The invasion of Zagliastrua chapter 6- How it ended

The screams of pain were not enough to quell the anger that currently took hold of Leind.

In his head a single thought.

Revenge.

He would’ve died to kill every last one of the enemies.

Taking Hurd’s sword, from the cold and bloody hands of his dead friend, furious he threw his gaze around to find the monsters to which he could hurl his anger too.

In the meanwhile, he noticed that the landscape of the war had greatly changed since its beginning.

The sun had almost set and the valley, previously the scene of countless battles was now strewn with lifeless bodies of humans and nonhumans alike. Although there was no shortage of battles, now there were far fewer of them.

While staring at those lifeless corpses Leind could not rule out some wounded among the bodies, but as much as that thought disgusted him, first, there was a war to finish.

Suddenly his gaze found an injured worshipper, he was not so distant from him and was crawling away, a bloodline in the path he was making. Getting up, he headed toward the enemy, and in a few moments, he was towering over him.

Raising the blade Leind was ready to finish him but, as he was about to put the enemy out of his misery, he hesitated. Was it human to kill an undefended man, even if an enemy?

If the roles had been reversed, would you have shown mercy?

He had to stop thinking of them like fellow humans...they were not, they were disgusting monsters.

Did your ally show mercy to Hurd?

That last thought removed all of his doubts and lowering the blade he finished the wounded cultist.

Swaying in his walk, he continued on his path in hopes of finding and killing more monsters.

Amidst the dust and clashes, Leind glimpsed miles ahead the crystalline Lord who, at the beginning of the war, had appeared to stop Hisey. He now was engaged in a confrontation with Kserma, her golden lion, and over a dozen others, including Londse and Retn Names. None of these seemed to be in very good shape.

Kserma had multiple signs of scuffles, her armor was shattered in several places, from which blood was spilling, and instead of her sword and shield, she now had in his hands a long shaft with a luminescent club at both ends. Her lion also had several wounds but majestically stood his ground in front of the lord, staring at the skeletal monster with fury.

Londse was definitely in worse shape than Kserma, he had one eye closed, and was missing a small piece of his left shoulder.

Leind had never seen the general wounded like that.

Retn Names was probably the one who had fared worst of all. The prince had a prosthetic arm, made of clay and earth, in place of his original left arm, probably lost in the clash with the enemy.

They were followed by other individuals Leind did not recognize, they were in much the same way as Londse, some better and some worse.

Around them were a lot of corpses of monsters, allies, and cultists. The battle must have been much bigger and those who were left were the survivors who were deciding who would win and who would lose.

Fortunately, the Lord was not having one of his best moments either.

Of the two wings he had, one was no longer present, broken at the level of his back as was one of his horns. Multiple cracks were visible on his skeletal head. The monster was surrounded by rhomboid-shaped crystals of different colors which were frantically swirling around him. Still, the number of crystal defenses around him was nothing compared to the number of crystalline monsters that appeared at the beginning of the invasion.

Near the Lord was only one alive cultist, who recognized by his face and dress, was the one that shattered his platoons' shields and made him lose consciousness. That damned cultist was having himself a hard day, its robe had been shredded, along part of his body, and now he was relying heavily on the same scarlet thread from before, to sustain himself.

Gritting his teeth Leind was ready to run at the bastard, but before taking off something caught his eye.

The first Lord, who had tried to kill them all with his mind in the beginning, was holding Hisey by the neck, the boy was laying lifeless and was sprinkled all over with blood. A little further from them, Sharden could be glimpsed, now without her helmet, slumped on the ground with the spear still in her hands, the armor no longer emitting any light.

The Lord was no longer seated on his throne, no longer had a crown or two additional arms and his cloth were more torn than before but otherwise, that dark god looked as good as new.

Undecided about what to do, whether to try to save Hisey or to try to avenge his friend and his platoon, Leind closed his eyes.

