***
I felt my vision return, and the first thing I saw was the same scenery—the Primordial Plane. I saw someone walking there. W-wait... t-that is David! But... why is he wearing his helmet armor like he did in The Mayhem? As I tried to approach him, I suddenly realized that I were only watching the gameplay directly. David was about to face his final boss!
In the middle of the vast landscape, David stopped for a moment, and he dropped to one knee as a painful groan escaped him. His entire body emitted bright white mixed with pitch-black energy, gathering in the air as if forming a massive sphere before him. After David's groaning subsided and he looked ahead, the white-and-black sphere suddenly exploded, throwing him several meters away.
From that explosion, I saw a figure resembling David emerge, except it was not wearing the helmet armor. Its eyes were pitch black with bright white pupils at the center, and it possessed two large pairs of wings—a pair of radiant white feathered wings and beneath them a pair of pitch-black bat-like wings. I knew this was The Absolute One, taking the form of David's body.
"SO YOUR HATRED AND RAGE THAT HAVE CONTINUED TO BURN FINALLY BROUGHT YOU HERE!"
It spoke with the same voice I had heard just before I lost consciousness.
"I AM THE PART OF YOUR DEEPEST SOUL THAT CAME INTO EXISTENCE AFTER THAT TRAGEDY HAPPENED TO YOU... I WILL GIVE YOU ONE CHANCE TO RETURN TO YOUR FORMER LIFE AND FORGET ALL OF THIS... BUT IF YOU STILL INSIST ON DESTROYING ME, YOU WILL HAVE TO BEAR THE CONSEQUENCES...!!!"
David immediately summoned his weapons, and the battle began. I watched it from a third-person perspective. David launched both ranged and close-quarters attacks using all kinds of weapons, while The Absolute One fought back using its white-and-black energy. Just as it happened in the gameplay, David eventually defeated Him.
"Y-YOU... HAVE YOU TRULY THROWN AWAY YOUR HUMANITY...?! HAVE YOU TRULY FORGOTTEN THE ONES YOU LOVED...?! R-REMEMBER THIS... I-IF YOU K-KILL M-ME... A-ALL OF R-REALITY... INCLUDING Y-YOURSELF... W-WILL ALSO... BE D-DESTROYED...!!!" He fell to His knees before David.
He didn't answer as David summoned his starstone sword once again and thrust it straight into The Absolute One's chest. He screamed incoherently as white-and-black energy burst violently from its body before it finally exploded. The exploding energy rushed back into David's body by force. After that he removed his helmet, finally revealing the face that had remained hidden throughout the game, and fell the helmet to the ground. His expression was no longer one of rage, but of something he had only now begun to regret. Then David continued walking unsteadily across the Primordial Plane. Gray mist enveloped his body until he gradually disappeared into it.
I have to reach him! I can't accept this ending! But unfortunately, I can't even scream right now! What must I do...?! Daviiidd... pleeease...!!! Don't become like this...!!!
***
I opened my eyes again. Everything around me had become pitch black, although I could still see my own hands and feet. It seemed I was floating in this endless black reality. Suddenly, bright white fireballs drifted around me, and their number kept increasing. I was terrified of what they were going to do to me.
"SO YOU FINALLY WOKE UP...?!"
That voice sounded exactly like what The Absolute One had said earlier during that game cutscene.
"Y-You...!!! You're Prime Desire, aren't you...?! Tell me why all of this happened...!!!" I shouted.
"YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO REPLACE HIS ROLE...!!! INSTEAD OF HELPING HIM UNTIL THINGS ENDED UP LIKE THIS...!!!"
"W-What do you mean...?! Me becoming Hellraider...?! That's impossible...!! That role belongs to David alone...!!!"
"YOU HATED HIS ENDING SO MUCH THAT YOU KEPT THINKING ABOUT HOW TO CHANGE HIS FATE...!!! WHAT YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED IN EARLIER WAS ACTUALLY THE PROCESS OF REPLACING HIS ROLE BY YOURSELFFF!!!"
