Bye-Bye Eleventh Life

"Am I crazy? Why should I pity a hell creature?"

'Are you crazy? Why should you pity a hell being?'

'Did they pity you?'

'Did he pity you?'

Ru ran toward the fire escape. He was running not only from the demons but also from all the voices and questions emanating from the hidden past.

'He did not and will not pity you.'

'We must survive.'

He was coming down the stairs when a bright light caught his eye. A mighty rumble reached his ears. His hand on the banister could no longer hold the heated metal as a hot wind burned his eyes and dried his saliva.

'To defeat him, Ru...'

Ru's inner voice commanded: 'Stay alive!'

Below, he could see huge fireballs exploding one after the other. The fire escape ladder, which he had expected to be heat resistant, was already melting. Ru was only halfway up the ladder. One of the fireballs came towards him.

The fire was growing. The spreading flames likened everything they leaped onto to themselves. Alan was included among those things.

'You must be the one who's alive,' Ru's inner voice said, and he kicked Alan's already burning body to hell.

It came out in a snarl through his teeth, driven by Ru's breaths: "I will be the only survivor."

Abandoning his descent, he scrambled up the stairs. There, at the top, a demonic marble statue, as large as a sail and as bulky as a rock, spread its wings.

"A gargoyle?"

With a surge of energy, the statue animated, its eyes igniting with an eerie purple glow. All exits were closed to Ru.

<Come on, what are you waiting for? Unleash your power, Father! >

<Do what you have to do! >

<Do it! >

As the heat of the flames licked at his skin and the high-pitched screams of the girls filled his ears, Ru fell to his knees, his head pounding. It didn't matter if he was upstairs or downstairs, he was frozen. His eyes were wet with tears as he covered his ears.

He was attached to this life of fifteen years. He did not want to die.

'To live... You have to be alive!'

'I have to live!'

He opened his mouth and uttered a powerful scream.

It was such a scream that it shook the gargoyle. Ru covered his mouth, but he could still hear himself screaming. And as if that wasn't enough, he could see his voice.

His voice was no longer just a sound, but a tangible entity. Two spectral ribbons, one crimson, one obsidian, intertwined like serpentine sisters, shimmering with an ethereal beauty that masked their razor-sharp edges. They danced in front of him, a silent, malignant tango. Ru captivated despite the primal fear clawing at his throat, reached out a trembling hand, mesmerized by their grace.

Just as he reached out, the ribbons unraveled with a soft sigh, transforming into butterflies with wings the color of forget-me-nots, their delicate forms a stark contrast to the chilling beauty that came before.

Thousands of butterflies with different patterns flapped their wings in a mesmerizing display of color and movement, only to be scorched by rising flames.

Ru caught one of the butterflies at the last moment. But the ladder couldn't hold on any longer.

He was falling into the inferno and hope was stirring in his palm.

Just before he turned to ash, Ru got a close-up look at the last butterfly. It was a girl almost the size of a finger, with big red eyes, sharp teeth, wavy hair, pale skin, skinny to the bone, and red wings. Then she spoke.

"Are you going to die again?"

"What do you mean 'again'? Or fuck it, I'm dying," Ru said, smiling bitterly.

"You're going to die for the eleventh time and you're not going to get into that fucking castle. Huh, correction, the château."

"What are you talking about?" Ru asked as he watched his fall stop, and the flames remained.

"It's a real-life show for the immortals and human beings," she said.

"What fucking show?" asked Ru, looking at the girl in his palm.

After "Ouch!" the girl tried to explain: "You should have joined the Phantasmagoria Live Show Game, we told you, Dad. There's no other way to get rid of the demons. Now you're going to die again. Failed, failed, failed!"

"What game? Wasn't that the show? When did it become a game? What are you talking about? Shit!"

"Use your brain, Dad. For the audience, this game is a show; for the participants, it's a game. A game of survival."

"What the hell, I don't care," Ru shouted with a look around.

"That's why you're dying again, Dad."

"What kind of death is this, it keeps coming, and you... What the fuck are you? Did you stop time? Or am I already dead?"

"Dad, you can't be that confused."

"I am not a father! I just turned fifteen and I have no sexual experience. I just flirt. If I can't get someone pregnant with my voice..."

"Oh Dad, shut up!" the girl said, flapping her wings and taking off. She touched Ru's forehead with the tip of her finger. "Die!"

At the girl's command, a surge of energy slammed Ru to the ground. Then he was probably burnt to ashes.