As the general had foreseen, two days later, a caravan made up of an endless line of elves, gnomes and fairies arrived on foot, on horseback and in carts.

A vanguard made up of the remnants of the imperial army was the first to arrive at the gates of the "Village".

The elves were exhausted, beaten and many were wounded and in need of care.

The problem was that the wounded and maimed numbered in the thousands.

Never before had a war had so many civilian casualties. In general, medieval wars were only skirmishes between soldiers and recruits, with the peasants being "plundered" but left alive as they were considered part of the territory to be conquered. Land without peasants had no value.

But here, no one had been spared and the healers were exhausted, out of mana and potions...

The crowd was literally bleeding. Only the strongest had survived the journey. Not knowing where to go, they naturally headed for a "neutral" zone, hoping to avoid being afflicted by Carnage... that's me...

But even for humans, the blood of magical creatures also gave off a sweet scent of honey and sweet soda.

This put the Drago kobolds in a state of excitement, but they still knew how to keep their self-control.

Waspy flexed her lips but shook off the thought. Monty and Raven were her friends and she would do anything to keep them.

Kate immediately sensed that something was going to happen and locked the three little ones in the temple with their guardians.

She came out and rushed to the door, angry and snarling.

Sarah was there and stepped in between the door and Kate: "Kate? What's wrong? Why are you growling?"

Kate: "The elf army...at our doorstep...I recognize their smell and their monsters."

Sarah: "They are defeated...the war is over..."

Kate backed away, warily, and rushed toward the temple... politics not being her cup of coffee, she preferred to stay close to her little ones...

Meanwhile, I was still dozing in my den, and drinking the dwarf alcohol that I had drunk to a little "forget" the drama of the separation that I lived..."

Then, perhaps by disillusionment or by delirium, I looked at the opposite corner of the room where I was

It was the darkest corner. The rest of the room was lightly lit by the glowing lava.

I could see something, but it was black, dark and blurry. Like black mists, but... I could see 2 green dots.

These points were split, in the middle of a dark mist.

I was being watched from the darkness!

XXXX: "When you look too much at the abyss, the abyss ends up looking at you"!

Then I saw a creature half steam, half dragon staring at me.

It was in front of a table that wasn't there! and, on top of it a tea set intended for our greenhouses.

"The tea is excellent...it comes from the land before. Will you have a cup with me?"

Usually the darkness was my playground and my exclusive power but seeing another creature just as big as me and, truly frightening, I was for the first time afraid.

Fear like when I first met the Destroyer. But here I felt that submission or dominance would not work. Just by the tone of his voice.

I stepped back, suddenly frightened. Something about this creature was different, it had dragon features but not quite. It was there like not there!

XXXX: "I suppose I should call you Lord Carnage, shouldn't I? And she put down her cup. "Too bad."

Then she crossed her front paws. "You came to visit me at the forgotten castle...which changes everything."

I didn't understand. I didn't understand anything. But what was she talking about?

The next moment she had her snout hiding long, long sharp teeth behind me.

"At least you smell clean with all that blood spilled..."

I turned to see that the creature was back at her spectral table...

"Who are you? What are you doing here?"

XXX: "Everything in order. Let's say like in a very old movie on earth... "Hello, I am your cancer..."

I was shocked and started rubbing myself in all directions, trying to feel for a bump or a problem.

The creature now had a human form, with long blonde hair...

It was smiling, but it wanted to roll around on the floor laughing. But that would affect her ruthless image.

"This is a joke, I have to believe...??" trying to keep the mood not too murderous.

XXX: "Well, it's not far off...let's just say the hunt hasn't started yet..And, to disappoint you, my prey is you... Let's say I'm your judge, your executioner and your end."

I immediately fired a quick, instantaneous magic missile at the black mass, which was punctured... like a cloud.... and then resumed its form.

She put down her cup and the next thing I knew a black dragon, like a dinosaur made entirely of darkness, and crystal teeth was to my right and like a flash I received the slap of my life, my head shot out so hard that my whole body rose up and went crashing across the room.

My jaw was broken in several places but my regeneration did not work.

XXX: "It's very rude to raise your hand on guests."

I became frightened. The creature was very strong.

"You have come to avenge the elves, your master is Tyrant..."

At these words, the creature had instantly teleported in front of me and picked me up, helped me up.... planting its index finger claw under my chin, puncturing the base of my jaw and coming out in my mouth, also cutting and ravaging the roof of my mouth. The pain was unbearable. I started to cry...

"TSS. Do not even try to resist... (I wanted to turn into a hydra and tear it apart but my powers were like blocked.)

Me: "Mamaaann!! mother.... help!!!!!!"

