Chapter 132: Prayers and Thoughts.

—Aron the Guard POV—I was just taking my break when the bells of the city suddenly rang. I hesitated for a second as to whether I should finish my noodles or make a run for it, but Carly, the cute belfegor waitress, made a noise of fear and that cinched my decision. I slammed my payment down into the table and ran out of the diner because this was my duty and my role. People like me fought, so that those whose roles differed could serve and work without fear!

I immediately faced towards the nearest gate once I’d made it out of the diner, but then I noticed people pointing and gawping in the opposite direction. I looked at where they were looking, and there in the distance, I saw smoke rising into the air. I squinted my eyes at where it must be coming from, and then I had a terrifying thought.

“I-is that…?”

“That’s Count Licarl’s manor!”

“No…”

“It can’t be!”

“Who would attack such a holy priest!”

The words of everyone else confirmed that they had my same suspicions, and now I was marred with indecision as I didn’t know whether I should go there to help, or run straight to my post.

I furrowed my brows and clenched my hands in prayer in order to make a difficult decision that I could not figure out on my own. Count and Priest Licarl’s sermon last month came to mind, and now I understood even deeper the words he said that day about making sure to fulfill our roles to the best of our ability, and to be obedient to our Angel-given leaders, for we were blind in spirit, and they were the ones who could see.

Applying that to my current situation, I recalled the many drills I had gone through during my time as a guard. They had taught me well that I should go to my post in this situation, and that was exactly the wisdom that I must now follow. If I was needed elsewhere, then one of my leaders would tell me so. Otherwise, there were already plenty of people whose jobs were to guard the manor and our important count. I was called to trust that they had this well in hand.

I arrived at the gates that had been barred shut, and my mother, the guard captain, told me to go up the wall. I followed her commands, as I hoped mine would be followed if I one day took over her position, and climbed the tall stone walls.

Once at the top, a few friends pulled me up as I looked at the damage done from here. More things had been set on fire in the time I took to get here, and I noticed that the flames were of a very peculiar deep red hue. They were also all coming from the center of the city where the most important people resided. This felt like a very malicious and targeted attack, and I gritted my teeth upon being reminded of the only possible culprits. The rebellion of New Grandera had come again to destroy way of life.

“W-what is that?” Ursha, one of our ishkawtan spotters, pointed at a spot in the air. I saw some sort of floating dot that I couldn’t make out, but then a bright flash of the same deep red flame suddenly expanded from the spot and fell upon someone’s mansion. That was our enemy, and it had not yet been taken out.

“What do you see?” I asked my fellow guard.

“Uh, uhmm… It’s a creature. A person, I think. Shaped generally like you and me, but they are wearing armor, and are moving very… smartly. They have big wings, and I think their skin is red, and there are horns sticking out of their face?”

I furrowed my brows at the description. I had not heard of any manner of creature like that. My best guess was one of those damned harpies, but… there were way too many differences. It couldn’t just be some weird evolution.

“Damn. We can’t do anything from here.” I drew my bow anyway, for I was quite good at the weapon. It was why I was sent up here after all.

Suddenly, the wall shook slightly, and my allies began shouting.

“Hey!”

“Look!”

“Someone’s blown a hole in the wall!”

“What!?” I snapped and rushed over to look. These walls protected us from outside threats, and it was highly illegal to destroy them! But when I looked down, I saw a group of hooded figures that had done just that. They carried these big packs behind their backs, and they used the hole to leave the city while it was under attack.

“Crap! Get them!” I shouted, and ran to the other side of the wall. The terrorists were running very quickly through the clearing that surrounded our city, and I shot as many arrows as I could towards them. My allies did the same, and projectiles of different kinds fell towards our fleeing enemies.

Unfortunately, we were not able to land most of our hits as a sort of shield of wind protected their backs. The few arrows that made it through barely slowed them down, and soon they disappeared into the thick forest around us.

I lowered my bow and clenched my hands in failure once they were out of sight.

More and more of the important districts burned, and I grew more agitated the more I was forced to only watch instead of being out there, in the thick of things. But then, after a short while longer, something changed. A trail of light and smoke rose behind me from outside the city, and then the flying monster changed course and headed right for us.

I understood then why I was sent to guard here. I felt silly and regretful about my prior annoyance and impatience. The people in charge knew what they were doing, and all I had to do was follow.

Arrows and spells shot toward the flying terrorist who had attacked us, but most of the projectiles missed, and the evil person was able to block the few that made it to them. Undiscouraged, I drew my own bow and fired, but my arrow too was blocked. That was fine, I was part of a greater whole here, and as long as we pulled our efforts together then we were sure to take down our target as intended.

I managed a few more shots, until the creature finally fully came into view. There in the sky, I saw a red woman with terrifying features, and a grinning expression that just screamed of fury. Her gaze swept over everyone, including me, and then I felt terror so overwhelming that my knees buckled and I dropped my bow.

After the fear came the pain.

A blood-red fireball got through our defenses and landed among our midst. I did not know what happened after that because a single spark had splashed onto my hand. I screamed upon the agony of it, and everything else disappeared from view as I just wanted the sudden torture to end. I found myself on the floor, slamming my hand over and over onto the stone floor below me. I desperately tried to put out the flames, and at some point I succeeded, though I could not be sure when. My hand was left a broken and mangled mess, but it was almost a relief compared to the torture I’d just endured. I’d been burned before, on some magical accident, while cooking, or while making camp; but not a single of those instances had been as close to as painful as today.

I breathed hard and devoted myself in prayer for a while longer, until I finally had the wherewithal to comprehend my surroundings. The panic immediately returned when I saw that the world was still tinged in a deep red because of a few isolated embers, and my limbs twisted around themselves in my haste to get the fuck away from the evil abominable fire.

