Arc 4: What families entail
The sun was soon to rise over an unfreezing country of Athens. It had been frozen for so long, even before this war, hardly changing at all since the first Valentines. The cities, the population, their history always rose up though. Yet, since this war, and especially over the last 6 hours, that has dropped to the lowest in history. The coliseum city was stuck in conflict, spreading even more the second the tall and cracked walls of the heart began being smashed into. Allowing the prisoners fighting desperately together against the Gravestone Pirates and Warriors massacring them, to begin joining the mass of Red Arrows who freed them.
The prisoners, turned into slaves, tools, jokes, and broken husks were made up of mostly Demi-humans and Red Arrows. But so many were now past Warriors and Elites, put away because of fear they were assumed traitors, others because they were heard going against Beauregards ways in any way, so many sent because others lied and simply didn't like them. Now forced to see exactly what they were fighting for, and why they had to grab whatever piece of scrap was near them, and swing it with all they could toward who used to be their family. No matter their race, age, skin tone, eye color, hell anything. In their hearts now lit the same fire, live, and fight for it. So they'd scream with the same people they screamed against. Even the Demi-humans they still have a distaste for, now forced to rely on them like they did before Beauregards rule. And they did it with flying colors, colors of magic and weapons, or just their bare hands.
Crevasse {Bad time for these savages to start wising up, might not get as much money at this rate! And if Athens falls I don't get paid at all! Dammit why are these Warriors and Elities so weak! Athens stood with the other countries, higher than some, now it's just some big Miltia!}
He shrugged and almost tumbled down the chaotic streets, his stone hard skin almost gone to reveal so many bruises and small cuts that seeped through. But he has a life after this, goals, future jobs. So he'd harden once again and continue bashing in Red Arrow and Prisoner skulls, nearing the mass battle inside the heart of the city.
Cretan was still fighting like hell, but a mass number of Warriors and Elites were leaving the city in waves. Leo still charged through the streets while his spear rocketed all around, snapped back into his hand, to be sent off again. Surges of lighting from his fingers, his feet to move forward, the ground to take down groups, and his bare hands when needed, hands stronger than anything else in this city. Covered in cuts, his Mark about to shut down, his body about to shut down, and he moved like nothing was wrong. A true Valantine, but closer to the original people of this land, and their never ending spirit, snuffed out by a weaker flame that would do anything to win. Yet the Red Arrows winning meant the original Athens heart would arise with it, and the once put out fire would hopefully rise again, and maybe bring back the people this country really belongs to. In either reality, or in their hearts.
The capital was soon to be filled by the many soldiers from each village, town, corner, forest, and city all rushing back half dead. As ordered by Beauregard himself through small Spirit Messengers. Low Tier Beast that resembles a small four winged eagle that when touched can instantly understand what you generally want them to do. An incredibly smart beast found around Saga, so it was sold off to the Southern Islands, even when they have basic communicators. The east district, crumbling and jagged, the one Soku played Vigilante in before getting captured, was now going to be their home. To force out those still left, and all of the homeless around and take shelter in crumbling stone. Still the large number of people would likely be forced to spread around the entire capital if every Warrior type arrived. However, the Tower was still a warzone. The king was barricaded in his room at the very top, Arthur simply stared out a window at a crumbling Athens with a smile, and an entire dungeon filled with the last standing Warriors in the tower.
Inside that destroyed and crumbling dungeon were still so many fleeing Spartans, Red Arrows, Warriors, and Elities. Led by the Top Elites, who should have been the leader based solely on Beauregard and Calgary's bias', was now throwing up and violently convulsing under an overdose of Elixirs. Alone just as the final core of the Tower began. Rosemary lunged forward while Soku burst away, slamming fist, leg, fist leg, knee, elbow, within the third stage. The Warriors were slowing down, she was slowing down, but the difference had become too big for them to stand a chance. Some Warriors with one jab across the face, a good kick in the knee or a shin slam, others forced her to leap out of the way before jumping with a charged punch, before another aimed right at the head. The force echoed out like small gun shots, through their trained bodies and reinforced leather armor. Dodge spear, throw arm up to take a weak fire ball and throw it away, jump away from some earth flashing to spikes beneath her feet, upper cut, jab across the face, barley duck before kicking a groin and getting slammed by a thick hammer.
