Kazius scowled, staring at the spot where Luna once stood. He was quite upset, to say the least. He practically felt the nuisance slip past his fingers. He had reached out to The Shadows, yet he could tell he was not close enough to them to get them to act fast enough… But if he got any closer to The Shadows, that would be ignoring Azanor’s warning.
To some extent, the stunt he pulled today didn’t help either. He was proud of their handy work… Especially knowing he probably infuriated Vind with it… But it almost felt like he crossed a line that he could not quite understand. Though he supposed all he could do was try and keep some distance between him and The Shadows. He already knew the risk, today he had felt it more than ever.
The issues didn’t end with him either. There was also the matter of Damon, he looked distraught. Luna was too dangerous to be left alive but at the same time… Having to try and kill his own sister like that… It was not something good for Damon’s mental state. It was why Kazius had wanted to take care of it himself, but it was too late now.
“I’m sorry… She got away because of me… I-I… She wouldn’t have even done any of this if it were not for me.” Damon began.
“It is okay, Damon. No one here blames you… She is just crazy, none of this is your fault… Honestly, for her to speak Frost Giant… Even if it is similar to your language… She likely had been planning to do this for quite some time… You can’t blame yourself for the actions of a maniac. She has a problem… I am sure this won’t be the last time we see her.” Kazius sighed out, patting him on the back.
“Kazius is right, you are more than anything leading up to your birth. If she can’t see past that, then that is on her. Caleb sees you as a brother and we see you as a friend… You won’t be alone.” Alice assured with a smile.
“Unlike her. She has no friends and family because of her own actions… She will find herself alone on the path she chose. She is a grown woman, yet she treats everyone like toys and kills like it is all some game. There will be consequences for that… But the last thing you should do is waste your time thinking about someone like her.” Kazius added, feeling a bit relieved when Damon seemed to cheer up.
“It is just hard… She just looks so much like my mother, even the way she looks at me is the same… I worry about proving my mother right by… hurting Luna… But… I can’t keep risking everyone’s safety… I have to get over it. I can’t change that we won’t be a family.” Damon agreed with a sigh, running a hand through his hair to try and get it together. Today went poorly for him, but there were no tears and he looked determined… So perhaps they went about as well as they could have.
“I doubt she had a backup plan… I think the massive army of giants is about as much of a trump card as she probably thought she needed… Even if she goes around the undead, she will have to travel for quite some time before she finds any more people to manipulate, if at all. Her magic is strong, but on her own against us, she is nothing.” Azanor admitted with a shrug. He seemed to try and act nonchalant, but Kazius could not help but notice how Azanor kept looking at Isolf while swallowing dryly.
“I will take responsibility when she comes back. I will make sure I am ready.” Damon assured, seeming to try and toughen out. Of course, his goal was not… It was partially noble in the sense that his sister was a menace, but it was also not entirely righteous.
Still, if he hesitated even for a second, Kazius intended on taking care of this himself next time. Wasting even a moment with Luna meant she would be capable of getting away, Kazius understood that much now.
“Our friendship is stronger than anything! If she comes back, we will win again! Yay, friendship power!” Eve chirped happily, seeming her usual self. For better or for worse.
Kazius could not help but look at the charred ground and bodies that were barely recognizable as people… A lot of their bodies were missing, but the parts that were still intact had somehow gotten petrified as if they were random charcoal-colored statue pieces lying about. Then there was the spear lodged in the crater that still seemed to radiate darkness in quite the ominous matter…
‘The power of our friendship, huh?’ Kazius chuckled out to himself mentally before he shook away his darker thoughts once again.
He had a lot of cleaning up to do. He needed to focus on things at hand now… For starters… What to do with the curled-up giants that now had lost all will to fight after such a terrifying attack from them.
As Kazius studied the remains up close and watched the surviving giants, Eve had crouched down and was attempting to pick up one of the few intact heads.
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“Eve, don’t touch that. It isn’t safe.” Azanor scolded, after all, who knew what messing around with the body parts would do, especially since they were torched by darkness.
“Aww… Okay…” Eve whined with a slight pout.
At this, Isolf seemed to grimace, gripping his head more. It seemed he realized he could not even bring back the bodies.
Honestly, all desire to kill Isolf was disappearing after seeing him in such a state… But at the same time, Kazius did not want any loose ends. Due to this, he supposed he only had one real choice… One that avoided needless bloodshed but also helped things for the future.
Kazius sighed, looking at the Frost Giant with pity.
“Isolf, was it?” Kazius asked.
At the sound of his voice, The Frost Giant practically jumped.
