He lifted his hand and placed it onto the machine’s console. It began to scan him, and it made a noise in acknowledgement. Delta tilted his head to Tianna and said, “This weapon will only react to my command. A little safeguard I added. But that’s not the best part. I can now remotely operate it. Everyone, stand aside. It’s time we show these Humans the might of the Xegin military.”
He raised his metal arm and the cannon’s shaft followed suit, under his control. He began to move it so that it began to angle towards the Imperial Gate in the distance. He waited until everyone had cleared out, then raised his hand high in the air.
“Glory to the Xegin,” Delta said softly.
And when he brought his hand down, a terrible energy shook the ground. The cannon emitted a powerful glow for a few seconds, before light erupted from the weapon.
And it fired straight at the Imperial Gate. Time seemed to slow down as Tianna realized what was going on. She could do nothing but witness the destruction in the distance. The beam collided with the gate and an earth shattering explosion had occurred.
The sound of falling rubble and screams jostled together, and when the smoke cleared, there was a gaping hole in the Imperial Gate. The terrified sounds of panicked soldiers rang out. With her cybernetic enhancements, she could pick up the voices even from here.
Her ears were assaulted with hundreds of voices, all crying out in terror and confusion. Most of them had no cohesion, simply cries of pain. And many of them ended abruptly, nothing more than those in their death throes.
Disgusted at the bombardment of anguished sorrow, Tianna turned off her amplifiers. But it was too late, for the gate had turned eerily silent. She knew what that entailed. Enraged, she turned to her fellow general.
“General Delta! What is the meaning of this? You didn’t even issue a chance to surrender!” Tianna demanded. She had to fight to stop herself from reaching out to strike the man. What she had witnessed was horrendous.
Delta turned to face her, his helmet hiding the expression. When he spoke, the voice was devoid of any emotion. “The fact that they haven’t surrendered yet had earned my ire. We are their sovereign after all. This is treason of the highest sort.”
Tianna noticed how cold the words were. “But…”
Delta placed an armored hand on her shoulder, and she nearly flinched. “This is what it takes to be in command. The Humans are a threat to us and we of the Imperial army must deal with them. The Xegin empire must live on.”
Tianna didn’t have any retort. She knew what he was saying, and she believed in her people. But to not be fazed at all by such carnage... it seemed she was not at that level yet.
Delta had effectively ended a battle that would normally take days or even weeks in mere seconds. It was the Xegin goal to be the most efficient you could be. She knew that, and she expected no less from one of the Imperial Generals.
Still, she could not help but feel the suffering of those that had just been caught in the explosion. Was she less of a Xegin? Was there an error in her software? She didn’t understand it all. What was she supposed to do?
In the end, she could not find any words. She just stood there and nodded. Delta returned the gesture.
“I am glad you understand. Gather your forces and secure the territory. There may be some soldiers who yet live. I will remain back and perform maintenance on the Destroy cannon. After all, we will be needing it again very shortly.”
As he walked towards his new weapon, Tianna came to the horrifying realization that her comrade was being indifferent to the annihilation of Humans. And that frightened her.
***
Pent struggled to try and get his feet, pain erupting in his legs. He looked over and saw that debris had pinned him down. His ears were ringing from what had just happened.
Pent had brought an unconscious Keta back to the Imperial Gate to meet up with Max. He had convinced the older Demon that it would be in their best interest to take Keta and get away from the fighting. Something about what had been going on had given him a bad feeling.
And now, he was glad he had listened to his intuition.
An explosion had ripped the Imperial Gate asunder, tearing a hole through it. Pent had heard it. No, he had felt it. The earth had trembled from the event. He had whirled around and had seen broken pieces of the gate flying towards them.
Pent had drawn his weapons and rushed in front of Max, who had been carrying their unconscious comrade. He had not thought it out, moving instinctively. It was possible he had managed to cut some of the debris before he had been knocked over.
But now, buried amidst the rubble, he could not see either of his comrades. He was alone.
“Max! Keta! Where are you?” Pent shouted. There was no need to not call out at this point. The battle was over, he concluded as he looked at the giant hole in the fortress. There was no way anyone who had been inside could have survived that.
There was a chance that he would be noticed by the Xegin and picked up. But Pent didn’t care at this moment. With the situation he was in, he needed help. And he still had no idea if his partners were okay or not.
Pent tried to move the rubble, but it would not budge. His leg was hurting him terribly and his weapons had landed out of his reach. He could attempt to free Susanoo from her sword form, but the woman was much weaker in her spirit form. She would be no help to him.
Blood trickled down his face into his eyes. He had been hit in the head somewhere. Was that why he was feeling so drowsy? “Help! Somebody help me!” Pent cried out, panic rising in his voice. He was trapped and there was nothing he could do. Was he going to die here? Was this the end of his mission?
I can’t let it end here, Pent thought, fighting back tears. Ophelia is counting on me. I can’t fail her. He tried once more to lift the debris, his muscles straining from the effort. He managed to lift it briefly, before his strength was exhausted.
