Mirela blinked with her lips parting in surprise. "Master? What are you apologizing for?"

"For everything," Klaus replied, looking down into her wide eyes. "For treating you like an NPC... For pushing you away... If I die in there... and the system somehow lets you leave... please tell the rest of the girls I said sorry as well. Tell Serra I should have been kinder... Tell Zephyra she deserved better than this and tell Taula..." He swallowed hard. "Tell her I understand why she left."

"No!" Mirela cried out, hot tears instantly welling up in her eyes. She stepped forward, shaking her head frantically. "Do not talk like that! You are not going to die! You promised you would protect me! You have to come back!"

She reached out to grab him, to pull him away from the door, but Klaus gently caught her wrist.

He reached out with his other hand and gently, firmly patted the top of her dark hair. He let his hand rest between her goat ears, offering a warm reassuring pressure.

Mirela sniffled, leaning into the touch, her tears falling freely.

Klaus turned his head. Anya was standing a few feet away, bundled in her oversized blue tunic, watching the exchange with her striking purple eyes.

Klaus reached over and patted the little Shinigami’s silver hair as well.

Anya blinked in genuine confusion.

Her small, pale face tilted upward. She had been born from raw magical energy.

She understood the flow of souls, the mechanics of death, and the ancient lore of the gods but as Klaus’s calloused, warm hand rested on her head, she felt a strange alien sensation flutter in her chest.

She found herself wondering why her father’s hand felt so incredibly warm and comforting.

Klaus didn’t say another word.

He pulled his hands back, turned on his heel, and walked directly into the blinding whiteness of the double doors.

The transition was instantaneous.

The dark obsidian walls of the Endless Tower and the tearful faces of Mirela and Anya vanished, replaced by the absolute, sensory-depriving emptiness of the endless white void.

Klaus stood in the center of the nothingness.

Just like the first loop, the whiteness directly in front of him began to tremble and ripple, pooling together to form a massive, floor-to-ceiling mirror of liquid glass.

But this time, the mirror didn’t show a five-year-old boy.

Staring back from the other side of the glass was Regret Klaus.

He was eighteen years old, dressed in his slightly oversized high school uniform.

His skin was smooth, his dark hair was perfectly messy, and his eyes were wide and desperate.

Real Klaus... the man in his late thirties and looking exhausted stared through the glass at his younger self.

"Listen to me," Real Klaus ordered. "The world you’re living in right now is a trap. It’s a simulation built by the Second King. Melanie is dead... Our parents are dead... If you don’t let me take control of the body right now, that parasite is going to eat another twenty-five percent of our lifespan."

Regret Klaus stared at the rugged aged man in the mirror. His youthful face contorted into a sneer of violent rejection.

"Shut the fuck up!" Regret Klaus spat. "You’re a liar! You just want to ruin it! You want to take it away from me!"

"I’m trying to save our life..." Real Klaus yelled, stepping closer to the glass. "Did you not see the truck? Did you not see her eyes turn white?!"

"It was a glitch!" Regret Klaus screamed, clamping his hands over his ears like a stubborn child. "I fixed everything! Mom is making breakfast right now! Dad is in the living room! Melanie loves me! You’re just a jealous, depressed, old, wrinkly loser who is mad that he didn’t get to fix his mistakes!"

Real Klaus gritted his teeth with his fists clenching at his sides.

He saw the intoxicating delusion gripping his younger self’s mind. The boy was an addict, completely hooked on the euphoria of the regression.

"Look at you!" Regret Klaus continued to yell, pointing a trembling finger at the mirror. "You look miserable! You look like a walking corpse! Why the hell would I ever give up control to you? I’d hate being you! I’d rather die than be you!"

’...Huh?’

Regret Klaus pulled his fist back and punched the glass.

CRACK! SHATTER!

The white mirror exploded into a million brilliant shards.

The void collapsed, violently tearing Real Klaus’s consciousness out of the physical body and throwing him into the invisible, spectral passenger seat of his own mind.

Regret Klaus gasped, his eyes snapping open.

He was staring up at the familiar, glow-in-the-dark star stickers pasted to the ceiling of his childhood bedroom.

The soft golden sunlight of a crisp autumn morning was streaming through the half-open blinds.

