Reis stood on top of the observation post, framed against the dim dawn light. Breathing in the sweet, grassy smell of the plain, she stroked her katana handle with her left hand.

This…I wonder when I will be able to see peace once more.

The birds in the field twittered and flew from their nests as the dawn sun rose further into the sky, illuminating all in a pale, golden light, weak and calm. Filtering through leaves on the scattered trees upon the flat plain, the early morning light cast long, dappled shadows over all.

War…what does it make? Nothing but bloodshed. Why, why do people continue?

Drawing the katana blade, Reis ran her finger over a small section of its sharp edge. The curved sword sliced slightly into her skin, causing a droplet of red liquid to slide along her pale, smooth skin.

I cannot say this myself…I, to go against war? My heart and soul is as impure as a spring is clean. I am…too corrupted to be saying anything, to even go to confession I am a heretic. Heretic…indeed I am. Here I stand, going against God's words of 'to love thy neighbour'. How much more can I be…unholy?

Licking up her blood and watching the wound close neatly through the grace of her dragon ancestry, she smiled in the memory of Edea in the other reality that she had visited.

I can cure…I can heal…that is intended to be a trait of a holy one, is it not? If I were to be entirely evil, unholy, sacrilegious…I would be a heartless executioner of all that I see. However, I am not one of that…what am I? Pure? Impure? Holy? Unholy? These notions confuse my mind, just like those who state my perfection. I-for one, am imperfect. Far from being a saint, close to being a repeated sinner.

Sheathing her blade once more and turning towards the town of Goug, she began to feel a strange emotion welling up in her. Unpleasant, giddying; the new surge of thought caused Reis to feel a certain hatred of humanity and its connotations.

We can end wars as fast as we create them. We can create friendships where there was once hate. Why do wars rage on? Why is violence so widespread? Why is there poverty and other misfortunes that affect the less fortunate? I see…it is all related to so-called society; a method of collecting people together…simply to drain their time and health for the well-being of the few fortunates at the top of the so-called 'status ladder'. What do those underlings of society receive? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Years of toil, months of labour, weeks of work. All for nothing. All for nobility. All for the so-called upper class. What is class? Some distinction based on birth? No…we're all the same…we were all born from a mother's womb, a defenseless child; what makes us so different from each other? Fed by the same food, drinking the same water, wearing clothes of the same materials. What is it that causes so much separation in the world? All these questions…and nobody responsible to answer them.

Striding up the trench lines, she met Mustadio, loading his guns and placing rather large crossbows on the foremost trench, linking all their triggers with a single string.

What is he going to do…?

'Good morning, Mustadio,' Reis called out to him.

Raising his oil-coated face, Mustadio waved a greeting back, before dabbing each of the bolt-tips on the crossbows with a clear liquid. Cranking back each one with all his weight, his face was red and sweaty already; Reis wondered whether he would be energetic enough at noon if the fighting broke out.

'Morning, Reis,' Mustadio huffed, wiping a dirt-cased hand across his greasy forehead, 'Sorry I couldn't say anything to you before. If I pulled this too hard, all of the ones that I've set up will go off. And that…wouldn't be a good thing to see if the enemy comes up early,'

The enemy…who exactly is the enemy? Delita was mine…but he is now dead, and I have as much to do against him as I am related to a squirrel. But if Mustadio says that the Hokuten and Nanten were the enemy…then Orlandu and Ramza would have been considered the enemy. Why is it that people must brand an entire group 'the enemy' due to the actions of one?

'I won't expect them to be too friendly,' Reis said coldly, turning her back to him. The engineer scratched his head confusedly before resuming his preparations for the upcoming battle, muttering indistinct words.

Why can't we be all friends…? It sounds so simple, and yet it's so complicated…

Peering into the giant lens that had been mounted up on the observation post, Reis saw that the enemy encampment was being dismantled. The large tent where the High Priest used to reside in was being taken down, and there were trebuchets and ballistae visible behind the wooden palisades of the camp.

