I know what you are getting at... Your guilt of sending us to our death, right?" Hans said as if he bears no ill will in what he said.

"Huh?" Arnold was bewildered that Hans knows what he wanted to say immediately.

"It is justifiable that you would obviously feel guilty for sending us to our death but never would I imagine it would wrack you to this level.". Hans said as he pats on Arnold's shoulder even if he wouldn't feel it.

"I... this is too miraculous that I can't possibly put any of them into words..." Arnold said as he could hardly voice his thought without the tears overflowing on his face impeding.

"Sigh... You know... even in our final moment there, we couldn't think of anything else but you... No matter what happens then, your image etched deeply into our subconscious. To think so lowly of yourselves like that, it is pitiful. I came into the battlefield thinking that I would die a lowly dead and forever gone into oblivion... Yet I came here to just give you support like this." Fritz said as he shyly looking away.

"Arnold... Tell us everything, let loose those emotions so that you can move on without any regret... so that you won't be chained by your own sorrow." Hans said as he tried to be as supportive as he could.

"Hans... I have been dead long ago... Ever since the end of the battle of Passchendaele... The body lived on the but the soul withered. I have never returned from there at all, just the husk of what I remained. Perhaps that explains why I continuously changed for the worse. People once said that I should fear hell but when I committed so much atrocities that I started to wonder if Lucifer would even personally invite me to be his pal or not. Or even her considering how weird mythology could possibly be twisted." Arnold said as he strings up a perfect paragraph without checking.

Hans and Fritz still stand there, hearing what Arnold has to say. They are still supportive of him, even if they know what turned out of him in the end.

"When I see my own childhood dog died by my father's own hand, it was a brutal realization of life, a complete slaughter of any innocence left. One that was so powerful that it is preserved in memory and still lingers on. It was my own first-hand experience with mortality and one that has the most impact on my life at the tender age of adolescence. But this was different, that one was at the hands of others, this... was my entire fault. I sentenced all of you to your death because I believed in only one solution. And my over-selflessness led all of this to happen..." Arnold said as if he is reliving his worst nightmare.

Both Hans and Fritz look at him while still remaining silent, they have fought together for so long and yet this was the first time they ever heard his backstory from him directly. The howling of wind soars across the empty land as the only audible sound was the crackling flame of the control cab and the sound of his tears drop into the clear water that was once his blood beneath his own feet.

"One decision and it claimed all of our lives, those who never to walk in this world again and one forever condemned to stay. I never left that day and never be able to. The echoes of my past haunt me as I remain in this delusional realm..." Arnold said as he tried to muster his strength to continue.

"Arnold... Don't you ever realize that you are getting too hard on yourself right now? Nobody is perfect and we all struggles in the attempt of doing the things that we believe are correct. Life isn't that simple either for it is an endless pursuit of what we held our belief in. And just like you... we all have done decisions that we would all regret later.". Fritz said with a surprisingly motivating tone.

"And if you can't even forgive yourself, who would? Arnold... Being selfless is okay... but everything must have its boundary before they would negatively affect the other. What you are doing isn't selfless, they were suicidal... And what you may consider normal may be considered as completely psychopathic to others.". Hans said as if he didn't particularly want to re-experience it.

"Please... If you don't want to live because of yourselves. Live... for our sakes... Even if the world may turn its back on you, please remember... that we will still watch over you no matter what..." Both of them say with sincerity.

Arnold noticed that they started to disappear away, time is running out for him as this train will most likely reach its final destination soon. Not wanting to let his friends go, he embraced them tightly as if he wanted to hold them from fading away, much like how Alfin attempted to do so.

"NO! Please don't leave me here!" Arnold tried to hold them tightly but he in his heart already knew the outcome already. He just doesn't want to believe that he will be left alone, again.

"Arnold... I'm afraid that we can't move along with you into the later chapter of your life anymore. But even if we can't accompany you, just remember that... You are not alone..." Fritz said as he tried to comfort his old friend.

"Even if you lost everything to put your faith in, the last thing you could do... is to believe in yourselves. You didn't need to save the world or change it to be loved or recognized by anyone. Just a simple gesture of affection has already made an impact greater than how you could expect... All you really need to do.. is to live the best you can with very little fleeting time you have left." Hans said with an affectionate smile.

