Disclaimer I do not own Log Horizon, Harry Potter or anything else I may reference
Magic and Elder Tale
Chapter 34
7 August 2027
Forest
It was cold, the wind brushed across her face as her light blue eyes began to open for the first time in over a day, the sky above was black with the stars and moon shining brilliantly down upon the land. With a groan she felt pain in her leg, moving her eyes to look at why it hurt so much she hissed in pain as a massive bright purple bruise marred her once delicate skin. As for the rest of her while she couldn't see it she could very much feel something was wrong with her body as her head began to throb all the while he back was killing her.
Gingerly she raised her right hand her eyes getting rid of some dirt and sot which had affected her; once this had been completed she looked around her current position. Leaves were everywhere to the point where they stopped her seeing anything below her current position but despite this her mind began to catch-up with her informing her of where she was. Located in a tree she realised that she had been blown high into the air when the Akihabaran ship had been destroyed from there all she remembered was her flying quickly into the air before she crashed into a tree.
Her eyes widened as her memories of what had been happening before came back to her and she now knew exactly why she hadn't woken up in her nice comfortable bed by her own personal maid. She had pleaded with Akihabara to help save her nation and they had done so without a second though to her own safety risking their lives without any type of payment only for all of a sudden to have their ship destroyed by an unknown assailant. Scrunching herself up into a ball as she rested on the branch that had saved her life she tried to hear any type of sound from the adventurers yet there was nothing.
She allowed for more time to pass before she realised that there was nobody close by, it was eerily still the area and sent shivers down her spine as she tried to wonder where the adventurers would be. Normally at this moment in time there would people nearby and searching for her yet there was nobody and a strange smell in the air, it wasn't long before she decided that she would have to find them herself.
Taking in the sight of the ground she blanched as she realised what she had to do but undertook the task anyway as with a hiss of pain due to her leg she angled her body so that she could start to find a decent handhold to go down. Gripping this hand hold she then began to lower herself down as she found other dents in the cave that she could place her feet in and slowly lower herself down. Things were going fine for a small amount of time but then she encountered the problem of that there were no more branches of dents in the trees trunk for her to use. Staring at the ground she remembered something that Lord Crusty had said to her once and bunched herself up applying pressure to the trees trunk before leaping away.
She landed with a thud and another hiss of pain from her bruises that she had before she leaped and the new ones that she could feel forming on her knees as she hit the floor. She allowed herself a small rest to try and recover from the pain this lasted for about five minutes until she pulled herself onto her feet and tried to think of a good direction to go. As she had never been hunting or astronomy she didn't which way to go but instead elected that the best choice would be to try and find some type of clue that could help her as she moved.
"Crusty, hello" She called and called as she moved around in the forest hoping for some kind of answer but none ever came leaving the forest silent as the moon shone down upon it. Wind blew against her skin and she shivered the armour she was wearing didn't really do much to cover her bare skin from the cold nights and wind as it made itself known especially as there was nothing to cover herself with. The months were approaching winter so the average temperature would me much colder than they were when she typically went outside even so however she was thankful that there was no rain as that would have made the current situation even worse.
Becoming more aware of her surroundings she noticed the smell of smoke in the air, it was heavy and done on a scale that she had never smelt before. There had always been smoke at the palace of fires but the amount of smoke currently was incredibly powerful to her nose and forced her to turn her attention to the direction where it felt strongest. The power of the smoke was confirmed when she looked in that direction only to see a large thick plume of smoke ascending into the sky.
She didn't know why but she felt attracted to that smoke and for this reason she wasted no effort in making her way towards it as if this black plume would reveal answers to her. Strangely enough it did since as she moved closer she noticed something that had been thrust into the ground; approaching the item she recognised that it was a sword. The sword had droplets of blood that were still running down it but other than most of the blood had dried onto the blade.
Instantly her hand darted back to where her sword had been only to not feel anything, focusing her gaze she recognised that her sword was missing entirely. The sheath that the weapon had rested in was still there but the sword that Lord Crusty had bequeathed to her was gone entirely likely lost when she had been used as a ragdoll and went crashing through the air. Either way it was lost, she was no idiot and with the danger of monsters lurking in this forest or perhaps other adventurers she needed some type of weapon to defend herself.
Gripping the swords handle she then promptly pulled it out, the sword was just a regular one handed sword however with their lack of training and strength she gripped two hands around the handle giving her a better chance with the blade. Without doubt the sword was heavy far heavier than anything she had lifted before in fact then again however she had never been taught to build up her strength like other common girls who had to work on farms. Instead she had been taught how to sow and look pretty for her future husband meaning that she couldn't put on too much muscle otherwise she would be considered ugly and would not please her future husband.
Now though she regretted it as if she ever did get into a fight the chances of her being able to defend herself were incredibly slim and that was against a weak creature. Back when she was taking part in the assault on Chousa she had bodyguards and she would never have to actually fight just stay close to inspire people by here mere presence now however she was totally alone. She carried on walking towards the plume of smoke despite her natural instincts stating fire run away on the other hand her mind was telling her that if there were to be people nearby then they would be situated near the smoke o try and put it out.