'Mustadio, they're going to be here soon…prepare the welcoming volley of arrows,' Reis shouted to the youth, who gave her a thumbs-up from under the trench store-hole, a barrel rising up from somewhere behind the hand.

Reis skipped down from the heightened observation post, helping Mustadio to lift the heavy barrel up.

Weakness…isn't it the thing that we all have in common? We can help each other overcome it. Why can't we help each other to be better people?

Mustadio pulled the cork seal from the barrel as he placed it twenty feet from the foremost trench; black powder spilled forth, coating the dry dirt and grass. It looked as though someone had drawn a thick, black charcoal line on a chalk cliff; Mustadio had rolled the large barrel all the way across the field, so that there was a line of black powder running in front of the trenches. He repeated this two dozen times, each time slightly further and further away, until the lines created joined to make a black area eight feet wide and running all the way across the field. Stretching a rope from the black to the trench, the engineer was confusing the dragoner more and more.

What is he doing? What is that powder? I don't get it…

'All done,' Mustadio whispered to Reis, looking at the black stripe running across the field, 'The enemy will be in for a nasty surprise when they come close enough,'

I'll just trust him for now…

'I'll call the militia. Where can I call all of them?' Reis asked.

'They live in the town. Just hit the bell on the top of the chapel, they'll all come,'

Without another word, wings burst out from Reis' back, and she flew off into the town.

'Reis?' she heard her sister's voice say from beneath her as she soared above the slums of Goug, 'Please come down here,'

She's my only relative left…I don't want to lose her…and I might die today…I want to spend as much time as it is possible with her…and yet I must fight for the defense of Goug. Argh, if only I could have two halves of myself, one doing one task and the other doing another task.

'Reis…I've heard from Mustadio…you're going to go into war, aren't you?'

'Yes, that's true…'

'Then why couldn't you have told me in the morning? I might not see you again…I would miss you greatly…I wanted to spend as much time with you as it is possible…I've lost you for more than a decade, Reis. I miss you. I miss you a lot. It would've been at least some relief to me if you'd told me in the morning…'

I thought that saying that would be traumatic for you. I did this for your own good, sister Katherine…

'Now, at least take me with you, for if you die, I will die as well. I cannot bear the thought of being separated from my own flesh and blood again, especially the only one that's left,'

You're too ill to do that, sister Katherine, please reconsider

'I'm sorry, sister Katherine,' Reis sighed, leaning in and kissing Katherine on the lips, 'I can't take you to the battlefield. You can't possibly fight in your state, you've just started to heal from your ill-treatment,'

'But-'

'No, sister Katherine,' Reis said, with some finality, 'I love you greatly as a sister, and therefore you must live for me if I die. It is not…wise, for both of us to succumb to death today,'

Why is it that the bond of flesh and blood so strong?

Flying off towards the bell tower of the chapel, Reis began to see some more activity on the horizon. The troops of the Hokuten are mobilizing, a vast sea of men. The black stripe across the field where Mustadio had placed powder upon it appeared insignificant compared to the coming onslaught; for a brief, flickering moment, Reis had nearly given up all hope for the survival of Goug.

Fear of numbers…why does it exist in everyone? Quality over quantity, that's what I've always been told…but will it hold true with this invasion?

Striking the bell with her fist, the dragoner stuffed her fingers in her ears afterwards, her face distorted in agony as the great peal of the bell sent a tremendously powerful sound wave towards her ears. But the bell had its desired effect; the militia were emerging from their houses, bearing guns and crossbows.

Are these…trained? They're so assorted…I mean, they're not even in uniform. I guess that's why they're militia…

They all dashed to the trenches, meeting up with Mustadio at the forefront. The army of the Hokuten was almost at the trenches.

I must go quickly, to aid them in the defense of Goug…

Flying off at a high speed, Reis arrived at Mustadio long before the other militia arrived. Sure enough, there was Mustadio; pale-faced, sweating like a pig, his knees knocking together, as though in fear.

