Hey guys! Thanks for the reviews that have come in over the last week or so. Please continue to support and review the story, especially now that the summer is coming round. Thank you to the following people anyway who reviewed my story over the past week: phantom1299(welcome back!), FierceDeity24, A happy reader, DeathDrayanD, Random(nice to meet you), Clytuis, DragonFire03(nice to meet you too), AresTheUnderlander, DragonsBoy, Jallex, theGreatAthlon5(good to hear from you again), HumanicHedgeHog(you chose a good time to return), a guest reader, and last but not least, Alpha Death, who helped me with this chapter.
This chapter deals with some themes and ideas that you personally might not agree with, which is fine. The views in this chapter do not represent my own but I'm using them to develop the plot of the story further. I really hope you enjoy this chapter, which will set up Chapter 15. The next chapter, by the way, is set to be my longest ever and I'm still working my hardest on it to bring it as close to perfection as I possibly can. So here goes Chapter 14.
This chapter is written from Gregor's perspective.
Chapter 14: To the Death
"Did you find the answers you were looking for?" Apollo asked, his soft voice shattering the unearthly silence that had enveloped them for the last couple of hours. Gregor had spent the time brooding and pondering over his conversation with Susannah and York. He felt sympathy for their plight but war was no way to solve the problem. Events in the Underland acted in cycles because of their primitive instinct of turning to war as the solution to conflicts and disputes. And no matter how much injustice they suffered or how justified they were in turning to war, it never ended well.
The reason why Gregor had lost so much faith in hope and morality all those years ago was because of the War of Time, which had banished any lingering doubts about the cruelty of the world he lived in. Calvin may have given him a glimpse of hope, but even that ended up being futile. It had taken the kid long enough, but he had finally figured out how cynical and unforgiving this world could be.
"I think so," Gregor replied tersely.
"I suppose you don't feel like sharing it with me," Apollo deduced from Gregor's flat tone.
"Yea," Gregor told him, "It's kinda private."
Another tense silence ensued, before Apollo said slowly, "You are going to fight Ripred, aren't you?"
Gregor was taken aback by Apollo's blunt statement, before he quickly recovered to reply, "Yes."
"I do not want to hazard a guess why," Apollo continued, "But something tells me that it is personal."
"It is," Gregor confirmed, before giving in to curiosity and asking, "How did you know?"
"I know we fliers do not have an acute sense of smell like the gnawers do, but I can smell anger from a mile away," Apollo explained, "And your anger is particularly intense. You were reeking of it when I picked you up just now."
"But how did you know I want to fight Ripred?" Gregor asked, genuinely intrigued by Apollo's deduction.
"It was quite obvious from the intensity of your anger. I could detect your rager senses still flowing through your body even when you were out of the Fount, which meant that you were prepared to use violence once you got back to Regalia. To be honest, I can still smell it on you right now."
"But how did you know it was Ripred in particular?"
"That's the interesting part. I can still smell fear off you. It may be very subtle and may even be a subconscious fear from your perspective, but it is there. You are scared, and there are not many people in Regalia who fall under the category of scaring the Warrior. In fact, there is only one in Regalia who really jumps to mind. I do not think you fear anyone else, and it is the same fear I got a whiff of earlier when you encountered Ripred before the meeting with the delegates."
Gregor stared ahead grimly. "Are you going to stop me?" he asked Apollo.
"No, Warrior," Apollo answered truthfully, "I will advise you against it, but I will not stop you. How Ripred caused you grief is something you can keep to yourself and is something which you can make your judgement on alone. But if you were to fight him, I urge you not to fight him based on whatever personal hurt he has caused and fight for the good of Regalia."
"I thought you said that Ripred is fighting for Regalia, and that by choosing to protect Luxa I'm fighting against the good of Regalia," Gregor recalled.
"Not necessarily," Apollo replied, "I have had some time to think about it while you were creating all that chaos in the Fount. Ripred may seem to be fighting to save Regalia, but sometimes he is so stubborn and blind to other opinions that he gets lost in his own ideals."
"What do you mean?" Gregor asked, a little confused by Apollo's abstract description of Ripred.
