Chapter 13: Chapter 13: March

Needless to say, the attack unleashed by the allied forces of herkleri, almeyas and a Viktar had a restructuring effect on all it reached, this further weakening the harpies as they fell amid the remains of Negite’s central plaza. And the rebels would offer no time for respite, instead seizing the moment to rain all their fury down upon them, now finally having the tools to do so thanks to Tiar and Bara.

While he himself led the charge against the servants of Chaos alongside Bara, Elgo and his guardian, the Griffin Slayer noticed just as the final stage of the battle for the city started that the rebels around fought with a ferociousness much greater than his own. Accumulated in their mindless roars and in the painfully inexperienced swings of the weapons they held he saw over 300 years’ worth of pain, misery and horror.

All that they and the generations that had come before them had experienced had irreversibly changed their very nature. It had created a monster deep within them, the daily tortures Chaos champions put them through being the only thing that had kept that monster imprisoned in a slumber it was unable to wake from.

Until today when that slumber ended and the monster woke to the terror of all who had had a part in making it. Allowed to run free, how much havoc would it wreak now? And how much, if any amount, would be enough to make up for all that had been suffered up to this point?

Using their multiplication devas, the Chaos Harpies made anew wings for themselves in place of the originals some of them had lost due to restructuring, certain members of their forces covering their whole bodies with wings to counter the further spread of the restructuring formulas. Thus many of the monsters managed to survive, taking to the air again, this not being a problem for the combo Elgo and his guardian made.

The blurple-skinned prince swung with his cross-sword at the targets flying low enough while the mint-skinned old-crown who carried him on his shoulders attacked the enemies that had remained on the ground. Any attack, whether by use of multiplied wings or Chaos winds, the harpies aimed at them was restructured away upon coming into contact with the two’s Order-fueled weapons when they either blocked or cut through them, nothing being able to stop their advance.

Bara, who had remained closer to Tiar’s side, used a different approach when dealing with her enemies, wielding the power of her purple-colored energy hammer with pink symbols on it to its full extent. One after the other she deflected the attacks that came her way amid whirlwinds and black feathers, when an opportunity to strike back revealed itself, the almeya never hitting her targets directly. Instead she slammed her hammer in the ground and from the cracks caused by this pillars shaped like hexagonal prisms rose to consume all who were caught in their scope.

Proudly observing how all his allies were performing, the Viktar forgot to pay attention to the enemies going after his life completely, but once a number of multiplied wings were swung like a singular blade wrapped up in Chaos winds at his head, his battle instincts were triggered. He perfectly the attack by ducking, yet his nape was still cut by the winds the wing-blade was clad in, resulting in an immediate response on his part.

One swing of his cross-sword whose blade was elongated by a non-verbal command was sufficient to cut through the enemy weapon, the painful screams of the three harpies that had made and armored the wings dying out as quickly as they had began. A second swing of the cross-sword was the cause for that, Tiar moving on beyond the decapitated corpses to dispose of other targets, seeing around twenty had gathered to try and eliminate him together.

This was a clever move by them to be sure because if he were killed, badly wounded even, all the cross-swords he had made to arm the rebels would instantly disappear and only the hammers crafted by Bara would remain for them to use. The hammers alone, especially in the smaller numbers they had been produced, would not be enough to triumph over the remaining villains and the balance of the battle would shift in their favor once again.

Despite that, changing the number of attackers from three to twenty would not change the outcome one bit. Not when faced with a champion of Order fully aware of his true self.

The Chaos Harpies twisted together into a massive winged drill that kept growing in size due to the multiplied wings added to it, wrapping that drill in ample amounts of the type of winds they used to increase its penetrating force to the max, flying forward with a speed and sound that were both earth-shattering. Deciding to test how powerful they truly were, the Viktar simply directed the blade his left hand had become forward, meeting its tip with the tip of his foes’ creation.

