Chapter 6: His Heart, Her Curse
The battlefield was quiet. Too quiet.
Kale stood amid the remains of gods, heroes, and traitors alike. The sky above had turned a dull crimson, not from the setting sun—but from the blood of the divine spilled across the heavens. His blade, forged through 1000 loops of despair and sacrifice, dripped silence. Not blood. Silence.
It was done.
But nothing ever truly ended.
---
Scarlet knelt beside the ruins of a temple, her fingers trembling as she clutched the broken pendant Kale had once given her in Loop 997. It was a trinket now, cracked and hollow. But inside it, she could still feel his thoughts.
"It's not peace if she has to watch me die again."
"She deserves more than my ashes."
He didn't know she could hear him. He didn't know that in this loop, she had come back too.
And now she understood what it meant to be cursed—not by magic, but by memory. By truth.
---
"You planned this all along," she whispered, voice raw with anger and disbelief. "Even after I killed you… you still protected me?"
Kale turned, not surprised, but not ready. "Scarlet…"
"You liar."
He didn't move.
"You told no one. You died alone. Again."
"Because someone had to make sure you lived," he said simply, as if it was obvious. As if he wasn't choking on the pain behind his words.
---
Scarlet's eyes shimmered red, the bloodline of the old world roaring in her veins. "You idiot. You think I wanted that? You think I came back just to watch again?"
Kale smiled. Not with joy—but with acceptance.
"You were always the end of my loop. And the reason I began again."
Her heart cracked.
He stepped closer, gently placing the pendant in her hand. "This time, I burned everything. Even my soul. There's no loop left to return to."
She froze. "No."
"I gave up my right to reincarnate. I sealed the Cup of Doom into myself and shattered its link to Eren."
"That means—"
"I will cease. No body. No soul. Just… ashes."
---
The world trembled.
A divine wind howled. The gods he had defied reached down one final time to claim what remained of him.
Scarlet ran forward—but too late.
The wind tore him apart piece by piece, starting with his blade, then his armor, then his voice.
But his eyes lingered.
Still gold. Still full of her.
She screamed.
"KALE!"
But the wind didn't stop.
And neither did the gods.
---
Only ashes remained, caught in the folds of her crimson cloak.
And as the storm passed, she realized the vow he had spoken silently—loop after loop, death after death—was never broken.
"For you, I stayed."