'Let the army move,' Laguna whispered into the central loudspeaker system, his voice echoing through every corner of Esthar.

Reis observed the grand Estharian army from above as they proceeded across the broad highways that criss-crossed the vast city. A steady rumble of large war vehicles resounded in the still, warm air, low, disturbing, as the marching footsteps of the ground soldiers created a steady, rhythmic beat of stamping. Flying down to the forefront of the military entourage, she landed gracefully on two feet.

'Ah, I see you have mastered the art of partial transformation, Miss Dular,' Odine said from atop an artillery hovercraft, 'Well done,'

'Thank you, doctor. Now, where exactly is Fisherman's Horizon?'

'It is…about halfway across the ocean bridge that you saw before. Quite easy to find, it is the only city in the ocean,'

'I will go there now,' Reis said, curtseying to the doctor and flying off into the distance, rapidly shrinking to a tiny dot on the horizon.

Galbadians…I will kill you then…with or without the Esthar army…

Bursting through a wet, cold cloud, Reis flew towards the Fisherman's Horizon, at speeds that she had thought unattainable previously. She had discarded the ugly form of herself; now she could fly without needing to go through the painful and embarrassing transformation into a dragon. The wings, however, were still scaly and leathery; a vestige of the dragon form that she once had. At least they were pure silver, not black or blue…that would look horrible.

Esthar border guards stared overhead as the winged maiden flew over them; pointing at her and muttering indistinct, excited words, they were soon lost to view by Reis. The black plumes of smoke up ahead indicated that the battle had already begun in some way or another.

I must go faster, Reis thought, as she drove her wings to beat faster and harder, speeding along just above the black asphalt. If the battle was already won…she would have no glory, and no revenge on Galbadia.

A large ship-like object had crashed into the side of the circular concrete plate that was Fisherman's Horizon; it was causing the black smoke that filled the skies. She had thought that some parts of that ship were vaguely similar to something she had seen before; but cannot remember what it was. Putting aside those thoughts, Reis noticed a column of black creeping along the far side of the bridge and approaching the town; it could be no other than the Galbadian army's first invasion offensive.

As she approached the army…she began to remember…those painful moments when Beowulf and Ramza died…when her family died…when her friends perished. It was not easy to get rid of those memories. They're human too. They would feel the same thing that I do, if I killed their friends or family, a small voice said in her mind.

This is war, though…there cannot be mercy on the battlefield…

Spare their lives, and spare your own purity. Think not of the glory to be had from slaughter, but on the goodness of your soul.

Battle and love cannot mix. Personal feelings may not get in the way of war!

Glory and honour are but temporal, while the soul is eternal. What you incur now unto your soul will stay with you for eternity.

I cannot spare them if they attempt to kill me. There is no excuse for stopping war with love.

Is total annihilation all that you think about, Reis? Not love? Where had the purity of your childhood gone?

Those were bygone years…years I'd rather forget. Painful memories…agonizing flashbacks. I would rather not have those left behind.

You realise the bitter reality of slaying an enemy. You affect the families and friends of those that you kill. You alone have the power to spare their relatives from the crippling grief of losing a loved one. Reis Dular! Wake up to your pure soul once more! Spare those that are less fortunate than you to be endowed with bounteous beauty and incredible intelligence! Are you no longer moved by the love of friends? Of family? Of relatives? Have you forgotten those years of loving and caring? When some people cared about you? What would others feel, if you had slain the people they had loved?

Bitter as it is, face it. It is war.

Roaring like the half-dragon that she was, Reis tore through the first line of soldiers with ease, cleaving flesh and bone with an easy sweep of both blades. Striking a face with the pommel stone of her left katana, she stabbed another soldier's groin with the curved point of her right blade, causing him to double up in agony. No mercy for you today, she thought, as she kicked him on the back of the neck, fracturing the vital segment of bone that lay less than an inch below his leather-covered skin. Extracting her katana from the bleeding flesh, Reis spun around, ripping several faces apart, the screams of pain spreading terror through the ranks of soldiers.

'Rank! Rank up, fools! Stick together!' the commander shouted, pulling fleeing soldiers back into their ranks, if somewhat hesitant.

'Cut it out! We don't want to die! We would rather surrender than be shredded to pieces by a deadly woman with wings!'

'Cowards! What would Edea think of you fools? Come back here!'

There was no holding it back. All the soldiers began to gradually move backwards as more of them were shredded to strips of meat by Reis' furious whirlwind of cutting edges; left, right, centre, up and down; heads went flying as she batted them off their necks, rifles broken as though they were baguettes of the softest dough; arms severed along with the guns. Yells of panic began to course through the remaining soldiers; calls for retreat were audible over the steady rasping of Reis' blades and the following cries of agony; the dragoner, in her blood-stained impermacite battle gear, had routed a battalion of soldiers all by herself.

Holding up her blade in a sign of victory, she gazed on coldly towards the fleeing cowards. I'll let them live today…tomorrow they will die.

Turning her back on them, she spotted the first tanks from Esthar in the distance, arriving from Fisherman's Horizon. The soldiers followed soon after, staring in disgust at the guts and flesh strewn all over the asphalt bridge; scraps of metal armor kicked aside as they trooped over the remains of the decimated platoon.

'Lady, did you do all this?' a soldier asked Reis, noticing the amount of blood spattered on her battle gear, flesh and skin sticking on the edge of her two katanas, which were dripping with blood.

'Indeed I did,' Reis said quietly, 'Although I wished I could have done that in a more…civilised manner,'

'Wow…I wish I could've done that,' the soldier replied, whistling.

He wishes that he could've done what I have done. Does he not realise the sort of cold-heartedness that I must muster to accomplish this grave and terrible deed? No, I guess not; it is not something that I can do…without a certain degree of nightmarish visions occurring in my dreams during the night. Unpleasant, yes…but unavoidable. Perhaps the spirits of the departed may need to be calmed in a way, or in this case, they will calm themselves at the expense of my mind's soundness.

'We will resume our march tomorrow,' Odine shouted, clambering clumsily out of the artillery hovercraft that he was in, 'Sweep aside the remains of the Galbadians and create a temporary base!'

Immediately all the soldiers dropped their weapons obediently and kicked aside the spilled guts; some were thrown into the wine-dark sea, while others were piled up and incinerated with a good blast of fire from a flamethrower. The tanks were placed in a line facing the far side of the bridge so that they formed a sort of wall; they would serve as precisely that until the morning.

'Miss Dular, may I offer you a tent to sleep in?' Odine asked her, showing her a luxurious, vast tent that would have fitted a dozen people at least.

'Thank you for your concern, Dr. Odine, but I would rather sleep under the stars,'

'Ah…I see. If that's what you wish,'

This Dr. Odine…what does he want from me? I would have no way to find out…maybe later I will.

A/N

2Sidez: yes, I do realise that I have made some errors. I wrote and edited chapter 26 really late in the night, so I must've forgot to check those. .

FFIX will not be covered . I'm sorry, but I don't have the game U.U so therefore I can't write about it…once again, I'm sorry…