CHAPTER 9:
CURBSTOMPING CORNELIA
CC watched as a rather vicious grin crept over Lelouch's features as he put down the phone, after getting contacted by Gottwald. "You know it's a trap, boy."
"This is no trap. This, my dear CC, is an invitation, gilt-edged."
CC snorted. In a perverse way, the reincarnated MMORPG player was correct. Cornelia was inviting him to try and stop her the same way he did Clovis. "An invitation to your being captured by Cornelia," she snarked.
Lelouch merely smirked even more widely. "Perhaps. But I won't give her the satisfaction. Thanks to Gottwald and Nu, I know she intends to re-enact the Shinjuku Massacre later today in Saitama. And that means murdering the civilians. I will not countenance that. While it is no skin off my nose if the Yamato Alliance dies off, given what Kallen has told me about them, the inhabitants of Saitama are another matter. Which is why I intend to send a communication to her. And Cornelia, under the right circumstances, is easily goaded. I can divert her away from Saitama, as well as hand her a humiliating defeat."
"Humiliating?" Lelouch had a plan, it seemed.
"Tell me…what is the advantage of Britannia in warfare? Its best weapon is the Knightmare Frame. But what if someone not even in one was able to defeat and destroy one? Especially a Gloucester?" Lelouch's smirk was a thing of nightmares. "Demiurge, at my request, has been doing experiments with Knightmare weaponry, using them on Cecile and Suzaku. They volunteered, before you ask. Cecile, being Yuri Alpha of the Pleiades, is only mildly injured by such weapons. And in Yggdrasil, she was a Level 51 character. Suzaku was wholly uninjured. Which means that even the Pleiades can withstand attacks from a Knightmare's weapons, or at least those of the generation before the Lancelot. Oh, they will be injured, but most people would die. And that's if they stand still long enough to be attacked. Knightmares are not exactly designed to fight human targets. Or at least human-sized ones."
"I get your plan. You intend to take some of the NPCs and bait Cornelia into fighting them in lieu of her massacre," CC said.
"Of course. Of the Pleiades, I can only take Narberal, that is, Sayoko, but she would be enough. Shirley, or rather, Solution is better suited as an assassin, I am uneasy about bringing Nunnally into combat, especially so soon after her legs were healed, and the other Pleiades will be missed. Of the Floor Guardians, I intend to take Kallen, Rivalz, Nina and Milly, which is to say Albedo, Aura, Mare and Shalltear respectively. I will have Kallen and Milly disguise themselves with armour. Aura and Mare can change between their Dark Elf forms, but I will also give them dark glasses or goggles. Their mismatched eyes have appeared on their human forms, and I don't want anyone to identify them."
"And what if Cornelia doesn't take your own invitation?" CC asked.
"Oh, in all likelihood, she will. One thing we both share is our pride. As long as I let her dictate the battlefield, allowing her to believe she has an advantage, I believe she will. I also intend to make this a mostly physical combat battle. Any magic we use, I intend to pass off as experimental weapons, as long as I can make it plausible. The Britannians, and indeed the other vultures in China and Europe, would become too interested, otherwise. Not to mention that too much overwhelming power may lead to an escalation that we can't afford. No, this is meant to humble Cornelia, as well as wreck millions of pounds of materiel. I will have to wait for a better opportunity to interrogate her about any role she had in my mother's death."
CC nodded. She actually knew pretty much what had happened. Marianne herself told her. CC knew she was being scrutinised by Nazarick's NPCs, perhaps even spied upon, so any conversations she had with Lelouch's mother were kept silent. Eventually, she decided to break the connection she had with Marianne shortly after Lelouch learned of BubblingTeapot, aka Euphemia, being in this world. It would send a message to Charles, given Charles' complicity in keeping CC locked up and experimented on by Clovis' people. It was also a message to VV and Marianne.
Namely, You done goofed.
It didn't mean that it was safe to tell Lelouch about the conspiracy around Charles and VV, though. Charles doubtless had ears in other places, and Lelouch may take action in a way that might endanger him, and CC didn't want him dead. Though she would tell him about Charles' Geass, and how it had probably been used to seal off Nunnally's eyesight.
