Chapter 420: Last Song of a Varangian

"Τίς γὰρ αὐτῶν νόος ἢ φρήν; [δήμων] ἀοιδοῖσι ἕπονται καὶ διδασκάλῳ χρέωνται ὁμίλῳ, οὐκ εἰδότες ὅτι πολλοὶ κακοὶ ὀλίγοι δὲ ἀγαθοί. αἱρεῦνται γὰρ ἓν ἀντία πάντων οἱ ἄριστοι, κλέος ἀέναον θνητῶν, οἱ δὲ πολλοὶ κεκόρηνται ὅκωσπερ κτήνεα."

"The best people renounce all for one goal, the eternal fame of mortals; but most people stuff themselves like cattle."

-        Heraclitus of Ephesus

The fight lasted all the way until the first ray of sun light appeared on the horizon, casting brightness on to the mountain curvy trails. But the fight is already over, the last Varangian has collapsed from a strike on to his back after he has dropped his axe due to heavy blood lose. At the last moment of his life, he is still protecting Nikolas who has already lost his conscious dying away in the Varangian's hug. While for Yuri, he died in desperation by charging towards the group of enemies in the attempt to sacrifice himself opening a passage for the rest to pass through.

He failed, of course, the group of enemies dispersed right before his eyes, and he became an obvious target for the squad of crossbow men even in the darkness. Four bolts came right at him with one penetrating through his neck, making him lose his control on the rest of his body instantly. But he still stood still and persevered with the support of his battle axe, his 'wife' Sitka. He could still move his head and mouth, and thus he shouted to his companions to run from this place at once, do not ever try to come back for him.

Then Yuri gradually lost his consciousness too from excessive blood lose, but still miraculously maintaining the standing position with his axe. However, his final words did not offer any help to the others survivors, they have fought on the brink of collapse and exhaustion for way too long and eventually, they collapsed one after another. The rogues stabbed their blades in to each of the Varangians to make sure they are good as dead, including that of Nikolas who has just turned eighteen this year.

Till the end, Yuri failed to save anyone he vowed to protect, and he did not even have the time to think about his family before he loses his consciousness, forever. 

The 'boss' of these rogues went back to their initial target, Yuri. He is still standing there leaning on the wooden grip of his axe. His head is lowered, his eyes are still wide open, but his dark blue purple has lost any light becoming completely dull in colour. The rogues gave him several more bolts in the fear that he might come back to life and charge towards them with that gruesome looking axe, the bolts plunged deep in to Yuri's back, and of course he did not come back to live, instead the force made him lean forward and slowly, he lost his balance tumbling on to the blood soaked bloody ground, never to come back up again.

The rogues and killers approached this giant, stepped on his back and back of his head, cheering rowdily waving their weapons in the air, they ransacked the belongings of the crew, rode away their mounts, burnt down their encampment site clearing any traces behind. Then before they leave, the boss of the rogues ordered to have all the five corpses' head chopped off to be brought back to their camp site within the mountains to be hang on their gates for decoration, and a memory to his younger brother whom he believes is now in hell, telling him that he has been avenged.

The five headless corpses are pushed down the mountains, tumbling along with the rocks in to a shallow stream. It is said by the villagers who resides down stream that their water source has been completely red with the scent of blood for an entire month, forcing them to abandon their residence in the concern that this stream might be haunted and cursed by the demon lords.

Yuri, full name Yuriy Myroshnychenko, is laid to rest forever in the mountains of Greece at the age of thirty six. He did not die in the tundra, plains and rivers like what he had wished for in his words to Antonius, instead he died in a place where he had spent the last decade fighting for. He too did not die on a bed being huddled by his children, grand children, with priests holding icons of Christ and Saint Andrew, singing him songs of praises and blessings. But at least he died like a hero, like the portrayal of his mother nation's founder the Rurikids, fighting till the very last drop of his blood.

Yuri shall be remembered, being written in to historical transcripts as the main contributor towards the re establishment of the Roman Varangians forces, but people shall not know what he looks like, as unlike his counterparts Yuri did not leave any portrait or drawing of him behind. He shall be granted the title of an Orthodox saint, either in his home land or here in Thessaloniki, but his future generations are probably not going to be remembered for their bravery and tales of war, instead his offspring starting from his son shall be remembered as patrons of art and literature. Which is probably a good thing for him so that they can live a relatively more peaceful living.

Nevertheless, Yuri is dead in a place a thousand Roman miles away from his home land, the heads of him, together with his pals and Nikolas are taken away and hang on top of the gates of the rogues who have built themselves a nest in the mountains. It only took days for the place to erase any signs and marks of a fight, the blood stains are covered away by the sand and dirt being blown by the wind, the bolts and cloth are washed away by the summer rain water, and their bodies being absorbed by the mother nature, merging in to the Earth forever.

Few travellers have too passed this mountain trails and noticed the burnt encampment, but none of them has taken it seriously in to consideration as honestly speaking, this is an age of chaos and lawlessness, they have seen way too many crimes happening, especially to the merchants. These kind of things have became so frequent until it has almost been seen as a norm for the people who often needs to venture across the mountainous regions. The local security and safety situation in those littoral coasts and agricultural plains have been rectified, but the situation here in the mountains are still like that due to its geographical difficulties for law enforcement troops to enter.

The activities for people from all walks of life continued as per normal, even for the Varangians and the colleagues of Yuri, as he has already set up a set of standard protocols for the army he has built, and it would last on as a tradition until the unit's destruction. But after a week, Antonius and Mikhail became the first ones to get concerned about the whereabouts of Yuri and Nikolas, as they are told to be back within a week and till now, not a single word has came from them.

Antonius dispatched a messenger to travel to the village with his words ordering Yuri to be back to his post and Nikolas to be back to his school, but the messenger received the news from the villagers that no visitor in a group of five is here for the entire last week. The messenger, who is a retired scout from the battle field instantly realised that some thing is amiss and began returning to Antonius. But he too got spotted by the exact same rogues who were there in the ambush a week ago.

The fear of these rogues on the soldiers and government personnel have already been washed away after they have tasted the sweetness of blood and profit of the bounty. Now their hands would certainly no longer tremble when slashing towards the people of authorities they used to fear and yield. The rogues laid another ambush with a trip wire in the same path ahead of the messenger, tripped his mount breaking its legs, and eventually slain him as well taking his corpse away. They decided to make things a little extreme this time.

The 'boss' of the rogues made a simple cross, and crucified the deceased messenger by pinning his hands and feet on to the wooden planks with rusty iron nails. A crew of them, whom no one is whether artistic or autistic, had a broad plan as he described to his other mates, he wants to crucify the man upside down, with the corpse's head facing the ground, and erect it right beside the road to make it a sign of protest to the authorities, and at the same time serving as an advertisement for the other rogues in attempting to recruit more men and grow their strength.

Now this is going to get interesting, with days the words of a devil's cross being erected on the road is spread around like a wild fire to the nearest villages and towns.