Like when she had first woken up the forest was still quiet and the smell of smoke was heavily prevalent but as she kept moving towards the column of smoke she took in the presence of badly burned trees. Black and covered in ash these trees had the top where their leaves were located burnt and nonexistent in fact looking around her as she carried on she noticed that the earth was also blackened by fire. Besides the soot and ash though she began to notice more and more weapons just laying around the area in all sorts of fashions.
Swords, bows and staffs there was obvious clues that some type of battle had happened here but what gained her most attention was the strange shape that was located by one of the trees laid on the floor. Cautiously with her sword out front she made her way towards this strange shape, she waited for a few moments trying to see if any part of this object was moving it didn't. Feeling slightly more brave, she lowered the tip of her newly discovered sword and tapped the strange shape hoping for some kind of reaction.
Nothing happened at all, with a small frown she walked up to the strange shape on the floor before gently poking it. Suddenly she stepped back in fear as a red liquid began to trickle down onto her already dirty blade staining it more, her eyes were wide with fear as she realised that she had likely just stabbed a person. Yet nothing happened, fear began to escalate as she walked closer her mind knowing what happened to this person no matter how much she didn't want to believe it. Waiting a few moments she then used her sword to roll over the strange shape ad instantly she gripped her mouth as she saw the sight in front of her.
It was a corpse of a dead person likely an adventurer as she managed to pick out the strange design of clothing that they had been wearing, this set of clothing however was stained red with blood but the worst part forced her to turn her gaze away and onto the floor. The head of this person had been caved in leaving nothing but a red past where the skull had been, the right side of the face looked better than the left where the person had obviously been struck but it was still ugly. The impact of the blow had knocked the adventurers right eye out of its socket leaving it attached to it by trails of nerves; parts of the brain were visible which hadn't been mused not that it would do much use to these people any more.
Pushing herself away she tried to attempt to control her natural's body's reaction of throwing up the contents of her stomach but that was when the smell reached her nose and she couldn't hold back. As she managed to hold her hair back while she fell to her knees she looked back at where the plume of smoke was rising, it was obvious that she was approaching the old battlefield but it was also becoming obvious that something had gone horribly wrong.
She picker herself up again ignoring the pain all over her body and grabbed her sword which had been left on the ground, there was no indication that anybody safe was nearby. Still as she mo0ved forwards she couldn't help but worry not only for herself but the man and the people who had followed her into battle all so that she could save her kingdom from an invading army.
She desired to call out his name and then when she found him call him a selfish bastard for leaving her alone in the woods taking away her lazy time, however as she kept moving on through the charred remains of the forest and noticed more and more weapons with dead bodies she doubted that was the case. In fact no matter how hard she tried there was nothing she could do that could lift her spirits up instead it was constantly going into overdrive about what could be lurking around this place and could it kill them.
Eventually she managed to make her way out of the forest and onto the beach that she had landed on some time ago although she didn't know how long ago that actually was. At first she would have thought that it was a familiar beach but it wasn't not in the slightest, the beach she had landed on was clean besides a few fish mean with tridents this beach however was a complete and utter warzone.
Bodies littered the ground not only of villagers and adventurers but also of fish mean and goblins, weapons also laid all over the place covered with blood and as for the area itself that was also coated in vast amounts of blood. Besides that though she saw massive chunks of metal sticking out all over the place impaled in the ground most likely from the explosion that had sent her flying, other bits were also lying on the shore washed up from the sea. Then there was the town, Chosua had been on fire when she and the others arrived but it was a small manageable fire now however it was nothing but rubble. Buildings obliterated and obvious scorch and ice marks which had probably been used by magic, arrows were also impaled into objects and the occasional dead body which again made her sick.
Despite the feeling of utter dread washing over her she continued to walk over pulling out a handkerchief from her pocket and placing it over her nose in order to try and get rid of the smell that came rotting corpses. With that done and the calm sound of the waves going in and out as they brought more objects back onto land whether it be people or objects she began to walk along the corpses and stare at their cold lifeless faces if they lay on their back and their backs if they weren't.
At first she didn't recognise the faces of the people after all she had only known them for a very short while yet her heart nearly stopped when she recognised one of the victims. They hadn't been anyone important but they had spent some time around her and Crusty now though their head was bent back by gravity and their hands were gripping a large spear which had been left embedded in their chest allowing their blood to spill out stain their clothes.
She shivered again the winds were getting colder as she was by the coast now not to mention the constant paranoia that her mind was going through wasn't helping. She kept thinking that at any moment something would rush out and attack her, with another shiver though she thought back to the idea of clothes. She didn't know why Lord Crusty had been so adamant on wearing this type of armour, the clothes were far too thin and only served to over her body up rather than to keep her warm. There were also to many gaps where she could feel the wind brush against not to mention that there wasn't particularly enough armour if anything she would now say that the man had been trying to dress her up as some type of sexy princess of worse some kind of whore. She could also see that evil man do such a thing and when she asked him why she had to wear this he would simply say to improve her reputation and help her get rid of that stern boring side of her and enjoy life a bit more while she was young.
Putting that aside for now though, she realised that she needed warmer clothes, if she didn't get any than in all likelihood she would freeze to death in the night. Thinking back to the ship that had taken her and the rest of the AEF to this beach she remembered that it had been stock piled with clothes, food, water, blankets and other materials all of which could help her in this current position. Normally she wouldn't ever steal anything not that she had to being a princess but now she actively had to take something from people with nothing to give in return despite this however she didn't feel as guilty as she probably should have.
