Outside the world grew thick with dust, filling the air and hiding the burning sky, coming from the far west as if signaling a new threat yet to realised. As the Corpse King destroyed the meteorite the impact of the firey space rock colliding with its’s mighty blade sent a massive shockwave through the goliath shattering its tether to reality. In the seconds that followed Hayate’s guiding voice ceased to speak as the spectral shogun flaked out of existence leaving the boy in a free fall careening to the streets below. His vision was faint and with what little time he had to react the shinobi twisted his frame, aiming his metal arm in the direction he thought the keep to be, before clenching his fist causing the grappling hook within it to fire. He held his breath as he waited in anticipation for his impending doom until at the last moment he was jerked violently by his wrist.

With great force, the shinobi wiped through the debris before slamming hard against the side of the keep about fifteen feet or so from the ground. The hit forced the breath from his lungs and he felt one or two of his ribs crack but otherwise, Hayate was unscathed. With such an abrupt end to the conflict, he hadn't the faintest idea of what to do now, and by the appearance of a number of survivors converging on his location his options were limited. He only hoped that his last act of defending the Assembly from the space rock would be enough to atone for following Shinsou Vann Osiris in the eyes of the city. Though in all honesty it didn't seem like a possibility in his mind and as he disengaged the mechanism holding him to the wall Hayate pondered what was to happen now.

It was always a risky decision between fight or flight, but this time a strang feeling filled his being. He didn’t wish to run, not did he wish to fight any longer.

He hit the ground with a small thud before looking around. He heard his name being uttered by the crowd now forming around him. Softly at first but as the denizens around him grew in numbers so did their anger. They cursed him, they spat and threw small rocks, he deserved everything they had to give. He couldn’t deny his part in their suffering any longer, becoming the very thing he vowed so many years ago to destroy. As a rock struck him clean in the jaw all he could do was stand an take it, for he would not be the reason for more bloodshed.

“Give…” he started as one after another he was struck by the crowd throwing whatever in arms reach. “Give it all to me,... all of your pain… all of your sorrow…” he continued as blood began to drip from his face. “I Amatsukami Hayate son of Akashima will wear it, and bath in the bitterness of which I have sought” One particularly large rock planted itself in the shinobi’s gut forcing the boy to the one knee as the crowd held no opportunity to punish him.

“Get on with it!” one voice yelled over the crowd. “Someone gut em’ already!”

The crowd cheered agreeing before quickly growing quiet as the doors of the Steel Keep swung open and from within emerged a small troop converging on the bruised and battered boy. He closed his eyes accepting the reality of his situation, he was a war criminal stuck in enemy territory. His life was now in the hands of the makers and for the first time in a long time, he didn't mind it at all. Then another voice overcame the crowd, one demanding to see him and commanding the citizens to comply. The rocks stopped falling and the crowd made a path for the man tho Hayate still dared not open his eyes for if this was his last breath he wished it to be a somber one.

A frog formed in his throat as he thought about everything that brought him to this moment. At first he saw himself sitting at the seat of his father’s merchant empire, then it was his first meeting with Osiris and losing all that he had in a single night. To becoming a member of the Brotherhood and quickly climbing its ranks than finally the battle of Tylermande. Hayate hated every moment of it. He hated the person he saw in the mirror, the avenger who had strayed far from his path.

“If you're here to kill me then do it,” the words almost felt cathartic leaving his lips as if a great burden was lifted from his shoulders. “Forgiveness isn't for the like of people like me.” As an act of atonement, Hayate undid the latches that connected his metallic arm just above the elbow and removed his artificial appendage, placing on the ground in front of him both metaphorically and figuratively disarming himself.