Chapter 26: Ch26: Nightmare

Nightmare

When we returned to the house the things we bought had not yet arrived, because apparently the shipment of the furniture would take them longer, so they would arrive tomorrow. Although to me the truth did not matter because I was already used to sleeping even on the floor, and Tamamo did not give much importance either. Seeing the room so lacking in furniture It even reminded me in the war of the times I had to sleep in the open or in the ruins of some house alone. It wasn't comfortable, but I didn't care.

They each lay down on their futon and Tama seemed to respect my decision to still do nothing, we just fell asleep.

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In front of me was a quite young girl and although she had perhaps a large chest for the age she seemed to be, it was not her most striking feature, those were undoubtedly her ears and fox tail, which had a color as dark as night and her beautiful crimson eyes. She was dressed in a majestic way, with an arranged dress, but at the same time light, that she only enhanced the feeling of seeing a doll, but she had gold and diamond jewelry. In addition to having a staff in her hand, also golden and dignified. It was Nanami the empress of Atlantis, she was in front of me with her usual dejected look.

The reason?

Instead of being her on a throne with her servants and hers her people. She was facing a cemetery. Seeing the results of the sins of her father and of her own people. The devastation that she had on the continent and the world that they caused by selfishness.

The cemetery was not for civilians and not for ordinary soldiers like me. They were from the white cloaks, they were the elite, the best we had, the ultimate dragon hunters. And yet you could see crosses. But the Atlanteans were neither Christian nor religious. They were from the people who came to this damned continent to fight.

"So these are the Dragon Hunters who were supposed to protect us this morning?" She said with her beautiful voice.

"They shouldn't. but they did anyway"I replied
"They came from the base to the east to give us time to flee south"
"We didn't think it was a coordinated attack from both sides"

"Your people have not stopped helping us since they arrived and yet they are still the ones who receive the hardest blows that our enemy throws"

"We have already told you that only together can we stop the end of our time"
"They died for what they believed in, for creating an opportunity for victory even at the cost of their lives."

"It is impossible to replace the losses we are having"
"Dragon hunters are now a nearly extinct race" she said as she turned to see again the consequences of her actions.

"They are the ones who most believe in a victory. They have the power to do something, that's why they fight with all their might. We can do nothing but believe in those who remain." I try to give her hope, but also being honest with our possibilities.

"And why do you fight?"
"You don't have their power and you're still here"
"It's only a matter of time before you share the same fate"

"I'm not the only one"
"Most of us here are in the same situation"
"Why I'm standing here now, I don't know"
"I thought about protecting my family the day this all started and now I'm here in the middle of all this"
"In fact I don't know how it was that I'm talking to you now"

"The only reason you can even make it to me is because you remind me of the only correct decision I have made in my life. Make the agreement to unite our two armies in the fight against the dragons."

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"Are you sure?"
"I'm just a recon soldier, not an officer. And seeing that your servants have permission to look at you, it is suspicious."

"Well, I'm still the empress of this place. I can't say out loud that I like the way you treat me, like I'm just a normal girl, someone who can make mistakes and can also have doubts, fears. Everyone here thinks I'm some kind of goddess, and they're afraid of me."

"So you don't want to announce to others that you married me two months after I came to this place and saved you from the dragons who wanted to kidnap you."

"I have no idea how others would react when they found out that you are now the emperor of Atlantis now. If that title means anything now, then all that's left is simply a dead kingdom awaiting its own destruction"
"So I already decided, when all this is over, I will leave all this behind as well and escape with you to your world. I don't care about anything anymore, this place just deserves to perish. I just want to have a life with you, in a world free of dragons"

I turned around with my machine gun going into combat. In the heat of battle we had orders to carry out although they had to die defending them. There were only three soldiers left in our sector, we had to not let a single dragon pass. My fellow soldiers, I don't remember their names or their faces, but they were just as terrified as I was. We were close to completing our journey. After so many fighting and sacrifices behind us was the heart of Atlantis, the celestial forge. We just had to buy time until Nanami could complete the great orichalcum sword, when it ends at last we can attack the dragons in conditions.

But the dragons were too haggard, my two companions died from one of their energy beams. I knew that the next one was me. Just when I thought it was my turn Nanami appeared running and stood right next to me. She looked at me with a sad face and closed her eyes. Then I could see how she took out of her hands a giant sword, huge, wide, heavy. But the more she drew the sword, the more color she lost, first he was her eyes, then her skin also turned pale, then her hair also turned completely white. By the time she finished it was almost like seeing a ghost. When the sword finished appearing, it gave no hope. Only cries of agony and pain were heard, they were from people who were tortured, tired, desperate.

The next time I blinked, I was sitting on Jade's throne, the place that rightfully belonged to Nanami, now I was. People looked at me with illusions, dreams. They could see their new way of fighting dragons, their new leader. Nanami's heiress and her hope. But it wasn't me, I could look like her, have the same voice as hers, have her clothes, I could have  her body but it wasn't her. People were looking at a false idol, and I had to pretend to be.

Before I knew it, I was already in the last corridors that led to the first's sanctuary. I had the great sword in my hand, I had Avalon, the end of the war was near. But at my feet there were no bodies of dragons, only those of my allies. None of them were even complete and the previously blue corridors were now red. There was no time, and yet I was standing there, with nothing I could do. I was afraid, afraid of what could happen at any moment. Fear that I had to do it and of the people who trust me.

I was hiding behind a metal box, I covered the passage of the hall with it. I could hear the cries of the dragons on the other side. How their claws scratched the box, how they tried to get it out of the way. And I tried with all my might trying to seal the hall with her. But when I did, all the light went out.

There was nothing, there was no light, I couldn't even see the hand that once belonged to the girl he loved. There was only darkness and the sounds of dragons, lurking, walking, scratching the walls, looking for me. I was in a panic, I didn't want to be there, I couldn't take it anymore, I hated the darkness, the dragons, the smell of blood that was everywhere. Please someone get me out of here.

"Please help me!!"
"Please light!"

The next thing that appeared was the full moon. I was now on top of a mountain, in front of me I could see the sea and I could see the moon high in the sky, lighting up the whole place as if it were daytime. And then I realized there were no dragons or darkness, just a mountain and a large space, as far as the eye could see. I was no longer afraid, it was a quiet, relaxing place. A place where nothing bad happened.

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I woke up suddenly, I felt like I could barely breathe, my body was shaking. I wanted to cry. But when I opened my eyes I ran into Tamamo's face, she was also awake, when she saw she greeted me with a smile, as if saying with her face calmly that the bad had already passed. She was hugging me tightly, as if to say that she was there with me. That I was not alone. She was there with me at all times.

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