Episode 111 - Fallen Lights 2 ‘Nightmare’
Previous Chapter: Peace at the tribal village before alarming news hits. Elder Lin prepares to sacrifice herself to protect her village.
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Day 3 - Tribal Village continuation...
Elder Lin closed her eyes shut for one brief second to control her emotions. She knew that the longer she hesitates, the shorter the time she has to prepare for the upcoming confrontation.
Hiding her emotions and putting on a serious face, she turned to Gie and with a authoritative voice, she ordered,
“Gie, get 100 men to aid the escape of all women and children. After that, split the rest of our brave men and head here,” she said without looking at Gie.
Gie frowned, “Elder Lin..?” Doesn’t that mean….
”What about Elder Gr-”
Elder Lin snapped at Gie with a fierce look and cut him off before he could finish, “Go!” she shouted.
Gie clenched his fists as he hesitated. He knew what Elder Lin meant when she ordered him to bring their brave men here. It meant that she would stay and defend their village until the end with their men. Despite her age and her occasional complaints about getting old and wrinkled, she was as strong as 4 navy men combined. And that was how she was chosen to be a village head despite being a woman after all. Persuading her was useless so with an uncomfortable feeling in his chest, he bowed to her before turning around to carry her orders.
Elder Lin watched as Gie left in a hurry. Without a hint of anxiousness or nervousness leaking out of her strong facade, she stood tall as she stared straight to a now-empty road that would soon be covered with blood and emotions full of agony and hatred.
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That day, the blissful momentary peace they had was utterly destroyed. An estimate of 1000 armed men forcefully barged into the city and broke down the village’s defense. The armed men injured anyone their way and slain those who opposed them doing whatever they wanted, to death.
The tribesmen whom Elder Lin sent as a frontline defense were all slain. Not one man from the group was alive. The brave men opposed the armed army until they breathed their last breath and managed to halt the attack long enough for women and children to escape out of the village.
Once the front defense was broken into, Elder Lin and her men commenced to carry out their defense strategy and that was knocking the armed men insensate. Though they couldn’t attack they are still able to utilize one move that didn't cross the thin line of hurting a civilian; Making them sleep.
The tribal men suffered from light to grave injuries. Even after the Palace knights arrived, it was already too late. The village had been set on fire. The stupid move from the armed civilians led Zene’s knights, the armed men comrades, and the tribe’s people to be stuck in the village with barely anywhere to retreat to. No one was left unharmed.
That wasn’t all. The fire the armed civilians started began spreading to the west side of the capital city. No one had expected this, even the armed civilians. As news began to travel around from people to people about all that's happened, people began to wonder if it was retribution. But no one knows.
The survivors who had a brief satisfaction about the situation reversing soon began to despair. They had come to realize that their village was forever gone. The happy peaceful city and their village were gone. Nothing was recoverable, including the tribesmen ancestor’s graves, their history, their everything. Everything was gone.
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Up until her consciousness allowed her to, Elder Lin could do nothing but watch as her village burned down in a sea of red, orange and yellow. Like the flames, her heart ached with an indescribable pain of agony. The pain of the burning heat or the pain of her burns wasn’t comparable to the pain in her heart.
Tears flow from her eyes as she vaguely hears the screams of terror and cries of her tribesmen. Shutting her eyes a sea of flames rushed their way past trees and houses and surrounded her, she muttered her final words before she fainted,
“Li.. Lise.. Hus.. Husband.. I’m sorry..”
Suddenly, a high pitch sound of swords clashing against another sword sounded from close by. The metallic sound was so fierce that people hearing the screech couldn’t help but feel shivers down their spines.
“What on earth is going on?!” A female voice shouted, sounding completely baffled by the situation. Her voice sounded rough and course because of the fumes and smoke from the wildfire surrounding them.
A low bass voice belonging to a male responded calmly to the female’s shout, “Careful..” he muttered.
In an instant, he arrived at the female’s side and defended against a man attempting to attack the female from her blind spot. Just that, before his sword and the enemy’s sword, could touch each other, an invisible force repelled their swords apart and in a forceful manner separated the two from each other.
“......”
“.....”
