Despite the immense pain, my body should have been in from my magic circuits bursting apart, when I woke up the next morning all I felt was an intense emptiness. For better or for worse Vive and Rune were both sleeping next to me, and Hara was staying in Mo's bed, which I'm sure was now stained with tears as her anxious heart beated faster than my own. 'She probably didn't sleep at all. She may have been sent here but she's clearly no soldier… She didn't even try to escape…'
"Siya… Vive muttered the moment she felt me move."
"Yeah…"
"You're hurt aren't you…"
"Something like that…"
"Is that why you didn't want me to kill anyone?"
"Something like that…" I muttered again, lacking the motivation to so much as move another inch.
"I'm sorry Siya…"
"Why's that?"
"I Peaked…"
I suddenly felt a strong chill, but in a moment that too was gone. "It's… Alright… You would have heard about it anyway…" 'Really it was foolish to think covering your eyes would do anything…'
"It made my stomach feel funny… And I couldn't eat dinner… But I don't get it… Why?"
I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her in closer with a sigh. "You know how you'd feel if I died?"
"Not good…"
"Well… Every person that died yesterday was a person like me, who had a person like you that's going to feel bad now that they're gone… Every… All two thousand of them… So really the number of people I hurt was way more than the people I killed, and those people that I hurt didn't do anything wrong… To an extent, even the people I killed were just following orders…"
"But you still did it… Even though you hurt yourself too…"
"Remember when you almost killed those two men to protect Rune?"
She let out a quiet whine.
"I promised I would protect you two remember… They didn't come here to protect anyone, just to hurt us… They thought they could win… They were wrong…"
I heard Hara's heart stop for a second as she tensed, making it all too obvious she was awake, even to Vive.
'I'm sure she feels even worse than I do right?' I sighed. "Can you girls look after Hara again? And… Keep in mind what we just talked about… She was one of the people that didn't feel good because of what happened."
She nodded. "I think I get why she's so scared all the time…"
I squeezed her even tighter before getting up and getting dressed, heading out for some fresh air. No one dared come near me. And for good reason… From the rumors, some people were saying it was an act of God, while others said it was me using magic only ancient dragons were capable of… But no one dared say anything within earshot of me… Some people stayed quiet together… After all, no matter how impressive… It was still magic…
I walked up to the wall and gazed out over the field of battle just in time to watch my star die, finally fizzling out. Surprisingly enough the forest behind it was partly intact too, a small glimmer of light from all of it, considering there were even more bad omens than before.
I looked down at my hands. 'Somethings different… It's not like before when my body repaired itself stronger… It's like deep scars running through my body… If I try something like that again it might even kill me… Or take away my magic for good…'
"Siya… Is everything alright?" Airsidh asked hesitantly, walking up to my side.
"Look… Notice anything different?" I pointed out to the battlefield.
"Yeah, there are a lot fewer corpses, I reckon they started burying their dead during the night."
"No… It's only our soldiers that are missing…" I muttered, "Can they afford to kill each of us twice over…" 'Maybe this land is cursed… Running with undead, monsters, and demons… But then again… They knew that and still invaded… They brought this on themselves…' I turned and began to walk away, my resolve strengthened if only a little.
"Siya, where are you going?"
"The workshop… The screaming finally stopped…"
"Right…"
As I made it back to the ground Mo came trudging back through the gates just in time to deliver her report.
"Siya." She said calmly. "Tabernath has regrouped with the undead soldiers from here and the black gate numbering around 800 in total. He plans on attacking Rokais forces while they move to rejoin the other half of their legion that is currently besieging the capital."
"Of course he is… He has no chance of defeating Someone that strong. Even down in numbers we would probably destroy them if Roakai wasn't there but… As things are now, that's a waste of lives and resources." 'I mean… If he can cut a star in half… Small as it was that's…'
"So what then… Should we reinforce him? You managed to defeat a sage, do you think you can defeat Rokai as well?"
I sighed. 'I doubt it… That man is scarier than any demon I've come across… And besides…' "After that stunt, I pulled yesterday… I can barely walk… The undead can weaken his army, let them fulfill their last wishes… But Tabernath needs to fall back…" 'I can't even use half my normal magic right now… I should be able to clean up most of the scars in my circuits with time, but–'
"He won't…"
'He better…' I growled. "Tell him it's an order."
"And if he doesn't listen?"
I groaned. "I'll send some backup with you to be more persuasive… Follow me."
When I arrived at the workshop I was greeted by men that looked more blue than tan. Their bodies glowed and radiated with intense power. Each one had become stronger and faster than Bhaltair himself… "How does it feel?"
The new commander turned and smiled when he saw me, powderising a rock in his hand with just his grip. "Why don't you come and find out?"
'Roughly a 20% increase in most stats… Not bad.' "Let's minimize the inn fighting while we are at war… What about the side effects?"
"We lost any sense of smell, taste, or pain, but we can still feel touch, and our hearing, eyesight, and speed of thought are all drastically heightened."
"Anything else?"
He looked back at some of his men. "A few things, yeah, but they aren't important."
"Just tell me anyway. I need to have a full understanding of the unit's functionality."
He sighed. "It's a bit embarrassing to say… But it would seem that certain functions stopped working… Below the waist, if you understand my meaning."
"Why do they already know that? Nevermind… Don't answer…"
"Regardless, it may just be temporary on account of the pain according to the dwarves… But even if it's not, all our brothers are dead… We will gladly take one step into the grave to carry their mission through… We all agreed on that."
'Ok… but like… I didn't think it would… Wait…' "When you say the side effects of the pain… You don't mean…"
"Well–"
"Never mind!" I shouted.
"You're orders–"
"DON'T SAY IT!"
"Where to keep going until they ran out of room."
I gagged, trying to stop myself from squirming as Mo stood wide-eyed next to me, frozen stiff.
He just laughed. "Regardless. We are done."
My whole body shuddered, but somehow I managed to keep my focus. "Are you combat-ready…"
"We're ready."
"Good. I need you to follow Mo to Tabernath's location and convince him to fall back to Kasesh. If he engages Rokai like he's planning he'll get himself killed."
"The fourth star…" He grimaced.
"And you better not engage him either… I didn't have you go through this just to die pointlessly seeking revenge. If you want to avenge your squad, then follow my orders and we'll beat him together… But not now. You are all much stronger than before, but even together I doubt you could defeat a monster like him… I would need to be with you… Don't forget. Bhaltair was my brother…"
He took a deep breath as he saluted and they headed off. I had a new super weapon… But for one reason or another, it only made me feel worse if anything. Like I said somehow stripped them of their humanity…
"I thought you didn't care about him?" Mo whispered.
"Bhaltair? I don't, but reminding them makes them less likely to fight Rokai for revenge, holding off until I'm recovered."
She let out a small sigh that almost sounded like a laugh. "I don't think I could ever think the way you do." She muttered, heading out after them and taking the lead.
'I wonder if that's a bad thing…' I went back to the wall and stared blankly at the battlefield again. Finding myself always returning to the same place. It was almost like I was hoping I would somehow find comfort there… Of course, that was far from reality…
'We lost around 300 men… But we took out around 800… Then another 2,000. And then all 300 of our dead rose from the grave and marched on them again… I feel like I should feel something about that… But I still just feel empty…'