Raid

Inside the main building Yuuji and his crew all stood frozen over 4 bodies of their enemy. A grim expression was carved onto their faces.

‘We have to keep going… If we don’t… everyone may be killed.’ Yuuji thought as he looked back at the others. “We have to go now. If we stay here everyone will be killed.”

“Yeah… we have to!” Amilia exclaimed after hearing Yuuji and immediately ran to his side. “We might not be able to save everyone, but we can save who we can!”

Akio and Kazuma stood there in silence after hearing the two. Moments later they both followed in Amilia’s steps and stood by Yuuji.

“Just do not blame yourselves for the deaths of the people we can’t save.” Kazuma said in a resolute tone. In response they all nodded.

Quickly they found a staircase which led them deeper into the base, at the bottom they were met with 3 Organization members. The meeting was cut short as they were dispatched in an instant by Yuuji, Akio and Kazuma.

They wanted to conserve Amilia’s mana for the fight with Athena that might happen after this raid.

“How many floors do we need to get through?” Yuuji thought out loud as they stopped at another staircase.

“A couple more.”

On the next floor they were stopped by a few more organization members, like the last they were taken care of.

“They should have the victims on the next floor down.” Kazuma explained before they searched for the next staircase. They eventually found the stairs to the next floor after a short search.

Yuuji took a deep breath as he stared at the steps. A horrid feeling rooted deep within his chest worsened with every millisecond that passed.

“Let’s go.” Yuuji said in a calm voice, but everyone else could hear the nervousness behind it. Just as he took the first step, footsteps could be heard rushing towards them.

“Akio!” Yuuji screamed as a sword pierced through the chest of Akio.

“You should have killed every single one of us…” A deep voice came from behind Akio before he twisted the blade in his hands and removed it from Akio’s chest.

Instantly, he swung his sword at Amilia who was beside Akio

—--------------

Why is it so quiet in there? I couldn’t help but think as I stared at the entrance to the main building. Surely, there would be shouts or something right? A burning sensation intensified in my heart as each second passed. Is everything alright?

Entering the base, 2 bodies were lying on the floor. One had every limb cut off and they were decapitated… Obviously the work of Kazuma, our little swordsman would never do that. Walking past the bodies, the sensation in my heart intensified even more. I couldn’t help but feel like something horrible was going to happen.

‘Finally!’ I finally found the staircase! Without giving it a second thought I dashed down them, only to be met with a similar scene, but instead of 2 bodies there were 3. Ignoring them, I began to search for the next staircase.

‘They really need to change these layouts…’ I couldn’t help but think as I found the next staircase.

As soon as I took the first step, I heard a familiar sounding voice shout Akio’s name. A chilling sensation took over my body as I sprinted down the stairs. What happened?! Is he okay?!

All I could see was Akio being lifted off the ground by something… And an organization member right behind him. What, what, how?! How did this happen?!

“You should have killed every single one of us…” These words cut my thoughts short as it twisted something in his hands, causing Akio to fall to the ground. In the next instant, swung his weapon towards Amilia… Without thinking, I threw what appeared in my hands.

His body jolted as one of the swords I threw rammed into the back of his neck, the next caused his sword to fall out of his hands as another sword pierced through his wrists.

Blood pooled under the corpse of Akio and the organization member… If I wasn’t so reckless I could’ve prevented his and everyone else's deaths. Why was I being so reckless?!

“Allen.”

“Allen.

“Allen, can you hear me?.” A voice brought me out of my thoughts again. Looking towards the voice, it was Kazuma. “If we want to prevent more deaths, we have to keep going.” Kazuma said to me while extending his hand towards me.

“Yeah, we have to.” I couldn’t help but agree with him as he helped me to my feet.

—-----------

Without lingering there for a moment more, the 4 of them went down the last set of stairs with hurried steps. As soon as they reached the bottom floor, shouts and people struggling could be heard.

Yuuji looked at his companions before following these sounds.