"We can all agree that Ripred is one of the smartest, if not the smartest of all the creatures in the Underland, let alone Regalia. But that does not make him infallible, and neither does that make him right. For all his brilliance, I think he has made one mistake so far."
"And what would that be?"
"Misunderstanding Regalians," Apollo answered, "While Luxa's tenure as monarch has been a turbulent one and while there are many people who want her to abdicate, the fact of the matter is that she still has a good number of ardent followers who would defend her to the death. If Luxa is removed forcefully from the throne, that would undermine any kind of stability we have left, and plunge Regalia back into another civil war, like the one when-"
"-Conrad was king," Gregor finished the sentence for Apollo.
Apollo was right. Ever since Luxa had a statue erected in her honour, it was not a rare sight to see people adoring her statue as if she were a goddess. This kind of fanaticism was something that Gregor didn't approve of, but Apollo was spot on when he said that Regalia would fall into another civil war if Luxa was ousted from power.
"The problem with the Underland these days," Apollo continued, "Is that we are starting to live in a society which is becoming increasingly hopeless and depressing. One day you might be playing with your father at home, and the next day he's flying off to war, knowing that he'll probably never return to play with his children again. And in a society which is devoid of hope and positivity, we turn to powerful entities and worship them as gods and goddesses. Take the Bane, for instance. He is no divine being, yet the rebel gnawers have somehow created a fanatical cult following, worshipping him as a fallen god. Luxa is now being portrayed as an omniscient and omnipotent goddess, and that's why she is failing in the eyes of the people. Luxa is far from being Regalia's worst monarch, but the expectations that rest on her shoulders are crushing her. Regalians expect her to perform miracles as a divine being would despite the fact that she's only human and makes mistakes."
"And every mistake she makes harms her reputation even more, because the people expect the monarch to be a goddess who makes no mistakes," Gregor concluded bitterly, "Sometimes I feel the same way."
"The price we all must pay for being the leaders of this great city," Apollo sighed, "And therein lies the problem with Ripred. He sees Luxa as weak, because she suffers for every mistake she makes. He sees her as an unstable woman who has no idea what she is doing with all that power in her hands. He's not wrong, but he's not right either. The solution is not to kick her off the throne but to reduce the expectations placed on her. That's when she can work in peace and make the right decisions. Ripred trying to force her off the throne is only making the situation worse for her and Regalia."
"He thinks he can do the job she cannot do," Gregor agreed, "he thinks he makes no mistakes."
"Again, he's not entirely wrong," Apollo pointed out, "He's probably the wisest person left in Regalia right now. But there are just far too many political implications by pushing her off the throne, and he's probably so stubborn that the implications do not matter to him. Ripred probably thinks he can crush any revolution without batting an eyelid, but he has no idea. None of you who live in the palace can hear the whispers in the streets and the talks of the bloodshed that these fanatics are willing to go to."
"And then there's our enemies," Gregor added, "They'll see us as weak once Luxa leaves the throne. We'll be pressured by our allies into giving in to their demands and we'll be attacked by the schemers and the rebels. We don't stand a chance without a monarch like Luxa."
"Don't forget Gorger and Conrad," Apollo reminded Gregor, "Gorger is as manipulative a gnawer as you will find and Conrad is still by all accounts alive. Who knows what mayhem those two might create in addition to the ongoing pandemonium?"
"Regalia will be seen as unstable," Gregor realised, "We'd attract too much attention from too many people. Why didn't Ripred consider this?"
"He probably did," Apollo replied frankly, "But he overestimates his own abilities to handle the problem and he underestimates the problems that will come. Ripred's old, Gregor. There's only so much physical and mental strain he can still endure. What if he dies in the midst of handling all these problems? What if somehow we are left with a power vacuum? Is some kind of… what was it called again… ah yes, democratic committee! Is some kind of democratic committee expected to take charge for him?"
"Don't even get me started on democracy," Gregor growled.
"Warrior, the point is that Ripred has fought through all kinds of challenges throughout his life that he no longer understands the concept of his own mortality. Even if Ripred's intentions are noble and even if he executes the plan flawlessly, the chances of Regalia falling apart without a headstrong and charismatic monarch are very high," Apollo reasoned.