On one hand, he could have helped a strong group finish off a lord and a strong cultist. From another, he could have tried to save two powerful allies risking his life in the process...

It was difficult to decide, so Leind put all of his trust in his instinct, and opening his eyes he ran toward the first lord.

He didn't care what would happen, not anymore.

During his run nothing stood between him and his target, it almost seemed as if fate agreed with Leind that he was doing the right thing.

The Lord was watching Hisey with great interest and he was not moving an inch. Hisey was not giving signs of life...

The distance was now minimal and, by running the life force through his legs, he gave himself a push to get faster to the target. He had toward the Lord, behind his back in order to not be noticed.

Leind pervaded the blade with sand essence.

The jump had given him greater speed and he was now within a few steps of the Lord's back.

Finally getting all the life force, he had available at the moment, flowing into his left arm and gritting his teeth, Leind drove the slash into the lord's head with all his might.

The blade impacted horizontally on the monster's right temple. A few seconds later half of the blade had splashed to the side and noisily dropped to the ground.

What?

The lord, noticing now that something was hovering behind him, had turned slightly in his direction.

On his face not even a sign of the impact of the blade.

It is not possible, he must have somehow noticed my movement...

But not wanting to let go of the moment Leind tried to direct the broken blade toward the Lord's right eye. A moment later he could no longer move, hanging in midair behind the Lord who did not even dignify him with a real glance.

"Poor creature" as he had begun to form, with a disturbing noise, a sphere of black and blue energy in front of Leind. He had no idea what was that thing, but Leind knew he certainly did not want to get hit by it.

The orb, now the size of a fist, seemed to have stabilized and began to slowly advance toward his chest, as Leind futilely tried to move away.

Sorry, Hurd, I screwed up your sacrifice...

Closing his eyes, he waited for his end, gritting his teeth.

Before feeling any pain, however, he heard a sound distinctly different from that emitted by the orb. Opening his eyes he saw that the Lord had been struck full in the face by Hisey, this time losing black blood and changing expression for the first time since he saw him.

Immediately directing his attention to the obvious greater danger, the dark god seemed to tighten his grip on Hisey’s neck, who began to open his mouth, trying to scream but without making any sound.

"Wrong decision" The lord regained his composure as he was strangling Hisey.

All was lost, Hisey was going to die and Leind would have shortly followed him…

"Wrong side"

Leind, stunned at those words, looked to the lord's left side, where Sharden, apparently alive, was holding with two hands her spear, which now shone brighter than ever. It was so bright that it seemed almost as if a second sun had appeared in the valley.

The Lord had no time to move, the Oneironauta lowered his own blow on the entire left side of the enemy.

A blinding flash blurred Leind's vision for several moments and before he could open his eyes again he collapsed heavily to the ground. Apparently, the Lord's magic had ended. A good sign perhaps?

Finally able to open his eyes again he saw that even Hisey was now on the ground, coughing up blood and holding his throat with both his hands, while the Lord remained where he was, at first glance the same as ever.

Except that he wasn't!

Only the right half of the monster remained while the other had been pulverized by Sharden's blow. Shortly after the oneironauta, now apparently without strength, had abandoned herself on the ground.

Following the direction of the blow Leind almost fainted. The valley had literally been split in two. The rift, not only miles and miles long, was so deep that the bottom could not be seen...

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

She was indeed worthy of praise...She had killed a lord!

Leind was over-excited. He had helped, he had helped distract that monster those few moments to launch a counteroffensive and-

"Unexpected"

He was paralyzed; it was the Lord's voice.

Quickly glancing toward him he noticed how what was left of the enemy was disappearing like dust in the wind.

Where did the voice was coming from?

"But fate wants to give you a new purpose " a horrible feeling ran through Leind's mind.

Looking at his own chest Leind saw that the blue-and-black ball of energy, which was about to hit him earlier, had not disappeared but rather was intent on getting closer and closer.