He was lying in his warm, comfortable bed. The smell of frying bacon and fresh coffee drifted through the floorboards from the kitchen below.

"Klaus, honey! Time to wake up!"

The bedroom door opened. His mother walked in, wiping her hands on a floral apron.

She looked healthy, vibrant, and completely untouched by the horrific burns of the house fire.

She sat on the edge of his mattress, smiling warmly, and gave his dark hair a gentle, affectionate headpat.

"Come on, sleepyhead," she teased. "You don’t want to be late for school... Your father is already reading the paper..."

Regret Klaus felt the tears prick his eyes.

He sat up and threw his arms around her waist, hugging her tightly. "Morning, Mom."

He got out of bed, bathed, threw on his school uniform, and walked out into the living room.

His father was sitting in his worn-out recliner, sipping black coffee from a chipped mug, the morning newspaper rustling in his grease-stained hands.

’They got back together?... Great.’ He thought with a smile.

The house was filled with the mundane beautiful sounds of a functional, loving family.

Ding-Dong!

The front doorbell chimed.

Klaus grabbed his backpack and walked to the door, pulling it open.

Standing on the front porch, the morning sun catching her straight, dark hair, was Melanie.

She was wearing her perfectly pressed school uniform, shifting her weight from side to side, and waving cheerfully at his parents over his shoulder.

"Good morning, Mr. and Mrs. Richter!" Melanie called out brightly.

"Morning, Melanie! Keep him out of trouble!" his father chuckled from the living room.

Klaus stepped out onto the porch and closed the door behind him.

He looked at Melanie. The memory of her eyes turning blinding white and the massive commercial truck crushing his older self flashed through his mind.

He grabbed her by the shoulders with his grip tight.

"Melanie," Klaus whispered urgently, looking around the quiet suburban street. "Yesterday... after I pulled you away from the car. Your eyes turned white. You said something about dying four times. What was that?"

Melanie blinked, her striking brown eyes wide with innocent confusion.

"What are you talking about, Klaus?" Melanie laughed nervously, placing her hands gently over his. "My eyes didn’t turn white and... what car? We just walked home. Are you feeling okay? Did you have a nightmare?"

She tilted her head, her expression radiating genuine loving concern. There was absolutely no trace of the ancient tyrant from the void.

Regret Klaus stared at her.

His desperate mind instantly grabbed onto the lifeline she offered.

’It was the deity,’ Regret Klaus thought, exhaling a massive sigh of relief. ’The god that did all of this... it temporarily possessed her body to try and scare me. To try and test my resolve but it failed, and now the god has left her. It’s just Melanie again. The world is safe.’

"Yeah," Klaus smiled with the tension melting out of his shoulders. He pulled her into a hug. "Just a bad nightmare. I’m okay now."

"Good," Melanie beamed, looping her arm tightly through his. "Come on. We’re going to be late."

They walked down the suburban sidewalk, hand in hand. The crisp, cool autumn air filled Klaus’s lungs.

Leaves crunched beneath their shoes. As they neared the high school campus, they passed groups of other students.

"Hey, Klaus! Melanie!" a boy from his math class waved from across the street. "Looking cute today! Get a room, you two!"

A group of girls giggled, whispering to each other about what a "good couple" they made.

Klaus squeezed Melanie’s hand tighter.

His chest swelled with an overwhelming sense of pride... He wasn’t the weird, isolated, traumatized orphan anymore.

He was just a normal high school kid with a beautiful girlfriend and a perfect life. It felt exactly like a slice-of-life romance anime, and he was the main character.

The morning progressed in a blur of blissful mundane perfection.

During second period, Klaus sat at his desk with his textbook open in front of him. The teacher was droning on about history, writing equations on the chalkboard.

Klaus jotted down a few notes, his pen scratching softly against the paper. He glanced over to his right.

Melanie was sitting at the desk across the aisle. She wasn’t paying attention to the teacher at all.

She had her elbows resting on her desk, her chin propped up on her hands, staring directly at Klaus.

Her brown eyes were filled with an obsessive adoration. To anyone else, the unblinking stare might have been creepy.

But to Klaus, a boy who had spent his entire life feeling invisible and unwanted, it was the most beautiful thing in the world... though it got a bit

He offered her a small, secret smile. She beamed back, biting her lower lip.

