Chapter 211: The Burning of Gardine.

Time moved cruelly forward.Angerly’s head dropped further away from her body.

I stepped harder, and the wooden floor collapsed beneath me as I leapt off the surface. My wings flapped hard and I shot forward like an arrow. I wailed in pain and sorrow as I threw myself at the shepherd who had just killed my friend!

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

Devilcalibur dropped like a meteor, and Eden jumped back. A chasm opened and cracks splintered on the stone platform she stood on. I glared at her with eternal fury, but I had to hold myself back to catch Angerly as she fell, both body and head. Blood poured out of my face, and I used it to coat my dying friend in magic. I mashed the two halves of her neck together, and my hearts stopped for one hopeful moment when the flesh writhed, only for them to fail to reconnect.

Both halves of her were rapidly dying. Losing one’s head was never an injury that could be healed. But I had to do it. I promised. They promised. It would be okay. I would make it okay. Please. PLEASE!

Desperate tears fell from my eyes. A dozen slashes landed across my back, and I barely had the wherewithal to dodge everything lethal. Eden could take whatever pound of flesh she wanted so long as I could heal my friend. I tried to flee with Angerly and get her to a safer place, but I found my heels cut and my wings torn. Magic grew so thick everywhere that my instincts urged me to run, but I could not just leave her! Eden was momentarily driven away by Elfrafim, but the foreign queen was the better fighter.

Arrows and spells of a variety of elements fell from the rooftops of every building around us. Great waves of water and powerful jets of it came from the ocean. Elfrafim protected me with a dome of wind, and I poured my curse and hellfire to my surroundings. I dropped Angerly’s remains to the ground, and shielded her with my body!

The might of a hundred mages shook the world. A massive explosion of wind pushed away the first wave of them, but Moonwash’s talismans weren't enough. Elfrafim’s defenses failed, and then my own. The world spun as my skin was burnt, flesh frozen, nerves flayed by lightning, and tendons cut by arrows. But none of it compared to the pain that I felt for my failure to rescue my friend.

The body that I held onto so tightly , and what vestiges of life remained in the corpse I so desperately wished to revive disappeared, along with anything that could be recognized as Angerly.

My friend was dead.

And my hope died with her.

they claimed! But it wasn't! It never would've been! We were doomed from the start, and I it, but I chose to believe in their lie anyway! I pretended that everything was okay!

And now what happened.

All was sorrow. All was pain.

The noise of the world I couldn’t parse, because it wasn’t to be like this!

I worried for how Angerly might have been brainwashed. I knew the sheer trauma that came with an experience like this. I wanted my friend back and to help her through it all! But I never even got to start. I failed her when she needed me most.

I believed in a lie I knew to be false. I shared that false hope, I made I couldn’t keep. How could I face them, how would I face myself? How would they face me after they’d lied to my face?

Because it’s not okay. It wouldn’t be okay. Things would not work out. My friend wouldn’t be saved. I was not strong enough.

But… more than our lies… more than our hope… this was all doing! Of Eden, of her depraved country, of the people who chose to follow her!

I punched the ground, and finally pushed myself up. I got on my hooves and grabbed Devilcalibur in a deathgrip. Even now the bombardment continued, as Elfrafim desperately fended off Eden and her many ground troops that had us surrounded.

I glared at that queen of this dying kingdom with all the hatred of a thousand hells. And this time there was no friend I needed to save. She was already dead. There was nothing left, but to act according to my rawest emotions.

I threw myself at my enemy and slammed my greatsword down! Eden parried it and redirected the force, but I only pulled my weapon back up for another go. Another slam engorged on my pain, and directed by my unending rage. Whether it takes a hundred, a thousand, or more! I would not stop until there was less left of her than Angerly! I would not stop until her kingdom burned!

“Lightning-Field.”

“Wind-Lightning-Storm-Cyclone.”

“Frost-Wide-Spread.”

Moonwash’s words thundered through reality. Electric death fried and stunned our many enemies in the ocean. A whole building was destroyed by the short-lived tornado, and many more enemy soldiers were killed along the surrounding properties. The other side of the water grew cold and frozen, and the attacks from the countless crustecars and crorcas within slowed to a stop.

I made them feel the depths of my fury, and the enemy response stalled and died. Elfrafim disengaged from her battle with Eden now that I was here, and fought the surrounding templars and other ground enemies to prevent them from interfering. The Blur had been hard at work all this time, assassinating the mages and archers in the winding corridors and hallways so common to all buildings.

