Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 Chapter 50: Long Is the Night for the Godless, part XXI



   The inn's door flew open under the kick of a Nergranian soldier.  Inside
there were many people hiding from the inconceivable cruelties that were
happening all over the outer ward.  Most of them were children.  Weak,
defenseless and terrified, they huddled on the inn's floor.  When they saw
the white-haired soldiers entering the building, the girls looked so scared
as if they could die from the shock.  But the soldiers wouldn't grant them
the mercy of leaving this world so painlessly.  The smirks on the
white-haired women's faces were like those of devils.  They all had blood
splatters on their weapons, on their armor and on their faces.  They had
fought a hard battle and now they had come to claim their reward.

   The inn's keeper was the first to speak up.  She looked at the
Nergranian soldiers with grim determination.  "I...  I want let you have
these children!" A second later, her head was finely separated from her
neck and fell to the floor with a bang.  The children shrieked in panic
when they saw the woman's beheaded body collapsing and a fountain of blood
shooting out of the hole in her neck.  One could almost see their little
hearts beating like crazy in their chests.  The frightened look on their
faces made the Nergranian soldiers even more excited.  Quite a few had a
visible hard-on in their pants.  This would be one violent rape-fest.

   The soldier who had just beheaded the inn's keeper looked around. 
"Anyone else wants to give their life for these children?" A black-haired
woman gnashed her teeth.  "It's not like it's going to change a thing
anyway..." The soldier laughed.  "Correct!" Then she smashed her clenched
fist into the woman's face.  One could hear her teeth breaking out of her
gums.  While the hit woman still sank to the floor, other soldiers began to
kick her with their heavy boots.  She screamed horribly while all the bones
in her body were broken numerous times.  Finally, they stomped on her head
with such ferocity that the skull was cracked open.  Many children averted
their eyes from this horrible scene and tried to shut themselves off from
this insane environment.  Others couldn't stop staring at the mangled body.
They all knew very well that the same thing could happen to themselves at
any moment.

   The soldiers' self-proclaimed leader nodded contentedly with folded
arms. "That's what you get...  We'll have more fun with the little girls
anyway.  Just kill every adult in the whole inn." The soldiers liked that
suggestion.  Violently executing some defenseless women before raping their
scared children sounded like a good plan to them.  One of the women in the
inn stepped forward.  "Kill everyone?  How about you start with me then?"
She wore full-body armor that seemed way too big for her cute little head.
The steel-blue eyes underneath her short fair hair sparkled with blazing
hatred.  Even her huge armor seemed to be agitated and trembled in
anticipation of the imminent confrontation.  Both Calys and Aka really felt
like giving these child-raping murderers what they were asking for.

   The soldiers were still sizing her up when Calys suddenly grew two huge
axe-like blades out of her arms and started to slash the soldiers in blind
rage.  The blades that had been created by Aka cleaved through the
soldier's armor and bodies with ease.  Within a few heartbeats, Calys had
killed several soldiers and her armor was covered in blood from head to
toe. She didn't take her sweet time to hack them into pieces, like so many
others did on that day.  One precise slash to end their lives was good
enough for her.

   The Nergranian soldiers raised their shields and took several steps
backwards.  None of them would have expected to be attacked by such a
fearsome enemy out of nowhere.  Calys glared at them.  She was breathing
heavily.  A killed soldier's blood had splattered all over the right half
of her face.  "What are you waiting for?  Are you scared?" The white-haired
soldier who had killed the inn's keeper was shaking with anger at this
impudent stranger.  "Take her down...  and then kill everyone!  Kill the
children too!  Torture them to death!" Calys literally screamed at her. 
"Come and try it!  I won't let you lay a finger on one of these girls!"

   A second later they clashed into one another.  It was an uneven fight in
more than one ways.  Calys was completely surrounded by more than a dozen
of Nergranian soldiers.  They had long weapons like spears and halberds
with which they could strike her from far away.  But Calys was fighting
like a raging goddess of war.  Her axes were slaughtering any white-haired
soldier who tried to get close to her.  When several of them attacked her
at the same time, she struck down all of them with one vast sweeping blow.
Soon she was wading in her enemies' blood.

   Calys was hit by many attacks, but she didn't seem to mind them at all.
On the contrary, whenever a blade managed to make a cut into her armor, the
steel itself seemed to heal and soon regain its original form.  Although
Aka was in great pain, she didn't think for a moment about letting the
guard down with which she protected Calys.  Both of them were giving their
all in this fight.  Through their nerves' fusion, the pain reached Calys'
mind as well.  Tears were running over both her cheeks and mixed with the
blood splatters on her face while she continued to create a bloodbath among
the Nergranian soldiers.

