No Such Thing as Good and Evil

The fairy ended up having a really bad time. Almost all the things he had done to people were done to him. The light dragon, whose name turned out to be Ashera, ripped his dick off, burned it to ashes in front of him, then told him in very colorful language how bad he was in bed. Rygut of course decided to use him as a dart board, and was shockingly bad at darts for a man who could literally control the bolts. Some pulled nails, others teeth, while most were lacking creativity in there weakened and mentally drained states, resorting to the standard kicking and punching. This lasted a few hours, in which Shade spent the time back tracking through the complex in search of anything he may want to steal, namely booze. If he were a better detective, he may have searched through the commander’s room for notes on what Merellien or the dragon hunters were doing. There movements, plans, contacts.

He didn’t do that though. He was still rather convinced he didn’t want to take part in any war, no matter how much his actions, and sometimes thoughts, said otherwise. He collected all the expensive alcohol he could find before returning to the throne room turned torture chamber. While he was gone, the fairy had lost his limbs, hair, wings, eyes and even nose. Honestly, Shade was almost impressed that after all the shit the rescued dragons had done to him, he was still breathing somehow. But instead of being impressed, it actually made him rather mad. The man clearly had loads of natural talent and echos for days, but instead of putting in even the slightest amount effort into training, he just became a fat, lazy slaver resting on the power he had from his birthrights.

Shade, now a little buzzed from sampling some of the drinks before storing them away, walked over to the lump of meat that once was a fairy. He gave the sad looking body a light kick, to which there was no reaction. The man was basically already dead in every aspect except actuality. Shade looked around at the room, now filled to the brim with dragons. The weak, sickly and malnourished horde of dragons were all whispering to each other. Some about what they were going to do next, while others tried to secretly point and whisper about Shade, but lacked the discretion they thought they had. “Hey, has everyone had their fill with this guy? Anybody mind if I finish him off?” All the dragons looked at each other, but none said anything. Shade shrugged, looked down at the sad sack of meat, pointed his finger at it, then lit it up in hells fire. The body didn’t even struggle, nor twitch as it burnt to ashes. Shade then reached down into the smaller than usual, due to the severe lack of limbs, pile of ash and pulled the soul out, opening his mouth and eating it.

“So, which one are you?” A female voice said. Shade turned from the ash pile to see the light dragon, Ashera, standing behind him arms crossed. She was now wearing an emerald green dress that she had apparently found somewhere in the complex.

“I see you found some clothes.” Shade replied, looking the dress over. “Honestly, I preferred the bed sheets, really brought out your eyes.”

“That doesn’t answer the question.” Ashera asked, annoyance in her voice.

Shade mockingly looked around the room, confused. “Are you annoyed at me? What are you annoyed at me for? Did I not just come her and save you?”

She scoffed. “Lucifers don’t get to claim saving people when their disappearance allowed all this to happen in the first place.”

Shade let out a loud, dismissive laugh. “That’s a severe lack of responsibility you have there. Endross fell, Lucifers aren’t kings or the leaders of dragons anymore. I have no responsibility to protect or save anyone. You’re a light dragon anyway, the second strongest dragons to Lucifers, and even more rare. You getting caught is your own fault, same for all the others as well.”

She spat on the ground. “Such a Lucifer answer. You still didn’t say which one you were.”

“The dead one.” Shade responded, now slowly eyeing the room full of dragons who were all quietly watching the conversation. Shade and Ashera were in the middle of a perfectly circular clearing in the room filled with dragons.

“That clears up nothing. Nobody has seen a Lucifer in a decade. For what we know, they might all be dead.” She replied.

“Apparently.” Rygut said from the edge of the circle. “He’s Shade Night, Valvath Endross, the black devil.”

More murmurs and shocked gasps went around the room while Shade looked over to Rygut who had also found some clothes, now wearing one of the hunter’s standard leather armor set. “Don’t you have somewhere to be? I’m sure there’s a tavern somewhere looking for a new dartboard, and you have as much experience as anyone, I’m sure they’d hire you on the spot. Especially since from I’ve seen, you’re much better at being a dart board then playing darts.”

“Fuck yourself.” Rygut snarled.

“I do that quite a lot already, thank you very much.” Shade replied. “Anyway, there’s more hunter bodies lying around with souls just asking to be eaten, so if you don’t mind…”

He was cut off by Ashera. “Are you really the black devil?” She asked, fists now clenched.

