Year 2: The Scorched Remains - Chapter 6

Feng Li, Dao Chen, Stephanie and Blake all unleashed ranged attacks together at once.

With a great roar and a swing of his mighty weapon, Abaddon blasted all the attacks away. Duncan, supported on his left by Brenda, charged forward, Dao and Feng firing between the thin gaps between them as cover. Duncan swung high, which Abaddon lazily dodged, as Brenda lunged at the demon.

Abaddon punched the side of her head, sending her spinning onto the ground. Feng’s arrows bounced off his armour though Dao’s feathers did stick into it; however, they didn’t penetrate deep enough to pierce his skin.

Duncan yelled and swung three more times, using the runes Ehwaz to strike faster and Raidho to keep pursuing Abaddon every time he stepped out of the way, but the demon general was unphased by his speed.

“Is it arrogance or false confidence-?” Abaddon grabbed Duncan by his arm, and yanked him onto the ground. “That drives you, young heroes?” He blocked Blake’s black spears with his sword, then threw Duncan at Brenda, knocking them both back onto the ground. Stephanie unleashed a barrage of different magical energy at him, but Abaddon easily dodged each blast.

“He’s too fast!”

“Steph, Blake, try to pin his legs if you can!” Duncan ordered. “Feng, go left, Dao take the right. Brenda!” He pulled the girl beside him onto her feet. “With me, again!”

Impressive. Abaddon shifted stance into a more aggressive one. No matter how badly they’re pushed back, they keep on coming.

Good! Get stronger, learn! Make yourselves prey worthy of the Demon Emperor’s time!

Duncan feigned a stab before Brenda lunged out from behind him, her sword aimed at the demon’s heart. He went to block it with his sword, but three rapid fire arrows from Feng made him block Brenda’s attack with his fist instead. Abaddon used his claymore to cut the arrows out of the sky, just as Dao’s feathers pelted his raised arm; they landed in his armour again but were less than a centimetre from scratching his skin.

Abaddon tried to punch Brenda, but Duncan pulled her out of the way and blocked the demon’s attack with Angurvadal; the boy hissed in pain and almost dropped to his knees, but Duncan’s adrenaline kept him standing.

Then, eight spears of black energy smashed into the back of Abaddon’s knees, causing him to jolt forward a tiny bit, but he remained standing. Stephanie followed up with a much more concentrated attack at the same place, but Abaddon dodged her attacks, then swung at Brenda. Brenda ducked beneath the attack and then slashed at Abaddon, but Abaddon caught the blade between his elbow and his leg.

“You’re quick learners, I’ll give you that.”

“Thanks for the praise!” Duncan stabbed twice, but Abaddon parried Angurvadal to the side, then kicked the hero in the chest, launching him into Feng’s arms.

“Battlefield experience doesn’t compare to that you get while training safely behind your castle walls,” Abaddon said, as he bashed Brenda away with the flat side of his sword, nearly knocking the woman out in one hit. “Then again!” Abaddon stomped his foot hard into the ground, causing a mini earthquake that dropped Blake and Stephanie to the floor. “You’ve only done this well with me holding back. You’re still too weak!”

Abaddon planted his sword back into the ground and sighed. “Mímir said that there might be a miniscule chance that the Demon Emperor is actually in danger if we allow you to live, but I don’t believe that for one moment. Listen, heroes!” He lent on his blade and pointed at them. “You can hold your own against our grunts, but that’s it. The Dread Knights, the Satyr Knight, the generals and I and everyone else are above you. Honestly, I don’t think you could even handle the Awoken.”

“Even then!” Duncan groaned as he forced himself back onto his feet, although he couldn’t disguise the fact that he was a little shaky on his feet. “We won’t stop fighting. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, we will defeat you, your emperor and free the east!”

“Why do you even care that much?” Abaddon asked with genuine confusion. “You guys aren’t from this world, so why bother protecting it? Why not do what Amen did and just live for your own sake?”

“Amen…”

Abaddon chuckled. “I don’t think he’ll be regretting his decision anytime soon. If anything, he’ll be sad if his friends don’t join him, of their own free will or otherwise.”

“You-!”

“Oi.” Blake spoke up and stepped forward, blood on her face and bruises on her hands and knees. “It’s natural to protect people who can’t look after themselves. If we had all of that power at our hands and did nothing to help them, then we wouldn’t just be inhuman - we’d be betraying what it means to have power.”

