What have I done?

A hundred men for one. Was it worth it? Definitely not.

I'm a failure, I'm an idiot.

I risked my whole crew just to save one man. I survived, but I don't deserve it.

I saw with my own eyes, my ship eaten by flames, plummeted to the center of the dark ocean.

The crystal water froze my body, killing me every now and then. The plank I was holding was as fragile as I was, and if it broke, so would I.

I saw my men, jumping off from the deck with flames upon their skin. The yellow flares glared in front of me like an angry god, eating everything that angers him.

The last thing I saw before darkness overtook my body was flames.

−

Fire. It's my friend. It's my enemy.

Loud murmurs. Constant noises.

Darkness.

My eyes shifted my consciousness back to the real world. I was in the center of darkness. I was eaten by darkness.

Light. The yellow light shone pass me. Two torches outside illuminated half the cage through the iron bars, leaving the other half to utter darkness.

Shame and desperation. Anger and sadness. Failure and contempt.

"Wakey wakey, monstrosity." My cage shook after the voice destroyed my moment of silence. The heavy voice came from the bearded man. His armor... Nile Empire... Foe.

"Where am I?" The weak voice didn't feel like mine, but it came from my mouth.

"You're in Gabbia."

Gabbia. Cage. Gladiator.

"Why were you attacking us?" The man asked me, but it was more to his curious private self, not for the purpose of the empire. It wasn't interrogation.

"My brother. You people took my brother."

"Who is it you talk about?"

"My brother! Gezio O'Rama. You attacked our peaceful town, murdered thousands. You kidnapped the young ones, killed the olds. You're filthy animals!" My voice came like a thunder in the middle of a dessert.

"Which town? We conquered so many."

"Kazebel Town. The northern!"

"Ah, that pathetic town. And you're here to rescue one man from slavery with one hundred civilians using a pathetically armed boat. You do realize you're charging into the heart of our kingdom, right?"

I didn't answer. The plan was simple. It was to attack one of the marginal naval bases when the small team extracted my brother from the House of Loin. The reality was harsh and the plan didn't get a chance.

The pretentious gate flung open as the sunlight filled the tiny jail. Hundreds of cages around me were all full of people, and they twitched like they never touched the light before.

Two guards with golden armors marched toward me, bringing their clinging swords on their waist.

"King Armatheus wished him right now. The Janggletorn is ready," one of the guards shot.

"The Janggletorn? He's too weak to fight a janggletorn. His whiny ass won't stand one second with the beast," answered the man.

"An order is to be done, Knight Duvver. If you are protecting this prisoner, you are violating the King's Rule and to be imprisoned accordingly."

"I'm not protecting this peasant."

"Then get out of our way!"

The man addressed as Knight Duvver moved from the path of the guards. The metal cage clanked as the door unlocked. They jolted me to the ground, dodging my body and forcing it to stand. I could feel my head burning and my eyes shimmering when the same gate swung open, revealing the gigantic arena.

I stomped the white sand, skipping and hurtling here and there as my eyes scrambled around to find this King Armatheus. The gladiator was the widest I had ever encountered. The size alone was six times larger than our municipal building. Thousands or maybe hundred thousands of yelling mass filled the air with excitement, burning every spirit I had to dust.

A large balcony was in the middle of the audience, but the platform was higher. I could witness four figures up there, and one started to speak.

"My fellow Nilan warriors. We are here now, in The Grand Gabbia, for the execution of this... filthy criminal. He will fight the janggletorn with all his might, and will die with no respect and no mercy." The speaker stopped. I assumed he was the famed King Armatheus. "Lend him the weapon!"

An axe appeared out of thin air in my clutching arms. I watched so many of this Gabbias before, but never had I imagine being in one to fight a janggletorn.

The axe glimmered as its skin grew yellow. The axe was on fire.

"Release the janggletorn!"

Everyone yelled, shouting the janggletorn's name when the stomping feet started to move out of the gate from across.

The magical beast of janggletorn was a myth until the Nile Empire discovered the first one. It was almost twice taller than me, and its shape was that of an ancient human. Its dark blue body bled the sand out with liquid shadow. Its foggy, black eyes blistered the atmosphere, grasping me with fear and panic.

The janggletorn took its burning sword. The audience cheered some more, altering the excited air into the competitive air.

The canon boomed from somewhere, sending the hurling ball of fire right above us as it blew into a giant explosion.

I charged. I fronted my legs with a constant throbbing in my chest. My breath was controllable, but my eyes blinked everywhere to find escape.

The magical, human-like creature jumped in front of me, but before I could tan it with my heavy axe, it disappeared in mid-air. I was kicked from the back, and then my mouth shoved the sand in utter hurry.

The flaming sword plunged toward my head, but I dodged the attack from the ground, shoveling its legs with mine. The janggletorn fell, but it disappeared again into thin air.

It summoned above me, toppling my head to the ground with no effort. I was dodging his sword attack one by one, but then, its eyes turned red.

He burst out molting lava from his mouth, burning the sand before me. The lava spurt out of him madly, and erupting unlimited hot magma toward my body. The red form of liquid hissed as it hit my left shoulder.

I backed myself as the scream exited my mouth when the pain blistered. The crowds grew louder and louder, screaming for the janggletorn's name like he was their god.

"I'm not scared of your 'tricks' you son of a−" My body flew backward after the wind just splashed my body to the air. It flung weightlessly after the janggletorn stomped his foot to the sand, causing the earth and the wind to brush me off the ground.

My head clashed toward the soft sand, my skin burned with the unbearable light from the nearest sun. The janggletorn teleported again above me, but I deflected his attack with my bare axe. It shoved me. It pushed harder and harder, aiming for my heart.

I wiggled free and kick the beast with my foot.

The janggletorn was now infuriated. Its hairs were flying like there was no gravity. Then it turned to blue flames that barked to me.

The janggletorn's chest grew red, as if something burned inside there. Then its neck turned red, and then the mouth.

Gigantic flow of flame burst toward me with the biggest scale I could possibly imagine. The flame could reach half an acre and burn everything in its path. But before that could happened, I positioned my axe in front of me and breathe... just breathe.

Everything froze, the time had stopped. The flow of fire halted in the air.

I remembered. I remembered what mother taught me in my last day of practice, before she was killed by the famed king.

"Hagaiden zenith couldavistoken." My voice was like a whisper, but magic happened one second before the flame burned me alive.

A loud explosion happened, the wind around me muttered, the fire erupted, the wind detonated into a huge blast around the center of the arena. I could hear people screaming, boulders thumping down, buildings toppled each other.

−

Smoke blocked my sight, but the wind grew and the smoke was blown out, clearing my sight of my surroundings.

The once magnificent architecture of the gladiator... of the Gabbia Arena, now were rubbles and mass grave of death. Smoke and fire burned down the city. The wind whipped the city clean, flattening everything in its way. Just like that, the Nile Empire is gone. Gone forever. Gone from history. Gone from existence.

I coughed and reached the body of the janggletorn. Its body shifted. Then, convulsions overtook its body. Its dark form started to shift, morphing into its other form.

He lied dead on the ground. His eyes were shut tight and his chest didn't move. He died in the hands of the true monster. Me.

He died as a hero. My brother died saving the world.