AN: Hope you guys enjoy! Although I am a little worried you guys might not like it. But here we are!


Chapter 8
Battle for Italica

In the realm of the gods, all the known gods of Falmart are joined together in a dark and starry place. Hardy stands at the center of this realm with the moon under her where she stands. The other gods are sitting in shadows with their true forms hidden from sight. (Because I can't find any information on what they look like. If you guys can, please let me know.) On the higher level of this plane, the gods interrogate Hardy for what has happened.

Hardy, bitter and somewhat angry, wants to know what is going on. "Why have you summoned me?" she addresses the other gods in a bitter, harsh tone.

"You know why we called you." says Palapon, god of vengeance. "You have unleashed your demons upon the mortal plane." His voice is just as harsh as Hardy.

"I did no such thing!" Hardy yells at the vengeance god.

"Then what of the rumors?" says Deldort, god of covenants. "We heard rumors from the mortals that some of the female slaves offered themselves to be your wives in exchange for ending slavery in the Saderan Empire. Are they true?"

"Again, I did no such thing!" Hardy yells at the covenant god.

"Why should we care?" Emroy, god of vengeance, darkness, death, violence, and insanity. He doesn't care about it because he enjoys the violence that is happening. "I enjoy what those demons causing such acts." There was the sound of pleasure in his voice, "I do love the way they dispatched the slave masters with such brutality."

The gods show pictures of the killed and disposed slave masters and those who supported slavery. The pictures show the heads of slavers on spikes on the roofs of buildings along with entrails being used as streamers. There are a few corpses that had the stomachs of other victims around them since the acid from them ate away most of the flesh. Yet some are used to fill wells to poison them. Some of the contents of the bowels of the victims are used to 'decorate' a slave master's home in slaver trade towns. Lets just say that they never smelled better.

Because of this, many of these towns have been abandoned and the people scattered across the continent in fear of being killed, tortured, or eaten by the demons. They also show a picture of a female demon in all red and scantly clad while holding her axe/spear weapon. Hardy takes a closer look at the picture and takes an interest.

"Hmm." she went. "I don't know who she is, but she is quite lovely." He stares intimately at the angry demon lord of wrath while smacking her lips.

"HARDY!" Zufmuut, god of light and order, snaps Hardy out of it. "Care to explain on what is going on?"

"I think I can answer." Wareharun, god of trees and forests, cares to explain on what is happening. He showed them events that has happened to reveal Aaron van Dyke, armed with his Nephalem Blade, charging into the armies of the empire while maintaining his god powers. "This man here, is the reason for what is happening."

"Oh my." Emroy says with interest. "Such brutality, such violence and destruction. Ooohhh, what I wouldn't give to have someone like him as an apostle!"

"Not to mention handsome." says Miritta, goddess of fertility and birth, who has also taken an interest in Aaron. "What I wouldn't give to be in bed with him, I mean, have as an apostle."

"Not to mention the blade he is carrying." Duncan, god of smithing, who has taken an interest in Aaron's sword. "I have never seen such craftsmanship. I wonder what kind of metal the blade is made of."

"This man is sort of a god." Wareharun stated. "A god from one of the gates, Hardy here, created. This man washed away the poison wells with floods, grew new forests, and has started freeing slaves with demons. This god from another realm is using demons to liberate all slaves while having Hardy take the fall. For the meantime, we should keep an eye on him. Intervene only when necessary."

"But I will do something about this." Hardy says to the others. "No one uses my name to kill slave masters and gets away with it."


At the trade town of Italica, Piña and three of her knights are helping the town from an army of bandits. These bandits were actually part of the allied kingdoms that have survived the onslaught of the JSDF of Alnus Hill. Some of those members were part of the colonial army that managed to get away from Aaron's slaughter and escaped their deaths. Less than 1% of that army survived and joined the bandits after avoiding the many eyes that were hidden and traps that were concealed. But they will arrive later.

Many of the bandits do their best to tear down one of the gates and have succeeded. The southern gate has been broken down and many bandits try to raid, pillage, plunder, and rape all in sight. But the guards of Italica of Clan Formal being lead by Princess Piña Co Lada and her knights. The gate has fallen but have prepared wooden fences to slow them down.

