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The Last Ones Standing: a short story

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Synopsis
A Short Story. _____________________ I was still a tender child when it happened. But even as a child, the moment I saw it, I knew that our downfall had come knocking. They broke our sky, and they invaded our world. Not the normal 'invasion' that comes to mind when you hear the word. No. They were friendly at first. They proposed mutual trade; knowledge of their weapon arts for the knowledge of our unique magic. And our leaders were foolish enough to accept that proposal. The pathetic naivety of our leaders resulted in our downfall, and to the enslavement of our entire race. Elves became nothing more than rags to them in our own world. A world that those humans seized. Now, I have risen to fight back, and to reclaim our world. To take back the freedom of my people. And even though I am not the first one to fight or rebel against them, I will make sure that I am the last one. With the aid of my trusted partner — the only one willing to embark on this perilous quest with me — and the awakened darkness within my soul that threatens to devour everything, including me; I will mend that broken sky.
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Chapter 1 - Chapter One: The Broken Sky

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there's nothing new under the sun." 

Ecclesiastes 1:9.

_____________________________

I stood on the peak of the highest mountain in the Jiranian region, the region controlled by one of those beings. One of those disgusting things.

I heard the heart-tearing screams of my people. Screams of shattered voices devoid of hope, riddled with pain.

I clenched my jaw tight, my teeth gnashed, grinding against each other as I stared up, my eyes ignoring the brilliant golden light of the setting sun and focusing on the bright, blue, broken sky.

Oh, what suffering they must have endured. 

I blame our leaders. I blame the high elders and the sovereigns for letting this happen.

For letting those… beings walk into our world, and for welcoming them with open arms.

None of them questioned their entrance or their purpose. 

They didn't even question the way in which those beings came.

I was a kid back then. Way too young to understand anything. But even as a kid, I knew that it was trouble the moment it happened.

My body reacted instinctively, notifying me that trouble had come knocking.

The sky broke. Shattered. And from that shattered sky, entities that greatly resembled us came down in bulk. 

Those beings were friendly, according to the high elders.

Ah, those old fools. Why didn't they recognize it earlier? If they had, then maybe, just maybe.. all this would have been avoided.

We could have been able to resist these entities called 'Men.'

They came here with many things.

Their knowledge, technology, their strange weapons. 

They even offered mutual trade. 

We teach them, they teach us.

Knowledge of our magic, for the knowledge of their weapon arts. 

They made us fall in love with their creations. Dependent on their technology. And by the time our kind had realized what was happening, it was far too late. 

We had become slaves. In our own world! 

These Humans created institutions. 'Academies,' they called them. They forced every young Elf to go through this academy.

Ah.. I can't.. I don't want to think about the horror anymore. It was too..

I shut my eyes tightly. My heart was beating, thrumming wildly against my ribs.

I took a deep, long breath, inhaling the foggy, cool air of the mountains. The air smelled of wet rocks.

Then I breathed out. Slowly.

My long ears — the reason humans see me and the rest of my kind as lesser beings — they still heard the loud cries and screams of my people below this mountain.

How will I kill the provincial lord? How.. First, I'll slice his fingers off. Then his–

"Karanin!" A rough voice cried out. The eagerness with which it streamed through my ears implied the urgency of his call.

I turned my neck toward the direction of the voice. I squinted, straining my eyes to properly catch the sight of the figure walking toward me.

A burly frame. His face was properly hidden by the swirling mists on the mountain. The wind here was strong and cool, almost freezing my face as it blew over it, causing the bangs of my auburn hair to flutter and dangle.

The figure's cape fluttered in the mist as he walked toward me.

"Any update, Firma?" I asked as the figure slowly approached me.

He paused. He was now out of the swirling mist, a few inches away from me.

His dull pair of brown eyes were strange. They always looked lackluster, devoid of depth. Like it didn't belong to a living, breathing Elf. 

Worse of all, he never blinked. 

Now, those same lifeless eyes were staring straight into my soul. Into my own strange pair of grey eyes.

The moment he heard my words, his long ears twitched, and he raised his right hand. Face still focused on me, but his right index finger pointed at a distance. 

I traced the direction of his finger with my eyes.

Below the mountain, the single, largest, stone building rose above the yards of stretched wooden tenements clustered around it.

"We attack now, Karanin." He uttered. Just four words, but those words shook my chest, almost making every hair on my body stand.

But I simply nodded.

Sometimes I wondered what academy Firma graduated from. Just which academy turned him into this… monster?

His long white hair cascaded over his shoulders, touching the strap tied at the back of his cape. His strap held his twin axes. 

I reached for the hilt of my sword hanging on my sheath tied to my waist. 

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

"Let's go," I said, and at the same moment, Firma jumped. 

I stood still. Eyes widened as I watched his figure slowly fade into the mist as he descended the mountain.

"Hmph!" I crouched low, and the area where I stood crackled beneath my feet, my body brimming with vibrant energy. Han.

I jumped. And as I did so, the area where I stood at the edge of the mountain fell off.

My descent was a slow one. Not what I expected at all. 

The winds blew against my eyes and mouth like they'll tear them off the moment I relax my facial muscles.

"Life isn't as easy as you think it is, spy." An unfamiliar voice echoed, streaming straight into my ears.

How?

I could see the buildings below me. They weren't so far anymore. I just needed to land.

Then I could have freed those innocent Elves taken as slaves by the Lord of this province, killed the lord of the province and gone on to find the next provincial lord to destroy.

Well, it doesn't matter to me. A slight inconvenience doesn't stop–

–Whoosh–

The sound traveled from above me, heading toward me with acutely, precise speed, like a missile was being launched toward me.

I didn't bother to look upward.

Shing!

I unsheathed my sword with my left hand, twirling mid-air in the same motion.

Above me, three figures were diving. Dressed in all black, covering every single part of their bodies except their eyes.

They held strange metallic weapons that I couldn't discern. And their metallic weapons gleamed as the faint light of the sunset shone on it.

I did not know who they were because they were not dressed like my enemies. But I could tell from both the swirling killing intent they emitted, the poignant disdain surging from them and the malicious look in their eyes.

Those people were humans.

The very people that I have vowed to destroy with my own hands!

I closed my eyes. 

–[Go. Han.]–

Those two words rang in my consciousness, and from my consciousness, they echoed through my veins, and through my mind and soul itself. 

As they tapped and broke into my soul, the words stirred energy in it, and that energy was the source of everything. Including darkness. My awakened element.

I slashed the sword horizontally. And a single dark, horizontal arc formed in the air, blocking the three figures.

The moment those three dived into that dark arc, they all disintegrated. The darkness devoured them, leaving no trace of their being.

Then I turned and continued diving downward.

Below me, Firma stood on the ground. He held his twin axes with both hands. Corpses were around him. Around ten or fifteen. 

He slashed his axes in the air, and the wet blood that stained them flew off. 

At that same moment, I landed on the ground. The ground reverberated slightly, forming web-like patterns.

"Took you long enough," Firma said.

"I was taking care of some.. problems." I replied, walking toward the largest building, and he followed behind me.

"We kill the lord first, then free the 'slaves'" I declare.

"What about those ones tailing us? They think we can't see them." He said, his voice carrying a solid layering of indifference.

"They aren't bothering us, so we'll leave them. For now." I replied.