{pictures}
With moonlight shining through gray clouds over a small school, lay Hidden away in locked locker rooms, were small children. Huddled together, scared and cold, hungry and starved, one small child began to write:
Mother… father… I'm so cold… were so cold… the power is gone… the snow is relentless… while the winter winds are ruthless! The food is frozen… much like my hands… we need fire… we need food… but I dare not go out… I can't go out…. We can't go out… I still hear them… in the wall… on the ceiling and the roofs… I hear them… their cursed footsteps! I hear them! Many who have left never returned… only screams filled their spots now! I'm scared… were scared…. There is no way out! There is no way out! The way is shut! The way is shut!
I hear them crawling at the door! Slithering about like serpents! Always hungry… always hunting… searching… searching for something… searching for us! They want us... They need us… why? Why? Why? Why do they need us? My flesh doesn't taste that good… Neither do the corpses around! Frozen blood doesn't make for a good drink! AH! I hear them again… crawling at the door… did they hear me? Did they smell me… do I smell???
Ah! No, they didn't! Thank the lord! They found the school bullies hideout! Yes! Yes! Eat him! Hehe, his screams are funny Mom… That fat bastard got what he deserved! Squeal like a piggy he did! Haha! But all jokes aside, I wonder why they kill us but take the teachers instead!
But I guess I'll never know HA!HA!! It looks like the big one has finally found me! Found us! For I hear banging at the door… I'm scared…I'm so scared! I'm scared of the one who hides in the light! Mom… I'm sorry… I'm so sorry… there is NO WAY OUT!
→→→→→→→→→→→→→Excerpt from lost frozen journey in the northern district, found on the night of our darkest winter.
The Morning of Day 4
[No!] yelled the mayor
[You bastard!] yelled the crowd
[Look! I said no! We can't afford to lose any more good men!] replied the mayor to the crowd
[But there might still be people alive in the north!] roared back the crowd
[Yes! I understand your concern! I understand that you are worried for your families and loved ones! But the situation isn't in our control! We don't know what these things are or where they come from! It is way too dangerous! I will not send more people to die and further weaken our efforts to hold the barricades!] replied the mayor
[Boo! You just want to secure your own life! Boo! It is not like you have any family on the northern side! So, we doubt you understand anything we're feeling right now!] yelled back the crowd
[Yes! You're right… I don't have any family, or the lot trapped in the northern half of the town, but so what! Do you want to exchange what we have left for what we have already lost? The mercenaries I hired should be on their way as we speak! When they arrive, you can then go apply to see if they will take you with them to search for your loved ones!] replied the mayor
[Mercenaries this! Mercenaries that! Were are these so-called mercenaries!] yelled someone from the crowd
[hey Ya! It has already been a day! They should have been here by now! It is only a few hours' flight from Bredale!] yelled more dissenting voices
But as the crowd was rearing up to skewer the mayor alive, a sound erupted in the sky above their heads! For, as those clouds opened like a curtain, a big and intimidating ship burst forth, much like the last but this time the ship flew the crest of the Radiant Actors! For when the sun's rays hit the crest in just the right spot, green light bathes the world in the shape of an emerald eye! While it tears comfort those it came to save! But as the world slept in that green confront, Breder woke up to the horrors of frozen blue imp-like harpies that looked at him curiously…
Breder short POV morning of day 5
Breder didn't know why they took him. But that didn't matter to him! for they will die all the same! For as his hot breath escaped his mouth, the icy chains that bind him broke with a miner flex of his muscles! All the while the imps who were set to watch him did nothing!
Seeing his captors do nothing Breder looked to his wound to see a frozen hole in his chest! Annoyed that such a thing would hinder the healing process, Breder shattered it with hands! As his wound was closing to a tune the eyes could see, Breder thought:
{You won this time… but there won't be a next! Next time… I won't throw away my children so recklessly… the sight of their bodies was more painful than I ever realized… sure it wasn't the first time I have seen them die but this time… this time it was different… they died because I simply wanted to test myself… not to grow the hive… not to grow themselves! I could have left… we could have left… Sure I might have gotten hundreds of evolution points if I had won… but would it be worth the loss I suffered this time… would I be so willing to throw away my children everything I see an opportunity to maybe score some high-value points…}
{do I not value them more than I thought I did… Ah! I'm so angry! Angry at myself… but why? Why does my empty heart feel something…}
[Oh! Child you're finally awake!] interrupted a motherly cohesive voice
{you… what are you...] question Breder with a threatening attitude
[why child… I am the all-mother of the imps in this region! And I hear from a certain wolf tribe to be wary of you… For you came from the stars! Now tell me child, how is it flying through the stars?] replied the all-mother
{well, it's pretty much like flying in the sky… just colder and darker with more lights, that though; beautiful and full of heat, fail to calm the cold dark that is the ocean of stars.} replied Breder, while buying time for his wounds to finish healing
[I see… I so, do wish I could look upon those stars one final time… my memory of them has long since forgotten what they look like… what their warmth felt like…] replied the all-mother
{my condolence all-mother} replied Breder sarcastically with raised eyebrows
{felt like?] question Breder to himself
[No need to apologize my dear child…] replied the all-mother as she moved into the light!