“Oh?”

“Back on Earth, I couldn’t stand people like Amen or you who just think the lives of others are your toys to play with. They’re not. They’re all real, living people, and it’s not just because we’ve been told to protect them that we are. We want to and we want to see them happy. Because!” Blake’s aura flared for a few moments. “That’s what it means to be a hero!”

“Sister Blake speaks true. The honourable Liu Bei often found himself in difficult, near death-like, times. Normally, soldiers would desert, women would weep and pray for their children’s safety, and the young ones would cry. However.” Feng Li smiled. “Those who followed Liu Bei were not like that. No matter how tough times got, we always had warmth in our hearts because our hero and his oath-sworn brothers were there, to guide and protect us.

“No matter how dark the night got, no matter how close the enemy’s war drums came, we endured for him - our hero.” Feng Li drew back on his bow again. “To be able to be someone like that and serve beside someone as virtuous and good as him again is a great joy.”

“My…my mum.” Brenda cut herself short by biting her lip. The battle still raged around them, the Dread Knights, Abaddon and her teammates were watching, and the words caught in her throat for quite some time. Stephanie put a reassuring pat on her back, giving Brenda the last ounce of courage she needed to continue. “My mum died, when I was a young…really, really young. She got…we got hit by a car and she…she died…when I was nine. She always said she wanted to see me grow up and…how sad it was that she wouldn’t.

“So, she made me promise to her…that I would live a long and happy life, and that’d I’d always help other people whenever I could. Not even to hate the man who killed her.” Brenda laughed as tears fell. “Honestly, what am I doing? Telling all of you now and even to the enemy like this.” She laughed bitterly, then smiled. “But I’m not going to let her down. Not today, not ever!”

“Well, I don’t have any big reason, but my friends and boyfriend are fighting you lot, so why wouldn’t I?” Stephanie asked with a big grin.

Abaddon hadn’t expected them to answer so seriously and completely to his taunts.

So, he laughed.

Not at their reasons, but their honesty.

Their lack of fear in speaking to the enemy about what drove them. Had there been exploitable weaknesses in their tales, perhaps they could’ve used them against them to benefit the Demon Emperor.

Surprisingly, the thing that made him stop laughing was the sight of nine feathers shooting at his face.

All, including her teammates, turned to look at Dao Chen.

“…Did I offend you?”

Dao said nothing, but her glare intensified.

An arrow suddenly flew towards Dao.

She only spotted and dodged it at the last possible moment, so it scratched her cheek and drew a thin line of blood.

“In my opinion, there are only two times a woman should ever be upset. The first is if someone is when someone tries to spoil their fun. The second.” Charybdis giggled. “Should be once a month.”

Dao silently fired a feather at Charybdis’ face, but she caught it and snapped it clean in half. “Oh dear. It appears that times has come for you.”

“Charybdis? Why are you here?”

Emerging from behind a Dread Knight, the sea beast giggled and lowered her bow. “Forgive the deception, Abaddon, but I’d been told to monitor you and make sure you didn’t accidentally nearly kill anyone. Do not take it to mean that his majesty doesn’t trust you, but rather that they’re so weak that even breathing too hard near them could kill them.”

“Heh, that’s certainly true.”

“Normally, I wouldn’t have bothered revealing myself unless necessary, especially not when I was quite comfy atop that hill over there, but.” She turned to the Summoned Heroes and smiled sweetly. “I decided I wanted to introduce myself to them. A pleasure to meet you all.” She curtsied with her tunic-like dress. “I am Charybdis, Beast of the Ocean, one of his majesty’s chosen generals.”

“...What do you want?”

“Oh, a brave one?” She eyed Duncan up from head to toe, almost as if she was getting ready to attack him.

Instead, she giggled and her monstrous eyes wandered behind them to the Alliance soldiers and medics behind them, slowly pushing towards their position.

“It seems that the day is yours, but the cost has been quite high, much higher for you than for us.”

“A victory is still a victory,” Feng Li said.

“If this is what you call a victory, then you are truly lost. Oh! I just thought of something fun.” Charybdis swung her bow into her hands; reflexively, the heroes readied their weapons. “Oh, don’t worry, I don’t intend to fight you. Rather, I’d much prefer it if you all stay put.” She knocked and drew back an arrow. “If you don’t, then something bad will happen.”

