Scar leans over the balcony, watching bodies from the battle which had just ended being dragged across the stone slabs of the Stratos ground, blood stains littered across them all as the suns rays of light make the red liquid shine into his eyes.
He holds the bouquet of flowers Grian had gotten him in his hands, the variety of red and purple flowers being more than he could have asked for, he doesn't even know if Grian survived, or if anyone had after he had run off to the secluded section of the castle. Scar knows he should be finding Grian and Bdubs right now, but he doesn't want to face everyone else at the moment, including his new foudn father.
He looks up to the falling sun above him, knowing that soon enough, he'll be travelling down to the place he used to call home, the place where it all began, behind those towering walls, the walls he was pushed out of at the age of ten, he was banished alone and scared, for nothing more than a slab of meat, from one man he wishes he could apologise to, except he had met his death in his attempt to help Grian escape.
Scar spins around, hearing slow footsteps behind him, his eyes widening as he's met with a familiar masked man, the one man he wouldn't want to see at the moment.
"Scar, we need to talk." The man says quietly, despite dawning a mask, his face filled with emotion, his eyes filled with hope, and his voice nearly begging to be heard.
"No." Scar replies boldly, turning back around and returning to watching the clean-up below, which was certainly boring, but much better than dealing with his family issues.
"Please, Scar, we have to talk at some point." Etho steps forward again, hoping that maybe even in a second pleas Scar would try listen to him.
"That point doesn't have to be now. I don't talk to strangers." Scar scoffs, becoming inpatient with the man continuously pestering him.
"Im not a stranger, im your father, Scar. You need to talk to me." Etho almost sobs, his voice sounding prepared to break at almost any moment.
Scar turns around quickly, stepping closer to Etho and showing the shimmering tear drops in his eyes, "Yet you're still a stranger." He barks back before trying to barge past Etho.
"It doesn't have to be that way. We can be a family again, Scar." Etho stops him, his hand placed on Scar's arm gently as he looks down at the boy below him.
"Jevin was more of a father to me, and i don't know if you saw, but his dead body is laying outside the castle." Scar shakes his arm away, watching Etho's face drop beneath his mask.
"I know, he sacrificed himself to let me come back to you and Bdubs, i begged him not to, im sorry." Etho pulls his mask down, trying to show Scar that he is truly sorry for the loss of his uncle and his own newfound friend.
"You shouldn't have let him. You could've stopped him!" Scar shouts with welled up eyes, stepping away from Etho.
"I tried, i told him not to, and he did it anyway. Can't you at least try to make his death worth something?" Etho crouches down to Scar's eye level, his white hair shining with the sun as Scar looks to him with a firm grip on the bouquet of flowers.
"Maybe." He scoffs before walking off into the castle, feeling his eyes watering and his vision beginning to blur as he finds his way to the room they had been staying in.
He barges inside, hoping for no one to see him in this state only to be met with Grian standing in front of him with a shocked expression.
"Scar!" He shouts, dropping to his knees in front of the scarred boy and grabbing onto his shoulders, "What's wrong? What happened?" He questions.
Scar struggles to find an answer to his questions, only muffled sobs escaping his mouth before he collapses into his friends arms, finding them to be the only spot he seems to be able to relax in as of recent.
"I- you're okay." Grian tries to comfort him, looking down at his sobbing best friend, the sight nearly making him tear up all the same.
Scar finds his tears slowing and his sobs beginning to quiet as he relaxes in Grian's arms, his breath deepening as he wipes his eyes and looks up to the other.
"Thank you." Is the only thing he can muster the words to say, but it was enough for Grian to give him a bright smile on return.
"Always." The winged boy replies before wrapping said wings around the two of them, the coloured feathers surrounding them almost completely as they had grown since last time.
"They're beautiful!" Stress says as she looks to Jimmy's large spanning yellow wings, causing him to smile back at her, "Well, Lizzie does her best at keeping them looking good." The blonde boy looks up to his sister with a smile before walking towards his seat in the throne room, which had been remodelled to have seats around all the edges and the main table had been disassembled, now only an open floor remaining in the middle for one specific man.
"Everyone, take your seats, please, and Impulse, if you will, go get him." Joel lowers himself onto his throne as the others follow his example, the room being deathly silent as one of the most important days of the war nears.
"I'll be back shortly." Impulse nods his head as he leaves the throne room, finding himself walking through the castle to where the other had said he was going, the idea of bringing his friend to maybe the room of his death sending shivers throughout him.
