Chapter twenty-five
A horn sounded in the foggy morning. Nobody actually could have expected it, but instead of staying in Lutece, to defend it, the Gallian king had marched forward with his flying navy. Well, actually no; one person was actually expecting that very same thing to happen. The moment the Gallian navy reached their allied camp, they soon discovered that more than half the soldiers had deserted, due to rumors about demons and hell. Those who had stayed were actually the mercenaries, in large part, and some who had more to lose by deserting the king than by staying there. As King Joseph of Gallia descended from the flagship, he looked around with an annoyed expression.
"What is this?" he asked, without a hint of emotion in his voice.
"Your majesty, I have done what I could to discipline the men, but many outright deserted."
"Why did you not retreat? And even then, why did you not charge?" Joseph asked once more.
"The Demons of Tarbes and Rosais are on the other side," the commander of the Gallian army said, "and we were still working on your first order your majesty," he carefully added.
"My first order was to retreat" the King said, pointing his wand at the commander.
"But…" the reply was cut short, as the commander fell down, holding his throat which had appeared to have been slashed.
"Let us move, Myoz. We charge through. Maybe I'll feel something this time. Prepare the fire jewels will bring warmth to my cold heart," the king said, turning toward the woman with strange markings etched on her head.
"As you wish, Lord Joseph"
*Near the Crusade camp*
"So, you have decided to abandon your post?" Saito looked surprised at Louise's determination, as the small pink haired girl had ridden a horse all the way till where he was situated.
"Yes; I can't believe you actually kept going with Cog's plans! I told you so! I told you he was evil didn't I!" no matter if it was true or not, Louise had gotten a good dose of pride back after that scene in the tent. Now, she knew she had always been right, even though she had no clue why Saito had cried so desperately. Maybe it had something to do with the future of his home world?
"He is not evil…at least; there is no absolute good or evil…" Saito replied begrudgingly looking at the river, and at the enemy's first movements: they had taken out wooden planks and had started building boats and rafts. A strong kick on the back of the head made Saito fall on the ground, more surprised than actually hurt; did an enemy sneak on them? Instead it was Louise, fuming with anger and with a red face.
"You're a stupid! A stupid idiotic moron! He's playing you by the nose and you still believe him! Just what is wrong with you!" she nearly cried that out, as she stomped away in tears.
Saito tried to recall what he did wrong, and at that moment, he actually realized it: she was sad when he was hurt, and when she had hugged him, as he was on the floor of Cog's tent, she had actually been both sad for his state and angry, angry at Cog who had made him sad. She was…
"Damn. I can't even be thick-headed anymore, just what the hell is this? Sixth sense?" he muttered, as he stood back up. He had several courses laid in front of him: he could stay there, and do his duty, or he could run to Louise and make peace with her, or, lastly, he could find a way to do both.
He was short on time however, as three thrilling sounds announced the arrival of *The Package*, the code word to refer to the king of Gallia; the one who had to be killed quickly, in order to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. He decided against his better judgment: he would reach Louise and apologize for his thickhead.
Standing atop a hill, Cog whistled once, Cerbera dashed from where she was, two hills below, and reached him without the slightest sweat.
"Orders, father?" she asked looking serious.
"Tell Mary and Rayne to concentrate on shooting down the air menaces, and have them placed at the top of the city of Carcassonne," he replied as he took the spyglass to his right eye once more, "you can go reinforce the right flank; I want them aiming towards the city's streets," and by them, Cog pointed to the enemy army, who was just then reaching the sandbanks, without suffering retaliation.
"Yes father" Cerbera replied, before leaving the commander alone.
The plan wasn't at all difficult: giving a hint to the weakness of a flank would make the enemy army march its strength towards it, then, the tough part would have been closing them inside the city, which had been emptied already, and have them suffer a barrage from the side, while up above the tank would take care of them, having virtually no way for enemies to hit it on the back. They would end up pinched, forced to both try and climb the crumbling city or face the full bulk of the army on their backs. Furthermore after sleepless nights, they were at their wits end, the fact that no retaliation had been done while they were crossing would just increase their paranoia that the Demon of Tristain was planning something. Once the king's position on the battlefield would be known, Saito and Cog would dash in, and end it quickly. The rest of the army would then surrender, as routing would be left unavailable for them.
