Chapter 32
Since Sonny left, Ellie moves through days like she is underwater. She goes to class, takes notes, and answers when called on. Then she returns to a dark room and stares at the familiar mark on her foot. Jess checks on her when she can. Sometimes Jess brings food. Sometimes she brings a movie to distract Ellie. Most of the time she brings her own presence and refuses to let Ellie be alone.
Bull tried to ask Ellie about Sonny’s disappearance once. He found Ellie after class and blocked her path. "You can’t just ignore me. Sonny didn’t even say goodbye. Did you know he was leaving?"
Ellie looks past him. Her voice is flat. "I can’t talk about it."
Bull’s hands curl into fists. "That’s not fair."
Jess steps between them. "Back off."
Bull glares at Jess. "You know something too."
Jess holds his stare. "Yes. And you don’t want it."
Bull looks like he wants to argue, then he sees Ellie’s face. He steps aside. Ellie keeps walking.
Every night she checks her foot. The mark stays. The mark means he is still alive. It becomes a cruel comfort that she cannot move past. It’s the one thing that provides her a sliver of hope that he will return.
Far away, Sonny climbs. The air is thinner in the mountains. The wind is colder. Every step up the path pulls reminders of his past out of him like hooks.
He reaches the hidden entrance and passes through without resistance. The halls are the same. Stone. Steel. The smell of old blood that never fully leaves.
His walk throughout the base brings back unpleasant memories of training and torture. Each room and corridor remind him of the pain, near death experiences, and grueling discipline lessons that molded him.
Sonny walks deeper until the base opens to a viewing platform carved into the mountain. One sits there, facing the horizon, hands folded in his lap, posture perfect. He looks like he has been waiting for days. He does not turn right away.
Finally, One speaks. "You came."
Sonny stops a few steps behind him. "Yes."
One gestures to the stone beside him. "Sit with me for a moment."
Sonny hesitates, then sits.They share the view for a bit. Snow peaks. Distant clouds. A world that does not know they exist.
One’s voice stays calm. "You got to experience part of real life since you left. How is it?"
Sonny answers honestly. "It was more than I ever thought it would be."
One makes a small sound that could be a laugh. "That good, huh."
Sonny’s gaze drops for a beat. Thomas’s face flashes through his mind. "Not always. Sometimes it hurt more than anything we did here."
One nods slowly, as if that interests him. "I’m actually a little envious. The world is a big place. I’ve been all over it for missions and have seen a lot, but never experienced anything like you have over the past year."
Sonny looks at him. "I experienced what you took from me."
One’s eyes remain on the horizon. "You’ve seen how weak the outsiders are. We took that weakness and gave you power and purpose."
Sonny’s jaw sets. "You give an empty life with no joy."
One finally turns his head, studying Sonny. "You speak like a real human. It looks strange on you."
Sonny does not look away. "I am a human."
One’s expression hardens by a fraction. "You destroyed the Omegas. You killed Healer. You killed Six. You killed Four. You killed Five. You killed Seven.You killed Two. You leave only me."
Sonny’s voice stays controlled. "I knew you would not stop until I was dead."
One nods. "No. We would not."
A gust of wind cuts across the platform.
One speaks again. "Do you know why I am disappointed?" Sonny waits. "Because you were next to lead," One says. "And you choose to waste it on chasing the weaknesses within the world."
Sonny’s hands clench once. "Two said the same thing, and I killed him."
One studies him. "You think erasing the Omegas and the world becomes safer?"
Sonny’s voice lowers. “The Omegas ruin lives,” he says. “All of us are denied the chance to live and experience what life has to offer. There is so much in the world, and you take it away before we ever get a taste.” Sonny does not raise his voice. “And it’s not just us,” He continues. “It’s the people we kill. Their families. The lives left shattered behind them.” His jaw tightens. “For what? An offering? Someone else’s grudge?”
Sonny shakes his head. “No single organization should have this kind of power. You could topple countries if you wanted. You murder in the name of offerings, then hide behind myths so there is no consequence. Well, now I am the consequence.”
One’s gaze sharpens. "We defend against demons. That is the charter."
Sonny answers. "There are no demons and haven’t been for hundreds of years."
One leans forward slightly. "That was true once, but now, you are wrong."
Sonny’s eyes narrow. One continues, measured. "A synthetic power supplement spreads across Bronzeland. It enhances magic, energy, and ether. It causes aggression. Voices. Split minds. These are not normal side effects. I know you are aware of what I am talking about."
Sonny holds still. He thinks of the broadcasts he has seen on TV. The rumors.
