Rein roamed the plains, no longer either a man on a mission of vengeance or a broken soul searching for something he couldn't define. Heavy-footed path. Even if the destruction he caused is claimable, the once great dragon empire lay in ruins, yet no satisfaction was to be claimed, no peace. All that was there between him and the world was an empty space.
The land was as lost as he, once-saural forests reduced to burntout husks; rivers dry; and the stench of decay notoriously thick above the skies. Every village he came across looked at him with fear and suspicion, as though it could still see the darkness, which once consumed him, still lingering beneath his skin. It was almost a reminder of what he had become.
One evening, as the sun lowered its light to prepare for a night, Rein found himself sitting beside a small campfire, gazing into the distance. The last shimmers of crystal fragments laid scattered in the dirt; those were the last remnants of the power that had driven him. They no longer glowed, no longer pulsed with that dark energy.
"A hero, I was supposed to be," Rein muttered bitterly, the words barely audible to crackling fire. "But what I've done is just destroy." A figure came, stepping into the cloaked shadows: a woman draped in tattered rags. Her eyes were kind but fearful. "You've walked a dark path, warrior," she said gently, "but the road to redemption is still open to you." Rein looked up, eyes hollow, "Redemption? What's the point? I've lost everything. The dragons are gone, but so am I." The woman took a seat next to him, her presence stirring comfort. "You have not lost everything. You still have the ability to change"-to remodel not just the world's face in your pure vision but the man that you were or are. Unmistakably, this is going to be an uphill battle, and you will face many more challenges,-but redemption starts with coming to terms with what you have done and choosing to be so much better-than it, say, could easily be achieved. For the first time, in years, Rein felt that he could really feel-had been feeling other than anger, other than regret. It stirred deep within him, however, as hope-hope as fragile as it is.