My battle with Eden continued. I was sliced all over, my guts exposed into the open, only for the wounds to close mere moments later. We crashed through several buildings, my hellfire burned everything, and my curse snaked around from all sides ready to take a bite out of Eden. People ran away from the carnage, people previously here to watch my friend me executed, and by the unceasing march of my power they were trampled!

I sensed several enemies with impressive agility come at me from all directions. Among them were a disproportionate number of koraks and finxes, too many obviously brainwashed just from the look in their eyes. It reminded me of how Angerly was like in her final moments, but I killed them without mercy anyway. My flames burned hotter today, and my curses responded to all my hatred. The fragile minds of thralls could never hope to survive the same pain I suffered. Only a few kept on fighting through the insanity, and of those, some actually went for Eden. It was all her fault, and even they understood!

(Finx = cat-like people. Korak = pink frog-like people.)

It was just the two of us again. Our battle was terrible and unapproachable. Eden parried and dodged my attacks, but the false queen could only land a few hits in return. My Grandpa had taught me well in the time leading to his death, and I was not the same demon I was before!

I surged forward. I abandoned defense in favor of a reckless offensive. My flesh was cut and sliced and gouged, but it was all worth it to draw Eden’s blood. More and more, her armor was ruined, and the flesh beneath My wounds healed visibly, while hers didn’t. Every injury I took was repaid in vengeful curses, bringing about the of her body!

“You fucking cheat!” She coughed blood, grinning, stumbling. “You are , Haell! I had the better plan! I’m the better swordsman!”

“YOU’LL DIE HERE TODAY IF I HAVE TO KILL MYSELF TO DO IT!!!”

The scream tore out of my throat, but without slowing me down in slightest. I slammed Devilcalibur forward, and this time Eden’s defenses broke. Her swords buckled and fell from her grasp. Her arms were the most damaged of all, a smear of blood and rot. My greatsword dug deep into her torso, and I pulled the blade out in a spray of guts and organs!

Eden groaned. She turned around to run like she did before, but found that she had no army to return to. Arx had arrived in full, along with my parents and some others. The devastation they wrought sunk parts of this floating district to crash upon the underwater settlements below.

Their demise was inevitable, and I wished for Eden to feel the same hopelessness I did. They had lost, but for a few seconds more she got to experience what it was like to see it coming but be powerless to stop it. lie

The queen chose to run anyway, even without a destination, for what else could she do? She fled with the desperation of a child, the dignity of a queen stripped away. I charged after that pathetic figure, faster than her failing body could ever hope to achieve. I crashed into her from behind, and slammed her through several layers of walls with a sword through her spine!

The world around us burned, as the surrounding homes turned into one screaming hellscape. Eden’s torso was cut in twine, and the other half sank into the ocean as the stone floor collapsed beneath. She was smeared across the road when another jagged slash was raked across her sternum to her face. I crushed her wrist with my hooves, causing the hardened beach to crater. I dropped into a crouch, and stared right into her eyes.

I grabbed her crown horns, and ripped them out of her skull! I pried apart her ribs, and devoured the heart inside! My fingers closed around her fracturing skull. Curse seeped out of my palm and sank into her dying mind.

Sorrow

Just like Angerly, I didn’t let her die as herself.

Just like Angerly, I carved her corpse into finer and finer pieces of gore.

Biomass, to be devoured.

There was nothing left. I turned my perpetual glare towards the place that festering pile of meat once protected.

Its people had collapsed from the sheer terror of me. My hands shook, and I found Devilcalibur already raised above to execute them. For this was all their fault. They killed Angerly. They knew of my friend’s execution, and not a single one of them cared. They celebrated it, and even attended, like it was anything less than vile and abhorrent. Their lives were a cancer that could not be allowed to spread. I did not wish to lose any more of my people to

I jumped and flew away, to check on my friends and family who risked their lives to be here today. They were still alive, they could still be killed, and I would not let the weak and broken people of this city stall me any longer. No one else of mine would be slain today.

The wind cried upon my passing, and within seconds I was back above the square where Angerly was executed. I searched around, and easily spotted Arx amid the crumbling homes and platforms above the water. He leapt across the streets and tore apart any remaining pockets of resistance. My parents and their Piss Hunters stuck together, hunting along the ocean. Moonwash was with them, and she periodically tossed her talismans into the water to fight off the enemies that swam within.

