(Planet Tithia, First Elder's private training arena)
"Fuck, fuck, fuck— he's trying to kill us Cuz, the sadistic Elder is trying to kill us.
He's wanted to kill me since before I became Dragon, and now he's got his chance—"
Veyr spoke, drool dripping down his chin as he swung his shackled wrists towards the First Elder, who ducked to dodge the weak attack.
Staggering and stumbling to the ground, Veyr instantly rolled over to prevent himself from getting hit, as he hallucinated someone to be throwing a dagger at him, when no-one really was.
"Where is it? Where is the dagger you threw at me, you spineless cunt?
I heard it rattle against the ground.... I heard it..." Veyr mumbled, as he tried his best to find the imaginary dagger, but naturally failed to do so.
Meanwhile, Leo stood unmoving, his face contorted, as he felt himself sucked into a Ghost Dream like vision, one that felt more like a prophecy, rather than an event from the past.
The first vision that surged before Leo's eyes was of Juxta laid in ruin, the skies of the once vibrant planet blackened with smoke as Righteous Faction destroyers loomed above like vultures circling carrion, their cannons spitting endless fire in a clear violation of the Universal Rules of War.
"What are you sick freaks doing? They are innocent civilians...."
Leo murmured internally, as he saw the Righteous Faction Destroyers obliterating entire civilian settlements, their goal not to conquer the planet, but to rather eradicate it of every last Cult loyalist, whether they be citizen or soldier.
The ground quaked as larger mana bombs rained down, causing entire city blocks to split apart and crumble in seconds, the entire city covered in a ceaseless chorus of screams that did not end but only grew louder as more lives were extinguished.
Everywhere he looked, Leo only witnessed horror—streets littered with severed limbs, children's faces frozen in terror as the flames from mana bombs consumed them.
The stench of burning flesh clawed at his nostrils, thick and suffocating, as the mangled corpses of men and women he had once walked past in the barracks or seen laughing in markets were now strewn across the charred earth like grotesque ornaments, their faith in the Dragon repaid not with salvation but with utter devastation.
It was not a battlefield but a graveyard painted in fire and sorrow, a vision so raw and merciless that Leo's chest tightened with the unbearable weight of it, for here there was no honor in dying, only the senseless slaughter of innocents who had believed, until their final breath, that the Dragon or the Shadow Dragon would protect them.
Before Leo could even steady his breath from the horror of the first vision, the world lurched violently, and he was thrust headlong into another, one where he found himself locked in a heated argument with Veyr, their voices clashing amidst the backdrop of looming destruction.
"Why don't you understand, cousin... if you stay, you will die! This is not a battle we can win, not today. You must run, we must disappear, we must bide our time in the shadows until we are strong enough to face them!"
The Leo in the vision cried out, his voice trembling with a desperation that spilled into his eyes, his every word carrying the raw fear of someone who had already glimpsed the certainty of death. He reached for Veyr as though trying to drag him away by force, but the Dragon, as stubborn as the mountains themselves, stood unmoved.
"You run, cuz," Veyr said firmly, his jaw set, his gaze burning with a defiance that seemed carved into his very bones. "You're the Shadow Dragon, you can live, you can avenge us all. But me? I'm not running. I will stay. I will fight. The Dragon will not abandon the Cult. I will repay their faith in me, even if it is the last thing I ever do."
His words struck like iron, unbending and absolute, as he shoved Leo back with both hands, his refusal as final as a blade driven into the earth, and before Leo could resist, before he could plead further, the vision fractured around him once more, the scene shattering into something new and cruel.
In his final vision, the world convulsed once more, the smoke and fire dissolving into silence as he found himself standing in a barren field where the ground was dark and cracked, with a row of graves stretching before him, each one etched with a name that tore at his chest.
Here lies Amanda Skyshard.
Here lies Søron.
Here lies Aegon Veyr.
Here lies Charles.
Here lies Elena Skyshard.
Here lies Jacob Skyshard.
Here lies Luke Skyshard.
Here lies Alia Skyshard.
Here lies Valiant Dumpy.
The names bled together in his vision as though the universe itself was mocking him with loss, and standing at the center of it all was not the Leo of now but an older, wearier version of him, his beard outgrown with gray hair and his eyes hollow as though everything that once tethered him to life had been ripped away.
Beside this elder self stood Ben Faulkner, or rather what remained of him, the robot's body twisted and mangled, wires sparking faintly where limbs had been torn apart, yet his single functioning eye glowed faintly as he kept vigil by the graves, like the last companion of a man who had already lost everything else.
And then, as the vision shivered on the edge of collapse, Ben's head turned, his gaze not on the older Leo who lingered before the graves, but on the real one watching from within the vision, his broken frame lifting slightly as though to deliver a truth that could not be denied.
"In the end, you were always destined to walk alone..."
His voice was metallic yet heavy, final as a tolling bell, as with those words the vision snapped shut, leaving him to deal with the weight of those words in silence.
(More chapters in Buyers Club for TMT)