'Reis…are you afraid that this might happen?' Mustadio quavered, holding his gun unsteadily, 'There's too many of them to be defeated,'

'If we're going to die…let's die together, at the very least. Come, the leader is coming out to deliver his terms,'

Sure enough, the leader of the Hokuten Knights, dressed in royal blue, came riding up to them on a bright yellow chocobo. Reis and Mustadio walked forwards, staring at him coldly. They both knew the rules of war: Ramza had told enough of it during their travels. Before a battle, both leaders would meet and make their demands should the other side be defeated, or even meet an agreement before the two sides fight. In this case, Reis greatly preferred the latter.

'Good morning, lady and lord of Goug,' the Hokuten knight spoke, smiling a smile of death, 'I am a representative of the Hokuten-'

'Yes, we already can see that,' Mustadio hissed through gritted teeth.

Mustadio! Can you stop that!

'-The Hokuten and the Nanten have a number of demands to make,'

'And what can they be?' Reis asked politely, hiding her contempt for the soldier.

'One: The entire population of Goug is to be deported to a place suitable for further work and rehabilitation. Two: The military forces of Goug will be disbanded and dispersed. Three: Goug is to be leveled to the ground. There will be nothing left of the old city. Four: The heretic, Reis Dular is to come with me for a hearing at the High Temple at Murond,'

Is he mad? Does he think that we will actually accept these terms?

'No. We will refuse those demands,' Reis hissed, turning her back upon the furious delegate.

'Are you certain about that, young missy?' the knight said, in a sickening tone, 'You look pretty fine to me…how about if you stay with me for the night? And we'll let your puny little town go unharmed,'

'How about no. I am…after all, Reis Dular, the fiancé of Beowulf Kadmus,'

'Oh, so you're that heretic…' the knight jeered, narrowing his eyes, 'A foul-mouthed bitch, just as I expected,'

One moment you think I'm beautiful, the next you think I'm a repugnant, vile creature. Such courtesy…

'I am more honourable than you, you war-mongering scoundrel! You may have sworn an oath of chivalry once upon a time, but I see that you have forgotten it,'

'A heretic has no right to speak of me that way. Mind your position in the social ladder determined by God and God alone!' he roared, his face turning red. Turning his chocobo around, he moved off back into his camp, vanishing from sight as he entered the palisade gates.

'There's no going back now, Reis,' Mustadio muttered, grasping his gun handle, 'We'll have to take them all down…or as many down as we can, if we don't survive,'

Diving back into the trenches, Mustadio sat down against the wall, dispirited.

Is that your will…to fight? If so, it looks as though you want peace…

A heavy object dropped out of Reis' dress pocket, landing with a thud on her foot. Rubbing her foot as she picked up the dense cylinder of unknown material, she began to remember…

This is the blade, given to me by the Estharian leader on the other world…and yet, I haven't tried it. Maybe this is the time to do so…

Hours ticked by, minute by minute in silence, as they waited for the dreadful call of battle, the screams of war. Reis tapped her katana gently against her knee, gazing towards the distant army in apprehension.

What will people think of me if I die? Will I just…vanish from memory and never be remembered…? Or will I be a hero, celebrated and famous…? I wouldn't really care, as long as I'm with my Beowulf…

'Mustadio…' Reis said, hopping off the edge of the front trench, 'Take good care of Alma,'

'What are you going to do, Reis?' he asked, stunned, as the dragoner leaped up on the front wall of the trench and began walking towards the no-man's land.

'I…I've burdened too many people. Today…no, right now…is the time I will atone for my sins,'

Heeding no more warnings and hearing not a single sound, Reis charged forward, without a single person behind her. A sea of men she was to confront—whether she survived or not, it was unclear.

I…I begin to understand now. The reason why I fight. The reason why everybody fights. We fight to defend our ideas. We fight to defend our values. We fight to defend our friends and loved ones. It is…fitting, I suppose, when one is forced to fight on one of these reasons. But as for these cursed men in front of me, I am uncertain of what reason they fight. Perhaps they had been coerced into fighting. Perhaps they have gone for greed. I would never know.

