Prologue
Did you ever ask yourself how it is if you suddenly lose everything? Everything you fought for, everything that is important for you? Did you ever asked yourself what you would have done? That is what happened to me. And that is what this story is about. A story about cruelty, about vengeance and about loss. My story.
I was Cen. But now I am nobody. When I lost everything, I lost myself, too. The only thing left is hate.

I lived in a little village, in a great empire. The emperor didn't really care about us so life wasn't very special. But we were happy.

Then some day the emperor died. There was a big war as he hasn't had any children. Even here, far away from the capital city we could feel the war. Less and less merchants came, they told us about thiefs and hordes of black creatures and then suddenly nobody came anymore. We were completely isolated and could just wait.
Sometimes soldiers found the way to our village, too. They mainly came to confiscate food, or to take young men with them.”He will be fighting for the lord”, they said.”Be proud of what glorious things he will do for your family.” Nobody said anything against it although it was horrible to see them go, looking back with a terrified look in their face. But the soldiers didn't come often, so the people forgot about them.

Then the merchants came back. One after each other, first only in the summer, later also through the whole winter. Out of their news we couldn't find out that the war has ended and a new emperor was installed. We didn't really think about that. In fact we didn't care as long as life could stay as it was.

The next few years were formatively influenced by happyness. The crops were big and even some of the young mans having gone to war came back. There always was a celebration, but they seemed to have... changed. They weren't really happy anymore and no one of them talked about the war. We could only imagine what had happened to them.

War started again and reminiscence of the last one came back. But this time it was... terrible. We couldn't find out what exactly had happened, but it seemed as if the emperor had turned mad. He made a deal with the hordes and after that his army fought side to side with the black creatures, maroding over the country.
The whole land fell into darkness...
Our little village too...
I don't want to tell you what happened in the war. Maybe later. But I will tell you what happened after it.

Abandoned, pleased, brainwashed, exploited

The moon went down above the hills, immersed the land in dark, bluish colours. Two shadows stood on the hill, two shapes on their horses. They looked down on a little village. You couldn't see details. Nearly the whole village was dark, but from time to time a light flickered in the night. The village seemed to sleep. It was completely quiet, just a lonely wolf howled behind the hills.
From far away it was a quiet, peaceful atmosphere. But if you take a closer look...

Footsteps in the dark. A man came out of the shadows. He stiffened and then turned his head around, trying to distinguish between the different shadows. Wasn't there a noise from the haystack? Or was it just the rain? Doesn't matter, the time was running away from him. As quiet as possible he crept across the path, into the next house.
It was a terrifying scenery. What had seemed to be flickering flames from far away turned out into giant flames burning down the house. Tables and chairs were destroyed, their parts scattered around. From time to time a crossbar fell down from the roof.
Nevertheless the man hadn't enough time to be scared by all this. He hurried through the house, taking everything that seemed to be value- or eatable. When he couldn't find any space for other things, he ran back to the door.
A burning crossbar blocked the exit. It had fallen so badly that there was no way out. In his panic he tried to move it with his hands, but the crossbar was too heavy. Additionally the fire was too hot to stand it only a few seconds. Fear grasped his mind, but there was still one possibility. The windows in the first floor. Please, god, don't let it be too late...

While the man ran for his life, the shapes on the hill had not the faintest idea of what happened below them. With motionless faces they watched the last houses of the village slowly burning down. Only their eyes showed the memories going through their minds. They stood there for nearly half an hour, two shadows watching over the night.
Then one of them broke the silence.
”We are not going to come back, do we?”
“No. Why should we? What holds us here? We can't come back anymore.”
“I mean, we won't be able to come back to anywhere, will we?”
“No, we won't. There is only one thing left to do.”
“I wish it wouldn't have to end like this. We could try to begin a new live, forget this one.”
“Do you really think that? Think about it. Could you forget what happened? Everything left is the memory. I don't want to lose it, too. I can't. Can you?”
Both were silent. Another wolf entrusted his fate to the night.
“Well, I don't want to loose it. Without it, nothing is left. These happy days... But they are gone. I remember how I once said that I want to die in the circle of my family and friends, in this village and with a smile on my face. Even this wish won't become reality.
So now the last thing I want is dying with the memory still alive. And punishing the one who did this to me. And if you are honest to yourself, that is your wish, too. Now come on.”
The other man didn't say anything but let his horse turn around, riding into the moon. Behind them the last flames went out and perfect peacefulness was left.


A couple of men sat around the fire staring into the flames. War and living in the wilderness for years had left their marks on their faces. Only one of the men was smiling, but nevertheless he couldn't hide his exhaustion.
“Fred, stop grinning. The day was hard enough, I can't endure your smile anymore.”
“Hey, whats your problem? Just enjoy the cold night, the hungry wolfs around us... Imagine how the army is roaming the woods, searching for us but just finding deep lakes and angry bears. Imagine how they...”
“Now shut up. Wait until you spend some years in this hell. You won't keep joking anymore.”
“Do you think? Well, in my opinion we just kill the emperor, install a new one and start again. Or we die while trying and won't have to see this green hell again. Maybe a red one.”
He turned to a man sitting a bit away from the others. His hair was crimson and he stared down into the fire.
“And what is with you? Come on, here must be someone being a bit more cheerful than these guys. We should have at least a few good memories left of this time.”
That seemed to touch him somehow. He looked up. His eyes were crimson as his hair, only a bit more purple. The flames were reflected by them and also had a little purple glow. The eyes seemed to go through Fred while the glow became stronger, but then it disappeared and the man dropped his head again.
Fred wasn't intimidated. However he realized that there wasn't any possibility to encourage someone for talking. With a mumbled “Alone with those taciturn people in the wilderness, chased by the army of the emperor. That wasn't my childhood dream for the occupation...”
The silent man looked into the wide darkness. He has become a rebel to find his lost memory, but hadn't found anything. Sometimes he thought of stop searching and accepting it. However he didn't know what to do without this target. Living a normal live was unimaginable, not with the power sleeping in him.
He couldn't live among other people without the fear of losing control and... No, he had to find out what happened to him and find a cure to it.
Sometimes he thought about what would happen if he finds the answer. Would he then be able to live a normal live? Or would the memory be too horrible? What if he'd find out that there isn't a cure? But then he told himself that there wasn't another possibility for him. He had to face up to his past.
And without noticing it, he was happy in the time of searching, with fellows concentrated on their own problems but nevertheless welded together by the thread. Just in the darkness and silence he felt isolated and alone with his past.

