Jason was shocked to see how much progress the Fiendwallers had made on rebuilding the breach caused by Michael's pod. The debris around the V shaped hole was now clear, and in its place was a large circular camp, surrounded by a haphazard wall built from the smaller bits of rubble. He zoomed in on the camp, seeing exactly what he was expecting; Gali's Defenders, with their spiral etched tower shields, plate armor, and plumed helmets, along with the chaotic collection of warriors that were the Tongues of Zodd. None of the Tongues were uniform, wearing anything from plate armor to fur loinclothes. They were made up of orcs, elves, humans, and everything in between.
It wasn't long before the Tongues and Defenders took notice of the Rhino, or at least the ash cloud it was kicking up as it approached. He watched them begin to take up arms, gathering at the front of the camp, locking their shields together in the case of the Defenders. The Tongues though, their 'formation' was little more than an unorganized ball of muscle and blades.
"Are they going to attack us?" Belaine asked, squinting.
"They won't once they see who we are." Jason explained, "You can't blame them, they have no way of telling who we are from here."
"Do you think Gali will give you another medal?" Lance asked him with a smile.
Jason had nearly forgotten all about that… he had kept the last medal he'd been given by Gali. The only medal he'd ever received in his life, something that had normally been reserved for normal soldiers. Hoplites didn't receive awards like that, as they were supposed to be viewed as tools and nothing more. Getting the medal from Gali had stirred something within him at the time, and had kept it on a whim. He had still been Hoplite at the time, so he'd deceived himself into believing that he'd only kept the medal as a way of being polite, when in truth, he'd been shocked and ecstatic to receive an award.
Jason was grateful for it, and he would be keeping his medal for the rest of his life, he didn't need to lie to himself about his intentions now. It was in a satchel attached to his thigh, kept safe inside a little leather pouch.
"Jason?" Lance asked.
"I'm not sure." He answered as they pulled up to the crowd of warriors, "I think one medal is enough."
He slowed his approach, before coming to a complete stop a few hundred feet from the formation. Jason then stepped out of the Rhino, approaching them and giving them plenty of time to recognize who he was.
"It's the Hero of the Wall!" A Defender shouted, "Lower your weapons!"
They did so, and as Jason reached the halfway point between the Rhino, he stopped. There was a short stretch of silence before Jason shouted, "Kazon is dead!"
His voice echoed across the ashy field, reaching the ears of all gathered. Their faces conveyed disbelief for a moment, before eventually they all erupted into chaotic cheers. Some Defenders even fell to their knees, weeping as Jason walked back to the Rhino. Lance standing on her seat to stare out across the field at them. When he stepped back into the vehicle, she sat back down, smiling as she stared ahead at the cheering warriors.
"Seems you've lifted their spirits." Lance said, maintaining her smile, "I suspect you won't be able to avoid a feast of some sort."
"I wouldn't mind a feast myself. While I enjoyed these MRE's of yours, I must say a taste of something less dry would be ideal." Belaine nodded, "More than that though, I wish to see the Faewood again. Hard to believe that, after all this time, it's just over that wall. Please go forward Jason, otherwise I may just float over there myself at this very instant."
"I agree." Lance said, sounding homesick, "I'm glad Meris didn't try to follow after us, it will be nice seeing him again."
"He's the spirit that lives in your tree, right?" Jason asked as he slowly drove forth.
"More that he is the tree itself but yes, in a sense." Lance explained as they drove forward, "Like the Ilum tree, there is a crystal within each tree of the Faewood, each possessing the spirit of a Fae. It effectively makes each tree a 'body' for them to interact with the mortal realm."
"I see, so they really are just tiny Ilum trees." Jason nodded.
"Not exactly." Belaine chimed in, "A Greater Fae is a rarity, and not something that can be grown into by normal Fae. It takes a particularly strong spirit and a mighty tree to accommodate one. Once a Greater Fae finds a suitable tree, the crystal is grown within, granting it the energy to grow massive over time. The Fae gets to experience the physical world, and the tree receives a great amount of energy, that can be said of both the Greater and lesser Fae."