Without a word spoken and in a natural manner, the enemy retreated to his comrades as the man turned around to face his female companion. Though two conceded as if it was the laws of this world to yield to one another, their hearts felt bitter.
Before the male could snap out of that feeling, his female companion grabbed his arm in a hasty motion and dragged him with her in a rush as if her eyes caught on to something.
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“Look! There’s someone!” she shouted and ran to the unconscious elderly woman laying down in pools of blood.
“Elderly! Elderly!”
The man rushed up to the elderly woman and kneeled before the elderly lady to check for any pulse. Though the elderly looked to be in a bad state, fortunately, her pulse was still beating strongly.
In relief, he exhaled. “She’s alive.” He said quietly.
The male and the female nodded in understanding. In a quick movement, the two took the elderly woman out of the village and escaped to the capital in a hurry.
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At the same time…..
“Why… Why?”
A man with a white dress that was now stained wine red coughed out a mouthful of blood as he stared at the dark fuzzy figure above him. The smell of a fire burning through wood and humans were as suffocating as the feeling of losing almost all his blood from his injuries.
His body leaned against a big tree as the man in front of him repeatedly stabbed him in the abdomen with his long sword. With every stab, the man could feel his life flashing by him as his breaths started to become very shallow and slow-paced.
The man’s already paper-pale skin turned whiter paper. His tall nose bridge, cute brown freckles, and thin lips were completely covered in blood. He was already frail-looking but with this situation adding on top, he looked incredibly pitiful.
“Die Ario!” The man holding a long sword snickered as he stabbed into the man with bobbed hair, Ario.
“Kukh--”
Ario’s hands that were covering his stomach soon slipped off his body as he breathed his last breath.
“.....”
‘Even with death, you smile?’ the man who stabbed Ario felt a slight chill down his spine as he stared at Ario’s face. Though Ario looked as white as a sheet of paper, his lips were somewhat curving upwards as if he was mocking him even in death.
Clearing his mind from unnecessary thoughts, the culprit wiped any trace of blood from his sword before joining his comrades.
“There! Stop the civilians!” He shouted as he rushed to save a tribesman from an armed civilian.
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Day 3 - 30 minutes after Ario died…. Back to the Training field...
Eugene stretched her muscles repeatedly as she stared at the sunny sky. Though it was almost evening, the sky was still as bright as it was hours ago. Nevertheless, even if the weather was slightly hot, the cold wind blowing their way felt incredibly cooling and nice.
‘My body feels slow and heavy…’
Eugene twisted her upper back as she sighed. ‘I tried too hard during the beep test!’ After thinking that, she couldn’t help but turn towards Louis and gave him a deep glare!
‘It is his fault! He.. He riled up my competitive spirit!.. The damn spirit that I inherited… I inherited… from somewhere!” she complained and sulked!
“Achoo!” Ramon sneezed and pinched his nose. “Does.. Does anyone smell anything?” He looked around as he rubbed his nose.
Eugene who was closest to him raised her head and looked around. Seeing nothing and smelling nothing, she turned towards him and blinked.
‘Are you saying that I smell?’ she stared at him with a baffled expression.
Ramon shivered and unconsciously shook his head, “I.. I probably caught a cold.” he half whispered-half muttered without looking at Eugene.
‘.... sure…’ Eugene turned away.
Argen’s entire body cracked as he attempted to stretch, “Ahh...I need sleep! My body is dying! My body is in need of an immediate recovery! Aka. SLEEP!” He complained with his heart and body, looking incredibly pitiful.
Aren rolled his eyes as he stared at his beautiful-girlish twin brother blankly. He turned towards Aeselak who was beside him and couldn’t help but ask, “Do soldiers often train like this?”
Aedelak gave him a short smile but shook her head. “Not often.”
“Oh…”
But before Aren could breathe out in relief, Aedelak added,
“Not often, but, every day. And more! Their fitness circuit consists of 12 exercises, which is their daily minimum...” she trailed her words as she recalled. How they train didn’t touch the bare minimum of how ‘real’ soldiers train. Not even 2 percent.