Not far away from the rebel's camp the emperor's army had their own one. Two soldiers were sitting next to a fire and tried to recover. One of them tried to wash his hands in a puddle.
“Why did we have to join the army for finding out about this planet, drahcir? Wasn't there an easier way than roaming through woods and swamps?”
“Not if you want to fulfill our mission. Anyway those strains shouldn't be too hard for a lieutenant of the Tiren Fleet, Mailliw.”
“I just don't like the fact that we are killing humans without a reason. Couldn't we just explore this land on our own?”
“For the humans, money is a very good reason for killing someone. And it is quite interesting to see how people act in situations like that.”
“And therefore we kill them? Because the humans would have a good reason for killing them? They are very similar to us. Its nearly like we would kill someone on Tiren.”
“I also don't like to see how they are killed, but with or without us, they will be dead anyway. Does it matter whether they die from our hand or from the soldiers' ones? Somehow everything the humans do leads to conflicts and wars. Look at the people around you. All of them fight against innocent villagers and farmers. But do they say something against it? No.”
“Because they have fear. Fear of being alone with their doubts. Fear of being hanged. However many others are fighting against this cruelty.”
“And kill, too.”
“But its not forever. It can have an end some time and then all this madness will be past.”
With this words he turned around and went sleeping.
“Until it starts again.” was the last thing he remembered to have heard before falling asleep.

Madness has a reason

Maybe I should now tell you about what happened when the war began. We first thought it would be like the first one. Again it started with the merchants staying away from our village. We didn't know what happened around us in the land, but we felt save so far away from the capital city.
After some time a few of us wondered why no soldiers came to call up our young men for the war, but we were happy about it, especially as it again came to light how the last war changed the men participating in it. So we didn't really care. Until one night...

Everyone slept when suddenly the noise of shouting men made us woke up. Without thinking about it, I ran out of my house straight to the direction where the sounds came from with the rain blowing into my face.
On the crossing of two roads, in front of the inn I saw Steve, the landlord, discussing angrily with four men on their horses, probably soldiers.
“And I said to you, you won't get anything from me. Neither my money nor my beer.”
“Why are you so headstrong, old man? We will burn your house down anyway, so does it really matter whether you give it to us or not?”
“Yes, because you won't do anything with my house. And if you don't go immediately, we will drive you out of our town.”
“Your really not making it easy for us. OK, get torches. Burn down everything. We don't have any more time.”
Steve ran to the man with his fists raised, but was send to ground by a slap in the face.
Anger suddenly took hold of me. I picked up a random stock and rushed into the first soldier, knocking him out with a stroke against the head. But now the other ones noticed me and rode into my direction.
I tried to evade the sword strike, but it was too late. I sank to the ground, the last things I saw were the flames growing higher and higher on the front of the house.
When I woke up I needed some moments to remember what had happened. With the taste of blood in my mouth I slowly realized what that ment.
I stood up and ran to my house as fast as possible. On the wet roads often I fell down and bruised my knee but that didn't matter at that time. When my house came into view, my world burst into splinters.
The flames covered the whole front. I ran to the house. Already from the outside I could see my wife, dead. I fell to my knees. The tears covered my face, mixing with the blood and the rain, forming pools in the mud.
I didn't notice how someone dragged me away from the house and embraced me. All I could do is crying.

A scream cut the silence of the night. Marc, the fellow of Cen put his hand on Cen's shoulder.
“Everything OK with you?”
“Yes. It was just a nightmare. But it hasn't ended yet.”


The sun rose at the horizon and threw its light onto the hills. Marc woke up and saw Cen sitting a bit away from him, staring into the sun. When he came nearer Cen started to speak, more to himself than to Marc.
“What a beautiful sunrise. But I can't enjoy it anymore. Now its too late. I should have payed more attention to it before.”
He turned to Marc.
“Lets get up and get done what we have to do.”
With this words he went to his horse and mounted.

The sun shined down on them while they were riding through a blossoming forest. Birch trees lined the road, but both couldn't pay attention to it.
After some time of silent riding, Cen stopped and listened carefully..
“What was that? Seems as if we aren't alone here.”
Without waiting for his fellow he directed his horse into the forest. Marc followed him with a few meters distance.