Move move move, while the Spartans carrying Toll followed behind. Peter tried his best to not buckle over in fear inside the group of Spartans, shaking so much he couldn't pull back the band of his slingshot. Still when a Warrior came forward, he reached for one of his gadgets -
Peter {I CAN'T MOVE!!!}
And was forced to rely on one of the Spartans cutting the Warrior down with their razor sharp claws. Dashing through the air like always was Soku, who sent out flashes of wind blades, not sharp anymore, but still held enough kick to send the standard Warrior flying back. And then there was Julius, flickering inside the heart of the fight to take down every Warrior and Elite he saw that didn't see him. The back, the back of legs, arms, heads, necks, anything. Sprinting into the shadows even with soft pink hair, and a white and purple jacket covered in blood, to burst out and do it all again.
Round and round they went, until Rosemary was once again hit. A hefty sword swing from an Elitie hopped up on strength boosting Elixers. She managed to flare her left, armored arm with thick Golden mana in between the third and fourth stage, just to block the hit and get sent flying back into a stack of rubble blocking the corners of the battlefield.
Rosemary: "WHERE'S GRAY JULIUS!? YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT HIM!"
Soku had slid in the way to stop Rosemary from smashing right into the stone, but Rosemary still screamed forth with rage over the heads of soldiers and at the Pink Hared Prince hopping off slashed faces. His declining strength was forcing his mana out, empowering him, but taking even more energy out than he had. Still he saves his mana until he's forced to use it, like a second wind of stamina, as he wouldn't stop until he physically couldn't anymore. Just like the people around him he thinks he's so, so separated from.
Julius: "I left him in the care of some Spartans and Red Arrows!"
Rosemary: "NO! BUT WHAT IF HE -
Soku was forced to erupt with wind and throw Rosemary out of the way before flipping back into the air just in time to dodge a thick stream of fire. It surged against the wall of stone stacked from the crumbled dungeon, and on top of the constant shakes still going on, it sent that stone falling over the battlefield.
Rosemary {NO!}
Over the battlefield, and over the drain all of the Red Arrows were using the tower. If it was blocked, they'd be trapped and forced to exit onto the castle grounds. To the Capital already filled with Elites and Warriors rushing toward the doors to join the fight. They had to leave now, and in a second it was all over.
Peter {It's over..}
And the main actor of this stage pulled the light onto them from their OD, before stepping off.
Rosemary: "THIS BETTER BE WORTH IT!"
Soku, Julius, the unconscious Toll held by Spartans right at the drain, the Red Arrows gasping at their fading life, even the Warriors filled with joy, all looked toward the Golden Knight. She wasn't one in spirit, and she would never be one again, but they knew the sound of the click, and the wave of force that followed. Calgary may be able to control the fifth for a while, but right now, Rosemary was the strongest person they had. And she just threw out a punch engulfed in flame time golden mana that cut, twisted, cracked, and broke her right arm as it went through. Pushing the world forward to generate a large amount of windforce like she's done time and time again, and sent a bullet of compressed power that pulled even more wind with it, crashing against the rubble and sending it all flying. While the sides still carved it, blocking the door to the dungeon just in time for the rest of the Spartans left to arrive, along with creating a small wall of rubble in the center of the battlefield, a hole to freedom was open and ready. Hope ignited all around.
Rosemary {SHIT!}
Her arm was horribly damaged, enough for her to scream and tear up by itself, but her incredibly strained body suffered from a thick wave of shock. Through her muscles, her bones, her back and shoulder especially, before falling down toward the Warriors underneath.
Julius: "Elf girl!"
Soku: "I KNOW! AND I CALL YOU BY YOUR NAME DUDE!"
She had flown toward Rosemary the second she saw her leap, snatching her mid-air before pivoting in front of Toll and the Spartans. They took Rosemary, leaving Soku to charge her mark and toss a thick wall of wind forward. Clearing a wave of Warriors surrounding them to let in the fleeing Red Arrows, while forcing Soku onto her knees. Too light headed from the bloodloss, too low on mana, and her Mark screaming in too much pain; they were all hitting the end of their power so quickly, one after another, forced to be saved by the people they're trying to save. Peter instantly jumped toward a Warrior about to swing his blade, but was still far too scared to pull back his slingshot properly. Simply surrounded with her as they got closer. The Demi-human Spartans with Toll and Rosemary had already hooped down the drain to a denser battle below, leaving Ceasar himself to snag them toward the escape.
