"I do." I answer firmly as I finish pulling back those who had fought so well. And, having pulled them back from the mouth of oblivion, I presented myself in the sky. As was once just was, I recreated it in my own image. With the plains becoming entombed within my multi-coloured magic.
"Another Valkinvar..." this chapter-mistress spat as her power began to spiral around her hands. A pair of flesh-shredding tornadoes waited for her call. As far back as her elbows before they opened up and moved away from her clutched hands.
"Zaphadren-Valkinvar!" I corrected with pride as I began to apply my focus towards my staff. An elegant, detailed weapon that was morphed into something far greater as I did so. All that power I had used to ensnare this army returned to me and a spiral of colour travelled along the metal shaft.
"AND YOU ARE STILL NOTHING!" she screamed in fury as her spells were sent out towards me. Pitiful constructs that only required me to raise my hand. From which a counterspell made of sapphire winds shot down the middle and split it apart. A fog then overtook the land.
It wasn't long before I found myself walking beside her, "Then what are you?"
Her response to the question was terror and confusion, she was once the master of this battlefield. And now she was on the run as scorching gusts of ruby and gold split away from me. They quickly bypassed her and shepherded her towards a mountain. And I lined up my next blow whilst she was trapped by the fire and lightning.
"VALERSRAKK!" she roared after freeing herself with a sudden burst of power. And when that word came, a fog-destroying roar came from the mobile fortress as it charged right for me. A viciousness it clearly had held in all this time. Though, I found myself backing away as I considered its name.
"The Castle of the Riders?" I questioned in bemusement as I smacked away a spell she had launched at me. Neither of them could hit me and I avoided it all with grace and tact. I treated them so casually it was almost as if it was a dance. Unfortunately for them, I was a demanding partner.
To my delight as well, they couldn't even turn their frustrations on the army or the Valkinvar at the fortress. My shields were too strong for them and as the mobile fortress found out. It wasn't worth the layer of skin it tore off. I kept their attention on me and made use of it.
"So if this mobile fortress, this Valersrakk, is the Castle of the Riders, they why not live up to the name and flee?" I rhetorically asked as I gazed down another admittedly magnificent spell. But to only know one of the winds while I knew four, it became unimaginably dull. I tore it apart with a flick of my wrist and turned it on her.
I wanted to see if she could take what she gave out. Though, clearly, not in its entirety as much of it was set aside to prevent the soldiers down below from shooting me. Thousands upon thousands of highly lethal pests which I just did not focus on. Their magic went to waste before it was spent in its entirety.
I choked their weapons, severing them from the supply that they depended on. It was a simple, quick effort that freed up much of this stolen magic for my own use. And while some of it kept the mobile fortress away. The rest was used to toy with the chapter-mistress as I threw her around like a careless child.
"It is clear you wished to put my allies within a mountainous tomb, that is what this magic was tuned for. So, how about I use it correctly?" I suggested as I reduced a mountain to a cloud of dust. With a gentle push, I then sent her into the dark depths of the stone cloud. And I turned away as she screamed against the reforming mountain and reinforced mountain.
"YOU DARE MAKE A MOCKERY OF ME!? CHAPTER-MISTRESS CHIARA OF THE ORDER OF THE OUTREACHING WIND!" she screamed as the mountain was blown away. A shower of boulders filled the sky, made up of not just that one mountain, but also the neighbouring ones caught within the emerald blast.
"No, but you make a mockery of me. The Valkinvar of the True Emerald Wind." I reply as my eyes start to narrow at the desperate woman. She spoke as if she was great, but I had seen no claim to this greatness. Merely a flashy show that even the Ordoar Imdvarce could put on despite their to-the-point attitudes towards magic.
"Your titles mean nothing to me, Valkinvar!" she spat as her power started to go into a single spell of immense destructive power. Even now, when she allowed it, the gusts of wind that just popped out of the building spell dug deep into the earth. A mine's depth each time this occurred.