Instead as she approached the chunks of metal at the beach she managed to notice quite a few things that would help her survive in this place while she waited for people. The first was some warmer looking clothes than she already possessed, picking them up she placed them into her inventory like Lord Crusty had showed her once. After this was done she opened up her inventory screen and then chose the clothing and equipped them, the result was instant as she could feel her skin protected by warmer adventurer material that had been purchased from Britannia rather than the cold steel which had frozen parts of her body. One of the greatest joys she felt was the fact that the wind wasn't blowing on anymore direct skin besides her face but even then she quickly raised her hood giving her more protection from the cold.
After giving herself new clothes, she than began to notice some of the food that the adventurers had brought, this notice was obviously recognised by her stomach as it grumbled in protest of not being fed in so long. There were some ingredients that she recognised were used in cooking like meat and vegetables however they were useless to her as she had neither a fire or utensils or more importantly even the knowledge to cook in the first place at all. On the other hand she did see one of her new favourite adventurer foods; chocolate without hesitating she quickly grabbed a bar of the brown goodness and undid the wrapper before stuffing it into her mouth and scoffing it whole.
She moaned ever so slightly as she felt her stomach settle down from hunger ever so slightly, however it still wasn't enough, naturally she started to open more packets of chocolate and other food before placing it in her mouth and eating it. Besides the chocolate she also noticed some fruit like apples and strawberries, remembering what Crusty had stated about chocolate running ones teeth she began eating those as well. It was a little while later after she had gone through multiple pieces of fruit and chocolate did her stomach feel slightly better, she still felt hungry and was craving a proper meal but no longer did she feel that she would pass out from hunger.
Wither her stomach temporarily satisfied she started to think of the best possible plan to either find the adventurers or to get back home since it was rather obvious by the lack of noise that nobody was here. The problem was that she didn't exactly know where here was besides it being called Chousa, the adventurers had used a map as well as a compass to make their way here yet she had none of these tools. On the other hand though if she remembered correctly than they had sailed up the coast in one direction so if she could take the other direction than eventually it would lead her to either a town where she could get help or even Maihama itself.
That however left the question of how long would it take she didn't have the money to pay for any services and with her hair in a mess and no fine clothing it was doubtful that anyone would believe her story of being a princess. If that was the case she needed to either borrow money which was doubtful or steal something she could use as money but there was no one else here besides the adventurer equipment on the floor. Turning her head to focus on it she started to think of thoughts that she had never had before.
The adventurers had left all this equipment here with nobody to guard it, and with how the local area looked she had a feeling that they wouldn't be back to retrieve them after all adventurers could just create more. She felt guilty but she needed to go back to Akihabara and find the adventurers maybe even Crusty since there was no way she could venture inland as she wouldn't survive. Not to mention wouldn't they be happy if she brought back some of their supplies it was better than some random monsters picking it up and then stealing it for their ugly brethren.
With this in mind she made her choice, with the menu screen in front of her she began to pick up multiple objects; these consisted of items like food and clothing, blankets, medicine weaponry, bottles of water and the occasional piece of gold that she found laying all over the floor for no apparent reason whatsoever. Finally when her entire inventory was full she selected a cleaner sword which was both lighter and had a scabbard, attaching it to her waist she looked at the ruined scrap of the old ship and worked out the direction she needed to head in. Then with a sigh as she realised that she wasn't going to be able to enjoy her lazy time for a while she started to head up the coast in hopes of finding someone rather than something.
8 August 2027
Coast
Relaxing were the rules she would describe the coast, relaxing and beautiful, she didn't know how long she had been travelling for or what time it had been when she had woken up in a tree with her hair all in a mess and her body aching all over but now it was the day. The sun had rose in its magnificent glory over in the east and for once she could honestly say that she had never been more inspired by the sun in her life. The way it just repeated its actions day after day giving people the ability to see in the day time and go about doing whatever task they were doing. Right about now she guessed that Crusty and the others would likely be eating breakfast somewhere as they got ready to fight the goblin hoards yet it still didn't explain why she hadn't just stayed there even with the totting corpses and strong wind that made her shiver.
Something had happened at that battleground something which explained why she couldn't find anyone at all yet alone the master warrior lord Crusty; she frowned for some reason thinking about him made her incredibly worried. This confused her the man could be incredibly annoying at times using her as an excuse to get out of work but also showing her amazing things as well as tease her and force her into situations like he had when he had got her to choose the winner of a small competition to be the one who escorted her to the dance. Yet at the same time he was kind and warm a person who seemed to truly care for her and made her laugh sometimes as well as pushed her to do things, not once had she even imagined raising an army and going to fight an army of goblins yet with him she had done so incredibly quickly. Not to mention he was incredibly handsome with his sharp features and deep eyes which showed a seemingly endless pool of military combat experience something that he had utilised to fight the goblins. Then there was also the other fact that she could only now feel with her being lost and alone, he made her feel safe like nobody would touch her and at this current moment she really missed that feeling. With a blush she started to think back to what some of the other girls had stated about knights and their fairy tale heroes she had never imagined it to be true but Crusty really was a knight, an annoying one at times but he was a nice man.