Rosemary {What am I doing!? I can't save Gray like this! I can't save anybody! Move please just move! I wanna move so badly please please! Just stop making it hurt so much, just for a second, Great Spirit, Great Dragon, Spirit of Gaia, anything, just give me the strength to do something for once without failing and forcing that burden onto somebody else! I beg of you! Anybody!}
Swollen with rage, broken by pain and inability, simply grunting and clenching in a twisting, horrid, burning pain while the Spartans ran like hell in between the Red Arrows. The caves were dark, filled with flashes of fire magic, but that world was closing in more and more. The reality before her eyes fading away like small cracks of black, before her conscience left her bleeding grasp. But the Spartans would run and run, looking back to see their leader smiling past hundreds of small injuries in an attempt to get ahead of the group and lead the way. The Spartans were all together, most of them giving their lives without a thought as the Red Arrows they fought with fear mixed within. In that group was now Soku, the three powerful girls all unconscious and hopefully heading back toward the Red Arrows base with the large number of soldiers that had already started heading that way.
Julius {Seems the battle for the Tower was a failure, however I wonder if the wound we left will be great enough to shake this erupting country.}
He stood over the battle for just a second. A few Red Arrows flew with wings toward the drain with others in their hand, some stayed as long as possible to defend them, others fumbled away to save themselves. So many elements, not so much or any Spirit magic, and so many people still fighting. Arthur's presence was beginning to grow, the sound of reinforcements was about to blare out, so he fled. Over the heads of Warriors and Elities, under magic, smiling and smiling, before flipping gracefully into the air after slashing a back open and dove head first down the drain.
Julius {Now, as the only person awake, I must reunite them all. Sigh.}
As Julius was busy falling headfirst into an even denser battle and saying "Sigh" of all things to himself, the battle was beginning to burst. With the Winners decided almost everywhere. Leaving only the Coliseum City and Panzer. The last bastions of the Red Arrows forces. The snow slowly fell, against the soot and shattered stone, and Panzer? It was soon to be silent. Once a city of tight wealth, families upon families working together with the rest of Athens to create their best resources, near a few large and now dead farms. For the last four years it had become a home for the Warriors and Elites, and now, half of it was flattened. The only city where the Red Arrows were going to lose almost completely. The only victory they gained was the results of that loss, with how much of this fortress and how many of its guardians had fallen in order to secure the Warriors own victory.
Garly {We shoulda executed her like I ordered years ago! But nooo, that bastard Lincoln and the wonderful Lilith had a "familial" bond with this psycho traitor! When she kills me I hope it hurts you, so called strongest man, so I can be as big a pain in your ass as you were in mine.}
She had led Raylice through so much of the city, destroying so many of her own Warriors and Elites to continuously fail to get the final blow. For hours Garly threw out punches strong enough to crush roads and homes, strong enough to be hit through multiple, fast enough to survive, and skilled enough to face somebody seemingly so much stronger. She was physically supreme, reaching the tops of history in terms of plain might at her prime, but that didn't mean she was anything close to all powerful. Easy to enrage, lost to decades of torturous imprisonment, forced to melt away into wrath inside reinforced Dragon stone. So many were faster, smarter, had more mana, better affinities, better control over the wind in the air, their bodies, their weapons, anything. Nobody could deny the fact that when she swung her sword, slammed her foot, or clapped, an enormous wave of power would erupt with enough devastation to hurt some of the most powerful people around. But she was using that might to chase down one person, all because she knew her before her life went to complete hell.
Garly {No, it's not far to curse any of you in the end. Guess you could say everybody could have done more. But we lost sight of Athens when the original Red Arrows left this land.}
She had been running for so long. Throw out slash, vanish and punch her in the back, kick, pick up wind with a roar or simply throw everything around her. Hit and run over and over. While Raylice hit the ground so hard, sharp and tall walls of thick wind bulldozed multiple houses at a time. Either destroying it in a few hits, or leaving massive gashes like Musashi used to. She was incredibly strong, durable, and arguably the fastest in the Red Arrows. Enough to blitz roof top to roof, pinballing around as a cannonball, while every street, person, and building around her was sent crumbling forward. All that was left now were Warriors grouping up on Red Arrows, and the other Top Elites still using their strength whenever they could. Even if Raylice only continued to outshine them.
Gracey: "Back off!"
