XXXVII
As the bricks fell one by one before my eyes, I grabbed everyone off the tower, pushing them onto the battlements. The overlord had commanded his entire army to overwhelm the Northeast Tower.
“We ran out of cannons!” A soldier shouted towards a general as he ran by. “Our ammunition was depleted after the war against Overlord Helterium!”
“The South Wall is about to fall!” Another footman proclaimed.
“Overlord Ferrius is about to take down the West Wall!” A distant warrior cried.
“What do we do?” Kadava asked.
The entire tower crumbled, bricks falling to the ground, revealing a gap between the North and East Wall. Behind the fallen tower were tens of thousands of worried faces, civilians from the metal domain and Mainland Grozorg helplessly huddled within Tenebris.
“Guild leader!” A figure shouted on the ground. I looked down and recognized a familiar face. She was a refugee from the civilized sector.
“There might be a way for us to power the androids down. Most of the robotic army was built by us!”
“What is it?” I asked. We had to try anything now, no matter the risks.
“The older models are controlled by a frequency emitted from the overlord’s machine,” she began, “so if we found an amplifier loud enough to override the transmission, the army would be frozen in motion!”
“Amplifier!” I immediately shouted to passing guards. “Find an amplifier!”
“Sir, all our amplifiers are implemented into buildings!”
The first android clawed through the rubble and into the city, immediately taken down by a fearless boy wielding a simple gun. I scrambled down to join the civilians, prepared to slay the artificial bots breaching through.
“We don’t have time!” I mumbled, watching the growing group of war droids struggling through the fallen watchtower and into the city.
“Air and Metal!” Arcanor suddenly shouted on the battlement above me. “It was in my vision; the two forces were fighting each other! We don’t need an amplifier, we just need to channel the air to mess up the frequency!”
“How do we do that?”
“Trying to figure that out,” he grunted, fending off incoming androids.
“Your portals!” Tarsus shouted from afar, approaching the torn-down tower. “Can’t you summon two portals?”
I glanced at Arcanor and his face immediately lit up.
“I...I can’t! I’m not strong enough!”
“Arcanor!” I yelled, irritated. “If you don’t do it now, you’ll never be able to do it again!”
“I just-"
“Our nation lies in your hands! Your fate lies in your hands! You said it yourself, we would make it out of this! Are you really gonna counter your own vision?”
He quickly glanced towards the crumbling South Wall, noticing the strongest point of attack from the Sisterhood against the bricked battlement, then he switched his gaze to the devastating war machine hammering down the North Wall. His eyes burnt a bright blue as he rapidly rose into the air. Placing two hands onto his temples, he focused and exhaled deeply. Suddenly, two portals opened simultaneously and in a couple of seconds, they were snapped close.
But a couple of seconds were all we needed.
The entire metal army fell still for a moment except for a few deviants that kept fighting as a gale encased Ferrius and his contraption.
“They’re newer models,” the girl explained beside me as she tore through a deviant. “I don’t know how they’re controlled.”
The overlord’s battle machine fell to the ground as a strong blast of air was shot directly into its chest through Arcanor’s two gaping portals. Ferrius looked up in confusion and he was greeted with Askar’s surprised face through the twin portals.
“Askar!” He shouted, enraged, eyes locked onto the Overlord of Air. His machine’s left arm had snapped from the fall, and the remaining three mechanical limbs were partially damaged, fuelling his anger all the more.
“Attack!” He shouted in fury. As the frequency was re-emitted, his troops came back to life and the metal droids scrambled along the East and West Walls to confront the Sisterhood.
The Sisterhood was the government of the aerial domain, an elite council of twelve females including the overlord and the Aeromancer that acted as both the governing power and law enforcers. From what had happened during this war, it was obvious that the domain of Air lacked a military force, compromised by the deadly skills of the twelve elected individuals. As Ferrius and his entire army took down the Northeast Tower, the twelve Sisters of Air accomplished a greater feat in the same amount of time, nearly destroying the entire South Wall while fending off the majority of the Army of Light and Purity. If this sudden turn of events had never occurred, today would have marked the last day of Fulcan’s reign, the last day of Grozorg’s only hope.
The thick waves of droids were easily demolished by the Sisterhood, who had now formed a dodecagon, vanquishing the oncoming metallic force. Each sister was equally talented in their element; it was as if the Sisterhood was a group of twelve Aeromancers. As Ferrius’ troops scrambled around haphazardly with no sense of organization, the Sisterhood bent the air and wind around the androids, crushing them from every which way and sapping the very life from the lifeless robots.
“Askar! You will not make a fool of me!” The overlord of metal thundered, the accreting rage fuelling his thoughtless impulsiveness.
Fulcan had briskly ordered his forces not to interfere with the two overlords out of fear of starting a three-way war. The Army had scattered around the fallen walls, quickly working together to repair damaged sections of the battlements. The citizens had also split off into groups, scurrying around with scraps of wood and metal to create temporary barricades against the fallen watchtower in great synergy, learning new ferromancing techniques from the civilized sector.
I climbed up the Southeast watchtower to reconvene with the other thirteen guild members who had also gathered there, silently watching the exchange between Ferrius and Askar behind the bricked battlement.
