mmh Honestly, I don't know how I could talk about this chapter without letting you discover it first. A major chapter to which I tried bringing some special care.

I'll be waiting for your reactions^^



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The remaining soldiers only had the time to escape as the large metallic door fell heavily on the floor. All of them were on their guards, but their hesitance was nearly palpable. Who could have blamed them?

A large cloud of smoke rose from the entrance, and shadows took shape in its core. Human shapes, distorted in a way that reflected the monsters they were inside. Their contours became more defined when, in calm steps, they deployed out of the smoke. The deadly army, already victorious…

Among them, one soldier took notice of the almost headless corpse, one of theirs. Seized by rage, the man pointed his weapon toward the man who was obviously responsible for it. The man standing alone with a wrecked hand…

The last soldiers reacted like one man, shielding their leader and adopting a threatening stance. But the head of the city moved them away.

“Step aside and don’t interfere, soldiers.”

“But sir, he’s aiming at you.” One armored man protested.

“And you’re on the trajectory! Behind us, there are hundreds of innocent people. In front of us, killers with weapons that kill instantly at long range. And in between, there’s us, only armed with short range and melee weapons. You really want them to open mass fire at the risk of children, elders and women getting killed? We lost, soldier. Drop the weapons, or step aside.”

He truly believed in these reasons. He inherited the role of head of the city, would possibly be remembered as the one in place during the great fall, but he wouldn’t be responsible for other deaths. From now on, there was no more city. So everyone was free of his or her choice. Dying in fight, or submitting. There was no other way out.

However, he knew the enemy wouldn’t shoot at him. And indeed, on the other side of the battlefield, an imperious arm deviated the gun, stopping that hate to concretize.

“No. I gave my word.” Alexander forced his will on his subordinate. “I shall honor my part of the deal. I also do respect a leader who thinks about his people.”

Exactly like he expected. Because he had understood. How this army had so easily gotten inside the walls. His mind had explored all the craziest ways, trying not to get to the most obvious one. But here was the final proof that it was the correct answer all along…

Between the army and the crowd of helpless citizen, the nameless warrior clenched his teeth as he saw the massive leader stepping aside to reveal a familiar face. No… Not him. Not after all the chances he gave him, all the efforts, hopes and faith he had put in him…

“David…” he dropped. Disappointment would have been such a euphemism. “It had to be you…”

“Of course, whoever else?” The traitor replied flatly. It was curious… If such a desire animated him, where was his flame? His victorious smile? Or even the mockery? It seemed like it was a cold decision, and that was even more frightening. Because impulsiveness could have explained why he led hundreds of innocent people to slavery and death… “It’s always been meant to be that way, ‘nameless warrior’. You, and me, in one last confrontation. However today, I have something louder than your mouth to end this once and for all.”

The head of the city felt his legs shaking a bit as Alexander handed a gun to David. What was coming was easily predictable.

It was like looking at the setting of his own execution. And at this point, only one thing could save them all.

All hopes were contained in the pendant he held in his last valid hand.

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“He asked what?!” The dragoness shouted, fidgeting to get her front legs free from the rope.

“He ordered me to keep you away, until everything is over.” The female soldier replied coldly, with the tone of duty proper to her kind. But she insisted quite noticeably on the nature of her task. An order. Not a request.

“That’s so him… But I have my word to say on that!” She growled threateningly, throwing the restraining rope away, and a strike of her claws at the same time.

“No you don’t.” the lady warrior swiftly avoided the strike, and caught her front leg, this time with a chain. She didn’t look as strong or threatening as her male comrades, but she surely was far more agile and elusive! What’s more, her fighting style was confusing; Amaria was used to the threat of being cut or sliced, not to be tied up! This was definitely unfamiliar ground to the young dragoness. “And he told me there was absolutely no chance you’ll choose the soft way.”

As Amaria tried to hit her with her other paw, the woman in armor avoided it as easily as the first. Worse, she seized the occasion to tie her two front legs together with a simple twist, and pulled strongly to make her fall. Her scales were tough, but she could feel the chains rubbing painfully. The grasp on her second arm also woke up the wound on her shoulder, starting to send her adrenalin both from pain and anger.