A fifteen year old girl struggling to stand, forcing her Mark to ignite a thick wave of bright purple spirals and bright lance constructs that erupted any Red Arrow in her path. Or the insane Ethan, dancing and laughing in the smoking craters left by Raylice and picking off any struggling soldier he could find. Moving, twisting, acting like an artistic robot. Warrior after Warrior throwing each other, forcing their ODs to failure to force out what little mana they had to rival the remaining Demi-humans stamina and durability. Only standing strong because of the other Warriors jumping in to help. Two or three weakened Warriors for a single capable Demi-human Red Arrow, more for a stronger one. Their bodies and higher stakes in the game push so many of them past their human allies. However in reality it was for a variety of reasons:Athens small scale and variety of fairly strong Spirit Beasts, which families and groups found it easiest to remain in Athens, most of the Demi-humans who joined joined when the war first started since anybody who got caught was either killed or sent away, and a lot of the weaker soldiers died off over the years, leaving whatever the Red Arrows had left as experienced fighters or somewhat fresh blood.
But there would never be time to rebuild the armies now. To send groups or leaders inside the Red Arrows out to Saga for help, to find all of the people they've lost to this war somehow and come back. They couldn't go ask Lincoln. They couldn't pray to the Great Dragon Athens valued so much. They just had to run, maybe away from it all to survive, or just give up and fight till it ended. The choice a lot of the Red Arrows chose. The fate Garly was breaking down into. Yet when she looked back, she saw Raylice constantly twitching, breathing hard, pulling herself along and still letting out massive attacks.
Garly {Half her strength skill, the other from training, but she's not human! She's a Demi-human, so there's no way I could wear her out just because she's old. If she never defected she may have been named a God of War.}
But Saga would have never accepted a Demi-human, Elf, Half-Elf, Dark Elf, or a different race of human as a God of War even if they were strong enough. The only country that would have first was Athens, but obviously, things changed in history's course. Where Demi-human and Demi-human fought, one for their freedom, and the other to continue with another era of hatred against herself. Both ready to die in an instant for that future. But Garly was obviously on the back foot, trying so desperately. Throwing broken rubble, torrents of wind, even houses, but Raylice just threw up her forearm to crush them all to dust before she kept killing on.
Raylice {You lead me down the path to a real Elitie…but I walked past you so long ago now. No no, I ran ran ran dammit! You'll never keep up! You're just gonna fall, and I'll get a second surge, I'll return to the forefront of this world! And nothing will ever stop me from showing how strong I am, how much better I am than that so-called "world's strongest man"! After I save Athens, I'll go crush the easiest God of War, until I'm the only God of War! Until the world knows the mistake they made by throwing me away! By cursing me to be a Demi-human!}
Raylice continued to leap far into the sky to try and get ahead of Garly, but Garly made her final powerful pivot into a thick wasteland of destroyed burning homes. Crashing through what was left of a house before sliding through rubble right into the heart to stare up at the incomprehensible mix of might and fury slowly approaching. The dust, the ground, the debris, the fighters all moved away as she loudly stomped. Dragging her enchanted Dragon stone sword, one of the only enchanted pieces of Dragon stone to ever exist, through the ground to slowly collect the latent elemental Spirit mana left behind in the constant magical attacks.
Garly: "GET AWAY FROM ME YOU TRAITOR!"
Her large body hard like brick looked like it got even bigger, releasing a harsh breath of power and violently slashed against the world again, again, and again. Sending out thick volleys of wind slashes toward Raylice, forcing her to slash her sword with each step. The force rocketed forward against a guarding Garly every time. Guarding, stone flames bodies, guarding, force fear pain, building, closer closer closer, building, Raylice. Unable to move, hardly able to react, and only able to smile the moment Raylice got close. Drooling blood out of her incredibly sharp teeth, and vanished.
Garly {If I don't let her charge, If I don't let her breathe, I can overwhelm her! She's not nearly as fast as somebody should be with this strength! Her skill, it's only superficial, I have to use this, I have to use that damn hate she's always had and WIN! LIKE EVERYBODY WHO'S EVER BEAT HER!}
A drop kick to the back of the head, vanished. Thick back hand punch, vanish. Elbow, flurry barrage, chop, swipe slash fight fight fight. Ralyice turned and blocked, parried, backed away, but Garly only continued the pressure. Raylice couldn't stomp, couldn't get out a full swing, couldn't even breathe properly, but it was all going to be in vain. She couldn't do this earlier for the same reason she was forced to do it now; the second she was caught, held, frozen, she'd die, it's just that she didn't really have anything else than running now. And there was nowhere else to run without killing the last of her Red Arrows before killing herself.
