“Fuck!” Bellona shouted loudly while pacing back and forth as various soldiers scattered around her. She pulled at her hair as she continued to pace to and fro, gaining the worried looks of the soldiers as they questioned whether Bellona was still mentally intact. Arylos and Iris couldn’t help but watch Bellona as she continued her shouting. “Fffuck!” she continued as her voice cracked as Iris watched her with sorrowful eyes as she rubbed Arylos’s shoulders, trying to find a way of splitting up her attention so she could help both the troubled Templarian and depressed Titan.

“Bellona, it’ll be okay,” Iris said, trying her hardest to find words to calm down the shaken goddess of war.

“No no, there is no ‘okay’ Iris,” Bellona retorted as her voice continued to crack. “This, this is fucked. We’re all fucked. You’re telling me that the Eikons would go so far as nuclear war?”

“I tried to warn you; they don’t care about any of us,” Arylos said softly while rubbing his eyes.

“But this? This? We’re so not prepared for this,” Bellona continued while sighing loudly in shaking breaths as she paced around in the small makeshift barracks in the city walls. “There’s no way this world could have been ready for that; they dropped a nuclear bomb right on this city and none of us realized it.”

Arylos let out a sigh as he moved his hand away from his face. “Bellona–”

“And you! You tore a hole in that fucking bomb!” Bellona said loudly while pointing right at Arylos, prompting Iris to stand in between the immortals. “Now it’s spilling that shit everywhere and these people are woefully and hilariously unprepared.”

“You’re used to the glory of war; the parts where you overcome an evil or take from the strong,” Arylos said in a deep yet sad growl that carried no hostility towards Bellona. “The Eikons don’t care about land or resources; only their goal. They see the corpses in the street and see only reinforcements to recruit; anything else is not worth their time. This isn’t war to them; it’s pest control.”

“And that’s supposed to make me feel better?” Bellona said in an accusing tone while pointing towards Arylos again. “Do you have any idea how royally fucked we are right now? I don’t think you get just how bad it is.”

“Do not assume you know anything about me; I know just what is at stake and what I risk losing,” Arylos said with anger finally flashing in his red eyes as his tone changed to a darker, more draconic sound. “I have lost a lot more to the Eikons than you will ever understand.”

Bellona backed down a little and turned away from Arylos while crossing her arms, thinking about Arylos’s words while her own anger continued to grow. “But fucking nuclear warfare? This world isn’t ready for that, Arylos. These people may have just been condemned to death.”

Arylos lowered his head and let out a shuddered sigh as he regained control of his rage. “I know, and I could do nothing about it.”

Iris took her chance and knelt down next to Arylos, rubbing his back to keep him grounded. “You did what you could; a lot more people could have died,” she told him in a soft voice.

“I could have done more,” Arylos said in a soft voice that broke Iris’s heart to hear.

“Either way, we still have the radiation to worry about,” Bellona said with a heavy sigh as she regained her composure. “It’s going to start killing everyone who’s out in the city until no one’s left. We don’t have a whole lot of options.”

“Bellona is right,” a man’s thick voice said as a tall and imposing Moviron entered the barracks. The Templarian king stepped forward like a giant with his thundering footsteps silencing the one sided discussion. He grabbed a barrel from one side of the room and set it down in front of Arylos and waved his hand towards the soldiers in the room and they began filing out, leaving the Templarians and the Titan alone with Iris to keep him company.

“We have little more options other than to wait it out in the caverns at this point,” Moviron continued with a deep sigh as he sat down on the barrel. “It’s not a solution, but it’s the only option we can consider at this point. That way, the people are exposed to as little of the radiation as possible until a better option comes forward.”

“There is no way to get rid of it though; Sentoraya is better off abandoned at this point,” Bellona jumped in with an annoyed voice.

“And lose our ancestral home? The same home that thousands of my people fought and endured slavery to keep?” Moviron said with a stern voice that was furious and yet calm.

“He’s right; what other options do we have?” Iris cut in, feeling the pressure overwhelm her.

“This is nuclear war; there are no options,” Bellona answered Iris in a just as stern voice.

“You know that doesn’t mean anything to her,” Arylos said softly in Iris’s defense.

“And you shouldn’t speak for her like she’s still a child,” Bellona said as her voice started to get louder.

“Mind your tongue before I relieve you of it,” Arylos said in a deep animalistic growl that made Iris actually fear for Bellona.

“That’s enough from both of you!” Moviron called out loudly, silencing Bellona and Arylos before either of them could retort. Arylos lowered his head back down, prompting Iris to pull him close as she began to feel sorry for him.

“You said it’s dangerous to be around Vortex’s body, but we were right there next to it; so what will happen to us?” Iris asked Arylos softly.

