561 The Rose

Kingdom of humanity: Del Lagos

Thrud Castle

-

Rosemi flinched in pain as the healers tended to her injuries, gritting her teeth as to keep herself silent, unyielding as a commander was expected to be. Her back, shoulders and arms were covered in horrible bruises that bled from the inside out, whilst her armour had prevented any weapons and blow from piercing her skin, the damage transferred into her flesh as blunt trauma instead.

Thrud castle's mighty 5 layered walls had been conquered up to it's last leg. With only one wall remaining undefeated, the area between the 1st and the fourth instantly became no man's land. As for the dekans, they arrogantly moved into their fraction of the castle, treating it as a forward outpost, staring down at the humans who were equally watching them with weary gazes.

Not wanting to stir up the hornet's nest, the military alliance ceased all attack during sunset, as both armies unanimously agreed to rest during the night without discourse. However, even with such a lull in the battle that repeated with every passing day, Rosemi had yet to receive any good news from Einhoren, regarding her parents or their current status. Choosing to believe in the remaining nobles who hadn't invested much into the campaign, and the loyal royal guards, Rosemi continued to fulfil her duty by remaining at Thrud Castle.

Having lost so much ground, the blonde swordswomen couldn't help but wonder if this was all that she amounted to, that this was her best, her utmost, her defining moment. To be written down within history as the human who failed when it mattered most.

Rosemi flinched once more as another ball of golden light entered into her bruises, having consumed too many potions within a short period of time, all magical effects were throttled into fractions of their usual effectiveness. As such, herbal ointments were slathered onto her tender-stinging skin before bandages were utilized to keep the paste purer for longer. Thanking the healers and exiting the tent, Rosemi's legs automatically carried her back up the flight of stairs and back onto the stone walls.

Looking back at the camp, the settlement of knights, soldiers, healers and mages, the woman couldn't help but feel disheartened as their supplies of sustenance and potions had halted indefinitely. With an army ranging in the thousands to feed, hundreds of men were now relegated to transporting fresh water from the closest river and hunting for food.

Looking towards the war front, into no man's land, the spacious grounds were once again cleared of all corpses regardless of species. Courtesy of the dekans who would destroy, eat, destroy and repeat.

"What a disgusting race..." To eat and dishonour even their own, let alone holding any notions of chivalry, nor any respect to the dead who were courageous enough to pay the ultimate price in service to their kingdom and home.

Having personally entered the fray, the snake's body almost seemed endless as the army of blue continued to charge in relentlessly. Even with Rosemi slaughtering hundreds, thousands of them, she was only a single person, and thus was repeatedly forced to retreat, regroup and reform the lines.

Being lost in thought, scrutinizing and agonizing over her choices, orders and decisions over prioritizing the lives of her knights over attempting to utilize their own tactics against them, which was literal swarming hive mindset tactics. Rosemi instinctively tightly clutched onto Erica's sword, finding the cold steel to be somewhat soothing, like placing an icepack upon a bump. Feeling the pain within one of her ankles flare up, she had to shift the weight of her body onto her other foot. Frowning as her entire body was either covered with bruises, pain or muscle soreness from the lactic acid build up and abuse.

It was only after a few seconds of silence did she feel that something was wrong. To her left, the banners no longer swayed upon the gentle night breeze, in fact, they appeared frozen in mid-sway. The bustling of the men below had come to a complete halt, even the crows within the skies above were frozen in time.

Climbing the stairs as if she were a tourist, sight-seeing and enjoying the view without a care, a young teen continued to approach Rosemi without so much of a glance to the sword that was threatening her. 

"Hey human, I like what you've done to this place." 

Standing at only 150cm, the petite girl skipped on over as she sat upon the wall's edge. Her long red hair fell upon her back and down the wall like a banner typically would, her bare feet unblemished and small swayed around like a child as her fangs began to peek through her lips in a grin. 

"Come, sit." Patting the stone besides her, Rosemi felt strangely compelled to obey as she slowly made her way over. However, her sword remained unsheathed and sat merely upon her lap, just in case. In great confusion, she felt familiarity with the young girl, her beat raced like a motor would, her skin was crawling, but her eyes and attention remained entirely locked upon the red headed girl who was seemingly sightseeing.

"Before you ask me any of your questions, as you humans typically do upon meeting me. Let me clarify a few things first~

This is my nest, something you humans refer to as a home? A house? My God given name is Þrúðr, I believe you humans built this castle in my honour no? And, no. This isn't my actual appearance... I did something for a friend of mine, and it cost me more than I thought it would. I'm just still recovering my energy. As with all things, there's always a cost, a repercussion, a consequence of sorts."

Lifting one of her legs up to embrace, to clutch tightly to her chest, Thrud uncaringly revealed herself to be commando. With no shoes, socks, tights, underwear or bottoms in general, the dragon was wearing an oversized top that was designed in Trichia's fashion style, covered with an open cloak that clung to her shoulders and lastly a single pure black peaked cap, that sat atop her brilliantly messy red hair.

"I've come- I'm here before you because by tomorrow come, you'll be breathing your last breath Rosemi de Lumix. Tomorrow come, your heart will beat its last hurrah, and with it, the bastion of Del Lagos will fall alongside you..."

Whilst Thrud spoke without much emotion within her words, almost appearing indifferently, her red eyes glistened as they peeked into the future. Her head buzzed, ignited with pain as the pigmentation within her features dimmed in colour, weakening and dying.

"As with all things, there comes a cost we all must pay."

Rosemi sat in deafening silence, lost for words or thought having been given a literal death sentence. If it were the ramblings of a drunkard, she wouldn't even give two-thoughts to it, but... This was a celestial dragon, and even if Thrud hadn't bothered showing any proof by transforming, the dignity, the aura that surrounded the red headed girl simply compelled the blonde women into absolute faith.

Having free access to her thoughts, emotions and feelings that were in disarray, Thrud chuckled to herself as she recalled another human who kept on fighting, struggling and marching upon a thin thread, refusing to enter the eternal night quietly.

"The good news is, I can help you."

Rosemi broke out of her horrible imagination, already feeling the phantom pain of her heart being torn out and consumed by the sharks across the wall. Swallowing her fears, clutching Erica's sword close to her thumping heart, ignoring the pain of her triceps as her bruises reminded her of their presence, her ocean blue eyes defiantly met the heavens as she asked a single question.

"Let me guess, there's a price to pay for your help?"

"Correct~"

kophzi

Just a little insight into Chloe Bedevere. Her short background segment was deliberately written in a lacklustre way, rather than empowerment, character development or emphasising how supposedly epic a character's history is, I wanted her to be the ugly duckling in a sense. Just an average, every day adventurer who was suddenly plucked from her mundane lifestyle when meeting the duke.

Living a very ordinary life, becoming an adventurer simply on a whim for food, money and survival, rather than fancy, glorious goals and ambitions like becoming a hero. She didn't strive to become the greatest, the strongest, the richest or anything, but to just be better than average, to live without regret.

Whilst the others had goals, ambitions, missions and destinies that led their paths into meeting each other, Chloe is supposed to be the needle in the haystack, the random gem found within mountains of dirt, just lucky enough to be picked up by someone who had a keen eye for unpolished gems.

This is because I didn't want every single character written to be carrying the weight of the world upon their backs, to having gone through nightmarish life-changing experiences, like deaths of a family member (Rosemi's sister) or more (Robin's mother and father.)

As for Violet's arc, it will be explored when she finally decides to face her past, to return to Ignis and reunite with her family.

kophzi