He died because he flew to close to the sun and his wings melted off
The subjunctive mood is the best.
The subjunctive is rarely used in colloquial English. Totally irrelevant information, but... it is a relic from Latin, where there are many uses for a subjunctive. There is even a special conditional using the subjunctive mood that expresses the exact circumstances you described, which is usually called future less vivid.
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