THE BEGINNING OF THE END AND AFTER – PART 2

Selene never made it to Merlwyb’s force. The blood-soaked paladin stumbled forward, choking back worry. Bodies swirled on all sides, some advancing and some making slight retreats to regroup before rushing back towards the main battle. Selene sheathed her sword, still coated in blood, and removed a metal gauntlet. She stopped advancing, reaching into one of her side pouches and bringing out a cloth to wipe the blood of her foes from her brow and eyes. The rag came away soaked, and Selene cringed as she tossed it to the ground. It would never be of use to her again. She looked up as she slid her fingers back into the gauntlet, watching as Dalamud slowly advanced, crackling and spinning with menace.

“So this is how I die,” she thought. Her world was falling apart around her. Aysun was… she was most likely dead. She knew Blade was here somewhere, probably trying to rally whatever forces he could. Vaelyn was probably trying to be the valiant hero somewhere, monologuing to whatever foe he was fighting about things being right and just. She was glad that Eva had kept the good sense to flee to safety in her homeland. Her babies deserved a chance to live. Nel and the others were safe wherever that island was, that was good. She wondered what her parents had done. She had no idea where they were. She prayed that they had the sense to flee somewhere. She wasn’t worried about Aatrix either. He was-

She shook her head violently. Why was she thinking about that bastard at this time? He’d probably try to /buy/ Dalamud before he’d think of running. But she was sure he was safe, unfortunately. He wasn’t a fool.

Suddenly, something strong pushed her to the ground. She fell to her knees, looking up to see what had shaken her from her thoughts. A large Roegadyn leading a column of troops towards the front shouted down at her.

“Oi! Watch yer arse, ye damn fool!” he spat as he marched past her. “You’ll end up dead if you keep staring up at the sky!” He points at a few other people marching in the column. “You lot, pick her arse up and bring her with. We’re making this charge as soon as we reach the line!” Two elezen broke formation to walk towards her, reaching their gangly arms down to lift her to her feet. Selene swatted their hands away with a metal glove. “I can stand just fine,” she snapped as she got back on her feet.

She was suckered into this new charge now, she thought. Not that it mattered. She wasn’t aligned with any one particular company or squad; she would just fight forward until everything in front of her was dead, or she went first. Strength in numbers was never an unwelcome thing though, and having a small band to fight with would improve her chances of survival. The column picked up speed as it marched, staying well behind the front line and moving parallel to it. There was no real formation to be seen, as people constantly had to break ranks in order to maneuver around corpses or craters left by explosions. Selene marveled in awe at the dead husk of an Imperial Magitek armor suit, its legs melted away by some powerful magic spell. The driver was slumped atop, an arrow piercing his throat and his mouth contorted in agony.

“We’re all the same,” Selene thought to herself as they marched past piles of the dead. “Under our respective banners, under our helmets, we’re not so different; Just the pawns of leaders that can’t seem to agree.” She was once again pulled from her thoughts by her newfound Roegadyn squad leader.

“Alright, ye daring basterds!” he shouted, turning around to face the assembled troops. The moment was haunting, as they stood there standing in the dirt while explosions wracked the earth nearby and plumes of fire and smoke rose up from behind the main line. “There’s a battalion entrenched on the other side of the line, and they’re raisin’ hell over here for us. It’s the only place where they can bombard some of our key locations, but the positionin’s bad for them!” he shouted, grinning. “They’re right up against a cliff! An’ we’re gon’ DRIVE THEM OFF THE TWELVESDAMN FACE OF IT!”

“So this is how I die,” she thought. In a medium-sized handful of troops foolish enough to try and rush a key Garlean strategic position. There was no doubt already a large amount of fighting going on there. The Eorzean Alliance would be foolish to not try and take out a stronghold like that as soon as possible. Now Selene had found herself in the middle of a spearhead group, running on a suicide mission into the heart of the storm.

The column cheered, pumping their fists and weapons into the air. The Captain continued his motivational speech, spewing hate and venom. In the heat of the moment, the soldiers around her began to whip up into a fervor, but Selene tuned it out. She wanted to keep a clear head. The crowd mentality wouldn’t help that. The Captain raised his axe, and lowered it with a roar. The column began its charge, pushing through the front as they rushed the Garlean battalion.

As soon as they breached the front, people began dropping. Arrows, errant sword swipes; Selene was nearly crushed when a roegadyn in front of her in the column was struck in his neck and fell backwards into her. She dodged quickly, and started pushing her way to the center of the column. The more bodies between her and the entire Garlean empire, the better. She risked a glance behind at the front line, and her mouth dropped open.

Their psychotic push through the front had broken the Garlean line, and a swarm of soldiers from the Eorzean alliance was pushing forward behind them. They had been a rallying point, a beacon, and others were now following suit. Selene stayed tight in the middle of the advancing force, wincing every time someone along the edge of their line was cut down.

They hit the enemy artillery camp like a blacksmith beats his anvil. The Garlean force consisted of several Magitech ride armors, several archer bands, and a meager defensive unit. The spearhead had positioned most of their shields at the front of the column, and they pushed in hard and quick while the heavy hitters behind quickly made short work of the Garlean footsoldiers. A black mage in the column quickly launched several powerful spells into one of the Magitech suits, immobilizing it in seconds; the metal twisting and melting in the intense magical heat. Selene readied her shield as they pushed forward.