Someone was talking to him, but he couldn’t hear. The ringing in his head was disrupting him. It was probably Susanoo. Pent sighed, unable to shake the feeling that he had failed her. He wanted to tell her that he was sorry for bringing her into all this. His father had rarely used her, opting to allow her to live a peaceful life.
This realization was like a weight being lifted off him. Then he realized that a weight was literally being lifted off him. He looked over and saw that Max had picked up the rubble in one hand and he casually tossed it aside, holding Keta in the other.
“Damned Greater Demon…” Pent muttered, though he gave the Demon a pained smile, and Max returned it.
“Kid, you are the bravest idiot I’ve ever seen!” Max said, extending a hand, to which Pent gratefully accepted. On his feet, he stumbled and had to start favoring his injured leg.
Pent used his arm to clean up as much blood from his face as he could. “You were protecting our fearless comrade there. I couldn’t let you take the hit,” he said. He limped over to collect his swords.
Max looked unsure what to do. “Even so, you could have died from that. I’m able to take a bit of a beating. You shouldn’t have done that.”
Pent laughed as he set his swords at his waist. “Didn’t matter if you could take it. Keta couldn’t. I had to…” That was as far as he got, before the world began to spin and the ground rushed to meet him.
The last thing Pent remembered was being hoisted into the air, and the sound of Max’s pleading voice.
10
Keta awoke with a scream, his arms flailing as he sat up with his eyes wide in terror. The last thing he remembered was swinging his sword at Tianna, full force.
“Good, you are awake.”
Keta’s eyes opened to see Susanoo sitting beside him, a smile on her face. He tilted his head and saw that he was in a bed, in what looked to be an infirmary. This waking up in a medical facility is starting to get old, he thought to himself. After making sure he was in one piece, he looked over at the woman. “What happened?”
“You are back at the Hu
man army headquarters. Pent asked me to look after you until you came to,” the young woman said. “How are you feeling?”
Keta lifted his arms, and found that he was sore on his right side, but otherwise he was all right. “I’ll live. How long have I been out?”
“Almost a day.”
And then it came back to him. Tianna had taken advantage of his hesitation and shot him. Point blank. He should be dead right now. Pent would be telling him he told him so the next time they met.
“You seem distraught,” Susanoo’s voice broke his thoughts. He returned to reality to see her looking at him with a concerned expression. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“I don’t think he is the type to ask for help.” Keta looked over to see that Erisda had entered the room, and was standing in the doorway.
“Ah, welcome back, Mr Walker,” Susanoo said, moving towards the general. “Though I suspect you may be right about Keta, I’m just glad to have him back to us in one piece.”
“Be that as it may, the day may come that he will return in pieces,” Erisda said, casually flopping onto the side of Keta’s bed. “What exactly were you thinking? Giselle told me you went up against the Xegin soldier Tianna. You are lucky to not be a prisoner. Or worse.”
He wasn’t wrong, Keta thought. “I was...just trying to help. This never would have happened if you had managed to persuade the Xegin to halt their attack.”
Erisda’s face hardened, but when he spoke, there was a gentle teasing in his voice. “You set out to do the same thing and failed, if you recall. At least I didn’t end up in the medical ward. Don’t try and lecture me, anyways. What were you thinking, challenging Tianna like that? She is a force to be reckoned with. And even if you had bested her, how were you planning on defeating the rest of the army?”
Keta really had no answer for that. He realized that he had rushed into that conflict without any sort of strategy and had put himself in danger. All because he had moved without thinking.
“I guess I didn’t think they would fight me,” was all Keta could say.
Erisda raised an eyebrow. “You know, Keta Night, I am envious of your naivete. To think that an army wouldn’t follow its orders because a young man runs around and says it’s wrong.”
Keta had nothing to say to this, so he just stayed silent. “Not much for jokes, are you?” Erisda said, clapping him on the back and laughing. It seemed like the Human had been trying to cheer him up.
Keta tried to smile, but he just couldn’t get it to appear on his face. “I’m sorry. I’m in no mood for humor right now. But still, I must know. How goes the fighting at the gate?” Erisda instantly regarded him with wide eyes. “What is it? Is their siege proving effective?”
“Very. The gate fell immediately,” Erisda remarked bluntly.
The gate...fell? What? He had been there. The defensive fortification was immense. How could that be possible? When he asked just that, Erisda said, “The report...from the survivors was that they brought in some super weapon. They saw it charge up and then it blasted a hole in the damn thing.”
Keta had never been in a war, but he had been educated in war tactics. “There’s no way that’s possible. A siege should have slowed them down greatly. How could they have taken out a gate that large in one shot? It defies logic.”
Erisda waved a hand. “Yeah, well they have a weapon that defies that logic. And right now, that weapon is most likely moving towards our position here. The standing army is moving to intercept. If they get close enough with that thing, I can only imagine what kind of damage they could do to our settlements.”
Keta was still processing what he’d just been told. Everything he’d been trying to prevent had ended up happening anyways. Why was he failing so spectacularly lately?
“What will you do, Keta?”
The sound of his name snapped him out of his thoughts. Erisda was looking at him intently. “Pardon?” He asked the man.
