章 7: The battlefield
“What is this?” Maria said, gasping at the tragedy.
There were bodies, far too many for her to count.
People were dying.
Demons were dying.
It was a massacre.
The fact that they were flying and Maria had nothing beneath her feet didn’t concern her as much as the screams and death caused her to quiver.
There were far too many humans. And they were clearly killing every demon in sight.
And the demons were different from what she imagined.
“But if they have such numbers why not just make them surrender-” She mumbled.
The two were encased in a transparent barrier and the barrier acted as footing. They were floating perhaps a hundred meters above the ground.
“I told you before, didn’t I? They want to destroy the demons, not enslave them,” The queen just looked ahead, her face deadpan.
Yet, a shiver ran down Maria’s spine.
The black Aura of the queen started to flow much quicker and her eyes shimmered with a bright red tint. She gently moved her hand forward. “Eternal devastation!”
A small ball of fire formed just in front of them. It was small and it sped towards the human army’s center. But on its trajectory the ball started to enlarge. From a baseball to that of a whale: it was big.
A bit fat fiery whale! The whale roared and descended.
“Barriers, barriers!” Shouts went across the battlefield.
The massive firewhale crashed into something. Something invisible.
BLAST!
The shockwave soared through the sky.
Swoosh!
Followed by a rush of wind. Small drops of water started to fall from the sky.
A few thousand immediately perished while some good ten thousand were heavily injured. Only the strong survived.
An example of survival of the fittest, at its finest.
“I’m really low on magic. Would you be kind enough to lend me some so I can make a barrier strong enough to keep that army away?” The queen was already running low due to the summoning.
The metallic scent in the air only grew stronger.
“Give you magic? What the hell is even magic?” Maria wanted to ask that a long while ago but as things moved fast, she never had a chance to.
And after the deaths she just witnessed, her heart would not calm down.
The queen smiled. “Pardon me, then.” She grabbed Maria tight “I’ll need to smooch you.” And kissed her without hearing her response. Her hands securing the back of Maria, almost like a hug.
“Wh-” Maria tried to resist but, she felt weak, powerless even.
The queen was sucking Maria’s magic powers through the kiss. It wasn’t a deep kiss, just a light touch on her lips. And yet, she could feel her very life being drained away.
There was nothing sensual about it. She felt like she was going to die.
Exhale. “That should do it.” The queen gently let Maria go and looked up. “Come serpents!”
The sky turned red and six massive snakes started falling.
Maria panted. “Weren’t you going to put up a barrier?” She sweated. No, she was drenched in her sweat. The beautiful dress was soaked and her outline was made clear.
“I am actually. But those require very long chants which can’t be shortened. The demon army would soon perish, so the serpents would buy us time.” The queen grinned victoriously. “Having you was the miracle we needed.”
Maria was tired, so tired she wanted to just lie down. But she was really touched to hear the word ‘needed’. After all, all her life she was nothing but useless.
She was so useless, she couldn’t win the heart of her parents. She was so useless, her stepmother made her stay in the basement with the rats. She was so useless, her brother sold her to the military.
But now she was needed.
The word was really, comforting.
She was needed.
Bam!
Balls of fire and lightning strike fell over the queen and Maria’s head but nothing got through the invisible barrier.
“Now,” The queen paused. “You already know how to make light, yes? Try imagining fire balls and shouting ‘fireball’, to see how much you can achieve. This will be a perfect time to practice. Just envision it and it’ll happen: I’m short on time so that’s all the explanation I could provide. Don’t worry, this barrier over our heads would withstand everything.” The queen closed her eyes and started chanting without a voice.
‘Just shout fireball, huh? But how does that work?’
*** (JAY)
The serpents were laying waste.
Nothing was safe.
A new type of roar shook the battlefield.
Suddenly the war was not completely in the favor of men. A miracle did happen, just not for the united army.
The serpents were large and they were spraying venom everywhere. Just touching the venom rendered everything in a puddle of blood and rot and even evading wasn’t good, as the poison clouds formed by the venom were just as deadly.
The venom killed immediately but the poison cloud tortured the poor souls who breathed it in.
Even the heroes had to stay away.
The casualties just kept on increasing.
“My barriers aren’t holding,” Ellen-the hero in the tracksuit yelled, rolling backward.
She was tiny, or petite to be exact. Just protecting everyone against the poison took all her strength.
“Then we better take it out with one strike.” Jay readied his sword, glaring straight ahead. His sword shined.
“I’ll back you up.” Duran grinned and took a stance himself.
And the three headed straight for three serpents just in front of them
After all, if they failed here, who’d protect humanity?
Who’d protect the world?
For the world and her people, they had to stand their ground and destroy those evil demons and the monsters.
*** (Maria)
“Fire ball?” Maria tried. Didn’t work.
“Fire ball!” She shouted.
Didn’t work.
‘What the hell?’
She saw what was going down there.
Serpents had arrived and they were now laying waste to the united army. Though even with the serpents, the demons were clearly losing.
But- ‘Humans are also dying.’
In fact, both sides were suffering heavy casualties. And now with the serpents in the mix, more and more people were dying.
Maria didn’t want this.
Perhaps the queen was right and humans were the ones who started this. But still, so many deaths….
But even among all that, something caught Maria’s eyes.
“What is that? A kid?”
A demon- maybe fourteen was up against seven human, two dwarves and three elves. She was badly wounded and she was about to be killed.
“Fire! Fireball!”
Nothing happened.
With every passing second, the kid was getting attacked and she was getting beat.
But her attackers weren’t trying to kill her.
They were merely cutting her clothes, shaming her.
‘Damn it!’
Maria shook with rage and guilt. “FIREBALL!”
But nothing happened.
The girl below barely had any clothes left. She was about to be shamed before her death. As if just dying on a battlefield like this wasn’t enough.
But just then- then, Maria remembered the first time.
Why had the light appeared in her hand?
Why?
Because she wanted it to?
Because she needed it to?
Because-
She closed her eyes, focused, and imagined what she wanted to do with precise imagery. “Fiery arrows!” Maria visioned arrows of fire shooting through her, to save the kid.
Crackle!
In a split-second, a series of patterns formed just in front of her and hundreds of arrows made of fire violently shook, before descending and impaling all the men below.
Maria couldn’t believe it.
‘What was that?’
And she felt even more tired.
‘I just killed…’ She almost passed out. But she held on to her consciousness like a crocodile biting its prey.
She’d killed before. The first time she killed a soldier, she threw up. It haunted her for a whole month. And yet, if it came down to it, she’d have done it again. And she did it too, over and over again. Such was her fate.
And now-
She’d saved a life. The life of a kid.
Kids didn’t deserve to be on a battlefield; they deserved better. It was one of her principal mottos.
And she sure wasn’t letting anyone mess with a girl’s chastity.
Besides the men she killed, were about to kill the kid. And if someone was prepared to kill, they were prepared to die.
“Enshrine this land of evil: Walls of HELES!” The queen raised her both arm up and glared toward the heavens with a grin. A very devilish grin.
A high-pitched shriek shot across the battlefield. It almost made Maria scream.
But she held it in, grabbing her ears.
She was the closest to the queen and as a consequence, her ears started bleeding.
And a second later, the sky was covered with a barrier.
A visible, translucent barrier, separating the land of the demons and the land of men.
“Made it,” The queen crumbled on her feet and the two started falling from the sky.
The serpents disappeared.
“AHH!” Maria finally let out a shriek as the ground gradually came up, welcoming her and the queen.
'Shit!'
-- 贈り物
が届きました 
-- 推薦
ランキング 
-- 推薦
チケット