We walked past the snowy mountains, Tim and Tina barely keeping up, as the Guild receptionist had to remind me that they were present with us.
I'd slow down and wait for the two with the reminder.
She seemed concerned about me.
"Look, I know how you're feeling, but getting angry doesn't make anything better," the Guild receptionist reasoned.
Upon realizing her words, I was reminded of the Queen. Noobie's Queen's words replay, explaining how the Right Hand of the Fallen Kingdom was led astray by his path of violence rather than Noobie's path of reason and Mercy.
I slowed my pace and waited for Tim and Tina to catch up while helping them with the Guild receptionist.
We reached it, the old, abandoned, ruined castle—the base of Team Omega. The banner was still held high on the entrance of the castle as it fluttered with the wind.
I was going to walk forward when I kicked something, something metallic on the ground.
Tim gasped. He recognized it immediately from the video, "Tama's spear!"
On the edge of the spear, blood that had rusted into the spear's blade remained. I picked up the spear and bowed to the bridge. I continued my pace with Tim, Tina, and the guild receptionist, who was following me in haste.
As I passed the bridge, I followed onto the inner part of the castle. The images shown on the video still lingered; Kassaw was dead by the outer wall of the castle. Danalord6687 died by the moat, alongside Vina and Enji.
I studied the walls, seeing cracks and dried-up blood on the walls as we proceeded. The main gate structures. The doors had been busted inwards, and the arrow slits were full of gunpowder soot and ashes. If one looks closer, one can still see the darkened smoke from the outer wall. People were trying to bombard the player who was defending the arrow slit.
Then, as we came towards the main keep, the Guild receptionist pulled Tim and me back: "LOOK OUT!!"
All 3 of us paused, as we then carefully observed a FINE thin line still stretched across the entrance of the main keep.
"A trap?" I concluded.
"Seems so, we must be careful, this place hasn't been entered in years. The traps they've set up for the invaders must still be intact. People usually just pay their respects outside and go about their way…" The Guild receptionist concluded.
We made our way around the trap and discovered more gruesome details. Swords propped up right with rust—the shattered remains of shields. More importantly, there were the remains of helmets and arrows that had pierced the armor.
Then the interior opened into a beautiful corridor, and in its center was the courtyard, with a single Sakura tree. What lay around the tree startled us: multiple banners of Omega, torn and ragged, flowing in the wind. There were weapons, some lying rusted, others propped up. The pieces of the corridor were ashen and blackened. The one that stood out to the group and me was a dragon's bone structure; next to it lay a set of armor, with its lance protruding from the ground at a 70-degree angle.
We proceeded past the courtyard, while Tim, Tina, and the guild receptionist bowed in respect to the heroes.
I continued forward, to the outer keep…and I froze.
This was where the video was recorded…with Noobie crying in defeat, Exile surrendering to defend the last two of his family, and Kit spitting into death's face…
I studied the area, no weapons, no blood, no banner here…but a pedal stone, where the Volcanic dragon's amber rested from the video before it was stolen, taken from them. Only this time it was a crystal ball resting there.
I rushed over to touch the crystal ball, followed by the guild receptionist, who gave me a nod along with Tim and Tina.
The crystal ball then unfogged, revealing the whole siege.
It showed Omega's banner waving in the wind while arrows continuously rained into their fort.
"FIRE!!!" Kit orders as the cannons roared into life.
Followed by yells of the coalition platinum adventurers carrying ladders, shields, swords, and running forward with rams.
"TAMA!!" Noobie shouts, "You can't hold the gates, NOT BY YOURSELF!!"
Tama looks back in her heavy samurai armor, smiling, and hooks her Noh half-mask over the lower face as she turns away and locks the front gate behind her.
"Tama…" Noobie cries quietly.
"LOAD!!! FIRE!!" Kit's voice barks once more before another volley of cannons meets the invaders.
"Atsushi!! You're WOUNDED!!" cried one of the team members.
"I-I'm fine, where's Noobie!?" Atsushi questioned.
"H-he's at the front gate trying to pull back Tama!" another one replies.
