Blood dripped on the floor.

The rain continued.

It hurt to breathe. I clenched my chest with a hand. The metal rod fell to the ground and the improvised magnetic rail gun collapsed into the mud. Taoc rushed to my side, saying something about great elf this or great elf that, but I couldn’t hear her. There was a ringing in my ear. Only the dry pitter-patter of raindrops beat against my ears, resounding like drums inside my head.

Noel stood upright, her face hidden behind her outstretched arms. Blood spouted out of her hands, but I couldn’t see how much damage the bullet had done. Her arms trembled and shook. Relief fell over me. She was alive, but badly injured. There was no way that she could continue like this. I had done it. I had stopped Noel’s mission, the mission the Immortal of Desire thought dangerous enough to risk their own life to send me back in time.

I forced out some words. I told Taoc to rescue Kelser and the elders. The spirit said something back, but I couldn’t hear her. I told her to go. Just go. She bit her lips and rushed ahead. She checked up on Kelser first, pressing her tiny fingers against his neck to make sure that he was alive. Then she looked into the holes where the elders had disappeared. She dived down into each one, dragging out the elders by the tip of their hands. They were alive, but unconscious. They needed medical attention, but I was sure they’d make it. Taoc was breathing heavily, having strained her body pulling two large humans out of the earth. I told her to send for reinforcements, but she refused to leave my side. I shouted at her to go once more and she finally did.

Throughout all of this, Noel stood like a statue in front of the Senate doors. Blood dripped slowly off her outstretched hands and pooled in front of her feet. Her body trembled. She didn’t move. I frowned. I winced and steadied myself against the wall. I got to my feet and limped forward, dragging my feet across the badly scarred battlefield.

I blinked through the rain. It was dark. And it was even darker under the pillars where Noel stood. I could barely make out her body apart from her outstretched hands. I stepped closer. I could make more of her out. The gashes on her legs, the wounds on her waist, her ragged clothes. I couldn’t believe she was still standing despite it all.

Lightning flashed in the sky behind me. I saw Noel in the light, and my heart skipped a beat.

A silver ball had formed between her two hands. My metal bullet was embedded inside this solid silver bubble. The bullet had frayed into pieces, and the bubble had a massive impression in it. The metal pieces had embedded themselves into Noel’s hands like splinters or shrapnel. Blood dripped from the cuts on her hands, but the wounds weren’t as bad as I had assumed or hoped for. The bullet hadn’t even gone through her hands.

The pain must have been unbearable. Imagine having metal splinters in your hands, and hundreds of them at that. Just thinking about that made me wince, but it also made me despair. Sure enough, Noel’s trembling arms finally fell to her side, revealing a shocked but relatively uninjured elf behind them. Noel’s gaze was unfocused.

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The wind blew into the Senate, taking with it a splash of rain. The rain hit Noel’s face, and she started. She looked this way and that, before finally resting her gaze at my frozen body. I was standing in the middle of the battlefield, with Kelser and the elders resting near the walls behind me. The remains of the railgun were back there as well, and Noel looked at them with a little fear in her eyes.

If only I had practiced my magnetic magic more. Perhaps I could have made the attack stronger. Or maybe I needed to get in closer. Or I should have gathered my energy more quickly and fired while Kelser and the others had kept her occupied. No, there was no point in asking these questions now. The plan had failed and I had no other ideas. I could barely keep myself standing. There was no way I could hold on, and even if I did, the fairy soldiers Taoc was bringing as reinforcements wouldn’t be able to take on Noel anyway.

It was over. Noel would complete her mission and there was nothing I could do to stop her. As I met her gaze, I realized we both knew this. We both knew that there was no point in fighting anymore.

Yet.

Yet, I still kept my gaze locked to hers. I stared into her silver eyes, saw the hurt, the anger, the confusion inside them. I realized that despite everything, Noel had never expected me to do something like this to her. She had never expected something that could actually kill her. It also made me realize that in our first fight, from before I had been sent back in time, Noel had never truly tried to kill me until after the railgun. The look in her eyes finally made me believe her transparent magic bubbles didn’t kill. The fairies and spirits in the rest of the country would definitely reappear in a few days, I could finally believe that. I even began to believe that Noel hadn’t burned down the other cities either.

A dozen questions raced through my head. If Noel didn’t burn the cities, then who did? If Noel hadn’t gone to every town, village and city to make everybody disappear, then who had? Who was behind this? What did they want? And if there really was somebody else working for the Immortal of Madness, why hadn’t they appeared during any of this fighting? I couldn’t believe the Immortal would intervene directly this way, in a manner so insignificant and petty. Surely there were consequences to their intervention, and no Immortal wanted to pay a high price to burn down some mud and straw houses in a tiny fairy village out in the boonies?

Noel broke her gaze first. She stared at the floor. I gasped for air. Pain shot across my back. I fell to one knee. Murky water splashed around my leg. I looked up. Noel was looking down at me from the top of the stairs, a cold expression in her eyes.

She raised a hand. A silver bubble formed. I stared at it, and was somehow able to see my reflection in it even from this distance and through the rain. I looked at it, and at Noel’s face peering over it, and let my head hang low. I stared at the muddy puddle. It was clear enough that when a flash of lightning arced through the sky again, I could see my reflection.

I was tired.

I was confused.

There were scratches on my face. My eyes were sunken. My nose was crooked. My long ears were covered in dirt. My entire face looked disgusting and pitiful. I couldn’t bear to look at myself. I raised my head.

Noel was gone. The Senate doors were open.

Lightning flashed. I felt a warmth in my chest. A rejuvenating, revitalizing warmth. I listlessly picked myself up, and my body began walking up the stairs. I leaned against a pillar, took a deep breath, and lumbered through the Senate doors, trailing muddy foot across the otherwise surprisingly clean floor.