"Clearly." I say as I slowly raise my hand as four winds appeared. One of nothing but the wind, one from the friction in the sky and the fires its heat created and a final one from the very sea itself. All of it gathered in a vast circle at the base of the plains and screams filled my ears. Her pathetic order was swept up into the forming tornado along with that army.
"I am not impressed!" she spat as her magic began to build. Yet, she thought I would not notice, but I did. She was ready just now to fire it, but she had put more and more of her magic into this spell in response to mine.
"Union of the Four Winds." I jokingly said needlessly as emerald, gold, ruby and sapphire light zoomed around us in a destructive circle. An unmatched beast roared in confusion as it was brought into the sky to join the vortex. And a steel behemoth that was brought low once again joined its brethren in the sky.
"DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" she screeched as all that power was sent out against me. Yet as she buckled under the strain of that magic, I merely glanced up at it. Unamused and unshaken.
"Leave." I tell her and her army as I gesture for my spell to leave the plains. They all went high into the sky from within a spiralling, multi-coloured tube of wind. A distorted worm that went beyond the clouds which is drew in more strength from. And, behind me, I called back the magic I had set aside for the defence of my countrymen.
I wanted them all to see the strength that guarded our country. Then, as I turned around to look upon them, the sky suddenly flashed and all were knocked over by the force. But, I found myself placing a hand against my done-up hair so the tails would not flap out ahead of me or against my neck. What was impressive for them was annoying for me.
"What a bother..." I remarked after briefly glancing up at the now cloudless sky as signs of my magic decorated the sky. It would be some time before things went back to normal.
"SHE DID IT!" was but one of many cheers I heard as I moved down towards the fortress. The witches and the soldiers of this place had fought well. Guareroisncer was truly here amongst them and Waionr had guided them well.
"Who was in charge here?" I asked the Valkinvar as I took over the command of all the lives here. But, when I did so, they began to step aside to reveal the bodies I had also retrieved. A number of them had lost their lives before I had arrived. As had their wing-head.
"Us two, I suppose." one Valkinvar-Imdvarce answered as she stepped forward with another. And while one tended to her repaired arm in amazement, shabby as the work might've been. The other one caught my curiosity by how much more damaged her gear was. It was such an odd thing to observe when those who had died had far less damage done to their armour.
And she didn't even have the strength to suggest that it was just because she was powerful enough to do so...
"Now, I am sure you probably heard me, but, I am Zaphadren-Valkinvar Gemorli. I am here to bring you home." I explain to them as my gaze turns towards the Valkinvar-Staguiffmani amongst them. She was in a state of disbelief, and she quickly dropped to her knees for a reason I could not guess. But, I was happy to assume relief was one of them because I could feel her tears as they disturbed the air around us.
"Home...?" the peculiar Valkinvar-Imdvarce questioned as she awkwardly adjusted to having the energy to move once again.
"Yes, Valkinvar-Imdvarce, we are going back to Thurn's Forge." I explain to her.
"But it's so far... Has... Has the rest of the?"
"You'll have it explained to you when we arrive, just know that the Line Before is one of the few places left in this land that we can count on."
"But that's the final line of fortresses and castles outside of Thurn's Forge..." one of them point out as a mood of despair took over.
"And we need everyone." I tell them as my magic worked in the background to open up a safe pass out of the fortress.
"Shouldn't we try to at least hold them here?" someone asked.
"Do not be foolish, you struggled against an airship and a single order of war-witches, this fortress has been lost."
"Y-Yes... Zaphadren-Valkinvar Gemorli." the one whose arm had been ripped off reluctantly said. But she left it at that and began to coordinate our immediate departure from this place.
"What do we need?" the other leading Valkinvar-Imdvarce asked me.
"Munitions, supplies, all of it." I quickly told her as the rest joined them. But not the Valkinvar-Staguiffmani who continued to weep.
