Chapter Text
“Irregular movement you said?” Aglaea takes a gander on the source of the voice –Anaxagoras, due to the rather worrying nature of the sentence.
“Indeed. As you may know that this Thursday the attack in the grove was quite severe, only a few survived, in other areas we often receive reports of assaults, do you think this is normal? It seems like you’re becoming less sharp, Aglaea." Anaxa expressed a bit of his disappointment in Aglaea's judgment.
"Huh? When did i say that this is normal? Indeed, all the attacks from the black tide lately have really been relentless. I hope everyone can understand this unusual situation and continue fighting to save the Civilians. I have made a list of areas you need to visit. Remember to prioritize the lives of the Civilians. If all the civilians have been evacuated, just leave that area and go to Okhema, because whether we like it or not, we need to conserve our energy. Don't let yourselves fall because of too much fatigue. This might go on for a week. I hope everyone understands."
The Chrysos Heirs meeting ended with uneasiness from everyone, a weeks is not a short time, inflation of the black tides attacks surely made them feel anxious with Amphoreus condition that is increasingly corroded.
-
Phainon with his troops was assigned to scout a village in the west of Amphoreus, evacuating all of the civilians. Like what Aglaea said, He should leave the remaining enemies and prioritize the lives of the villagers.
But Phainon could not do that, he kept thinking about where the remaining black tide would go, which people they would hurt next. He felt guilty thinking that the Black Tides he left behind could kill others in the future, it was his fault, Phainon's fault for not being strong enough.
Each of the Chrysos heirs was assigned to scout in different areas. Phainon, who had finished with one area, decided to continue to another area to scout and evacuate the Civilians, alongside his quite exhausted troops.
Continuing to fight without sufficient rest is not something easy for ordinary troops, indeed, it is a common situation for Phainon who possess the strength of heirs, and conflicts began to arise within the Phainon troops.
"Lord Phainon." One of the Okhema troops approached the Phainon who had just finished fighting the Black Tides, "I think we need to take a break. I do not doubt your strength, my lord Phainon, but the other troops are not as strong as you, we really need to rest."
"Yeah? I'm sorry, I can't stop myself. It's okay for you guys to just rest, I'll handle the rest, okay?" Phainon said, but the troops felt annoyed, as if Phainon was saying that he could fight alone and did not need any other troops.
"That's not what I meant, sir." Before the soldier could finish his sentence, Phainon had already run off to attack another Black Tides. "I assume you've all heard what he said, what do you think?" The soldier asked the others who had been listening to the conversation.
"Huh, I don't want to look useless, let's just continue." They all nodded in agreement and kept fighting against the Black Tides, moving on to several other areas without a break.
On the 3rd day of the scouting, Phainon’s troops had completed all their parts, and they had returned to the Okhema to rest as they should.
Phainon approached Aglaea, asking if there were any troops that needed his help. Aglaea initially refused as the scouting conducted by Phainon was already quite heavy and exhausting. However, with Phainon continuously pleading to join another area and assist other troops, Aglaea reluctantly assigned him to a region that she felt, through her golden thread, was quite concerning, tasking Phainon to help the troops that were overwhelmed fighting there.
“Thank you, Aglaea.” Phainon then went to the place that Aglaea mentioned, he was alone, as he could not make his troops that hadn’t rested for three days continue to fight.
For a full week, Phainon ran here and there battling all the battleships that experienced massive developments, until finally, the Chrysos heirs Upon reaching the point of completion of their reconnaissance at that time, the whole army returned to the Okhema, the meeting of the Chrysos Heirs would be held tomorrow morning.
-
"I truly appreciate your hard work, fighting for a week is certainly not easy, I hope you can make good use of your rest time, please, pay attention to your body's condition as well, I will conclude our meeting today, once again thank you and for Phainon, I think we need to talk for a moment." Phainon was slightly startled when his name was mentioned, leaving the room empty except for him and Aglaea.
"Phainon," Aglaea placed her fingers on her forehead and frowned before continuing her sentence, "I highly appreciate your hard work, I admit you are strong, of course, you are our deliverer, but Phainon, your troops are not as strong as you, they are just ordinary soldiers whose bodies cannot be forced to work continuously, I hope you understand that, why don't you let them rest?"
"I... let them rest, Aglaea. I indeed feel that we need to continue fighting, I understand them so I ordered them to rest, but they continued fighting alongside me. I thought they could still handle it, I didn't know they were pushing themselves." Phainon furrowed his brow, unaware that his soldiers were forcing themselves.
