Chapter 8: Chapter 8: Blood and Steel

{Year 17}

Liri had been at the temple when it happened.

She’d been doing her usual work, meditating and reinforcing her connection to nature when the first explosion occurred.

The ground trembled as the loud sound snapped in the air. Liri’s eyes immediately widened, and she sat up straight.

Mainly, because she knew that sound, from watching movies and tv shows in her past life.

[Was that… A cannon or something?]

Many of her sisters in the village began yelling. Liri, along with all of the other priestesses, got up and walked onto the street.

There, they saw it.

There was a strange fog rolling in from the east. Many different people were running away from the source of those sounds, as warrior ven rushed toward them. Liri’s heart sank.

[Who’s doing this?]

“LIRI!” A voice called out and the girl turned toward it. Alma was running at her, holding a spear in her hands and wearing her leather armor. “Oh, thank the Mother,” she said, as she arrived, placing her hands on Liri’s shoulders, “you’re okay.”

“What’s going on?”

“We aren’t sure,” Alma quickly stated, wiping away some sweat. She’d likely run a long way. “But these are probably the same ones who took down all of our other villages. You need to leave.”

[“You”?] Liri wondered.

Despite the immediate concern she felt upon hearing that, she asked:

“W-Where do I go?”

“Lys is with some of the other non-combatants by the northern gate. Go and… Watch over her, Liri. Please.”

This was too much, too soon.

[Focus. Figure out what's happening first. Don't panic!]

“I will,” Liri promised.

“Good. Thank you.” Before Liri could say anything else, Alma pulled her in for a tight hug. It was when that happened that Liri internalized something.

Alma was a warrior. One of the stronger warriors in the village. Naturally, that meant she would be at the center of whatever battle was about to begin here.

That also meant that this could very well be the last time Liri ever saw her.

“W-Wait, are you-”

“I must go now,” Alma stated, the desperation showing fully on her face. “I love you, Liri. Please, be careful.”

“Wait…”

Before Liri could say anything else, Alma began running toward the explosions. Liri felt so cold then. It was hard to breathe. Chills went up her spine.

[Is this really happening?]

“Liri, come on!” Another priestess said, grabbing her by one hand. “We have to go check on our families!”

“… Right,” Liri muttered before running off with her. As Alma had stated, there were many civilians by the northern side of Elmira.

However, they were also running away.

[What?] Liri asked herself, confused. [Why aren’t they running out of the village? They’re moving to the center.]

It was only as she got closer that she realized what was happening.

It made sense as soon as she saw it. The fact that the other villages had been completely and utterly wiped out wasn’t simply because the opposing forces here were stronger. No, that was the entire point. They were *trying* to wipe them out.

Vehicles made of steel, like immaculate tanks, were lined up, surrounding the village, firing off shells that destroyed anything they touched.

[No wonder they all died,] Liri thought, with one hand over her rapidly beating heart. [These are modern weapons!]

Up until now, the ven were the only culture Liri could gauge this world off of. Now, she was coming face to face with the fact that the ven were technologically lagging behind everyone else. And, the consequence of that was that it seemed like this village was about to be annihilated.

“Liri!”

[Lys!]
Liri turned toward her mother’s voice and found her hiding behind one of the homes nearby. The young ven ran straight to her.

“Mother, come on! We have to go!” Liri stated, pulling her mother up to her feet.

“W-We’re surrounded,” Lys noted. “There’s nowhere to run to!”

[… Crap,] Liri thought as she looked back beyond the gates. [She might be right about that. But, we have to try something!]

Right now, the strange forces were doing their best to herd all of the ven deeper into the village. All this meant was that Liri needed her neighbors to do the opposite. However, with how terrified they were, it was hard to think of a way to get them to do that.

[Come on, think, think! There has to be something we can do!]

Not too many clever ideas came to her mind. However, Liri did figure they had one chance.
She tried to calm herself down and she checked her Soul Rating.

Soul Rating: 2000

Alma’s was currently at 1500. That meant that, as she was, with only a few years of training and the Mantras she knew, Liri was stronger than one of the most powerful fighters in the village.

