"They say time heals. That hatred is a poison you drink yourself, hoping someone else will die. That between light and darkness there's a line you must never cross.
Clever words.
I remembered them. I even believed them… once… back when I could still afford to.
But the universe has no morality.
It doesn't explain its rules. It simply makes its move, takes what doesn't belong to it, and expects you to make your peace with that.
But there is a fire that never goes out.
A fire that sinks deep inside, burning away everything that made you human and taking its place.
When the illusions burn away, you understand one simple thing: there is no objective justice.
What some call monstrous cruelty is, to others, the only way not to vanish.
I… I don't know who I'll become at the end of this road.
The one they'll flee from in terror?... The one who'll have to be stopped in the end?...
That's no longer my concern.
I'll take back what's mine.
However long it takes.
However many lives it forces me to take.
People love to believe that the most terrible monsters are born of darkness.
They're wrong.
Real monsters are made by love that has nowhere left to go."
Thick smoke crawled over the torn-up ground, rising from dozens of smoldering fires that guttered among the mangled metal, while all around, scattered through the cold mud, lay chunks of machinery, torn-off armor plating, and fragments of exo-frames. Among them lay bodies and the pieces torn from them, crushed heads, entrails turned inside out, and right there, shattered magic crystals and broken magic machine guns smoldered dimly, flung across the whole field by the blasts.
In the very thick of the chaos, pressed into the ground, lay a radio, and from its grille, choking on bursts of static, a voice tore free.
"DO NOT ENGAGE THE TARGET! DO YOU COPY?... I REPEAT: DO NOT ENGAGE THE REAPER!... AVOID DIRECT CONTACT AND FALL BACK IMMEDIATELY!... GAMMA SQUAD! RESPOND!"
A boot crushed the radio into the mud, cutting off the voice, and kept striding forward, while ten meters ahead a soldier crawled away, gasping and whimpering, sealed in a mechanized magitech exoskeleton-armor damaged down to sparking contacts and jets of steam.
The figure held two mechanical pistols, charged with magic energy of yellow and blue, and behind him a tattered dark-green cloak streamed.
"N-NO!... W-WAIT, PLEASE!" the crawling soldier shrieked, squeezing his eyes shut and thrusting out a hand, and the man walking toward him stopped.
Cracking his eyes open and lowering his hand a little, the soldier saw before him a teenage boy holding two pistols, in a dark-green cloak and a chest plate, with light blond hair gathered into a ponytail and shaved at the sides, where two scars ran down one side.
Leo Greenfield.
He slowly raised one hand, aiming the pistol's muzzle at the soldier, and the soldier instantly froze.
"Where is she?" Leo asked.
The soldier swallowed, holding back his answer.
"I... I don't kn—"
A deafening energy blast rang out across the area and broke off into the soldier's screams of pain as he clutched his leg, half of which was simply gone in an instant.
Leo stepped forward, grabbing him by the hair and wrenching his head back, then struck him across the cheek with his palm.
"Look at me. And don't give me any lies, if you want me to inject you with the recovery serum. Answer all my questions and you'll stay alive. Do you understand me?"
The soldier nodded, clenching his teeth, feeling his tears mix with the blood on his face.
"Good. Then I'll ask one... more... time... Where... is... my... sister?"
The soldier steadied his breathing, drawing a deep breath and squeezing the thigh of his wounded leg.
"They... they sent her off this morning... to the northern headquarters..."
Leo's fingers tightened in his hair, dragging at the strands and tearing a short cry from the soldier.
"Where... is... it..." Leo said, forcing the man's face down toward the ground.
"U-under Riverre..."
Behind Leo a massive figure slammed down with a crash, throwing up a cloud of dust, while he himself kept looking down.
The soldier shifted his gaze past him and saw a huge, three-meter robot step toward them out of the settling haze, sheathed in worn steel plates, with broad pauldrons and massive, heavy arms. In the center of its chest a bright blue magic light burned, spilling across the armored seams of its frame, and from the narrow slits of its helmet its eye sockets glowed with that same blue fire.
The robot halted, looming over them with a menacing glow, while Leo lifted his eyes to the soldier.
"What did they send her on? And how?"
"On-on an armored train... in... in cryo-capsules..."
Leo yanked the soldier by the hair, his stare boring into the soldier's eyes.
"Cryo-capsules?! What's her condition?! Did they do something to her?!" Leo snarled, and the soldier thrashed under his hand and cried out in answer, his voice cracking.
"I-I DON'T KNOW! I SWEAR! I DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING!... I'VE TOLD YOU EVERYTHING I KNOW!"
