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Aziel
There, aboard the navy's center ship, I sat on the counter barstool within the familiar dining room. Staring blankly towards the shelves of drinks before me, not getting any for myself.
I admittedly wasn't even supposed to be here.
But it was quiet compared to the loudness outside; the busyness of the revolution.
And there was nobody else left that I could talk to.
The polished tables and fine wooden chairs in my surroundings laid dormant. They were decorated with the finest cloths and fabrics, with empty dishes and unused steel utensils. All the survivors refugees were carried by the other ships, after all, while the Goldwave Pirates with the Chronicle Order commanded up on deck.
Yes, I could have been helping out somehow, too. . .
. . . but instead, my head folded into my arms on the counter, and I shut off my eyes to suppress harsh streams that tried to come out once again.
I wasn't my past childish self who quested for the self. There wasn't a point to this anymore. Was there?
I'd already failed.
Failed Calev, failed the rest of my family, and now I can't even keep myself mentally stable under the old feeling of a heavy quest.
For gods' sake, I'm going insane repeating the promise I made to them.
I stood up from the stool to distract my mind and focus on the now, but as I tried to stay assured, the bitterness remained.
It's all because I didn't listen. I repeated more.
Look where that led. You followed, and now. . .
. . . they're gone.
My tears had fully welled like before. I needed to stay as the well-respected heroine I was turned into, and that meant moving on from losses.
But I couldn't. I didn't even know where the Drownei knight is; to which its stupid to love a stranger of the enemy so much, when you can't even utter their real name. I didn't care. I wanted to tear down the walls around me, for a chance something in fate would change.
It only happened within a few seconds.
I felt my fingers burn up with pure energy, but couldn't feel its raging heat. My body began to illuminate as my eyelids shut by themselves. I sensed the rings glow without my permission.
I let out a sharp, brief, and agonizing scream.
Glass shattered onto the wooden floorboards as I opened my vision, and the sensations around my being slowly dissipated at the sights.
I'd completely destroyed the shelves behind the counter, with the tiny fragments of dishes, utensils, and bottles dispersed on the ground. The shelving itself was reduced to powers of black ash.
After realizing what I've done so impulsively, I froze in shock as the smoke vanished and the glow ceased.
For the first time from all I remembered, despite learning how to control myself, I acted with the thought process of the child I was.
So I backed up slowly, and began to run as quickly as I could, out of the ruined dining room.
Damn it, Black Knight. . . don't rub off on me now, with the rest of them. . .
I thought to myself, noticeably like what Vexx would say out loud, while wiping my freckled face with a hand to lighten up.
My smile quickly faded as I was reminded of the situation. The more I rushed through the carpeted hallways of golden-plated doors, the more golden-lined armoured soldiers of the Chronicle Order began to crowd the area. Scattered and hurrying to different duties.
I eventually went out into the deck in the cloudy morning's dim light. It blinded me for a second or two. I hadn't been completely outside since waking so early. Not that I fully slept in the first place.
All around the surface of the Goldwave Pirates' dignified vessel, lines of soldiers stood before the balconies, with glimmering muskets. Behind them were ranged mages with their scepters and staffs. And among the positioned hordes were the remaining crew members, of the pirates themselves. I recognized their uniform white vests, although this time, they weren't wearing them with the same amount of pride.
Captain Aurel gave me the usual side eye and tiny bow while adjusting her tricorn hat, out of commanding respect. I got the feeling that the commandeer would usually pay one's respects. But she was busy giving direct orders to different people.
Meon the driver, meanwhile, ran up the stairway to presumably help steer the ship. He wiped the glasses and putting them back onto his nose, under his anglerfish antenna turned off in the day.
Ryff and Lare stood watching the capital that was coming nearer in the distance. A speck of land.
Kyrone, to be exact. Where the palace of the Drownei reside, where Black Knight is possibly captured, and where the 'last' battle is fated to happen. It's only been about a week since us questers were grouped together, yet there was already so much impact in those short moments.
While the headmaster was discussing what I assumed were, hopefully, strategies to the captain, I walked towards the two crew members nearby.
The bulky Ryff, as veteran as the oldish pirate was, held out his dual battle-axes in one hand, but rested the bottom of their hilts to the floor. Lare, with her fins and a headscarf covering her ponytail, was conversing in a low voice. Despite how quiet I knew the girl to be.