He eventually finds himself at the entrance of one of the lesser known balconies in the castle, looking towards a certain white-haired man with his mask unusually pulled down.
Etho looks back before pulling it up quickly, walking towards the dwarvern man, "Impulse, is it time?" He asks nervously as the other only nods.
"I want you to know, no matter what im here with you, by your side every step of the way, Skizz would be too." Impulse looks to Etho, who simply smiles at him.
"Listen, you don't have many friends in that room, but you have family, a family im hoping is willing to stand by your side the entire time." Impulse grabs him by the arm, looking straight into his eyes as they approach the main entrance to the throne room.
"Thank you, Impulse. im sure it will all go well. It can't get any worse than your own son, not wanting anything to do with you." Etho laughs a little, not really finding it funny, but trying not to bring down the others' mood.
"Oh, and here." Impulse pulls out the same small yellow clock he had a week or two ago and hands it to Etho before walking into the throne room.
"Wait, why did you give me this?" He tries to ask after him, but is only left with the staring eyes of everyone else in the room anxiously waiting for him to enter.
He sighs before shoving it in his pocket, not caring to give it a proper look before he slowly enters the throne room, looking around at familiar faces, most of which seem to have a look of disgust placed on them.
"Etho slab, birthed in dogwarts, disappeared after the war and then exiled for murdering an innocent Stratos man only a year later." Zedaph looks to him, seeing him subtly nod to his description.
"Do you know why you're here, Etho?" The king of Stratos asks, leaning forward on his throne, an angered look briefly showing through the calm face he tries to keep.
"I believe so, care to inform me otherwise." Etho locks eyes with the purple cloaked man in an attempt to intimidate. He can't look scared or nervous now, despite how much he may actually be.
"You were hired to kill a Stratos man by the name of BigB, were you not?" Joel glares down at the white-haired man, trying to break through the facade which the other is so obviously putting on.
"I was hired to kill a man, i didn't care if he was Stratos or Dogwarts. I just needed to kill him." Etho steps forward, his eyes twitching as the other begins to anger him.
"Killing that man was not only a crime against every Stratos but also against Dogwarts, and it was a murder that led to this very war!" Joel stands up, gaining an even larger height advantage over the masked individual below.
"Do you think i wanted to start the war? do you think i wanted everyone to die!?" Etho shouts stepping forward again.
"Only for a price." Joel scoffs and looks to Jimmy, who makes his way over to Etho, handing him a letter.
"What's this?" Etho asks, looking to Jimmy and Joel.
"The price, that letter came from Dogwarts this morning." Zedaph informs him, a sympathetic smile placed on his face.
Etho slowly opens it up, his eyes following the written words across the page before the paper sways back and forth in the air towards the ground.
Tears well in his eyes as it hits the ground, said letter having informed him of the execution that took place, the execution that killed the greatest friend he ever really had.
"Then, for some more gold, you and three others made your way to Stratos and released a prisoner who is now a key player in the ranks of our enemy, one that has claimed the life of the ruler of Olipeligo, one of my closest friends, and one of our allies." Joel barrades him. In truth, Etho isn't listening to him. He can only think about the loss of Tango, trying to consider that maybe it was a lie, but he could feel that there was truth to it, he could feel the missing part of his soul.
"I think you've already taken enough lives to repay for the release of Xisuma, don't you?" Impulse stands up, looking to Martyn with an anger ridden look.
"Two of the four are still alive, so i don't think it's nearly enough." Martyn looks back to him with a smirk.
Impulse tries to step forward, meeting the arm of Ren stopping him in his path, and a chuckle from Martyn.
"Give me my sword right now, and I'll kill you where you stand , Dwarf." Martyn stands up and leans towards Impulse, a widening grin covering him.
"Come on then, I'd like to see you try." Impulse notices Ren lowering his arm, and he walks up to Martyn, looking straight up into his eyes.
"Impulse, Martyn, stop now! This is no way for a king to act." Joel shouts across the room, his eyes filled with rage as the room is suddenly much louder than before.
"No way for a king to act? you just delivered the news of his best friend dying in the middle of an open court. You're no better." Impulse scolds Joel as he stands behind Etho with his hand placed on his shoulder.
"I agree. That was a dirty technique to use to try to break him. You should be better than that backstabber." Ren agrees, standing from his seat and walking towards the door.
