I looked up at the crowd as Analina’s father’s soulless shell crumpled to the ground. They were laughing and cheering, insensitive to the pain of those in the arena. 

I had saved the world from yet another demon. Analina was safe from harm, yet I couldn’t help but feel trapped. Analina was free, but I was still chained to a tyrant. 

Was death my only way to truly be free? I would return to the golden meadows, to my mother and a peace long lost. I would never have to feel the burden of my sins day after day. Each scar would disappear, carrying their blood-tainted memories with them. 

But I was this girl because of my scars. I was the one who would break free, through life before death. 

Life and death were the only true equalizers. I was no less alive than everyone else in the coliseum. I could kill them as easily as this husk of a duke in front of me. Death was the one thing in life I could control. I couldn’t control my body nor those around me, but I controlled the one true secret of life.

The crowd of sinners finding entertainment in this duke’s death would one day find themselves nothing more than a pile of soul strands on the floor, whether by my hands or the hands of the reaper. 

But my sins would catch up to me. Death was an equalizer, one that I could never curry favors with. My scars reminded me of that. Icarus reminded me of that. My mother’s head reminded me of that.

My existence was ruled by death ever since my first sin, my birth. I was nothing but a monster, one that could never be corralled. 

I looked up at the blood-red sky and watched the clouds pass over the coliseum, centering myself back in reality as the endless masses of onlookers cheered for my suffering. The applause shattered the illusion of somberness that forced itself into my mind. 

“Once again, Nyx has returned victorious in yet another hard-fought battle, defending the 4th Emperor’s throne faithfully,” the announcer shouted. “But this victory highlights a continually pressing question: who - or what - are Nyx and Icarus? And more importantly, why does only the 4th Emperor seem to have them?”

All I could do was stare at the ground in shame. I was a nephilim just like them, but to the world, I was just a weapon.

I flew back to the entrance of the coliseum with my head hanging low, dejected and put in my place. What felt like a victory a minute before was now nothing but another sin scarring my soul. I was no longer a who but a what, an object more than a nephilim. 

My father greeted me with nothing more than a grunt at the entrance to the coliseum, but it wasn’t him who was on my mind. It was Atlas. 

I had to focus on the next battle, one that would define my life: the battle for the dragon’s freedom.

I didn’t have it in myself to obey. I wanted to go to heaven, but I was mortal tonight, no matter what sins might stain the pages of my story.

All my life I had cowered in the shadows, letting my father control my actions. But ever since I rescued Analina, I couldn’t help but obsess about the meaning of my existence. 

I couldn’t help but try to rescue Atlas, who’d understood what it meant to be chained. Atlas, who’d seen right through my monstrous facade and trusted me without a doubt, was imprisoned. Atlas, who only I could save from eternal servitude, was forced to carry the 6th Emperor’s burdens. 

After exiting the coliseum, I flew up to my room to change out of my bloodstained Nyx uniform and into a new one. Despite not fighting for my father, I still needed to hide my identity. I couldn’t give the 6th Emperor another reason to keep me. 

With a muffled thump, I landed on the gilded balcony and walked into the room, my footsteps leaving maroon marks across the glistening marble floor tiles. Unlike the marble floors in my father’s palace, the 6th Emperor’s floors were not sterile and cold, but merely an ostentatious show of wealth. The entire room was meant to make guests feel inferior to the 6th Emperor, and it worked.

I stripped off the bloodstained clothes and used some of my leftover blood to set them ablaze, destroying any evidence of Nyx’s existence. I saved the mask, one thing I could never destroy. The mask, a haunting white metal husk decorated with gold stars, reminded me of my ultimate goal, to escape my father. 

I watched as the flames consumed my Nyx, destroying more and more blood with every passing second. 

I slipped on a fresh ballgown and slipped on a pair of decorative, changing my clothes as I changed my personality. My Nyx would come back later tonight, but for now, I was Zuri, the girl who could change the world. 

It was time to find Atlas, the dragon who saw me for what I was, a nephilim deserving of love like anyone else. I couldn’t wait to see them again. 

I opened the door out of the 6th’s guest room and entered the portrait-filled hallway once again, careful not to dirty the carpet from the blood still dripping from my palms. The portraits still haunted the corridor, tales of infidelity and abuse crying to be told. 

Atlas was chained up at the end of the hallway in the Great Hall. They were perched behind the magnificent Throne of Knives, their eyes spotting me as soon as I turned the corner. If I had not already met Atlas, I would have been terrified, as their draconic form was looming over the court, intimidating any noble who dared to approach the throne. However, I knew Atlas was nothing more than a victim of repeated abuse. 

I looked up and they were staring at me, their purple eyes searching my soul for an inkling of hope. Luckily for them, I would get them out by sunrise. 

I walked over to Atlas and reached out my hand to pet them as their gigantic head dropped onto the floor. The dragon’s scales shimmered under the full moon, sparkling with secrets yet to be revealed to mere mortals like me. 

I ran my hands down their sparkling scales and sighed, worn out from the previous battle and previous sleepless nights. 

“Atlas, I’m going to get you out of here,” I whispered. “I promise. I need to go sign up, but I need to just tell you one last goodbye. I might never see you again, but if I survive, please tell me you’ll visit.”

They rubbed their massive head into my side, but this was not the only sign that they understood what I said. Giant tears were falling from their eyes and dripping onto the floor, soaking my shoes. 

Atlas and I were both chained to a tyrant, forced to bleed the world dry. The only light in our dark souls was the hope that one day, we would escape. But to free Atlas, I first needed to register for the galeiditaras before registration closed. However, I needed to assure myself that Atlas was safe before I registered. They needed to be able to fly out of the castle after I freed them because I couldn’t leave this prison of a palace without my father noticing. 

I was running out of time. Changing back into my dress had taken more time than I could afford, but I couldn’t sacrifice my identity for Atlas.

I turned away and headed towards registration, my own tears starting to form. What I was about to do would go directly against my father’s wishes, an action that would likely leave me branded with more sins than ever before. But, Atlas would be safe. 

Within seconds, I reached the galeiditara registration desk. Galeiditara registration was open to the general public, but most people did not have the power or support to take on an emperor’s galeiditara, and those who dared oppose the emperor would often die trying. Only those who could achieve victory against an emperor’s often mythical galeiditara would be blessed with a gift, but this by itself had only happened seven times in recent history. In three out of those seven battles, it was Nyx who achieved victory. Icarus won two, and some nameless dukes won the rest. 

“What’s a rich bitch like you doing at the registration table, darling?” the old man behind the counter asked me. “Go hurry off to your tea party.”

“Darling, I’m not here for a tea party,” I said. “I’m here to sign up in place of my father’s galeiditara, Nyx. The 4th Emperor wants to challenge the 6th, sir.”

“Nyx? That bitch doesn’t belong in the fighting ring,” he whined. “Can’t she find a respectable husband and settle down?”

I gritted my teeth as he ranted on about the role of “rich bitches” in society. Who was he to decide what I could and could not do? I was nothing more than a weapon to my father, but to this random official, I was just an object to be married off. 

“This is not about your personal opinions, sir,” I replied. “If I remember correctly, Nyx has the highest win rate out of any galeiditara, so who are you to question her skill?”

His face contorted into a look of disgust as he spit on the ground in front of him. 

“Sir, you still haven’t registered the new galeiditara,” I implored. “What if I was to tell the 6th Emperor about this?”

He quickly added Nyx’s name to the ledger, scared that I would rightfully report him. With one final pen stroke, Atlas’s freedom was only a few short hours away. 

But only if I could survive long enough to see it to fruition.