Leo went still while the soldier breathed raggedly, the tremor spreading through his body. The boy lowered the man's face, then unclenched his fingers, and the soldier dropped onto his back.
Leo straightened, slipping a hand into his pouch and drawing out a syringe of glowing green liquid, while the soldier's lips parted, releasing a slow, relieved breath.
Leo shifted his eyes from the syringe to the soldier without turning his head, and in the shadow of his face a predatory green glow showed in his eyes. He slid the syringe back into the pouch and turned, walking away.
The soldier's brows drew together, and his voice trembled again.
"H-HEY!... W-WAIT, WH-WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!" the soldier shrieked, as the shadow of the huge robot loomed over him.
"No... no, please... NO!... DON—" he cried, before the massive steel foot of the robot crushed his head.
Leo walked on, carrying the two pistols at his belt and clenching his fists, his gaze fixed on the horizon that opened between the dense walls of smoke and fire from the destruction he'd wrought here.
Act 1: The Greenfields Tragedy
Chapter 1 — Changes
5 Years Earlier
1846 A.D. Waldruhm. Prime.
Half a year had passed since Aren left the lands of Waldruhm and set out on his journey around the world.
After the events in the Great Forest, the kingdom was slowly returning to its former life, though the Forest had now lost its only guardian, the beast-god Ursus, and relations with Aisengard had turned bitterly hostile.
At the same time, the climate and the health of the kingdom's people had begun to unravel, sending up flares of diseases unknown before, while climatic anomalies wore down the harvest and the villages' livelihoods year after year.
The Greenfield family was slowly but surely returning to the ordinary life that had flowed through their home even before Aren appeared.
A small room lay hidden in warm half-light, its walls lined with shelves crowded with clay, glass, and wooden vessels that held dried herbs, natural concentrates, seeds, and other ingredients for decoctions and potions. In the middle of the room stood three large tables — dried plants laid out on the first, closed and open books piled on the second, and on the third a crowd of flasks with measuring cups, stone mortars, and jugs of water.
The midday sun flooded the room with warm light while Elara moved from table to table, checking now the open book, now her own notebook, into which she jotted observations and ideas from time to time, then returning to the main table to mix the ingredients.
Leo darted into the room and left a bucket of clean water by the wall.
"Thanks," Elara said, turning to Leo with a warm smile.
"Can I do anything else?" Leo asked, stepping closer as she read the notes in the book.
Elara straightened, planting her hands on her hips, and, sighing softly, looked over the tables.
"Hmm... Separate the radiantwort leaves from the stems, please, and fill that jug with them," Elara said, pointing at a clay vessel.
Leo nodded and ran to the table with the dried radiantwort, setting to work pulling the leaves from the stems.
Elara ground the dried leaves in a mortar, measured out water with a cup, and added concentrates by the pinch, checking the open book now and then and jotting short notes with her pen, while Leo handed her one vessel after another and watched the mixture thicken and change color.
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After a time a dark-lilac tincture settled in a small glass, and the two of them leaned over it together, studying the viscous liquid against the light.
"It looks prettier than the last one..." Leo said.
"Yeah... I hope it works better too..." Elara answered, carefully picking up the glass and heading for the door, with Leo following after her.
Elara opened the wooden door into the neighboring room, bathed in that same midday light, where vases of flowers just beginning to bloom this time of year stood along the walls, and against the opposite wall sat a small child's table with a couple of knitted dolls and a few simple mechanisms built by Leo's own hands.
In the corner stood a bed, and Mia, lying on it, slowly turned her head toward the pair as they came in.
"Hello, my little one, how are you feeling?" Elara asked with a warm smile, setting the glass of tincture on the table and perching on the edge of the bed.
"Otay," Mia answered, pushing her small torso up.
Elara pressed the back of her hand to the girl's forehead, then touched the inside of her palm to her cheek, looking at her little sister with that same smile.
"The fever's down. Good," Elara said as Leo came up at her side, smiling warmly at Mia.
Mia turned to Leo and looked at him silently, then reached out her arms to him, and he hugged his little sister with a pleased grin, drawing a quiet chuckle from Elara.
"Mia's a good girl. Mia's the strongest girl there is, and no illness can stop her, right? Mia'll beat it easy, and then we'll go play with my new mechanical toys together!" Leo said, releasing Mia from the hug and holding her small hand.
"Mm-hm," Mia said, giving a small shake of her head.
"And for our strongest girl to have her strength, she needs to take her medicine," Elara added, picking up the glass of tincture, while Mia turned away.