   The situation changed when Enswa caught sight of Calys.  The armored
girl had managed to drive the soldiers out of the building and was fighting
them in front of the inn's smashed door by now.  Enswa rubbed her hands. 
The Red Knights had been underemployed in the battle until now anyway. 
They had killed a great number of Loogranian soldiers in the battle on the
outer ward, but the fight never had felt like a real challenge to them. 
The thought of mass-murdering the castle's inhabitants afterwards was way
more attractive to the infamous Knights of the Blood-Sprinkled Banner.  But
there was one thing that excited them even more than genocide: Finding a
worthy enemy.

   The thirteen knights in the blood-besmeared armors walked towards the
inn where Calys was still fending off soldiers from all directions.  When
the Nergranians saw that Enswa was approaching, they quickly got out of her
way.  The crazy knights' leader was notorious for killing off her own
allies whenever they annoyed her for some reason.  Enswa snarled at one of
the white-haired soldiers.  "What's going on here?" The soldier seemed to
be at least as scared of Enswa as she was of Calys.  "This...  armored girl
went crazy when we wanted to rape some children.  She said that she'd
protect them..." A devilish grin appeared on Enswa's blood-smeared face. 
"Protect them, huh?  Get out of the way.  The Red Knights will take this
fight.  In the meanwhile, you enter this inn through the backdoor and
murder all the children.  And make sure to make their deaths...  painful
and horrifying."

   She said these words so clearly and loudly that Calys was sure to hear
them.  Calys' heart made a jump.  She glared at the grinning leader of the
Red Knights.  But before she could head back into the inn to protect the
children, she was already attacked from several directions by the Knights
of the Blood-Sprinkled Banner.  And these were fighters quite unlike the
soldiers she had fought until now.  The Red Knights wielded very long
two-handed swords with jagged blades.  And they were incredibly skilled in
using them.  Whenever Calys wanted to slash one of them with her axes, they
put together several of their jagged swords to parry her crushing blow.  At
the same time, the huge blades struck her armor with tremendous force.  The
pain that was sent to her mind from Aka's wounds was big enough to make
Calys cry out in pain.

   Calys heard Aka's strained voice inside her head.  "It's...  painful...
I don't know how long I'll be able to keep closing my wounds..." Calys
nodded.  Her flushed face was covered in blood, sweat and tears.  "Alright.
Change of plans.  Give me a shield..." The axe that came out of Calys' left
arm disappeared and morphed into a huge bulky shield.  Big thorns came out
of the shield's front.  A single hit with this shield would have been
enough to end anyone's life.

   When the Red Knights swang their swords at her again, Calys smashed her
shield against them with all her might.  She felt several of the jagged
blades shattering under the impact.  The Red Knights looked at their broken
weapons in disbelief.  A second later, they were struck by Calys' blade and
hacked into pieces.  Calys' heart was beating frantically.  Had she found a
way to defeat them?  Her eyes fell again on Enswa who hadn't joined the
fight so far.  Calys remembered the face of the little girl in Enswa's
clutches as one of the girls in the inn.  They had already raided it while
she had been busy fighting the Red Knights.  Calys screamed with wide eyes.
"No!"

   With a maniacal grin on her face, Enswa slit the child's throat and let
its blood sprinkle all over her face and her hair.  She even caught some of
it with her tongue and gulped it down greedily.  Then the leader of the Red
Knights dropped the lifeless body and drew her two heavy sabers.  "Now I'll
get to you, recalcitrant girl..." She ran towards Calys and jumped at her
at incredible speed.  With all the pain and exhaustion she felt, Calys had
no chance to react in time.  Aka was just able to protect Calys' head by
pulling up the helmet in time.  Enswa's blows came quickly and with deadly
precision.  It didn't take long before the sabers dug through Aka's steel.
Aka tried her best, but she wasn't able to keep up her regeneration against
such a devastating onslaught.

   Calys gnashed her teeth.  She could feel Enswa's blades getting close to
her own vulnerable naked belly.  More of the jagged blades hit her back. 
If this continued, it would only take a few seconds until they cracked open
her armor and could kill her.  Calys couldn't do anything.  She had no
control over the wrecked metal body anymore.  The only thing she felt were
the shattering blows that hit the armor in every heartbeat.  To her
surprise she was still alive, although there already were big cuts in the
armor.  She heard Aka's voice in her head.  "I think...  this is the end...
I'll go first...  don't forget...  I love you, my girl..."

