"The source of all the world's problems are the Gods. They bring catastrophes, hatred, famine, lust, sicknesses... They could end it all if they wanted. They could bring eternal peace, abolish the darkness, give us more food than we could ever ask for. But they don't... Truth is, the Gods don't care. They don't care who suffers, who dies. They don't care how many are massacred, how many lose their loved ones. The Gods simply don't care... That's why we aim to kill all the gods, and bring about the birth of a new one... A God of a New Age. An age of Eternal Peace, of Eternal Happiness, devoid of death. This is our final goal. This is New Heaven."
Ili looked at Theresis, clenching her fist. "So... This is your excuse for massacring thousands of innocent people? For causing so much suffering all around..."
Theresis's expression hardened slightly. "The sacrifices we make will be nothing for our ultimate goal. These are only momentary deaths in the light of the coming age, where everyone will be reborn anew. For the creation of absolute harmony, absolute chaos must exist. The gods themselves cannot be touched by mortals, as they reside in the Heavens. But if we break the barrier between the Heavens and the Earth, they will be unkillable no more. And for that, absolute chaos must take the world. As with absolute chaos, the Equilibrium will shatter, merging the three worlds into one plane of reality."
The man looked in Ili's eyes, holding out his hand. "So, what do you say? Will you join us into creating a world where no one needs to suffer anymore?"
Zephyr could feel ice starting to grow on his body. The crystal wall he created in front of him was slowly being chipped away by the freezing winds and ice shards constantly being fired at it. If he remained there, he would surely be dead before long, once the crystal shattered. He needed to find a way to get close.
He took a deep breath. He would jump over the wall, creating more such crystals in front of him to protect his body from the ice shards. He created a crystal axe, gripping it tightly with both hands. It was now or never. He took another deep breath and leaped over the wall as quickly as he could.
In a moment, he felt something impaling his body.
Zephyr fell to the ground, dropping the axe. He looked down at his body. An ice shard was right in his stomach. Another in his chest. A few more in his arms and legs...
He felt a warm liquid in his mouth, as he fell on his knees, spitting out lots of blood. He placed a hand over his wounds, but it was covered in blood in an instant. His vision was getting blurry, his head was spinning, and he felt as if he was going to throw up.
The cold winds were still hitting him, but he couldn't feel the cold anymore. He couldn't feel his fingertips anymore, and his body was burning hot. He was finally dying... He looked up at Apl, through the freezing storm, seeing more ice shards forming in the air. This was the end...
He was starting to lose touch with reality… he started hearing some familiar words... He couldn't remember where he knew them from, or why they seemed familiar, but they sounded so... "Oh the brink of death, when you have nothing left to lose, you will muster up all the life power you have left, and do everything you can possibly do to survive, or to take down your opponent with you. You won't need to do anything, for such has your body been trained to do instinctively..."
"What if I won't have the power to do that?" the voice of a child asked.
"Already asking so many questions, are you, Nero...?" the previous voice responded, with a warm chuckle. "Well, don't worry about that... You only have to trust me..."
"Farewell..." Apl said, raising her arm in front of her.
The ice shards shot towards Zephyr's wounded body. But suddenly, instead of being penetrated by the barrage of shards, Zephyr waved his arm, as a crystal wall grew in front of him in an instant, blocking the shards. But, unlike the other walls, this one was different... It was so much larger and thicker, almost like Apl's ice. Zephyr pulled out the ice shards from his body, but instead of bleeding out, crystal grew inside his body, changing shape and consistency and merging with his skin and organs, healing his wounds completely. Zephyr looked down at his body, stunned by everything that happened. He felt as if he wasn't in control of his own body anymore. It was moving on its own, almost instinctively.
The crystal wall was finally shattered by Apl's freezing abilities. Seeing him completely healed made her eyes widen. "What the hell did you do? So, you weren't as weak as you let out... No matter, I will kill you all the same. Die!"
Hundreds of ice shards shot towards Zephyr, but once again, his body moved on its own, leaping to the side of a building. Apl leaped back as dark crystal shards shot from beneath, nearly cutting her.
Zephyr ran towards her on the building, with large crystal shards growing around him, giving him a surface to run on.
An ice shard managed to shoot through the crystals towards his face. Zephyr tried to dodge, but it was too late. The ice shard hit him, but instead of harming him, the ice shard shattered, as if it hit a wall. Touching his cheek, he felt his skin crystallised and hardened, before de-crystallising to not hinder his movement once the danger was out of the way.
Zephyr was completely stunned by everything he was doing. It all felt so unlike him, but so natural at the same time. Nothing felt like something he's never done before, even though he didn't remember any of the things he was doing in the first place.
More crystal shards started growing around him, hovering around his body, much like Apl's ice shards.
Dark crystals and ice shards were shooting all around, trying to harm each other, blocked by blocks of ice and crystal alike. It seemed like Zephyr was starting to have the upper hand. Until...
