Chapter 94: War
Minutes before the series of thunderous explosions, the sounds and shouts of bartering and fighting were still going on.
Within the middle of the battlefield where the heirs’ empowering array used to be, were also where the majority of the ships fell.
Down here on the ground, the sounds of warfare had not stopped like they had in the skies. In a way the battle down here was more brutal. It was much more chaotic, with not two forces colliding but tens if not hundreds. Many, many more lives were taken by the second, and the draconic descendants could only band together once again to protect their interests.
But even they could not monopolize all of the benefits within the hundreds of other groups. After all, there were many hidden talents from other nations, organizations, factions, and cults here.
So instead of spreading themselves too thin, they abandoned one or two cannons to maintain a solid hold on the majority of the others.
BOOM!
Suddenly a thunderous sound was heard and what came next was a large river of water that descended on the chaotic battlefield.
The heirs that were not fighting in the middle of the large-scale battle, or had went to the cannon that was relatively away from the warfare where Gayle and Cassian was, had gone to the one still flying in the air.
There, the priest and priestess combo named Belle and Leonard had not only taught the dragon’s descendants how the cannons worked, but even supplied it with their own rain essence energy.
The two individuals were happy to see their value elevated, and instead of being threatened they were now being enticed with better living conditions. At the same time, the other heirs fiercely contested over who would take the two.
They were an endless source of fuel, and without them the rest of the war weapons were useless. By that point of view, all of the heirs stopped seeing them as people, but as walking moneybags that they could use as leverage for all the other descendants.
Ironically enough, the two individuals might even start to live a life of luxury this way than when they were with the forces of Everrain.
But just about that time when the two were happily celebrating, when the forces below were still fighting, and when Cassain and Gayle were still bartering, was concurrently the time when a pair of siblings with the bloodline of rain had clasped their bleeding hands together.
Within the hearts of the draconic descendants, suddenly and out of the blue a tinge of unease started to grow.
Most of these heirs and heiresses had a strong sixth sense, and for some odd reason a growing sense of danger and warning was alerting them.
Whatever situation they were in, whether it was calm or tumultuous, they started to look around for any sign of danger, but in the end they found nothing.
Some brushed off their intuition, assuming that it was either their imagination, a false alarm, or simply their tense nerves that had yet to calm among the recent or concurrent fighting.
Others however took this more seriously, and that single decision to do so would change their lives.
Gayle looked around madly, swerving her head all around the place trying to find the source of that danger.
The tinge of unease that the others felt, were more like fireworks of anxiety and emergency for her.
The other heirs looked at her somewhat confused. Why was this girl acting like a frightened puppy? But one certain intelligent heir looked at her, and immediately her heart sank.
“Run!” Gayle screamed.
Merely seconds before that mysterious thing melted between the hands of Lloyd and Lara, Gayle grabbed Cassian and fled the scene immediately.
Two of the remaining heirs were left further confused, but the other one bolted into action, fleeing the scene as fast as she could.
The two that remained at the railgun cannon were first dumbfounded, before they started to laugh at their silly display.
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Seconds passed after the others left and the scene before them was still tranquil and calm. They were far from the battlefield. There were no enemies that their dragon eyes and ears could see or hear. Their empowered bodies had tough scales, and they were confident in themselves that they could handle most dangers anyway.
Was this some kind of ruse to get them to leave the war weapon? If so, then their methods were definitely too childish.
The two shared a look, before looking at the war weapon before them. They thought hard about what they should do next. Should they barter with the only person before them? But what if those two people came back, demanding that the trading wasn’t over?
The two remaining heirs thought over all kinds of plans and even schemes to acquire the thing. They were so engrossed in the acquisition of power and benefits, that it was soon to be their last thoughts.
A high pitch sound suddenly screamed from every war weapon that Everrain had left behind. For most the sound was imperceivable and nonexistent, but for the Brightflame King’s descendants, it was as loud as a warhorn.
Those who trusted in that gut feeling immediately activated countless lifesaving measures, while the others continued to remain confused, all the way up to their death.
In the next moment, a deafening explosion akin to a thousand bombs set off.
The blast spread outwards in a near instantaneous fashion, devouring everything from human bodies, animals and weapons, to even the earth and the sky. Not one thing in its radius was spared of its annihilating destruction, and that destruction was far and wide.
The flesh of the planet was carved out, resulting in deep scars in the form of humongous craters.
Tens of thousands of lives were instantly lost to that explosion, and the heirs and heiresses were no exception.