There was another short period of silence as they reflected on Apollo's words, before the bat went on to say, "And yes, there is the problem with democracy. We are unfamiliar with such a system, and from what I have heard it is a greatly flawed one. The rule of the majority is very dangerous, especially if the majority is uninformed and is not wise."
"That's precisely what I told Ripred!" Gregor said in exasperation.
"You are certainly not wrong in that respect," Apollo agreed, "A democracy is not based on a fixed set of moral beliefs and principles. It is based on the whim and the fancies of the people, and unless there are checks in the system to counter this problem, then our city will become a downright mess. If we rely on a Council, we are not moving forward at all because the Council currently does possess a lot of power. If we rely on the people, we open ourselves up to a whole plethora of problems."
"And then when these problems happen, Ripred will be forced to take over as an authoritarian leader," Gregor added, "So much for giving the power to the people to decide."
"Yes," Apollo nodded his head, "The problem that Luxa faces as a monarch are not exclusive to her alone. Any monarch in her position would face the same problems. And removing her from power would just result in someone else taking up the position of monarch and assuming the same problems. Democracy may be an appealing ideal, but it is fundamentally impractical in the Underland."
"Finally," Gregor breathed a sigh of relief, "Someone who understands the problem."
"That being said," Apollo countered, "The democratic system will be a breath of fresh air compared to our archaic methods under a monarch."
"You must be joking," Gregor sighed, "Now you think democracy is good?"
"I was merely being reasonable, Warrior," Apollo said drily, "I thought it would be a good foil to your rather one-sided perspective."
Gregor was about to respond with a witty remark, but for some reason he just couldn't. Not when he was feeling lower than he had felt in two years. So instead of trying to make himself feel better, he asked the one thing that truly mattered today.
"So… You think I should fight him to stop him?"
"Not really," Apollo replied, shaking his head, "Fighting him is something that I cannot be supportive of. You two would destroy half of the city before the battle would end. Both of your reputations would end up in tatters and innocents could be killed in the fight. And then there are the injuries to consider. In a battle to the death between the two of you, both of you could end up killing each other. Your best case scenario is for one of you to die while the other sustains heavy injuries. And I suspect the emotional trauma would be too great for the one that ends up living."
"Apollo, he has to be stopped," Gregor argued, "I cannot let him impose his own ideology on this city. And then… and then… you have no idea what he's done. He's destroyed me on the inside, Apollo. I can't even talk about it out loud anymore. I trusted him like a brother, and he…"
Gregor trailed off, unable to accept the truth that Ripred had betrayed him. It was not unforeseeable, but that didn't mean that Gregor didn't feel the pain of the lies that Ripred had spread to break him.
"I know," Apollo said softly, "I know that inside you are hurting. And I know that the battle between the two of you is inevitable. I know that by the end of today, Regalia would have lost a great hero. All I am saying is that you should fight for the right reasons, or you will never be able to handle the guilt should you kill him."
"There will be no guilt," Gregor replied darkly, "Not after what he's done."
"The guilt will not be immediate," Apollo told him, "But like the slow knife, it will inch closer to your heart day by day, until one fine morning you will wake up, consumed by the grief of killing him. That day might not be soon, but be prepared for that day."
Guilt... Ares. The two words had become synonymous over the last decade of Gregor's existence. Even Damien's death couldn't outstrip the crushing failure that Gregor experienced every day of his life because of Ares. He epitomised everything Gregor had failed to achieve- he had failed to fulfil the promises he had made when he bonded to Ares, he had failed to let Ares return home to his family, but most of all Gregor had failed to protect someone he loved. And that was his ultimate failure, because it showed that no matter how powerful he was with his rager abilities, the ones he cared about were still dying.
"Everyday I wake up with guilt anyway," Gregor sighed, his heart aching as he remembered holding on to Ares' claw as blood ebbed out of his chest, "I live with my sins everyday."
