Redrick was now on his feet in the room and Esther found him hesitating to talk. Esther had been asking Redrick how to make the illusion become real which is the way to save Esther and the others before the river drained all their energy and left them dead.

Redrick was pacing around the room and Esther remained seated on the bed asking Redrick to please tell her the next course of action. Redrick suddenly stops pacing and moves closer to Esther before saying to her “I think the only way out of here is to bring the reality into the illusion”.

“Yeah, you are right. When reality is mixed with illusion, it destroys the illusion. Reality and illusion can't coexist. Reality is the one thing powerful enough to destroy the illusion. But what reality are we bringing to this illusion?” Esther asked Redrick.

“Telling you is not the problem but you agreeing to my idea is” said Redrick.

“I am open to all ideas at this moment. We need a way out of here” said Esther eagerly.

Redrick never wanted to talk but Esther's pestering made Redrick talk and he said “I think our way out of here is Marcelos”.

Esther was confused to hear that and said “Marcelos? What does supposed to mean?”.

“Out of all the things that are present and connected in this illusion, the one piece missing is Marcelos. Me, you, and the others are all present even those who are dead and that is because we are all connected to the river at the moment and some are dead.

This illusion was created using our memories and our connection to the river but then the river added Marcelos in here because without Marcelos our story is incomplete. Marcelos was added to the illusion through our memories not the river connections with Marcelos. Marcelos is not here in the river but he is in the illusion.

This illusion tells our story and the story is here that Marcelos will never wake up but we can change that. To change the story here, we bring in Marcelos and make me take his place here in the illusion. Once………” said Redrick.

Redrick was cut short of words as Esther cut in saying “we are not doing that. No Marcelos”.

“There has to be Marcelos if we want to escape. The only way to escape is by bringing Marcelos in here. We need Marcelos” said Redrick.

“No. No way Marcelos is coming here. Bringing Marcelos will get us exposed and that would be dangerous for us. We risk our lives bringing Marcelos here. There has to be another way apart from Marcelos” said Esther.

“There is no other way. You need to understand that we have to put the enmity between us and Marcelos aside if we are to survive and get out of here. We have to change the story and only Marcelos can help us do that.

Once we bring Marcelos over here, he will take over the fake sleeping Marcelos and wake up then the story will change. It will become a story where Marcelos woke up, unlike the story the river made. Marcelos will rise here and do what it is destined to do.

Marcelos rising here with his army when he is not even connected to the river makes Marcelos the reality and then the illusion will disappear. We have to bring the real to destroy the fake. Marcelos is the only real we can bring here to destroy the fake and free us all” said Redrick.

Esther understands Redrick but doesn’t like the idea of bringing Marcelos to the illusion world which makes her suggest Karl or Hemdal. Redrick said to Esther “Hemdal is not powerful enough to do anything here and Karl is nowhere to be found here. Marcelos is here and will bring his powers with him which makes it two reality in the illusion world. Marcelos is the one we need”.

After so much thinking, Esther had to agree to bring Marcelos but she said to Redrick “I don’t think Marcelos will agree to do anything that can help us. Even if we can convince him to help us theoretically, he would want something”.

“And you have what it is that he wants” said Redrick.

“What it is that he wants that you think I have?” asked Esther.

“You have his Marcs, phoenixes, and his dark crystal” said Redrick.

“Are you suggesting we give that to him?” asked Esther.

“No. This has to be like it is a deal with Marcelos. We can’t give the crystal but we can return his Marcs and phoenixes. The deal will be his help in exchange for his children. Marcelos has to agree to this deal by seeing that helping us is the only way to get back his Marcs and phoenixes” said Redrick.

“You sound like death has made you more smarter” said Esther with a smirk.

“Is that an insult or compliment? I was smarter when I was alive though” said Redrick.

“Whatever you think it is. I imprisoned Marcelos, his Marcs, and his phoenixes because I wanted to give the outside world time to grow before he returned but then Zussorader rescued Marcelos and now you want me to return his Marcs and phoenixes to him. I guess I have no choice but to for our survival and the world's survival” said Esther.

“You know the prison you kept them in can’t hold them for long. Marcelos will eventually find a way to get his children out. We have to use this chance to get him to help us” said Redrick.

“Okay. I can’t leave here since the powers I have here are fake so how do we contact Marcelos and get him here?” asked Esther.

