I can't do this anymore.
It has been roughly two hundred and thirty loops.
I have seen my own family die over two hundred times.
It hurts, the feeling of dying over and over, the sight of my family dying repeatedly, it's too much for me to handle.
I woke up, the familiar agony of dying washing over my body.
A single tear fell from my eye as I stood up, my body felt strange, my body felt unfamiliar. I had been dismembered and decapitated more times than not, my nerves were fried and my senses were blurred.
I grabbed the sledgehammer and walked to the front door, like I had done over one hundred times.
And then after a minute, he walked in.
This demon, who i'd learnt was named "Mukurozan." was roughly 7 foot tall, extremely fat, but the fat felt more like muscle than anything even remotely similar to fat.
He had three eyes, one of which, the one of his forehead, had the words "lower three" engraved in them, but they were crossed out.
I had asked what this meant, I learnt that among the demons there were twelve significantly stronger demons and he used to be one of them before he was stripped of that title.
So… great. He was stronger than any usual demon.
He had dark purple skin, six bully arms that could stretch unnaturally and move in ways no normal arm should.
His "blood demon art" which was a special ability that some demons possessed, was the ability to suck in anything infront of him like he was some kind of… whirlpool or something.
Well, he was here now.
I slammed my hammer into his nose, knocking his head back.
Over the course of 100~ loops, I had learnt exactly where to strike.
He grabbed his nose and swung an arm.
I ducked under the arm and sweeped his leg from under him.
Another arm lashed out, which I blocked with the hammer, making me wince a little.
Deflecting the attack, I swung the hammer down with all my might, all my rage, all my frustration.
Straight into his head.
*SMASH!*
Blood pooled and the demons head was crushed.
Wait.
No.
This happened last time, he's gonna inhale now, right?
"Blood demon ar—"
Before he could finish, I shoved the handle down his throat, stopping him from continuing.
With him in this position, I ran to my family, hope in my eyes.
Waking up my father, mother, twin sisters and grabbing Riku, I led them into the main room, past the demon, who was still trying to get the sledgehammer out of his mouth.
Rina was distressed, she started to cry at the sight of the monster.
My mother screamed.
My father gagged.
Riku cried.
Yui fainted.
*STAB!*
Huh?
I looked at the source of the noise, and I couldn't help but give up.
I was so tired of this.
Of course, another demon.
Why? Why was there another demon? Why was my house a main target.
Had our fight attracted another demon? How common were these demons for another one to just suddenly appear?
The demon had two elongated bladed arms, one of which was stabbed through my mothers chest.
Tears immediately started flowing.
Was there actually nothing I could do?
Nothing I had tried worked.
We had hid everywhere.
I had woken my whole family up, broken a hole in the wall and escaped that way, but Mukorozan had just used his inhalation ability to eat us in one fell swoop.
I had fought it to the best of my abilities, but it just kept healing and I wasn't strong enough.
I had stalled time for my family to escape, but I still died, making me restart the whole process.
TICK… TOCK…
Gritting my teeth through the pain of being cut down, I lay down on my futon.
I'm done with this. It's a lost cause. Unless…
I stood up, I didn't know if I should do this, maybe it was too selfish, too cruel.
I had had this idea from the start, all the way from the beginning.
I walked through the main room, into the kitchen.
I stood there, my breaths coming heavy and fast.
One minute went by, and as per usual, Mukorozan walked through the front door, sniffed, grinned and then walked into my bedroom.
Not making a sound, I simply walked out the front door.
I walked a few steps, then some more.
Seriously?
I turned around, the demon wasn't there.
I heard a scream.
That was Rina's scream, she was being killed.
But I kept walking, tears falling.
Why?
Why on earth was this the only way.
No. I can't, I have to experiment more, maybe there's a way. Maybe I can help them. Maybe I can save them.
I ran back to the house, in through the front door and into my bedroom.
He sat there, devouring my father.
His gaze narrowed when he noticed me, then his eyes widened in delight.
I closed my eyes, waiting for that familiar feeling of death to sweep me away.
And it did.
TICK… TOCK…
I tried the same thing, only bringing my whole family with me this time. We all died.
TICK… TOCK…
I tried the same thing, only bringing my father this time. We both ended up dying.
TICK… TOCK…
I tried the same thing, only bringing my mother this time. We both ended up dying.
