The Path of Ruin

Kael blinked slowly at first. He saw the dark clouds dissipating from the gray sky, then the pale silhouette of the sun struggling to bring its light to the ground.

"Ugh..."

First, he turned over, then he tried to get up with the support of his arms. While thinking about what had happened, he looked around.

He was in the center of town. The clothes he was wearing looked somehow... burnt. But they were also wet. Not only his clothes, but the whole town was wet when he looked at it now. It was as if it had rained for hours, hard and heavy, faster than he had ever seen in his life.

But that was not all. Some houses had collapsed, some were literally... smoothly cut. There were a few bodies around, either drowned or killed with the same smoothness as the buildings.

His eyebrows furrowed, his eyes squinted for a moment. And then... he froze.

'Ah...'

Everything before he fainted rushed into his mind. His eyes quickly scanned the surroundings, looking for two familiar figures. And he found one rather quickly.

Tharon was standing where he had been, right in the center of the clearing. He was panting, the light blue glow in his eyes gone, replaced by his original color of yellow. His left arm was missing, cut off as smoothly as everything else around him. There was also a slash across his chest, running diagonally from his shoulder to his waist.

Kael swallowed. This time, his eyes searched for the man with the sword, Tharon's opponent. But... he was nowhere to be seen. Who knows, maybe he had blown away somewhere far away.

He turned completely around, looking for Imperial soldiers or someone else. But he could see no one around. There were a few townspeople looking at the spot where he was, behind the windows of their houses, staring at the area with widened eyes. But... there was no one else.

'Only for now, though...'

Soldiers and other bearers probably surrounded the town, waiting for Tharon to die or come out. They must have been afraid to approach him.

'They might even be watching me. I'd better be-'

He paused at the sound echoing in his ears. His eyes slowly turned in the direction of the sound, and then he heard the same sound again.

The splashing sound of stepping in a puddle, followed by the sound of the thing caused it... footsteps.

When he finally saw the figure moving towards him... he just froze in place.

Tharon was staring at him with his yellow eyes. He was coming towards him, limping slightly, but without losing any of his dangerous presence.

'H- huh?'

Kael didn't know what to do, but he forced himself to his feet. There was a slight soreness that wrapped around his whole body, but it was nothing important. He would probably be fine in half an hour.

But he didn't care about the pain. As soon as he stood up, he stepped back. But in the time it took him to take one step, Tharon took three.

His whole body was shaking. He wanted to run, but he couldn't move. Every movement he made was slow.

"S- stop..."

But Tharon did not. Eventually, there were only two meters between them.

Kael didn't know what to do, what to feel.

But he knew that right now, he was scared to the bone.

He had seen what the man in front of him could do. He could create literal storms... and make dragons out of raindrops.

And now, he was right in front of him. He was looking at him, blood oozing from his lips, his eyes calm and still.

And Kael was... completely frozen. He couldn't look away from the man's eyes, he felt like he was going to... die the moment he did.

But, then, he noticed a detail. A tiny detail that he could see out of the corner of his eye.

His eyes widened even more. He swallowed the words he was preparing to say, even though he was sure he couldn't, and looked at Tharon with a blank expression.

"N- ne?"

His eyes had now shifted elsewhere, to the man's neck.

There was something very familiar to him. Something that reminded him of his past, of the status he used to have.

A mark.

A mark of slavery.

"Why?"

But... he was not the one asking that question.

When he heard the words coming out of Tharon's mouth, he froze in place.

And with his next words, he literally felt shivers run down his spine.

"Why do you have the royal blessing?"

Silence, a deep silence.

Tharon continued to look at him without saying anything else. Kael, on the other hand, with dilated eyes and an expression that was literally drained of blood.

And then... more blood oozed from between Tharon's lips, slowly trickling down to his chin... dripping onto the floor.

It was clear that he was in pretty bad shape.

But Tharon continued to stand in front of Kael as if he was fine.

And... he smiled slightly.

"It seems don't have much time left. Can I... ask for something?"

'W- what?'

Kael didn't understand anything. With every minute he continued to live today, he found himself in an even more absurd situation.

His life, which had been quite monotonous for almost two months, had been shaken by a really sudden change. He had been captured by Imperial soldiers, he had witnessed a clash between two people who might be the most powerful people he would ever meet, he had survived, and now... one of these people was standing in front of him, asking for something from him in the last seconds before he would die.

