He's Gone

Burt saw Inian fly off into the distance after wiping out those remaining monsters. Tears streaked down his face as he was left all alone.

"No...Inian...please." He said between quiet sobs. He knew that Inian was truly gone this time, and there's no getting him back.

He sniffled and wiped his nose before heading back to the vehicle.

The vehicle was in poor condition after enduring the aftereffects of the battle. The passenger side door fell off, and several holes spotted the top of the vehicle.

He started it up, and it sputtered to life. Burt sighed as he drove away from High Rock. There was destruction everywhere he looked. Piles of automatons were scrapped across the battlefield, and many craters were formed on the ground. Scorched earth paved the way for Burt to head back home.

Corpses of monsters littered the field, some disintegrated, and some remained, depending on the beast.

Burt stopped the vehicle and grabbed a few high-tier monster cores before heading back. They were extremely rare, and he just grabbed almost a dozen.

They had defeated two behemoth level monsters, but sadly those monsters didn't leave behind any cores.

Worse yet, Inian left in his kingly form, and Burt knew in his gut that he wasn't going to come back.

"AAAHHH!!" Burt screamed as he kicked and punched the dashboard of the vehicle. His frustration and emotion were being let loose all at once.

"You're so stupid, Inian! We wanted you to fight but not let your evil side get the better of you! I hate it! I hate you for leaving Janae! For leaving me! For leaving your child!"

He began sobbing again. "He didn't even know... I should've told him..."

Burt was filled with regret from not telling Inian about his child. His drive was quiet and empty.

He passed through the broken pass and entered the monster lands.

It was strangely empty in the monster lands, he would only ever see low-tier monsters every once in a while, and no creature stronger than that.

He drove through Ranid once he was close enough, as the fighting had died down. The Trostan Kingdom stopped its assault on Ranid and withdrew its forces from most of Ranid. They still had some troops occupying the Northern part of Ranid, however.

After a couple of days more, he finally made his way into Irigia. Preah was still a little bit of a drive as it was in the Southern part of Irigia, but Burt felt much more comfortable once he was back in his home country.

He saw Irigia's mechas walking around and waved to any pilots he could see. They waved back, recognizing Burt's now-familiar face.

When Burt got closer to Preah, his stomach churned when he realized what he would have to tell the Queen and Janae.

Soon the outskirts of Preah was in his vision, with the gigantic mechas patrolling the outside of it.

He drove into the garage on the edge of the city where he initially got the vehicle, "whoa Burt! Did you drive it through rock city or what? This thing's taken a huge beating!"

"Yeah...sorry."

The man was only joking, but stopped when he noticed Burt's somber expression, "the Queen wanted me to tell you to see her in the castle once you arrived."

Burt nodded his thanks and slowly made his walk towards the castle. Citizens were laughing in the streets and building their machines. Burt looked around at the people living their normal lives, 'they don't even know what kind of danger was out there...'

Soon he made his way to the castle where the Queen was sitting on her 'thinking chair' in the meeting room.

"Your majesty..." Burt began as he walked into the room.

The Queen smiled but stopped after seeing Burt's expression, "what happened?"

Burt proceeded to explain everything that happened, from the automatons to fighting the behemoth level monsters to Inian transforming and flying away in the air.

The Queen sighed a heavy breath, "this is not a good situation. Inian was the only one with the power to kill those monsters. He'll be an incredible threat to humankind."

Burt shook his head, "he talked about going after monsters. I think humans will be safe, for a while at least."

The Queen nodded, "how should we tell Janae?"

Burt shrugged, "I don't want to be the one to tell her that the father of her child is now a rampaging monster capable of destroying the whole world if he made a move right now."

The Queen said, "fine; I'll be the one to tell her."

"Thank you; I've felt enough pain for now."

Burt left with that and made his way back to his home.

The Queen grabbed her cloak and covered herself up, walking towards where Janae lived. She knocked on Janae's door, and it was opened up.

"Your majesty! Any news yet?!" Janae asked excitedly. Her baby bump was growing, and it was more prominent now.

The Queen shed a tear, "Janae...he's gone."