Bear in mind that namuhs are, on the whole, pretty stupid. It's not as if a clone for preserving memories would need to be clever. That would've made the designing process longer and more arduous. :)
Alright, England is now semi-officially insane. Maybe you should play iNSaNiTY in the background while reading this, because it's an awesome song. :3
Ruhtra turns around and flees, casting a quick spell over his shoulder to disorient me. The cave around me blurs and wobbles, pulsating along with the sudden ache in my head. I stumble, trying to regain my balance.
Needless to say, it worked, and Ruhtra might be out of sight, but he hasn't stopped me. Nothing can stop anyone when they're in Russia-mode.
"I'm going to find you~" I taunt. "I might not have Busby's chair with me, but I have a plethora of useful spells..."
He's going to get what he deserves for this trouble. If Russia and Greece have managed to kill (at least) three namuhs between them without magic, I can massacre the other two hundred with it. It'll be like the "War of All Time" Ruhtra mentioned, except it's me against a group of clones. If they're all as stupid as Ruhtra...
"This'll be easy," I finish aloud, laughing. This is for the sake of Emmakala, Egypt, possibly Romania... wait, I haven't had a status update from him in a while. If Rimidalv's been giving him grief, that just strengthens my desire to slaughter them all, to stop them now.
"Lá Eallwealdan! Mé íewaþ Ruhtra!" I hiss, and unsurprisingly a red spark appears in front of me. It leads me down one of the tunnels, and I follow it in a run. The first namuh I see is going to contribute to making the floor as red as the spark originally was.
As I travel further, the tunnel darkens, but I keep on going since the now-green spark is obviously still visible.
Soon, though, the tunnel gets brighter again. Could this be the exit?
Instead of the exit, the spark leads me through another large cavern, except much larger than the other. In fact, it seems to be the namuhs' village, full of tightly-packed rock houses, and even a few flower-planters, filled with bluebells and violets. Unlike the snowdrop in Liz's house, which I'd rather not think about, they don't seem to mean anything; they're just pretty flowers.
A few of the smaller namuhs hanging around notice my presence, registering the bloodthirsty look on my face, glowing eyes and all. Before they can shout for help, I silence them with a spell.
As the spark heads off down a tunnel, I make a mental note of its direction. I can deal with Ruhtra later.
The aforementioned namuhs look at me, shaking, panicking due to their loss of speech. They stay rooted to the spot, too afraid to make a run for it.
I almost feel guilty for their approaching deaths by my hand.
Almost.
These namuhs are all monsters. And, even though these namuhs are short, they can't be children. I suppose that since they're the clones of countries, they'll be the same size as them, which has very little to do with actual age.
Plus, they're not human. They're a group of fakes, who have only caused problems to me and who knows how many other nations.
"Forféraþ!" I call out, casting the spell to both end their lives and banish them from becoming ghosts, lingering on this physical plane. They don't react for a moment, then clutch their chests almost simultaneously, feeling the lack of heartbeat. As they collapse to the floor, I chuckle.
It seems that after Ruhtra's made me watch humans from the past die, I'm watching namuhs from the future die.
Adrenaline seeps through me, and I place my hands on my hips, challenging the surrounding namuhs who have turned to face me, one by one.
The area fills with screaming and yelling, as some of them try to flee. I keep an eye on the exits to the area, of which there are only two, and shoot down any escaping namuhs with spells. Soon, there are enough bodies to slow down any other namuhs who dare to escape.
It's like those first-person-shooter games, which America usually plays at my house, expecting me to join. I usually opt out and read a book instead, which probably explains my inaccuracy with these spells. Lack of practice.
It's not a problem. That fact just gives each namuh about two more seconds to live.
Panicked, the remaining namuhs, with their numbers quickly dwindling, duck for cover behind whatever they can find. They seem nigh human, but that's not going to make me have mercy on them. Oh no. I was merciful enough during my first meeting with Ruhtra, and I've paid for that dearly.
Once all the namuhs are gone, I can find Emmakala. I can save her.
"Does anyone know of the saying 'you can run, but you can't hide'?" I ask, a teasing, open question to the living namuhs, all concealed from my vision behind objects. Do they really think that'll save them? All I need to do is walk to the other side of a flower planter or house. "Right now, you can't do either. I'm going to make you pay," I snarl menacingly.
"Ábricaþ!" I yell, sending a powerful, destructive wind to my immediate surroundings. The flower planters shatter, covering the namuhs hiding there in dirt and torn petals. As they wipe the dirt from their eyes, trying to see again so they can escape, I slaughter them with a few deft flicks of my hand and the same spell I've repeated several times now.
I stalk my way over to one of the makeshift 'streets', and continue throughout the entire village, slaying all namuhs in my path until there are none left within view.
I pause, holding my breath so that I can hear the sounds of any more namuhs. One shuffles slightly in discomfort from their hiding place. Big mistake. I track the sound down to a house nearby, which several namuhs have used as a shelter, adding them to the congregation of namuh ghosts.
After their screams stop echoing, silence descends upon the cave once more. I smirk, feeling as if I haven't yet reached my quota of 200+ yet.
I tear through each and every house, managing to discover a few more namuhs. Wide-eyed, none of them know how to defend themselves.
Just like Liz.
I freeze mid-spell, towering above a namuh, its arms raised in vain to protect itself.
"Am I no better than her father?" I ask myself, aloud, in a low voice. The namuh below me lowers its arms cautiously.
Yes. Yes I am better than him. Liz is a human, and a good person. These namuhs, however, only exist to bring people suffering. Who is it going to be? Their pointless lives, or the sanity, maybe even lives, of my fellow nations?
Would they have stopped there? Would they have driven every nation into depression, even suicide, and then stopped? No. They would plague the entire human race with nightmares. There would truly have been no peace in sleep.
I raise my arm again, and throw it down in a gesture while crying out.
"Forfére!"
The namuh drops dead, and I make my way outside the house again.
It appears that I've gone in a full circle around the central square, an area that looks like a garden patio, littered with broken pieces of flower planters and a few dead namuhs.
Serves them right. Who did they think they were, to mess with me?
In the afterglow, while standing in the middle of dead silence, surrounded by the results of my massacre, I only just remember that Ruhtra's escaped me.
Escaped me? No, that's the wrong phrase. I meant to say 'briefly delayed his execution'. The spell from earlier must've sent me a mental image of his state, but I probably wasn't paying attention to anything but the slaughter.
"Right," I whisper, but my voice sounds loud with no background noise, "it's time."
I carefully step over the bodies of the many fallen, creeping towards the tunnel Ruhtra headed down. I stop at its entrance, and turn around slowly to survey the destruction I'm leaving behind.
"Heh," I mutter, a murderous smile spreading across my face. Perhaps the ground won't be painted red after all, due to the spell I used, but nevertheless. These namuhs won't be bothering anyone ever again, now that I've sent them to their graves. I turn back to the tunnel ahead of me, knowing that Ruhtra's somewhere along it.
Taking a step forwards, I mutter, "Over two hundred down, one to go."