On instinct Leind tried to run away but, as before, he could not move a single muscle and the sphere was now almost in contact with his chest.

"Rejoice, as we together will help this world to crumble" Finishing these words, the orb entered his body and for the second time, Leind lost consciousness.

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Snapping awake, as if after a bad dream, Leind for a moment could not remember what had happened.

Where...?

Attempting to get up he noticed that he was stuck. Not only he could not move but saw that he was stuck vertically, perhaps on a wall. Gray tendrils covered all of his body and when he tried to move but they hold steady. Leind was about to panic. Where did those tendrils sprout and what was the strange substance they were made from? it was sticky and durable and-

Looking around with his head to see what was going on he saw only a vastness of...nothing.

The sky, the earth, the...everything! There was nothing left. He was alone in a vastness of white that seemed to never end.

The panic was raising more and more.

"WHERE AM I?!" Screaming in that lost place he hoped for an answer. Nothing. There was nothing. Even with the anxiety pervading every fiber of his body, he decided he had not the time nor the will to wait for someone to rescue him and started to look for a way out.

"Ok, How do I get down from here?" he was thinking of a way to free himself but it echoed in the air as he had said.

"Ok what the-" again

While he was trying to figure out what was happening, suddenly a flow of memories started to overlap in his mind.

............."Emnadem!" his mother had chased him all the way to the grove, "I told you not to go so far away." He had tried to dissuade her, "But mom! It's so nice to see the nature.............

They were definitely not his, and Leind felt as if someone was pressing them into his subconscious. It bore a feeling of physical discomfort, almost painful.

...... "I'm sorry boy, the fire you see, destroyed your home...we couldn't save your parents".......

Tears flowed down his face as he experienced the life of this other individual, which like a flooding river poured into Leind's mind. He decided to no longer resist those memories, in order to avoid the pain, and let the continuous stream to flow through his mind.

..............The boarding school, Emnadem's new home, had been short-lived since he had had his first vision and, with it, his newfound power. In Deloa who survived after the first vision had to go to.................

A Deloanian? Why was he experiencing the memories of a Deloanian?

............"the boy is talented, but he tends to get very distracted, it's as if he doesn't care about what's in our world," Emnadem had heard the principal speak, how could he blame him? He didn't find anything interesting, not afterward the loss of.........

What was that sense of oppression Leind was feeling?

..... Emnaden was cutting vegetables as Jera had taught him. His husband would be home by dinnertime, and he was looking forward to seeing his only one joy again...

The oppression had alternated in parallel with a sense of joy, settling that weight in his chest. And as it had come, it vanished.

....what was he to do? What?!... Strength! Yes, that would have helped him overcome everything! With the death of his parents, Jera, he should have just had more strength. More strength!....

The memories were starting to slow the pace.

... "One of the seven died! The wanderer and the Empress finally killed him!" The people he was hearing made it sound like good news ... but he had lost everything. And that burden was not going away........ having become strong had not changed anything. The sense of oppression was not going away. WHY? Why did he have to accept life and death? Why did he have to accept that this was the way things were...

Leind had already heard something along the line of such speeches...

..he had awakened in the blood of an entire city...The blood covered him from head to toe. It did not bother him... in fact, it did not affect him at all, nothing now triggered any reaction in him since he had freed his soul...

..It was liberation from everything......if he could not make others like him, he would liberate them from life...

..Yes, he, one of the seven lords, would free everyone from the chains of existence and he also knew...

Leind was gasping. Now he remembered, he had been hit by the strange blue sphere made by the Lord...and those were his memories!

...He....he was an ordinary man! A simple Deloanian...with a name...

"How is that poss-"

A voice interrupted him.

"Still awake? Considering your outward strength, I would never have thought of such inner strength."

Emnaden had just materialized before him. He looked the same as just before he was destroyed by Sharden. Long white hair reached his hips, his white body sprinkled with black veins and a hole in the center of his chest. His black eyes with a gray iris stared back at him.