While this move would have probably been drastically efficient on a human, the dragoness still had resources. Probably too accustomed to fighting bipeds, the soldier didn’t see the tail coming for her, propelling her a few meters away.

Just what she needed to get rid of her chains!

“You don’t even know him!” She growled angrily and menacingly, finally freeing her legs. “Your loyalty to your vocation is admirable, but I won’t be told what to do by one of those who rejected him!”

She had no time to lose, and she would certainly not wait for the soldier to recover. With only one thing on mind, she walked as fast as she could toward the narrow exit, with her wound hurting her at each step. She was almost there when a violent shock from the side deviated her body, and hit the corner of the tunnel entrance. Whether it was intentionally or not, she hit the wall straight on her shoulder, keeping her on the ground with a roar of pain. She might be a female human, but she had nothing to envy in strength to her male counterparts!

And this distraction was just the time the warrior needed to take the advantage… Mind occupied with her suffering, Amaria couldn’t react fast enough as the woman tied her legs and tail. She was crazily skilled in her art of combat… The dragoness tried to flap her wings and struggle, but in her position, she couldn’t reach or hit anything.

“Is that what he told you? That we rejected him?” The victorious human asked between two panting, visibly worn by the fight but yet not showing any joy in her win.

“It wasn’t hard to guess…” the dragoness growled as a replied, trying to break the chain but her wound stopping her from using the full potential of her muscles. “I’ve been there… during his descent in hell. I’ve been there to see how miserable he became because you despised his work!”

“Well time to break your shiny story, dragon.” The soldier replied authoritatively. “Because although everyone thought his time spent with you was a mistake, it was never the reason of his isolation. And I was there, when he chose it willingly.”

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A chuckle. Then a laughter. The head of the city burst out in laughter as David pointed the gun at him. He couldn’t help it; that was it. No escape, no plan, and his brain was completely burning out, forcing the mad laughter on the man.

His opponent had a weapon that fired deadly bullets. He had a sword he couldn’t grab, and only one hand that was occupied with the amulet. And now what? He tried, he tried so hard to make his wish come true, and stop all this. But what to truly wish? He was so close…

…And yet he started to believe he had put all his hopes into a fantasy, a lovely magic that only a kid would have thought of a solution. Because the piece of metal refused to respond in any way. How hilarious was that?!

“What is so funny?” David couldn’t help but ask.

“This! All this!” he threw at him, his laughter calming a bit but a crazy smile still illuminating his face. “I saw this coming from soooo long, everyone saw it coming and yet, I still followed that path! And do you know why, David?”

“Because you’re a moron who thinks he can cheat destiny, and that life would take a different course of events just for him?”

“Yes! But not only! Also because of you, David! I wanted so badly to help you, to give you a chance to fit in and begin a new life, a more peaceful one! Everyone told me it was a mistake, even you told me! But I tried anyway because it was the right thing to do! And now you’re standing there, like the world itself is punishing me for trying to be good! And you know the funniest in all this? I still don’t understand WHY the hell you’re so obsessed with me!”

It was a desperate measure… he needed time…

Somewhere in his mind broken by exhaustion, where mixed fear, anger, and genuine need to know, the young man kept trying to make the amulet work. Was his wish not sincere enough? Or not precise enough?

Or because part of him couldn’t stand a victory at such cost? Reluctance to give up his soul because life wouldn’t matter afterwards? He tried to think of a version that would work! But all he could come out with was ‘stopping this’, and that these hellish weapons were never invented. And of course, in between, thoughts of an Amaria unable to reach him anymore broke his focus…

Still, nothing worked…

“I’m sure you’d like to hear how my desires take roots in confusion and pain, explanations to why I’m acting the way I do. Sadly…” David replied coldly, aiming again. “You only killed my father.”

A thunderous bang suddenly filled the room.

Frozen by both terror and the unbearable pain, the head of the city brought a hand to his chest.

And took away red stained fingers…

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“He was one of us. The best of us.” The soldier stepped back once she checked the solidity of her chain tie. “He knew so many things on weapons, fighting, ruse… I was in his class at the academy and he dominated everyone. And yet he was so weird, always talking non-senses… Philosophy about peace, mostly, about how it was important to know how to fight to better avoid it… I think he believed that anyone could be helped and any conflict could be defused before it exploded, by the magic of mutual respect, empathy, and diplomatic talk… He told everyone that these kinds of values would be his real duty as a soldier. Because of his parents probably.”

