“I need a bucket of water! Someone get me a rag! You two people in the corner, do something or get out of the operating room!”

I walk into the medical bay and dozens of people are rushing around. Hilda and Gobber are overlooking the situation, I see several of my healers in the room… Overlooking the operating table is a small child giving orders to everyone else… What is going on? I approach Gobber from the back and whisper.

“What is happening?”

“Leon was turned into a ghoul and Hilda junior is trying to restore him to normal.”

She continues to yell out orders.

“Where is that water I asked for!? SOMEONE GET ME THE DAMN RAG!”

I get closer to look. Over the top of the few people onlooking I see Leon… Gods, he looks like he's dead. Several giant gashes cover his entire body. Only his face remains in tact… Several of the cuts have been healed and I can see that Hilda juniors hands are covered in blood. I pull out a bucket from my void pouch and fill it with water, handing it to her.

“Thank you, finally! Someone capable! Can you check his blood for any abnormalities!”

This isn't Hilda junior… This is someone else… It has to be, no child should be this calm in front of a person with such serious wounds… I check the blood… Something is mixed in with it… I start pulling it out before she yells.

“STOP! He is a ghoul right now. If you attempt to remove just a portion of it, the body might try fighting you off. We do not want that as it will lead to his permanence as a ghoul or even his death. You need to pull all of it out at once. Start channeling the abnormalities towards a single wound and force it out.”

I do as she instructs… Forcing the abnormalities towards the biggest gash on his chest. A foot thick gash streaks down his chest, it is going to leave a hefty scar in its wake. Forcing all of it out at once, I also remove a huge portion of blood. While I thought I did a good job the little child now berates me.

“You couldn't be more delicate with that? Your friend's life is on the line, if he loses too much blood he will convert completely.”

The little girl is standing on 2 boxes to reach this operating table. She has a sharp knife in her hands and was in the process of cutting dead skin from the wound as she healed it. I pull another bucket out to put the abnormality I pulled out of Leon… Mixed with his blood is a black liquid… It almost looks as if it is moving… If something living is part of the blackness...

The first bucket filled with water I pulled out is already diluted with blood. She continues to dip the knife into the water and clean it with the rag every time she cuts a rotted portion off. Several giant scars where she had done this already are shown on Leon's body…. I didn't even know it was possible to only heal a single injury like that. Leon's body is dripping with sweat, I see that they used several bottles of my numbing poison on him… Enough to treat 20 or 30 people's worth…

It takes over an hour's worth of time for the operation to finally be over… In the time, I started noticing things that Hilda junior needed in case something like this ever needs to be done again. A sharper knife would have went a long way… Several times the blade had gotten stuck in the rotting flesh and started to rip and pull on the living tissue… I'll have to have a tray of black iron surgical knives made for these types of operations. With the operation done… She opens his eyes with her fingers, he is still out cold… They are still pitch black in color... Hilda junior finally speaks again.

“He… I don't think I made it to him in time… I think, he might always be a ghoul… At least part of a ghoul... Depending on how much he fights against it. We'll have to wait and see if that is the case… If it is, I doubt their will be any way to ever change him back into a human… He might also become feral or listen to the mind control of the lich… If that is the case… I… We should strap him to the table until we know for sure...”

I feel so… This is my fault. I left him and Lance in that base by themselves. If I was there, I could have stopped this… I don't want to strap him down… I want to always be able to trust Leon… Gold has taken so much from me… I'm at my limit… This war needs to end because my heart can't take more loss… With his condition... I don't think he'll be able to take part in the war tomorrow… I don't think he should either… We don't know how ghouls work… Perhaps the further away he is from Gold the less control she will have over him.

Several of my generals were waiting outside… The room had gotten to be too full in the process, so everyone was kicked out besides the staff that needed to help in the surgery. Lance has the same look on his face that I do… We both blame ourselves for this… Leaf is crying and I can tell that Trice had been crying but had stopped… I wish I could tell them that he is going to be okay… But even I don't know if he will… Maybe… Perhaps if we kill Gold, the effects on him would disappear… It is a long shot but it is another reason why we have to fight tomorrow.

“We need to have a generals meeting right now to discuss everything that has happened… I'm honestly so mad right now… I'm not sure who I am mad at more… Gold or… Myself...”

I clench my hands into fists… We need to stop this war… It is getting too damn messy… I have given thought to another assassination attempt but Gold is too prepared for that… I think the only thing that will finish her completely is a large scale assault with a team of people set to kill her while we hold the bulk of her army at bay while they do… Leon would have made a great leader for this attack…

It takes less time then usual to gather all of my generals… Perhaps because of the importance of this one… It seems that every single one of my generals has shown up. All besides Leon who is incapacitated… This war has shown me how naive I have been… Thinking that I could save the lives of everyone… Even my enemies… This fight will only end with a show of force. I start the meeting.

