We went up to the sixth floor, but immediately ducked back down the staircase at the sight of half a dozen crossbowmen waiting on the floor. They were waiting for us and one of them shot off a bolt right as we backed off. If I acted now, I would only have to deal with five possible shots. As I tried to quickly calculate the chances of success, Flora brought out her bow and nocked an arrow. I looked at that with a bit of bemusement. As good of a shot she was, and now knowing that she was actually capable of shooting people, I still doubted she could get a shot off faster than them. I told them to standby just a bit away from the top of the stairwell while I went back downstairs to get something. They agreed despite being a bit confused. When I returned, I was carrying two of the soldiers I took down on the fourth floor. Before they could get a full question out, I dashed past them and threw one of the soldiers down the middle of the corridor. The other one I held out in front of me. Because I was holding both of them earlier, my sword was sheathed, but that didn’t matter. My tactic had succeeded in catching them off guard and although two of the crossbowmen still fired at me, one missed and the other bolt went into the soldier I was carrying instead. The shots were clearly made in panic.

I quickly closed the distance and bashed the soldier I was carrying into one of the crossbowmen at such an angle that he would be knocked into another adjacent crossbowmen. As for the other four, I quickly went low to the ground and executed a sweeping kick, tripping another one. Of the remaining three, only two of them still had bolts in their crossbows and both of them were to one side of me. I quickly kicked off the ground to go wide of their shots. After that, I kicked off again to immediately get in close and punched the nearest one in the side of the head. I then went behind the other one and shoved him hard over to the other crossbowmen. He crashed into the ones trying to get back up from the ground and they all fell over.

The last standing crossbowman dropped his crossbow and took out a dagger. He charged over to me and I easily evaded his attack and grabbed his wrist. I squeezed it tight, breaking it, and the dagger fell from his hand. I grabbed the dagger as it dropped and shanked him in the side with it. He gasped and went limp. I unsheathed the dagger from his body and advanced on the group of crossbowmen who were getting up off the ground again. They abandoned their crossbows as well and took out their daggers. I threw the dagger at the closest one. I didn’t have the skill to intentionally stick the blade into them even at this short thrown distance, but the impact from the dagger smacking him in the head knocked him out. The other two got up to attack me simultaneously. I dodged to my left and grabbed the nearest soldier by his wrist, breaking it and causing him to drop his dagger. Instead of stealing the dagger though, I then shoved him into the other soldier, knocking them both down again. That would be the last thing I would do to the soldiers on this floor though, as Tasha finally came over and knocked them out.

I fully expected Tasha to blow up at me again about my less than honourable tactic, especially since she was glaring at me so much, but she said nothing. I looked over to Flora and instead of an upset look of anger or disgust, she seemed to just carry an expression of concern. For whom though, I wasn’t sure. I didn’t bother checking out the rooms on this floor either and we went up another stairwell. This floor was a bit different from the rest. It had a corridor going forward with ‘windows’ in the wall, but there were no open doorways to other rooms. Instead, the corridor led to a single, open room. This room was rather dark, with little light coming in from the holes in the wall, as well as a narrow pillow of light that seemed to shine down from the ceiling of the open room. As we slowly approached the open room, light began emanating from the hidden side of the room and when we finally entered the room, we saw a single man with his back turned to us, lighting candles on a shelf against the wall. I took a quick glance around the room, once again noting a lack of any chairs and tables, and verifying that there was a small hole in the ceiling where dying sunlight was coming in through. So this is the top floor.

The man turned around to face us. He wore simple pants and had an open, buttoned shirt that revealed his chest and abdomen. Judging by the man’s face, he looked to be well into his forties, but his body looked to still be in great condition. He blew out the match he was holding in one of his gloved hands and casually moved diagonally towards the center of the room. The whole scene seemed so surreal that I didn’t even think to move or act as he slowly got into position and then seemed to just pose in front of us, his muscular chest exposed and a blade that looked to be a rapier sheathed at his hip.

