Sorry for being a bit late with this update. This chapter took several drafts before I was happy with it. This chapter marks the exact middle of this story and I wanted it to be an important one. Unfortunately, I just missed the 50,000 word mark. Reckoned I could have padded some of the scenes with more words but didn't feel right. Anyway, enjoy the read.
Escalation: Upheaval
Lelei rode all night. Her back ached and her thighs were sore, unused to long hours of riding. Sweat ran down her face, causing her blue hair to plaster onto her forehead. The horse was panting heavily and she could feel it slowing, knowing that it was approaching exhaustion. Nevertheless, she spurred her heels into the steed's flanks, edging it to push on. It would have been wiser to let it stopped for an hour or so to let it rest, but her master had told her not to stop and keep going until she reached Alnus; she dared not disobey. Whatever the message of the letter she carried were, it must be of the utmost importance.
Ahead, the sun was rising in the horizon, bright orange light heralding the coming of dawn. The highway road was covered in frost, frozen from the freezing night before. The land around was a roll of hilly terrain capped with tall coniferous trees, and the road ran through a wide valley between two opposing hills. Lelei knew she was getting close to her destination; the holy hill must not be far off.
She wondered what could have caused her master to suddenly sent her on this mission. Cato El Altesan was an eccentric man, but nothing could explain why he acted the way he did. She knew it had something to do with the fire they saw, but from what she could tell it was another occurrence of wildfire; though since it was winter and cold, that theory was in question. The only other possibility was it could be the campfires of a large bandit force. Did her master suspect that? She regretted not pressing him on what was it. It didn't matter now though, she would find out later.
The highway here twisted round the contours of one hill. Large trees whose leaves had yet to fall off the branches hid much of the landscape from view. She tapped her heels against the horse's sides again and the beast reluctantly galloped faster.
A sharp whistle, then the sound of a bow snapped. The next thing Lelei knew, her horse was stumbling to the ground, an arrow struck dead in its chest, blood pouring out of its pumping heart. She felt the beast gave way and fall, and she gave a startled cry. She barely had time to unhook her feet from the stirrups before she herself fell to the ground. The momentum of the speed she had been going threw her off the road and onto the grass. The whole world turned upside down as she crashed to the ground. Her head smashed against the earth, blinding her with pain, her vision going white for an instance, and she cried out in agony. Her body rolled and flopped for a few meters before coming to a stop.
Her ears were ringing and she could hear nothing else but the sound of her own breathing, panting. She felt paralyzed, immense pain immobilizing her. The light of the sun was overbearing on her eyes, and for a brief moment she wondered whether she had cracked her head wide open and was dying.
But then the worst of the pain faded, and she gingerly moved, feeling for any broken bones. Thankfully, there was none and she flopped onto her hands and knees, taking a second to catch her breath, before pushing herself up, a wave of dizziness hitting her. She touched where her head had banged against the ground, and her hand came away entirely bloodied.
She heard a loud warcry and all around her armed men came running out of the tree lines. Her vision was still blurred but she counted a dozen of them. It not difficult to guess that these men were bandits, ambushing anyone who passed through this section of the highway. The enclosure of the valley and forest covers provided the perfect location to concealed the men.
She did nothing for a moment, her body still aching too much from the fall., but then her brain began to work again; she would have to fight. She reached for her staff, which she had dropped when she fell, and patted the pocket of her robe to ensure that her master's letter was still there. It was, and she closed her eyes as she chanted the incantation for the defensive spell which all mages learnt during their first week in the Magic Academy. A bright turquoise aura simmered in the air around her.
The men coming for her were huge and muscular, and they wielding heavy axes in their burly arms. Their faces grinned with the ecstasy of capturing a young vulnerable girl. Lelei pointed the tip of her staff at the closest one and muttered a spell. A brilliant purple bolt shot forth and struck him dead on the chest. The impact threw him backwards and he crumpled on the ground, struggling to get back up.
"She's a mage!" she heard one of them shouted.
She turned around and formed a ball of energy in her palm before releasing it on her attackers. The ball expanded and exploded in the face of two bandits. Blood flew and they screamed as they were knocked away from the blast. It was not a spell which she had learnt from her master but one of the few which she had learnt with her many duels with her sister. Her master would surely disapprove of such a spell for he was of the view that magic is sacred and should not be used to harm others.
