God Rising: The Cult of Ainz

Written by: AtheistBasementDragon

Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots

Chapter 173: Wheatled Down to Nothing

AN: Yeah the fall of Wheaton was grim. But... actions have consequences, sometimes the worst of which, is living with them. Of course, reviews are welcome, the story release rate will drop starting tomorrow, but... no worries, there are only about 27 chapters left anyway, maybe even less. Then we move into 'The Synod' and I wrap that one up, as well as the others, and that will be the end of the God Rising Author Universe. I'll put an AN into place with notes for unwritten stories if anyone wants to take them up, but I'll be moving on to my own original works. Might do a one shot every now and then here, but I was thinking I'd try to write a Tanya fic, say a version of the North African campaign or something, we'll see, still kicking around ideas. Time will tell.

...Ruins of Wheaton...

Skana wrote in solitude after the meeting, having sent CZ to look after Neia, which she did from atop the tower. Outside, the bodies were being piled in heaps, there was no care for rank or station, the poorest pauper piled atop the fattest merchant, and nobody cared. Some of the citizens who lived could not even be properly 'herded' they walked in a daze, like zombies, in too great a shock even to cry.

Parents mumbled nonsensical sounds that were supposed to be words. Some wailed over bodies of lost loved ones. Some shook the dead as if doing so would wake them. Dirt and dust became a deep red brown mud thanks to the blood that stained faces. Burned out or blasted hulks of buildings were still falling down, and sometimes this added a few more to the casualty lists, as ruined minds lost the ability to understand danger, and died for their failure.

The largest city in the Southern region of the Slane Theocracy had its population reduced to the size of a small town. The dead far outnumbered the living. It remained to be seen how many had fled before the fighting began, but as she wrote word after word, Skana felt as if she were cutting into her wife's own flesh with her quill.

She broke eleven out of sheer uncontrolled anger of them as she wrote, before finally finishing with the twelfth one, it had taken two quills each just to write the concerns of Gagaran and Evileye. To put the word 'monster' or 'threat' near her wife's name ripped her guts apart from the inside, but she managed. It was far easier to deal with raw numbers.

Total casualty estimates were twenty five hundred of Neia's soldiers, similar numbers among the northern army brought by Zesshi Zetsumei, and another five thousand among the untrained and poorly armed local elves. In contrast, the Theocracy forces of twenty five thousand soldiers and seventeen thousand estimated militia were entirely exterminated. She looked down at the document, her eye honed in on those numbers. Fire consumed most of the districts, there were no prisoners, and nobody had acknowledged that anyone had even tried to surrender.

What troubled her most however, was that she couldn't remember anyone trying either. 'Are they lying... or... did they just not recognize when people were trying to give up?' She wondered, and no matter how she thought of it, she found no answers.

"A total victory..." Skana stood up and walked to the window and looked outside, her hands folded behind her back, she could hear the sound of soldiers fighting fires, the cries of the wounded and terrified surviving citizens; she thought about the stories bards sang in her village, when she still had a village. 'They never describe this, when they talk about victory.' She thought, she could smell blood, shit, piss, and festering wounds. The cries of the anguished and the wails of those who were mourning the loved ones they'd lost. "War... it's a terrible... terrible thing. Maybe there are times it must be waged, but whoever argues for it, had better think long and hard before saying it must be undertaken."

She put her hands on the bottom of the window and leaned out a bit, a few secured citizens trudged by under guard, one of them saw her, and his glare of hate pierced her soul. 'I should put him down... before he can rise up, that's what Neia would do... she showed me again and again that my mercy toward the Theocracy was dangerous... no, I can't. I'm not Neia, and the fact is, she 'would' do it... but she would not want 'me' to do it.' She cast off the thought almost as fast as it had come up, and watched a soldier with a halberd press it to the glaring man's shoulder and push him forward, back to wherever he was being taken.

