Dawa, a military man to his core, saw that the street was clear and every house was marked with a white cloth. He understood the importance of military order. He halted his horse and turned it around, his eyes scanning the quiet, defeated street. He saw Chong on his knees, his body slumped. Dawa felt no triumph, only a grim satisfaction as he saw the blood blooming on Chong's chest. His arrow had found its prey.
"Captain Bolor," Dawa said, his voice as cold and flat as the steel of his bow. "Please escort General Chong back. His fate is entirely up to General Chinua and General Batzorig." With that final, grim command, he turned and rode away, leaving Bolor to deal with the wounded general. Chong's life, which had hung by a thread for so long, was now no longer in his own hands, but in the hands of the two most powerful generals in the Magoli army.
Dawa and Jochi rode forward, their horses a thunderous charge down the now-silent streets of Neu-Li City. They were heading straight for the northern gate, where Xao, Long, and the last remaining Ginmiao soldiers were fighting their final, desperate battle. The Magoli soldiers under Naksh and Jeet were already hammering at the gate from the outside, their war horns a relentless, triumphant cry. Caught between two forces, the Ginmiao fighters were a flicker of dying flame, their defenses crumbling under the overwhelming assault.
With a final, earth-shaking crash, the northern gate splintered inward, the heavy wooden beam giving way. Naksh, Jeet, Khawn, Drystan, and Bilguun rushed inside with the remaining archers.
The Magoli archers fixed their bows on their backs, their faces grim as they drew their swords. Their ranged advantage was gone, and now they were just soldiers in a brutal melee. They advanced, their blades clashing with the desperate Ginmiao soldiers on the ground, a final, bloody struggle fought in the shadow of the fallen city walls.
Dawa and Jochi rode their horses up the stone stairwell, the sound of hooves clattering against the ancient stone a final, triumphant thunder. They met Xao and Long at the top, and the two pairs clashed in a last, desperate struggle. But the fight was short-lived. More Magoli soldiers stormed up the stairwell behind them, their weapons and bows pointed, and the last of the Ginmiao's resistance was shattered. Xao and Long's swords were now useless, and they were quickly captured, their men following suit. The battle for Neu-Li City was over.
After the captured Ginmiao soldiers were counted and searched, their weapons removed, Dawa and his team left the northern gate to escort the prisoners back to the jail. It was a cold, final act of a man who dealt in order and outcomes. The heavy work of collecting the dead was left to Jochi and his team, who stayed behind to help Naksh's team. Together, they began the grim task of collecting the fallen soldiers of both sides, a silent testament to the battle that had just ended.
Hye returned to the city, his face a mask of weary anticipation. He had expected to see a broken city, a defeated people, but the reality was a sight that sickened him to his core. The streets were slick with blood, and the bodies of Magoli and Ginmiao soldiers lay tangled together in a final, grim embrace. He saw the cold, empty faces of the dead, their eyes staring up at the sky, and he felt a profound, chilling emptiness in his heart. Every fallen man and woman, on both sides, was a testament to his plan, a grim tally of the lives he had sacrificed for a political victory. He had been the one to orchestrate the chaos, to send the Magoli army into the city's heart, and now, as he looked at the brutal, bloody aftermath, the weight of his actions was a crushing, unbearable burden.
This was the red line, the line of blood and broken lives that he had hated to see, and yet he had crossed it over and over again. He slowly walked past the soldiers who were collecting the bodies, the grim sight a testament to his plans. All his clever strategies and intricate maneuvers, the pride he had once felt in his cunning, seemed so absurd and meaningless now. He was the mastermind of a masterpiece of death, and he wandered the street, feeling utterly, hollowly foolish for ever thinking it was just a chess game.
As he walked down the quiet street, the sight of the white cloth on the many doors made him look up. In that moment, he realized that although many lives were lost today, many more were spared from a full, city-wide massacre. He sighed, a heavy, weary sound, when loud screams of women suddenly shouted from his right side, shattering the fragile peace.
Hye quickly ran through the city street, his frantic pace a stark contrast to the quiet he had just felt. He found the house the screams were coming from and, without a second's hesitation, threw his body against the front door, knocking it off its hinges. The heavy door panel fell to the ground, carrying him with it. He looked up from the floor and found five Magoli soldiers, their faces contorted with a vicious cruelty, committing a monstrous crime against two women.