The same could be said of all the members of the Round Table that she had briefly met; they had made her feel comfortable in Akihabara and answered any questions she had as well as invite her to places. Well all besides Nat for some reason he gave off the impression that he was different form the others and it showed he was the most confident of the group and was incredibly at home in the political landscape unlike all the others. She couldn't guess his intentions but he seemed more stern than the others with his calm expression being able to stop anyone from reading him, she had only caught a small glimpse as he gave orders. Like everything else he did it was calm but there was a small tension in the air which surrounded him for the tiniest of moments which stated do not argue with me, all in all she could guess that wherever these adventurers came from he was actually from some sort of political background unlike the others. Not to mention unlike Crusty as well as the others who were willing to show off their combat skills whenever they were asked Nat attended a single battle and then left some words of advice before walking away. Despite her concerns however she trusted both Crusty and Shiroe, if those two believed that the youngest member of their group was responsible enough to hold their city than she would trust their decisions. After all they had known him for longer and according to Henrietta when they had shared a brief conversation he had been left in charge of Akihabara before where he had kept things stable before that storm came in and collapsed the entire city around them.
Perhaps she was being selfish but she couldn't help but wonder that if the adventurers were so powerful why hadn't they found her, Crusty with his ever teasing gaze would be searching for her constantly. The other members would likely have search parties out but still they hadn't found her even with their flying beasts like griffins she knew they possessed them yet she hadn't seen a single one in the air. This worried her immensely because her mind couldn't help but go back to the landing ground, the horror there was unlike anything else she had ever encountered. The dead bodies the blood soaking the sand the poor soul who had been killed by a spear as well as the chunks of metal that Nat would have likely called "Some stupid fucking Modern Art" all of it encountered that after she had been knocked unconscious by the tree that something terrible had happened. She also admitted that she had walked away from the site as it scared her like if she remained somebody would discover her and that person would be friendly in the slightest.
She knew that monsters lurked in forests killing any that couldn't defend herself and in this case without her bodyguards she couldn't defend herself. If something like a pack of wolves came and attacked her she would be ripped to she's and just become a carcass for the creatures to feed themselves on. That was if she was lucky she and every other girl were told storied what happened when goblins found beautiful girls all alone and while she hadn't seen anything like that she had heard about the first Akihabaran expedition. A few of the women had returned to their homes in different villages around Eastal with one or two of them heading back to the capital where they were called before her grandfather. From there they were told to inform the nobility of their ordeal and what they could remember about not only being in captivity but more importantly when they were rescued by the adventurers.
The picture they had painted when they spoke was not pretty and had many noble ladies gasping at the brutality of the creatures for using women as nothing but sex slaves. However there were more concerned faces when they were told the strength of the adventurers when they barrelled down the small peninsula and slaughtered every single goblin, orc, troll and anything else that was down there. According to some spies sent later the adventurers had left some incredibly large craters in the ground from where they had attacked the creatures. And that brought her attention back to the first battle her memories were short due to being blasted into the sky but under Crusty the group of adventurers managed to slaughter the first wave of fish men. They likely would have advanced further but something had happened which left the old town as nothing but a burning piece of rubble where bodies littered the ground likely leaving a brilliant meal for some creatures like wolves to gorge themselves on.
She didn't know how far she was along the beach but she knew that sooner or later she had to meet up with someone or see a village and town just somewhere she could sleep in a bed for a night before making her way back to Akihabara properly. She frowned again as she realised that Akihabara was now to be her home, with her actions of running away to the city to raise an army without her grandfathers permission she had disgraced her family. It may have been the right thing to do and she would still do the same action without a second thought but by openly defying her grandfather in a place where others could see and spread the news it would give the impression to others that she didn't care about her grandfathers order sand openly defied him.
Actions like hers could easily foster rebellion something which could be disastrous for the entirety of Eastal and her family. The largest force of goblins that Yamato had ever seen was on the move and with adventurers gaining intelligence and now being able to outcompete the people of the land in such a short term it caused large amounts of tension. If her grandfather failed to defend the kingdom in such a crisis it would make him appear weak and with their society weak rulers were either killed and replaced or manipulated. The latter would never happen as her grandfather had a strong mind however the first option was far easier since the kingdom of Eastal could not beat the goblins in a fight and they also didn't have access to the Izumo knights for protection. The adventurers were the only option they had left for their people to survive and if she had to sacrifice her role in her family for her brother, grandfather and people to survive than she would do so.
Plus there was the fact that Akihabara seemed far more accepting of women there was even a woman on the round table though she had to meet her and they had also sent a woman called Henrietta as well as Akatsuki to represent the city. This would be considered an insult to the nobility yet their natural abilities had impressed them not to mention the adventurers had access to brilliant food that came in all sorts of types. The shop called Britannia also had an amazing selection of anything that a person could want in life, it had only been the smallest of trips while Shiroe and Crusty had taken her to get some casual clothes for her stay at Akihabara but it was wondrous. It was a shame about the lack of houses and stalls but the leader of Britannia was managing that to and with group effort was solving the problems rapidly. She really wished that she had more time to look around Britannia before she was put on a boat and told that she would be going into a warzone but she liked what she saw.