Blue and red sparks burst all around at the clash between the two objects, the land nearby cracking, crumbling and further caving in, the heat and tension in the air rising ever more. And this clash wasn’t one of simple deva might, but of the restructuring of Order and the ruinous corruption of Chaos, only one of which could win whenever the two  were at odds. Finally, a victor emerged from this contest of abilities, Tiar’s cross-sword managing to restructure the tip of the drill into a rounded shape and easily piercing through it afterwards.

Seeing as how he was far away from any buildings in Negite, save for those of the six obelisks around the central plaza that were still intact, Bara’s teacher increased the length of his energy sword more than any other time, cutting through not only the drill, but quite a few other harpies that were lower in the air in the vicinity. The restructuring of all those reached by that swing began shortly, pain not being the only emotion on their faces once all their defenses of wings and winds disappeared. Some also seemed pleased to a menacing level, Tiar not needing too long to figure out the reason behind their expressions.

The twenty in front of him had acted as a decoy to focus his attention ahead while another group of greater numbers had snuck in behind him, throwing down golden-tipped spears, none of which hit him, however. Instead they pierced the broken pavement stones around the Viktar, this being deliberate because the moment they touched the ground, chains of condensed Chaos winds came out of their tips, starting to wrap tightly around him. Once they believed they had immobilized him, the thirty or so harpies started spinning, their multiplying wings creating mini-somatic typhoons with a high cutting capacity, around the same number of warriors, but of the ironwing type, being added to their ranks and using the same technique.

Tiar saw a turning point of great importance had come in the battle for him now, due to not having come across any other ironwing harpies since the six chosen as executioners of the New South cities’ masters were murdered earlier, his guess being that no other ironwings remained in Negite. Standard harpies were much easier to neutralize and considering the number of both types of fiends trying to end his life now, a victory against them would all but ensure the rebels’ triumph on a city-wide level.

Failure was never as intolerable as it had become now, Bara’s teacher constructing hundreds of cross-shaped shuriken behind the battle unit all the members of which attacked him as one in a final desperate move of unparalleled cutting, their sole objective being his left arm. They wanted to not just cripple him and deprive their adversaries of their weapons, but to take away from them the hope the Viktar’s cross-sword represented.

The moment he gave the command in his mind for the shuriken to strike, the mini-typhoons of black and silver wings and black and dark red winds shot forward to cause more ruin to the central plaza’s remains than any other attack unleashed prior. Thus, it became a matter of only which attack was going to make its mark first.

Unfortunately for the harpies, none of them could ever hope to match Tiar in terms of speed with his new ability to reach any target by the shortest route possible, the chains around his body that tried to corrupt him not being able to suppress this ability enough so that it would not be applied to his cross-shuriken. No more than a few seconds before his arm would be chopped off, all sixty servants of Chaos were chopped up instead, a shuriken being teleported next to a harpy again and again after having first cut them to ensure they would be minced beyond repair.

With the death of the ones that had held them, the chains of condensed winds coming out of the spears around the Griffin Slayer disappeared, the victor in this battle being free to move past the carnage he had left and finally take a moment to look at what occurred on the rest of the battlefield, now that no one else was targeting him. What he saw was the prospect of triumph becoming more and more palpable as the last harpies that drew breath in Negite were further pushed back, the ones behind this being neither Bara, nor Elgo or his guardian.

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The herkleri and almeya rebels they had inspired had taken it upon themselves to finish off any oppressors that remained in the area, the tiredness they felt, their lack of strategic thought and skill, the new sets of wounds inflicted upon them – none of these serving to deter them from pushing forward one bit. In one place a female Chaos Harpy had started shooting hundreds of air needles from her mouth at a handful of almeyas, a middle-aged herkleri woman moving behind to cut her head off and put an end to her barrage. In another a young almeya man that wielded both a cross-sword and a hammer first threw his sword at the chest of a male harpy that had lost his arms and wings, using the hammer to pound the weapon deeper in the flesh of his foe much like a nail. In yet another place further ahead an almeya old man that barely seemed able to hold it swung the hammer in his hands at a villainess’ head, crushing her skull and making her fall to the ground, the old man collapsing next to her. One herkleri healer came to his side and started putting bandages over the deep cut on his shoulder, the state of which had only worsened after his final attack, the harpy attempting to stand again despite the blow dealt to her head.

