'Come to think of it, that was only half of the horror foretold,' Z thought as he gripped his hands.
***
'How pitiful of me to be forced to do this,' Aelius thought. He was staring at the sky with blood flowing down his body. He was kneeling on a cliff that was surrounded by millions of soldiers ready to take him down. Behind him were the corpses of all of those who fought alongside him. "Sans honor, sans glory, sans legacy. I will truly die trying," he muttered before pulling out a lotus from his pouch. The lotus was translucent, but it was radiating with golden light. It is void of any imperfection, something that seems to be free from the shackles of the world. "My final try," he said before being swallowed by the light from the lotus.
"Thud!" the sound of his body falling to the ground echoed through the cliff. In his final moments, it was not tears that were shed but laughter shared by all who witnessed his demise.
