"Let him go" ordered Arthur.
"But chief he's a..."
One of the soldier's copies punched him in the gut and another knocked him to his knees.
The leader of the Delta Task Force put his handgun to his forehead "The next time you don't do what I tell you, I'll give you the same treatment as the prisoners"
Raz was astonished 'Why is he helping me ?'
The soldiers of the Nomanian Empire were afraid of their superior officer. They had never seen him get so angry before.
"Are you deaf or what ?! I told you to let him go !"
The soldiers complied without question. They didn't want to fight Arthur, because they knew they would lose.
The brown-eyed man's copies lifted Raz up and pushed him to force him to move forward.
The Brotherhood veteran and the Linbar survivor walked around the walls of the sports dome in silence. Then Arthur stopped in front of a small door.
"Step forward"
Raz walked forward, wondering 'I don't believe in charity. Even less so, coming from a soldier of the empire. What is he trying to do ?'
In the oil lamp-lit corridor, they walked in silence until they reached a gate guarded by two soldiers.
Before he could enter, Arthur's copy made a hand movement to the soldiers on guard.
They began to open the gate at the same time with a key that they inserted into a tube. Then they turned their keys synchronously. Afterwards, they waited on the other side.
Arthur stepped in front of the Troll and asked "What would you do to protect your loved ones, Butcher ?"
The veteran was surprised "What kind of question is that ? Just do your job and take me to the other hallway so we can get this over with"
Arthur tried to sound more convincing "If you had a chance to save those people taken hostage by Maria, would you have taken it ?"
Raz's eyes darkened as he thought of those people his leader had blown up "You already know the answer..."
"Of course I knew it. You're the kind of soldier who wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice the world for one person. The kind of person who respects the memory of the dead... So I'll offer you a deal"
Raz was sick of these crazy psychological and physical games coming from these people " Shut up and take me to the other side"
Seeing Arthur not moving, Raz moved on his own. But the second in command said something that would challenge his morals.
"What would you do to save the Witch ?"
Raz instinctively turned around and was about to put his foot in his face, but he knew it would do no good 'If I hit him, who knows what would happen to Charlotte'
So he put his foot down and said to Arthur "What do you want ?"
"I want information about the Lizardian who was at your side. I want to know everything about him. What he told you. His personality etc..."
Raz grinned "How can I give you any information, when I have no guarantees ?"
Arthur clenched his fist in the pocket of his military jacket "I swear to you that in exchange for your intel, nothing will happen to your cellmate. I swear to you on the 45 million dead of Linbar..."
The veteran could see his hatred through his eyes 'He doesn't lie. That kind of look. This hatred. You can't fake it. So he's one of the few survivors of Linbar...'
But Raz was reading something else in his life-broken brown eyes "Even if you swear to me. I can see in your eyes that you will do anything to achieve your goal. Your own hatred and ambition are already consuming you"
Arthur grabbed Raz by the collar of his outfit "Dare to tell me you wouldn't sacrifice your life, your values and everything else to kill Maria ?! Dare to say it to my face !"
The soldiers hearing Arthur's raising his voice moved closer to make sure there was no problem. But his copy nodded at them to say no.
Raz lowered his head "I'll be a hypocrite if I say killing her won't change anything. But..."
He lifted his head, looking into Arthur's eyes "It won't change the past. Whether I like it or not, Maria killed the hostages and that... I could never change it"
"That doesn't answer my question, Butcher. Are you going to give me yes or no, the information that I need. Or was that bullshit line about the past just a lie ?"
Raz looked at Arthur for a long time in dead silence.
'You think I can't push my morals, right ?!'
The Linbar survivor ordered one of his copies "Take number 621304 back to Maria's playroom, right now !"
His copy complied. But Raz had made his choice "You won. I'll reveal the information I have.
Arthur upon hearing this, melted his copy with a wave of his hand.
"Tell me everything you know, number 510293"
Raz began to divulge everything he knew about Maalick. His fighting skills, his relationship with Charlotte, and his character with a... heroic tendency.
'I'm sorry Maalick. But now that you're gone, I must protect Charlotte by any means necessary. Even if I have to sully your memory...' he thought, disgusted with himself.
Arthur gave his copy a chin up. It grabbed Raz and handed him to the guards.
The guards accompanied him down a staircase that descended further into the inhumanity of humans. As for Arthur, he stayed where he was.
He was beginning to realize what Maalick represented.
"So it's not for nothing that he's a Dracmiros and the holder of the Polymorphic Chain..."
Then Arthur laughed, as if he was illuminated by the knowledge of a forgotten insight. And at the same time, he let out all his magical pressure that he contained. Like the feelings he had stored up since that tragic day.
"Fate is giving me a chance to accomplish justice ! I must kill him for the world, for the empire and for what he did my family !!!"
Then he calmed down and his magical pressure came back down at once "When I will find you, I will put a bullet in your head like the mad dog that you are... Maalick !"
***
In the cell of the Troll and the Witch, Carl woke up 'Shit... What happened?'
