World End: The Successor's Contract

"You saved me?" Zeno questioned with a bit of doubt in his voice.

"I saved you." Rachel responded.

They both stared at each other for a while before Uta walked into their middle to break the tension.

"Zeno, can you still fight?" Uta asked him, placing her hand on his cheeks as she looked into his eyes.

"Yeah, but first I need to make sure the others are safe… Boss Slayer is dead, I can't let that happen to anyone else." Zeno asserted.

"There you go again, thinking you can save everyone." Rachel chimed in, "We both know you can't,".

Zeno glared at her before moving his lips toward Uta's ear, "She looks exactly like you, what is going on here?" He whispered.

"She.. uhn…" Uta stammered.

"You still haven't told him?" Rachel interrupted again. She walked over to a medium sized stone and sat down there while dangling a piece of Beelzebub's body with her fingers.

"Tell me what?" Zeno curiously asked.

Uta had her eyes on the ground the whole time, she was getting pissed off but also made sure she didn't show it.

Rachel was quick to pick up on it, so she continued. With a laugh, she uttered, "Wait you really didn't know?" She asked.

Zeno looked at Uta and saw that her eyes were swaying away from the discussion, this was when he knew she was hiding something.

He swallowed his pride and took a few steps toward Rachel, "Tell me what you know?... Please." He requested.

With a sinister smile, Rachel crossed her legs, "You really don't know then…How many Uta do you think we have right now?" She asked.

The question came as a surprise to Zeno, wondering what she meant by how many Uta. So he proceeded to ask, "What do you mean by that?".

Rachel raised her fingers in front of her, "Let me teach you something, have you heard of the Curse of Jula?" She asked.

"Okay, that's enough!" Uta yelled, feeling enraged by the question. She stormed toward Zeno and tried to pull him away.

But before she could touch him, Zeno called out her name and she instantly turned into a sword before he grabbed it.

"Zeno! Don't listen to a word she says, I know her more than you do! Whatever comes out of her mouth are all lies!" Uta yelled in Zeno's head.

But he chose to Ignore Uta's protest and considered listening to everything Rachel had to say, and that put a smile on Rachel's face.

"About 900 years ago, give or take, that was your first encounter with his world, not like I expect you to remember but during this time you managed to gain the name, Successor from priests who claimed to have foreseen your visit, cliche... Yes, but people were digging it." She revealed while Zeno stood in front of her and listened.

Rachel then continued her story.

Ankias were being granted a contract by the Successor, they became his servant in exchange for overwhelming powers.

Things were going smoothly for them as they were defeating demons in cities while still making a name for themselves.

Until a day came when tragedy struck, the Successor died in a battle against the Demon of gluttony Belphegor

Uta was a weapon Ankia at the time too, she was filled with grief as she stood in front of the Successor's body.

Then she did something unexplainable to the rest, gouged out the heart of the demon, and placed it inside Zeno's chest.

This woke him up, but not as the Successor but as a monster who only wants to destroy everything.

Uta was forced to kill him again, but that goes against the contract, so she was cursed.

She was cursed to be immortal, but that wasn't all, the demon heart inside of Zeno began to react to the curse forcing Zeno into it.

The curse then spread to him and the rest of the Ankias. Zeno's objective was to come to earth and return the demons back to heaven.

But now he was cursed to forever remain on earth, and reincarnate with every death, watching the people he loves die every time he goes against any random Demon.

Rachel explained to him, Zeno was shocked but also felt a bit nostalgic as he was trying to remember.

"I was here... before?" He muttered with his hand on his head trying to hold back the pain he was feeling.

"Zeno! Snap out of it! Don't Listen to what she's saying." Uta kept on protesting.

With a smile on her face, Rachel continued, "Now poor Uta thought the curse only applied to both of you, but you can imagine her surprise when she heard news of Ankias appearing around the same time you were reincarnated,".

"She got curious and went to search, every single Ankia reincarnated alongside you, it was truly frightening, but what was more frightening was when she found out she also reincarnated." Rachel laughed.

She stood up from the boulder she was seating on and began gesturing as she spoke.

"What? Oh no? I'm here so how did I reincarnate?" Rachel teased before sending a cold stare at Zeno.

"She got mad, pissed, and jealous, seeing herself stay in hiding while the other one took the Successor's time all to herself… Then one day she snapped.

She killed her other self without a second thought, no shred of guilt, she was no human but a monster." Rachel asserted.

Zeno was a bit frightened by what he heard, he slowly raised the blade as he stared at it with a bit of fear.

"Uta… you've gone quiet… say something." Zeno muttered.

"Of course, she's not going to speak." Rachel laughed, "But hey if it makes you feel any better Uta, as you can see you failed you weren't able to kill me… and right now I just want you dead." She smiled.

"But don't worry, I'm sure you searched for the Uta in this reincarnation too, yeah I killed her…" Rachel sent a death stare at Zeno, "Right when she was still a freaking child".