Runaway Hero and the Armored City

It’s been one month since I began my journey to the edge of the world. One month since the Demon King proclaimed he would destroy us all. One month since I abandoned everything. Eleven months remaining.

At last I’ve reached a major city. I’ve finally reached the city nearest to the frontier, the Armored City Ironheart. When I lay eyes on the city, I see a sight I’ve only seen in schematics. The metal dome meant to protect the city has been raised. They must have raised it soon after the Demon King’s proclamation, hoping it could save them. It serves me poorly for their defenses to be high. I want to rest here a while, but I cannot let myself be seen. If I tried to enter from the gates, the guards would stop me and I would be forced back to the battlefield.

I walk up to the wall of the giant metal dome. I only feel the weak pulses of animals or bugs on the other side. I cannot feel anyone nearby. I teleport to the other side of the wall, entering the city unimpeded. The dome won’t stop the Demon King either.

I appear with my back against the metal dome, a small house in front of me. I make my way through deeper into the city, avoiding people as best as I can. The city is as I remember it. Although now that I stand within the dome, I understand why the buildings grow taller as you approach the center. The city is extremely uniform and orderly. The buildings are pressed close together, the heights they reach limited by the dome nobody had expected to one day see used. Although it is still bright, it feels as though the city has fallen into darkness. Powerful lights set along the dome point inward to the city, illuminating the streets, but it is no substitute for the sun.

As I walk down the road, I pass by a cafe. I stop and turn to look at it. After I saved Amelia on that battlefield, she had asked to become my companion. I brought her back to Ironheart to recuperate. The day after we arrived, she asked to treat me to something. She brought me to this cafe. That was the first time. The first time I went to a cafe. The first time I spent time with someone simply to spend time with them. The first time I made a memory I knew I couldn’t forget.

That memory is one of my most important. Not only with her, but in all my life. I begin to turn towards the door of the cafe. I take one step. But I can go no further. I am no longer the man who made those memories. I am no longer the Hero. There’s not a place for me anymore. Although it hurts me, I turn back onto the road and continue on. I cannot allow myself even the things I find most important. No matter how special it is, she won’t be there and I can’t stay there. The only thing left for me is the edge of the world. And I begin to wonder if that memory mattered this much to Amelia, or if it was just something completely ordinary to her.

We had spent a week in Ironheart while I awaited new orders. Now that I think about it, I’ve spent far more time in the city with her than without her. I would barely stop anywhere before her, because I never needed to. I only began to after she joined me. Now that I think about it, this entire city is full of my memories with her. This city is wrong now, because she isn’t here. A city full of shadow even as the bright lights banish them. Now that I think about it, I don’t want to rest here.

I make my way to the center of the city. I’ll decide which direction to depart from there. As I turn into the circular opening that all paths of the city eventually lead into, I see something entirely new. They’ve erected a large statue in the center of the circle. The statue is of a broad, ornately adorned sword. Each gem set in the hilt has been carefully carved out. It’s the very same sword I had planted into the ground to give my barrier longevity. A large crowd has gathered around the sword and a man standing at a lectern addresses them.

“—mourning him not only as the Hero, but also the fine man he was. The Hero Alan spent quite a bit of time in Ironheart, as I’m sure many of you know. He walked the streets not as a man far above us, but as a man among us. He spent his time in Ironheart as many of us did. He roamed. He shopped. He ate. If you saw him, I doubt many would assume him to be the Hero who would have saved us. But even then he was the Hero. Even when it meant little, he helped us. He helped so many of us. He’s an inspiration to all of us. We can all be kinder. We can all support each other. Even as we face the end, we should be kind. Let us face the end as the Hero had. In remembrance of the Hero Alan, I would like to open up the lectern and allow us to share our own stories of him. I’ll begin. I was just a struggling—”

I turn back the way I came. That was my memorial. That was my cenotaph. That was my grave. They’ve decided I am dead. And I suppose that the Hero Alan truly is dead. I suppose it’s right to mourn him, now that I am all that remains. I pass by the cafe again. And again I stop. I turn, entranced and yearning. I look inside the glass, barely seeing anything, and know that there’s not a single place left for me in this world.