“Haell. Haell! It’s over,” Therick informed me.
I looked at him for a second, uncomprehending. I gestured towards the cursetacean in front of me, then ended its life. “What do you mean?” Another began crawling its way out of the moat. “There are still enemies.”
“Well, yes. But the cursetaceans will never stop. The war outside however is finished, and the army is now returning inside.”
I looked at where he was pointing, and found the remaining soldiers streaming back in through the bridge. Many healers had set up in the around road that awaited them, growing a bed of flowers, and then shining down a healing light to heal those who were wounded in the prior battle. They had already received healing from the sundertops prior, especially the high-ranking officers, but many were still in a critical state. The few inhexes that survived continued to fall in numbers as they were hardly given any healing at all.
The soldiers were laid down at the overlapping fields of healing, and more wagons full of sun mana were brought to the sundertops. Their sun magic was more efficient than the other elements when it came to widescale healing, or any wide-scale effects in general. The wounded were soon stabilized in this way, and people received more focused individual healing according to their need and status. This sort of ‘triage’ was apparently a well-studied and official field that most professionally trained healers knew.
“Let’s go,” I said, following after Berry once I noticed that she was going somewhere instead of just watching and resting like the rest of us.
“Uhmm. You guys don’t have to go with me. I just want to check on some people…”
“It’s fine. There’s no one we really personally care about among the army, I don’t think. Let’s go see what’s happened to your folks. That’s where you’re going, right?”
“...Yeah. Okay.”
We arrived at her parent’s home, and I was happy to find that Lena, Rob, and Larry were all okay. They had apparently just been hiding the entire time, and hadn’t even gotten hurt. The same couldn’t be said for all of Berry’s relatives and friends, and she had to mourn two people that she had only reunited with a few weeks ago.
Granuel noticed the many many crustecars who were still injured, because plenty of cursetaceans had managed to breach the moat during that massive engagement earlier. I took him and Moonwash with me, and we healed who we could. Some would forever be crippled by what had happened despite our efforts, but there wasn’t anything more we could do for them.
They looked defeated and dejected, but not really surprised.
~~~
“We’re leaving,” I announced once we were back at our suite and I’d taken off my armor.
“Right now?” Angerly asked with a snort.
“Yes. Right now,” I answered sarcastically, but my heart wasn’t in it in the eye-roll that I made.
My mood had still not recovered from that disaster. I was rattled. I really did not want to be here anymore where this could happen again.
I was powerful enough to make a difference, but not the difference that I wanted.
“Yeah. I agree,” Therick said. “We’ve been here long enough, and I think this is a good call to finally leave.”
“I’m down to leave. There isn’t much to do here, anyway,” Granuel nodded. “They just burn the cursetaceans, which could be the only interesting thing to get here. The rest of their stuff have to be delivered from other far-off places. It’s a deadend for business.”
“I’ve learned what I can too,” Moonwash added. “I’m ready to leave.”
“I’ll admit it’s also taken a toll on me,” Angerly said. “That’s just part of the job, but a good rest would be really nice.”
We all turned towards Berry who had yet to speak, then realized what we were suggesting to her whose home had just been devastated.
“I-it’s okay! I’m fine! I knew we’d leave at some point, and I’m going back with you guys! What happened was just… it was a regular thing. It’ll keep on happening, with or without us, and it’s not like… we made a massive difference or anything. “ She paused for a moment, clearly chewing over her words. “...I’m worried about my parents though. And everyone else... Can… can we take them with us…?”
Her voice disappeared by the end, and I gave her a reassuring pat on the back. “Of course. We can take them with us if you want.” I really did not want to travel with other people again, but I would not just let my friend’s loved ones perish for my comfort.
“R-really…?”
“Yes. But let’s talk about it later, because I’m just tired right now.”
“Speaking of that,” Granuel interjected. “What are we doing, exactly? Renting a wagon? Joining a whole caravan? Or are we just hoofing it the whole way?”
