“You know, this is starting to feel like a job,” Henry compined. “A very tedious one.”

  Nade smiled wryly. It was difficult to gauge what she was truly thinking but Henry swore he could gauge a hint of sympathy in her eyes. Just a tiny faint hint. While her smile suggested sympathy, there was no warmth or coldness in her eyes as if she was unfeeling.

  “How long do you think I have?”

  “Until what?” Nadea asked.

  “Until shit hits the fan.”

  Nadea tittered lightly. “It already has. The moment he made himself known to the kingdom, things had already gotten out of hand.”

  “Damn it,” Henry cursed. “Still, I’m curious about one thing.”

  “Why didn't he reveal himself to the kingdom much sooner?”

  Henry raised an eyebrow. His mind was read. “...Yes. That is what I want to know.”

  “The reason is rather simple. He hates humans. He hates… mortals.”

  “Does he have some kind of history with mortals?”

  “Mortals vied for his powers. The ones he loved and cared for died protecting him from the greedy mortals.”

  “So this is all just revenge for him?”

  Nadea shrugged. “I am still uncertain of his motives. Vengeance is certainly a motive but not the motive.”

  Henry sighed. Exhaustion swept over him suddenly. He felt more tired than he did fighting Vishara. He wanted to sit down but the closest chair was some feet away and things couldn’t be moved while time was stopped. He groaned and simply plopped himself down on the ground. “What will you have me do now?”

  “Raze everything to the ground. No quarter.”

  Henry stared and he stared hard. Nadea’s expression was neutral. The faint shift of her expression did nothing to suggest her true thoughts on the concurrent matter. He scoured her face, trying to find something that could help discern her thoughts. However, Henry couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or serious. “I gave up,” he said. “Are you being serious right now?”

  “I am serious but at the same time, I’m also well aware that you would never resort to such a method.”

  Henry huffed. “You bet your ass I wouldn’t. You’re asking me to commit genocide, a nation cleansing. I’m no good at painting if you haven’t realised.”

  Nadea chuckled.

  “I’m being serious.”

  “I know. It’s just… your choice of words is amusing.”

  “And your words, not so much.”

  “But it is sensible. The destruction of one nation versus the colpse of the entire world. It is a simple equation, is it not?”

  “Only if you stripped it of all the other small yet crucial factors. You don’t throw away a basket full of good apples just because of a rotten few. Forget it. I’m not razing a kingdom.”

  “The alternate options would be… tedious and inefficient.”

  “So be it, as long as I’m not committing genocide.”

  “Civilization rises and falls. This would be just one more among the lot.”

  Henry frowned. “I’m regretting my choice of becoming yours.”

  “Rex, Henry. I won’t force you to do things that you don’t want. I’m not your master and you are not my sve. You are my emissary, my champion.”

  “Servant, then?”

  “No, you are not my servant. You are not here to serve me.”

  “Maybe not you but it sure feels like I’m a servant here, to something or someone.”

  “If that’s your mindset, then one can say that we are all sves to something. Be it our goals, our fears, or our failures.”

  “Okay, okay, okay. Let’s just stop there. All this philosophy talk is giving me a headache. Anyway, what’s my objective?”

  “Infiltrate the kingdom. He’s weak now. While he knows you would come for him, he doesn’t know when or how. That is your advantage. Besides, you now have a vast network of intelligence at your disposal.”

  “It ain’t mine. It’s Vishara’s.”

  “You can make it yours.” Nadea smiled. Unlike other times, her smile was filled with connotations. Her tone alone was suggestive in a suggestive way.

  “Ugh, no. I can’t handle her. Rayne is challenging enough, let alone Vishara, who’s just another Rayne but on steroids.”

  “So you’re saying if Vishara’s tamer and gentler, you would court her?”

  “I said no such thing. Don’t put words into my mouth.”

  “It’s just a suggestion. You have such a strong potential ally in your grasp but you chose not to close your fingers around her.”

  “She would chew through my hand.”

  “Perhaps. And perhaps you can chew her out in retaliation.”

  Henry narrowed his gaze. He grimaced and then he straightened his expression. An array of emotions crossed his mind and his face. “I don’t mind eating her out. I don’t mind a partnership but I don’t see myself joining her in matrimony.”

  Nadea tittered.

  “Really, you found that amusing too? You are easily amused, aren’t you?”

  Then, Nadea fshed him a grin, one that was tinted with a mischievous glint.

  That look alone struck the arm bell hard in his head. Henry could feel something was off. “What did you do?” he asked.

  “I did not do anything. It was an unexpected happenstance, one that I wager that it would be more… beneficial for me to let it run its course rather than amending it.”

  “What did you do?”

  “You will have your answer when you turn around.”

  Shivers ran down his entire body. The air suddenly felt chilly, though the temperature of the room had not changed. He stiffened but he forced himself to turn around, slowly.

  Ani, Rayne, and Vishara. Two of them were still frozen in time but one of them wasn’t. She was standing there with a confused yet steadfast expression. She was still but she was not frozen in time. Her chest was rising and falling.

  “Vishara…” Henry gasped. “How can this be? Nadea, did you—”

  “I did not. She broke free of the temporal hold herself. It would seem she has the favour of a divine such as myself or she is simply a very gifted individual.”

  “I like to believe that I’m the tter,” said Vishara.