“First of all. We need to kill Gold. She is far too dangerous to ignore. We must kill her so that is the main discussion of today is the team that will be going to kill her while the main force attacks the enemies to hold their attention.”

Trice steps forwards speaking.

“We can't allow you to go Kite.”

“W-why is that?”

Her response honestly confuses me. Of course I should go, I'm the leader. Trice continues to speak.

“Because you are the leader of this army. Every time there is a dangerous mission you can't throw yourself into harms way just to try and save your generals. They know what they are getting themselves into and if you go, more men will die on the outside. Gold will also drink your mana to strengthen herself… Making her harder to defeat.”

“…Fine… All of your points are valid, it is just...”

“Just what? You want to avenge Leon? Of course you do. We all do… You can't always put yourself in the most dangerous role every time. Sometimes you have to lead your army from the safest spot… I… I wish I could lead but you… You are just better at seeing the big picture then I am.”

I reluctantly agree to Trice's logic… I have a few volunteers, all of the expected of course. Zergnar and Green volunteer but I can't let them… Nami will be leading the mission, she is suited for the mission and I give her lead on the assault force going against Gold. It will be another stealth mission but this time with a bigger group. I let her pick out 10 of her best ninjas, taking all of my stealth troops as well.

Zergnar and Green are too important to send on this mission. Both seem upset but understand once I explain they are needed elsewhere. Zergnar will be dropping more explosives… His group is almost untouchable. Striking a flying target is far to difficult… Having aerial troops is almost like cheating… If we had enough time, we could whittle their numbers down indefinitely with no repercussions. Green will need to be making and strengthening walls to cut off enemy troops or block cannon fire… She is the strongest elementalist and will need to stay on the battlefield because of this.

“So the assault force we are going to use against Gold is Nami, Lance, Nargzar, Sock, Methodis, Fast and Fayeth. Methodis is the only mix healer we have, so against Gold, he will be the most helpful if all of his mana is stolen.”

I know that… Sending more people into the base could result in their deaths… All of them are willing to take the risk at this point… Everyone already was willing but… I wasn't willing to put them in dangerous roles. Trice is right… I am more suited to lead then anyone else because of my ability to think… I still would rather put myself in danger then any of my men…

“Gobber will once again be leading the bulk force. We will attempt to narrow the area they can attack us from with elemental walls and hope they come out of turret range. If they don't, we'll slowly move forwards as we create more walls. Once we get close enough to the main building, we'll attempt to seal the windows where the mana cannons are with control nature. From there, we will kill whoever attacks us while trying to draw their attention away from the assault group… Once again we are trying to limit the amount of casualties on both sides here but we will kill the pirates that attack us. The main goal is the death of Gold, with her dead, the pirates should stop fighting.”

Fayeth speaks up.

“Perhaps having several wells of numbing poison around to dip weapons and arrowheads will help minimize the casualties.”

“That is… A brilliant idea.”

“Y-yea… My village used to do something similar with regular poison...”

It looks like she is slightly embarrassed by my praise. As if she didn't expect it.

“Finally… The last thing with this mission that is top priority for everyone. Please… Stay alive… If it will cost your mission to flee but will save you from death… No one will question you.”

I overlook my generals one last time… Embedding their living faces in my head… This could be the last time I see some of them alive… I want to remember them… It is very late… We give everyone their time to rest besides Zergnar who will continue his aerial assault to weaken the enemies. He will only get a few hours of rest tonight… I am putting a lot of pressure on him for this mission but he can handle it.

I knock on Leaf's door… This could be the last time… The last chance… She allows me to enter… She sounds close to the door as she speaks. I open it and she slams into me kissing me hard, almost knocking me over… What is this? Is she thinking the same thing as I am… I kiss her as passionately in return as we move towards the bed… I taste wine on her lips… She had gotten slightly drunk, most likely to calm her nerves…

I pull away from her and start taking my cloths off… She continues to watch and doesn't say anything… I strip completely naked as she watches. She says.

“C-c-can you t-t-turn around p-please?”

I do… I hear her ruffling with her cloths then the sound of something hitting the bed. When I turn around she is completely hidden under the covers besides her head… I think… She is ashamed of her body… I hope I can remove that feeling in her… She is so beautiful it doesn't make sense to me. I crawl into the covers and start kissing her again. That night we make love.