The Albion tree in the center of Sentinel burned.

Around it, the humans of the town marched, bound for the exit to the place they had once called home. They had been given all the food and supplies from the warehouses, and allowed to take what they needed from their homes under the supervision of the Archon's tree-soldiers.

Those who initially resisted didn't do so for long. Any grumbles were met with reminders of what the Archon was capable of – one only had to take a look at the dead titan floating in the ocean to know that.

The citizens had been surprised when the Archon had spoken to them directly – not the man they assumed to be his mouthpiece. In fact, that old man was nowhere to be seen when the Demon hat and his tree-warrior Host took to the stage in the village center and told them they were free to go.

"We promise you safe passage to Lucent, or wherever else you may wish to go. But once you leave these walls, you forfeit your right to return. My hybrids and I have a mission that takes us far from these shores. We seek to break the chains that bind you to your roles in this world. To do that, the torturer that resides in Griffon's Watch must die."

He had looked over their shocked faces – the faces of mothers who, albeit relieved they would live, now looked at an uncertain future. They looked at the hybrids that stood beside the Archon and grimaced. They seemed more like a pack of thieves and brigands than a band of liberators.

And Ethan also looked into the faces of men who couldn't believe what they were hearing. Men who had never once dreamed of being more than what they were told they could be.

"Whether you believe the word of an Archon or not," Ethan continued on the stage. "We want nothing more than freedom. We – I – want a world where a System doesn't dictate what I can be, but allows me to live up to my potential. I and my armies fight for the right to choose the lives we wish to lead. Perhaps some of you, deep in your hearts, feel the same. Perhaps not. Regardless, this place will be a battlefield once again in the future. You can't stay here."

He had finished his speech on somewhat of a downhearted note, and he saw that the villagers looked like they were ready to riot against him.

In that moment, he felt it again – the feeling, the compulsion to kill. To slay them all where they stood. To close shut any eyes that dared look upon him with disapproval or disagreement.

And then his eyes found the branches of the newly birthed Albion tree, and he noticed that the tips of those razor-sharp branches were dangling over the heads of the villagers again.

Without even thinking about it, he ordered Fauna to burn the whole thing down.

"But –" she tried to protest.

"Just do it."

The coldness of his voice chilled her, and she did as she was bid. In the second that it looked like the first of the human villagers were about to rush the stage in a desperate attack, the Hopla sent up a fireball that engulfed the whole tree – and then splintered off into five different explosions that ripped through the air with brilliant indigoes, violets, and sapphires – each one of them a different kind of flame being added to the bonfire.

"B…by Gyko…"

It was a result of her Wildglance nature – she hadn't meant it. But it worked. The Albion tree shuddered and Ethan was almost sure it screamed as it died just like a living creature. But more importantly, the humans eyes shot up and saw the power the Archon commanded. They looked through the burning branches of the tree and saw him standing above them, his hybrids beside him – nothing more than an adventuring party of five who it was said had actually slain the Lightborn himself.

And that's when the realized, for the first time in their lives, that maybe humanity's time on this earth really was at an end.

After that, they left without another grumble. Death was one thing. The Archon could do worse than that.

Ethan watched them go, eyes looking through the burning Albion with an unreadable expression.

"We should burn the dead while we have the chance," Klax said. "It is only right."

"Ugh. Really?" Tara groaned. "Honestly, you and your 'honor'…it'll be the death of us, someday. Right, Ethan?"

"…Ethan? Hey –"

"I'll do it," Ethan finally replied. "You four make sure the humans and druids leave their separate ways. Don't let Malak even lay a finger on them."

The party looked to each other, seeing the change that had come over their Lord.

"H-hey," Fauna murmured. "Ethan, listen –"

"The Archon has given us a command," Lamphrey suddenly broke in. "Let us carry it out and leave him to his thoughts."

Fauna grit her teeth.

"Oh, I bet you'd like that, wouldn't you?" she growled. "You're the one who's been messing with them, after all."

"Ow!" Tara chuckled. "Feisty Fauna! I love it."

"If you have a problem, Hopla, then kindly leave it till after we set sail for the prison. Your emotional outbursts do nothing to aid our Lord in this trying time."

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

Fauna's eyes almost burst from their sockets.

"Y-you bi-"

"Enough!" Ethan roared, far louder than he'd meant to. "This is getting us nowhere. Tara, Lamphrey – you two make sure the humans get out safely. After they leave the bounds of the Triant forest, they're on they're own. Klax, Faun – you two make sure those druids tuck their tails between their legs and go back to their Grove. And if you get even a hint of attitude from anyone…"

Tara nodded appreciatively. "Heads and spikes? I can get behind that."

"I'm sure that's not what Ethan meant, right?"

Fauna got no answer, instead, Ethan leaped from the stage and started carrying the bodies of the slain Spectators and Flesh mutants into the tree, lining them up so that the once thriving Sentinel fountain became nothing more than a gargantuan funeral pyre.

…

At the entrance to the village, there was an eerie silence, broken only by the occasional wails of children as the villagers of Sentinel were steered away from their home.

In the opposite direction, the Druids of the Fifth Pillar trudged along, dejected, confused, and ultimately defeated. Not counting their Drytchling soldiers, there were only twenty five of them. Enough to put up a little resistance, if they wanted to.

But when they saw their new Albion tree burning, they knew their hour of victory had not come as they had hoped.

When Malak finally came among them – his clothes torn, his breathing heavy, face lacerated with cuts, a few of them openly wept.