". . . I don't know." She replied in almost a whisper, to the generally louder member. "I don't know if it was worth it."
"Of course it was." Ryff responded in a gruff but surprisingly reassuring tone. "We joined the order for our dignity, sure, but we're now saving millions like the prophecy stated."
Lare gazed at the waters below, crashing upon one another, while the clouds overhead had turned greyer as if a storm was brewing.
". . . I don't know."
They then noticed me behind them, as I stared at the appearance of the isle ahead being a dot for now.
For now.
We were nearing a fate I wasn't so sure about, at this point..
"Aye, how's it been going down there, Aziel Korr." Ryff initiated the conversation while him and Lare both looked at me expectantly.
"The bar treatin' you 'right?"
"Hello Ryff, Lare." I acknowledged the two of them, barely with any eye contact, with no energy left in my drained voice and demeanor.
"I'm. . . fine."
They exchanged a look for about a second after sensing the shift in tone.
I think I'm usually one to talk more. But my eyelids were too heavy. My mouth was tired from calling out to no one. I was exhausted.
Still, I forced myself to respond with the bare minimum.
"How about the both of you?"
"As well as we can be, I reckon." Ryff lightly shrugged while Lare politely nodded in agreement while glancing away. There was still a hint of melancholy in their expressions, smiling formally yet not fully.
So I took the message, and turned around to begin walking towards Headmaster Chronisius.
Then I hesitated.
Why would I do that in the first place? Because I trusted the sole leader?
So I decided to share a moment one last time, turning to face the two crewmates.
"If I may ask. . ."
I stared off to the side, then met their gazes directly.
". . . do you believe in it?"
They gave me puzzled looks, as Ryff's toothy smile faded, and the Marine girl started to pierce a stare at me more intently.
"In what?"
She raised her two eyebrows while stiffening.
"This whole thing." I continued simply with the honest question."Destiny."
"Of course we do." The bulked man responded with confidence, as opposed to the friend next to him. Then, after facing and noticing her hesitancy, he gave her a nudge with his arm.
"Don't we, Lare?"
Lare shifted backwards a little. Pursing her lips, as if she didn't know the true answer. Even her usual quietness seemed all the more deafening.
Finally, she answered.
"It is best that we do."
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"FIRE!"
The Headmaster Chronisius yelled out as the arrows and cannonballs flew towards us. Attacks scattered in arrays to take down our navies, from the towering stone walls of Kyrone.
I lifted up the rings on my fingers, to charge up wind and water spells with the other mages. Stationed on the lower decks, we forced away bursts of flaming projectiles hurtling in the above, summoning waves and gusts of air.
I'd worn my leather armour again, yet couldn't feel safe despite our victories.
The capital isle was surrounded on all fronts. Ships of the world Midkyron and the Chronicle Order docked like we did, along the shores. I watched floods of armies including ourselves, once part of the Kyronian union, rush out of the bottom of their vessels and charge towards the Drownei hordes, who were stationed along the sand. Black-armoured melee users countered back, with their battle axes and longblades.
And screams of bloodshed ensued while steel clashed upon on another.
I controlled my breathing as the remaining main questers regrouped, except for Jade.
"I shall stay behind in the backlines to defend the ships and coast."
Meon said approaching us, while our ship itself had stopped behind the front navies, and the troops rushed along the planks that connected each vessel to reach the shore.
"In an open battlefield, the latter half of the army is just as important as the front." The anglerfish person explained himself for the Captain Aurel, wiping his glasses with a cloth."For maintaining various supplies, and countering flanks-"
"I'll do the same." Lare spoke in a sudden burst, like she's been wishing to say something too.
Then her voice went softer as she glanced away. The cutlass within her belt held tightly while the Marine looked expectingly at the captain, like there was understanding.
"I. . . I just despise war." She continued with an embarrassed flush and a sincere tone."I wouldn't be much of help. I'll assist the other ships. In arming the order's civilian survivors."
Oh right, how could I forget? Some of the people rescued still chose to stay and fight, instead of being evacuated to another island with the rest.
They were mad. Did they believe in the cause this much to disregard peace, like I did? They weren't even on the quest.
But honestly, I expected Captain Aurel to oppose against Lare and Meon, and overly protect their reputation. But to my surprise none of that happened.
Instead, she opened her mouth with her hands at ease, closed it with her back straight, tilted her head, and lightly cleared her throat.