"Enough!" Apl screamed.
Zephyr suddenly felt a freezing sensation all around his body. All the crystals around him and beneath his feet shattered in an instant. His arms instinctively crossed in front of him, his whole skin crystallising to absorb the impact.
His body was thrown through multiple buildings, falling on the ground multiple streets away.
"With this, I conclude the reading of the treaty," the diplomat placed the pages back in order, bringing the paper that needed to be signed back in the front. "Is everything in order, as expected?"
"Yes, it is." the Sangv'dhinaes spoke.
"Then, let's not make this any longer."
The diplomat took the feather, placing it in golden ink, before bringing it to the paper. In a stroke, he signed his part, bringing the feather back and handing it to the Sangv'dhiaes.
"Your signature, right there." the diplomat pointed out.
The Sangv'dhiaes's eyes narrowed. "I know where to sign, bwovnine."
"Of course you do." the diplomat said with a small, apologetic bow, but with a hint of mockery in his tone. "Then please, go ahead. I'm sure none of us want to stay here any longer than needed."
The leader of the kalzraaks took the feather, dipping it in the ink, and bringing it to the treaty.
At that moment, the treaty was covered in another color than that of the ink's. Blood...
The Sangv'dhinaes looked down at his body, where a spear was running straight through his heart. He dropped the feather, falling from the podium, in a pool of his own blood.
"I did it, your highness! I killed him, just like you told me to! For the Bwovn Empire!" Shzerghe shouted, looking up at the diplomat in fake excitement.
The diplomat looked at the soldier, frozen and confused. He never ordered something like that. "I... I never... What did you do..."
The diplomat looked in the soldiers eyes, seeing a wide smile that sent chills down his spine.
In an instant, the soldier's head fell to the ground, decapitated by the kalzraaks.
"Traitors! Traitors all! They brought us here to kill us!" a kalzraak chief shouted. "Kill them all!"
All the kalzraaks got up, running towards the bwovnines. The bwovnine soldiers raised their spears, getting in front of the lords.
The diplomat stood frozen, looking at the bloodbath in front of him. The bwovnines stood no chance against so many kalzraaks. But...
"Give us the word, your Highness," an Emperor's Blade spoke, as they all unsheathed their swords.
"Kill them..." he said, almost instinctively, still frozen in shock.
The kalzraaks started to fall, one by one. But every time they were cut, their blood would become their weapons. The kalzraak's blood was special, as they could control it anywhere outside their body. Even when they were harmed, the blood in the air would shoot back towards the attackers, cutting and killing them. But, even so, it didn't matter as the Emperor's Blades cut them in half, giving them no time to use their blood in any way.
The diplomat looked around the hall, still trying to process everything that was happening. Then, he saw one small kalzraak, holding something in his hand.
A war horn blew, taking over all other sounds. The sound made its way outside the tower, echoing through the lands. The kalzraak was soon cut down as well by the Emperor's Blades, getting added to the pile of corpses inside the pool of blood.
Apl looked to the side as the horn was blown, echoing through the air like the roar of a dying beast. She walked calmly through the rubble of the buildings she sent Zephyr through, before jumping back down on the street, looking at him.
"It seems Mephisto finished his part. Now, time for me to finish mine."
She raised her hand towards Zephyr, as tens of ice shards appeared in the air behind her. She then raised her hand towards the sky. Looking up, Zephyr froze as he saw hundreds, if not thousands of shards forming, covering the sky, like rain that had yet to fall. Apl closed her fist, and the thousands of shards shot towards the ground, and towards Zephyr.
Tens of large crystals grew in front and above him, blocking the attacks, replaced by others as they were being constantly shattered by the new ice shards. Zephyr looked at Apl through a small crack in the crystals, covered by the freezing mist. He could feel his mana and strength slowly draining, but he knew that that must have also been the case for Apl. This fight became a battle of attrition, of who's mana would run out first...
From outside the walls, Zephyr heard the sounds of war closing into the city. Looking far into the right, hundreds of thousands of crystal shards were falling over the walls into the city, like a devastating rain of arrows. The kalzraaks had begun their attack...
From the opposite side of the city, sounds of people running away could be heard. So, they were already aware of the possibility that something would go wrong, and they abandoned their homes in advance to be able to run away through the eastern gate while the west was under siege…
But then, the sound of a heavy gate closing filled the air. Following it, screams started to be heard in the distance, along with the growls of demons.
"Do you really have time to worry about other things right now?" Apl spoke, as an ice shard barely missed his face, cutting his cheek.
"No..." Ili responded. "I won't join you. I can't join people who would kill so many innocents without feeling any remorse. I will never join you."
Theresis's expression darkened slightly, but a soft smile made its way back to his face. "Well, no matter. We have enough members already, and there are more to come. But I'll respect your decision.
The war horn echoed, making the house shake slightly under their feet.
"What was that?" Ili asked, looking towards the tower.
"That? That is the sound of war..."