In the evening, the town fell into turmoil with the sightings of hordes of flying creatures that were making their way towards town.
At the west gate, a woman with pearl white hair leaned on the ground surrounded by faint mist.
Her energy was all worn out. She wasn't even in the state to maintain her form properly as most of her was nothing but formless mist.
She slowly recovered as she watched the enemy numbers dwindling before her eyes.
Just a moment ago, she was alone, fighting the enemy at more than one end all by herself. That time it was a losing battle but since Valerius showed up, he took control of the battlefield—overwhelming the enemy completely.
It was surprising and terrifying both how much strength this one man held that was enough to turn the tide of the battle completely.
Valerius willed and the flames ignited higher, aiming to burn everything to the ground.
On one hand the enemy soldiers burned in agony as the flames caught up to them in the air and on the other hand he sliced the bodies of already landed soldiers with utmost precision.
His red blade flashed, breathing out a wave of flames, burning many of them on the spot, it passed through their soft bodies and hard colourful wings cutting the very life out of them.
Just a while ago the sky was covered in darkness as the enemy soldiers approached them in insane numbers.
However, right now even an army of this many aerial combatants felt like a desperate attempt of an attack.
Fire burned as the lifeless corpses of the flying creatures fell down from the sky still blazing with agonizing flames.
At this point anyone could look at the dead soldiers and tell that their deaths weren't swift at all.
It wasn't like the winged creatures were some weaker foes to deal with. Every one of them easily surpassed any human being in size alone.
However, if your weapon doesn't work on the enemy in the battlefield, what is there to be done anymore?
That's right, the fine threads of silk which these creatures carried due to the sharpness of it proved to be of no use against Valerius' blade and the flames.
As it turned out none of these weaker conscious order monsters were strong enough to conjure a thread that could even rival let alone cut through Valerius' red blade.
Hence the massacre continued.
Though he didn't absent-mindedly kill all of them but let go of the deserters. There was no reason to kill the already terrified ones whatsoever.
As the woman groaned with pain watching all of the killings happening before her sight she turned her gaze towards where August was caged.
He was still in that cocoon, perhaps not able to breathe but should be alive for now at least.
The woman stared at a distance as someone moved within her sight. Diverting her attention to that particular area she squinted her eyes as a silhouette of a woman appeared approaching them from inside the town.
It didn't take a genius to figure out who that woman was— August's mother rushed towards him as she sensed her son to be trapped inside the shiny cocoon.
Her breathing was ragged, cold sweat was running down from her forehead.
As an experienced mage she had already figured out that the cocoon was made out of some strange material that could harm anyone who touches it from outside.
The fine silver threads weren't easy to ignore after all.
However, right now Sophia was a mother whose child was stuck inside that cage without ventilation nonetheless.
Sophia concentrated as her core element responded to her call—ice weaved a layer of ethereal blue around her hands like crystal gloves.
Her heart was in turmoil, it was difficult for her to concentrate.
Even in the face of war Sophia had never shown such a loss of control. It was more terrifying how afraid she was for the first time in her life to cast a spell.
With the protection of ice she grabbed the outer silk threads, pulling them out completely.
But there were maybe millions of them in that fine weaved cocoon.
So she continued, this time a sudden thought crossed her mind,
What if her son was not alright inside this thing?
What if he was already—
"Argh—" with gritted teeth she endured the pain of negligence. As blood seeped down from her scraped finger.
Sophia ignored the pain and continued pulling out the silver threads.
It didn't take too long for her to wound both of her hands severely. The silver cocoon turned crimson red from her blood.
Even with the unimaginable pain of the bleeding fingers, Sophia did not stop.
What was this small injury compared to the life of her precious son?
Hell, she could give her own life in exchange for him to live a few more years.
The motherly affection was not only about giving birth to a child but it ran much deeper than that.
It was a connection—a connection of souls, of life. A connection of the birth giver and the born.
A Sacred bond not restricted even by the blood relation.
A mother could give her life to her child even if she hadn't given birth to him but still recognized as her own.
It was an emotion—hard to understand.
Something that could be only felt not taught.
Being a mother had changed Sophia too, for the better, of course. She was no more the cruel girl whose heart was made of nothing but ice.
Now she felt more alive, more human.
This pain wasn't hurting her but the thought of her child getting hurt was more terrifying.
"Stop it," the woman with pearl white hair shouted from afar. "What are you doing? You'll just die like this."
Valerius was completely focused on the enemy and had no way of knowing that his wife was making things bad for herself.
Fortunately, there was someone else to help her.
The woman stood up, her white hair swaying gently with the wind.
She quickly approached Sophia and stopped her from touching the cocoon anymore.
"No, what are you doing?" Sophia revolted. "Let me go, my baby needs me."
The white haired woman however, grabbed both of her hands, "have you gone completely insane, you can't save him like this. You'll only hurt yourself."
"I don't care," Sophia tried to break free. "These injuries would heal but something tells me if I won't get him out of this thing quickly, his life would be in danger."
Indeed, this was definitely the case. The white haired woman herself has thought of it.
Without any air inside it would be difficult for August to remain alive for long.
His mother was in no stable condition, his father was fighting the enemy and the mist woman was not herself in shape to try anything to free August from this cage.
Not to mention, the silk threads from which the cocoon was weaved were a direct counter to her formless mist.
Far in the horizon, with the setting sun more waves of the creature were to be seen approaching.
Time was running fast.
The hopes were dwindling.
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