A Blade Fiend's Fathoms, part 2 (after battle)

<So that thing behind him is...>

Indeed, that is the Monolith. The artifact must have entered his fathoms of ego the moment it imbued Bamboo-hatted Kim with strength.

This manor must be... where the mentor's last protectee resided before we departed S Corp.

Ah... such massacre...

Mentor, was this carnage the memory that has haunted your dreams and your waking hours for so long...?

Yet... the deaths of our dear fellows...

Tears begin to well in Aeng-du's eyes.

<...Ah.>

Again, something murmurs in my head.

Is this... Bamboo-hatted Kim's past?

A somber voice, drenched with woe, echoes in my head.

... For a fleeting moment, I once had this thing people call 'honor'.

Vile men, whose hearts are consumed by evil, oft approach virtuous officials to seek harm.

And I considered it an honorable deed to be a protector of the virtuous, to hew those that sought harm against them.

Yet, to be virtuous in a world of the vicious was to be prey to this merciless world.

And before such overwhelming might of the vicious, the irrevocably corrupt officials... my strength was inconsequential.

I had little choice but to leave S Corp. cradling my broken spirit alongside my fellows.

I have left my scarred honor behind at the land of my failure.

We became vagabonds. Lost, wandering, and weary; aimless drifters without a place to call their home.

Even their faith in my decision to leave began to crumble piece by piece. So did my faith in myself.

I began to... fall apart.

I have already failed once. What's there to say that I am not failing my dear fellows once again...?

The least I could do is to help them lead a stable life...

Yet that 'invitation' I received... only led them to their demise.

In the end... I failed my mission. I failed my honor. I failed my dear fellows.

Again, I am returned to the land of my failure...

The voice continued to murmur. But... it had devolved into nothing but a low growl, a quiet and incoherent rumbling.

I can't help but feel a bit of sympathy at his suffocatingly painful past...

... but that's exactly why we have to face him. To free him from this Distortion.

<Guys. We're putting an end to this. Right here, right now.>

Yes. It appears that we have no choice.

Aeng-du's grown far too agitated to function properly in this battle.

It's... all up to us now.