"Ares wouldn't have blamed you," Apollo said suddenly, almost as if he was reading Gregor's mind, "I know what you think, Warrior. You think it is your fault for leading him into death. But sometimes you have to remember the positive parts, like how you bonded with him to save his life."
Ares the flier, I bond to you.
Our life and death are one, we two.
In dark, in flame, in war, in strife,
I save you as I save my life.
Gregor winced as the words echoed about in his head, inflicting the humiliation and guilt of failing to save Ares on his soul. They mocked him, haunted him, shamed him… Because Gregor knew he had failed to live up to his oath. He had failed to save Ares as he would save his own life. Gregor had continued living on and had left Ares in death.
"I was not thinking of Sandwich's words. I was thinking of what was right."
Ares had said that during his last peaceful conversation with Gregor. Gregor remembered the anticipation he was feeling before the battle, the confidence that he could kill the Bane and still live, the weight of the pressure that was collapsing down on him. And Ares' soft-spoken words gave him just that little bit of encouragement before going into battle. Gregor hadn't even known that it would be the last time he could speak to Ares about what really mattered in life- to do what was right even though there would be others telling you to do other things. Sandwich may have dictated that Ares would save Gregor's life, but Ares' decision was all on his own.
And those words meant more to Gregor than they ever had before. Because even when the whole world seemed to suggest that what Ripred was doing was the right thing, he knew that he had to fight for what he believed in. Ripred may have had a similarly good intention, but he was doing it all wrong. And today, Gregor knew he was going to have to do what he did not because someone like Apollo urged him to, but because it was right.
Ripred's cause wasn't helped by the fact that he had taken Luxa away from Gregor as well. It wasn't helped by the fact that not only had he ruined Gregor's life, but he had actively plotted with the Fount and maybe even the rebel gnawers to bring Regalia down to its knees. Ripred may have been a pragmatist, but he wasn't doing it right. Not this time.
As the sight of Regalia came into view, Gregor said to Apollo, "Drop me off at the High Hall. I'm going to look for Luxa. We're done for the day."
"I thought you were going to fight Ripred?" Apollo questioned Gregor.
"Maybe not today," he replied, "Look, if I need your help I'll whistle three times. You can hear me, right?"
"My ears will be on high alert once again, Warrior," Apollo promised him, "You need not fear for your life. How's your leg, Warrior?"
Gregor looked down at his knee and grimaced. The cut from the arrow was quite deep, and although his bones had somehow remained fairly intact, the blood leaking from the wound was beginning to make him quite faint. Ripred would already have an advantage in the fight against Gregor. "I'm fine," he lied to Apollo.
In truth, Gregor knew that whistling for Apollo would be a last resort. He wasn't going to drag Apollo into a battle with Ripred, because he knew that Apollo's life would be in serious jeopardy if that was the case. He already had to endure the suffering of knowing that one flier's death was on him. He wasn't going to add Apollo to that list. Even if that meant lying to Apollo and telling him that he didn't need him, Gregor would do that. Apollo had displayed loyalty that Gregor had not witnessed in any individual in a long time, and he deserved to have that loyalty rewarded by Gregor protecting him from a fight with Ripred.
Apollo quickly flew past the battlements and headed straight for the High Hall as swiftly and as inconspicuously as possible. Gregor noticed a couple of people looking up and staring intensely at them, but those people were few and far between. Apollo was one of the most skilled fliers in the Underland, which meant that if he wanted to escape quickly and quietly, chances were he would.
He landed on the High Hall softly, before whispering, "Fly you high, Warrior."
"Fly you high, Apollo," Gregor replied as he sprang off Apollo's back and landed on the floor of the High Hall. With a nod, the big black bat then took off into the distance, leaving Gregor all alone on the High Hall.
He hurried over to Luxa's room still wearing his black armour, ready to burst through the doors and declare his findings to her. But as he sprinted into the royal wing, he found two guards standing in front of the doors which led into her room.
Normally, those guards would be willing to let him in and they often stood to one side to allow him entry into the room. But today they remained in their positions, a look of stern determination etched across their faces.