"Woah, where do you think you're going, dog?" Martyn steps in front of him, placing his hand against Ren's chest.
"What did you just call me, i advise you to move." Ren leans towards Martyn, who refuses to budge.
"You heard me, you insult my king, i insult you, now go sit like a good dog." Martyn pushes Ren back towards his seat, causing a complete silence to fall over the room.
Ren's eyes narrow as he steps towards Martyn once again, bringing his hand up and across his face, causing him to stumble towards the row of seats falling in one.
Ren grabs him the front of his shirt and lifts him close to himself. "You ever talk to me like that again, and I'll have your head." He drops Martyn again onto one of the seats.
"And if you treat one of my men like that again, I'll happily take your head too." Joel walks down from his throne towards Ren.
"You have no respect, traitor, and neither does your lackey." Impulse walks past Joel with Etho next to him, standing next to Ren.
Hypno walks towards Marytn and holds out his hand, "Come on." He beckons as Martyn reluctantly grabs his hand, only to find himself let go and falling back onto the seats. "Idiot." Hypno mutters as he walks away with a grin.
"Let me remind you, we are one army, but we are not friends, i will not stand for any disrespect, and i will not die to save your life, once the southern threat i dealt with you will return to Stratos in a state of peace, like we had before." Ren turns away from Joel before swinging the door open, leaving with his own men behind him.
"Get up, you fool!" Joel turns around and shouts to Martyn, watching him quickly find his feet.
"What just happened." Jimmy asks with his eyes still on the door, only Stratos citizens remaining in the room.
"They just made us look like fools, we marched a war criminal in here with every intent to kill him, and he walked out alive, and they made the rest of us look weak in their path." Zedaph looks to the other five, all equally as confused as him.
"Yeah, and i know exactly why." Gem jumps down from her seat, grabbing Martyn by the collar and pushing him against a wall, "This idiot thought he could disrespect two kings with no repercussions." She scoffs before letting him go.
"Thankfully, we're in our own city. Otherwise, they would have us killed by sunset, but Martyn, that was disgraceful." Lizzie glares at him as he directs his eyes towards the ground.
"If we're infighting, we've already lost the war to come, we march tonight, no earlier, no later, deliver the message to Ren and Impulse, and Martyn, prepare the men." Joels eyes light up as he walks to the throne and pulls out his sword from behind it. Despite not being allowed weapons in the court, he had it hidden there in case of an emergency, but this was much more important.
"Are you sure we're ready?" Lizzie grabs him by the arm, concerned if he's deciding to leave too prematurely due to his anger.
"He's waiting until we're ready, im not giving him time to prepare. We're going to strike first." Joel looks back at her with confidence in his eyes.
Martyn leaves the room silently and alone, clearly his humiliation having gotten to him, something he certainly needed.
"Hey Gem, it's good to have you home." Jimmy smiles over to her, his wings showing signs of true excitement.
"I had to work to get here, that's for sure, but about Etho, who you just had on trial. I wouldn't have gotten home without him, we wouldn't have been able to warn you of the truth without him, and you said he would kill anyone for some gold, he was paid to kill me and he didn't. He escorted me home and lost his friend in doing so. He may have started this war by killing Bigb, but he's willing to sacrifice himself to save his kids by ending it. I had to listen to him promise his dead wife he'll always protect them, and it was the most genuine I've ever heard a man speak, i won't let you kill him." Gem looks to the four of them individually, silence falling over the room as they acknowledge the good things Etho has done, not only the bad like they were trying to kill him with.
"We need every man we can get, and killing him will only make more enemies. We should keep him alive." Zedaph sighs, noticing a small nod coming from Joel.
"I guess we can keep him alive, but when all of this is over, i want him exiled from Stratos, Dogwarts can do whatever they like." Joel makes his way to the door where him and Jimmy leave the room.
Lizzie walks over to Gem, looking into her eyes before bringing her into a hug, "I was so scared they killed you too." she whispers into her ear.
"They nearly did, part of me wishes they did, I'd be with Pearl and Scott now, and Bigb, I'd be with my friends. Why am i the one that survived?" Gem looks up to Lizzie with tears in her eyes, her friends around her having dropped like flies.
"Because you still have a purpose to fulfil in this world, i suppose, your story isn't over just yet." Lizzie smiles at her, bringing her back into the hug.
"I'd like to believe that." Gem laughs a little before pulling away and looking to Zedaph.
