Φ Seeing Setanta as he lets out a roar of victory, I am utterly stunned. That last strike of his was beautiful; it was far beyond anything I could have ever imagined myself doing.
Turning around Setanta faces me and as he does I see a giant chasm appear in between us, something so large and wide that I feel like I couldn't ever reach the other side even if I had wings to fly with.
Setanta then quickly moves across the battlefield, and one after another, he kills the enemies who almost destroyed us with a single blow to their necks each.
His speed, power, and dexterity have risen to new heights that even surpass the wall of strength that Aoife. Not only this, but he also has the traits of a behemoth wonderbeast in his blood. Setanta is truly a miracle to our people.
Not someone I can ever reach.
Φ Lunging forward to Ferdiad, I say, "You need a hand, princess."
Getting up on his own, Ferdiad says, "Don't get cocky, you dumb doggy, so that you know I am the strongest."
Ferdiad's leg buckles as he fully stands up, so I catch him and say, "Watch your wounds, you are in no position to move."
"I have already failed spectacularly today. Please just allow this loser to fall on his face."
"I wouldn't call a single thing you did today a failure. You are far stronger and braver than you were when we last met, and that just proves to me that you are the man who will stand at my side."
Ferdiad looks heartbroken for a brief moment, but then he quickly composes himself and, with a smile, says, "Of course I am, you dumb wolf."
"A wonderbeast actually, you're the only wolf here."
I hear a loud noise from behind us, and then I see that another army has appeared from the top right. The Fuinseog army, including Ronald Ó Fuinseog.
Φ At 645 hours, Aoife falls, and then soon after, the Fuinseog army, which appeared at the rear of the escaping humans, and the Faoláin army, which appeared at the front, quickly annihilated all of the remaining human resistance, capturing thousands of surrendering humans.
At 700 hours, the final human resistance was completely stamped out, and the battle ended in the victory of the beastkin. Many beastkin quickly moved to treat the wounded, and the rest of the human survivors were rounded up and herded away.
Φ Sitting in front of my sister, who has a look filled with despair in her eyes, I say, "Laeg, you have always been far more sensitive than others, even among the girls I know. You seem to take everything far more deeply than average.
You're a kind and sensitive soul, even though someone like me took the life of our mother; you never blamed or cursed me, and whenever I would feel lonely from lacking a mother, you would always step in.
After watching you Laeg, I know that you value human life, and I don't know why but after spending time with Craig, I struggle to truly see them as lower than me, especially considering them almost besting us today.
I love you, Laeg. You are truly the greatest sister I could ever ask for. So I want you to go home, you're not fit for war or battle, and I understand that you worry for our finances so much that you would join me on this battlefield.
But I can work harder to provide for our village, and I will also be smarter and not get myself in any more bad situations like today.
So please Laeg when we return I want you to leave and quit, all the pain and suffering of this battle should fall on me, I can't bear to see you doing things like riding all night, and killing people."
Laeg starts to cry and then says, "Ibar, you're a fool, a stupid fool. I hate hurting others, I hate war, and I have never truly seen humans as far lower than us. Being here has barely changed that aspect about me."
"Then why would you choose to come here?"
"Because I love you, dammit, I could easily run away and live a comfy life, but it is like you don't understand that you're a part of my life as well. I didn't save you when we were younger; I took comfort in your existence. You made me feel like Mom didn't leave.
Your key to mine and everyone else's life, and you don't seem to understand that, you idiot! So that's why I came here, to make sure to bring you home to everyone.
But not just you, Setanta, and Ferdiad, everyone, they have all become very important to me, and I want to make sure we all get home together. Even if I have to push myself to the extreme or take others' lives, I want that more than anything else in the world.
So stop being an idiot and acting like you have to take on all of the suffering or pain alone, as some kind of apology for mom dying during your birth, because if you were to die and leave us it would be like mom has disappeared again."
My sister breaks down into her tears, and I just hold her, saying, "Sorry, Laeg, I am so sorry."
Φ Looking around the battlefield, I see Laeg and Ibar crying, but they are not the only ones. Many who are injured beyond belief are writing their final goodbyes to their still-living friends.
While others are picking up the dead bodies of those who have fallen today, fighting by their sides.
Seeing a group of men pass by with Téad's body, I grip my fist tightly, but Setanta hits me on the back and says, "Don't feel frustrated, if you want to honour him, make sure others know what he has done for us all today."
"I will."
"Now I've got to go."
"Where are you heading?"
"To see my father, apparently, they have rounded up all of the humans over there."
"I will come along."
I tap him in the stomach with my tail and he falls to the ground, so I say, "If you can't even take that you shouldn't be going anywhere."
