AN: I can't wait anymore! I have to write this chapter NOW! To hell with build-up and dramatic foreshadowing, bring on the gore! MWHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!(Just kidding, this is boring exposition before the actual battle. Did anyone say cliffhanger...?)

----------------------------------------

Trees' POV

Fucking. Fireballs.

Why?! I did nothing wrong! What did I do to deserve this?

For gods sake, I'm a tree!

But...I felt something. A chill in the air. A feeling as if death himself is breathing down my neck. I cannot shake the feeling that something terrible is going to happen, and that what comes after will be a simple prelude to even worse events.

This is too complicated for a simple tree...

Hah, I know! I can find the person who is going to do these terrible things, and stop th-

I'm a tree.

...

FUCK!

----------------------------------------

Lichs' POV

So, this is the west gate.

Unimpressive, if you ask me.

As I was walking over this way, I gradually grew more and more pissed off, and I can't figure out why. All I know is one thing.

I am going to let out all of this frustration out on these bastards who interrupt my first time in a city.

Just before the gates was a neat formation of two-hundred knights in full-plate astride eagle-headed horses, who also happened to have lion claws. Seriously, who makes these things?

Behind them were thirty or so young-looking people in funny white robes. They all looked nervous and anxious, and were fidgeting like children. As I neared them, a knight with an especially flamboyant plume came over and dismounted.

"Are you lost, little girl? I cannot help you find your parents right now, but I can give you direction-"

"Fuck off."

Striding forward, I pass all the knights with barely a glance. Most, if not all, could probably kill me. But, right now I am too damn mad to care. Once I had passed the knights who tried to stop me, I climbed the steps up to the top of the gate, and stood in the middle, balancing between two battlements.

The wind is so strong up here...

A loud thump came from behind me, but I did not care enough to turn around. "What do you wish to say?"

The sound of clanking metal boots announce the person had gotten off his/her mount. Sparing a glance, I saw that it was a forty-something man with white hair. He simply stood beside me on the battlements, and I think he understood too.

The fact that all of those knights are going to die. And those young men and women too. Nothing can stop their deaths, they are as inevitable as time.  Somehow, I couldn't bring myself to care.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

It's such a difficult thing...to care.

After a few minutes, the movement of the man beside me distracted me. I looked at him, and for the first time he spoke.

"You know, you look a lot like one of my daughters. Ah...I feel regretful that I only preached to them when they were with me. I drilled one phrase into them, "For another, regret can be tolerated. For myself, however, I will never purposefully do something I will regret." isn't that funny? It seems I am a hypocrite as well."

I said nothing.

He nodded sadly, then turned to get back on his griffon, when I spoke.

"You know, I get the feeling Bel and Rena passed away with little pain, pure to the end. Though I cannot say for Bel, Rena was one of the best people I have ever met. Because she was your daughter. Don't beat yourself up so much for doing the best  you could."

As he turned away, he was crying.

...

I wonder why that old man was crying...? And I get the feeling I should remember something. I think it was a name...

Reny? Reena? I can't remember for the life of me.

Oh well, it's not like it's that important.

Huh, I seem to be getting impatient. I really want to kill something right now.

I watched as the thirty or so white robed people got on the back of some of the griffons, and flew out. It seems they won't be waiting at the gate where their griffons wings are useless, and are instead going out to fight int he field.

Some time passed.

The sun was at the horizon, and had started setting. That was when I heard the horns. I looked over the wall, and saw two hundred fifty poles.

Hanging from those poles were bodies.

As I looked over them, a certain pole sprang out at me. On it was the old man, except instead of his armor he had been stripped, and been dressed in a prostitutes cloths.

I knew that this meant nothing to me. All those people...they don't matter. Death is just the end of pain.

But...there is one thing these people don't seem to realize.

Death only breeds more death.

I lifted my hand...

"Rise"

----------------------------------------

Sorry this chapter is so short, I've just been swamped. It is currently tomorrow, so I think I'm going to sleep now. Tomorrow is going to be miserable...

Well, at least I have cupcakes. Cupcakes make everything better. :D