Holding Out For A Hero

During the night I picked up Nanami's diary again to continue reading what she had written about those difficult days, remembering old glories and sorrows:

"I still remember the day when fate changed, when he appeared, the warrior that no one gave a damn about, and how he, not caring either, continued the story of how he beat everyone else regardless." It was written above the text she continued, it seemed to have been written at a different time, the language and the colour of the ink were different from the others.

𒂽𒆠𒁇 𒄒𒋛 𒈾𒊒𒁍

The throne room was unusually full today, most of my best generals, warriors, and strategists that still remained were in this room with me. The purpose of the meeting was to continue the fight against the brutal dragons my father summoned that fateful day when all was lost, how the cruel bastard killed each of my mothers, his mistresses, his spouses. Now the Imperial family was only me, whether those bastards wanted it or not, their lives depended on my approval, so the plans that the generals proposed were just different variations of a frontal and glorious assault, the same one that has not worked in ten different occasions with far more favorable winds.

It was all a waste of time, the situation was over, even if they tried to hide it, I already knew, it was obvious, that the dragons had already won. I was trying to keep up appearances, keep them busy long enough for Amaranth to work secretly on our real plan. The fate of Atlantis had already been decided beforehand, the glorious floating continent would fall upon the earth at terminal velocity. All the majesty and rottenness of our civilization evaporated in a single explosion, the glorious Atlantis would fall paying for its own sins, trying to take the enemy it had created with itself so that at least the rest of the earth would maybe live. Everyone in this room was already dead, there were just only very few who already knew it.

A large door burst into the hall, but before being punished by the commotion it could be noticed that it was a messenger from the outer wall of the castle, coming to give important news.

"A group of foreigners have appeared at the entrance to the castle!"
"A military recon unit, scouts, carrying firearms, short armor, cloth vests!"

The hubbub in the hall exploded as the words were heard.

"They are the foreigners who supported the rebellion!"
"They're here to finish destroying us!"

"We can't have two separate wars at the same time!"
"We don't have the resources for such a thing right now!"

"They're just dirty humans of the  ground below"
"We can take our revenge at the same time we send our troops against the dragons."
"If this time we hit our targets we could even take away their resources to prepare the war machine for our next war against the sky."

The stupid generals of my father's time were already delusional again, we couldn't win against the dragons, let alone with a new faction over our heads, let alone a stupid next war even bigger, let alone against the stupidity that got us into this situation in the first place.

"It is not a foreign invasion force."
"If it was, why send only a patrol to warn us?"
"A smart strategist in their place would simply send all his forces to take the capital without saying anything."
"They are here to talk."
"Call them in, you have my permission to come and speak before me, the Empress."
"And have someone look around to see if there are any translators left who know English."

""Lady Bast..... Empress !"
"I do not advise you to listen to them!"
"They are just an enemy patrol, we should instead kill them to prevent our potion from being discovered again!"
"The last time foreign troops came to our continent, that's what caused the civil war."
"They were the ones who killed your father!"

"Grand Field Marshal Nereida Pelagius."
"Did you even try to say my name?"
"And who gave you such authority over me?!?"
"The punishment for the sin of mentioning such heresy is death."
"Inquisitors, do your duty!"

One of those present, Inquisitor Draven rose from his position and without a word raised his battle axe, with a simple swing the field marshal's head was now rolling on the ground.

"I remind you that it was the rebellion itself that was the first to give notice of the real betrayal, my father."
"It was they who stayed behind to battle after the dragons arrived."
"If I had been old enough to understand at the time, I would have been a member of the rebellion myself."
"I will not allow any Orion sympathizers among my ranks even if it means reducing them to a half in an hour!"

It was my stupid arrogant father that everything had happened in the first place, I hated everything that came from that man, I hated being his daughter, I hated the name the bastard gave me. I would rather have nothing than owe that man anything.

When noon came the foreign soldiers arrived before my throne, seven of them stood before me, their weapons had been confiscated as a security measure, but they still gave the go-ahead to proceed with the meeting. Their uniforms were dark and with strange designs, just as the reports of the civil war suggested these people wore, they preferred to hide and kill from a distance in a flash rather than fight head-on. The foreign soldiers spoke with concern not to sound discourteous, but their lack of manners against me, the emperor were grave, but to be expected from messengers of another nation and another language, but at times I heard that they spoke other languages unintelligible to each other, was it a joint force of several nations of the land below?