The following moments were seconds of silence as Reis held the tube in her hand, watching a beam of blue light, the exact same ultramarine colour of her eyes, shoot out of one end, possibly longer than her katana. Discarding the metal blades on the ground, she engraved her name upon them, before thrusting them into the ground; slicing her index finger upon the tip with a sharp blade, she wrote a message onto the crimson handle.

Reis Dular. A dragoner of unknown origins, lies here.

Now I'm ready for death…or whatever comes next. I would not care if my body were to be studded with arrows or be sliced open like a pig in a slaughterhouse. All that I love…will perish anyway, and some are already waiting for me…I must not allow them to wait much longer.

Sprinting forward, she dragged the shining blade along on the ground; where it touched the dusty surface there was not a single grain of sand left.

A line of chocobo riders emerged from the encampment, changing formation to a wedge as they approached Reis. Closer and closer they went, louder and louder was the sound, until…

Crack. Down goes one, sword through chest.

Pull out sword, watch the rider and headless chocobo flounder on the ground.

Swing blade madly. The shining surface rips apart bodies and necks, scattering fragments of flesh and sprays of blood all over. Kick aside a mutilated man, throw his head at the last remaining rider to dismount him. Stab rider in the groin. Watch him roll in pain. Grasp his neck, and break it.

Standing victorious upon a pile of dead flesh and blood, Reis possessed the appearance of an angel of death; her jet-black wings were spattered with blood, and pieces of gut were strewn all over her armour.

The rest will suffer my wrath if they dare to come closer…

A shower of arrows rained down towards Reis; a thick, seemingly solid mass of brown, descending upon the slender figure without mercy. Spinning the blade at a rapid speed, Reis repulsed most of the barrage; screaming in pain as she felt the arrows pierce deep into her hand and arm, the dragoner kept moving forward, pulling out arrowheads as she went, an insane gleam inside her eyes.

One cannot exist without a soul…Death!

A wide arc of dark energy blasted the plain as Reis swept her hand in a desperate move to reduce opposition numbers. Two dozen archers in the distance dropped to their knees, their heads lolling on their necks, uncontrolled.

There's still thousands left…I need something more…

'Reis?'

'Beowulf…?' Reis whispered to herself, 'You-you're watching me?'

'Yes I am, Reis. Hold on, talk to this calculator that I met in the depths of the underworld. He says he's been locked up here for years on end, because he killed an entire kingdom,'

Killed an entire kingdom…? Then he should be able to get Goug out of this peril…

'Ah, I presume you're Reis, fine lady. I will teach you the terrible arts of mass destruction. It is called…calculation. Master the art and apply it to spells, and you shall gain power that none shall surpass,'

But what if I don't want that power?

'You shall need blood and bone. As you realise, the life force itself is a most potent material in the arcane arts, and the body is the binding covenant of the elements,'

Blood…I've used that before…but bone…?

'Mix the blood with your fingertips, along with crushed bone and its shards. Write in the resultant dye a formula, any formula, that you can think of. This shall be your casting instrument. Consecrate it with the blood of an enemy, and some more of your own essence. This can be anything. That is all that I have to teach you, for I am not certain that one—especially a female—shall be able to grasp the concepts of this supreme art upon one lesson,'

Doubt my abilities, will he? He will soon see for himself…

Drawing out her silver dagger and grasped the hand of a dead cavalryman in front of her. Slashing off his arm, she burned away the flesh with a fiery breath. Crushing the bone with her fist, she placed the resultant powder upon her other palm. Seeing as her hand was already bleeding, she simply dripped the blood upon the bone. Stirring it with her finger, she watched in amazement as the blood and bone fused to become a dark red, ink-like mixture.

I will save Goug with this mixture…but what is the largest formula that I can think of?

One thousand by one thousand sounds good…but no, its not the largest…wait, what about one divided by zero? That's infinity, isn't it? The largest, impossibly-huge number?

