13 A Virtuous? War

Alarms rang and sounded, dancing out their tunes across walls of bleached stone. The storm of feet the accompanying thunder as the drumming of clanking boots struck down, pounding as they ran to man the walls and stem the tide of agony that washed over them.

This was the bastion city of Virtue, the heart and soul of Kiburat.

It was all that remained.

"For the Goddess."

"May virtue shine upon us all."

With shouts and prayers weapons were raised, only to fall and cut apart previous brothers in arms, those raised to fight against all they believed in.

With the purple eye burning in his socket, Koel turned to look at Lyrea crouched behind him, her eyes wrapped with cloth as she no longer wished to see… but was forced to by Koel.

"Do you see what a mockery this world is? Do you think me a monster for what I have done?"

Her voice meek and subdued Lyrea replied.

"Yes."

"You look but you still do not see."

"All I have witnessed is the pain of millions, the blood that runs so deep the ground is stained black, the loss of what could have been."

"I offer you clarity and you still cannot grasp it."

Shaking his decrepit skull Koel sighed as he stared at Lyrea, "You are so dependent on the picture of perfection that you do no see what runs beneath the paint. Even now, surrounded by a wave of death that surpasses that of the distant horizon, this last bastion does not give in and still burns with light for their dear Goddess."

"This is slaughter…."

"...Do not mistake my actions for that of a common tyrant. This world was dead long before we arrived, before you became mine."

Her rage growing, Lyrea raised her voice as she shouted at Koel, venting the disgust of all that she had seen.

"Then what is this! Explain to me how the suffering of millions proves they were already dead. You say I am blind. Then why, when I look back do I only see life, I see the lives that you have taken, the families you have torn apart and the world that you have taken from them."

"You see their existence but not their soul. Look below, in this bastion of hope, and try to find that life you speak of before daring to lecture me."

His words finished Koel drifted away into the wind as his army surged below, constantly scrabbling to climb the mountainous walls before them and rend the bleached stone, to tear them down and free all inside.

This war, the wave of death that Koel started had continued for years. Like an unstoppable tide Koel walked the ground as the world behind him was raised and burnt, reduced to death and waste.

Villages and cities became empty graves, seas were dyed red as the waves churned with pain, carrying bloated bodies in their grasp. The skies were dim as clouds blew ill winds over those that were left, mocking them as Koel's words drifted on the winds.

"Oh Goddess, how does it feel?"

"I know you can hear me… there are only three of us in this world that can hear after all."

"You choose to hide, what kind of warden are you that you let your prisoner run rampant with the key."

"... I know where you are. I always have."

Looking down upon the defenders tirelessly battling on the walls like machines, Koel grew bored, it was time to end this farce.

With a thought Koel was gone from his perch in the skies, he now stood before the bastion walls. Stretching up high they pierced into the skies, taller than any mountain as the gate was firmly shut. Sealed beyond mortal means.

"Lyrea… my dear. Search this hovel of hope for the life that you sanctify so much, prove to me, if you can, that it exists."

Placing a hand on the gate, Koel pushed, sinking his skeletal fingers into the wood as it creaked and groaned, splintering under his touch.

With a smile, Koel entered the final bastion

Demise had come knocking on the door of faith.