“Well,” he began, “I hope this is enough lighting for you. I could light a lantern too, if you so desire.” I said nothing. “Also, you’ll have to excuse my appearance, I was napping when you showed up here and I didn’t have time to get properly dressed.”

“Are you the leader?” I asked, finally recomposing myself.

“The leader, you ask? I am the commander of this fort, Colonel Truth. I hope that answers your question.” Truth? Well, I guess I know where their name comes from now. However, although my question was answered a slew of other questions started building up. I had no intention of making any kind of compromises or negotiations with the leader of the True-Bloods, but this guy was just so different from who I expected to find. I really wanted to know a bit more about him now.

“So…are you the only left? Here, that is.” Colonel Truth put on a bemused expression.

“Well, do you think you missed any of my men on the way up here? Or, perhaps you are wondering if there are more of us somewhere else. Well, I think the answer to both of those questions are fairly obvious.” For just an instant, I glanced over at Tasha, wondering what she was thinking about the situation as well. Judging from her expression, she seemed to be just as dumbfounded as I was to find someone here who didn’t immediately attack us on sight. After an extended silence, Truth continued to speak. “Despite the speed at which you made your way through this fort, I am curious as to why you haven’t initiated the next attack yet. Are you perhaps put off by my unpreparedness? Well, I must say the possibility of such a small group of people storming their way into here was not really considered. Being enemies though, I do not expect a sudden act of mercy.” The mention of mercy was what finally had me snap back to my fighting mood.

“Well, sorry for the delay. I guess I was expecting a bit more from the leader of a genocidal army.”

“Well, sorry that we were unable to accommodate you today. Normally, we have at least twice as many soldiers stationed here, but we have been fairly busy recently.”

“Yeah, innocent people aren’t just going to go off and kill themselves.” Truth’s expression changed slightly from nonchalant to one of slight irritation, but only briefly.

“So, that’s the kind of people you are. I was wondering what kind of people would come all the way here to do what you have done, but you are a lot simpler than I expected.”

“Oh? Are you trying to imply that your justifications are something grand compared to us wanting to put an end to your madness?” I took a step forward.

“You want to know?”

“Yeah, lay it on me. What is the great motivation behind your murder spree?”

“Hmmm, do you mind if I get dressed while telling you this?” It was an odd request, but I nodded. He began buttoning up his shirt rather slowly, as he was only using his right hand. “Before I begin, I would like to verify something. Did the three of you happen to encounter some of my soldiers in the northeastern region of the Nature Clan’s forest recently?” I knew exactly what he was referring to, and although I didn’t feel any incentive to lie about it, I didn’t want to tell the truth either. However, Truth read my silence to be a ‘yes’. “I see. Well, to go further then, are you actually human?”

“Yeah, I am.”

“Hmmm, more and more surprises, today. The Lieutenant-Colonel was actually telling the truth about your group.” Truth finished buttoning his shirt and then actually turned his back to us as he walked over to the end of the room to pick up and put on a vest. I could have crossed the distance and impaled him from behind, but his defenselessness was setting off alarms in my head. He turned around again and began buttoning up the vest now. “To think my men would be subdued by a group of three humans, two of them young women, even.”

“Well, I’m the only human. We also have one Battle-Hardened and one Farseer.” I had no good reason to say this, but I was curious about what his reaction would be. Truth paused in his buttoning for just a second.

“I see. Well, this makes a bit more sense then.” He said casually before he resumed dressing himself.

“Don’t get me wrong, though, I’d come here and take you down even if they weren’t.”

“Oh, I have my doubts about that.”

“Do you have no shame at all about what you and your men have done?” He finished buttoning up the vest and then turned around again to pick up and put on a fur coat. When he turned around again, though, he left it open. He walked back towards the center of the room.

“You seem a bit young, but tell me, do you remember much about the war?” Truth asked, ignoring my question.

“It was a big war where a lot of people fought. What about it?” I decided to answer in a way that wouldn’t give away that I wasn't around during that time at all.

