Surrounded by Madness

Phase 5 had just been initiated, and it was clearly the final phase.

The Renard, who just bore witness to the old man's death, realized that the other four contenders were still there. Ian, Veronica, and Gian-Luca who carried Venus, watched as the Renard frantically picked up the rifle and took aim at the group. Veronica noticed dainty nails on the Renard's fingers.

"It's a girl…" She thought to herself.

"Stay right there!" The Renard fumbled the trigger. "I could end it if you guys make any moves! Stay still!"

In the background, both sides saw that the wall of petrifying gas was sneaking up behind them.

"Listen," Ian had his hands up. "There's three of us, and only one of you. Even if you were to shoot one of us, the rest of us could take you down before you reload."

"And so what…? Even if you're all a team, only one contender can take the final prize home. Only one out of us five is going to be left standing, alone. If you eliminate me, you'll only be left to kill each other."

Veronica realized this point. She'd been ignorant to the fact that only one contender could win it all this entire time. "Wait, she's right though…"

Ian hushed her with annoyance. "So what?! What's your point, Renard?"

The label stunned the hooded one for a moment. She fumbled the rifle again, "My point is that I can make this situation a whole lot easier for the rest of you by killing all of you right now, and letting me win."

"Huh?!" Ian was stupefied. "That's absurd!"

"You're okay with being left to kill your own teammates after getting through this whole tournament together?!"

Ian didn't know what to say. His mind fought a battle of morals. There was the intent to drive this final opponent of theirs out of the way, so that only the Sins could remain, but he realized that the Renard was right. Only one person could come out of the tournament alive.

Ian sighed. The higher side of his morality had won. He looked at his fellow Sins; Veronica looked worried. To him, all she seemed to be was an energetic and stimulated girl. Gian-Luca just witnessed his own sister die, yet he still held onto the hope of life, having carried Venus up until now. Then Ian looked at himself. Unlike the others, he didn't even truly know what consisted of his past. His only life, and the only life he knew was being the Sin of Sloth. Although Veronica and Gian-Luca had certain memories of their pasts, they still continued to fulfill their roles as the Sin of Lust and the Sin of Gluttony respectively. As a whole, each and every one of them were just individuals that were bestowed an unfortunate fate—to carry the weight and burdens of being Sins, number one enemies to the public.

Understanding all of this, Ian asked the question. "Why are you here, Renard? What do you want to win at the end of this tournament?"

There was silence under the hood. For a moment, it seemed like the Renard didn't know what to say. She stuttered her eventual reply, "D-Don't you know what we want?"

"What do you mean 'we'?"

"What us Renards want!"

There was an awkward silence. "What do you Renards want…?"

"You don't know…? How do you not know about the Renards…?"

Ian shrugged. "I'm not too familiar with all the factions. Educate me."

The Renard hesitated for a moment. "Us Renards… We w-want to dominate! We want to set the country on fire! We want to be the only ones standing, and we want to k-kill everybody!" She aimed her rifle directly at Ian's head, though Ian himself felt a lack of intentional presence.

The Sins noticed time had gone by quicker than they anticipated, as the wall of gas had already begun to lurk below the hill. The Renard noticed this too, hence her sudden panicked attitude.

"Leave the win for me! L-Let me kill you!"

"Why should we? What if we want to win too?" Veronica now asked. The Renard turned the rifle's aim towards her.

"Because I'll k-kill you all, right here right now!"

Veronica started to feel annoyed, and so she strengthened her gaze on the Renard. But no effect was established, as the hood covered her eyes.

"D-Decide! Before I kill you all right here on the spot!" The Renard's gun trembled in her hand.

"Begonia," Veronica whispered. Ian nodded.

Suddenly, a low tone blared the sky, and resonated into the ground. The sun had struck midnight, and a bloody red sphere shone alone in the dark night above.

"I'll—!" The Renard's body swayed. "I'll…"

The Renard fell to the floor with her rifle tumbling aside. She passed out to the midnight noise of sleep inducement.

"I knew it," Veronica sighed in relief. "She was bluffing."

Gian-Luca was still confused. "Bluffing? You mean…?"