"It likely contains demon ether," One says. "The world would not recognize it. We would."
Sonny exhales slowly. "There are no signs of demon activity. No sightings. It might be synthetic demon ether. It could be something else entirely."
One’s voice turns colder. "And if it is real? You don’t think demons can adapt? We cannot investigate it because we have no more manpower."
Sonny answers. "Then the Bronze Corps and the guilds handle it. If we move, people die. We both know that."
One fires back at Sonny. "You talk like you are clean."
Sonny’s eyes harden. "I am not clean. That is why I will end this."
A long silence passes. One stands. "I will kill you. Then I rebuild the Omegas."
Sonny stands too. "You will try."
One steps closer. "Before we fight, answer me one question." Sonny waits. "If I offer you forgiveness," One says, "if I offer you a place at my right hand, would you take it."
Sonny’s answer is immediate. "No."
One nods once, as if that confirms something. "Then we are done talking."
Sonny speaks once more. "One question for you." One gives him his full attention. “What is my birthdate?”
One’s eyes do not blink. "You were born on June twenty sixth. That was the date we took you."
Sonny absorbs it, not because he cares about the date, but because it proves One keeps everything.
One turns and walks toward the training dojo. Sonny follows. The dojo is the same room where Sonny learned all manner of combat and ether techniques.
It is wide, reinforced, and scarred with old impact marks. One steps onto the mat and faces Sonny.
"Show me what you become," One says.
Sonny’s bandages climb into place. He inhales. He enters Terra form. The markings flare across his body, and the room’s ether sharpens like a blade.
Then Sonny places his hand over Draco’s mark and releases his ether. All of it. Draco’s ether floods through him. It is no longer Sonny who controls his body. It is now Draco.
The air changes. Pressure crushes down on the dojo like the mountain itself leans closer to listen. The candles gutter. Dust rises in spirals.
One’s eyes narrow, impressed despite himself. "So you intend to use him to defeat me."
Draco, in Sonny’s body, does not answer. His focus is absolute.
One raises his own ether and it swells, not like a wave, but like a storm contained inside skin.
"Let us begin," One says.
They vanish.
The first clash happens in the center of the room. A fist meets a palm, and the impact sends a ring of force through the floor. Stone cracks in a perfect circle.
Draco slides back, then snaps forward again, faster than a human body should move. He launches Ether Force strikes in rapid succession, each blow meant to break bones. One weaves through and parries them. One answers with precision. He does not throw wild power. He throws with intention. A short elbow to the ribs. A finger jab to the throat. A knee aimed at the hip.
Draco blocks and counters, but every exchange feels like fighting a mirror that already knows his moves.
Draco’s voice hums inside Sonny’s head. "He trained you. He built you. We must be uglier than him." He keeps moving.
One lifts a hand and a spear of ether forms, razor thin and bright. He throws it. Draco twists and the spear skims past his shoulder, burning bandage and skin. The smell of scorched cloth fills the air.
Draco answers by forming an Ether Orb, dense and spinning, and slamming it into the floor. The orb detonates upward like a controlled explosion. One jumps through the blast and lands behind Draco. His palm hits Draco’s back. The blow is small, but the ether inside it is heavy. Draco’s lungs seize for a second.
He forces air back in and pivots, slicing with Sonny’s sword. One catches the blade with bare fingers. The sword vibrates under the grip, but it does not break.
One smiles faintly. "The blade of your first kill."
Draco yanks the sword free and retreats one step.
One points two fingers. Ether lances outward. Draco throws up an Ether Wall. The lance hits and splashes into sparks. Draco feels the pressure behind it anyway, like being punched through a door.
They accelerate. The fight leaves the dojo. One launches Draco through a reinforced wall with a single strike, and they burst into open air on the mountain ledge. Wind howls. Snow whips sideways.
Draco recovers midflight using Ether Walk, planting a foot on a ledge and springing back. One follows, gliding across the air with sheer ether pressure, like gravity obeys him.
They trade blows over the cliff edge, each impact sending shockwaves that punch holes through clouds. Below, the mountain face chips and sheds stone.
Draco summons Marichi. The statue forms behind him, many arms unfolding like a fan of blades. Draco’s vision expands. Every movement becomes slow. Every angle becomes clear.
One pauses for the first time. Then he smiles. "A new technique," One says.
He rushes. Marichi’s arms swing and land on One. The air becomes a storm of strikes. Arms move so fast they blur into a shield. One darts in and out, testing openings. He takes a hit and smashes into the mountain. Blood appears. It is the first time Sonny’s eyes have seen One bleed.