"It's a symbiotic relationship then." Jason nodded as he pulled up to the crowd of cheering warriors.
"Hoplite! Hoplite! Hoplite!" They began cheering.
Jason's jaw clenched, and he raised up a hand, "It wasn't just me!" He shouted, parking the Rhino once more before stepping out of the vehicle.
But the crowd didn't listen, instead cheering for him, as if he had done it all on his own. Jason would not let this stand, he never could have beaten Kazon alone, hell, he hadn't even been the one to kill him. That went to Alistair and Kid'ka, not Jason.
"Hero of the Wall! Slayer of Kazon!" A Defender shouted.
"Here here!" A Tongue replied, "A feast for Hoplite, slayer of Kazon!"
"No!" Jason shouted, his throat tearing slightly and stunning the gathered crowd into silence. After a moment of silence, Jason continued, "It took all of us to bring him down, I wasn't the one to neutralize him in the end, that honor belongs to Kid'ka, a Tongue of Zodd, and Alistair of the Atheyare Caravans."
"He's so humble." A Tongue, a burly orc said, a single tear sliding down his face, "Normal mortals could never bring down Kazon, but an Outworlder definitely could. Don't you all see, he wants to make sure his allies are glorified, not himself… even though he was the one to strike Kazon down."
"A humble hero!" Another cheered.
"That-" Jason began, before Lance put a hand on his shoulder, having emerged from the Rhino.
"Just let them think what they want." She whispered, "If they find out they managed to slay Kazon, they might spread rumors about them being Pillar-Born. If people hear that an Outworlder did it though, people might not question that."
Flashbacks to him being falsely credited for beating the Admech single-handedly flashed through his mind, and his jaw clenched, "But it isn't true." He emphasized.
"She's right, just take credit for it and move on." Belaine insisted from the Rhino, "Being called the Slayer of Kazon will carry great power socially, if you want to form an alliance against the Romai, then this is something you should absolutely embrace. You may be an Outworlder, but just asking other nations to gather beneath your banner based on that alone will likely have poor results. However…" Belaine paused for effect, "If the Slayer of Kazon came to them, warning of an inevitable invasion by the Romai, that may both lend more credence to your claims, as well as make it more likely that they will ally with you."
He paused, but his jaw remained clenched as the Tongues and Defenders began cheering for him once again. His hands clenched into fists.
"But it isn't true." He countered, "I didn't kill Kazon, I just helped."
"Jason, Belaine is right." Lance sighed, "You need weight to your name to sway people, this will make it more likely that they will listen to you."
His head hung. What was more important, him clarifying that he'd only assisted slaying Kazon, or taking the credit to up the likelihood of a strong alliance forming against the Romai? He hated everything about this, but Lance and Belaine were right- this assumption that the Tongues and Defenders made would be necessary for defeating the Long Lords once they arose. However, he wouldn't speak it from his own mouth, he'd never claim to have done it, that was a step too far for him.
He just wouldn't talk about it, he'd allow people to make their assumptions, but he would not reinforce them. That would be his self-compromise. He told that to Lance and Belaine, the latter nodding along with his words. He hopped back into the Rhino, a deep frown on his face.
"Not clarifying that you did it outright will reinforce the idea of you being a 'humble hero'." Belaine smirked, "Great idea."
Jason grumbled as he drove closer to the wall, the warriors parting for him while still maintaining their cheers. Some did pause to ask what the 'horseless carriage' was, but were otherwise content to cheer him on as he entered the camp. Thankfully the breach was wide enough to accommodate the Rhino's width, and before he knew it, they were on the other side of the Fiendwall, finally. Green grass made up the field between the Fiendwall and the Faewood proper, as well as another camp, this one busy with civilians, rather than warriors.
The Defenders remained outside the breach, but a dozen Tongues followed through, cheering that Jason had defeated Kazon. He parked beside the breach, hundreds of people beginning to surround their position. Fiendwallers stared in shock at Jason as he stepped from the Rhino, followed by Lance… Belaine though, she merely sat in her seat, staring down at the grass, tears filling her glistening red eyes. The blonde sniffled as she put a hand over her mouth, lifting a sleeve from her robe to cover her eyes from the crowd.
