Li looked at Tia as she stared up at Tyr, her head tilted and thinking. He thought for a second whether to call her back to his side, but he decided against it, wanting to see what she had in mind.

In the meantime, Asala interjected, raising a respectful voice to the fallen king. "King Tyr, I am sure that thou knowest of mine kind. The Triforge Kingdom took kindly to my sisters, and many a day in my youth have I spent reading upon the many wonders of thy kingdom.

Seeing this ruin brought my heart great sorrow, but seeing that thou art still here, thou great name so filled with strength and might against demonkind, I am heartened. And hopeful. Will thou not join us in arms against the demons?

As the seer hath said, thou people hath perished, but many lives more now would find comfort in thy strength."

"There is nothing left for me to defend," said Tyr. "I fought for my people. My people are no more. I have no reason to fight. I do not deserve to fight. Leave me in my peace and solace."

Tia took a few steps up to Tyr, her clawed feet pattering on the cracked stone floor, and as she approached. Tyr noticeably reacted, raising his head and staring at her through a veil of darkness.

Tia put her hands to her sides and scowled at Tyr, her fangs ever so slightly visible from the curve of her lips.

"Why so sad about being lonely?" asked Tia pointedly.

Tyr paused for a moment before speaking. "You do not understand. Your heart is pure and young. Go. Do not speak with me longer. Do not look upon my corrupted, horrid, downtrodden form, nor my twisted and worthless heart."

"I don't want look at you," said Tia. "But she did. Your friend did. Hildr wanted to see you. Very much. For long, long, long time."

Tyr did not respond, but unlike when he spoke with Li, he did not drop his head between his knees, but instead kept his gaze affixed to Tia.

Tia waited for Tyr to speak, but when he did not, she continued. "You left her. Never saw her. But she waited for you. Why? Why you sad about being lonely when your friend waited for you. Waited very close for very long."

Tyr did not respond.

Tia laid out the truth. "You abandoned her."

"No, no," said Tyr shakily as he crawled backwards, thrusting his gauntlet out towards Tia to ward her away, like she was some dreadful, looming monster come to take his head. "No, that is untrue. Hildr, she-she was too far gone. The curse of undeath reached her, just as it did to the rest of mine people. That was not her."

"But you knew," said Tia. She put a hand to her heart. "When dragon like me feel close to someone, we see our hearts. Even if eyes cannot see, we can still feel. You knew. She was hurting, different, but she still felt the same. Wanted to see you."

Tyr fell silent again, this time, in contemplation. He brought his shadowed gauntlets together in posture similar to pensive prayer. The silence lasted for a minute this time, and all the while, Tia kept her gaze up to Tyr.

Her gaze was fierce, but it was not cruel. It did not judge, for Tia knew better than anyone the suffering Tyr had gone through. But it still questioned, feeling the hurt of a promise of two hundred years broken.

"I will admit it," said Tyr finally. "I knew there was still a shard of her, even as she twisted into a creature of death. But to have seen her as she is now – warped and made monstrous solely due to me, due to the rider whom she loved and trusted so, so much-,"

He shook his head. "I cannot. I would never be able to face her. And were I to see her, I would have to raise my blade against her, to free her from her undeath coil. And that-," His hands trembled. "No, I cannot do it."

Li interjected, seeing a glimmer of possibility to draw Tyr out of his darkness. "You say you have nothing left to fight for, and that is why you sit still in sorrow, but right outside this keep, you had your soulbound waiting for you.

She waited for you, for your promise and, no doubt, wanting for you to come out and free her from her unnatural state. She wanted you to fight for her, and yet, you just sat here because you were simply too afraid to face your mistakes."

Tyr sighed deeply, his great form heaving up and down with the motion, and the mass of black flesh above him shuddered and pulsed. "You are correct. I cannot argue against you, and there is no point. I know. I left her because I was too coward to face the consequences of my actions.

But that is the end of it. I am still too fearful to see her. To free her. Let alone to ever muster up fighting spirit for that which is not dear to me."