Fred and Z were both selected to scour the area around the rebel's camp when suddenly two horses rushed out of the trees. They drew their swords and stared at the men with concentration. They watched Cen and Marc climbing down from their horses and getting nearer to them. When they noticed the swords, they also drew their ones, but let them hang down. Cen started to speak:
“I hope we don't have to communicate that way.”
“I hope, too. But for that you should tell us who you are and whom you follow.”
“We are just two villagers and we follow nobody. But if I am right and you are a rebel, then we are probably working for the same goal.”
“Then come with us. And sorry for the rude welcome. You can't be suspicious enough in this time. But now we probably can speak more normal. This is Fred and I am Z.”
Cen and Marc had already taken their horses and now went off together with Z and Fred.
“He is Marc. And I, I shouldn't have a name anymore. I have lost anything and with it my name, too.”
Z and Fred said nothing and seemed thoughtful.
“But what is with you? Why are you named Z?”
Z didn't answer. However Fred answered for him instead.
“He doesn't know. He lost his memory and now he tries to ind out what had happened to him.”
Z gave him an evil look.
“Living without your memory... I wish I could to that, too. But for you it must be a pain.”
“Yes it is. But I am determined to find it. Thats why I joined the rebels.”
As it was already too late to stop, Z seemed to become less reserved concerning that topic. Now Marc became interested, too.
“Did you never ask yourself whether you want to know what happened? Whether your past is so terrible that you won't be able to stand it?”
“I often did. But I am restless until this uncertainty ends.”
“And what will you do if it is too horrible?”
“I will probably try to life with it. I can't run away from my past.”
“Did you never consider about starting a new life? Independent from your old one?”
“I somehow have to know what happened to me, who I am. I have to know and accept my past to decide between starting something new or going on with my old live. How can I start a new one if I haven't done with my old one?”
Now Fred interrupted their dialogue.
“Look, we are there. Wait here and sleep a bit, we will talk with our leader. Just forget your problems for a while. Tomorrow with the first sunbeams we all will either be happier or dead.”
And with this words they went off and left Cen and Marc alone. Both of them were suddenly descended by tiredness and fell asleep.
The last thing Cen saw was the face of Marc in front of the sun, now with a determined look on his face.


The sound of trumpets made Drahcir wake up. He was lying on the ground in his little tent. From the opening the first sunbeams came in. In front of it the silhouette of Mailliw already stood out against the light. In his hand he held his sword.
“What happened, Mailliw?”
“What do you think? The scouts found the camp of the rebels and now the army is arming for attacking them. Do you understand what that means? You said whether we are in the army wouldn't change anything, but now we are fighting against the only people opposing the emperor. What are we going to do now?”
Drahcir hesitated a bit, then he stood up and took his sword. The expression on his face was rigid.
“Very easy. We can't go back now, so we go on.”
With this words he passed by Mailliw out of the tent.
Coming out they saw everyone running around uncoordinated. One of the men followed by about ten soldiers headed for them.
“You two up there. Don't wait there until the fight has ended. You come with me.”
Mailliw looked questioning to Drahcir but he just walked over to the group, not looking at Mailliw. After a few seconds of thinking Mailliw followed him.

“Oh my god, what are we doing?”
Drahcir and Mailliw were lying in the grass of a little hill above the rebel's camp. At the moment their team leader explained them what to do. They had to wait for a sign of the commander, after it they should run down the hills, straight to the camp and kill everyone not being a part of the army.

However both weren't listening to him. They watched the camp. Sporadically the rebels had lit some fires, but not enough for noticing details from their point. Sometimes they assumed to see a shadow moving around, but it seemed as if nobody was awake. They couldn't even recognize guards.
“O my god, what are they doing?”
In a few minutes the army would rush down the hills, merciless killing everybody. How fast a live could end. One minute your living and planning what to do, maybe writing a letter to your family and the next minute you are dead. Maybe without knowing why and without anybody noticing. Life could be so cruel.
Waiting for the signal, they turned around to their leader. He also seemed to be uncertain of what to do. What were they waiting for?
Everyone was silent, waiting tensed up. Even the nature seemed to hold it's breath. Then suddenly the noise of battle broke the silence. Screams and shouts made everyone frightened. The leader again was uncertain what to do, but it didn't matter anyway. Nobody was listening to anyone. With panic they ran crisscross in every direction, some of them with fear away from the camp, some of them with anger straight into it.
Later it turned out that only an argument between two soldiers about the justification of the attack had become violent. The injustice had punished itself.
However that doesn't mean that the army already lost the fight.


Again trumpets made everyone wake up, but this time it was in the rebel's camp. Z immediately stood up and ran out of his tent. Fred and some other rebels already were there, all of them insecure of what had happened. More and more rebels came, crowding together.
Z went a few steps forward and stared into the darkness. Slowly a few shadows stood out against it, then they became more and more until the whole road was filled with soldiers. The fires on both sides threw a strange light on them.
The rebels only had little time to draw their weapons before both sides crashed into each other.
Z just stood there, waiting for the first soldier to come. Then he swung his sword and hit the soldier at the neck. The dead body fell down, with blood gushing out of it. Dark images of unknown lands and persons were rushing through his mind, but none of it remained long enough to leave a shape. “No, not now!”
He was a bit staggering, but nevertheless he was able to join the fight again. Another soldier fell victim to his sword, then he found a worthy adversary in a general.
All around Z other men were fighting like him. The whole camp was a giant battlefield. Just a few meters away Fred was trying to defend himself against 3 men, 2 others were already lying on the ground, more or less dead.
“Can't we make this a bit faster? Your fellows are perishing and I don't have the time to kill them sensible.”
One of the men on the ground breathed stertorously as if he wanted to underline it.
“Shout up you damn rebel. We will kill you.”
“I have my doubts to that. Well, you could of course kill them by yourself, I will wait for that time.”
He pushed his sword forward.
“I said shout up.”
The man jumped back.
“Did you ever thought about what happens after your death? I mean about the last judgment and so on?”
“Don't try to intimidate us. We will come to heaven for what we have done for the emperor while you rebels will burn in hell.”
The man became angrier and angrier while the others didn't look as convinced as he was.
“I guess now would be a good time to talk about angels...”
While saying this, he wasn't concentrated for one moment. The man used that moment to push his own sword into Fred's chest. Fred sank to the ground, the next sentence already on his lips.