Clang
Clash
Her blue eyes turned to her right as she managed to hear sounds in the distance, having grown up in a castle where knights regularly practise it was easy to tell that people were fighting however people weren't suppose to do it on the open road. She was both curious and scared; perhaps it was bandits they had been given more freedom to act with the adventurers staying in their city alone no longer patrolling the roads. Or perhaps it was part of Crusty's group and they could tell her how to get to him. Drawing her sword to be careful just in case she moved towards the direction of where the sounds had come from, to do this she moved from tree to tree using them as cover while she looked for anyone who might find her. Soon enough she came across a big bush which would hide her from anyone who would look in her direction, she promptly took advantage of this bush and watched the people fight.
Actually she changed her mind this wasn't a fight it was a slaughter, a wagon had been turned on its side and lying on the floor with its own blood pooling around it was a horse that was neighing weakly as arrows protruded from its stomach. Her fear only escalated however when she saw the rest of the scene, a man picked himself up from the floor before limping to his wagon in hopes of picking an item up. As soon as he touched the wagon though an arrow shot through his skull killing him instantly and shattering him into bubbles. A scream came after instantly as a woman likely the man's wife went onto the floor looking at where the man had just been, her appearance was anything great and that was the likely reason why soon she collapsed to the floor holding her chest before she also turned into a pile of bubbles courtesy of an arrow. Immobilised by fear the princess didn't make any noise as she watched in horror as the cries of a baby were heard obviously waken up from the entire ruckus that had been made. The cries got louder and louder obviously irritating the murderers as one of the group picked the child up roughly by the head before dropping it onto the stool of the wagon. The next moment the cries ceased entirely as the sound of an arrow hit wood, the Princess closed her eyes and bowed her head giving the family a small prayer mentally as she watched the murderers laugh and then walk off.
She slinked back closer to the coast as something was made incredibly apparent to her, the people who had attacked the family were adventurers. There was no sort of uniform and their sheer size and power of their weapons would not be found on simple bandits whom her guard captain had stated only carried cheap materials. The other thing that was made apparent was the fact that the roads weren't safe at all; in fact the roads were likely the most dangerous place to be on since that would be where people would look. Another thing that struck her with dread was the sheer brutality of those people they had butchered an entire family man woman and child all the while laughing truly they were despicable people who she would tell Crusty about when she found him. On the other hand she felt terrible she had done nothing to help those people citizens of her grandfathers kingdom all she had done was sit back and hide allow a family to be killed because of her inaction. She tried to defend her actions there was no way she could have survived an encounter and even if she had she would have been taken prisoner and likely used for certain purposed by those people. Yet despite this it did nothing she felt utterly guilty for not helping them and she could almost feel their accusing fingers pointing at her asking why she didn't help them.
She shook her head in a desperate attempt to take away the guilt but it didn't help her in the slightest she still felt guilty for not helping those people when she had a weapon. As for those adventurers she was wondering why would the kind people who had offered to protect her home do such a thing. Surely they couldn't be after money they had a lot from their quests and those who owned shops were starting to become more wealthy since the catastrophe, it also couldn't be to gain experience those adventurers would get nothing from killing a small group of helpless people so that could leave only one option. Cruelty, were these adventurers just really cruel people who enjoyed killing innocent people and hit it behind their helpful exterior killing anyone they wished. It made sense she and every other person in Yamato had heard that Adventurers cared nothing for them, barging into people homes and stealing their possessions all the while the citizens could do nothing but watch.
On the other hand she had heard that in general that crimes from adventurers had stopped since they had kept themselves to that city of theirs as well as those who did venture out seemed to realise that it was wrong to break into people's houses and steal their belongings. It was like the sudden gain in sentience had made them nicer people than before there were even talks from Crusty that Lord Tempest wished to open up a hospital. She had no idea what a hospital actually was but from what she had gathered it was like a giant apothecary where doctors worked and sued medicine to heal people and most strangely at all Crusty stated that it would be free to use for all of Akihabara's citizens. Naturally she wondered how would this even be possible doctors and physicians were incredibly expensive to the point that only the rich could afford one so she wondered how would Lord Tempest pay for such a huge amount. Not to mention how would it work most physicians worked alone so the idea of keeping so many in a single place seemed strange, after all wouldn't they just get in each other's way than again with how organised and advanced adventurers were they would likely sort it all out and embarrass the people of the land again with their abilities.
She smiled slightly as she realised that despite her incredibly small amount of time at the city that she had in fact come to like it and wished to see it grow in the future. As for the adventurers that had attacked that family more than likely it was a bunch of rogue adventurers and as soon as she reported it to Crusty there would be the equivalent of guard looking for these people and bring them to justice. She had no doubt about that and it would likely happen since she didn't see any of the Eastal lords sending out their own group of guards to try and capture some potential incredibly dangerous targets.
Later
She didn't know how long she had been walking before she finally caught a glimpse of some type of salvation; it was in the early hours of the afternoon going by where the sun was in the sky. With the heat that blasted down upon her on this warm day her eyes managed to locate a stack of wood in the distance forcing her to smile, the reason for this was that as she approached closer she was able to work out that this stack of wood was a building of some kin. In her mind she could already see some type of old man who would be willing to allow her to sleep in a bed for a short amount of time allowing her to rest her tired and weary body all for a few coins.
