Bernard dragged Toki across the shattered stone as another torrent of flame tore through the courtyard.
Heat split the air behind them. The blast passed so close Bernard felt his skin blister through his sleeve. The smell of scorched fabric clung to him.
Toki did not resist.
He did not help.
He stumbled, feet scraping, whispering broken fragments to no one.
"It's my fault… my fault… I calculated… I— no, that's wrong— the perimeter was stable— it should have held—"
"Move!" Bernard barked.
He threw Toki behind a collapsed pillar just as fire washed over the ground where they had stood. The stone glowed red. The screams around them blurred into a single rising howl.
Bernard's shoulder was burned. His hair singed at the edges. But he stood.
Umma thundered toward them through smoke and falling ash, her heavy body knocking aside debris. Her eyes were wild. She lowered herself beside them.
Bernard grabbed Toki by the collar and heaved him onto her back.
"Take him and go!"
Umma hesitated.
"Go!" he roared.
He turned upward and shouted toward the sky.
"Reginald! Snap out of it!"
The massive red dragon wheeled above them, molten eyes locking onto him.
For one heartbeat—
Something flickered there.
Or maybe Bernard only imagined it.
The dragon folded its wings and dove.
Harold tackled Bernard aside just as talons gouged into the stone where his chest had been.
The impact cracked the courtyard.
Harold rolled with him, breath ragged. Blood streaked his face.
He seized Bernard by the shoulders and shook him violently.
"Bernard! Look at me!"
The dragon's shadow passed over them again.
"That thing is not our brother anymore!"
Bernard's jaw tightened.
"We need to evacuate whoever is left. Now."
Around them, knights burned. Others fled only to be struck down by falling masonry or crushed beneath sweeping tails.
Bernard's eyes moved across the destruction.
The plaza.
The men.
The banners.
The fountain.
His formation.
Toki's formation.
He inhaled slowly.
"…What do we do?" Harold asked, and for the first time since they were boys, his voice sounded small.
Bernard stood.
There was something in his expression now that Harold had never seen before.
Calm.
Absolute.
"There's nothing left for you to do here," Bernard said quietly.
Harold froze.
Bernard drew his sword.
Mana formed along the blade—thin at first, then sharpening, vibrating the air around it. The ground hummed beneath his feet.
"I've already lost one younger brother," Bernard said. "I will not lose the other two."
Harold's face drained of color.
"You're not—"
"Take Toki. Bring him back to himself. Together, you can still save this city."
Another dragon roared in the distance.
"Evacuate the king. The civilians. Send word to every other city. Tell them the capital has fallen."
Harold stared at him.
"Bernard…"
"Gather long-range weapons. Clear the zones the dragons will sweep. Do not engage head-on unless you have to."
"Bernard!"
He didn't look at him.
"But you?"
Bernard smiled faintly.
"Do you remember," he said softly, "when Mother used to tell us stories about the First King?"
Harold's breath trembled.
"The one who fought the Dragon King alone."
Harold nodded once.
"I am Captain of the First Division."
He adjusted his grip on the sword.
"And I am the eldest brother."
The sky darkened fully as the eclipse deepened.
"It is my duty to be the shield."
Harold grabbed his arm.
"Stop trying to be a hero! We need to escape together!"
Bernard's voice lowered.
"If you make me turn around… I will haunt you."
Harold's fingers tightened.
"This is the last day of my life," Bernard continued. "Let me choose how it ends."
A dragon's roar shook dust from the palace walls.
"Take care of Lady Elizabeth," Bernard said, almost gently.
Harold blinked.
"What?"
"She'll pretend she's fine. She'll be furious. She'll refuse to cry in public."
His smile deepened just slightly.
"She's stubborn. Impossible. Sharp as a blade."
Flame lit the courtyard again.
"Make sure she forgets me."
Harold's throat closed.
"Make sure she finds someone who fills her empty spaces."
He exhaled.
"You and Toki have your ladies."
His gaze flickered briefly toward Toki, who still muttered broken fragments.
"I will not put that burden on you."
Harold's eyes burned.
"Bernard… please…"
"If you love me," Bernard said quietly, "you'll do as I say."
He stepped forward.
Harold did not follow.
He couldn't.
One of the smaller dragons swooped low.
Bernard ran toward it.
He planted his foot against a fallen blade embedded in stone and vaulted upward, flipping over the creature's neck. He landed on its back.
His sword drove down.
Mana flared.
The blade struck scales.
It pierced—but shallow.
The dragon roared, twisting violently.
Bernard stabbed again and again at the base of its skull.
Each strike rang through his arms like striking iron.
"Damn it—"
His eyes flicked outward.
Toki's mana field.
The crystals.
The suppressive radius.