Scribbling one over a zero, Reis stared incredulously as the gruesome writing morphed and shifted to form a ribbon without two sides; it possessed only one, and yet was a solid shape to the touch. Holding the ribbon between two bloodied fingers, she pressed it against a chocobo's severed neck. Blood soaked into the ribbon, turning the cloth black; then Reis hesitated for a minute.

Essence of myself…I've already used blood…what else could I use…?

Tearing off a strand of hair, she wrapped it around the black material. Nothing happened.

What is the essence of myself…?

Spitting on the cloth, she observed it do nothing.

I'm really at a loss…

Rubbing it against her skin, she felt it touch, but nothing more.

Oh…not this either?

I wonder…what is required…it's not blood, it's not part of my body…what exactly does it want? I give up…I'll just wear this as a ribbon. I can't fight like this, anyway. My hand is totally useless for any further fighting now.

Walking slowly back to the trenches, Reis bit down on her tongue, trying to restrain the pain in her arrow-pierced hand. The deadly projectiles had been deflected by her shining blade, preventing them from raining down on her body; but her hand had been mangled by the three arrows that had pierced right through them; fragments of the arrows still stuck in the flesh of her hand, the splinters threatening to break off and enter her bloodstream at any moment. Blood dripped steadily down from the arrow tips still visible as she inched her way back to Goug.

'Reis, what have you done?' Mustadio asked her, coming down to help her stand as she collapsed in the trenches to the horror of the other militia, 'Why did you rush out there? I never thought you'd come back alive…'

'Neither did I,' she gasped, grasping the arrow stubs and yanking them out of her flesh, with small chunks of her skin attached to the metal, 'Ouch—can you get me some bandages?'

'Sure thing,' Mustadio muttered, searching in a trench supplies hole for a medical kit, 'Here you go, I found an Elixir as well, it should do well when poured directly onto the wound,'

Pouring the medicine onto her wound and the bandages, she watched the blood begin to thicken and stop flowing, and as she wrapped the cloth around the holes on her hand, she noticed that it had stopped bleeding entirely.

'Tomorrow will be worse, I tell you,'

'They're coming,' a female gunner said, 'What should we do? We're outnumbered by at least ten to one,'

'More than that, Mire, we're outnumbered by nearly a hundred to one,' the crossbowman shouted next to her, loading his crossbow as a trebuchet rock soared overhead, smashing a cannon to shards of metal.

'Everyone, hold your ground!' Mustadio yelled over the whistling of arrows and the loud explosions of the magically-imbued rocks that the trebuchets were firing. Thousands of Hokuten and Nanten knights were marching towards them; a force nearly a hundred thousand strong, facing a puny defense of only five hundred. Mustadio's row of crossbows had taken its toll of the Nanten front liners; nearly one thousand of them had been defeated by the incendiary arrows that these fired; burning, they thrashed around in agony, spreading the flames to more of their comrades as they ran blindly. However, the supply of oiled arrows are diminishing, and the trebuchet bombardment had destroyed at least half of the contraption. Goug was facing a losing uphill battle against the rest of Ivalice; it was as though an ant were placed in the way of a lion.

'Fire!' Reis roared, lighting the wick of a light cannon with a torch. A blast issued forth from the black iron tube, launching a heavy lead and mythril ball towards the oncoming waves of infantry. The shell exploded as soon as it made contact with the first shield; fragments of deadly, poisonous lead combined with the hard and sharp mithril sprayed outwards, forming lethal projectiles that studded the Nanten knights; almost fifteen soldiers dropped to the ground, blinded and studded by the metal shrapnel.

An agonizing death…but why must they invade?

'Reis! Watch out above you!' the militia beside her shouted, pushing her out of the way of an incoming catapult boulder. Reis fell to the ground as the woman knocked her over; but there was no mercy for the woman; the lower half of her body was invisible under the boulder, crushed by the sheer weight and speed of the great stone. Crouching over the fatally-wounded woman, Reis watched her face scrunch up in pain. Her body had been thoroughly demolished; there was no way that the woman would survive. A splinter of bone jutted out of her body at an odd angle where her lower spine was; her arms reached forwards, an inch, two inches…before it went limp.

