When Angela's staff had struck him in the chest for the last time, Guren had felt as though that blow had been the jolt that woke him from a long and turbulent slumber. Now, with the haze clearing from his eyes, he felt like a beaten and pitiful creature put down by its master. And he could not understand why the one who had fought him so fiercely was offering a hand to him.

"Come with us." A singed and smoking Angela said, managing to smile weakly. "It would surely be a good thing for you to live."

He had done that to her... The flames that had scorched the air and her delicate skin had been born from his own hands. That thought, amongst others flittering through his mind, turned his stomach, leaving him with a sour, bitter sensation that dried his mouth.

Would it really be a good thing to live? Guren could feel enough guilt to be experienced two lifetimes over, pounding the inside of his skull. The gaping cleft in his soul, left by the piece that the Dragon Emperor had claimed as his own, threatened only to fill itself with the weight of that guilt.

Angela leaned in a little closer, her fingers trembled slightly as she held her palm out flat. Guren could only wonder how she could be willing to forgive him so easily? Everything he had done had been to deliver the world to the Dragon Emperor. It was because of his efforts that the sword of mana had been destroyed, that Angela's mother had been brainwashed, all of her anguish since this war began had been because of him. So why?

Guren raised a hand from his side, hesitated, and held it just a foot from the ground. His eyes locked with Angela's, still imploring him to grasp her outstretched fingers, to take back a shred of the humanity he had lost in the pursuit of power.

"What kind of life would it be, with so much of my soul missing?" He asked, his face pained and pale, but his resolve to give up and die faltering slightly in the light of Angela's mercy, but not enough. "There is only one path open to me now. Thank you, Angela."

Guren already had the spell picked out in his mind, the last one he ever planned to cast, the last time he would ever feel the power of his beloved magic coursing through body. But it wasn't really his magic was it? It was the Dragon Emperor's power, the blood of that infernal monster coursing through his veins and breathing life into the ability he had craved since the moment he had first cast eyes upon the wizards of Altena. In the end, it wasn't even going to be his own hand that struck the final blow.

Lost for a moment in the midst of that thought, Guren had not noticed Angela's approach, and her subsequent collapse on top him.

"I want you to live." Angela said, wrapping her arms around his head and pulling him in close to her chest. "Everything you've done... I want you to make it all right again. So come with us."

"Ang-" Guren started, but Angela clipped him across the back of the head in annoyance, "-... Princess..."

Angela drew back from him and flashed him a warm smile through tear filled eyes, and red stained cheeks. "I won't let you off easy. So work hard for me, okay?"

The Dragon Emperor trampled the embers of what remained of the mana tree, howling in outrage and annoyance at the four figures that waited defiantly before him. The Princess, and the Crimson Wizard of Altena stood side by side, light and dark, like the moon and night sky, their presence was all the Dragon Emperor could focus on. The Princess that should have died to release the first mana stone, and the wizard that should have died to defend his claim to godhood. It was unforgivable to the last of the Dragons that these among all humans would dare stand against him now.

"WIZARD!" The Dragon Emperor raged at his former servant, his tremendous golden claws scratching in the holy ashes of the once proud tree of life. "I WILL FLAY THE FLESH FROM YOUR BONES FOR THIS BETRAYAL! I WILL MAKE YOU REGRET THE DAY YOU DARED STAND AGAINST THE ONE THAT GRANTED YOU EVERYTHING YOU WISHED FOR! I WILL SEE THAT YOU BURN IN YOUR OWN FLAMES, AND YOU WILL CRY OUT FOR ME AS YOU DIE! AND WHEN THE LIGHT FADES FROM YOUR EYES, YOU WILL KNOW THAT I. AM. YOUR. GOD!"

Guren narrowed his eyes and dipped his head toward the golden dragon writhing in fury before him. "That piece of my soul has kept you alive all these years..." Guren snapped his fingers, lighting the flame within his hand, looking briefly to the side and grinning at Angela, then turning his gaze back on the Dragon Emperor. "...But I'll be taking it back now."