If his situation had been different, maybe he would have laughed. Because... it was strangely ironic as it was absurd. First the man the Empire sent to the palace, then the king, now Tharon.

For some reason, all the truly 'powerful' people he met were either on their deathbeds or already dead.

But he was in no condition to think about that right now. Because Tharon had not finished speaking.

"I was a slave to the father of Markhus V. Arcanoa, the previous king, but... I'm tired. I'm tired of following a dead man's last command non-stop, I'm tired of feeling as if every fiber of my soul is being held in chains. Will you at least... free me from my chains before I die?"

His eyes seemed to sparkle. His skin color was fading with each passing second. He was trembling, feeling the coldness of death.

But... he was also excited. As if... the freedom he had been looking for all his life was right in front of him.

"Will you let me at least once in my long and meaningless life... taste true freedom?"

Kael didn't know what to say. He stared blankly at the man who was slowly letting himself die in front of him.

What was he supposed to do? How was he supposed to respond?

He looked into the man's eyes. He saw the excitement, the anticipation. Then... the emptiness, the coldness that slowly replaced it.

Death.

He looked at the mark on his neck, the mark of slavery, which he himself also possessed not so long ago... and he swallowed.

He didn't know why, but he felt a little calmer now. Was it because the man in front of him was a slave, just as he had been? Was it because, despite the power he had, he was asking for something kindly? Was it because he was so close to death that he couldn't help but sympathize with him...?

He didn't know.

He didn't know anything, really.

But... he wanted to answer the man.

He wanted to fulfill his last wish.

He really wanted to free him from his chains.

Yet he didn't act purely on emotion. He could... use this situation.

"On... one condition."

He saw Tharon raise his eyebrows. But he ignored it and continued.

"Your death will be by my hand."

As if he understood what he was talking about, Tharon said nothing. Not even surprised, he answered Kael in silence.

And so, Kael took a deep breath.

He bowed his head, closed his eyes.

His mind went back months, to that moment in the palace... to the seconds he was in the king's chambers.

The words he heard then replayed in his mind, then how the mark on his neck had disappeared.

And... he murmured in a voice so low that almost no one but himself could hear him.

"I, Kael, by my authority as sole king of the Kingdom of Arcanoa, free you from your slave status."

He repeated exactly the words of the previous king.

But... nothing happened.

And Kael realized the mistake he had made.

'Heh...'

As his lips curled upwards, only one thing crossed his mind.

'I'm... not a real king, right?

What was in his chest, just above his heart, was not even a blessing.

It was a curse because he was not royalty, because it rejected him.

But... he was not entirely wrong.

After all, he had something that only the kings of Arcanoa should have.

He raised his head, looked into Tharon's pale eyes again. And... correcting himself, he repeated.

"I, Kael, by my authority as the false king of the Kingdom of Arcanoa, free you from your slave status."

A pale, yellowish light surrounded Tharon after his words. The mark of slavery on his neck turned crimson, as if it were on fire, just as it had been on his own a few months before. And then... it vanished into ashes.

Tharon fell to his knees. Tears appeared in his eyes as his whole body gradually lost what strength it had.

"False king, huh..."

He bowed his head, mumbling only two words as his hair fell in front of his face.

"I... thank you..."

He had dreamed of this moment all his life. Every time he fought, every time he grew stronger, every time he came back from the dead, it was so that he could taste this feeling.

The absence of the chains around every fiber of his body... made him feel as if he could breathe freely for the first time.

Now, he could die.

Now... he could leave this world in peace.

But as he waited to breathe his last in silence, he heard the voice echoing loud and clear in his ears, the voice of the 'false king' before him.

"And I... apologize."

'Ah...'

He felt a momentary pain. Not what his body already had, but a different kind of pain.

His world suddenly turned upside down. And then once more. He even saw his own body a few times, how strange it was...

But he didn't care.

In his last moments, he thought of only one thing.

'Was the price of freedom... death?'

Still... it wasn't a bad feeling, freedom...

It was worth dying for.

*(A/N: This chapter might have been a bit confusing. Because everything happened a bit too fast. But don't worry, you will understand everything much more clearly in the following chapters. Who Tharon really is, why he was a slave, Kael's situation, and much more. For now, thanks for reading as always.)*