It was the largest conflict between the humans and the spirits that ever occurred. It was much like total war. There were fronts and there were capitals, though most of the spirits didn't care to do such a thing. Kept to their wandering selves, they roamed wherever they pleased only to join with others once a front was established. The priests headed the forces on the human's side, fighting as close to equal terms with the spirits as they could, and helping the other humans survive on the field of battle. Simple yet deep hatreds turned to the mindless violence in all of the conflicts, and the mindless violence turned into slaughter, more often of humans than of spirits.
The fighting went on for many days, weeks even, with only an end covered with the blood of hundreds from both sides in sight. Though even through this all, all of the blood and pain, killing and dying, day after day, there was one scene that stood out. It was a terrible time for the conflict, and many of the shrine priests that started in the war had been defeated at this point; the spirits were taking their place on the winning side of the conflict, and the remainder of the humans from the conflict all converged to protect what was their final front. In this intense and chaotic battle, the scene formed out of the calamity.
The last three priests took the humans straight to the fight, and the spirits met them with great opposition. Divine power met the spirit's own energy and the human's weapons met the spirit's flesh, and likewise, in a beautiful mess of destruction and death that dissolved a part of the forest into a large opening of scorched and turned dirt stained with blood. Two humans helped from just beyond the clearing to aid those injured and dying, but their efforts could not save more than those condemned, and the bodies were only increasing. The insanity of the conflict seemed to only speed up the destruction of their side as they tried their best to eliminate the other. And through this all, one scene preceded them in seeming importance:
A man, who before had never been in a battle between the two sides, throwing away his own importance and safety, and caressing a spirit who had been injured on the field. They were on a slight incline, and in front of one of the last smoldering ruins of a tree; the man holding the spirit in his arms and crying painful and loud tears of anguish. Many from both sides who saw this spectacle stopped and beheld them. A human and a spirit, a man and a woman, both hurt and bleeding, holding each other in a passionate embrace: the man crying as the spirit, with a similar expression of anguish, tried to hold their soul within their body. Never before had a scene like this come to pass, and no tears were ever shed for one side about the other until now.
The man buried his face in the shoulder of the spirit and continued to cry, even as the battle began to halt due to his wails. His crying did not stop until the conflict had entirely stopped; every human and spirit standing still to watch. Through the new silence that had just come, and the anger and evil that had just passed, one phrase could be heard through it all, and seemed to echo through the soul of everyone who was there: "I love you."
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