Aria didn’t know of the blood angel wanting this from the very beginning, or he had changed his mind midway as he became aware of their powers.

"What do you want in return?" She dismissed all of her magic in the festival with a swing of her hand.

"I don’t have much time anyway; with my help, you can pass the rounds easier. All I want is to let her live." Ray pointed at the person beneath them, under the ground. Jade had long lost consciousness, with Ray magic protecting it all this time.

From behind, Scarlet joined the conversation: "She is an existential threat to us."

"Yeah, she really doesn’t have an agenda; she can turn into your ally rather easily."

Aria’s hands moved on her hips. "Answer one question: Was this your plan all along? Your killing intent didn’t seem just a facade."

With a laugh, Ray replied, "It’s not a fake; giving the opportunity, I wouldn’t hesitate to kill both of you, but there are other priorities that are more important." He stayed silent about his plan; from the beginning, he didn’t want Jade to die due to his fault, and to save her, drastic measures had to be reached.

He continued, "We pass all the rounds, you kill me before the finale, you get your rewards, all good."

The offer tempted both of them; Ray had shown his worth as a fighter, yet still he couldn’t be trusted.

"You are not the type to sacrifice yourself for someone else." Scarlet chimed in; during their short time on the battlefield, she had come to the understanding that both of them were more similar than she liked.

"Her journey had not started yet. She deserves to live." Ray sighed, "To put her out of the festival, I need help from the parasite inside of my body. You guys can sense its magic, so you can be sure that I wouldn’t do it to you."

He lowered his guards for both of them to see, like a child, his mind and organs were served on a silver plate for them.

Small needles came to being around his heart and many more destructive thoughts in his head; with a simple command from the immortal, he would just die.

"Go and take her out; we two need to discuss some details."

With that, Rat teleported to Witch, leaving the two immortals alone.

To Aria’s surprise, Scarlet was the first to start speaking: "If we were in their place, would you do the same?"

"What are you implying?" A dangerous light shined in her pink eyes.

Scarlet got closer to her until she could feel her breath on her face. "All I’m saying is I don’t fucking trust you, Aria.

"Trust? Since when is our relationship based on ’fucking’ trust? Yes, I wouldn’t mind if you died in the battle, so deal with it." She smiled. "And if you want, we can deal with this in another way."

Scarlet took a deep breath, controlling the rage she had held within herself so long. "I’m tired of your shit; after this mission, I’m telling Fereya to assign me someone else."

"You do you." She shrugged. "Now, about the blood angel, I say we take the deal. From the beginning I have blocked all access to the inside of the festival, so no one knows what happened."

"Having him by our side is not bad, but I want access to his death too." She stepped back. "From now on, we are not a team."

"Do whatever you want, but be ready to face the consequences later."

Scarlet flew away, and her last words before she faded away reached Aria’s ears: "Fuck you."

____________________________________________

Ray was a selfish person; he knew it better than anyone. All the cells in his body told him to go against his decision.

Jade’s sleeping body seemed weak and vulnerable, with blood all over her white robe; she had no sign of the strong woman that Ray remembered.

From the start, his plan was to work with the goddess squad, but first he had to prove to them he was worthy enough to ask for something in return.

"She’s the only one I wanted to be on my side at the end..." Ray shook his head; if both of them teamed up, there was a slight chance that they could kill both the immortals, and then the next rounds could get more extreme, and both of them would have died anyway.

In this way at least one of them could survive.

A sudden revelation happened to him; this could be the very last time that he saw her, even with everything he had, no way to stop his death.

Leaving out a simple note in her mind, with care and gentle motions, his magic started to heal her wounds.

"Teleport her somewhere safe..." Before his encounter with the Devil, he had made a bet with the parasite inside of him that if he survived, it would get Jade out of the game.

"It’s clearly against your will; why are you doing this?"

Ray hesitated to answer; he could easily ignore the parasite; it was going to do it anyway. After a few more breaths, he finally talked to himself rather than the parasite: "She’s my last anchor to this world, the only one that will remember me as who I was." His body shook from letting go of all the emotions he had buried for so long. "I’m scared of being forgotten."

A white magic swallowed the small figure, teleporting her somewhere else, far from the festival and the dangers that lurked inside.

"You are pathetic."

"That’s what makes me human." Ray closed his eyes. "Humans are fragile creatures, aren’t they?"

The parasite didn’t try to mock him; it seemed that it held some form of respect toward Ray’s feelings. "You can’t catch what you want as a human."

"No." He turned and started walking toward the outside. "Only monsters like you and me can thrive in this world."

With no burdens, Ray continued to walk in his path. After his return from the future, he had sworn that he would have no regrets, and for the first time, he had betrayed himself.

He regretted letting go of Jade.