Some time had gone by but after some hard work and determination, the baricades were on their way to be finished thanks to the cooperation of the villagers working together in harmony despite the situation at hand. With all the door, benches, logs, wooden planks etc, it would make for formidable makeshift defenses once completed. During this time, the old and fragile mayor sat on the ground quietly with the other elders watching the young ones protect them, the old man looked, closing his eyes every time the Duke's servant took a life with his bow and arrows. The grail old man that was the Mayor was startled, nearly falling on his back when the Duke's servant yelled at him to have the townpeople make makeshift weapons to defend themselves from their unknown attackers. Looking around, he didn't even need to say anything to his people, it looked like they were taking his orders rather well, he didn't to give them out aparrently. Was it beacuse this young man carried the burden of serving the Black Duke? Perhaps that demanded respect since the Duke here was considered a local hero in these parts for his contributions to Dawngrave even when he considered himself weak.
It was tad surprising many of the men worked on the nearly finished barricades while the women and the young made the weapons that resembled spears or well any weapons with sharp points, many were pieces of metal or planks of wood with points, they couldn't pierce armor obviously but against the flesh was a different story. Majority of the enemy wore metal breast plates that covered their chests which protected them to an extent to arrows and swords but the rest of their bodies were unprotected, meaning the villagers if they aimed correctly could take down the enemy infront of them. Once they were finished with their creations, the women and young went on the defensive, this frail old men didn't personally approve of this spear formation or whatever this was but he knew there was no other way unfortunately. He would join himself If he could but him being a Knight again? The very thought made the Mayor jest slightly, no it was better to help in other ways.
Dawngrave's Mayor
"Young Lord....Cough...I will...leave you...Cough..Cough....in command of...Cough....Cough my people and the...Cough..defenses. I will tend..Cough...to the wounded."
The Mayor covered his head with his hands, kneeling as the young man fired off a dozen or so arrows, in return, a few arrows were returned back towards him and the barricade, some managed to tear past the barricade to where the people were, a few landed near the Mayor and some of the Elders, luckily no one was hit yet. With his hand over his heart, the old man sighed in relief when he begun to see the two young boys he had sent out in the ruins of their once beloved town had come back with a person under their arms. Every time the boys returned with fellow survivors, the Mayor took it upon himself to tend to the survivors wounds, some had simple scratches while others had broken limbs, severe burns and a few even had lost a limb, not all were able to be saved but they have no place to lay them so when the men were finally finished building the barricades, by the Mayor's command, they had to stack the dead in a corner to make room within their defensive perimeter. It wasn't something he wanted to do, no one wanted to do it but they all knew there was nothing they could do about it, even the smell wasn't pleasing with the scent of freshly burnt corpses in the air, such a scent made a few of the villagers sick.
With the young man under the Duke's command, the old man felt somewhat at peace or safe for the moment as he watched this young man do his very best at holding off the enemy advance by himself mostly, the villagers that were capable took to the defense of the barricade's and their fellow villagers behind them, they were few in number but they were determined and proud of their village, they wern't going to allow these bandits or soldiers destroy their home without a fight! It seemed like everything was going well enough for the most part until in the distance, a dozen or more enemy troops arrived on the scene to reinforce their comrades. Compared to the rest who seemed lightly armored and only vaugely organized, these men and women seemed to be far more organized and wore heavier armor led by some Knight Commander in awkward looking plate armor. Though they were far away, anyone could hear the enemy commander giving his orders out loud.
The Enemy's Knight Commander
"FIND IT! I don't care what it takes, destroy the entire village and all it's inhabits IF need be. We must find the Ebony Duke's Codex at all costs!
With a wave of his sword towards the main hall, the new dozen or more new enemy troops scattered, some took to the roof tops of ruined buildings and began firing their bows off at the barricades, many of the villagers maning the defense managed to take cover behind the countless doors and walls of logs and planks of wood, sparing them from certain doomed however those in the open were not so fortunate. Many of the people who couldn't take cover, couldn't move or were simply couldn't move were cut down by the volley of arrows shot at them. The elders and even the Mayor himself ended up taking arrows to the back of his body. His death was almost panicked, falling to the ground, the red liquad known as blood began coursing out of his body's wounds, within seconds, the old frail man couldn't feel his back or his legs.
Dawngrave's Mayor
"Young Lord...I beg of...cough.....you....please...cough...protect our village!.....what...cough....did we do.....cough..cough...cough...to deserve such...cough...a fate?"
In his last moments, the Mayor attempted to reach the young man infront of with his right hand raised but the life force that allowed him live, left his body quicker than he had wanted, refusing to allow him to speak anymore. Like the other elders, the Mayor's body laid on the ground in their own lakes of blood.
---
No matter how hard he could try, he couldn't stop the weeping from his closed eyes, clinging to Christina's body, he took all the hatred, all the suffering,death and destruction opon himself, this was his fault, this was his fault everyone laid dead or dying in the streets of his destroyed home, even with all the strength and power he gained, it still wasn't enough to save them. Making a fist with his right hand. he punched the wooden ground as hard as he could out of fustration and for his failure. Seeing the destruction first hand yet again, the inferno fire that raged across the town, the destruction of the entire town of those who once lived here and seeing the dead corpse of Christina caused the memories of his past to surface once again. The rain, the bloodied bodies of his comarades and enemies laying in the street of the highway, the destroyed vehicles, the destroyed houses and skyscrapers, seeing himself stll alive laying against a ruined wall caused him to gripe the sides of his head as his head began to pounder harder and harder every time the flashbacks of his failures became more apparent and clear. WHY? Why must his mind always do this to him? WAS this punishment for failing? It wasn't like he had wanted to live either, he would have been content dying on the front line with his comrades but for reasons he couldn't never understand, fate had decided he wasn't to die, not once, not twice but a handful of times.
In his worst moments, Kurama deep within himself jested out loud and proved unyielding in his laugh, this was just a moment he had been craving for. He couldn't break out due to Seto's physical form but his mental form was different, Ihe could convince Seto to let go, he would be free to do whatever he desired. From the beginning of Seto's mental collapse, Kurama sat in his sealed cage feeding Seto the images of his past life as If he had always been with him from when he was born until now, causing the pain of lost within the Duke to rupture like a volcano. By such a sight, seeing a man on his knee's, his body shaking, and his hands against his head as she spoke words no one person could understand, it would be clear whatever Sanity he clinged to was beginning to fade away. From the memories of seeing the truth about Michiko and the death of her father due to his letter to the demise of his entire unit in Pakistan to Satoya's death, than the sudden destruction of Dawngrave, his home and the memories of watching Kurama destroying, killing and raping many was just too much to bear, such destruction and loss of life was something he could never hope to describe or make sense of. With his eye's pupil nearly gone and his head facing down towards the floor with his bangs covering his face, Seto body became lifeless once more as his hands dropped to the wooden floor of the main hall, his mind blank and his body laying their shaking vaguely, it seemed it looked he was dead from his complete mental break down, leaving him a empty shell which was Kurama had wanted all along.