“Tomorrow!” I shouted, pulling Moonwash with me to our designated room. “Tomorrow, okay!? We’re all tired, and I have nothing to worry about. Only future Haell does!”
~~~
The next day, instead of talking about the things that we needed to discuss, we had instead gathered around the living room to see Angerly evolve. Her flesh, bone, and muscle Mutations had finally reached level 20, and it was by my request which I’d made a while ago that we were going to see the whole process. As an ogre, Angerly was sure to experience a massive increase in size, and that was a phenomenon I was interested in. I’d never seen it for myself because I had always been a bit… distracted during my own evolutions.
Now, the timing for this was certainly not ideal, but it was, in a way, a good distraction for us all. Our time here had some really terrible parts, so it would nice for it to end with the very obvious advancement of one of our members.
“Okay. I’ll uh, do it now.”
“Please.” I gave her a thumbs up.
Angerly nodded, she mentally went through some prompts, and then she grunted as the changes began to occur.
“Oh fuck it’s more painful than I thought…!’ Her flesh shifted, her muscles bulged, and her clothes stretched and stretched as she grew bigger until the fabrics were completely ripped apart. “But it’s more weird than painful! AaAAaaAAAaaAAaaAAa!!!”
It was like a superhero transformation, but slower and more visceral. The mass of her body had very obviously increased by a great amount, and that’s without the need to intake food or anything else. To regrow an arm would require existing mass stored in the body to be sacrificed, but here I saw the creation of new organic matter without the same sort of limitations.
My friend continued to grow, and I continued to observe with rapt attention as I grabbed her arm and focused. One of the things that I was on the lookout for was the involvement of the greater magic, and now that I knew to look for it, I felt its presence at work. If my eyes weren’t deceiving me, then there might have been slight ripples in the… ‘space’ around Angerly as her body shifted and evolved.
Finally, after only a very short while, my friend sighed in relief at several Mutations having successfully evolved. She quickly grabbed a robe to cover herself, then did a few stretches to reacquaint herself with her new size. I saw just how tall she was once she straightened her back and stood to her full height of over three meters tall.
By the devils, she was taller than my father.
“So, how do I look?” She stared at her fist, and then the rest of the room that must’ve shrunk by a lot. I didn’t know if it was just my eyes feeling tricks on me again, but her grey skin certainly seemed to be smoother as if the wear and tear of her over two decades of life had been wiped clean. Evolution was weird, and it could sometimes heal injuries and scars, but outright disabilities remained most of the time. The change could also be because of her lifespan having just been massively extended. Why do answers always come with more questions? It’s great! “Hello? Is anyone actually going to answer? Do I look bad? I’ve evolved my arms before, but it wasn’t quite as big a change as this! Everything changed, and I could feel my bones rattling inside of me! Did I fuck up?”
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“No,” I chuckled. “You look great.”
“Oh. Good. Thanks. I can’t wait to give this new body a test run.”
~~~
“This is the nest that we used to keep Berry in,” Rob showed me a colorful mix of pillows and cushions glued to a basket. We were currently at their house, and were rummaging through many of their things. “Her egg was so precious, and this was how cute she was when she hatched.” He handed me a card with a drawing of baby Berry next, and I smiled as my heart melted in my chest. Uh, figuratively. I hope.
“And this one is Billy’s,” Lena’s voice was melancholic, as she stood before a similarly colorful and fun nest of a different design. Both nests had embroideries on them that depicted pivotal moments in the child’s life.
We had done the discussions that needed to be made, and a few days later, me and my friends were helping Berry’s parents pack up for our departure. They went over their collections to see every piece of art and memorabilia one last time, and then chose only the most sentimental ones to keep. The things that weren’t chosen would be passed down to their neighbours who they may well never meet again.
There were other crustecars who would be joining us for this journey, many of them children. Their parents wished for them a better life, and knew that this city would not provide. We couldn’t organize a whole mass exodus, however, for that would cause too many problems. It might even be actually illegal because it ‘interferes with the state’s common and normal procedures’. I was already on thin ice with the soldiers as they kept glaring at me, because of how I’d acted and refused to help them during the previous war.