The world around Z slowed down while Z saw Fred sinking down. The impact stunned him. He screamed. Everything around him burst into splinters and became dark. He fell into the deep, deep darkness while his hidden power took hold of him.
He looked straight into the eyes of his adversary. Z' eyes now became evil purple. Just with an angry look he made him flying backwards. Then he turned to the men around Fred who tried to push their swords into his body again. With a bloodcurdling scream he made the men suddenly dying. They sank to the ground next to Fred, the expressions on their face a mix out of fear, panic and pure terror.
The world around Z became blood red, the faces were twisting around, accusingly looking at him.
“No, no...”
With a last effort he managed to get hold of himself again, then he just fell down again, into a nightmare of blood and fear.
Everywhere around them the fights slowly stopped. The rebels either died or surrendered. Soldiers took their swords and captivated them.
So did it end now?

The ruins of my life

I sat there for hours, still with someone sitting next to me, embracing me. When I could open my eyes again without crying, I turned around. Next to me sat Marc, his eyes closed. He still embraced me, but in that moment I didn't care, it was even good to have someone telling you that you aren't alone with all those cruelty and madness.
When I felt strong enough, I turned my head to look at the dead body of my wife. I wanted to cry, but I couldn't. I felt totally empty, no tears in me, neither of happyness nor of mourning. Just nothing.
We sat there for around half an hour before I started to say something.
“How can anybody do something like that? Destroying lives without reason, without mercy?”
Marc said nothing, but I knew he couldn't. There wasn't an answer for that question. And even if it was, it wouldn't have helped me.
I knew that, but I needed an answer. To fill the emptiness, although it would have left another emptiness after realizing that what happened wasn't a dream. The emptiness of living with the memory and the certainty that what happened was irrevocable.
After some time I stood up, went silently to the dead body and picked it up.

We went to the hills to bury her.
The memory of that time is blurred, I wasn't thinking, I wasn't crying, I was just waiting to wake up out of that nightmare. But I didn't.
Only the time we stood in front of her grave is burned more clearly into my memory than anything else. I can remember the wind touching our hairs and blowing the scent of scorched wood to us.

And I can remember the look on her face. Somehow enraptured, looking up into the sky but still showing her fear in the last moments of her life. I can't forget that image. Whenever I think of her I see her face in that moment.
“Fare well”, was the only thing I could say before my words suffocated in tears.
Silent and motionless we stood there, I don't know for how long. Then a shadow appeared, human-like but completely dark and with a long cape. Two scary eyes looked at us from where the face should have been.
Without paying attention to us the shadow hovered to the dead body and raised his hand.
The body now being transparent stood up and floated out of the grave. It turned to me, looking into my eyes with a knowing smile, then it vanished. I never saw her face again.
I screamed at the shadow.
“You! You already took everything I fought for. Now you are taking her away again.”
“Everybody has to die.”
“But why now? Why her?”
“Every death is hard for someone.”
I looked at him in confusion. How could anybody be so cold, so heartless?
“Why are you doing that? How can you?”
I couldn't see the face of the reaper, but I was sure he wasn't touched by what I was saying.
“Without the death, would you esteem the life?”
“But why did she have to die so early? Why couldn't you wait?”
He looked at me. Calm, untouched, but not contemptuous.
“Am I the one who kills the people? Or are they the humans with their war, their hate and their cruelty?”
I was silent. I didn't know what I could say.
“I am just the one who has to look at what the humans are doing, releasing them from their pain. I am just the part of life the humans are more leaned towards.”
There was a deep pause.
“Will I see her again?”
“I don't know. You will have to find out by yourself.”
Another deep pause.
“So why should I live on? What holds me here?”
“I normally don't give advices for your life, but I tell you: Don't throw it away rash. You only have one life, but thousands of years afterwards.”
With this words he vanished, leaving me behind. It had already became dark and the moon was shining over the hills. I still looked into the direction where he had stood.
“No, I won't throw away my life. I will use it for the last thing left. Vengeance.”

He woke up, tears covering his face. The image of his wife's face was still in his mind, looking at him but he couldn't read her expression.
He looked around. Trees covered the sky, only a few beams of the moonlight got through the leaves. Leaves were also all around him on the ground.
Slowly the memory came back. He and Marc had their lair a bit away from the rebel's camp because Z and Fred had to talk to their leader before letting them in. In times like this you couldn't be suspicious enough.
They were already fallen asleep when they heard rumor from the direction where the camp was. Immediately they stood up to see what had happened. It was dark and the camp was quite far away, but they could already see flames gasping up for the sky.
Taking their swords they ran for helping the rebels. They couldn't see the army, but they already heard the noise of battle. They ran and ran with the camp coming nearer and nearer when both suddenly got knocked out by two hits with a club out of the dark. A quirk of the fate wanted them not to participate in the battle.
When they woke up again and wavered to the camp, they saw it all teared down. With blood and dead bodies the battle had left its marks. However the bodies weren't as numerous as the rebels had been. That ment that the rebels probably were just captured. Hope was still shining on the horizon.
They tried to follow the tracks of the army, but they were just too tired to walk on. As soon as they found a place to rest, they fell down and asleep.
So here they were, alone in the dark, the rebels caught, the army still marauding... What could they do now?

