A Daughter's Resolve - II

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Mae was heading towards Zeq'arr, a steely expression on her face. The City With No Name was behind her, an air of gloom hanging over it, as if it were in anticipation.

"Just how much longer am I going to take to get there?" Mae mused as she continued to head in the general direction of the city where her father's elimination quest was located.

"I want to go faster." Mae muttered under her breath as she ran, and her mind reflected back to the part where Leona had taught her numbing with magic.

"So if I do what Leona taught me..." Mae tried to force magic into her legs, and to her surprise, it suddenly started to feel like she could speed up more. "So this is how it works..."

A small smile crept up on her face as she continued to accelerate, but the smile soon disappeared as the quest card continued to flash in her pocket.

The crunch of footsteps was the only thing keeping Mae company.

In that exact moment, Mae could feel trembling in the ground, and a low, boomy sound shook it to her bones.

"Should there be an earthquake?" Mae reasoned and continued on. Her pupils soon dilated over the thought that this might not be an earthquake.

"I must get there quickly."

That sound, in fact, was from the ongoing battle between Edmund and Hudat Mann as it raged on.

"Ah, I must be here soon," Mae assured herself as she pulled up to a big decorated stone archway with the word "Zeq'arr" on top of it.

Behind it, Mae could see the silhouette of the city, dark and listless, seldom sprinkled with sparks of orange light dotting the city.

As Mae passed the arch, she could hear more and more explosions, and as she turned the corner, she could feel the magic emanating from that place. She found it physically harder to move, but she could still run.

It was as if the air got more viscous all of a sudden.

"What is this? Why is it harder for me to turn and move?" Mae stopped running and checked herself up and down. Nothing seemed out of place, though.

"Tiredness? Maybe the magic reinforcement or whatever doesn't last forever, I guess." She pondered.

All of a sudden, Mae's eyes were blinded by an intensely white light that seemed to emanate from the direction of the city square. The white light soon faded to a green afterlight.

Like a moth drawn to a glowing lamp, Mae was drawn to the scene of the light as more sounds and tremors continued to come from that direction.

There were some buildings that were in between Mae and the source of the light, so she quickly ran around the building to get a better view.

Mae took one step into the city square and was instantly greeted by the desolate view of a battlefield.

At the epicenter of that place lay a body.

"No... No..." Mae started to murmur under her breath, walking towards it. Her eyes instantly softened for a moment when she noticed movement from Edmund.

"F-father!" Her grip tightened around the holster to her rifle tightly as she kneeled down to her father, who was battered and barely conscious.

He was mumbling something, and Mae couldn't hear him.

"W-what is it, Father?" Mae leaned in closer to his face, the overwhelming metallic smell of iron taking over, making her nauseous.

Mae's heart pounded in her chest as she strained to hear her father's weak words. She gently shook Edmund's shoulder, urging him to speak louder.

"What happened?" Mae asked, her voice trembling with a mix of fear and determination.

Edmund reached into his blood-soaked shirt and pulled out an equally bloodied sheet of paper.

"What is it? A Letter?" Mae pondered as Edmund wearily reached out and gave the letter to Mae.

"From me... to you..." He managed to say it in a raspy voice, coughing in between words.

"Please, Father, you don't have to talk; just wait and let me," Mae said as she put her hand under Edmund's back, trying to lift him up.

The piece of paper fell from Edmund's hands, but Mae picked it up and put it in her pocket.

Mae could feel the wet and sticky presence of blood that was soaking her hands now as she managed to make her father sit up.

"Guhhhhhh!" Edmund let out a guttural groan as he tried to get up, but his legs gave way.

Mae didn't know what to do, as she was trying to comfort her father. "Please, don't move around. Let me carry you out of here." Mae said, her voice choking up, and she was trying her best to conceal it.

"Hnnnnnnnngh!" Mae struggled as she slowly dragged Edmund across the battered ground.

"What do you think you're doing?" Chills ran down Mae's spine as she heard a voice right behind her.

"Who is it!?" Mae turned around quickly, but she didn't see anyone there.

She quickly let go of Edmund, and her hand reached for her Kaluar rifle, which was sitting on the back. She grabbed the holster, and the gun instantly started to glow the same purple.

Mae scanned her surroundings from right to left, trying to see who it was that just spoke.

Everything fell dead silent for a second, but Mae suddenly turned to her left and pointed the gun at a tree.

"Get down!" She screamed in a commanding voice. The gun lit up even more.

Immediately, Mae could hear a meek girl's voice talk back to her, "Please don't hurt me! I just took cover here from all the chaos that was happening."

The fury in Mae's eyes quickly faded as she let her gun down to see a small girl in a very simple light blue skirt descend the tree.

"Are you hurt?" Mae asked, putting the gun down and letting the strap keep it up on her.

"No, but-" The girl froze, not moving or doing anything; her eyes locked on to something behind her.

Mae instantly reached for the gun and turned a hundred and eighty degrees to see something she wished she hadn't seen.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the daughter coming to her dying father's aid."

As Mae's eyes widened at the unexpected arrival of the mysterious figure, she tightened her grip on the glowing Kaluar rifle, ready for whatever challenge lay ahead.

The stranger stepped out from the shadows, revealing a cloak that seemed to absorb the very essence of light, making their features indiscernible. Mae's instincts screamed danger, yet curiosity pushed her to demand answers.

"Who are you?" Mae's voice cut through the tense silence.

The stranger chuckled, a sound that sent shivers down Mae's spine. "Names matter little in the grand scheme of things. What matters is what you're willing to sacrifice."