Marine placed Kersen's body to the side as she worked to free herself from the rubble. The lobby of the castle keep remained discombobulated from the explosion of the stone golem. Kersen's air sylph had flung the golem back in the direction of castle keep entrance right before it detonated. As a result, Duke Calon's vanguard forces managed to take the brunt of the damage.
Marine's men didn't escape unscathed, however. The entirety of the first line appeared to have been decimated under the shrapnel of stone. The second line fared much better comparatively, but that was hardly a silver lining.
The reality was that the strength of her forces had been depleted significantly. Marine wasn't sure if they could maintain this defensive line any longer.
I need reinforcements. Bad.
The floor of the castle suddenly shook with unusual violence. Marine pressed her hand against the ground to steady her balance. The rumble was followed a low, humming bellow. The deep, harrowing reverberations sounded as if an ancient, primordial creature had been stirred awake from a long slumber.
The quakes intensified. Marine's instincts flared, warning her of some invisible impending danger. These were earth tremors, yet somehow different than the usual ones that she grown accustomed to over the past week. They were usually short-lived, more ambient, quiet enough that she could even sleep through them uninterrupted. Never were they as drawn-out and violent as these ones.
What the hell is going on?
She had a terrible premonition.
...Did Mount Iya erupt?
As if the world had read her mind, her question was suddenly answered.
Something huge smashed into the ceiling of the castle keep. The structure groaned with the loud and deafening creak of stone and metal. Dust and debris were shaken loose. The air seemed to freeze for a brief moment, waiting with abated breath, before everything suddenly collapsed.
The ceiling broke.
And from the collapsed opening arrived several colossal chunks of molten rock. The steaming fragments crashed into the floor, throwing blistering lava into the surroundings. The unfortunate soldiers nearby were either squished by the large rocks or drenched in the scorching hot liquid. The castle keep was once more filled with the haunting screams of men.
By luck, Marine managed to avoid the initial danger. She spun around amidst the insanity, trying to make sense of what was going on. After the collapse of the ceiling, more and more molten rocks crash landed at a sporadic cadence. The earth tremors continued. Rain began to leak in from the exposed opening. Bit by bit, the structural integrity of the castle was falling apart.
In the midst of the chaos, Kobo's voice suddenly echoed in her head.
"If Mount Iya happens to erupt during our defense against Duke Calon, I want you to order your men to retreat. Abandon the defense of the castle. Instead, tell them to make haste to Kalinga and order everyone to evacuate."
Those words came from their conversation on the previous night prior to this wretched battle.
"...Why?" Marine remembered asking, confounded by Kobo's decision.
"There's no guarantee that the solution prepared by my ancestral grandmother will protect us from the destruction that awaits from Mount Iya's eruption. This war with Duke Calon becomes meaningless if there's no Sol left to claim. Instead, I rather give my people the best chance to survive the fallout."
The worse case scenario that Kobo envisioned had came true. Marine was hesitant to enact her orders, however.
Abandoning the war at this stage felt like an affront to all the expedition members and royal knights who sacrificed their lives for this hopeless battle. For Bruno, Kersen, and countless other individuals, Marine wanted to bestow some meaning to their deaths.
YOU ARE READING
A Distant Reverie
Fanfiction"Careful now. Try not to move too suddenly, alright?" Vesper Noir wakes up one day in a foreign land with gaps in his memories...and a sharp blade pressed against his throat. His assailant? A beautiful, self-proclaimed female pirate with a sweet voi...