Suddenly horses were coming out of the thicket. Within seconds they encircled Cen and Marc, watching them concentrated while holding their bows and swords in their hands. Nobody moved, you nearly could feel the tensed attention in the air.
Then one of the riders dismounted his horse. He had long blond hair and sized them up with his calm brown eyes.
He turned to another man.
“I don't think that they have something that is worth the effort. But nevertheless we have to take them with us. Our leader doesn't want us to let people go off without him knowing.”
“So what are you waiting for? Let us go, take them with us and make sure they can't escape.”
Two of the men climbed down from their horses and followed Cen and Marc with their swords in front of them. There was no chance to escape.
As most of the bandits, what they obviously were, rode on horses, they set a brisk pace. However two swords in the back were a good motivation to run.
After some time which could have been half an hour, maybe even a full one, Cen wasn't paying attention to it, they reached the bandit's camp. It was even bigger than the rebel's one. It was obvious that this wasn't just a random gang. It was almost like an army.
They were guided through the camp with many people watching them. Many of them stared at them with empty eyes, many of them had shredded clothes and were trying to eat bread having its best time behind it. Although it was a giant and organized group, most of the people had just joined because they had nothing to eat and because they needed someone to follow.
He didn't notice how they reached a tent being much bigger than the other ones. When they came in they saw a man sitting on something like a throne, but with an armor and a sword in his hand.
The leader of the group capturing them began to speak.
“We found this men in the forest, it doesn't seem as if they carry something valuable.”
With a gesture the man on the throne told him to go away.
He sized Cen and Marc up.
“What are you doing alone in the wilderness in a time like this? And whom are you leaned towards?”
Cen sighed. Everywhere he heard the same question. Sometimes he wondered whether there was a real difference between the army, the rebels and the bandits. Well, all of them were humans in the same time. Just the fate made them acting different.
“We are leaned towards nobody but to ourselves. However we are hating the emperor for killing everything we had and are now trying to kill him. I know that you are working together with the army, but I want to offer you a deal.”
The men said nothing but motioned Cen to go on.
“At the moment you are just marauding over the country and killing innocent villagers for robbing the few things they have. Besides the fact that this is cruel and inhuman, you hardly get enough food to feed your followers and in the near future you won't have any people to rob anymore because you and the army are killing everyone.
However there is a way being better for everyone. While the villagers have only the things they need for living, the emperor has tonnes over tonnes of gold and treasures in his palace. Killing him and taking over the realm will give you and your fellows enough money for the rest of your live.”
The man was obviously thinking about that possibility, but seemed uncertain.
“Why should I do something risky like that? If we fail, we will all die. Or something worse will happen.”
“Because you can't go on like this forever. What will you do after killing everyone? But if you kill the emperor...”
“Well, I will think about that. Until then you can stay in the camp. But just under arrest.”

The campfire was alone in the dark. The flames were going up and down and asked themselves: “What for?”
Two human shadows were thrown on the wall. It seemed as if they were arguing.
Cen and Marc were standing between the wall and the fire. Cen was very angry while Marc had a dismissive and rigid expression on his face.
“And I say to you, I won't help these bandits to overthrow the emperor. Its obvious what would happen then.”
“But its our only chance to kill him, to take revenge.”
“How can you say that there is no other chance if you never tried it out?”
Cen shook his head.
“Does it really matter how we kill the emperor? The main thing is that we kill him.”
“For us it doesn't matter, but for many others it does. Imagine what happens to this realm when the bandit-leader becomes the new emperor.”
“We will be dead then. You can't hope to stay alive. The vengeance will be the last thing we will achieve.”
“I don't hope. I don't even dream of it. But I can't leave all the other people with a new emperor.”
“Why should we care about what happens after us? We won't be a part of it.”
“Because the world just doesn't work with an attitude like that. With everyone being just focused on his own welfare. And because thinking like this causes fates like our own one. Destroyed families, destroyed lives. Would you want anyone to go through the same pain like you did?”
“No, I don't. But I lost the belief in the good in man. Look around you. People like me and you are murdering their brothers. There aren't only a few evil persons. A normal man kills without reason. Why should I help them?”
“Because not people like you and me are murdering, but murdering people are people like you and me. They are still normal villagers, hating themselves for what they are doing, hoping to live a normal life again, but seeing no other escape out of hunger and death. So they follow someone who seems to know what he does. Because they have no hope. And if you are really thinking of them as monsters, aren't you one of them, too?”
Cen wasn't convinced, but he didn't know anything to reply, either.
“I can't force you to change your opinion, but I won't support this madness. Do what you want, I will try to rescue the rebels. Good luck.”
With this words he ran into the shadow of the night. After a few seconds Cen couldn't see him anymore. On the wall there was just one shape left. A hand covered its face and it slowly sank to the ground. Very small shadows fell down. Cen was crying.
Marc was crying, too. However he hadn't time for it right then. He slowly sneaked out of the camp. There. A guard. Fortunately he hadn't seen them. Carefully he sneaked nearer and nearer. A fast hit on the back of the head and the man sank to the ground. Mumbling a low “sorry” he ran out of the camp and merged with the darkness.

Why not look through your fingers what they've done.

