The Last Of An Ancient Race

Lentis watched as the sun went down and the moon rose. He was on the south side of the palace with the Otanian princess and a few men. The reason why they numbered so few was so that they could attract as little attention as possible. Their mission was to infiltrate the palace.

On the opposite side of the palace were Lentis and Jenabas. They were tasked with distracting the nobles on the north side with the main force. They had catapults and torches and were told to make as much noise and chaos as possible to attract all the attention to their side.

Lentis and Jenabas patiently waited for the signal. Since the skies were cloudy tonight, it made it much easier for them to blend in with the dark. They were tasked with making it into the palace and lowering the bridge for the other side.

The squad started to hear crashes and explosions go off on the other side of the palace. They waited for a few minutes.

"Shall we start as well?" Jenabas asked Lentis.

"No, let's wait a bit longer so that this side would be completely empty," he told her. They waited a few more moments before they made their move. Loud noises continued to go off on the north side. After feeling that enough time had passed, Lentis turned to Jenabas and nodded his head.

The group started to move with Lentis in the front. When they reached the moat, Lentis began to build a bridge across. The earth shifted at his command and slowly piled on top of each other over the water.

***

To wipe out the humans... "I figured that that is what you wanted me to do," said Kies in an unsurprising tone. "But before that, you said I was the clone of the Stormcaller. Who is that?"

"Did the humans not have that recorded in their books? Well, since you are asking this question, the humans presumably hid the existence of the Stormcaller," Arc assumed. "The Stormcaller is one of the first Aeos to come into existence. There were two others that came into existence alongside the Stormcaller. Th-"

"Wait, then aren't these two other Aeos just as powerful as the Stormcaller?" Ammine interrupted. The Aeos naturally grew more powerful just by staying alive. Their crystals would absorb the magic around them and grow as they absorbed more. If there were two other Aeos that lived for about the same amount of time as the Stormcaller then they would be just as powerful. This brought Ammine to ask the question, "Where were they during the war?"

"They split their crystals," said Arc. "The only one that didn't split their crystal was the Stormcaller. It was decided among the three of them that one of them would not split their crystal for they needed someone powerful and experienced to lead the rest."

Kies was confused. Didn't Arc just say that he was the Stormcaller's clone? Didn't that mean that the Stormcaller had split their crystal?

"What you're saying doesn't add up," Ammine was also confused. "You said that Kies was the Stormcaller's clone. Doesn't that mean the Stormcaller did split their crystal? And doesn't that also mean that there are other clones of the Stormcaller?"

"Just as the Stormcaller was about to be killed, they split their crystal and scattered it across the battlefield. The longer an Aeos lives for, the more pieces that they can split their crystals into since each piece requires a minimum amount of magic power to become its own being. Since the Stormcaller had lived since the birth of the first Aeos, their crystal split into numerous pieces. I do not know the exact number but it was well over a hundred. The humans found and destroyed all of them except for one, which we managed to retrieve, paying a heavy price to do so," Arc explained. "And you should know who that sole survivor is." Ammine looked at Kies and then back at the room, directing her face wherever she thought Arc was. "Now, does that answer all of your questions?"

"I see. By the way, where are we?" Ammine asked.

"The Twilight Marsh," Arc answered immediately after Ammine finished saying that last word to her question.

"Hm, I was wondering why this place felt so familiar. This isn't far from where our base is," Ammine said. "Well then, I will go report to my liege. Even though I was ordered to take you to him, I'm presuming that you have a lot to talk about. I'll leave you here for now," Ammine told Kies as she walked away.

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