Fighting For The Future

Grandpa made the ultimate sacrifice by making Rain inherit his hearts, in an attempt to unite the people in times of war, rather than providing them with a reason to fight each other and rebel. As Rain is now prepared for combat and the empress knows the empire will not be in a state of weakness - they are about to wage a war, fighting for the future.

“Nir, Rain, let’s head to the statues first”. - The empress says, as she puts on a strange set of armor and picks up her sword. Her armor seems quite light. Its brownish colors make it seem as if it was an improved version of the village’s leather armor.

They exit the castle, followed by everyone else, who are watching in anticipation.

“Touch the statues”. - She says.

Each of them puts a hand on their respective statue. Their eyes shine in red as they receive a skill.

“Repeat this 4 more times”.

Nir and Rain do as they are ordered. The empress takes a moment to explain about the skills they have just received. Then, they all leave.

The empress leads and Ranmei walks right beside her. Nir and Rain walk immediately after them, followed by the elite forces of the empire. Together - they march to the village that Nir and Rain are familiar with.

-”Empress, do you know what the inside of the village looks like?” - Nir asks.

-”We know a bit about the entrance area. That’s how we knew to take you. However, most of our information came from the spy who betrayed me… Who knows what to expect now”.

-”Nir…” - Rain calls him. “Do you think we’ll have to face some of the students who were in our class?”

-”I…” - He struggles to answer. “I admit I didn’t think about that”.

-“Nir, Rain… Anyone on this battlefield is prepared for combat. If they hold a weapon, that is… - “The empress tells them. “Be safe. Not sorry”.

-”Yes, mam!” - Nir replies.

“Regardless, your priority should be finding the spy”. - She adds.

After a few minutes, they get to the main empire’s gate. The two doors are opened for them. They leave and head to the village. As they get closer and closer, the empress notices it’s incredibly quiet.

”Ranmei, shouldn’t they be more prepared for us?” - The empress asks.

-”They should. We are walking into a trap, I just have no idea what to expect”. - He replies.

-”Soldiers! Prepare yourselves! They may engage soon!” - She warns them.

Suddenly, a huge amount of arrows fly from within the village towards them.

-”Shields!” - The empress calls.

The empress, Ranmei and the elite soldiers clench a fist and move their hand to the front, focusing on shielding with their skill. As Nir and Rain got some new skills, including the shielding one - they watch them and do the same.

-”Rain, do your thing” - The empress orders.

Rain grabs an arrow from her quiver and stretches it in her bow. She looks at the sky, aiming at a very high angle and focuses. Her eyes shine in shades of red and yellow. Then, she releases the arrow.

The arrow flies to the sky, and as it’s about to fall down in the village’s territory - it suddenly multiplies. A barrage of arrows rains down on the village. Each arrow starts moving independently and is homing onto a target.

A bunch of screams are heard as the massive attack takes place.

-”They are all stunned for a few hours!” - Rain yells to let the soldiers know.

-”Proceed!” - The empress yells. They all run towards the village and enter through the main entrance. A lot of stunned soldiers can be seen on the ground. From a short distance - more soldiers show up.

Rain picks up another arrow.

“Rain, you should save your hearts”. - The empress tells her. “The spy may be quite strong. He never seemed to be specifically lacking in hearts. But just because as far as I know - the amount he carries never got closer to mine - it doesn’t mean he can’t be strong. In fact, he may have achieved that result through getting skills and hearts repeatedly. Remember, he had more excess to the statues than any villager”.

-”Got it”. - Rain replies, putting her arrow back into the quiver.

-”Do you know where the leaders of this village could be?” - The empress asks them.

Nir and Rain look at each other, then look at the empress, hoping they don’t disappoint her.

-”Sadly, we never got close enough to know that…” - Nir replies.

-”I see… Nonetheless, I will now look for them… After getting rid of them, I will go to the next village on the list”. - She informs them. “Ranmei! You go with them”. - She tells him.

She then runs forward into one of the streets. A few soldiers approach her, only to get wiped out by her hand. Not even drawing her sword, she roams and strikes like a storm - disappearing into the distance.

-”We’ll take on the rest of them”. - Ika tells Ranmei. “We won’t let them follow you”.

Ranmei nods, appreciating the rest of the elites are covering for the three of them.

-”Nir, Rain, you call the shots now. At least… Navigation-wise. Where do we look for him?” - Ranmei asks them.