The sun went down beyond the hills. The last beams were lighting up a group of persons sitting on a field. Then also they vanished and the landscape became dark. The group seemed to be alone, there weren't even the sounds of animals, but they knew that all around them the army was lying, observing them, ready to kill everyone trying to escape.
They knew that there wasn't any hope.
Fred looked around. Many of the rebels weren't even adults. Fear showed in their eyes and they were crying. Nobody wanted to imagine what would happen to all of them. This was different from the fear of dying in a fight. They were waiting for the inevitable death, helpless.
One of the young men near to him raised his voice over the other ones.
“Why did we try to fight against the emperor? Why? Couldn't we be satisfied with our live? Now we will all die. And what for? What for?”
Many of the others nodded in approval. Fred couldn't believe it.
“What for? Why? Maybe because of all the injustice and cruelty committed by the army? Maybe for all the ones suffering from the pain it brought over the land?”
“But what did it change? We will be dead and the cruelty will live on.”
Fred became more and more angry.
“How can you know what will happen before it did? You can't. If you lost all your hope, why don't you just go and kill yourself? Everything you do can somehow lead to your death. But it isn't said that this will.”
“Now please be honest this one time. We will die, and you know it.”
“No, I don't. And maybe we changed something with our acting, we probably won't find out.”
“Maybe we changed something. Why should I care whether we did or not? It doesn't help me anymore. I am dead and you are, too. Why should it matter for us what happens afterwards?”
Before Fred could reply anything, Z stood up and looked the man straight in the eye.
“Would you want to live in a world where everyone is just focused on his own welfare? Where nobody is helping you when you have troubles? Where nobody cares whether you die or not? Would you?”
He turned around and left the others arguing, going a bit further into the darkness. Just not too far, otherwise he would be killed. But does it matter much anyway? He won't live on for a long time and he wasn't sure if that was good or bad. Maybe the death was the salvation he waited for, no searching anymore, no uncertainty...

Just a few meters away, Drahcir and Mailliw were sitting in the darkness, watching the camp.
“Look in their faces, how they are crying. They just don't deserve a death like that. I can't believe that we aren't helping them.”
Drahcir was sitting next to him and seemed to be buried in thoughts.
“I wish we could help them, too. But we can't. We have to leave them to their fate.”
“How can you be that sure? How can you be that heartless? They are dying a painful death and we don't even try to do something against it.”
“We have nearly no chance to help them. But we have a mission to fulfill and I won't forget that.”
“A mission! We are talking about lives! Lives that are dying.”
“I know. But it doesn't help to talk about it over and over again. You just have to accept what is happening and try to change what is possible. Dying for them doesn't help them.”
“But...”
“I'm sorry, but it is just like that. I would be really happy if I could change that, but I can't.”

Suddenly they heard a noise from behind them. They immediately turned around, but they couldn't see anything. The darkness swallowed everything up.
“Come out, whoever you are.”
Mailliw tried not to show his fear. He slowly let his eyes wandering around. Nothing. Carefully Drahcir did a few steps forward, his sword in front of him and with his head turning around. The fire threw ghostly shadows on the wall. There was the sound again, now from behind them. Mailliw tried to turned around, but it was too late.
He felt cold steel on his throat. Carefully he tried to see what happened behind him without moving his head.
Marc stood behind him, tensely holding his knife. His eyes showed both anger and fear.
“Don't move or he will die.”
He moved the knife a bit around as if to underline what he said.
Drahcir wasn't moving, but he looked at Marc with a cold stare. Marc seemed to become insecure but he just strengthened his grip. He stared back at Drahcir. Nothing happened, both were standing there, motionless.
Then Mailliw was interrupting the tense.
“OK, kill me.”
“What?”
Marc was totally confused. He hadn't planned something like that.
“I said kill me. Just cut my throat. I won't help anyone fighting for the rebels.”
Marc hesitated. What should he do know? He had absolutely no clue.
“What are you waiting for? Or can't you kill me? Why are you trying this if you can't kill a person?”
As Marc had relaxed the grip a bit, Mailliw could now turn his head to look him into the eyes. They were fixated on nothing. Marc was totally stunned.
Suddenly Mailliw graped the arm with the knife and turned it around. The fight lasted only a few seconds, also because Drahcir joined it, too.
Marc was looking at them and fear showed in his eyes. While imagining how he must have felt in that moment, Mailliw felt sorry for him. Before Drahcir could say anything, he began to speak.
“Don't fear that we will kill you. We won't. The reverse is true. We will help you with rescuing the rebels.”
Marc was looking at them in astonishment.
“This isn't a trick? You are not playing a cruel game with me?”
“No. Now come, we don't have much time.”

In the darkness they sneaked to where the rebels camped. After a short period of confusion it was easy to convince them to follow Marc and the soldiers from Tiren. The difficult part was to bring all of the rebels out of the camp without making any noises.
When they finally where away, everyone felt in each others arms. They couldn't believe that they had been rescued one more time. The freedom they had been accustomed to now seemed to be a god-given gift.

While the rebels again marched to the emperor's palace, the bandits and Cen already reached it. Majestically it sat enthroned on a hill, watching over the land.
A big group of the bandits were sitting on their horses under the trees of a near forest. At the head Cen and the bandit's leader were standing, letting their gazes wander.
“In this palace is over half of the gold of the whole empire. And soon it will be ours.”
He looked straight ahead so that the leader couldn't see his face. Otherwise he maybe would have noticed that the gold wasn't what Cen wanted.
The leader looked straight ahead for nearly the same reason. Cen shouldn't notice that he didn't want to divide the gold.
With a wave of his hand he told the bandits to urge their horses.

