Traitor

"Hahahahaha!"

Shiro regained consciousness to the sound of horrible laughter. A familiar voice of tumbling rock and bending steel.

"The fires of war! The relentless march of progress!"

Shrio's eyes shot open.

He was still in the intersection where the fight with the demons had taken place. However, there was no longer anyone around.

Instead, the roads were empty, the buildings were crushed to rubble and the city was burning with an unnatural, all consuming fire. Ignited sparks of thermite falling down from a red sky like crooked rain.

"Look at what is to come! What you could bring!.."

The abomination was standing in the center of the intersection, arms wide with its palms pointing to the sky.

The same evil silhouette of a man with no physical joints. Its limbs detached but still floating in where they should have been. Its skin was made of a black stone cage that bound around molten gold burning inside. The sparks of thermite collide with the fractures along the skin, growing the cracks in fireworks of hellish gold.

The three heads of see evil, hear evil and speak evil, spun quickly above its collarbone. Yelling to the world as it spoke to Shiro.

"Shiro! This is your destiny!"

"Revorgress! Screw you! You along with any destiny you speak of can crawl back into the hole from where you came!"

"Hahahahaha! As defiant as ever! And even after I sent you a welcome party!?"

Shiro tried to stand, but as he did, his collar stopped him. It was chained to the floor.

"Haha. Are you enjoying your life as a prisoner? Imagine how wonderful your life would be right now if you had joined the demons. You'd be rewarded for this flaming powder! Showered by women and wealth from the demon king. Instead your gut wrenches you around in guilt."

"I don't know why you're so happy. This is far from a nuclear weapon, so don't go acting like this is some victory. In fact, I bet you are only here, wasting my time because you're upset the demons didn't kidnap me."

"What makes you think you haven't been kidnapped? That you're not already being transported to the demon kingdom?"

"Because I can tell you're a sore loser. This twisted dream. It's just you trying to troll salt in wound "

The abomination turned around and began walking over to Shiro.

"Hahahaha! No, no, no. You're sorely mistaken, because there is no winning for you. Your will cracks and values bend to save those who chain you. So long as the demons exist, Vermilionne will be at war..."

The cobblestone around Shiro began to move. Revorgress was using the rubble to make another a miniature landscape formed around Shiro.

Shiro instantly spat on the rubble play.

"Spare me the theatrics."

"Where's the fun in that? You can't hold out long enough till one of the heroes gets strong enough to defeat the Demon King. Not without bending more virtues. Not without throwing your values into the furnace of war machines. Today it's thermite. What comes tomorrow?"

"Begone demon. I'm tired of listening to your rambling."

"Rest as long as you need. The clock ticks forward regardless. Whether or not Vermilionne survive to see your warheads is entirely up to you. Hahahahaha!"

Shiro closed his eyes to the sound of Revorgress' laughing, ignoring it as he tried to wake up for real. As he lay on the floor, pain began to encase his body.

He kept his eyes closed as he tried to fight through it. It kept growing with each moment, until eventually eyes opened once again.

The pain was still present but Shiro now found himself in a bed in an unfamiliar room.

"...bastard."

"Good to see you too."

Shiro turned his head towards Azura's voice. She was still next to the bed. Flagged spear resting against her shoulder, ready to be grabbed at a moment's notice.

In her lap sat the light rail cannon. Or what remained of it in its broken glory. Bent from the electromagnetic forces. Burnt from the exothermic reaction.

"Sorry about that. I was having a bad dream."

"I heard. You spoke in your sleep."

Not good! What did I say!? What did she hear??

"Ummm..."

"We wiped out the demons. None of them escaped but weren't able to capture any alive for interrogation."

"Well I guess that's good then. How's Geraltavin and Johnaquil? I lost sight of them when I got kicked into that shop for a second time."

"They're both fine. Johnaquil was mostly unharmed. He was able to pull Geraltavin to safety in the chaos of the battle. Geraltavin spent a few days in the infirmary and is now back to work."

"Spent? Like past tense? How long was I out?"

"Just over a week"

"A week!"

"You lost a lot of blood and sustained significant bludgeoning damage."

I lost a whole week of time. More than seven days gone

"How many days exactly?"

"They attacked in the morning nine days ago."

Nine days, so that means there's 66 days left

"We also lost a number of Knights and there were a few civilian casualties as well. Gris is on a tight line for his failure. Allowing a demon raid of this size to sneak inside the city."

People died... this is war, it's to be expected. Still though, I was too focused on time and I completely forgot the grim reality of it.

"I see. Sorry to hear."

"It could have been worse. You gathering them in one place helped with their extermination."

"Yeah. I don't know if Geraltavin told you, but they were after me."

"He did. Not only that, but the initial attack was located at the meeting that you were supposed to attend that day."

"Wait? How would they know?"

"The only people who know your schedule is the king's court... It stands to reason that there is a traitor among us. Though, I still think it's you."

"Me? I get why but I don't even know my own seclude."

Azura glared at him.

"I have some questions for you. And you will answer them."