Shade shrugged, eyeing the hole in the wall where the gate once was past the crowd of people. Not only were all the bodies of the hunters Alexis supposedly killed out there, but it would also allow him to get out of this room. He was feeling oddly nervous, he was never scared of crowded rooms or social settings, but this felt different. “People once called me that, I haven’t been that person in a long time though. I guess recently I’ve done a few things here or there. You know I saved two princesses? The first one I didn’t know was a princess but the second one I did and…”

She cut off his rambling again. “You say you have no responsibility for any of this because Endross fell, but if you’re really him, you’re the reason Endross fell. It is your responsibility, and it is your fault.”

This snapped his attention away from the exit, the crowd and his odd nervousness. His red eyes locked sternly into her golden ones while a snarl overtook his face as some of his massive amount of echos leaked out through his sudden anger, dousing the room in the sense of imminent death. “And what do you know of my past? Stories? Books? Rumors?”

While some of the other dragons in the room began to whimper and try to back further away just from the small amount of power he was releasing, Ashera didn’t flinch or avert her gaze, sternly staring right back at him. “I know you ran. Everyone knows you ran.”

“War was going to break out. Full on civil war. You say I failed by not protecting dragons, by letting this all happen, but criticize me for not slaughtering thousands of them in some meaningless civil war. A war I most likely wouldn’t have been able to win.”

“And how many of them died in that war anyway? Don’t make excuses, just say it how it is. You ran. You were scared, and you ran.” Ashera replied, getting closer to Shade, the two now face to face.

Shade snarled as more echos leaked out of him, darkness now filling the room. “I didn’t ask to be king; I didn’t want to be king, and I wasn’t even in line to be king. Putting my life on the line to take over a kingdom that all but threw me in a trash pile before realizing Mozan named me his successor? Fuck that. Why should I have to do that? Why is it my responsibility? Everyone hates Lucifers, even dragons. Just look at this room full of cowering cowards. All of them scared of me, and just like you, they probably all despise me. Yet I’m supposed to what, forcefully make them obey? Become a king of a kingdom I don’t want anything to do with in order to protect a bunch of people who want nothing to do with me? That’s a more depressing reality then the one I already live in, and let me tell you something, the one I live in is pretty fucking shit.” He paused, and he gestured wildly at the room full of dragons around them. “But let’s say it is my fault Endross fell, let’s say I did run, I was scared, so what? That still doesn’t make this my fault. You being weak, them being weak, that’s not my fault. Someone else could’ve propped up Endross, someone else could’ve brought dragons together to fight against hunters. Don’t put all of your failures, weaknesses, and shortcomings on my history from a hundred years ago. All dragons know the rest of the world hates us, discriminates against us and fears us. You all had a hundred years to figure something out incase anything like this ever happened, and you failed. Don’t come crying to me about that, those failure lie directly on your own two shoulders.” He shoved his way past her, and began making his way toward the hole in the wall that once made up the front gate. The crowd of dragons parted for him, but Ashera followed closely behind.

“Running away again then?” She called after him.

He scoffed. “Sure, call it whatever you want. I don’t care.” He lied. “I only came him as someone asked me to. Apparently his children were being kept here. While I’m not actually sure if his children are safe, if they are, I’m sure you can take them back to Endross.”

Ashera paused her chase. “Why would we take them to Endross?”

“Because that’s where the father is.” Shade responded, reaching the hole in the wall.

“Why is he in Endross? Wait, if he spoke to you in Endross, that means you were in Endross. Why were you in Endross?” She replied, but by the time she had asked her question, he had already gone through the hole in the wall, disappearing into the outside. She growled and gritted her teeth. “Fucking Lucifers.” She paced back and forth for a few moments deciding on what to do when a hand landed on her shoulder. She turned to see Rygut standing behind her.

“You know, if your plan was to get him to help free the dragons being kept at other hunter bases, you’re doing a pretty shit job.”

“What do you want me to do?” She sniped back at him. “Get on my hands and knees and thank him for saving us? After disappearing for a decade? After all the lucifers disappeared and left us to die?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I want you to do!” Rygut replied harshly. “Look, I’m as mad as anyone that this asshole shows up and is dropping jokes about us being tortured, killed and raped. But he’s the only Lucifer to even show a modicum of shit about what’s going on. And if he is the black devil, not only is he a Lucifer, but he’s one of, if not the strongest of them. I don’t care if you have to go out there and pretend his shit jokes are the funniest things you’ve ever heard. I don’t care if you have to suck him off like he’s a rich prince at a brothel in the slums. We need him on our side, we need him if we’re going to save the others. He’s the first real chance of winning we’ve had in years, and you’re throwing it away to go on a temper tantrum like a child!”

