part 2: Unia

No one knew how to react seeing this being. It was the most human beast they ever laid their eyes on, but it’s monstrous featured made it so uncanny, it unnerved everyone who looked upon it.  

Screeching out to the eternal skies, the beast of sorrows flies down to the ground, it’s claws stabbing through a soldier’s chest.

“Tch,” she shook of the body of her hand.

"Shit," Alfred's entire body was shaking, "Ready the javelins! We can't let this thing getaway!"

Using the rain, they were able to make a giant javelin made of pure ice, and they launched it at the beast.

Instead of slashing through it’s body, the beast somehow managed to grab it, shattering to pieces. Soldiers ran away.

"Crap."

"General! What are we going to do?"

"…"

"General!

Everyone struggled in their fight against the beast. It moved in speeds the eye couldn’t catch up to. And it cut through the soldier’s chests like it’s nothing.

In the back, the Emperor of Anguish, seeing hundreds of men die, laughed

"Yes. Yes! My dear, sweet, baby. My beast of sorrow," he clapped his hands, "Finally, my perfect creation! My child! For years, I have dreamed of this moment! The moment where this horrid world will crumble and a new paradise will be formed in my hands! And now, you're here, making it all come true! Finally, this world will be freed of its cursed sense of purity and I'll rule it all! Kill! Destroy! Bring an end to it all-"

In an instant, Alfred beheaded him.

After years of fighting, Alfred beheaded him.

In a moment that seemed meaningless, Alfred beheaded him.

As thousands of soldiers struggled and died against a threat that had never been experienced before, Alfred beheaded him.

"…"

"General, focus," Petar had grabbed his shoulders, "We need to handle..whatever that things is! Alfred are you listening to me! Alfred!"

"…"

"General?"

You're dead. You're actually dead! Your death should have been the end! The end of the war, the end of our suffering. You're dead, and yet even then, you have found a way to keep ruining our lives. All the lives we had lost, all the sacrifices we had to make, all made to end you. Were they all meaningless in the end? Does the pain of war never end, shall it remain even as our skin heals and years pass? Gods, why? Why did you do this to us.

"Alfred," Briggs snapped and punched him in the face, "Get a hold of yourself!"

"I…"

"How do you dare to act so weak in front of all our soldiers! Have you forgotten? They see our hope and future in you! They went through trial and error all because you gave them something to believe in! So, what do you think they'll do once they see you like this!?"

"Briggs..."

"Get a hold of yourself!"

After hearing his words, he shook his head and let's go of the spear.

"Thank you, but how are we going to defeat this thing?"

"Heh, did you really forget?"

"Forget what?"

"You know who I'm talking about."

"...Oh."

"That's right, it's time."

"Woah, now, you don't mean-"

"Petar," Akihiko stopped him, "Are you sure on this General?"

"…Yes," he took off his helmet, his blonde hair flowing in the wind, "I'll call her."

"…You can't be serious."

"Petar, I need to do this."

"You can't! It's too risky!"

"What else can we do?"

"Anything else! We can make my troop help you fly to it or create javelins again or-"

"Peter," the other two generals held him back, "you have already realized it, haven't you? This is the only way we'll win."

He was still reluctant, but knew he had no way of convincing Alfred otherwise, "…Fine then, let's get to it then."

"Thank you, Peter."

"Don't say I haven't warned you, and it's Petar."

Alfred with a smile on his face gazed into the sky, taking a deep breath as he rose his sword to the sky.

"Everyone," he yelled out, "It's time, I'm going to summon her."

With a contemplating look on their face, they stepped away, leaving Alfred the chance to surround himself with large blazes of fire.

Please, I'm begging you, come help us.

"Oh, goddess, the one who gifted us with fire, whose warmth helped us live, whose burns killed many. I, as a mage born for your fire, who lives for your fire, may you come again and bless us with your warmth once again, Ignia!"

His eyes were closed. His ears didn’t hear a sound or a voice. All he could feel, is the flames, the goddess’ gift upon his kind, flowing through every part of his body.  

