Thirty Six – A fog of arrogance.

This is my stupidest decision.

I am at the main entrance of their base.

Right out front.

I took off my helmet and decided to turn myself in.

If Olvad really wants to face me…

This is the easiest way to get to him.

The front door.

The guards are very suspicious.

I would be too.

They do not know if it is an ambush.

Or if I am a completely crazy person.

Maybe both.

I do not know if one person can count as an ambush.

After talking on their communication devices, I am invited inside.

My plan worked.

So far.

I am escorted to the room where Olvad was.

Everyone is tense.

But also...

Everyone looks tired and afraid.

They are people too.

Even if we are on opposite sides.

I can not help but feel pity.

They also have feelings, doubts, desires.

But that is why these people will understand why I am here.

If I have survived, they can survive too.

Olvad greets me with surprise and a big smile.

I hate that smile.

He is the only person smiling.

This is the time for it.

He orders everyone else to leave the room.

Now, it is just the two of us.

"You finally understand how I feel. You know that our fight will be the best part of this confrontation. It is inevitable. We are going to have a lot of fun."

"I am not here to have fun. I am here to end this whole war."

"War? I do not care about this war. I never did. Nothing ever mattered to me. Until you showed up."

"You are making so many people and you do not care about anything?"

“No.”

I draw my knife from my back.

I run to him.

My legs still ache.

I am stronger than the pain.

He blocks me with his hands.

He is wearing metal armor beneath the Council robes.

I attack again.

I am searching for a blind spot.

I am searching for a gap in his defense.

He blocks every blow.

Nothing makes him break.

What?

He grabs my knife. He breaks it his hand.

I let my guard down.

He raises his leg and kicks me.

I fly across the room.

I hit the wall.

"Where is your strength, boy? You made it this far. You are stronger than this. Where is the one who nearly killed me inside the desert fortress?"

“My strength comes from the people around me. On helping one another. From unity.”

"It is utter nonsense. Strength comes from within. The more people you defeat, the stronger you become. People respect only power. Gather all the power. Through money, through knowledge, through the destruction of others. In the end, only the strongest survive."

"Are you sure you will survived? You call this, surviving?”

“Yes.”

"What about other people? What is the point in surviving on the expense of other people? What is the point of being alone on the top?"

"I do not know. Or rather, I did not know. I did not know what drove everyone around me to live. I never understood passion. I did what I was told. I did what was right. I sought that feeling everyone talked so much. I created the best things. All of it. Trash. People care too much about trash. I kept creating. I kept searching for something to feel. Everyone else had found it. Why could I not find it? Why does this pile of trash I create make other people happy? I tried to create to feel something. I felt nothing. I feel nothing. Everyone else was overjoyed with it. Those emotions should be mine. They stole my emotions from me. This are my creations. Yet they cannot satisfy me."

"You are a disgusting human being. That is why you feel nothing." I get up off the ground.

"No. That is not it. After our fleeting encounter in the desert, I finally understood everything. I felt the emotion I had been searching for a long time. You made me feel fear. The adrenaline of not knowing. I did not know if I would make it out of that explosion alive. A doubt about whether I would actually survive. Beautiful! A problem I could not solve. That is what I have been seeking all this time. You! You made me feel something new. You are the problem I can not solve. You showed me the true meaning of being alive: the fear of the unknown. The fear that everything comes to an end eventually. And I want you to end me. No matter the cost."

"You are sick!"

"No. Quite the opposite. Before, I felt like an outcast. Something was missing inside me. But after I met you, all my problems vanished. I only see you. I only want you. I do not care about the Council, the capital, the war, or anything else. Never did. Now I have something that matters to me. You! You made me whole. You are my great savior."

"Then stop all this. If you care about me that much... Stop this war. Right now. Surrender. Do the wise thing. Many lives can still be spared."

"No. I do not care about anything else anymore. I just want to fight you. You should feel the same way. Why do you not understand? Why do you not see that I found out the only right path? You have to understand. I will make you understand."

Olvad walks over to a control panel.

I attack him.

He blocks me and throws me back again.

"You do not understand. Fight with all your strength. Do not hold anything back. Once you discover the truth, you will attain the true strength. You will find the truth."

He inputs a few commands.

"There. It is done. There is no stopping now."

"What have you done?"

"This will be indeed the final battle. You wanted me to end the war. I want you to give it your all. I am going to make you understand. I am going to make everyone understand. I have activated my final creation. The entire Capital is going to explode. I will make everyone feel this good."

"What?"

"This began when I was tasked with finding a way to resolve the mess Karlos had caused. I had to find a way to end the magical distortion over the city. The device he stole was incomplete. A wild creation. He tried to use technology he did not understand. It was that arrogance I have always seen in people. I had to find a solution to a problem that was not mine. But I always did what was asked of me. So I set to work. I started researching. I found a solution after out encounter in the desert. In my opinion: the best solution."

“Explode the whole city? That is your solution?”

"No. That was your solution. After our meeting, I finally understood everything. I had found the final variable in the equation. The explosion of magic reactor released a massive amount of energy in a very short time. It was exactly what I needed to reverse the distortion. But I would have to do it on a much larger scale. It has been eight years. Two thousand nine hundred and twenty-two days of this energy anomaly consuming all the water around the Capital. To reverse this amount of time, I need an equivalent amount of energy. To keep the balance. And to achieve that, unfortunately, the entire city will be within the blast radius."

“I am going to stop you! We will find another solution. One that does not kill everyone.”

"There might even be another solution. But this is the most suitable one. Just as you showed me the true meaning of life that day, I want to show other people too. I want everyone to feel the happiness I felt at that moment."