She didn't have to die for me…I would have willingly taken the blow. She needn't suffer from a war that I could have prevented…

Tears fell on the black ribbon, wetting the fabric; a blinding flash of light spread outwards from the ribbon, brighter than the whitest light that was possible. Reis' eyes widened in shock as the glow dissipated, leaving only a silvery mass hanging about her wrist; it dragged her hand upwards, though her mind was unwilling.

Obliterate all reality in dark matter! Shadow Flare!

A wave of darkest energy spread forth from Reis' raised hand, billowing across the entire plain. The knights cowered where they stood for the few remaining seconds of their existence, before being eradicated from the face of the world by the sheer power of the Infinity Ribbon. The entire plain was a pool of molten rock; space, time and matter compressed itself with the aid of the ribbon in the matter of a moment, releasing energy so devastating as to reduce all that it met to nothingness, releasing gigantic quantities of heat in the process; the ribbon disintegrated to increase the power of the blast. This was sufficient to destroy all the soldiers on the plain; a belt of flames spread outwards across the length of the island; a river of fire, a tide of destruction, swallowing all in heat and negative energy. Nothing was left of the Nanten; nor of the Hokuten; or of the Lionel knights. Gone. Destroyed. Annihilated.

I…I cannot believe what I have done…I've taken away the lives of…of…too many people to be counted. Surely I will be damned for this heresy…a fate that I will accept, for it is too kind for the evil that I have now committed…

Slumping down next to a cannon, Reis sobbed away into her hands, the last vestiges of her purity disappearing as her tears flowed. Mustadio patted her shoulder gently, pulling her up to her feet, before leading her back to Goug along with the rest of the militia, who were rejoicing at their sudden salvation from death.

What is it that I did that makes people happy…? I've just…committed mass murder, that's all…and that's not exactly good for myself. My conscience…I fear that it is waning…I fear that it might disappear someday, along with my innocence that everybody says that I have. They say it runs strong in me, that it is my strength. They all say that I am the pure one, the holy one, the perfect one. Now I am but a sinner. A dirty sinner. An unholy wretch. May the wraiths and spirits of those that I have slain have mercy upon my soul once I too join them…

'Reis? What's the matter?' Mustadio asked, through a mouthful of a chocobo's drumstick, 'You don't look too happy,'

'Indeed I'm not…I've committed mass murder. I've committed the greatest sin. The unforgivable sin. May God have mercy on me when I die,'

'Come, cheer up, Reis, everybody is celebrating,' Agrias said, sipping a goblet of the finest Grog Hill wine, 'You've saved the population of Goug from death,'

'But that doesn't give me a reason to kill all of those men,'

'Reis, saving a life is better than ending a hundred lives,'

'Well, I've ended more lives than I've saved lives today. Two minuses to a plus doesn't make a gain, does it?'

'You've got a point there,'

As if they even care…I'm just a tool…an instrument of war…a weapon of destruction. My body is everything to them, my soul is next to worthless. I'm tired of this…

'Like it or not, I'm leaving,'

'For where, Reis?'

'Wherever Mustadio's machine takes me,'

Not waiting for another word, Reis threw open the door to the machine room. Thrusting the golden feather into a slot on the machine and stepping onto the central platform, she observed everything around her disappear into darkness, all feeling of cold and warmth gone, sight failing…and the loss of recollections after that.

A/N

I'm sort of depressed right now…I met Reis again, for a moment…and then she left. She shuns society as much as an ant is attracted to honey. Massive loads of homework isn't helping me either…

Sometimes I wonder…do we live to work or do we work to live? Sometimes it's both, I believe. What comes first, the egg or the chicken? It's the same thing with life and death.

I will take a photo of her sooner or later, while I've got my chance with a camera at school for a project. She's back in school, but not the same Reis that I've met before. Far from the same. She's the real, same Reis that I've met, in the name and appearance at least, but in behaviour, much altered…

No reviews this week writer even more depressed. 835 hits doesn't justify why, there were 130 new hits, but why no reviews? It doesn't make sense…