With the promise of some rest in the future she hurriedly made her way to the front of the small single floored house, it was nothing special but it would be better than nothing and allow her to get out of the blazing hot weather she had experienced. Walking up to the front of the house she noticed that it had been left open, that was a bit strange but there was always the chance that the owner was away somewhere.
She waited a short time for the owner to return but she could feel her strength draining away from her body and her eyes drooping, she realised that soon she would be asleep and besides this wooden walkway in front of the house she had nothing to sleep in. For this reason she walked into the house and saw something she wasn't expecting to see ever.
Multiple beds lined the small hut with chests at the bottom of them as well as what seemed to be a table and writing equipment at one end, finally at the other end was a small cooking area that could be used. Strangely though all of this seemed to be in really god condition, she didn't waste any time though she could feel her body trying to collapse from under her and escape to the dream world. Choosing a bed she quickly piled in and rested her head onto the pillows and covered herself up yawning before her eyes closed and she fell to sleep instantly. Already she knew that if she was in a person's house she could always be woken up and then sort the problem out with a person later, thankfully for her she didn't wake up until the sun rose the next day granting her a good amount of much needed sleep.
9 August 2027
Akihabara
Water hammered the city as it feel from high above, dark clouds thundered and lightning struck around the city, Within the old city people dashed quickly to keep themselves out of the rain however a larger and more concerned group waiting elsewhere. They gathered like a cloud as they waited in anticipation outside the Cathedral waiting for a magnificent white light to come and bring back certain people from the dead. It never came however no matter how much people waited desperately, to any that were observant they would be able to feel that there was a growing realisation that something had happened.
Three days had passed since the AEF had confronted the goblins at Chousa, three days since they had been wiped out entirely leaving only the youngest member in charge. In those three days while nothing had been stated the people were beginning to realise something was horribly wrong, over a thousand adventurers had gone north to assist their comrades in Eastal and as of yet no contact could be made with them and nobody had respawned. The only thing they did know was a few last messages given to them by some players who were out on the front, while it didn't say exactly what had happened to them one message was very much clear.
Plant Hwyaden had attacked the AEF and somehow cut off communication with the rest of the players, some believed optimistically at first that they had been captured but others knew better. The people who had been part of the AEF and was in people's friends list had vanished without a single trace preventing any sort of communication left in the dark. It wouldn't be long before there was a general consensus among the citizens that somehow Plant Hwyaden had managed to permanently kill them off. So even as lit candles began to be extinguished in the flame while other people tried to cover them up there was a general growing sense of dread in the city. Meanwhile up in the tallest tower the last leader of Akihabara looked at the city below.
Disaster was looming, Nat could see it he had kept the information about death caskets an absolute secret and had already announced to the citizens that the last message he had gotten was about Plant Hwyaden attacking and then silence. It had kept the populace quite for a bit but soon enough conclusions would be made and when they came to the ultimate conclusion the social stability would break down. With all the leaders bar himself gone as well as all the muscle Akihabara was a place that ran purely by respect with no actual way to enforce the rules and soon enough with the shields protecting Akihabara alongside the Cathedral and Guild House being the only things still active riots would start.
However he had already taken steps to quell the damage before it destroyed everything, with the knowledge that all the AEF was dead it was obvious that soon more radical groups would try to take power. These weren't the groups who wanted to have a parliament no instead it was Eins communists, Anarchists, Fascists as well as other guilds who had already gone to the extreme and wanted to take absolute power. With a looming threat of possible invasion and siege he could not afford to have these people weaken the stability and allow for chaos to run wild or worse have them be contacted by Plant Hwyaden.
For this reason, his operatives were already working on placing them into a sleep that they would never awake from and threaten the safety of the city. One by one the active members of this group would be found, and then executed via a few bullets; he would leave those who were sympathetic to their cause alone since at this moment he did not have the support to be interning certain groups of people. Once these people would be taken out their hideouts would be arranged to give the impression that these people had been preparing for a secret excursion to find the other members of the round table council. It wasn't perfect and some people were bound to suspect his hand in the disappearances but as of yet he did not have a negative reputation if that happened than a revolution was at risk.
He needed to keep power in the city but he couldn't afford to make people fear him and want to overthrow him something which would again throw the city into chaos then again it would still be difficult as he controlled the wards and Cathedral as well as the now recently purchased guild meeting hall. The extreme groups like communists and Fascists would try to take over violently something which could now be done and it was why he had to take them out before they had the chance to gain enough support from them to become a truly credible threat.
While he dealt with them he still had to contend with the other issues that arose and made people take the more extreme options when it came to politics and that was the social problems. He was still carrying on with the houses as it was needed and when it was announced by the leaders of recently y established construction guilds that he had been the one purely responsible for putting this plan into action it had tilted the public perspective in his favour. However there were other problems and one of the biggest was economical, while he had secured the vital buildings of Akihabara not everybody had large sources of gold stacked away like he had and had to rely on jobs. The income of the city had relied on the combat guild's leaving and fighting monsters before then spending their cash in the city but with most of them gone and with the city about to go under siege the money in the city currently would be all the money the city would have for the foreseeable future.
