“We need rest.” Anastasia says, taking deep breaths while she watches Ambrose finish the last villager. Her eyes soften as she looks at them. “Poor people. I thought we were coming to save them. But we’re…” she pauses for a moment, before sighing. “We’re cleanup.”
“Just focus on making it through this.” Meize shakes his head.
“Let’s head to a house and take a moment.” Bunny says, and everyone nods in agreement. Ambrose gets up as she finishes her words, wiping her newly acquired machete against the villager’s clothes. She turns away and walks up to Anastasia.
“Strong.” Ambrose says softly as she bumps her fist against Anastasia’s heart. Anastasia blinks for a moment before smiling.
“Thank you.” Anastasia whispers, bumping her own fist against Ambrose’s heart. “Strong.” She laughs, then shakes her head. “Strong. Messarah forgive me.” The group make their way to the mill’s door. Meize carefully opens it and peers outside. The cold wind greets them, and a moonlight clear and pure shines down. White, not red.
“How is this thing affecting the moonlight.” Meize mutters as he steps out, his eyes trailing along the darkened pathway.
“That’s the least of my questions.” Anastasia answers as she, alongside the others, follow him outside. “Time is wrong here. The sun doesn’t rise. We don’t know anything about what we’re fighting. But it knows everything about us.” The group grow somber at her words.
“Let’s just get some rest.” Bunny interrupts the atmosphere, pointing to the house next door. “We can rummage for a lighter of some sort while we’re there.”
“Right.” Meize says, and takes another step forward. Anastasia’s instincts suddenly go into overdrive, a massive headache slamming into her mind as it screams at her to run.
“Something’s wrong.” Anastasia shouts, turning wildly as she tries to find the source of her panic. If before, her instincts were screaming at her like a car in overdrive, now it was slamming into her like a giant truck pressing on the gas pedal. The group tenses immediately and looks around for the source of the danger.
“The blades.” Anastasia cries, and the group twists their heads upward to find the mill’s blades tilting dangerously above. It is then that the soft groan of strained joints enter their ears, the sound so minute they hadn’t noticed, as the blades inch back and forth a tiny bit at a time.
Then, before any of them can move, a loud crack pierces the quiet night. The joints give way, and one of the blades leaning precariously tilts completely to one side and begins to fall. In that single moment, Ambrose catches the barest glint of a figure disappearing into the shadows.
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“Brace!” Meize roars as the blade gives in to gravity and its immense weight comes crashing into them. He spreads his feet wide and raises his hands, his eyes red with raw emotion as he braces for impact. And then it hits - over ten tonnes of weight crashing into him.
His body immediately caves, his feet digging deep trenches into the ground as a scream of pure agony fills him. His left arm is completely destroyed, bloody and broken as flesh melds with metal, and yet his right arm holds strong; if only barely.
Meize tilts to the side as he kneels, Bunny, Anastasia and Ambrose huddled on his right side as he struggles to remain standing. Ambrose quickly rises up, doing her best to help against the weight pressing down on them. The momentum is gone, but Meize is barely holding himself together. A loud groan comes from above, and Bunny whips her head up to see another of the blades beginning to tilt.
“Move!” Bunny hisses, and the three of them put all of their weight into supporting Meize as they struggle to get out from under the blade. Moments that feel like decades pass, and finally they’re able to throw themselves out of the blade’s way. The group collapses at the same time the blade falls its final metre and hits the ground.
“Go.” Ambrose grits her teeth, forcing herself up as she struggles to move Meize. His body is a mess, and her eyes wince at the sight of his destroyed arm. Anastasia scrambles up and grabs his other side, the two of them dragging him along.
“Come on.” Bunny urges as she gets Meize’s front, and drags him alongside them. Her eyes dart above, watching the blade tilt further and further. “Faster.” Desperation seeps into her voice. The blade’s groans grow louder, and a crack echoes as part of its support gives way. Bunny’s eyes despair as she looks up, and she shouts. “We have to leave him.”
Ambrose ignores her words, hell-bent on dragging Meize as she strains with every fiber of her being. She wants to use the card, but she can already feel it’s impossible. She has no strength left to activate it. Another crack sings in the night.
“Leave him!” Bunny screams. Her eyes grow hooded as they flicker between Meize and the blade, her actions slowing for the briefest of seconds. And then they speed up, her hands strained as she drags him as hard as she can.
A final crack echoes in the night, and the blade’s final support gives. It crashes down toward them. Meize’s eyes glow bright as clarity comes back, and with the last of his strength he throw himself forward alongside the group.
They crash hard against the ground, scraping themselves against the ground as they just barely make it onto the village’s road as the blade crashes just behind them. Panting, heaving, crying, the group stare dumbly at the scene in front of them with residual fear.
“…Meize.” Ambrose whispers, dragging her body next to him. The left side of his body is mangled. His arm is completely crushed, what’s left barely better then a scrap of flesh. Metal is intermingled in the wounds.
Scraps of the blade having broken off in the impact. Parts of his left leg is broken, but still whole. Wounds are cut across his whole body, and his right arm is completely covered in blood and bruises. With his final effort, his mind had given out. He is alive. Alive, at least. Anastasia carefully holds his body and cries. Ambrose watches on, while Bunny stares across at the blades dug deep into the earth.