As she looked out over the ruins of the once great metropolis, she found something quite unthought of, coming to her consciousness. As corpses were piled up for disposal, she discovered that she didn't give a damn. Bad as she could acknowledge it in all ways, there was only one concern. And she was asleep elsewhere. The traces of a thin smile began to take shape and she turned her eyes to the Northwest. Towards Kami Miyako. "One more push, and it'll end." She said longingly and stretched her hand out the window reaching out and grab the sun itself as it set in the direction of the city she hated, as if it dared to protect the cursed place, she closed her fist, wishing to crush the light in her fist.

Seething rage seeped between her teeth as she spoke through a clenched jaw. "Hear that, you sons of bitches... we're coming for you, and you're going to die, then I can finally have her back! I'll have her back even if I have to kill you all!" She ground her teeth in fury, until a knock on the other side of the door, echoed into the council chamber where she stewed.

"What?!" She asked sharply as she smacked her lips in impotent frustration.

The door opened, and Inta walked into the room. "Ma'am, Neia is awake. She's asking for you... and a stamina potion."

Skana couldn't move fast enough for her liking, she snatched up the document she'd compiled and stuffed it into the pouch at her side and rushed out of the room as fast as she could move. Through the governing hall, up the stairs, and to the upper floor where the late governor had slept. She flung the door open then back behind her so hard that the door slammed into the frame and cracks radiated outward from the impact points.

Neia was sitting up in bed; her scars were gone, all injuries vanished, but she didn't look like herself. Her eyes were heavy, her arms hung limp at her sides, the way she lay reminded Skana of the way her mother had looked after giving birth to her younger brother, an hour or two before both had passed away.

There wasn't a monster in the bed, just a very tired person. Skana rushed to her bedside and wrapped her arms around Neia at the neck and pulled her in. "God damn you... God damn you..." She whispered as she stroked her wife's head. "You have no idea how worried we were, I was."

She waited for Neia to say something, but the legendary speaker had no words in her, she just lay there and let her comrade hold her. "I'm so glad you're alright."

"Sorry..." Neia muttered without looking up. "I'm fine now, I just... I pushed myself too hard, I can't recall everything, it's kind of hazy, I just got so angry..."

"So did a lot of people." Skana said neutrally.

She felt Neia go tense and look up, she didn't look 'at all' like the terror of the Theocracy, or a monster, or a threat. She looked like what she really was, just a very young woman, tougher than most perhaps, more experienced in the worst ways, least experienced in the best ways. But it was a rare moment, one in which Skana was reminded that the one she'd admired for years now, was much younger than she seemed, barely twenty, or perhaps twenty one. 'Wait... I never even asked her birthday, with everything happening it... I guess it just slipped both our minds.' She realized with a half bitter laugh held in check until it came out as a cough.

"What happened? Let me see the report, bring me a stamina potion and let me get back to work!" Neia's voice started to become stronger, more urgent, Skana glanced down and Neia's eyelids were moving rapidly as she was returning to herself as the embodiment of her role.

"No, absolutely not." Skana replied, "You're not moving from this bed, even if His Majesty himself commands it, I will argue with him to keep you where you are!" Skana said emphatically.

"You can't argue with a god." Neia chortled and shook her head.

"You're damn right I can, and a spouse who wouldn't argue with a god for their beloved, doesn't deserve either of them." Skana said emphatically, "Besides, he'd listen if it came down to it, he's been good to us."

Neia sighed, "Well, I can at least read, give me the report that will be going up. I need to know that much at least. I'm not tired, I can manage that much, just get me a stamina potion to give me a boost."

Skana chuckled, "You're not fooling anyone, what you did clearly took a lot out of you, yes a stamina potion would get you back on your feet, but a little rest for your mind would be one good thing that a stamina potion can't replace. Just lie in bed for a bit, I've got this covered.

Neia lifted her noodle-like arms and wrapped them around her wife. "You know best." She took a deep breath and squeezed, Skana didn't notice that her wife had surreptitiously slipped the document out of the pouch and tucked it away.

