Rise Of Hades' Hellborn: Trumpets Of The Damned

The Ashes Within

Director Sandlers stood by the reinforced glass wall of the subterranean command wing, overlooking the remnants of the Paragon compound.

What used to be a fortress of order was now a landscape of scorched concrete and sparking ruins. Fire retardants still hissed from collapsed conduits, and cleanup drones buzzed quietly like flies over a battlefield.

Footsteps echoed in the corridor behind him—soft, measured, familiar. He didn’t need to turn.

"Anna," he said.

She stepped in, boots clicking sharply before she stopped just shy of the glass. "Director."

He said nothing, eyes locked on the ruins. For a long moment, the silence between them was almost reverent, as though the Paragon dead still lingered in the walls. Anna's arms were crossed, her expression unreadable.

"The president is... wavering," Sandlers finally said. "She wants to believe he deserves a second chance."

"You want him to have one," Anna replied. Her tone was cool, precise. "That’s why we’re having this conversation."

He turned to her at last. "I trust your field judgment more than most. You knew Myles best before the fall. What do you believe we should do?"

Anna didn’t blink. Didn’t waver."Officially?" she asked. Sandler raised an eyebrow. "Let’s start there."

"Officially," she said, her voice clipped and professional, "we keep him alive."

"Go on."

"We need data. His physiology is... rewritten. Whatever Kaelin or Hades or the abyss itself did to him has restructured his metaphysical core. That's not something we can replicate. Not in time. And definitely not in another subject. If the seals are real—if the trumpets are being prepared—then we need someone who can survive opening one."

Sandler nodded slowly. It was a logical, cold argument. The kind of justification politicians understood. The kind they demanded. But he was watching Anna more closely now, studying the tightness in her jaw, the way her left thumb rubbed a scar on the side of her glove.

"And unofficially?" he asked. Anna met his gaze but said nothing. "Lieutenant."

Still, she remained silent.

Sandler sighed, then looked back out at the wreckage.

"You shot him, Anna."

Her lips thinned. "You aimed for the heart. The footage doesn’t lie.". "It was the only way to stop him without triggering a full collapse."

"He went down. You knew it wouldn't kill him, but you didn’t aim to miss."

Anna turned slightly, facing the glass. Her reflection shimmered there, ghostlike. Her voice, when it came, was distant.

"He looked at me like he understood. Like... he'd been waiting for it."

Sandler waited, sensing the fracture. "I watched his eyes when the arrow hit. It wasn’t pain. It was relief. Like I gave him permission to stop fighting whatever was taking over."

Silence.

"And did you?" She didn’t answer. Sandler folded his hands behind his back. "Do you believe he’s still in there?"

Anna’s jaw clenched. She nodded once. "Yes."

"Even after the massacre? Even after Paragon fell?"

"Especially after."Sandler turned, surprised. "He didn't run," she said. "Didn't vanish into shadow. He waited to be taken. To be judged. That’s not what monsters do."

"No," Sandler murmured. "That’s what martyrs do."

Another silence settled. Anna closed her eyes for a breath.

"He's changing. Becoming something else. Something dangerous. But if there’s even a fragment of the man I knew in there, he’s still the one who saved me in Prague. The one who stood between me and a Herald Of Famine and didn’t flinch."

Sandler watched her carefully. "You care for him.”. "I care for what he could be. That’s different.". "Is it?"

She exhaled sharply. "Don’t psychoanalyze me, sir." Sandler chuckled softly. "Wouldn’t dare." They stood in silence again.

"They’ll try to use him," Anna said, quieter now. "The president. The inner circle. Even you. They’ll parade his survival as a miracle. A weapon. A final trump card against the end of days. But they won’t ask what it’s doing to him."

"And you will?"

"I already know," she whispered. "It’s killing him. Slowly. Quietly. Like rust under armor."

Sandler turned fully to her now. "If it comes down to a kill order... could you do it again?"

Anna’s gaze hardened. "I will do what is necessary. Always."

But her eyes flickered away, just for a second. And Sandlers saw it. "You wouldn’t," he said quietly. "Not this time."

"I would never betray Paragon.". "That’s not the same thing."Anna turned on her heel. "