The soldiers told a strange but terrifying story, they claimed to come from the future, one where the history of Atlantis had been nothing more than a non-existent myth, slight news that my secret plan would work, and yet somehow its terrible influence was still felt over the world as the dragons had invaded their world anyway, consuming and killing without equal, great dragons ruled their skies, a torrent of permafrost like that written by our ancient testaments. The dragons had managed to find a way to leap from the borders of this continent and reach the land below to conquer as well. The world even future was dying, and Atlantis and the dragons were the cause, this patrol of exploration was the first of that world, they had come to investigate and gather information about the origin of the dragons and bring their army to fight here, protect their home by invading a distant land and incomprehensible to them, a mission without equal, but they stumbled upon the vicinity of our capital city and decided to come and talk to us trying to collaborate. The seven warriors had guts, they didn't seem to know what happened in the civil war and why their people were not welcome here, but their idea was well founded, having fresh troops and more supplies would help our ranks, at least enough time to prepare my final plan, maybe in the future another different plan could come out.

I was interested in what they were talking about, but the day was over before it could end, so we left it for the next day to continue, but they were not allowed to spend the night in the castle, instead, they will sleep on the outskirts of the wall. During the night my chief maid, Ulana, mentioned that something had happened in a noble family in the lands where she was in charge, it was an urgent matter, so she had to leave immediately back to her castle.

"At first I didn't pay attention to it, but now that I read it again outside of that time, I can tell that it was clear that it was her plan of betrayal in action, I didn't realize that she was on the side of the dragons from so far back" Once again Nanami had written above her original notes, she had written it in English, indicating that she must already be far ahead in her studies of the language, and that she was wary that one of her own would read it.

During the night the wind woke me up, when I opened my eyes, a jaw aimed at my neck, I turned immediately, I managed to dodge the deadly attack, a dragon had infiltrated my room. Somehow that vile creature had managed to circumvent all security and reach me without anyone noticing it, but it would be something that I would try myself, I took a short orichalcum sword that was next to my bed, the beast jumped towards me, I dodged it again, I cut the tendons of his legs without difficulty, once his mobility was reduced his head followed him, the stealthy siege had been avoided. I immediately called my guards, one of them opened the door almost immediately, in his chest a spear had pierced him, his companion pulled the weapon and pointed it at me, I only resisted by throwing a blade at his face, a common guard was no match for someone who had trained with the dark cloaks after all, the drums of the castle began to sound everywhere, the antiaircraft defenses and their explosions followed him. A night attack, through the window you could see the guards fighting each other without any order, the dragons flying over the capital, trying to enter the castle.

The White Banished appeared down the hallway with a couple of loyal soldiers, he was one of the few I could trust, he had come to escort me out of the place. We started to walk through the hallway to take me to the stairs, we were worried about the safety of the castle, we had no loyal troops available, but luckily from one of the rooms a group came out, their clothes were the distinctive black cloaks, my group of elite guards, the special forces of our nation, had come to our rescue. But instead the White Banished pushed me hard to the side, the soldier next to me saw his head severed from a single attack, I saw the group of black cloaks raise their weapons against me, the second greatest offense I had ever received in my life after being born by Orion's order. The still loyal soldiers rushed to the attack to defend their queen, the White Outcast shouted to flee the place, to save my life, I had no choice. I knew how my elite troops worked, I myself had tried to train with them, and I knew that staying alone would make it worse, but I also knew that separating myself from my small group of loyal troops would only make a second group leave, the one that would finish the job of killing their Empress, and as a self-fulfilling prophecy, two more black cloaks came out of a window and attacked me.

The two treacherous black cloaks wounded my feet, my thighs, from the pain I could not even stand. It seemed that this was the end of my legacy.

The foreign soldiers had entered the corridor, entered to fight the traitors, they had come to rescue a foreign queen, someone they did not know, someone they did not owe. But the cruel difference between the simple humans against the Atlanteans became evident when even though they were the majority, no more than a few seconds passed before the black cloaks traitors finished with the majority with a surprise attack behind their backs, from the window several more assassins came out, they rounded them up, they killed them. All but one had managed to survive, using his weapon as a shield, he had sacrificed his weapon in exchange for living a second longer.

But that soldier's face did not show fear, it showed determination, it showed courage, what it did not show was the ease with which he killed one of his enemies by simply throwing his hands and spontaneously breaking his enemy's neck. For a moment we had all been shocked, a secret technique that only the dark cloaks had been used against them, by no less than a dirty foreigner. The others rushed to attack him right after but the man didn't back down, instead, he laughed at the challenge, from the pockets of his first victim he pulled out a dagger and used the dead man's body to cover the next stab wounds, then he pulled out another of his weapons, a small hilt, one that fits in one of his hands and three explosions sounded, somehow the enemy on the other side of the dead man was now the next one to bleed to death. The human had pretended to prepare himself by taking the dagger to melee, only to surprise them with his ranged weapon, three others attacked at the same time, but he crouched just in time to avoid only two of them, the third one had managed to stab his thigh instead of the heart he had aimed at, now the three were right next to the man, who despite the visible pain jumped, with his feet he grabbed the neck of one, with his arms he was choking the second one, with the weapon in his hands he killed the third one and finished off the first one.