CC frowned. Lelouch had discussed things with the denizens of Nazarick. All of them were long-lived beings, if not immortal, and they were wondering whether the same applied to their human forms. If that was true…then CC may not have to go to the trouble of cultivating Lelouch until he could take her Code. In fact, if he and his comrades were…amenable, she might actually grow to like them enough to eschew that, and merely spend as long as she could with them.
And if it meant helping them take over the world? Well, maybe it would be fun, especially against the likes of Britannia. CC had loosened morals thanks to her immortality, and if Lelouch said he was going to avoid targeting innocents where possible…well, it was childish to think he'd avoid them completely, but he at least intended to. Plus, there was some part of CC, the part that was still a little French girl called Cera, that loved fireworks…
Lelouch smirked as he set up the transmission, dressed in his costume as Zero. Thanks to Jeremiah, he now had a direct line to Cornelia. He was currently seated on the throne in Nazarick as the camera and screen, kept in the air by magic, faced him. Kallen and Milly, in their full armour as Albedo and Shalltear, flanked him. And then, the harsh but beautiful face of Cornelia appeared on screen. "Who is this?! I…Zero."
"My, my, Cornelia. You should consider some therapy. Frown too much, and you'll age your face. As for any self-righteous rant you have pent up about avenging your half-brother, save it. He murdered innocent people in Shinjuku, Japanese and Britannians alike. He was a rabid dog I had to put down. If it weren't for my catching wind of your plans in Saitama and arranging this little chinwag, I would ensure that you followed him to Hell for targeting the citizens there. All you had to do was ask, and I would come. I mean, I presume that's why you were going to target Saitama, to lure me out of hiding, hmm? So, I have an offer for you."
"I do not negotiate with terrorists."
"Oh? Well, you misunderstand me. This is not a negotiation, but an ultimatum. I will willingly come to a battlefield of your choosing in the vicinity of Saitama, providing it is well away from the civilian populace. There, my chosen champions will fight your army…and just to sweeten the deal, they will not be riding Knightmare Frames. You can even sweep the battlefield beforehand to ensure that I have not trapped it. Should you refuse, I will come to you and do unto you what I did to Clovis, and there would not be a damned thing that you nor your Knights would be able to do about it. Not Darlton, not Guilford, and not yourself. Ainz Ooal Gown champions those who cannot protect themselves, regardless of whether they are Britannian or not. It is one thing to kill a military opponent, but another entirely to bring in innocent civilians just to achieve your goal. Your choice, Cornelia. Or are you devoid of honour? Then, Cornelia li Britannia, Second Princess of the Britannian Empire, I am calling you out as a base coward."
Cornelia gritted her teeth, before she muted the sound. She began talking to her advisors, the scarred Darlton and the bespectacled Guilford. Eventually, the three of them seemed to come to an agreement. Cornelia reactivated the sound. "Then we will meet you on the fields of battle, Zero, though you are ill-suited to speak of cowardice and honour." She then rattled off a location to the east of the city. One of many relatively level fields on the Kanto Plain.
Lelouch smiled behind his mask. "Thank you. Personally, it's no skin off my nose if you targeted the Yamato Alliance branch there. It's the civilians I worry about. Still…be seeing you." And with that, he shut off the feed. "Kallen, Milly, Rivalz, Nina, and Sayoko…prepare to move out. It is time for Britannia to witness how truly outmatched they are by Ainz Ooal Gown…"
They waited until Cornelia had arrived at the location, a mobile command base, with many Knightmares (Sutherlands and Gloucesters) present, along with VTOLs, soldiers, and tanks. Lelouch noted that Cornelia had chosen the location rather interestingly. The terrain was flat with little place to hide, and while it didn't give her a tactical advantage per se, there were few places to hide troops or traps. Cornelia, if he recalled what he had read about her campaigns correctly, was more of a specialist in open warfare, not urban warfare. It didn't mean she was incompetent in the latter by any means, only that she was more at ease in wild terrain. She had been fighting in the Middle East shortly before coming to Britannia.
Lelouch then used a Gate to appear in front of them. He wanted to avoid using magic where possible to try and confuse the enemy. That being said, he had everyone use as many buffs as possible, especially on Sayoko, who, as Narberal, was the weakest of those present.
