Dilemma

Its bewitched grin grew wider then wider as it stared. Radiant, aching resentment pooled inside, causing its maw to gape, stretch, and grow as if hungrily desiring to swallow the distant cluster of all things human. The kingdom.

A single splash of molten yellow fell gently to her side as her eyes failed to follow it. Stiff with shock, her pupils remained fixed on the overwhelming monstrosity above as the devastating liquid furiously ate away at the ground mere inches from her feet.

The surroundings raged with putrid heat, and she was left all alone to bear the searing burns that began to mark her skin. Her body refused to move, to draw attention towards herself. Whatever that creature intended to unleash, instinctively, a part of her refused to defy it.

'Always smiles in the middle of battle Amelia.' 

She remembered his words. But for once, there was no smiling. A lingering feeling ate away at her.

'All he ever wanted was for me to be away from this thing.'

The tired look in his eyes, the nestled uncertainty that plagued his gloomy figure for as long as she had known him. This thing was the cause. Finally piecing it together, a frown warped her features. For the first time, concern for him was etched into the outline of her emerald pupils as she watched a tiny silhouette appear aboard the creature's crude grey neck.

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As the roaring radiant glow engulfed the shadows, a lone figure emerged. That single shadow was soon erased, leaving the dark figure isolated by overbearing light. Just like the time before the searing heat, the screaming of instincts was at the very back of his mind. 

'Kill. Just kill it quickly.'

Inside, a primal urge arose from within his tiny, minuscule figure. Dashing across the length of its neck at tremendous speed, suddenly, he was thrown off as the creature craned its neck up. The massive landmark that made up hundreds upon hundreds of meters of enigmatic grey membrane suddenly turned vertical.

Within freefall, without missing a beat, sharp black tendrils sprouted from his chest and dug into its insidious hide. They easily pierced it, but such tiny cuts failed to leave even a mark on its grand, overbearing nape. His presence still seemed to escape the mighty being. 

Desperately, climbing his way up the strange scaffolding, he finally noticed the target of the monster's ire. The kingdom. 

'I was wrong. So it's not targetting her.'

A complicated expression sprung to life bordering on concern and relief, yet settling on neither. Clutching onto the creature, a glance down at the harrowing height only spurred him to move faster. Clawing his way to the top, one arm, then another, he had long since surpassed his previous attempt at scaling the beast.

Yet it was simply too large, and climbing any further proved fruitless. 

The change in verticality no longer provided him the leverage he needed to perform something truly devastating. After all, his shadows were weak; compared to his physical might, they were frail and unreliable. In an instant, he had decided to ascend to the creature's head to solve that issue, to cut downwards into its skull. But the raging light countered his ability. Unlike before, with his domain over the sun, his new ability held no solution.

'No I can do it. I just need more, more time.'

Flailing from the creature's neck, Machia grits his teeth and closed his eyes. In the darkness of the ever-creeping night, they emerged. Unlike Machia, there was no need to emerge from the ground. Darkness alike was their ally as they strutted into view from seemingly nothing but dark. 

Their silhouettes were huge, unimaginably so. Their uncanny size stripped them of any recognisable characteristics, as their white pupils alone marked their opaque, dark heads. Their grandiose hooves dwarfed that of Amelia, who stood stiffly below as they marched forward. 

Their enormous size made them impossible to ignore. The creature tilted, and curved its maluable neck to look between the four of them as they ominously encircled it. Those hollow eyes expressed something akin to bewilderment. It seemed endeared by the presence of beings matching it as the light within its empty sockets dimmed. 

The dying embers left behind remained unmoving as they peered at the closest of the steeds inscrutably. A stalemate ensued.

Until a slithering thick limb swatted the shadowy mass of the steed. It easily cut through the apparition as the shadow's remnants swirled and turned formless, returning into the night's darkness. The dying light of the monster's pupils tightened in dismay. These were no beings, just deceptions.

A hectic spin ensued as the world shook. Its oval black body, through some unseen mechanism, twisted and turned. Its grotesque, awkward limbs flailed around as it slashed wildly at the remaining shadows that encircled it. But the enormous shadows stood stiff, hollow as they were vanquished one after another. 

'More time. I just need a little longer.'

Despite the petulant velocity, he crawled. Climbed, grabbed, and pulled. His progress was slow. Pathetic even. 

For every dozen meters he scaled, he was further assaulted by the creature's crazed trajectory. His little trick was fickle, useless in the grand scheme of things; his real steeds were useless here, too. Defeat was seemingly inevitable. The false King, the Emperor and his disciples, and the empire's army. All were slain. Distractions that could have made all the difference. 

Their fall had always been a part of his machinations. It had been obvious to him since the start. A human could never survive a battle like this. But truly, they were the lucky ones. 

Machia had been fooled. 

As the light brimmed, it was clear the time had come. Yet, that devastating attack on the kingdom never came. As Machia continued to climb, ridden with anxiety, a sense of dread overwhelmed him. Before his omniscient gaze on the battlefield perceived it, he felt the creature slow. Gradually, it turned its gaze downwards. 

"no"

That soft, meek sound was drowned out by the wind. He couldn't find it within himself to wail, yell or cry out in warning. Detatched, a sensation that felt like he was drowning, a sensation he had already felt before whilst drowning. This time, he ignored it.

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Feeling helpless, worried for the kingdom's fate, the fate of her promise to her brother, even Machia. She allowed herself to feel relief once it drew its gaze away from the distant structure. Even as those swollen yellow irises swayed and fixed onto her tiny figure, she felt relief. 

'Oh'

Only soon after that did she recognise her true misfortune. She had acted this whole time out of concern for her promise, narrowly avoiding the creature's devastating attacks from below. Doing her utmost to cause any damage to its bloated, disgusting body to buy Machia time. As the target of its ire was clearly the kingdom and its inhabitants. The one in the most danger is the person scaling the monstrosity.

'How come it's always me being fooled.'

Moments later, an unstoppable wave of devastating yellow light crashed into her being.