"You are the leader of the troops, Phainon. Of course, your soldiers will always follow you, you should understand this." Aglaea paused for a moment before sighing and continuing her sentence, "Phainon, I know you are still grappling with your vengeance when the Black Tides attacked your hometown, Aedes Elyase, long ago. I hope you don't prioritize your vengeance in this mission. I hope you can forget your vengeance for a moment while working on the mission, don't get too caught up in that vengeance, Phainon. This time you truly have responsibility for people's lives, you know. I think that's all I can convey, I hope you can think more calmly. I will take my leave then."
Phainon lowered his head towards the table and slightly tousled his hair, "Ah, I messed up again." He then stood up to return to his room. However, at the door was Hyacine, who seemed to have been waiting for a while.
"Phainon, I heard you haven't rested for a whole week, you need to go to the infirmary now, let me check you, no refusals allowed." Hyacine didn't wait for Phainon's answer and immediately pulled his hand towards the treatment room, ordering Phainon to sit on the bed and starting to check his health.
-
Two days in the infirmary felt long for Phainon, today he is finally allowed to leave by Hyacine, feeling the vibration of notifications from his Telesate, Phainon checked and opened the Chrysos Heirs group.
Aglaea: Emergency situation, head to the meeting room. Now.
"Huh.. what now.." Phainon got up from his bed and headed straight to the meeting room. All the Chrysos Heirs had gathered, Phainon cursed himself for feeling late.
"Black tide is attacking again..." said Aglaea, the other Chrysos Heirs sighed in frustration, they had only rested for 2 days after a week of reconnaissance. "I need all your help, only at two location points, so it might be quicker than last time but more exhausting, I will divide you into two teams, depart today and remember to prioritize the safety of the Civilians."
-
Phainon, Mydei, and Hyacine were assigned together at one location. The situation had worsened, and Hyacine immediately evacuated all the Civilians and provided first aid to the injured survivors, while Phainon and Mydei tried to get rid of all the Black Tides.
It's outrageous, there might be dozens of Black Tides here, how could this happen? Didn't they just clean everything up yesterday?
Mydei punched all the Black Tides with his armored gloves, mercilessly tearing and separating the head of the Black Tides from its body, making sure they wouldn't rise again. Phainon was the same, mercilessly wielding his dawn maker against all the Black Tides around his. Until Hyacine came and said,
"All the civilians in this corner have been evacuated, I've already asked the soldiers to protect them, let's move to another corner." Hyacine then pointed to another corner of the area, Mydei and Phainon following her, their eyes combing every road they passed, checking if any Civilians were missed or if there were any Black Tides that were still alive.
Arriving at another corner, Hyacine immediately rushed to evacuate the Civilians, doing what she should have done. Mydei and Phainon also, continuing what they had done earlier, tore and drew the sword at the enemies that appeared.
They did that in that place for almost an hour until finally the corner was cleared of Black Tides.
"We don't take long at one point, continue to the other side of the village, maybe some Black Tides were still attacking the Civilians there, our priority is the safety of the Civilians," said Mydei while wiping the sweat on his face, his words were true they could not continue at one point when it was possible for the Civilians on the other side to be injured.
They moved to the other side, the last part of the village that they hadn't checked. The situation was so dire, many Civilians were slumped down after being ruthlessly attacked by the black tides', and Hyacine immediately evacuated again, aided by a few other soldiers.
The black tides that noticed the new presence immediately headed towards them, attacking indiscriminately. Fortunately, Mydei and Phainon were strong enough to fight them off, they only confronted the black tides that approached Hyacine, who was carrying out the evacuation, to protect her and the injured Civilians.
"I thought we had saved all our Civilians, I already asked some of them if we had successfully evacuated everyone," said Hyacine with a slight relief on her face, Mydei responded with a nod. If they followed the plan, they should move directly to the Okhema and leave the remaining black tides here, as the condition of the injured survivors could worsen if they lingered here, as there was also a lack of adequate medicine.
"No, We can't." Phanon interrupted them, Hyacine and Mydei gasped. Mydei instantly tugged at Phainon's collar with his angry face.
"What do you mean? Do you want to stubbornly kill all of the black tides again, huh?"
"If we don't finish everything, it's the same, later these black tides will roam around and attack civilians again! I can't let that happen! The black tides that are here are also likely to be left from other area black tides that we didn't kill properly, as a result they still fall victims, right?" Phainon answered and tried to convince his two companions.
"Oh my goodness, please think with a cool head, are you stupid or what? Remember the words of Aglaea, our priority is the lives of the Civilians, you see the number of Civilians we evacuate! You think they can last even longer here? use your brain!" Mydei then yelled at him, of course he did’nt agree with Phainon's words.
