Raul gripped his axe when he reached the Royal Library and saw Narian standing with her back against the door.

She was with two soldiers, moonlight reflecting on her terrifying face.

He always thought that the permanent red moon was ominous, but seeing it tonight, heart racing, “prepared to kill” if necessary, it looked macabre.

“Only three of you?” he asked, a statement that could mean They only sent three of you to kill me? or You want to save her with only four of us? depending on her next words.“Groups draw suspicion,” Narian said.

“We’ll pick ’em up as we go.

Now swing that thing or put it away.

We’re on patrol, not on call duty.”Raul looked at his axe, an executioner’s blade hidden behind strange and beautiful arrays, and chuckled grimly.

“Do you really do night calls?” “Is that a serious question?” Narian snorted and walked past him, lacking the slightest hint of sardonicism in her expression.

Raul couldn’t believe she admitted it so matter-of-factly, and seeing her wearing uncloaked sycount armor when she said it drove in the blackened sense of realism he wanted to ignore.“Wait….” Raul stopped, and she and the soldiers turned to him.

“I just need to know something.”Narian turned and gripped her forearms, tapping her index against her braces.

“You’re not one of those people that will regret this shit before, during, and after, are you? If so, fuck off.

We don’t have time for children.”Raul shook his head.

“No.

It’s not a matter of regret—it’s a matter of trust.

I get you wanna save Edico, but you’re committing treason to do it.

Why?”The other sycounts turned away, but Narian stood tall.

“We’re not just committing treason, kid.

We’re takin’ over the kingdom.”Raul’s Adam’s apple turned into a rock as he swallowed.

“What?”“You think we’re just throwin’ our lives away?” she asked.

“No.

This kingdom’s collapsing, and we’re showin’ where we stand.”Another sycount turned to him.

“Listen, Lord Martinez.

I know you’re just trying to save your friend, and we get that.

But to us, it goes much further than that.

We’ve spent our lives protecting the scandals that just leaked.

Hell, our people died protecting them.

We guard the meetings and then die for hearing too much.

There’s not one amongst us that hasn’t seen it happen.”Raul stared at the man with parted lips, lost as to what to say.“Satisfied?” Narian asked.

“Now trust us or leave.” She strode to the lead again, walking faster to make up for lost time.

As they walked through the moonlit halls, more sycounts, guards, and soldiers joined, picking up speed like a game of Snake.

Each saluted Narian, either as a conspirator or an ignorant soldier addressing their superior.

But almost everyone was nervous around Raul, whispering about his presence, unsure whether to be nervous or grateful.

They knew he was strong and would make all the difference, so they gave him a wide berth.Raul’s heart pounded once he noticed that they weren’t moving toward the dungeons.

“Wait.

Aren’t we breaking them out?” Narian snorted.

“Do you think they made it easy to get in or out of your girlfriend’s cell?”Raul’s eyebrow twitched, but he thought about it.

“No.

So what are we doing?”“We’re going to the Royal Treasury.”“Wait.

Are we funding a war?”“No.

We’re obtaining leverage.”“What kind of—““Just shut up, kid,” Narian snapped.

“Until you prove yourself, you’re just muscle.” Raul complied.

The treasury was in the Inner Garden, a courtyard in the center that was about the size of a football field, teaming with beautiful, imported flowers that were fragrant in the open summer skies.

There was a barrier over the area, ensuring that aerial forces didn’t drop from above, but it didn’t stop the hot, sticking humidity that clung to exotic tree leaves and made the soldiers wish they weren’t in leather and armor plating.

The building itself was similar to a modern bank, hidden behind a beautiful wood door with a mural engraved into it.

The door was a priceless work of art——but it became a pile of splinters as soon as Narian kicked a saluting guard through it.

It all happened in seconds, and it left Raul speechless, realizing that there was no going back.“No witnesses!” Narian said.

“Move!”Half a dozen guards within the treasury rushed forward, and Narian’s soldiers met them, slicing them to ribbons.

By the time Raul saw the corpses, they looked like people who were caught in horrible car crashes, crumpled between steel car frames.

He trembled.“Keep in the present, Hero,” Narian said.

“You don’t need to kill anyone, but you need to pack out supplies without getting caught.”Raul swallowed and nodded.“Ready,” an allied mage said, putting his finger tips on a red array they had painted on a steel door within the treasury.“Proceed,” Narian said.The mage activated the array, and it glowed an ambient blue light that quickly turned dark green and then purple as the steel door shifted from oven-coil-orange to blacksmith-red from intense heat.

Raul was blasted with dry heat like a Nevada summer, and when he unshielded his eyes he saw that the door turned into a hole of melting slag, sizzling as it touched the floor.

“Barriers up!” Narian said.Two mages threw up barriers as a third started chanting.

When the mage completed his chant, an icy gust of wind hit the door, and it violently shattered.Suddenly, bullhorns went off in the kingdom, followed by the distant sound of soldiers yelling.