"Your damn aria is strangling my flow, Toki," he muttered.
The dragon jerked upward, thrashing through the sky.
Bernard held fast.
Below, Harold reached Toki and grabbed him.
"Toki!"
Toki's eyes were unfocused.
"It's my fault… I built the cage… I funneled them…"
Harold shook him.
"We cannot let Bernard's sacrifice be meaningless!"
Another explosion rocked the plaza.
"We must leave! We must save the king! The citizens!"
Toki did not respond.
Harold's voice broke.
"We have to protect Lady Elizabeth in his place!"
That name cut through something.
Toki's eyes twitched.
Above them, Bernard drove his sword deeper.
The dragon shrieked and began flying erratically.
Then—
Bernard saw another dragon racing toward him.
Perfect.
He slammed his blade down into the wounded dragon's throat with everything he had left.
The creature howled and surged forward uncontrollably.
The two dragons collided midair.
The impact shattered sound itself.
Wings tore.
Scales cracked.
Bernard was thrown upward into the sky.
Weightless.
For one fleeting second—
Peace.
The great red dragon turned its head.
It saw him.
And opened its jaws.
Bernard did not resist the fall.
He spread his arms slightly.
"Come on then," he whispered.
The dragon lunged.
"Come to your big brother."
Its jaws closed around him.
Darkness.
Heat.
Pressure.
He thrust his hands upward, bracing against the roof of its mouth.
The force crushed down.
His bones screamed.
The dragon's breath was fire and blood.
Its teeth pressed against his ribs.
Cracks echoed inside his own body.
He gasped—but laughed faintly.
"I'm sorry… Reginald."
The pressure increased.
"I let you walk alone."
The dragon tightened its bite.
Spots of light burst behind his eyes.
"I'm sorry, Harold…"
Another crack.
"I'm sorry, Toki…"
He thought of Elizabeth.
Her sharp tongue.
Her defiant glare.
The way her red hair caught the sunlight.
Her rare, delicate smile.
"I asked you to marry me so many times," he thought.
"I think you believed I was joking."
The dragon's jaws began to close fully.
"Will you ever know… how much I loved you?"
His vision blurred.
"So it seems," he thought faintly, "the role of hero never suited me."
He forced his eyes open one last time.
Harold.
Toki.
Small below.
"I love you all," he thought.
"Please… forget me!"
The dragon's jaws snapped shut.
A violent sound cracked through the courtyard.
Then—
Red fell from the sky.
Toki saw it.
Every drop.
Every fragment.
The sky rained what remained of the First Division's captain.
The world stopped.
A sound tore from Toki's throat that did not belong to any human language.
It was not a scream.
It was rupture.
He fell to his knees.
"No—no—no—no—"
Harold grabbed him as his body convulsed.
"Toki! We have to go!"
Toki clawed at the ground.
"I killed him!"
The dragons roared again.
Flame swallowed another street.
Harold wrapped both arms around him and pulled him upright.
"We cannot die here!"
Toki's tears fell without restraint.
"He trusted me."
"Yes!" Harold shouted. "And if you stay here, you're throwing mud in our brother's name!"
The red dragon roared again, victorious.
The eclipse deepened.
The capital burned.
And the eldest brother was gone.
Harold's body jerked violently.
For a moment, Toki thought it was another explosion.
Then something hot splashed across his face.
Warm.
Metallic.
Harold's grip loosened.
Toki blinked slowly.
There was a sword.
Through Harold's chest.
The blade had erupted from his back in a spray of red that stained Toki's cheeks and lips.
Harold looked down at it as if mildly surprised.
Then he coughed.
Blood spilled from his mouth.
Behind him stood the blond man.
Perfect posture.
Clean coat.
Not a single wrinkle disturbed by the massacre.
"I hope," the man said lightly, almost conversationally, "you didn't forget about me."
He twisted the blade.
Harold's body convulsed.
The sound that left his throat was small. Broken.
"What a disaster," the Star Collector sighed. "Honestly, it might have been more efficient to let you all kill one another instead of trapping you like mice."
He pulled the sword free.
Harold collapsed forward.
Onto Toki.
Heavy.
Toki caught him instinctively.
Harold's blood soaked through his clothes.
Harold's eyes struggled to focus.
He tried to speak.
More blood came instead.
Then, barely audible—
"Run… Toki…"
His body slackened.
And Toki—
Toki was alone.
"Don't look at me like that," the Star Collector said, tilting his head slightly.
Toki's vision blurred red.
"At least I pierced the heart cleanly. Rosalin was… less merciful."
He reached into his coat pocket.
Pulled something out.
A bundle of hair.
Red strands.
Brown strands.
Tied together.
Toki stared at it without breathing.