It took only minutes for them to reach the palace. They knew that the soldiers in it could easily spot them, especially with the sun shining down from directly above them, but that was exactly what they wanted. Nearly all of the guards had joined the army to find the rebels and to raid the villages. Spotting them would make the few soldiers in the palace only become frightened. All of them knew that they would have no chance if somebody attacked the palace.
When they nearly reached the palace, they heard the sound of a trumpet, then of another one, a third one... and that was it. Slowly the sound died down again. That wouldn't become a real fight.
Without being withheld in any way, they came to the gate.
There they stood, waiting for a reaction of the enemies. But there weren't any sounds from inside the castle.
Another gesture and the bazillion of bandits divided into two parts. Behind them, six bandits carrying a big log appeared. They slowly came nearer and nearer to the gate. When they finally reached it, they threw the log against it, once, twice...
Suddenly the people in the palace reacted. After one of them shouted something they couldn't understand, spears and stone rained from above them. But as soon as one of the bandits died or fell to the ground, a new one came to replace him.
Three times, four...
Finally the gate broke.
Like ants they swarmed into the palace. Everyone in their way was stricken down. Nobody was able to escape. There weren't many people, but that didn't make it easier to look at them, how they lied on the ground, with blood around them. “Don't think about it”, Cen told himself “it soon will be over.”
The only thing he was concentrating on was finding a way to the throne room.

At the same time the rebels reached the palace, too. The same sight met their eyes as it did for the bandits before. They only were on the other side of the hill. After long discussions they decided to enter the castle without anybody noticing. At least they wanted to try. Enough people had already died.
Behind Marc and Drahcir, some of the rebels stood, armed with ropes and stream anchors. That was the only way to enter the high walls beside breaking through the gate. And they didn't want to cause any attention. Behind them the rest of the rebels waited for the fight to begin.
Like the bandits before, the rebels started moving after a wave of Marc's hand.
Carefully they approached the palace. Being careful doesn't help you on an open field with the sun shining from above, but up to now, the enemy didn't show any reaction. Normally they would have wondered why, but in this situation they were just grateful for it.
As soon as they reached the palace, they threw their anchors onto the walls. Whenever one of them caught a wall, the rebels hastily climbed the rope up. The first one soon reached the top of the wall and turned his head around. After ensuring that nobody was there, he indicated to the others to follow him.
It took a while, but finally the whole group was on the walls. They were insecure. A ghostly silence hang over the palace. At least a few soldiers should have noticed their entering. They should be lucky because they weren't forced to fight, but they expected nothing good.
Nevertheless they couldn't stop now to consider what to do. They divided into three groups to examine the palace. Drahcir, Fred, Z, Mailliw and Marc were all in the biggest group. Their task was it to battle their way to the heart of the palace. If there was a battle...

The dark wooden door was standing there, unimpressed by the efforts of the bandits to open it. Judging by the valuable chandeliers, vases and the red carpet, the throne room had to be directly behind that door.
Cen was standing in front of it, thoughtful. He had avoided to think about what would happen if he stood in front of the emperor, but now he couldn't dismiss it anymore.
Doubts rose. Wouldn't it had been better to live on after that painful night with the moon shining on a demonstration of the human cruelty? In a few moments his live would be over. Forever. And what would it change? He couldn't revive his dead wife.
The door broke. Now it was too late to turn back. Again he saw the image of his wife's face in his mind, striking him with hate. It was too late to turn back...

Marc was running. Behind him he heard the footsteps of Mailliw, Drahcir and the rebels. The throne room had to be somewhere near.
Suddenly a door beside him broke. Reflexively he jumped to the side. Masses of soldiers were coming out of it. As soon as the army had noticed that the rebels had escaped, they had gone back to the palace.
Immediately the rebels opposed the soldiers. He caught the look of Fred. They didn't need to say anything. With a nod he continued running, Z and the soldiers from Tiren behind him. They had no time to waste.

The noise of battle behind them slowly died away. It was hard to leave the others behind, not knowing whether they were still alive or not, but the only way to end all this madness was to kill the emperor. Leaving them in the lurch was the only way to actually help them.
Finally they reached a big wooden door. Noise came from behind it. They pushed against it and to their surprise it was open. The room behind was extremely big and round. Windows were embedded all around them, giving a great view over the land. The whole room was wainscoted with gold. Only the chandelier in the middle wasn't. It refracted the light and threw the different colours of the rainbow on the wall.
The little group of soldiers in the middle of the room totally were in contrast to this scenery. They were standing in a circle around a man on the throne, all of them looking frightened. From the other side of the room Marc heard a noise as if many people were throbbing against the door. Could it be that...?
Now the soldiers noticed the intruders and ran towards them.
Drahcir was looking at them with a cold stare.
“Don't pay attention to them. We will care for that. You have to kill the emperor.”
Marc nodded, although he had never thought about this moment, about actually killing him. But there wasn't enough time to discuss right now.

Drahcir, Mailliw and Z ran towards the soldiers, waving their swords. Suddenly the door on the other side of the room broke. Vaguely he saw the face of Cen in the mass of bandits, but there were other things he had to pay attention to.
He was running, just running, totally focused on the man jumped of the throne, trying to escape. But there were only these two doors and both of them were bocked by either the bandits or the rebels.
Marc nearly reached him, ready to end all this with a blow of the swords when suddenly Mailliw was hit by one of the soldiers. He sank to the ground, blood coming out of his stomach. His look was saying: “Go on, don't care about me.” But he couldn't avert his eyes.
Neither could Z. He was hit by a sword stroke, too and sank to the ground beside Mailliw.
Marc was stunned. Suddenly the soldiers stopped. He turned his hat around and saw Cen standing in front of a sunk down human shape, the king. The shape hadn't got any similarity to the evil emperor they fought against, Marc nearly felt some compassion.
However Cen stared at him with a cold and untouched look.
Cen seemed very thoughtful while looking at the king, but when he began to spoke his words sounded hard and merciless.
“How long have I waited for this moment? Now you will pay for everything you did. Suffer for the pain you brought over me!”
Suddenly the eyes of the king become a mad glance. From the inside of his clothing he took a dagger as fast as lightning. Cen jumped backwards. The king was turning around his head like a cornered animal, then he jumped over to Marc.
The attack came so fast and unexpected that Marc hadn't enough time to think. Reflexively he killed the king with a blow of his sword.
Blood filled the ground around the dead body. Marc was looking at it, shocked. Images came into his mind, the villagers, all of them dead. How they lied in their own blood, frozen in their actions, sometimes embracing each other. The dead rebels in their camp, after the attack of the army. And now this dead body, killed by his own hand.
“What did I do?”
All those images circled in his mind, faster and faster, not letting him turn away his head. Was he so much better than them?
Without saying a word he took the dagger from the ground and stabbed it into his heart.