Fauna and Klax watched as Malak explained the situation – the old man's voice a shadow of its previous confident tone. To those Druids who called the Archon a traitor, he simply shook his head.

"It is we who have strayed from the path, Brothers and Sisters. Our feet do not deserve to tread the road the Archon is paving."

Fauna and Klax looked at each other in confusion as the biting rain continued to batter the curtain wall and gate to the town. When the Druids then turned, suddenly, and fixed their eyes on the pair of them, Fauna stiffened, sure that they were resolved to go out fighting.

But no spells were cast. No blows were dealt. Instead, weeping openly at their failure, the Druids filed out of the town with a sad shuffle.

So it was that two sets of humans left the Battle of Sentinel in defeat. Perhaps, some of them would say later, they had been nothing but pawns for their entire lives – their existence nothing more than a hindrance to those who held real power in this world.

Fauna looked out into the city streets – at the mutant bodies Ethan had taken it upon himself to clean away.

"What…what was it all for?" she asked.

Klax stepped behind her, placing a reassuring paw on her shoulder.

"A better world," he said. "One day, they'll look back on this and see that Ethan's mercy was right. When Kaedmon's Law is finally broken, they'll understand."

Fauna nodded, but she had a hard time believing that.

Before he left through the village gate, Malak turned suddenly and walked over to her, head bowed.

"You know the way out," Klax said firmly. "I suggest you take it before the Archon changes his mind."

Malak didn't look up. He stopped before Fauna, who was at least two feet shorter than him, and bowed before her.

"Thank you," he whispered. "Than you for your mercy, Fauna of Sanctum. Without your intervention…"

He let the last words of his statement hang, and Fauna looked down at him, unsure of what to even say.

"We – I – will invoke your name in my prayers," Malak continued. "For that was my failing: I did not praise the Archon and his flock enough. That is why I was not chosen. That is why I must be punished. That is why I do not deserve a place at his side…"

Suddenly the old man grabbed the hem of Fauna's skirt. She winced, but did not move away. She watched the rain pelt his face, the waters of the heavens mixing with his own tears.

"You are blessed, truly blessed," Malak cried. "I will – I will not forget you."

Fauna seized up, at once perturbed and oddly fascinated by the devotion in the old man's eyes.

She'd never seen a human look at her like this before.

"Alright, that's enough," Klax said calmly, hurrying the Druid along. "Your flock is waiting for you. And remember well the Archon's warning."

Fauna watched the old man crawl away like a beetle in the mud. To see the backs of him and his people should have given her some measure of peace. But her mind was filled with more uncertainty now than it ever had been since their journey had begun.

"Klax," she said. "We're losing him."

The wolfman followed her gaze towards the inner village, where Ethan was sitting atop the lighthouse again, staring out into the fog that lay thick upon Argwyll's ocean.

"He's troubled," she said. "I can feel it…and yet I don't know if I can help. If there was only some kind of spell…"

Klax shook his head sadly. "If there was, you would already know it, Faun. I'm afraid the problem Ethan's facing isn't magical in nature."

"He's always been there for us," Fauna muttered. "Its only fair that, now, we should be there for him."

Klax nodded, though his voice was tinged with caution.

"He knows we have his back one hundred percent," the wolfman replied. "But his mind is not ours, Faun. It's still human, technically, and the decisions he has to make will shape this world itself. It's a miracle he hasn't succumbed to the pressure yet."

"I never heard anyone say that about Gyko," Fauna said. "And she technically had a human mind, too, according to what Jun'Ei told Ethan."

"True enough, though we didn't know it. But she was before your time, Faun. She had one purpose: to conquer. She threw herself into her role like every Archon since Karfangg and that's where Ethan's different. Because he's not out to win the game, he's out to change the rules entirely."

Both hybrids watched their Lord in silence for a time, his form high, aloof, and seemingly untouchable.

"He's an Archon, true," Klax said. "But there's never been one like him. What we're looking at up there is something entirely new. And who are we to tell him how he should feel? We can't even imagine what's going on in his head. Trust me, Faun, the best thing we can do is give him some space, and some time. Maybe when this monster Haylock's finally dead and buried…"

He trailed off, and Fauna looked back at him to catch him smile that same smile he managed to put on even in the toughest of situations. Since the City of Illusions, he'd gone back to the Klax she knew – confident, calm, and in control.

But even you aren't sure about all this, she thought. Are you?

Klax gave a long stretch, looking back to see that the last of the humans had finally left the village.

"Alright!" he shouted to Lamphrey and Tara. "Time to get that old boat moving."

He gave Fauna a reassuring wink before walking briskly towards the town port, being met by the Drytchling soldiers on his way who blinked at him with their weird, alien eyes.

"Eh…you want to help out?"

The warriors nodded once, a few leaves fluttering from the branches on their heads.

"…Alright, then," Klax coughed. "Uh…carry on."

Fauna watched him go, a slight smile tugging at the corners of her twitching mouth.

Oh Klax…you're a good person. But you're really just focused on finding your beloved, aren't you? Ethan's going to finally give you what you've wanted all these years, and as long as he does that, everything's fine for you, isn't it?

She switched her gaze back up to Ethan, trying to catch his eyes, somehow.

Maybe you're right, but…I can't just accept that. Even if it means nothing, I need to try talking to him. I need to try before…

She paused, her thoughts suddenly being interrupted by a feeling akin to a needle being jammed into her spine. She turned slowly, knowing exactly what she'd see before she did so.

Lamphrey was staring right at her.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.