"Hold fast!" Piña shouted at the guards, "We will live through this day!" She tries to inspire the troops as they are doing their best to repel them with volleys of arrows and siege cauldrons.

They did, and the bandits' morale has been broken.

"Dammit!" the bandit leader says to himself. "Fall back and regroup!" Once he gave that order, the bandits retreated into the wilds and prepare for another assault once they have planned it out.

When the fight was over, the guards take time to relieve because they are not only stretched thin, they are tired after continually repelling each and every bandit attack. The princess check if everyone is alright. "Norma! Hamilton! Are you alright?!"

Norma and Hamilton are catching their breath with Norma leaning against his sword and Hamilton on the ground. "We're okay!" Norma shouted to the princess as she comes down the stairs made of cobblestone to the wall.

"What about me?!" Grey, the veteran of Piña's knights, "That's pretty cold!"

Piña talks to Grey as she reaches the bottom steps, "Grey. Of course, you will be alright. That's why I didn't ask you."

Grey laughs as he have his sword on his shoulder. "Geez, princess! Should I be happy or sad about that." Since Piña's knights are mostly noble ladies with little to no combat experiences, veterans are the real core of her unit.

With the battle over, the princess marches up a set of stairs to the villa in anger about what is happening with Hamilton following her.

"Your majesty," Hamilton began to speak in a curious tone, "may I ask why did we come all the way to defeat a bunch of bloodthirsty bandits?"

Piña scoffs at Hamilton's question. So she turns around and answers, "We didn't have a choice!" Some of the armed and tired townsfolk heard the princess. "They raised the alarm, let everyone know that there are strong forces besieging the walls! I thought it was one of the two armies from another world! But it wasn't. We rushed to their defense, and what did we find? Soldiers from other kingdoms and colonies go rogue!" Piña is disgusted on how loyal soldiers turn into bandits.

She gritted her teeth at such a thing before addressing the people near her. "Listen to me!" she cried out, "You don't have time to be lying about! The bandits will be coming back so bury the bodies and repair the walls! The Rose-Order of Knights will be coming to avenge the fallen within three days! Three days until they arrive!" It did give the militia hope, but they are afraid that the town will be overrun with marauders before they arrive.


At Countess Formal's home, the princess took her seat on a dusty burgundy couch and sighs in exhaustion.

"Your highness." says the butler, Bartholomew.

"What is it?" she asks as she is about to drink some wine from a goblet. "Do you want to surrender?"

"Of course not." he responded, "I'm hoping there is a way to settle this without boodshed."

"There is. Let them in the gates. They will pillage all the homes, shackle your men, and rape all your women. How's that your peace?"

"That sound facetious."

"I'm only making a point." she then drinks from her goblet. Kaine, the head maid, gives the tired princess something to eat.

"I hope you enjoy." she says as she sets the tray.

"Thank you." then Piña takes a bite and notices that it isn't really good. "It lakes in flavor and sufficiency."

"Forgive me, but if one is physically spent, eating rich foods would way the body down." She knows what she is talking about. Because she has some experience with this sort of thing before when the count was alive.

"Really? Have you gone through something like this before?" the princess asked.

"Indeed. I am from the city of Rosa. Which is now a loyal part of the empire."

Piña doesn't feel right about that. The part about Rosa been forcefully invaded thirty years ago. But Kaine does have a point in this matter. "Very well."

After eating her meal she got up from her seat and informs the two servants, "I'll be resting in your guest room. Bring me any urgent messages right away." Then starts walking out of the room.

"Yes, your majesty." the head maid says to the princess.

Before she walks out, the princess turns her head to the head maid, "Oh, and um, what would you do if I refuse to wake-up?"

The head maid smile back, "I would dump cold water on you, if it comes to that."

"Very well then."

Piña rests in the guest chamber and worries for the town folk. None of them are true soldiers and are holding on by a thread. She knows how pathetic her situation is right before falling asleep. In her sleep, she dreamed about her life. More like going through some memories in her sleep. When she was a child, she wanted to be a warrior along with some of her friends. So Grey became the little ladies' drill sergeant. Many nobles laugh or giggle at how hard they work along with Hamilton's clumsiness. Sometime later, her father notices how hard she has worked. But end up being honor guard over and over again at parades. It keeps going until she was given the assignment to investigate Alnus Hill.