The arrow was fired and it soared cleanly into the spine of a wounded man, shattering two vertebrae as a corrosive poison began to spread throughout his body.

Screaming and blind to everything but the pain, the man collapsed as his skin turned purple.

“What are you-?!”

“Don’t move!” Charybdis’ warning stayed their feet and hands. “Right now, that man is merely suffering. If you take one step towards me, he will die. Well, it’s not just him anymore.”

As Charybdis laughed, the soldiers who’d rushed to the man’s side, five in total, dropped to their knees and started clawing at their throats. A green mist floated in the air which they’d inhaled into their lungs, causing the poison to flood their system within seconds.

“As painful as that is, they won’t die, but they won’t be free of that pain for quite some time. If you move though, don’t worry - I’ll put them out of their misery.”

“You bitch!” Blake cried.

“Brother Duncan, we-!”

“Stop it!” Stephanie screamed with tears in her eyes. “Why are you doing this?! We’ve won, right, so why-?”

“What did I say when I first arrived?” Charybdis smirked. “A woman should only get angry in two scenarios.”

“…This…is fun, for you?” Duncan mumbled, his hands trembling; he felt powerless as the Sea Beast taunted them and attacked their comrades. “You’re just…for no reason-”

“A human being can kick or throw a ball around with their friends and enjoy themselves, but there’s not much of a logical reason behind that enjoyment,” Charybdis said plainly, loosing another arrow into another man’s chest and watching him suffer with gleeful eyes. “Torturing others and watching them suffer is the second most joyful thing I have ever experienced. As for the first.” With a seductive giggle, she put her free hand over her stomach.

“…Disgusting.”

“Someone sounds jealous.”

“Who would be-?!”

“What the fuck’s fun about making other people suffer?!”

Dao Chen’s outburst was far louder than any of her teammates had ever heard her speak before.

“What-?”

“Hurting others, beating them, drugging them, pulling nails, stabbing them, cutting them, taking those they love right before their eyes and making them watch…what the fuck’s fun about any of that?!” Dao Chen’s breath was so erratic that she was struggling to catch her breath; she took a step forward and Charybdis raised her bow. “You get off on watching them in fucking pain? Hahaha, what a joke. Honestly, what a sick fucking joke you are.”

She took another step forward, yet Charybdis did not take another arrow out of her quiver.

“…No matter where you go, there’s always people like you.”

Charybdis giggled. “Go on.”

“People like you…who can only feel like they fucking matter.” Dao Chen smiled evilly at Charybdis. “By making everyone around them as miserable as possible. Absolutely pathetic.”

An arrow pierced Dao Chen’s shoulder and she bit her lip to stop herself yelling out in pain.

With a vicious expression that Abaddon had never seen before, Charybdis lowered her recently fired bow and mumbled, “How dare you…how dare you speak to me like that?”

Dao Chen snickered. “How dare I? What? Point out how pathetic you are, oh great sea beast?! What’s wrong? Did I strike a nerve? And this,” Grunting through gritted teeth, Dao Chen removed the arrow and threw it onto the floor between them. “Doesn’t hurt, bitch.”

“Ah, I see how it is.” Charybdis, despite her earlier angry bout, started to laugh happily. Then, with sparkles in her eyes, she locked eyes with Dao Chen and asked, “You’re the same as me!”

Dao Chen’s eyes narrowed.

“Ah, now it makes sense! Hahahaha! I see, I see! You!” She pointed at the hero. “You’ve definitely-!”

“Charybdis.” Abaddon cut her off. “Let’s go.”

With a small pout, she said, “Fine.” Then, she smirked at Dao Chen. “What’s your name, hero?”

“…Dao Chen.”

“Good. I’ll remember your name-”

She then mouthed something that only Dao Chen made out before the two generals, the Dread Knights and remaining enemy forces retreated through the portals.

The battle was won, the Demon Empire had left, but only the soldiers felt like celebrating.

***

“How bad was it?”

“The captain only has rough estimates for now, but it appears that there were one thousand casualties, with about a third of them dead and some others expected to pass away over the next few days,” Feng reported to Duncan in the heroes’ bedroom. “The medical team seems to be used having lots of patients, but they appeared understaffed at the time.”

“…I see.”

“I did see Dao Chen heading to assist them,” Brenda said.

“Dao did?” Duncan shook his head. “That’s none of our business. Where’s Blake?”