The metal overlord threw a series of punches and jabs through his mechanical machine towards an invisible aura surrounding the Sisterhood. His surviving army scrambled around the hemispherical force field and attempted to claw through. Two sisters were holding the force field in the center, while Askar, the Aeromancer, and the remaining eight sisters were faced inwards in a huddle, as if plotting a devious scheme. The center of the huddle started to grow brighter and brighter as Ferrius’ entire army of droids surrounded the twelve sisters. All of a sudden, a bright explosion filled the skies as the eight sisters released a pent-up elemental eruption.
The South Wall crumbled completely from the sudden devastating force, taking down part of the Southeast watchtower. Instinctively, we all made a break for the East Wall before the tower could take us down with it.
Chrikhil, who had stood nearest to the South Wall, lost footing and slid down as part of the battlement crumbled, quickly grabbing onto a loose metal rod that was exposed from the unstable watchtower.
“Chrikhil!” Tarsus shouted, the first to notice his guild member hanging on for her life. “Don’t let go!”
“It’s slipping!” She yelled hysterically, frantically trying to pull herself up.
I quickly ran with Tarsus towards Chrikhil. The rest of our guilds had already made it onto the East Wall, and falling debris prevented them from returning to help us. Arcanor, helplessly slumped along the top of the East Wall, was fast asleep, recovering.
Those few strides towards Chrikhil felt like an eternity. If I had known to be a step faster, she wouldn’t have died.
We were just a step away, diving down to grab her bloodied wrist and pulling her up. As Tarsus mirrored my sprint towards Chrikhil, we dove down in perfect unison as the metal rod dislodged from the brick. Chrikhil dropped with the rod a hundred feet down as Tarsus and I peered over the ledge, arms extended a second too late. We watched as she flailed downwards helplessly, brutally colliding against the stone ground with a cold thud, splattering the bricks around her a bright crimson.
I turned towards Tarsus as we both lay on our stomachs on the cold battlement, head extended over the ledge, arms drooping over in defeat. He lowered his head and sighed in grief as a drop of tear fell down the same one hundred meters, kissing Chrikhil’s still cheek.
“She was the best of the guild,” he simply noted, head buried into the battlement floor. The lack of empathy in his tone was expiated by an immense anguish. “She was better than me.”
I lowered my forehead onto the battlement floor. The ghost of my memories flooded my head and my eyes as Tarsus repeated his words.
“She was better than me.”
We lay hopeless on the tower, defeated. The shifting bricks around us were crumbling, but Tarsus was flat on his stomach, unmoving, in grief, in pain.
Kadava and Calliphar quickly leapt across the battlement and picked each of us up, bolting back towards the East Wall as the entire Southeast Tower collapsed behind us. I had no words to say to comfort Tarsus. There were no words to say. No words could ever change the harsh reality, the sudden realization that a loved one would never be by your side again. I shared Tarsus’ hopelessness as he sat against the East Wall, his body drooped and expression defeated.
“I could’ve saved her,” he slowly began, turning towards his guild members.
The very same words echoed in my head.
I could’ve saved her.
Words of justice were delivered from the Sisterhood. There was a celebration in the background. Tens of thousands of chants and cheers, praises and songs, but the thirteen of us sat lifeless on the castle wall. The sound became inaudible as the memories flooded my head. Chrikhil’s frightened face as she dropped for an eternity. Roslyn’s fearless face as she pulled the lever.
“I could’ve saved her,” Tarsus repeated, dwelling on the same hopelessness.
I couldn’t do it. The pain was too much to bear, the past was too much to relive. I walked away hastily, finding my own space further down the broad East Wall.
“Take a break,” Kadava spoke as he approached me. His words were comforting, but demanding. “We won the war. Go and take a break, and I’ll tell you everything tomorrow morning.”
How was I able to run a guild, yet fail to save not one, but two lives? All I had to do was jump. I played it back clearly in my head. If I had jumped forward just one more step, I would’ve caught Chrikhil. If I had jumped forward just one more step, I would’ve caught Roslyn.
Kadava ushered me down the makeshift Northeast Tower remade by the celebrating civilians of the nation and placed me on a horse. I was completely lost in my thoughts, and I slumped down on the white stallion. He took the reins and the mechanical gait underfoot automatically began.
Badadump, badadump, badadump.
Heaps of scrap metal lay on one side of the road. A disembodied Ferrius lay on the other side beneath his crushed machine. To his right, a deceased Askar with a metal shaft impaled through her chest, sprawled lifeless on the emerald plains. I could’ve saved her. The mechanical gait continued, and I shut my eyes for a few seconds.
Badadump, badadump, badadump.
I jolted awake. Chrikhil’s unnerving face, her helpless black eyes bore into mine. I could’ve saved her. Trees passed by as we entered the forest line that marked the beginning of Sanoctuis.
Badadump, badadump, badadump.
We celebrated their death.
We mourned her death.
Badadump, badadump, badadump.
I could’ve saved her.
I didn’t save her.
Badadump, badadump, badadump.
I didn’t save her.
Kadava brought me into the hideout, threw me onto the couch, and pulled two blankets over me. He gave me something to drink, and I drank it. It was bitter, but my memories more. None of this would’ve happened if it weren’t for the wars. How did it all begin?
Who was Grozorg’s downfall?
I vowed drunkenly to Kadava that I would find and kill the person who started all this, no matter who he was. Kadava chuckled and spoke something, but my heavy eyelids succumbed to the fluid and I drifted away into a dark, dark dimension, where even hopelessness and defeat ceased to exist.