There was one thing he remembered clearly, and it was that he had hired the men in robes. That alone convinced him that everything he had witnessed was real.
"You're... pregnant?" Genuine confusion and curiosity now replaced fear as he asked, watching the queen walk back to her seat.
'What courageous bastard was able to approach this monstrosity and take her to bed?'
"You do not have to concern yourself with me. Just take it as though you didn't hear that." Nyxelene said, now sitting on her throne.
'In other words, don't breathe a word to anyone. That is what you're trying to tell me.' Migard now stood before the Queen, this time, with his head bowed.
"I did ask your father to send you to the army because it would be a waste if he had sold you off like he had intended. That being the case, you must have a greater reason for wanting to take my life." Nyxelene spoke, stroking her belly gently.
"I do not." Migard answered shortly.
Everyone despised him because he was different. His own parents were even colder. In the end, he just wanted someone to blame, he wanted to do something to feel better.
"Well then, what do you have in exchange for your life? I can't just let you walk away since you threatened both of us," she finally took her hand off her belly.
The fear returned back to Migard, this time, he felt a sudden cold crawl through his blood.
"Since you asked, I suppose you want something from me," Migard gulped as the words left his mouth, wondering why such a person would be interested in him.
"Serve in the army, and you'll owe me no longer," Nyxelene stood and walked past the young man, heading for the door.
'Wait, that's it, serving in the army is enough to forgive me?' Migard could not understand the thought path of the woman who just walked past him. He was so certain he was going to die before.
'Perhaps it is time to birth the child.' Nyxelene thought as she walked through the door. 'No, I should wait a little bit longer, a few years maybe.'
...
"How long has it been since I began to serve in the army?" Migard whispered to himself as he stared up at the sky.
"I cannot allow you to walk away, our fight is not yet over," Aeloria's voice echoed, bringing him back from his train of thoughts.
'Oh, that's right. I challenged the cannibal. Ever since that day when the queen called forth demons, nothing had been able to shake me. Not even the cannibal.' Migard's stance did not change.
"Very well, I guess we should see this through to the end," he spoke, but this time, with a very bored expression. The Queen had shown him what it meant to be afraid, in a way the Cannibal could not replicate.
'I can do this, I need to try harder.' With that thought she sheathed her daggers. He may be stronger than her, but as the Head Captain, she could not afford to use a weapon when her opponent had his sheathed.
She charged, circling him from the left as she attacked from behind, with her extended finger nails piercing towards his spine.
Migard twisted and slapped her hand away, slamming his very own feet directly into her torso.
Aeloria stumbled backwards but caught herself before she could fall. Without giving herself any time to recover, she charged again.
This time, she leapt up and attacked downwards with her right heel slamming downwards.
Migard quickly evaded to the side, allowing her leg to whip past him in a downward strike.
He stepped behind her as her foot touched the ground, blowing dust and cracking the ground slightly. He gripped her hair and slammed her face into the ground with all the force he could gather.
He lifted her head and smashed again, and again. Each time he lifted her head, the blood from her nose and bruised face pooled more.
"I don't care if she's the Cannibal, but something has to happen to a person when their face are smashed into the ground this hard this many times." A soldier whispered but no one responded.
'This is the expected outcome. Not to mention, he isn't even using Šërēĺįťh. The fight is over,' Ramius looked at the bleeding girl on the floor.
Migard lifted her off the ground, this time, he slammed his knee into her face before kicking her away.
Yoru looked away for a moment. 'I always knew Migard was strong, but not this strong.'
'I hated the Cannibal, however, seeing her losing so one-sidedly does not feel right.
'Something is off, why isn't she healing?' Migard looked at the bleeding form of Aeloria who lay motionless, the white smoke that healed her wounds was nowhere to be seen.
...
Meanwhile, in a space far away from the noise of battle, Aeloria lay motionless in the unending darkness.
"He's too strong, I can't beat him. I'm sorry commander, after you put so much trust in me, I couldn't even beat a him. I'm so tired, I... I want to sleep," she whispered with her eyes closed as she drifted off into deep slumber.
A few moments later,
A new figure appeared in the space.
A baby crawled to her side, Lira climbed on top of her sleeping mother.
"Sleep good mama, Lira fight for you now."
Meanwhile, as all this was happening, Migard spoke to Orin.
"The cannibal is unconcious, I do not wish to take her life. However, I would be taking the position of Head Captain, she's not deserving of such a title."
Just then, Orin's eyes swept past Migard and fell on the motionless maiden.
There was black smoke oozing from her wounds as she stood slowly without touching the ground. It was as though someone pulled her to her feet. Unlike the airy white mist of her usual healing, this black smoke was viscid, clinging to her skin like oil as it stitched her broken face back together. Aeloria now stood with her eyes closed. Her hair turned vitreous black, all the previous traces of brown disappeared.
"Ramius, prepare to help me subdue her," Orin said at last. Ramius only nodded, sensing that something was wrong. Nothing in the report mentioned a black smoke.
As the soldiers and everyone watched in surprise, they heard a voice. Aeloria opened her mouth, but the voice that came out was that of a little girl.
"La, la, la. Lira eats bad man." The child's voice had an incantatory rhythm that felt like a death sentence to anyone who heard it. It came in a gentle low tone. However, they all heard it as though she whispered it directly into their heads.
A cold chill swept through the entire field as her voice echoed.
The person before them was no longer their Head Captain. They could tell just by the wrong feeling crawling in their spines. She looked like a terrifying effigy of a child's nightmare.
Migard watched in silence, his expression unchanged but his stance guarded.
The Cannibal was asleep, Lira was awake. Lira was a baby, and babies were always hungry.
At once, the echoes stopped.
Something was not right. As soon as the echoes stopped, Aeloria was not where she stood a moment ago.
Migard leapt to the side immediately when he sensed a presence behind him. Moments later, Aeloria's right hand slammed at the spot where he stood a heartbeat ago, sending bits of rocks in all directions. This time, her finger nails were now a full finger long. They were claws.
"What happened to her?" Yoru whispered as she watched the maiden she did not recognize.
Something was not right again. Just as her claws touched the ground, he could not see her, as though she had just vanished into thin air. 'It is morning, and the sun is up. So how could I lose sight of her?'
A cold sweat broke through his left brow as he looked around for the Cannibal he could not see