“Breech at the treasury!” Another horn sounded, followed by the sound of metal shoes clacking on the stone steps.

Raul turned and saw torches and mana crystal lights approaching like police cars responding to a heist.

Hurry up! Raul thought.

The word prison entered his mind.

No.

He looked at the dead bodies in the building.

Death row.

“Quality over quantity!” Narian yelled.

“If it looks like it’ll be impossible to get out, that’s what we want.

Now move! We’ll deal with the guards!” She turned to Raul.

“Fight for your girl, or go into the treasury.

Choose now and prepare to kill either way.”Raul trembled, gritting his teeth.

Then, his face scrunched up, and he gripped his axe’s hilv.

His heart was pounding, and he wasn’t able to admit it yet—able to admit that he was committing treason and would soon be killing innocent soldiers who were just doing their jobs.

“You see this?” Narian showed him blood dripping from her sword.

“This isn’t ‘murder.’ This is my job.

This is your job.

I’m not sure what the kingdom sold you kids, but this is reality.

You’re a weapon, and your job’s to kill people.

You’re only decidin’ whether you’ll do it for yourself.”Raul gripped his hands on his hilv tighter.

It was hard, but….

It was his role, and he was tired of fucking his roles up.

Everyone had a role to Raul.

In his family, the men took care of most of the work, fixed up the house, and made problems disappear.

The women cooked and took care of the children.

They had roles.

That wasn’t to say that women had to do the cooking or men had to do the work.

It could be the other way around.

What was important was that there were roles to ensure things got done.

If there weren’t, things went to shit—and this was a perfect example.Raul was the mediator.

It was his job to keep Jason in check, talk to Sara for the rest, and keep morale up—he fucked that up spectacularly.

Then, his role was to protect Emma—he fucked that up, too.

Now, for better or worse, he told Sara he’d support her, and she was locked in a prison cell on death row.

It couldn’t get more fucked than that.

He was tired of messing up his roles.

Still, the thought of killing innocent soldiers to fulfill his role was disturbing, even if it was the way of the world.

For a moment, he wanted to turn away, but then the memory of Sara offering him the bottle flashed across his mind:Trust me, she had said, you’ll need it.No.

The whole situation was fucked up.

King Escar abducted them, stripped them away from their families, friends, and futures, and then trained them to kill demons.

The real tragedy is that they had to deal with the emotional damage that their new life wrought.

Seeing Sara was proof of that.

She and Narian understood the way of the world, cruel and unforgiving as it was.

But they didn’t turn away from it, and if he wanted to make any type of difference—If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author.

Report it.—neither could he.Raul took a deep breath, the acrid smell of smoke and burning metal curling in his lungs.

He could hear the soldiers getting near.

He could see archers lining up on towers and surrounding them.

He gripped his hilv and swallowed hard.

“I want to be here.”“Want’s a strong word,” Narian warned.“Need,” Raul replied.

Then he watched soldiers rush through the courtyard.“Formation up!” A rebel yelled.The soldiers pulled up their shields in a phalanx formation, blocking Raul’s vision as they prepared to meet them head-on.

Yet he could still see their spears over the shields.

Raul was a Goliath in a world where rations were relatively meager, and it made him a giant amongst men.

Compared to the others, he was like Ajax.

Yeah, like Ajax the Great.

Raul didn’t like reading, but he picked the Illiad in literature class, and now he was living it.

Ajax.

Tonight, that was his role.

The enemy soldiers’ battle cries shattered the soundscape as they approached, and the rebels screamed, “Brace!” A collective shift occurred, and Raul’s allies dug their boots into the ground.

“Now!”Suddenly, there was a terrifying boom as enemy forces slammed into the soldier’s shield formation.

Then, the battle began.2A sudden knock roused Sara from her sleep, and the door thrust open.

Sara eyed the brunette that walked in with bleary eyes.

She wore a tight bun, the type of woman who could pass for a nun at a Catholic boarding school.

Her name was Jeska Rooten, a taxation official from the Holo Province in Destra to the west and the past accountant during Mary’s reign.

King Escar likely chose her because she was scandal-free—and because she was a dry, ruthless woman who lacked empathy, much like a Wall Street banker doing data analysis behind a computer screen, ignoring the lives her trading decisions impacted.

“Good evening,” Sara said dryly.“Your execution date is set for tomorrow,” Jeska informed her.“You’re in a good mood tonight.”Jeska pulled up a chair and sat down.

“But you have a chance to save your friend.”“Bring this fabled Kyritus Senecaru to my chamber, or stop talking about him.” Sara lay down again.“I’m not talking about Kyritus Senecaru.”“You know what I find fascinating?” Sara asked.

“The fact that you think I have friends.

Have you done any research on me?”“It’s true,” Jeska said.