"I thought by now I had completely possessed you. If not for that they would be dead already."

In front of Leind, an image opened. It was like staring at a window, like seeing what he usually saw but from a distance.

He saw some strange things in his life, but that...that was so at the top of his list.

In front of him, Hisey was holding one arm up, the other limp as above it, on shoulder level was stuck a black blade.

"Leind damn it. Snap out of it!"

Not far from Hisey stood Londse and with him...Akser?

If Londse was there it meant that either the Crystal Lord had been defeated or his general had decided to prioritize Hisey in order to help him to survive. The general was worse off than before, he had more wounds on his body and what looked like a hole in his right leg.

Akser, that bastard, had only a few superficial wounds, a closed eye, and a slight limp in his movements.

Why was that scumbag now standing in front of him? After their platoon had been wiped out... after Hurd had died, and after he had been possessed by a godly being? Now he decided to show up... Damn him, weren't they all supposed to survive this war together? Why had he abandoned them shortly after the battle? Maybe they would have deflected the blow of the cultist, or maybe not-but they would have fallen together, as comrades.

He was no more his comrade. No more his friend.

"LEIND!" taken aback by the shout he watches again the scene. His body was now apparently furiously attacking his Akser, who, along with Londse, was barely holding the black blades, which were suddenly created in front of him.

He was angry at Akser, and maybe...maybe a part of him wanted his death, but he was not the one who wanted that. He was being influenced by the Lord... Leind understood that he had to do something quickly, before becoming just a part of the Lord.

"Stop it!" he shouted at the Lord, who kept looking at the scene with disinterest.

Taking courage he said the one thing he hoped would attract him "I said stop it, EMNADEN!"

At those words, the Lord's gaze finally turned to him.

"That name...you know...you have his memories, I see."

"I have your memories! You were a human being! You were not a lord!"

"I am a Lord. it's what I was always meant to be. It is destiny, mine and of every living being" spreading his arms to indicate the whole world.

He had to keep distracting him, the more concentration he took from him, the more his comrades and others could harm Leind's body outside.

"You are nothing but a man who has lost everything. And who, not finding a purpose in his own life, wants to take away from others what he lost long ago."

This time Emnaden's eyes blazed with fury.

"DON'T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT WHAT I LOST! YOU KNOW NOTHING!"

The whole existence had begun to shake, had become darker and a strong sense of oppression had descended upon him. He had not expected such a reaction. The indifferent face that the Lord always had now was substituted by a dark, inhuman look filled with resentment. Perhaps the lord was much more unstable than he thought.

Then Leind understood. The Lord, Emnaden, was not indifferent to emotions, he was trying to shut them because he...he felt empty.

Leind had no time to think about how to destabilize him further. If he had allowed too much time to pass maybe the Lord would have regained his initial composure...he had to continue and was going to try one last provocation.

"You are just a coward who is rejecting life because you have been hit hard." It was working, Emnaden face kept contorting further the more Lein spoke. His attention drawn, the outside body halted his strikes against Londse and Akser.

NO! They had to act, they could not allow remaining surprised, so Leind continued "Maybe I can not understand your pain...but I know I don't want to lose my life as you have lost yours!!"

And before the Lord could reply, with all his willpower Leind shouted.

"NOW!"

His effort was not in vain as apparently, he had managed to be heard from outside. Londse immediately threw himself at his outside body.

It was sort of funny to see how, with the Lord's power, his general seemed so slow. Nevertheless, Emnaden had been distracted, and that cost him a slower reaction. Londse clutched Leind's body in a tight grip.

The lord glared at Leind. His face returned to the normal expression.

"Unexpected...but still, you will watch them die."

He saw his body raising his right arm to strike Londse, but before he could hit him, Akser appeared from outside his vision and grabbed him with his whole body to hold him down.