Reaching the source they found a massive cell, inside there were a massive amount of people away from the bars. Corpses were scattered around the floor, both victims and organization members. Near the middle a man holding a beastkin woman in his arms sat on the ground.

Cries and whimpers could be heard as the 4 entered the cell. They stayed silent as they looked around at the corpses. Amilia walked towards the couple after noticing the wound on the beastkin woman’s abdomen.

“I can try to heal her.” Amilia said to the man with a stiff smile. ‘I don’t think I can stop it…’ She couldn’t help but think as she saw the wound. It was gushing blood, she can slow it down but it’ll eventually kill the woman if they can’t find a better healer.

“Please, please heal… her…” The man let out, his voice nearly breaking.

An unknown amount of time passed, Amilia managed to slow the bleeding down. But, she couldn’t do anymore as the wound was still too severe.

“This is all I can do, but once we get you all out of here we can find someone who can heal the wound better.” Amilia explained with a smile. The man started to calm down after hearing those words.

“Thank you so much!” The man lowered his head as tears of gratitude formed in his eyes. After thanking her a few more times,he helped Amilia bandage the wound.

‘Wait… why does she look like an older Sakur- Athena?’ Amilia couldn’t help but think as she looked at the beastkin woman’s face. She looked almost exactly like Athena but older.

“Is everything alright Miss?”

“Y-Yes, hey Yuuji I think it’d be good if we got everyone out of here already!”

In response Yuuji nodded. But an issue soon came to his mind as he looked at the people staying far away from them. ‘How in the hell are we going to do that…?’

Obviously they weren’t going to listen to 4 strangers- well they might since they saw what Amilia did, but it would take more than that… As Yuuji tried to figure out what to do, he soon was taken out of thought as a loud voice rang out from the entrance of the cell.

“These are good people, so you should listen to them!”

Looking back, the same man that Amilia helped stood at the entrance.

“I can tell by their eyes they don’t have any evil intentions.”

Murmurs overtook the crowd. And moments later they began to move towards the entrance with a bit of hesitation.

Yuuji’s group looked at each other before leading the people out of the base. As soon as they exited, a celebratory roar came from the soldiers. A smile formed on Amilia and Yuuji’s face, of course Kazuma’s face remained unchanged meanwhile Allen had a slight frown on his.

Soon the roars died down as the soldiers quickly began to take care of the victims.

“That was pretty stressful…” Yuuji said as he sat down whilst leaning against a wall. ‘Even if we couldn’t save everyone, we saved as many as we could…’ He thought while feeling a pit of regret in his stomach. ‘Maybe if we were faster…’ He and his companions shared the same thought.

They all sat next to each other in silence for a bit, before getting interrupted.

“Thank you all once again for saving us…” The same man from earlier thanked them whilst bowing. “You managed to buy my wife some time, Miss. And you three managed to take out the rest of the organization members before they could kill any more of us.” Before any of them could respond he continued. “Oh! I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Nicholas.”

“My name’s Amilia, it’s nice to meet you.”

“You can call me Yuuji.”

“My name is Kazuma.”

“...”

Only silence came from Allen in response.

“And that’s Allen, he’s usually talkative, but not right now.” Yuuji said while pointing at Allen.

“I see.”

“I know you all are resting, but there’s something I need to ask of you all.” Nicholas said with a serious expression.

Upon listening to his request, everyone shot up. Then moments later, they entered the base just behind Nicholas.

After a while of navigating, they stopped at another cell, this time it was different. There were no corpses and the inside was cleaner.

“Dad?!” A young beastkin girl dashed to the front of the cell.

A warm smile grew onto Nicholas’ face as he crouched in front of her. No words would come to him, however he put his hand on his daughter’s head.

The group watching these two couldn’t help but smile a bit at Nicholas and his daughter. Allen made a sword and cut the lock to the cell upon Yuuji’s request.

When the door opened, Nicholas’ daughter sprinted past them and latched onto her dad.

