Chapter 89: The Village That Burned
The smoke got thicker with every step they took.
The shouting grew louder too, carried across the distance by wind that smelled like burning wood and something worse underneath it. Arthur noticed the details as they ran. Broken arrows littered the ground in scattered clusters.
Burned leaves drifted down like dark snow, curling and crumbling before they touched the ground. Ash floated everywhere, catching in throats, clinging to skin. Somewhere ahead, children were already crying, and the village wasn’t even visible yet.
Nobody spoke.
For almost the entire run, there was nothing except footsteps, breathing, and the growing roar of something burning up ahead.
Arthur kept his eyes forward.
Vedas’s spear was already in his hand.
The Goblin children from the Mu Tribe had been left behind with two Hunters at Raku’s insistence, and the rest pushed forward without slowing.
Then the trees broke apart, and the village came into view.
The battle was already over.
Arthur stopped running before he understood why his legs had stopped. The walls that had looked so tall from the ridge were scorched black in long streaks; entire sections collapsed inward.
Smoke poured from what had once been rooftops. Goblins moved through the wreckage slowly, some carrying the injured, others just standing among the ruins, stunned, out of things to do.
No enemy in sight.
Whatever had done this was already gone.
Arthur’s mind immediately jumped to the question that would follow him the rest of the day.
What had defeated them?
What kind of force could level a village this size and vanish before anyone else arrived?
A Goblin woman broke away from the wreckage and ran toward them. Leather armor scorched along one shoulder, a long cut across her forearm nobody had stopped to treat. Her eyes moved across Vedas first, taking in the armor, the spear, the presence that came with both.
"Commander," she said, voice cracking slightly. Something like hope flickered across her face.
Then her gaze shifted past Vedas and landed on Raku behind him.
Whatever composure she’d held onto broke completely. Her knees buckled, and she caught herself against a fallen beam, staring at the old Goblin like she couldn’t quite believe he was real.
"Grandfather Raku," she whispered.
Raku stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Luka," he said quietly. "You’re alive."
"Barely," Luka admitted, straightening back up, wiping at her face with her uninjured arm. She looked toward the ruined village behind her, voice steadying. "I’ve had teams pulling survivors from the west area since it started. I don’t know the final count yet."
Arthur watched her carefully. She’d been coordinating everything herself, holding the pieces together.
It was then that one injured Hunter hurried over. "Luka! We found three more!"
She immediately turned. "Can they walk?"
"Two can."
"Good. Bring them over."
The Hunter nodded once and ran.
Arthur quietly watched. "She’s been leading this whole time." Raku smiled. "..." "...She always was reliable."
Then something shifted.
Melo rushed out when the sound of a child crying echoed out.
And then Vedas turned toward the nearest group of Hunters standing uncertainly near the collapsed wall. "You three, clear that beam. You two, with me."
They moved instantly, without hesitation, the same way the Mu Tribe always responded to him.
Raku moved just as fast in the opposite direction, gathering frightened survivors near the well and organizing them into groups. His voice was calm and steady enough to settle the panic almost immediately.
The Healers from the Mu Tribe split apart on their own, each heading toward a different cluster of injured without needing to be told.
The Builders were already running their palms along the cracked foundations of the nearest structures, judging what could still be saved.
The Archers climbed onto what remained of the walls, scanning the treeline for any sign of a second attack.
The Riders swept in on their Stone Bears, lifting the wounded onto broad backs and carrying them toward safer ground.
Arthur stood in the middle of all of it, and for a moment he didn’t do anything. He looked around and saw nobody was waiting for instructions.
Nobody froze or panicked but instead acted.
He smiled. "They’re all amazing now."
Mithra looked toward him. "You helped make them that way."
Arthur shook his head. "No. They chose to become stronger."
The crying children near the well were the loudest sound in the village until something enormous stepped out of the smoke behind them.
The crying stopped first, replaced by a stunned silence spreading outward. Melo’s true form emerged fully from the drifting ash, cosmic fur rippling with faint starlight, three eyes opening slowly across her massive face. The children who’d been sobbing moments earlier stared up at her, tears forgotten.
One small child broke away from her mother and ran forward, wrapping both arms around one of Melo’s enormous legs. Another reached up toward her tails, small fingers brushing the glowing fur. The nearby adults had gone completely still, caught somewhere between fear and awe.
A goblin child tilted her head and muttered. "Guardian?"
One frightened child slowly buried their face against Melo’s fur.
Another carefully touched one of her tails. "...Soft."
The first child giggled. It was the first laugh anyone had heard since Arthur arrived.
Parents quietly looked toward Melo.
One mother wiped tears from her eyes. "Thank you."
Arthur said nothing either, watching quietly as Melo lowered her head gently toward the children gathered around her, letting them touch her without flinching.
For a while, it seemed like the worst had passed.
Builders moved from structure to structure, smothering the last of the flames. Hunters worked alongside villagers, clearing debris from the paths. Arthur had his hands wrapped around a fallen support beam, helping two Goblins lift it away from a collapsed doorway.
