Memoirs of sacrifice

The sky was swarmed with flying abominations and mercenaries, looking for the intruders. There were thousands of creatures and all infected by Adawat's corruption, empowered even further than before, that searched frantically level by level for the team.

There were precious few seconds left, and Amawas had to make a decision, Seeing the sky littered with black and yellow dots, she could either lead the team upwards and face them in a direct confrontation like Shahrukh had suggested, or summon a burrow-worm but spend a giant portion of her strength doing so.

The clock was ticking. 

She looked at the girls and Aatish, they were standing a few yards away looking back at her, expecting her to command the next move.

#212 was still hidden in Isra's sleeves. He could carry them up in an instant, 

Amawas then closed her eyes and breathed deeply, by this point the entire sky was flushed with blackness, there were thousands upon thousands of soldiers swarming above the entire khandaq, blanketing it completely.

"#212, prepare yourself" 

#212 flew out and quickly changed into his bird of prey form, he had a new set of metallic talons and beak that were engraved with runes.

Amawas flared up her darkness and closed her eyes, then levitated above the ground. 

Then spoke, her voice as clear as the night.

"Listen well team Insaaf! You will not object, you will follow. I'll conjure a pillar of dark flames, piercing the sky to create a passage. Aatish will lead #212, carrying the girls. Without even trying to look back, fly as far as you can. Get ready now!." 

She had chosen to punch through instead of exhausting her stamina on a burrow-worm, she had decided to face thousands of the creatures instead of facing Shahrukh if needed be, with her stamina shortened. 

Darkness shifted and revolved then formed into a huge malicious looking pillar made of pure black flames, Amawas's yellow eyes lit up even brighter and brighter as deep sounds of slithering enveloped the whole grand City.

All the creature's shifted their gazes below, and in less than a milisecond the pillar roared and tore through the entire sky burning the mercenaries and the soldiers alike as the deep black fire ravaged through them.

Next was Aatish, she bursted into the sky as #212 followed, the girls hanging tightly on his back. Aatish landed right in middle of the entire swarm as abominations tried to attack her from left and right, melting before even touching her.

#212 flew at an astounding speed, no creature could match his ferocity when it came to saving his team. His talons shimmered and the runes glowed and every once in a while creatures would simply burst from within after brushing against them.

After what felt like a torturous few seconds, He emerged outwards and didn't look back, he flew as fast as he could, hundreds of abominations still following him, Aatish was busy obliterating more infront.

The most strangest thing was that there were no executioners in the crowd, Aatish had been expecting a heavy blow, a piercing sword, something that could cripple her or damage her, she was ready for it but nothing actually came.

***********

"#212, did you spot any executioners?" Aatish shouted at #212, her voice subdued by thousands of flapping wings. 

"NONE!" he shouted back and tore through the skull of a abominable rat creature.

Something didn't feel right, Aatish had a premonition that something awful was about to happen, that they were being lured into a trap. She looked around and saw only ordinary soldiers, her spear moving through scores of creatures dragging the red wire along with it.

"No..." Something clicked in her mind amid the chaos, prompting her to turn and glance toward her aapi.

"NO!" She shouted, and tried to rush back, but the swarm was too dense and she could not leave the girls alone, who were also trying their best to shoot down creatures, as much as they can.

******

Amawas grinned as seven executioners stood, surrounding her from all sides,

"Took you scums long enough" She spatted on the ground.

Amawas had already noticed the lack of executioners in their entire battle so far, she had also picked a curious detail from her brother's story. His primary task was to hunt her in a way that Aatish would still trust him.

That meant seperating them and taking her out independantly.

The executioners moved all at once, their weapons aimed directly for her neck, as Amawas raised her hand and a serpent broke through the earth below her and flew high into the sky, taking her into its maw. 

Then it changed and hardened into deep black darkness. 

In the next second it broke after the attack came, but not after giving Amawas enough time to pitch in the corruption, huge cracks appeared on the shell and it bursted, revealing a different more ominous looking Amawas with two long horns on her head, and eyes that had green fire dancing within.

Amawas had drenched in her entire half core into the corruption, that meant she had at most fifteen seconds before her entire body would turn into a stone, paralyzing her completely.

Even the executioners moved to take a step back but Amawas didn't waste even a moment, she was upon them like a herald of death, before their feet even touched the ground below, her claws severed through the head of the nearest one, tearing it off completely as her fire, deep amethyst instead of pure black, burned three others who were in her vicinity.

She knelt on the ground and struck her knee as a shockwave pushed the rest further back, then spun her chain-scythe in a horizontal slash as it took off the head of two more but the others ducked below it, then struck her chest with their thin long swords.

"Bastard" Amawas coughed blood on the sword that had her pierced and broke through the skull of one of them, then collapsed on the floor, there was still one left.

The time was unfortunately up for her though, her entire body changed into deep black stone before she fell to the ground.

The last executioner still had his sword burried in her chest, all that remained was to break her body now. He raised his fist threw a punch right at her head but before it landed, his entire body paled and solidified, then he shattered into tiny pieces.

Shahrukh had come, the vine in his right hand, and the staff in his left, he knelt down at Amawas and sighed

"Oh, Amawas, Why must you always be the most hasty one."