There is something innately beautiful about fires, the hues of reds, oranges, yellows, and even the occasional hints of blues and greens dancing about. The crackling of wood and other materials as they’re consumed by the ever hungry flames. Or perhaps it's the very destruction that they cause where that beauty comes from.

  Not that the two groups of villains staring down at each other were paying much attention to the devastation around them. On the one side a massive demonic creature that towered over the burning ruins of the former kingdom around, on the other side a motley collection of musket trotting goons, a couple of heavy cannons, and some other doodads. The collection of toys of a child’s toy box, perhaps in another world where it’s wealthy enough that children could see such luxuries in a thousand generations.

  “You are too late, hero. Everyone is dead, all gone to ashes.” The demon bellowed out, the statement more like a challenge.

  “First, I’m not the hero anymore, and second, I’m just here to enjoy the view.” Alex corrected him, his words all the more jarring for how nonchalant they came out. “Go on, do your stupid shit. Nobody cares.”

  “Do you take me for a fool?!?” The demon roared, as he arched back in an attack position. Alex simply rolled his eyes.

  “Well now I do.” He sighed as he gestured towards the soldiers behind him. “Here’s the thing: you can get the fuck out of my sight or I’ll make that happen.”

  “DIE!” it shrieked as it lunged forward, only to be met with a hailstorm of grapeshot and musket fire as the men and cannons fired away. As the beast staggered back the soldiers fixed bayonets and charged forward, and soon the cold steel finished what the hail of lead started.

  “Man, they really don't learn do they?” Alex asked rhetorically as he stepped aside at the most recent scene of butchery, though that’s a more difficult act by the minute as the other demons continued their rampage unbothered.

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  “They’re not exactly thinking creatures, you should know that by now.” Minaev noted. Alex simply shrugged again.

  “No matter. I got what I came here for.” He said as he shook his head.

  “Didn’t really expect you to be the vindictive type.” Омич said, his tone as even as ever, betraying nothing of his actual thoughts on the matter.

  “Maybe. I don’t know.” Alex muttered the admission. “I just want to make sure there the demons get the job done.”

  “The world may burn, but the virtuous will rise again, as surely as the sun rises each day.” Омич said cryptically, though Alex immediately picked up the subtext.

  “I don’t need forever, I just need the rest of my life.” Alex snapped back. “I don’t want another jumped up loser trying to play hero by cutting my head off a few years down the line.”

  “Well aren’t you a selfish one?” Омич noted, seemingly enjoying riling up the traitorous man.

  “Yeah, and I’m still alive because of that.” Alex threw out the words, embracing his fallen state explicitly.

  “At the cost of how many others?” Омич asked in an almost whisper. The crashing of a burning building nearby underlining his point conveniently.

  “They would have cheered for my execution in another time and place.” Alex pointed out.

  “The point remains. You are still accountable for your acts.” If it weren’t for that creepy mask Alex could have swore that Омич narrowed his eyes when saying that.

  “I. Don’t. Care.” Alex spat out the words with a final conviction. “I seen enough. Мы Уходим.”

  “Да.” Minaev nodded, simply relieved at getting the hell out of this now hellish place.

  And so they left, perhaps the only people then who could have saved and salvaged a fragment of anything good of that world, or perhaps it was never meant to be.

  Evil has triumphed, all the evils, from the ones obvious by appearances to the ones that revealed their wickedness from their deeds. No one to mourn the death of innocents, only the gleeful crackling of the wicked.

  But someday goodness will arise again, to fix what once was wrong and then to be sacrificed on the altar of social sensibilities. And then another will take his place, and his fate, horrors and all.

  As is tradition, forever and ever…

  But that, is another story for far off in the future…