Not surprised, and without wasting time, the Lord conjured a dark cloud in front of Leind. The cloud began to form even outside and Akser began to scream when the dark cloud touched him. It was evidently damaging his friends in order to make him release his grip.

Asker, clutching his teeth, did not release the arm.

Evidently, Emnaden lost patience and began to conjure a new dark cloud. This one felt different. Leind sensed it, Emnaden was about to release a wave-like cloud attack to kill them all in one swipe. This was not supposed to happen.

His comrades were giving their best. He had to do something, after all, it was all in his mind, in HIS soul. He couldn’t be powerless even in his own soul.

He had to do something else.

He began to pull, but the tendrils were stuck in his flesh... he felt as if his body was going to pull apart from himself. Nevertheless, he continued.

He had to distract him.

Almost there...the tendrils were starting to tear off his body. The pain was breathtaking but he had to continue.

Another push...Pieces of his body were left with the tendrils...

He almost could...

With the last push, more with his will than with his body, Leind tore himself free from the wall, which was now part of his own body.

"EMNADEN!" and threw himself at the Lord.

That had the desired effect as the Lord, distracted by the impact of the falling remnant of Leind's body, grabbed him, his face again with a furious gaze, and screamed "YOU! Why do you resist like this? What drives you to suffer so much for this reality?"

While the pain suffocated every other possible thought, the answer came without even thinking "The same thing that pushed you..."

A few moments after his impact on Emnaden, Leind felt an overwhelming pain in his stomach... but to his surprise, it had not been the Lord. Emnaden was motionless and he too was taken aback. Finally, the lord was looking at him with an expression of surprise.

"You" it seemed like he was searching for the words "you died...to kill me" and started to laugh...it was almost a genuine laugh "I could not have done better."

While still laughing, Emnadem ended up dissolving. In the same instant, Leind returned to his own body. Everything he had felt inside his soul had dissolved and he felt a sense of relief but now, intense pain was at the pit of his stomach.

Londse was in front of him, his mouth full of blood and his gaze toward Leind.

"You idiot...you...you were not supposed to die."

In a few moments, he understood everything, and looking down he saw a spear, probably Sharden's, emerging from his stomach, which had pierced his general as well.

"I'm...sorry sir..."

His knees were failing him, and in an instant, he and the general collapsed on the ground.

"don't..apologize…you were.. a true…warrior."

It was perhaps the most beautiful thing his general had ever told him, and although he was shaken by excruciating pain, he felt happy.

Near them stood Akser motionless on the ground. The black cloud must have hurt him more than expected.

"He will live..." Hisey had approached and, sensed his concern about his companion, he had assured him.

"I, Hisey of the storm, owe you my life...and now, I am now responsible for your death...Please tell me your name, if there is anything I can do for your family I will do it."

Leind was speechless, a legend of that caliber owed him his life...well, that was right...

Funny how life works, one day you're depressed and alive in front of one liquor mug, and the next day you're dying, with a debt worth an entire country and as many compliments as you've ever heard.

His mouth was slurred and he could no longer articulate as he wanted to, nonetheless, he tried to answer that

"Leind...Verta...My family... at the capital...Moritropia..my sister...Potclam..."

"I get it, please don't strain yourself more. I'll make sure they know about your bravery, I'll do everything in my power so that they won't have to worry about anything anymore."

Leind hinted at a smile, even if he was feeling terrible. Looking at Londse, whose body paled more and more, he realized that there was not much time left for either of them.

"General...it has been...an honor."

Londse did not reply but smiled at him and brought his right fist to his chest.

The general's salute... was a symbol that he was considered an equal.

Pride filled his heart, it was indeed a pity that it did not also give him strength, and finally, too tired to hold himself up on the knees, he collapsed on the ground, held up probably only by Hisey's arms.

As the world grew darker and darker, Leind thought about how proud he was of what he had done for his family.

The image of his relatives was the last thing he saw.