191 OFFER TO BE KING
Nicaesa took the badge, turned toward Dan, and pinned it to his chest.
Dan blinked. "What is this?"
"This," Nicaesa said, his tone both commanding and warm, "is the badge of an honorary General…one-star."
"What?" Dan's eyes widened. "How did that happen?"
"You turned back the tide of the Shadow of Anubis," Nicaesa said. "You saved Fortress Myrone. You earned this title."
"But it was just luck… the Shadow of Anubis didn't give its all."
The hall erupted in applause. Cheers echoed against the steel walls..
"Black Halo!"
"Our God of War!"
For the first ti, Dan stood among them not as an outsider but as one of their heroes.
As the crowd settled, he leaned toward Lord Nicaesa and whispered, "You made
fight the Shadow of Anubis on purpose, didn't you? You wanted
to earn this rank."
Nicaesa's grin deepened. "It was about ti you had one. You've done more for this fortress than anyone. Even if you hadn't stopped the Shadow, you deserved this long ago."
Dan couldn't help but smile.
For all the danger, for all the tests and battles, this was the first ti soone of Nicaesa's stature had honored him for what he had beco.
-----
[Liberty city]
Dan returned to Liberty City at last.
The skyline was no longer the one he rembered. The ruins had been replaced by new rising towers of steel and glass.
The scars of war were still visible in the cracked pavents and half-nded walls, but new life had already begun to grow through them.
The city had changed…utterly in the past year.
Though many of the old districts were gone, new streets teed with energy. Markets bustled. Children laughed. The air was alive with industry and renewal.
To Dan's surprise, the people seed happy.
These were the sa people Sienna had once taken from the slums—the followers of the Church of Rejuvenation, who had vanished into her grand design.
Now, they walked the streets freely.
Their clothes were clean, their eyes bright. There were no nobles, no overseers, no chain of command dictating who could live or eat.
He passed his old middle school.
It was thriving again.
The classrooms were full, teachers smiling, young voices echoing in the courtyard. Poor children no longer needed sponsors to study; education was open to all.
It was one of Sienna's reforms…radical, sweeping, and impossible by the city's old standards.
Everywhere Dan went, he saw improvent.
Humanity and tahumans lived side by side without fear or division. The bullies, the corrupt officers, the self-proclaid elites… all of them were gone.
The city no longer needed chains to stand upright.
He stood on a bridge overlooking the main avenue, watching the sun descend through the haze.
"Is this the world I wanted?" he murmured.
In truth, it was.
Deep down, he agreed with Sienna's dream… a world without oppression, without walls between the powerful and the powerless.
It was the thod he had despised… the blood, the coercion, the blackmail…. the cruelty she had justified in the na of liberty.
But now, looking out over Liberty City's reborn heart, he could no longer deny it. The job was done. The past was written in ashes.
And the result… was good.
Out of curiosity he tried to track Liorea, Eryn and Cyara in his tracking function. To his shock, they were still in the city.
"Damnit Sienna, here I am praising you for a job well done
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