She growled in frustration and turned away from Rygut, mumbling to herself, but after a few moments she turned back, gathered herself and nodded. She took a deep breath, then opened up her wings and flew into the air, over the rest of the dragons in the room and out the hole in the wall. She ended landing on the drawbridge that went over the worthless moat that surrounded the castle shaped base. She gasped at the scene in front of her, a sea of bodies were strewn about the bridge that was painted a vivid red with their blood. There were around 30 bodies on the bridge alone, all of them looking like they had been torn to shreds by something, with massive gashes and large chunks of flesh and muscle missing from each one. Shade was also on the bridge, casually going body to body, removing the souls and eating them. “I knew Lucifers were vicious, but you really tore these people to shreds, not that I care, fuckers had it coming.”

“This wasn’t me.” Shade simply responded with a mouthful of soul.

Ashera stared at him for a moment, and realized he wasn’t lying. “Then who was it?”

“Alexis.” He responded nonchalantly, moving to the next body. “Commander of Normuc. There was also some other girl as well, but I already forgot her name. She was an Oni and had this bullshit power.”

“You’re telling me that Alexis, the knight commander of all Normuc was here?” She replied with a growing amount of shock in her voice.

“Yea.” Shade casually responded. “And he had some weird weapon, it was like a sword with rapidly moving blades on the end of it, the blades could also shoot out of the weapon and they hurt pretty bad if they hit you. I imagine that weapon is what did all this.”

“Why was Alexis here?” She asked, ignoring the weapon description.

“Apparently the king of Normuc heard about me still being alive. Not sure how. I imagine either Aerith or Gaelin told him for some reason, though my bet is on Gaelin telling Alexis. They are friends after all, Alexis looks up to Gaelin as a hero. Terrible choice for an idol in my opinion but who am I to say. That still wouldn’t explain how Alexis knew I would be here, which is where I believe Aerith comes in. She must have known that guy was going to ask me to come here and informed Gaelin of it.” Shade looked over the edge of the bridge at the red tinted water below. Just like any cliché moat, there were alligators swimming about the bloody water. He grabbed the nearest body to himself and pushed it over the edge, then watched as the alligators tore it to shreds. “They seem rather hungry. People always want to get alligators for their cliché moats, but nobody actually knows how to take care of one.” He looked over to Ashera who was staring at him with a dumbfounded shock at how lackadaisical he was being about the whole situation. “Well don’t just stand there, push the other bodies over. I already got the souls from the ones right by the door…or what used to be a door. I guess gate would be more accurate actually.”

To the annoyance of Shade, she didn’t push the bodies over. Instead, she took a deep breath and gathered herself once again. “I have more questions about Alexis being here, but those can be saved for later. What I really want to know right now is why were you in Endross?”

“Long story. Kind of has to do with that Princess I saved. Short version is, my grandfather once told me about something he left for me to find in case he died. I never sought it out, but randomly had the urge to recently after some…events.” He then walked over to another body, took the soul out, ate it, then while looking at Ashera, slowly pushed the body over the edge into the water, as if he was a parent trying to show a child how to do something hoping they would imitate it.

She didn’t. “Ok, but then why was the father of some child being held here in Endross?”

Shade sighed, annoyed at all the questions. “I was attacked by some hunters while traveling. The hunters were using dragons as batteries. I killed the hunters and saved the dragons. One of the dragons asked me where I was going to go next, and I told them Endross. It turns out another one of the battery dragons was the father, who was there when I got to Endross.” He paused and scowled. “Along with some other people. Either way, he asked me to come here and save his children. Wait, was it children or one child? I don’t remember, one or more children of his needed saving. I had nothing on my schedule, like usual, so I did. That pretty much brings us to here. Any more questions?” He paused then looked at her again while munching on another soul he had just retrieved. “That’s a rhetorical question by the way, I truly hope you have no more questions.” He tossed the body off the bridge, but when he looked over the edge, the alligators were just swimming next to the now floating corpse. “Must be full.”

Ashera took a moment to gather her thoughts. She slowly made her way down to bridge to where Shade was leaning over the edge, and leaned over the edge next to him, looking down at the red body infested moat. “So then now what?”

