Shizukesa no kokoro: hearts of serenity

Chapter 1: battle at gorgons pass

"The sentinels, they're advancing!" A soldier shouted as he frantically tried to fend off the jet-black creatures. Meanwhile, five soldiers are teaming up against one of the sentinels only for 3 of them to be killed in the process. "Sergeant! What's the status on the first wave!" "Five sentinel units inbound! They look like goblin units, we need to flank their right-" but that soldier was interrupted by a nearby sentinel that took a hold of him and stared into his eyes. "No...please...have mercy!" The sentinel stood silent and jabbed it's claw into the unfortunate soldier and threw him aside. "Damn it, man down!" Another soldier shouted, as he fended off the sentinel. "En garde, you savage bastards!" A young man with white hair shouted, as he advanced towards the wave with a white gilded halberd. Little by little, he decimated the wave of sentinels as if they were nothing. "Hideki!", a young woman shouted as she approached Hideki, she was accompanied by a young man named Scott. "Ah, Sylvette." Hideki calmly stated. "Hideki, I just got an order from the commissioner. We're pulling back the the line to sector 6, that's were we will set up our last line of defense". Hideki slowly looked at Sylvette, "I see... So that's our final strategy?" "Like we have a choice!" Scott angrily replied, "these bastards are getting persistent, and we've lost roughly half of our main force! The only thing we need to do now is to gain a home field advantage and fall back to set up our last line of defense." Hideki scoffed, and said "that sounds like a reasonable strategy". "Perfect". Sylvette said out of relief, "we need to hurry now-", Hideki cut off Sylvette, "however, I will choose to fight on". "You're joking right?" Scott questioned, "I'm as serious as they come Scott, I shall choose to fight on." Scott and Sylvette were both bewildered on what Hideki said, thinking that he has gone mad. "We may have lost half of our platoon, but remember we have something that is the bane of Arcania's existence." Hideki pulled out his halberd "we have Amaterasu. With this weapon, this battle will truly be ours for the taking." Hideki stepped out of cover, only to be stopped by Sylvette. "Hideki you moron! You and I both know you can't take anymore of that weapon. Look at your arm, it's scorched from overuse of that weapon!" "Even after all these years you still worry about my actions Sylvette? This weapon will break when I do, and the probability of that happening is extremely slim". Hideki's confidence was surprising to the platoon. "Agh, why am I not surprised that I couldn't talk sense into you" Scott replied while polishing his weapon, "I'll go along too Hideki, you'll need someone to drag your carcass home". "Aren't the two of you listening to me?!" Sylvette desperately asked, "we've been ordered to fall back, I'm going back and I'll take the two of you with me". "Well, it's in the soldier's code of conduct that you cannot abandon your platoon. You're coming with us, besides what would we do without your trident". Sylvette blushed for a second while looking at her weapon, "I-I guess I can't talk you out of this." Soon after that conversation, a soldier appeared to the three soldiers. "The second wave is approaching!" Sylvette, Scott, and Hideki got out of cover and unsheathed their weapons. "It's showtime guys" Scott said, "let's give these jackasses a war they'll never forget!" Sylvette nodded and readied her trident, "acknowledged" Hideki replied. As they advance into the sentinels second wave the platoon is watched by a man with blond hair and white clothes. "Hm, how interesting". "Commissioner Maxis!" A local soldier shouted, "those soldiers are disobeying orders, should I stop them?" Maxis stood in silence for a second and the soldier was patiently waiting for an answer to his question. "Let them go" Maxis replied. "Uhh, sir?" The soldier asked in confusion, Maxis drew a long sword to command his soldiers "let them fight their own fight lieutenant, now that our best platoon has rejoined the fray this war has taken a violent turn. It would be a shame have their confidence lowered for nothing." The lieutenant hurried out to ready the last line of defense, Maxis thought "With Hideki using Amaterasu against that massive force, all I can do now is enjoy the show." "Sylvette! What are we dealing with?" Sylvette looked at the wave and replied, "we are up against 10 arachnid units, 10 sparrow units, 5 kobold units and a goblin unit. 26 sentinels total." "They're toying with us!" Scott said. "Even so don't drop your guard" Hideki implied, "I'll take care of the arachnid units. Sylvette, your trident has a long structure for enemies in the air, so you take care of the sparrow units. Scott, those kobold units have thick armor and your mace can definitely shatter said armor. After were done with that, we combine our attacks against the goblin unit." Scott and Sylvette pursued their targets while Hideki charged