I regretted nothing, and they could all go fucking die.
~~~
“In a weird way, I’ll miss this,” I said as I plunged the tip of my sword inside the cursetacean’s head. “For all the shit, I enjoyed just walking around and killing a bunch of helpless monsters like this.” I healed my own small wounds with a nature wand. “It’s taught me a lot. Their vengeance effect was very interesting to maneuver around. And I feel like I’ve really started to catch up with my swordsmanship skills.”
“I wish we could take some as souvenirs.”
“Yeah. Me too. Fuck regulations."
We walked along the perimeter of the moat for perhaps the final time, taking laps around the circumference of the entire city as we tried to alleviate some of the pressure on its unwilling crustecar defenders. The big attack a few days ago had killed so many people and rattled the balance that kept this city standing. It’d take some time for things to return to its normal shitty status quo.
That was when the air suddenly screamed. Something landed on the ground and a solid thunderclap blew across me before I could even register what had happened. The earth shattered, dust exploded outwards, and the fate of a cluster of cursetaceans from beyond the moat remained uncertain.
The dust cleared, and it was revealed that the creatures had been brutally torn apart. It was an impressive feat, and my immediate thought was that whoever had done this must’ve suffered the same fate. The vengeance of so many of these monsters must have been immense.
But he didn’t perish.
With twisting golden-white skin like the roots of a tree. A tall humanoid body that stood at 7 meters tall. Axeheads instead of hands, wings that were smoother than silk to the eyes, and a halo that shone like salvation.
It was an angel.
It was Adamo, one of the only two of their kind in this continent.
Those massive wings flapped, and he disappeared in a deadly blur. I felt another rush of air, and saw a great many other cursetaceans dead once I turned my head. My gaze fluttered back to the angel amidst the sea of accursed corpses, and there I saw golden sap-like blood flowing from wounds that rapidly closed. Confusingly, even the blood was gone once the healing was done. It had reentered their bodies.
Adamo disappeared again with a supersonic crackle of thunder. The crowd around me was torn between taking shelter to avoid becoming collateral, or staying to watch the spectacle. The crustecars preferred the former, while the soldiers and everyone else that happened to be outside favored the latter. I too stayed to watch, until all the cursetaceans surrounding the moat had been killed, and Adamo disappeared into the ocean to presumably kill more of the evil beasts.
He was a level 80, and probably a great deal stronger than Elfrafim. He was a cut above even most creatures that had reached such a level. And yet the cursetaceans who did not have a single level 40 among their midst were able to make him bleed. It was ridiculous, how overpowered these oversized crabs were.
~~~
“People of this city. I have come to your aid, I have answered your prayers. You have done well to protect this place that belongs to the Angelic God, as did every place in this world and beyond. Therefore, your faith has been rewarded.”
Adamo returned with a flourish as he floated above the inner-city. I could do that too, it would just cause too many problems.
Me and my friends were just on our way back to our inn, but those plans were dashed as the people around us cheered and jumped and waved their hands in the air as if their lives depended on it. The winds immediately grew hotter upon their sudden activity, and the sound rattled through every structure and every mote of air. They gathered together, all pushing closer toward the angel, and we were caught in that maelstrom of reverence that seemed to shake the very earth.
And then a light shone upon us, originating from the angel. As if sunlight reflected off a thousand moons; not hot, not burning, but rather cold and comforting like a gentle touch. There was almost a physical weight to it, a pressure in my mind, and an undeniable sense that this was holy.
People began to moan in ecstasy. Wounds healed, the sick were cured, and the many who were already healthy were rid of the many subtle aches and pains that plagued their bodies. I did not have this problem, but they did not know how much stress simply existing had exerted upon their bodies.