With a siege came panic, people would hide their gold to keep for when it was needed less they risk not having it when they did, sure enough with time those who didn't have money would resent those that did. This could raise tensions in the city as well as crime not to mention that even with his more powerful charms on Britannia the citizens would start to suspect how he could feed a store as well stocked as is constantly. He knew to handle this that he would have to dismantle his replication spell on the food and other products to stop suspicion as well as implement rationing. As soon as the news of the siege hit people would flock to buy as much food as possible and that would leave others to starve which again could lead to massive disasters and riots. He had no idea how long this siege would last for however his current no magically enhanced stores without any "true preparation" could probably last to the end of the year with rationing afterwards he would have to find new sources.
Of course though Akihabara would only win this if they stopped their enemy from not only feeding but also from drinking, already he had taken some of the natural animal inhabitants of this land. It was enough to maintain a small population from scratch after the war but as for every other animal and edible plant it would have to be destroyed and the same for water it would have to be poisoned. He needed the enemy to break and die with any luck the goblins could then perhaps smash the weakened and broken Plant Hwyaden giving him a far easier opponent to handle. On the other hand if Akihabara did win this war than there would be a long arduous rebuilding, not only for its society as people would have to take on the moniker of adventures and regain the economy but also of the land itself. Land would be destroyed, plants and food burnt as well as animals nonexistent not to mention gathering what few survivors there would be and brining them to Akihabara to help rebuild.
Without doubt if he was successful than there was a dark future ahead of them, Akihabara would be weak and any outside attacker would see a virtually barren island ripe for conquest. As for the people themselves he had a feeling that if there was a parliament he wouldn't be elected come the end of the siege as he would not make peace with Plant Hwyaden and that would likely anger a lot of people. Some like him wouldn't surrender others would wish to appease Nureha at the start however as time wore on people would lose their reliance and would just wish to return to normal life. Not having to worry about their children starving or things like disease was an important thing to them and if they could have a less dangerous life in trade for security than they would have it.
The coming few months would truly be a test for the city and his own abilities, should he fail then everything he had worked towards over these last few days would be lost and not to be seen again. And for this reason he should have a backup plan one to be put in place if everything did go wrong besides his best efforts, his best plan would be to take the warships and technology he had acquired and sail to the other side of the world. His choice of country to rebuild in would be obvious this words version of Britain would provide a good starting place. He may have to start everything over again from scratch but with the possible result of the coming events it would be better there than this current island that was going through mass pandemonium.
Gazing upwards from the city and then to the horizon where the heavens poured with might force he saw the beginning of these hardships. A mix of lights flickered on the horizon, white, green, red and other colours didn't have the same colour and distortion as flame did indicating that magic had been used to create them. Behind though were the typical colours of light that was made by fire and held in torches, with such a large host of light slowly making its way towards them the owners of this light was recognised. Nat waited watching them carefully as they got closer while they already were in firing range he would rather wait until a larger group had emerged rather than strike the front line.
Taking some of his powerful binoculars he took a closer, they were soaking their old fashioned cloth apparel clinging to them like a second skin revealing those who were only wearing light their rather fit bodies. As well as this they carried weapons in their hands whether it were staffs for magic, bows and arrows or other over sized melee weapons, they were confident as they kept moving forward likely believing that the canals they would soon come across would be shallow.
All ready his guns had picked out the targets and had prepared themselves to fire on the enemy all they needed now was an order to fire. Nat waited longer allowing the group to be unhindered as they approached the first canal obviously planning on walking through it like a stream. He kept calm as he accepted a cup of tea as it hovered over to his position floating in the air happily before the cup then lifted off its small plate and into his hand where he then took a small sip.
Splash
"Ahhh its de ugh"
Boom, Boom, Boom
Hidden by enchantments the guns let loose hell firing high explosive shells screaming into the air past the speed of sound before then whizzing fiercely towards the opponent and then cracking the ground as it unveiled its payloads. Plumes of fire rose on the horizon as the intensity of the high explosion blasted apart it surroundings sending chunks of earth and splashed of water colliding into the ground while obliterating any piece of flesh nearby. Arms as well as other body parts ascended in to the air with mighty blood red stains coating it surroundings in the colours in the liquid like a fine rain only for it soon to be cleaned of their body as the drops of water came over their bodies and wiped them clean.
Panic over took the first people at the river as they looked upwards from their positions on the ground getting covered in rain water while mud, blood and other parts began to plummet back to earth. Dazed people patted their eardrums as they began to hear things again only to then scream loudly and intensely as they looked at their torso only to see entire limbs had disappeared from their bodies. Others who had been lucky enough to not suddenly have parts of their limbs ripped off them joined in the screaming to as they felt their faces be splattered in blood or felt a strange weigh on their stomach to see just chunks of red paste on them. Some of these people simply tipped their heads downwards and towards the floor balancing their body in a crawl position before they then vomited up the contents of their stomach. As for other people there were brief moments of some terrified expressions of people as they floated in the water desperately hoping for help as they remembered that either they couldn't swim or that the amount of stuff they were wearing was stopping them from swimming and was being dragged underwater by the liquid.