"Zaphadren-Valkinvar Gemorli..." she whimpered as she shakily reached for the edges of my robes. And, like a mother, I guided their head against my leg and affectionately rubbed their hair.
"Everything is fine now, Valkinvar-Staguiffmani Dannatili." I told her, surprising her immensely with this reveal.
"Y-You remember me...?"
"Of course."
"Then why!" she began to nearly scream before she went quiet, "Then where were my orders...? Why was I...?"
"War is complex, it occupies much of my attention. Do not think on the past now, only the future." I tell her as I help her to her feet.
"Yes, sorry..." she let out as I turned my attention to the fallen.
"They fought well?" I asked, only to have my attention taken away from the dead by heavy footsteps.
"They all did." the only man amongst them answered as he aggressively dropped his weapon onto the ground.
"I am sorry for your loss." I tell him as I recall the difference in oath the men of the Valkinvar took. Whilst ours was a conditional betrothal to the Lord of Honourable War, Waionr. Theirs was as the guardians of the soon-to-be wives. Like how the father handed off their daughter, they ensured we made it down the grim aisle to our groom.
While these Valkinvar were now all with Waionr now, it must've hurt him deeply to have failed his oath nonetheless. Contradictory as it might seem to an outsider. Yet, I was quick to pick up on how he only focused on one of them. The Wing-Head.
"She only had to die because I was incompetent..." he spat venomously before he suddenly dropped to his knees. A loud bang of thick steel and flesh.
"A soldier that lays down their life for another one is a sacrifice worthy of commendation for all time. Do not try and attribute a negative stigma to her own choice. Do not dishonour her like this."
"She died because I could not load that cannon on time..." he seethed before he went to strike the ground. Though, to prevent him from potentially killing anyone, I place magic before him. It made him roll onto his back in pain, but it prevented a needless loss of life.
"She died to save the army." I correct as I reach my hand out to him so I could pull him up. Something I am sure would surprise the gun crews still up here. As, well, I didn't give off the impression of tremendous physical strength, did I? A beautiful, bountiful woman did not imply that at all.
It humoured me enough, though.
"Now, on your way, Valkinvar-Ammimpaurst, there is much work to be done." I tell him as I step aside to give him access to the bodies. If the supposed failure rested on his shoulders. Then I would allow him to at least get it out of his system by handling our dead sisters.
"Is the path back to Thurn's Forge clear of the enemy?" Valkinvar-Staguiffmani Dannatili asked me as she stepped closer to me.
"Not fully, no, so we will travel together. Our power will ward off anything that comes between us and the Line Before."
"Finally... Back to where I should be..." she mutters as we step to the edge of the fortress.
"Tell me, how did you come upon this place? It had been ordered abandoned because of the infeasibility of trying to defend it." I ask her as I gaze out towards the body-strewn battlefield. The far end of the plains was completely devastated by artillery fire. At least, the parts not enveloped in that display of power by our discarded foes.
"From what Wing-Head Allyoceer told me, Wing-Tip Vapooliar came upon her force and rescued it, essentially. And from here, they went out to save many more troops and Valkinvar, including me."
"Interesting, which one is that?" I then asked as I turned away from the battlefield.
"She's the Valkinvar-Imdvarce with the armour missing a piece from the crotch area. Assuming it still stands out after all of this."
"I think it does." I say as I recall the figure I was asking about. I would have to question her about this. Even if she didn't command our side of this siege, she set it all into motion.
"Should I join the others and help them?"
"Yes, of course." I tell her before she quickly heads off in a nervous state. One might even forget that she was even a soldier if she kept on moving like that. And once she departed, I looked out towards the plains that had finally be freed. Their enslavement as a battlefield had ended and a cautious peace filled it.
Scars it would never recover from had dug themselves in well. Hundreds of thousands of lives had been lost just trying to force themselves past the king of the plains. The Long Battery Fort had proven itself well, and though it was but a corpse now. It stayed on its thrown, surveying the work its power could create.