The lieutenant and the colonel stood outside the gates of the fortress.
"This is not good." spoke to the lieutenant
"You have no idea; most of our men are dead or injured; Alice is still knocked out; and we broke the promise with Lucius." Replied the General
"Those short blue people have already gathered the dead for us and housed them in their storage. If we don't take care of it, god knows what they'll do with them."
"We have to go and give them a proper burial; it is the least we can do for them," said the lieutenant.
The general turned towards the remnants of the battle; by this time, the ground had already dried up and it was daytime. The now dried ground was completely unearthed; there was no vegetation at all in the vicinity; the remnants of columns and spears were left on the ground; and where the monstrosity once stood were two halves of a dried-up body.
"We have to visit our sponsor again," said the general.
"You really think that he will help us again? It hasn't even been long since we asked for a favor."
"Yes, yes, I know, and even worse, his daughter was injured under my care. We're lucky he doesn't have the bloodline; if he did, we already would've been turned to ash."
"So what are we going to do? We don't have enough men to fly the aircraft."
"We'll quickly deal with our dead and gather all of the injured in a few ships. We'll take them back to the sponsor and hope he'll send people over to get the ships we left."
"You go ahead and notify the injured; I'll deal with everything else."
"I need some time alone."
"Yes sir!"
The Colonel turned around and began walking towards the remnants of the monstrosity. The colonel sat on the ground, closed his eyes, and brought his hands up to his face.
~~~~
On the grassy plains, a ways away from the fortress, there was a cluster of shining red aircraft lined up in a box formation. And a mile away, a man was dragging bodies into a pile, which had now created a small hill.
"Now this is it," the lieutenant silently said as he finished putting the last body into a pile.
The lieutenant turned around and yelled, "It's time!"
A small group of people stood off to the side.
Lucius, the Colonel, and the conscious soldiers stood together off to the side, looking towards the small hill of their former brethren.
The general stepped forward away from the group.
"Does anyone want to say some final words before we do it?"
A few soldiers walked up and said a few words before joining back up with the group.
Then it was the lieutenant's turn. He walked forward towards the hill and whispered, "I am sorry that all of you had to die; it shouldn't have ended like this. This streak will come to an end soon; it has to. All of you were even experienced; none of you should have died against that thing." A few tears fell from the lieutenant's eyes as he turned back for the group.
"You can do it now," said the lieutenant.
"Okay, let us get this done," replied the colonel.
The Colonel left the group and approached the pile. Lifting his hands up, he began to murmur something.
His hands turned a bright yellow as he reached out towards the pile of bodies. A purifying yellow light floated away from his hands and onto the dead bodies.
The colonel stepped away from the bodies, turned around, and returned to the group.
The pile of bodies slowly began turning yellow. The group continued watching as the bodies turned completely yellow.
"You might want to cover your eyes for this," said the Colonel.
Lucius followed the warning and groaned, bringing his hands over his tired eyes. But everyone else in the group didn't care; they were going to see the end of their comrades.
The Colonel quickly looked up, noticing something, and the rest of the group that was looking joined him.
Boom!
Above the pile of bodies, the sound barrier was broken, and an enormous beam of light flew down from the skies and covered the pile in a flash. With a blinding flash of light, the pile of bodies disappeared from the plains.