The Savior's sword

Pulling Emera out of the pile with an indifferent expression and holding her at the front while not knowing whether the warrior woman was alive or not, Raian examined the injuries and possibilities of her survival. 

Her weapon, armor, and ornaments were nowhere to be seen from the previous instances he saw her.

So far as he examined Emera, he saw no critical injuries as he continued searching until Raian moved her bangs to reveal her face, he was optimistic about her survival, but upon moving the long bangs with his hand and seeing the warrior's state Raian's optimism took a hard hit.

The warrior's eyes seemed to be pulled out of where they should reside followed by a vertical cut from ear to ear. 

"Who?" woken up by the Raian moving her, the warrior asked the figure who was caressing her forehead and holding her.

' Can I die in peace' asking herself. 

"It's me Raian, hold on, I will save you," assuring Emera Raian summoned [Cursed potion of vitality]. 

Seeming to realize who it was and their intention, Emera raised her hand to stop Raian from pouring the potion on her injuries. "Stop, it can't save me." 

"It can, no it will save you; I healed a cut deeper than that within seconds with this, hell it might even heal your blindness, I'm sure…. " 

"No, it's my aspect, I cannot be saved," said Emera weakly.

"What?" 

"My flaw forbids me from being healed so save your efforts." 

Before Raian could question this ridiculous flaw of Emera, she coughed out purple gunk mixed with some blood from her mouth and continued speaking. 

The gunk stuck to her face as the blood flowed down her paling face. 

"This is not the time for saving me, you must help Captain Gemma, while we expected an uphill battle against them, the actual number of their fodder was too much for us warriors to handle and they overwhelmed us. We tried to eradicate them swiftly without the help of our ascended as they needed to be in peak form against the enemy saints, but we failed, Master Geralt was forced to step in and help us, and now I fear Captain Gemma, Geralt, and Luciel are in worse shape to face against 2 saints of color. " 

"What must I do?" 

"The main objective of us warriors were to let the three masters engage the saint in peak condition but they are worn out, now tired from the previous clash, you must support them, even at the cost of your life, buying them a fraction of a second can affect the outcome of their battle, THE DEVIL MUST DIE." 

Specifying on her last line Emera showed deep hatred for the mysterious devil as she coughed up more blood. While Raian didn't pay attention to the blood, the blood mixed with purple dropped on the ground creating a 'hiss' sound and started to slowly dissolve the ground.

Coughing up more and more blood as she talked, Emera's condition was deteriorating sharply. 

Even though Raian would never sacrifice himself for a world that is just an illusion solely created for his nightmare or a world from ancient times revisited for Raian's assessment but.

He could lie to a dying lady to let her rest in peace. 

Squeezing her hand firmly, Raian stared at her nonexistent eyes. "Do not worry Lady Emera, I shall see this through to the end and I will do my absolute best to make sure Captain Gemma remains victorious in this battle." 

On an off chance the awakened healer could read his lies with some unnatural power, he made his answer as vague as possible. 

He meant every word he said though, His best chance of survival was the victory of the three masters.

Whether or not Emera saw through Raian's answer is a mystery, 

Against his answer the blind woman could only smile back. 

But she wasn't going to die without a final resistance though. Raising her hand as she attempted to summon a memory, following her essence from her core to the tip of her hand the pale skin turned purple, further spreading the rot in her already rotten body. "My death is still absolute." 

Seeing her dying state, Emera had no more will left to live.

"Then give me your memories." Raian firmly asked.

"I can't, I'm sorry, the poison is intercepting any contact with my memories." 

Even though she knew she couldn't, Emera gripped Raian's hand and tried to send all her possessing memories to Raian. 

It did not work.

She felt her hand as she gradually lost control of it, feeling her insides burn she felt death embrace her as she attempted to speak.

Before she could speak her last. 

Raian stabbed his sword into Emera's chest. 

Fearing that the poison would consume her life before he could, Raian rotated the sword inside Emera's chest.

Digging it deeper as he frantically impaled through her body to make sure she died not because of the poison but because of him.

Raian nearly started spinning the sword inside Emera's chest until the spell whispered: 

[You have slain an awakened warrior]

While Raian's expression did not change from the initial indifference.

He was pissed that Emera died, not because of her sad struggle-filled death it was because he couldn't get the memory from her before she died. 

He thought of ending Emera's struggle with his bare hands, but the mention of poison repelled that plan.

At least he could kill Emera and test his luck on getting an echo.

Bating his breath as he waited for the spell, he could only shake his head in disappointment. 

He did not get an echo. Seems like Hope had eluded Raian yet again.

He felt no guilt about killing Emera himself, the poor woman was already on death's door and even if the poison didn't kill her. 

Raian didn't care about her survival. In his mind, his survival was the sole task keeping him going in the depressing nightmare. 

After all, the one who was called Emera was just an illusion of the past, the outcome here wouldn't affect the real history. 

That was his justification. Well even in the real world if he deemed the outcome of killing his comrade to lead to a better outcome, he would do it as well. 

That was simply logical even though the chance of that happening was slim to none.

Collecting himself while standing up, prevailing and discarding the useless emotions budding inside himself such as Guilt, Distress, and Hopelessness, Raian got up and slowly walked to the massive gate made of metal. Wood? Maybe it was a mix of the two. 

He didn't know what the door was made of, but he could tell he couldn't break through it. 

Luckily Raian knew a closed door didn't mean a locked door and according to Emera the rest of the warriors had already entered through here so there was no need to worry about the door being locked. 

Leaving the hall filled with mangled bodies of fellow warriors and demonic humanoids, a lone man stood tall and alone before the gigantic gate-like door, ready to go through it.

Raian paced himself, he knew what was happening on the other side, the outcome of said battle would determine whether he lived or not, whether he would change the slum for the better or it just stay the same. 

Exhaling a deep breath Raian entered the finale of his first nightmare.

////////Author Note///////// 

Thanks to Romance_guy for telling me to add tags, i rly forgot about it, i also updated the synopsys. Comment what you think about it. 

I think i made Raian more like a shounen protag with a big dream and endless challenges instead of a cold logical thinker.