"Get him back. GET HIM BACK to the KEEP!!" Atsushi commanded.
The members bowed as they scattered in different directions to hold the place down.
Exile passes Atsushi, who drags him close to him.
"Exile, I need you here…" Atsushi pauses.
"Yes, Atsushi?" Exile and Atsushi make eye contact.
Atsushi gestures with a final handshake.
Exile, still holding a musket in disbelief, "N-NO YOU CAN'T DO THIS!!! WE NEED YOU!!!!"
Atsushi then nods as he mounts his dragon, and it obeys him as they propel off the ground.
Exile swallows his grief as he enters the arrowslits, firing his musket.
Kit is still ordering the defenses to hold, "FIRE!!!"
It cuts to Tama charging and stabbing a platinum adventurer with her spear. She drags the corpse to stab into another one before she kicks both off her spear. She yelled in defiance.
Inside the front gate, Noobie is trying to unlock the bolts, but Tama took the keys with her, and he's trying to find ways to save her.
With no choice left, he holds up his shield, "CO-COMMAND of the UNFALLEN KING!!!" His voice cracks, raspy from screaming.
Tama is overwhelmed by spell fireballs and nova spell arrows. The golden aura tries to heal her. Still, she is pelted by arrows as her spear falls. The coalition generals advance towards her, and she crawls towards her spear, still trying her best to fight. Determined to keep them at the gates before her last breath, to buy enough time. Time was at the essence.
"Goodbye...Noobie…" she becomes motionless.
"TAMA!!! OPEN THE DOOR TAMA!!!" Noobie yelled that his vocal cords could barely hold on. His other team members, Danalord6687, Vina, and Enji, came to drag him away from the front gate.
"TAMA!! LET GO OF ME!!! TAMA!??!?!?" Noobie struggled in vain, but he tried. Not another, not one more he couldn't protect.
Danalord6687, Vina, and Enji would drag Noobie to the inner corridor where the rest of them huddled for their last stand. The last effort and only choice left, they took it upon themselves to leave Noobie there. The 3 tried to buy time by going out into the inner wall to buy precious moments as they set up traps. Each one died before accomplishing their task. With a loud boom, the front gates were forced open as the enemy pried their way in.
Atsushi would lead one last "Noa's Befallen Meteor" before he was layered with spells as his dragon fell into the courtyard.
"WHY AREN'T WE FIRING!?" Kit ordered.
"We're out of ammunition, KIT!" his teammate replied.
Kit draws his sword out, "GO, I'll hold them!!"
"No disrespect, Kitty…" she says as she kicks him into the interior walls as she loads up the cannon one more time.
"Kat!!!?!?? NOOO!!!" Kit shouts as he falls.
Kat repositions the cannon and Fires once more before she is hit twice with arrows, once on her chest and again in her rib, where she grunts in pain.
Kit quickly climbs back up the stairs on adrenaline to embrace her.
Kat is coughing up blood, but can reach up and touch Kit's face on his cheeks once before going motionless.
Kit roars in anger, as 4 more teammates restrain him and pull him back to the main keep.
Exile is still in the arrow slit with the gun, gunning down adventurers as they pass by, directly on the head: pop, reload, and repeat.
"There, the arrow slit," a commander points out as the arrow slit is bombarded with magic, explosives, and fire magic.
Exile reloads, as a few of the remaining members inform him that Atsushi has fallen.
"Exile, you're needed at the Main Keep!" a battered teammate informs him.
"We can't afford to lose this position!" Exile reloads the gun.
The battered teammate then knocks him unconscious and has the other two teammates take Exiled away as he takes the gun and resumes firing from the arrow slit, dying immediately seconds after.
Exile gets thrown in along with Kit and Noobie. Those 3 were sealed inside the back keep area with the Volcanic Dragon's Amber.
The same talisman that Noobie sealed me with.
Atsushi's dragon crashes down into the courtyard as its wing crushes him. His lance was sticking the same 70 degrees outwards.
One of the more injured Omega members walks over, "Everything is as you've ordered, Lord Atsushi…"
Atsushi, who had blood pouring out of his mouth, just nods and closes his eyes as he becomes motionless.
