Chapter 89: Arc 5: Black Blasphemy (Epilogue)

The Plains of Death — formerly known as the White Plains — stretched over the earth. The flames which birthed this monstrosity had died down, leaving behind the blackened soil and bones.

A winged angel flew atop that hell. His wings unfurled to review the muscle-bounded man with the chisel jaw-line no one wouldn’t misplace on Archangel Michael of Montgomery.

The White Archangel in his majestic holy visage surveyed the burnout remains.

Montgomery's army had been routed. Any survivor of Etaceh’s last attack had deserted the army. Micheal could easily round them up, but it was a waste of time. Maximus the Grand had no more need for human armies or populaces. The Worship Seeds lying inside every soldier of Montgomery would be recalled at this moment, sealing the deserter’s fate.

Personally, Micheal would treat this battle as a loss. Etaceh managed to accomplish her mission of destroying the Montgomery combat forces and clearing the path to Montgomery. As the head of the loser, Micheal should be a tad upset. His colleague—saved Apolline—had all died. Micheal himself was hit squarely with the chain explosion of Ignis Gunpowder, and only escaped thanks to his holy form. But depressed wasn’t what Micheal was feeling. Relief was the word. Like a student finally lifting the burden of exam months from their shoulder, Micheal felt a huge weight from his shoulder.

He could finally stop pretending to be something he wasn’t.

A blue light suddenly erupted from the Plans of Death. From the blackened earth, a blue translucent creature with a humanoid body and see-through blue wings emerged. Curiously, it rose from the exact spot Archangel Deluge fell.

Micheal watched the emerging monster with a grin.

They lost the battle, but the war was far from over.

…

If Ciel could read Micheal’s mind from another dimension, he would have nodded his head in an agreement.

The Unity Lord and his spouses were having the post-battle lunches served by Amy’s trusty minion. Colorful hyper intelligent rodents ran across the room delivering today's meal of chicken sandwiches served with berry smoothie plus some extra orders. It was Amy’s newest recipe. On this occasion, the group decided to forgo the traditional dining room, and instead hung out at Amy’s cottage for a change in scenery.

Xia was the first to speak.

“Did we lose?”

Ciel swallowed his sandwich and thanked the mice for bringing the plate of cheese-nugget he ordered. He promptly answered the question before digging into the food.

“Yes and no.”

Xia rolled her eyes, “Please stop speaking in riddles.”

Betty stopped sucking the smoothy and translated in Ciel’s place as the Unity Lord began devouring the nugget.

“He meant we technically ran away, but the other side didn’t get away intact.”

Ciel finished his plate in a blink and expanded on the conversation, “Betty got it. True. We ran. There is no denying that Etaceh got what she wanted again, but Pyrrhic victory exists as a concept for a reason. She lost all her back-up, and Hecate itself received so much damage she would be a sitting duck for a while. If she aimed to blitz Maximus, this battle officially killed that dream. She won the fight, but utterly deviated from her original objective. This doesn’t even get to the biggest issue; how many did the barrier around Hecate break now.”

It was Hikari who did the counting.

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“Borbonsi broke it the first time,” Hikari checked with her fingers. “Then Bruno shattered it with Execution of Miharl and finally today the barrier broke for the third time. That thing must be full of holes by now.”

“This battle also bankrupted,” Carolina, who was enjoying Amy’s brand of chocolate cake, chimed in. “The amount of Ignis Gunpowder she burned during this fight would bankrupt a nation. That, on top of the damage Betty and the Montgomery’s air-force did to her flying city, would empty all her reserve coffer. Worst, she had bumped Borbonsi off the map. This meant she no longer had any supplier or lenders who could shore her up.``

“So Etaceh is now marooned here with almost no way to recover?” Xia concluded. “If that is a victory, I would rather lose.”

“You are completely right,” Ciel commended. “From my opinion, her fate is sealed the moment she tries to look smart over using logic. The safe but boring move would be allying with Borbonsi to take down Maximus, but she couldn’t share the spotlight or accept being predictable. She had to make the impressive but irreversible course of taking out Eleanor. By that point, she is committed to win the war with whatever she had in stock and no safety net. As you can see, that stock is quickly running out of steam”

Caislean opened the door with a bang.

The Residence’s secretary looked around the cottage with an alarm written all over her face.

“We have a problem in Montgomery!” She yelled.

…

Mount Uranus was deserted in silence aside from the hum of Authority.

Clothes—arrangement of pants, shirt and shoes—laid on the ground in place of people. They were graves, marking the painless and abrupt transformation as flesh turned into light. Across the city-state of Montgomery, people were fading into light, flying to the summit of the mountain. There was no noise, fear or panic, just an entire society gazing at the revelation. In rapture and content as their existence flew to the sky. Mortal shells were discarded like a cicada shedding its skin. The silence was deafening like a gigantic organ about to play the hymn. It was the soft hymn opening the last act of the Eastern Continent.

Apolline stumbled onto that street. She watched her people disappear in the light. Each person felt like a stake into the heart. Like a jackhammer smashing her waning psyche.

Perhaps her attempt to escape the flimsy confinement Maximus put her into was predicted and expected. Most likely her captor never cared about her at all. What could she do? Try to wail against the inevitable like an ant trying to fell a flagpole? In her current state Apolline was struggling to survive much less fling a weapon at Maximus.

Apolline couldn’t save anyone. They were beyond saving from the start.

The only thing she could do was look at the pillar of light piercing the cloud from the summit of Mount Uranus with rage.

Apolline knew her life force was waning. Her time was like sand in an hourglass, trickling to her inevitable death.

But she swore to kill that bastard, if that was the last thing she did before her candle of life snuff completely.

…

Next is the final part of the Eastern Continent Saga.

United(?) We Stand: The Red Rundown 

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