He was glad he had installed a form of loudspeaker spell shortly before he rescued Suzaku. He activated it, and called out, "WE ARE HERE, CORNELIA LI BRITANNIA!"
One of the Knightmares activated its loudspeaker system. The voice was clearly not Cornelia's. "HA! YOU MUST BE SUICIDALLY OVERCONFIDENT TO CONFRONT US WITH ONLY FIVE PEOPLE INCLUDING YOURSELF! YOU'VE GOT GUTS, I'LL GIVE YOU THAT, BUT I'D SUGGEST SURRENDERING."
"NO. BUT I SUGGEST WHIMPERING IN A CORNER, PISSING YOURSELF, AND PRAYING TO YOUR IMPOTENT GOD, THOUGH I DOUBT HE OR SHE WOULD BE LISTENING," Lelouch retorted(1). "I WILL KEEP THE DEATHS HERE TO A MINIMUM, CORNELIA. HOWEVER, YOU ARE GOING TO LOSE A LOT OF MATERIEL FOR ATTEMPTING TO TAKE THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE OF SAITAMA."
Cornelia's Knightmare was moving forward, and then pointed its distinctive lance at Lelouch. "YOU MUST BE INSANE TO THINK I WOULD BELIEVE A BLUFF LIKE THAT."
Lelouch smirked. He gave a hand signal to a disguised Sayoko, who held out a hand, pointing it at a leg of the nearest Knightmare. "Lightning," she hissed. A blast of electricity smashed through the leg, blasting it off and causing the Knightmare to topple.
"MY SANITY MAY BE AN UNDERSTANDABLE SUBJECT OF CONJECTURE," Lelouch said, before his smirk widened beneath his mask. "BUT I'M NOT BLUFFING."
The plan was simple. Cripple as many Knightmares as possible. Mare would support them by casting spells that would affect the terrain. The point wasn't to kill Cornelia's personnel, but to deliver to them a humiliating defeat.
The sextet scattered. Their speed was inhuman, even Lelouch's. The benefit of the Zero costume was that it allowed him to equip swords, given the customisation added to it, so he summoned a sword, and slashed right through the knee of one of the Knightmare Frames. He watched as Kallen, in full Albedo armour, cleaved away the arms and limbs of a Gloucester, while Milly, using Shalltear's Pipette Lance, stabbed through the Factsphere of another. Rivalz was using Aura's whip to slash away at the Knightmares. Sayoko was driving Narberal's staff through the bodies of the Knightmares and electrocuting them.
And none of the ordinance fired upon them did much. Machine gun fire didn't so much as tickle Lelouch, and Slash Harkens merely bounced off. He felt like laughing. Instead, he turned on Aura of Despair I. "KNOW THE FEAR YOUR VICTIMS HAVE KNOWN, CORNELIA LI BRITANNIA. KNOW THE DESPAIR THEY FELT. IF YOU ARE THE GODDESS OF VICTORY, THEN I AM THE DEVIL. YOU CLAIM TO DO THIS BECAUSE OF REVENGE FOR YOUR SIBLINGS? THEN YOU ARE AN IMBECILE! CLOVIS WAS A POWER-HUNGRY MAD DOG, OBSESSED WITH HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION! AND IF LELOUCH AND NUNNALLY COULD SEE YOU NOW, THEY WOULD HANG THEIR HEADS WITH SHAME. DO YOU THINK THEY WOULD WANT YOU TO AVENGE THEM BY TAKING IT OUT ON THE JAPANESE?!"
"SILENCE!" Cornelia roared, her composure shaken not just by the lack of an easy victory and Lelouch's taunting, but also the Aura of Despair. She lunged, jabbing her lance down at him, only for him to catch it.
"Are you compensating for something with that spear?" Lelouch asked more casually. "I ask merely for information." He then bent the tip with a screech of twisting metal.
She yanked it away hurriedly. "…What are you?" she asked. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU?!"
