Reno intended to sacrifice himself. It was written plainly across his face.
Soon, as he raised his head, he met his wife's gaze.
She was wounded, crushed, frightened, and terrified. He himself wondered whether it was truly worth it if it meant seeing her like this.
Maybe the heavy price was his death after all. He had never considered it because Armes had told him that he would defeat him.
Well then, perhaps he had been speaking in the plural and intended to leave the rest to Rita. He knew she was capable of it.
After all, Armes had said so...
Reno was leaving behind an easy life. Honestly, he regretted nothing. Even if giving up the throne for his children still stung from time to time, he was happy to have spent so much time with them. Not for anything in the world—not even as the Ogre of Nozras—would he trade places with someone else.
This life of blood, combat, and endless battles was finally coming to an end.
He had lived well. He thought he could finally rest...
Rita watched her husband shine even brighter than before in front of the force field, which now seemed to contain an infinite amount of energy. Orubos could no longer even be seen inside, but it was obvious that he had finished his dance, and therefore his process, and therefore his spell.
This was it. Reno was going to leave.
Leaving her alone with their children.
It was the most horrible thing she had imagined during her journey.
It was the end of the beautiful journey he had given her. The end of all those wonderful moments spent with him. The end of warm family gatherings spent debating whether Reno was stronger than Nozras...
Her liberator, her savior, and her husband. The person she loved most in the world. The man who had freed her from a life of slavery. From a life destined to be chained by her name.
That great man she loved...
was simply leaving like this...
No.
She could not accept it.
Her legs moved on their own, and she ran toward her husband.
The idiot did not even know whether the attack was a beam attack or an area attack. He did not even know that Azraël had said he missed him terribly on his birthday. He did not even know that during his absence, Azraüs had never stopped saying that he wanted to be like his father one day. He did not even know...
He did not know how much she loved him...
She had said it tens of thousands of times, but it was never enough. It had never been enough.
He deserved a million "I love yous"...
A billion if necessary.
As many as she could give him...
He deserved to watch his sons grow up.
He deserved to become king once more.
Or simply...
She could not bear to see him leave.
Rita ran. She ran as fast as she could. She ran with tears in her eyes. She ran with her head lowered, thinking of everything she wanted to tell him. She ran thinking of everything they could have done, everything she should have said, everything she wanted to do, everything she had loved about him.
She ran wanting to tell him how much she loved him.
More than a thousand times, no, a million times all the love in the world.
More than the span of the sky.
More than the number of stars.
More than herself.
More than anything.
She ran with a heavy heart and heavy legs.
She was injured everywhere. Her legs hurt, and her arms barely supported her anymore. During the battle, a sharp piece of debris had struck her face, leaving a terrible wound across it.
But she did not care.
She truly did not care.
She was going to reach her husband...
The area lit up even more.
Reno thought back on his entire life and his family.
How everyone had said he was strong and would surely become the next Nozras when he was a child.
How he crushed every enemy who came to his village even when he was still missing two teeth.
How incredible his meeting with Rita had been. One of the most beautiful moments of his life.
How amazing their journey together had been.
How memorable his first arrival in the capital had been.
How good it had felt to sit upon the throne.
How painful it had been to leave the capital to stay with Rita, yet how wonderful it was to see her alive.
How happy the birth of Azraël had made him.
How the birth of Azraüs had filled his heart with joy.
How exciting his return to the capital had been.
How wonderful every later visit with Rita had been...
He thought about Rita as well. About how beautiful she was. Without a doubt, the most beautiful woman in the world. Without a doubt, the bravest, the most valiant, and the strongest. Without a doubt, the only one who could defeat him.
He had found a rare treasure he never wanted to lose. He regretted the days when he had not told her a simple "I love you" one more time. He regretted the days he had stayed in the capital without her. He regretted never being able to see her beautiful face again.
"I thought I had no regrets."
he said with a nervous, false smile.
But suddenly, he felt a small body crash into his own.
Reno was startled and fell to the side. Had Orubos tricked him? No, it was not the magician.