Seeing the five Magoli soldiers, their faces twisted in a cruel smirk, Hye felt a deep-seated rage that made his eyes turn red. They had two Ginmiao women pinned to the ground, their bodies shaking with fear, and beside the men, the crumpled body of a small toddler was pinned by a sword to the dirt. The women's cries and frantic kicking for help brought Hye straight back to that day, to the memory of Nabi and her brutal death. The horror of the present merged with the trauma of the past, and he felt his blood run cold with a righteous, all-consuming fury.
Hye's hands, slick with sweat and grime, closed around the first thing he could find, a piece of burning firewood still resting on the small clay stove. Driven by a blind, consuming rage, he swung the burning wood at the soldier closest to him, the blow cracking against the man's temple and knocking him off the first woman's body. The second and third soldiers, startled by the attack, quickly let go of the woman's hands and grabbed Hye by the shoulders. They threw him forward, sending him sprawling on the floor beside the fourth and fifth soldiers. But Hye's fury had not waned. Still clutching the piece of burning wood in his hand, he threw it at the fourth man, its fiery end striking the soldier's face as he was still on top of the second woman.
The burning wood landed on the fourth Magoli soldier's face, searing his flesh and causing him to shriek in pain. He pulled back and, with a vicious jerk, pulled his sword from the toddler's body. As he did, the fifth Magoli soldier rushed forward and kicked Hye hard in the stomach, the blow doubling him over. The fourth soldier, his face a horrible mix of blood and burned flesh, didn't even bother pulling his pants up. Instead, he swung his sword forward and plunged it into the half-naked Ginmiao woman, his brutal, final act a horrific show of rage.
The first Magoli soldier, his head ringing from the blow, shook his head and managed to pull his pants up, his focus returning to the carnage around him. He saw the fifth soldier already kicking Hye, but he paid them no mind. His eyes went instead to the corner of the house where the woman he had just brutalized sat trembling and crying. He spat on the ground and licked his tongue, a cold, predatory gleam in his eyes as he advanced toward the Ginmiao woman to finish what he had started.
Despite being half-naked, the Ginmiao woman knew that after the soldiers were finished with the man who had tried to save her, they would assault her with everything they had. Instead of waiting for a certain death, she grabbed a sack beside her, threw it at the Magoli soldier who just raped her and stormed out of the door into the street, a desperate, naked bid for freedom. But she made it only as far as the door when a hand grabbed her hair, and her body was pulled violently back into the house.
With a loud scream, she saw a large shadow loom over her, coming straight for her. Afraid that this was just another Magoli soldier, she closed her eyes, knowing a certain, brutal assault was waiting for her. But then, as her body was pulled violently back into the house, the pulling of her hair suddenly stopped. The loud sounds of the struggle were replaced by an eerie silence, and she waited, terrified, to see what would come next.
Jeet's powerful punch knocked the first Magoli soldier out cold. He jumped over the half-naked Ginmiao woman and delivered a heavy kick to the fifth soldier, who was still kicking Hye. With a swift move, he grabbed the sword of the fourth soldier and, with a brutal slash, cut the man across the chest.
He grabbed onto Hye and pulled him toward the doorway, away from the carnage and the horror. He laid Hye beside the half-naked woman, who was still on the ground, her eyes closed in a silent, desperate prayer. The brutal, violent chaos was gone, replaced by a grim quiet as Jeet's focus shifted from the killers to the victims.
With Jeet's imposing figure blocking the doorway, the four soldiers didn't dare to make a move. The easy violence they had reveled in had been met with an overwhelming, decisive force, and now they were humbled. They gathered together opposite Jeet, Hye, and the Ginmiao woman, a silent, tense standoff filling the ruined room. The only sound was the heavy breathing of the living and the terrified sobs of the woman.
Hye looked around the ruined room and quickly grabbed a shawl hanging from the wall, moving with a gentle purpose that was in stark contrast to his previous rage. He knelt and carefully covered the woman's bottom half, a small act of decency that finally prompted her to open her eyes. With a trembled hand, he reached out and gently wiped the tears from her face, his touch a profound and silent apology for the horror she had just endured.
With his own tears streaming down his face, a mix of sorrow, rage, and profound relief, he murmured softly, his voice thick with emotion. "You are saved... you are saved now... no one can hurt you, Nabi..." His words were a promise, a desperate comfort he clung to as much for himself as for her, a fragile hope spoken in the aftermath of a nightmare.
The Ginmiao woman finally broke into a heart-wrenching cry. It was not a simple sob, but a deep, guttural wail that came from the depths of her soul. It was a cry for the toddler, for the other woman, and for the terror she had just survived. The sound filled the silent, ruined house, a final, terrible release of all the pain and fear she had been holding in.