“Every? EVERYDAY?!?!” Aren and Argen shouted in unison. Their jaws dropped to the floor as their eyes blurred from dizziness.
Aedelak took a step back out of fright, “Yes…” she hesitantly answered as she tried to keep her smile as politely as possible.
Aren and Argen shook their heads, fast. ‘No. No more. Don’t say no more!’ The two blocked their ears with their hands as they turned their backs towards Aeselak. ‘No more!’
Arie shook his head at his brothers grabbing the two to leave.
“Everyone! We will be leaving now!” he shouted, grabbing everyone’s attention. However, just as the Paladins and Arie’s group was about to bid their goodbye, a person wearing formal clothes ran up to them. Without looking at the person who just appeared a second time, everyone could already tell from his clothes that the man was someone who works at the Royal Palace.
“Hello, young masters and young ladies. I am from the Royal Palace. I have come under the King’s orders to.....” the Royal messenger didn’t stop there and began to talk...
“.....”
‘Fire…’
“....”
‘Passed away…’
The children stood still in place until Duke Marleigh and Duke Rodriguez rushed to them. The story the royal messenger told them was outrageous. It was so unreal that the children thought that they were dreaming. However, upon seeing Duke Rodriguez’s slightly panicked look and Duke Marleigh practically confirming the royal messenger’s words by repeating an almost identical story, did the children react.
Euria was first to break the silence. “We… are to enter the Palace?” her eyes widened as she stared at Duke Marleigh with panic in her eyes.
“Sir… Ario?”
“.... What. Sir Ario.. what?” Ario stuttered. His feet betrayed him as he fell directly into the ground with a loud thud.
Like Arie, Aren and Argen fell to the ground with a look of disbelief on their faces. Their cheeks were sunken in looking as if their souls were sucked away.
“.....” with his head lowered, Con furrowed his eyebrows. His bangs covered his entire face but underneath those bangs was one very dark expression.
“Im.. Impossible.” Argen stared at his palms with a bleak look. His eyes blurred with pools of clear water threatening to fall.
Everyone stepped back and remained quiet to give Arie’s group space.
“.....” Eugene stared at the bright blue sky blankly. Though she didn’t understand what Arie’s group was going through, their raw emotions pricked her and sent tremors down her soul. Especially her heart.
“Haa.” If she could choose, she would prefer to never be in their situation. To hold someone dear. To lose someone dear. These two complicated feelings come with responsibility and a mountain of emotions one must carry forward.
‘Or is it.. too late already?’ her eyes unconsciously move to Euria, Louis, Ramon, Aernest, Aedelak, and Aeselak.
‘It might be too late..’
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Everyone got into the Royal carriage with heavy hearts. This included Arie’s group who were ordered to enter the Royal Palace as well.
As their carriages got closer to the city capital, their hearts started beating more fiercely from anxiousness and fear. The beautiful capital city they passed by a few hours prior was completely wrecked. Peace can no longer be used to describe this city.
“What in heaven!?!” Ramon rose as he pushed the carriage curtains to the side in shock! What came to view was a city covered in fumes and a bright red light.
Everyone gasped in shock.
“Didn’t Duke Rodriguez say that the fire was spread to the west side of the capital? Wha.. How come it reached the south so fast?!” his voice raised speechlessly at the sight.
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At the same time in another carriage carrying Arie, Aren, Argen, Dea, and Con, an unexplainable heavy silence crushed them as they stared at the bright red outside.
The fire was caught everywhere. From houses and to trees. Though the smoke and flames took their attention away visually, the pain in their hearts amplified tremendously.
Their country, the city they love, their favorite place to hang out, everything was burning down and will vanish into nothing but piles of stones.
Sir Ario died, and everything was burning away...
Just like the beautiful sight of everyone running together earlier on will always be remembered as a happy memory and will help guide their way to their adulthood, the sight of their city burning and their savior, Sir Ario, no longer being alive, will forever be one of their nightmares.
This nightmare will constantly haunt them in their sleep, when they despair, and when they become weak.
Tears slid down everyone’s faces as they hung their heads low. The carriage they rode in traveled steadily and was heading further away from chaos, to the safest place,
The Royal Palace.