I had seen lots of deaths in battles. Soldiers stabbing each other, people whacked into their own demise, burned alive, they were inevitable sights I had experienced beforehand.
But somehow, I couldn't handle this death in front of me. The scene of the consumption was too awful to watch. Especially when a young person was becoming the victim.
If there was one thing I could tell about those beasts, they had no sense of reasoning.
We had lost. The woman would not be able to fight for us again and the horde would reach us eventually. Her hard work was wasted on our survival.
The insects made their march again in the darkness. All of their personnel who could move at the very least were lining up in a parallel. Their claws were quivering, itching to poke a flesh or two.
In the presence of the terror, my body moved again on its own.
I threw every rock that I could find near me toward them. No matter how small the stones were, I hurled all of them with my tiny hand. Unsurprisingly, they didn't give any significant reaction at all.
Either the rocks were too light, or my throwing power was just that weak. But my hand refused to stop as it continued with the volley of stones. I kept on with the assault until an ache was throbbing in my arm.
After several unsuccessful throws, my body ultimately gave up. My palm was grazed with abrasions and my elbow was getting sore. I could only focus on fixing my arm while they were approximating our position.
They cornered us by making a half-circle. The insects made sure there wasn't any kind of gap that we could exploit if we went to them head-on.
As their noises echoed in that place, my mind was screaming in desperation. I didn't want to die yet. I had not even done anything to find Aria so far.
My throat was was getting hurt, so I gulped down the air that my mouth could gather.
My eyes were getting dry by focusing on them, therefore I blinked.
I blinked once.
Then twice.
But nothing happened. The insects were frozen in place for a short duration.
I blinked thrice.
They suddenly turned their bodies back, ignoring the obvious prey in front of them.
What happened to them?
As my mind questioned their uncharacteristic acts, the answer came in the form of a stab.
A blade that glinted in the dark place was piercing the insect steadily, staining the glistening steel with the shade of dark green.
Not long after, the blade retreated and gashed through its head, silencing the beast squeaks efficiently.
Following the lethal strike, another weapon flew at high speed and penetrated the insect's chest. The tip was ignited with fire which caused heavy discomfort for the beast.
One by one, the enemies were getting finished off with the combination of those two weapons. My eyes faintly caught the figures of two attackers who saved us from this ambush.
The assaults continued relentlessly until every single one of them fell to the ground, increasing the corpse count of the insect horde.
After verifying the deaths of those insects, the shadowy figures sternly made their way to us. Their appearances were slowly revealed as they approached our place.
The two of them were humans, men to be exact. They brought weapons in their hand and the clothes they wore were not for leisure uses. Battling robe, uniform vest, leather boots, and additional place to put their weapon of choice.
There was a yellowish string that my eyes missed before on each of their backs, similar to the one that the girl at home had. But, the strings that tethered them were dimmer than hers.
"Datega desini!" one of them yelled somewhere before taking a better look at us. He was a young man with notable greyish hair who brought a bag full of darts on his back.
He picked me up from my laying position and attached his ear to my chest, checking if there was any pulsing beat inside.
He did the same brief inspection to the other baby after mine was done. For the woman though, he only examined the neck's pulsating vein.
"Tegana semuna idup! Kitaba wamere kair nate," the man who inspected us talked to the older man who was currently moving to the girl's corpse. He had the same hair color but the weapon he brought was a long curving blade.
"Tu gima adadua?" the younger guy asked again to the elder man.
The elder picked up the remaining cloth of the girl and shook his head when he saw the nonexistent body parts.
The younger guy exhaled loudly as he picked me and the other baby up again. His hold on us was tightened as we started to walk out from the place. We had returned to the path that we were supposed to be in.
The elder was still salvaging anything he could take from the corpses before he carried the woman on his back. Then, he followed the younger guy from behind while also lighting up a torch in his free hand.
I didn't know what was their intention with us, but there was a fact that remained true. They saved us from the horde.
I couldn't quite understand the feeling I had that time. I was relieved that they managed to save us from the insects, but at the same time I wondered what took them so long to reach there.
If they arrived just a little bit earlier, the girl could have been saved. Maybe the woman didn't have to fight until the point of collapsing too.
As we followed the path, more and more people that looked like guards joined us on the line. They were bringing some stuff that must have been the possession of the deceased since there was blood all over them.
The others also brought some people on their side who looked lost and scared. Children, men, women, everyone who seemed lonely and needed protection.
However, upon further look, not every guard who approached us was human like the ones I met so far. There were more talking beasts that were striding behind us.