My glare focused on those underwater threats. The war was not over even with Eden’s death. I didn’t know why I thought it would be any different. Her soldiers fought on, and my friends were still in danger. They’d already taken too much from me today, and I would not let them take anyone else!

The tide of my sorrow returned and threatened to flood my mind, but I drowned it out with my rage. They killed Angerly, they could not be forgiven. I could not lose myself; Not here, not now.

I didn’t give myself any more time to think as I threw myself into the next battle. I sank into the ocean in a great splash of water. I crashed through the roof of one of their underwater buildings, and past several layers of flooring. I pulled myself out of there, and snarled at the… frankly beautiful architecture of their more open yet narrower floor plans. Crustecar soldiers filed along the streets, and the crorcas circled above me like sharks.

I made a painful shriek that traveled through the waves, and my enemies flinched for a moment as my aura and evil eyes flared. Some of them just died, here and now, while others were frozen for longer than I was used to. I did not fail to take advantage of their dalliance and I immediately flapped my wings to propel me through the ocean!

The biggest and baddest of the crorcas had his throat slit by Devilcalibur, and the explosive curse that followed beheaded him entirely. I twisted around along the waves, and crashed into the largest gathering of the crustecar defenders with another flap of my wings. My hellfire was noticeably weaker here, constantly diminished, but it still burned. My magic would not be denied by such a simple environment. My curses were even less impeded, and they spread across their ranks. They rotted, they melted, the very bounds that held them together fell apart. Their remains didn’t just littered the ground, but instead floated along the water.

The ocean was dyed the red of blood and the consuming darkness of my curses.

My enemies finally began to recover. I realized that these slaves had so much weaker wills without their shepherd masters, and there were only a few here underwater. I continued my slaughter as I charged across the streets filled with the crustecars. The crorcas dove towards me from above, and they came from all sides, but I broke their formation with my magic, and then carved another path through their panicking bodies.

I twisted around their attacks, enduring their claws that got through, but certainly avoiding their massive maws. I was still slowed down by the water, but again, . They would pay for what they did here today, and I would be as strong as I needed to be to complete their eradication!

More of them died. Their commanders fell one by one. I drank of their blood in the water, and recovered from what damage they were able to inflict. Two things happened at once, and finally, they broke and ran away from me.

The news of Eden’s death had reached them. I was dumbfounded for a second, at how I failed to realize that it wasn’t that they were unaffected, but they just didn’t know yet. At the same time, the Angel’s Demise had renewed their efforts and assaulted the city with ever greater vigor. My enemies were forced to redirect more and more of their forces into that desperate defense as their morale ran at their lowest.

My earlier shout wasn’t really meant for them after all, but was instead a signal for the Angel’s Demise, no matter how deeply it affected my foes. They were just that pathetic. How could I have let these trash take away Angerly’s life…

A tear fell from my eyes as I finally flew across the water to resurface in the air. I heard the tail-end of some words that made my blood boil, and saw a tragedy that then made it run cold.

“Go! Leave now or she dies!” so threatened the belfegor man… as he held the unconscious and bleeding Luine at knifepoint. “I am the Royal Agent Zilantor! And with the death of Eden and our generals, I am the next in line through the chain of command. I command you all to lay down your arms and surrender! This rebellion ends here!”

My hearts raced. They weren’t satisfied with Angerly.

Now they wanted to take her mother too.

I couldn’t take it. It was too much.

I tensed my wings, and tasted blood in between my gnashed teeth. I could fly down there and kill him now. I could do it, he was a belfegor without the element of surprise. It’s what he deserved. It would be too merciful. But the enemy was strong enough to knock out someone like Luine. Her head was caked in blood, and I feared the worse. Her captor might be able to react fast enough to kill my friend before I killed him.

“No, wait! Don’t!” I heard my mom plead. But there was no deal to be made with someone like this. He didn’t even pretend to have any intention of letting Luine go. He just wanted us to obey his demands. He thought that we would be their slaves, just because he captured one of us.

The very idea filled me with such unimaginable disgust that I nearly puked into the oceans below.

I did it again. I was consumed by my rage that I forgot everything else. I allowed another friend to die.

I wasn’t willing to do what needed to be done to save them.

The one thing I could do, was to avenge your death. I would scrub this world clean of your killers so thoroughly, that no one would think to do this to my people ever again.

With great melancholy and boundless anger, I flapped my wings. I streaked like a comet through the air. I stopped in front of my prey, but didn’t kill him just yet. Instead I grabbed his hand, and yanked it back.