The other bandits now hesitated and then, as if they remembered they were only facing a child and had the numbers advantage, they charged again.
Lelei's head throbbed painfully from her fall, but she knew she had to keep fighting. Arrows flew at her, only to be deflected by the defensive magic she had casted on herself. She levitated one of the fallen bandit's sword and directed it at one of the archers. The sword shot forward and impaled itself into the man's stomach. The bandit doubled over, blood spilling out of his mouth and then he collapsed.
Mental and physical strain drained Lelei and she was feeling weak. She knew she had to be careful of using too much magic or else she risked passing out and potentially dying. Her master had often told her of the stories of overzealous mages who tried going beyond their limits and ended up falling into a never-ending sleep.
A loud shout roared behind her, and she realized that her moment of distraction had allowed a bandit to sneak up on her. She swung her staff at the man, but yelped in surprise as he easily caught it, twisted it out of her grip, and brought a large fist down on her face. The blow knocked her off her feet, caused her to cry out. She looked up and could only stare in fear as the man loomed over her, raising his axe to bear down on her.
The axe swung down.
But her defensive spell just managed to hold before breaking entirely, shattering into millions of red fragments. The force of the axeblade was sapped away and the bandit stared in wonder at why his weapon did not cut home.
Lelei took advantage of the momentary diversion and blew the man away with a blast of wind energy. Her heart was pounding at the near-death experience, and she quickly picked up her staff and got up. She looked around for the remaining bandits, but then realized that they had fled. Probably now fearful they could not take on a mage by themselves. She saw the last of them run into the tree lines again, disappearing into the forest on the hills.
She could find little joy in a victory though, only pain and exhaustion. The night's ride and the fight had taken its toll on her. Her head was bleeding more than ever and she felt her legs growing weak and in protest of her supporting her body. She reached in her pocket and pulled out her master's letter. It was undamaged, and she smiled tiredly at the fact.
Then she collapsed.
§§§§§§§§
Itami absently scrolled through the checklist of items on his smartphone needed to be done for the day. The Third Recon Team was on the road yet again, and they would be continuing their mission of establishing contacts with local settlements. He leaned back against his seat and stared out of the LAV window to observe the countryside. He wondered what General Hazama was planning next to do in the war against the Empire. The Task Force had managed to secure a vast amount of land, bringing small towns and villages under their control. However, the sheer expanse of the continent and lack of sufficient infrastructure was stretching the Task Force personnel to the limit and the recent infestation of bandits were proving to be a significant problem. As such, for now, Itami reckoned, Hazama was merely gathering enough information for the land before making any major decision.
"We'll stop by Coda first to pick up Cato's maps before continuing from where we left off yesterday," he explained to the rest of the team through his headset.
"Hopefully he has them ready," Kurata said. "Captain Saza sure does want to get his hands on those, doesn't he?"
Itami nodded.
"How did the meeting Hazama go anyway, sir? Did he agree to bring in Cato to study the Gate?"
"Not yet. He said that he needs to speak to those in charge back in Japan. Apparently, the decision isn't his to make."
"I don't see why not, sir? The guy might be helpful with his magic knowledge and stuff."
"I agree. There's still a lot we don't know about this world. I sometimes wonder if this is how Saito felt when he was summoned to Halkegia."
"Ayy, Familiar of Zero reference." Kurata laughed. "Saito was probably too distracted by Siesta's chest to really think about his situation. God I would love to be in his position."
"Wait a minute, you're a Siesta fanboy?" Itami asked, eyebrows raised.
"No, sir, of course not. I'm a Kirche guy."
"Oh good, thought you were retarded for a moment, Kurata." Itami chuckled.
"Fuck that, sir. Kirche all the way."
"Always."
"You and me, sir, we're the Saitos of this world."
"Can you two stop talking about anime for a minute?" Shino said annoyed from the backseat. "If not then let me ride with Kuwahara's squad. Geez, almost forgot what dweebs you two are."
"I see we got a Louise back there, sir," Kurata whispered to Itami.
Itami nodded with a grin. He looked out to the countryside again, and saw that they were still about another an hour or so away from Coda. The hills here were covered with trees and the height in which they grew was something unseen of back in Japan. There were no birds in the air as it was winter. The road was covered in frost and Kurata was driving slowly just to be on the safe side.
