Chapter 58:  Moving Forward

 

Several days have passed since the fall of Dragonsmourne. The seven remaining armies managed to regroup and successfully routed the human army led by the Prince of Serrora. Saladis and her army were the key factors of the victory and the Ak’hims soon found themselves on a slow track towards Divinatus. They buried and mourned the deaths of their fallen comrades on the way.

And mourned they did after that devastating defeat. 

They’ve lost a huge chunk of their manpower and even strong figures that were pretty much icons for the remaining surviving Ak’hims. Most people of the remaining armies were hit hard by the deaths of the fallen— from the leaders and soldiers of the First and Third Army to the upper echelons of the Seventh Army.

Even Klauna, the person who the Ak'hims call as ‘unshakeable’ was acting weird. To be fair, she's been acting weird ever since the events at the bridge, perhaps even before that. But back then, she would only lose patience and burst out in anger while occasionally zoning out once in a while. 

But now… now she's just completely out of it. She would often stare into blank spots during meetings and rarely talked during this time. When asked a question, she would just reply with haphazard 'yeah' or 'um', not concentrating at all and often zoning out any noise from outside her senses. 

She may not show it on her face, but she was definitely hit hard by the deaths of Leida and Balestra. It wasn't just Klauna who was depressed either, the leaders of the armies all have complicated expressions on their face and so was Harbin who was worried sick about Klauna's condition. Most of the Ak'hims don't even have the energy to march properly. Their progress to Divinatus was slow and filled with grief.

However, the worst of all… was that they have no plan. The officers all tried to think of something, but no matter what they did, the only thing they could think of was ways to prolong their inevitable deaths. They have all started to see just how much they really depended on Leida and Klauna thinking up their strategies. Without them, they were really lost.

The only thing they knew was that they needed to retreat to Divinatus for now, but anything else after that was a blank to them. Things were pretty depressing and it seemed that all hope was lost. The only thing that kept them going was something that Klauna said before during one of their councils: that she has a plan at Divinatus. 

It was something she often said to the others before the battle at Dragonsmourne— that she believed that they could hold up long enough for the enemies to back away and leave them alone. Losing pretty much ninety per cent of the kingdom and only leaving Divinatus was bad, but when compared to the annihilation of their entire race and kingdom, it was a no brainer for the Ak’hims.

There was one thing that everyone agreed on: that if there was anyone who could come up with some crazy plan for them to survive this war, it was Klauna. Everyone in the meeting room just stared at Klauna with great expectations. Everyone was waiting for her to say something as if she had the answers to everyone's questions.

Thing is, she may have it. It's just that… she was in no condition to lead an army right now. To lead the remnants of her entire race.

Klauna was in the meeting room with the other officers, just staring blankly at the map of the area— a permanent frown was on her face and eyes that had no energy in them. She looked to be thinking but Harbin knew that they would not be able to get any answers from her today.

Seeing her condition, Harbin just shook her head towards the others.  The others saw this and hung their heads. Another day of zero progress.

"Lord General the Seventh. Do we proceed with the current plan to reach Divinatus as soon as possible?" Saladis the Mermaid Queen asked Klauna.

"...um? Yeah," Klauna responded without any heart in it.

Saladis give off a frown at the answer before looking towards the others. "Then we dismiss for the day. I hope the next time we meet, we will have an idea on what to do," Saladis said before moving out of the small tent, her followers followed behind her.

This was followed by the sight of the other officers leaving the tent. The First army, then the Second, then the Third. They left, one by one until it was only Harbin and Cera in the meeting room. The two just continued staring at Klauna who was lifelessly looking at the map without any meaning. A needle pricked at Harbin’s heart as she saw this. The strong and wide back she so admired finally broke under all that weight. It now looked small and pathetic.

“Come on, Harbin. Let’s give her some time alone,” Cera said to Harbin before softly grabbing her and exiting the room.

“Um... Ok.” Harbin replied and gave one last look at Klauna before moving away.

* * * * *

 

With nothing else to do for the evening, Harbin and Cera walked around the camp, looking for something that they could help with. Though there wasn’t much that they could do in the situation, so the two just walked around in silence until something interesting crossed their path. 

They walked in a camp full of people just sitting around and doing nothing, despair taking over the camp with people literally refusing to move as they believed that there wasn’t any point to fighting anymore. Hard to blame them, when death was right now looking to be really just a matter of time.

“Hey, Cera,” Harbin opened up a conversation as they moved around the despair ridden camp.