The tears on Arnold's face have stopped rolling and the storm that keeps whirling within Arnold's heart ceased along with it. He felt... serene... And one that truly came from bliss and not mental delusion... That moment did he understood what they mean after all. He can't keep lingering on the past any longer since he is no longer able to change anything within it. It was all a foregone conclusion but it takes him this long just to finally came to accept wholeheartedly without regret.

Arnold let them all go as they now stood with their eyes on each other. No words are spoken yet they understand each other. Their gazes alone convey more words than how any line could be spoken between them.

They started to fade away even more as their time to stay together is running short. Both Arnold and Alfin will eventually reach their next part of this nightmarish journey and only they will be able to proceed, anything else will cease to do so.

"Let us make our last promise with each other, alright? And you would better not break it in a whim after our departure..." Hans said to Arnold as he gives his hand to Arnold.

Fritz also does the same and Arnold understood what he has to do. The moment their hands are together, they held tightly for one moment before raising them up together.

One for all!... All for one!

They shouted and the moment those words came out of their mouths. Hans and Fritz have completely dissipated away into the wind. By that moment, Arnold felt he grabbed something in his hand. He opens it and saw those white and pristine dust scatter away into the wind and soon... there was nothing but the emptiness after their departure.

"So long... my friends..." Arnold said as he placed his own hand on his chest while feeling completely different than how he expected at the end. He looked into the distance as those dust dissipate away and forever gone into nothingness.

After that, he approaches the burning wreckage of what was once the control cab. He sighed... knowing that it was his fault that they got into this mess, to begin with. Just right after that, Alfin woke up albeit very tired and still delirious.

"Ugh... What happened... Oh..." Alfin said as she finally got a grip on the situation.

There is nothing here but the clearing of wind. Arnold stood there with a face that tells many words. There seems to be sadness in there but most of it was actually the sense of relief.

"Guess you finally resolved your past huh? Too bad that I didn't get to see the final resolution..." Alfin said as she stood there.

"Too bad... but we can assume all the hurdle in this twisted memory is overcome and thus what will come after this is..." Arnold said before he noticed something in the distance behind her.

It was hazy but he could easily identify it through the colossal size of them. They were buildings but why? Why is there something like that here?

Alfin takes a closer look at them then suddenly shuddered when she realized what it is.

"Alfin? You look kinda pale... Did you learn something shocking?" Arnold asked as he leaped to the top of the locomotive to check up on her.

When he got near her, he looked at the hazy figures in front of him and realized why she is not responding. They became clearer as the train rushing towards it at breakneck speed without stopping. At that point, even his body stiffened.

It was Berlin... And signs of conflict are apparent like a slap on the face. Columns of smoke rise to the air as the siren still blaring continuous and audible even from this distance.

Their minds didn't try to respond to the situation until they realized that the train is going to collide with the building. By that point, it is too late to intervene.

"Alfin! Can you try to stop this train!?" Arnold asked as he started to panic.

"All of the control systems got destroyed in our last conflict. There is no stopping this train anymore. All we could... is to brace for it..." Alfin said as she jumped back to the car platform.

Arnold noticed the collision is just about a few seconds away and thus he quickly followed her out of fear that he may get caught in it. He leaped back to the platform just right in time as the train collided with the first building.

And it didn't stop there... It continues to plow its way through every building on its way. Broken bricks fragmentated like a grenade exploding, the sounds of roaring steel struck terror in anything that might still exist. Concrete dust flies everywhere as the train continuously destroy anything within its path.

"Alfin!" Arnold screamed as he holds onto the railing of the train although it looks like it could give out at any second.

Alfin grunted as the train shakes so much that it felt like she is sitting on an empty field while being bombarded constantly with artillery while barely avoiding harm at a hairbreadth. She wanted to scream but the chaos was louder.

Buildings collapsed upon the unstoppable might of the train, those buildings were already devastated by warfare and now its last leg is smashed entirely by the train's rampage. If there is a soldier on the front seeing this, he would have assumed that the world that he knew is no longer making sense.

