"All for the sake of Something Greater…"
Artelia sure may be the smallest land in Butterfly Realm, and yet, it represents every ounce of beauty that even eyes have to admit when it occurs, however, as all scenery could get glamorously breathtaking, it also can give one nightmare. Black as grim reaper clouds marched upon the horse of dreadful gales. It is not usual in more southern cities, yet Marina weather has always been sceptical, after all, being half middle Artelia and half seaside may be to blame. Hence, even in the depth of a storm, the gales were more silent. As if it is waiting for a bigger barrage that may… conclude the answer.
A lad sat before a motionless lake. He held a dagger that he considers a memory, yet little did he know what holds dear is nothing more than a curse. Hatim doesn't know much about sails or how the scenery of the sea works, but Vestal was a sailor, though quite a bad one at that since he barely made a penny. Yet, even being worse than a beginner, Vestal once taught Hatim something.
'Listen brat… when it comes to the sea, there is an odd scent before every calamity.'
What Vestal called the scent of calamity, was similar to oil or dynamite mixed with seawater. Hatim sat before a lake where barely his silhouette reflected, and yet, looking at his own self, in the colour of nothing more than a black empty embodiment, he sure ran out of imagination, though, even in the depth of a hole, a void he kept thinking of old memories as it doesn't leave him, as if it clings upon to his shoulders, as if it calls him to a grave. Shortly within his blank mind, an unusual scent took a path in. Though it was sudden, he knew it was a scent of calamity. Yet, there is nothing he can do nor does he have the will to carry out this rage anymore, this anger that he thought was the answer is now betraying him, and yet when Zera's smile appears in his chasm of empty thoughts, somehow, everything comes to life. He kept the dagger in its scabbard and then wrapped it. Washes his pathetic face-off from lake water cleaning the blue devastated eyeshadow from his eyelids and runs his wet fingers to his hair. He was a man who once bore the title Warrior, there is no way he will be whining while calamity awaits to destroy everything once again. With a knot to his hair, his withered sunflower eyes bloom and shine gold in the depth of darkness. "There are things I have to protect, and there is Destiny I have to find." He said to himself.
***
"Captain! Captain!!" A yell echoed through all camps, and upon the edge of it, many soldiers gathered, though many remained drowned in liquor. "Hey! What's up? Why ya yellin' so loud goddammit? It's dead night ya know!" It was a newbie soldier who has given night duties most of the time, but seeing the terror on his face told a lot of what is about to come, hence with every second his silence intact, the soldiers grew wary. Finally, Captain Alika stepped out of the camp and saw the lad soldier upon the lookout tower and the look of terror on his face. "What is it?" He spoke adapting a wink of fear. And so, with a gulp down to his throat. "They're here. The pirates are back…" He couldn't tell it out loud, but somehow everyone understood the calamity. The Pirates are back, with greater numbers. "It can't be. We just fought 'em' this morning, it's unthinkable."
"So, this was their plan, huh?" Captain Alika understood what it was all about. They attacked the navy for years, weakened every ounce of it, and took out most of the veterans, little by little, and when there were only a handful of soldiers left, they would launch one last attack, moreover, in a single day, so that there could be no chance of resistance. It is absurd that Land of Dev hired thousands of pirates just to make a grasp on Marina, however, the thing that bothers Captain Alika the most was how they can attack twice in a single day? There is something off about it, but he just can't get his mind into it. "What are they hiding?" Captain Alika bit his lips, just because he couldn't see through the situation. "Get ready soldiers. This may be our last battle." He spoke slightly and stepped back to the camp.
***
"This is the end…"
"So, this is how we will die…?"
Despair quickly runs across the navy. Each and every soldier felt dismayed like never before, perhaps, this is what they feared the most. Soaked in their drunken words, the whole naval base sunk into the terror of being forgotten forever. And yet, upon the echo of the alarm bell, many soldiers still wore their armour. Many of them had pendants, watches, necklaces, and rings, just as why they marched forth to death. Some smiling, some in a rift of sadness, and even some with pride.
