"Brother, you're not going to hurt them, are you? They... they were good to me while you were gone."

Nivelle's trembling, anxious voice reached my ears clearly, even amidst the chaos of battle. He hovered in the air, his small body trembling as he watched the unfolding scene in terror.

"Don't worry, Nivelle," I said, my gaze never leaving the vines Rose sent hurtling toward me. "I'm just getting them out of our way. I won't truly harm them."

Nivelle continued to hover, watching me listlessly. He was torn. Part of him wanted to stop his brother, but the other part couldn't bear to oppose him. He had to support the only person he had left in this world.

I continued to incinerate the thorny vines surging toward me with the dark touch of my Chaos Flames. With my katana, I sliced through the X-shaped wind shear Rose sent at me simultaneously.

"Give up, Rose! What you're doing is pointless! You can't stop me!"

Rose, furious, poured nearly her entire mana reserve into a single spell. She aimed her staff at me, and as ancient words left her lips, a colossal torrent of flame, wide enough to engulf the entire street, rushed toward me.

I watched this desperate, futile attack with disdain. I snapped my fingers mockingly.

In that instant, all the raging flames rushing at me were extinguished, as if choked by an invisible hand, extinguished all the way back to Rose's staff. In their place, pure, freezing ice bloomed. The flames turned into frozen sculptures instantly.

Rose's hands remained locked onto her frozen staff. She tried to break free, tried to cast a fire spell as a counter, but I was upon her before she could complete the incantation.

"You... you're a monster!" she hissed, her eyes filled with hatred and fear.

"Yes," I said, without a trace of emotion in my voice. "I am."

I struck Rose in the stomach with the flat of my blade. The blow sent her doubling over in pain, collapsing to the ground. To ensure she wouldn't resist further, chains of Chaos Flame wrapped around her, sealing her.

I had neutralized the last combatant on the battlefield. I turned my gaze to Eric, but Zagna had already subdued him. Eric was kneeling, the strength to hold his sword or shield long gone. He was barely staying upright, leaning heavily on his blade.

I looked at the destruction I had wrought. Ruined streets, partially collapsed buildings, and the wounded, pain-ridden guards lying on the ground...

Time to go, huh?

With Nivelle on my shoulder, I turned to leave. And that's when I saw him, standing directly in my path.

Fredrinn.

The one person I never wanted to face. This entire mess, this entire fight... it was all to avoid him in the first place. I didn't want to see his face, because I didn't know what to say to him, how to explain this betrayal.

Fredrinn just stood there. He didn't say a single word. He just looked at me, his eyes filled with a disappointment so deep I couldn't possibly describe it.

I was the one to break the silence. "Are you going to stop me?"

"Why would I?" he said, his voice calm. "You seem to have already made your decision."

"Then why did you come here? If you have something to say, say it."

I was losing my composure. His calmness, his acceptance—it was infuriating. I expected Fredrinn to yell at me, to be enraged, to want to kill me for deceiving him. I wanted him to react like that.

But all I was met with was the gaze of a betrayed friend. A look filled with pity and exhaustion.

"Say something!" I snarled. My voice grew louder with every second, building toward a scream. "Yell at me! Spew your hatred! Try to kill me for manipulating you, for hurting your men! Do something, damn it!"

"Doing that... what would it change, Cassian?" he asked, still maintaining that infuriating calm. "It would only make you feel better, wouldn't it? Clear your conscience. I won't grant you that comfort."

"Then what do you want? Why are you here!"

"I envy you, Cassian," he said suddenly. "I envy that unbelievable power you possess. And... I pity you. That you'd give up so easily... I don't know what you've experienced, or what terrible things you saw in those damned prophecies. But you can try. You have the power to change the fate you saw. But instead, you're choosing to give up."

"You don't know what we're up against, Fredrinn! You know nothing! You have no right to judge me!"

"You're right, I don't!" he shouted this time. "Because you never told me! You always expect me to trust you blindly, but you... have you ever tried to trust us?"

"I tried!" I yelled, my voice cracking.