Garly {GO GO BREATHE BREATHE RELEASE PIVOT SPIN TURN HIT COME ON BREAK THROUGH BREAK THROUGH!}
She drug her claws into and through the vents in Raylice armor, finally drawing some blood, then to her joints. Vanish, appear behind, get hit away, jump forward and vanish to the side. Raylice threw herself all around trying to get Garly caught in vortexes of power. Swallowing up building after building while Garly barley dashed between it all like some kind of speedster. Her Demi-human lineage was similar to a beast found only in Saga and more savana like areas in the Southern Islands, known for residence, strength, durability, but not for this level of speed and control. All Garly, all from her strict dense breathes, constantly feeling the world, focusing on everything around her through senses to just wind pressure. Reading the battlefield, exhaling to boost might and enhance pressure, attack, and continue. Fight like a Demi-human should, fight like they did before the world forced them down. Fight like the people of the Southern Islands, fight like the only place that truly doesn't despise them like everywhere else, even what they think is their real home.
Control, condense, focus, she had to survive. The battle was still ragging, the other Top Elites were running to the action, the sun had yet to rise. A sun rise she had seen so many times from so many different places in this once beautiful country. Filled with culture, filled with resources, open land and wondrous spirit biomes. Statues, columns, white stone, berries and vines. Nature and their work together. Now just nature's destroyer, fire. All around, all consuming, in all of their hearts no matter what they fought for. For Garly, that fire was fueled by trying to prove she was strong. By joining the Warriors, by rising the ranks, by befriending and proving herself to the King. Leading who would become the Strongest man, the best queen of Athens, and married a Valentine for a time before leaving on her own accord. Garly should have and would have been a prime example of how a Demi-human could rise in Saga.
Garly {JUST PUSH DAAAANMMIT!"}
Pushed back, Garly threw a charged shot against her head with two quick jabs. Raylice threw her arms up, and Garly tackled her to the ground by the legs before vanishing into the air and drop kicking her armored stomach, caught by her hands, and vanished back.
Garly {With my control, I can keep out speeding her! You might be strong, but you have no idea how to be a Demi-human! You're just born lucky!!!}
Raylice let out a jab strong enough to carve a thick gap across the street, again, then one more, but Garly just kept moving. Rapidly jumping between five places over and over to create an after image strong enough for Raylice to miss a thick cleave with her blade, and get hit like a cannon to the back. Before Garly unleashed a barrage of everything she had, pulling more wind and momentum in with each instant strike, and ended it with both her fists balled and smashing against Raylice's face. One two three, her claws out, about to stab through the gap near Raylice stomach armor. Feint, flash, punch with enough force to break the floor. Again again, cannon ball punches, even if her insides felt like they were chipping away. But she'd chip away everything she had, just for a chance at victory.
Garly {Just fall! Something! Just do something before it all ends.}
And then she exhaled everything. Not in a massive pinch like Toll, but in a rapid fire, lightning like degree. Feeling the air, feeling Raylice rage, she felt her intention and simply dodged Raylice punch, before hitting her across the face hard enough to almost send her back. But Raylice's pride forced her in place, allowing Garly to punch again, again, over and over. Forcing Raylice to guard a storm of attacks strong enough to knock Arthur on his ass. Before her final punch landed across her jaw, and her other hand's claws extended toward Raylice's throat.
Raylice {Guess all this fighting has taken more outta me than I figured. Damn rats wasting my time.}
For her people, Athens and Demi-humans, Garly attacked, and forced Raylice to finally end the battle. To finally submit, and accept she was going to be badly damaged if she let Garly continue. Garly had done so well retaining her might, forcing Raylice to waste hers, even tapping into the zone of a Warrior to contend with her blow by blow for the last few minutes. And still, she was left frozen.
Raylice: "You forced me to use it, this damn cheat."
Her voice was still broken, her throat incredibly damaged, but she had to get it out. As she always hated unleashing her Mark of Providence, the Mark of Dominance. Imitating a large wave of bright red wind that sounded like multiple loud horns, whale calls, and whistles. Causing anybody massively weaker than her to instantly fall to the ground, and anybody relative to her to be hit with a harsh blunt wave of mana. Causing Garly to pause after getting engulfed in the blast, and getting hit across her body by Raylice blade like a baseball bat.