As they entered a valley between two hills, Itami looked ahead and thought to himself that this would be a good place for the Task Force to set up an outpost. They would only need to clear the trees and they would have a good control of whoever passes through this way of the highway. He made a note in his phone to mention this to Captain Saza in today's report.
"What the fuck? Sir, look ahead!"
Itami pushed his thoughts away and looked at where Kurata had pointed. Four bodies laid on the road in front of the Third Recon, their blood flowing like rivers. Weapons and arrows laid everywhere, a sign that a fight had taken place. Itami acted immediately.
"Third Recon, go on alert. There was a fight here not too long it seems. Hostiles might still be present."
The team acknowledged through the comms.
"Sir, that's Lelei!" Shino had leaned forward to the front seats and pointed to one of the bodies, which was a small girl whose light blue hair was now dyed red with blood. Shino pushed open the LAV door and dismounted, running for the girl.
"Wait, Kurabayashi!" Itami called out too late. He silently cursed the female sergeant first class for disregarding safety as they might still be enemies around. "Kuwahara, you and your squad watch the treelines. Mari, check on the bodies. The rest of you with me."
He dismounted, readying his rifle and flipping its safety lock off. "Weapons hot. We will be searching these forests around us to see if there's anyone else. Care that if you encounter someone make sure they're hostile first or not before you pull the trigger."
His squad assented.
"Nishina, take your guys and search the trees on the left. I'll go right."
"Yes, sir." Tetsuya Nishina, a skinny master sergeant, nodded and took three members of the team to carry out his order.
"Kurabayashi, you're with me. Leave the girl to Mari." Shino nodded, then stood up and hurried to Itami's side.
She had her finger on her rifle's trigger and her grip was tensed. "Sir, she's still alive. She's bleeding a lot in the head, but she's breathing."
Itami nodded. "Let's go."
He slowly edged forward to the treelines, his squad behind him. There was no one in sight, but he saw traces of footprints on the grass. When he reached the edge of the forest which grew on the slope of the hill, he found a battleaxe abandoned on the ground. A few more meters ahead, a bow. Whoever had these had fled in a hurry, he thought. He signaled Tomita to take the right flank and Hitoshi to the left.
"It's all quiet here, sir," Hitoshi said.
"Same here," Tomita echoed.
"We're going in the forest more. We can't be too sure if there's any enemy here." Itami moved forward.
Except for the sound of their feet shuffling on fallen leaves, all else was silent. Then the silence was broken by a scream coming from ahead. Alert, Itami ordered that they check it out. They moved with both caution and speed.
It was when they came into a small clearing that they stopped and froze. Itami felt like vomiting.
Before them, were the corpses of eight bandits, their bodies dismembered in the most gruesome of ways. Some with heads detached from their shoulders, while others with their guts split opened and spilling onto the ground. Blood flowed like rivers, All the bodies' eyes were wide and their faces white, the type of white of people who had just seen the most horrible of horribles.
Mouth hanging agape, it was then Itami noticed that standing amongst all the bodies was a small petite girl wielding an impossibly large halberd in her hands. She was dressed in a frilly black dress which barely covered her upper thighs. Her dark hair, tied with a dark ribbon, seemed to dance with dangerous flair. And her lips, coloured in purple lipstick, curled into a menacing grin as she licked the blood that had splattered on her face.
"God," the word escaped Itami, and his breath choked in his throat when the strange girl's eyes suddenly fixed on him. He felt his heart rate rising, and as each second passed under the girl's gaze, the more he felt like turning and running. Those dark red eyes were not normal in the slightest, nor were they innocent at all.
He sensed rather than saw the rest of his squad beside him tensing in confusion and fear as well. They had their rifles trained on her, but not any one of them knew whether they should fire upon on a little girl. Each of them watched her carefully, paying extra attention to the blood which were dripping from her halberd's blade. It was becoming painfully obvious that she was the cause of this scene of carnage and death.
The Third Recon and the mysterious girl stared off, neither party making the first move. Then one of the bodies on the ground groaned. The realization that the man was still somehow alive was instantly silenced when the girl stabbed the butt of weapon through his throat, ensuring his death. Tomita and Shino jerked their rifles at the motion, but Itami quickly raised his hand to tell them to hold their fire. The bandit's gurgling choke filled the silence for several moments before devolving back to quiet.