They were the last of the formidable imperial guards who protected the king and the queen. Most of them were killed by gregor or died during the battle of Regalia, leaving a couple of them still alive to protect Luxa. Gregor wasn't going to try and fight his way past them, not when he was injured, tired and especially not when he was going to have to fight the Lord of the Gnawers later.
"I'm here to see the queen," he told them wearily as he took off his mask and placed it on the floor to show that he meant no harm.
"No," one of them answered bluntly, his steely expression making Gregor's heart sink, "Under no circumstances will we let you in to see the queen."
"Look guys," Gregor pleaded, "I've had a long day and I really don't wanna fight you guys. I need to tell her Majesty something, and it's really important."
"No," the other guard replied churlishly, "her Majesty the queen has explicitly stated that of all people, YOU are not to bother her."
"It's not about me and her!" Gregor snapped, "Regalia is in danger, and I NEED to speak to her!"
"Not a chance, Warrior," the guards said in unison, "You will have to kill us to get to the queen." They both brandished out their weapons and assumed a fighting stance.
"I don't want to do this," Gregor sighed as he pulled out his dagger and his sword, "But you leave me with no choice."
"That's enough!" Luxa shouted as she flung the doors open, her eyes flaming with rage.
"Your Majesty…" one of the guards began.
"Stand down," Luxa ordered fiercely, "I will not have blood spilt outside my room. Let the Overlander enter."
The guards reluctantly stood to one side, shooting threatening glares at Gregor as he walked into Luxa's room. He sheathed his sword and dagger before looking up at her.
She closed the doors behind him and turned to face him. She eyed him from head to toe, taking in his ragged appearance. Only now did Gregor realise how much of a jumbled mess he looked. The tattered cape, the blood-stained gauntlet, the fierce scratches across his armour… The tousled hair like he had come straight out of bed, and of course the blood trickling down his leg armour from the wound on his knee. Looking ragged was an understatement.
Luxa seemed to ignore his appearance, though. "What do you want, Gregor?" she asked him, crossing her arms and staring at him coldly.
"Luxa, I never slept with Stellovet. I swear on my life," Gregor told her right away, "She's lying! Ripred told her to say that to break you and me up. He's trying to push you off the throne. Can't you see that?"
Luxa continued to look unimpressed. She looked at him emotionlessly for a few more seconds, before she said, "Do you have any other excuses?"
"WHAT?" Gregor yelled out, "Luxa, I'm telling you the truth! I'd never sleep with Stellovet and you know that!"
"I don't know what people are like anymore," Luxa said quietly, "Worst of all, I do not know you anymore."
"Luxa, I'm trying to protect you," Gregor said, his voice cracking with emotion, "Ripred's manipulated the whole thing. He's trying to destroy us to get to me, Luxa. He's trying to break us up so that I can vote you off the throne."
Luxa turned her head to one side sharply, and Gregor could have sworn her eyes were brimming with tears. "Looks like he succeeded," she said softly.
"Oh c'mon Luxa," Gregor said in frustration, "COME ON! I'm sorry if I hurt you… I'm sorry for whatever I did. I swear I'll make it up to you."
"Why do you care for me now?" Luxa asked, her face still turned away from Gregor's, "Why now?"
"Luxa, I can't do this," Gregor choked out as tears began to fall freely from his eyes, "I waited nine freaking years to feel alive again. I need you, Luxa. You're the one thing that… that… that keeps me going. And I know this sounds cheesy and I know this sounds weak, but-"
"ENOUGH!" Luxa yelled as she finally turned to face him. Her tear-stained face spoke of a whole myriad of emotions- anger, disappointment, frustration, love and… and… and pain. The pain was most obvious when he stared into those vibrant violet eyes. They whispered of the hurt she was suffering from and screamed of the injustice she was bearing. Gregor's heart almost completely split into two when he realised how broken she was on the inside.
"It was Ripred," he told her again, "I swear it was-"
"Leave me," she said firmly.
"But-" Gregor began.
"No," she cut him off, "Leave me now."
Defeated at last, Gregor bowed down as was custom, before walking towards the door. But just as he opened it and stepped out, he called out to her and said, "Don't forget I still love you."