Blood sprayed all over my chest. The knife had already sunk deep into Luine's throat, and it tore open a larger gash when it was removed. I crushed his fingers and the blade in my fist.

It was like I killed her myself.

The Blur made his move only shortly after I did, and he slit the belfegor's throat before pulling him off Luine. I caught my friend and immediately tried to heal her, but it was no use. There wasn’t even a response to my magic unlike with Angerly. Her brain was already damaged. Her skull had several fractures and cracks.

She might've already been dead.

My friends and family rushed forward to try and help Luine. Salaire took her from my arms, and endlessly checked for her vitals. We had all gathered here now, and all of us who could heal tried.

It was no use. They only came to the same conclusion I did. They wailed and cried as another mountain of grief was put upon their shoulders, where they were already being crushed by the weight of Angerly’s recent death.

It took me a moment to realize that I was also screaming. I stared at the dead Luine, surrounded by all those she loved in life. Her ruined face was revealed as Salaire wiped the blood off her dead wife. The belfegor woman howled a thousand curses as she broke down.

I glared at Zilantor then, the killer of Luine, he whose name didn’t deserve to be remembered. I wished to scrub it off my memory core. The belfegor man had a few dozen stab wounds across his body, but nothing too extreme. He died too clean a death. I didn’t even get to give him a taste of hell.

An icicle suddenly flew towards us, and I punched it out of the air. I turned my malevolent glare towards those thoughtless adventurers, and they peed themselves in the streets. I smeared them across the ground, for they could not even allow my friends to mourn in peace. I glowered at the city in front of me, and the palace in the distance. I took one step, and then paused once I heard murmured voices from behind.

“L-let's go.”

“G-good idea.”

“Come on.”

“But!”

“I know. I know, Salaire…”

“I'm sorry.”

“It'll be..."

“What? It'll be what?"

“I… Nothing. Let’s just go.”

"We're still in enemy territory. What if we get attacked again?"

"Let them come, then! LET THEM COME!!!"

"Salaire, please..."

"NO! LET ME GO! First Angerly, and then Luine too!? Who’s next?! I won’t let them! I WON’T LET THEM!"

Salaire fell to her knees, Luine still in her arms. That was the only reason she didn’t just let all the strength leave her and sprawl on the ground.

My throat hurt, like I was being strangled by an invisible force. Tears forced themselves out of the emotional mess that I was in. It hurt to see them like this, it hurt to see them die.

I walked over, and cried alongside those who still lived.

The ugliest and most vindictive part of me took grim satisfaction in how they could no longer claim that things would be okay. They could not anymore. now

My allies finally calmed down enough to limp out of the city that killed our own. My friends drew further away from me, and I grew increasingly worried and desperate that someone would conspire to kill them when I wasn’t looking again. Even if I joined them now, I couldn’t be there for them all the time.

has

It would happen again. would do this again. I it, as clearly as I knew that today could only end in tragedy.

even

My enemies were not like me. They were weak, cowards all. Where I trained and toiled until I could kill an angel myself, they would rather aim for those close to me. They were too scared of my strength.

I’m

I made my decision.

I joined my family on their way out of this city.

We slaughtered our way through anyone that stood in our way, and tore a hole right through their walls.

“Alright… okay… We should–”

I didn’t hear the rest of what my mom had to say as I flew back to Gardine on my own, murder in my face.

I floated before the royal palace. Monuments to the angels were on display everywhere, but Eden got to aggrandize herself too as she was not lacking for statues. For all the good that did them, their vanity did not save them from me. What they left behind only served as a big target as I burned both gold and marble alike.

I tore down the walls of their home, like how I dismembered their bodies when they were alive. I crashed through the halls of their castle, and slaughtered everyone inside. It was pathetic how they panicked as their world came crumbling down. The guards and templars tried to stop me, but they were powerless to do anything. I made sure to personally execute anyone that looked remotely important. How lucky was I, that they always gave away their worthless status in the clothes that they wore?

I found their throne room, and I announced myself to the nobles just about to flee.

“Demon Queen Haell Zharignan! Here to kill you all!”

That was stupid. A silly impulse.

I did exactly as I claimed and killed them all.

The shepherds who herded the sheep to the slaughter that was Leaders who saw my friend in chains and Templars who enforced their rule, and protected them to the end.

“Stop–”

“In the name of–”

“Wait, wait!”

“You can have the city! You can–!”

“Arrrgghhh!! My head!”