-”Let’s start from the school”. - Rain suggests. “If we ask the students about the spy and explain our position… Maybe they’ll consider switching sides and helping us, don’t you think?”

-”Honestly… I’m not sure. But it’s worth a try”. - Nir replies.

-”Roger that. Let’s go”. - Ranmei replies. “Although I’m not sure how realistic it is to expect that they’ll cooperate”.

Nir and Rain start running towards the school, followed by Ranmei.

As they get there, they see an incredible amount of students standing in the training area of the school, prepared for them to arrive with drawn weapons. Some of the students - they have never seen before, but there are some faces they recognize from their old class.

They see a figure opening the door to the school’s building. Then, right before entering, the figure stops.

They look closely at the figure, recognizing it’s the person who they saw in the castle and seemed familiar to them.

-”Here are the traitors!” - He says. Nice to see you again though… Nir… Rain…”

He then enters the building and closes the door.

-”You two know him?” - Ranmei asks. “I didn’t realize you had the chance to…” - He suddenly stops himself, as he sees Nir and Rain’s shocked faces.

-”That voice…” - Rain says. “It belongs to…”

-”Null…” - Nir completes her sentence.

One of the students steps forward. He looks bigger than the others, and isn’t someone Nir and Rain recognize from the past.

Rain picks up an arrow.

-”Nir, do you see this?” - Rain asks. “Prepare in case he has skills”.

-”Yea… 65 hearts. Transformed, obviously…” - Nir replies.

-”We seem so professional now that we can see transformed hearts too”.

-”Be focused”. - Ranmei tells them. “This guy isn’t exactly 65 years old…”

The student draws an empire’s sword as he walks in their direction. Then, he starts running towards them in a sudden rage.

Rain stretches the arrow, aiming at him, then releases it as Ranmei jumps to attack him as well. Then, Ranmei gets hit by the arrow.

-”Ranmei!” - She yells, as the big guy prepares to strike him, making use of him getting hit by the arrow.

“I charged the arrow with 10 hearts!” - She adds. “You are good to go!”

Ranmei then slashes him with incredible force, in an almost straight horizontal line, shattering his sword and wounding him. The big guy falls to the ground, defeated, checking his wound only to see it’s shallow and not life threatening.

-”Rain! Nir! How could you side with the empire?!” - “You traitors!” - “You animals!” - The voices of old classmates are heard from the back line.

Nir and Rain are being stared at with anger. Rain stares back into the eyes of some of them. Nir goes to her and puts his left hand on her shoulder.

-”I’ll prepare stunning arrows!” - Rain calls out.

-”Wait, Rain. Let me handle this. Remember your objective? Follow the spy. Don’t waste your hearts. I can manage to defeat them without killing any. The empress didn’t send me here to help you by mistake”.

-”Thank you, Ranmei”. - Rain replies.

-”We leave them to you, Ranmei!” - Nir adds. He then turns to Rain and says: “Let’s go after him, Rain!”

She nods to him, equally determined.

They start running towards the building in order to chase Null. The students try to block their path. Two of them get really close to Nir and Rain.

Nir grabs his sword, preparing to defend, then Ranmei jumps in and kicks one of them away, then punches the other in the face - sending him flying in a different direction. Suddenly, a third one approaches, only to have his face grabbed by Ranmei and be thrown back to where he came from.

Ranmei made himself a temporary barrier with the students he knocked back, as they are blocking the rest of them from engaging as easily.

-”I got your backs!” - He tells them.

-”Thank you!” - Rain yells, as she enters the building with Nir.

-”Stand behind me”. - Nir says. “He may be waiting for us…”

They enter their former classroom slowly, seeing nobody is inside.

-”Wow… Brings back memories…” - Nir says, looking around.

-”Yea…” - Rain agrees, remembering how the classroom looked like when it was filled with students.

They leave the classroom and keep moving forward through the hallway. They reach a point in which there’s only a left turn. As they take it - they see the continuation of the hallway looks similar to how it looked so far, only with a huge hole in the wall at its end.

-”Did he break out?” - Nir asks. “Why not escape through a window or something? Is he trying to let us know where he went on purpose?”

-”He is luring us…” - Rain replies.

They start running in that direction, seeing a bunch of closed doors on the way - until they notice the very last door is open and decide to stop and check it out first.

They look through the door. It looks like yet another classroom, besides something mysterious that grabs their full attention.

In the middle of the classroom - there’s a statue.