I examined the final gate carefully, and once again its appearance was strange. When I imagined facing the final entity, I had expected to enter through a magnificent gate. Yet the gate before me resembled an electronic device, with a large gleaming circle in its center, much like a CD. I had no idea why the previous entrance had taken the form of my old apartment door, and now it looked like this.
David immediately pushed against the gate, and I helped him. After exerting extraordinary effort, even with his assistance, the gate finally opened, and once again I stood there in astonishment as I looked inside. Instantly, my last nightmare came flooding back into my mind.
Beyond the gate stretched a vast gray rocky landscape exactly like we stepping now. However, the sky had changed completely into shades of gray, including the clouds. The place was identical to my last nightmare, where David had walked away and left me behind. There was no one there to greet us. Where had the entity called Prime Desire gone?
David stepped inside, and I followed. My heart pounded with fear that the entity might suddenly ambush us again. We continued walking through this place, hardly I remembered its name. To be honest, I had forgotten many of the names from the game because reality had diverged so drastically from it. Not long afterward, I suddenly knew it, and my body immediately froze. David stopped and glanced at me.
"What is it???"
"S-Sir... I-I just remembered... this place in the game was called the 'Primordial Plane'... T-This is where y-you fought the final boss... and also... where your t-tragic ending... h-happened..."
David brought his face closer to mine and stared at me sharply.
"Where is He now?!?! Tell meee...!!!" David forced.
"S-Sir... a-actually... b-before your final battle... y-you..."
Suddenly I felt excruciating pain in my chest, as though my very soul were being ripped from my body. Dark shadowy spheres began to fill my vision.
"AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH...!!!!!!!!"
Then my interface slot suddenly appeared before me. With tremendous difficulty I looked at it, and in the center of the interface were the words...
[GOODBYE, JOHANN]
My vision rapidly faded completely into darkness. A moment later, two brilliant white spheres resembling a pair of eyes appeared. Then it spoke in the booming voice of an adult man.
"I HAVE BEEN WAITING YOU FOR A VERY LONG TIME!"
After that, I lost consciousness.
***
"HEEEYYY...!!! What's wroonngg...?!?! Answeerrr...!!!" David shook Johann's shoulders, but Johann remained motionless with his eyes closed after letting out that agonizing scream.
Suddenly Johann grabbed both of David's forearms. His eyelids opened, but this time his eyes had turned pitch-black with white pupils. David immediately threw Johann's hands away, his face filled with fury.
"I MADE SURE YOU WOULD PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO ME BACK THEN...!!!"
Johann's voice had changed into the booming voice that David immediately recognized it when he had received Marsiel's power in High Heaven.
"YYOOOUUU...!!! GIVE JOHANN BACK RIIGGHHTT NOOOWWW...!!!" David roared as he tried to seize Johann's head.
However, Johann suddenly displayed a wide and terrifying grin. His entire body erupted with blazing white flames mixed with pitch-black fire.
Without warning, Johann's body exploded with tremendous force, sending David flying a considerable distance away. He managed to land on one knee, even though he was dragged several more meters across the ground. David looked ahead, where the white-and-black flames were still raging. As they gradually subsided, Johann's transformed figure became visible. David's eyes widened, and his breathing became heavy and irregular. He realized that Johann had been possessed by Prime Desire.
His body remained the same, and he still wore the same clothes. However, besides his altered eyes, the most striking change was that he now possessed two pairs of enormous wings: one pair of brilliant white feathered wings, and beneath them another pair of pitch-black bat-like wings. He immediately walked through the flames toward David. He instantly stood up, summoned his starstone sword, and charged straight at Prime Desire.
"GIVE JOHANN BAAACCCKKK...!!!" David roared.
Prime Desire instantly created a flaming sword of the same white-and-black color from his hand, and it immediately blocked David's blade. David instantly felt an overwhelming pressure in his chest, causing him to cough up blood.
"YOU ARE TRULY CONFIDENT THAT YOU CAN DEFEAT ME INSIDE THE PERSON WHO HAS BEEN BESIDE YOU FROM THE VERY BEGINNIIINNGG...!!!"
