The worst

The night arrived early, but Apollo was already dead tired. While his bag was being carried by Lumina, the simple act of walking through the forest, climbing and going down the mountain, was already enough to exhaust all his strength.

The group stopped a few minutes before the night arrived and set their camp. The girls improvised tents using whatever material they could find in the forest, while Apollo used the one brought by Lumina, which was made out of boar skins sewn together.

Apollo had never gone camping in his life. As someone who grew up in the city, sleeping in the middle of the forest, without a solid roof over his head or easy access to a bathroom was a completely new experience to him, a nightmarish experience that he didn't want to repeat ever again.

That night the wind blew quite strong and a storm arrived without notice. The boar skin was not exactly waterproof and soon a few leaks started to appear. To make things worse, he found himself in a delicate situation where he heard the nature's call but there were nowhere near him to answer it, which resulted in an even more uncomfortable stay that lasted all night long.

Ask him his opinion, if you are curious and he will say that even when he served the army, during his mandatory service, things were never this awful. Sure, there was a goddamn annoying sergeant screaming over his head, constant psychological stress and nonstop physical training day and night, but, in the end of the day, he could still sleep in a half decent bed and do the number 2 in a toilet, not to say he was even entitled to toilet paper! God praise the benefits of a modern society!

After probably the worst night of his life, a beautiful morning bloomed as if mocking all his suffering. But what waited him was not relief, peace or rest, but a long forced march toward their target.

Seeing his sad state, Lumina couldn't hold back and asked.

"Master, do you want me to carry you?"

Apollo smiled at her, wishing he could say yes, maybe a few tears even sneakily escaped his eyes, but he still held strong in the end and denied, trying to save what was left of his pride as a man.

"Master, you are holding us back. Please let Lumina carry you now!"

(Please, somebody, kill me!)

...

Some people say that pride protect one's heart, others say that it's the thing that differentiate us from wild beasts, and while Apollo wanted to believe in the ones who told him all it does is hold us back, Apollo still felt as if he had lost something important as their journey reached it's destiny.

As the group approached the enemy base, they were quite surprised by what they saw.

Hell. That's the first word that came to their mind.

The whole base was painted red, with pools of blood spread around. Mutilated pieces of corpses, from both boars and cat girls, could be seen everywhere and the only moving things were the vultures that were having the time of their lives. No building was left standing, everything was burned to the ground. It was like an artillery unit had bombarded the whole place while the boars were attacking, killing allies and enemies alike.

The little girls watched the scene with empty eyes. It was like their minds couldn't process what they were seeing, as if it was an illusion, something unreal, a work of fiction that couldn't exist in the real world.

They didn't get scared, they didn't tremble, they didn't react at all. Just like robots, they just stared and stared, waiting for the next order, maybe even forgetting to even breath as they stood still with voided eyes.

Apollo, on the other hand, couldn't hold himself in place. He fell down to his knees, vomited his whole breakfast in one go. Once there was nothing left in his stomach, he continued to force his vomit, again and again, spitting out gastric juice until he vomited bits of blood.

Why were tear falling from his eyes? He never knew any of them, never talked to them, not even knew their name. Was there a reason for him to feel this sad?

(I should have been prepared for this! I already knew what I would face! A crazy bastard who doesn't have a shred of humanity! Wasn't that exactly why I have come here!?)

He tried to twist his logic, he tried to make himself immune to the pain in his heart, and even tried to fool himself into believing they were now in a better place but nothing worked out.

If he had felt awful during the previous stormy night, now, during this beautiful day, he was a million times worse.

In games and novels, war is usually depicted as something great and exciting, but witnessing this sight in real life, nothing close to those feelings could be felt at all.

This was a real battlefield. This a tragedy. A mistake. An unforgivable act.

Learning this truth upon seeing it with his own eyes, Apollo swore to never forget this lesson for as long as he lived. To never forget his humanity. To never forget that there are values that should always be held above all else, even before victory and defeat.

Slowly picking up himself. Apollo stood up again with sad eyes.

His body was still trembling, he felt weak and dizzy, but he now held the resolve to move forward.

He looked around and saw a bit far in the mountain a SoW being activated, constructing a building from scratch.

(So... there he is...)

The one who caused this was still on the loose.

If he was left alone, a situation like this would repeat itself countless times in the future.

This was.... something Apollo wouldn't allow.

Clapping his hands once, Apollo woke up the girls from their frozen state.

"Our objective lies over there! We can send off the dead later, but first we got a mission to complete! Move out!"

"""Yes, Sir!"""