Endosymbiosis

53. Latency

Arkadi felt the weight of my pain in his hands when the false memory of my mother's death made me collapse and saw me collect every reason to kill the metriona... But when I finally had that golden monster in my hands, Arkadi looked me in the eye and demanded that I let the metriona live, just to break the promise he had once made me.

But I pulled the trigger... And I pulled it again another million times in my mind. Because, no even with the entire universe and him against me, I wouldn't stop.

It was only in death that wars like this ended.

Korrok turned to the vorrampes and pointed at the golden corpse. The soldiers quickly approached.

"What are you going to do with him?" I asked.

"We'll send him to Bleine."

"To prove we finished the job?" I doubted she would want to continue our alliance after what we did with her soldiers.

Korrok gave me a crooked smile.

"To let her know she's next."

One day I would have been scared of that... But not anymore.

I approached the metriona's body before the vorrampes took him and I bent down to face his emptiness, from where a painful truth faced me: I had not destroyed him for what he had done to me... But for what I had become.

I took my scalpel out of a pocket and stuck it into the metal surface of the metriona's head, tearing a layer of aurium where his eyes were encrusted. I rubbed the golden surface with my forearm until my reflection stared back at me, bloodthirsty eyes like my mother's, watching death pool in my footprints as it had once overflowed from hers.

"What are you going to do with it?" Korrok asked, pointing to the piece of the metriona in my hands. I slowly looked up at him, showing the beasts hidden behind.

"Start a collection."

• • • ֍ • • •

The revolution quickly established itself in the golden palace - because Lupan, Deinos and Plumala had stayed behind to take care of it - and preparations began for the next and final attack.

Now everything was at stake, all the cards on the table, everything on display to lose... But there was still so much more to win.

As soon as I had the opportunity, I charged Deinos for the training he had long owed me. My aim had improved a lot since I started using my enhancement, but I wanted to make sure I wouldn't fail.

"Are you sure you want to be at the battlefront?" Deinos asked me. "No one would blame you if you stayed behind again."

"I was scared last time... But I'm not anymore." Deinos studied me, and we no longer knew if I was lying. "I know you need each and every soldier... Because one can make all the difference."

"And do you want to be them?"

"If I'm the last one standing, then I will be."

Deinos landed a blow to my legs, knocking me to the ground.

"So we have a lot to train."

I haven't seen how many noxdiems have passed... And I haven't counted the time since I last spoke to Arkadi.

Sometimes his eyes met mine as, at the end of noxdiems, we stepped into the central hall and stared at each other through the fumes of plates on the miles of tables between us. Each look was more word-laden than the one before, but he never said anything, because he always turned his back and disappeared down the halls without even looking back.