’I missed all of this,’ Klaus thought to himself, completely surrendering to the warmth of the illusion. ’This is where I belong.’

When the bell rang for their free period, Melanie didn’t walk to the cafeteria.

She grabbed Klaus by the hand and practically dragged him down the empty, sunlit hallway, giggling softly as they rounded a corner.

"Huh, where are we going?"

She pulled him directly into the boys’ restroom, quickly checking to make sure it was empty, and slammed the heavy wooden door shut then she reached out and flipped the deadbolt, locking them inside.

"Melanie, what are you doing? We could get caught," Klaus whispered with his heart suddenly racing.

"I don’t care," Melanie breathed, stepping into his personal space. "You were looking at me all through the classes... I just want you."

She grabbed the lapels of his uniform jacket and smashed her lips against his.

SMACK!

The kiss was desperate and deeply invasive.

Her tongue pushed past his teeth, tasting of mint and vanilla.

Klaus’s teenage hormones instantly overrode any lingering anxiety. He wrapped his arms around her waist, backing her up until her hips hit the edge of the cold porcelain sinks.

Melanie gasped into his mouth. She reached down with her hands fumbling frantically with his belt buckle and the zipper of his trousers.

Klaus took the lead. He gripped the hem of her pleated uniform skirt and shoved it up around her waist.

He hooked his fingers under the thin fabric of her white cotton panties and pulled them down to her knees in one smooth motion.

’Cute...’

She was already incredibly wet.

Klaus turned her around, pressing her chest against the massive mirror running along the wall above the sinks.

He grabbed her hips, aligning himself with her slick center.

"Please, Klaus," Melanie begged, looking at his reflection in the mirror as her face flushed a deep beautiful red. "Do it."

Klaus pushed his hips forward.

SHLUCK!

"Ahhh~!" Melanie cried out, a loud moan echoing off the tiled walls of the restroom as he buried himself deep inside her.

The physical sensation was perfect. The tight wet burning heat of her canal clamped down around him.

It didn’t feel like a simulation nor did it feel fake... It felt entirely, undeniably real. Klaus lost himself completely in the pleasure of the moment.

He pulled his hips back and slammed forward, establishing a fast rhythm.

PAH! PAH! SHLUCK!

The loud smacking of his skin against her thighs filled the bathroom. The cold porcelain sink creaked under their combined weight.

"Oh god~ Yes~ Right there~!" Melanie whimpered with her fingernails scratching against the glass of the mirror.

Her back arched beautifully with her breath fogging up the glass. "Harder, Klaus! Claim me! Make me yours!"

Klaus gritted his teeth, his teenage stamina failing rapidly under the overstimulating friction.

He couldn’t hold back. His mind went entirely blank, consumed by the ecstasy of the act.

"Melanie, I’m going to—!" Klaus grunted, his pace turning frantic.

"Do it inside!" she begged, pushing her hips backward to take him deeper. "Fill me up!"

Klaus roared, driving his hips forward for one final, devastating thrust. He buried himself to the hilt and came hard.

SQUIRT!

Thick, hot jets of semen blasted deep against her cervix, flooding her insides.

Melanie’s internal muscles spasmed violently around him, milking every last drop from his body as she rode out her own overlapping climax.

Klaus panted heavily with his chest resting against her back. He slowly pulled his hips back, stepping away from the sink.

SLOSH...

As he pulled out, a thick, messy string of white cum spilled out of her swollen entrance, visibly dripping down the smooth skin of her inner thighs and splattering softly onto the tiled floor.

Melanie slowly turned her head. Her dark hair was a mess, her chest was heaving, and her cheeks were flushed.

She looked down at the mess between her legs, and then looked back up at him. She offered him an incredibly lewd thoroughly satisfied smile.

She turned around, ignoring the mess, and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him into a deep, messy, saliva-filled kiss.

Klaus kissed her back with his heart swelling.

...He had everything.

Hours later, the school day ended.

The afternoon sun was dipping low in the sky, casting long golden shadows across the quiet city.

Klaus and Melanie were standing near the counter of a brightly lit, pastel-colored ice cream parlor.

Soft pop music played from a speaker in the corner.

They were holding hands. Klaus took a slow lick of his chocolate ice cream cone, looking down at the girl leaning against his shoulder.