But she was awoken by a splash of ice water by the head maid.

"My lady." she says as the princess is getting up. "We have a bit of a situation."

"Are we under attack?!" Piña says as she is worried about the bandits.

"Actually, that's not it."


Near a wooden door, close to the town gate, three vehicles are parked outside the town. Piña, Grey, and Hamilton look through the slotted peephole and see the strange green contraptions outside.

"What are those?" Piña questions as she looks at the strange vehicles. "A horseless carriage? What kind of magic allows such a thing?"

"For such a means of transport, I don't think they are bandits." says Grey. "If they were, they would've attacked by now."

"But how can we know for certain?" Hamilton has some doubts. "These are strangers from who knows where."

From one of the towers of the wall, Norma shouts at the three strange vehicles. "Identify yourself! If you're not our enemy, come out in the open now!"

When the door to one of the LAV's is open, Lelei steps out. Once Piña gets a glance of Lelei's staff, she knows what it is.

"I know that staff." she whispers. "Only a linden wizard can wield it."

Then Tuka steps out of the vehicle next which took them by surprise.

"And an elf?" she continues to whisper as Hamilton is shocked. "If they combine their powers, it could end up being a serious problem."

The next person that came out next really took them by surprise as they gasps at the next passenger to come out.

"Rory Mercury is with them?!"

Grey then takes a closer look. "Rory the Reaper. Definitely not good. Why would an apostle of Emroy join this band of brigands?"

"It wouldn't really surprise me much." Piña says as Grey just went, "What?"

"The gods' will seems to be absolutely whimsy sometimes." Piña has no faith in any god whatsoever. So she doesn't care much about them.

"I wouldn't say that around her, my lady." Grey warns her about insulting an apostle and their gods. Especially if they are Emroy's.

"Perhaps. But even the gods-" SLAM!

The next figure to come out really did take them by surprise was a man clad in black armor with a dragon-shape helmet along with two blue plumes from the horns and a giant blue sword. Itami then steps out a few seconds later.

"What the-?" the three say in unison as they see this black armored figure and his massive sword.

"What the hell is that?!" Grey says to them. In all his life as a knight and soldier, he has never seen anything like that in his life. "Just who is that?!"

Piña and Hamilton then remember something from Melisa at a village inn. She described the knight has black as midnight against the new moon while holding a blue sword that is blue and wavy as the sea.

"By the gods..." Piña says as her eyes glisten with hope. "...It's him. The knight that fought the flame dragon."

"But how can you be so sure?" Hamilton says to the princess. "How do we know he fought the flame dragon?"

"Take a look at his neck." Grey says to the two. They look at Stennis' neck and see a necklace made of red scales. That proves that he did fought it and is alive today.

"Then it's settled." Piña opened the door while saying, "Hello friends!" But she didn't realize that she hit Itami with it as he was gonna knock on the door. "That was my bad, wasn't it?" she says in embarrassment. The others just nodded at her.


After that embarrassing display, Piña introduces the 3rd Recon Team to the 11-year-old countess, Myui Formal. She explains her circumstances about her sisters, the siege, and so on. So the 3rd Recon Team is tasked to help despite Itami's superiors chewing his ass about being somewhere else while he is supposed to report to the Diet of Japan to the senate. The 3rd Recon along with Lelei, Tuka, Rory, and Stennis guard the south entrance that has been raided before so they guard it with their rifles. But Itami has requested the 4th Combat Unit for assistance...So did Stennis with the Brotherhood of Steel in secret. But enough about exposition, let's get to the real reason why everyone is reading this. Since we all have seen the anime and read the manga after all.

(Although now I'm starting to worry that my fans are bloodthirsty psychos or something.)

Instead of the bandits attacking the south gate, the east gate is under siege. Flame arrows have targeted Norma's position while he yells, "Here it comes!"

The archers and crossbowmen take cover as the arrows start setting things on fire.

"Archers!" Norma yells, "Counter volley!" But the bandits took a tortoise shell defense with their shields as they approach the gate with their ladders.