"But it is my job to watch you."
Picking my nose, I say, "When the hell did you sleep with my dad?"
"Huh? Have you finally gone insane?"
"Well, you had to have because that's the only way he could have impregnated you."
Ferdiad pauses for a moment, then says, "You could just say I was nagging you!"
"Whatever, Mom. I will be fine, and looking around, I am sure we both know that others could use your support right now."
Ferdiad looks at Ibar and Laeg, then says, "Don't be stupid."
"I promise, I will." I dash off as Ferdiad screams, "SETANTA!"
-Break-
On the other end of the mountain range, the large group of captured humans lie in the middle of a plain with trees scattered throughout, and in front of all of them on a make shift platform, is my father Lugh, Ronald Fuinseog, and their generals.
Seeing a tree, I jump on top of it and take refuge while I look down at all that is on folding.
The humans cower, cry, and shake in fear of their upcoming despair, and while they do, I say, "How comical if even half these people came to the battlefield, we would have been completely overrun. Ridiculous that they would somehow choose not to fight in this situation."
They all look like they are moments away from ending their own lives, right now I can only say what they feel is utter despair and hopelessness, and I am sure that the only thing keeping many of them alive right now is the fact that none of them have weapons to give themselves quick deaths.
In front of the humans, my father says, "All of you have committed vile acts against the empire of Louernia. You have abandoned your plantations and master, but also used all of the knowledge you had learned under us to destroy us.
The equivalent of a child spitting in their parent's face, and each of you will be punished through severe discipline."
Many of the humans relax, and I say, "Lives without pride," in a disgusted tone.
My father continues, and says, "Or so I would say if this were under normal circumstances, but you humans intermingled with all of the different groups of your kind, we have brought together and shared knowledge with one another.
Right now, each of you is a walking bomb of knowledge that could give smaller groups the ability to wage war against us, and for that reason, you will all die."
The humans start to freak out, with many of them looking like they are about to run away, but then Ronald lifts his hand, and following this, his men come out of the surrounding forest with Merarks in tow.
There are around seventy-five thousand humans here, an utterly ridiculous number of them. So if they really just tried to all run in the same direction and push their way through, they could make it.
But with the Merarks' hunting capabilities, they would all be thorns to shreds, right now it's over for them.
The humans cry and complain; their shouts are so numerous that they echo among them.
"Please don't hurt us."
"We never wanted to fight against the empire."
"We are alive, don't we deserve to be happy?"
"They forced me to come here; I would still be in the plantation if I could."
"Spare my children, please."
"I am able-bodie,d I can still work."
"I promise you, I don't know anything. I don't talk to anyone."
"Daddy, come and save us."
"Spare my wife, let me take all her torture."
"I didn't do anything, this one here, and this one there are the real leaders of our group."
"I deserve to be free."
"You're all monsters."
"We can one day be allies and walk hand in hand."
"The messiah will one day wipe your putrid existence from the planet, just watch, your days are numbered!"
Even in this chaos, humans can't act with any form of unity; it is as if they don't enjoy victories or success. How the hell did they ever rule this world?
Suddenly, Ronald slaps his whip on the ground and activates his legacy, making thorns manifest from it and head towards the humans. "Silenc,e you dirty monkeys."
My father moves forward, stops the thorns, and then says, "You will all die, but I am going to give you all a choice on how quick or painless it may be. Any information you give will result in a merciful death, but any resistance will be met with a torturous one. So choose."
The humans go back to complaining, but then my father says, "SILENCE! No matter what you say, your fate won't change, so at least have some dignity and choose. You all have five minutes to decide what kind of death you want."
My father gets back on the platform he hand-built, and then Ronald drags a human body out. Or what I think is one, then says, "This is the reality of what will happen if you choose the wrong option, the handwork of me and my men."
It is a human body, but the arms and legs are missing, and the body has been so punished that it makes Minagrain's injuries look like. The human can't speak and just makes noise.
I get up and grab my spear, then prepare to throw it at that thing's head, then, whilst saying, "Nothing like that should be alive, so I am going to do what you should have done to yourself instead of being captured."
I prepare to throw my spear, but before I do, my father lops his head off and says, "I don't like inefficiencies and wastes of time; kill the humans when they reach such a state."
Glaring at my father, he says, "Look at all of the human faces. I think my little show did some work. Now let's just wait."
The humans stricken with fear start to talk and whisper amongst themselves, and despite them all having different conversations, the sentiment is the same: that they must tell of their secrets.
Sighing, I say, "Cowards, I have no need to watch this."
But then, from the crowd of humans, one rises and says, "I refuse to tell any of you anything in the slightest."