The fear of both the wounded and the healer did not last long as several almeya children who were younger than Elgo’s body age stabbed the winged creature from behind with their cross-swords. Once she fell down, they kept on stabbing, their acts of brutality not provoking any response in the two that watched them up close, only Tiar being terrified in the distance.

War had always been home to the greatest horrors one could imagine. But never had the former Distroya used children of such a young age during battle, so until now the only violence he had seen being done to or by young ones had been in relation to those he had sought to enslave. To witness such horrific deeds being committed by the youngest members of the peoples he wanted to bring peace to was too much for his heart to bear. And it was a sight he had the sad premonition he would see many times over in the coming months, years and throughout the entire length of the war that had begun.

To escape this most disturbing scene, the Viktar shifted his focus to the Chaos Harpies that had survived the onslaught who numbered no more than fifty, most of them, if not all, being wounded, especially in the wing area. They had abandoned the idea of battling the rebels further, instead trying to cover their escape from Negite, as Bara, Elgo and his old-crown guardian stood next to Tiar, each member of the four looking at the deserters.

‘It appears this battle is at an end, mostly thanks to you two.’

‘It’s thanks to everyone here, Elgo.’

‘Don’t address our prince by his first name so casually, will you? It disturbs me greatly.’

‘I suggest we leave the matter of addressing each other for after the battle is truly done. That won’t happen until all the harpies here are dead.’

‘Bara has a point. Moreover, we need to ensure none escape to bring word of what has happened here to their superiors in the region. If we fail to do this, reinforcements will be quick to arrive and the citizens of Negite are far from ready for another bout so soon.’

‘We best make our move soon, then. They are fleeing with great haste and if they manage to take to the air again, they’ll be unreachable for all but …’

Tiar interrupted Elgo, pulling the prince from his guardian’s back to put on his own, Bara already knowing what was about to happen and standing closer to her teacher, putting her arms around his forearm. Only the old-crown herkleri was left confused by his companions’ actions.

‘You better come here, Os. I’ll take us to them fast enough to prevent their escape, but you’ll need to have grabbed hold of some part of me to join us.’

The guardian frowned before doing as he was told, putting an arm over Tiar’s shoulder, this being meant mainly to ensure Elgo wouldn’t fall off his back and much less so – to actually touch the former Distroya.

‘You leave me little choice but to return to the matter of addressing each other, Arit. My name is Osinth. Only those closest to me are allowed to use the shortened version of that name that you just called me by.’

‘My apologies for the misunderstanding, Osinth. It won’t happen again. Now would please hold on tight so I don’t lose you somewhere along the way to the harpies?’

With a clear line of sight to his targets that now stood a mile or so from his current location, Tiar thought of reaching them by the shortest possible route, the space around him and his comrades being enveloped in Order energy and starting to restructure itself. During the length of several seconds this process took Bara screamed a bit, Elgo – a bit more and Osinth – the most, the Viktar transporting all three along with himself not being able to stop himself from laughing at their reactions.

Seriousness returned to his face soon after, though, as the restructuring ended and the quartet emerged amid the ranks of the herkleri and almeya rebels left surprised by their appearance, the Chaos Harpies becoming even more terrified. One of the males among them attempted to say something, but by then Elgo had already jumped in front of him, putting his sword through his throat and out the back of his head amid a stream of black blood, the hatred in his gaze feeling all too lethal.

‘Don’t sully my ears with any of your pleas for mercy, monster. The heroes of Order know no mercy for your kind. All we feel toward you is an urge to bring your unholy souls to the justice of the sword as a penance for your century-long crimes.’

With that harpy being restructured into a pile of ash while screaming of agony, all his piers finally knew what the peoples of Yut had felt every single day of their lives under the yoke of Chaos – fear of a most painful death – the only difference being they would experience this dread for a much shorter duration. As night fell on Negite, the curtain would swiftly be brought down for the last of the winged abominations in the city. And its citizens would never again greet the dawn as slaves.

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