Over the following days, dragons fell to the Reaper’s claws by the dozens. Soon, Peacock would delete all of Zenith Flight’s monsters. The truth brought Peacock satisfaction, but no happiness. The dragon-free world wouldn’t be his.
Every few hours, Peacock could feel the chains of the Overseer closing in on him, reaching out to delete him as he’d deleted so many others. Each time, Peacock would burn a handful of unknown orbs, shifting his data to a new location in the living code of M and M. But the Overseer was learning. Soon he’d have no escape.
His impending doom didn’t sadden him. He deserved it. After all, even though he’d shirked Zenith’s yoke, he’d taken his teachings to heart. He was a murderer, a murderer who rushed at ever greater speeds to extinguish every coordinate glowing in his mind.
His current target lay below, shrouded in a thicket of swamp trees and stinking gas a short distance away from Genua’s border. An interesting place considering the Hissing Bog remained thick with Rebirths fleeing Zenith Flight’s destruction.
Peacock kept his stealth in place as he dropped silently to the marshy ground. As much as he enjoyed seeing his prey’s vain struggles to get away, time wasn’t on his side. In less than an hour, the Overseer would come knocking again, burning more of his precious orbs.
Peacock’s hands and feet sank into mossy sludge, an unpleasant sensation he barely registered in his hyper-focused mind. The knotted clump of scraggly trees sprouted out of a solid patch of dark earth and mushrooms. At the center of the thicket lay a hidden entrance to an underground lair.
To a random passerby, the patch of dirt would look like every other in the swamp. With full knowledge of the dragon nestled underneath, Peacock could see the telltale symmetrical repetitions of an illusion spell.
Peacock slithered into a tunnel barely twice his size. A younger dragon, then. The solid rock walls angled down near vertical. Considering the utter lack of natural stone in the swamp, it seemed this dragon still had unknown orbs to burn.
The tunnel led straight to a cavern, an escape tunnel arching out on the other side. The entire structure screamed desperation, a wild attempt to hide from the inevitable.
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Peacock’s heart skipped a beat. A red and pink dragon lay curled up in front of him. “Alainn?”
The dragon jerked. They came up on all fours as they spun, unfurling four webbed wings.
Peacock frowned. The dragon had fooled them for a second, but whoever this was, they weren’t Alainn. Although their delicate features and red scales with pink points were similar, the eyes were all wrong. Fearful rage shone in those eyes, with no hint of the intelligence and iron will Peacock had grown to love.
“It’s Haven, Peacock. Haven’t we spent enough time together for you to know that?”
Peacock flared his wings in surprise as a small reptilian form stepped from behind the other dragon and looked straight at him.
“You might as well drop the stealth. I figured out how to see through that ages ago.”
Peacock did so, stepping further into the cavern to consider Haven’s unexpected arrival. As a Reborn victim of Zenith Flight, Peacock knew she wouldn’t show up in his coordinates. He never expected her to show up next to one who did.
“Haven! What are you doing here?”
His target tucked their wings tight and inched toward the escape tunnel.
Haven shook her head. "Don’t, Creile. You won’t get away like that. Stay here and let’s talk.” She eyed Peacock. “We’re just here to talk, right?”
“No, Haven. I’m not here to talk.” Peacock growled at her dismissal of his mission. “You know that.”
Haven’s face fell, a show of sadness which reminded Peacock of the sorry state he’d left her in. “I certainly do now. When you took off, I accepted what you had to do to take down Zenith Flight. Kill their characters, even if you decided to die in the process. But then I’m told that you’re not just killing characters, you’re killing Rebirths. Wiping them out of existence!” Her voice shifted even higher than normal. “I supported your need for vengeance, and the need to break apart Zenith Flight. I can’t condone the wholesale murder of Rebirths, Peacock. I just can’t.”
Peacock struggled to make sense of her words. Didn’t she understand the stakes? “These,” he waved a hand at the trembling red dragon, “are torturers we’re talking about. They tear each other apart for fun. Destroy cities, hold others hostage. They’re the worst of humanity, given stolen power and immortality, and they use it to make this world a living hell. They proved where their tastes lie when they joined Zenith. No amount of character deaths can change what they are, Haven. I may be a murderer, but sometimes you have to fight evil with evil.”
“No. This is worse than anything Zenith Flight did. This… this is monstrous.”
“Yes, it is. But that doesn’t change the fact it needs to be done.”
Peacock lunged at the dragon. Haven leaped to intercept. Anger rose red hot in Peacock’s chest, choking the urge to stop his attack. His claws sunk into soft flesh, and Haven crumpled, her outstretched arms going limp as she disintegrated.