In the cold night where towers stood tall, and the stars twinkled in the sky, where houses stood inside the wall with their lit lanterns hanging above their porches, where some soldiers marched back and forth guarding the Empire's streets, and others asleep on the side of the walls, I sat waiting for the time when I could join this new war.
The war against the rebels was growing to an end, yet I was still not part of it. All I'm doing now is thinking. I wondered why General Girardot would betray the emperor. Why would he betray his home. He was a very loyal and respectable man. I started to second guess this whole war. Girardot must have a good reason for this. Maybe I don't want a part of this after all.
....
Strife POV
Emperor Strife and a man name Chester exited out of the palace. Strife was excited to hear news of the progress of his plan. They took a walk while discussing it.
"Have they fallen into the trap?"
"No, Emperor Strife, not yet..." Strife felt disappointed at hearing this. "... However, the plan is a success so far. Once you kill Girardot yourself you will control them. They will your puppets. They will not know the truth of your plans." At this, Strife's evil hopes rose. Little did he know, someone overheard their conversation.
....
MC POV
"Have they fallen into the trap?"
"No, Emperor Strife, not yet. However, the plan is a success so far. Once you kill Girardot yourself you will control them. They will be your puppets. They will not know the truth of your plans."
Something is wrong. What is Emperor Strife and this mysterious man, Chester, planning? It seems they are talking about the unit that is fighting the rebels right now. The elite unit is in danger. Maybe Girardot does have a good reason to rebel against Strife. I have to warn them, but how? I have no clue where they are.
....
I was forced to stay here. I couldn't warn the others, but I don't think it really matters. They have defeated the rebels and Girardot was executed by Strife's hand without any trial. He controls everything now. What will happen to the elite unit now? Will they be safe? Will they follow Strife still or turn against him? Only time will tell.
....
I can't believe I have to fight them. The elite unit did after all turn against Strife. For a long time I was forced to not fight and now I am, but it's the wrong fight. Emperor Strife did say that we soldiers have to make a sacrifice. Maybe this is what we have to sacrifice, our moral beliefs. This won't be it though. My sacrifice will be my loyalty to Emperor Strife. I will follow the new rebels, named Arthias.
....
We were marching toward the Grandall forces in the desert. The air was dry and the heat was scorching. The ground was hard with lots of sand. There was nothing around us. I stepped into a section of soft sand I looked down and realized I was sinking.
Fear overwhelmed me. I thought this was how my life would end, suffocating inside quicksand. Then something touched my hand. I grabbed it with both of my hands. One moment I was waist deep in the sand and the next moment, with a lot of struggle, I was pulled out of the sand. Everyone started laughing. In the end I started laughing too, knowing that I shouldn't have panicked. We then were off to battle.
Soon we found Grandall's desert camp. There were many tents in the field and a fortress in the distance. Here we built our fortress. We then rode to battle.
....
Many died on both sides, but we were winning. Our commander, the one from the elite unit who is now the commander of Arthias, rode on to take care of the Grandall commander.
Soon the desert battle had ended with victory on our side. We marched on toward our next destination for three days and three nights. We marched through the scorching heat and the freezing cold. Hunger and thirst threatened our lives. Finally, we made it. The next battle started. It mysteriously lasted for three days. However, this battle became the bloodiest battle so far.
"Finally, after the three days, the battle was won. We marched on to our next two destinations. We won both of them, with each being more difficult than the last. In the second battle we had to fight our old allies, including Abelia. It was difficult to face them, with them being our old friends. Now they are with us again. Now we are off to the capital. We are off to kill Strife.
....
We marched up to the great walls of the Grandall capital. They were twenty feet tall. How will we get over this wall? Many of us wondered that. The commander, however, looked confident. We were told the plan, then we marched on and followed that plan.
First, we took the one building that was outside the wall. The one man that was in there was impossibly tough. Good thing there were many of us. Next we went through the tunnel that was made in the outside wall and took one building at a time. Half of us came into the city from the opposite side of the city. We surrounded the enemy.
The last fight before we headed into the palace was against a being called Nightmare. What kind of man is Strife to have a monster like this fight for him? This proved that Strife himself was a monster.
With all of us working together we defeated Nightmare. We then marched on to the palace. We defeated the bridge guards, which were tough, and the guards outside the palace, which were easy. It was as if Strife did not think we would get this far.
After a little chat between him and our commander, we defeated Chester inside the entrance of the palace. It was then I realized who he really was. He was the one behind the scenes controlling the king of Maletta. It was all planned. That would explain why, in the fight with the "brigands" there were a few dressed in Grandall armor. In the end it didn't really matter. Now was the time to pursue Strife. This is where the real challenge begins.
....
Fire consumed everything in the palace. The flames rose higher and higher along the blackened walls and curtains. The paintings crumbled to dust when touched. Chasms grew as floor fell apart. The fire crept along every surface in the palace. Despite this, Strife stood in the back waiting for us. His elite guards stood guarding, separating us from the tyrant emperor.
One by one the elite guards fell. It took all of us to defeat each guard. There were ten of them. Five of us died. Apparently this is the power of a true Grandall elite soldier. We maneuvered around the burning obstacles and the wide and deep chasms. Finally, we made it to Strife.
I can't tell you what he said but I can tell you this, Strife and our commander had a dramatic talk. We were all ready to end this war. We were ready to finish Strife off but we realized only the commander can be the one to do it. It was a "to the death" duel between them two. If Strife failed we win the war. If he won we all had to bow down to him. Our commander, the one who started the second rebellion, would be killed. What's worse was that Strife wielded the ultimate dark sword, Soul Edge. It was the giant cursed blade that Nightmare used. The only one with the blade that can counter Soul Edge is the commander, but this Soul Caliber blade was only a Chinese sword, given to him by Luna at the beginning of the seige. This sword has less reach than Strife's sword.
The fight had begun and all we could do was stand back and watch. It became very tense. Many times the commander had to block and parry. In the end Strife was driven to anger, but he was becoming tired and weary, swinging the huge sword. He became more reckless. In the end the commander overpowered Strife and gave him a fatal blow. Strife fell face first. He turned himself over onto his back with difficulty. We all saw the fear in his eyes.
Now was the moment. Will the commander finish Strife off or let him die slowly in agony? No, one look down at Strife and the commander walked away. The rest of us just stood there watching. We were shocked that the commander was doing this to Strife, even if he was an absolute monster. We thought our commander was too kind-hearted to let Strife suffer like this. Perhaps it was the hatred towards Strife and the lies he had created in all those years he had been emperor, especially the lies towards us. Perhaps it was also war that changed the commander.
Strife finally died. We realized we were running out of time. We wasted ten precious minutes. The place was was falling apart. We had to hurry and get out of this place.
....
Two Years Later
The world finally had peace. Abelia became queen. Every soldier was now able to go home and be with their families in peace. A statue was made in honor of the one whom we all owed our thanks to. The one who made all this possible, our commander.
We didn't know how it happened but somehow the commander died. Perhaps it was weariness from the long war, or maybe some other reason. Who knows? We do know this, the legend will never die.