The streets buzzed with voices and murmurs as every citizen of the capital packed into the royal square, shoulder to shoulder as far back as the eye could follow, facing a makeshift platform lined on either side by royal knights standing at rigid attention. Before long, a man climbed the stairs leading up to the podium, dressed in full royal regalia, his expression giving absolutely nothing away until he reached the very top. It was Dalton — judge and now executioner of Youri's sentence. He surveyed the crowd gathered below him, cleared his throat, and began.
"My fellow citizens. I thank you for being present on this significant day — a day that history will remember as proof of two things about this empire. That it is capable of raising anyone up among its ranks. And that it will not forgive betrayal, no matter how high that rise once went." He turned toward the stairs behind him. "Bring him up."
At the base of the platform, a large transport vehicle sat draped entirely in black. Its doors slid open, revealing Youri flanked by two royal knights. He stepped down slowly, his hands and mouth bound, his face half-hidden behind long, unkempt hair, and began the climb up the makeshift steps. His mind stayed fixed on a single concern the entire way up — Leonora. He knew her well enough to know she wasn't simply going to sit somewhere and watch this happen, and the thought of her showing up now, in the middle of all this, terrified him more than his own death did. There would be no walking that back for her.
By the time that thought had run its course, he'd already reached the top of the podium. He lifted his head and took in the scene stretched out before him — a sea of faces filling the square from wall to wall, further than he could have counted even if he'd wanted to — and found himself, unexpectedly, chuckling under his breath. For his entire life, Youri had never once thought of himself as anything more than a passerby in someone else's story, a tool used and discarded once its purpose ran out. Looking out now at the sheer number of people who'd gathered specifically to watch him die, he felt something close to importance settle over him for the first time he could remember feeling it at all.
Just as he reached the top, the Emperor himself emerged onto the palace balcony overlooking the square and took his seat upon the throne. Once he was settled, and the nobles arranged along the lower balcony had taken their own places, the execution officially began.
Dalton stepped to the edge of the platform, his gaze sweeping the crowd below with practiced authority. "Citizens of the mighty Terrian Empire — graced by His Majesty's presence, we now formally begin the execution of the traitor Youri Kronos." He turned to face Youri directly. "Youri Kronos has been found guilty and sentenced to death on three separate counts." He raised one finger. "The first: treason and endangerment of Terrian society." A second finger. "The second: the murder of a noble, and collaboration with known criminals." A third. "And the last: the murder and execution of over ten thousand soldiers." He lowered his hand and turned back to the crowd. "For these crimes, he has been sentenced to death by execution."
The two knights stationed behind Youri raised their rifles, aiming at the center of his back. Dalton turned to face him one final time. "Any last words, traitor?"
Youri lifted his head, the motion alone enough to sweep the hair back from his face and reveal the smile underneath it. The crowd watching on their screens froze at the sight of it, and those who'd caught it with their own eyes in the square looked even more unsettled. Still smiling, he looked out over the gathered faces.
"What is there left for a dead man to say?" He lowered his head, then raised it again. "Only this. I never lived a normal life. Never an honorable one either. I lived the only way anyone ever taught me how — I lived afraid. And for the first time in my life, I can say with total certainty that it was never really about the fear at all. It was about giving up. So here's what I'll leave you with: death is a mercy, for anyone who's already seen exactly what the future has waiting for them."
Dalton smirked. "That's quite a speech, for a man about to die."
Youri didn't bother answering him. He simply kept his eyes on the crowd. Dalton turned toward the balcony instead. "Your Majesty. The honor of giving the order is yours."
Emperor Johan rose from the throne and stepped forward to face his people below. "My people. I offer you this gift today — the chance to witness, with your own eyes, the end of a traitor. But this is more than spectacle. Let it also serve as a lesson — to anyone out there who imagines they can strike at this empire and live long enough to tell the story. Hear me clearly: it does not matter where you run, or who you think you are. No one escapes the great Terrian Empire forever. And when we find you, you will meet the exact same fate as the traitor standing before—"
The sentence never finished. A deafening explosion tore through the sky above, and every head in the square snapped upward at once, the Emperor's own words forgotten mid-breath. Balls of fire rained down through the clouds, streaking toward Fansilia below in long, burning arcs. Youri looked up along with everyone else, and what he saw made him question his own eyes.
The Tartarusios was falling out of the sky — its hull ablaze from bow to stern, trailing a storm of burning debris behind it like a wound that refused to close.