The Reveal (2) - 76

Well, not exactly a prince, but that was their official title due to the intricacies of the court system that the elves used, with half of the power being held by the royal family and half of the power residing in the hands of the "Tribunal", a group of 12 elves that had been elected to represent the sub race of elf that they were from.

Anyways, I really didn't need to go in depth into all this yet, as we had more pressing matters at hand.

After all, the next competition was starting, and we, meaning the transmigrators from Esgardia, would all be screwed if we messed this up.

...

Ten Years Later:

Standing on the ramparts of a tall wall the height of half the Burj Khalifa, I looked out at the horizon, taking in the landscape of this world for the last time.

I looked at the desolate ground made of broken bodies, the sacrifices that I had made to bring myself this far.

I watched as the smoke from hundreds of small fires all wafted up into the reddish brown atmosphere, the sun barely being able to shine through the clouds as everything was turned red under its pale light.

I took in a deep breath of the smell of burning flesh, perking my ears up, but being disappointed as nothing could have survived the slaughter, and nothing could be attracted to such a heavy presence of death.

There was only a heavy silence, as the atmosphere dictated a solemn mourning.

You see, I had just sacrificed more than a million lives to bring a decisive victory to the Federation, allowing it to completely destroy its opponents, leaving it as the last human stronghold on this planet.

This had been the final test, and I had passed spectacularly, reducing the amount of deaths to 50% less than the expected amount.

I would probably go down in the history of this world as a hero, if only this world wasn't just a novel.

"Ashen, it's time to go."

Hearing someone call me a name, one that I hadn't heard in a decade, I turned around to find Ms. Krenshaw there, beckoning me to follow her to where Arwyn stood.

After all, we had completed all our tasks, it was now time to go.

With my hands clasped tightly behind my back, I walked forward whilst swiveling my head around, looking at the dreary scenery of this accursed world for the last time.

Who would have thought that, after all these years, I would get used to all of it by now.

Honestly, it had become a second home to me, and I would miss it once we got back.

I mean, it was this place that had forged me into what I was today, the sharpest mind in the whole world.

I had even been gifted the AI chip by the Minders, but, it had been destroyed just a little while ago, as I used all of its abilities when commanding that army, causing the chip to overflow and lose all control of itself, forcibly shutting itself down.

Sigh... I missed having a voice in my head, her voice...

'I wonder... no, with all her good deeds, she should have been reincarnated with a good life by now.'

But, with her gone, this world had no hope left.

She had been the one that had built it all back up in the novels after all.

As for the MC, her supposed lover, who had never fallen in love this time around, well, he had been killed by me a little while ago, back when we were still at the facility playing mental games with all the other kids.

Remembering their faces, I couldn't help but shudder, as images of their disfigured corpses kept flashing over the happy images of them smiling in my head.

And it was I that had caused all of that.

"Sigh..."

Sighing once more, I finally pushed all these thoughts to the back of my mind, as Ms. Krenshaw and I arrived in front of Arwyn.

This time, instead of reflecting over what had happened in this world, I looked at ourselves, the last three survivors from the facility, the ones that had won the war for the Federation, the ones that had put this world on a path of destruction, where there was no hope to return from.

First was Ms. Krenshaw. The body that she had possessed was now that of a full grown adult, but that wasn't the biggest change in her.

No, the biggest change was the fact that she was no longer an optimistic person.

Before, she would have always looked at the bright side of things, always putting her students first, shown by the fact that she wouldn't let me go into the black portal all by myself.

But now, she carried around a gray gaze wherever she went, most of her happiness lost, as she pondered the evils of humanity, all from the countless scenes that she had witnessed here for the first time, scarring her beautiful mind.

As for Arwyn, well, he wasn't the naive Crown Prince that he once was.

Rather than his possessed body, which had stayed about the same height since we first arrived here, it was his mental state that had transformed the most.

It was the weight of his sins that had molded him into the dispirited person that he was today.

Actually, all of us carried a hint of solitude with us, stemming from the fact that we had each killed thousands, if not millions of people with our individual schemes and parts in each other's schemes.

But, we had always stuck together, putting our full trust in each other, and that had been what had gotten us through.

Yet, we were missing one person that had been in our group.

Remembering her face brought pain to all of us, as she had sacrificed her life to give us the opportunity to continue in this damned game.

If only she had been able to see the end with us...

Shaking my head, dispelling all thoughts of her from my mind, I lastly took a look at myself.

I already knew for certain that I wouldn't be able to keep my relationships once I returned.

There was just too much darkness from the weight of my sins and the blood of the ones I killed hanging around me that it would affect anyone that stood close to me.

I didn't want all my friends to become like the three of us.

Even though they were a distant memory by now, after having experienced all that I had been through, looking back, I realized that they had all been friends to me, even more so for Elvira.

But, there was no use thinking about them now, after all, I would likely meet all of them in just a little while, if the system didn't throw me any more curveballs that is.

Anyways, the other two were fine standing next to me, but that was because they had similar veils over themselves.

Oh yeah, there was also the ten years that we had just spent fighting with our nails and teeth every day, just to get to this moment. Yep, that was definitely another major contributor to the dark veil.

Chuckling a little at my own degraded sense of humor, I caused the others to look at me a little weirdly.

After all, to sum it all up, all the changes in myself, I could speak just one phrase.

"I'm tired."

I was just tired of being tired.

Sick and tired of being sick and tired.

I didn't care anymore and let out a crazed laughter that rang across the silent battlefield, disappearing as soon as I stopped, fading into the abyssal silence.

"One last toast before we go?" Asked Arwyn, obviously worrying about my mental state.

We both nodded, and so he proceeded.

"To Bella."

"..."

Both Ms. Krenshaw and I pondered in silence for a second.

"To Bella." We both said at the same time, our voices lower than a whisper, each of us, including Arwyn, thinking about their own experiences with her.

And then, we all simultaneously blacked out.

---

A depressing chapter, but I had to somehow cram all the emotions that would have been put in 20-40 chapters all in one chapter, so, it's expected.

Anyways, this was my best writing in a while, probably my best chapter in the past two months. I'm proud of it, and I truly believe that my decision to cut this arc was correct as to bring y'all better quality in the next arcs.

Just hope y'all can understand.