Chapter 36: Prepare Yourself

Dead silence.

Axel studied the text calmly. The Giant did so too, expressionless save for a slight tightening of his frown.

Lune’s face was practically in a snarl. She was the first to speak: “Those… motherfuckers…”

She had hissed the last word out. Such was the vitriol in her voice that Axel barked out a laugh. “An apt description. Colourful. I approve.”

The Giant smiled, showing fangs. It was not an amused grin. “I believe I am being bribed.”

“It’s a really nice bribe, though,” Axel whistled. “You should be flattered. Hell, I’m flattered that the brass up top is willing to shell out this much to make sure you kill me.”

“Ymir, no,” Lune immediately ordered. “You cannot do this.”

The Giant’s eyes flashed warningly at the girl. Under the General’s heavy gaze, however, Lune did not waver.

After a moment, the Giant grunted approvingly and looked away. “You do not command me, little poisoner. Our past friendship does not give you the right to order me.”

“Also, putting aside that it would be absolutely stupid for him to pass up such a reward,” Axel pointed out. “If he and I don’t duel, everyone in this place is going to die.”

“Stop trying to kill yourself! I’m trying to save you!” Lune snapped at Axel. She then turned back to Ymir. “Please, General, you can just accept the duel and then forfeit. It would clear the Sanctioned Duel, and we can leave this place before the System imparts another stupid condition to the Zone!”

“Wait, forfeiting is an option?” Axel blinked. “Then why not persuade me to forfeit instead? I mean, not that I would, but—”

“In a Sanctioned Duel, only the fighter with the superior level is allowed the right to forfeit,” the Giant explained curtly. “The lesser fighter will only emerge from the duel as the victor or as a corpse. And since the duel will be arbitrated by one of the Admins themselves, fleeing is not an option.”

Ah. Well, that simplified matters, then.

“You cannot be considering this,” Lune protested. “Where is your honour? Your pride? The Great Giant I know would not bow to the demands of others for the scraps of power!”

“It’s not merely scraps, you know,” Axel huffed. “That’s a lot of gold on the table. More than enough to make up for his loss of equipment and put him on equal footing with the Fae Tyrant. And all he has to do is kill little old me.”

“Shut. Up!” Lune snarled at the soldier. She marched over, jabbing a finger in his chest. “Why do you keep trying to make things worse?”

For some reason, looking at the sincere anger in her eyes took him aback, infuriating him in a way he could not explain.

“Why are you so upset about this?” Axel demanded, genuinely baffled. “Also, why do you keep assuming I won’t win?”

This time, the look she gave him was witheringly pitying.

“Okay, I deserve that,” Axel conceded. The man had seen the Giant flatten an entire camp of Trolls with a single spell; he had no illusions about his chances of a victory.

Lune turned back to the General. “There is nothing remotely fair about this. This is an execution that those in power are paying you to carry out. Do not give in to their demands for mere greed!”

“Greed…” The Giant snorted. “And what of you, Lune? Ask yourself this: what compels you now to plead for this human’s life with such fervour? I know you. It is not lust or mere attraction that moves you. And so I will say this: Do not let your gaze be blinded by pity. He is not a creature with the desire to live.”

“So that’s your excuse?” She harshly laughed. “You will kill him because you just decided that? Dammit, you owe him a debt for saving you! Not just from that bastard of a Siegemaster, but for killing all the Bosses and freeing us from my Father’s blood!”

“And you would have me repay this debt by sparing him? You believe that he would view that as a favour?” The Giant spoke lowly. “If you would demand that of me, then you do not know him at all. Nor me. I cannot be swayed by greed. And this Demon… He cannot be persuaded by the likes of you to live.”

Lune stared up at the Giant, speechless.

Ymir had nought else to say. Neither did Axel. The two looked at each other. An understanding was reached.

“Sunrise. Make your preparations,” Ymir said simply. With that, the Giant stood up and walked away from the fire.

“What? No, Ymir, wait!” Lune protested, but the Giant did not stop. She turned to Axel. “Idiot! Why did you rile him up?! He’s not like this. I’ll talk to him—”

“Don’t bother. He understands what needs to be done,” Axel huffed. “You know, for a poisonous, sword-dancing princess, you are a lot more naive than I would have thought.”

“And for a self-proclaimed psychopath, you are a lot more delusional than you should be,” she snapped back, grabbing his shirt violently. “Why?”

He sighed. “You know why.”

She did, in a way. She was there when he killed her oldest brother. She saw him for what he really was, heard the wails that tore free from his mangled throat as he smashed his head repeatedly into the brains of a dead Prince.

It was not a sound a living person should make. It was not even a cry a dying animal could shape. 

“So that’s it, then?” she spat angrily. “You are just going to commit suicide by combat?”

“I mean, I’m still going to give it everything I got, but yeah,” Axel chuckled. He turned to face her fully, his pale eyes meeting her purple ones. “Thank you, by the way.”

“Don’t. If I knew this was the outcome, I would have saved myself the Gold Potion and just cut off your head when I found you,” Lune hissed, though her words felt more tired than furious.

“Not for that. You shouldn’t have saved my life, so I won’t thank you for it,” he said honestly, taking her aback. “I’m thanking you for being angry on my behalf.”

Because… To know someone cares for my life… even when I do not…

“It makes me happy. That there’s at least one person who will remember me fondly after I pass. It’s more than someone like could hope for,” he said sincerely. “Thank you, Lune.”