There she is…

Everyone was speechless, they couldn’t do anything but bow down to her. Ignia, a gigantic hawk, whose feathers were burning in sunlit flames.  

"Goddess…" Alfred offered his sword looking at her with his pleading eyes, "Please, defeat that…thing, for all of us, that's all we ask."

His sword had shattered into smaller pieces as they flew to Ignia, who burned them all into small flames that entered her heart. She let out a large screech, her wings shining like a sun giving birth to a new day.

The beast of sorrow clearly didn’t like this. Roaring at the surrounding soldiers trying to fight it, it flied up to sky and launched itself at her, only for Ignia to disappear.

She reappeared behind it, casting several rays of flames at it. The beast was able to dodge them all, casting it’s own black flames at her, but they remained ineffective.

"Now!”

The army tried to help the goddess, throwing several ice javelins and sprouting gigantic vines so it wouldn’t fly away.

The beast managed to dodge it all, so Ignia caught it off guard and shot her fiery feathers like arrows. Everyone covered their ears as it screamed similar to millions of children dying.

It had now slowly fell to the ground, it’s wings completely burned out. It tried to get up but the goddess came and clenched her claws right through her tail.

"You," Alfred looked at the beast with contempt.

Is this real? Will this really be the end?

"Goddess, if you can."

Ignia didn’t say a word. She simply rose her head, spreading her wings to the skies. Carrying the beast with her claws, the two had flown away, bursting through the rainy clouds.

When the army stared at the goddess, they were blinded by her pure flames and the ever scorching sun. Ignia reached the run, and they did not see her return.

I can't believe this.

"General."

It happened.

"General!"

It's actually happened!

"Get over here!"

Alfred was embraced by his captains, his brothers in arms, the entire army dropped their weapons! They took off their helmets, throwing them high into the sky. They laughed, cried, cheered, for it was over. It was finally over.

"Well, looks like you made it," Petar lightly slapped Alfred's back as everyone celebrated, "With this, they'll definitely turn you into the next king!"

"Heh, a king you say," seeing his fellow soldiers finally remember what peace was like again, he took a deep breath, “I know something even better.”

Almost a year passed.

Alfred, was walking upstairs, it was hard to breather. He could hear the people shout his name. Instruments creating a beautiful melody that he was unable to appreciate because of how overwhelmed he was.

“My emperor,,” General Briggs, bowed down to him, “They’re waiting for you.”

"All hail Emperor Alfred! All hail Emperor Alfred!"

Standing on a balcony high above his subjects, he raised his hand and everyone went quiet.

"Thank you, thank you, everyone! Words can't describe how much this truly means to me. Despite everything we have lost, despite everything we have suffered through, this army has searched, rebuilt, and finally created this beautiful home of ours after countless months. I must ask that you cheer their names as well, and join them in their aid to protect you!"

His people, yes, his people, cried out his name again and again. Even as some hesitated to cheer, and some showed nothing but cynicism for their new ruler, their voices did not matter in the cheers of a thousand.

"And now," he raised his sword to the sky, his eyes shining bright, "I swear for as long as I am your emperor, I will create a future, where no more beasts shall remain in this world!"

The Empire of Unia was created, and the era of purity had begun.

"Alice?"

"Oh no," hearing a familiar voice, a little girl scratched her long brown hair. She dropped her book, running through the library as fast as she can.

"I can hear you running," opening the door a woman with dark skin came in, cleaning her hands with a piece of cloth. "Dinner will get cold at this rate-oh."

As she entered the room, the little girl stared between the books in the shelves. She was able to spot on see her completely exhausted face on her dark skin, as she saw all the different books littered across the floor.

She sighed, "Alice please, next time just tell me what you need to get. Where are you even?"

The woman looked through the library, collecting books from the floor along the way, looking for her until she heard a book fall off behind one of the shelves.

"…That wasn't me."

Sighing as she heard the girl's voice, she walked to the corner of the room. "Alice, please, neither of us have time for...this."

She dropped all of her books. Becoming completely speechless seeing a small fort made of books, pillows covering the front of it.

"…"

"…"

"…You're in there aren't you?"

"…"

"Alice."