In the mouth of the soldier, these indeed sounded like nonsenses. Because of her tone, mostly. And Amaria honestly couldn’t tell if it was a right or wrong way to see the world. It was this precise philosophy that had both allowed her to know him, and lead them to that situation. It had brought good and bad, like two faces of a same coin.

And yet, she preferred his vision to the pessimistic one of the woman. It wasn’t more stupid that thinking the world is cynical and meant to self-destruction!

“This part of him is still there. And I don’t see any bad in this.” Amaria growled, trying to break the chains but they kept tying her firmly.

“But the other part he shut silent when confronted to the reality. His soldier life, his duty, when it became real he couldn’t stand it. It is a thing to fight in training, with fake swords, but another to go on a battlefield. And so he dropped everything. Like that.” She snapped her fingers, with a sigh that told enough about her thoughts on the matter. “He isolated himself because he was ashamed of his own cowardice. And I like to think that, by obeying his order, I’m not only serving the head of the city. I’m giving him a chance to stand proudly on the battlefield at least one time. And probably die in honor.”

Only now did the dragoness understand in which measure her lover saw himself in David. It was more than similarities about being born in privilege and falling. It was the reason of the fall. A choice. He saw himself in David because his isolation was a choice, and wanted to show him the way out…

It was a way to keep a promise made to himself long ago. His duty as the soldier he would have wanted to be.

However, the last sentence of the woman gave her a new rush of adrenalin. One that still didn’t make her strong enough to get over the chains, despite vigorous and violent moves.

“how could you know that he’s even considering death as an option?!”

“Because he specifically said that he didn’t want you to see him die at the worst of himself.”

Like a dreadful finale of her sentence, the sound of a detonation forced both dragoness and warrior to silence. Amaria had heard several shots like this today, but this one made her freeze to the bone.

Because she felt a pain in the chest soon after the sound…

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So that was it…

It curiously wasn’t the most intense pain but… it was like it drained him from his forces. Unable to sustain his body, his legs crumbled, then loosened.

Irony at its best… Finally, Alexander had the head of the city on his knees. But anyway, no one would note it. Soon, the rest of the body fell back. He could feel the impact, faintly. It was getting cold… But he wasn’t afraid, not about the finality of his condition at least…

Trembling a bit, all he could see was the ceiling, with its pretty luminescent crystals… Like stars in the sky, bringing their light as people went to sleep… A good view at last, a good conclusion… Like a final painting…

Well, it seemed to be over for him… Did he have regrets? Oh, so many…

It was even pretty ridiculous, a story worthy of a bad joke… All he had done… All he had endured… to progress… to improve… to help others… to inspire hope… to make this world a little bit better…All of these ended then this way, and here. So unfair, and so lame…

He had failed Bolner… He had failed David. He failed everyone and especially, he failed Amaria and his promise to stay for her... So many times he could have taken a little step out of this. It wasn’t like he didn’t know by then that he should have… Pretending regrets would have been unbearable… what a pity lie…

He didn’t even know the majority of these people… Their deaths should have been the least of his concerns. The idea of having defended them the way he could though, was the only thing that allowed a faint smile to remain…

He had done what was right, even though it didn’t turn right for him… or Amaria… Or david… Or any citizen, thinking about it. He didn’t change their fate, only gained time… It didn’t even benefit the world, no good change had occurred because of him… And yet, he deeply believed that he did what he had to do. Even for so little as dying for his convictions, values and hopes.

He had been the one standing for the innocents. And he had tried to solve this peacefully, for good motives.

At least he hadn’t failed himself. In the end, he proved he could do better choices, even if they were stupid to the rest of the world… And that would be the only glimpse of happiness of his last moments…

Because over the comforting thought of delaying the citizens’ demise, the other possibility kept haunting him like the ghost of choices that were never made.

It was in the very end that he realized, that years of guilt with Amaria would have been less horrible. Far less horrible than the horror of leaving his beloved dragoness behind, condensed in what felt like a small eternity.

At least, he wouldn’t have been alone for his final breath…

The last thing he could feel, along with his worries for her, was a tear popping out at the corner of his eye.

Then all his body went loose, and his vision faded for good.