Violet

The Queen

I do not expect that our reinforcements are actually the Guild's well-kept planes.

They come like eagles with their wings wide open as they hover over the Nymphs and fire bullets at them. Silver stinking dusts automatically cover the air like fog in a cold early morning. 

Too late though. They arrive too late. 

For we who have been sent here first had already encountered the Nymphs head on. And a lot have been badly wounded. Two members from my crew died and I have never so down in my entire life. So sad that I have forgotten the blood gushing out from my right arm and the pain that goes with it. Nor the tears that trails down both my cheeks. And of course, the pain that goes with it.

Their names were Etran and Isil. I hadn't even remembered their names before I saw their dead and bloody bodies, and I hated myself for it. Why can't I give importance to some people like I do to others? 

 So I stand here viewing smoke and silver. An empty revolver in my right hand, a stained dagger in my shaking left, a frantic heartbeat in my chest. We were ordered to fall back and get as far away from the Nymphs before the planes arrived. We are told what we are safe now. Is it finally over?

"Are you alright, Arche?" Martha put a hand on my shoulder. I look at her, not bothering to hide the agony in my eyes. "Oh dear--" she wrapped me in her warm embrace "--None of it is your fault."

Don't cry, Arche. Please, don't cry. Not in front of everyone else.

"I couldn't keep them alive, Martha," I choke, hoping Martha doesn't notice the break in my voice. "What kind of leader abandons his members?"

"You can't always protect everyone, Arche."

The ground then suddenly shakes as a massive explosion takes place from the distance. Then before anyone had a chance to brace themselves, a strong force knocks me and the rest off the ground.

Everything goes blurry and hazy for a moment, like the world is on slow motion and fast forward at the same time. That sensation of flying... then falling on the ground hard. Splash! Marsh water flooded into my nose, mouth, and eyes without warning and I find myself choking. I jerk myself out of the shallow water, using my shaking hands as support. With every ounce of little strength left, I struggle to stand up. 

What kind of bomb was that? It sure was powerful!

The marsh, as I knew it, is not the same marsh I am looking to right now. Gone are the green grass and clear water. What's left is a picture of destruction and death--fires, water stained with blood, smoke, silver, stench.

For a while everything silences. The planes stop firing, the fighters stop moving, waiting for the smoke to disperse, hoping that they killed everything. Even their Queen.

Especially their Queen. 

Slowly, the smoke begins to diffuse and... 

"Damn it!" Someone yelled. 

A shadow forms behind the smoke. An enormous shadow. It can't be! What kind of thing can withstand that bomb?

"Why isn't that thing still alive?!" 

"We're doomed!" the others exclaimed.

Yes, maybe we're doomed. Maybe today, the Guild ends. We have been fighting and enduring for a long time now. Is it time that we should join our loved ones in the afterlife? Maybe. Probably. I miss my father already. Maybe I could go see him and--

What is that?

A light emanates from the abdomen of the Queen. It is small at first, but then it expands until it covers the size of the creature. I remember the light before the Nymph in the torture room turned in to a beauty--it was a dark kind of light. However, this... this light is different. It is pure in essence--bright, radiant, rich. It is beautiful.

Then the Queen starts to shriek. It's in pain! The light causes the beast pain! And before I have time to actually react to the situation, the Queen itself exploded into a million silver dust. 

I can only gawk with my jaw dropped at the scene. 

It is impossible, incomprehensible. 

It is like...

Magic. 

[A/N: it WAS a hard chapter to write! so, what do you think? i know it's short (not again!) buuuut! this is the start of the exciting parts of the story, believe me :) watch out for my next chapter okay? comment, vote if ya like.]