"A nightmare you will never be waking from, Cornelia li Britannia. You will not die this day. Instead, you will live, live knowing that I have defeated you, and that I have been holding back, that I could kill you just as easily as you stepping on an ant. That being said…the price of survival this day is information. I have an interest in the affairs of your family. And I interrogated Clovis about one thing in particular. The day Lady Marianne was murdered. A lot of families had their downfall then, including the Ashfords and my own, not to mention your half-brother and half-sister. And yet, Clovis told me you withdrew the security around her before she died. Why? Did the assassins pay you off? Or did someone order that?"
He could all but hear her grit her teeth, before she snarled over the speakers, "Lady Marianne was the one who ordered the guard detail to be taken away. If I had my way, I would not have stopped until I had brought her murderers to justice…but the Emperor ordered the investigation halted. And when Lelouch protested, the Emperor sent him and Nunnally to this backwater country to be murdered by the Elevens."
"…So…he must've been covering for someone powerful," Lelouch mused out loud. He realised that Cornelia detested the fact that she was unable to investigate Marianne's murder, not to mention his supposed death, and that of Nunnally. Then, he added, "You fail to remember, Cornelia, Charles zi Britannia deliberately sent Lelouch and Nunnally to perish, as political pawns to justify the invasion. They were made as martyrs, despite the fact that he clearly did not love them, any more than he loves you or Euphemia. If they were still alive and he found out, he'd promptly use them as his pawns once more. In fact, my sources say that it was an attack by covert Britannian forces led to the declaration of their deaths, not Japanese. Not that the Japanese wouldn't have if they felt like it. You think them inferior. Tell me, Cornelia…how do you feel in comparison to me?"
"Bastard…" Cornelia said, but it was clear that she had realised she couldn't win.
"It doesn't feel good, does it?" Lelouch asked. "Be thankful I spared the lives of your men. Had you been so foolish as to refuse my invitation and to murder the inhabitants of Saitama, I would have held you down as you watched me slaughter them, as the toll for your imprudence." He sent a Message to his allies that they were leaving. As he opened a Gate behind him, "I've enjoyed this dance, Cornelia li Britannia. Do not target innocents, though, or I will ensure that our next dance is the Danse Macabre."
And with that, he ducked through the Gate, hearing Cornelia scream after him in fury. He knew he had won this battle. The war, though, was another matter entirely…
CHAPTER 9 ANNOTATIONS:
Wow. How's that for a curbstomp?
And if you're wondering whether I made Cornelia too OOC here, keep in mind, she's shaken by the fact that Lelouch and his allies have used superhuman abilities. That, plus the Aura of Despair shook her up. Keep in mind that the Aura of Despair I skill was capable of shaking Hamsuke up and forcing him/her to capitulate. Cornelia may be stronger-willed than Hamsuke, but she was still affected by it, with it affecting her rationality.
I originally had Lelouch actually get onto Cornelia's Gloucester and tear the cockpit open and interrogate her while grabbing her by the throat, but I thought that was a touch too far. I'm not sure whether Momonga actually has the physical strength to do that for one, and for another, it seemed rather too vicious of Lelouch to do that to Cornelia, even if she's pissed him off.
Review-answering time! MM Browsing: Shalltear-Milly and Albedo-Kallen, along with CC, are already definitely part of the harem. I'm considering throwing Solution-Shirley into the mix as well. Also, Lelouch doesn't need actual physical training, given his stats as Momonga. Rather, he will eventually train his skills where possible.
Accelerator Chan: Rubedo will be alluded to. However, I have no idea of what she's truly like, aside from being the strongest NPC in Nazarick, so I can't really characterise her. Nigredo may make an appearance, as she appeared in Book 3…
The Wandering Soul of 1014: While you have an interesting point, that's not going to happen.
Ultimate-Zelda-fan: It was too obvious.
JFC: If you're referring to Gargantua and Perfect Victim, let me point out that I referred to Victim in a previous chapter. I actually considered Victim reincarnating as Euphie, but decided against it. And Gargantua is a mindless golem. So I didn't reincarnate them. Also…an army of a hundred tiny Euphies, you say? *cackles evilly*
1. This is a hybrid of both Jan Valentine's taunts to the Round Table in Hellsing, as well as Cell's remark when announcing the Cell Games in Dragonball Z Abridged.