After Vitaliana left the scene, the guards, including both the sergeant and lieutenant, fell to their knees. The situation was hopeless. The sergeant knew that no one would go along with the plan now that they knew their families would be tormented given their death, even if they did end up being successful. It was then that the city wide speaker system turned on again.
"Guards! Through your valiant efforts two of the 5 legendary monsters have been routed! They fled before the might of your comrades! Don't give up, this battle is tough, but we WILL MAKE IT THROUGH! WE WILL SEE TOMORROW!" The voice of the City lord came out through the speakers.
"What kind of bullshit is that! That's completely false. It left because it wanted to do something else. Not because we overpowered it. WE DIDN'T EVEN SCRATCH IT!" The Lieutenant grumbled, growing into a furious shout.
"Fuck that damn City Lord. He is the one who ordered this suicide mission. We never stood a chance. Even if it was just one of them… We would still be slaughtered like cattle. With no hope of survival. And we can't even try to capture him. It was a mission that guaranteed some of our deaths. And the stakes are too high now." The Sergeant cursed, clenching his fists.
"Why is it that bad? We have enough hit and run tactics." The Lieutenant said, curious.
"You really are an idiot. Who among us would willingly die, knowing that their family is going to be tortured to death. I have a young boy, this is too much. I can't bear the thought he might be tormented and tortured till his inevitable death. I can't in good conscious order you or anyone to follow me under these circumstances. It would be tantamount to ordering the suffering of their families." The Sergeant explained, clearly losing his sanity.
"Sergeant, do we know if our families won't suffer such deaths anyway? It might be worth the risk…" A younger guard suggested. He wasn't even married yet. He hasn't even lain with a woman once. Still wet behind the ears. But he did have parents… Though, the sergeant didn't care about that.
"OH YEAH! YOU CAN SAY THAT BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE ONE!" The Sergeant yelled, pinning the young guard on the stone floor of the wall. He was spitting as he yelled with anger. He pulled a gun to the guards head. "WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELF!" He shouted, spitting even more furiously.
"I… Have parents. Are they not family? Grandparents, what are they? It's not like I don't have a heavy sin to bear if we go through with this." The young guard said, trying not to piss himself, though, it wouldn't matter if he tried or not, his like everyone else's pants were soaked in piss and blood anyway.
The Sergeant heaved and started breathing heavily as if he was going to pull the trigger and kill the young guard. That tense moment seemed to last forever, until, he had a vision… One that showed a grown up slightly older version of his son, plastered on the young guard's face. Seeing his own son there he threw the gun away.
"AHHHH! This is all fucked up. We should have abandoned these duties when we could have and joined one of the safe places within the city. I even told my family we'd be fine. Having a bird stew for dinner. Laughing as I talked about the overwhelming success we had." The Sergeant cried out, now broken hearted as well. "What do you think caused the problem we face now?" He asked, letting go of the young guard, and sat back.
"First…" The young Guard said, sitting up and shaking his head. Bam he gave the sergeant one hell of a right hook straight to the face, sending a few of his teeth flying out, as he fell to the side. "That's for putting a gun to my head." He said, spitting up some vomit to the side.
"I… I deserved that." The Sergeant said, wiping his mouth. Though it did little good. "You've got a hell of a punch there…" He continued, doing some jaw motions. That actually hurt quite a bit… Fuck.
"Good, so you wanted to know where it all went wrong huh? Well it started when the empire purged all of its magic users. We can't even escape the city if we wanted to without the help of a few magus at the very least." The young guard said in a clear tone. "We were lied to about these fucking things. It'll only work on pathetically weak monsters. Judge the Gods class defense my ass. We'd have better luck farting in their noses than with these crappy things." He continued, infuriated.
"That's right. We never stood a chance. Now that I think about it, there was a freakishly strong young magus several years ago. He apparently killed a Legendary class Nagath all on his own. That boy was something special indeed. It usually takes a dozen to have a chance at beating one. If I'm guessing right, these bird monsters are at an even higher level than legendary. Not mythic yet. But I'd be shocked if they were only Legendary." Another guard said, nonchalantly accepting his fate and laid down with his hands beneath his head to act as a pillow.
"What do you mean? Legendary is the highest non godly entity." The Lieutenant asked, confused, as well as slightly annoyed by the ease in the guards' posture lying there in pools of blood. But he said nothing of it.
"Hmm, well Lieutenant… Sir… The problem is the system then ain't it. Simple as that. We simply can't comprehend the power of such creatures." He sighed looking up at the sky.
"How dare you say that the upper commands are simple minded." The Lieutenant yelled.
"Well, take a look around you real quick. That bird wasn't a godly being. And yet she turned our supposed Judge the Gods, level defense into nothing more than a plaything for her. Making mincemeat out of our fellow comrades, men and women alike. Even though there are few women in places like this, I can clearly identify three just by their exposed torsos. And yet you say the upper command isn't stupid. Wake up dumbass." The Guard explained and then looked back up to the sky in utter terror of something else…