Kieran watched horrified as a wing sprouted from behind the angel where its mechanical one was destroyed. It lacked the feathers of real wings, and even the pointed metal imitations. What he saw were actual bones where flesh and feather should have been. The bone wing twisted together, and as he prepared for whatever was about to be unleashed, it slammed into the angel.

What?

The angel rose to its feet. Part of its arm was dented and seemed unresponsive. The automaton looked at the perpetrator. At the apex of the hill was a demon whose body was protected by an exoskeleton of bones. Three years prior, when Kieran was first saved by the man and saw his gifts, he was mesmerized. Now, that same feeling came rushing back.

Kalstras…

Kalstras rushed the angel before it could recover. His attacks were blindingly fast, almost as fast as Alexandra’s. The angel defended itself with its bladed wing as it gathered Essence in its left hand. Kalstras twisted his body and whipped the machine with his tail sending it crashing into its own allies. Rusted feathers fell to the ground as it got back up. He lept at it and the machine shot him out of the air with a blast of Essence.

Overlord Kaal’un unfurled another lance and as he brought his arm back to throw it, he grimaced. The Overlord wore no armor. His shirt had risen up just enough for Kieran to see five deep scars that marred the right side of his torso. With a breath, Overlord Kaal’un threw the lance with so much force it created a shockwave.

Kalstras and the angel were locked in combat as the lance flew in. At the last moment, the angel twisted its body the same way Kalstras had, dodging the Overlord’s attack by a hair and blowing Kalstras away with its wing. The commander of the enemy forces used the opening to launch an attack. While they fought, the angel skewered the Blessed closest to it and drained their Essence.

“How long can that thing keep fighting?” Kieran asked, watching as it threw away the corpses.

“So long as it has Essence to feed off of, it will continue to destroy,” said Overlord Kaal’un. “If you have ever needed a reason to hate humans, Your Highness, that is one such reason.” The Overlord gave an order and the shades switched their focus from the enemy knights and targeted the rampaging machine.

“They won’t be enough,” Teal said.

The Overlord looked at her, “I would not be so certain of that. But I suppose we should not take such a risk with these abominations.” The Overlord nodded and the two remaining shades by his side ran into the fray. “I trust your attendants will keep you safe, Your Highness.” His gaze lingered on Alexandra for a moment, “I shall be back.” He joined in the attack against the angel. At one point Kieran wondered if the Overlords were only influential figures, but now he knew they were also monsters.

The six shades together had done a bit more damage than Kalstras but the Overlord alone blew it away. Most of its remaining wing was in tatters now. It started shaking and Essence burst out from its hands at seemingly random intervals. The blasts erased anyone in their way, clearing out entire chunks of both armies.

Kieran conjured a barrier reinforced by his Shadow Essence to protect a group of people near him. The Essence blast broke through, but they survived. “What the hell is going on?” he asked, breathless.

“The angel has sustained enough damage for it to go berserk,” Alexandra answered. “It will soon begin to attack everyone and everything in order to restore itself.”

“It can heal?”

“Not fully. Look at its body. Parts of it are rusted. The most angels may do is restore their feathers.”

That’s still not good news.

How long would it take for them to kill it if they even could? And how many more of these things did the Maharden Empire have? If the angel in front of them right now wasn’t all rusted, how many more people would have died?

The shades tried to close the distance. A flap of its wing coupled with Essence, blew them far away. Only the Overlord faced it. As they traded blows, four knights who battled the shades surrounded him.

The Overlord handled the fight well on his own, but he was being pushed back. As bloodied as the knights were, they didn’t relent. “Buy time for the angel to recover,” one of them said. A few misguided Blessed tried to help the Overlord and they were turned into fuel for the angel’s recovery.

“Do not do anything rash,” Alexandra said suddenly. “The Overlord is powerful. He can handle them.”

Kieran grit his teeth. She meant she didn’t want him running in, so what if he helped from afar? He unleashed shadow bolts, striking the unsuspecting knights in the back. He brought out a crystal that allowed him to communicate with Me’dun and he shouted an order to everyone, “Do not help the Overlord! Stay away from the angel!” His orders were cut short when the opening created by the angel was flooded with enemy soldiers. They ran at him with their weapons drawn, all eager to claim his head.

Teal cut a few down with her wind spells and Kieran knocked them flat with his bolts. “Any help?” he asked Alexandra. She stayed quiet and continued to assess the situation.

Too many were coming through. Teal cast a spell he’d never seen before. Coating his eyes with Essence, he saw the air around three people pull them together, holding them in place. Teal stole one of their swords and stabbed all three. Interspersed with her wind blades, she engaged enemies in one on one duels and cut them down.

When did she get so strong?

She didn’t fight them all back without taking any injuries though. She was bleeding from cuts to her arms, legs, and sides. Kieran unsheathed his blade and helped her with a few of the soldiers. Men on their side came to help, alleviating some of the pressure, but in the fray was a knight injured from a stray attack by the angel. Kieran managed to hold against him, somehow blocking his attacks. In the heat of battle, Kieran was able to catch a glimpse of a single bronze star on the knight’s shoulder.