The Su Tribe Goblins stopped for just a moment.
A young Hunter watched a Mu Tribe Healer close a wound while running. A Builder caught a collapsing beam before it crushed a family. An Archer shot down burning debris without being told.
The young Hunter whispered, "...They’re incredible."
Luka heard him. For the first time since Arthur arrived she allowed herself to believe. Maybe they really could be saved.
People began to relax.
Somewhere nearby, someone even laughed, a short, exhausted sound of relief.
Then Arthur paused.
He looked toward the front of the village, where smoke still curled upward in thick columns. "The fire isn’t dying," he said quietly.
Nobody heard him at first.
He opened to say it louder but then froze as he saw something.
Arthur narrowed his eyes.
For just a second, something enormous moved inside the flames.
It was walking.
It was too far away to make out clearly as there was too much smoke and fire. All Arthur could see was a massive silhouette. It walked straight through a collapsing building.
And then the roof fell onto it.
The silhouette never slowed.
Then—
The smoke swallowed it again.
Arthur frowned. "...Did anyone else see that?"
Nobody answered.
Mithra suddenly shouted. "The front district is going to explode!"
Arthur blinked before ignoring the silhouette and shouted. "Builders! Quickly create a dome around us now! Everyone else, pick up the speed in finding the other survivors!"
The response was immediate.
Every Builder within earshot turned and sprinted toward the front district, runes already gathering along their palms before they’d even reached the structures.
A Builder threw himself forward and caught a burning support beam with both arms before it could collapse onto a group of fleeing villagers, gritting his teeth against the heat as he shoved it aside.
A Hunter scooped up a screaming child and threw her toward a waiting Rider, who caught her against his chest without breaking stride on his Stone Bear.
A Healer ran alongside a stretcher, hands glowing green, mending wounds without slowing down.
An Archer nocked a mana arrow and fired it in one motion, severing a support rope holding a section of wall about to fall directly onto a group of survivors.
A Stone Bear lowered itself low enough for three elderly Goblins to climb on at once, then rose and carried them clear of the collapsing structure behind them.
Everything happened at once, overlapping in a blur that should have been chaos and instead moved like something rehearsed a hundred times.
Arthur turned in a slow circle, checking faces, counting families, making sure nobody had been left behind. For a moment he believed everyone was accounted for.
Then a tiny voice cut through the noise.
"Mama!"
Arthur’s head snapped toward the sound before he’d even finished processing it. He didn’t look around for confirmation. He didn’t hesitate. He ran.
Behind him, Melo was already moving, her massive form surging through the smoke without anyone giving the order. She didn’t need one. She knew Arthur well enough to understand exactly what that sound meant to him.
Arthur burst through a collapsing doorway and found two girls huddled against the back wall of a burning house, the older one shielding the younger with both arms wrapped tightly around her. Flames licked up the wooden support beams above, the ceiling groaning under its own weight.
He didn’t waste time on words. He scooped the younger girl into his arms while the older one clung to his side, and together they moved back through the doorway just as a section of roof came down behind them in a shower of sparks.
Outside, smoke rolled across the street in thick waves, buildings still collapsing on either side as they ran. Arthur carried the smaller girl against his chest while the older sister kept pace beside him, her small hand gripping his sleeve.
Arthur glanced down at her. "You protected her," he said.
"...Mom told me to."
Arthur smiles. "She’d be proud. Let’s go tell her that!"
Ahead, Melo burst through the smoke, and Arthur swung both girls up onto her back before climbing up himself. He didn’t need to tell her where to go.
Melo ran.
The flames couldn’t catch her. Ash scattered and blew apart in her wake as she moved. To anyone watching from the village, she was nothing more than a glowing shape bursting through the smoke, faster than anything should move through that kind of chaos, gone again before the eye could properly follow her.
Behind them, the last of the survivors reached the center of the village, where the Builders had gathered in a tight circle around the largest remaining structure. The lead Builder slammed his rune hammer into the ground, and golden light spread outward in a wide ring beneath everyone’s feet.
The barrier rose in a smooth dome, sealing shut just as the front district finally gave way behind them. Everyone slowly looked upward. Golden runes flowed across the barrier like rivers of light.
Even the children stopped crying.
One little Goblin whispered, "Pretty."
Nobody disagreed.
And then the flames reached them.
The explosion outside became a wall of sound.
Inside the dome, there was only breathing.
Children clung to their parents, some still crying quietly, others too exhausted to make any sound at all.
Adults held each other without speaking.
Nobody moved for a long moment, and nobody needed to. The silence stretched on, broken only by the muffled roar of destruction happening somewhere beyond the golden barrier above them.
Arthur stood near the edge of the dome, looking out through the faint golden shimmer at the village still burning beyond it. Everything outside kept collapsing in slow motion.
He didn’t say anything for a long moment.
Then, quietly, he asked the question that had been sitting in his chest since they first arrived. "What happened to this place?"
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