The Red Hand

Chapter 337 – A Fitting End.

If you'd told me the day before I was summoned to Enoris that I'd ever have the freedom to choose my own path in life, I'd have called you.. We'll I'd call you a fool but in my head I'd have much more derogatory things to say to you. Ordinarily, as the second child of the Masayuki family, my role should've been to support my older sister and help take the reins of our family business. The Masayuki family had long been involved in arms manufacturing, and we were never that far removed from the wheels of governmental power. However, my preordained life of subservience to the family was swiftly and unexpectedly cast aside on my sister's tenth birthday when it was discovered that her body would never be able to handle the stress of the job.

Always a sickly child, my older Sister, Nao, was constantly in and out of the hospital for most of her early life, and it was assumed that she suffered from a weak constitution but would eventually recover as she got older. However, such hope was dashed on her tenth birthday, where it was discovered that she was born with a genetic condition that left her immune system weakened severely. Naturally, our family tried everything and anything to defeat such a condition, and due to our immense financial resources a solution was found, though it was not a perfect one. While my sister would not die as a result of her illness, it was unlikely that her body could cope with what the position as the head of our family would require, and thus the responsibility fell to me.

The loss of her position as next family head was something that Nao never recovered from, understandably so. After all, she'd spent so many years training under various tutors, worked alongside our parents from a young age to take over, and in a flash, all that hard work was washed away.

 Before that day, the two of us always had a good relationship, one that I would even say with confidence was positive and healthy, and we even tried our best to include our younger brother as much as possible. But once her world was turned upside down, Nao never looked at me the same way again. Simultaneously with my sister's downfall I was forced to take on a role that I was never meant to. The education my family put me through was as brutal as it was truncated. I had to make up for years of missed instruction, and the loss of my familial connections due to alienation from my brother and sister only served to make a bad situation worse.

Years passed by in a flash, and my sister, never content to sit around idly, did everything in her power to undermine me. Most of the time it was small things, hiding my clothing, ruining my outfits, or even placing me in embarrassing situations, but other times... Other times, Nao would directly challenge me and my position as heir. I never wanted to or liked to fight with my sister, and I knew deep down that she wasn't truly angry with me over how things went. I understood fully that this was just how she vented her frustration and despair. Never once did I raise my voice at her, never once did I strike her, and never once did I even think about pushing her away. All because despite how she acted I still loved her.

As time went on and I was slowly molded into the heir to my family business, I felt more and more that I no longer recognized myself. I was never free to express myself or my opinions, and my parents were very forceful about instilling in me the need to keep emotion off my face. Some days went by where I simply played the role of the dutiful family heir. I was nothing more than a doll that was wound up, and I can't even begin to count the times when I kept a blank expression or nodded along to conversations with people that made my skin crawl.

As I learned more and more about my family's business, I grew to hate it. We profited off the deaths of people, both innocent and not, and while I am no pacifist, that my family was willing to sell weapons to groups with... let's just say less-than-noble goals only solidified my view that we were harming the world with our work.

However, my feelings on the matter were not important. I was expected to represent our family and its interests and that meant that there was no room for my personal feelings or beliefs, what little of those that still remained in my heart. Eventually the indoctrination got so bad that when our younger brother died, I didn't even shed a tear. Not because I wasn't sad at his passing, but because I'd been trained to... To not just hold it in, but to not even feel at all. I thought that the rest of my life would be spent like this, as nothing more than a hollow puppet that played its part in this grand play that was my life... That was until I was summoned to Enoris and granted the first real breath of freedom in my life, and I was determined to cling to this new hope with everything I got.

In a flash of bright light, everything changed. Suddenly I didn't need to worry about my family and my obligations to it. I could take my life into my own hands for the first time, and most importantly... I could help people... Something that I could never do at home.

Using the Divine power that I was granted by Enoris' Gods, I'd hoped to bring peace to the world and leave behind a legacy of healing and hope rather than the one my parents wanted for me. My work may have involved unsavory people and questionable methods but I'd say the results were worth the cost. I even found something that I never even dreamed possible, love. Rafferty was always a fun and down to earth girl, and we hit it off great when we first met in the Holy City. She was just a simple country girl from the middle of nowhere, and she'd come to work at the Church to try and live a better life. Naturally, I felt a sense of kinship with her, and over the years, our relationship changed from friends to lovers, and I thought that I'd finally found that one person to spend my life with. She was somebody who never cared about my status, title, or anything of the sort. She only saw me as Hitomi Masayuki and nothing more... Or at least, that's what I believed.

"R-Rafferty..." Hitomi looked into the eyes of the fox-girl. She was utterly confused by this sudden attack and her mind raced as she tried to comprehend why the woman she loved had not only lied

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to her but had put a blade through her chest. "Why? Why would you do all this?" She grabbed onto the fox girl's sleeve, her strength waning as the magic power within the knife sucked her dry. “Why would you do something like this?” She couldn't believe that Rafferty would do something so horrible, and frankly she just couldn't believe what was happening.

{This has to be a dream, a nightmare!} (Hitomi)

"Worry not, my little Heroine." Rafferty smiled as she drove the knife in further into Hitomi's chest, causing the Heroine to cough up blood. "You always said that you wanted to save the world, and your sacrifice will do just that. So rejoice! Your worthless life will finally be put to use!"

"I..." Hitomi's vision slowly faded as the dark power of the knife spider webbed across her body. "I... I love... you..."

"And that made this all the more easy." Rafferty said with a nasty grin.

"HITOMI!" Kanato screamed as he rocketed toward his dying friend, but before he could reach her, he was smacked away with a blast of powerful blue energy blast that Rafferty sent toward him.

