A SECRET

Langris pov

I sat languidly In an open wide open plain not far from the city gates, I felt like I had just taken a walk through hell. Wounds were strewn all over my body I didn't need a doctor to tell me more than a few things were broken but the cincher was in my chest right beside my heart was an obvious sword wound a gap that had obviously been expertly made, it tore through my ribs leaving a gap that stretched all the way through my back, it hurt like the devils kiss and every second I spent looking at it elicited waves of nausea large enough to drown in, but I didn't, I didn't hurl and I didn't vomit because right next to me was an even better representation of gore

'Eron'

I said in a whimpering voice,

".......whaaaat"

he replied his voice laced with nonchalance and annoyance, the White haired man was laying on his side his surface injuries didn't look serious, he was lacking any of the cuts and bruises that served as evidence to how much abuse I had inflicted but in exchange he had a massive hole in the center of his chest, one that covered a decent chunk of where his heart was supposed to be yet he looked unbothered, laying in his side with his eyes closed he looked to be almost sleeping, as if that life or death battle had never happened, as if he wasn't dieing.

'why, why did you do that'

he opened one eye before saying

"probably because I didn't want to live with the sight of your pathetic figure as you died"

he then scoffed

"yep that would have been dreadful"

tears had begun well up in my eyes before I said

'yeah, that sounds pretty bad'

we stayed like that for a while in perfect silence, an Arcanum user can last for about thirty minutes without a heart, the best way to kill one would be beheading as they can even power through multiple organ failure. Yet, as I watched him die, as I saw the life drain from the face that showed no signs of discomfort or his body that grew paler and paler every passing minute, I began reminiscing, the first time we met when our fathers introduced us proclaiming that we were now brothers, the day when all the other kids we had trained with started picking on me because I was younger only he stood up for me, only he was always by my side, when we were beaten to near death or when it seemed like the world wanted to collapse around me I would always look up and see one person holding it all back, one person who would always keep me safe.

It hadn't even been five minutes, I could easily tell yet my hand were already reaching for him white light surrounding them, a healing spell one I had hoped to apply stealthily when it was caught in his. Angry veins streamed across it and his face as he turned to face me, he then opened his eyes the deep blue in them hidden by blood and pain

"what do you think you're doing"

he said, what was I doing?, my hands were stretched out towards a dying man his blood was running quite freely now as if he couldn't properly control the blockage the pain he was in should have been unimaginable, yet it was I who was crying.

I looked at him for a bit tears in my eyes before I started bawling like a child

'I don't want you to die I really don't big brother'

I continued to scream this for far a few seconds while he watched his face passive before he said

"stop...stop crying Don Langris"

and with that I stopped. looking at him with full shock

"this wasn't a battle between friends or brothers this was a battle between Don's and their respective cities, even if it pains you even if it threatens to rip you apart you cannot heal me and you cannot regret killing me...you are a Don, the proudest most powerful being on this earth your decisions are final and absolute and you bear no regrets you do not admit your wrongs instead you make them right the same goes for your flaws, only in death can you stew on them, like I'm doing right now"

he then let out a chuckle one that didn't seem the least bit forced

"I'm a failure, a huge one. I left the order in order to be my own man, to forget about that bastard and his fight. I always knew you'd come after me but I never expected you'd go for my city as well, I never even realised how much that place meant to me, not until I could see it fall"

I had wiped my tears by this point and committed myself to memorising everything he said, these were the final moments of a great man, a Don and even if we were enemies they deserved to be recorded

"yet still, if I had just one regret it's that I never got to see her"

he said with a sombre tone before turning to me

"Langris Annabel is alive"

his words filled me with such shock i threatened to double over but I stood firm instead choosing to ask

'what do you mean'

he smiled a bit before saying

"I mean what I'm saying, our sister is alive"

'but that's impossible its been 13 years'

he looked up towards the fading light in the sky before saying

"yet its true, she survived all those years ago, she managed to live"

I had a thousand and one questions, a million things to say but instead I settled for

'tell me'

to which he obliged

"years ago when Greblin took her to the haunted Isles to be blooded he purposefully left her there"

'but that's impossible he's her father, even he couldn't have done that, he loved her, right?'

it was a saying Anna was very fond of (daddy loves me) even though there was overwhelming evidence to the contrary

Eron scowled before saying

"Anna loved her father, her father saw her as useful at best, I can't even begin to fathom why he did what he did but he left his 10 years old daughter to die and he didn't look back"

'how do you know this'

he smiled and said

"I used to listen in on them remember, I caught the Principality in an argument, your father was really pissed off at Greblin but he was unbothered, I stewed on the little bits and pieces I has heard for months before I had the balls to confirm it with my father, he didn't say much but I knew enough to come to the truth, it was then that I realised that they didn't love us, they simply saw us as a means to an end, an end which was unlikely to be pleasant. I spent years wondering of I should tell the others but most of them were already obsessed, obsessed with the thought of being the champions of humanity, with being its greats its leaders, not even knowing that they didn't even have a chance."

I sat in front of him with my head dropped as I asked

'Langris, where is Anna'

he turned and smilled before saying

"I'll tell you, but only if you promise to do something for me"

I looked upbat hik with resolve

'I swear on my name as the first Don of Trident'

he smilled even brighter before saying

"good, never forget your position, no matter what happens, place that city first"

'I always will'

I replied

"Anna is in the kingdom of Danliv right next to the center of the continent"

I knew of Danliv a country that had gotten rich off of trade with the the Balck empire 200 years ago but when it fell so did their economy, they've been in a slump ever since

"and as for what I want you to do, I need you to go to your father and ask him to let you use his trans-dimensional distance mirror so that you can look at the face of our enemy"

and with that he stopped speaking, he stopped breathing, he even stopped looking his eyes were open but there was no light in them but on his face was a beautiful smile, like he had finally done what he was born to do amd found peace through it, he was dead.