I stood up, and wiped my hands. I started walking back into the danger zone. To my surprise, almost everyone was dead. Pathetic corpses of guards and prisoners littered the ground. Shalla was there- injured- to tell me what had happened.
            "There were about ten times as many prisoners as guards. We had the element of surprise, but they were a lot stronger." He grinned morbidly. "I guess we were about even. I didn't know battles could end up like this. No one really wins."
            I tried to help him off the dirty floor, but he waved me away. I left, and tried to find my way out. The dark rooms were eerily quiet. Some kind of thunder echoed up above. I ran blindly through the castle, until I came to a long hallway where all the lamps had burned out. A bright, piercing light came up from above, and a foreign heat lashed out at my tender joints. A cacophony of violence filtered down from above- this had to be the arena!
            "It's sounds like there was battle up above as well" I said to myself, "Oh, Lemlia, please be okay…" I got up the stairs, and let my eyes adjust to the daylight of the arena. "What? Unbelievable!"
            The royal platform was decimated, and the walls were broken. Great pits were gauged in the floor, and there was no one to be seen. No one, that is but the two aliens.
            "The King and his Royal Guard have been destroyed!" I gasped in astonishment. I had no idea that my new friends- or anyone- had this kind of power!
            The aliens seemed unaffected by my reaction. The short one spoke a few brief commands into his scouter. How could he be so calm? They had no idea what significance their heroism had! They didn't know the tyranny, the hardship that we were freed from! The old order was gone; the survivors could rebuild with a new design!
            "Do you two realize what you have done?" I yelled, trying to get my point across, "You have freed our planet from centuries of bondage! At last, Arlia is a place where a new beginning can be made! From now on, you two visitors from space will be known as heroes among our people."
            The alien ships hovered overhead, and their owners levitated up to them. They were leaving! They had broken the manacles of oppression, shattered the class system, and they were leaving? What could I say?
            "Farewell, my friends!" I called "You will always have a home on Arlia- Thank you!" The pods shot off into the red sky. "We'll never forget what you've done for us."
            A soft voice behind me called my name. I whirled around, and my heart skipped a beat. Lemlia, still wearing her wedding gown, stood unblemished in the rubble. She called my name again, and somehow, I replied.
            "Does my pounding heart deceive me," I quoted, "or is it really you?"
            "It is I" replied my wife, "your Lemlia!" She began running down the stairs towards me.
            "Oh, joy, you have returned to my barren soul!" I responded, but then the emotion simply overwhelmed me, and I ran to join her.
            "Attla!" she cried.
            "Oh Lemlia, my darling!" I hurdled a fallen sword, and sprinted.
            "Oh, Oh, Attla!" Lemlia gasped, as we took each other's hands. Her snow-white wings were unfurled and her skin was still a virgin's pink. She had never betrayed me!
            "Lemlia, my darling, at last we are together- forever!"
            "Forever", she echoed. I looked into her deep dark eyes, and felt as though my soul was at last healed.

            Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of light.

The End

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