I became furious after hearing Prime Desire's accusation. So... this entire reality where The Mayhem became real was its attempt to make me replace David as Hellraider???
"Nonsense...!!! David and I will never follow your script of fate...!!! I will help David continue living as an ordinary human no matter what...!!! You are the one who dragged all of us into your filthy gameee...!!!"
"I WILL TELL YOU THE GREATEST TRUTH YOU HAVE WANTED TO KNOW ALL THIS TIME...!!! EVERYTHING THAT EXISTS IN THIS REALITY... INCLUDING HIM... AND ME... EXIST BECAUSE OF YOUR DESIRE...!!!"
My entire body froze. My heart seemed to stop beating. My eyes widened, and my mouth fell open.
This... this... can't be possible...
Could... could everything really have happened because of me...???
No... it must be trying to deceive me...!!!
"I KNOW THAT FROM THE VERY BEGINNING YOU CLUNG TO THAT GAME... AND TO HIM! YOU KEPT FEELING DEVASTATED AFTER LEARNING THAT HIS STORY DIDN'T END THE WAY YOU HAD HOPED, AND YOU KEPT IMAGINING WAYS TO CHANGE HIS FATE. THAT IS WHY... I, FROM THE DEEPEST PART OF YOUR SOUL... COMMANDED THE ABSOLUTE SYSTEM TO BEGIN MERGING THOSE TWO WORLDS...!!! IT FIRST DROVE YOU INTO DESPAIR SO THAT YOU WOULD DETERMINED TO REPLACE HIM ONCE THOSE REALITIES HAD MERGED. EVERY STRANGE THING YOU EXPERIENCED WAS THE RESULT OF THE ABSOLUTE SYSTEM...!!!"
Tears immediately streamed down my cheeks, and I cried loudly. I truly had never imagined that all of this happened because of it. The absurd criminal charges against me on Earth, the merging of The Mayhem's world, the slot interface that seemed to possess its own will, how I was able to survive in Hell, why David Hellraider suffered headaches during the beginning, and why the monsters of Hell invaded Planet Grivendal—all of it had been caused by that entity...
"I WAS ALSO THE ONE WHO WARNED YOU AGAIN AND AGAIN FROM WITHIN YOUR SOUL... AND I WAS THE ONE WHO SAVED YOU WHEN YOU WERE ABOUT TO DIE REPEATEDLYYY..!!! THE NIGHTMARES YOU EXPERIENCED WERE MY FINAL WARNINGS, SO THAT YOU WOULD CHANGED YOUR PURPOSE TO MATCH MY OWNNN...!!!"
"Why are you so cruel to both of usss...?! I only wanted to protect the world we entered, yet you kept manipulating me into destroying it...!!! You truly are the enemy, even as the creator of this universe...!!! You're also the true reason David became like this, aren't youuu...?!" I pointed my finger.
"FOOL...!!! I'LL TELL YOU THIS ONE MORE TIME...!!! YOU KEPT CONSUMING HIS STORY FROM BEGINNING TO END OVER AND OVER FOR YOUR OWN FALSE HAPPINESS..!!! I ALREADY TOLD YOU THAT BOTH I AND THE ABSOLUTE SYSTEM EXIST BECAUSE OF YOU...!!! THEREFORE, YOU ARE THE ONE WHO MUST RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS SUFFERING THROUGHOUT COUNTLESS EONS...!!! HE WILL SOON AWAKEN AND REJECT YOU FOREVER, JUST LIKE IN YOUR NIGHTMAREEE...!!!"
I cried once again after hearing His accusation, because it sounded... true. At that time, I had merely been an ordinary boy trying to survive after my relentless hardships. I kept reading David Hellraider's story repeatedly because he always kept moving forward and overcame obstacles far greater than my own. But... I found it almost impossible to accept that I had been the one responsible for David losing everything, losing his humanity, and ending his story in tragedy.
Then suddenly, I remembered my entire journey with David...
From I tried to approach the still-feral Hellraider until gradually accepting my presence. I always tried to speak to him as though he was an ordinary human. I gave him the things he had loved during his human life based only on information hidden in the game's easter eggs. David indirectly learning his real name, and how he had saved me and everyone else from countless dangers...
