A World With/Out Home

Chapter 21: A Regretful Finale. (Part 6)

Time travel. It was a topic that never faded from the dreams of the people. The ability to step back and fix your mistakes. To change things for the better. To live without regret. For Estile there had been many times she wanted to go back, to do things differently. Over the many, many years, she and the other Mercenaries had lost countless friends. Whether it was a fault they could have prevented or simply from time, it was painful. With how long they had existed, Estile and her companions had made too many mistakes to count. But above all that she had ever experienced, Estile wished she could turn back time and reset. The fog never stopped. Everything was clouded in a hazy mist that went as far as the eye could see and with it was the same scene repeated over and over again. Towns turned to blood. The once living now torn apart or turned into the very thing that was responsible.

Aside from few places most the world was mixed. The races with the guidance of the Church of the Sleeping God harmonized and existed together. The dozens of wars they had fought in to secure that life. Yet now that same peaceful fact lead to their downfall. As Estile ran through the air she only had one goal and that was to save her children but to those she passed, the people below her who ran in panic, they had nothing. The end of the world and she had caused it.

Estile forced her frustrated tears away and launched herself faster. There was no turning back time but there was a slight hope to preserve what they had built. The distance to the Evergarden Lodge and the Holy City was far. Riften who had been the fastest among them could make the journey in two hours, for Estile it was more than twice that. Despite giving it her all, every passing second whittled away her hopes and in the end she could only pray to a now dead God that her children and family were safe.

Finally her surrounds began to settle into the familiar mountain peaks and valleys. Although covered in fog it was still where she called home. Estile did not slow down until the very end and collided into the yard heaving masses of the Earth. In the next instance she turned and ran straight inside. The signs of violence and panic where clear. Flipped tables, smashed glass, the walls and floor torn by heaving claws and desperate blades. Her eyes froze on a collapsed body she called daughter.

"Hara...," Estile gasped and almost collapsed to her knees. The half ogre girl had been left on the battlefield years ago and adopted by their family. Her skin pale beyond life and clothing marred in blood. "No...." with gentle hands Estile patted the girl's head. Though no longer a girl and grown, to Estile she was still that cheeky, haughty child they had raised.

As Estile looked down the corridor she could only cry as more and more of the family she knew laid in their final moments. There was no time for a proper burial or goodbye as she quickly realised that the youngest, the children were nowhere to be seen. A sudden loud shatter resounded causing her senses to sharpen ten-fold. What followed was a panicked scream and a cry for help. Not caring about wood or stone, Estile tore through the house and straight towards the outside workshop where the sound had come from.

Demons. Dozens of demons surrounded the building clawing at a shimmering barrier that looked to be rapidly weakening. Like cracking glass another layer broke apart and from within murmuring tears.

Estile reacted in the only way she could. With a swing of her sword the demons were cut apart. Their black bodies burst into thick ooze that quickly vanished into the earth leaving almost no trace they were there at all.

"No!" the shout didn't come from her but the young man within the barrier. His eyes widened in despair as he saw the demons vanish. Clenched teeth and eyes filled with frustration flashed to the culprit only for them to fade away as he realised who had saved them. "Mum?"