Prince... No, a princess??

9. Final Battle

The human soldiers continued their rush up the hill to face us. Some of the faster soldiers broke off from the slow mass horde and made it to the top before the others could even get half way up. Maliss swung his sword and sliced through three human soldiers who rolled back down in halves.

Some of the tiefling soldiers took a little bit longer, but each stabbed and smashed the humans sending them rolling into the giant approaching army. I shot an energy beam that plowed a whole column of the human soldiers. Others just filled in the gap I made and continued to press forward.

When the mob of human warriors reached about three quarters up the hill, we heard shouts behind us. I faced towards our group and saw thousands of tiefling soldiers fade into the light. Behind them were about one hundred wizards who were all chanting the same spell: Dnasouht rof eno noisulli dna raef lepsid ohw semoc raen.

Upon closer examination, I noticed these new soldiers were identical clones of the ones we came with. These were the illusion from the spells of the council. For every soldier we had there were a thousand duplicates. This brought our total to over sixty thousand soldiers.

From the distance where the human soldiers were on the hill, they could not tell that these were copies and an illusion. All they saw were thousands more soldiers. In fear they turned and retreated, stumbling over each other as they ran away. The human soldiers battling the tiefling soldiers around the castle either didn't notice our huge mystical army or simply had no where to go.

Nimos dove to the ground and ran for the castle. He twisted through the retreating soldiers and scurried up some winding vines on the castle wall and into a room at the top. Once those who retreated were out of sight, the wizards stopped their spell and the hundred sixty-some of us charged down the hill to aide the other tiefling soldiers.

I could never have known the gravity of how terrifying war was. Even having the magical abilities of a warlock, I still felt infinitesimally small. For every energy bolt I blasted or sword I blocked, there seemed to be ten more people I would have to fight.

As scary as the whole experience was, I inexplicably had this motive to keep driving onward. Blood rushed through my veins with ever person I struck down. It was disheartening to see so many wounded and inflicting so much pain myself, but a part of me felt more alive than ever.

I was fighting for our kingdom. It was no longer someone else's war. With Maliss by my side, I felt just as integral to his army as anyone else. Thinking about how the people around us had families and lives, served no purpose. Such distractions gave way to mistakes and mistakes led to death.

A warrior had to clear their mind of all humanistic attachments and view their opponent as a vile enemy. I had my own fair share of injuries from my efforts. I was stabbed in my side, a battle hammer grazed my shoulder, and an arrow stuck out of my back, but I never stopped. I couldn't stop and there was no room for pain, I fought like a machine. My fluid motions as I used my battle batons, mixed with my magic was controlled by robotic precision commanded from my mind to my body.

Every so often there was a quick lull in the amount of people I was battling. At those moments I would teleport high up into the sky and as I sped towards the ground I would release a spread of energy blasts onto groups of human soldiers. Then before hitting the ground I would teleport right back into the thick of the battle.

We continued on, and time seemed to slip away. Hours were seconds, while simultaneously feeling like hours. It was the mixture of a never ending grueling task and the racing time experienced on a favored rollercoaster. Nothing else in the world mattered except achieving victory.

Soon the tides of war turned completely in our favor and those human soldiers who weren't dead or severely wounded were captured. All the wounded from both sides were treated by the council of wizards and any battle medics.

After the injured were treated, the council of wizards went back to their clients and council homes. Pennenda and Filyort remained behind to help with the clean up process.

Maliss and I were paraded through town as champions, and right behind us were the group of tiefling soldiers we led into battle. It was now clear that the whole town was in favor of our union. Political and social biases were torn down since we tore through the battlefield. Hatred was replaced with love and scorn with praise.

Maliss was their king now and the balance had been completely restored. There was a huge feast of celebration that lasted the whole night. Tomorrow we would all mourn the loss of the previous tiefling queen and king, and deal with any political loose ends. Those issues were put on hold as everyone laughed and sang of the victory.

***

The next morning began the time of mourning and funeral arrangements. The whole kingdom partook in a full twenty four hours of fasting to properly mourn the loss of the fallen, including the queen and king.

Maliss and I didn't talk much. He needed time to grieve on his own. I wished that I could cry like he was or just tear up, but I really hadn't formed a close enough relationship with any of the fallen. I also tended to handle grief in a different way than most people. I found it hard to cry.

Sometimes the weight of loss would hit me later, but besides losing my parents, I never really cried too hard for any loss. I would be Maliss' anchor this time when or if he needed me. Until then I played with Nimos and spent most of my time in my room until the funeral began.

The funeral was respectable and touching. The format was different than the ones on Earth. There was much more celebration and happy faces. They knew that their loved ones would proceed to an afterlife of joy, so that was what they spent the majority of the funeral on.

It ended with the bodies being placed on slabs of rock and set in this molten goo that sprung up from the ground like geysers. The geysers would shoot up and around the stones and bodies, then when it came down a jewel was left in its place. These jewels were placed on top of fancy stands and brought to a building made of jewels.

They were placed in an area marked warriors. The king and queens' jewels were brought to a room that no one, but Maliss could enter. I could tell that this was a huge honor for him to place their jewels in there.

Once the whole funeral was over, Maliss seemed back to his caring self. We cuddled and kissed each other, and conversed with the fellow tieflings around us. We were cut short of our quality time by the tiefling council entering and requesting a meeting with Maliss.

Maliss stated that he would meet with them as long as I could come and partake in the discussion. They reluctantly agreed. 

We were brought to a well lit room with a huge round table in its center. The chairs were all of equal height, except two chairs that were covered with intricate carvings and stood much higher than the others. Maliss took one of the tall chairs and then motioned for me to take the other one.

Grimacing at me, the rest of the council took their seats on the lower chairs. The head chairman of the meeting began by apologizing to the king and then added some half-hearted pleasantries. Maliss cut him off and told them to get to the point.

The council was still unhappy with the altering of their precious traditions, but knew that the people would request for two kings, Maliss and Aadi. They begrudgingly relented that our union was what was best for the kingdom. However, they were not wanting the council to be weakened by this decision so they wanted to propose a negotiation. They would support our marriage as long as they could keep their power and be in charge of a public death sentence for the captured human king and queen, and Kordax.

Maliss gave them full power to be in charge of their executions and even allowed their seal to be on the informing letter sent to the human prince who was heir to the throne. The human prince would now become king of the humans and would hopefully lead a more productive and peaceful kingdom.

The tiefling council announced our wedding to the whole kingdom. We would be wed the following day. I was ecstatic and so was Maliss. This time we were going to do it all right. I was soon going to be married.