"Excuse me," the young girl coughed, making her voice deeper, "Who's Alice? You must have mistaken me for someone else! I'm, uh, Mister Mustachio McBradonich! Yes! I specialize in…mustaches!"

"…"

"Now, if you can excuse me, I have a well, barbershop to run, so, I'd appreciate if-"

Tired of the girl's antics, the woman sighed. Opening her eyes, now glowing a shiny blue, flames emerging from her hands. She blows away all of the books, leaving nothing but her and her daughter to stare at each other.

"…"

"..."

"Oh. My. Goodness." the girl used her long curly hair to make a fake mustache and beard, "Are my eyes deceiving me? What is the one and only amazing Talisha Zvezdoprah, the most beautiful and skilled master of Blue Purity, who-is-definitely-not-mad-at-her-daughter-for-causing-a-havoc-in-her-workplace, doing here gracing my presence!"

"…"

"…Hey, you can't say I didn't try."

"Alright, first of all, when did you have the time to make…that."

"My speed is immaculate, even incomprehensible, to the human mind."

Talisha let out a small sigh, "Let's hurry before our dinner gets cold."

"You're not mad because I sort of made this mess?"

“Sort of?”

Alice simply looked away.

"Eh, it was due to cleaning for a while now, so I'll help out too after we eat, ok?"

"Okay!"

"Please remove your hair from your face though."

She pouted, "fine."

---

The sun was setting as the small family cleaned up the library. Alice collected the books while her mother put them back where they belonged.

"Be glad no one came in today, otherwise this would have been a completely different story."

"I guess…"

Alice was in a very sour mood as she cleaned, and her mother took quick notice of it.

"Say, what book were you even searching for? Couldn't you have just asked me to find it for you?"

"…Nah, it was too boring for that."

"Boring? What was it about?"

"Uh," she struggled to answer her questions and turned her back, "Well, just some boring history book about that Unia country and all. Bit of a letdown if I had to be honest, I mean, their four gods kept getting praised all throughout and in the final chapter only the fire bird one appears and the other three weren't even considered, also, it has lot of propaganda-"

"It was about the war, wasn't it?"

Alice didn't face her when she asked, taking a deep breath and stiffening up her shoulders, "...Yes."

"Sweetie…"

Great, just great! Look at what you have done now! She struggled with her grief for months now and as just she's starting to feel better, you had to remind her of dad again! If I just cleaned it all up in time none of this would have happened in the first place! Can't you think for more than five seconds you, idiot-

"Hey," seeing her lost in thought, Talisha embraced while gently running her fingers through her hair. "It's been two years already, I'm doing much better than I did before, so please, if you need help, don't hesitate to ask."

"But, the mention of the war makes you-"

"I'll be fine. Besides," she kissed her on the forehead, "For you, it's worth it."

"Mom…Bleh, I hate history. Dad wasn’t even mentioned once in the book. Just this stupid anguish guy over and over again."

“Right...just him.”

"Now, let's finish this! We don't want any customers to think we were hit by a tornado inside of our own home, right?"

Seeing the warm smile on her mother's face, she lit up, "Yup! Here I go books! Get cleaned!"

"Whoa, slow down!"

So they spent the rest of the evening cleaning and after they finished they went to sleep, unaware of what the next day would bring them.

---

Well it's been months but the first rewritten (and updated) chapter is finally here!

I actually planned to do this way sooner but a I was busy with school I didn't have the proper time to focus on it, but now that I graduated (yay) I have more time to focus on Rebellious Flame!

I think I'll try to post updates once or twice a month, so you can check my social media (twitter is /AquaFantasy6 and Tumblr is /Aquafantasia) for updates, previews, artworks and character designs all done by me!

Also, small side note, the name "Petar" is a common name in Slavic countries and despite it's similarities to "Peter", its a different name and pronounced like pe+tar, just wanted to clear it up!

Thanks again for everyone who waited and supported this dream project of mine, and special shoutout to Izzy ( /sureimiku) for proofreading and helping me edit bits of the chapter! Hope you all stick around for what's to come in the story! Bye now! ^^