“A rather crude description, but not an inaccurate one. Do you remember the time before the war?” Of course I didn’t. My moment of silence gave him his answer. Truth began pacing across his side of the room, from one wall to the other. “It was a peaceful time. All the various kingdoms went about the normal course of their days, progressing in their own ways and living in relative modesty.” He stopped pacing. “But that was just us being ignorant to the truth. In the hearts of many, there was a great distaste towards this peace. Whether for power or wealth, honour or glory, or just a love of fighting, countless people had a burning desire to destroy that peace.”

“And the True-Bloods are one of those people.” Truth stared at me for a couple seconds before shaking his head.

“You are mistaken. I…we…truly love and desire peace. It is how we lived before the war, and it is what we fought for.” Oh, this is starting to sound like some familiar bullshit. “But, we continue the fight because the current peace is only temporary. As long as the barbarous Battle-Hardened and Farseer exist, there can be no peace.” Yeah, I’ve definitely heard of such twisted reasoning before.

“What makes you think they’re the problem? Maybe the humans are the true problem. I mean, here we have an army of humans slaughtering the other races just because they still blame them for a war that has already ended.” I continued to argue with the man even though I didn’t expect us to reach any kind of accord.

“The war has not ended!” For the first time, Truth raised his voice. However, he quickly put on a nonchalant expression again and also started pacing once more. “Do you know how it all began for me? North of here is the mountainous kingdom of Cruxe. At the foothills of these mountains were many towns and villages that bordered the outlands. I was charged with defending one of those towns. My home town, Arinisk. I say defend, but there was never much trouble to deal with. We experienced more attacks from wild animals than from bandits. The small prison we had was also almost always empty. Whenever there was someone held there, it was usually just some drunk who got into a fight. They’d be released the next day after sobering up. Well, that’s how it used to be.”

“And then the outlanders attacked.” I could have phrased it more like a question, but it was obvious where he was going. Also, I really felt like interrupting what was sure to be a long, drawn-out speech. Truth didn’t really seem perturbed by my interjection though. He simply nodded and continued.

“There were hundreds of them. The number of attackers may have even exceeded our small town’s population. Whatever could have prompted such a large and sudden attack…well, they weren’t the kind to put much thought into such things. Brutal Battle-Hardened barbarians, the entire lot of them. Stormed the town in the dead of night, slaughtering everyone in sight. They lit houses on fire and very quickly, the few survivors had been driven into a corner.” Truth’s lips started twitching as he took a longer pause. “We could hear screams everywhere. Many of the houses that were lit on fire were not even broken into. When the people tried to run out of their burning homes, they were greeted by spears, arrows and blades. Terrified by the massacre, I’m sure some died in their own homes. Well, it’s not like everyone got up in time to even run away. We had been cornered. By the time I could group up with any of my soldiers, we were almost completely wiped out. With no other choice, I threw down my weapon and begged for the lives of those who remained, however few that was. The few other soldiers still with me did the same. Their first response to that was to behead one of us. One of them, probably the leader, spat on me and kicked my weapon back over to me. Panicked, and still wanting to save whoever was left, I pleaded once more. Another of my soldiers was killed. The surviving townspeople behind us, most of them women and children sobbed and pleaded as well.” Truth brought his right hand up to his brow and closed his eyes. When he opened them, I saw what was unmistakably rage. “They killed some of them, too.” The increase in clarity and evenness in his voice was only slight, but had an almost chilling feel. “So, I fought. And I lost.” Truth said the last sentence with a tiny smile.

“Well, I can see that they didn’t kill you.” I suppose this was my way of getting him to continue. Although, maybe I shouldn’t have done that. The bad vibe I was getting from him was growing worse, which made me tighten my grip on my sword.