"My friends…" the injured team omega member tries to rally them once more, "Our family falls here, after 5 long months…I'm honored to have served our late lord, and I'm more than ever proud of each one of us, the 35 members. I'd say WE GIVE them HELL FIRST BEFORE WE GO JUST LIKE LADY TAMA!!!"
They'd all rallied in unison.
Boom, the doors burst open, as 3 team omega members fired their firearms, downing 3 coalition adventurers. The 3 Team Omega members die instantly when the skirmishes begin. Spells and fireballs miss. It becomes a gritty massacre.
Noobie, Kit, and Exile, who are awake now, are forced to watch their friends die in front of them. Noobie watched them from behind the barrier, and he lowered his head in defeat, as strains of tears ran down his cheeks.
Then he becomes the last one standing, the battered, injured member of Team Omega, rallying man. Now he is covered in blood, alone with his dual swords. He stands alone, surrounded by coalition adventurers and the corpses of his fallen comrades. He stares at them with killing intent. At the same time, his hands still shake, rattling the swords. Fear that he couldn't buy them more time. Fear that this was all his long days of training and playing alongside his comrades could amount to. His bravery for his comrades in arms. His family, the pride and joy of his memories, comes rushing back, helping him straighten his posture with resolve. Do or die. No, no. Die for TEAM OMEGA. Die as TEAM OMEGA. He will go down fighting to his last breath, like those before him. He must. He will. There is no other way.
The leader of the coalition steps forward and stabs him instantly, seeing that he was to his limit. The fallen omega member collapses, like the rest of the team. The barrier protecting Noobie, Exile, and Kit dissipates. The group of coalition adventurers advances towards the Volcanic Dragon's Amber on the pedal stone.
Exile stands up and, with both his hands up, "We-we surrender! You-you can't harm players that have surrendered!!" Before he is kicked in the stomach.
"Stop…stop, don't hurt him…" Noobie uttered weakly.
Kit was grabbed by the neck by the Coalition leader. "What should I do with the 3 of you!?"
Kit spat on his face, "Omega fears no traitors nor any tyrants!"
A Valkyrie who looked like Serina halts the Coalition leader, "Thanalord, they already surrendered. Their mana is all gone. They cannot fight anymore. Please leave them be."
The coalition leader tosses the kit to Exile and Noobie, who catch him and scramble to one another.
I faded out the crystal balls' vision…No more needed to be seen. I put my hand over my mouth while Tim, Tina, and the guild receptionist sobbed quietly… I somehow started tearing up.
I never knew these people, so why was I crying for them? Why was I feeling this way? Why did they fight for a darn rock? Why didn't they just surrender at the start? Why did Tama lock Noobie inside the castle?
I had a million questions as I began tearing up. But I knew deep in my heart, there were no answers that would answer it directly.
Maybe I'm selfish, or perhaps I felt pity for those who fell here? Why did they choose to fall so that those 3 can live? I didn't understand.
I nodded my head and comforted Tina, who then immediately hugged me and began crying uncontrollably. Tim had his head down as he looked at the Guild Receptionist with innocence. The guild receptionist rubbed his hair and nodded her head, acknowledging that this was what a coalition event was.
We would walk out of the castle slowly, as if we were the defeated ones, not Team Omega. Still, along the way, one of the banners. The Team Omega banner that stood the tallest, I took a rusted sword. I cut off the banner, making it into a makeshift cloak, then placed the rusted sword upright again, bowed, and prayed as I followed on.
The Sakura tree was no longer blooming, but it had witnessed the rise and fall of the clan. What a bittersweet moment: just as a bud fell when we walked past, as if without speaking the grievance it held. Someone had finally witnessed the memory now left for the world through that crystal ball. Now, it wasn't alone in seeing the fall.
I didn't feel happy, but I knew that, perhaps, with this banner, I might hold on to the idea that those who gave up their lives for those 3 were still looking out for them.
I hate you, Noobie…
We began the long walk back to the Guild Tavern. Goodbye, Atsushi castle, may you and your inhabitants rest in peace…