I spun around and looked down over the hill. Stell was walking towards the encampment. I got up to run after him, but then Meso's voice abruptly thundered into my mind.
'LEAVE HIM!' -Meso.
Meso's words brought me to a halt.
'How can I just leave him?'
I had been trying to hold Kade back. She was almost more than I could handle, and Kade wasn't stopping for anything until Meso appeared right in front of her face. Then she became limp in my arms.
'He needs to do this on his own, or he will never get past this block.' -Meso.
I held Kade in my arms as I watched Stell walk up to the camp. No one had seemed to notice him. As he walked into the center, he walked towards a pile of weapons and grabbed one of the swords by the blade. As his lips moved, I could hear the song of Stell's magic like a concert of gods, so noble and resolute.
As he spoke, the words "augment" silver metal started to coat Stell's fingers and work its way up hand and arm. Soon The metals covered his entire body in liquid steel, but he moved with deadly efficiency.
The first guard posted never seen it coming with his back turn on his post. Stell walked up behind the man silently and grabbed him around his neck, and squeezed. The man struggled for no more than a couple of seconds.
He continued and started methodically killing everyone in the camp that wasn't a child or woman. The dark ones tried to run, but Stell summoned walls to box them until he could get to them, forcing them to watch him slaughter their kin.
I felt no pity for these monsters. My only regret that night watching my brother is that I could not join him, but Meso was right. He did need to do this himself.
He tore through the men as if they were paper. No weapon they had could harm that steel shell that coated his skin. Then I heard a disgusting noise.
As I did, Stell was hit will a ball of sickly green fire that engulfed him. Stell didn't flinch. Instead, he made a small sphere and dropped it at his feet. It erupted in a Cyclone that threw dark ones that were surrounding him in the air.
Now the flames were gone from around him, and the sheer weight of him held him in place as the cyclone dissipated. He turned towards the source of magic, and his nose wrinkled.
The gross and gnarled looking dark one held an iron rod with a blazing red gem set in the top of it. Stell advances, and I could hear the angry buzzing from the dark one preparing to unleash more destruction. As the dark one thrust his rod forwards, Stell calmly spoke two words that I couldn't make out.
In that instant, a wall appeared in front of the deformed mage, but it was different. It seemed to shine so brightly that I still had to shield my eyes even with my lenses in. As the wall appeared, the spell hit it, reflected, and hit the mage instead, knocking Stell back several yards. He didn't get up, but he was still moving his arms.
Stell walked over to the struggling dark one. There were a couple more that tried to attack him on his way through, but he just reached out one of his big hands and crushed each man's head. Stell showed no remorse.
When he finally got to the mage, he made a sphere so fast that the rushing air almost burst my eardrums. The sound brought me to my knees. Stell reach down and picked up the struggling mage by the head and shoved the sphere in the man's mouth. Then he grabbed the man by the coat and pulled his arm back.
At this point, I pulled Kade's limp body close to mine and wrapped us in my cloak, and threw us both back down the hill on my back. As we slid down, I pulled my hood over my face and heard Stell give a yell of triumph, and the world exploded with wind and chunks of flesh.
After some time and the night had started to set in, Kade had woken up. We headed down the hill to our steel and blood-covered friend. He had just finished off the last of the dark ones and tried to wipe the blood off himself as the steel faded away. The women and children were huddled, scared, covered in bloody pieces, and crying in the middle of the tents.
"Where are you from my friends?" Kade said to the most coherent of the women.
She had finally become conscious and was blown away by what happened. She was trying to help console and clean up the people they had just saved. The women were all badly bruised, and some had broken bones—a couple of the women bleeding from slice marks all over their bodies. The children were dirty, but none of them seemed to be seriously hurt.
"We were from Caralien, but nothing is left." the woman said with tears in her eyes. "They killed every man above the age of 7 and made us watch. Then forced the children to watch them rape us." She broke into tears and became inconsolable.
I walked over to the women and started to gather my will. These people had been hurt so badly and wanted to live peaceful lives with their husbands and children. Yet, these unforgivable monsters think they can destroy these people's ways of life and force their children to do the same. Unforgivable.
I spoke with my will, "remove thought," and touched every mind, and took those painful memories away. I cannot change what has happened, but I can stop them from having to relive that pain every time they close their eyes. As I did, all the horrible memories and painful experiences washed over me in waves of body shaking pain, but I did not cry out. The pain these people went through is immeasurable. This pain was nothing to that.
As I drank in their pain, I could see the hopelessness leave their faces, and a look of relief replaced it. Meso appeared and quietly sent.
'Copy the spell.' -Meso.
'Don't leave yet.'
I sent the thought to him as I wrote down the spell with my glowing blue quill.
Once I finished, I started again to collect my will, much stronger this time. I began to form the image of a cloud pouring down all the love that was stolen from these people and spoke "Clouds of Healing." As I did, a cloud formed above us and started to rain down glowing drops.
As the drops touched the women's skin, their bruises began to fade, and the cuts started to heal. One woman cried out more in shock than any pain when her broken arm and shoulder snapped back into place. Not one of the drops did anything for the fallen dark ones.