Forbidden love (MGE harem fanfic)

Chapter 63: Blood on the sand (sad warning)

It has been a few days since Ruth told me about what she had done to herself, this made planning even more stressful. A large group of order soldiers were seen approaching the border and leaving when the sun set only to return when it rose but a short distance past where they were the previous day.
They were testing the boundaries and how far they could go before we attacked. This seemed strange, despite the size of the group we had the home front advantage. This had to be some kind of trap, that was the only explanation.
My train of thought was interrupted by the sounds of footsteps behind me. I turned to see the dark elf from the outer city.
"Hello, human." She said.
"Who are you? How did you get in here?"
The elf laughed. "That's not important, what's important is the massive amount of troops about to march into the demon realm."
"I already know of this." I muttered.
The dark elf chuckled. "You seem sure of yourself, I like you, you make me laugh, however if you saw what I'm talking about you would've already retreated from this position."
"So there are more troops waiting behind the advancing force?" I asked.
The dark elf appeared right next to me in a cloud of black smoke and stabbed a dagger into my map.
"That can't be right... the only way to approach us would be from the desert but if that's true than..." my heart suddenly sank and I jumped up from my chair and ran towards the door. The elf gripped my wrist and I fired a shockwave that knocked her off of me.
"Don't go!" She shouted. "It's already too late for them!"
I ignored her. I looked for Artemis and asked her to fly me to the oasis. She sensed the fear in me and quickly nodded. We made it there within minutes and I could smell smoke coming from just ahead. Artemis asked what I was doing and I ignored her. I ran into the village and found the remnants of burnt houses with bodies to match. The insect princess was at the castle, the only form of defense they had were the minimal monsters dedicated for the task of defense, this was a place to escape the conflict not intervene. With no civilization for miles the fates of human and monster civilians alike wouldn't be any different than what they were now if they had simply lined up and slit their own throats.
I looked away from the carnage and to the water. The once clear water was now misty and disturbed with sand... and blood. I jumped in and swam towards the bottom. Not only was it hard to see underwater the sand irritated my eyes and I slammed into the bottom. I hit something metallic and I used magic to create a small area of clear water. It was an order soldier. His armor had gashes but there was no damage to his skin. It looked to me like whoever did this was trying to work around the natural demonic nature of their attacks that made them unable to hurt humans. A monsters' natural reaction would be to try and subdue and violate the human until they stopped fighting... unless they were in danger but even then they wouldn't kill them... but if the monster was a certain shark who already had a mate... fuck fuck FUCK! I swam to the underwater cave and fell flat on my face. I looked back and saw that the pathway was being held open by some kind of magic, the water wasn't coming in and this entire area was a pocket of air.
After the initial shock wore off I heard some faint breathing and ran in that direction. I stepped in a puddle that wasn't water and used magic to illuminate the area slightly. In the faint light our eyes met, Mako looked towards me with weak eyes and let out a pained gasp.
I ran up to her and felt that her skin was dry and caked in blood.
I grabbed her and ran to the entrance and jumped into the water and swam up to the surface.
From the distance I saw a look of fear on the undead dragon which was quickly hidden before she nodded and took off.
I looked down and saw the damage and felt the color drain from my face.
"Y/N..." she whispered faintly.
"Y-Yes?" I responded trying to not show how bad this situation was.
"I want... to die... in the ocean." She whispered.
I wanted to say that everything was going to be alright, that she wasn't about to die; but that lie was forced back down my throat. I nodded and lifted her from the water. I rushed to Artemis and simply said "ocean." She seemed to understand and the undead dragoness carried us to a beach. The crashing waves seemed to mimic my emotions and the sun began to set over the water.
I walked forewords with Mako in my arms. She struggled to keep her eyes open but as her breath slowed and her skin began to grow cold I knew that it was only a matter of minutes. With the water over our heads Mako found the strength to wrap her arms around me and gently nibble on my neck.
"Thank... you..." she whispered weakly.
She took a labored breath and pulled away slightly.
"Let me go... i'm only being kept alive from the energy you're giving off... it hurts... so much." She whispered weakly. "Plus... I don't want you to watch me... die."
I nodded. "I love you." I whispered.
With the last of her strength she kissed me and pushed off of me. I watched as the current carried her body away and suddenly I was alone.
Minutes passed and I was still in shock. I finally managed to let out a scream, the water around me split as a shockwave sent waves all around me in a circle so that I was half submerged. Perhaps this was my self conscious trying to end itself as the water came crashing back as if it wanted to crush me for disturbing it. However this never came to pass as Artemis snatched me up and landed on dry land before wrapping her wings around me in order to keep me in place.
"Y/N what just happened?! Why are you running around?! How did you learn about this attack?!" She urged holding me tightly.
All I could get out was "she's gone."  Tears began to stream down and Artemis's grip became less forceful and more caring. She gently rubbed my back and kissed my head. "I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry I didn't know." She whispered.
"It's not your fault." I responded. On the contrary, I never said anything.