Returning from the battlefield, I reeked so foully of the blood and carrion of the vanguard demon camp that the guards at the gates of the Sun City initially mistook me for a demonic infiltration.
Just as a treacherous blade was about to pierce through my back from behind, I pushed my reflexes to their absolute limit.
Spinning rapidly, I caught the man’s wrist with my bare hand and slammed him brutally against the stone wall of the palace.
The man cried out in agony as he slid from the wall onto the floor.
As he struggled to push himself up, he caught sight of my face, and his booming, familiar voice echoed down the corridor:
“Dammit…
Kaan, is that you?!”
Spreading my arms wide, I gave him a genuine smile and replied, “The Empire seems to have dulled your edge.”
The man standing before me was none other than Scatroj.
We quickly closed the distance between us and locked in a tight embrace, like old friends reunited.
When we finally pulled apart, Scatroj took a deep breath and said, “Come, let’s head into my quarters.”
As we made our way toward the chambers, I gestured toward the luxurious decor of the palace and remarked mockingly, “So, you’ve got ‘quarters’ now, huh?”
He burst into a loud laugh and retorted, “What did you expect?
I am a grand emperor here!”
The moment we stepped inside the room, the full weight of my exhaustion caught up to me, and I threw myself directly onto a large leather armchair.
Scatroj’s cheerful expression instantly vanished, replaced by an abrupt gravity.
“When I first arrived here, there was no one but Velmora.
You have no idea how terrified I was, how much I worried.”
Turning toward him, I lowered my voice slightly.
“I was just out for a little stroll.
As for Ermo, he’s relentlessly tied down at that false fortress to the north.
And I figured Enwoybi would show up sooner or later.”
Scatroj stretched out onto the bed, fixing his gaze on the ceiling.
“Kaan…
The truth is, I was only able to get here with Kaju and my personal guard.
The Western High Council never supported this intervention, nor did they approve of the alliance with the dragons.
In fact, they’ve already appointed a temporary heir behind my back; they’ve completely written me off.” He exhaled a heavy sigh.
“My actual purpose in coming here…
was to dissuade you all from this war.
I think we should just leave everything behind, my friend.
No matter what happens to them…
this isn’t our war.
In the end, both sides are our enemies, and watching them weaken each other works to our advantage.”
I stared silently into his eyes for a long moment.
“Brother, you know as well as I do…
it’s no longer that simple,” I said.
With a faint glimmer of mana at his fingertips, Scatroj traced an illustrative, up-to-date map of the continent across the ceiling of the room.
Pointing directly to the Sun City, where we currently stood, he continued: “Kaan, as you can see, we are completely encircled from every side.
Even if Enwoybi were to march out from the Elven Kingdom with his army right now, we wouldn’t hold out long enough for him to arrive.
And even if we did…
for what?
I say we smuggle Velmora and little Kyso out of the palace tonight.
I’ve already sent a coded message to Ermo regarding this.
If you hadn’t arrived today, I was going to put this plan into motion by myself tonight.
But since you’re here, I want to hear your thoughts.”
Straightening up from the armchair, I looked him dead in the eye.
“So…
you are actually serious about this?”
He nodded slowly, a somber weight in his movement.
“Fine,” I said, drawing a deep breath.
“Velmora is still a bit distant and skeptical toward you, being a dragon and all.
You make sure that small unit outside is ready, just in case.”
With our conversation finished, I began ascending to the upper-floor council chamber to find Velmora.
Just as I was about to pass through the corridor, I spotted little Kyso; he was playing a childish game on the floor with the towering commander of the Golden Legion.
The moment he noticed me, he abandoned his game and leaped into my arms with a joyful shout.
“Uncle!
What’s up?” he cried.
I lifted him up and ruffled his hair.
“I’m doing well, buddy.
How are you?
Where’s your mother?”
His small hand pointed immediately toward the large oak doors of the council room right behind him.
“Mom is inside talking to Grandpa right now.
I’m just playing with this armored mister until she comes out.”
I set him down gently and patted his back.
“Alright, champion, you keep playing.
I’m going to go talk to your mother.”
As I made a move toward the door, the Golden Legion commander suddenly stepped forward, blocking my path.
“You cannot enter without authorization, human,” he said in a harsh tone.
I tilted my head slightly, locking my eyes onto the visor of his armor.
“And what if I do?”
Just as the tension reached its breaking point, the door swung open and Velmora stepped out.
She gestured for the commander to step aside and said, “Please, enter, Lord Kaan.”
Turning to her, I knitted my brows.
“Stop calling me ‘lord’, Velmora.
We aren’t inside that damn game right now.”
I pulled her into a secluded corner of the hallway and explained the escape plan Scatroj and I had discussed, laying out the grim reality that the city was bound to fall entirely.
When I finished speaking, a look of absolute resignation, coupled with a fierce, unyielding pride, settled into Velmora’s eyes.
“I am the wife and eternal servant of Prince Ermo,” she said, her voice trembling slightly though her posture remained rigid.