The Garlean force was caught off guard. They didn’t realize that the front line had been breached, and the spearhead was charging with such ferocious speed that it was almost too late. The magitech machines were of little use at such close range. Their firepower was too intense to fire behind the main line; there would be too many casualties. They couldn’t flee either, since they had set up with their backs to the edge of a gorge. They were sitting ducks, and the Eorzean archers knew it, concentrating their fire on killing the magitech pilots.

The Garlean archer columns were a different story. Selene watched them over the top of her shield. They panicked for a moment, but quickly made the spearhead their main target. As she saw them re-train their arrows on her position, she dropped to her knee, slamming her tower shield into the earth like a wall. Arrows pinged off the surface of it as they fired. The spearhead began to crumble slightly, its focus now divided between the three targets in the encampment. All they had was the element of surprise, and that was slowly crumbling as the Garlean force regrouped.

“So this is how I die,” she thought. Selene hunkered down, not moving, and unsure of where to proceed. Arrows pinged off her shield as she looked around, trying to decide on a course of action. As she deliberated, a Garlean warrior landed on the ground next to her, screaming in pain. An arrow was lodged in his knee, under an armored plate. He was too fixated on his wound to notice Selene, sitting there and watching him wide eyed. She stared at him for a few moments, then reached to her side and drew her knife. She turned it in her hand a few times, pondering as he remained oblivious to her. A quick flick of the wrist and he was dead, throat cut and bleeding out onto the dirt. She pulled the body close as the last of his lifeblood drained out, propping it up to use as a human shield. And then she waited.

 

 

The Garlean front line was broken. The spearhead had done its job in rallying their troops, and they quickly laid waste to the Garlean forces. Selene could hear their cheers behind her, staying put even as the sounds of arrows deflecting off of her shield began to fade away. Maybe the Garleans had forgotten that she was there, but moving to try and check now was still suicide. One woman against a whole column of archers? Not a chance. She looked up at Dalamud, still hovering in the sky. If there was even the smallest chance that she wouldn’t get crushed to death, she didn’t want to risk throwing it all away in this foolish battle.

She felt the rumble first, before the heard the roar. The ground beneath her began to shake, and she looked around behind her makeshift wall to identify the source. Her eyes widened and her lips broke into a smile; there was still hope. The Eorzean line had regrouped, and was making its charge on the battalion. The spearhead was scattered and dead, but it had done its job. The magitek armor was all but destroyed, the shields they had to protect the encampment had been the first to go. All that remained were perhaps four score of archers, the ones that Selene was hiding from. One crippled magitech armor exploded, sending metal shards flying everywhere as a frontline mage finished him off.

Selene waited until the front line had passed her and she was back among the bulk of the Eorzean force. She stood slowly, discarding the dead Garlean onto the ground. She began to run with the charging force, her sword drawn but not at the ready. The archers stood little chance against their numbers, and within moments the entire Artillery position had been overrun. The Eorzean Alliance let out a collective cheer at their success, fists pumping into the air. Selene was nonplussed. She was about to sheathe her blade, but something caught her attention.

Off to the side, near the edge, a lone Garlean was holding on to the edge of the cliff. His nails were digging in to the lip, trying to haul himself back up to safety. Nobody among the Alliance seemed to notice him but Selene. She broke away from the main group, walking over to him slowly, her sword swinging idly at her side, stopping a few feet away from him.

He stopped his struggle, looking up at her with fear in his eyes. He tried to adjust his grip, his eyes locked on her blade. He looked back up at her, his eyes pleading with her.

“Please,” he begged. “Don’t kill me, please.” Selene stared down at him, her face blank as he blubbered. “Please, I can pay you,” he said, his nails digging into the dirt. “I… please, I don’t want to die, not here.”

Without warning, a massive explosion echoed about, sending shockwaves across the landscape. Selene staggered slightly, looking about to see where something of that magnitude could have come from. The Garlean’s grip faltered slightly, and he lost a few inches. His feat dangled wildly, trying to get back up on the lip to no avail. Selene looked up to where Dalamud hovered, and her mouth dropped open in fear.

Giant blue glowing stones appeared like knives along its burning surface, piercing and plummeting to the ground. Cracks of fire began to trace across the sphere, meteors and chunks of stone falling like fire down to the ground. The sky darkened, reddened, and the battle about her came to a halt as both sides looked as one towards the heavens.

The blue stone dislodged from the egg, plummeting through a haze of smoke down to the surface. Cloud plumes billowed forth as it collided, making Selene stagger again. She fell to her knees, dropping her sword. The Garlean soldier saw his opportunity, reaching out and grabbing her ankle and pulling her towards the edge. She screamed, managing to twist as she was dragged just in time to catch herself on the edge. The two of them hung there, dangling. Selene lashed out with her feet, trying to kick him down to his death.

“So this is how I die,” she thought: Hanging off the edge of a cliff in Cartenau Flats, waiting for gravity to inevitably take her life while a moon exploded above her like a volcano suspended in midair. She slipped a little bit, barely hanging on.

“Stupid bitch!” the Garlean laughed at her as he swung his legs about, trying to use his momentum to push himself back up onto the ledge. “You should have killed me when you had the chance!” One leg was up, and then the other soon followed. He stood up, victorious above her. Selene tried to climb, but couldn’t. There was nothing for it. This is how she would die. The Garlean crouched down in front of her, drawing a small knife from his pouch. He raised it above his head, ready to plunge it down on her head.

Selene let go.