Some Civilians in the back groaned in pain, children even began to cry in fear because the atmosphere worsened when the heroes who came to help them fought.
Phainon forcibly released Mydei's grip on his collar and continued his swing of his sword towards the remaining black tides.
"That bastard."
"Mydei, calm down, I'll try to persuade him." Hyacine approached Phainon, trying to speak calmly but instead of agreement from Phainon they heard another word they did not expect,
“You guys go ahead, I'll stay here and finish everything that’s left."
A punch flew toward Phainon’s cheek, causing a small tear and blood at his lip, it was a punch from Mydei, frustrated by Phainon’s seemingly egotistical response. Not deciding to argue any further, Mydei then blindly attacked all the remaining black tides, speeding up their work.
An hour passed after their conflict, and finally the black tides were finished without residue. Mydei glanced at Phainon with an annoyed look, deciding not to speak first because he was still angry.
"Is it done? Let's hurry to Okhema," Hyacine said.
-
After two hours of travel, they finally arrived at the Okhema, and Hyacine immediately led all the survivors to the infirmary, providing them with further care. Mydei still won’t speak and didn’t even give a glance at Phainon, choosing to part ways without saying a word at all.
Phainon understood they were upset with him, but memories from his old village continued to haunt him during their fight earlier, memories of when Phainon failed to protect everyone he loved, when black tide successfully killed everyone.
Phainon allowed those memories to consume him until he insisted on killing all the black tides in front of him.
"Hello! Are you the hero who saves everyone, Brother?" said a little girl that suddenly appeared while shaking Phainon's cloak. The little girl was likely an Okheman who liked to admire the Chrysos Heirs.
Phainon smiled before bending down to match her height and replied, "Yes? What's wrong?"
The girl handed him some food, smiling, "Food for you, I made it myself."
Phainon smiled again as he received food from the girl, "Thank you," he said while devouring the food the girl had given him, and then the girl left with a joyful face.
Aglaea once said that not everyone in Amphoreus agreed with their flame-chase journey, that some people might even try to kill the Chrysos Heirs, by any means, one of which is through poison in food, which is why Aglaea strictly banned accepting food from strangers. Phainon did not care at the moment,
'What could a little kid use to poison me in the food given?' he thought.
-
In the evening, Phainon felt his stomach twisted, in great pain, sweat pouring down his forehead and all over his body, his body was feverish with a high temperature, his stomach was nauseous, he immediately ran to the bathroom and expelled everything from his stomach into the sink, he expelled so much that it felt like his stomach was empty. However, this did not relieve the nausea he felt, he kept trying to vomit something even though nothing came out of his mouth.
He washed his face with water from the sink only to feel the dizziness increasingly attack his head, the cold water temperature only made his hot head feel more dizzy, clinging to the wall with his right hand, he tried to return to his bed.
Thump
Unable to withstand the dizzy feeling in his head, Phainon’s unsteady body fell and hit the edge of the sink, making his head hurt even more, dizzy and very dizzy.
Crawling from his place, he tried to reach his bed with the strength he had.
"Damn it," he cursed before finally managing to return to his bed and curled up like a sick child.
His head was getting more dizzy, his breathing was irregular, he even felt difficulty breathing, it was already too late to call Hyacine, moreover he still felt awkward due to their earlier conflict. His chest felt increasingly tight and painful, he kept squeezing his chest mercilessly, he couldn't breathe, as if he were drowning, even just taking a breath felt very painful, he kept grimacing and crying but it was of no use.
He forced himself up from the bed, dragged his large pained body towards the window, opened the window hoping he would be able to breathe, feeling a little better, Phainon took a deep breath and tried to breathe normally.
After feeling his breathing improve, he went back to his bed, his throat also hurting,
cough cough
Phainon covered his mouth with his hand when coughing, there was a golden liquid in his hand, he coughed up blood.
So on and on until finally he forced his eyes to close, forcing himself to sleep so as not to linger in the pain he felt, after all, tomorrow there was a meeting with Chrysos Heirs.
-
Phainon opened his eyes with difficulty, the dizziness still attacking his head, his throat still hurt, he turned and found his bed covered in golden stains, just how bad is he right now? he thought as he forced himself to get up, even though he was dizzy, now he felt better than last night, maybe it's just a regular fever, he thought again.
He went to the bathroom and changed clothes. Without breakfast he prepared to go to the meeting room of the Chrysos Heirs today. But he realized that his face was very pale, not wanting to appear sick and worry others, he applied some light makeup on his face and lips,
'I feel better now' he thought as he left his messy room, not having time to tidy up the chaos he caused last night.