Garly {Leo -
Leo stopped fighting in Cretan for just a second like a nuke had gone off. Lincoln choked on his booze while staring out at the destruction atop Mount Yelira. Even Beauregard snapped out of his fear, to one of silence dismay towards a wall in the direction Garly was in. Her body cracked like stone before it faded away, thrown down the street by a massive tornado like eruption of power. Spiraling wind, through the rubble and flames, through her history, while the ripples of pressure continued to tear her open. Smashing right into a towering statue made completely of Dragon stone. One of Lincoln Valantine, holding his arm into the air, and looking down at its people. At Garly, crushed, and staring back up at him.
Garly: "...Where are you…Dragon of Athens…why did you have to leave…when we need you the most…please…Lincoln, save us, save Athens, before it's too late…"
But he was drunk, thinking of everybody he's lost and failed, while he continued to lose and fail everything he had left. At the peak of Athens, atop a bubbling bomb just waiting to go off in the coming months, even weeks. Doing nothing at all, especially after Edward left. Cretan? The battle was finally coming to an end, with a majority of the remaining Warriors and Elites escaping to the capital. Leo was with a lot of his Red Arrows now, in medical tents, looking out at the destroyed city they lost so much for. And all of the people left without homes, all of the people only angry at him because he tried to fight for them. The Tower was filled with Warriors now, but the Red Arrows and Spartans were now rushing within the tunnels clearing out any soldiers still close enough to follow. Carrying Rosemary and Soku while Julius stayed close to the Red Arrows base. The fight for the Coliseum city was soon to slow after the prisoners and Red Arrows took hold of the heart. Without a pillar of might like Raylice, Leo, Garly, or Toll, even a Top Elite to change the tide. All because Raylice didn't want her top Elities fighting in a city filled with Demi-humans, solely for pride and nothing else.
Leaving Panzer. Leaving Garly. The Red Arrows and few Civilians left. It looked like it had been carpet bombed street by street, with entire blocks rubble and dust, others aflame, and all of it covered by bodies. Yet there it was. Soon to be fully over the land.
Garly: "...Not the worst response, Great Dragon."
She couldn't stand it. She could hardly hear, and she definitely couldn't feel. However she could see, and it was blindingly beautiful.
Garly: "...Good morning, Athens…"
And blocking the dam rise was Daylice. Dragging along, some of Dragon stone armor falling off in small chips. Revealing her elbows, fingers, sides, weakening the rest, and breaking the jaw open on her mask to show her slight red skin and incredibly sharp teeth. Close and closed, until her blade was Garly knew sun.
Garly: "Good night, and Raylice? I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you. If you had a Demi-human helping you, maybe -
Right there is when Garly died. Right there is when the Warriors won the battle for Panzer, even if hardly anything was left. Their pillar was hit so hard by a blow to the head that Raylice almost broke her arm. It causes cracks to explode in the city square, Garly's body to erupt, and Lincoln's statue to fall. Smashing into the burning city with a defending bang. Signaling Raylice first victory in over twenty years. The first complete victory for the Warriors since these battles commenced. Left to clear out what was left of the Red Arrows while the others fled, before half of Panzers Warriors and Elities left toward the Capital. To ensure that all of their strength was compact, but also to keep the ground they fought for.
However all of those Red Arrows were suffering, in Cretan, in the Coliseum city, under the tunnels. They got closer and closer to the core Red Arrow base from underneath the Capital City, blocking off path after path, twisting and turning to throw off the Warriors, even leaving the sewers and mining tunnels in small groups to lead them away. Leo began to head back toward the Capital after the rest of the Warriors retreated. The Coliseum City still waged fire from all sides, the heart, filled with prisoners and Gravestone pirates, seemed like it would never end. The many buildings and streets outside the core of the city were now filled with soldiers on all sides prepared to continue the fight once they had the energy to. But every Top Elite, including Crevasse, moved toward the Castle. To their King Beauregard, and all the wrath that was going to follow.
The snow piled slowly, the flames started to settle, the rampaging Spirit Beasts within their biomes were calmed, the soldiers were forced to stop. The civilians? All of the people this was changing around, all the people too stubborn, too trapped, too hopeful people this was for? They were broken. Homes in cities, villages, towns, dismantled. Lit flame, bombarded by water ice and wind, crushed and destroyed by Demi-human or human might. Kacy's massive scale attacks in Cretan left so much of the city's core crushed, blocked by massive meteors or stone, ice. Raylice had almost single- handedly crushed more than half of Panzer and so many of the people within its walls. Those in the Coliseum city were stuck, hardly able to flee without getting caught in the cross fire. And everybody who ran for the hills? Those that made it, passed the Spirit Beast mauling through people, past the ripples of war, and were stopped by Warriors at the Great Bridge. Some piled into the few ships that were left on the coasts, especially around the docks at Cretan, and simply left like they had been doing for years. This time in incredible waves of tiny, small, and somewhat big ships to wherever the wind took them. Wherever was safe from this place.