I thought the turtle hybrid was an exception but turned out there was more variation of them. Even I could not tell exactly some of these talking beasts' counterparts in the previous world.
The ones I could point out were the beast that looked like a fox with black color, the beast whose head resembled a bat, and another one that had tusks like boar. All of them could talk and walk as good as people would do, which kind of gave me the creeps.
If the beasts in this world could talk, then why would the insects not listen to any reasoning?
It didn't make any sense to me.
We traveled the long forest path, accompanied only by the sound of steps and incomprehensible chatters. The stride continued for quite some time until I heard some noises from afar.
I couldn't quite catch what those sounds were about, but I was sure they were the sounds of bickering. After that whole insect's spectacle, somehow there was another commotion that occurred.
The closer we got to the chaotic noises, the more I heard something that touched my sentimental side. Something that was calming amidst all of the mayhem that was happening.
The sea waves.
I assumed we must have arrived on a beach but the ground was too dark to look at. In my ears though, the sound of those greasy steps was no doubt coming from the sand.
When we had finally reached the source of the riot, the first thing I saw was a guard who was trying to calm a hysterical woman down. She was being extremely mad at the guard while he could only try to be as calm as possible.
"Kesila Anaku! Anaku kisinikan!" she threw some weak slaps at his body and screamed repeatedly with overflowing tears.
"Tanai bu... Tanai...," he spoke with an assuring tone but she wouldn't listen to any of his words. He tried to appear calm but his trembling hands were saying otherwise.
Next to the arguing pair, similar views could be seen and heard all over the place. Disputes of words, agonizing cries, and despondent complaints were filling the place. The villagers were facing an uproar.
The young man who rescued me was lifting my body to the air for everyone to see. Another guard was holding a torch near me so I was highlighted in the darkness. He did the same with the other baby and stayed in position until someone eventually called him.
A woman with light greyish hair ran to him and shouted some words that were filled with relief.
"Tula si anaku!" she dashed and hastily snatched the baby from his hand, grabbing the infant attentively in her arms. Her bloodshot eyes had stopped crying that time and it was instantly replaced with a look of solace.
"Sifi la anaki ya bu," the young guard calmly said as his hand tapped her shoulder lightly. The mother gave him a small smile before her attention returned to the crying baby again.
This whole thing turned out to be a meeting point for those who were separated. Perhaps the man who brought me didn't know that my guardian was the woman on his friend's back.
My eyes then shifted to the elder guard who came together with us. On his side, the view that I caught was much different than the younger guy.
Another woman approached him, repeatedly calling someone's name to the guard.
When he handed over the remains of the girl, her face turned a lot grimmer and her hands were shaking terribly. She immediately broke down to the ground when she saw the remained cloth and fainted from the sudden information.
She held the cloth in her clutch while her eyes unconsciously let out some tears to her face.
When I looked at the cloth that the girl wore before, my mind returned to the horrifying scene of the insect's feast. I remembered how powerless I was without the aid of the woman that was posing as my mother. I could only watch as the whole thing happened.
Was it my fault that she died? She refused to move in the first place and her position was the furthest from me, but I knew they were just poor excuses from my mind.
The reason won't matter as much as the result. The fact remained that I could do nothing to help the girl. If Aria was the one in her position, could I really let those petty excuses killed her and just say it was her fault to begin with?
I was ashamed of myself.
I looked back and forth between the two different circumstances. One had a great closure while the other ended terribly. I saved the baby on a whim but we sacrificed the girl. If I had the power needed back then, would everything turn out differently? Would my action minimize the casualties here?
The answer was obvious.
Behind the guard, some of the lost people were reunited with the person they knew but the rest had no one to come for them.
As my vision went abroad, I took a closer look at the people there. Some people burst into tears and hugged each other so tightly while some others were crying alone. Some were clenching the children on their embrace while some fell to their knees with empty eyes.
It was a sight of both blessing and sorrow.
That moment was strengthening the answer I needed for my life.
After the discourse I had in my mind, something distant was grabbing my attention at that time.
A light.
An orange peeking light on the horizon.
I knew this view without having to guess what it was.
A sunrise.
I used to look at them with my grandfather when we were going fishing on the raft at dawn.
The view had the majesticity as the one in the upper world, where the water near the horizon would be colored by the warm tinge.
However, one quick look to the side and you would notice that this wasn't the same place.
This world, even though it had the same beauty as my world, was more unforgiving for those who were weak.
If I wanted to save Aria from this place, there was one thing I had to always keep in my mind, thus I vowed to remember that.
I vowed under the rising sun.
I vowed that I would become strong...
...and unbeatable.
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Volume 1 End