"A true soldier fights not because of what he hates in front of him but because he loves what is behind him."
Zera now truly understands what that quote meant. She walked past many soldiers, and with each step, she learned more. More she remembered a certain book, and more it spoke about life. Havoc spread wide since after the announcement many lanterns lit and an orange tint took over that resembled skirmish. Zera carried a fancy sewed bag that carries a book, a pen, and some papers. When the alerting bell reached the shelter, she didn't know what had come upon them, after all, she had never seen chaos before nor should she. Upon the bell of calamity, a hustle began like fire throughout the forest, hence when so many soldiers marched with hefty steps, it became loud and throbbing. Zera still walked in the search for a large green camp but all that havoc made her panic, her fingers trembled and her breaths came a little anxious. She closed her eyes, but suddenly a hand lapped over her head, a warm and gentle tap on her head, she opened those snake-ish gapes to whom she honoured most in her life. "Hatim!" Finally, a sparkle appears deep in her black eyes.
***
"So, this is how it all will end?" Captain Alika stood before a mirror. He has this complex texture on his face. It resembled little sadness and more pride. With the armour of gold he wore, he felt amused by how good he looked. "Ha! I still look young that is no saying." With a laugh, his palm swam for a bottle of liquor. He then sat onto a wooden seat and drank an overfilled glass of liquor in an instant, and again overfilled the golden glass and drank hastily once again.
"A Tale of Warrior. A Legacy. And a Chosen One."
Swift gales blew like innocent death calling names. The green camp was close to the shore and a sudden sound rumbled, echoing in rhythm, an unusual sound of drums. With a shiver in his poured liquor, the wooden bookshelves also slightly quiver. It was written in books, about a group of pirates. Upon their arrival, drums echo like singing a song of death, no one who saw them has ever lived to tell a tale but the one who heard them knew the catastrophe to tell. Their attack begins and leaves nothing but scattered blood. Captain Alika just knew how big this battle was going to be, but again, that wasn't what scares him.
"Give it up, Alika…" She walked in with silent steps and spoke her words like a whisper of an angel sung lullaby. Her emerald eyes gleamed so brightly that they could give one's soul shiver. It was as if she carried all the world's curses within those gazes. Athena has spoken her choice of words, and so the world against shall fall. Alika spun his defeated gaze to her, begging for help. "What do you mean by that?" Alika was not in the mood for a chat but even then, he fixed his throat and resetting his hair. "Can I know what your words meant?" This time more calmly he spoke like a gentleman. Athena didn't show her face to him since that black hood covers her face, but within the hood, her emerald eyes gleam green, and it gives Alika chills through his spine.
She blinks.
"Have you heard of an ancient tale…?" In the presence of her words, everything stood still in which even beads of sweat were not allowed to make a noise. Hence with faint drums echoing in back, her tale continues. "The tale of two brothers. One was bright as the sun while another just wanted to be lit by its brightness… like a moon. But soon, their belief struck onto something, to something where one was against and while another stood by it. Their brotherhood was known throughout the world and yet their swords clashed like thunder in the sky and their roars haunted every breathing kind and cast dark mist to all the world. Some legends say their battle went for over months and months and yet no victor rose from the mist… Who do you think won the battle, Captain Alika?" Captain Alika went mute. He didn't know what words to say, or rather what answer Athena sought. "I… I don't know…" Perhaps no one could answer that, after all, no one could tell what is going on in this lady's head. Except from one hothead that is. Athena let out a breath. "No one. They both lost." She replied softly. What was the purpose of the story at all? And how in the world does it relate to where they stand? Captain Alika sure lost himself at some point. She wandered the room with silent steps though, there was not much place to walk, thus her feet stopped at a corner of a bookshelf. Her gaze roamed upon all the books in an instant. "Nothing ever comes adequately from spilling chaos." The lustrous emerald eyes spun to him, spitting the sheer power of correct words. "You used the Navy, and you brought Marina City in the grasp of Land Dev, not the pirates. Your chase after a tale led you here." Athena's words shoot like arrows to his sanity. "People who chase after the 'it' never reaches the end… nor do they get written down in history." Her silence between sentences was killing every ounce of his soul. Not because she questioned him, but she spoke the truth, that… he spoke to himself was a lie. "W—wh—what… what are you talking about?" Trembling, his words somehow found a way out from his throat.