  “I am of the same opinion,” Nadea replied. “I don’t sense any divinity in you.”

  “How long has she been… free?” Henry asked.

  “A few seconds after I appeared.”

  “And you chose to say nothing?”

  “She’s a powerful ally and she knows about the… other worlds. She has seen the possibility. She is apt. I need to see her… reaction.”

  “And now you have it,” Vishara said. She then fixed her gaze on Henry. “You have a lot of expining to do.”

  Henry sighed and rose to his feet. “What do you want to know?”

  “Who and what are you?”

  Henry exchanged gnces with Nadea and she gave him a nod.

  “I’m not in a good mood. Don’t stall. And don’t try to weasel your way out of this.”

  “I couldn’t even if I wanted to,” Henry grumbled. “I was a human. I died. And for a second chance at life, I was reborn as a dragon by the grace of… Nadea. This god right here.”

  Vishara shifted her gaze. “And you’re a god?”

  “I sense doubt,” Nadea responded calmly. “But that’s only to be expected.”

  “I have met many who have procimed themselves to be a god. And they always turned out to be nothing more than frauds, power-hungry tyrants who took advantage of the masses' gullibility.”

  “That’s understandable. God is a retive term. A dog would see its master as a god. For the sake of simplicity and time conservation, I’m a god.”

  “I suppose what you are is not important. Your intentions, however, are what I truly want to know. Are you like the one who set the hero against me?”

  “I am nothing like those annoying pests. I care not about the affairs of mortals. I’m only here to protect this world from outworld threats. And these outworld threats aren’t as simple as the one you knew. As it stands, there is such an outworld threat in the Yorun Kingdom.”

  “That’s all?”

  “That’s all.”

  “Do you take me for a gullible fool?”

  Nadea didn’t respond, at least not to Vishara. She turned towards Henry and smiled. “Henry, my dear, it’s all on you from now on. I wouldn’t ask you to rush but try not to take your time too much.”

  “What are you—”

  And she was gone, disappearing into thin air in the next split second. Then, the world returned to normal. Time was running again.

  “Did it work?” Ani asked.

  “Fortunately, it did,” Rayne answered. “The hero’s mind is broken. He’s now ours to control.”

  “Everything worked out, then. This is splendid. We can—” The rest of the words stopped right before they escaped her lips. She gnced back and forth between Henry and Vishara. “W-what’s wrong?” she asked, her voice trembling.

  Rayne, too, noticed the odd mood between the two. There was no reason for them to be suddenly so antagonistic with one another, or at least no reason that she was aware of. “Henry, is there a reason that you two are exchanging gres instead of smiles?”

  “No reason at all,” Vishara said, turning away from Henry. “Now, where were we?”

  “The hero?”

  “Ah, yes. The hero.” She strode up to the unmoving hero. She undid the bindings. The hero remained motionless. He was still breathing but his soulless expression made him look no different than a corpse. “Somehow, this seems so much crueller than just outright killing him.”

  “He’s alive, that's all that matters,” said Henry. “You seemed to have misunderstood something about me. I didn’t spare the hero because killing him is cruel. I spare the hero because his death brings us more disadvantages than benefits.”

  “It seems that I have misunderstood you, Henry. In fact, I think I may have a lot of misunderstandings about you. May we talk in private?”

  “Lead the way.”

  “What’s going on here?” Rayne asked.

  “I won’t be long. Just… focus on your thing here, Rayne. You too, Ani. Stay here.” Without waiting for the two’s response, Henry followed Vishara out of the room.

  They came out into a hallway that spanned for a mile and more. Once they walked a few yards away from the room they exited from, Vishara sprang at Henry. She had him pinned on the wall with blood tendrils trapping his limbs. Henry saw this coming but he made no effort in response.

  “Talk. Whatever more significant secrets you’re hiding, you will tell me all of it now.”

  “I’m not obligated to tell you everything.”

  “You don’t but you will tell me the truth.”

  “What truth? I have already told you the truth.”

  “The real reason that you are here.”

  “You already know the real reason I’m here. It’s just to negotiate. To make peace.”

  “Don’t lie to me,” Vishara growled.

  “I’m not lying and you know that. Your past is tragic, I understand, but I would appreciate it if you don’t let it rule your head so easily.”

  “You damn—” She shut her lips. She wanted to tear the truth out of him but she knew the truth was already id bare. It was simply the fear, the memories of her past, that kept her guard up. No matter how hard she tried, it was always there, the doubt, the uncertainty, the fear, the anticipation of having a knife stuck to her back. Whenever she turned her back, she would always be pgued with that thought. She dispelled her blood tendrils and backed away from Henry.

  “I won’t betray you.”

  “Save it. Those words had only ever come out of the mouths of those who betrayed me.”

  “Should I oppose you, it won’t begin from where you can’t perceive.”

  Vishara snorted. “Now you talk so… properly.”

  “Problem?”

  “I heard how you speak to your god. Your way of words is… queer and aberrant.”

  “What can I say? When I was human, I came from a pce far far away from here.”

  “How far?”

  “Far enough for it to be completely different from the values that you know of.”’

  “How different?”

  “I’ll leave that up to your imagination,” Henry said and began walking back to the room. “Just know that I am not your enemy as long as you are not mine. And I’m sure you have heard, we have bigger problems to worry about.”