Another morning on the suburban meadow. But this time, when consciousness returned, something inside Hegemon had officially split in two. The psychological defenses he had built up through fifteen deaths before had completely crumbled in the face of repeated failures in this village.
"Hegemon, you—" Lily was about to approach him as usual when he was stopped short by a roar.
"ENOUGH! LEAVE IT ALONE!" Hegemon exploded, throwing his backpack to the ground, his eyes bloodshot, his breath coming in ragged gasps. "Save them?! No matter what, they'll all die! That village deserves to die, those guards deserve to die! I don't want to die anymore! I'm so tired!"
Lily stared in shock at her usually calm companion, now screaming like a madman. She stepped forward, her gaze shifting from worry to determination, her voice stern: "Hegemon! What are you saying?! That's the lives of hundreds of people, innocent children! How can you say you don't care?!"
"What do you know?!" Hegemon laughed maniacally, pointing to his chest. "I'm the one who suffered the painful death! I'm the one who saw them dismembered twice! You have no memory, you're just standing there preaching morality!"
Those words were like a knife piercing Lily's heart. She remained silent, her eyes welling up with tears, but she resolutely turned her back and walked towards the village. Throughout that day, a cold war raged between them. They didn't speak a word to each other. Hegemon sat motionless in the meadow, stubbornly closing his eyes to escape reality.
But deep down, remorse and guilt gnawed at his soul like maggots. The image of the child's shy smile receiving the candy kept lingering in his mind. Finally, as night fell and the blazing red flames of the burnt-out village once again illuminated the distant sky, Hegemon could bear it no longer. He plunged into the forest in the pitch-black night, frantically searching for the cult members to vent his anger, only to be surrounded and torn apart by a pack of wild beasts, consumed by utter regret.