He then closed the doors behind him and walked past the stone-faced guards, who reassumed their original positions. He picked his mask up and fit it back on his face as he left the royal wing.
Gregor felt his heart sinking lower and lower, mirroring the way his head seemed to droop lower with every heavy step he took. Luxa was broken, and even though Ripred was to blame, it was his fault too. His fault for not being more protective of her, his fault for not understanding her plight better and his fault for allowing Stellovet to slip past a chink in his armour.
As he strode out onto the High Hall, a voice from the darkness called out to him.
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"
"Who will guard the guards themselves?" Gregor translated the phrase, familiar with its meaning. It was one of his father's favourite Latin quotes. Who would keep the ones who wielded power in check? Who would guard the guardians?
"I will," Ripred said as he languidly sauntered out from the shadows.
Gregor took off his mask and tossed it onto the ground. He then looked up and faced the old rat. "You have a lot of balls showing up here," he snarled at Ripred, "I know what you've done. You'll be charged with high treason and sentenced to death if you choose to go through this nicely."
"And what if I don't like the nice way?" Ripred asked innocently.
"Then I'll kill you myself," Gregor threatened him menacingly.
"So you figured it out," Ripred said with a yawn, "Someone clearly took a trip to the Fount. But I guessed that a while back. For one, that ridiculous cloak of yours is so torn it's almost non-existent."
"Luxa was everything to me," Gregor said, his voice shaking with fury as he spoke, "You know that better than anyone else. Do you know how it feels like to lose the love of your life? DO YOU? Do you know how it feels like to have her taken away from you?"
For a split second, Ripred's lackadaisical demeanour disappeared and his expression hardened. A flash of pure anger streaked across his eyes, followed by a look of excruciating pain. "I know how it feels," he replied darkly, "I lost everything I loved a long time ago, and I live with the pain everyday."
"That doesn't give you the right to inflict it on me," Gregor spat at him, "We did nothing to you."
"It's what you didn't do that mattered, Overlander," Ripred drawled, "You weren't willing to keep Luxa in check, so I had to do it. And if I had to break the two of you up to protect the Underland, I'd happily do it a thousand times over."
"I've always known you to be cruel and pragmatic," Gregor replied, "I didn't know you were a psychopath too."
"Took you a while," Ripred said with a chuckle, "That was Solovet's favourite word when describing me."
"Do you think this is a joke?" Gregor asked angrily, "You think that this is some prank that you can undo? Do you even know what you're starting? Democracy in the Underland? Political instability? Do you know what you have coming your way?"
"I actually happen to," Ripred answered with another arrogant chuckle, "Otherwise I wouldn't even have made this move in the first place. I know the risks and I'm willing to take them on. But you? I don't think you're actually fighting for Regalia. I think you've just taken things far too personally and that's why you want to kill me."
"Damn right," Gregor hissed, "You think you can go around doing whatever you think is right without considering the consequences. You know what that makes you?"
"An unsung hero?" Ripred suggested.
"It makes you a hypocrite," Gregor retorted, "You want to stop Luxa from exercising unchecked power but that's precisely what you've been doing- exercising unchecked power. Well, guess what? I'll show you what it's like to face consequences."
"I do recall you saying that you didn't want to fight me," Ripred responded mockingly, "It was something along the lines of 'Ripred, I don't want to fight you!' Does that sound familiar to you? Or am I getting too old and hard of hearing?"
"You're getting out of hand," Gregor told him, "And this is your last chance to surrender before things get dirty. So I'm only going to say this one more time, you son of a bitch. Surrender peacefully, or I'll kill you slowly and painfully."
"I'm sure I'll be killed painfully, but I'm not so sure about slowly," Ripred taunted Gregor again.
"I will do what is necessary this time," Gregor warned, picking his mask up and fitting it back on.
"Oh, so this is what our battle to the death looks like!" Ripred chortled with glee, "The two of us alone, with no one looking on. We'll kill each other in the darkness, and somehow somebody will find our bodies the next day. Not quite how I envisioned I would go, but… I guess this will suffice."