If everything failed, then he'd have to use his psychic ability. It shamed him to rely on something which didn't belong to him, and the consequences… Cog shook his head, those thoughts would come on later, now wasn't the time to have his mind clouded.
"Father, do you read me?" a female voice chirped into Cog's right ear.
"Loud and clear Soldier, tell your sister she could have warned me about this before I sent Cerbera to talk to you." Cog replied sighing, if he had known Mary had planned to give him some of the nanites from her stealth armor, then he could have devised something more suitable as a battle plan.
"Elder sister said it was meant to be a surprise," Rayne chirped, stopping on her sentence midway "Father, I wanted to ask…would you mind taking some time off and go see mom?" As Cog's only answer was silence, Rayne added slowly:
"We can see all of them, and Eleonore can come too," still silence as a reply "Father?" looking down below, through the Paper tank's scope, Rayne could see her father's figure looking perplexedly high in the sky, and then dashing off; curious, she turned the scope upwards, to see some sort of guy in loose robes hold three strange red glass sphere in his hands, he was flying without a suit it seemed, and also chanting something.
The next second, a blast tore apart the hill on which Cog had stood, together with the command tent. The explosion destroyed most of the camp, which, while being mostly empty due to the soldiers being on the field, wasn't at all devoid of the healers.
Charles had seen a bright light flash in front of him, moments before a strong wave of heat had flashed over him, the healer's tent, and for a brief instant, he had thought about how it was a pity: that he couldn't die in battle. This simply seemed so wrong. The next moment, his charred body exhaled his last dying breath together with the entirety of the Ondine Corps Water platoon. Cog was nowhere to be seen, and since no answer came through, Rayne did the only thing she could do, and was trained to do: obey the last known command. The Gallian ship called "The Wave" fell downwards, split apart by a ray of plasma, which, passing through its deck like it was butter, and igniting the wood, didn't even slow down until it exploded against the side of another ship "The Titan". The two ships fell down in flames, crashing against the landscape dotted with fights. The crusader's army was just about the same size as Gallia's, but the crusader's had more morale, and a hefty dose of technological advanced allies. Cerbera dashed through the battlefield, tearing chunks of flesh from Ogre's and Orcs alike, like they were nothing more than morsels of food. She clawed a Troll in tiny pieces, before falling back once more; it looked like a dog playing with a ball, as she would retreat and then move once more, stopping the enemy soldiers from leaving the field of carnage. On the other side of the river, the Gallian's siege weaponry began shooting rocks and ballistae's arrows, without a care for the soldiers of their side. Some cannons from the ships above shot down their fiery projectiles, and dragon knights from Gallia did their best to scorch the battlefield.
Bidashal the elf looked at such slaughter with a saddened expression, he had agreed to help with this foolishness of using ancient magic for war only because of the Shaitan. Now that he was probably eliminated thanks to the blast from a fire jewel, there was no need for him to use another. That was his thought, until Myoz slowly flew to him on board of a Golomontas.
"Elf, my master wants the remaining fire jewels for him; then you will be free to leave" she addressed him without consideration, neither respect nor hate; only stating the facts.
"The Shaitan could still be alive" Bidashal replied sternly, he had to make sure he was dead.
"If he is, my master will take care of him for you." Myoz replied lifting her right hand upwards, to receive the two fire jewels.
A second plasma ray shot forward, stopping mere inches away from both Bidashal and Myoz.
"Strange magic," Myoz muttered, thankful for the elf's counter to be effective "However I will now take these to Lord Joseph; you are to leave the battlefield, Bidashal."
"Fine, if it is how Joseph commands" Bidashal wasn't going to show the slightest glint of emotion, but he was indeed happy, even when he had been asked to become Joseph's diplomatic aid with the elves, he had shown nothing, but truth be told he would have wanted to kill the filthy human right there. He had resisted then, and he resisted now, as he slowly drifted away into the sky.
Guiche the Impaler was living up to his name, and his new title of Chevalier, as he guided the musketeers' seventh regiment into tight formations.