When the body had stopped twitching, the girl turned her attention back to Itami. Her entire torso was covered in blood.
"So what do have here, Emroy?"
Itami felt his heart skip a beat at the sound of the girl's voice. It was confident, cocky, arrogant—a voice far too mature for a girl so young. It could even be described as dangerous.
"Who are you?" Itami asked slowly. Why was he so afraid of her?
The girl cocked her head to one side, as if simply contemplating whether to answer or just kill all of them. Then she smiled—smirked. "I am Rory Mercury, apostle to the Dark God, Emroy."
Apostle? He had heard of that word before from the mouths of many people in the Special Region. Emroy? That was a name whispered during the offerings the refugees in Alnus base for the souls of their lost families and friends. He was nearly clueless in the customs of the land, but from what he could tell, this girl was no ordinary human—perhaps not even human at all. He did not like that thought at all.
"You killed these men?"
Rory gave him a look that told him how stupid he was to ask the question. The answer was obvious, but Itami could not in his heart believe a small girl such as her could have done such a thing.
"Why?"
Rory let the moment dragged out for longer before answering, "Because they are sinners. And sinners are condemned to death. When they committed their crimes, they believed they were beyond the reach of the laws, but they had forgot about the hands of Emroy. I am Emroy's hands, and their deaths were pleasing to him." She raised her halberd effortless in one hand and showed the blood on the blade. "Their blood was their penance."
Itami did not understand everything she'd said, but understood enough and he could not believe that he had just heard those words coming from a girl's mouth. She was not human, he told himself, but found it hard to believe it despite all evidence pointing otherwise. How was he supposed to act?
"So you all are the men in green," Rory said, observing the others. "I've heard many things about your people ever since they arrived to this world."
Rory glanced at each one of the team before deciding to strode up to Itami. The members of the Third Recon followed with their weapons as she moved. Itami kept his hand raised so that they would not fire. The death god's apostle came right up to his immediate vicinity and leaned towards him.
"Are you not going to introduce yourself?"
Itami gulped. "Itami Yoji."
"Itami Yoji," she said the name. "Maybe you can help me with something?"
He felt a drop of sweat rolling down his cheek. "What is it?"
"I am searching for a Fire Dragon. Cute little thing, but it's been causing a lot of trouble. Have you seen it around?"
"Fire Dragon?" That was the thing he understood. He wished Daisuke was here to translate.
"Oh you haven't? Well then—" she turned around and began to walk off "—I must be going then. We shall meet some other time, Itami."
"What? Wait!"
She sprinted away out of the clearing with a speed that was simply supernatural. Before Itami knew what happened, she was gone. Disappeared into the forest as if she hadn't been there to begin with, except for the carnage she'd left behind. The rest of the team had also been too slow to react and were hopeless in stopping her. The sound of crows cawed above the forest canopy.
"What just happened?" Itami voiced his thoughts aloud.
"I have no fucking idea, sir," Shino said.
§§§§§§§§
After scouring the forest, Itami and his squad could not find any signs of the apostle. Knowing that they had no chance of catching her, he decided to head back to the road. His mind kept replaying the confrontation with Rory and he still could not for the life of him figured what had it all been about.
Mari was attending to the wounded girl, who was lying down with her head bandaged. The three bodies of bandits had been dragged off the road and onto the grass.
"Isn't this Cato's apprentice from Coda?" he asked as he approached, seeing that the mage's apprentice was conscious, her eyes tired but opened.
"She is," Mari replied.
Itami squatted down to her. "You're Lelei, am I right?"
Lelei nodded. Her face was full of dirt and swollen with bruises.
"What are you doing here, Lelei?"
Lelei gingerly reached inside her pocket and pulled out a scroll. She held it to Itami. "My master…sent this. It's…urgent."
He took it, promptly broke the seal and opened it. It was written in the Imperial language, of which he hardly understood the characters, let alone the content of this message. So he handed it to Daisuke, the leading private proving to be incredibly useful in the Third Recon's operations. He made a mental note to be less lazy and more diligent in learning the new language himself.