“I would do that” said Redrick.

Esther was confused to hear that so she asked Redrick “how are you going to do that? You have no powers”.

“I don’t think you realize what you made my spirit into. I have become part of you, Esther, and I came to love every part of you. I am glad that I felt for you. So don’t worry about me” said Redrick with a smile.

Esther stood up and moved closer to Redrick then said “I don’t know what it is that I did, and never did I thought I was going to see you again. Marcelos is cunning so at any chance that you see that he is going to hurt, you run away from him. You don't stop or hesitate. Get away from him. Remember that”.

Esther hugged Redrick which made her realize that she could feel Redrick just like Redrick realized that he could feel her too. Esther and Redrick separated with Esther surprisingly saying to Redrick “I can feel you”.

“I just found out about……….” said Redrick surprisingly.

Redrick couldn’t finish his words as he saw Esther kiss him and he could do nothing but kiss her back. Esther and Redrick stopped kissing and Esther said to Redrick “Be safe”.

It was morning and Hemdal, Karl, Dawson, and Nelson prepared for what seemed to be the last battle against Marceloss’ armies. Hemdal, Karl, Dawson, Nelson, and the other leaders had discussed internally to get the people to safety when they defended against Marcelos and his armies since they stood no chance anymore.

The other leaders and some soldiers that consist of the silver soldiers, the shapeshifter soldiers, and human soldiers were picked and they are to safely lead the people to safety immediately Hemdal, Dawson, Nelson, Karl, and the remaining soldiers begin to fight Marcelos and his armies.

Dawson, Karl, Hemdal, and Nelson knew the soldiers left with them were not enough to fight against Marcelos’ armies nor could they even last long but there was no help that Esther said was coming so they have to protect the people even if they die trying to. As long as the people live there is hope for mankind was their belief so they have to protect the people even if they die.

Dawson, Karl, Hemdal, Nelson, and the remaining soldiers stood in the battlement ready to fight as they watched half of Marcelos’ armies march toward them.

Marcelos, Philip, Zussorader, and the remaining armies that stayed behind on their rides watched as the half armies walked toward their opponent. Marcelos saw there was no way their opponent would defend against them for long judging by their numbers so Marcelos said to Philip “defeat them as soon as possible and keep the girl alive. I want the crystal found”.

Philip nodded and Marcelos and those who stayed behind prepared to watch how the battle was going to end and fare.

Marcelos' armies were about to attacked the leaders and soldiers protecting shape town when Marcelos suddenly went unconscious and fell from the horse he was on. Seeing what happened to Marcelos got Philip and Zussorader shocked and anxious and they ordered the retreat of the armies to the camp to know what was wrong with Marcelos and find him a way to help him.

Dawson, Karl, Hemdal, Nelson, and the soldiers in the battlement were confused as to the reason why Marcelos’ armies retreated before attacking them but they were glad that at least they had gotten more time and chance to plan a better way of escape.

Dawson, Karl, Hemdal, and Nelson meet back with the other leaders and plan a new secret and less obvious way to escape and abandon the town. It was discussed that there was to escaped in the night when Marcelos’ armies would be less focused.

Night came, and every preparation was made for the escape. Dawson, Karl, Hemdal, Nelson, and the other leaders with the soldiers were ready to escort the people to safety away from Marcelos armies and the people already get their belongings ready.

Marcelos was moved to his tent after he fell to the ground unconscious and Philip and Zussorader had tried all they can both biologically and magically to know what was wrong with Marcelos and why he remained unconscious after making attempts to make him regain consciousness.

Philip and Zussorader spent the whole day trying to wake up Marcelos but they weren’t able to which made them puzzled to the reason why Marcelos was unconscious in the first place and why he wasn’t waking up.

Philip and Zussorader were still trying to wake Marcelos up in the night when the leader of the gargoyles walked into the tent and reported to Philip and Zussorader that the humans and shapeshifters had been on the run to escape them.

Hearing that, Zussorader tells Philip to gather as much army as he can and go after the humans and shapeshifters, and he is to make sure he captures Karl but kills the others.

Dawson, Karl, Hemdal, Nelson, the other leaders, the soldiers, and the people were fleeing on feet so they couldn’t get far before Philip leading a thousand of Marcelos’ armies caught up with them and they had them surrounded.