"First line! FIRE!" he yelled, pointing his spear forward, as the musket shot forward iron bullets, powered up no longer by simple explosive powder, but by a more refined and effective black powder, prepared under Cog's careful instructions, it was called Demonic Powder. The shots broke the ranks of the enemy cavalry, as the horses fell downwards, making those behind trip, Guiche waited a few second before ordering once more:
"Second line! FIRE!" as the second shots burst forward, the first line had begun recharging, while the second one crouched down, aiming the bayonets, mounted on their rifles, forward, in case any lone cavalry straggler actually made it that far. Guiche was using some little dot magic of his own too, by creating small *incongruences* in the terrain, he was actually making enemy soldiers or cavalryman trample down and fall to their death. It wasn't even costing him a lot in willpower.
"Third line! FIRE!" as Guiche yelled again, the third line let loose another volley of lead, planting itself deep into the few remaining stragglers, who had been on the process of retreating. To the right of Guiche's regiment, a wave of fire fell down, burning to a crisp an assaulting enemy platoon, Reynal yelled at Guiche from behind him:
"You owe me one, Impaler!" before having Malicorne give him new coordinates for the next fire volley.
A set of dragon knights launched themselves forward, ready to strike down the fire mages, but just as they were closing in, a gust of wind and steel blades got them from below, sending their dragons down together with their mortally wounded riders.
Tabitha stared from the battlefield upwards, Guiche next to her had conjured steel swords in little time, and she had thrown them upwards with wind magic; a sort of cheap, but effective, cutter tornado.
"Cog's orders?" Guiche asked Tabitha, hopeful, but she shook her head.
"Then back to battle" he replied running forward, to slash at an incoming Halberdier with an overgrown spear.
At that moment, another bright red flash erupted to the side of Carcassonne, the first one had been thought to be a thunder flash in a bright day, since they weren't able to see camp from where they had been deployed, but this second one was straight in the line of sight with the fighters in the battle. The town itself crumbled, as more explosions torn the mountain open, making it fall down, the result of placing gunpowder barrels alongside the major roads of the city which led upward. As it came down, many thought this was the actual plan of the demon, because between an avalanche and an enemy army, the Gallian force would be utterly annihilated. The problem lay with the uttermost left flank of the Crusaders: it still hadn't been given the order to retreat. The one in charge of the left flank was General Wimpffen, and so, his last words were the following:
"Hold the line! For all we know it's a ruse!"
Saito was sure of it by now: Joseph was onboard one of the Gallian's ship, it wasn't the biggest, but it was actually the farthest away from combat. Seeing a single flying golem set forward from it, and then seeing it blow up and destroying an entire city, he was pretty much sure it was there he had to strike. He looked to Sylphid, on his left, and Louise, on his right, and nodded. They steeled themselves for what could happen, because, Cog's words, "You never know how battles turn out. Just fight till the enemy routes, no matter what".
"That's the flagship. Get that Illusion ready Louise." And as Louise began chanting, he placed her carefully on top of Sylphid's back, before mounting himself and departing quickly. The illusion that Louise casted this time wasn't a difficult one: it would simply mimic a Gallian dragon knight reporting back for duty, and being cast on themselves, the only thing they had to be careful about was not getting over the borders of the illusion, while it was maintained. It was however simple, and as such they managed to board the ship with ease, just as Sylphid landed on the deck, however, the illusion wore off, and Saito, jumping down from the dragon, charged at the first officer he could see on the deck, before he could give off an alarm. This was a carrier ship, so there weren't many active personnel on guard duty, and the few he could see were quickly turned to meat pudding by Ai. Seeing how she acted was more than enough for Saito to avert his sight from her. Louise outright ignored everything, and focused her gaze only on Sylphid's neck. She clenched her fists, before descending from the dragon, and carefully making her way next to Saito.
"He should be somewhere on the ship" Saito whispered.
"Ai…could you look below deck?" Louise asked the robotic demon, who nodded, before dispersing into smaller versions of herself, and disappearing among the wooden cracks.
"My, we have visitors!" a female voice called from the stairs, leading to the superstructure of the ship, and probably to the commanding deck. It was Myoznitnirn, who suddenly conjured a golem, to intercept Saito who had charged head on, armed with Derflinger.
