He had understood that before, when Barret had given him the gun.  ( Self defense, he had said.  We know he's in th' city, an' he might come after you before you're ready.  Be prepared. ) He had understood there was no way he was going to come out of this encounter alive -- not even his own back up believed in him, after all.  And, why would they?  He was a stockroom worker in a grocery store who dropped out of high school and drank too much.  Not much of a hero in any story.

        He would die, should the reincarnated demon king stumble across him now. He knew that.  And he accepted that.  That was why he was seeking him out now.  Put an end to this madness.  The fate of the world until the hero and villain were reborn rested on his shoulders -- that was why he brought the gun with him, in case there was an actual chance of this happening.  But he wasn't betting on that.

                ( How was he supposed to kill anyone, much less someone he had never even met? )

        In fact, he hadn't bothered renewing the lease on his shit hole apartment, and he'd given away his cat, and he had donated most of his meager savings ( all of $200 ) to a charity.  He hadn't quit his job, but only because he didn't mind the idea of fucking them over when he didn't show up for his next shift on account of being dead.

        He could tell where the demon king incarnate was, vaguely, from some sort of internal radar he didn't quite understand.  It had always been sort of a hazy kind of presence, but the older he got, the more pronounced it had become.  And when Vincent had told him exactly who he was and why his life was as shitty as it was, he had also explained this phenomenon.  The hero and the demon king were cursed to always be vaguely aware of each other's locations.  That was why the gun was necessary.

                That was why Cloud knew where to go when he decided to put an end to this idiocy.

                Let the world fall into despair for however many years.  It wouldn't be the first time the hero fell, after all.

        This version of the demon king, it turned out, did not keep very nice digs.  Cloud wasn't unfamiliar with this end of town, though he didn't spend a good deal of time out here.   It was not a very nice area, and he passed more than one street worker and drug dealer as he wandered further and further into the city.  He didn't worry too much about safety -- even though it was the demon king who had to kill him to fulfill his role, Cloud's latent powers generally kept anything mortal from befalling him.  There weren't many people who believed unsolicited murder of random people was the right thing to do, after all.

                ( That power didn't always work the way it ought, but he had survived this far anyway. )

        He was getting close, though; he could feel it. That meant the demon could also feel him, but that was fine.  Maybe his influence would gain him mercy.  Maybe his death would be quick.  If the demon king had any brain in his head, he would realize drawing things out may not end well for him, and that was the best that he could hope for.

        He slid the gun out from under his jacket into trembling hands before peering around that final corner.  This was it.  This was where his life ended.

                        There was nobody there.

        It was a dead end, and he could feel the demon lord nearby, but he couldn't see anybody. Just some piled up trash bags, a few knocked over trash cans, and a dumpster with its lid open.  That meant he was hiding somewhere, but --