Although he was fresh, and the knight injured, he sustained multiple superficial cuts. His main piece of armor was the chestpiece so his arms and legs were relatively unprotected. Teal defeated her last opponent and raced to his aid. Alexandra continued watch. Though he was annoyed, it was proof that she thought he could handle the enemy.

It was the least a useless prince like him could do.

Steadily, they were making progress against the bronze knight. Black marks from Kieran’s Essence marked and dented his chestplate and Teal’s wind spells kept him from recovering. Kieran aimed for the gap in the armor. It was a hit. The knight dropped to his knees and Teal blew him away with a spell.

She dropped to all fours.

“Teal?”

She coughed and coughed until her eyes were filled with tears and saliva dripped from her lip. Her neatly tied hair had come loose, the tips tinged in the blood from the foes she cut down. “I’m fine,” she said through coughs. “T-There’s more coming…”

He looked up to see the opposite of what she said. The enemies were retreating. The knights who attacked the Overlord were defeated and the commander was dead. Kalstras and the Overlord faced a rampaging angel who lashed out at anything and anyone close to it.”

“The angel is trouble but everyone else is running,” he said.

Through another cough Teal yelled, “Ma’am!”

Alexandra grabbed Kieran and threw him behind her. Her claws in her right hand were out and her face was clouded in concentration.

Dozens of bodies from beyond the hill came raining down on them. It wasn’t from the Overlord’s army, but the bodies were Blessed judging from their horns and claws. Both Kalstras and Overlord Kaal’un turned away from the angel. An explosion of Essence sent them flying. Kalstras glided down with his one wing while the Overlord landed on his feet.

When the smoke cleared, a knight in crimson armor appeared. His face was hidden behind a visored helm with similarly red plume at the top. His sword wasn’t drawn. He scanned the battlefield without regard to his fleeing allies. His gaze stopped on three people, Kalstras, the Overlord, and on Kieran.

“You may be Blooded,” Overlord Kaal’un said to the crimson knight, “But you have made a mistake Running Through this Battlefield.” His claws grew longer. The horns on his head began to curl, twisting more and more. Scales on his arms locked together and turned into chitinous plating.

In that moment, the angel used whatever remained of its wing to strike the knight.

“I am not here to fight an Overlord,” the crimson knight said. The pointed metal tip of the angel’s wing was caught in the knight’s hand. He pulled out a necklace and placed it on the angel’s neck. Chains exploded from the eye of the gem and wrapped around the angel. The crimson knight hoisted the bound machine over his shoulder and turned away, “Goodbye.”

He was gone.

The Red Hills were retaken and camp was being set up. Alexandra stayed by his side until his treatment was done and she left for something right after. Her behaviour was strange but he didn’t mind. He wanted some time to think. As he walked around the camp, he saw his brother speaking with another, important looking, man. General Vamz, he guessed. Kieran ducked behind a tent and went the other way.

“Your Highness,” came a voice from behind.

He turned around and saw Kalstras kneeling.

“It has been three years. In that time, I have worked hard toward becoming an attendant worthy of, Your Highness.”

Please don’t say that. I haven’t been putting in nearly enough effort to earn your loyalty.

“My first wish upon our arrival was to find you. However, as I was part of another army, I could not do so. Now that the battle is over, I, Kalstras Ywenir-”

Kieran placed a hand on his shoulder, “Thanks, but you don’t have to do that. I don’t want to bind you to me. Not when you’ve made such a name for yourself, Mr. Demon of Bones.”

Kalstras chuckled, “You haven’t changed much, Your Highness.”

“Not much changing to do when you’re locked up in a palace or castle all day.”

“I suppose that is true. Simply getting older without experiencing new things is not the same as gaining wisdom.”

“Are you calling me dumb?”

“Not at all. Though there are few who would turn down the pledge of a Name Bearer,” Kalstras said.

“I don’t want you serving a sentence that’s completely unfair. You really did save me three years ago. Think it over. If you still want to pledge your loyalty to me in a few months or something like that then I’ll accept it, okay?”

“Understood, Your Highness,” Kalstras said with a bow, “where are you going?”

“Just trying to process some things right now.”

They said their farewells and Kieran kept on walking through the camp. At one point, he made it over a hill and saw the bodies laying strewn across the battlefield. A few units of unfortunate soldiers were tasked with cleaning it up. The scene was familiar to him. Before he could turn away, however, something caught his eye. Carried between two soldiers was Belthane. Only his torso remained after having his body torn apart by the angel’s Essence. The dead eyes seemed to stare back at him.

He fought back the urge to gag and ran in a different direction. He found himself in a small patch of trees just on the outskirts of camp. If any of them were still alive, they would have planted themselves here.

A small path led through the trees and as he followed it, he was reminded of what originally brought him into this world 16 years ago.

I wonder if The Gardner’s had more people go through. I wonder if all of them went there.