As the cave's soft light peeled away to Breder's horror, he now knew why she had asked that question! Why she talked the way she did… Why she sounded the way she did… She was one of those who had accepted a gift from an old one!
[Ha! Did my beauty shock you? Don't worry child for you will be like me soon enough!] continued the all-mother
With a crack to the neck, Breder said:
{bring it! Points!}
With a dreadful shriek, the imps in the room opened their eyes in a blazing red! The cold mana ran through their blood, through their hearts… To their mana stone that was hidden away deep in their souls! Their chattering teeth showed what they rotted! What were once beautiful creatures, are now nothing more than tainted hideous monstrosity that shouldn't exist!
Their beautiful white feathers, now polluted into blood stain red! As they moved to strike from every inch of the cave walls. To claw, to maim, and to tear! But as they inched closer… Breder saw them for what they were… nothing but dumb useless beasts… weak creatures that didn't even deserve to be used as nesting martial… only extinction was in Breder's mind!
And extinction is what he set for them! As the blades left his back in a beautiful dance of blood and gore! Breder slaughtered them without pause and mercy! To the point that his flawless white skin was diluted into black purplish blood! As his tail transformed from sharp objects to rotating blades, the charming mirror-like ice walls, were now laid in shattered blood! As Breder bit the neck out of the last one in his mouth. The all-mother channeled her magic! And set loose several ice shards made from her very own lineage! That now lay broken on a cold dark cavernous floor.
But what was weak blood to Breder! They were nothing to him… Na! They were less than nothing! For as he stared at those floating creamsicles that approached him. Breder notices that every jab, every toss, and zip the all-mother did was like a mirror of that robot! Was this in mockery?
{she is mocking me… no! I don't believe that is the case… is my mind showing this to me as some sort of trauma… No! I don't think that is it either… maybe she just trying to mimic him in an attempt to win? Meh, it doesn't matter… All I know is that it makes me very angry!} thought Breder, as angry veins began to stir visibly on his head.
Angry now, Breder turned his sharp tail into a ball of iron! Seeing the sudden change in Breder's attitude, the all-mother coated one of her claws into black ice while the other a coating of purple ice to form sharper claws! Her plan was a simple one, block with the black iron ice with her left and strike with her enhanced right claws… unfortunately for her! The black ice she was so proud of instantly disintegrated with a simple swipe of Breder tail! The impact even broke her arm!
While smashing against the broken wall behind her, Breder smashed her right hand before she could even recover from her already pulverized left side! As she screamed her ugly scream, Breder smashed her legs next! Then her ribs, then her shoulders! Of course, with a gentle carefulness, for he didn't want to kill her yet.
With purplish blood escaping the all-mother mouth, she said in a deep cosmic voice that sounded like trash piano music:
[HA! Torture this vessel all you want! But you'll get nothing from it!]
{who said I wanted to gain anything from it? Do you truly think I care… Do you truly think I care for this species… for its weak power over ice and its ugliness? Look! In the end, I will be the one to devour this world! You had your chance once before… now it's time for you to go back to him! Don't you think!} replied Breder, as he continued to torture the all-mother in any form he could think of!
[Cough* Such arrogance! Like an ant like you could ever hope to conquer this world alone! Even at the height of our power, we failed! Do you truly think he will let you win? The only one to ever truly win this game has only ever been him! That bastard plucked me from the stars! I will return to them! For a millennium I have waited!] yelled back the creature that was nothing more than a sack of limbless meat
{And you will keep waiting! Until the day I kill you! Then on that day, you shall be free to go back to your stars!} replied Breder as removed the all-mother head between his ravager blades.
But while standing over her corpse, Breder said in a low whisper voice filled with mixed emotion. As he stared at a shattered reflection of himself:
{You fool! His end goal and mine are one and the same…}
As soon as the words left his mouth, the all-mother body bubbled into a terror face monstrosity as it burned into blackish goo. As Breder turned to the exit of the cave, he saw the familiar face of Elphe!
Looking at the cave littered with corpses to Elphe shock, she quickly said:
[father! I finally found you!] said Elphe with loads of emotion
{Stop! Stop right there! Just tell me, how is the rest of the plan going?}
[Father… the humans have already retaken the northern part of the town!] replied Elphe with a stern expression