Boom, Boom, Boom
Explosions rattled the ground as it pushed apart anything within its way decimating them into small chunks which was then spewed all over the place. A sudden mounting horror struck the attackers as they realised that they were being attacked by the defenders, in their mind it was by well hidden mages using fireball magic. Despite the advancements in magical technology that Westerlande had made it didn't suspect the idea of artillery as besides the detonation at their end there was no sound of artillery fire.
"Charge" It was a brave attempt by one of the attackers as they tried to encourage their allies running headfirst into the cold waters of the canal and then trying to swim across it. For the moment though it worked and with a war cry of "For the Queen" they threw themselves towards the enemy kilometres' away which while not looking anything as grand as it had once still showed life.
Nat watched bored as he continued to watch flashed of light strike the terrain and send chunks of what was once land into the air like a mighty catapult assaulting the castle. Now that the initial strike had begun he knew that there would be survivors so he informed the machine guns the open fire allowing them to spew multiple pieces of led into the surrounding area. As these pieces of small metal pulverised the enemy front line he could see that the rather reluctant members of Nureha's army back off as they looked at the water with uncertainty as the ever increasing amount of dead bodies that either floated or were turned to bubbles. Fear was etched onto some incredibly easily but their moral broke when shells landed in the middle of their groups and splattered their bodies like jam all over the place calling for a quick and screaming retreat.
The group of adventurers at the back looked at this and seeing the front line be hammered by constant magical artillery they decided that with dark skies wet weather and a lot of defences and not enough men that it would also be a good idea to back off in the mean time. The front however was neither in such a privileged position to be able to run away or deemed those who did as cowards and recklessly pushed forward ultimately to their death as high explosive shells and bullets cut them down.
After half an hour this brief incursion had been finished, thousands of bodies lay dead most consisting of people of the land however this made sense as they were the larger less protected group. Most of the bodies had vanished like they typically did in a swarm if bubbles and cute music but others had remained behind as a reminder of what had just occurred. With a small sigh Nat placed his cup of tea down before equipping his own equipment and then apparating to the sight of where the battle had just occurred.
Even now with the broken bodies that covered the felids Nat knew that there was at least some who had either hidden themselves or were still inured and wanting to get help. With ease and simplicity he approached the closet dead body then he raised his gun at it and pulled the trigger putting three holes into their chest. The body had already been a corpse but it was better to make sure in case where afterwards he then approached the body after that one and repeated the process. After a small amount of time he heard a scream for help, he approached. The one who had called out for help was crawling around the dirt tears in his eyes as he looked helplessly at his surroundings, it was obvious that the man had been unlucky as shown by his legs just being two bloody stumps barely hanging onto his torso by a few threads of skin. There was no hesitation from the wizard as his simply chose his target and then promptly pulled the trigger unleashing a few bullets that smacked into his back pushing him forward for the briefest moments due to the force before his head fell forward into the mud. There was another cry for help and a moan of pain turning his attention on to them he made his way to finish of his enemies.
He had no wish to kill so many people he had never wished to kill a person in his life, he had hoped that this sort of action wasn't needed but he knew it would happen again. Conflict was the one thing which present in all sentient beings and it would forever be so, this likely wouldn't be the only war or battle he would fight where people were killed. Many more were going to be killed as the future went on; he had to ensure though that for the sake of Akihabara as he had the duty to protect it by being a member of the round table council that the city was still standing and protected from its enemies no matter what had to be done.
The future would be quite difficult, the citizens would have heard the shells exploding in the distance however he didn't need to worry. When everybody was dead he would remove all traces of the battle. Worries and opinions would run high as soon as they were under siege something he could use but for now if the people learned that he had just killed thousands of people for no reason with powerful weapons than the citizens would turn against him. Had he been back home on Earth he never would have had the power to hide something like this but now he could and as a gift from him why not allow the citizens to have as many peaceful days as they could. Ignorance was bliss and it wasn't the feelings of being in battle that scared you more rather it was the waiting always the dreaded waiting. When minds pictured everything that went before and made the person anxious as they go by stories compare that to actual combat however when a person's natural instincts cut in. You never had a chance to consciously think it was always unconscious everything you did, whether it was to stand your ground or run away or even a split second choice of tactics it was all made unconsciously. By keeping the news of an imminent attack to himself with no proof than he helped to calm down the panic even as some of the smarter people realised that one was inevitable.
After all soon those people would be living under constant attack and knowing that at any moment they could be killed and never come back holding on to their precious memories of when things were calmer and kinder. Soon they would likely know hunger as he would have to take away his infinite supplies of food and other items from his store and ration them out something which would cause fury. Either way the few months of peace that Akihabara had known would be over very shortly and when eventually peace did some gain the world would be a very different one to the one they knew before.
Finally when he had ensured that nobody besides him was left alive and he had gotten rid of the bodies via magic he looked up towards the moon as its brilliant bright white light illuminated everything including the rain drops which avoided his clothes due to magic. This was only the beginning of the war but soon enough he would likely have the full wrath of Nureha coming down across him all the while he would have to be a cliff that stood against the waves.
Since Magic and Gods has been cancelled I have an idea for a story to replace it head over to my profile and vote if you're interested