I do not own Chaotic nor anything related to it. It belongs to TCDigital.

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The Heavy Price of Victory

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"Osiris!"

The voice is so far away...

"Prince Osiris!"

I want to open my eyes...

"I think he can hear me! Osiris!"

Eyes... please... open...

"Osiris! Michael!"

There's the tiniest bit of light. My eyelids feel like lead.

Above me is a white-feathered creature in a green tunic. Frafdo.

"His eyes are open!" Frafdo calls out. "Hang in there, Osiris!"

Too heavy... My eyes close by themselves...

"Don't go to sleep!"

I open my eyes slowly. My vision is fuzzy, like a badly tuned television set. I can see the creature above me, but just barely. He flickers in and out of view.

"Look at me, Osiris!" Frafdo shouts. He stands up and waves his arms. "I need a muge!"

Another faraway voice... "Minor Flourish! Restore Prince Osiris!"

I can hear a song overhead, and a light blue light is descending towards me. Dah, dah dee dah, dee, daaah daaah...

I am awake. I can feel my strength returning to me. I sit up and scramble to me feet, and Frafdo stumbles backwards and floats off the edge of the rock.

"Is everyone all right?" I ask. My heart's pounding.

"Not everyone," Frafdo mutters.

Now my heart's frozen. "How many?" I ask, dreading the answer.

"Several hundred," Frafdo cringes.

No... No, no, no. "Who?"

Frafdo opens his mouth, then closes it.

"Who?!" I shout.

Frafdo extends a hand to me. "I'll show you."

I grab his hand tightly, and he lifts into the air.

...There are so many people lying on the ground... chests ripped open, pools of blood surrounding them. So many people who won't be going home...

There's Iflar, though, thankfully alive. Mudeenu, too. They're kneeling over a body-

"NO!" I release Frafdo's hand and fall ten feet to the ground. I scramble over to where Iflar and Mudeenu are. They're sobbing. I sink to my knees as well. My heart withers a little in my chest.

Lying on the ground, armor torn open and a gaping hole in his chest, is King Theb-sarr.

"No," I say again. "No! You can't die!"

Theb-sarr's blank stare at the sky says otherwise, though.

"Father..." Iflar chokes out. "Father, I'm not ready yet... Please come back..."

Mudeenu lifts up Theb-sarr's left hand and presses his forehead against it. "I'm sorry..." he sobs. "I'm sorry for everything I've done..."

Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Mipedians approaching and bowing to the ground. Humans, too, from Al Mipedim.

The other tribes give us our space. I'm grateful for that. We need some time... some time alone...

Many minutes pass. Finally, I stand up and place my hand on Iflar's shoulder. "We need you right now," I whisper.

Iflar looks up at me. "I... I'm not ready..."

"Your father said you were," I say. "Stand up." I need to do this now, before I break down again.

Iflar slowly gets to his feet, and I kneel in front of him. Normally this would be done at the throne room, but I feel this can't wait. "All hail King Iflar," I say as firmly as I can. "Long live King Iflar."

"Long live King Iflar," says the crowd around us.

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So many funerals...

Theb-sarr has been mummified and buried in the royal family's crypt. Nobody was able to find his heart at Lake Blakeer, so a symbol of a heart was cast in gold and laid in his chest.

Aa'une's body was left to rot at Lake Blakeer. It will be ages before the stink goes away.

The palace of Al Mipedim is silent. Even Hera and Jupiter are quiet. Isis still cries herself to sleep every night.

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"Enre-hep?" I don't look up, just say his name. We're in another of his crafted realities, so it's not like there's anyone else I could be talking to anyway.

"Yes?" Iflar had promoted him to High Muge two days ago, but he still wears the rags he wore before.

I take a deep breath and let it out. "I... I want to try to bring Theb-sarr back."

Enre-hep presses his lips together. "From what you told me, you were barely able to kill Aa'une via lucid dreaming. Bringing someone back to life might be outside your abilities."

"I can do this," I insist, but even I can hear the uncertainty in my voice.

Enre-hep sighs. "What's brought this up, Michael? And why didn't you try when you discovered him dead in the first place?"

I hang my head. "He... he didn't deserve it..."

"And neither did the hundreds of others who shared his fate," Enre-hep says. "Will you try to bring them back too?"

I bury my face in my hands. "I don't know..."

"Don't try to play God," Enre-hep says, "no matter how close to being a god you might be in this world. Killing Aa'une was enough, just let the dream continue at its own pace now."

It's completely inappropriate, but I chuckle anyway. "As a part of the dream in question, you telling me this is basically me telling myself." My small grin fades. "It's just... what now?"

"You have a family here," Enre-hep says. "People who look up to you, who turn to you for guidance. You're a prince and a warrior, a leader and a father." He firmly holds my shoulder. "What I suggest is that you take care of those responsibilities."

He's right. I slowly stand up. "How many people saw me, by the way?"

"Saw you?" Enre-hep looks confused. "Killing Aa'une? Damn near everyone did. I'm certain only I know how you did it, though."

I cringe. "So..."

"So when you show your face outside Al Mipedim," Enre-hep grimaces, "expect a lot of attention directed towards you."

As uncomfortable as it sounds, I'll have to face it eventually. "Thank you for crafting this environment for us to speak in," I say as I look around at the illusion of my home on Earth. "I'm ready to face Perim again, though, so I guess we should leave now."

Enre-hep nods and closes his eyes-

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Act V: Warlord is complete!

Act VI: Prosperous is coming!

Up next: The Perithon

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Like I said before, Chaotic belongs to TCDigital.

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