Chapter 15 - In a Blaze of Glory
'Rotten till the End.'
"With all due respect, Senior Liora, it should be our duty to protect the citizens. These people believed in our—"
"Nonsense! You want to feed the council members to the beasts? Who would be left behind to guide the younger generation if not us?" A member of the War Council, the impromptu Civilian Welfare Leader and Crisis Manager, Liora Balagtas, cut off her assistant Elliot before he could say anything more.
"You're right…" Elliot inwardly chided the true nature of the old hag. Unbeknownst to the public, Liora Balagtas had been one of the earliest seeds that brought corruption inside Philippine politics. And not just the money-laundering assholes. Liora literally turned the country back then into her own gigantic cartel, almost having the Philippines get prosecuted by the United Nations, similar to the most corrupt countries in the world. Liora, however, was smart enough, culling her own traces every step of the way until no trace was left of her involvement.
By the time she left, talks of the prosecution had died down, and only the Liora who loved to help the poor was remembered.
Seeing the old hag seize the opportunity out of 'kindness' back when the apocalypse started almost made Elliot cringe so hard he didn't know whether to fear the apocalypse or the world turning black and white. Things now, however, made so much more sense. As the saying goes, old people don't change. They rot.
Especially the bad ones.
Elliot grimaced. Seeing himself now tied in fate with the hag, he might as well burn in hell for all the atrocities he supported today.
And burn they did.
…
… …
The warmaster was making the other factions think that they'd be the ones to survive, only to find out they were the sacrifice.
"We're being besieged on multiple sides, reinforcements needed. Forty degrees west from the Northern Blockade."
"I repeat– We're surrounded, our vanguard is suffering multiple casualties. The majority of our tactical personnel are heavily wounded…"
"I repeat…"
"We heard you the first time."
"Warmaster, we're being besieged by all sides—"
"Warmaster…"
"Oh, shut your trap, you old witch! You really thought that I would let all of you sacrifice the—"
The radio signal got cut off as a particularly big [Hell Spawn] slammed its way forward to act as a bomb to clear the tank encirclement that was acting as a shield for the convoy. This would've been a good observation to list for the Hell Spawns having low-level hivemind-like teamwork, but of course, the former politician was a bit preoccupied by her own fear as well as wrath.
"Victor, you fucking—"
That was the last thing she said before the old hag was nabbed by a particularly agile Hell Spawn.
…
… …
The Martial President's song
"Rivers… rivers… rivers of blood, pave the path for our fledglings to rise."
"Swim, swim, through the crimson stream…"
"Using our blaze of the old to light the upstream…"
"No need to look back, 'cause we'll be here."
"Just swim and know that we're here…"
…
… …
Soldiers teared up, and the older civilians wept as they started their death march. The people chanted while throwing everything they had at the army.
They screamed in rage, in hope, in valor. For the next generation, they unloaded all of their ammunition at the monsters. The sound of gunshots, explosions, the singing becoming louder yet fewer as time went on…
Levi had to watch everything as he kept pinging a certain channel through a radio he picked up, hoping that the old man would somehow talk back… It took a while, but a voice sounded through the radio, making Levi almost lurch into action.
"You really had to stick by till the end, didn't you?"
"What's your status?"
"Not good. I had… one of my legs torn off by a boulder thrown by a [Swamp Troll]. Cuts and bruises from forcefully being thrown around, but not enough to pin me down."
"I can still pull you out—"
"Thankfully, the majority of the groups we sent to the west and south already confirmed that they got out of the encirclement safely. Thank you for helping them clear out some of the Yetis….
Such a shame that I won't be able to make it. I wouldn't mind having to try out a superpower or two."
"..."
"What? Don't you think I read fiction myself?"
"I thought you were more of a sports fanatic…."
"Damned assumptions gonna get you killed… Cough, cough… Too many words I want to say… Damn it. Already dying…
Good thing you're… smart enough to figure things out on your own… Live guilt-free, will you?… Cough, cough…
What else…
What…
else…."
"..."
"Last words… last cough, cough, words… Not the most original, but I guess I'll leave you with a quote from me.
'As our Blaze fades… from our Ash and Blood, shall you rise. Live Happily.'"
That was the last thing Levi heard from the once-known Warmaster of a fallen country, the second father in his life.
…
… …
To be continued.