XLI
“Army! Fall back!”
Generals shuffled through the disorganized army, pulling back the frontlines as the cannons littered the ground ahead of us, decimating most of the cloning Faedrix army and crushing a few Decimos from the powerful, explosive payload. The Confederacy had remarkably upgraded their weapons; the eruptive force that scattered across the rim of Mainland Grozorg shook the entire island with a trembling quake.
The siege was nonstop. As one ship reloaded the massive cannons, another ship continued the attack, deadly lead weights unpredictably crushing the opposing force unendingly.
Then, as if the impossible had happened, all motion was ceased, a plethora of cannonballs suddenly suspended motionless in the air. As the ships continued their incessant bombardment, more black specks joined the strangely suspended payloads, failing to crush the extraterrestrial army beneath.
Instinctively, I immediately searched for the cause. As what was left of the opposing force resumed its onslaught, my eyes were directed through the thin group of Decimos to the overlord, shielded behind the wall of titans. He was moving with his army, but his right hand was slightly raised, and an object glimmered on his index finger.
A memory came to my head. I glanced at my hand, and the Ring of Aquilla greeted me with a golden glimmer. There was something the siren had said, something that could’ve been the answer.
It was hard to focus. No matter how far I pushed Roslyn aside to recollect my memories, she kept flooding back in. The heavy regret of not expressing my emotions for her when I had the chance lingered in my thoughts, assaulting me at unexpected intervals, tearing me away from my concentration.
The Ring...the Ring of Cielos! Cielos, Ceiros, was it a coincidence? There was something within me that assured me that the Ring of Cielos was somehow related to this but...I had forgotten where I placed the ring. And the other part of me, the majority, was of self-doubt. A ring, at this climatic point of the war? Really?
Self doubt led to self deprecation, and self deprecation inevitably led to failure. It was a long journey for me to learn that in my lifetime, but I overcame my thoughts and frantically patted myself down, trying to search for a needle in a haystack.
Then I saw it. As Ceiros’ attacking army grew back again; the cloning Faedrixes seemingly immortal, the overlord took off the glowing ring and flipped it upside down, placing it back onto his index finger. All at once, the collecting mass of cannonballs suspended high in the sky plummeted down, destroying at least two whole squadrons of the Army of Light and Purity.
Ceiros repeated his technique. Flipping his ring, the warped, isolated area of gravity upheld the nonstop barrage of cannonballs, the increasing black mass slowly blocking out the bright blue sky again. There was no way of contacting the captain to stop, and if she did stop, there was no other factor that would catalyze our victory in this war. We were caught in a trap, and I still couldn’t find that damned ring.
I was forgetful, but I wasn’t disorganized. It came back to me that I usually placed anything important in the hidden pockets of my shirt, but anything seemingly miscellaneous but could be of future use in the inner pocket of my cloak. And I suddenly remembered that I had slipped my ring off while I was underwater, right before I blacked out. Fumbling through my pockets, my fingers brushed across a cold, smooth object, and I knew I had the answer to the war.
Placing the gold-purple-green ring onto my right middle finger and directing the angle of my palm towards the sky, the cannonballs suddenly dropped, to the overlord’s great surprise and dismay, decimating his army once again. I noted the position of the ring on my finger, the green half of the ring pointed towards my arm while the purple half of the ring directed towards my fingertip.
Was it a coincidence I received a different ring, or was it predestined? My tri-coloured ring was different from the rest of the purely golden Rings of Aquilla all others had received, and I figured it was due to me mentioning two names to the fading siren. Was the source of my mistake, an accidental slip of tongue, the winning edge for this war? Then I recalled it. If I hadn’t been woken up by Arcanor’s voice that one night on Geonyte’s island, we would’ve completely lost this war - we would’ve completely lost Grozorg.
Was it all predestined?
The cannonballs quickly went up again as the overlord took off his ring and placed it on without flipping it, the glowing emerald half pointing towards his fingertips. I concealed the brightly illuminated golden green-violet ring as best as I could behind my cloak, careful not to give myself away to the staggered overlord of space and gravity. Taking my ring off and placing it back on without changing the direction the two coloured halves faced, the increasing mass of explosive payload once again dropped down, only to rise up from the overlord’s quick action.
“Tarsus!” I shouted, noticing his swinging blade nearby. “You gotta find a way to distract the overlord! Trust me, this plan will work!”
“Gotchu!” He responded quickly, moving through the diminished Army of Light and Purity to report to the king.
Some words were exchanged between the king and his generals while I kept taking off and putting on the ring, making sure to distract Ceiros from focusing on the war. The generals quickly ran in opposite directions after the brief discussion, and in a matter of time, two sides flanked the overlord.
In a shout of rage, the overlord commanded his troops to surround him, protecting him from the approaching flanks of Fulcan’s army. The Caelomancer couldn't help him now; the Caelomancer was nowhere to be seen. As Ceiros gave out his order to what was left of his army, the suspended cannonballs continued its forward course, and I assisted by flipping my ring around.
That was probably the final blow, the determining factor of the war that marked the end.
The ground exploded as the barrage of cannonballs collided into the occupied overlord. As the smoke cleared, all Faedrixes were surprisingly wiped away; not a single clone remained. There were a few dozen Decimos left, but compared to the hundreds before, they were not threatening. And Ceiros lay in the center of his hired troops, crushed by a fallen titan that he could have prevented if he had only flipped his ring around.
The Confederacy saw the outcome of the war, and the barrage finally came to a stop as a loud cheer filled the clearing sky. It was a deadly war, perhaps the elemental war with the most casualties from both forces. The Decimos simply limped back to Ceiros’ island, and not a single soul dared to interfere with the titans’ retreat.
“Another day, another fight,” Fulcan spoke as he approached me, placing his firm grip on my shoulder. I quickly pulled off my ring, slipping it into an inner pocket on my cloak.
“Did you see how the overlord of space couldn’t even fully control space?” The king continued, a short bark of laughter following. “The irony. Thank you for your service, Tarsus, Ulterium.”
“The greed for power is man’s downfall. Your army’s suffered a lot, Fulcan,” I pointed out, smiling.
“I know. I don’t look forward to the upcoming war.”
“There’s more, your majesty?” A fellow soldier of the Army of Light asked in disbelief.
“There's likely to be an attack from every elemental faction. I don’t reckon a guess for which nation will declare war next, though.”
“I understand. It’s just felt...it’s just felt like we’ve already fought twelve wars,” The soldier responded. “I don’t even remember how my life was before the wars occurred.”
The king gave quick instructions afterwards for every warrior to go home and rest, ready to continue their service for the glory of Grozorg in the rapidly-approaching future. I told the two guilds to meet up at our hideout, to relax and rejuvenate before submerging ourselves into another inevitable war.
Upon passing the overlord of Space and Gravity, I quickly bent down and snatched the ring off his finger. A third ring wouldn’t hurt anyways.