"There are always other ways to return a fight such as this, ain't that correct?" The tentacled captain agreed and bowed her head a little. "Wish us luck then, will ya', lad and lass?"
She winked, the stoic persona towards the Chronicle Order cracking just a bit.
"You know we will." Lare stated with a smile, while Ryff came up to give her a friendly slap on the back, and Meon returned the tiny bow with his own.
Headmaster Chronisius then approached us with his usual dozen soldiers.
"We'll supply you two with a division of troops to accompany your endeavors, if you wish." He said with a complimentary hand gesture to his men, as they followed his command and stood near both members.
"Now then. The army has prepared for us to securely charge forwards with them." The headmaster then alerted us straight to the point, while the yells of intercepted battle continued to sound in the distance. "Is everyone else accounted for?"
I scanned around at the remaining questers on deck.
Captain Aurel had a scepter with a bladed edge pulled out in preparation, while Ryff had his heavy duel axes.
The other unnamed vested dozen of the Goldwave Pirates had their weapons prepared too.
Meon and Lare stayed to watch the headmaster's further instruction.
Black Knight's location was unknown, and so was Vexx's
And Jade. . .
"Where is Jade?" I asked Headmaster Chronisius.
"Their family is currently seeking refuge. The only family out of all the revolution leaders, might I add."
Maybe he noticed as I did how tense that sounded, so within a second he added upon the information.
"Though I must say, they're understandably bold for it."
My tangled mind blanked once more.
Something told me I could've potentially done the same. But it was too late to back out now.
And. . . I was doing this for them. The ones I've lost whom may never be found again.
So I spread my fingers for battle, soon following every willing person, along the planks that bridged to each ship in front of ours.
As my will overcame what seemed right once more.
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I blasted open a townspeople's homestead with a raging hurricane of fire.
My position was behind the rest of the questers in the frontlines. The armies of the world had naturally overcame the shoreline battalions, no matter what kind of magic was used.
And we were told who kill any opposer, no matter who they really were, because they would do the exact same to us.
There were other attackers other than Drownei, however. Humans, Marines, Flivians, Dwellvens, and even hybrids wore common steel armour, of what everyone knew was from the Unity. Our ranged mages stayed behind as we led the melee divisions into the village of burning buildings.
The concrete streets were filled with panicked villagers and wounded troops. Lantern poles crashed down, and market stands were rummaged through for supplies. The fountain of the Dark Lord, at the center of all the different stone structures, had crumbled down into an unrecognizable pile of rubble.
I was seperated from the rest of my group when they shot magically-infused bullets towards us, and I hid behind a fallen horse chariot.
After waiting a few seconds to catch oxygen within the smoke, I summoned a wall of roots and bushes from the ground for further cover. There stood the exterior wall of a quaint, dormant house nearby, that I could barely see through the starting fog. I connected the coverings to it for safe entrance and entered the backdoor.
It was dark inside, as if nobody wanted the building to be seen.
It was also the one-story homestead I had shot at earlier. I could still hear the flames begin to engulf its fine wood and bits of rock.
The only thing illuminating the empty kitchen were the raging fires outside, through the broken windows with floorboards of wood nailed onto them.
I walked forwards, exhausted and blind. But I peeled my eyelids open for anyone meant to kill me.
Then I felt scaled skin touch my ankle and I gasped.
He was already dead.
A soldier of the Kyronian Drownei. Armoured darkly in tiny spines in a typical fashion. He looked young, around his twenties I'd say.
And he was shot in the head by the corpse lying beside him. A Chronicle Order soldier with his armour, golden-lined in the usual way with the ripped logo on his sleeve.
He was also noticeably shot in the head. The blood puddles of each were almost camouflaged within the dark.
Then there was another confusing sight. A gunshot pierced into each man.
Yet only one flintlock laid on the bleeding floorboards.
I immediately grabbed the other one, wiping off the stains, used to the feeling. Then I slowly went forwards, to the door frame in front of me busted open. On the side beyond the entrance to another room, stood a couch and table with the picture of a drawn family hung on the wall.
The Drownei were smiling, not evily, but laughing with their teeth despite their fangs.
A black-haired young mother, father, and their two children, boy and girl.
As I entered the living room, a gunshot rang silently across the area, and its white glowing bullet whistled hastily past my side.
