Helicopter wings cut through the air.
Underneath them a black sea rushing toward the soldiers.
Green flares flying behind the helicopters.
Noise everywhere.
The songs of chaos flowing down the mountain.
The ants like black water.
Pouring down.
The soldiers of the Endless Storm stood forward.
Kim Tae-soo looking up the mountain.
Another royal guard appeared.
Black smoke of ants surrounding it.
It screamed.
Kim Tae-soo looked back at his soldiers.
Green flares behind his men.
One word.
"Run."
A pause.
"Retreat you fools."
His voice carrying everything.
"I'll hold back as long as I can. Now go."
Some of the men shouted back.
"Captain no—"
He didn't let them finish.
He looked forward at the black smoke and the hulking silhouette emerging from it.
"I'm not going to die here soldiers. But if you do not live then neither will I."
A breath.
"Please go. That's an order."
Screams and cries as the whole battlefield became a blur.
---
Soldiers running down the mountain.
A specific scene forming.
A blurry picture.
Soldiers running.
Explosions everywhere.
Black xenomorph giant ants chasing them.
The horror all around.
Black blood of the ants.
Red blood of the soldiers.
Making a short rain as they retreated down the mountain.
---
One specific soldier running.
Breathing hard.
Eyes with pupils stretching wide.
Veins around them blood red.
Diluting the white.
Sweat soaking through fabric and iron.
Potions spilling.
Other soldiers dragging anyone and anything out of his path.
He fell.
Kissed the earth for a moment.
Got back up.
Kept running forward.
Helicopters ahead.
A crowd of soldiers begging and pleading to get on.
He came through them like a shovel through snow.
Sweeping.
Pushing.
Every other soldier moved aside.
He reached a fallen soldier near the helicopter.
Grabbed him.
Passed him inside like he weighed nothing.
Then stepped in himself.
Turned to the pilot and the others witnessing this.
"Fly this damn thing out of here."
---
Other helicopters started to lift.
Black xenomorph fiends attacking some of them.
Dragging them down.
Explosions following.
The soldier breathing.
Witnessing all of it.
The carnage below.
His breathing slowing.
One breath.
One slow breath.
Until—
A jet passed through.
The whole battlefield went still for a moment.
Color disappeared.
Nothing but black.
---
Chi-Long from a distance.
Drawing closer to the chaos.
Watching the passing jet.
Her eyes fixated on it.
She looked back at Ha Joon carrying Eun Byol on his back.
She smiled.
Faint.
"Lord Ash has arrived. We must meet him, children."
Something weakness yet faint shining within her eyes.
---
The black smoke and sea made a path.
For whatever the passing jet had dropped.
It touched down at the top of the mountain.
A giant cloud of smoke followed.
Within the mountain.
Within the rift.
Within the dark endless caves reaching inward.
The King's body pulsed.
It felt something.
Something had ended.
The ants stopped.
Just for a moment.
All the soldiers in shock.
Then they moved again.
The battlefield playing its song once more.