[… I need to do something,] she realized. [Maybe, I can turn the tide of this fight. Or, at the very least, give us an opening to escape through!]

“Mom, everyone, come with me!” Liri yelled as loudly as she could.

A few of the other ven noticed and ran with her. Liri’s fame paid off as they all instinctively listened to her.

Liri pulled Lys along as she went back to the temple. This time, she began heading toward the other explosions, where Alma was also heading.

“W-Where are we going?” Lys asked.

“Our only shot is to cut a path through them!” She told everyone. “Stay behind me!”

[I don’t know any offensive Mantras, but I can swing a sword pretty damn well and I can heal. I don’t have any hopes of winning this fight, but all I need is to make a small path for just a little while to give everyone a chance to escape.]

Many of her sisters were dying, however. The shells those tanks launched out had already covered the streets in blood. Dead bodies, loose arms, and legs could be seen all around her, but Liri tried not to focus on any of that.

She understood that if she gave into despair, everyone was as good as dead.

[There they are!]

Liri found Alma with some of the other villagers fighting a few of the opposing forces who had gotten out of their vehicles and were fighting on foot. They were getting shot down.

[Rifles,] Liri realized. [Crap.]

The stronger amongst the ven warriors, however, had the speed to dodge some of the bullets that came their way. Seeing that, Liri assumed she could do the same.

“Everyone, stay here!” Liri yelled out, gesturing for them all to hide behind some of the nearby buildings.

[Those things won’t last against the tanks, but they’re better than nothing.]

Liri then rushed into the fight, gritting her teeth.

[I wish I had more offensive options, but the best that I can do right now is to heal everyone who fell!]

“Liz ner marin,” Liri muttered, placing her hands over a gravely wounded soldier. “Your fight’s not over yet, get up!”

It took about half a minute to get that soldier back into fighting condition. In that time, many of the ven around Liri were shot down.

[This won’t work,] Liri realized. [I need to pick up a weapon. I have to go in myself!]

Liri searched and found something.

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One of the ven had managed to shoot an arrow through one of the eye sockets of an attacker’s head. The result was that the humanoid figure, dressed in all black and wearing a helmet, died and dropped his rifle.

[Okay, okay… I never shot a gun in my past life, but hopefully, it’s not too hard.]

Liri picked up two weapons as chaos raged around her. The rifle she’d just found and a sword.

With them, she tried to help.

More gunshots rang out, but these came from Liri’s weapon. Her aim was bad, obviously, but closing the distance made it far easier to hit her enemies.

“That maggot’s got a gun!” Liri heard someone call out and she turned and fired at them.

[If I’m a maggot then what does that make you? You murderers!]

Twenty bullets. That had been all the rifle had, but it had allowed Liri to take down five of these enemy soldiers. As soon as her gun’s ammunition ran out, she tossed it away and reached for her sword.

Liri dashed in and slashed a man’s neck, cutting his head off.

[Wait,] she thought. [That was… That was really easy. How strong am I?]

She heard a gunshot to the right and reacted instantly, dodging back. The bullet went right past her head, harmlessly.

[I’m fast!]

She needed to focus, though. The ven were still losing. Liri had to do more.

She cut down a few other soldiers, earning more and more Soul Rating with every enemy that fell. Soon, the number of enemies began matching the number of ven, and more eyes landed on Liri.

“Liri!?” Alma called out when she realized the storm of blades here was her own daughter. “What are you doing?” She asked, desperately.

“The village is surrounded,” Liri explained, yelling as she stabbed through an enemy’s heart. “We need to push through them!”

Liri continued making progress on that end, slicing up opponents as Alma internalized what she’d just heard. Once she did, she began fighting far more ferociously.

“Sir?” Liri heard someone ask. She turned toward him and saw a man speaking into a metallic object from behind a crate.

A man with no helmet on. Something that allowed Liri to see that these people were humans.

[Huh?]

“They’re pushing us back! What should we do?”

Liri couldn’t allow him to receive an answer. She ran up and stabbed straight through his head, as the voice on the other end of the radio spoke to no one.