The creature let me fall back as I held the bottom of my shattered head....

XXX smiled, I must be pathetic...

XXX: "Yes... mother.... mother... at least something in common..... but do you really know her? "

"I did everything she asked me to do.... But who are you to judge me???? Are you coming for the elves? "

Then I was afraid. I was terrified.

And the more I was afraid, the more terrifying the presence became...

Now it had its paws crossed, and with a kind of sword, it filed its talons, awful and sharp as the night...

"Why are you here and now?"

XXX: "But to greet you before .... "Then its eyes devoured my soul.

"Carnage, TSSS.... I know all about you... we've known each other for a long time, for years, centuries... and you even came to see me when you were still a child... Luckily, you run fast...."

I shouted... "RUIN, LIGHT!"

And, suddenly, the whole room lit up, leaving only a thin trace of smoke...

I was dying of pain but my jaw was not hurt...

What had happened?

Was it a magic attack? Shrink, no, I had no idea, but now I was getting scared of the dark... I wanted so much to dive into Mother and confide in her but now there was this absolutely frightening "monster"...confusing and dangerous.

I had never seen a dragon so terrifying. Its smile, its teeth, its scales black as night..as darkness...

This monster was going to tear me to pieces, that was for sure. I had dug too deep, searched too hard and played with the forbidden too often and now I would pay the price. I had to wake up what was sleeping, what was not to be disturbed.

But nothing in my data, or books that I vaguely consulted alluded to this meeting nor to the ruins of the castle of oblivion... the only reference being in Homer's stories the journey of Odysseus and his meeting with the chair of oblivion, but it was in the kingdom of Olympus or Elysium... It didn't make sense...

I then ordered my new AI Ruin to replay the security video... but nothing could be seen on the camera, except that I was lifted up like a soft rag and then thrown against the wall.

I was not dreaming, but I was the only one visible on the video...

Immediately, I rushed out of the room but I was interrupted by an unexpected visitor... KATE!

"KATE??? my love??? you came back??? I beg your forgiveness for everything I've done...."

The dragoness was in front of me, all white, beautiful, in all her splendor.

The red light of the lava reflecting on her white scales sometimes transformed her into a red dragon, or a glowing dragon. I was overwhelmed by her beauty.

She kept her head down, as if she was feeling guilty or resigned but... she was trembling...

She was afraid. She was terrified...

"Don't be afraid, my love... I would never hurt you..."

Then Kate was still looking at the ground, tears falling to the floor...

"Hans...this is too hard...give me back my human body..."

I lowered my head, being unable to grant her wish. "Kate, you've already succeeded once or twice... "

With her tail, she smashed the table in the middle of the room...

"PROMISES, ALWAYS PROMISES....but look at me... you made me a monster in your image!!! I look like an ogress, a child devourer, just like you!"

I let out a squeak.

"That's it...! cry! It suits you to act like a victim, you bastard!"

"Kate... it's over! We have everything to be happy, don't you see? Make an effort, damn it!!!"

"All this blood... it's disgusting...!!"

"I've been doing the dirty work for you, your family and ours for years.

Kate: "But you bastard! You tricked me! You lied to me all these years. Dr. Mengele must have been laughing in his grave when he saw your exploits. They would have competed with Dr. Phibes in his research on immortality...but you, you got the Oscar for the real villain."

In the face of so much stupidity and incomprehension, something snapped inside me. The image of my beautiful and tender wife was shattered. I had before me an enemy and no longer my partner, my wife.

And our children kidnapped by Tyrant??? What do you do with them ????

Kate: "But you are crazy! It's been 3000 years since they died!!! and... if I had known...I would never have had children from you.!"

GRRR!

"They're not dead !!!! I know that..."

Kate: "Your imaginary mother??? I know you're a mad scientist and your illusions are magical and perfect, even to convince the dumbest dwarf..but it doesn't work with me..."

"I have done everything for you...my love is infinite.... I've worked my ass off, endured and suffered martyrdom to find a solution...but there was none...I had only this.!!"

Kate: "Maybe, but you make it all about you every time. What if they were happy? Would you have taken them away from their new world? Their family?"

"RUIN!!! PICTURES!"

And on the wall appeared images of petrified bodies in eternal ice capsules...

"This is what I extracted from the computer of the shuttle I destroyed 3000 years ago... You think they are in a happy world? This is eternal ice... time is frozen!

Don't you want to leave them like that? Like seeds to be kept in a museum or a collection of extinct species... I spare you the images of children..."

Kate groaned... "Again your lies.... and now... you have this horrible golem with even more sinister names.... "

She snatched a ring from her paw.. and threw it at me..

