I didn't like the idea, but it had to be done.
When the entire town got the signal that Gleam was about to attack our town, I gave the order to retreat to the underground bunker that we made with our Earth Magic.
The ground finally stopped shaking, signaling the end of Gleam's attack, but we didn't have the courage to go back up to the surface.
"I hope that the others are ok." I said to myself.
"You shouldn't worry so much Dusk," Flicker said to me. "They're a strong bunch, so they'll be fine."
"You're right about that, but I'm still worried about Leonna."
I turned to see Leonna sitting down with no color showing on her face.
Two hours earlier
After Hiro accidently destroyed the Town of Colors, we found Leonna bleeding out on the floor. Ray healed her just in time and she recovered shortly after.
Leonna told us that before she completely blacked out, she saw Gleam standing right behind Hiro with a smile on her face. We were all shocked to hear it and wanted to play it off as her just hallucinating from blood loss, but the seriousness on her face and in her voice was enough to convince us otherwise.
Xylvia came up with the idea of us splitting up into three groups. Xylvia would head to one town, Rei would head to one, then would I. We were about fifty miles spread out from each other with the fastest way to get here would be by riding a dragonman for ten minutes.
We were all trying to come up with a plan to stop Gleam until one day, Leonna showed up to the town on a dragonman.
"Leonna," I said as I saw her frantically dashing to me. "Why did you come here so suddenly?"
"Hiro's...hah...hah...alive..." Leonna said, completely out of breath. "Xylvia...hah...hasn't come back yet...hah...and the town...hah...has been destroyed!"
"What?"
So Gleam was able to find out where they were hiding out at. And she's probably keeping Hiro alive because of his sword.
"Did anyone from your town make it out alive?" I asked.
Leonna looked down, wearing the most depressing look that I've ever seen on her face.
"I'm...sorry," she said through her tears. "Everyone...was killed."
Leonna sank down to her knees as she kept apologizing over and over again until all she could do was cry on the floor.
"None of this is your fault," I said to her as I helped her back up to her feet. "That fake goddess is the one to blame for all of this hell."
"I know, but this is bigger than me. I always thought that this world was just going through a terrible war that ends with light beating dark, but now it expands all the way to Gleam wanting to destroy these gods that we never knew about. I don't know if I can fight this."
I wanted to cheer Leonna up, but she did have a point. It pains me to say it, but she's right. This entire situation is much bigger than all of us. No wonder Hiro struggled to keep his sanity.
"I'm sorry Dusk," Leonna apologized. "But...I'm done. I never asked to fight this war. All I ever wanted was to avenge my family. But that's impossible now. I've lost too much hope to believe right now."
I watched as Leonna sadly walked away and sat down on a bench.
"Leonna..."
"EVACUATE!!! EVACUATE!!!"
The screams of a soldier running alerted me back to my senses.
"SHE'S COMING!!! GLEAM IS COMING!!!!" she shouted.
"Oh no... EVERYONE, EVACUATE UNDERGROUND!!" I commanded to everyone.
All the people of the town immediately ran to the large bunker that we built and ran straight down into it.
"MAKE SURE THAT EVERYONE GETS INSIDE SAFELY," I shouted. "WE'RE NOT LOSING ANYMORE PEOPLE!!!"
Everyone from all over the small town rushed to get inside. I watched to make sure that everyone got in safely.
Except one person was still missing.
"WAIT, WHERE'S LEONNA?!!" I shouted.
"SHE'S STILL SITTING ON THAT BENCH!!" said one person.
I started running to where the bench was and found Leonna still sitting on the bench.
"Leonna, we have to go right now!" I said to her.
She said nothing back. She kept her head down and didn't move from her spot.
I wasn't going to let her die, so I just picked her up and started running to the bunker.
"I'm not about to lose anyone else again." I said to her as we ran into the bunker and closed the door behind me.
Three days later.
The shaking has long since stopped and no sounds of explosions could be heard from where we were, but we were roo afraid to head back up and see what happened.
But even through the fear, I still wanted to keep fighting.
