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My name is Razan Hamada, I’m a schoolteacher, and today is just like any other. I got up from my room to the smell of breakfast. I had a really strange dream, and all, you see, I had a weird dream that I was fighting a Goddess.

Now, is that ever ridiculous or not? Though I couldn’t exactly remember what happened at the end.

Then I saw the time.

Shit!

I had half an hour to get ready if I wanted to be at school for a decent time. I got up and got dressed in a hurry, and ran out the door to find Grace herself. She was making a fairly simple breakfast omelet for me and her.

She wore a nice apron over her pajamas as she put both of our plates on the table.

“Good morning.” She greeted me with a smile, despite no longer having demi-human features; I could still make out that face of hers.

“Smells good, thanks for the meal, I’ll cook for tonight,” I promised.

Let’s dig in.

We ate breakfast, breakfast was pleasant, a serene silence broken up by the occasional noises of cars driving nearby. I was home; it was no doubt my hometown. The nearby television played of the election cycle, a woman named Elowyn Arclaneia was running, she gave a fiery speech about improving the economy.

I’m not so sure why she tried. After all, everything was perfect enough as is.

After eating, I brushed my teeth and combed my hair before hurrying out the door. I didn’t even have a proper lunch, but I usually bought food anyway from a nearby vendor.

As I made my way to school, it seemed some of the early morning clubs were active. Suddenly, Tetsuo walked past me, his uniform was neatly buttoned, and he even looked rather well put together.

Something felt off.

Morning, sensei!” Tetsuo called out for me with a wave and happily made his way into the building.

Everything was fine now.

My classes went by, and everyone was smiling. My students were attentive as usual and seemed thoroughly engaged by the material we were covering.

“Ok, class. Be sure to read the next two chapters at home, and give a five-page report on what happens and your own thoughts and ideas as to the text.” I closed the novel we were discussing.

With that, the students stood up and poured out of my class one by one.

Yet I still felt as if things were off; that dream felt just a bit surreal. I suppose I needed to get some air; the school roof was usually off limits. But today I figured I could abuse my authority as a teacher to get some privacy.

I made my way through the hallways, greeted my fellow teachers. I then noticed a suspicious-looking student in the far corner. I knew who he was.

Ryu Nakamura, the troublemaker and class clown, yet I felt a strange hatred for him. An unusual feeling that, like before, welled up inside of me, his eyes stared into me as if he knew more than he let on.

I shook myself out of my thoughts and went for the stairs. I could theorize about the activities of my students later; for now, what mattered the most was getting to the rooftop.

Finally, after crossing a few more flights of stairs, the double doors leading to the roof stood before me. I fumbled for the key and eventually managed to unlock it. The school roof was pleasantly empty, with a few old benches that looked creaky.

I’m not so sure why the school closed this place off anyway; it was the ultimate place to relax if you were a teacher.

That woman, Elowyn, Tetsuo, and Ryu all seemed uncanny to me, even Grace. The person I loved more than anything else in the world seemed so foreign and distant. As if they had been replaced with impostors.

Finally, I heard the doors open behind me.

I turned, expecting to see another teacher, but it was, instead, Ryu. He walked by me before suddenly shifting into a man wearing grey armor.

He seemed like a character from those fantasy stories my students read.

“Razan, are you enjoying this life?” Ryu spoke, as if addressing this not to me on a surface level, but on a spiritual. “Didn’t you vow to keep moving on?”

I didn’t understand what he was saying.

“What do you mean? Of course, I enjoy this life, and of course, I’m moving forward. Besides, students aren’t allowed up here; you should go.” I dismissed him, yet it felt like I was also dismissing a part of myself.

“Razan Hamada, giving up in despair, choosing to retreat to an existence most comfortable.” In his hands held a sword and shield. Both had strange indents in them that seemed a bit odd for a sword and shield to have. Perhaps they were decorative?

The shield, on closer inspection, even had the school logo on it.

“These were yours, before you gave up who you were.”

He held them out to me.

“We never got to have our duel, Razan Hamada. Perhaps in another life, but I want to do at least one good thing before I go to hell.” Ryu spoke.

I touched the sword and shield, and a surge of memories of the man I once was hit me at once. The world I was in, now comforting, felt alien to me.

“Ryu? But you’re dead. I killed you.” I looked at him in shock and awe.

“I’m not exactly the real Ryu, or the one you knew. I’m just a figment of Ryu, one from the source of your mind. But in the end, I act close enough to the real deal.”

I’m living in a fantasy, I remember now.

I chose this.

I wanted to live peacefully, with my friends and family, a normal life.

One where I wasn’t burdened with this sword and shield.

“I refuse to take it, I cannot. I cannot destroy the Goddess. Besides, it is too late for me to fight her again, and even if I did. I’d lose.”

I couldn’t. I failed.

“As long as you have your friends, you can do anything. You got one waiting for you.” Ryu began. “You just have to find her.”

One friend.

I knew exactly what he meant.

I took the sword and shield reluctantly.

“When you are ready, hold the shield up high and absorb the very universe itself. When you are truly back, you should find things to be much different from your fight with the Goddess.”

With that, Ryu faded away, his job done; he could finally rest in peace.

I silently and quickly left the school; the words Ryu left me with were festering in my mind. I still wasn’t entirely sure about this; I might even just toss the sword and shield in the river later.

But I needed to talk to her, if anything. I needed to get her opinion.

I stood before my home, or now, our home. As expected, Grace was inside.

“You’re home early?” She looked at me, puzzled, her gaze turned to my shield.

“Touch this, please.” I pleaded with her. I needed to at least see if she was real, or if she was just another illusion like Ryu was.

I could see the familiarity in her eyes; her touch seemed to make her tense, as if she had remembered several unpleasant memories.

“Razan, is this?” She didn’t even have to ask.

“Yes, I have the sword and shield. Ryu gave it to me. I’m still not so sure what to do. If I go back, nothing is stopping us from losing again. If I win as well and destroy the connector. It means losing you.” I didn’t want that. Nobody did, but if I continued down this path, I would have nobody.

“You will still have those back home.” Grace looked at me, determined. “I got to spend all these wonderful years with you, Razan. I will cherish them no matter what, but you and I both know what has to be done.”

She was right, I couldn’t stand there and wallow in misery because I failed. Because I was too scared to lose Grace. If destroying the connector meant saving countless lives, and avenging many more. I suppose it was a small price to pay.

“You’re right, Grace. I did spend a lot of time with you, and I enjoyed it. Even if I have to say goodbye to you in the end.”

I saw my shield begin to glow at those words, a new determination filled through me, one I had never felt before.

I raised my shield to the sky and wished for the world to be absorbed into me.

Grace would likely find herself home after this, at the base of the tower, alone. Fulfilling the prophecy of only one standing.

Her.

“Razan.” Grace began as the world began to fade.

“I’ll regret this if I don’t say this, Grace, but I love you.”

Grace nodded in response. “I love you as well, Razan. Maybe we’ll meet again wherever our souls will go once we die.”

With that, I smiled. I suppose it could just be a goodbye for now.

The world turned black.

Yet I was entirely different; I felt calmer, peaceful. I didn’t feel alive, nor did I feel like I was dead. I was a perfect balance between the two.

It’s time for the Goddess who gave death to many innocent people to feel exactly what she has given.