“You care deeply for Emma—““Threaten Emma again, and you’ll be spayed by week’s end.” Sara clenched her bed sheets, her cheek twitching.Jeska smiled.

“See? You do have friends.”“No, I have people I care about.

And I’ll warn you, if you incarcerate Emma or Raul, terrible things will start happening.

You think you’ve seen hell, Lady Rooten, but I assure you—you haven’t seen anything yet.”In negotiations, it’s best not to show one’s weaknesses or desires—unless one’s warning someone of tangible consequences.

And oh, would there be consequences.Jeska responded with a confused grimace as if the entire situation had suddenly changed.

Sara’s eyes narrowed.

“Don’t tell me you idiots locked them up.”“We have not,” Jeska said.

“However….”“’However,’ what?”“Lord Martinez has been spotted in the Inner Garden with rebel forces.

Once we capture him, he will be executed—unless you make a deal with us.”Sara’s blood ran cold, and the iron hands of anxiety caressed her lungs and squeezed.

“Wait, what?”3Raul didn’t think about the first strike.

It was less of a decision and more of a reaction.

Just moments before, he watched as soldiers crashed into the shields, causing a captivating wave of kinetic force that pushed everyone back.

Then came the shrill of blades against steel, the groans of swords piercing through skin, and the grating of steel shoes pushed back against stone.

For a moment, he thought everything would stand like a game of tug of war.

Then, amidst the moshpit of promised death, there was a buckling.

One allied soldier tripped backward, and the entire line fell like bowling pins right in front of Raul, allowing him to see the hundred enemy soldiers he was facing, sprawled out over every inch of the garden like swarming bugs, stomping over rare flowers as if they were dandelions.

That’s when it happened.In that split-second after the drop, enemy soldiers ran over their fallen brethren, and one bolted forward, cleaving his sword down toward Raul’s neck.

Right then, as if Raul was expecting a fastball instead of a slowball, he swung his axe into the soldier like a baseball bat, and the man flew twenty feet backward, slamming into other soldiers.

Once that happened, Raul stared at his axe blade’s red sheen, realizing——how easy it was to kill someone.The action came with a hellish array of terrible consequences, from incarceration and trauma to guilt and regret, and once the adrenaline wore off, he would be left suspended in a state of hell.

Yet… the act of killing….

It was no different than a sport.

And right then, in a game of life and death where hundreds of soldiers sought to claim his life——he needed to win.As if responding to his desire, the red blood on the axe soaked into the arrays, making the symbols and lines glow faintly in the red moonlight.

Energy flooded into his body, connecting his hands to the axe’s hilv and the world seemed to disappear.

Then, the moment passed, his mind awoke in the present, and the world’s sounds converged in his mind.“Top barriers!” Narian yelled.Barriers launched above Raul’s allies just seconds before a comet spell sent fire and brimstone raining from the heavens.

The fire slammed into the barriers with a crack as the fire set unprotected soldiers, flowers, and trees alight without prejudice.

Then, as the inferno reflected in Narian’s eyes, she thrust her hand forward to release a wind spell, which blew combatant soldiers forward as the fire raged out of control.It was a hellish scene but short-lived.

Distant mages released fire suppression spells, and the world turned to ash and smoke.

Raul watched the smoke curl, his mind clear, hands glued to his axe by a strange energy.

Then, as his eyes followed air fluctuations in the smoke, experienced sycounts shot out of the blackness with barriers covering their bodies.

The sycounts around Raul shot forward to meet them, and, for whatever reason, Raul found himself flying into the action with the rebels.

4Jeska didn’t blink.

“Your friend’s out there right now fighting the kingdom.

He’s no longer innocent, and he will never be a martyr.”Sara bit her lip, smiling wryly.

“That’s right, Lady Reece,” Jeska said.

“Raul Martinez will be executed alongside you.

But you can change that.”Sara chuckled, and she shook her head.

Her grief for Raul was replaced by intense heat, molten blood flowing through her veins.

“When is King Escar going to learn his lesson?” she whispered.Jeska froze.Sara looked her in the eye.

“Listen to me, Ms.

Rooten, and relay this to the king.

I’m not worried for Raul’s life.”Raul rushed across the battlefield, slamming his hilv into soldier’s helmets.

With his speed and dexterity, just the handle was enough to cave in their armor and send them flying.

Blood splattered across his vision, and his energy seemed to grow, heating his body until it was unbearable.“Surrender!” Raul yelled, lifting his axe to block a vertical sword slash.

The blade hit between his two hands on the hilv, letting out a metallic clang.

Then he push-kicked the man’s chest, sending the soldier flying into a group.

“I don’t want to fight you!”No one listened to his pleas.

They kept coming in swarms, and the arrays on the axe kept burning brighter, flooding him with intense energy that was getting harder to control.Sara looked Jeska Rooten in the eye.

“I’m worried about his humanity.”