TBATE: Let The Truth Be Known {Completed}

Chapter 41: The Beginning of the End

I can only sigh in resignation as I begin to scarf down my breakfast. "Fine then. Am I needed for today's meeting?"

"Not as much as most days. We can postpone until the next time you're in town," Bairon answers in a slightly annoyed tone.

"Don't blame me, Bairon. Blame the one you can't seem to take your eyes off of most meetings," I reply, calling him out. His gaze instantly diverts from mine to the ceiling. Seris simply chuckles.

I gingerly exit the Council Building and make my way to the teleport gate to head back to the overworld. The portal thrums to life as I ask aether to change the destination of the portal to the outskirts of Cardigan.

As soon as the portal connects, the view on the other side is even worse than I left it.

Regis. Wake up. Come to me. Now.

'Huh? Wha? Uh, alright, princess. I'm coming.'

I feel his aether signature slowly and then quickly approaching as I feel him prodding around in my recent memories and surface-level thoughts.

'So what's this all about?'

I don't know. We're about to find out though. I think I see a few figures in the distance across the crater. Not much of a crater anymore though.

As Regis finally approaches in his wolf form, he leaps into my body and settles in my core.

'Told you I could still do it.'

I didn't say you couldn't. I'd prefer you do it as a dog, though. Something about a human merging with me sounds more unsettling.

'Fair point.'

I take my first step through the portal and glance around as the portal snaps closed behind me.

The pock-marked landscape is laden with gashes, slashes, craters, and mounds of rubble. Forests are singed or eviscerated while the mountains in the distance are leveled.

What the hell happened here?

'A clash of titans if I had to guess.'

I connect aetheric pathways into the center of the crater that used to be Cardigan. Blinking into existence, the ground gets slightly singed as the purple lightning recedes back into my body. The rubble from the peaks of the nearby mountains is still covered with snow that has yet to melt. Small white caps dot the crater as I notice a small concentration of aether on the edge of the crater to my west. I enhance my sight to find a collection of humanoid beings that are shakily walking around and dragging other bodies.

You were right, Regis. It was definitely a fight.

I God Step within a hundred feet of the figures to find a small troupe of asura, some of which I recognize.

"Aldir? Kordri?" I ask as I observe the carnage. Lying on the ground are the corpses of many asuras from each race, but my eyes fall on one in particular.

Windsom?

"What's the meaning of this?" I ask once more.

Aldir stands and turns to face me as he lends a hand down to Kordri to help him to his feet.

"We received orders from Kezess to launch an assault on Taegrin Caelum and to eliminate the Vritra. It's safe to say that some of us chose to disregard those orders. Not to mention our target is gone," Aldir answers.

"The previous ruins here were my doing, but why all this extra carnage?" I inquire.

"We knew we couldn't sway many of the great clans. My father failed to persuade the Sylphs while the Leviathans, Titans, and Phoenixes chose to side with us, with you." This time it's Kordri that answers.