She looked away. Her grip on him shook, even as her shoulders slumped. “You actually mean that, don’t you?”

Axel said nothing. The Eldarin gave a shuddering sigh and let him go.

“Try to die well,” she mumbled, turning away. “I’ll bury your body afterwards. Even if I have to collect the pieces after.”

“Huh. So your people do burials for the departed, too?” he mused. “That’s so strange. Can you give me a gravestone as well? Write something nice for me: ‘Here lies Axel. He died as he lived: Yelling at things ten times bigger than him.’ ”

She choked out a laugh. “Even now… You really don’t care, do you?”

“Well, I care a little. Have to give the Giant a few scratches at least, or my Reaper won’t be too happy,” he shrugged. There was a pause, then he asked: “Hey, can you do me one last favour?”

~~~

Three hours passed. The Sun — false as it might be — rose on a new day.

Some part of Axel couldn’t believe that less than 24 hours had passed since he arrived in the Zone. The events of the day beggared belief.

Maybe it was all a dream. Maybe once the Giant crushed him to a pulp, he would wake up back in the bunk again.

He would probably tell his cadre all about it, if only to give them scant reason to laugh. They had lost more of their siblings in the last weeks, and the missions would not stop coming. He needed to keep morale up. There was only so much that violent spars and carnal pursuits could heal. 

Eventually, someone would break, and then the 76th would find another body hanging in the showers, or a corpse with a gun in their mouth and their brains splattered all over the armoury’s ceiling.

But until those days come, he needed to keep their darkness at bay. For another week. Another day. Another hour.

Until he was the only one left.

Axel stretched, his body feeling good and his mind refreshed from sleep. He walked up the large stretch of the ravine, where the bodies of the dead Fae remained.

The Giant was there, looking down at the mutilated Fae Dragon. Within his hands was the same giant iron pillar he had looted from the bugbear camp.

Axel could not imagine anything surviving a swing from that.

“I remembered a time when my kindred hunted the Dragons,” he murmured, voice carried by the wind. “Vicious predators that devoured great beasts and terrorised the mountains. We warred with their race, for a time. Then the System came. And now, most are dead or enslaved.”

The Giant chuckled. “I never thought I would see the day when I wished them returned to form, hunting my livestock. Terrible they may be, but there was an elegance to them — powerful roars as they soared under moonlight. And now, they shall never be beautiful again.”

Axel approached, stopping fifty metres from the Giant.

Ymir turned to face him. When he spoke, the wind echoed his words. “Were it for the rewards alone, I would not have accepted the task. However, I look upon you, and I see within you the Dragons of my homeland as they are now: a beast wearing a rabid mask, caged for slaughter. Tired of life, and begging for death.”

Axel took out a vial — a brew of foul liquid within — and drank it.

A sharp pain took him. His veins bulged, and the urge to vomit was almost overwhelming. Still, he held.

[Warning! Health below 20%!]

[Conditions met! ‘Last Stand’ activated]

[Stats increased! Endurance +12, Strength +8, Agility +8]

Lune did good work, as promised. The poison she made brought him just to the threshold of 20% Health, and no lower.

“Yet, even so, I would ask to see it: what lies behind the veil you so dearly wear; what words go unspoken within your heart.” The Giant’s piercing eyes were felt, even from so far away. “You, who willingly don the guise of a Demon to hide your true self.”

At his words, Axel frowned. “Are you calling me a fake?”

“To hide one’s face behind madness is the act of a coward,” Ymir accused. “You play the part of a Demon well, but I have heard the screams of your weeping soul as you murdered the Prince. That thing you cage behind your mask… I do not think it could be called a monster, but neither can I call it a person.”

There it was again — that spark of irritation within. Unbidden. Unwelcome.

“You preach too much,” Axel said bluntly, pulling out his golden halberd from his inventory. “Come and kill me already.”

“Even now, you wear this charade,” the Giant huffed. “It was only yesterday, when you thought yourself finally at the end, that you allowed that creature within to appear — to give voice to your sincerity after a lifetime of self-immolation. How tortured it was, hearing you scream your broken honesty.”

“Enough with the poetry,” the soldier snarled, patience lost. “Do you plan to bore me to death?”

“I plan to hear your sincerity once more, before I judge your worth,” the Giant declared, raising the iron pillar with one arm and pointing it in his direction. “If you will not give voice to your honesty and choose to remain a Demon… Then I will strike you down with everything I have; burn your corpse, such that nothing of you would ever rise again and threaten the worlds beyond.”

Those words… Does he know? That I can return from death?

Either way, hearing the Giant say those words…

… puts a smile on Axel’s face, wide and feral. “Good luck with that, you fucker.”

“To resist is your right. As is the choice to remain broken.” The Giant nodded. “Ymir, Great General of the Giants, accept this Duel.”

A weight settled in the ravine, a pressure that was decidedly otherworldly.

It demanded that the soldier name himself, as the Giant did.

“Axel Roukin…” The man was about to give a banal reply, but he hesitated. He then chose to speak of his old life, to honour his cadre one last time. “Harbinger of the 76th White-Haired Demons. I accept this Duel.”

[SYSTEM ACKNOWLEDGED.]

[SANCTIONED DUEL IS NOW OVERSEEN BY AN ADMIN]

[BROADCAST ONLINE]

[YOU MAY BEGIN]