"Im happy to see you made it through this, too." He smiles to her, Gem being one of his inspirations in this world, her story of troubles and hate being more than inspirational to anyone who heard about it.
"You too, Zed." Gem walks up to him and pats him on the shoulder and smiling up at him.
"You had a harder time than me." He rubs the back of his neck, unsure if what he had experienced even came to close to what she had to.
"Maybe, but we both made it none the less." She laughs a little before turning around and leaving the room with a little wave.
She lowers her grip on his arm, nodding slightly to show her support. In reality, she has little experience with any war tactics or battle. It's always been Joel's area of expertise, and she had to respect his choices for that reason.
Etho walks up to Impulse, who is sitting on the ground sharpening his axe,not even noticing the other walking up to him as his full attention is placed on the sharp blade in front of him.
"Hey Impulse, why did you give me this?" He watches as Impulse sloely turns his head, noticing the heterochromic man holding a small old looking yellow clock.
Impulse places his axe to the side before standing up in front of Etho. He takes the other hand on his own and turns it to show the side of the clock, which reads 'Bdubs x Pungence'.
Etho takes his hand back, lifting the clock closer to his eyes to get a closer look at the inscribed words on the side, his mind falling back to the time where he had three sons against the now two, his eldest, Pungence, killed in the Siege of Stratos, he never found out who killed him or even how, but he had always desired to know for his own simple revenge.
"How did you get this?" Etho looks over to Impulse, knowing truly that there was only really one way he could have gotten it. He always wondered how any normal man could kill Pungence. He was a talented warrior and could easily take down the average man on the battlefield. Only an experienced fighter had the chance of killing him, like Impulse.
"We were at war, i didn't know who he was or who you were until i picked up that clock." Impulse says softly, watching the story click in Etho's head as he figures it out.
"You killed, my son." Etho almost whispers, trying to understand if he should be angry at Impulse or not.
"Im sorry, Etho, i did my duty as king." Impulse tries to bring his hand to Etho's shoulder, only for the other to pull away.
"I need some time." Etho steps back before walking out of the room, the door leaving a large bang behind him.
"We can't sleep tonight. They could come and try to kill us in our sleep at any opportunity. We best stay alert until morning time." Ren looks to Hypno and Bdubs, who sigh in response.
The door opens behind them, Jimmy walking in, causing Hypno to jump from his bed with his sword in hand. "No need to be scared of me, i came to deliver important news."
"What news would that be." Ren asks him, one of the only Stratos men Ren finds himself actually respecting being Jimmy. He had never lied to them or been involved in a plot to kill them except war.
"We leave tonight. In about five hours, we begin the march down to Dogwarts for our final fight, prepare anything you need." Jimmy walks out of the room without waiting for a response, not wanting to be in a room with people who would want to and could easily kill him.
"Seriously?" Hypno asks unconvinced. He thought it would at least be a week before they begin the march down south.
Bdubs stands up and walks towards the window, looking outside to see men running around the streets and preparing horses and barrels, the type he could recognise as being the preparations for an army. "It's true, we're leaving tonight."
"I have some business i need to take care of, so find the others and tell them to prepare." Ren looks to the two of them who nod.
"Look at the craziness outside boys, i wonder what it's all for?" Stress points out the window, Scar and Grian running over to the window and looking out towards the streets.
"We're leaving." Scar's eyes widen as he looks to the other two equally shocked people next to him, the idea of the battle to come sending shivers throughout his entire body.
"We barely just got here." Grian mutters before he hears a door opening behind him, turning around to see someone he considers an enemy, a man that kept him prisoner and was ready to kill him not too long ago.
"What do you want." Stress asks boldly, standing in front of the two boys who had previously been hurt by him.
"I want to talk to Scar if he's willing." Ren asks, looking over to the brown haired boy, who looks at Ren for a moment before beginning to walk towards him.
Grian grabs Scar by the arm, "Are you sure?" he questions, receiving a nod in response before promptly letting go and watching him leave.
"Thank you." Ren mouths before leaving the room behind Scar and quietly closing the door behind him.
"What do you want?" Scar asks nervously, finding his eyes directed towards the ground in a slight fear of the man next to him.
"I know the hatred you have for me, i dont particularly like you myself, but i thought it was best if i talked to you to see if maybe we can come to a mutual understanding." Ren looks down to the boy next to him, noticing the nervous body language and sighing to himself.