“Getting some food; said she’d head to bed early afterwards.”

“Don’t blame her,” Stephanie added. “It’s been a hard day.”

“Abaddon and Charybdis.” Feng folded his arms. “To have two of the Demon Emperor’s inner circle present is not a good sign.”

“No, but it is good that they don’t want to kill us, well, yet anyway.”

“Indeed. The more pressing concern however is-”

“Duncan, at this rate, the Alliance forces won’t be able to keep this up forever,” Stephanie bluntly said. “They’ve done great to last this long, but these are advanced units, not the main army or even the Demon Emperor’s finest. If the stories about the Dread Knights are to be believed, they could’ve easily taken down this fort and a couple of others by the time even half of them were dead.

“The longer the counter-offensive waits, the more powerful our enemy becomes. When we get back to Rhodes, we need to start working with the others to come up with ways of getting stronger and figuring out how we can deal decisive blows to the Demon Emperor.”

“…Yeah.” Duncan’s hand naturally curled into a fist, though it was shaking a little.

“Duncan…”

“It’s okay to be anxious, Brother-”

“No, it’s not that…It’s far from that.”

Don’t worry, guys - this isn’t fear.

I know exactly what this is.

He covered the growing grin on his face with his other hand.

***

“…Hey.”

Dao Chen finished treating a patient’s wounded leg, then glanced over her shoulder to find Blake, standing awkwardly with a tray of food in her hands.

“…Have you…did you eat?” Dao shook her head. “Here.” Blake held out the tray. “I’ll…take over, for a bit. D-don’t worry, I got…I mean, I did my first aid training…back on Earth. A-and! And I’ve always been patching up my brothers whenever they fell over and stuff, so…”

“…Thank you.” Dao Chen accepted the tray and sat down on a free chair while Blake went to try and help whomever she could.

As she was still quite young and not fully experienced with treating serious injuries, the medics had her wrap bandages, get supplies they needed or to help carrying or support patients as they moved them for their treatment.

Dao Chen finished her dinner quickly, washed her hands, and then immediately jumped back in to start treating the more seriously wounded.

Eventually, Blake returned, still as stiff and awkward as before. For most of the time, she watched Dao silently work, only occasionally letting out noises of amazement, disgust at the sight of the more gruesome wounds, or just to pass her things she needed.

After an hour, Dao Chen’s brow was covered in sweat and she was parched.

“Here.”

Right on time, Blake appeared with a cup of cold water and a dry towel.

“…Thank you.” Dao Chen downed the water instantly and set about cleaning off the sweat.

“…Hey, can I…ask you something?” Dao Chen said nothing back. “…Why-God, there’s no way to word this without sounding awful…why now? I mean, I-I don’t mean it in a bad way or anything, or to say your help isn’t wanted, but…it’s been months since we all arrived and-”

“Blake.” Dao Chen stare felt like it penetrated into Blake’s soul. “Don’t.”

“…Sorry.”

Dao Chen clicked her tongue and moved away from the nearly treated patient, moving onto the next closest one in need of help.

***

Comrade, Dao Chen repeated Charybdis’ silent final word in her head. She tightened another bandage around a soldier’s head and winced.

I’m not like you.

***

“Eris.”

“What?”

“Why have you allowed such blatant violations of your own rules?”

The Goddess of Chaos and Strife laughed at Harmonia’s question. “I decided to slightly modify them again after the incident with Hailey at the Rivers House. Abaddon’s involvement in the west is no longer a violation, so long as he doesn’t kill anyone he’s not meant to. Charybdis’ actions aren’t a violation per say.”

“Because of what she said to Dao Chen?”

“Exactly.” Eris lazily floated above the map of Aangapea and began to slowly fly around the Endless Space. “Anything that makes the game more interesting is allowed, within reason of course.”

“…As long as it doesn’t effect the balance of things.”

“Oh?” Eris smirked and floated down to Harmonia’s level so that their noses were touching. “Is that frustration I hear in your voice?”

A blinding golden light burst out from Harmonia’s staff which Eris easily dodged. The Endless Space shook and glass-like fragments shattered, but the goddesses themselves were untouched.

Satisfied, Eris giggled and summoned her throne which she sank into comfortably.

That single outburst from her greatest rival was more pleasurable than watching a thousand realities.

“Thank you very much, Harmonia.” Eris grinned.