On his way to the meeting room, he happened to meet Hyacine and Mydei, usually they would chat right away, but this time they turned away, perhaps because of yesterday’s conflict, it felt very painful, but this is indeed Phainon's fault, he thought again.
The meeting soon began, Aglaea presented the results of yesterday’s surveillance, how many Civilians had been rescued, their identities, how many Civilians had failed to be rescued, and briefly discussed the patterns of the black tide attacks, which had felt strange lately.
"I still want to remind everyone about our priority during surveillance, saving the lives of Civilians first."
"I think you need to elaborate on that point, Aglaea. There are still some who don’t understand, you know." Mydeimos suddenly spoke up, responding to what Aglaea had just said.
Phainon feels that those words are aimed at him, then he responds, "Mydeimos, if our problem from yesterday isn’t resolved, you can talk to me privately."
"Huh? I tried, U remember? and you still don't understand either." The Kremnoan prince answered with a bitter tone as if he was upset with Phainon.
"You are the one who doesn't understand."
Mydei instantly got up from his seat, gripping the Phainon collar in front of everyone preparing to throw his fist again at Phainon's face before being stopped by the Aglaea’s golden thread.
"Can you two please calm down for a second and tell us what are you two arguing right now?" Aglaea then asked as she pulled out the grip of her golden thread from Mydei.
The two of them, Phainon and Mydei, didn't even bothered by aglaea’s question, they both then continued arguing.
"Why, Mydeimos? Just punch me already, you would never understand what i said tho." Phainon said as if he’s challenged Mydeimos, perhaps because his body temperature is high, his emotions are easily triggered today.
"Phainon, Mydeimos. You guys need to explain to me now why you're fighting in the meeting room." Aglaea repeated his words again, hoping these two guys would stop teasing each other and stop creating a tense atmosphere in the room.
"It was because of me, Aglaea. Yesterday I stubbornly finished all the Black Tides even though your priority is to save the lives of the civilians first." Phainon opened his mouth, still in Mydeimos' grip.
"Stop talking nonsense." Mydeimos gritted his teeth, clenching his fists, then forcefully punched Phainon's face with his hand wrapped in that iron glove.
Aglaea then held Mydei's hand that was ready to punch Phainon again. Hyacine, from a distance, could already feel that something was wrong, Phainon wasn't usually provoked, and Phainon's face had been different since he entered the room.
"Let me put it this way so you understand, deliever. Your stubbornness can kill people, you know? Do you think we can wait for a long time just to kill the enemies and let all the Civilians suffer because you're taking too long to fight them? The medicine we brought back then was limited, we have to get to a medical center for further treatment as soon as possible, and you? Selfishly, you don't want to leave just because of some unimportant enemies? Or are you still caught up in your revenge? Not satisfied yet? Want to be a hero by killing everyone without leaving a trace? Wasting time and letting the Civilians suffer? No matter how hard you try, you won't be able to save the lives of the villagers and your friends who are already gone. Do you think you're the only one here who has lost? Hah!" Mydei shouted, his loud voice filling the room.
Aglaea interrupted, "Mydeimos, stop, you’re going too far."
Phainon, gripping Mydei's hand that was still holding his collar, his eyes filled with rage, and with his hot body temperature making him more agitated, expressing his emotions.
“You bastard, what the fuck did you know about me? and how dare you talk about my past like that.” Phainon then struggled to release Mydei's hand from his collar, trying to throw Mydei, but in his current condition, he certainly lacked the strength.
His head began to spin again, the voices of the people around him started to fade away, replaced by a loud buzzing that increasingly caused him pain, his eyes could no longer focus on Mydei, attempting to escape so that the Chrysos Heirs members wouldn't notice Phainon's condition, it would be truly humiliating if he fainted in this state.
”Stop being stubborn, Deliever, we all—” before Mydeimos could finish his shout, suddenly Phainon furrowed his brow and clutched his head tightly, letting out a small roar of pain as his stomach began to feel queasy again. Hyacine quickly approached and noticed that something was wrong with Phainon.
Phainon could no longer hear anything, his whole body felt extremely heavy, his throat was also very heavy, muffling his mouth, he felt like he wanted to vomit, unable to hold it anymore, he vomited blood again from his mouth and then fell to his knees until he finally slumped to the floor.
He could still faintly hear many footsteps approaching him, the sounds of panic overwhelming him, his vision was no longer clear, he could only see Hyacine's worried face before he completely closed his eyes.