Daisuke Tozu took several minutes to read through the letter, scanning it several times and consulting the small dictionary he had made in his notebook which he carried everywhere.
"What does it say, Daisuke?" Kurata asked.
The leading private shook his head in gesture that he was not to be rushed. Then he put away his notebook and adjusted his glasses before speaking.
"'Sir Itami, please hurry to Coda Village as soon as you receive this message. I have no time to explain everything in this letter, but the village is potentially in danger. I can't be certain of the danger, but my instincts are telling me that something is wrong. I hope that they're wrong, but so far, they haven't. I plead you for your help, the lives of everyone in the village may be at risk. Even now, I hope that this message will reach you in time.'"
Daisuke handed back the scroll, and Itami saw at the bottom of the page was a hastily scrawled signature.
"May I see that, sir?" Kuwahara asked.
Itami passed it over. "What do you think of it?"
The sergeant major didn't say anything for several moments as he tried to read the letter. "I doubt that Cato would send this without a valid reason. It's worth checking it out. We're heading to Coda anyway."
"What about Lelei though?" Itami indicated at the wounded apprentice. "It looks like she's lost a lot of blood. We might need to take her back to base to get her checked out." He glanced at Mari, who nodded.
Kuwahara shrugged. "Your call, sir."
Itami sighed. This was the problem with being the leader, he thought, he was the one who had to make the decisions. He was never someone who was good with responsibilities. Nevertheless, he would still do his job.
He turned his attention back to Lelei. "What danger is there?"
"I…don't know. My master didn't…mention." The response was slow and Itami wondered if he should just let the girl rest more. Perhaps he should take her back to base. "We saw…a huge fire."
"Fire?" Suddenly his thoughts returned to the strange encounter in the forest again. "Fire Dragon?"
At that, Lelei's eyes widened.
Itami saw her reaction. "What is it?"
The girl tried to push herself up to sit, but Mari kept her down. "You should stay lying down, Lelei."
The apprentice shook her head, wincing at the pain as she did so. "I need to go back."
"No Lelei," Itami said, "we're taking you back to see a doctor."
"Please." Lelei looked pleadingly at him. "I think…the Fire Dragon has woken early. My village is in danger. I think that's what my master thought."
Itami looked at the girl for a long moment, then gave a slow nod. "Alright, we'll take you to Coda."
§§§§§§§§
Itami knew something was wrong the moment he saw smoke in the distance. Then when the village came into view did his breath choked in his throat and he could not speak, all his veins suddenly flushed with ice-water.
The village was gone. Everything gone. Coda Village, just the day before, so full of people and life, now gone. The walls which had protected the village was nothing but charred timbers. The houses as well. The villagers were dead, their bodies merely black remains among the many. No living thing was in sight. Even the carrion-seekers were not here, for everything was too burnt for even them to eat.
Itami could hardly look. Everywhere he looked he saw death. People he had just met yesterday, now dead. The scene was barely different from the one he saw at Ginza. Hundreds of men and women and children dead after trying to flee for their lives. Everything going up in blood, fire, and smoke. He had seen the aftermaths of many villages after they were attacked by bandits, but this was on an entirely different scale. He could not explain it, except that he knew it in his heart.
"What the hell…" he heard Kurata muttered as they dismounted in front of what had been Coda.
"Lelei!" Mari could not stop the girl from running to the village. The medic ran after her.
Itami watched as the two disappeared into the smoking ruins, then turned to the rest of the Third Recon. "Look for any survivors. Let's hope there are any."
His team acknowledged their order, then spread out and searched, keeping morbidly silent. They dug through ashes, slow and steady, dragged clear scorched timbers, and doused out still burning fires with the extinguishers kept in their vehicles. Some of the houses fell as the foundation gave way, crashing to the ground and causing clouds of soot to form. Itami felt his stomach groaning in pain and disgust, and he went through the village, doing his part in the search. He turned over bodies to make sure if any were still alive, but none were.
As he made his way to near the center of the settlement, he recognized the brick house of the village chief, Eldar. The roof was all but gone now, and nothing stood except for a tottering chimney-stack. The smoke was still rising from the pile of remains. The chief himself was nowhere to be found. Itami wondered whether if the man had escaped and lived. All evidence pointed to the contrary though.