"Get a message to the princess! We made contact with the enemy at the eastern wall!"

At Piña's position, she heard the message and is shocked to hear the news. "The enemy is at the east gate!"

Over at the south gate, "Why way over there!" Rory complained. "We're supposed to fight them over here!" Then she starts to pout.

Takeo then looks at his watch, "I got 3-11. They couldn't timed that any better." Rory then slams the end of her weapon out of frustration.

"Those bandits were regular army." Soichiro stated. "They know a thing or two about military strategy."

"I'm going." Stennis says as he unsheath his sword.

"Hold on a minute!" Itami shouts at Stennis. "They haven't send word that they need help!"

"Fuck that!" he responded, "I'm going!" Then he runs off as fast as he could. He isn't gonna sit by while people are getting killed.

"Hey wait!" Itami tries to reach out, but he was moving too fast for him to grab after he just jump off the wall and head straight for the conflict.

"Hey." Soichiro says to Itami. "Do you think the guy was lying about being from Essos. Because I have read the books and there were only three dragons in the story and Dorne doesn't have sand dragons. Plus Essos is a continent just east of Westeros where Dorn is."

"To be honest, old school," he looks back and talks to his second-in-command, "I have no idea. I mean a space empire? A bit farfetched, but we honestly have no idea about that man or the other side of his gate after all."

Takeo then says, "I wonder if there are any alien cat-girls where he is from."

Everyone looked at the otaku and go, "Seriously?! Is that all you can think about!?"

Back at the east gate, Norma tells the archers to shoot at the men climbing the walls but the arrows were intercepted by a strong gust of wind. He looked out and sees Muty, the siren, using magic. "It's a magic-user!" he says after realizing that they are screwed.

But a man with an axe goes, "I got this!" He chopped the ladder and caused it to fall down. But an archer shot him dead after that.

They climbed the wall and started slaughtering the militia and try their best against Norma. Many, however, died by his sword with smiles on their faces.

"Did they want to die in a meaningless battle?" he says to himself.

Somewhere else, the princess along with Hamilton and Grey ran all the way to the east gate and see the flames, bloodshed, and death being caused at the top of the wall. For the first time in her life, she sees war. She watches in horror as Norma gets stabbed a bunch of time and two bandits open the gate. As they get the gate open, Stennis arrives and killed a few bandits that made it in with ease. As they stopped at the gate, they see the black armored figure with a body of their comrade skewered by it.

Stennis throws the dead body at them that knock a few back. Then he raises his sword and flames gather around the blade to turn from red to blue. Stennis then slams the blade into the ground and created a large wall of blue fire between the militia and the bandits. The bandits are a little freaked out along with Piña and everyone else.

"If you want to raid this town, you'll have to go through me!" he says as he pointed his thumb at himself. He then takes a battle stance with his sword, "Now stand and fight!"

One of the original seven survivors is there and sees the black figure. He then starts to have flashbacks about what happened to him on Ares. Flashes of death, daemons, bullets, and all sorts of things he cannot explain. What happens next is he became delusional as he hallucinated a Necron warrior standing before him rather than the black-armored man. He screamed and tries to escape until one of the men kills him for cowardice.

Then the rest of the bandits show up. Less than 500 from the destroyed colonial forces have joined the fray. So now, the 800 bandits that were attacking Italica have become a fighting force over under 1,300.


At the JSDF Base, Hazama addresses the troops about the situation in Italica and the 3rd Recon.

"Alright listen up!" Hazama addresses the troops in military fashion. "The situation in Italica is critical. The 3rd Recon Team is helping the local militia against an army of bandits roughly around a thousand. They can't hold out for long so we need to strike immediately."

"Sir, allow me to send in the 1st Combat Unit." Col. Naoki Kamo volunteers. "We would use our firepower against these bandits and-"

"That will take too long." the general pointed out. "They need support now. The 4th Combat Unit will use their helicopters since they are the fastest."

"We will have our fly boys ready." Lt. Col. Shunya Kengun addresses the general. "We'll have amplifiers and speakers at ready so we can play Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries."

"Good choice." Col. Kamo commented.

"It seems appropriate for our helicopters."