TICK… TOCK…
I tried the same thing, only brining my sisters this time. The demon waited a moment longer than usual but ended up killing all three of us.
TICK… TOCK…
I tried the same thing, only bringing Yui with me this time. The demon sniffed, waited a moment and he even looked a bit skeptical, but yet again. He killed us both.
TICK… TOCK…
I did the same with Rina, and he killed us both.
TICK… TOCK…
So. My theory was that he could smell the number of people, he could smell that there were four people in one place and two in the kitchen, but he could also tell that the people in the kitchen were awake and ready to leave.
So he decided to kill us first.
The reason he didn't do this when it was only me was probably because he didn't notice anything strange, my entire family being in the other side of the house had shifted the attention.
But what if it was someone so small they barely counted as another human.
Riku?
For this loop, I'll treat it as if it's the end, because realistically, it is.
I stood up slowly, my eyes red from crying in my sleep. I walked into my fathers room, tears threatening to fall.
I pushed open the door, my father immediately looking over at me.
I shifted awkwardly, "Dad… Mom… I love you both. More than anything in the world." I said, my voice breaking slightly.
My father sighed and looked at me from his bed, "Aren't you a bit old for bad dreams, kid?"
I manged a chuckle, "You're right, goodbye, Dad."
I closed the door and quickly moved to my sisters, they were both fast asleep.
I placed a hand on each of their foreheads.
"Goodbye, you two." I said, tears finally falling from my long lifeless eyes.
I stood up, picked the still sleeping Riku up and walked to the kitchen.
Twenty seconds later, the demon walked in.
He looked around a little, and walked into my bedroom.
My left eye twitched, my breath hitched.
Was this it?
Could I save even one of my family members, Riku?
I walked out slowly, out the front door.
Was this it?
Five steps.
Ten steps.
Twenty steps.
I heard a loud crash, but I didn't turn
Thirty steps.
This was it, it was over.
I started running, faster than I'd ever run before.
My heart was pounding in my chest, my breath visible in the night air.
My tears stung my face as I ran, the wind freezing the remnants of tears on my face.
Riku was stirring awake, he cried with me, as if he knew what was happening.
It was dark, so I didn't actually know where I was running, but I kept running nonetheless.
I needed to keep going, I needed to run.
…
In his cabin, Akira Saimaru sat on his bed, looking a little confused.
His son had just entered his room in the middle of the night, said some strange things and then ran back into his room.
All the years he'd known his son, his firstborn, Tokinari, he had never seen that look on his face.
Tokinari usually had the brightest smile on his face, he was always so quick to help those around him, he was a very selfless and kind boy.
So why had he looked so distressed? His eyes looked empty and it looked like he had been crying.
Akira hummed thoughtfully, maybe girl problems? He shook his head and sighed.
"I'll talk to him about it in the morning."
But at that moment, he heard something strange.
And then he heard a scream.
Immediately jumping out of his bed, he grabbed his sledgehammer and burst through the door.
He saw something strange, something he'd never seen before.
It was a disgustingly fat creature with dark purple skin and six strange arms.
But that wasn't what caught his attention.
His pulse quickened, he saw his twin daughters being brutally slaughtered.
But where was Tokinari? No. He couldn't think about that right now. He needed to stop this monster, if it meant giving up his life.
Raising his sledgehammer, he focused his breathing and swung.
*inhale.*
1…
2…
3…
*exhale.*
As he exhaled, he swung the hammer as if it were an axe against a tree and…
*WHAM!*
He hit hard, the demons body folding in half as if he were a piece of paper.
He raised the hammer again.
*WHAM!*
And again.
*WHAM!*
And then, his hammer was stopped.
His eyes widened as he saw the monster gripping his hammer with two of his monstrous arms.
"How…"
But before he could think anymore about it, he had been punched, punched hard.
He was sent flying through the wall, his ribs caving in on themselves.
He landed outside, rolling on the wet grass, leaving a trail of blood in his path.
His ribs were protruding out of his flesh, breaths never came and his consciousness began to fade.
And then out of the corner of his eye… he saw him.
He saw his son, Tokinari, running away.
Akira's eyes widened.
His face twisted.
But it didn't twist in anger.
It twisted in relief.
One final thought echoed in his mind.
'Run away… go and live your life, my son… run far, far away from that demon.'