It was Rita...
"No!"
A look of horror spread across the Ogre's face.
Rita gently pushed him aside, a faint smile on her face even as tears streamed down her cheeks.
Her beautiful face..
Reno had the chance to see it one last time. But this was not how he wanted it.
"NO!"
Reno tried to get up as fast as he could, but at the last moment, when he reached out to pull Rita toward him, he heard a voice coming from the illuminated zone.
"Final Light."
In a fraction of a second, a pale white beam burst out from the glowing area.
Rita stood directly in the path of the gigantic beam.
The ray struck her from the side, completely disintegrating her on impact.
Time seemed to slow, and Reno heard the final words of his beloved as his face completely fell apart.
"I love you, Reno."
Then, an instant later, her body dissolved into the beam. Nothing remained. The power of the ray utterly devastated everything in its path. Nothing was left behind—not the walls, not the trees, not the people...
Everything touched by the beam was exterminated.
And then the beam vanished as though it had never existed.
Reno remained there, sitting. His hand still stretched toward the place where Rita had been. His gaze was empty, terrified of truly understanding what had just happened.
The heavy price...
Rita had been the heavy price...
His heart no longer beat.
Completely frozen, he searched for an escape, a trace of her, a sound, a thought, a word—anything that could prove he was dreaming.
But nothing appeared...
Nothing except the sound of the wind.
Heavy...
Heavier than ever before.
Orubos appeared as the light faded. He emerged beside him in a silent mass of black bubbles.
"O warrior, from the very beginning, I was aiming for your wife. That spell was never meant to be countered, no matter what you did."
He looked at Reno, frozen as though time itself had stopped for him.
Then he spoke in a dark, slightly saddened tone, as if he regretted his actions.
"At the end of a performance, everyone standing on the stage, bathed in the spotlight, disappears once the light goes out. It was one of my most powerful attacks, even if it was not the original. I have no aura left, so do what you must, warrior. No... Reno Gazor."
It was the first time he had truly spoken his name.
But Reno did not move for a long minute. His gaze remained fixed on the empty space where Rita had stood. Billions of thoughts, all equally hollow, flooded through his mind like a tidal wave.
His pupils trembled rapidly as he searched for even the slightest trace of his wife. He still was not breathing. His breath had been stolen away.His strength was gone.
Then...
He stood up without saying a word with a dark gaze.
He picked up Man-Eater, which suddenly seemed small.
He pointed the weapon toward the magician and slowly impaled him without saying a single word.
Orubos smiled faintly as blood flowed from his mouth.
"We will meet again, heir of Aerothene."
Reno watched the magician's body collapse. Then thousands of black bubbles dissolved it and drifted away into the sky.
Reno watched the sight in silence.
Then he turned and left, his head lowered, his steps heavy.
He could not even take his wife's body with him...
The battle was over...
...but at what cost?
Reno left the capital completely broken.
The screams had given way to weeping and lamentation within the arena. A true hell had been born in the capital.
Reno did not listen to them, but he heard them. He walked as if all those lamentations were directed at him.
Alone and abandoned, emptier than he had ever been...
A few months later, he returned to the village.
The villagers smiled and were filled with joy when they saw him arrive, but very quickly, they realized something was wrong.
Reno was alone, defeated, wounded, empty, without emotion, like a ghost wandering without life.
Azraüs was the first to run toward him, not noticing the atmosphere. He wrapped his arms around his father's legs as usual and looked up.
"Dad, did you win?"
Reno took a long time to answer, and when he did, it sounded like a cold, hoarse whisper.
"Yes..."
"And where's Mom?"
The question hurt. It hurt very, very much.Reno wanted to fall and collapse...and...
That was what he did.
"She's dead, Azraüs. She's dead."
All the joy immediately vanished from Azraüs's face, replaced by tears in an instant.
"What? No... Mom is invincible... You're invincible too... You can't die... You promised me you couldn't die... You promised..."
Azraël watched the scene from afar. He had understood the moment his father appeared.He tried to hold back his tears, but he couldn't.
No one could that day...