I shouted. There were no words to my anger. That man had just sent his army to its death. He had slaughtered elves and dwarfs alike. And those feelings—what joined the words in my mind—were not of hatred, or arrogance, or pride. I felt that the demon emperor was happy to see me. I knew he was relieved!

In my dreams, I often walked through the halls of the Daz Baradash. I passed the statues of my forefathers, the ancient paragons of all dwarf-kind, and stepped onto the palace terrace. From the doorway, I could see my father and my mother, the queen. He was in his robes, and they were talking, but I was always too far to hear the words. The look on their faces—relief, that kingdom was safe—filled me with gladness.

The demon emperor felt that same gladness, for me.

I charged him; axes twirled in my hands. I screamed, drove my axe toward his neck. We clashed on the hill. I drove him toward the dirt, crashed through his guard. His longsword shattered and my axe found his sword arm. Blood splashed across the hill. The demon emperor fell against a boulder.

“How can I reach you?” he asked as blood poured through his split plate sleeve.

I panted heavily. The demon emperor’s own blood had painted my armor. I stepped forward and raised my axe.

Orange, reptilian eyes glowed at me from the shadow of the emperor’s helm.

[Because you have the eyes, I know you can see the truth,] the emperor said again to my mind. [Balagrim Dazka, you are not real. This world is a fake, created as a game by perverse gods. Only our eyes can understand that truth. Only we can challenge it!]

I heard these words and knew them to be true.

“That may be so,” I said to him. “But you have attacked my kin. I cannot let you live.”

The demon emperor’s eyes rounded. By the connection in our eyes, I knew he was shocked. “That is your answer?” he asked.

“The love I have for my kin is real,” I said.

The demon emperor closed his eyes. “I understand,” he said.

There was silence and I hesitated to slash my blade. It wasn’t his revelations that gave me pause. I leapt backward and the ground erupted in dirt. Ballistae?! was the word that rushed to the front of my mind, but through the dust I saw a purple light. I saw the shadow of a woman in the cloud of debris.

“You’ll have to forgive him,” she said. “He had it in his head that you would listen to reason, but I knew you better.”

Her voice was familiar. It carried a calm elegance that I had heard on my trips abroad, when I visited the realms of mankind, and the elves. My bones shivered and I readied my axes.

“Queen Evylence?” I asked.

She stepped through the smoke. “You’re not the only one with darkvision,” she said with a smile. Her eyes glowed with purple light.

“What are you doing here?!” I shouted.

“I’m saving the demon emperor’s life,” she answered.

It sounded unbelievable, but she bore the cursed eyes. By our connection, I knew that she spoke the truth. She didn’t just save the demon emperor, she served him!

We had heard from the elves how the demon emperor ‘ad devastated their land. Their king, slain. Their capital destroyed and their forests burned. The smoke from that devastation had turned our summer skies orange with ash. They said queen Evylence had been murdered by the demon emperor.

“H-He—” I could not form my words, but by our eyes, she knew my feelings. She smirked at me.

“There have been a trillion queen Evylences,” she said. “A trillion happy kingdoms, a trillion dead kings, and vengeful queens that defended the world. I knew you would be too stubborn to think about it, even for a moment. What does this game say about the lives we choose to live?”

I wouldn’t listen to her. I couldn’t. Curse my eyes! Her words carried feelings into my mind. If I didn’t attack, I would believe strange things. Axes firm in ‘and, I charged up the hill. She dashed towards me.

I had known queen Evylence as a quiet, beautiful elf. Her king was proud, boisterous, and loud, and that nature made him a good fit for dwarfen diplomacy. We shared drinks at his table and laughed away the old grudges of our people, but Evylence rarely said a word. She smiled and spoke when spoken to, but answered briefly and took no joy in the conversation.

“Why is she so quiet?” the king once responded as we stood at the tree-top balcony of living wood. We looked out over the day with drinks in our hand. He was a beautiful man himself, with a clean-shaven face and short raven black hair, but he made a sad smile as if to diminish his charms. “She’s happy, but… I don’t think she likes me.”