Erisda scratched his chin. “You are neither Human, Xegin or a resident of Teforia. You have no stake in this. If you wish to leave, you’d best do so before the fighting starts,” Erisda said, getting to his feet and moving to the door. Before he made his exit, he looked over his shoulder. “I have to gather my troops. Make your decision quickly, for soon this place will become a battlefield.” And he was gone.
Keta was only left with his thoughts for a few minutes, for pretty soon Pent and Max joined him and Susanoo. “Finally awake, Night?” Pent said, a hint of teasing in his voice while Max just gave him a huge grin. Pent’s head and legs were bandaged though.
Keta was relieved to see the two of them. After what Erisda had told him, he realized he hadn’t even asked what had happened to his friends. Luckily, it seemed they were not the type to go down without a fight.
“Yeah. I’m all right now. But it doesn’t change the fact that I lost. I’m not even sure how I escaped the gate at all,” Keta pondered.
“The kid rescued you,” Max pointed out. “It was really quite touching. He even jumped in to save you from some wreckage from the destruction of the Imperial Gate.
Keta glanced over at the young Demon, who had been staring at him. He promptly turned and looked away at something on the wall. It almost seemed like...Pent was showing concern for him. Was that where the boy had acquired his injuries?
When he did speak, it was back to his normal condescending attitude. “You are quite the fool, you know. You could have died. If I hadn’t followed you out of concern, you wouldn’t be here right now.”
This was completely true, Keta realized. Pent had warned him that something like that might happen. Even so, he had been correct in his assumption; that something horrible would happen if he had allowed the war to continue.
Keta stared down at his hands. “You let them use that weapon…” he whispered.
He expected the Demon boy to get mad, but he was acting calmer than usual. “Let them? Why would I stop them? It is none of my affair. You, as ridiculous as you are, are a member of my rescue party. That is why I saved you. It is not my place to interfere in a war.”
“Do you have any idea how many people must have died in that attack?” Keta said, his temper rising. Did Pent really have no regard for other people’s lives?
But his own temper was matched by Pent, who slanted his eyes. “If I hadn’t come to rescue you, you could have been one of them. And no offense, but I think we’ve wasted enough time here. If we don’t get out of here, we might end up getting killed by that weapon. The Xegin don’t make mistakes.”
Susanoo was looking from Keta to Pent, unsure of what to say. Max was simply listening with his arms crossed, a frown on his face. Keta was unused to seeing his friend without a smile. But still, if they were to be joined forces, they needed to be united.
No, Keta’s mind was made up. “I’m not leaving.”
Pent’s eyes went wide. “What?”
Keta had been having his own doubts about everything lately, from the way that Tianna and the Xegin were acting earlier at the Imperial Gate, to their use of this supposed siege weapon that could cause mass destruction. There was something not right going on with the Xegin. This wasn’t a war anymore, it was brutality.
When he relayed this to his friends, Pent was the first to speak. “Max, I grow weary of speaking with this fool. Can you talk some sense to him?” He asked, turning to the older Demon.
“No...I agree.” Both Keta and Pent looked shocked at Max’s revelation. When he met their stare, he added, “These Xegin have already won this war. There was no honor in that last attack they made. With such a weapon looming over them, it would have been foolish for the Humans to keep fighting. And yet, no attempt was made to suggest surrender.”
Pent growled and looked away, his hands balled into fists. But Max was not finished speaking. “The way that they operated, it reminded me of how the Empire dealt with the clans. And the genocide of my village. And because of that, I just can’t look the other way. I told Keta bef
ore, I joined you two because I wanted to help others. I won’t stand by and do nothing.”
“Max…” Pent started to say, but he trailed off. Keta realized that the younger Demon held Max in high regard. When had that happened?
“The Brotherhood of Shadows has Luna. I have to rescue her, I do. But how could I ever face her if I did nothing here. How would I be able to raise our child in a world where atrocities like this are allowed to exist? This has to end,” Max said sternly.
There was something different about Max lately. He seemed more focused, more...noble. The Demon had confided in Keta about his feelings of guilt over Luna’s capture, which had occurred so soon after he had discovered that she was pregnant. That must be what was driving him.
Keta turned his gaze to Pent, who refused to meet his eyes, staring at the floor. “You wanted to join forces with me, Pent. This is the type of work that Sanction does,” he murmured.
The boy was silent, and Keta could only ponder what type of inner turmoil he was in. The two of them very rarely saw eye to eye, but this was something that they couldn’t be divided on. He had hoped that even in the short time together, the events they had experienced together would be enough.
And sure enough, Pent threw up his hands. “Damn it all! Fine, we’ll do it your way. Now tell me, what’s your plan then? Because if you have none, I will be very cross,” Pent said finally, and Keta let out a sigh of relief. If he was going to continue on this path, he realized that he would need to rely on the boy’s strength. And Max as well. The three of them together, it reminded him of the old days taking on missions with Xuan and the others.
Keta cleared the thoughts from his mind. This was no time to be whimsical. It was time to act. And he had an idea how. “Thanks Pent. All right, I think I have a plan.”
***
Erisda took the steps briskly in no man’s land, his army far behind him now. As customary of generals, he was to meet the enemy and exchange words. For what little good it would do.
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