Elara exhaled quietly through her nose, drawing her brows together without losing her smile and letting her shoulders drop, while Leo straightened up.
"Mia, look! What pretty water! It's the same color as your favorite flower!" the boy said.
Mia didn't turn her head, while Leo exchanged a glance with Elara, then carefully took the glass in his own hands.
"It's probably just as nice to taste as it looks! Hm?... Let's give it a try... Come on now..." Leo said, bringing the glass to his lips and taking a small sip of the tincture, tasting it.
Silence hung in the room for a moment, and Mia turned and saw Leo's face twist.
Mia burst out laughing at once, looking at her older brother's expression, and Elara joined in with her own laughter, watching her little ones.
But Mia's loud laughter quickly turned into coughing, and Elara leaned forward, starting to pat the girl gently on the back.
"Oh, hell! Let's beat that cough right now! We need to drink this super-water that gives you superpowers!" Leo said, waiting for Mia's cough to pass, and held the glass out to her.
She took the glass in her hands and started drinking in small sips, then handed the empty vessel back to Elara and twisted her face into the same expression Leo had a moment earlier, and they all burst out laughing again, only lighter this time.
Later, stepping out of the room and closing the door behind them, Leo stood beside Elara and looked ahead.
"Well, I hope this tincture works way better," Leo said with a smile, turning to Elara, only to catch her downcast eyes.
"Elara?..." Leo asked, and Elara snapped out of it at once, glancing at her brother with a smile.
"Ah, sorry, yeah... I hope so too," she answered, setting off ahead right away.
"I'm going to Bernard's to get the tools I left for repair. I'll be back soon," she added, while Leo stayed put, his smile gone, watching his sister walk away.
Bernard's forge was full of heat and the ring of metal as he worked at the anvil, glancing now and then at his friends, Arland and Duncan, who were learning the trade beside him, and among them at the young apprentice Mortis, who was a friend and neighbor of Leo's.
"All right, lads! Don't overdo the heat!" Bernard said, straightening and wiping the sweat from his brow.
"Mortis! Hey! Where's Mortis?!" he called, scanning the forge for the boy.
"I'm right here," the boy said from behind Bernard, making him flinch.
"MOTHER OF—! You little pest!" he cried, and in that same instant a wooden crate flew into his face.
"Watch your tongue, Bernard! He's still a boy!" Dara tossed out, standing at the forge's entrance.
Bernard straightened, rubbing his head and finding the lump, while Mortis tried to slip quietly into another part of the forge.
"Freeze right there," Bernard ordered, and Mortis went still on the spot, while the smith looked over at Dara.
"Dara... has something happened?... What are you doing here?" Bernard asked his beloved.
Dara leaned against a wooden beam, and behind her Elara appeared.
"Ah... Elara... Hello," he said, brushing off his hands and glancing at his apprentice.
"Fetch her tools, on the corner table, wrapped in a green cloth."
Mortis nodded and ran off to the table at once, while Bernard stepped closer to Elara, leaning a hand against that same wooden beam.
"So how is she?..." he asked quietly, looking at Elara with his brows drawn together, while Dara brushed the soot from his hair.
"The fever's down... but the cough's gotten worse... I made a new tincture, and I hope it works better than the last one," Elara answered, lowering her gaze.
Bernard watched Elara's expression, then turned his gaze to the street outside.
"Damned if I know what's been going on lately... Ever since we got back from Ockhaven, it's like life stopped being the way it was... People started getting sick more often... The livestock too... and the harvest... something tells me we're in for big trouble this summer..."
"I heard the fish in Rallis are down to about a third of what they were, maybe even a quarter. And in Unterberg some unknown disease has shown up, and both the people and the livestock have caught it," Dara added.
"And over by the western part of Lake Arris, there's a little village... I don't remember what it's called, but they say the thunderstorms there haven't let up since the start of spring," Duncan called out from inside the forge.
Elara sighed heavily, pressing her lips together, folding her arms across her chest and lowering her head further.
Bernard glanced at Elara again and laid a hand on her shoulder.
"Hey... It'll all work out one way or another, you hear me?... As long as you keep doing what needs to be done, there's always a chance to set it right. We'll help you with it, all right?..." he said, leaning down toward her and trying to look into her face.
Elara sniffed, quickly wiping the tears from her eyes, then looked away to the side and nodded.
Bernard pressed his lips together, sighing heavily, while Mortis came up from behind again and called out to the smith, catching him off guard, and Bernard turned slowly and deliberately toward his apprentice.