forward. "Your fate is sealed accursed sentinels, you will know the taste of defeat!" Amaterasu started to glow a radiant color and Hideki recited "oh mother Cecilia as you used a shard of your heart to create this weapon, all I ask is for this weapon to shine brightly against my foe. Mother Cecilia, embrace us through this fight and next!" Hideki held his halberd in a spear formation and shouted, "holy halberd art: radiant breakthrough!" Amaterasu started to grow bright and Hideki thrusted his halberd against the 10 sentinels and in a blur of light, he destroyed the 10 sentinels in one fell swoop. Meanwhile, Sylvette is carefully dodging the sparrow unit's attacks while simultaneously impaling the sentinels with her trident. And Scott used his mace to shatter the armor of the kobold units, "batter up!" Scott said as he smashed his mace into the kobold units. Suddenly Scott looked at the ridges surrounding gorgon pass as if he'd seen a ghost. "Hmm...I destroyed the sentinels but something doesn't seem right...Must have been my mind acting odd." Scott suspiciously thought after defeating the kobold units. "There's the goblin unit! Sylvette, Scott do the two of you know what you must do?" Hideki asked as he readied his attack, "I'm ready to smash that sentinel's skull in" Scott said, "all together now!" Scott swung his mace into the sentinels chest, knocking it back. "Sylvette now's your chance!" Scott shouted. Sylvette used her trident to stab the sentinel's legs and have it toppled over. "Perfect. Hideki, it's all yours now!" Hideki jumped up and shouted "holy halberd art: divine guillotine!" The axe of the halberd started to glow and Hideki slashed the sentinel, decapitating it in the process. Sylvette ran up to Hideki and hugged him "I'm sorry for doubting you, we've got through that easy." "uh...lovebirds?" Scott anxiously replied, "I wouldn't say hooray just yet." He pointed to the massive wave of sentinels coming towards them. "This is insane...there are at least 100 of those sentinels from my point of view" Sylvette said. "It must be their main force, the sentinels must be hell bent on destroying us" Hideki replied. "Nonetheless, we can't just wait around here, we lost our fair share of our brethren like the sentinels lost their brethren. So let's even the odds a bit, let's finish this fight Scott, Sylvette!" Unfortunately, as they closed in on the sentinels, a sentinel with a retractable claw advanced through the ridges and locked on to his target, Hideki. As they slowly decimated the main wave, Hideki felt his arm go through unbearable pain as if it was being scorched by hot iron. "Damn it all, This can't happen now!" Hideki said in agony. The creature that was locked on to Hideki fired its retractable claw at him. Sylvette witnessed what it was trying to do. "Wait, a jet-black and Orange creature with a giant claw?" Sylvette questioned, then she made a sudden realization "that's a grappler unit! And its targeted to Hideki!" Hideki looked to see the sentinel's claw closing in on him and he braced for its attack. "Hideki!" Sylvette shouted as she got in front of Hideki and she was caught in the attack instead. Hideki looked in horror upon seeing what's happened to her "Sylvette!" He screamed her name as he desperately tried to free her from the claw, unfortunately it was all in vain as she was rapidly taken into custody of the sentinels. Sylvette uttered her last words to him before being taken, "I guess I was the careless one...Thank you Hideki...Goodbye." And at that moment Hideki smashed his fist into the ground over his loss. "Damn it all!" Hideki screamed. Scott warned Hideki "almost all of our troops were annihilated by the sentinels! We must retreat!" Hideki slowly stood up and said "no. I will stay and avenge my comrades for their bravery, I will finish the fight!" "You dumbass! There's an entire wave of sentinels left, you can't destroy them alone!" Scott angrily states. "Where there is adversity, there is opportunity my friend." Hideki replied. "You have a sister!" Hideki pauses for a moment "your sister is waiting for your return Hideki, how am I supposed to tell her that you died in war because of recklessness!" Scott furiously replied. Hideki hesitates at first, but reaches for Amaterasu once more "tell my sister. That I love her and for her to not worry for me, as I am in Cecilia's warm embrace." Scott is speechless as Hideki advanced towards the main wave. "Vile spawn of Regnas, I will gladly risk my life to silence you all. I will do this for Sylvette, for Yuki, and for all the people of Serenia!" The halberd glows even brighter as he charges towards the main wave. At that moment a massive explosion of light envelops gorgon pass and Maxis witnesses every second of their retaliation. "It's glorious. The brilliance of Amaterasu is too perfect for my eyes to behold!" maxie shouted, as the explosion of light started to expand. After that, there was silence. Neither side of the war won nor lost, the war subsided, leaving only a few survivors...