I raised my gun towards the suspect, who hid at the corner of the walls.
It was the mother.
"Stand down." Her hands shook on her own flintlock, as tears fell, but a desperate look of fury remained towards myself.
"I said stand down, you monsters."
I held my ground for a long moment. Until I realized the weight of my firearm. It was lighter than usual, which could only mean there were no more bullets.
And the woman was pleading. A certain familiar woman, with her loved ones away from her, begging someone like her to surrender.
But is she going to pull the trigger if i do?
She is a Drownei, after all.
No. I shouldn't say that. Kon', Black Knight, as I knew him, was one of them too.
The lady didn't know I had my rings on me, either.
With that in mind, I raised up my hands, and knelt to the ground. Lowering my gun to be placed on the floor beside me.
She kept her brown eyes on mine as she approached near, and kicked the empty flintlock into the flames growing on the opposite end of the blasted house.
Then the short-haired woman looked at me again while closer, and her eyes widened.
". . .Aziel Korr?"
The citizen of the once unionized world knew an old idol such as me. Her expression turned into one of distraught and rage. I saw her teeth and fangs grit together.
"You are all the same. All of you."
And still, she didn't shoot.
The Drownei's finger was shaking on the trigger, as both hands were clutched onto it. Biting her lip from the inside while closing her eyelids to look away. She backed to the corner again. Streams welled up within her eyes.
So the widow dropped to the ground along with the gun, and began to cry uncontrollably. All logical sense had left her. But it's almost like she didn't care if she died.
"Please don't kill me. . ." Palms covered her face, while the front of her head was planted on the floor, as one who would brace for death. ". . . I loved them. . ."
I completely and utterly froze. I could give in and do what I'm here to do, against any enemy. This could be a trap somehow. But there wasn't any way to know except to question.
". . .what happened?" I asked carefully as my voice cracked slight.
"Y- you killed my husband. He just wanted to escape being a soldier, damn lunatics!" She steadily turned her head up with an intense, whispering anger."And you stole our children. We were told to hide . . . t- they couldn't in time."
"That wasn't me." I defended before I could explain the body found in the kitchen.
"Maybe not. . ." The widow analyzed my expression for a moment, possibly knowing the retired hero that I was already.". . . but some. . ."
Her body shuddered as water continued down her softly scaled cheeks. She grabbed the flintlock and held it up slightly against her head, then dropped it with palms covering her vision like before
"Some are just evil."
"I'm sorr-"
Then I stopped myself and my natural empathy. This interaction went against everything I was taught about the Drownei's kind since a child. They were controlling. Manipulative. I could very well be the victim of the last trait right now.
But instead of running out the exit, I stayed to defend.
"The Drownei are the violent oppressors." I stated as a true fact. "They started the evil by initiating world control."
"But am I?"
Suddenly, my mouth had no more to say in quick response.
She was different, that was for sure. And I saw her almost put a bullet through her skull out of numbness. That was hard to act.
The widow was genuine, and if something were to happen, I'd always have my powers to rely on.
I thought about my own family. Maybe I can still save hers. I know if I was given the opportunity to be assisted, I wouldn't think twice or betray. We weren't the same, but maybe she was in that regard.
But we were running out of time the more we stayed. The harsh, muffled noises of screams and deadly blasts remained outside. The fire I'd caused was quickly spreading to this living room, with the walls and roof beginning to quake and fall apart, surrounding us.
I can still fix this.
"We can still find a way to get you out of here. Come on."
I hurriedly stood up from kneeling on the ground, and walked towards the widow, stretching a hand out to her below me.
"What's your name?"
"Naddia."
As my palm quivered with a sense of betrayal, she slowly took my hand, and I helped her stand up too.
Then the main door behind me was kicked open by a division of the order's troops, each holding a musket.
I was pushed to the side protectively by one of the white-armoured men.
Naddia was shot repeatedly to death.
I didn't hear anything else they had to say. I couldn't feel the embers creeping to the center of the room as the ceiling collapsed. The soldiers simply left, failing to grab my attention, as they left to murder more people.
People. Not just Drownei.
The image of her remained; shocked and betrayed, with a gasp of final pain. Our eyes locked in that second. She wasn't just like her own. She was terrified. She was just like I.
My own tears fell onto her bleeding body to rinse the act, in quiet mourning.
I kneeled and finally closed her eyes with my fingers.
Rest well, widow.