David roared and launched another relentless series of sword strikes, all of which Prime Desire blocked with ease. Suddenly David managed to slash Prime Desire across the chest, causing white-and-black flames to burst from the wound. Prime Desire stepped back briefly, but David switched to his shotgun and fired at the entity. However, Prime Desire instantly summoned a shield made from those same flames to protect himself. Prime Desire retaliated by firing a white-and-black laser from his right hand, but David narrowly dodged it.
David switched through several of his weapons to attack his greatest enemy, beginning with the Obliviator, then machine gun, and finally rocket launcher. Yet Prime Desire continued shielding himself while counterattacking with lasers and countless projectiles formed from his white-and-black flames.
Suddenly David appeared behind him and fired an MKM-999 energy sphere directly at Prime Desire. He caught it, though it pushed him backward several meters. He transformed it into his own energy before slamming it into the ground, causing that energy to race rapidly toward David. Unfortunately, before David could evade it, the energy transformed into enormous black-and-white crystal spikes that erupted from the ground, pinning every part of his body in place. He groaned in agony as his left cheek was cut open.
David saw Prime Desire fly directly toward him. The restraining crystals shattered into pieces as the entity grabbed David by the chest armor. Prime Desire slammed David onto the rocky ground until he laid flat, stood atop his stomach, and lowered his face close to David's.
"SUURREENNDEEERRR...!!! RETURN TO MEEE...!!! IF YOU CONTINUE TO RESIST, YOU WILL LOSE THIS PERSON OF YOUUURRRSSS...!!!"
"I'll take Johann back from yooouuu...!!!" David shouted.
"I WILL TELL YOU THE GREATEST TRUTH OF ALL...!!! HE IS THE TRUE REASON YOU BECAME WHAT YOU ARE TODAY...!!! HE ENJOYED YOUR SUFFERING FOR EONS IN HELL SO THAT HE COULD CONTINUE EXTENDING HIS PITIFUL LIFE THROUGH THE GAME, WHICH YOUR WORLD CAME FROM...!!! YOU WATCHED YOUR LOVED ONES DIE AGAIN AND AGAIN WITHOUT END BECAUSE HE KEPT READING YOUR STORY...!!! WILL YOU STILL CHOOSE TO SAVE HIM AFTER EVERYTHING HE HAS DONE TO YOU ALL THIS TIME, HUUUHHH...?!?!?! YOU AND EVERYTHING WERE EXISTED BECAUSE OF HIIMMM...!!!" Prime Desire bellowed at great length.
David's mouth fell open, his eyes darted wildly in every direction, and his breathing became frantic after hearing Prime Desire's confession. He had knew this directly from Johann when he had tried to recover the past that David had forgotten beneath his overwhelming hatred and rage toward the Hell. Prime Desire then smiled.
But unexpectedly, David's expression twisted into overwhelming fury as he grabbed both of Prime Desire's arms. Prime Desire was visibly shocked, believing he had already succeeded in influencing David.
"I WAITED FOR EONS AND FINALLY HE CAME TO ME!" David declared loudly.
David punched Prime Desire across the face with his left fist, followed by another crushing blow to his chest with David's right, sending the entity flying a considerable distance away. As David charged toward him again, Prime Desire suddenly leaped to his feet, screamed at the top of his lungs, and unleashed an immense flare of white-and-black energy in every direction. The instant David was struck by that energy, he felt an unbearable headache, forcing him onto his knees as he clutched his head with both hands. David quickly remembered that the sensation was identical whenever he tried to kill Johann because, at that time, he had regarded him as nothing more than an intruder.
While gasping heavily in an attempt to overcome the pain, David saw Prime Desire charging toward him once more while creating another weapon from that same energy. But suddenly Prime Desire froze, collapsed onto both knees, and cried out in agony again. Most strangely of all, his body began glitching violently like a malfunctioning screen while convulsing uncontrollably.
"N-NOOO... H-HE... I-IS... S-STIIILLL... A-ABLE... T-TO... R-RESIST... ME-EEE...!!!" Prime Desire shouted as his words broken apart by the violent glitches.
David's eyes widened once again as he breathed heavily, unable to believe that Johann was still alive inside and was struggling against Prime Desire.