With each collision, the locomotive becomes battered. Without Alfin's reinforcement, even the bumper that was put on there would be broken soon enough and when it did so, the entire locomotive would be obliterated easily.

Soon... The train finally came to a halt as what was once called the locomotive is nothing more but a heap of scraps. Both Arnold and Alfin is shaken by this to the point their legs wobble after just that collision crash course. Not that they could blame anyone at all though since they all have faults in this. They made their bed and they have to sleep in it.

"Thank the heaven that it finally stopped... The shaking... it was unbearable..." Alfin said as she tried to stabilize her standing so that she won't just collapse in the instant.

Arnold felt like his inside is gurgling horribly from all of the shakings that it might be best to say that they have turned into some unholy mixture of his gut's acid whatever came back through from his intestine.

And one thing they felt together is that their heads are aching like mad as if their brains turned into mush after that turbulence ride.

Arnold looked at the train that was used to bring them here. He can't help but feel some sentimental feelings toward it. Mostly because it has helped him getting to this place after all.

"You have done a good job... Farewell..." Arnold said as he gives his goodbye to the train before follows Alfin.

They walked together for a while until they found themselves in a wide and open space. Everything around them was in ruin as the stillness of the area around them was unnerving. They looked in front of them and saw the familiar landmark that stood in this place. The place where everything started.

The Brandenburg Gate...

---

Servants Profile

The Messenger

Class: Archer

True Name: Adolf Hitler (Arnold)

Str: C+| Agi: B++ (A++)| End: B| Mana: D| Luck: E| NP: B++
-Wise up!-

Passive Skills:
-Independent Action C++: It is possible for a Servant to stay in the world for one day without a Master's connection. In Arnold's case, as long as he has a duty to carry out, he won't disappear until after his duty is fulfilled and after two days

-Magic Resistance E: Due to being a Modern Servant, he basically can't resist magical based attacks without fatally crippled if what hit him isn't a Master's attack.

-Riding B: Allow the user to operate most vehicles and animals can be handled with above average skill, even vehicles that did not exist in the time period one was alive in, for they are no exception. However, he cannot ride the likes of Phantasmal Species such as Monstrous Beasts.

Personal Skills:

-Valor C+: A valiant surviving soldier of what would be called one of the deadliest conflicts in human history should speak some volume of his bravery. Considering that he is a Servant which mean he is a famous soldier in modern times. Raises Strength slightly and grants minor resistance to mental interference if up against adversary.

-Ironsight Reflex A: Due to the nature of his job back when he was human, it is obvious that such an extremely dangerous job with a very high fatality rate beyond eve foot soldiers would demand excessive skills in both reflexes, marksmanship, and decision making. This skill also allows its user to evade extremely fast projectiles or blows repeatedly without putting great strains on his mind. It also allows the user to attain greater accuracy during the uses of firearms even in precarious situations. Also, double as Intuition. (Wise up!)

-Iron Trauma C: Due to his survival in the cruelest and most savage war where inventions were made to kill as much as possible. These skills allow him to survive many or otherwise fatal attacks and quickly recover upon receiving aids

Noble Phantasm

|Rider of Torment|
The Messenger's Deliverance

Rank B | Classification: Vehicle, Anti-Unit

One of the invention borns during the era where horses are considered outdated due to the advancement of ballistic technology. This motorcycle has seen the same suffering that its rider also has. Upon being summoned and used by its beholder. It will raise its rider's Agility parameter by another full rank with modifier remains unchanged by this NP.

|Battle of Passchendaele|
Price of A Mile

Rank B++| Classification: Anti-Army

A Noble Phantasm that is the ultimate culmination of all of what Arnold went through and grown as a soldier in the battle of Passchendaele. This Noble Phantasm invokes a Reality Marble that is a retelling of the Battle of Passchendaele. Arnold when activated this Noble Phantasm, will have complete control over what is innately summoned in his Reality Mable with the exclusion of the enemy and entities dragged into this place.

|Last Promise| - Wise up!