"I thought we already did. We don't like each other, end of conversation." Scar scoffs before turning around to walk back towards where he came from, only to be met with a laugh from Ren.
"You're stubborn huh, in truth, i wanted to talk to you about your situation with your father, if i may." Ren smiles over to him.
"What about it?" Scar asks, finally looking up to the other with annoyed eyes.
"I know having a father that isn't in your life for so many years is difficult, but you have to take advantage of the time you have when he is, especially now." Ren crouches down to his level, looking into anger induced eyes.
"You dont know anything. Your father was a king, and now you're king. He was clearly around enough to make you his heir." Scar shakes his head, not understanding how their situations are similar in the slightest.
"Well, he may have been around, but not as a father, I wasn't an intentional child, he had an affair with someone he didn't even know had a mutated gene inside of them. Then, a bit less than a year later, i came out, a son he never meant to have. He never treated me as his son. I was disgusting to him, and he made me watch my own people be massacred. He tried for years to produce another son, and if he did, i was going to either be exiled or executed. So maybe i don't know much about a father not being around, but i know about a father, not loving their child." Ren shrugs his shoulders, watching a slightly guilty look appear on the smaller boys face.
"I didn't know, but i can't just forgive my father all of a sudden, he was still gone, you wouldn't have either!" Scar replies, his statement being more of a question.
"You're right. He began to see me as his son and truly love me not long before his death in the battle of the forrest, the battle which probably claimed the most deaths of any ever, i never forgave him, and because of it i never got to spend time with the man who actually loved me, now you have the opportunity to do so, because you might never get that chance after the next couple days. You can't waste it." Ren looks down to him with hope in his eyes, hoping that maybe Scar could try and listen to him if anyone.
"It's not that easy. Part of me wants to, but the rest of me can never forgive him." Scar admits softly, feeling guilty for the pain Etho must be feeling at the moment.
"Then learn to, if anyone can it's you." Ren pats Scar's shoulder before walking off behind him.
"Where is he?" Scar turns around, asking, noticing Ren spin around with a smile on his face.
"The great hall, where we had the banquet." Ren answers him before continuing to walk away.
Gem opens the door to the forgery where she finds Impulse hammering away at a sword placed atop an anvil, the red hot blade being moulded in a shape she can only distinguish as that of Etho's, and the precision and design being almost perfect.
"That looks amazing. Why are you making it?" She questions, looking to his face, which seems filled with guilt and determination, as well as promise.
"I hurt him, one of my closest friends in this world, and i hurt him, i have to repay him somehow." Impulse walks away from the sword for a moment before grabbing another, a sword with a blue gemstone encrusted in the hilt which he quickly extracts from it.
"Wasn't that Skizz's? Why would you do that?" She steps forward, shocked, confused as to why he would destroy his best friends sword to make a new one.
"I knew Skizz better than i know myself. He wouldn't want that sword to mean nothing. To rot away in a box in his memory, he would want it to be passed forward to a man who deserves it, like Etho." He quickly and delicately places it in the hilt of the sword, revealing the other side which had a red gemstone placed inside it too.
"I'll take your word for it, i wanted to talk to you about your kingdom, and what will happen to it if you pass?" Gem asks quietly, seeing his head perk up towards her.
"My people are loving. Most kingdoms' citizens hate their own leader, but the dwarves loved me, and they loved Skizz. They loved a man, which wasn't even truly a dwarf, and they watched that man die fighting for them, and they wished to avenge that death. If i die, it will be no different. They will not rest until they avenge the people they love, and neither will i. I hope in the case of my passing, Etho will step up to lead them, but truly, i want my people to kill the man who striked Skizz down." He pulls away from his work and walks towards Gem, the idea of revenge striking flames in his eyes, the sweet man Gem knew turning into one filled with rage over his friend and his people.
"There's no better option than Etho, and i truly hope you and your people can get the revenge you so desire, despite my allegiances to the man you may want dead." She smiles to him, she had always hated Martyn, his lack of empathy towards the people around him made him a true warrior, but not one many people would die for.
The door bursts open behind them, Keralis stumbling in and clearly out of breath. "Impulse..." He takes a few breaths. "Did you hear the news? we're leaving tonight!" Keralis shouts with his hands on his knees, deep breaths coming from him.
"I was about to tell you." Gem looks to him, laughing slightly before he begins to laugh at the man in front of them too.