“Yeah?”

“Lord Leida… is a very important person to you right? An Important person to Ms Samiyadare as well?" Harbin asked.

“Yeah. She was my respected teacher, and my god-mother,” Cera replied.

Harbin averted her eyes away and looked elsewhere, still moving around the camp. “You seemed to be rather alright all things considered. Ms Samiyadare as well.” 

“Yeah, I guess you could say that. Is it troubling you that I am not like them?” Cera replied. She then focused her eyes on the depressed soldiers.

Harbin turned around to face Cera again. “No! It’s nothing like that… It’s just that… when Lord Lionel fell, you were rather torn about... You know.” Harbin clenched the Grimoire within her hands harder.

“...I knew that she was going to die one day or another. I guess I‘m more prepared about it than I was with Lord Lionel. I’ve said all that I needed to her. I am at peace with my decision,” Cera replied, dignity in her voice.

“I see...”

“I’m sure Sami feels the same as well. She must have known and prepared herself. All that’s left is for us to take over their legacy and live on. It was what Lord Lionel taught me and that’s what I am planning to do,” Cera said before stopping and staring at a certain direction.

"It is something they will have to do as well," Cera said.

Harbin stopped and stared at the direction that Cera was looking at.. “...Poi… Senior Yuupiecca,” she muttered.

It was Yuupiecca and Poi sitting next to each other on a bench. In front of them was a table filled with magical tools. Some of them Harbin could recognize belonged to the fallen elder rogue. Yuupiecca was keeping himself busy with work as he tried to perfect a spell so that the grimoires would be able to withstand the energy rain and pretty much any other thing the Alliance could throw at them. He blames himself for the death of Balestra. If the replicas that he prided on so much didn’t fail, then Balestra and a large chunk of their army would probably still be alive right now.

Poi, on the other hand, was helping her brother sort out the magical tools and Balestra’s belongings. Puffy face and a slack expression with wet dull eyes. The cheerful and always happy Poi was nowhere to be seen. 

She and Yuupiecca could be seen having a small conversation with each other, though it was very quiet. So quiet that Harbin could not hear what they were saying. But whatever it was that they were talking about, it must have been painful as Poi soon buried her face and cried on Yuupiecca’s shoulders. Yuupiecca could be seen rather disturbed about the matter, but nevertheless, he let her cry in peace. The two siblings shared an emotional moment together.

“What kind of person was Balestra?” Cera asked as the two witnessed the scene in front of them.

“I heard that he was a good friend of their dead father. Took them in when they had nowhere to go. Poi was just nothing but an infant at that time,” Harbin responded.

“I see… What about his relationship with General Klauna?” 

“Poi… told me this story before… The two met in Divinatus a long time ago. I don’t know how long. I heard that some sort of accident happened and If it wasn’t for Lord Klauna, Balestra and their parents would have been dead. None of them would have been alive."

“A debt of life…Just like Lord Lionel.”

“Yeah.”

The two then went silent as they stared at the two siblings. Harbin wasn’t that close to Balestra. She respected him, but that’s all to it. His death brought her sadness but it was nowhere close to what the two siblings must be feeling. Harbin knew how it feels like to lose the person you called a family. She could sympathise with them.

She sympathised even more with Poi. She was young, just a few years older than Harbin. With Balestra’s death, she was pretty much the default leader of the Analyst rogues now. Harbin didn’t know how Poi was going to fill in the shoes of such a great man. Yet, she must do it regardless. The lives of the rogues were under her now.

“Let’s go. Let’s leave them alone,“ Cera said before leaving the area.

“Yeah…”

….
….
….
….

Leaving the place and the siblings alone, they then started moving around the camp again. Deciding that the camp, in general, was too depressing, they decided to walk to Medica’s Triage tent. Perhaps she could be in the mood for tea and small talk. 

How surprised they were when the mood within the Medical tent was unlike the camp outside. The sight of happy Succours could be seen walking around, excitement filled their bodies as they worked hard to tend to the injured. It wasn’t just the medical Succours either, the combat Succours were all over the place as well, having lively conversations with each other. They could also be seen interacting with some of the recruits. Aki, Sladar and Pringar among them.

Harbin and Cera didn’t know what could cause such a mood within the tent, but it was welcoming, to say the least. Slipping through the crowded area, they soon found the person they were looking for in a small secluded ward. It was just that, the person was in the middle of something.

