When Iris arrived back at the barracks, the army set out to the City of Seles. It was eleven days on foot. As they marched through towns, local battalions and militia joined the long line of soldiers. The once mile long army grew to three by the time they reached their destination.

Seles was more like a stronghold than a city. Towering walls encompassed the City with cracks running down the sides of it from past sieges. The army set up camp outside of Seles. Thick clouds of smoke filled the night sky as thousands of fires burned.

Iris's unit huddled around a single fire, sitting in silence. Their minds wandered, thinking of the looming battle ahead. Shivering, Eric grasped a pendant around his neck in his hand, whispering excerpts.

Iris knew Eric wasn't soldier material. He never wanted to be a soldier in the first place, but having a father and two older brothers in the army, I guess you had to be one too. He traced the outline of the eagle on the pendant. The symbol of Eden. Iris, worried about Eric, asked him to tell the story of Eden and the four heroes, hoping it would calm his nerves.

His face brightened as the rest of the unit sighed, most likely from having heard the story at least a hundred times, but he didn’t care. He started from the beginning.

The world of Tentoria was barren, a wasteland filled with nothing until three beings appeared. Onus, the eldest brother, and his younger brother and sister, Eden and Lilith, set out to bring vitality and prosperity to its land. As humans began populating the world, the three of them helped start civilizations, and in return, the humans declared them their gods. Humanity flourished until the ground split, and up from it rose creatures and beasts, not from this world. Together the three of them protected humanity and sealed the monsters. Humanity thrived, but Onus soon became restless. He thirsted for power and knowledge that was not his own. Wishing to undo the seal, Onus fought against his two siblings for five days and nights. Finally, Onus was defeated and banished deep below Tentoria’s surface, imprisoned for the rest of eternity, trapped with the monsters he so wished to free. Eden and Lilith could finally rest after the battle, but Lilith stabbed Eden, her twin brother, in his eyes. Before Lilith trapped him, Eden created his final gift for humanity, the four heroes. With their newfound powers, the heroes, together, defeated Lilith and ended the era of the three gods' and the age of man arrived. The four created four out of the five nations on Tentoria: Invictia, Versia, Mythalion, and Shetan. The last kingdom became the Holy Nation of Eden, where they devoted themselves to Eden and his teachings, wishing to spread his ideals to everyone.

Finishing his story, Eric looked around to see everyone had left for their tents beside Iris and Lyric. He sighed, and his thoughts strayed back towards the approaching battle. As the wood in the fire let out its last breath, the three of them went off to their tents to get some rest.

Alone in the darkness, Iris tried her hardest not to think of the past but was unable to control her imagination. Her mother crossed her mind, but so did the day she visited her father. His face burned in her head as she yelled and screamed in his face. It showed no anger, no bitterness, but only sadness and regret.

The curtain to her tent suddenly opened, and a man holding a candle entered. Alarmed, Iris jumped to her feet, ready to fight the intruder, but to her surprise, her Uncle Amiel stood before her. Before Iris could greet him, he held a finger to his lips. Looking down, she saw a sword in his hands. She looked in disgust towards the blade, knowing exactly who sent it to her. He set the candle and weapon on the ground and looked deeply into Iris's eyes before embracing her tightly. He whispered,

"I love you," before leaving without another word.

Looking down, she studied the sword. The scabbard body was a beautiful crimson red hide, dyed with autumn leaves and beetroots, with a purple thread embroidered throughout it, forming a mountain's peak. She began to take the sword out of its scabbard until a folded up piece of paper fell out of it. She picked it up and written on it was her full name, Iris Naos Caldera. She debated opening the piece of paper to read it.

Not ready to, she put the letter back next to the scabbard and got back into bed. Her mind drifted back to the onsewing battle. The time had finally come, she thought, her first step in taking her revenge.

The morning was a blur, preparing for the clash, but now Iris’s vision was clear. The sun was now high above the mountains, starting its descent back to the ground. She stood in line next to Lyric and Eric, equipped with the military issued sword and leather plaited armor, her fathers sword nowhere to be seen.

Iris was in one of six battalions that spanned the Invictian forces. Behind the six was a corps of cavalry led by Prince Baldwin. They stood in wait for the enemy to appear. Scouts reported them to be at least four thousand soldiers strong with a large cavalry force. Not as large as their own but still not an easy task. The Versian army prided themselves on their battle prowess and fighting until the last man standing. Their Invicta army overlooked the plains that lead to a forest, where they waited for the Invictian’s to appear.

A horn roared in the distance that made the hair on Iris's arms rise. "Finally," the first battle of hopefully many.

The enemy troops emerged from the forest into the clearing, seeming only a small amount cleared the tree’s but it didn't matter. Her fingers tightened on her weapon, watching them. The adrenaline in her body was coursing through her vines, making her feel weightless.

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"Charge!" Prince Balwin exclaimed from behind the army safe from any attacks, and Iris and the rest of the battalions rushed forward.