One’s expression does not change. He simply raises his ether again. His body floods with it. The technique is not Terra form. It is something else. Ether Rush.
One becomes an unstoppable force for a short window. He drives forward, breaking through Marichi’s defense with brute pressure. Arms crack. The statue shudders. Draco knows this is the moment.
Draco’s voice cuts through him. “Deliverance. Now." Draco Deliverance ignites.
Ether spills from Draco’s body like living smoke, forming extra appendages that strike, bind, and parry on their own.
One’s eyes widen, just a fraction. He swings at Draco. He dodges. A ghostly fist of ether hits One’s face from the side. One staggers.
Draco uses the opening and lashes Deliverance along his sword. The blade becomes a comet line of ether. One recovers and counters with a flurry of strikes, each one meant to end the fight. Draco barely holds. Deliverance deflects where Draco’s body cannot.
The ledge collapses. They fall. As Draco falls, he summons a dragon beneath him. Ether snaps into shape and the massive creature surges upward, catching him mid drop.
Draco lands on its back and immediately banks hard toward the cliff where One waits. The dragon opens its jaws and unleashes a torrent of fire.
One answers in kind. His own fire breath erupts outward, meeting the dragon’s flame head on. The two infernos collide in midair, heat folding in on itself until the air trembles. For a moment, neither side gives ground. The flames roar and lock together, pushing and grinding like opposing tides.
While One’s attention stays fixed on the dragon, Draco moves. He slips behind One, silent and precise, sword already mid swing.
One feels it a fraction of a second before the blade lands. He twists and slides off the edge of the cliff, dropping away as the strike cuts nothing but air.
Draco does not hesitate. He raises his hand and triggers Draco Descent. Above One, ether condenses and shapes itself into the form of a massive dragon, long and serpentine, diving straight down from the sky like a living executioner.
One looks up while falling and reacts instantly. He summons an Ether Clone in midair and uses the false body as leverage to shove himself out of the descending dragon’s path. He slams into the mountainside and digs in, barely catching footing as the ether dragon crashes past and dissipates below.
Draco is already moving again. He is back on his summoned dragon, and together they dive straight for One. One answers with force instead of finesse. He slams his palm into the side of the mountain and summons a massive cyclops, its body forming out of dense ether and stone.
The creature rises just in time to catch the dragon in both hands, stopping the charge dead. The impact shakes the mountain, cracks spiderwebbing through the cliff face.
Draco dismisses the dragon instantly. The sudden disappearance throws the cyclops off balance. Draco takes advantage of the opening and unleashes Draco Smash. Ether condenses around his arm and detonates outward in a blinding surge of power. The cyclops is erased completely, blown apart in an explosion of light and force that leaves nothing behind.
One tries to capitalize on the moment, darting in to strike while Draco is mid release. Draco fires an Ether Shot with his free hand. The blast clips One’s shoulder and forces him to dodge instead of attack. The opportunity is gone.
They clash again. Offense and defense blur together, each strike answered by a counter, each feint met with a response. The fight becomes tactical and relentless, a chess match played at lethal speed. Both men are wounded and bleeding now. Both are breathing heavier. Time stretches. Hours pass with no pause, no retreat.
One finally shifts tactics. He summons his ether serpent, a massive, coiling creature that surges toward Draco with jaws wide.
Draco answers by calling his dragon keeper. The giant, demonic figure forms beside him, chain weapon clanking as it moves. The serpent and the keeper collide in a brutal struggle, tearing into each other with raw force.
The keeper wins. It crushes the serpent beneath its weight and chain, ether dissolving into the air. One snarls and summons a pack of massive wolves, sending them charging to overwhelm the keeper.
Draco responds with his Draco Disciples. The air ripples. All three of Draco’s dragons manifest at once, circling with the giant keeper as the battlefield erupts into chaos. Wolves, dragons, and the keeper clash in a violent storm of teeth, claws, chains, and flame.
Through it all, Draco and One keep fighting. The fight has become an all out brawl at terminal velocity. Blows land. Blood sprays. Breath shortens.
Both are exhausted now. One feels it. Even in Terra form, even with every technique at his disposal, he cannot put Draco down while he uses his full ether capacity in Sonny’s body.
One focuses his gaze. He decides the fight has gone on long enough. One and Draco exchange strikes across the cliff side, then across the plateau, then back to the ruined dojo. One’s Ether Rush begins to fade.
Draco feels Deliverance burning his body from the inside. He knows Sonny’s body cannot maintain much longer.