The former team leader tried to speak, but he felt an extreme pain. As if his vocal cords were being pounded with a hammer.
"Y-You shouldn't t-talk"
The fifty-year-old looked back and saw Charlotte. She was at the far end of the cell, away from the watchtowers patrolling the towers day and night, through their viewfinders.
Then Carl remembered everything 'Maria destroyed my vocal cords because I aborted the mission ! She must have made me look like a traitor. Shit, I gave her a reason to fire me on a silver platter !'
The veteran looked down at his clothes 'They took away my jacket and my gun. Now I'm only wearing this damned dark blue outfit'
Then Carl remembered everything 'Maria destroyed my vocal cords because I aborted the mission! She must have made me look like a traitor. Shit, I gave her a reason to fire me on a silver platter !'
Charlotte shyly approached Carl and pledged him with a gift filled with kindness 'T-Take this...'
The Witch wanted to give the Human a piece of half moldy bread.
Carl was surprised by this kind action 'W-Why does she want to give me such a precious good ? Doesn't she hate us for everything we did to her ?'
She said with a smile "Y-You look s-sad... So I thought that some food might make you f-feel better"
Carl did not understand how such an act could be possible in this place. A humanitarian action in a place that alienated their humanity.
With hand gestures, he said 'I can't accept it ! You should keep it with you. This food is what keeps you alive'
Charlotte sensed that he could not afford to accept her gift.
She landed next to him and asked the fallen leader "W-Why are you so sad ?"
Her question might have been out of place, but Charlotte was right.
Carl's life ended the day when he had to kill his child to free her from an eternal suffering. His heart kept emptying. He had tried to fill it by drowning into alcohol, but that only brought up his original problems.
He had substituted his daughter for his unit. But the one thing he cherished now, reminded him of everything he had lost in his life.
And when he tried to protect them in the best way. His own race had betrayed him and thrown him into this cage, like just another stray dog in the streets of the empire.
'Sometimes... I don't feel like fighting anymore. I don't have the strength to live anymore... No, I've only existed since she died...'
His sadness was stronger than his pain. Under the emotion, he managed to articulate the words "My... ch-ild... !" while crying all the tears of his body.
Charlotte brought her forehead close to his. She activated her Feelings Magic to make Carl relive all the moments he had spent with his daughter, in the form of a mini-movie.
'Feelings Magic : Therapy !'
From the towers, the guards saw nothing special.
The Witch had created a magical veil showing them what they wanted to see. But this spell was burning up her magical reserves at great speed.
'Magic of Feelings : Veil of Desires...'
Then she said breathlessly "May you mourn... Sir..."
***
Carl saw before his eyes the first steps his daughter had taken. Or the day she had to comfort him at the school gates, because the veteran wouldn't leave her alone. Or that time, when she had a nervous breakdown because he had gotten the wrong taste for her ice cream.
But what he saw the longest, was that day. That day just before she was poisoned by the Viper.
She had been asking all day long, where her mother was. Why she was never there. Why did the other children have a mother who picked them up from school, spent time with them and loved them dearly.
Why ?
Carl knew very well the reason.
She had simply abandoned them right after giving birth to her.
Without a word. Without an explanation. She walked out into the wilderness, leaving behind her a husband and her newborn daughter.
At the time, Carl didn't want to shatter the idealistic image she had of her.So he replied with a lame excuse like "She works a lot, you know that. That's why she can't see you"
But her daughter knew that her father was lying.
The last phrase the father heard from his daughter was "I hate you !"
That moment in his memory held a special place in his mind and psyche.
Then all of a sudden, Carl found himself in a garden, under a beautiful twilight.
In front of him was his daughter, dressed in her black and white school uniform, as if in the colors of the Empire of Nomania.
Carl did not think. He ran to his daughter and hugged her, his eyes wet from this factitious reunion.
In that moment, the veteran's heart was filled. There was no more leakage that was caused by those cruel moments of his life. The war, the suffering and the addiction were no more.
Parent and child did not exchange any words. Carl was just enjoying the moment, because he knew that it was all of this was magic, illusions and idealistic dreams.
With his sense of touch, he felt his daughter disappear. When Carl opened his eyes, he saw that in the falling night, his daughter was transformed into firefly lights.
Despite the knowledge that this moment between them would not last, he continued to hold her tighter. He didn't want to let her go, to lose her and abandon her like her mother.
'I wish this moment would never end. But I know you're not here anymore... I wish I could make up for my past mistakes. I should have cherished every moment I spent with you !'
As his daughter flew away into the skies, he saw her lips utter a sentence with a smile that was both sincere and melancholic. As if this illusion had come to life.
"I love you daddy"
Then the illusion gradually dissipated, like a sweet dream.
Carl hugged Charlotte and cried his heart out "Tha... Tha-nk you..."
His tears mixed with Charlotte's Feelings Magic invaded the prisoners in the other towers.
They wept together in this deathly silence, remembering their pasts, their remorse, and their former lives.