Before the general can have the troops sound off and attack the bandits, Akira has something urgent to tell him.

"Sir!" he saluted after running up to him. "We have received a radio transmission from Romalia! They requested that we do a joint-operations with us!"

"Say what?" the general responded after hearing the news. "Romalia has requested a joint-op?"

"Yes, sir!" Akira confirms the news, "They have vertibirds ready as soon as we get our birds in the air. However, they want to use our speakers."

"Very well!" Hazama says with a smug, "This will be a good time to see how their forces operate."

With Hazama agreeing with the terms, the troops have set off and make haste to Italica.


Back at the battle, Rory Mercury has joined the fray and fights beside Stennis. The blue fires are still burning, but they are getting shorter and shorter.

"Oh crap!" says one of the bandits, shitting himself. "It's Rory the Reaper! Emroy's apostle!"

Then Rory killed one of the largest bandits with a single swipe of her axe.

"Defensive formation!" the leader ordered.

Some of the troops taken on the tortoise shell defense as Rory quickly dashed towards them. When she got too close, some of the men try to kill her with their spears. But she jumped up into the air and dodged them. Then she swings her axe from her side and broke down the defense. The bandits fell like dominoes as she knocks them all down with great force.

But the flames that acted as a barrier between the citizens and the bandits have died out. What happens next is Shino Kuribayashi charging in with her rifle with a bayonet attachment. She stabbed and shot down a few of the bandits. Yet her firearm has been, unusable after a certain part of it has been sliced by a sword. But she can still use her bayonet and pistol. All three of them got each others backs as they continue to kill all bandits that are coming through.

"Man, they are way into it." Itami says as he is about ready to take a shot.

"What do we do?" Akira asked while loading his gun.

"Just cover their flanks." Itami orders. They then start firing at the bandits that were trying to flank the three or some at the gate.


On the way to Italica, JSDF helicopters (which are 4 AH-1S Cobra Attacks, 10 UH-1 Iroquios Utilities, and 1 Kawasaki OH-1) are flying in the air with the sun rising along with 10 vertibirds coming in.

"Howdy, boys!" a female voice says from one of the vertibirds. "This is Foxtrot-8-9. Glad we can hook up like this."

"Roger that, Foxtrot-8-9." says one of the male pilots in the helicopters. "That is a sweet voice you got there little lady. Guess you took a Japanese language coarse before coming in."

"You flatterer! But since we're traveling together, let's play some tunes."

Music came from not only the speakers from the vertibirds, but also the helicopters as well. The song they are playing is Highway to the Danger Zone by Kenny Loggins.

"Are you serious, Foxtrot?" the pilot says as he is unsure about the song.

"Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries is overused along with Creedance Clearwater's Fortunate Son. Since we are heading to the DANGER ZONE, we thought this would be appropriate."

"Well can't argue with that logic."

One of the gunners of the AH-1S Cobras sees a gunner of one of the vertibirds with a gaping smile while waving excitingly. The gunner on the Cobra just look dumbfounded and wave at the other gunner slowly.


"All forces, charge!" the bandit leader orders, hoping to overrun the opposition. But before they do, they hear music coming from the skies. Everyone looked up and see large machines flying in the air.

"What the hell are those?" one of the bandits say as the music changes from Highway to the Danger Zone by Kenny Loggins to Forces God Hand Mix by Susumu Hirasawa.

"Alrighty boys! Your time to shine! We'll handle the forces at the gate to minimize the damage. You get the stragglers outside."

"Roger that, Foxtrot. Wilco."

A Brotherhood of Steel knight in power armor gave an order to a mysterious figure. "Go for it!"

The figure jumped out of the vertibird and he is revealed to be wearing a jagged and somewhat spiky black armor with a wolf helmet that has metal teeth and red eyes. The figure is also carrying a giant sword that is roughly six feet and six inches tall and is made of pure iron. The teeth of the wolf helmet roared at the bandits. Guts from Berserk has entered the battle.

"The fuck is that?!" says the panicking bandit.

"It's a monster!" says the other bandit.

Guts, in berserker mode, pulls out his sword and starts chopping up all the bandits with Dragonslayer. Many of them screamed and wailed as they get killed, nay, slaughtered by the berserker.