I stopped crying and stared straight ahead.
"I reject all of your accusations...!!! You completely misunderstood my relationship with David...!!! I will remain by his side until the very end...!!!"
Suddenly, the white spheres of energy multiplied and rushed toward me wildly from every direction. It felt as though I were being battered by an endless hurricane.
"N-NO... H-HOW... IS... T-THIS... P-POSSIBLE...?! W-WHAT... H-HAVE... Y-YOU... D-DONEEE...?!?!"
***
David, still kneeling, watched Prime Desire glitch violently. Suddenly, he noticed several objects lying in front of it—items that had apparently belonged to Johann before transforming into Prime Desire: a large kitchen knife, a binocular, a tactical compass, and a starstone pistol.
He glanced at the kitchen knife and, without a second thought, sprinted to grab it, leaped toward Him, and drove the knife into Prime Desire's chest. A violent torrent of white-and-black energy erupted from Prime Desire's body, forcing David backward. He roared in pain while struggling to drive the knife even deeper until David's entire right arm disappeared into His chest.
"JOHANN... TAKE MY HAND...!!!"
***
As I struggled against the overwhelming current of white spheres, I suddenly saw a single hand emerging from one of them.
W-Wait...!!! T-That...!!! That's David's hand...!!!
He had defeated Prime Desire and was trying to save me!
I forced myself toward it despite the white spheres desperately trying to drag me away from his hand as it continued reaching in every direction.
"DAVID...!!! HOLD ON...!!! I'M COMING TO YOOUUU...!!!"
My desperate struggle finally paid off. I got closer and closer, and without hesitation, my right hand firmly grasped his. David immediately pulled me toward him, and my vision instantly returned to the Primordial Plane. Both David and I were thrown by the energy shock from Prime Desire's body after losing me from within it.
When I got back to my feet and looked ahead, Prime Desire, who looked exactly like me, was glitching more violently than ever, and the entire Primordial Plane was glitching as well. I turned toward David and saw him clutching his head in unbearable pain while his entire body glitched just the same. Only I remained unaffected.
What is happening...???
How can I stop this...???
Then I suddenly remembered one thing Prime Desire had said...
Yes... It was right...
I am the original source of why everything in this reality exists...
That means... the only one who can save all of this... is myself.
I began walking toward Prime Desire once more.
Suddenly, I heard David shouting at me. I glanced back and saw him glared, desperately reaching his right hand toward me.
"ST...OOO...PPP...!!!"
When I reached Prime Desire, I turned back toward David and smiled at him.
"Thank you, David Hellraider... for everything until the very end... I have to do this so you can continue living... You deserve a far better ending than this..."
Then I turned back toward Prime Desire and slowly extended my right hand toward its brightly glowing chest. I closed my eyes for a moment and remembered everyone who had helped me throughout my life.
Mom... Ms. Delby... Aunt Nancy... Uncle Jenkin... Robbin... Larry... Lucy... Navel... Imelda... Col. Peterson... Gen. Lorentz... Capt. Murphy... Mareketh... Banasphate... Gruzhnil... Grelmure... Mr. Thebes... Glynpatra... Grishal... Emperor Gregustus... Sherubiel... Mendicore... Greslan... and... David Hellraider.
I touched Prime Desire's chest.
My vision instantly turned completely white, and for the final time... my consciousness faded away.
***
David, still enduring the pain, watched Johann disappear together with Prime Desire within the white-and-black flash of energy. Instantly, the agonizing pain in his head vanished, and everything around him returned to normal. His eyes remained wide open, and he breathed heavily, as though unable to believe what had just happened.
"J-Johann..."
But from the place where the two of them had vanished, another same flash erupted, suddenly growing enormous and multiplying until it spread across the entire Primordial Plane. All of reality shattered and was swallowed by the void. David also fell, and the void began engulfing his body. Floating before him was a tactical compass. He caught it just before his hand was consumed by the void as well.
Just before the void finally reached his face, David's expression turned into one of fury.