“Wake up, buddy. Something is going on.” Miles heard Coin’s voice and woke up. He looked at floating Coin who was streaming the news.

The news was showing a press conference. He looked at the title saying, “General Tian will explain the latest news!”

“Let’s see what lies he will make up,” Miles smirked as he went to freshen up. While he was brushing his teeth, General Tian’s voice was heard from the living room.

“Ladies and Gentlemen of the press,

Thank you very much for your presence.” He started by greeting the people there. He didn’t look angry or sad although he just lost his grandson. It was often how generals acted. They weren’t allowed to show any weakness.

“There is a lot of false information spreading lately, and I thought it is time to put an end to all of them by explaining what had happened to my grandson. Sadly, my grandson Tian Ling had lost his life heroically.

But I will let a person who was with him there to clear out the confusion.” He said as he pointed. Miles saw Mihr Orril walking to the stage with his arms and legs covered in casts. Miles looked at him in disgust. He wasn’t even that injured. He was obviously faking them.

“Hello, everyone watching here and behind their screens. Today I will tell you a story about a hero.” Mihr Orril had a demure expression on his face. His eyes were looking afar. As if he was reminiscing memories of a legendary hero.

“The day of the hunting trip, Tian Ling and I were planning to hunt the dragon together. We went to the lair side by side with our friends at our beck and were ready to hunt the monster that killed thousands of humans before. We were hot-blooded and ready to create a legend. But Tian Ling was more than that. He was eager to slay the monster to show that humanity was stronger than monsters. His goal was to flame the diminishing courage in all of us.

I am ashamed to say this, but even I wasn’t as selfless as he was. I had my own agendas. I wanted orbs, glory, and praise of millions. But all he wanted to do was help humanity rise on its feet again.

Tian Ling was a real hero, but like all heroes, he was envied by many.

The terrorist, vigilante, so-called hero. That man has many names, but you all know him as the Marooner.

That so-called hero schemed against us while all we wanted to do was slay the monster and help humanity.

The whole hunting expedition was a plan for Starve Cleric to kill hunters who went there to slay the monster. This is easily provable. The location of the lair and conditions were decided by Starve Cleric, so they could kill more and more people. And the so-called hero, the Marooner, was the leader of this treachery!” Mihr Orril looked at the press with hatred in his eyes.

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“I know you are doubting my words. Marooner was the one stopping Starve Cleric. He saved a hospital full of people, how could he be the one working with Starve Cleric? But have you ever thought maybe all that was just a trick for all of us? To make us believe he was a hero but in fact, he was nothing but a secret agent. A traitor! A treacherous scum!

Tian Ling realized this fact before all of us. It is not a secret. Tian Ling had hatred towards the Marooner. Most of us couldn’t understand but only that day did I realize it was all because the Marooner was a traitor!

When Tian Ling noticed that the Marooner was entering a secret opening, he decided to follow him. I went behind him to see what was going on. There we saw the Marooner with the agents of Starve Cleric standing on the ice dragon’s body. Its orb was in the open. We heard them speak. What we heard was enough to freeze our blood. The blood-chilling brutality they were scheming was so scary, we could hardly keep ourselves from attacking there and then.

I was so raged, I wanted nothing but to go there and fight them with my flesh and blood. But Tian Ling was calmer, he stopped me. He told me to think smart. After I calmed down, we planned. We had to get the orb from there because the orb was a mass destruction weapon. Yes, the orb was an ice bomb that could freeze a stronghold to death! Do you know the consequences of that happening?

If they were to achieve freezing the whole stronghold, it would be a dead land. Every person teleported there would die. People would be scared to enter Portal World. We would lose our will to fight. The monsters would win! End of humanity!

But Tian Ling wasn’t going to let this happen. He planned how to win it, how to save the Earth! How to save humanity. But how could he do that? How could we fight against people there? We couldn’t convince people to attack the so-called hero. No one would believe us, no one would believe Tian Ling. Not when all Unity lauded that man as a hero, not when everyone knew Tian Ling had a conflict with the Marooner.

But Tian Ling wasn’t going to give up. He knew what would happen if he did. So, he ignored people cursing him. He ignored people worshiping the Marooner. He ignored himself. ‘If death is going to save humanity, so be it!’ He said. He said that without a flinch! He walked to death without any fear. I could not do that. I could not! I am ashamed to accept it, but I was scared.

In the end, he did. We finalized our plan and sneaked into the cave where the Marooner and Starve Cleric were waiting for the perfect time. After we entered, we clashed with them. All of our friends died there, but that was the decision they made. They sacrificed themselves to save humanity!

Tian Ling and I fought arduously. When all our friends died, there were still many Starve Cleric agents, the Marooner on top of all them. Tian Ling looked at me and did the most craziest thing I have seen in my life. He ate the orb. He swallowed the orb to save everyone. It was a crazy thing, but later he turned into a humanoid dragon.

I know that the dragon caused a lot of bloodshed and killed close to a hundred humans, but all of you should remember why that dragon came to be first. Tian Ling sacrificed himself to save all those humans!” Mihr Orril was crying at this point. He looked at the cameras recording him and left. “Meager sacrifices compared to the future of humankind! Which one is more important?”