Li shook his head in disappointment. Tyr was too far gone in his depressive state to do anything if not even the suffering of someone so deeply close to him was not enough to get him to act. "You don't have to free her. We already did. Stay here, monarch, and take care that this foreign entity does not grow out of control."

"You…you freed her?" said Tyr.

"If you are to thank anyone, then thank her," said Li as he nodded to Tia. "She was the one to glimpse into Hildr's heart and to know her suffering."

Tyr looked down at Tia and then looked away, putting his head into his hand. He shivered in something like a sob, but not quite – it was evident that he was long past the stage of tears and had fallen into an endless listlessness where he had not even the energy for crying.

"I thank you," said Tyr to Tia. "I thank you for doing what I should have for years upon years. I thank you for taking upon duty that should have been mine. I thank you for being the courage that I never could scrape up."

He paused. "But I cannot fight with you. I am not what I once was, nor will I ever be."

"Then I will leave you to your thoughts," said Li. His decision seemed cold, but it was one of reason. He could not be the one to sit down by Tyr and lift him up from his own head, nor was he equipped to do so. There was simply nothing he could do, even if he could pity the monarch.

"Yes, leave me," said Tyr. "I will not bother you more. I am sorry to have bothered you even now."

"I not being mean," said Tia as she saw the king withdrawing into himself again. "Did not mean to be mean asking you about your friend. She…would understand you. Because she loved you. But you gave up too fast, and I knew she would not like that. She never wanted you to give up. Always wanted you to be free and happy."

She frowned at Tyr, and this time, her frown was gentle. "Now, you are not free. Not happy. Maybe outside, you can be happy again. Like she wants you to be."

Tyr contemplated Tia's words in a bout of silence before shaking his head.

"I do not deserve freedom nor happiness," he said. "My hands are soaked in far too much blood for that. I…thank you dearly for what you have done for Hildr and for conveying her feelings to me."

Tyr's words became more resolute, gaining a little shard of strength, but the voice was still hollow and weak. "But now, there is all the less reason for me to ever leave these ruins. There is no vestige of my people nor loved ones left to protect, nor am I worthy of protecting anything, for that matter. I will have my being escort you all to the surface. Again, my deepest of apologies for burdening you."

The network of black flesh around and above Tyr shuddered before moving with squelching sounds, gathering around Li and the party in the form of a platform.

"But-," said Tia.

"Little one, I value your words and what you have done," said Tyr. "I know that I am not happy. I know that I am not free. But I am not yet ready for either. You remind me much of Hildr, and hearing her words from you have brought me to reflection and thought.

Perhaps, in time, I will try to make peace with myself. But that time is not now."

Tyr put his head down, and his figure stiffened, turning still like a statue, dormant as it was before Li and Tia had seen into his heart. There was no reaching Tyr again at this state.

Li put a hand to Tia's shoulder. "Let's go, Tia. It is not our place to give him the peace of mind he seeks. Come, the rest of our own adventure awaits."

Tia looked to Tyr for a lingering moment before nodding to Li. Together, they walked back to the chrysalis, and the black flesh gathered under it, solidifying into a platform that started to draw upwards from several tendrils connecting it to the mountain walls above.

The platform moved quickly, so quick that in just a few seconds, Tyr's body was not visible anymore.

"Hm?" noted Li as he saw a black tendril rise up from in front of him in the shape of a four petaled flower. The head of the flower melted away, revealing a large, plated grey scale.

"Take it, little one." Tyr's voice echoed throughout the entirety of the mountain, transmitted across the length of the entire network of dark flesh in rippling echoes, as if they were extensions of his vocal chords - a testament to his fine control over them. "It is my last remaining token from Hildr. I have kept it safe from decay for centuries, but I am no longer worthy of it. You who have freed her and understood her heart last should have it.

Consume it and inherit her powers. She always wished to fight free and unbound by any petty politics or duty with me. In some way, perhaps this will fulfill that wish. Farewell.

Fight strong. Fight well. Fight."