Arylos sighed and rubbed his eyes once more, trying to formulate an answer for Iris. “The longer we’re exposed to the corpse, the more years it will take off of our lives. With how close we got, you might not have fifty or seventy years left in your life, but maybe twenty before you start to get sick or maybe less. The more exposure you get, the shorter that time frame gets.”

“But you’ll be okay?” Iris asked softly.

“Maybe in a past life, but not now,” Arylos said while shaking his head. “This body is dying and this is certainly not helping my case. I may not die, but this body will; the amount of time I have left in this body is quickly growing short the more exposed I get.”

Iris found no words for Arylos as she thought about how quickly her lifespan was already reduced. She felt no different than before, but her life was already halved. As she wrapped her other arm around Arylos to embrace him, she realized he was right; it was a death so violent that the soul moved on while the body was still catching up. She knew she had much to learn, but already the horror of the Eikons was made obvious to her; those who died in the battle were the lucky ones while the survivors slowly died of a cursed disease.

“What are our options then?” Moviron asked while stroking his beard.

Arylos shrugged with a nervous laugh, knowing that he had nothing to give Moviron. “Stay in the caverns where the radiation can be minimized,” he said while slapping his hands on his lap like he had given up. “That will cause other problems down the line but it sure as shit beats being out there.”

“What problems?” Moviron asked, pushing forward to formulate a plan.

Arylos let out another nervous laugh and shook his head. “The radiation will seep into the soil, poison any groundwater and sterilize any farms within two hundred leagues of the city. The rock of the mountain will slow it down, but only slow it. While being here will minimize the acute effects of the radiation, we’ll still see illness and disease in the future for a lot of people here.”

“What about deeper into the mountain?” Bellona asked while crossing her arms. “We could go into the deeper caverns to avoid the radiation.”

“Then we lack water,” Moviron cut in with a deep growling voice. “As Arylos said, it will seep into the groundwater, and many of the springs on this side of the mountain are fed from runoff from the mountains that mix with the aquifers under the ground.”

“Meaning a large portion of drinking water will be contaminated,” Arylos concluded while stroking his beard in time with Moviron. “You can’t satisfy all needs from the runoff and ice melt alone; you would need a river or aquiver.”

“What about going north?” Iris asked softly.

“Out of the question,” Moviron immediately cut in while waving her off. “The north is nothing but a barren wasteland left over from the Dragon Wars.”

“He’s right; the only thing up there is rock and an endless blizzard,” Arylos said in agreement while rubbing his eyes.

“Well it’s not like we have very many options,” Iris said with a shrug of her shoulders.

“You’re right, we don’t,” Moviron said with a heavy sigh while looking up at the ceiling. “At least in the mountain, we can be protected. Who would think that the former castle of the Reig would serve as our refuge.”

“Sooner or later, the illness will take you,” Arylos warned in a sad voice.

“Sure it will; if anything, I’m betting on it,” Moviron said with a firm nod as he got up from the barrel. “We need to make it through the winter. After then, we may be able to leave and repurpose other areas of the Plains. There’s more fertile farmland out there that we can rebuild from.”

“That’s a long time to wait,” Bellona said cautiously, her expression softening.

“Yes it is, but he’s right; if we stay in the caverns, the radiation will kill us now and later,” Moviron said with heavy shoulders burdened with purpose. “I’ll be off to prepare. We still have a lot of dead to locate and bury. Not to mention I’ll have to wall off the Eikon’s corpse to limit exposure in the city.”

“We can reuse some of the rubble from the wall for that,” Bellona said as the idea came to her.

Arylos nodded and cut a proud smile. “Then I’ll hel–”

“No, you two will stay here,” Moviron ordered in a stern voice.

“I can still help; let me,” Arylos said in a growling voice that still carried a pleading tone.

Moviron sighed and shook his head as he approached Arylos and rested his hand on the Titan’s shoulder. “You made your sacrifice, and you fought well; better than I did, and it cost you your strength. You deserve rest.” Moviron then cast a glance towards Iris and gave her a warm smile. “And I trust you to watch him and make sure he’s getting his deserved rest.”

“I can’t fucking rest, not until I fix what happened,” Arylos said in a deep growl that couldn’t hide his anger.

“You protected Sentoraya and ensured that there are survivors left, no matter how much time they have left,” Moviron said softly while heading towards the door. “Regain your strength, then we may talk about the next actions.”

As Moviron went through the door, Bellona nodded in silence and followed the Kaiyumian king, leaving Iris and Arylos alone. Arylos took in the silence and covered his face, digging his nails into his scalp as he fought against his anger. Iris sighed as she kept her arms around the Titan, knowing just how deep he was hurting. She knew he blamed himself and that blame runs deep for him.

All he wanted was the chance to repent for a sin that wasn’t his.