War for the Skies (completed) (Book 1 of the Heroes of the Realms series)

Chapter 55

My eyes fluttered open as my body flew straight through the column. Skylar was standing where she had been a second ago, frozen and unmoving. In fact, nothing was moving. The battle ships had all frozen with their crews absolutely still like they were doing the mannequin challenge.

"Am I dead?" I looked at my hands. Sure enough, I could see through them. I was also glowing light blue, so I had no idea what was happening.

"No," a familiar, male voice said, and then I shot left, faster than light and appeared somewhere else.

I was sitting in the house where Ariel and I had met. It looked exactly the same- the giant windows, the couches the kitchen, all of it. Except there was no Ariel. Sitting where she had now was the red man that had saved me when I was a child and gave me the clue about the Cursed Realm.

"Hello, Leon. Have a seat," he pointed at the comfortable couch on which I seated myself. "So, how's the battle?"

"You say that as if it amuses you. Like you're watching a football match or something," I muttered.

Under his metal mask, I heard a chuckle. "I cannot be involved in this event. I have already lived through it once."

"You were in the first War for the Skies?"

"Well, you could say that."

"What do you mean?"

"That isn't important," he leaned forward. "Now look. I know this may be tough for you, but you have to think of what's best for the long-run. I was greedy when I was in your place," he observed his arms and body carefully "which got me into this state."

"Wait, that isn't armor?" I asked.

He shook his head regretfully. "I needed these metallic editions because I was selfish. I thought only for myself, and not for the greater good. Skylar can see that."

"Wait, what do you mean? What is this about the greater good?"

I did have a guess of it, and it was confirmed when Ariel ran out of the bathroom in tears. She was crying loudly, her voice echoing in my head as if it were a giant empty cavern. She took her face out of her hands and stared at the man and I.

"YOU!" she pointed at me. "You're the reason this happened! You're the reason Skylar-"

The man held up his hand and Ariel instantly stopped talking.

"Look Leon. When a Legend finds a permanent host, their bodies intertwine forever. Or at least a very long time. Skylar didn't possess Tormenius because she was siding with evil," the man explained.

"She did it to save you puny-!"

Before she could finish the man held up his hand again, making Ariel stop complaining.

"Even if this host dies... the Legend dies with the host. There is no going back from that. If Tormenius dies with Skylar, he won't return to the rune... and his essence will disappear with Skylar's. Unless she comes back somehow..."

"Tormenius can't. She's going to... she's going to..."

The man put his hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry."

I nudged his hand  off and stood up. "No, no, no. There has to be another way! She can't!"

"See? Even he thinks there's another way!" she looked at the man.

"There's only one other way," he pointed to my heart. I started to hate it when  people did that. "And you yourself told him to use that for the... ah... 'bigger picture.'"