"Don't worry," the Star Collector continued. "You won't need to look after any lady now."
The world narrowed.
"Lady Elizabeth…" Toki whispered.
His throat tightened.
"Lady Melissa…"
His eyes lifted slowly.
"What did you do?"
The Star Collector blinked in mild surprise.
"I told you already. I didn't expect you to be so slow."
Toki's gaze shifted upward.
There was something on the man's head.
A crown.
Tarnished gold.
Stained at its base.
"No…" Toki breathed. "You didn't…"
The Star Collector smiled faintly.
"And what if I did?"
He adjusted it slightly.
"The king was an old man. I simply relieved him before he had to watch his kingdom crumble."
Toki's fingers dug into the stone.
"Utsuki…"
His voice cracked.
"What did you do to Utsuki?"
"Oh," the Star Collector replied casually. "The plan was to eliminate all candidates eventually. But I suppose I'll let Rosalin enjoy that satisfaction."
He gestured toward the plaza.
Toki turned.
A caravan was approaching at reckless speed.
Wheels striking broken stone.
"No," Toki whispered.
Then louder—
"No! I told you to stay home!"
He tried to crawl toward them.
The Star Collector drove his sword downward.
Steel pierced Toki's leg and pinned him to the ground.
The pain exploded up his spine.
"Stay," the Star Collector said softly. "And watch."
"No!" Toki screamed. "Go back!"
A shadow fell over them.
A dragon descended.
Ozvold barely had time to turn his head.
The creature's talons came down with crushing force.
Stone shattered.
When the claw lifted—
Ozvold did not rise.
The carriage overturned from the impact, throwing Utsuki violently across the courtyard. She struck the ground, rolled hard, and lay still for one terrible second.
Then she moved.
She pushed herself up.
Blood ran from her temple.
"Toki!"
"Don't come closer!" he screamed. "He will kill you!"
The Star Collector stepped back slightly.
"This time," he said calmly, "I promised I wouldn't deliver the final blow."
The red dragon shifted its gaze.
It recognized her.
It inhaled.
Utsuki reached Toki and stepped in front of him.
"Don't move," she said firmly.
She raised her hands.
Mana shimmered weakly between her palms.
She tried to gather water from the fountain.
From the air.
From her own reserves.
Nothing answered.
The mana would not form.
Toki's eyes widened in horror.
"Move away!" he screamed. "My field suppresses mana!"
But it was too late.
Umma had already launched herself from Toki's side, charging desperately toward Utsuki.
The dragon's chest expanded.
Time slowed.
Toki saw it clearly—
The thin distortion before the flame.
He tried to move.
The sword in his leg held him.
The dragon exhaled.
White fire swallowed them.
There was no scream.
No prolonged agony.
Just light.
Heat.
And then—
Silence.
When the flame faded—
There was nothing left but blackened shapes and bone.
Umma's massive frame reduced to a skeletal outline.
Utsuki's form collapsed inward, fragile and motionless.
The smell—
Burned flesh.
Charred air.
Ash.
Toki made no sound at first.
Then something inside him broke.
The Star Collector released the sword in his leg.
Toki didn't feel it.
He tore himself free and crawled forward, hands trembling, ignoring the pain.
He gathered what remained of her.
Fragile bone in shaking arms.
He pressed his forehead against what was left.
And he began to sob.
Not quietly.
Not with dignity.
He choked on it.
His body shook violently.
Tears poured down his face until he could barely breathe.
The eclipse ended.
The sun returned.
But the city—
Was gone.
The dragons withdrew eventually.
The screams faded.
The fire settled into smoldering ruin.
Toki did not move.
Hours passed.
The Star Collector remained standing beside him.
Watching.
Finally, he spoke.
"You did everything possible," he said quietly. "And yet… you could not deceive fate."
Toki did not respond.
"I can't even judge you. Your enemy bends destiny in more ways than you understand."
He crouched beside him.
"There is no point trying again."
Toki's fingers tightened around ash.
"Next time," the Star Collector continued, "it will be the same."
Or worse.
"Our leader does not intend to grant you the privilege of easy victory."
Toki's voice was hollow.
"Your leader…"
The Star Collector studied him.
Then, unexpectedly—
He pulled Toki into an embrace.
"I hate you," he said softly. "But you need to see something."
He stamped his foot once.
One of his creatures emerged from the smoke.
He lifted Toki easily and placed him atop it.
Then mounted behind him.
The creature began to run.
They passed the shattered wall and entered the forest surrounding the Maho Manor.
A cold dread began to rise in Toki's chest.
The Star Collector no longer smiled.
His voice was low.
"I'm going to show you the hell your choices created."
The creature ran deeper into the forest.
And Toki—
Did not resist.
He had nothing left to resist with.