The One I need Chapter Two The Truth Of Horror

Nine: The War Has only Just Begun

I stared Azurewrath down until he finally looked away.

'You really want to win this war don't you?' He asked me.

I nodded. It was the fight to get control over the hourglass, and I was the one who was going to control it. Not Azurewrath.

He sniggered knowingly, as if he knew something I didn't.

'What?' I asked him, confused.

'Oh... nothing,' he responded with.

I looked around to find that people had gather around us to see what would happen.

'Well, I'd love to stay and chit chat but I have an army to train,' he announced.

And, with a poof of purple smoke, he was gone.

I looked around, making sure he actually disappeared and not in the crowd.

'From now on, we have maximum security in and around the office building,' I announced.

The whole office nodded and went back to their desks, murmuring to each other.

'Now what?' I asked Anri.

'There's nothing to do except wait. If anything happens, just come straight here,' Anri told me.

I nodded an 'ok' and walked through the portal that led back home.

Instead it led me to outside the bunker.

I looked around at the wreckage still smoking after all these years and felt a pang of guilt. It's been 20 years since the first war happened and now, at 36 years of age, I was going into another war. One that Azurewrath started and one that I was expected to finish.

The smell of burnt flesh invaded my mouth and nostrils, making me retch.  I was part of the reason the earth was like this, my home, my birthplace.

I looked at the few buildings that were still intact apart from a few broken off pieces and felt a pang of guilt. I had destroyed the town and now I was paying for it.

I continued walking, away from the bunker, further into the wreckage. Either side of me were skeletons and pieces of buildings lying on the floor. Hot tears fell down my face and dripped onto the dirt below, making the dirt hiss.

I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand and looked around while turning round once again to go back to the bunker. If I imagined hard, I could still smell the street food being made, the sound of a child's laughter, the cars honking their horns in the rush hour traffic jams.

Oh, the joys of war.