"You think this is enough?" Saito smirked, as he pushed the golem aside with a single swing. A golem which no human strength would ever move, but genetically rewritten human strength? That was another story. Myoz was surprised, even more when the hulking man tossed aside a Golomontas to try and pierce her through. Joseph however, appeared out of thin air, using his wand skillfully to block the otherwise surely lethal hit.
"So we finally meet, Gandalfr" Joseph said, he had thought that maybe doing this, he would feel something; instead nothing seemed to have changed at the present.
Saito didn't say anything, keeping the pressure on Joseph who, however, smiled widely, and in a blink was no longer in front of him. Louise had begun casting an explosion spell the moment Joseph had appeared, and yet, before she could finish it, a sharp pain on the side made her break concentration, and fall down crying. Joseph was there, having stabbed her with his wand, reinforced by steel, it seemed.
Saito charged at him again, but he disappeared once more, to slash at Saito's back. The wounds were shallow at best, but the speed of Gallian King was unparalleled. As more and more wounds covered Saito's body, Louise couldn't help but tremble, holding her wounded side, and seeing blood, her blood gushing out slowly from the wound. She had never been wounded before, and this might as well leave a scar.
Sylphid suddenly cried sharply, as golems appeared out of nowhere, pinning her giant form down against the deck. Louise tried calling for Ai, but to no avail, the more she tried, the more she realized Myoznitnirn was laughing at her. Saito wasn't actually staying silent; he was simply unable to let out sounds.
It was cold and dark down there. She felt the pain. It was like that far away time, when she still was training at the Soldier course in Alsamon. Her mother had been assigned there too, she was such a beautiful Captain it made her proud to be her daughter. Not that she knew at the time. If she had known, maybe things would have gone differently. They were at Alsamon's white beach, making swimming practice with weights: it was an easy test, nobody drowned so the teacher, after cheering them up, decided to let them have some fun with the civilian part of Alsamon. She had gone with two friends from Soldier Course to a playing center, where classic music, video games, and books were available. They even enjoyed a film about a famous War Hero, who held the line on Sogtoth 34, and then the alarm sounded.
The next moment, they were deployed by the police force for emergency operations, Nerghulians' came down from the sky on odd looking ships, and she fired the first rounds of her entire life against an enemy. She shot down infected civilians, as her mask showed her who was and who was not infected. When a Saulirs ripped to shred one of her friends, she screamed as she kept pumping round after round into the beast...then the thing broke the helmet of her other friend, and as she shot her down, she received the regroup order to evacuate civilians. She couldn't leave the monster standing, throwing a concussion grenade at the thing, the shockwave of the blast flung her against a concrete wall, and then the entire building plummeted downwards, trapping her in a cement cage. As more and more messages arrived, she realized she was going to die there. A Purge initiated of the world. Just then, just as she was about to die, someone lifted the cement rocks and took her out of there: her mother, a Captain of the police forces of Alsamon. They had seen her fall from far away, and since the bunker was in that direction, they had rerouted to assist. She thought it was over…but then they were ambushed. Again and again they fought their way towards the safety bunker, until it was in front of them, and inside, awaiting them was a single escape pod. Captain ranks go first. That was the law. However, she had been forced into a suit through a civilian conscription paper, so, for that single mistake, she was actually invited to enter the pod first, as a civilian. In that moment, as soon as she lay inside the pod and thanked the captain, the pod departed, leaving her mother down there, to die.
Having departed after the purge started, she was kept in confinement on the drop pod for seventy-two hours, without water or food. She only had a chocolate bar and ate it out of stress. Then she waited until the life support of the drop turned off. In the freezing cold, she waited. Finally, after an eternity, she fell asleep. In her sleep, a voice called to her, saying she was a liar, a bad girl, an evil person. Another one called back, saying it wasn't true, that she didn't mean it, but it just happened for the spur of the moment. One excused her, the other accused her. When she finally came back to her senses, she was in an infirmary bed, aboard "The Hope Crusher" the Leviathan classed purge ship, and the one who was looking at her with a look full of hatred was none other than Elite 578639, in that moment, she felt that, whatever she did or however she was going to be punished, it would never atone for how that man felt in that moment.
A slight croak came to her ears, something moved next to her, and then she saw the light once more. The long figure, with violet haired, looked at her for a brief second, then slowly grabbed her under the shoulder, and brought her out of loose pile of rocks. Slowly, they began limping towards the healing camp, or what they could see of it.