"Tell me one more thing, " Gregor said as his rager senses began their gradual ascent to its peak, "Why make ME pay? Why make ME suffer?"
"I do what is necessary," Ripred answered, his body twitching from the adrenaline rush which was probably surging through him right now, "I betrayed my own brethren to end the War of Time. I killed fellow gnawers just to achieve peace. I've done so much worse than breaking up your relationship, Overlander. I could do so much worse to you if I really wanted to. You should be relieved I only ended your infatuation with Luxa."
Gregor felt a hum in his head as he felt blood pounding his temple. It was that same feverish anger he had felt earlier when talking to Ripred- the same anger that had consumed him on numerous occasions over the last few months and had threatened to take full control over him. He had control over his rager sensations when fighting, but when he wasn't fighting… anger was enough to trigger his rager senses and turn him into a demonic killing machine with no control. He took in a deep breath and tried to picture Damien, but Damien's image failed to realise itself in his mind. It just refused to calm him down.
It was almost as if his mind had programmed itself to push away any distractions which might disturb him against Ripred.
Unable to control the raging sensation any longer, he released the pain in his gut and allowed it to flow throughout his body, devouring all his rational and cold-blooded senses, turning him into the very embodiment of fury.
He looked up at Ripred and his vision instantly splintered, displaying Ripred's weaknesses. His hind leg, an artery running down the left side of his neck, the underbelly… the images swarmed Gregor's mind, yet he slowly sorted them out as he formulated a battle plan in his head. A quick glance at Ripred would also reveal that the old rat was going through an almost identical experience. Ripred's eyes became slightly misty and his muscles began to bulge and tense up.
This was it. This was a battle between the ragers.
"I trusted you," he said to Ripred, unable to keep the disappointment out of his voice, "And you betrayed that trust."
"You don't understand it now," Ripred replied coldly, "You don't understand that sometimes, people have to be hurt in order for the good of everybody else. But one day, when I'm dead and long gone, maybe you'll be in the same situation as I was. And when that time comes, I hope you know how it feels to have to betray that trust placed in you."
"I will never be like you," Gregor snarled as he drew out his sword and his dagger.
"That's the problem," Ripred replied as he crouched down, ready to burst into a sprint.
For what felt like an eternity, they stared at each other, hoping desperately for an alternative, hoping desperately for the other to back down. Ripred bared his teeth into a snarl while Gregor took in a deep breath. Apollo's words chimed in at this moment like a death knell.
"I know that by the end of today, Regalia would have lost a great hero."
"You still have a chance to end this peacefully," Gregor offered.
"I'm right where I want to be," Ripred replied.
Gregor wished to God he could pull out of the fight there and then, but it was far too late. The both of them on either side of the High Hall, fighting for different ideologies and different people. At the end of the day, Regalia only had space for one rager. Today was the day which decided who that rager was.
With a spine-chilling battle cry, the both of them charged straight at each other.
Hopefully this chapter has established Gregor as someone much more reasonable. I understand that the majority of you guys would support Ripred over him because you believe in the ideals of democracy/you believe that Ripred needs to be in control to bring Regalia forward, but I hope that you guys understand that Gregor is similarly justified as well. This chapter was meant to properly illustrate the ideological conflict between both sides. Essentially, I've been trying to create political themes for this story, which has been a challenging task so far to say the least. Again, I hope that worked out. Anyway, I'm not for #teamGregor, but surely some of you believe he isn't in the wrong, right?
Looking forward to hearing your comments and votes on this fight. I'll be spending a lot of time over the next week developing the next chapter, which is the battle between the two of them. That one needs some real work!
Favourites/follows are encouraged. Please review as well! I'm going through a really difficult and depressing time at the moment and the only thing keeping me going is this story and the people who read it.
Question: No question today. Go to my profile page and choose from the poll whether you are on Gregor's or Ripred's side. If you really are unwilling to create a fanfiction account, then just send me a review telling me which side you're on. I wanna get a good understanding of the demographic of supporters for each side.
P.S. As it stands Ripred has 50% of the vote, with Gregor having 25% and another 25% of youy guys being undecided. Please go and take the vote!