"What flavor did you get?" Klaus asked, smiling but across the room, completely invisible to the cashier, to Melanie, and to Regret Klaus, stood a ghost.

The Real Klaus was standing in the corner of the ice cream parlor.

He had his spectral hands clamped over his face, literally pulling at his graying hair in a state of madness.

"Why the fuck is this dude so dumb?!" Ghost Klaus screamed at the top of his lungs with his voice phasing uselessly through the walls. "She is a literal demon! She is harvesting our organs, you moron! Wake up! Look at her!"

Regret Klaus couldn’t hear the ghost as he was deafened by his own happiness.

He squeezed Melanie’s hand, looking around the brightly lit parlor.

"I want this to last forever," Regret Klaus sighed happily, a genuine, content smile resting on his youthful face.

He looked at Melanie’s brown eyes. "I don’t even need to take that God’s offer. I’m already having the best time of my life so I’m never leaving you."

The quiet, mundane pop music playing in the parlor suddenly, abruptly cut off.

Melanie’s cheerful, loving smile froze on her face then, it simply dropped.

All the warmth, all the obsessive affection, all the humanity completely vanished from her features in the span of a single heartbeat.

Her face became a mask of dead tyrannical apathy.

"Oh?" Melanie said. "That won’t do at all..."

Regret Klaus blinked, his smile faltering. "Melanie? What are you—"

Before his teenage brain could even begin to process the shift, before he could drop his ice cream cone or take a single step backward, Melanie moved.

Her hand shot up with supernatural speed.

She didn’t summon a weapon.

Her slender, pale fingers clamped directly over Regret Klaus’s face like a hydraulic iron vise, her thumb digging into his right cheekbone and her fingers wrapping around his left temple.

"Only two more times now..." the Second King whispered.

CRUNCH!

Her fingers crushed inward with devastating force.

The sickening sound of his facial bones fracturing and caving in echoed through the suddenly dead, silent ice cream parlor.

"GAAAAAH!" Regret Klaus screamed, a muffled shriek of pure, unadulterated agony tearing from his throat.

The ice cream cone dropped to the floor, splattering across the tiles.

The pain was too much... It shattered the illusion of the simulation entirely...

Through the blinding, agonizing haze of his fracturing skull, Regret Klaus’s vision wavered and split as the code of the trial tore open.

Through his tearing, bloodshot eyes, Regret Klaus looked past Melanie’s shoulder. Standing by the door of the parlor, leaning casually against the pastel wallpaper, was the ghost of his older self.

The rugged man wasn’t screaming anymore.

The Real Klaus just stood there, his arms crossed over his chest, looking down at his younger dying avatar with exhaustion.

The Real Klaus let out a long sigh.

"Fucking dumbass," the Ghost muttered.

Melanie tightened her grip on Regret Klaus’s crushed face. She stepped forward, planting her pristine school shoe squarely in the center of his chest.

With a single, horrific, explosive yank of terrifying, god-like physical strength... the Second King pulled upward.

RIIIIIP!

The sound was wet and unimaginably loud.

Flesh tore... Muscles snapped and tendons gave way.

The Second King ripped Regret Klaus’s head completely off his shoulders but she didn’t just take his head.

The violent upward pull was so forceful that it ripped his entire spinal column... a long, bloody, dripping tail of bone and nerves clean out of his back.

A massive geyser of hot, crimson blood erupted from the stump of his neck, spraying wildly across the pastel walls of the ice cream parlor and raining down onto the black-and-white checkered floor tiles.

The headless corpse of the teenager collapsed backward, hitting the ground with a wet, heavy thud.

The Second King stood in the center of the parlor, holding the severed head of Regret Klaus by the hair.

The long, bloody spine dangled beneath it, dripping thick globs of gore onto her perfectly pressed school uniform.

She lifted the severed head until it was at eye level. She looked into the real Klaus.

The Second King puckered her lips, her eyes glowing with blinding luminescent white light, and blew a mocking kiss directly at his face.

"Two more times, He~ ro~," the Second King sang.

The exact second the kiss landed, the entire simulation of the suburban city completely shattered into a billion fragments, dissolving back into the darkness of the void.

[Your Trial Is Over!]

[You have Failed.]

[Penalty: 25% of your Lifeforce has been gifted to ???]