On the vertibird, "Beachhead secured. Go, go, go!"

Many Brotherhood of Steel knights jumped out of the vertibirds armed with laser rifles and miniguns that took out most of the bandits with explosive vents while some use jet packs to get on the wall to kill the bandits arming the ballista. The JSDF continue to fire down on the bandits with their vulcan cannons and some of the riflemen taking a few shots.

Guts got hit in the arm by a bandit armed with a warhammer that twisted his arm. The bandit smiled as he manages to break Guts' arm. But that smile got turned upside down when Guts' armor twisted and mending it back to the way it was. It didn't heal Guts, but lets him use his arm again. With that, he sliced the bandit in half. From his head to his crotch with organs coming out and some of the bones sticking out.

Some of the bandits have try to retreat from the carnage in Italica, but are intercepted by nine riders. Eight of them wear black cloaks and hoods that cover their faces. They also appear to be wearing armor on their hands as they hold the reins of their black horses with red eyes and are wearing armor. They are the Nazgûl. Ringwraiths. Their very presence are sending shiver down their spines. But the ninth rider isn't a Nazgûl, nor the Witch-King of Angmar for that matter. He is far worse than them.

This rider mount is a horse with flesh being rotten away and emitting green flames. The rider himself has skin as pale as winter; long dark purple hair; wearing armor of gold, purple, and black like a necromancer with his chest and shoulders exposed while his face is covered by a white mask with a skull like appearance. Yet the only thing that can be seen of his face is his orange-red eyes glowing through the eye-holes. Death of the Four Horsemen from Darksiders 2 has arrived with eight ringwraiths at his side.

The bandits just stood there, horrified, at what is before them. Death pulls out his scythes and the Nazgûls pull out their blades and charge right at them with their horses. Some of the bandits scattered while some just stood there, embracing their fate that is charging right at them. Death swung his scythe at the bandit's head. Decapitating it as it falls down to the ground along with the headless body.

Some of the bandits try to escape from the knights, the riders, and the helicopters. But ended up getting surrounded by all forces. Some of the Brotherhood of Steel warriors manage to disintegrate some of the bandits with their laser rifles and some with miniguns give the bandits 'more holes than swiss cheese.' One of these soldiers grabbed a bandit by the head and used a ripper to slit the bandit's throat in a slow and painful fashion.

Back inside Italica, a bandit leader has been knocked off the wall by a fragmentation grenade and into the ground. Rather than accidentally getting killed by Rory's axe. The JSDF continues to mop up the rest of the bandits with their vulcan guns, riflemen, and a few grenades and missiles. Guts continue to chase after some of the male bandits that are trying to flee.

When he got to them, he started chopping off their legs before proceeding to take their heads. Around fifteen men got chopped in half around the waists sometime after. He proceeds to chop off the head of another bandit and keeps on chopping up any bandits that gets in his way.

The bandit leader tries to crawl away but Rory and Stennis stopped him. The bandit rolled over, revealing a few stones that got embedded into his left cheek and his knee bone sticking out.

"I am...not...beaten. This isn't...a real battle." the bandit leader says in a low raspy voice as he is severely injured. "Oracle." he reaches out to Rory. "They have no honor. They have no...honor...Oracle. You know...this to be true."

Stennis stands above the leader while saying, "You know, the Otomo Clan thought weapons such as those are dishonorable. But then they realize something: Victory washes away dishonor."

The bandit leader's eyes widen as Stennis plunges his sword into the bandit's body and killed him. Thus the bandits surrendered and are rounded up. Guts ran off to the direction of Romalia while Death and the ringwraiths disappeared from sight.

On one of the castle walls, Piña and Hamilton looked at the cobra with total shock on their faces.

"It's a monster." Hamilton says as she continues to stare at the flying machine that is armed to the teeth.

"What have the empire declared war on?" the princess says as she sees the attack helicopter flying about along with the vertibirds and other helicopters.


Somewhere else, in the wildlands, Tyule and Noriko continue to travel along with many refugees which included the people that are originally from Ginza. They now travel through the mountains with the female night elf huntress leading the way. On the way to Romalia, Noriko dropped to her knees from exhaustion through the long distance.