Athens was crying. Mount Yelira was bubbling, soon to shake in the coming weeks, soon to erupt after. So many people felt the shock of Garly's death. Even the strongest man in the world, the pride of Athens, sat in silence under this country wide mourning. The rest of the day was somewhat silent for the first time in a long time. With only the Coliseum city stuck in warfare, before Raylice would arrive later in the night after getting some rest. Until then the Red Arrows grouped up, the Warriors filled the East districts before spreading into the others, and Walgonia's Knights were covered in Elixir coated bandages and harshly healed. So many people were being healed all across the land in so many ways. Stitches, standard casts, braces and bandages, Elixirs, potions, spells, Stitches made from Spiritual plants and other types of medicine, anything and everything they manage could.
Calgary: "...Overhere!...Idiots!!!"
Through the rubble can the survivors. Toll, comatose, now without an arm. Calgary was found hiding in one of the cells blocked by stone hardly able to move. Sokus body now had faint spiral cuts, Rosemary's right arm will stay sore for the next month or so even of her Goldenwind body and magical healing, and then there was Gray. Who fought so hard his body almost exploded, who fought so hard Iris gave her life for him, who fought so hard he's now covered in small scars. His right knuckles, his right elbow, and his right shoulder looked like they had been slightly burned. While his collar and sides have hard wide looking slashes, his toes look similar. With healing they'd start to fade, in the next few years. But the tightness in his right hand is something he'd have to get used to unless he went through intense surgical healing over a similar amount of time. On top of all that he was in the most precarious position; it took two days for him to finally wake up. Two days of Athens moving, but only the Coliseum city's status had changed. From contested, to yet another Warrior Victory. Forcing out all the Red Arrows and Prisoners while taking back the city in their name. However another half of it was crushed because of Raylice. Ending that battle in three horrifically quick hours.
Rosemary and Soku had awoken, Leo had arrived at the base, and so many Red Arrows had arrived. Beauregard's Warriors have spanned densely all over the Capital streets. The snow had only continued to fall over the land. More civilians left by the day. And Edward was in the heart, the Capital, all alone. Except for one boy laying in the bed in front of him. Both within an old house somewhere in the West of the Capital. Watching every second of the day, until he saw his hand finally move.
Edward: "...Gray?"
But Gray was still asleep covered in bandages. His armor gone, now wearing his torn Leviathan clothes and his Cloaks charm. Lost in his own hellish world of dreams. Where everybody else prepared, forced through pain, thought of plans, he laid flat. Walking in his own mind on a sunny day with his hands in his pockets. Back on Earth for the first time in a few months, like all his progress at the Castle was pulled out from under him. Walking and walking, his eyes harsh, his glasses annoying, and everything so much he could hardly take it in. Aside from the tall buff man walking beside him constantly fixing his hair.
William: "What's the deal? Are you mad at me or something?"
Gray: "No father, I am not angry with you sir!"
William: "Be seriously common, we haven't gotten to talk in forever. What's wrong dude you can tell me!"
Gray: "On the street? Why not at home where random people aren't gonna hear."
William: "Cause I gotta do stuff then, but we're here now! So spit spit spit my boy!"
They did the same voice, they did the same hand expressions, they had the same goofy smile. But he was shorter, so much frailer, coated in what could only be described as a sad aura. His dad is as bright as the sun.
Gray: "I…I just feel like I keep messing stuff up for everybody. You, my friends, Rosemary. And even though I swear I got over it…I can't stop thinking about you guys."
William: "You'll never forget us, but you gotta focus. How are you gonna fix it? What else is wrong? How can you be the best you that Gray Kyojin can be?"
And he awoke. His eyes even heavier, his body filled with so much pain he almost threw up instantly, and his longer hair now messy and in his face. Still he felt his fathers words and grasped his thickly bandaged hand, before looking forward -
Gray: "EDWARD!?"
Edward: "Yeah…we need to talk."