Cen was crying. His world was thrown into pieces again. The time got slower and slower as he watched Marc falling to the ground. He was crying. Crying out his pain, crying until nothing else was left.
He knew that this would happen. He knew that they both would die after killing the emperor. But it shouldn't have ended like that. It shouldn't.
The last one reminding him of his old life was dead. Completely dead, irreversible.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw the other rebels entering the room. Fred was the first one.
Cen was perforated by several arrows, but he hardly noticed. No physical pain could stand the psychical one he was now suffering from. He was falling to the ground, seeing the both sides running towards each other and Marc lying next to him.
“Selene...” was the last word of him.

The fight didn't last long. The rebels were much more than the bandits and the army capitulated after it realized that the emperor was dead. So the madness was finally ended. Although there were many victims, a good and happy time for the realm started from that day on. Fred was installed as a new emperor and everything was good and fine.
The end...?

Drahcir was sitting on the ground, next to Mailliw, looking at him with an absent look. He had never cried before, no matter what had happened, but now the tears were running down his face.
Slowly Mailliw raised his head to look Drahcir straight into the eye. When he began to speak, his voice was low and Drahcir had to come nearer to understand what he said.
“When you are going back to our planet... to fulfill our mission... tell them... that I thought the humans... are worth dying for them. Will you?”
Drahcir didn't said anything, but his eyes told it for him. He embraced Mailliw, trying to hold him forever, but he couldn't. Mailliw smiled a last time at him, then he lied back and died. Drahcir kept sitting there for hours before finally loosing him.

After everyone had gone, the light suddenly vanished and a dark shadow appeared. Two scary blue eyes were the only source of light. First the shape looked at the emperor's body, then it shook its head and hovered over to Mailliw. It swung his scythe and Mailliw's ghost came out of his body. He looked at the reaper with calm eyes.
“Let us go.”

Then the shape went over to Marc and Z. Their ghosts also came out of the bodies. Marc was still shocked, while Z seemed very thoughtful.
The reaper was looking at both of them, silent.
Marc looked at him with empty eyes.
“What... what did I do? I killed him.”
Now the reaper began to speak with his cold voice.
“Yes, you killed him. But does it matter? He had to die anyway.”
“It does. It isn't just the result that counts. I killed him, with my own hands. I can still feel the blood...”
“Nevertheless you didn't want to. You couldn't do anything else. But you managed not to kill him for vengeance.”
Marc didn't say anything, but didn't seem to be convinced.
“And remember for what you did it. To free everyone suffering from the violence and cruelty the emperor brought over the land.”
Marc still wasn't saying anything, but slowly nodded.
“Its just... I can't forget the image of him, lying on the ground and me holding my sword. All this blood...”
Now he looked into the reaper's eyes.
“But yes, I accept what I have done. It will hunt me forever, but I know that it wasn't a mistake and that I wouldn't change what has happened if I could.”
The reaper turned to Z.
“And what is with you?”
Z looked up and shrugged.
“I don't know. At the moment I am wondering whether I should be happy or not. I don't have to live on with my past now, but I still know nothing about it. And I don't know whether I can be dead with this uncertainty.”
“I have always wished to get rid of my destructive powers, to be accepted as a normal guy. Now in death I won't have this problem anymore, but I still want to know what happened to me.”
“So what is holding you away from searching for it?”
“Fear. Fear of getting to know something I can't stand. But I don't know what to do without a goal. And I don't want to run away from my past.”
He turned to Marc.
“So will you come with me?”
Marc nodded and both of them walked away together, the two being so different but yet so similar.
They went on with their search. One to lose his past, one to gain it back. And in the time of searching together they were both lucky. Does it matter whether they find what they are searching for?

In the end the reaper was hovering to Cen's body. Like the ones before, Cen's ghost was coming out of it.
The ghost was looking into the reaper's eyes, thoughtful.
“So now it has ended. This wasn't what I wanted to. Why haven't I seen this before? All this cruelty, all this madness... Am I better than the ones I was fighting against?”
“Yes, many things went wrong. But as I say often to died people: Try better next time. Somehow nobody is laughing about it.”
Cen wasn't replying anything. He didn't speak for a short period of time, then he said.
“Will I see her again after death?”
“Who can know? You will have to find out by yourself.”
“So even that is not sure. For what did I throw away my life? What did I expect? Marc has died, I was about to die for bandits taking over the empire. Everything just because someone else shouldn't feel better than me.”
He again was silent.
“Is there something like a heaven for those who have died?”
“What do you think?”
“I think there isn't one for people like me.”
“Are you sure? You did many things wrong, but in the end you at least felt guilty for it, you accepted your mistakes. Much wasn't as it should have been, but its not only what happened that matters.”
“So there is still hope?”
Cen looked up.
“There is always hope as long as you don't throw it away. For everyone who can accept what he did. Now come on.”
The reaper began moving and Cen was following him. In his mind he could see the face of Selene, looking into his eyes with a knowing smile. And this time he understood.