Shao’s body landed somewhere near where I was getting to my feet. With a shout, I ran over to her. As soon as my hand touched her, I started trying to use healing spells. Yet, this was a soul dungeon. She didn’t have a physical body, so what exactly was I trying to heal. As I left her head in my hand, I prepared to send some of my life into her. Just as I was about to do this, Shao’s hand whipped out and grabbed my wrist, stopping me.


    “Stop.” She declared, her eyes fluttering open. “Your Shao... is still out there.”


    “E-even so...”


    “I know her... Deek. I’m based on her. As much as Miki’s creations were created at her whim, she wasn’t a fool. Her mastery of mind and magic led her to understand us in ways we didn’t understand ourselves.”


    “What are you saying?”


    “Shao... is in trouble.”


    “What?” I responded. “She’s on Earth.”


    “I understand now,” I responded, lowering my eyes back on him. “I understand everything.”


    “Then, I will end her life now-”


    “You were created based on me, at least the me that Miki felt that she needed.” I cut him off. “For the longest time, I had felt that I wasn’t good enough for the girls. I felt that if I just became better, and stronger, and more capable, that I would one day become everything they wanted me to be. I would become the man that deserved all of these women. That was a mistake.”


    “You are powerful, but in this place, I will have the advantage.” Hero declared.


    “You misunderstand... I’m not saying that I’m not powerful enough. I’m just saying that the mistake I made was thinking that I needed to meet their expectations. It was meeting their expectations that was the problem. Miki was convinced I had died. Perhaps, Celeste being the smartest in the party was accurate, because she was the only one who had faith that I didn’t perish. For the rest of you, you couldn’t imagine a me that survived. As our time was short, you likely were always thinking somewhere in the back of your mind there was a time when I would leave you. Even as you smiled, and held onto me, you feared, no... expected that this time wouldn’t last!”


    “What are you saying?” Hero demanded.


    “I thought I had to meet the expectations of the women of my life. I thought I had to be good enough for them. I was far too modest. I had to be better than that. I needed to be a stable rock that would never fail and would always come, no matter what. I’m no longer satisfied with being enough.” I pulled out another blade from my inventory. “I will be the best!”