She blinks.
Then she pulls out a book from the bookshelf.
The Messiah~
"You are the reason Red Light streets exist. You are the reason Marina navy is on the verge of extinction. After all," A halt in her words seemed as if falling from a cliff and never regaining yourself. "You do not possess any skills… you are a fake, Alika."
A bottle of liquor fell from the shelf upon the quaking drums and brought a suffocating stink with a mighty echo.
"You wanted to be like Him. A figure who has no power nor the skills, but only the will to change everything. But you ended up here, with hundreds of bottles of liquor and hundreds of corpses imprisoning you." Some little winds snuck into the camp. "All these books say a lot." Her fingers swam to the bookshelf. "People are manipulative… That I presume would change someday, but as of now… they will believe anything the upper echelons told them. If you say there is 'war' they believe it's war. If you say the enemy is 'them' they believe it's them. Then you declared openly that you have the power to change it, that you have the power to fight back. You demand the Men within Marina City, and those foolish citizens did not show an ounce of doubt and gave their lives in the name of their loved ones. Alika, they believed you, they treated you as someone they could rely upon… they had an idea that you will fight for them and grant them the victory they deserve… but you betrayed them. Or perhaps, you yourself believed you could change the destiny, that you were the chosen one… after all, you fought alongside someone who certainly went against everything and came to an end as the victor. You too were one of his soldiers, weren't you…?" The drums continued in her silence, intensifying his greater fear and giving shivers to his soul.
Athena's hood blew with a sudden blast of wind and revealed how dreadful this beauty is. Her lustrous emerald eyes gleam like a sharp sword has been put on Alika's neck. And yet, her face didn't show a single ounce of pain, sombre, or even anger.
"Alika, you are not the Messiah. You cannot be. You were not the chosen one."
She put back the book. The emotionless beauty stood in raven clothes, like an angel of death, casting an illumination of truth. "I—I—I'm… I'm… I am very sorry… please forgive me…" He did not know how this miss knows yet even then, tears of something he has been holding to himself for years after years finally found their way to his eyes. Somehow those tears reminded Athena of a certain young lad, he is hot-headed, but perhaps, he is after all a… "Human." She whispered. However, Athena wasn't done yet, after all, her eyes still had a startling gleam. "Alika."
Like an angel, she called his name.
His eyes spun to her, slowly, and hesitantly. "Marina is essentially divided, in between men and women. So how is there a Red-Light Street?" Somehow even after her face remains cold-blooded, the air itself becomes heavy to breathe in. Her glare attached like a string to his guilty eyes.
She blinks.
"Where did you sell them?" There was no place to hide he could think of. But forget about hiding, he didn't dare to even exhale his breaths. "It was—…It's Her." With pure terror within his eyes, he said. No words possibly could describe how awful it was for him to even know that truth, and yet, he let it happen, no… perhaps, it happened because of him… He never should have let that witch take over everything. But only now he could see it, only now he can see how awful his own sanity was. After years, once again something rose within his heart, something like a fire.
"My soldiers probably are not experienced, nor do they have the power to go up against the state! But… I do know one fact; my soldiers have a heart! They are humans. They have the will to protect and that is enough to make them the greatest strength in Artelia!!!" ~
'I remember his words… wow, just what a man he lived. Prince Leocus… you were glorious.'
"Worry not, miss. I will do anything you say!" With a roaring fire in the depth of his once empty heart, Captain Alika shouted. Though upon his fading words' echo, two more figures entered the large green camp.