Was it a matter of love?

“No,” he had said. “It’s the kingdom, you see? Her position and responsibility mean she can’t be her true self.”

I now realized what he meant, as Evylence drove her fist through my stomach and sent me tumbling down the hill. “We can do this three ways,” Evylence said as I gasped for breath. “Sit down and listen to the Demon Emperor, or I break your bones and force you to listen. If you’d rather, I can beat you to an inch of your life and leave you with just your ears.”

She flexed her biceps as she cracked her knuckles.

What was I hearing? Evylence ‘ad lost her mind! She had turned her once luscious hair into a bob cut. Her fair skin and beautiful fair face were dirtied by mud, and tanned by months under the sun. She looked nothing like a queen I had known. She had turned fierce, like a demon!

“What would your husband say?” I asked and spat blood across the mud.

She frowned and dashed toward me. She was faster than the wind! For a moment, I saw her face. He would say, ‘at least she’s happy now,’ or something. Isn’t that right? were the words I heard before her foot connected with my head. I was kicked across the field and into the dirt.

I clambered to my feet. The din of battle ‘ad grown closer and I knew the demon army was nearly through. If I distracted her for a moment or longer, the hill would be overrun and we would finish the demon emperor for good.

“Why would you serve him?!” I shouted.

She smiled and charged me again. I saw there was no speaking with her. If I was going to survive, I had to fight! We clashed at the foot of the hill, traded blows with flesh and steel. Her skin was like iron to my attacks, but after three hits, I drew blood. Her eyes flashed like amethyst to a miner’s candle and the head of my axe was broken on her fist. She grabbed me by the arm and punched me into the ground.

I looked at her with my good eye, reddened further by blood. Evylence was injured. Blood poured down the slice I delivered to her arm. Yet, she smiled still. She gleamed like a gemstone in the sweat of battle. She was still beautiful.

“You’re powered by rage, aren’t you?” she asked. “Why haven’t you used your rage, Balagrim? Why won’t you cut loose with those eyes of yours?”

I didn’t realize it ‘til much later. Not until… long, long after that battle. She was trying to get me to think. Thoughts moved the poison deeper into my mind; curiosity, wonder, and doubt. She wanted me to ask: Why am I not angry? Evylence was also trying to buy time.

It was my loss.

While I was in the muck, the demon emperor turned up. He stepped beside her, a dark light mending at his injury. “It’s time,” he said. His orange eyes brightened with flame.

“The army is annihilated?” Evylence asked him. They ignored me where I laid.

“I’ve reaped their souls,” the demon emperor said. “The mana I have now should be sufficient.”

Evylence looked at me. “Raise your axe,” she said. “You have one left. Don’t you have the strength to kill the demon emperor?”

The emperor glanced at me. I’m sorry, were the words conveyed to my mind. [I had hoped we could be… comrades.]

Comrades, that was what he said to me. He spoke the truth.

“Firestorm,” the demon emperor said. “Level 6.”

A hundred flaming projectiles rained down from the sky. I fell on my back and watched them as falling stars that bombarded the battlefield. I heard the screams of my dwarfs that burned on the field. They were destroyed.

“Firestorm,” the demon emperor said again.

“Firestorm.”

“Firestorm.”

From the ground, I wondered at my defeat. I apologized to my father, my mother, and my kin. I ‘ad brought my axe against the enemy, but I had fallen. The anger that fueled me, failed me in that final moment. I could not hate the demon emperor.

[Every day, I watched my life pass by,] Evylence had communicated to my mind, in the moment before her fist shattered my axe. [Year on year flit by my eyes, and I said this was fine, because my life was long and my heart was full. Then the demon emperor destroyed my kingdom. I realized, as the palace burned, that I felt okay. It felt fine to live… and fine to die. His words—what touched my mind—made me understand. One could be a lie, but neither could be true!]

[I wanted to live a meaningful life!]