1 Morning Nightmare

The air was thick with an ominous tension as the woman, battered and bruised, gazed upon the unfolding chaos surrounding her. 

"Hahaha…"

'Who knew it would end like this?'

The distant echoes of her hollow laughter reverberated through the desolation. 

The once-vibrant landscape now lay in ruins, a haunting reminder of the battles that had raged for what felt like an eternity.

Leaning wearily against a cold stone pillar, the woman surveyed the grim tableau before her. 

Just a few kilometers away, a relentless horde of grotesque beasts and monsters steadily advanced, their ominous presence growing stronger with each passing moment. 

The woman, resigned to her impending fate, embraced the solitude of her final moments.

The desolation around her told a tale of despair and destruction. Rubble and debris littered the ground, a somber testament to the fallen comrades who had fought valiantly beside her. 

Their lifeless bodies lay scattered, food for scavenging crows that circled overhead, their caws echoing the lament of a once-heroic battalion.

In the midst of this grim reality, the woman's mind grappled with the cruel irony of their predicament. 

"One hundred... even after a hundred turns, it always ends with destruction and death?" she mused bitterly, her frustration echoing through the desolate landscape. 

It seemed as though the cycle of despair was an inescapable fate, a relentless force that sought to extinguish any glimmer of hope.

The weight of the woman's emotions bore down on her, and unable to contain her torment any longer, she erupted into hysterical laughter. 

"Hahaha... just how badly do you want us to die?" she cried out to the indifferent skies above. 

The heavens responded with a symphony of dark clouds, roaring thunder, and relentless rain that soaked the corpses below.

Amidst the relentless storm, the woman's gaze swept across the haunting scene. A bitter scoff escaped her lips as she took in the sight of the hundred fallen comrades surrounding her. 

'After a hundred turns, only a hundred managed to last this long. How ironic' she thought, her mind retracing the faces and names of each fallen companion.

A radiant glow enveloped the desolate scene as a shimmering light materialized beside the woman. 

Wings of golden-white feathers unfurled, casting ethereal splendor, and from the luminous display emerged a hooded figure draped in pristine white attire. 

The golden halo suspended above his head revealed his celestial nature, marking him as an angelic being of divine origin.

Locked in a silent exchange of glances, the angel and the woman shared a moment of unspoken understanding. 

The woman, undeterred by the celestial presence, met the angel's gaze with a defiant smirk. 

"Haha… did you come to watch my end, Raphael?" she quipped, her tone laced with a mixture of bitterness and acceptance.

Ignoring her words, the angel, Raphael, moved gracefully towards her with purpose. 

With an emotionless expression, he uttered the stark truth, "You failed." 

"Haha- that's true…."

With a solemn nod, the woman acknowledged her own failure.

This was the hundredth turn, her final opportunity, and yet she found herself standing on the precipice of defeat. 

The desolation around them echoed the somber resonance of a hundred failed attempts, each one leading to this inevitable moment of reckoning.

Raphael raised his hands towards the woman, and with a focused gesture, he directed a cascade of radiant light towards her chest. 

A golden orb materialized, emanating from the very core of her being. The woman, resigned to her fate, felt the ethereal energy as it left her body and coalesced into the shimmering sphere above her.

"The Lord's gift has already exhausted; it is a mere fraction of what it used to be," Raphael remarked, his gaze fixed upon the luminous orb that hovered above the woman.

"There won't be a next time, Sophia," 

"I know…" Sophia replied, her voice carrying the weight of countless struggles and the burden of a hundred lifetimes. 

Her eyes, a vivid shade of red, shimmered in the golden radiance that surrounded her. The memories of her hundred retries, her hundred lives, resurfaced like an overwhelming tide. 

If one were to weave together the tapestry of her experiences, it would span more than a century – a century defined by unending battles since the moment she received this blessing, which, for her, felt more like an insufferable curse.

In the embrace of the golden light, Sophia pondered the hypothetical scenario of not shouldering the burden she had carried for so long. 

Would the boiling turmoil of emotions within her, the regret, the sadness, and the madness, be freed from their shackles?

As the memories unfolded in her mind, tears welled up in her eyes. 

For a hundred lives, her existence had been dedicated to the relentless pursuit of saving the world. 

Yet, time and time again, regardless of her efforts, the inexorable destiny of humanity's demise persisted, immutable and cruel.

'In the end, I failed to protect everyone. I failed to protect you...'

Sophia's thoughts trailed off, the weight of her admission hanging heavily in the air. 

The echoes of regret reverberated through her final moments.

"Even if the end was inevitable… it's still sad to see all your efforts go to waste"

Sophia's senses were clouded, her consciousness fading as Raphael mumbled words she couldn't hear, while wresting away her blessing. 

The toll on her mortal form was immense, transcending the limits of mere humanity. 

"Your soul is at it's limit…. You won't even get to enjoy heaven"

Cracks started to appear on each part of her body.

Raphael's eyes glowed golden as he stared at the sparks of his father's blessing.

"It may not be enough to take you back... but a message will suffice"

As the angel soared into the distance, the words remained elusive to her weakened mind.

Her eyes, heavy with fatigue, finally surrendered to the embrace of darkness.

….

Arriving in a mountain of corpses, the angel descended with an ethereal grace that seemed out of place amid the gruesome scene. 

The stench of death hung heavily in the air as he surveyed the devastation below. 