What was she crying about, he wondered? He internally berated himself, it was obvious why she was weeping. She was happy to be out of the Fiendwood after a thousand years of forced servitude to Kazon. The crowd cheered, stared, and whispered about how 'Hoplite' had slain Kazon and a Pillar-Born, about how he would be the one to save their world. A massive weight was set on his shoulders, but it wasn't physical. They were putting too much hope on him, he did intend to try saving their world from the Pillar-Born, but only time would tell how successful he was.
Gali, the heavily overweight mayor of the Fiendwall, approached from the crowd, his bald head and plate armor both gleaming in the sunlight. "You've done it!?" Gali asked as he approached, "You do be the greatest hero of Decuma if it do be true." The crowd fell silent as Gali came to a halt, apparently straining their ears to hear what Jason had to say.
"Kazon is dead." Jason said loudly, "The Spiral-Curse is lifted."
A cacophony of cheers once more, ten times louder than before. After a few seconds of this, Gali knelt before Jason, the rest of the crowd quieting before immediately following suit. Jason grimaced at the sight, a strange heat entering his face as something began fluttering in his chest… embarrassment.
"You do be the greatest hero Decuma has ever seen." Gali told him, keeping his head bowed, "I do request that we hold a feast in your honor, great one."
"Please, don't call me great one." Jason said in a near-pleading tone.
Gali looked up with a smile, "Then I'll just stick with Hoplite."
"Actually Gali, that isn't my real name." He said, "My real name is Jason."
"Jason?" Gali asked, looking confused, "Ah I do believe you mentioned that you were a number of your kind, I do be supposing that 'Hoplite' be merely a title. Why share your name with us now?"
"Because that is who I am." Jason nodded, "I don't have any other name."
Gali stood with a grunt, "Well either way, Jason, I do be thanking you for lifting the curse." He turned to the Fiendwallers before raising a fist, "Behold the Hero of the Wall, Jason the Outworlder!"
"Jason! Jason! Jason!" They cheered.
Soon there were orders being shouted to ready tables, kegs, and food, at the same time the crowd rushed toward him. Back when he was Hoplite, he might have believed that this was an attack, but he knew better now. Jason was shocked to see some brawny Fiendwallers try to lift him in the air. He'd seen this happen before on occasion, after a big victory against the Final Kind, a dozen marines lifted one of their conductors into the air and began carrying him off, likely to a party. That conductor hadn't wanted that, and neither did Jason, but he wouldn't need to exert himself to resist the crowd's will.
After a dozen tried their hands at lifting him, they gave up, faces red and huffing as they switched tactics, instead trying to push him along to follow the crowd. He saw Lance giggling as they tried and failed to move him from his spot. Should Jason just go along with this? It seemed that they were quite intent on this feast, and frankly, he would enjoy some fresh meat as opposed to what had been in the MREs. Not only that, but perhaps he could even get drunk again, it had been good fun last time. The Rhino was shut off and keys secured with him, all the weaponry was safely stored in the pod where no one could access it without the code, and it was highly unlikely that anyone would try to vandalize it. Both because they viewed Jason so favorably, and because, frankly, there wasn't much they could do to harm the Rhino, much less the pod.
They may be able to damage the tires though, he supposed, and also the- Jason shut his eyes, the Fiendwallers weren't going to try and ruin his vehicle. It would be safe to put his paranoia aside for now. He would come back to check on it every five minutes to ensure that it would be fine. Perhaps every three minutes- better yet, best to drive it back out of the breach and cloak it. The weaponry on his person should also be stored, just in case he lost them while drinking. He would do that later on, when the sun had set, that way no one could see where he parked it.
So much for trust, but some habits just didn't shut off for him, particularly leaving precious military hardware out in the open like this. Despite the thought, he allowed the Fiendwallers to push him along, guiding him to wherever it was they intended. Lance followed after him, with Belaine opting to remain in the vehicle, still just staring at the grass with tears trailing down her cheeks.