“That’s another question.” He replied.

She groaned. “God I hate Lucifers. Just answer, would you?”

“I’m not entirely sure I know what it means, it’s a rather vague question.”

“Now what for you? Where are you going now? What are you going to do next?”

He shrugged. “I’m going to go back to Endross and look into what my grandfather left behind, then I don’t know. Whatever it is though will almost certainly include drinking.”

She turned from the water to face him. “But what about the war, what about the hunters? You could turn the tide all by yourself, just look at this place. Maybe out here wasn’t you, but it shows that one powerful person can take down entire armies.”

“I’ve taken down entire armies before, I’ve killed scores of people. You could fill entire kingdoms with just the corpses I have to my name, and what has it achieved? All it’s led me to is more corpses and more killing while the world remains just as fucked and on fire as it ever was. Its never-ending the killing. Theres always another bad guy, another war, another cause. And you know what fighting for those causes lead to? They lead to being called the black devil while a room of people cower in front of you and some light dragon scolds you for not killing more people than you already have.”

She stared blankly at him for a moment. “Point taken. And you’re right there always is another cause, another war, more killing. And maybe its not fair that it gets thrown onto the shoulders of the powerful, but is that truly a reason to let scores of innocent people be killed? Won’t you regret not doing anything?”

“Maybe. But I also regret a lot of the times I did do something. Everything’s always grey and fuzzy, even in cases that seem clear as day as this. Is saving dragons from a genocide clearly a good thing to do? Maybe. Surely it is. But what if somehow it isn’t? So many times I’ve fought on the side I’ve thought was good, and what I got for it were wanted posters and bounties on my head.”

“What about all those dragons in that throne room with nowhere to go? What will happen to them?”

“Not my problem, sorry. Send them to Normuc, there a pretty progressive kingdom, and with their technology maybe you could fight against Merellien and the hunters. Or go to Endross and rebuild it, make someone king and bring dragons together. That’s the beautiful part of being free, they’re free to do what they want, not what I want them to.”

Silence broke out as Ashera glared at Shade for a few moments trying to think of what to say. “Look, I’m sorry for what I said in there. I have a bad history with Lucifers and just seeing one brought those memories back. Those people in there need your help though, I need your help. You’re right, what you said in there, we are weak. It’s why we were caught. We need you; dragons need you.”

Shade shook his head slowly before moving away from the edge of the bridge. He looked right at Ashera and spoke softly. “Sorry, but I’m not that hero anymore.” He then turned and began to walk away from her down the bridge, ignoring the rest of the bodies that needed their souls relinquished. She was about to call after him again and ask him, beg him for his help if she had to, when he paused in his walk. She stared at him confused while he was standing completely still, mumbling to himself like he was annoyed and frustrated. Eventually, he yelled “Fuck!” then sighed rather loudly and turned back around. “Fine, I’ll bite. What’s your ‘bad history’ with Lucifer dragons?”

Ashera gulped and frowned at the question, not expecting that to be what he was turning back around for. Her confusion turning instantly back into sorrow and anger at the memories flooding her mind. “My father was apparently a lucifer.”

“Apparently? You don’t know for sure?”

“No.” She replied with clenched fists as the anger in the memories began to slowly infect her voice. “As you may know, a dragon being able to have a kid with a non-dragon is extremely rare, and even when it does happen, the odds of the child being a dragon are even rarer. Some piece of shit Lucifer dragon apparently wanted to test this out though, and raped my mom over and over again in order to get her pregnant. Once he did, and he figured out it was indeed a dragon, he just got rid of my mom, throwing her on the side of some road like trash. I never even got to know her, she killed herself shortly after I was born, and I was sent to off to an orphanage.”

Shade stared blankly at her for a long moment. Him and Aerith had just spoken about this very thing. The very thing they had done. One of the last things he did with Aerith, and one of the most horrific. One of his biggest regrets. He tried to think back to when that would have been, it couldn’t have been that long ago, maybe 25 years or so? “Random question that absolutely has nothing to do with your story. How old are you?”

She looked at him quizzically though her angry eyes. “I’m 24, why?”

Shade slowly looked up, staring at the one cloud in the mostly blue sky. “Really?”

“What?” Ashera asked.

He looked away from the sky and back to Ashera. “Oh nothing. Anyway, I lied, there’s another stop I need to make before I go back to Endross.”