That brought these people to their knees, and I suffered the indignation of being forced to do the same lest I jeopardize my very survival. Their cheers had reached a new high, when I had already thought that their previous energy was unreasonably loud. It was like a sonic attack, and I could almost see regular mundane people suffering damage to their ears. In fact, I noticed just that happening as the younger and weaker people winced and grabbed their heads.
The holy light healed them back to health, but even that safety net disappeared as the angel fluttered off to other parts of the city. His holy spotlight came with him, bringing free healing to all who could be healed. He couldn’t bring back the dead, nor could he affect the permanent injuries that persisted, but holy magic still remained one of the most powerful healing forces I’d ever felt.
My rage paused for a second to process all of this, and then it returned in full force as I cursed this empire that the angels had built. I wanted to slaughter their subjects, topple their monuments, and bestow upon them the same and equal fate as all those that they had commanded. Death.
I cursed my own weakness in this moment, for the greatest embodiment of my hatred was right there, and I knew it in my bones that I could not prevail.
Adamo continued to fly lazy circles around the city and then outside the walls, healing everyone and everything without discrimination; he could not be bothered to. Even the crustecars praised him for this, but the inhex did not.
Make no mistake. They are the primary architect of all that is wrong in this world.
~~~
We left the next day. The bridge was lowered upon my request, and the guard who did it glared at me specifically the entire time. I still felt no remorse nor regret, and I made sure that she knew it too.
The soldier eventually averted her gaze, because I did not.
The bridge touched down, and I immediately ran ahead with my party. Joining us for this great and wonderful journey were two centaur wagoneers, a wagon that we outright bought, and dozens of crustecars ready for a new life. We might not have been able to do a big exodus of them, but it was not unheard of for one of their kind to make a friend in just the right place, and pull their extended family out of this hell.
The constant shrieks rose in volume as cursetaceans rushed towards the bridge that had touched down, from both the road ahead of us, and by attempting to climb out of the moat from the side of the bridge. We would be long gone before the latter could become a problem so we just ignored those, but the ones ahead of our path definitely had to be taken care of. Luckily, Adamo’s meddling yesterday had cleared out so many of the cursetaceans, and their number had not yet recovered from that confrontation.
Angerly took the vanguard and used her new bulk to just bowl over the cursetaceans ahead of our path. She was joined by the adult crustecars in our group, including Berry, who all did their best to do the same. Granuel used earth and nature magic to entrap our enemies once we had all made it to the other side, and immediately the bridge creaked as it was raised back up.
What followed was a defensive battle as I dove into the fray and killed the cursetaceans, while others pushed and stacked the corpses to create makeshift blockages. The crustecars shouted as they guarded the perimeter of our encirclement, with a level of morale that bordered on fanaticism as their children had been hidden in the wagon at the very center of our formation. Even the centaur drivers helped, as they occasionally used the butt of their spears to push and trip the enemy crabs off balance to be finished off by the others.
“Nature’s Prison!”
The shout of Moonwash resounded, making the world know of the completion of a ritual. Her magic took shape, and growths of plants and vines expanded outwards like a particularly slow but inevitable mass of snakes. The custaceans were entangled, their movements ground to a halt, and we took this opportunity that we had earned.
I led the final charge. Angerly tossed away both corpse and living cursetacean alike, and the crustecars dispatched of their lifelong enemies in the many ways they knew how, such as attempting to flip them on their backs which took an embarrassingly long few moments for such strong creatures to recover from.
My arms gradually but literally turned to mush. I was in grave pain and my mind swam in murderous rage. But finally, the road ahead of us was clear enough to travel, and we had made it out of the blockade.
“Yes!”
“Woohoo!”
“I can’t believe we made it with just us!”
It’s true. I smiled. Were it not for Adamo thinning out the horde, we would’ve certainly lost some people today, and I was glad Berry did not have to lose anyone else today.
It was only unfortunate that I would have to repay this favor with betrayal and blood. The angels would regret their inattentiveness one day, for not noticing the lone demon among the crowd.
“Alright people! We’ll just get surrounded again if we dawdle! Hop to it!”