A figure walked through the battleground, pace leisurely as if enjoying a midnight stroll.
There were no weapons on his person. No insignia's visible on the grey shroud that covered his body.
Only two eyes could be seen through the veil of darkness. Two bright, yellow eyes, like lanterns in the night.
Soldier's charged forward, dressed in red and white, swords flashing.
The figure never broke his strode, never showed the slightest hesitation at the oncoming enemy. All he did was raise his hand, as if to swat a fly.
And the soldiers died.
All of them, in a flash of blinding light, their bodies eviscerated in moments.
"The rest of you, kneel" the figure spoke.
And they did.
Both the empire's soldiers and the rebels. All of them knelt. Buckling under the overwhelming pressure.
It was as if a deity walked amongst them. Not someone who attained power, but had been born to it. Their very instincts told them to obey. To kneel. To avoid its eyes.
To simply, survive.
To this figure, numbers meant nothing. Being surrounded only meant that death came at all angles.
Slowly the figure strolled away, making its way to the rebel trenches.
As it entered the trenches, the figure snapped its fingers. A blinding flash of light rippled outwards. Soldiers turned with wide eyes, surprised seconds before charging forward.
Yet none were able to reach him. Any who got close were struck by lightning, reduced to ashes.
"Tunnels…how very like you Raleigh."
Strolling forward the figure entered a passage away that had been purposefully obscured. It was a long dark tunnel, leading far and wide, hidden by various layers of mana.
'An extensive network under the battlefield. He was planning to surround them.'
As he walked through the tunnels, seemingly taking random turns, he didn't miss how the darkness stirred. Coiling slightly as if tensing.
"You were never a good spy" Thanason grunted, as a blade of condensed light coalesced into his hands.
Spinning he struck, forcing the figure to step away quickly.
The Spymaster was a remarkably powerful man, built more like a warrior than his namesake suggested. "Np, my old friend. I've always been a warrior first." In his hands were two short swords, almost invisible in the dark.
"No, you're not a warrior, " Thanason replied, throwing off the grey shroud to reveal dark hair, tanned skin and a proud jawline. "Just a shitty spy."
Raleigh laughed, his voice haunting in the tunnels as he seemed to disappear from sight.
Thanason stayed calm, waiting. Any moment now, the assassin should kill his double.
"OH…are you waiting for your double to be killed?" Raleigh laughed, his voice coming from everywhere all at once.
Thanason narrowed his eyes. He'd made a mistake, Raleigh was too calm.
He saw a flicker to his right. Growling he summoned light, burning the darkness away in a violent explosion that made the tunnels shake.
Two hands wrapped around his feet.
Thanason burnt them away a second too late. In the dark it was hard to see what had happened, but Thanason knew he had been transported somewhere else in the tunnels in the second that the hands had gripped him.
He could be miles away from where he was.
Raleigh reappeared, his thin face split into an eerie smile, eyes burning with an almost manic rage.
"Your at the most fragile point in the tunnel system. A violent movement here would collapse everything. Your army will be killed if that happens."
Thanason smiled. "So would yours."
"I don't particularly care about my army. Nor for this rebellion. It's all just a means to an end." Raleigh smiled, raising his hand as magic rippled forward.
Thanason did nothing. Said nothing. Merely smiled and waited as a dome of darkness wrapped around him. Yellow eyes glinting eerily in the dark.
Just as the darkness completely shut him off, it shattered, dissolving into nothingness instantly. Raleigh's eyes widened in surprise, dropping to the floor.
For the first time, Thanason's eyes widened in surprise. 'Was he mistaken in thinking that Raleigh had foreseen his plan?'
"H-how?" Raleigh gasped. "It shouldn't have worked, unless, unless, Sarkar failed?"
"Speak clear Raleigh" Thanason growled, strolling forward, resummoning his blade of light.
The spymaster said nothing for a moment.
All life seemed to seep out of him, looking incomparably older than the man he was0 five seconds ago. And that man had seemed to have also aged another century since the time where they had been considered friends.
This figure in front of him was empty. A flesh husk of the man who he used to be. A man Thanason had known well.
"Your plan should've failed…."
"I see" he replied simply. "Any last words, old friend?"
Raleigh's voice trembled as he spoke.
"I loved the Empire, despite what anyone says. I never hated the people of Thoracen. B-but some of those damn nobles. My child….my dear child."
He looked up, eyes burning again with quiet rage. "My only regret was that I didn't kill you all sooner."
"May you be more successful in your next life."
Thanason struck, and a second later, a head dropped to the floor a second before the corpse.
Retrieving the head of the spymaster, Thanason turned to leave. With Raleigh dead, his presence alone meant this battle was practically over.
Yet the thought gave him no joy. This battle, he hadn't meant to win. It had been a trap, against him.
Something had happened back in his camp.
Someone had happened.
...….
"Hey Arthur?"
"What?"
"Do you think we'll get rewarded for this?"
"Pfft. We both got brands on our forehead. We'll be lucky to just be ignored."`
There was silence for a moment before Noah spoke again. "Hey…did you really do it?"
"Do it? Do what?"
Noah faltered for a moment, but he ultimately decided to just speak. "Well, I heard, uhh, the reason why you were sent here. Is it true?"
"Ahh, so you heard did you" I replied, my voice feeling faint. For a moment I thought back to that moment, rummaging through my memories as Arthur.
Searching for that fateful day, the day that had ruined it all.
I knew that at one point, I could remember it. That it had happened.
Yet for each day that passed, the memories grew fainter. Growing less real for each day that I lived.
"I-I don't know" I finally replied. "I think at one point I did. But….i really don't know."
This war, this battle. The constant struggle to live, they all had pushed the questions that had plagued my mind when I'd been imprisoned within the Gravewalker estate.
'Was it all a set-up?'
'Were my memories real?'
'Was my old life as Reshi real?'
'What memories are real and fake?'
So many questions. So many things I needed to confirm, to discover. This world, I read it in a novel. Did that mean this world was fake?
Yet the war had taken its forefront in my life. These questions were all for later. For a time where I didn't have to worry about staying alive.
"What about you?" I asked, wanting to get the topic off myself.
"What about me?"
"Why are you here?"
"Because of a noble" Noah replied simply.
"I guessed that much when you tried to kill me" I snorted.
Noah chuckled softly. "Yeah, sorry about that. Mind blowing to think that had all been two months ago, feels like another lifetime."
"Tell me about it" Arthur muttered. "Wars are like that. It feels like you go through 200 years of another life in three. And yet somehow, when you return to normality, you still somehow manage to feel fifty years behind everyone else your age."
"Almost sounds like you've fought before" Noah said, snorting slightly.
"Yeah, it does, doesn't it? You know what's funny?"
"What?"
"With Raleigh dead, this battle won't last another couple of days…which means, if I had managed to hold out for another couple of days, Marsh still might've been alive."
Noah was silent for a moment. "You two were really close huh?"
Arthur looked away, fighting against the burning in his chest. He knew if he spoke his voice would crack, so he didn't say anything. And Noah seemed content with the silence, understanding at the very least.
And so they simply lay there, in silence, under the full view of the heavens in all its glory.