My heart hammered in my chest. I could not breathe, I could not think, I could only panic. Fear had completely clouded my vision, so I remembered the Angels’ teachings and snapped my eyes shut.

Slowly, with the help of the Angels, I managed to calm down and get my breathing under control. I opened my eyes again, and found that the evil red glow had finally been banished. I breathed a sigh of relief at that, but the calm and joyful air upon the walls had not returned. The people who I had just been talking to earlier were dead, and many more were injured, including me.

Someone came over to wrap my hand in bandages and give me some minor healing. I fought off the surge of panic that came when the burn wounds were aggravated once more. It was not as painful as before. I was fine.

“What happened?” I finally wondered once things had settled down. Someone explained, and I learned about just how many of my comrades had died in that exchange, but not directly because of the flames. Most of the casualties happened as a result of people flinging themselves off the wall and into their deaths in their panic and fright.

I fell to my knees and clasped my hands in prayer again. I prayed with all my might that what they did was not suicide. We were only allowed that if it was in service of the Angels. But surely this, they would understand. It had to count. My friends died while doing their job. That fire was more terrifying than anything, and I did not see how any of us could have overcome it.

—Back to Haell PoV—

I disappeared past the clearing around the city and into the rainforest beyond before the guards on the wall could recover and think to shoot me down. Once there, I looked around, but did not find any of my friends. I almost shouted for them, but thought better of it. Instead, I angled towards where the flare must’ve gone up and then circled around the general area until eventually, I heard a faint whisper in the wind.

I immediately went on guard and tensed. I narrowed my eyes as the words repeated themselves, until I realized what it actually said.

“Haell… Haell…”

It was actually Granuel, and he was speaking just loud enough for me to pick up from here. I listened to it a few more times, and then I went straight to where it was coming from.

“Haell…! Haell…!”

Oh. Wait. That was the completely wrong direction. But I found my way in the end, and made it back to my friends.

“Hey! I’m back!” I waved at them with an unobstructed smile, and then saw the massive bags either piled at their feet, or carried behind their backs. The wagons were nowhere to be seen, and we were far from any roads at this point.

“Hey,” Angerly waved. Her and Therick seemed to be in the worst state of all. “Glad you made it back. What happened back there?”

“There better be a good reason,” Therick said with heat in his voice, but quickly deflated. “We lost Cuddles, Trish, Hax, and Pony.”

“Ah.” Those were the horreks that we kept, the creatures that pulled our wagons. Angerly and Therick were the ones who took the most care of them, and thus were the most attached. Not that we didn’t all care. It was truly a shame that we had to ditch them, and it was only one more reason for me loathe the people of this place.

“They’ll be fine,” Berry hoped. “We just released them into the city. They’re perfectly good horreks. There’s no reason to put them down!”

Angerly smiled weakly. “I hope so, Berry. I hope so.”

They deserved to know what truly happened, so I sat together with them and explained the events of this day.

“I’m glad we killed him,” Moonwash simply said upon hearing of the shit Licarl had pulled and demanded of me.

“Yeah,” I chuckled. “It sucks, but I’ll admit that this day has been cathartic.”

“At least we got them back for driving us out,” Angerly sighed. “If anything, I’m surprised you managed to hold out for this long, Haell. Good job.”

“Gee, thanks.” I snorted. “I genuinely tried, real hard, but they pushed me too far in the end. And now here we are.” I shook my head and refocused. “How about you guys? How did your escape go?”

“Well…” Granuel looked dejected, then defiant. “We had to ditch the wagons. We can’t really just use the main roads anyway, not with something so obvious and identifiable, and I preferred for them to just meet their ends here instead of being stolen by the enemy. So we burned the wagons down in the big fire you created, released the horreks, and then made our way through the most isolated route I could think of. Thankfully, you managed to keep them distracted well enough, and we blew a hole through the wall with ease and escaped that way. We also tried to keep our identities hidden, as useless as it may be. We lose nothing by doing so, and it might sow some additional confusion anyway, which is exactly what we need right now.”

“Okay,” I nodded. “I’m… sorry we lost the horreks. And those wagons were your dream, Granuel. It’s unfortunate that you had to burn them down.”

He shook his head. “It was my call. And I lived that dream.” A bright and angry fire entered his eyes. “Now it’s time for a new dream.”

“True.” I smiled. The future would surely be fraught with more peril than ever before, and I was ready to face it. “But. Shit. Does anyone still want to split up?”

Therick asked incredulously. “It’s too late. We’re wanted criminals, and there’s nowhere else for us to go. Only you would have a hair’s chance of making it out here on your own. It would just be one long death sentence for the rest of us.” Prisons were a very rare thing in the Angelore Empire. Outright criminals were either excuted, exiled if the crime was very mild, or just brainwashed out of their minds to the point that they could barely function.

“” I spoke carefully, without letting my annoyance leak into my voice. “I’m just saying, alright? You always have the option, and there are ways to make it work. I can probably convince Elfrafim to get you someplace else if you really don’t like New Grandera. And I’m sure Mom and Dad and everyone else would have a way for you to keep living here, if that’s truly what you want.”

“No.” Therick shook his head. “And I get that it’s not really your fault, Haell. I guess… we’ve just really overstayed our welcome. But all those options, I don’t think I have any place for me other than here anyway. So I’ll go with you guys if you’re really deadset on New Grandera. I always would have.”

“It’s up to you.” I shrugged. “Always has been. I, for one, think that you can carve a place for yourself anywhere if you actually tried.”