"Akagi! Please save her! Quick!" Amakusa turned to the Demon, desperate to save her dying 'friend.'

"Huh? And why should I do that?" Akagi asked with a raised eyebrow. "You were planning on killing her anyway, weren't you? Why the sudden change of heart?"

"Just please!" Amakusa pleaded. “Help her! We'll deal with the other bullshit later!”

{PLEASE!} (Amakusa)

"No." Akagi replied curtly. "She will die at the hands of the one she loved. A woman who never saw her as anything other than a pawn to dispose of the moment it became convenient. I'd say that's a fitting end for an idiot like her." She gave a very evil chuckle.

{Plus, I got robbed of my drama in Amdamell, so I'll be taking my compensation here! And it looks like I've even gotten some interest!} (Akagi)

"You bastard! Fine! I'll save her myself!" Amakusa turned to go and save Hitomi but was stopped as her legs froze.

"Now, now, now. Stay right there, pet." Akagi tutted and wagged her finger at the hero. “I can't have you go spoiling my fun now, can I?” She smirked.

"YOU BITCH!" Amakusa screamed as she tried to move, but her feet wouldn't move an inch. "LET ME GO! I CAN SAVE HER! YOU MIGHT BE A SADISTIC FUCK BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU HAVE TO PULL THIS KIND OF STUNT!"

"Nah, just stand there and watch. Watch as one of your friends dies and is sacrificed like a lamb." Akagi laughed manically.

"Halifax! Why aren't you doing anything?!?" Amakusa yelled for the sword's help, figuring that she was the sanest one here and could do something. "Akagi's a bitch, but why are you just standing around letting this happen?!? Either save Hitomi or convince Akagi to do it!”

{WHY ARE YOU JUST STANDING THERE?!? DO SOMETHING! AREN'T YOU THE FUCKING HERO OF THIS STORY?!? SHOULDN'T YOU COUNTERACT THE DEMON LORD'S EVIL?!?} (Amakusa)

"And why should I do anything?" Halifax rolled her eyes. "Hitomi is just as guilty as the other Heroes for what happened, and I fully support her life being ended as atonement. So pardon me for just sitting back and letting karma do its thing.” She huffed.

{And besides, why is it ALWAYS up to me to do something? Its always Halifax save me! How about you do it your fucking selves for a change.} (Halifax)

{Halifax...} (Elariel)

"Lady Elariel, please..." Kanato coughed up blood as he stood up, woozy. "Please save her... Save Hitomi..." He was hoping the Goddess would do the right thing if nobody else would.

"I would if I could..." Elariel looked away, not wanting to face him. "But Akagi has sealed my powers, there is nothing I can do but stand here helplessly like the rest of you... I'm sorry."

{I won't ask you to forgive me for everything, Hitomi... I brought you to this world... and now...} (Elariel)

"It's time." Rafferty started cackling as she withdrew the knife from Hitomi's abdomen. The Heroine's body had by this point turned as black as ash and the moment she fell onto the floor Hitomi exploded into dust, leaving her staff and clothing behind.

"HITOMI!" (Kanato x Amakusa)

"I guess she wasn't feeling very good." Akagi laughed as she made a stupid reference.

"Too soon, Akagi, too soon..." Halifax sighed.

"I mean, I thought it was appropriate..." Yumi gave a wry smile.

“NOW BE FREE! BE FREE MY MASTERS!” Rafferty cackled as from the ashes on the ground rose a great pillar of magical energy that was slowly absorbed into the giant mass of red and black crackling energy behind it. "Finally! Finally!" Rafferty continued to cackle as the seal on her masters slowly broke. "At long last my masters will be free! Free to get their revenge! Free to enact their justice!"

{Well I'll give her points for spectacle, if nothing else.} (Akagi)

{Though I'm deducting them away due to how obnoxious she is.} (Yumi)

{Fair.) (Akagi)

"You have done well, Rafferty." A deep yet feminine voice echoed around the cavern. "Long have we awaited this day, and thanks to you, we shall finally be free!"

"Zo..." Elariel grumbled as she recognized the voice. "They truly have broken our seal, and that means that-"

"Sister, I believe we should reward our most loyal familiar." A male voice boomed. "She's certainly worked hard over the last five hundred years."

"I suppose that's Ro?" Akagi turned to Elariel for confirmation. She could feel a great deal of energy being released from the seals and was confident that these two Primordials were the most powerful beings she'd met to this point.

"Hey so, maybe you should do something rather than just stand there and stare at me." Elariel pointed to the massive mass of swirling energy. "It's not going to be good for anyone if they get free!"

{I know these two idiot twins well, they'll just start blowing things up for fun if they get out!} (Elariel)

"Nah, it's okay." Akagi shrugged. "Besides." Her lips curved into a terrible smile as she turned back to Rafferty. "I'm really interested in seeing these two and what they can do.”

*KABOOM!*

With a massive blast of energy and a flash of blinding light the seal around the twin Primordials was broken, and the newly freed energy within began to swirl around the room before coalescing on two points next to Rafferty.

"Ah, it's so nice to be free from that prison, eh bro?" A blonde-haired woman with red eyes said as she looked at the nearly identical man next to her. Her outfit stood out, and Akagi noted that it looked more like something from Earth than Enoris. It consisted of a maroon hoodie and black basket ball shorts and leggings, and gave off the idea of a high schooler's outfit more than anything.

"S'better out here, that's for sure." The blonde-haired man laughed, his black and red jacket swishing in the turbulence as he put his sunglasses over his eyes. "Now then, what we got here?" He and his sister turned toward Elariel, who shivered under their gaze.