"She's not actually a Renard," Veronica told him. "I've come across a few from that faction before. They all had the same smell—that of a Black Dahlia. It's clear that those Renards regularly murder. But all I could smell from her was a Begonia…"

"She was clearly scared," Ian continued. "And she's clearly never actually killed anyone before. If she did, she'd have been an irregularity, and the midnight noise wouldn't have knocked her out…"

"Why would she pretend to be one though? And why would she be in the robe of a Renard if she wasn't one?"

Veronica shrugged. "I don't know."

Surprising their conversation, the sound of crumbling was heard nearby. The Sins looked over and saw that the imposter Renard had been touched by the petrifying wall of gas. Her body slowly turned to stone and cracked and crumbled, eventually spilling down the hill to join the rest of the dead that lay beneath the graves.

"Shit!" Ian panicked. "The wall's already here?"

All their attention fell towards the tower, which they ran towards and began to climb.

"What do we do?!" Gian-Luca yelled. He heaved through the weight in carrying Venus.

"I don't know, I don't know!!!" Ian was becoming agitated. Veronica watched as her comrades struggled to come to their senses while death approached, but even she didn't know what to do. Soon, the Sins were at the highest floor of the tower, where they would normally be able to oversee the entire cemetery. But now, only the green wall of gas could be seen, saturated in color by the beaming light of the red sun. The three of them caught their breaths while still contemplating on what to do.

"Is it true that only one person can come out on top?" Gian-Luca laid Venus down. "There's no exception to a team like us…?"

"No… I remember reading about something like that, that teams and alliances are allowed but only one contender can win the prize in the end."

"So what do we do then?"

He looked at Gian-Luca with nothing but uncertainty on his face. "I really don't know."

"We're not gonna kill each other, are we…?" Veronica now questioned. They all looked at each other, but none of them could bear the thought of it.

"No… but, what do we do then? If we don't, then the gas wall will continue to move until all of us are petrified. It'll only stop moving when just one of us remain…"

The Sins stood in silence as the wall of deadly gas was nearing the hill's surface. A silent cyclone of green surrounded the tower, encapsulating the dark light that shone from the sun.

"Are we just all going to die here…?" Veronica felt a tear drop from her eye. She thought of Vidia and how her body was left in South City to crumble into ashes. She was then brought to think of the single missing piece of their squadron—Midas.

"Midas…"

The other two heard Veronica whimper.

"If it's only us four remaining here… does that mean Midas died too…?"

Ian and Gian-Luca looked at her with realization. It had only just added up then.

"If Midas isn't here in the final boundary with us, then he might've gotten caught in the gas too…"

Gian-Luca felt himself hurt at Ian's words of reality. "There's no way… Midas too…?"

They all stood in a moment of silence, mourning their sudden lost ones. No one could bring themselves to speak, even if they tried. Midas, their leader who'd given direction to the Sins since the very start, was now nowhere to be seen. It was a massive strike to the lifeline of the Sins.

"Hah…" Ian began to scoff.

"What's wrong?"

He turned to Veronica with a desperate smile on his face. "Is this where we finally atone for our sins…?"

Veronica's face scrunched with remorse. "No… No!" She stomped against the floor with anger. "We can't just die here… We have so much more to do!"

"What then?!" Ian screamed back.

"Huh…?"

"What is there for us to do after this?!"

Veronica was stunned. She realized she couldn't compose an answer.

"Exactly. We're nothing without Midas. The Sins have no direction without a proper leader to keep us in check. And do you think any of us four can even come close to adding up to the kind of mind Midas had? No!" Ian turned away in frustration. "Goddammit all! Why? Why?!!"

Veronica began to sob at the clear loss of hope within their group. The green gas slowly grew closer towards them.

"I still can't believe it… Midas…?" Gian-Luca was still in awe about the idea. Veronica noticed his eyes begin to water. Her gaze then fell down onto Venus who still lay unconscious on the floor. He'd been in this state for an alarming amount of time now. Then across, Ian stood at the edge of the tower, screaming at the void in the wall of gas that nearly touched them. It would make contact with the tower in just a few minutes.

The end was near. The tower would crumble soon.