The weight of responsibility can crush mountains.

~Dagda, the All-Father, Chief of the Gods

Smoke and ash cover the city and battlefield like endless fog. Dotted throughout, the only spot of light was the burning fires of both the city and the treants. Lacking visibility was a blessing and curse for them. The sun hovered at the tree line, and darkness would settle within the next two hours.

Crow had retaken command long ago because he saw how all the death affected Mara. Neither of them knew how to command the people still fighting because they could only see the cursed army in front of their wall section. If it wasn’t for Otto and his crazy coffin lid, even this part might have breached. The giant grew to a size comparable to a treant and went toe to toe with three of them that reached the wall.

His crazy battle allowed them to redirect mages to the other treants and help burn them down. It was a bloody battle, and the momentum swung back and forth between attackers and defenders. The worst was when a treant managed to reach the wall because they’d sweep it clear of defenders—most of those people didn’t survive. Crow felt pained by that the most because it broke the illusion that everything would be alright.

Seeing the bodies broken and tossed among the horde, the reality of what he was doing struck at his confidence. It was never a game, but previously he treated it with arrogance and indifference. Even though he knew his face was covered in soot, blood, and tears, he refused to let his voice falter as he called out commands.

He even let Song Lin use their supplies to heal the wounded and spared no potion or resource. It was going against everything he had planned. It was because he realized these people weren’t soldiers, not really—they were residents, people trying to defend their homes.

Even now, Crow’s voice was hoarse from all the yelling. He heard Drock still shouting out commands every now and then, and he sounded worse off than him. Almost no one on the wall near him had the energy to keep fighting, but they did. Even knowing the southern wall was breached, and their homes were likely lost, they stayed and fought.

Crow felt that both his Source and chakras were drained, and he had nothing left to squeeze out of him. Any more and he might damage his foundations. He even broke his rules and used up all the charges of Star Arrow to help bring down the treants. So he could no longer use it until it regenerated a charge.

Even Otto looked exhausted, which was a first.

Spitting out the taste of ash, he took a flask of water from his Shield and drank like he was a dried sponge. It was a rare lull in the fighting, so he stepped back and let others fill in his place. In a rare moment of intimacy, Song Xue sat Crow down and took a towel to clean his face. She was just as dirty as he was, and he reached up to touch her soft lips, which curled up in surprise.

“You’ve done enough,” she said softly enough that only Mara could hear. “I had Acco bring the others to the manor to secure it. It’s just us three and Otto.”

Crow laid his head on her breasts, and she hugged his head.

“I just couldn’t abandon them,” Crow felt his shoulders shaking, but he didn’t know if it was in exhaustion or if he was sobbing. So many people under his command had died, but he couldn’t save them all. He knew they should have left a long time ago, but they all knew him better than he knew himself.

“You were never going to do that. Only you were silly enough to believe you could,” Mara chuckled, her hand resting on his shoulder. “But it’s over. The wall is breached, and if you look toward the loch, you’ll see that everyone is fleeing. Rosdoe is lost.”

Crow’s head snapped up and looked toward the sky.

“Otto, shield us!” Crow commanded, his sharp voice carried, and the tired warriors all raised their heads. “Everyone, jump down now!”

Used to obeying his commands, most of the wall around him was void of warriors in an instant, all of them hopping down next to the wall, too tired to flee.

Thunk.

Otto stepped in front of Crow and his women and slammed his shield down while bracing himself. Crow stepped up behind him and cast a barrier spell, which he modified from the Constellation spell Acco got from the Clocktower. The exciting thing about the barrier was that it wasn’t one whole thing, like a bubble, which most barriers did. This one had concave discs that he could manipulate to overlap, sort of like dragon scales.

The spell Acco received could create thousands of those discs, but his modified version could produce thirty, at most. Right now, he barely managed twenty since his mana was depleted. The best part of it was that he could stack them all in front of him so they could take more damage rather than be wasted protecting behind him where there was no danger.

“What are you do—oh, by the gods!” Mara finally saw the streak of light coming down out of the sky. The moment it hit, it was like all the air was sucked toward it, creating this strange vacuum before it was blasted back. The concussive blast was so powerful that it pushed back Crow’s discs until they were shattering against Otto’s shield. Still, they managed to stay on the wall even if Crow was swaying and ready to collapse from overusing his mana.

The undead were pushed toward the wall and shattered like eggs thrown against rocks. Even Crow’s normally stoic mindset was shaken upon hearing them squelching sound as the blast pulverized them into mush. Up and down the wall, Crow spotted more of those blasts.

“Man,” Otto said, lowering his shield and pointing.

Where the man landed was a crater, but everything around him had died. Even the surviving treants didn’t stand a chance. All the smake and ash had cleared out after the impact, and he could now see how dire the situation was across the entire city. It was nothing compared to what they saw on the battlefield, but it was eye-opening to see the southern part of Rosdoe burning to the ground.

“What is he doing?” Mara asked.

“Casting a powerful spell,” Crow said and then pointed at the gathering clouds above. All of them could feel the mana rushing toward that accumulation, and when it released, fire rain fell from the sky, and the undead were turned to ash. The other people who arrived used different skills but with similar results.

When the man turned toward the wall where they stood watching, he saluted, and his Ruby Shield brightened as he cast more spells to cleanse the land of the dead.

“Thank you, senior,” Crow said with a fist over his Shield. He didn’t say that to elicit a response but to pass off the responsibility of protecting the city. “Mara, send us home. Our job is done.”

Crow barely made the command before his body collapsed and was caught by Otto. He didn’t even try to fight the exhaustion this time and trusted that his people knew what to do.

Moments later, they appeared in the manor, and Mara took Crow from Otto’s hands and bathed him while he slept. Afterward, she tucked him into bed before taking care of her own hygiene and joined him. She didn’t even notice Song Xue snuck into bed with them and lay on the other side of him.

Later, Song Lin checked on them and chuckled at seeing the three all snuggled together. The bed was big enough, so she climbed up behind her sister and fell asleep shortly after. Nin showed up later and huffed when she saw the bed was so crowded. Even Lily was snuggled up on Crow’s chest. Not one to be left out, she climbed up behind Mara and smiled sweetly before falling asleep. Her last thought was it felt good to have a family.