“I thought… we would never… see each other again!” She cried out as she dug her face into his stomach. Sobs could be heard after.

“I told you, your mom and I would find you.”

After calming her down for a bit, they managed to get the rest of the kids out of the base. A while later, the kids who were separated from the parents were reunited… However, some were not as lucky as either their parents were the corpses in the cells or they were still separated.

—-----------

“Thank you for saving us, heroes…” Nicholas’ wife thanked the group after Nicholas explained what happened. “And thank you, specifically Miss Amilia for tending to my wound.” She smiled at Amilia.

“O- Oh, it’s no problem! I couldn’t let your wound get worse!” Amilia responded with a stiff smile. ‘Besides, I couldn’t do much…’

“Momma, did you get hurt?”

“Yes, but I’ll be okay.”

“Okay…”

“My name’s Thea, you already know my husband, Nicholas. And this is our youngest daughter, Iris.” Thea introduced herself after realizing the crew didn’t know her name. “Our oldest isn’t here, she’s somewhere else…” Thea explained after seeing the crew’s faces.

They all felt weird after hearing her explanation. Yuuji and Amilia came to a realization after hearing that explanation.

‘She- She really is the mother of Athena!’ Yuuji thought as he looked at Thea. She had fox-like ears, brown hair and blue eyes, pretty much the same as Athena but older… Wait, then that means Athena’s story must be what happened!

“Dear, could you give us some space… We need to talk with our saviors for a little bit.” Thea said to her daughter with a smile.

“No!” Iris shouted as she clung onto Thea harder.

“Please, it’s not something a child should listen to.”

“I said no! I want to stay with you and dad!” Iris exclaimed with a serious expression.

“Honey, it’ll be okay, she needs to know.” Nicholas cut in with a small smile. “Besides, we have been separated for too long.”

Thea sighed after hearing him before giving in.

“Alright… Sir Yuuji, Miss Amilia, is there something you want to ask?”

“Is your eldest daughter’s name… Athena?” Yuuji couldn’t help but ask.

“...” Thea and Nicholas looked at Yuuji with wide eyes.

“How did you know?” Thea couldn’t help but ask him.

“We… Met her in the nearest nation, Suijin. Amilia and I saw her face, she looks like you but younger.” Yuuji explained.

“Wait you have?!” Nicholas popped up after hearing that. “Is she okay?!”

Yuuji and Amilia didn’t respond, as they didn’t know how to respond.

“Can I ask you both something?” Kazuma asked suddenly.

“Y-Yes, go ahead.” Nicholas said while feeling something weighing down his heart.

“Do you both know your daughter is a harbinger?” Kazuma asked while narrowing his eyes.

“Yes, we’ve known.” Both Nicholas and Thea responded in unison.

“But she’s not doing this out of her free will.” Thea continued while frowning. “She… She’s being forced to, to keep us alive.”

“What do you mean?”

“Athena, ever since she was young, was someone who cared about people so much. She wouldn’t harm someone.” Thea explained while looking down. “10 years ago, our village was destroyed. They forced Athena to join them if she wanted us alive.”

The crew and Iris stared at her after hearing her.

“Wait, wait, why did they want Athena? And how did they know about her?”

“Athena, she has a lot of potential in fighting, they probably saw her when she was training one day and realized that.”

“Wait, my older sister is someone who’s part of… them?” Iris asked with disbelief. How could she be related to such monsters?

“...Your older sister doesn’t want to, dear.”

“But…”

“She’s part of them since she has to, to keep us alive.”

“But they hurt you! She could have ordered them to!”

“She wouldn’t have ordered that.”

Before Iris could’ve said more, they were interrupted by a soldier who was panting hard.

“Heroes! The city is under attack!” He exclaimed in between breaths.

“Shit! C’mon we have to go!”

Looking at the sky, there was smoke looming over in the direction of Suijin.

“Wait, please…” Thea took a step before being helped by Nicholas.“Please, if you see Athena, save her. I beg of you.” She begged with her head lowered.