"No! You never did!"

"If I hadn't, I would have killed you back in those ruins!"

The admission hung in the air, creating a frigid silence between us. I could see from Fredrinn's face that he remembered that moment—remembered my questioning gaze.

"That day," I continued, my voice now a whisper, "we could have defeated the Black Knight without risking your lives. But I made the choice that would benefit me. I risked your life, and Rose's, for the sake of gaining a new skill. But in the end, I gained nothing. While you... you acquired the power of that stone and grew stronger.

"I envied you. I wanted to kill you right then and there and steal that power for myself. But... I couldn't.

"I tried to see you as an ally. As someone I could trust with my life down the line, someone I could watch my back. The one person who would be by my side in all the damned wars to come... I convinced myself of it. I still think it. You would never betray me, Fredrinn. That's just who you are. You're a good person. But that... that is also your greatest weakness..."

"Then why?" Fredrinn asked, his voice trembling. "Why didn't you tell me any of this? If you truly saw me as an ally, you could have told me. We could have tried to overcome it together. Whatever it is you fear, I promise I will stand by your side until the end to defeat it!"

"What would it change, Fredrinn? What?!" I shouted. "We are up against enemies we can never defeat! Do you think this is just about the Obsidian Dawn cult and some stupid prince vying for the throne?"

"It's not! The real threat has already sunk its roots into this world, and it's just waiting for the right moment! We can try to change fate, but we're not the only ones trying! Others started trying long before us, and they're still at it!"

Fredrinn began to walk toward me, his steps confident. In response to this threatening approach, Zagna materialized right behind me, taking a defensive stance and growling.

But Fredrinn's voice was filled with absolute conviction. "Then we'll destroy them, too! It doesn't matter who or what stands in our way! We'll destroy them all, together!"

"No, we can't! I've seen it!" I screamed, desperate. "I've seen different futures! In every single one of them, no matter what we did, we failed in the end! Fate always led to the same brutal conclusion: our deaths!

"I saw my own death, Fredrinn... Hundreds of times! Do you know what it's like to watch yourself die, over and over? To watch the light slowly fade from your own eyes... to watch the tears fall as you gasp 'I want to live' with your final breath... Do you know what it's like to watch yourself scream in despair, to watch everyone you care about die, one by one, because of you?

"I tried in all of them... I fought, I tried to stop it! We even tried together, Fredrinn! But we never, ever succeeded!"

Fredrinn closed the final distance between us with one last step. He completely ignored Zagna's massive form and threatening breath. He locked his eyes on my own red, pain-filled gaze.

"You," he said, his voice firm and strong, "are not the Cassian from those prophecies you saw. And I am not the Fredrinn from those prophecies.

"Are you really going to give up on everything just because you saw it in some prophecy, some nightmare?

"That's exactly what 'fate' wants: for you to give up! If you weren't a real threat to them—to that 'fate'—they never would have shown you those visions in the first place! We have a chance to win, Cassian! And we will!"

He placed his hand on my shoulder. "Tell me, Cassian... What do you really want to do?"

I remained silent for a long time. The whispers in my mind were at war with Fredrinn's words. I didn't know what to decide. Run... or fight against the impossible?

"You'd better not make me regret this," Fredrinn said, squeezing my shoulder.

I took a deep breath. I recalled Zagna. The massive beast reverted to a small, black orb and returned to my palm.

I was tired. Exhausted. But maybe... maybe he was right.

I summoned my sacred mana. A pure, golden light radiated from my palms, shining like a sun over the land I had ravaged. The wounds, bruises, and fractures on Eric, Rose, Rod, Kael, Hebi, and the other guards lying on the ground sealed in seconds, as if they had never existed.

I tried to speak in my usual sarcastic tone, looking around at the buildings I'd destroyed and the people I'd wounded. My voice didn't come out as mocking as I'd intended.

"See you... see you tomorrow, partner."

With Nivelle on my shoulder, I disappeared into the night, without looking back at the astonished friends I left behind, or at the small ember of hope that had just been rekindled.

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