“I am the princess of all dragons and the sole heir to the king of the high dragon race.
I will never take a single step back from this palace, nor from these lands.
But…
take Kyso.
He is entirely innocent.
I must pay the penance of my lineage with my own blood upon these walls.”
Staring straight into her eyes, I raised my voice: “Don’t be a fool, Velmora!
If Ermo returns here and finds you dead instead of with us, have you even considered the sheer magnitude of the fury and wrath he will direct at us?!”
She cast a glance filled with sorrow and profound affection toward where Kyso was playing.
“My lord…
I cannot.
Dragon blood does not know how to flee.”
I grit my teeth against her sheer stubbornness.
Reaching out with my mind, I established a telepathic link with Scatroj to convey the situation: “The plan is off, man.
Velmora refuses to come, and she won’t leave the kid behind.”
Scatroj’s voice echoed back in my mind with a bitter curse: “Damn it…
Then it means we defend this city until our absolute last breath, Kaan.”
Later that evening, Scatroj and I sat across from one another in the dimly lit palace chamber.
While Kaju was out in the military courtyard stationing the remaining demon forces along the wall lines, I turned to Scatroj.
“Tomorrow…
is going to be a massive day, my friend,” I said.
Scatroj, stripped completely of his usual jovial demeanor, looked back at me with exhausted eyes and slumped shoulders.
His lips trembled.
“Kaan…
“Enwoybi…
Enwoybi has been killed.”
The green leaf I had been idly fiddling with dropped from my hand instantly.
Letting out a forced, hollow laugh, I said, my voice ringing through the room, “Quit messing around!
There isn’t a single force in this wretched world capable of killing him!
Stop joking.”
Yet, catching the fatal seriousness on Scatroj’s face and the raw agony in his eyes, the words caught in my throat.
I lowered my head slowly, resting my hand against the hilt of my katana, and asked, “How…
how did it happen?”
Scatroj took a shaky, deep breath.
“While marching here with his loyal army, he had to pass through the territory of the ancient Titans, which is known as neutral ground on the map.
However, the Titans ambushed them from behind.
To make matters worse, those sellout Elven houses betrayed him as well…
Enwoybi was trapped in that valley, caught between two fires.
He fought until his soul was violently ripped from his steel body.”
“And…
what about Ermo?” I asked, trying to swallow the lump forming in my throat.
Scatroj let out a bitter, faint smile.
“We can’t reach him through any magical channels.
But he is likely still alive.”
A darkness, a profound sorrow deeper than anything I had ever experienced in this world, settled into my chest.
I stared the continental map laid out across our table, at the enemy markers closing in around us.
The situation was, in the most literal sense, completely fucked.
There was no escape, no reinforcement, one of our closest companions was already dead, and the army arriving at our gates tomorrow morning was intent on erasing us from the face of the map.
Fixing my gaze on the pitch-black ring of the siege on the map, I asked softly, “Do you think…
we’re going to die tomorrow, man?”
Scatroj replied in a voice so utterly calm, it was as if he were merely commenting on the casual weather: “Most likely.”
For a long while, a silence as suffocatingly heavy as the breath of death itself reigned over the room.
This oppressive quiet was finally shattered by the heavy, armored footsteps of Kaju appearing at the threshold.
Kaju bowed respectfully before us to deliver his report: “My lord, all soldiers have taken their positions along the walls.
As planned, the Golden Legion will defend against the demons advancing from the south, while we hold the western flank against the impending elven assault.”
Knowing exactly how miserable our odds were, the silent tension at the table hung palpably in the air between us.
Scatroj waved his hand weakly with a tired smile.
“Come, Kaju…
Come, sit with us.”
Kaju took a step back, lowering his head.
“I wouldn’t dare, my lord.
I am a servant; I cannot stand on equal footing alongside you.”
In a flash of anger, Scatroj slammed his massive battleaxe onto the table, its metallic clang ringing sharply through the chamber.
“Stop talking nonsense!” he roared.
“Look at this map!
Look at the absolute disaster we are in!
We are surrounded on all sides, Enwoybi is dead, and tomorrow this place turns into an absolute hell.
Tomorrow, every single drop of our blood will bleed into the exact same dirt!”
Excusing myself from Scatroj, I retired to the solitude of my own quarters.
As I lay back on the balcony armchair, watching the sprawling sky filled with brilliant, immense stars, I noticed a candle sitting on the table.
This was…
the first and only gift Luna had left for me in this room right before she vanished back to that mysterious camp.
Sparking a tiny ember of mana at the tip of my finger, I touched it to the wick, bringing the candle to life.
Due to its copper alloys, a mesmerizing, entirely green flame spread outward, exactly as I had anticipated.
Stretching my legs out across the table, I watched the mystical reflection of the green fire dancing against the walls of the room.
Observing the final night of the Sun City—a city on the precipice of absolute annihilation tomorrow—I could no longer fight the overwhelming exhaustion, and I drifted into a deep, heavy sleep…