"Well, Keralis, you know our plan, prepare my people and everything Zedaph has supplied for us, and we'll be ready to go." Impulse continues laughing at him and helping him regain his breath before waving to the two of them and leaving the room with the newly forged sword in hand.
Scar walks towards the door of the great hall, noticing another figure at the door who he can only recognise to be his brother.
"Why are you here, Scar?" Bdubs asks, confused, knowing only an hour ago his brother had all the hatred in the world towards his father.
"I had a talk with Ren, i want to try to talk to my father." Scar sighs, unsure if this is truly a good idea or not.
"Well, we can go in together, I think he needs both of us right now." Bdubs smiles to him, watching his brother nod back as he slowly opens the door in front of him.
Etho stands looking down on the coffin Skizz found himself in, wondering how a truly good man, the only man in the realm with a true heart, found himself so brutally murdered.
Scar and Bdubs walk up from behind him slowly, finding themselves going undetected for a majority of their path towards him, but eventually, he turns around to see the two boys.
"Scar? Bdubs? why are you here?" He asks quietly. They could both hear how upset he was in his voice alone, but his face showed it so much more.
"We came to comfort our father, is that okay?" Bdubs smiles towards him, noticing a small nod come from the other.
Bdubs quickly walks up to him and wraps his arms around the taller man, almost feeling the smile coming from the others' face as Scar gets closer to them.
"Im sorry, Etho." Scar looks towards him before a slight smile appears on his face, the idea of letting go of his past hatreds, making him feel slightly better about himself.
"Don't be, im sorry too." Etho opens his other arm out widely to watch Scar join in on the hug, with a few tears escaping all of their eyes in the process.
Etho pulls away from the hug before rummaging through his pockets and pulling out the clock Impulse had given him not too long ago.
Bdubs looks to it, he recognised it, he couldn't tell how or why until he saw the scratched side of it, and his eyes widened before taking it out of Etho's hands.
"How did you get this?" Bdubs asks with a large smile on his face. One of the only memories he has of his brother is scratching his name on the side of this old rusted clock.
"He gave it to me." Etho frowns before pointing behind them to the man walking towards them.
"Impulse?" Bdubs questions, noticing the sword in his hand.
The smaller man walks up next to them. "I know you might not want to see me right now, Etho, but i had to give you this, Skizz would want you to have it, and so do i, If i die on this battlefield i want you to lead my people." Impulse holds out the sword towards him, the blue and red gemstones shining in the dimly light room.
"If my son can dismiss his past hatreds, i can too, I understand why you did what you did, and you've paid the price for it already. You've always been one of my closest friends, I'll gladly take this sword of it, which means leading your people if everything goes wrong, which it won't." Etho grabs the hilt of the sword from Impulse's hands, receiving a thank you from the dwarvern man before a small hug.
"I hope you two can forgive me too." Impulse smiles towards Bdubs and Scar, who weakly smile back to him.
<3 hours later>
The streets of Stratos slowly fill up with people from Dogwarts, Stratos, The Mushroom Forest, The Dwarvern Keep, and Olipeligo. All fighting for one singular cause, the war to end all wars, the dream that Skizz once had during his time alive.
Jimmy's wings expand before launching himself into the air at the forefront of the ever expanding line of the army they have created.
Joel looks back towards his own men with Gem and Martyn by his side with a determined smile on his face,in disbelief that this time had finally come, and fear of what might come of it. It doesn't take much to spot his wife, looking out the window of their room in Stratos with a smile filled with worry and hope.
Grian finds himself in a carriage with Stress, Zedaph, and Keralis, the four of them not being warriors in the slighest, find themselves more inclined to the carriage instead atop a horse.
Impulse and Etho end up riding on horses next to one another in front of the dwarvern section of the army, the two of them representing Skizz and Tango in this battle, the two people they loved having been lost in this war.
Ren and Bdubs ride in the front of the envoy, Hypno being slightly behind them with the black bannered men following closely behind him, the three of them going home to reclaim their kingdom.
The gates in front of them slowly open as they all take a look back towards Stratos, possibly the last time they will ever see this beautiful kingdom, even if they win this war.
End of chapter 23 (5832 words)
Uhm, i lost track of the words. It's also a bit late because my headphones broke and i cannot write without listening to music (got new ones now), another reason being i onlt wanted to write one of the final chapters when it felt like i could give it everything i had, when i felt like it was getting slightly sloppy i quit instantly.
I want you all to have my best, as you all deserve the best you can possibly get!.
Hope you enjoyed! <3