“Why won’t it work?!”

“MONSTER! DEMON!”

“LET ME GO!!!”

“You will... Regret this…”

Their final words were as worthless as the rest of their lives.

I destroyed Eden’s throne with one contemptuous swing and flew out.

I floated far above the city in chaos, and observed. A million eyes stared at the crumbling palace they once revered, and I stared back. Even their panic and their resolve to get through this crisis cooled, to make room for the horror.

I gave myself one last opportunity to turn back, and let this be the end. That small ember of mercy was all too easily swallowed by the greater curse that was

So it began. I screamed like a beast, and terror made itself known. Fire rained from above, and set the buildings alight. Everything became awash in the red glow of blood. People tried to stop this flame from spreading, but I met their eyes and they stopped.

I was the apocalypse, I was their end.

The few, the brave, the foolish; all who resisted were put to the blade.

Gardine’s people ran and fled, for they would be my messengers of death.

“Haell! Haell what are you doing!?”

“What!?” my head snapped towards my parents down below. Mom and Dad were in pain, for they could hardly fight off ! “Why are you here!? LEAVE!”

“STOP THIS!”

“We’ll leave! But come with us!”

“I… No, I can’t!” I landed before them and parted the sea of hellfire. “You don’t understand!”

“Then tell us!”

“What don’t we understand?”

“That things will not be okay!” I snapped. “You fucking promised me that they would be, but they’re not! You fucking liars! That’s why I have to do this! To stop this from happening ever again, because are too to stop it!”

My parents flinched, like they’d been struck. I staggered back, regret in my hearts.

“I–I’m sorry…! I didn’t mean to! I–!”

“I-it’s okay, Haell.” Dad approached, hesitantly at first, but then with more resolve.

Mom pulled me into a hug, and I allowed myself to hug the both of them back. “Let’s go home, okay? This is… not good. You can still stop.”

“No,” I replied softly, and they froze.

“W-what…?”

My wings opened wide, and I carried them out of there.

“You still don’t understand. You still think it’s okay, when it’s clearly not.”

“Haell, that’s not–!”

“It was a figure of speech!”

“Maybe,” I relented. “But I have to do this. I know you won’t, I know you can’t. And you don’t have to. But I ”

I landed right next to Arx, and asked him to look after them. My friend gave a solemn and resolute nod.

“No!”

“HAELL!”

“COME BACK!”

“DON’T DO THIS!!”

“I’m sorry.”

I flew back to Gardine to finish what I started. I stared at all the people who died, burned by the flames, trapped in their homes, crushed by debris. I listened to their cries, their curses, and the pleas that went unanswered. I would’ve remembered them all anyway, I could never forget, but this time I made sure to really absorb all the atrocities I committed. The that I did. It was what my parents warned me away from, and I selfishly scorned their advice.

I was a horrible daughter. A horrible person. A fucking demon.

I spoke from up high, to the people I drove away from their homes.

“HEAR ME, REMNANTS OF GARDINE! TODAY YOUR CITY BURNS, FOR YOU DARED TO TOUCH A FRIEND OF MINE. YOU ALLOWED YOUR QUEEN TO CELEBRATE HER EXECUTION, YOU ATTENDED WITH GLEE LIKE IT WAS SOME FUN EVENT! So I ask you now,

“FUCK YOU!”

“Go die!”

“Nooooooo!!!”

“Angerly deserved it, and you too!”

“What have you done!?”

“RUN!”

“The angels will not forgive you!”

I nodded, as if everything they said made sense. Half the city burned behind me, as the survivors scampered past their walls. A few clever earth mages had destroyed portions of it to allow for more exits, and it was a great idea. This settlement would not survive today. But might. They were just people who wished to live out their lives, like anyone else.

“AND YET I LIVE, NO MATTER HOW YOU WISH IT SO! Your Queen Eden wished for the same, and now she lay dead. She captured Angerly to lure me in, and it was she who was slain. AND WITH IT CAME THE ! THE DEVASTATION I DELIVER! TAKE THIS AS A WARNING! Face me with courage, face me with strength, and I shall do the same! Scheme like the rats that you are, and I will fucking ! So think long and hard the next time someone captures my own, and keeps them chained up in their dungeons. Celebrate, or feel the specter of my ? Do not make me do this again, or I will carve as many open scars into this world as I need to!”

I unleashed a measure of my aura, and finished.

“Blood for blood. Honor for honor. Dishonor for dishonor.”