"Hold up!" Tyule says to the night elf as she runs up to help Noriko. She pulled out a waterskin and gave her some of her water.

After drinking it, Noriko says, "Thank you." in a weak tone. Tyule couldn't understand, but she knows what Noriko is saying. The woman is exhausted from traveling so far. The last checkpoint to reach the farming town of Bloodsoil is a little farther than the third checkpoint. Noriko is a city girl which means that she usually relies on trains, taxies, buses, and other means of transport. So walking for miles on foot is pretty rough on her.

Tyule puts Noriko's arm on her shoulders and lifts her back up. She helps walk Noriko towards the other refugees as they also come over to help her out. One of the Japanese men gives her a piggy-back ride and rejoins the group. Sometime later, they arrive at the final checkpoint. There are some people around, hobbits mostly, as they farm along with building a few log cabins. The traveling refugees draw water from the healing spring and take a break before they head out on the long road to Romalia.

As they take a break, Tyule wondered into the woods. The ents, spiders, walking trees in hiding, and many other guardians of the woods didn't bother her due to orders. She decided to break away to find some peace and quiet. Although, she feels bad about leaving Noriko, but she is in good hands and the poor thing is tired. While walking through the forest, she stumbles upon a ruin of a burnt village near the edge.

"What happened here?" she asked herself when seeing a few burnt houses that are now covered in vines.

Some pieces of the burnt wood have fungus growing on it as well as flowers growing in the ashes. Then she heard yelling and metal clashing not too far from where she is at. It sounds like a battle. Tyule follows the sound at the edge of the forest to see what is causing it. Tyule crawls through the underbrush and peeks out and sees something that is old yet new to her.

There is a 'hole' in the mist, she sees a battle in front of her. The Beastmen patrols are fighting against Zorzal's Oprichina, the prince's secret police. They were trying to track down Zorzal's freed slaves until they come across the concealing mist. A mage of this secret police opens a hole through it and revealed the Beastmen who were on patrol.

50 men and 30 auxiliaries against a force of a 100 monsters. Tyule witnessed a goblin being ripped open by a Beastman by simply pulling the little goblin's limbs then started eating the innards. A Beastlord took two human soldiers and bashed their heads together into a bloody mess. An Ungor ripped a man's head off and started feasting from the freshly ripped neck. A Gor Beastman, with his two axes, spins around a few auxiliaries like a whirlwind that almost chopped off all their limbs. Some of them are still attached to the body by some strips of skin or muscles.

Some Centigors trampled over some of their opposition with their hooves while swinging their great swords or great axes. Tyule witnessed the bloodshed of the empire's forces and smiles. She is smiling because the empire gets what they deserved. It is frightening, but she enjoys it. Tyule has suffered the humiliation and cruel treatment by Zorzal after her people were defeated. She surrendered to ensure her people's survival, but Zorzal broke that promise.

As she witnessed a fascinating sight, she was interrupted when the night elf huntress pulls her legs. Tyule grabbed a stick and about ready to strike, but the night elf stopped her. After realizing that it is the night elf, she dropped the stick.

"Time to leave." she says to the pink bunny girl.


Back in Italica, many gave the last rites to those who have died in defending the town. Even Norma, with an imperial flag and sword on his coffin, given by the princess herself and says farewell.

Once that is finished; Princess Piña Co Lada, 1st Lieutenant Yoji Itami, Countess Myui Formal, Lelei la Lalena and Stennis Markov are waiting in the sitting room to meet the governor of Romalia.

"Soooo," Itami says as he sits patiently while tapping his foot, "who is this governor, Stennis?"

Stennis leans against the wall with his helmet off, "Someone from the Feudal Systems like me. But whatever you do, don't call him imp or say anything about his size."

"Is he a goblin?" Lelei asked.

"Not exactly."

A bunch of Brotherhood of Steel soldiers came through the door with one of them saying, "Attention!" They line up at both sides in attention as the governor, Tyrion Lannister, enters the room.

"A dwarf?" Piña says to herself in disbelief as Tyrion walks in.

'That's the governor?' Itami thought. 'Should've known.'

"Right!" Tyrion claps his hands and rubs them. "Let's start the negotiations, shall we?"