“Knocked me out good. When I woke up, there were only about a dozen of us left.” Truth’s smile grew wider and he started casually glancing around the room, almost as if he was in a daze. “And you know what? Seeing that also brought me some small measure of joy. I thought that finally, we managed to convince them to spare at least some of us!” His expression then instantly turned cold, his tone matching his face. “It would have been better if they hadn’t. None of the brutes could even speak properly. Well, not in a way I could understand, but their intentions with us were made clear on the first day. We were objects for cruel amusement. They smashed my left hand with a rock and struck nails into my forearm.” Truth then laughed. “I got off easy.” Truth briefly covered his face with his right hand. “I…will not say what happened with the others. At the least, they others only had to endure it for a month or two. Only I lived past that. At some point, I even started getting used to the pain. But…that was probably because my left arm was permanently crippled by then. Seven months. That’s how long I was subjected to such things. And then the Cruxean army came. Wiped them out. Completely. And then hunted down their neighbours.” Truth made a fist with his right hand and let out a few chuckles. Then, he suddenly started laughing much harder, until he was almost cackling like a madman. I waited for the next pause before guessing where his story continued.

“And then began the War of the Nines. A major territory fought against outlanders, and soon enough, all the other major powers got involved as well for their own reasons.”

“Correct.” I let out a derisive snort after hearing Truth’s response.

“So, that’s it? A bunch of terrible outlanders come and attack your town and then capture and torture you, and you think that makes it okay to commit genocide against all non-humans?”

“Non-humans are non-human. They do not understand human law, human rationality, nor human morality. They are just beasts masquerading as humans.” I saw his gaze look right past me and towards Flora and Tasha. “Even if some are cleverer than others, that does not change what they really are.”

“And you think one incident is enough to justify that conclusion?!” I had already suspected what the leader of the True-Bloods must be like, but hearing it in person just really set me off.

“One incident? The war lasted nine years! And during it, more than a hundred thousand Cruxeans perished! Thousands of them civilians! All of them killed by either Battle-Hardened or Farseers. They are both the same! Whether they are illiterate outlanders, the Nature Clan, or the Rain Clan! The Luster Clan, too! They were our major trading partner but they just stood by and watched as our soldiers fought with the neighbouring Rain Clan. Over seventy-thousand Cruxean soldiers in that one battle alone in the Dridam Plains. Tch, to rename it to the Plains of War after that…”

“That’s what happens in a war. People kill each other for some reason that the other side finds inane. Then, the war ends and the killing stops. It’s supposed to stop. If you had kept up your actions during the war, I might have been hard-pressed to question them. Heck, I bet you’d even be lauded as a hero for how effectively you killed your enemies.” I glanced behind me for an instant and caught the forlorn expressions on both Flora and Tasha. “But the war’s over. It’s been over for more than thirteen years. You’re nothing more than a war criminal. That’s why you call yourselves True-Bloods now, right? Cruxe isn’t on your side.” Truth shook his head.

“Even if you are human like me, I didn’t expect you to be so easily convinced. The two behind you have clearly already infected your mind. However, I was hoping you’d be at least a bit skeptical of why you’ve come this far.” I agree that what was unfolding here was certainly far from the developments of an ordinary adventure.

“Yeah, I think we are both too far-gone to be persuaded now. Truly a shame.” Surprisingly, I think I actually meant that last part. Regardless of everything I had done and said so far, I did feel sorry for him. However, I had zero expectation of him turning his life around no matter what I did, and thus I had no intention of showing mercy.

“Yes, that is something that I can agree with.” Truth went over to the barrel and moved it to the center of the room and raised up one foot onto its lid. “I think the roof will make a good venue for our final battle.” He suddenly jumped up off the barrel and through the hole in the ceiling. It was a bit shocking to see a human jump high enough to completely clear the height of the ceiling, even if this room was a bit lower than the others. I recovered rather quickly though and chased after him, jumping up off the barrel as well. Not to be outdone, I jumped high enough to completely clear the ceiling as well. Right as I shot through the hole though, I saw Truth holding some kind of pouch in his hand. I thought he was throwing it towards me as I landed on a large mat beside the hole, so I immediately jumped to the side, but it turned out he was throwing it down the hole. As I saw the smoking pouch fall through the hole, the gears in my head clicked.