She could see the faces of the enemy as they neared them. They were scared. "As they should be." The faces of cowards who attacked her home taking her mother and the life she once cherished. Iris’s sword quickly met flesh, arching down over her head splitting her first victim's head, stopping only when the blade met his third rib. Her second one's fate was not as pretty, Dodging a slow overhead strike, Iris on their weak side sliced down, cutting their hands clean off. Screaming in agony Iris smiled, as if she was listening to a pleasant melody as she beheaded them without mercy. She did not stop advancing, cutting down anything in her path. Her vision, stained with blood, sweat, and steel. Animalistic, she attacked anything that moved. Every time she swung her blade, the screams of men and women could be heard and she relished more and more in it. A hand grabbed her hair and jerked her back, Iris without hesitation turned her sword backwards and thrusted it, piercing the stomach of the owner of the hand. She turned to face the woman who did it, Iris thrusted her sword deeper and deeper, twisting the blade making the hole in her gut widen, without breaking eye contact, wanting to see the life leave her eyes. This was where she was meant to be, born to be, where she needed to be. Iris neither slowed down nor thought twice of her actions; each strike filled with anger, each blow thrown with rage, each kick and scream fueled by the past nine years' of her pain. Five, ten, twenty, she lost count of how many she killed. She couldn’t stop, wanting to make sure the last thing everyone of them saw was the smile on her face as she took their lives.

The sound of a second horn snapped Iris out of her battled frenzy state. She wiped the blood off of her face as she looked around the battlefield to see the enemy fleeing back into the forest and the Invicitan troops holding their swords in the air in triumph.

"They had won? That quickly?"

Iris rubbed her eyes again, but nothing changed. The Versian troops kept fleeing into the forest, disappearing from her sight. She looked at the bodies on the ground, dirt and mud covered their motionless figures, but the looks of terror stayed etched onto their faces like stone. Coming back to her senses Iris noticed something strange. These weren't faces of soldiers. She examined the remains even more. They wore rags not armor. None of them wielded swords and spears. They wielded pitchforks, sickles, and axes. The scouts reported a large army crossing the border yet there were no Invicitain knights shrouded in their white steel armor. There was no large cavalry force. Her blood began to boil. “They didn’t, how, how could they?” she repeated to herself. She bent down and pulled the shirt up of one of their fallen foe’s, their skin tightly outlined their ribs, their lips were cracked on their eyes sunk deep into their sockets.

"Those bastards," She muttered. "I'm going to kill every last..."

Iris felt two pairs of arms embrace her from behind.

"We did it!" Lyric and Eric exclaimed.

Iris mid-thought, and still confused, weakly responded,

"Yeah, we did... We won."

Iris and her battalion were assigned to bury the bodies. They dug six large pits and then tossed them into it. She counted the bodies that were thrown into the hole she was filling. Two hundred and fifty eight. Trying to add up the bodies, she estimated there to be around fifteen-hundred of them. She kept trying to piece together what was wrong.

"Were the scouts wrong with their report? Or is this a distraction to siege the City?

Iris looked at Seles to see no siege or battle taking place. She couldn’t piece together what was wrong, but she knew that something didn't add up. Iris searched for Lentus and found him slacking off near the edge of the forest. She approached him, and he quickly tried to make it look like he was working, then immediately stopped when he saw it was just Iris.

"Lentus,” Iris said. “Something's wrong. There aren't enough bodies."

He was confused.

"Bodies? Were you counting them? That's weird and pretty creepy if I do say so myself.”

Iris didn’t have time to deal with his antics.

"The report said there to be ten to fifteen thousand strong. We fought fifteen-hundred."

“The reports could have just been wrong, I wouldn’t sweat it.”

"Get me an audience with the Prince. Somethings wrong, we need to warn him about this."

Lentus looked at Iris and then laughed.

"You want me to get you an audience with the Prince. Are you joking? I’m just some lousy captain of twenty five soldiers. Do you think I have nearly enough rank to do that?"

Iris paced in frustration. She had to get to the Prince, something was going to happen if she didn’t. This was planned. There was going to be another attack and she needed to stop it but she didn't know how she could war…

"Iris."

She turned around to see Lentus with his hand stroking his chin.

"I might have an idea to get you that audience with the Prince," Lentus said slowly.

Iris grabbed Lentus by the shoulders.

"You do? How,” she asked, shaking him.

Lentus averted his gaze from Iris's, "I don't think you're going to like it that much."

Iris started to shake him, "I'm fine with anything. Just tell me how."

Lentus squirmed out of Iris's grip and readjusted his uniform.

"Show up at his tent in the evening, okay. He will let you in." Lentus explained.

Iris was puzzled. "How, why? Why would he let me in?”

“Just trust me. He will,” he reassured.

Iris lifted Lentus into the air in a bear hug. He started to turn red, letting out a gasp for air.

"Make sure not to wear your armor, okay. And find a stream or something to wash up a bit. You smell horrible."

After lighting the last of the mass graves on fire, The battalion headed back to their encampment to celebrate their victory. Iris was determined to convince the Prince of what was coming.