Strewn across the blood-soaked ground were the remnants of what used to be people, their lifeless forms twisted and contorted from the brutality they had endured.

His gaze settled on a lone figure that, by all appearances, had been reduced to a mere semblance of humanity. 

'For a hundred turns… you were her only mistake'

'The worst 'EVIL' of humanity'

The light that once animated its eyes had long been extinguished, replaced by an empty, soulless void. 

"You're never-ending world is what she failed to see…"

Despite the relentless damage inflicted upon its body, the creature somehow persisted, defying the natural order of life and death.

In his wake lay thousands of monstrous adversaries, their once-menacing forms now mere echoes of the threats they once posed. 

Even demonic entities were mere slumps of meat before the undying man.

Monsters kept swarming yet the dead man continued to cut everything in its path.

The red aura enveloping its blade intensified with each swing of his blood red sword.

Not even the golden dragon above the skies could escape its sword, as it jumped and immediately turned the gigantic dragon into a hundred pieces.

Then gravity took it's turn, plunging the dead man back down.

As the man fell a crater formed.

It didn't even seem to take any damage as it immediately stood back up.

But Raphael knew it was clearly weakened.

The aura that wrapped around its body has greatly diminished.

It groaned in a loud roar as it continued to walk forward trying to find another thing to cut.

With it's back laid in front of him, the angel saw his chance.

Swoosh...!

In the blink of an eye, Raphael's momentum shifted, and he thrust his hands into the heart of the barely recognizable figure before him. 

The golden orb held in his hands glowed with the brilliance of a thousand suns, casting an otherworldly radiance upon the scene. 

Despite the sudden and brutal assault, the corpse, if it could still be called such, continued to move. 

Its limbs obeyed an unseen force, and it defiantly raised a bloodstained sword, ready to strike back.

As the golden orb pulsated with divine energy, the angel whispered. 

"Make her a part of your world."

Raphael mumbled before he was cut down by the dead man.

….

Bam! 

A sudden and jarring impact reverberated through my consciousness, snapping me out of a blissful sleep. 

"Ugh…! what the heck?" I groaned, my head throbbing in protest. 

As I slowly surfaced from the depths of sleep, I found myself disoriented, my surroundings a confusing blur.

Warily opening my eyes, I observed the world around me seemingly turned upside down. 

The room spun, and the pain in my head pulsated with each heartbeat. 

Pinching myself in disbelief, I realized that this couldn't be a dream – the tangible discomfort was too vivid.

After a few disoriented moments, I gathered my wits and comprehended the situation – I was hanging off the side of my bed, my head having taken a downward plunge during an unexpected fall. 

"Tsk…" I clicked my tongue in annoyance, resolving to rectify my awkward position.

With a concerted effort, I righted myself and attempted to stand. 

My body, however, moved awkwardly and uncooperatively, still reeling from the lingering effects of last night's alcohol-fueled escapade. 

Glancing around the disheveled room, my eyes landed on the telltale signs of excessive revelry – an empty bottle here, a scattered mess there.

Ignoring the remnants of my nocturnal indulgence, a sense of responsibility kicked in. 

Even though it was my day off, I couldn't neglect the duties I had on this household. 

With a sigh, I steadied myself and resolved to face the day, albeit a bit worse for wear.

"Ow"

As I shuffled around, attempting to piece together the fragments of my night, a cryptic memory surfaced and echoed in my mind accompanied by a tang of pain in my chest.

'Make her a part of your world' 

That was clearly an angel…... and what does he mean by make her a part of your world?

I shook my head.

'Maybe I should visit the church more often?'

Ignoring the jumbled recollections of my dreams, I shuffled towards the cabinet to gather my clothes and start the day. 

But the moment I attempted to stand, my legs gave way beneath me, sending me crashing to the ground in a heap.

Groaning in agony, I clutched my head as a sudden headache exploded behind my eyes, the pain so intense it felt like a relentless assault on my senses.

It was as though a nail was being forcibly driven into my skull with each pulse of my racing heart. 

"Ugh… what's going on?" I muttered, struggling to make sense of the sudden onslaught of pain.

Suddenly, my surroundings shifted in a disorienting blur, and before me stood a grotesque figure – a man with twisted horns protruding from his skull. 

His maniacal laughter echoed through the air as he callously devoured the head of a girl, her lifeless body discarded with casual disdain. 

"Weak too WEAK!!!" the horned man screamed akin to a roar.

Before I could even comprehend the horror before me, the scene morphed once again.

This time, a girl with wild eyes held a gleaming knife, her hand trembling as she plunged the blade into my chest with chilling precision. 

"I'm sorry…." she mumbled with tears in her eyes.

The searing pain of the imagined wound radiated through my body, as if the very act was being inflicted upon me in reality. 

Once again before I could react, the nightmarish tableau shifted once more.

Now, a sinister priest loomed before me, his tongue flicking out to lick my neck in a grotesque display of perverse pleasure. 

"Ah~ Sophia we can finally become one…!"

Incoherent words spilled from his lips, their meaning lost on me as my mind reeled from the sensory overload. 

With each shifting vision, the pain intensified, a cacophony of agony and confusion engulfing my senses.

As the nightmarish scenarios continued to unfold, each more surreal and horrifying than the last, I struggled to maintain a grasp on reality. 

What was happening to me?

'Fuck….'