"I brought them," Mortis said, while Bernard, with a strained smile, snatched the green-cloth-wrapped tools from the apprentice's hands.
"I sharpened the shears and replaced the handle on the trowel. It'll be a lot more comfortable now," Bernard muttered, unwrapping the cloth and showing the tools to Elara.
"Thank you, Bernard," she said, then said her goodbyes and headed slowly home.
The sun was sinking slowly toward the horizon, washing the sky in orange tones and tracing the edges of the clouds in warm light.
Leo sat on the roof of one of the mills, knees drawn to his chest, gazing at the open sea and the sunset, while a light wind ruffled his golden hair.
He turned his head to the side, and in his mind the silhouette of Aren took shape, sitting beside him.
Little by little his imagination drew Leo into a memory, into the carefree days with Aren, back before the events in Ockhaven.
Aren climbed onto the roof of that same mill and saw for the first time the view that opened from it, and his eyes went wide, his brows shot up, and his lips parted.
Leo laughed, settling off to the side and letting Aren sit beside him.
"Cool, huh? I knew you'd like it!"
"Cool... yeah..." Aren mumbled, gazing at the sea.
Leo, smiling, turned his gaze to that same sea, and for a moment they both took in the quiet and the light wind.
"It was this very sea that brought you to us..." Leo said, still looking straight ahead.
"Sea... Like big sea?" Aren said in halting, broken words.
"Almost right! Except it's 'how big is the' sea. That way's more correct," Leo answered with a light laugh.
"How... big is the sea?" Aren echoed, still learning the language at the time.
"Well... this sea is pretty big... it's called the Western Sea, and the Free Lands and Aeris-Lund itself lie between it and us!" Leo explained, gesturing broadly.
"Aeris... Lund?"
"Yeah. It's a huuuuge city-state, where enormous buildings and skyscrapers rise higher than the clouds! Everything there's built on awesome wind and steam machines, and I heard people there actually fly on winged devices!"
The memory dissolved smoothly, and Leo, smiling, lowered his gaze to the meadow in front of the mill, where his mind recreated another scene from the past.
On that same meadow, Aren stood beside Leo, looking at his mechanical flying kite.
"Now... now you'll see how my device conquers the sky!" Leo said, winding the spring.
"I wonder, can it get higher than the mill?" Aren asked, resting his hands on his hips.
"That's just what we're about to find out!"
Leo wound the spring and looked up at Aren with a smirk.
"Well, ready?"
"Oh yeah," Aren answered.
"And now.... FLY!" Leo shouted, releasing the kite, and it shot forward at once, yet never gained any height, staying level with his waist as it flew straight at Aren. He had no time to react, and the next moment the nose of the device slammed between his legs, making Aren double over and collapse onto the grass.
"OH, HELL!..." Leo mumbled, clapping his hands over his mouth and dashing to Aren.
"Hey! You okay?"
Aren groaned dully into the grass, clutching his groin, while Leo rubbed the back of his head.
"Next time... I do the launching..." Aren mumbled into the ground.
Leo laughed quietly, lowering his face, then raising it to the sky. He drew a deep breath, let it out, and held that pose, still feeling the sea wind wrap around his face and play with his hair, while his lips parted slightly and his eyelids lowered a little.
"I wonder... how are you out there?..." Leo said quietly.
"What adventures have you run into?... how much have you seen?... I can't wait to find out..."
"I miss you... brother... though... all of us, really... we miss you..." he said, lowering his head.
Leo pressed his lips together and laced his fingers in front of him, still holding his head down between his drawn-up knees.
"Ever since you left... it's gotten... harder for us... Mia's grown so weak... Elara barely sleeps, and I know it... and me too... I don't really sleep much these days either... But I still try to help Elara, so we can finally cure Mia of her unknown illness..."
Leo sniffed, lifted his face, and fixed his gaze on the sea.
"I'm sure... if you were here... it'd be so much easier for Elara... and for me... too..."
Moments surfaced in the boy's mind — the whole family laughing together with Aren, playing board games, messing around outside.
"How I wish all of this were just a dream... and that it would all end soon... and we'd all be together again... building mechanisms again... showing them to Elara and Bernard... and Mia..."
Tears, glinting in the sunset light, slid down Leo's cheeks while the wind filled the minutes of silence.
Then Leo wiped the tears away and let out a short breath through his mouth.
"No. I have to pull myself together. Because Elara needs me, and he made a promise," he said, springing to his feet.