He carried his search to a different part of the village, up a small hill, where he knew the Cato's quarters were. It was hardly different here than anywhere else. Everything burnt and destroyed. Lelei and Mari stood outside the wreckage of the sage's home, the medic desperately trying to get the apprentice to go back to the vehicles.
"Sir," Mari acknowledged him as he approached.
Itami nodded and said to Lelei, "You should listen to Mari. She's only looking out for you."
The girl nodded, but did not move otherwise. She continued to stare at the ruined house, leaning on her staff as she was too weak to stand on her own. Here and there, pages of books and tomes flew back and forth, blown by the wind. The air was acrid, and it was suffocating.
"My master's life work was all here," Lelei said quietly.
"Is this the work of the Fire Dragon?" Itami asked her.
He had noticed that there was no horse or foot-print which would betray the tracks of the attackers. This meant the attack had come from the air.
Lelei nodded, and he could tell that she was holding back a great emotion. "The scourge of the Empire. That's what they called it in the stories."
"You said that it had woken early. What do you mean by that?"
"The last time the Fire Dragon went on a rampage, a powerful wizard put it to sleep for a century. But it has only been half that time now and it's here already."
"What could have caused that?"
"Only someone equally or stronger could have broken the sleep spell."
"So, you are saying someone woke it on purpose."
Lelei nodded. "That's the only possibility I see."
Itami nodded. "Why though?"
"I don't know."
Lelei turned and began to walk back to the vehicles, with Mari supporting her. Itami watched them go and then continued his search. Later, Shino found him as he was washing his soot-covered hands in the river.
"We can't find any survivors, sir. We found the body of the chief though. It seems that most of the villagers were killed."
Itami nodded solemnly. "I see, Kurabayashi."
§§§§§§§§
The refugee camp was still in its fledging state with many new buildings still in construction. Civilian contractors, hired from Japan, went about the scene, carrying blueprints and instructions for the layout of the camp. With the arrival of more refugees, the need for more houses was growing rapidly, and with that, the question of who was to pay all the expenses.
Mari led Lelei to a small cabin. It only contained a single bed and nothing else. A dim lightbulb illuminated the cramp space, and there was a small window which opened into a view of other housing cabins.
"You'll be staying here, Lelei. Sorry if it's too small." She handed the girl the key to the room after showing her how to operate the lock.
"No, it's fine, Mari. I don't need much space anyway. Thank you."
Mari looked at the little girl, trying to figure how much the girl had just gone through in one day. Nearly died. Her home destroyed. Everything she had lost. And now alone and forced to live amongst strangers. It was too much for anyone to bear, let alone a girl of her age.
"You said you have an older sister, didn't you? Is there any way we can get into contact with her? We can take you back to her after we find her."
"I…I cannot go back." The apprentice's voice was soft and distant.
Mari looked at her questioningly. "Why?"
"My master's work is still incomplete. He came here to study the Gate, but he died before he could complete it, so now the task belongs to me."
"Lelei, you know, we couldn't find Cato's body, so he might still be alive and hiding somewhere else. We'll continue searching tomorrow."
"No one can escape the Fire Dragon." That was all Lelei said in response.
"It's still good to hope for the contrary though," Mari said, trying to stay optimistic.
But the effect of her words didn't seem to have any effect on the mage's apprentice. Seeing this, she sat down on the bed. "Lelei, come sit down." The girl did as suggested. "What can I do for you, Lelei?"
The girl shook her head. "It's fine, Mari. I can handle myself."
It was Mari's turn to shake her head. "No, it's not fine. Lelei, I want you to know that I am someone you can come to for help. I'll be here for you."
"Thank you."
"You don't need to thank me."
"Can I be honest with you, Mari?" Lelei said quietly.
"Of course, you can."
Lelei paused for a long minute, not saying anything. Her eyes were focussing outside the window where the sky, covered with overcast grey clouds, began to rain. "I feel like crying."
Mari looked at the little girl and felt her heart ache in compassion. She now understood that here was a girl so unused to expressing her emotions that she did not simply know how to respond to everything that had happened. "Then cry."
At that cue, the tired expression broke into one of sadness and tears began pouring out. Mari pulled Lelei into a hug, patting her back in a motherly way. She didn't say anything, she felt there was little she could say.
