I was fighting, but not to kill anybody. Not like before. I fought to finally kill myself. People that cared for me, they didn't want to accept it. "There must be another way," they said. "Don't be stupid," they said. "We care for you," they said. Ironic, right? After all that I've done in my life, people still cared about me. People still saw me as worth keeping around. Yet I warned them. They should know.
If they truly cared for me, I should be dead. I should have been dead long before they met me. That was how it was all supposed to be. That... thing was at fault. The thing that became my parasite. That damn... flower. Because of it, I killed my copies, my "sisters." Because of it, I watched my only friend die before he could kill me. Because of it, I felt helpless in stopping it from destroying everything that lives.
Because of it, I ran away from him. I told him many times that I couldn't stay and live happily ever after with him, as much as I wanted that to be the case. At that point, I rather let that old world that scorned me die because of me than to kill off his world out of my selfish desire to be happy with someone. I didn't deserve it anyways.
After all that I told him, he still believed that he could save me, he wouldn't let me go. The only other option for me was to leave. If he wished for me to live, then it was better to die away from his sight... right? With that dreadful time drawing near, I left that night, using the last bit of power that I still had control over to force myself back into that old world, the empty world with a single dying Intoner about to bring the end.
The least I could do was to find a quiet spot in the forest to rest in, to finally close my eyes and never see the destruction it would do to the world. That was it. I had no other options as to what the near future had for me, and for this ruined world.
❝ Zero, I guess this is a bad time to say hi, huh? ❞ An obnoxious voice greeted me. I didn't have to find them. I knew about this helpful nuisance. Accord. She must know that she was wandering in the worst possible timeline, and standing right next to the ticking time bomb.
❝ What the hell do you want? I was hoping to be alone before I go. ❞ I could hear her chuckle at my nihilistic response.
❝ Before you start this world's apocalypse, you mean? I'm not that oblivious, Zero. ❞ So she noticed my way of beating around the bush. Figures. Given how she acted when I first met her, I thought she was too childish for her own good, not aware that there was a bloodbath between me and the other Intoners. With how out of place she appears, I would assume that she's a time traveler, already aware of this timeline's possible outcome, and that assumption was proving itself to be true.
❝ There's nothing that can be done. This timeline is already locked into a terrible end. Anything that is done differently now by you, it'll lead to the same conclusion. ❞
❝ ... by me? ❞ I didn't get it. There was no other way to kill me now. My own sword wasn't strong enough to kill me and the Flower. My only friend of this world who can do the job was dead. Accord couldn't possibly do anything, she was only a time traveler and a merchant.
Nothing can be done, and yet... I was wrong. Pain erupted without warning. A rapier was stabbed into my chest, and Accord appeared to be nothing more than a blur. A normal rapier wouldn't been enough to kill me... so that meant...
❝ Don't worry Zero, I recently made this rapier out of dragonbone. Intoners are weak to dragonbone, is that right? It was strong to kill off the rest, but you resisted your own sword made out of the same material, right? All it took for me was to create this weapon out of Mikhail's corpse... he was the only dragon that could kill you, right? ❞ Everything was getting messy and blurry, and all I could make out was Accord's voice. All of that was right, what she was saying, but I don't remember sharing any of this info to her. I don't remember making it clear to Accord that she had to kill me.
Why was I complaining like this? I wanted this type of end, so why do I feel like this was the wrong decision? A tug. I felt one at the flower that sprouted from my eye. Another tug. There was no mistaking this, she was trying to remove the the parasite that grew out of my eye.
❝ This is all I can do, Zero. I wish it didn't come to this. ❞ A strangely hesitant tone came from Accord, and then one last tug was done. The pain elevated. The Flower was forcibly pulled out from my body, I couldn't help but scream in anguish. I could feel trails of blood flowing from where the Flower had been uprooted off of me. Soon followed a surge of my body radiating out of self-induced pain. Was I finally... dying?
❝ Sorry, Zero. I... I was ordered to take this flower, so I can seal it away... like it should be. ❞ I heard her footsteps going away from where I was lying down, slowly dying. I could barely making out her figure taking that accursed Flower away, barely making out the image of Accord suddenly collapsing to the ground.
I couldn't understand her words anymore, but she too was in pain. I couldn't understand what I was seeing, but she was moving erratically on the dirt. Soon, she stopped moving altogether. I wasn't sure how it happened, but the Flower must've killed her. I expected it to return to me, to keep me alive once again... but it didn't. Was it searching for another victim to possess? Was it gone?
I didn't know the answer... but I was finally free. But at what price? I thought. A world's destruction was still in question, but that didn't become my regret. If anything, I regret feeling something to other people, making connections with them. Mikhail was like a child of mine. Accord assisted with my tasks numerous times. ... X helped me experience love for the first time.
I could feel myself crying. Crying with tears mixed in with blood. I regretted meeting them, because it made my sacrifice harder to sit through. I went through all of this, and I can't get a simple second chance without any strings attached like that Flower. So... this world hates me, but I don't want to go.
I realize that now when it's too late, that I don't want to go. I don't want to go. I don't want to go. I don't want to go. I don't want to go. I don't want to go. I don't want to go. I don't want to go.I don't want to go. I don't want to go. I don't want to go. I don't want to go. I don't want to go. I don't want to go. I don't want to go. I don't want to go. I don't want to go. I don't want to go. I don't want to go. I don't want to go. I don't want to go. I don't want to go. I don't want to go. I don't want to go. I don't want to-