He was his own villain. Raised by loving parents, yet he'd grown a pride no one could understand. He thought everything belonged to him, that no one was his superior. Pride had woven into his soul and carved deep into his mind.

He seized what he wanted without hesitation and expected to be commended. He left school, ruled the streets and everyone on them. Yet above it all, something soft struck him when he least expected it.

At the age of eighteen, he got one of his girlfriends pregnant. He trembled when he heard the news, but for the first time, something shifted in him. He didn't want to be the kind of father his child would grow to hate. His pride wouldn't allow it.

He got a job, showed up for his baby mama, and gave up all his reckless habits to be the perfect dad. But fate could be cruel when it chose to be. Only a few months into the pregnancy, she had a miscarriage.

It broke him completely, but his pride kept him standing, making him act as if the child had never mattered. But he relied on pills and drugs just to appear fine.

Then suddenly, without a call or warning, he was summoned to another world. While many cried and sobbed over the injustice, he viewed this world as the perfect outlet for all his frustrations.

He embraced the cruel world eagerly. But after his first Purpose as a Knight, standing in the middle of an unforgiving land where sand stuck to his skin and leeched his life away, where it invaded his nostrils and stole his breath simply for existing, he received his Wish for completing his Purpose.

The sight before him proved his pride was meaningless in this world. Floating before his eyes was a bronze screen that seemed seared into his retinas, bearing a single option: 'I wish to forget everything about my past life.'

His body shook as he stared, completely forgetting he was alone on a land that sucked the life from all things, a land that would kill him if he didn't escape. But thinking was impossible.

This had little to do with his parents constantly nagging about his notorious ways and begging him to behave, the nights at clubs with his friends, or even how his girlfriends obsessed over him.

No—

It was about the child. The child he never got to have. That short period when he'd actually been responsible. That wasn't something he could forget. That memory was all he had, and in this forsaken world, it was what kept him going.

A minute passed, and then another. Before he realized it, his window to decide had closed. Time had slipped away like light before he could even think of being selfish.

He howled in agony, cursing whoever and whatever entered his thoughts, pleading for just one more Wish. Then the pain intensified. His senses fled, his mind shattered, and before he could process it, everything vanished completely.

He became a Sinner, utterly lost and broken, slaughtering and eating human flesh without any comprehension of his actions.

However, it was as if his parents' prayers had somehow reached him. He started having little flashes: fragments of moments, actions, and sudden thrills of existence.

He was dead, that much was certain, rooted deep in his soul. But when he heard of a baby, his memories returned in heavy fragments. The very thing that had almost redeemed him then redeemed him now.

Initially, his instincts drove him. But before he realized it, he was facing a monster with a crying baby in its arms, a sinister grin spread across its face, utterly unconcerned with the baby's condition.

It was as though the universe had summoned him. He could become everything he hadn't been, just by saving that child who so obviously needed protection.

This wasn't about redemption anymore, this was survival. Life or death. He'd protect this child no matter what it cost him.

***

The silence between Tough and the Caretaker grew uncomfortable, dragging on endlessly.

The dark hollow where his face should have been throbbed steadily. Red energy radiated intensely from his arc, legs, daggers, and tail. Yet he stood motionless.

The Caretaker's menacing smile never faltered, its dark eyes lost in the shadows cast by the sun. The baby shrieked as though drawing its final breath.

But beneath the calm surface was calculation. Tough refused to move, knowing any action could endanger the child. The Caretaker seemed to relish this advantage.

The Caretaker bore a gaping wound in its chest, vast as the moon itself. It didn't bleed or throb, yet appeared strangely fresh, rotting and agonizing. Clearly, its power had been severely weakened.

After an endless stretch of silence, something finally motivated the Caretaker. Perhaps pride, or simply the need to end this stalemate.

The Caretaker withdrew into the destroyed building and gently placed the baby on an adorned surface covered in fluffy, comfortable foliage.

Suddenly, something struck the Caretaker with blinding speed, driving it into the debris and broken concrete. The child's screams grew more desperate, but Tough merely glanced its way with concern before rushing after the Caretaker.

As he closed in, the creature opened its bat-like wings to flee, but Tough transformed faster than ever, shooting up to nearly eight feet tall. He caught the Caretaker by the leg and launched it nearly a mile into the distance.

The devastating injury and brutal speed made it impossible for the Caretaker to right itself. It crashed into the ground hard enough to punch a hole in the earth.

That was precisely what Tough sought, a battlefield away from the baby. When human, he'd been constrained by this world's rules, living every day suffocated by his pride.

But as a clone now, nothing more than a walking corpse, he could finally be more than he was.

Halo had granted him something precious, a second chance, an opportunity to fix what he'd broken. And he would not waste it.

Something shifted in the atmosphere. The Caretaker's presence swelled, more overwhelming than before.

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