One commits to a final decapitation strike. He goes for Draco’s neck. Draco bends backward, impossible, avoiding the blade edge by a hair. One’s balance breaks. That is the trap.
Draco drives a supercharged Ether Orb into One’s side. The orb detonates with a roar that shakes the mountain. One’s body is torn open. He falls.
One tries to speak. Draco stands over him, breathing hard, eyes burning with his ether.
One’s voice is thin. "You… destroyed my purpose."
Draco’s voice is quiet. "You destroyed his life." Draco lifts Sonny’s sword. The blade falls. It is over.
Draco kneels and places his palm on the ground. Ether moves. The earth opens and takes One’s remains.
Deliverance fades. Sonny’s body is beyond exhausted, it’s actively dying. Draco’s ether is almost gone, minutes from burning out completely.
Sonny’s body is already broken and scorched, muscles torn and skin burned raw by Draco’s ether. That power is the only thing keeping him alive now. When it fades, there will be nothing left to hold him together. Draco lies on the ground, barely more than a fading presence. He takes a moment and reflects.
That fight was incredible. The last one. The kind of battle he never expects to experience again. And, unexpectedly, he did enjoy some of the time inside Sonny’s body. Being there to experience the good and bad of life after so many years dormant was unexpectedly amusing.
Draco exhales and summons one last companion. A very small dragon pops into existence, barely the size of a house cat, wings folded neatly at its sides. Its eyes take in the scene, then look at Draco in Sonny’s fading body.
“Wow,” the miniature dragon says. “You look dreadful. You haven’t summoned me in over a century and this is what I arrive to.”
Draco chuckles weakly. “You should see the other guy, Wexel.”
“Biggest mistake I made was forming the contract with you all those years ago in the crypt.” The dragon snorts. “You know I don’t like you, so get to the point. That’s not your body. Do you want me to put you back in yours so you can keep living?”
Draco and Wexel’s contract is special. Once every fifty years, Draco can request a wish from him. A true wish.
Draco looks at the small dragon. “If I terminate our contract,” he asks quietly, “would you grant me two wishes instead?”
Wexel is intrigued by this request. “Two. Interesting. What are they?”
“Revive this boy when he dies,” Draco says. “And give him the ability to use my ether without destroying his body.”
Wexel looks at Draco puzzled. “That’s new,” he says. “Every wish you’ve ever asked for was about yourself. More time. More strength. More power. More women. You could resurrect yourself right now. Why him?”
Draco slowly looks up at the sky. “Sonny reminded me of who I was before I became the demon,” he exclaims. “I was an Omega once, but we were different. We didn’t train to kill ourselves and leave emotion behind. We cared for our comrades. We were friends. I even loved someone. It was different from the hellscape he grew up in.” His voice weakens. “Then I became obsessed with power. In my hunt for strength, I consumed demon flesh. I gained years beyond reason and ether beyond restraint. I watched everyone I cared about die. Over time, I convinced myself humans were weak and disposable, like One.” Draco’s gaze shifts back to Sonny. “And then I awakened in a man who lived a far crueler life than mine and chose humanity. He wanted something more than power. He simply wanted to live.” Draco swallows. “I don’t even know how long I’ve lived anymore. I have nothing left to live for. Sonny still does. I want him to have that chance. I consider it repayment for allowing me one last perfect battle.”
Wexel is silent. Then he exhales slowly. “I have never seen this side of you. It’s… different. Noble. If you terminate the contract, I will grant the two wishes.”
Draco lets out a faint, tired laugh. “Guess I’ve grown soft.”
“You have,” Wexel says. “For the better.”
Draco’s ether fades completely and what remains is Sonny’s deceased, lifeless body.
At the apartment, Ellie steps inside and freezes. Something feels wrong. Her heart pounds as she pulls off her sock and looks at her foot. The mark is gone. She sinks to her knees, tears spilling freely.
“Sonny,” she whispers. “I hope you did what you needed to do. I hope you can finally rest easy.”
Far away, at the base of the Omega mountain, Wexel hovers above Sonny’s body. Ether surges.
Sonny’s chest rises. He gasps softly, breath returning. Shattered bones knit back together and burned flesh heals. His body repairs itself completely, even as he remains unconscious.
Wexel nods to himself. “He’s going to be out for a couple days.”
The dragon waves one claw, and the second wish settles into Sonny like a law written into his bones. When he wakes, Draco’s ether will be his to command.
Wexel fades from existence. The contract ends.
At the base of the mountain, where Sonny once lived as an Omega, he lies alone and breathing.
This is the last chapter of part 1