"We're definitely going to meet again. Very soon. And he'll tell me about everything he saw, and all the adventures he had. And I..."
Leo smiled wide, gazing at the sea with shining eyes that still held the last of the tears.
"And I'll show him my new devices that'll blow his mind! And by then, we'll definitely have cured Mia!" Leo said to himself, planting his hands on his hips.
Later, returning home, Leo found Grandma Martha in the kitchen, setting a bowl of warm soup on the table in front of Mia, who was unexpectedly sitting there.
"Mia..." Leo mumbled, raising his brows.
"Hello, little inventor. Been at your mechanisms again?" Martha said with a warm smile, handing Mia a spoon.
"Y-yeah... I mean, no!... I was just out walking... and hold on! It's hard for Mia to eat by hers—" Leo began, only to freeze at the sight of Mia taking the spoon and starting to eat the soup herself, little by little, holding it steady and blowing on it.
"It's all right, my boy. I was surprised myself, seeing her come down from the second floor," Martha answered.
"She... came down on her own?..."
At that moment Elara came down the stairs and noticed Leo, frozen by the door.
"Leo! You're back! Just look at this! It really did work better than the last tincture!" Elara said, hurrying over with a smile and opening her journal in front of him.
"I think it's because this time we decided to steep the radiantwort leaves and let them settle..." she said, pointing a finger at the notes.
Leo rubbed the tip of his chin thoughtfully, then lifted his gaze to Elara.
"Then I think I should run out and gather even more radiantwort tomorrow."
"Perfect! Then tomorrow I'll prepare the rest of the ingredients, and maybe I'll try to boost the effect with the extracts from Fene-Krest too," Elara answered, turning away and jotting down her thoughts on the move.
Then she stopped as Martha laid a hand on the journal in her hands and silently took it away, closing it and setting the pen aside.
"That's enough of that for today. Sit down at the table. See? Mia can have dinner with us for the first time in a long while, and here you two are, still going on about your own things. Spend this time with the girl and take your minds off it, at least for a little while. Your tinctures and notes can wait until tomorrow," Martha said, while Leo nodded silently and walked to the table.
Elara glanced at Mia, who was still carefully blowing on her little spoon and unhurriedly eating the soup Martha had made, and, with a sigh, she smiled and walked to the table, sitting down beside her sister.
"Grandma's right... your big sister got so happy she completely forgot to enjoy this moment..." she said, pulling her chair closer to her little sister and stroking her head.
Martha set out two more bowls of soup for Leo and Elara, then placed a bowl piled with bread she'd just baked in the center of the table.
"Here, eat, you two look like you've wasted away. Elara, it hurts just to look at you," Martha said.
Elara, her mouth full, glanced at Martha, who went still for a moment, then laughed quietly, while Elara looked herself over, a spoon in one hand and a piece of bread in the other.
"All right, all right, eat and don't get distracted. Glad to see your appetite reacts the same way your mood does," Martha said, watching the Greenfield family with a smile.
Early spring morning was just breaking over the village of Golden Flow, filling the air with a chill and the smell of damp earth, while thin smoke rose above the rooftops and dew still lay on the grass and the first buds.
Leo stepped out of the house, rubbed his hands together, breathed out a faint puff of steam, and set off for the Western Grove with two baskets.
He wandered all through the grove, picking radiantwort and putting the stems into the baskets, stretching his aching back from time to time, while both baskets gradually filled to the brim.
"Well... that should do it," Leo said, looking at the two full baskets of plants.
He turned and was already about to head back when branches cracked behind him.
Leo turned and froze, seeing a dark-haired man standing ten meters behind him, bleeding, in torn foreign clothes and barely able to draw a breath.
He was leaning a hand against the nearest tree, but the next moment his palm slid off the trunk, and his whole body crashed face-first to the ground.
Leo dropped both baskets and ran to the wounded man, turning him over with effort.
"HEY! HOLD ON! CAN YOU HEAR ME?! HOLD ON!" Leo shouted, glancing around, then barely hauled the man's body up and laid his torso across his back.
The boy dragged him through the grove, the man's legs trailing along the ground, gasping under the weight but pressing on with slow, heavy steps, sweat streaming into his eyes.
At last he reached the edge of the village and tried to shout, but only a barely audible rasp escaped his throat, which one of the shepherds caught.
"H-help..." Leo said, collapsing together with the wounded man, and the shepherd immediately called out to the other villagers and ran to him.
In that moment Leo lay on the ground, looking at the face of the stranger who lay before him unconscious, while the boy himself still had no idea that this moment had become the turning point of irreversible change.