“They’re catching up to us!” one of them exclaimed, scared.

“They’ve surrounded us, the cave is the only option,” suggested another.

“We won’t be able to escape, there is no way out there,” protested a third.

“There’re no safe areas nearby. We have no other choice. At least we can hold out, maybe help will come,” suggested another, while throwing a kind of red flare that rose in the sky.

Nobody said anything else. They took refuge in the cave and blocked the entrance with their magic, while the losts were surrounding it. They were trapped, and knew their hopes of survival were remote.

The group had been running and hiding for years. They had come from their now sealed homeland to there, while not knowing how far the corruption had reached. They didn’t even know if it had completely engulfed the world.

They had been hiding in safe and hidden areas, which were theoretically almost impossible to discover. Unfortunately, whoever had betrayed them also knew about them, so they had to flee from each of them after a few months.

Everybody was exhausted and depressed, no longer hopeful. They had found no signs of life, no help, only desperation. They might have had a better chance if they had left the children behind, but they couldn’t abandon those they had sworn to protect, their own children.

All of them knew that they would die there, so they had begun to prepare one last powerful spell. When the end came, they would all explode with it. What they weren’t going to allow was that their enemies corrupted them, or took what they were protecting.

Soon, the sound of the blows against the shields began to be heard. Fortunately, the cave was made of stone, so a passage couldn’t be dug there, but it was only a matter of time before their defenses collapsed.

It was true that the corrupted beings in the area weren’t that powerful. In fact, there were quite weaker than them. However, their enemies were many and organized, while they couldn’t regain mana and energy fast enough in that area.

It was a war of attrition in which, little by little, they were running out of strength. Those who didn’t have to hold the shield could rest, but they knew that sooner or later it would be their turn.

“I’m sorry,” one of them muttered, while looking at his daughter, who was sleeping in his arms.

She was a cute purple little girl, with two barely visible small horns, and who appeared to be no more than five years old, although in reality she was quite a few, several dozen. Their race aged so slowly that it took about two hundred years to come of age.

She wore a rope tied around her neck as if it were a necklace, with a beautiful jewel somehow embedded in said rope. It was evident that it was a precarious job just in order to hold the gem, which seemed to be crying out for a much more beautiful necklace.

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“Menxolor, it’s not your fault,” a purple woman tried to encourage him.

“I know, but… I promised to protect her. I’ve failed Cahildya.”

“We’ve all failed them. But the only culprit is Cahldor.”

However, those words, while true, couldn’t comfort him. Neither him nor the rest.

There were other children. Most of them were sleeping, totally exhausted, even more so than the adults. Although the worst was the absolute lack of prospects, of hope.

All they could do was hold out and fight one last time, and grant their children the least painful death possible. Therefore, when the final battle came, they would drug them, so making them sleep. It was a dream from which they wouldn’t wake up, because they would die in the explosion.

“She’s coming,” the girl murmured in her dreams.

“Menxilya is thinking of her mother,” he told himself.

That exacerbated his pain. Just thinking about who he had left behind was painful for him. It was even more painful as he knew he had failed to ensure a future for his daughter, and for his people. She was the only hope for them, although for him, she was simply his beloved daughter.

They spent the last hours saying goodbye to each other, preparing for the final battle, as those who were supposed to maintain their shields were running out of mana.

They looked at their children for the last time, and left them on the ground. The kids were sleeping comfortably in the center of what would be the last explosion, and covered with their worn blankets. One by one, their parents gave them the sleeping pill to prevent them from waking up in the middle of the battle. But, when it was Menxilya’s turn, she opened her eyes.

“She’s coming,” he repeated.

“Who? You must take this,” asked her father gently, while bringing the sleeping pill.

“I don’t know who she is. She’s special. She… will be…”

The most natural thing would have been to think that the girl had been dreaming until now, so she was confused by the dreams, half asleep. It didn’t make sense to listen to her when all those people had lost any glimmer of hope. There was no point in worrying about the words of a sleepy child.

And so it would have been if the words hadn’t been uttered precisely by that little girl. They all looked at her, as if clinging to one last glimmer of hope, to a remote possibility.

“When will she come?” asked a father, who had just given the sleeping pill to his child.

“She’s close,” the girl replied. It wasn’t clear if she was asleep or awake.

“Are there more coming?” asked another.

“There are three more.”

That made them feel discouraged again. As powerful as they could be, only four couldn’t do anything. There were too many enemies out there. They would only end up being victims as well. Perhaps, they would be corrupted.

“What’s that!” one of those holding the shield exclaimed suddenly.

They all looked towards the entrance, where several dark figures could be seen striking the shields, weakening them. In one of them, something was glowing.

“A bright arrow?” someone suggested.

But before anyone could confirm it, three more arrows pierced the beings that were threatening them, one of them also bright. The other two were barely visible, except for a strange gleam at the tip that soon disappeared, as they pierced their enemies.

An instant later, more of those arrows arrived. And more. Soon, one of the corrupted beings disappeared. Another didn’t take long to do it. Another one disappeared too shortly after. The strangest thing was that no other one took over, as it had been until then. They had never given them respite.

“What’s going on?” one wondered aloud.

The rest looked at each other, unable to find an answer. They were wondering if they should go out and help whoever was there. They were wondering if there were really only four.

“She’s arrived,” the girl announced, before falling into a deep sleep.