"Father is…still alive?" Rayne managed to cough up, as the tank's paper thin armor falling had absorbed much of the impact, she only walked away with severe broken bones. Next to her Mary stood silent, carrying her like a bag of potatoes, she sighed:
"I don't know. I know that I had to give up my nanites to stabilize the tank's engine, which was about to break, and come save your sorry ass."
"Sorry ass to who sister? You're the one who's got a broken arm" Rayne replied bitterly.
"I absorbed much of the sphere's destructive power, sister. Or we'd be charred right now" Mary replied once more.
A stressed silence came between the two, until, silently, they both looked at each other and started chuckling.
"You think Cerbera is going to be fine too?" Rayne asked, worried, but chirping.
"Obviously: now shut up and start climbing" Mary sighed back. It was going to be a long trek.
Saito meanwhile was having a tough time. Joseph was simply too fast to be perceived, or seen, and there seemed to be no way at all to fight him. If only he had a way to…wait. His brain recalled back the previous memories, he *was* seeing him, but at a speed too fast for his brain to normally understand where he was. He had to think about it fast to have a chance: he clearly had no style, simply enjoying torturing him. Saito repressed a grin, as he took yet another cut, then another, then finally, Joseph screamed.
Joseph had been using Acceleration, a void magic, for he was a void mage, to speed up and try and feel anything from fighting Gandalfr; yet he felt nothing, and Gandalfr had proven to be anything, but a threat. Then the boy decided to throw his sword at him blindly, raging like a barbarian from the wild tribes, and he had easily moved to the side, to cut him again, then, the ground under him had failed, and he had stumbled downwards. Towards a pile of rotting corpses. As he stood there, in a mass of flesh and blood, he saw six red eyes staring at him, claws dripping blood, and in that precise moment, in that single instant, King Joseph of Gallia knew fear. In that knowledge, he didn't know it, but he had felt an emotion for the first time in a long run, and it would prove to also be his second last, for his last one was utterly hellish pain and despair. As Myoznitnirn runes disappeared from her forehead, she shrieked, throwing herself into the hole of the wooden deck, towards her death, while the golems holding down Sylphid, who was still very violently trashing about, disappeared. The Ai emerged unscathed, resuming her normal form, with even a small glint of a smile. Saito shivered at the thought…just what had it done?
"Saito…" Louise pleaded, to which the boy soon realized that she was bleeding.
"Louise!" he yelled, getting closer with a worried look.
"May I provide first aid assistance?" The Ai inquired, to which Louise, however, shrieked:
"No! Anyone but her! Please! No!" the Ai said nothing, standing by, as Louise was brought by Saito hurriedly on Sylphid, and then downwards, towards the healers' camp.
Cog stared silently at the sight of the battlefield looming under him. He had felt it. That was why he had to disappear for the moment. He had left a charred body in his place. It wouldn't foul Mary, Cerbera or Rayne, and probably it would also make Saito suspect something, but he had to leave, and he hoped his hassles found a convincing reason not to speak about it out loud. Someone had orchestrated a booby trap to spring up, if they had ever made it to the Gallian camp, and that someone, clearly, wasn't him. He could have told Mary to keep an eye out, when she told him what she had discovered spying on the camp, but this being a Grehyr science world, he didn't want to have a pup do a dog's job: there had to be a Grehyr still alive, and it had to be found, and destroyed. If instead, it turned out to be something else, then, even better, he'd pass off as Paranoid. He looked at how the battlefield turned out to be: Gallia's army surrendered, the few that remained, while the left flank of the crusaders, something like a thousand or more men, stood now in the two digits, of critically wounded. The right flank had stood strong, with Cerbera free to trash around on an open field, and in the center, the Ondine Guards had made him proud, as the sun silently settled over the battlefield, he could see everyone was going to go to the camp, and then, they would find out the sad surprise. The Duke Chevalier Cog de la Lily des Ondines was dead, on the field of duty, together with the rest of the water mages who had stood at camp.
-Sorry Charles…that I could not protect you, nor the rest of my men- and with that final, bitter, thought, Cog left with the weight of the midday over him.