Chapter 226: End Of Him
The battlefield continued to deteriorate at a pace that none of them could ignore. The fragile balance that had once held Michael’s camp together now completely gone as their numbers thinned with every passing moment.
What had once been a coordinated force had turned into scattered pockets of resistance, with each group struggling to survive under the relentless pressure of Red’s advancing troops. The distance between life and death narrowed with every second that passed.
From above the crystal wall, Hana saw everything.
Her hands tightened against the edge as her eyes moved rapidly across the battlefield, trying to take in too many things at once.
Panic rose uncontrollably in her chest as the reality unfolded in front of her, clearer than anything she had imagined.
Around her, the others assigned to ranged support stood frozen in place, their weapons still in hand but their confidence gone. Their expressions filled with the same fear and confusion that gripped her.
"They’re... they’re collapsing..." one of them said, his voice shaking as he stared downward. "Our numbers are dropping too fast..."
Another one of them swallowed hard before speaking, unable to tear his gaze away from the chaos. "Myles and the others are holding the elites but they can’t break through. They’re stuck."
"And... Michael..." a third voice cut in, quieter, almost afraid to say it out loud. "He’s down... I... I think he’s already—"
"Don’t say it!" someone else snapped, but the fear remained in their eyes.
All of them turned toward Hana.
"What do we do now?" one of them asked, his voice strained. "Hana... what should we do?"
She didn’t answer immediately.
Her lips pressed tightly together as her gaze dropped again toward the battlefield, locking onto the center where Michael lay motionless, surrounded by destruction.
Her chest tightened painfully as doubt and fear clashed inside her, threatening to paralyze her just like the others.
"If I hesitate... more of them will die..."
She bit her lower lip hard enough to taste blood as her eyes hardened despite the trembling in her body.
Then she spoke.
"We’re going down."
Her voice came out firm, cutting through the panic even as the emotion behind it remained.
"I’ll go to Michael and heal him," she continued quickly, forcing herself to stay steady. "All of you go down and support the others. We can’t let the troop collapse any further."
Silence followed for a few seconds. They hesitated.
The battlefield below looked like a death trap, and all of them saw it clearly. The hesitation showed in their eyes, in the way their grips tightened on their weapons but their feet refused to move.
"We... we might not make it..." one of them said quietly.
Hana’s head snapped toward them.
"Go!" she shouted, her voice rising sharply as the fear inside her turned into urgency. "They’re still fighting down there! Your friends are still alive!"
Her chest rose and fell heavily as she took a step forward, her gaze burning with determination despite the fear still lingering beneath it.
"If you stay here... then they’ll die and you all will regret it because you are too afraid to do anything!"
That broke the hesitation.
Without waiting any longer, Hana moved first. She pushed herself off the crystal wall and dropped down toward the battlefield below, her figure descending rapidly as she headed straight toward Michael’s position without looking back.
For a moment, the others remained where they stood.
Then they looked at each other. No one said anything.
But the decision passed between them anyway.
One by one, reluctantly, they stepped forward and followed her down into the chaos.
—
Michael’s vision wavered as the world around him blurred into shifting shapes and fading colors. The violent clash between Red and Myles became nothing more than flashes of movement and bursts of light that his eyes struggled to follow.
The sharp ringing of their weapons echoed only faintly in his ears, distant and hollow, as if it belonged to another place far removed from where he lay.
Every breath he took felt heavier than the last, dragging painfully through his chest while the wound across his body burned and throbbed without end, refusing to let him forget the damage he had already suffered.
His fingers twitched weakly against the ground, but no strength followed.
"So this is... how it ends..."
The thought formed slowly, weighed down by exhaustion and something else that pressed against his chest far more painfully than any injury.
His body screamed in agony. But his mind had already begun to drift, pulled away from the battlefield as the noise and chaos lost their meaning.
His gaze moved again, barely managing to hold onto the figures ahead.
He saw Red and Myles. They were still fighting. Still moving forward and standing.
And he wasn’t.
A bitter feeling spread through him as his lips parted slightly. A faint breath escaping that carried no strength behind it.
"I wasn’t enough..."
The words echoed quietly in his mind, heavier than anything he had thought before. Everything he had done, everything he had chased, everything he had believed in... all of it felt distant, like something that no longer belonged to him.
"All of it... was pointless..."
The image of his comrades surfaced one by one, clearer than the battlefield in front of him.
He saw their faces, he remembered their voices, he remembered the trust they had placed in him without hesitation. They had followed him. Believed in him.
And he had brought them here.
To die.
His chest tightened as suffocating and inescapable guilt pressed down on him.
"I led them here... I got them killed..."
His breathing grew weaker and slower.
The pain didn’t disappear, but it no longer held the same feeling. It faded into the background as a colder feeling settled in its place, a quiet acceptance that spread through him whether he wanted it or not.
Then... she appeared again.
Not as a broken memory this time, but as a calmer figure, something untouched by the chaos that had consumed everything else. Her face remained clear in his mind, her eyes looking at him the same way they used to.
For a moment, the battlefield disappeared. Only her remained.
But even that brought no comfort.
His chest tightened again, weaker this time, as a faint tremor passed through him.
"I’m sorry..."
The words came out silently, carried only within his fading thoughts.
"I couldn’t save you... I couldn’t avenge you... and now... I can’t even face you..."
A hollow feeling spread through him as that realization settled deeper than anything before. Even in the afterlife, he felt unworthy to meet her. Not because he failed to live, but because he had failed in everything he wanted to do before reaching this point.
"I don’t deserve to stand in front of you..."
His vision dimmed further.
The light around him faded slowly as the battlefield slipped away piece by piece.
The clash between Red and Myles no longer reached him. The screams, chaos, destruction... all of it disappeared into silence.
His body grew cold against the ground. His chest rose once more. Then it slowly fell. And didn’t rise again.
Michael died with regret filling the last of his thoughts, carried into the darkness without peace.
—
