The Drowning City

Prologue

Torchlight casted long shadows in the Jungle, illuminating the cracks and details within the bark, dirt, leaves. It moved with the creatures that lived in the Jungle, their claws or fingers or flexible paws gripping the flaming sticks as they swung around their weapons. Some cried for help, some died, some were victorious. The torchlight revealed all chaos that was continuing, roaring on. It shined on the blood, black, blue, red, and illuminated the bodies along the ground. Decapitated heads, dismembered arms and legs, severed toes. Some bodies were just mangled to the point of being unable to be recognized ever again, and some were ashes, some just had a clean sword through the heart, or across the throat. Some had arrows in their eyes or head. Others had just collapsed, no visible damage done. Others were dying, gasping for their final breath, taking it already, or waiting for the pain to finally end. Some took their own lives, or were currently taking them, for they didn't want their enemy to have the satisfaction of getting them.
"Demons!" She shouted, raising her torch courageously. "Be gone!"
Each and every demon, black, red, golden, deep green or blue, raised their eyeless heads. Their mouths were covered in blood, smeared across their wings and devil-like tails, all over their face and arms. Then each and every one of them screamed, high and ear-shattering, before lunging after her.
"Jahara!" She shouted once more, raising her other hand. A stone with a swirling pattern on it sat there in the palm of her hand, trapped there by her long and skinny fingers. The stone began to glow, and just before a demon touched her, the stone exploded into a ball of light, casting a glow on the City. Every demon was covered in the blinding light, gleaming. Soon, holes began to appear in their skin and wings, the light devouring them. She, the one holding the light, screamed with them as the light ate at her, taking her as one of the stone's victims. She knew the cost, though, and she would much rather be trapped for eternity than let her City die.
And within moments, long ones that seemed to last for years, all the demons vanished. So did the light. So did the girl with the stone.
The stone fell from the air in which it had been held, and rolled from side-to-side for a couple of seconds before sitting flat on the dirt. A soft glow came from the stone, before it finally went back into slumber.
"Princess!"
"Princess Dinia!"
"Royal Diniacross!"
"Noble Din!"
Survivors store at where the princess once stood.
"Sister!" One boy cried, his high pitched screech of dismay. "NO!" He hurried over, one of his legs bleeding and dislocated, but he pushed through. He wanted to see if his sister was really gone. If she had sacrificed herself for the good of the City... He stumbled over roots and fallen branches, dead bodies. He nearly slipped on someone's face before he finally reached the stone.
He bent down, tears streaming down his face. His sister was gone, really gone. He touched the stone with his fingertips, and when it didn't do anything to him, he attempted to pick it up. It burned at his palm, sending smoke to curl around the stone, but he didn't care. The pain in his leg was distracting him from the burning of his hand. He, instead, cried and sobbed, keeping the stone to his chest. After about a minute of devastation, he dropped the stone. An imprint of a human stood on his palm, branded there.
The nine-year-old couldn't tear his eyes away form the sight. The last thing his sister gave him: a burn mark in the shape of her.
"She was so young," he heard someone mutter.
"Only fourteen..." responded someone else.
"She saved us, saved us all."
The last voice brought Gallicco back to reality. She did save them. Not all of them, but most of them. It took her life, but she saved them. Still, the fact that his sister was gone left a gaping hole in his heart.
"The stone, is real?" Terra, Gallicco's best friend, asked. "I thought it was a myth, a legend, fantasy. I didn't think it was real, let alone posses so much power." Terra was smart, Terra was logical.
"Clearly it's real," Gallicco sobbed. "And it took my sister."
"I'm sorry, Gall," Terra said softly, kneeling down next to Gallicco. "But your sister chose that fate. She was the one who saved you and me. Who saved your City."
Your City. That was an interesting thought.
"King Gallicco!" Terra whispered. "King Gallicco!" When a few heard the quiet chant, they began to chant along, too. A nine-year-old king, given the crown after a war and millions dying.
Gallicco looked around, glancing at the ground. A few of the dying were mouthing the chant. Not like they could speak much, but he still found it amazing that they ignored the pain enough to congratulate him on inheriting the crown. He kept glancing at the dying, and how more and more began to stop, slowly, slowly... the Angels were taking them.
If only that's where his sister went. Instead, she was immortal, inside the stone forever. Even when time ends, she'll still be trapped. No way out.
Mental torture, basically.
"Terra, I need you to record these events," Gallicco said to Terra. "Make sure my sister is never forgotten. Princess Dinia will forever be remembered. Make sure you keep the stone in a safe and honored place, that we capture what happened today. Keep the City informed and safe. That's the only way everyone will keep this from happening every again. We will burry the dead in a memorial, decorated as best as possible. Give the families bonuses for their losses and rebuild any damage done. The City will be great again!"
"Hail King Gallicco!"