At the end of the trees, he saw Teal sitting at the bay of a stream. A part of him wanted to turn back. The other part knew that with their growing involvement in the war, now might be one of his last good chances. He took a long, deep breath and sat next to her.

“Y-Young Master!” Teal tried to get up. He stopped her.

“You don’t need to leave or anything. I’m just here to think.”

“Oh…”

They sat there in silence. A cool wind blew through the air, rustling the trees and plants. The constant sound of flowing water helped calm his thoughts and ease his anxiety. When he looked up, he saw a few stars able to peek out from behind the waning moon. It really did remind him of The Garden.

“Young-”

“Teal-”

They both spoke up at the same time.

“Y-You can go first,” Teal said.

“No, please go ahead.”

“I was going to come speak with you tonight.”

“You were going to come speak with me?”

She nodded, “You seemed troubled by the Overlord’s decision to use the Colorless as the vanguard. You also seemed to know some of them…”

“...It’s my fault.”

“No it isn’t.”

“Yes it is. The Overlord gave me a choice. He said I could lead them if I wanted to, but then I’d have to join them at the vanguard,” Kieran ripped the grass out of the ground and threw it into the stream. “I let them die.”

“But you saved Me’dun and everyone else. They would have had to follow you to the front as well.”

He had nothing to say to that.

“You aren’t responsible.”

“I feel responsible. I could have said something else to try and-and save them or something. I could have convinced the Overlord with some kind of favor or anything! But I just let it happen. Isn’t that the same as killing them? Why’d you even save someone like me?” He blinked back bitter feelings, “Did you do it because you felt guilty?”

“No,” she said firmly, “I just didn’t want to see you hurt anymore.”

“...”

She drew her knees close and wrapped her arms around them. “I’ve been regretting it since that day.”

“You mean that moment in my Mother’s private chambers?”

“No, ever since I made the mistake of stealing from you.”

“...Why’d you do it?”

They weren’t looking at each other. They simply stared at the stream.

“When I was chosen to be your attendant, I left my family in the Tectoka Territory. The lord there was a rather greedy man and became more so after the temporary truce ended. Since he knew I worked in the palace as your personal attendant, he started demanding more in taxes from my village, and in turn, the village placed the burden on my family.”

“I see…”

“I’m sorry.”

He remembered her apology from three years ago, when the reveal of the betrayal was still fresh in his mind. When the feelings burned so hot he wanted to just break everything. Then he remembered the three years of pent up anger and resentment he held toward her. How he’d snap at her for every attempt to bridge the gap, how he’d mistreated her when she was just trying her hardest.

“It’s alright…” he said as emotions welled inside him. “I’m not mad at you. The past is the past...”

“I-Is something wrong, Young Master?” she asked as she leaned closer.

“No, nothing’s wrong. I just, felt so bad about everything…”

She gave him a thin smile, “Like you said, Young Master, it’s alright. The past is the past. You don’t need to apologize to me. If anything, I’m very happy you decided to-” she paused, “to give me another chance.”

He let out a breath, “Yeah, me too. It’s been a little rough without somebody to talk to, you know? Plus, sometimes I have trouble sleeping.”

She laughed, “Would you like me to sing you a lullaby.”

“Only if it’s the one you always sing.”

“Of course it is, Young Master. Always.”

Teal had left first, as she had to set up his tent, but he stayed behind, Kieran ran around the small patch of trees to get rid of the stuffy feeling in his chest. Once it was gone, he was confident he could fake his way through any questions anyone had about his whereabouts. As he walked back, he saw Alexandra staring at the camp from atop one of the hills.

“What are you doing up here?” he asked.

“Young Master, about the Colorless, it is regretful that they did not survive.”

The emotionless tone she used irked him, “It’s more than just regretful.”

“I too wished they would have survived.”

He sighed. It was useless to argue with her. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“I am thinking… I am thinking about my path. I am no longer sure of what to do.”

Kieran shrugged and nudged her, “Hey, don’t be all indecisive now. You’ve always told me to commit, didn’t you? Well now I’ll say the same thing. Commit to a path. There’s nothing worse than failing because you couldn’t choose. Besides you can always change it down the line if you think it’s wrong.”

“Is that not being indecisive?”

“Not if you’re decisive about it,” he joked.

“I see you are in high spirits. Have you made up with Teal?”

“Yeah, I have somewhat thanks to you.”

“That is good.” She closed her eyes as her shoulders raised and fell. “Thank you for confirming my resolve.”

“Well, now we can go get some sleep. Good night, Alexandra,” he laughed. “You know, I never said that to you before.”

“You have once before.”

“Are you sure?” he looked at her and tried to recall the memory.

“Yes, it was at the Loftus Manor after our first meal together.”

“Wait really? You sure have a good memory.”

“It is nothing extraordinary, Young Master.”

“Well, I’m off to bed now. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“...Good night, Young Master.”

.

.

.

The next morning, his brother informed him of Alexandra's resignation.