   Only now Calys realized what was happening.  Aka couldn't keep up her
body's regeneration, but she was still protecting Calys' frail body.  Now
she was using the pure essence of her spirit to divert the enemy's attacks.
But this could only inadvertently lead to Aka's death.  Calys shook her
little head inside the dark helmet.  She couldn't feel Aka's warm presence
anymore.  "No!  Don't go!" She screamed inside the cold steel armor,
banging her small fists against its insides.  Enswa noticed that the
movements of the steel giant had died down.  She grinned haughtily.  "You
put up a good fight, girl...  but now it's time to die!"

   But Enswa couldn't bring her sword to strike Calys.  Neither could any
of her knights do so.  It took Enswa a while to realize what was happening
to her.  A strange unfamiliar voice was penetrating her head...  More than
that.  It was penetrating her soul itself.  Enswa's mind was pulled out of
her body, just as if she was dreaming.  She looked at herself, standing in
the middle of a massacre.  For the first time in her life, she saw herself
the way she truly was.  A bloodthirsty, mass-murdering monster.  A pathetic
excuse for a human being.  She was a being that shouldn't even be allowed
to live in this world.  A being that could only be thrown into the deepest
pits of hell and tortured for its sins for all eternity.  Enswa's soul
silently cried in excruciating pain that felt worse than a thousand daggers
stabbing her body.  She wanted to die.  She wanted to disappear from the
earth's face.  Never had she been so ashamed of herself.

   Similar things were happening to the remaining Red Knights and all the
other Nergranian soldiers who had gathered around the inn.  In front of
them stood Jio, with an accusing look on her face.  She had put on dark-red
eyeshadow.  Her slim fingers were plucking her lute's strings rapidly,
creating an eerie pattern of strange chords and unearthly harmonies.  The
singing fairy on Jio's shoulder looked really angry.  Her voice was loud
and clear, but most of all it was painful.  There was no trace of the
beauty of her previous songs in it.  Now she used her magical voice as a
weapon.  And it had a devastating effect on everyone who dared to come near
her.  This was the song of punishment.

   Even when the fairy stopped her song, the souls of the Nergranian
soldiers and knights were still in terrible pain.  Jio looked at them
angrily, as if she was going to scold them.  "Take off your clothes, you
naughty girls!" Surprisingly, they obeyed this strange command.  With empty
eyes and hot tears running over their faces, the Nergranian women took off
their armor and their boots.  Finally, they even pulled down their
underwear and presented their naked boobs, asses and penises.  They had no
way to resist Jio's order.  All of them were stricken by so much guilt,
shame and mental anguish that their resistance was completely broken. 
Still, they seemed to be able to feel embarrassment since many of them
blushed heavily as they were forced to expose themselves.

   Jio still wasn't done with them.  With a frown on her face, she
commanded.  "Now each of you, leave this castle.  Search the highlands for
the families and the friends of those you caused suffering.  Knock on their
doors, naked, and explain what you have done.  Then ask them to beat you to
death.  If you survive the beating they give you, serve them as a slave for
the rest of your life.  Now go!" And really, they went.  With slouching
shoulders, they trudged away.  While walking over the outer ward nakedly,
they completely ignored the confused looks of their comrades.  Finally,
they left Loogran castle through the front gate.  Jio had no doubt that
they would carry out her command.

   Meanwhile, another naked girl was slowly getting on her feet.  Calys and
Aka had separated.  But Aka hadn't been able to resume her true form
anymore.  There was no little gray girl with golden hair to be seen.  Only
a huge steel armor that had been smashed into pieces.  Calys was weeping
bitterly.  Right now, she didn't care in the slightest about having lost a
magnificent armor.  She mourned for a friend who had given her life to
protect her.  Calys whispered lowly as her small hands touched the cold
steel.  "I swear, I will never forget you, Aka..."

   Jio gently laid her hand on Calys' shoulder.  "I'm sorry that you lost
your friend..." Calys sighed, then she shook her head.  "You...  don't have
to..." Then she turned around and looked up to Jio.  "You have saved my
life not only once but twice.  It is yours now." Still completely naked,
she kneeled down on the blood-soaked ground in front of the astonished Jio.
"I'm yours, Jio.  I will be your servant until I have repaid my debt or I
will die." Jio put on an awkward smile.  "Ehm...  for now, I'm just happy
if we both make it out of this castle alive."

   Calys nodded.  She knew that she would have been dead by now if it
wasn't for Jio.  That's why she was ready to protect Jio with her own life.
Calys put on the leather harness and the panties that one of the Nergranian
soldiers had dropped.  Then she picked up a sword and looked at her
shattered comrade one last time.  Too many people had given their all to
protect Calys.  Now it was her time to protect others.  Calys wiped the
tears from her face.  Farewell, Aka.  I will never forget you.  I will
return to this world the kindness you've shown to me.