Later, after Lelei had finished with all her tears, she told Mari that she wanted to rest. Mari smiled and left the room, heading outside, where the rain poured, feeling her own tears threatening to spill. She thought of all the villagers who had lost their lives today, the ones who she had just met yesterday. She did not know them at all, but somehow, she felt pain at the fact that they were now dead. She could only imagine what Lelei was going through. The sight of the little girl breaking down was breaking her heart.
Kurata found her standing out in the rain. "What the hell, Mari? You're getting wet!" He brought her under his umbrella. "What happened?"
She shook her head. "It's nothing, Kurata."
Kurata nodded, not noticing that how close she was to tears. "How's Lelei doing?"
"She's resting now."
"I see. Must have been rough for her."
"It is rough. No one should go through what she has."
"I know right."
They stood in silence for a while, then Kurata spoke again. "Hey, Mari. I don't know if you realized this, but you saved some of the villagers at least. If you hadn't convinced Itami to bring back some of them to base yesterday, they would have likely died to the dragon as well."
Mari nodded. The fact was little comfort to her, but she thanked Kurata for telling her nevertheless.
"You're doing a good job, Mari. I just want to say that."
"Thank you, Kurata. I needed that."
§§§§§§§§
Itami sat in front of his laptop, unable to think of what to write for the report he was supposed to submit to Captain Saza. This was never his favorite part of his job, but even today he was finding it especially hard to write anything. He thought back to Coda Village and how it was all destroyed now. It was speculated that a Fire Dragon was the culprit, but he had little proof; it could very well be another bandit attack. But he knew in his heart that this was no work of man, but of a monster.
He thought about the encounter he also had with Rory this morning. He wondered what was the connection between the apostle and the Fire Dragon. Should he include that in the report?
He let out a sigh, then glanced at the clock. He had only a few hours to submit. The office was quiet, with only him and a few others in here at the moment. The scent of coffee was noticeable in the air, and he yearned for a cup himself.
Reluctantly, he began typing.
Two hours later, he was done, and he hit the print button. The sound of the printing was monotonous. As he waited, he sent Captain Saza an electronic copy of it through the company's intranet.
He stapled the report, signed it, then went in search for his captain to hand it in.
The captain wasn't in his office, so he just left the report on his desk.
§§§§§§§§
"Special Region Task Force of Japan and the United States of America
Third Recon Team Report of 14 January 2017
Unit Commander: 2nd Lieutenant Itami Yoji
The day's mission was a continuing of the previous day's; establish contacts with local settlements and communicate peaceful intentions with civilians. The first destination was Coda Village, where the Third Recon would pick up a collection of local region maps. On the way, we encountered several bodies blocking the roads; three of which was confirmed to be bandits. The last was an unconscious girl named Lelei La Lelena, who is an apprentice to a sage Cato El Altesan, who we met yesterday. After gaining consciousness, she said she had a message from her master to us. Translating the message, we found that Cato had suspected an incoming attack on Coda Village, though the message did not specify what the danger was.
I made the decision to continue on to Coda because it was within reason that Cato would not send a request for aid without sufficient reason. Over there, the village was found to be completely burnt to the ground. No survivors were found and it is speculated most if not all the inhabited are dead. A number of bodies were found in a trail escaping the village but it is evident that no one was able to get far. All the bodies were found charred and burnt; there were no signs of any blade or arrow wounds which would have been present if the assailants were bandits. Lelei believed that the destruction of Coda Village was done by an ancient dragon called the Fire Dragon, and that it has a history of ravaging the countryside. The dragon was said to be put in a dormant state for a hundred years, but is now woken fifty years early.
We returned back to Alnus base after the search for survivors yielded no results. Lelei had her wounds treated in the infirmary and is now placed in the refugee camp, where she would stay until a known relative could be found."
Excerpt of Third Recon Team Report of 14 January 2017
Don't have much to say about this chapter. Instead I want to thank all the reviewers, favorites and followers of this story. Special thanks to RedSS, The Tundra Fox, and Jerry Unipeg for their reviews as you guys have reviewed the most and I hope you will continue to do so. The main reason I started writing this story is because I wanted to tell a good story, it's real nice to know that some of you enjoy it.
See you all when in the next update.