On a bed was an almost naked Lina laying face down. A small piece of towel hid her private areas. Medica was on the side of the bed, examining her back with great interest. There was one thing that Harbin and Cera found interesting though— that the floor, the bed and the towel around them were filled with blood.

“Alright, Lord Lina. I’m ready,” Medica said to her, fully concentrating on Lina. It looked like she didn’t notice that Harbin and Cera were in the area.

“Alright… here goes,” Lina responded before struggling with something.

It was then that a pair of wings, made from what looked to be blood came out of Lina’s body. More specifically, through Lina’s wingless back.  Through the wing appendages, came out blood in the shape of wings. It was small, but it was definitely a pair of wings. She then struggled even harder and the wings soon sprouted even further to form a large and complete pair of wings. As if that wasn't enough, the blood from the surrounding areas then floated before merging with her wings, causing it to become even larger.

“Incredible… Can you flap it?” Medica said in amazement as she sees the phenomenon in front of her.

“I think I can. Are you sure?” Lina asked.

“Yeah, go for it.”

“Alright… here it goes,” Lina said before fully flapping the pair of blood wings.

The blood wings then flapped and caused the air in the room to go awry, making a mess out of it. Having enough of the matter, Lina then somehow ‘made’ the wings disappear, the blood soaking back into her body.

“Incredible,” Medica let out another voice of amazement. “You are amazing, Lord Lina. I’ve never seen nor read such a thing in my textbooks. It is like the vampires of old. How did you do it? What was the idea behind this?” Medica asked in excitement, the scholar within her shining out.

“You ask me? I don’t even know myself. One moment my vision turned red, the next thing that I knew I could fly again,” Lina replied.

“Red vision? Could it be that you’ve awakened as well?” Cera said, suddenly barging into the conversation.

“Cera! Harbin! How long have you been there?” Medica yelped out in surprise as she turned around to see her two best friends.

“Not that long. Just back when you guys were testing out that blood wing thingy,” Harbin responded. Cera just nodded at that statement.

“You mention something about awakening? Wasn’t that the same thing that happened to you?” Lina asked Cera, ignoring the side conversation between Harbin and Medica.

“You went through the same thing no? Vision turning red, blood seeping out from your eyes. A sudden surge of power. The feeling that you could do anything. That’s awakening,” Cera explained.

“It only triggers during specific events like serious mental trauma, feelings of very strong emotions or very near-death experience. Some of the sorts happened to you?” Harbin asked as she inspected Lina's back.

Lina then tried to recall the events that happened during the forest. “Yeah… Something like that happened I guess. It was in the forest, where that man took a hit meant for Yuupiecca. Then everyone else got surrounded. I don’t know what came over me, but I have to do something.”

“I see. It definitely fits the bill of strong emotions I guess,” Medica said.

Harbin went around and continued to inspect Lina's appendages, noting down things of worth in the Grimoire. “You must have awakened then. Though… I’m more surprised it wasn't Poi or Senior Yuupiecca that Awakened. Or even you Medica. You all were under the same circumstances. Could it be that the near-death requirement for awakening is not true or is there something more to it? Sorry, I can’t help, I wish I knew more about it… It’s quite a tight lip secret for those that know about it.”

“It doesn’t matter anyway. Lord Lina can fly again now. I’m so happy about that,” Medica said out loud, giving out a cheerful smile.

"Yeah, you are right I guess. This is definitely something to be happy about. Congratulations, Ms Lina," Harbin said to Lina.

"Likewise. Congratulations, Captain Lina." Cera said to Lina as well.

Lina just let out a small smile before agreeing with them. “Yeah,” She then regenerated her wings and stared at them. “I’m not going to lose these ones this time.”

“You won’t, Lord Lina,” Medica said to her.

“Thanks. Though, I wish there was another person who would wake up,” Lina said as she stared at Harbin. “How’s the drunkard doing? Still moping around? … says the person who moped around for months,” Lina let out a chuckle.

Harbin's expression then turned into a sad frown as she remembered Klauna’s condition. “She’s still the same as ever, just staring blankly without meaning for the past few days.”

“I see. Any plans for when we reach Divinatus?” Lina asked another question.

“...” Harbin didn’t give any response.

With her silence, the place went silent as well— with everyone coming to terms with the reality at hand.

That’s the thing about this event though. With time, Harbin believed that little by little, the Ak’hims could slowly but surely get over their loss and start moving forward again. The only thing was, that they may not have the time to slowly get over their grief. Not Yuupiecca, not Poi, not Parash, not the soldiers.

And especially not Klauna who everyone is depending on right now.