I move towards Amelia a bit while keeping a calm and relaxed demeanor. It is best not to worry her in any possible way right now.

"Amelia what is today?" I ask with a curiosity in my voice.

She pauses for a moment, almost like she is caught completely off guard by the question itself.

"The 8th anniversary of the peace treaties signed by all the kingdoms," Amelia responds softly, realization obvious in her voice.

How kind of them to attack on the anniversary of peace between the other kingdoms. These people really are terrible.

"I understand why they’d attack today," I say while looking back towards the castle.

"Today is the perfect day since no one would expect it," Lia chimes in.

"Yep," I respond softly.

I watch for a while longer, seeing what could happen with the soldiers in the streets. The fight is over though, none of Remi’s knights are standing.

Whatever was left of them must’ve gone with the evacuation.

Thud.

I turn my head slightly to see Amelia on her knees, tears streaming down her face as she sees everything crumbling. Luckily Lia goes over before me to comfort her.

"There was nothing that could be done," I speak up.

"Is that really the right thing to say?" Lia asks with a bit of frustration.

"Yes. It is better to accept reality," I respond without hesitation.

"This reality is bullshit!" Amelia cries out.

One day she’ll understand why I can feel the pain she’s dealing with right now. My family and everything I knew was taken from me as well.

The manor I grew up in is now gone, probably ash from everything they did. The humans didn’t give a single chance for anything to survive that attack.

But there is some hope since they never found the bodies of my father or Lukas. My family might still have a chance to push back against them.

I don’t think my father will bring a war against the humans. Even after all that, he would want to follow my mom’s path.

Her and peace...

"Dante," Lia calls my name.

"Yeah?" I question while looking towards Lia.

"It is probably best we leave," Lia responds with a serious expression on her face.

"Give Amelia a few moments and then I agree with you," I say while moving to the other side of the wall.

I peek over the edge of the wall to see what awaits us; to my surprise most of the troops have entered the main capital itself while only a few stragglers remain.

They aren’t around this side of the wall at the moment either which makes this a lot easier.

"Amelia we should probably get going," Lia suggests calmly to her.

"Yeah..." She replies with sadness in her voice.

I go back to Amelia and pick her up before she can say anything.

"Lia you can make it down yourself right?" I ask with a serious tone.

"Yes," She answers.

"Then let’s go while we have the chance," I say while moving to the edge.

"How are you planning to go down?!" Amelia’s tone shifts to panic.

"You know what I am, have some faith in me," I respond softly.

She holds on tightly as I begin to climb down the wall, using one hand to dig into the wall as I descend. Slight pain tingles through my hand until I finally reach the bottom of the wall.

One glance at the wall tells me that I left my mark with the giant tear going down along the side.

"What about Lia?" Amelia says after calming down.

"She’ll be down in a moment," I reply with confidence.

After a minute or two I don’t see Lia coming down the wall.

Maybe she can’t get down the wall after all.

"Stay here for a second Amelia," I say while sitting her down near the wall.

I quickly scale back up the wall until I finally reach the top where Lia is still standing there.

"I thought you could get down the wall yourself?" I ask, teasing her a bit.

"With your help I can," Lia answers with a nervous tone.

Sigh.

I pick her up and make my way back down the wall within a couple of moments. She really just wanted to be carried down like Amelia was.

Upon reaching the bottom I can hear some soldiers in the distance, mostly talking about the attack.

"With everyone here we should go," I say quietly.

"I agree," Lia replies.

"Can you run on your own Lia?" I ask with a sarcastic tone.

Thud! "Ow. Alright I’ll grab Amelia so let’s get going," I respond after she punches my arm.

I sit Lia down and quickly go over to Amelia, the sadness still showing clearly on her face. Nonetheless I pick her up and we begin to run away from Ariel, leaving behind the once great capital.

Once we get far enough I’ll have to look at a map since I don’t have the slightest clue on where I’m going. Deciding on what is the best course of action is also needed.

Going after the artifact or going straight to Lumiel is the biggest thing we need to figure out.

I’ll have to talk with both of them about this but I don’t really know what Amelia is capable of doing. She doesn’t strike me as a fighter with how she was living her life.

Meaning that Remi probably didn’t teach her much since they always had peace. I would be in a whole different spot if I never got the training my father gave me.

We’re going to lose time but I think training her is going to be necessary.

"Where are we even going?" Amelia whispers into my ear.

"As far as we can from the Ariel for now," I answer.

Setting up a camp somewhere far away would probably be the smartest idea for the time being. Amelia needs training and some time to process everything that happened.