"Are you sure that I can do it," I said to Flicker. "I don't know if I can convince them all."
"Don't worry little sis. You've got this," Flicker said. "Just have confidence in yourself."
The rest of my family stood behind Flicker holding their thumbs up.
I took a few deep breaths than smiled.
"Alright, here I go." I said.
I walked over to where the steps, which led back up to the surface, were and everyone immediately turned their heads to listen to what I had to say.
"Everyone, I'm just going to be blunt," I started. "We have to go back up to the surface and fight."
Just as I had expected, everyone immediately disagreed.
"THAT'S INSANE!"
"I HAVE A FAMILY!"
"WE DON'T WANT TO DIE!"
I started to think that convincing them was impossible, but I did everything I could to shove that thought as far back in my head as possible.
"I GET IT," I shouted. "I get it. I know you're all scared. None of you want to die. I feel the same as well. But if we don't do something, then we're all going to die."
"I'D RATHER DIE IN FIVE YEARS TRAPPED IN HERE THAN DIE NOW!!" someone in the crowd said.
"WELL WE'RE NOT GOING TO HAVE FIVE YEARS BECAUSE THIS WORLD WILL DIE BEFORE EVEN A FEW DAYS PASS!!" I snapped.
That got everyone's attention.
"What's the point in staying here if we're just going to die anyways? I've been trapped by that fake goddess for most of my life and I don't want that to happen again. I know it may sound like I'm only doing this for myself, but all of you would agree with me if you lived the life that I had to endure!"
Everyone was giving me their full attention now.
"I never got to experience the things that some of you have. I never had friends. I never had romance. I never got praised or wanted or even scolded for doing something wrong. All I had was torture, pain, misery, and sorrow. But now, after meeting Hiro and his friends, I finally got to have the things that I've always wanted, and I would do anything to keep that. I still want to keep my friends. I still want to fall in love, whether it be with Hiro, Ray, or even Leonna. I still want to be praised and wanted. Even scolded. And all of my people want the same things as well. They all had to endure the same things that I did."
I looked at all of the dragonmen that made up a lot of the crowd.
"Why are you guys still scared? Haven't you guys had enough pain? Don't you guys want the things that I said? It was a miracle that you guys were able to escape from that place, so please...DON'T LET YOUR FREEDOM GO TO WASTE!!!"
I was crying heavy tears at this point.
"I don't care if I'm the only one anymore. I don't care if any of you, if my fellow people, or even if my family doesn't agree with me. I'm going up there and I'm going to fight whether you guys want to or not, BECAUSE I BELIEVE THAT WE CAN WIN THIS!! I don't care if my odds are low. I don't care if no one if with me. I don't even care if it's impossible anymore. I'M FIGHTING THIS WAR, AND I'M GOING TO WIN NO MATTER WHAT IT TAKES!!!"
I gasped for breath and fell to my knees as tears streamed down my face.
After what felt like ten whole minutes of tears and gasps for air, I stood back up and started to walk up the steps.
"I guess I'm alone after all." I said to myself.
CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!
I turned to see someone clapping in the distance. The person I saw clapping was enough to make me start crying again.
"Leonna..."
She smiled at me and nodded her head as she kept clapping.
"I never should've lost hope," she said. "I'll fight with you even if it kills me."
"I..."
Before I could say anything, my family started to clap as well. Then the dragonmen followed, then the soldiers, then the citizens.
And before I knew it, everyone was clapping for me.
"She's right! We shouldn't lose hope!"
"If I'm going to die, then I might as well die fighting!"
"We're going to win this! There's no way in hell that Gleam will be able to beat all of us!"
I felt overwhelmed by all the praise, but I also felt extremely happy.
"Thank you guys...so much..." I said through my tears.
I started to walk back up the steps again, but before I could open the door the sound of the metal door being knocked on echoed throughout the room.
We all stood still. No one said anything. No one even moved.
No one except for me.
When I opened the door, the person standing before me was the last person that I expected to see, but the one person that I was glad to see.
"We could use some help in fighting this war," he said. "Are you guys ready?"
"We're as ready as we'll ever be...Ray."