"Hans... it's over... You don't have any regrets and you never doubted, you don't even try to redeem yourself, to repair all the wrongs you did, worse you justify yourself, you even lie to yourself..."

Seeing that the discussion was going nowhere, I was in the middle of a relationship crisis.

I could see that all the links, all the bridges that brought us together were systematically broken.

"Kate, do what you want... I'm tired, exhausted.... you're killing me, destroying me... but I'm not the monster you think I am. "

And Ruin played a video where we could see that all the prisoners were released, and that all the infrastructure had been dismantled...

Kate: "It's too late. Your lies are 3000 years old...but they will never be a truth. Ah... by the way... I have a final farewell gift for you....

I will try to rebuild my life with humans and try to forget you, but you are a living nightmare. I hope you rot in hell and that your "shadows" eventually devour you.

I had a nightmare last night. And I saw a monster that would look good on you....but she devoured you like a praying mantis... no, actually she devoured you like you devoured entire families of elves and poor fairies...."

I was in shock. I didn't listen to what she was saying, my attention focused on the devouring shadow... What if it was true??? What if I was crazy?

"Look, Kate, get out of here! I'm tired of hearing that crap...But be careful with your shadow..."

"It's been a long time since I was afraid of you and your bogeymen...

Here...here is my last egg... Knowing that it comes from you disgusts me now and the little ones, except on pictures of your dear drones, don't count on having them one day between your paws. They will live as they want, as human but never, never I will let them be influenced by you or your henchmen..."

Then she ran crying, but ran fast, abnormally. She scratched the inclined plane that also served as a track for the elevator, to get back to the surface.

Something was wrong...

And my senses were screaming "Danger, Danger..."

Then I heard giggling in a dark corner... "If I were you, I would run too..."

The egg... She would never have given it to me...

It's not an egg!!! It's a bomb!

I panicked and looked into the darkness and ran with all my might.

Then, a flash... then nothing...

From a distance, the general was looking through binoculars at the entrance to my base and the villa.

Then, all of a sudden, he saw Kate going out and then running in the air and... the next moment, a terrible tremor took place.

It was as if the mountain was swelling and then suddenly. It lifted up in millions of pebbles and collapsed, as if it was hollow and everything was collapsing.

It looked like a coal mine suffering from a fire and then all the galleries collapsing into a kind of funnel, filling with water, but this time it was lava.

The mountain sank, collapsed and where the infrastructure was, there was only a smoking, glowing mass.

Mondeville: "May he rest in peace... It is better this way..."

The elven generals accompanied the old man and patted him amicably on the shoulder.

Sarah let out a tear. "It should never have ended like this... we are the monsters... we are damned..."

Bello hugged Sarah and kissed her on the cheek... "He had a tragic life...but he gave us a second chance, let's not waste it..."

Yuri's saucer was on the ground with Admiral Minos and the other Admiral Hidalgos

They turned to the chancellor.

Yuri: "Finally, you made the right decision... I never thought this possible from a Yankee."

Chanelière: "You got what you wanted... we're all in the same boat now. If you want power, it's yours... I'm only a chosen one, but I won't do anything to endanger a single human here..."

Minos: "Chancellor, I see in you a guide. Welcome to the Ummite Empire. Your friend, Yuri, now has other ambitions and we'll leave this rock to you... as long as you help our elven ancestors evolve in the right direction!

Then, the humans saw Yuri going back up in the saucer with his Ummite friends and... the 3 dragons...

Kate was about to arrive

Minos: "We let the dragoness finish her days here but we don't want any descendants. We will take care of them but no harm will come to them."

Sarah: "They are brother and sister...they will not breed!!.please...leave them with their mother!"

Minos: You have your world...Don't make us go back on our decision...

Then the rag closed and the saucer flew away.

Kate had seen the scene from a distance and her extraordinary dragon sight allowed her to understand how she had been tricked.

She screamed a shrill cry that almost pierced her eardrums.

She flapped her wings, using all her mana and power to catch up with the shuttle as it flew away.

Unfortunately, her flight was like a propeller plane against a supersonic plane.

She was overcome with grief and realized, too late, her mistake, her lack of judgment, the catastrophe, the betrayal and now she was paying the price.

Kate muttered between her teeth "Hans... sorry... what have I done? My God... What have I done?"

And she let herself fall in a spin, to crash in front of the smoking crater that was their home, their house, their haven, and maybe their paradise...

In front of the smoking spectacle, a broken white creature lay before a crater full of lava, and next to it... a black shape...

XXX: "Idiot....I tried to warn you...but your terror was a delight...Too bad for you if you lost everything!" Then the creature disappeared as a medical rover arrived and the chancellor appeared.

"Oh. My God! Poor Kate!"