Shaula stands next to Ajax with the knowledge of what Alin has done. She doesn’t truly care about the lives of the beastkin men who take lives themselves but… Ajax’s mental state is another matter...

She looks over at Ajax. His expression clouds. His face starts to twist into despair as tears well up once again and then… his face turns expressionless.

She’s felt the feeling before. After an overload of pain and suffering, his emotions have been shut down.

“Why? Why did you do that? Do you really think that this is the way to get us to come to you? Why would we follow you after what you’re doing right now?”

“Well, I suppose that’s not really my concern. You’ll learn about me eventually and from these humans. You’ll hear about all the ‘horrible’ things that I’ve done. Why start our relationship based on me behaving nicely to you? You’d just think I was trying to manipulate you anyways… But at least here, I can teach you a lesson.”

“What lesson!? Look what you’ve done to Ajax, you piece of fucking shit!”

Shaula holds Ajax with her right arm around his shoulders as he drops, kneeling on the ground, his palms covering his eyes. He doesn’t feel like crying. He doesn’t feel like doing anything.

Things have been done for him this entire time, mostly against his wishes, his aspirations, his sense of right and wrong. His control has been taken.

Ajax values his control over anything else. As a middle-class teenager still in high school living a life revolving around his family and Shaula, there was far less absurdity and chaos back in his homeworld.

When there was chaos, he could do something about it and he often did. It never took more than he could handle to get through a situation.

“What I’ve done? I’ve only done what anyone else would have done in this world. I apologize for doing these actions so suddenly but I’ve taken measures to ensure their deaths were painless… but I’m afraid you too have been brought here without preparation. It’s especially odd because the last heroes were summoned about a hundred years ago and... They were soldiers and all of them bold fighters. All of them came from poor lives in your backwards world. They were prepared to live here and live comfortably or die screaming while fighting to live. I killed about fifteen of them myself in single combat and they were always prepared to die, always prepared for their comrades to die and always prepared to kill in order to live and protect their people. All of them understood that death is absurd, it happens every single day for the most random of reasons. Men killed in dinner arguments, men killed by horned rabbits, men killed by misfiring their own magic, I’ve even seen men killed by a stray friendly-fire arrow, after surviving large-scale unwinnable battles. Because death is endlessly absurd. How pampered have your lives been to wish to save every single last person, especially the criminals and reprobates?”

“W-We live in a world where violence is just as absurd but… but we’ve reached a time of peace where citizens aren’t drafted to fight and death isn’t around every corner... even if it’s still there. We’ve had world wars and pandemics, sure, but… those were many decades ago… why are you working so hard to drill this lesson into us? Don’t you think we’d have picked this up ourselves? There was no need to--”

“You’re simply going to have a hard time here if you don’t get used to your new lives. Used to making quick decisions. This is the price for your indolence and dullness. A decision has been made for you, costing lives. It is my duty to speed things up in preparation for the day you join me. I doubt you’d join either the humans or us children of Azazelin at the moment… ah yes, I suppose you call us ‘demons’. Just remember that you’ll eventually see who the lesser of the two evils are in this world. In fact...”

Alin raises his right hand and snaps his fingers this time.

Then he speaks a quick, this time audible phrase:

“Seraph.”

Bright, solid light spheres materialize from four distinct points in midair above the bodies of the four merchant guards. Each of them no more than the size of an orange.

Ajax doesn’t raise his eyes. He doesn’t look. He doesn’t care.

In the blink of an eye, the four merchant guardsmen’s bodies disappear, disintegrating into particles of light. There is nothing remaining. The attack just performed by Alin turned four unconscious men into their constituent atoms, leaving no remains.

Shaula is shocked having seen the four men completely disappear. Speechless.

Can… can we survive an attack like that? That isn’t… fire, right?

“Ajax, Shaula, You have no answer for what needs to be truly done in this world. So I hope you can take my answer to heart. I haven’t harmed a hair on your heads. I merely took my own justice by killing criminals and men whose crimes go unpunished by human laws.”

“Wh-Who do you think you are to prescribe justice? Clearly, you’re not some random person but what makes you think you--”

“An introduction? Very well. I am the first and only Immortal Emperor of the Supreme Azazelin Empire, Alin Acquaphon Savitar. This name was given to me by my mother in honour of her siblings, whose children I continue to protect to this day. We will meet again, on that day when you acknowledge the truth, with the resolve to make the necessary sacrifices. I will embrace you two on that promised day. And we will save the world, together.”

Ajax raised his face at Alin’s words. He observes his face for a moment. A tense smile. Alin takes little pleasure in imparting this lesson or leaving the two of them in this manner, but he another mission he has to complete. His face betrays his heart.

“...You have a lot of evolving to do, Ajax. Take a lesson from her, and from me. And don’t worry about the animals or the people in the carriage. They’ll wake up in about five minutes.”

Alin turns away from Ajax and starts walking. Neither Shaula nor Ajax calls out to him, or looks towards him. They look down at the ground.

His pace increases as he leaves towards the direction of his mission, in the direction of the hero facility.

He starts running, then sprinting. His feet kick up dust as his strides extend farther and farther. Soon he disappears and they can no longer hear the sound of his motion.

His presence has been like that of a tornado.

Ajax stands up at Alin’s departure. He looks around at the sleeping beasts, their compound eyes visible to Ajax but not responding to his motions.

Shaula looks at Ajax sadly. Did they truly take anything away from this meeting? Will they simply move on to the town now and leave all this death behind? Will they simply be fated to meet him again?

“Ajax...”

“Shaula, I don’t want to see anyone for now.”

“What?”

“Let’s continue walking and spend our time in the wilderness here, in the forests with the animals. I don’t want to meet any more people in this world. So far, it’s only been pain and violence and… death.”

“Are… Are you sure?”

“Yeah... I need to consider how I’m going to act from now on. And prepare myself for the shitty reality these people will show me… I have to grow up and I need… time… just some time... Can you accept that?”

“Yes. Yes! I was just following you to the city because I thought that’s what you wanted… but we’re not bound to people anymore. We can live together for as long as we wish. We don’t need to sleep, we don’t need to eat, we don’t even need to breathe. Let’s go! Let’s go, together… and live with each other...”

“Ok. As long as I’m with you, I can make it through this...”

Enough is enough. Sometimes it may help to leave your troubles behind. Ajax and Shaula don’t have to interact with this world at all.

They had the option to do nothing, to live among the animals who fear them. To leave everything else, every other petty or major concern behind.

And wait for their reunion with Ajax’s family.

Ajax and Shaula leave the road, the carriage and the Miella behind. They could see another forest of tall trees in the distance. They walked into this forest and start living in this world on their own terms.

Meanwhile, Alin continues running and eventually finds his way to the top of a cliff. A cliff that led down to more cliffs below towards a valley.

Hm. Those children will eventually join me. But I’m going to need some… insurance. I only really started sensing them because I’m me. Their energy is distinct and recognizable from long distances so it shouldn’t be difficult for one of the dragons at least to sense it in Ystria and track them. How about… Polar? I’ll ask them if they’re up to it. I don’t know if these kids can truly help me, they don’t have as much energy as my mother or Hecraetia but… in the event that I can’t find Hecraetia, I’ll need to make a second plan to avoid our extinction. So long as they’re above ground, they should be detectable…

Alin makes plans for the future. Right now however is his chance to exterminate the heroes before they become a threat to his empire. By nightfall, he will arrive at the location of the other heroes.