“Y-You… You were the one controlling… That thing… Please… W-We surrender. Y-You can continue cursing the lands… I-I won’t interfere… P-Please… J-Just spare us… You already proved your strength… I can’t oppose you… If I do that, I can’t claim to have any honor left… S-So, please… At least show my remaining warriors mercy…” Isolf begged in panic, scrambling to his feet and bowing. Despite being several times Kazius’ size, the way he looked at him was as if he was staring at a truly terrifying Monster that could eat him in one bite. Now that Kazius had pushed away his darker thoughts, all that he felt towards Isolf while he was in such a pathetic state was only pity.
“Hey, hey, calm down… None of that is needed, okay… Look… I am sure you realized by now that you were tricked by Luna… The… Witch you talked to earlier… For starters, she isn’t a Witch… She is a Wizard… One we exiled from our town because of her tendency to… Well… Do things like what she did to you. I am the current Chief of Vargstam… And I can promise you, none of these mountains are strange because of anything we did. We haven’t cursed lands or any nonsense she might have told you.” Kazius began, much to the dismay of Isolf. After all, every word out of Kazius’ mouth only proved that Isolf was an idiot to pull the stunt he did.
“B-But the Witch…” Isolf trailed off in confusion. It seemed Kazius’ words about Luna not being a Witch went in one ear and out the other.
While Wizards used magic deemed acceptable by The Church, Witches did not. Witches were a type of Monster that got their magic from other sources as well as themselves. They also tended to use more taboo dark spells… But now that Kazius thought about it, from the perspective of most people not from Ratier or not familiar with too many specifics on Magic, it all seemed the same to them.
“Yes, the Witch lied to you. The mountains around here were like that before any of my people got here. We have no idea why the lands here are so strange… Well… There is a Mountain here that we know why it is like that, but that is the only one we know anything about. I can assure that to you as their leader.” Kazius admitted, giving up on explaining the difference between a Witch and a Wizard. That didn’t matter right now anyway.
At the news that he was indeed played for a fool, Isolf began to shake in both anger and sadness. After all, he lost a lot of men due to something very stupid.
“I thought… I believed her… I thought if I killed you, the lands here would be free… I got my warriors killed in a battle of shame… A battle of lies… They won’t be able to reach the Eternal Mountain… And it is all my fault… I can’t face my father like this… I have brought so much shame to our people…” Isolf trailed off, horrified at what he had done. It seemed he threw no blame at them despite their slaughter.
“What is he saying?” Alice asked in confusion.
“Basically, Luna tricked him into thinking we were the source of the mountains around here being strange. She convinced him by killing us, he would lift a curse from these lands… And then he rambled on about death through a shameful battle and some forever mountain.” Kazius explained the best he could, looking away from Isolf.
As Kazius looked away, the group nodded in understanding. That was before Kazius would see the alarmed faces of his friends. Isolf had drawn his blade.
But… Instead of aiming it at Kazius, the group realized that he was intending to spill out his own insides. Thankfully, before he could do such a thing, Alice had reacted quickly. She used her power to pull the blade from his hand with all her might, sending it flying to the side.
At this, Isolf began to shed a few tears, punching the ground in frustration.
“Do not take my death away from me! This is the only way I can make up for what I have done! This is the only honorable thing for me to do as a warrior! LET ME DIE! My people will never be able to outlive our shame!” Isolf snapped out, crumbling under the distress he felt.
‘Having an honorable death must really be important to them… He seems more upset about that than the fact they died… So the fact they died for a lie must make it worse…’
Azanor had managed to pull himself together earlier… But now he was practically shaking at this point, the state Isolf was in was just too much for him. Perhaps the proximity to Isolf didn’t help either… Then again, the other Frost Giants were not done grieving… And it seemed hearing Kazius talk to their leader about the truth was not helping. Their agony was worse than before.
Azanor was trying so hard to not show that form that Kazius had briefly seen earlier. It was clear he was quite ashamed of it.
“I… I have to go… I have to go… Dammit… FUCK!” Azanor stated, his voice incredibly shaky. He sounded very angry with himself as he ran off… Much to everyone’s shock.
It seemed seeing Azanor in that state got to Eve. She looked concerned as ran off after him. After all, Azanor barely left her side.
“Heeey! Wait for meeeeeeee!” Eve exclaimed as she ran. Of course, she was nowhere near as fast as Azanor.
‘I will have to talk to him later…’ Kazius sighed to himself.
Who knew things would get so messy… Of course, it was bad to have 2 people leave like that, but it wasn’t like this was a fight anymore.
He supposed he just had to take care of things one step at the time… And at the top of this list now was to stop Isolf from doing anything rash…