Gayle and Cassian were luckily on the edge of the explosion, but the explosion was still so earthshakingly powerful that it separated the two from each other.
The force sent the young woman ragdolling through the rough barren ground. It took her off her feet for a period of twenty straight seconds before she came down, ruthlessly smashing and dragging her skin against the stone and dirt. Needless to say it hurt like hell, and she broke a few bones in the process.
The black haired girl groaned as she struggled to pick herself up from off the ground. The self destruction of the railgun cannon was much more powerful than any of its blasts. Gayle even wondered to herself if their true purpose was to serve more as bombs in the form of trojan horses, rather than war weapons.
She looked around to see no more than five feet in front of her. In the wake of the weapon’s detonation, a large cloud of smoke, debris and water vapor covered the surface of Eok. A half mile radius in each of the four directions from each makeshift bomb that went off.
—cough cough cough—
WHOOSH!
Three unknown things flew in from the smoke behind her and landed just a few feet away to her left.
Indeed, the scales of the dragon were tough. Gayle could limp towards the three unknown objects, but not wanting to suffer that pain she instead activated her luminous eyes, which resembled miniature suns within a burning sea. There in the distance, was an arm, a leg, and a torso without a head.
The body parts were covered in broken and destroyed golden scales that actually held their luster. Unfortunately none of these heirs and heiresses had yet to fully cover their body in those same scales, or they might have been able to live.
From to which the arms, legs, and neck disconnected from the torso, it was easy to see where they were missing those scales.
Gayle looked away. The horrors of war were not something anyone liked to look at after all.
“Hel— Help.”
With her sensitive ears, she heard a soft and weak voice call out within the smoke. The girl turned her head and focused her eyes, to which the suns in them burned brighter.
There in the distance was the same intelligent heiress that left rapidly as soon as Gayle screamed to everyone to run. To her unfortunate fate, a large, stray, magicsteel shard from the railgun flew in from behind her, and…cut off her legs from the thighs.
Her draconic vitality kept her alive as the force made her remaining body fly through the air, tumbling mercilessly over the hard barren ground.
Now here she was, pitifully crawling through the smoke and dirty ground.
Before Gayle could make her move to help the girl however, a sorry-looking figure approached her first.
Although he was hit with the same sudden explosion that had crashed into Gayle, his body was still of draconic blood so his body suffered less injuries.
“Ca— Cassian?”
“Irene.”
“Ple— Please. Help me, brother.” Her words came softly and weakly.
Although she was missing both her legs, if she could survive this, there were magical ways to grow them back.
“Your insignia.”
“M— My…?”
“Give me your insignia, and I will help you.”
“I— ”
“I gave it to Kaerys back when we had an early confrontation…”
“...”
“But I will not compete anymore!”
—cough cough cough—
“I promise brother! Ple— Please!”
She coughed over and over.
Their eyes met. One was wavering, weak and begging, and the other seemed…emotionlessly cold.
A long moment of silence took place between them. The girl without legs displayed her pleading expression, but secretly she was preparing to detonate herself if Cassian decided to attack and kill her instead.
The golden haired heir sighed.
“Fine, sister.”
Irene breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Cassian went over to carry her, slinging her arm over his back and wrapping his own arm around her back and stomach.
They stumblingly paced for a few steps before the heiress fully calmed her nerves.
“Can’t you carry better? Do you not have the blood of the dragon in your veins?”
“The explosion hit me too, wench.”
Gayle observed. Apart from their light arguing it seemed all around peaceful. She went to limp over and walk towards them also, but suddenly a change happened.
“Oops!”
“Ow!”
Cassian “accidentally” tripped on a stone, leading to both of them falling over. Irene caught herself before her face hit the ground, but at the same time her eyes were focused on the dirt and smoke, a sword made of pure fire pierced through the back of her head and through the space between her eyes.
“Sorry, sister. Your life was useless to me as soon as you said you gave away your insignia.”
Cassian dispelled the sword made of pure fire, and watched as his sister’s head hit the ground.
Using his strongest of flames, he then lit her corpse on fire, watching as the traces of his murder were burned away.
“Always making things hard for me, you truly are the blood of the dragon, sister. Your corpse burns so slow.” He said to himself softly.
Gayle, from a far distance away, saw and heard everything. Reh-Tom landed on her shoulder as her jaw dropped.
‘Young lady, this is unfortunately what you signed up for.’
‘This is what war is.’
‘The war between Agni and Everrain. The bloodline war between the dragon’s descendants.’
‘This is what war is.’