He was a killing machine, one of the highest warriors, it was what his fighting skills told. 

The other two that were left went after him, now to avenge his comrades, but the man did not care, with a parry, he deflected a dagger towards his head, with a simple hand movement he returned the knife to the neck of its true owner, but he did not stop, with his free hand he took the head of the remaining enemy and threw it against the glass of the window, He hit it with so much force that it broke immediately, but he didn't stop and brought the knife down with force to cut it with the blade when he withdrew his hand it was full of blood, his own blood, his hand had been cut in the process, but he just ignored it and continued. He approached me and spoke to me, but I could not understand a single word he said, his tone was worried, I just pointed down to where the garrison of guards was, if I could get there I could gather enough loyal troops to repel the attack. The human seemed to understand at least part of it, he extended his good hand to help me, but when he saw my wounds on my legs he changed his approach, instead and without asking permission he took me in his arms and started running towards the stairs. What an offense to take so improperly the emperor of all Atlantis! but at the same time, it was an emergency, there was nothing that could be done, it was the only thing that could be done.

The man came down the stairs at full speed, but from one moment to the next he threw me backwards,  I hit the floor with force, but when I turned to claim his horrible gesture, I could see a new dragon that I had never seen before trying to eat the man in front of me. He was holding with all his might the jaws that aimed to tear his head off, he would not give up, he would not stop, that was what his face said, The monster roared, his fury to attack, and yet the human did not back down, instead he rushed forward as well, accepting the glorious challenge. The creature threw its head to bite him, but the stranger knowing the way it would attack went a step further than his rival, turned to the place he knew nothing would happen, and placed his arm fearlessly inside the raging dragon, the creature stopped dead in its tracks, its life was over in an instant. The man pulled his hand from his muzzle, his hand was stained with the blood of the enemy, in his fist was a simple knife, a ridiculously short blade was the best they had perhaps managed to produce, and yet that was more than enough for the stranger.

But that was not the only dragon that attacked us on that trip up the stairs, there were 20, big and small, fast and heavy, the man faced each and every one of them, he never escaped a single fight, an unheard of fact for anything less than an Atlantean warrior of high lineage. The monsters were violent and cruel, but he was worse, he didn't care about anything, not even his life as long as he made the others suffer, it was the first time I heard a dragon howl of sorrow and fear, the first time I saw one try to escape too, but the man took it down with the bad piece of metal, he rushed at it without caring where it would fall, as long as it was the head of his enemy.

The human was unpredictable, unstoppable, unbreakable, untouchable, unreachable.

In his eyes I could see a monster worse than all the previous ones, his eyes set on his proxy victim, his mind was already thinking about how to kill it, his smile was macabre, the man enjoyed it, for him it was a personal pleasure to try to die at the hands of the enemy. The man was just like Orion, his cruelty and strength unparalleled, but he gave time to be intelligent and confident, each death was thought out and planned, he was not like my father, someone who fought out of fury and strength alone, he was a worse enemy, someone who gave a damn about his next kill, like a cruel black cloak that investigates his victim before he acts.

And yet he had the luxury and humiliation of still allowing himself to remain human, to care about others, when I saw him in spite of everything helping me to get up to continue our escape. He was not like my father, he was better, a strong man able to behave like a weak man, able to hide among the others.

The only thing that made him different from the others was that he wouldn't die no matter what they threw at him, a survivor.

After a terrifying descent, the stranger managed to get me to safety, when I managed to join more loyal soldiers near the throne. The man was unfortunately heavily wounded, all his fights had not gone unnoticed, so much fighting had taken its toll on him, and yet he still managed to secretly escape from the castle without anyone noticing. Due to all the sudden rebellion and the brutal assault of the dragons on the capital, I was only able to notice their arrival until later, when the next day a whole force of foreign invaders arrived, the humans had forced their way into Atlantis and hastened their march to the capital to help us repel our enemies. When the trouble had passed I was finally able to rejoin our leaders and arrange a slight truce for the time being while we thought of the best course of action, even though several of my generals were against it, our own troops were not entirely trustworthy, anyone could be a traitor, apart from a few selected, I trusted more the foreigners right now precisely because they were not Atlanteans, though I could never say it out loud.

But I still couldn't get the man who rescued me out of my mind, I wondered how he had been able to accomplish all that despite being so insignificant to everyone else. He had been wounded mainly in his hands and abdomen, right? it wouldn't be too strange to think that he must be in the human field hospital on the outskirts, maybe I could pay him a surprise visit.