Swore My Vow That I Heard The Angels Cry

Rank A++| Classification: Self-Enhancement

Represents his acceptance and understanding of himself. By realizing his flaw upon his resolution and willing to fix them up, Arnold will be able to put himself into a trance-like state. All actions became deliberate yet unwilling, his strength becomes unbounded and his focus grants him reflex beyond what is even thought capable of. However, this requires extreme mental focus and belief in oneself in order to work without disruption.

"._.""._.""._."

Hitler's Incarnation (Wise up!)

Class: Rider

True Name: Adolf Hitler (Alfin) |Wise up!

Parameter:

Str: B| Agi: B | End: B | Mana: A+| Luck: D| NP: A++
Wise up!

Passive Skills:

Riding B: Can use most vehicles and animals can be handled with above average skill, even vehicles that did not exist in the time period one was alive in, for they are no exception. However, cannot ride the likes of Phantasmal Species such as Monstrous Beasts.

Personal Skills:

-Animal Communication D: Born from her own love with animals and close affinity with them at a young age and even until now. She could understand what the animals are trying to say to her even if no one else could understand

=}(Strengthened) Beyond Good and Evil EX: The ability to understand one's heart without any word required to spoken. Thanks to the unique experience that she went through in this Singularity, she managed to transcend past what was she was once. The ultimate resolution and reflection upon herself grant her the ability to understand others to their fundamental level. This affects a multitude of Servants and many lifeforms not limited to animals alone.

-Soul-burst Forge A+: The ability to turn pre-existing scrap metals or mana into the user's predetermined shape and structures and inner working mechanism. This includes firearms, melee, tools and everything of all sorts consists of metal components. Other components can be created with the user's mana with increased cost.

-Blitzkrieg A: A Noble Phantasm that is more or less sublime from sharing the usage of strategy with one particular Servant. However, it is displayed as a skill instead. If its user can land a decisive blow on the enemy, the attack will deal far more damage than it would normally do. There are some conditions that allow it to amplify its power. Strike hard and hook where it is hurt.

An additional '+' if the enemy is under the effect of a defensive Noble Phantasm

Another additional '+' if the enemy is known to be particularly strong in their legends.

Another '+' if the enemy is known for having a particular weakness that can be exploited.

If all three are conditions are fulfilled, the skill will boost to EX and any decisive blow will be an instant kill no matter what.

Noble Phantasm

|Crystalization of War Knowledge|

The Mind of Superior Technology

Rank E - A+++| Classification: Anti-Unit to Anti-Fortress, Army

During WW2, German's military hardware was developed at a ridiculously fast pace that they have inadvertently created many new inventions that were meant to boost warfare to its maximum strength. First jet fighter, first rapid-fire personnel machine gun, first long-distance ballistic rockets, first assault rifles, and many more...

This Noble Phantasm allows Alfin to recreate them as long as she has the mana required to recreate them. Rope ladders, knives, radio sets are classified as E-rank, pistol-caliber weaponry are ranked as D-rank, rifle-caliber weaponry as C-rank, anti-armor guns as B-rank and heavy autocannons, field artilleries, armors as A-rank. Some classified weapons and experimental among Alfin's arsenal are classified as greater than A itself and the P1500 Ratte are at the top of A+++ for the most expensive and powerful at the same time.

|Enigma Codex|
Informational Mastermind

Rank A| Classification: Active-Modification

A Noble Phantasm that is stemmed from the 'Crystallization of War Knowledge'. The ability to send and gather information and intel through a mean that is virtually impossible to detect by any form of magecraft and can't be decrypted without spending a significant amount of time. This grants her the ability to have great control over information flow and dominates her enemy through the information that is otherwise unavailable. This also allows her to actively modify anything that is not mystic in nature in real-time.

|Innocent Sin|
Brutal Realization of Life

Rank C - A+++| Classification: Anti-Personnel to Anti-Unit

Born from the shattered innocence of childhood, this ability is a duality of her own nature. A child that is deprived of affection will kill to feel the warmth from their dying body. A brutal understanding and the twisted view of reality turned her into the atrocity that she knew today. This takes in the form of a double-barrel shotgun with chromatic carving. Depends on her mental state, it could range from expelling damage with her absolute mental clarity or absolute destruction with her extreme and intense negative emotions.

"._.""._.""._."