“Do not let up!” Liri heard the other voice say, picking the object up. “Cut the whores down. His Grace commands it!”

Anger flared within Liri.

[Oh yeah? You’ll have to get through me, first!]

As Liri picked up the pace, more of those soldiers fell, one by one. Eventually, only the tanks were standing in their way, in this part of the village, anyway.

This was as good a chance as they’d ever get, though.

“Everyone, run forward!”

[They can’t kill all of us. Once we’re past them, they’ll have to either get out or aim backward, taking their eyes off the village.]

“CHARGE!” Alma commanded the few remaining warriors and Liri’s plan was put into effect. As the tanks had ven approaching them now, a few of them backed up slowly, but others saw their hosts simply getting out and trying to gun the targets down themselves.

Because of this new chaos, the civilians were given an opening, and many of them, including Lys, managed to run into the forests up ahead.

[Good, good!] Liri thought. [We’re doing it, we’re actually-]

One explosion sounded off.

It was so close that it produced a whistling sound in Liri’s left ear, a painful sensation that stunned the girl.

But what truly made Liri’s blood run cold was who she saw that had been on the receiving end.
Alma had been hit.

Liri watched as the woman had one of her legs blown off, and was lying face-down likely unconscious. Or at least Liri hoped she was just unconscious.

[No!]

Liri ran toward her. More of the ven escaped, making it so that their opponents had no clue whether to chase them or to keep killing the ones still stuck in the village.

Upon making it to Alma’s body, Liri picked her up.

[I can’t heal her just yet, I’ll get killed. I need to get her out of danger!]

With her mother’s limp body on her back, Liri ran between two tanks, sprinting toward the trees up ahead. As she did, she found a few soldiers trying to kill some of the civilians who had made it out.

Setting her mother down briefly, Liri gritted her teeth, sword in hand, and moved as fast as she could, quickly dealing with them all. It was easy, given how distracted they were with the senseless murder and all. 

[I can’t see Lys,] Liri noted. [I know she made it out, though. Please, please, stay close.]

Finally, as she saw that there were no more enemies around her, Liri turned her attention to her mother.

“Liz ner marin,” she muttered, putting her hands over Alma’s body.

[Thirty seconds,] she thought. [That’s all I…]

That was all she needed, but Liri wouldn’t get them.

She realized as the wound refused to close and Liri’s eyes fell on many of the other cuts and gunshots that Alma had suffered through.

Alma had already died.

“N-No, no, no, no,” Liri muttered. “Alma, mom, please…”

It was no use. Her eyes wouldn’t open and her heart wasn’t beating.

“No…”

Tears rolled down Liri’s face before someone put a hand on her shoulder.

“Liri? Come on!” Someone said. It was a classmate of hers. “The enemy, they’re coming for us!”

“H-Huh?” Liri wiped away her tears as she looked back at the village. Indeed, they’d seen that some of the ven made it out, and they looked like they wanted to correct that mistake.

Liri looked back down at Alma’s body and picked it up.

[I can’t just leave her here,] Liri thought. [I’ll give her a proper burial.]

“Let’s go!” She told her friend and the two of them ran forward together.

They soon caught up to the others, who were waiting up ahead to see if more ven made it.

When Liri had first been born into Elmira, the population had been about 300. Yesterday, it had been around 600.

Only 14 people, Liri and Lys included among them, made it out of this attack alive.

No one else did. Liri and the others waited, but no one else showed up. None of the other priestesses, none of Liri’s friends, not Jen, not the people who had shown up to her birthday, none of the girls who had thrown themselves at her throughout so many years.

The overwhelming majority of the village had died that day. The culture Liri had grown to love, the people who had shown so much care and admiration for her, and, worst of all, one of Liri’s mothers.

All of it was now gone, lost to the bloodlust of unknown forces.

As she helped bury Alma, while Lys cried, being consoled by the others, Liri promised something.

[I will find out who did this and… I promise,] she thought, as she shoveled dirt on top of Alma’s body, [I will destroy them.]

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