Sol's Shine and the Kingdom of Terra

Chapter 23 Through Blood, Sweat, And Tears

 Crystal tried her best to keep up with the star demon who kept herself well hidden among the treetops. There wasn't any way to warn her soldiers of the threat above them when all she would be doing is distracting them from their own fights. She struggled to defend herself from any dwarf that tried to come her way. Crystal had to go as far as to be wary of any potential gun pointed at her so she could dodge the dwarves' shots before they could even fire. "Where are you?!" Crystal called out desperately, though she could barely hear herself speak with her own ringing ears.

Looking around more and more, Crystal could finally see the star demon she was chasing standing farther away but on top of a mound and away from all the fighting. She smiled at Crystal, spinning two knives in both of her hands. With the amount of people fighting alongside her, it only took one of her soldiers to pass by her line of sight to obstruct her view of Bila and like that, the star demon wasn't there. It was almost as if she was chasing a ghost but Crystal knew better.

Even if it was an obvious trap, Crystal wouldn't forgive herself if she allowed a formidable enemy to escape. She ran towards the mound and away from the ongoing war. "Come back!" Crystal called out again, this time she was slowly starting to hear herself better and the ringing in her ears slowly faded when she ran from the commotion of fighting between the humans and dwarves. Getting to the other side of the mound was about all she had to do to finally notice her rapid beating heart and the amount of adrenaline coursing through her own body.

With the weight on her shoulders however, Crystal did her best to focus. With the amount of soldiers giving away all of their blood, sweat, and tears, it was enough for Crystal to do everything she can despite the intense fear she was feeling. "That's enough! Where are you?!" "Right here!" Bila answered as a throwing knife came flying out from one of Crystal's blind spots, hitting the princess in the back of the shoulder. The pain was excruciating but Crystal faced her enemy and slowly pulled out the knife before tossing it aside. "I'm getting really tired of your little disappearing act." Crystal said to Bila as the star demon slowly walked closer to her, spinning a throwing knife in both hands

"You have all that armor on and you still decide to fight like a coward. Pathetic." Crystal attempted to aggravate Bila but was also wondering if the enemy before her was still hiding something. "Are you impressed?! Does that mean you'll be my friend?!" Bila started to laugh hysterically and danced around, juggling her knives. "You seriously can't be wearing that just for kicks." Crystal had her sword pointed at Bila, trying to keep a distance between them.

"You'd be surprised just how well I can fight up close with just a couple of knives!" Bila said to her. "Why don't you go ahead and try. See how long you last!" "I would but then the fun would be over, wouldn't it?" What Bila said to Crystal sounded like a threat and Crystal couldn't help but step a couple feet back. As soon as Bila was done juggling her knives, she ran straight for Crystal. Crystal did her best to swing at the star demon but Bila was too evasive to hit and before the princess realized it, the star demon was right up in her face. "Told you so." Bila said to her.

To prevent Bila from stabbing Crystal in her sides with the two knives she held, Crystal had to drop her sword and hold Bila's wrist from thrusting forward into her. Although Bila practically tackled Crystal to the ground when she ran up to her. "What's wrong? I thought you wanted me to try it?! What's that face for?!" Bila was screaming at Crystal face to face. There wasn't much else for Crystal to say when she was too busy keeping Bila from stabbing her in the kidneys. "Your breath smells terrible..." Crystal said to her.

The struggle to keep Bila from killing her went on for a couple more seconds. Crystal was starting to lose her strength considering Bila was in better shape than her. With the beating Crystal was receiving during this entire war, she almost felt she could almost lose consciousness, not realizing just how bad the damage was to her body at this point. Just when Crystal thought it was all over for her, the rumbling ground beneath her kept her awake and alerted. The look on Bila's face suddenly grew with concern and the star demon took herself off of Crystal. "They can't be here. Not now." When Crystal tried to get up from the ground, Bila was already running back to the battlefield.

"Get back here!" Crystal said to her. Before Crystal could make it back over the mound, she heard the loudest howling she could have ever heard in her life. The ground kept shaking as if they were facing a quake but the princess made her best effort to climb the mound and see the other side. What she saw before her in the horizon was nothing more than a giant wolf running towards them at record speed. Exhausted and feeling like she was out of options to counter something of this size, Crystal could only wonder if it was friend or foe.

The giant wolf stood taller than the treetops and with the color of its fur, Crystal almost mistook it for a mountain. Its glistening eyes looked down on the battlefield while the figures that were riding on its back climbed down its leg, holding on to the creature's fur. Everyone's attention was on Ferocious Fenrir, especially Sinnel's cult that was hidden among the crowd. Sol and Drakiel stood side by side with each other, ready to tell everyone among the crowd the truth. "So most of you are probably confused!" Sol shouted as loud as he could to make sure everyone heard him.

"This entire war we've been fighting in is nothing more than a facade!" Drakiel took over for Sol. "Some of the dwarves here whose hearts were in the right place were made to believe that they should avenge Prince David! You were made to believe that he was slain by Queen Lisandra from the Kingdom of Fire!" Drakiel was interrupted by another dwarf among the battlefield for a brief moment. "That's what happened right?!"

"David was slain, yes. But not by Lisandra's hands or anyone else from the Kingdom of Fire for that matter. That was nothing more than an illusion set up by the star demon Amaterasu! By having you believe it was done by someone else, she started a war between our two kingdoms!" Drakiel called out what needed to be said but Sol knew he could add more. "Given the damage that's already done, I know it's going to be hard to stop fighting each other anyway and there will certainly be grudges on both sides. This is exactly what Amaterasu, Sinnel, and what the other star demons want!"

"Turn your aggressions to Sinnel and his cult! The star demons have been awakened for at least a year now, that's how long this war has been going on for!" Drakiel pitched in. Another man in the crowd from the Kingdom of Fire's side spoke up next. "I lost my son and daughter to these dwarves! How can you expect me to turn my head from this fight!" Crystal stumbled down from the mound to give out her piece of mind next. "We're not asking you to stop fighting! We just don't want you to focus on the wrong enemy! If we become blindsided by revenge, the real winners of this war will be the ones who've been pulling our strings the entire time. That's Sinnel and his cult!" She said as she made her way over to her brother.

"As a matter of fact, we suspect that there are some cultists hiding among both sides of this battlefield right now! They would go as far as to give up their lives for Sinnel if it meant they could possibly be by his side in a grand new world of their own creation!" Sol said as he gripped his sword, setting it ablaze. What this only did was have each person suspicious of one another, each person in the crowd wasn't sure if they were fighting alongside an enemy or ally. "You don't need to fret! We'll weed out the traitors! Right now, we just ask you all to throw down your weapons!" Crystal commanded. Upon looking up at Ferocious Fenrir, everyone did exactly that. Even the cultist hiding among the crowd dropped everything they had to avoid getting caught.

One figure among them didn't care for hiding anymore however and decided to finally make herself seen. "No! This isn't how this was supposed to work!" Bila said. "You got too ambitious and wanted to speed things up by coming to the frontlines. I'd say this is exactly how this is all supposed to work." Drakiel mentioned to her while all Ferocious Fenrir could do was growl in her direction.