"You just lie there, let me go get something prepared for you to eat, then you can get a hot bath and relax, I'll handle getting the soldiers ordered, everything will be ready for you, just recover a bit. I'll be back soon." Skana said with a crooked smile on her face, she stroked Neia's back, and pulled the covers up to ensure the Black Paladin was comfortable, then stepped away.

"Alright, you go ahead, I'll just... lie right here, maybe not because I want to, but I will." Neia said wryly.

Skana stepped away, stopping a few feet from the door, looking at the diminutive figure where she was, and Neia just kept looking back without saying a word. The moment broke, and Skana turned to the door, opened it, and exited.

As soon as the door closed, Neia pulled the document out to read it. "She worries so damned much... I'm fine. All I have to do is a little bit more, I guess a little nap wouldn't hurt, I did take a lot out of myself for that but... it's not like I'm 'really' tired. Just depleted." She said to the empty room, the walls gave silent agreement as she started to read. 'Probably shouldn't have slipped it from her, but she's just being silly and overprotective, I'll apologize to her later.' Neia thought to herself as she started to go over the list of recorded actions, casualties, and performance assessments.

The first sense that something was really wrong as she lay there reading were the casualty numbers. Neia bit her lip until it split, and didn't notice the blood dripping down her chin until it hit the paper.

"Fuck!" She snapped and wiped it away, then kept reading, ignoring the question of just where that blood had come from. "No... how...? How did so many..." The numbers of casualties for her side were minimal, but the casualties for the city, only seven soldiers of the Slane Theocracy survived. Out of the population... Neia felt the knot form in her stomach.

"How could this happen?" She blithely wondered as she tried to recall the events, and they began to return to mind. "No... did I...?" She flipped the document over to the assessment. "Monster... threat to herself and everyone else? Gagaran and Evileye said this..." The stamp at the bottom meant it was complete. But it was hard to believe until she had every moment of the battle back in her memory where it belonged.

Neia read through it over and over again as details of the fight came rushing back like rain returning to the earth from whence it came. When she was satisfied she'd missed nothing, she reached over to her own pack and pulled a message scroll out. She closed the document and requested a courier from Nazarick. Within minutes the report would be in His Majesty's hands, and after that, it would be in the hands of all the others. What happened after that, she knew she'd just have to live with, whatever it was.

That left only the question of what to say to the Vice Commander. 'Do I tell her I saw it? No... no there's no need, she'll just worry more, I'll just tell her she must have dropped it, and that I sent it along for her.' She quickly reached a conclusion that seemed the best option to her in the moment, and inched herself further down into the bed, and just vacantly stared up at the ceiling.

Skana was relieved. Neia was at rest, she would recover. The events of the battle ran through her head, she wondered what she should have done differently, and she was still wondering when she stopped at the area serving as a dining area for the building. One of the former elf slaves was working on some ingredients, whatever it was, it smelled fantastic. She could see him chopping up onions and various other vegetables, and going seamlessly from that to snatching up a handful of spices and sprinkling it all into a pot that would shortly be used to prepare all that as a stew. His implements neatly ordered, his rapid motions clearly spoke of long practice. His hands practically flew as if they had minds of their own.

"Excuse me, I need a bowl of stew and some bread prepared and sent up to General Baraja as soon as it can be managed. She's confined to her bed for a little while, and I'd rather she not have to get up. Can you handle it?" Skana asked pleasantly as she looked around the room. It was shockingly well organized, a definitive order to the placement of every kind of ingredient on hastily put together shelves made of broken wood and stacked up broken bricks. Crude conditions or not, the elf serving as a cook seemed to have done a bangup job getting his work area organized as fast as possible.

"For the general?" He asked, joy flooded his eyes, "She cut my chains with her own sword... for her... anything!"

Skana managed a little nod, "Good, she's in the late governor's bedroom, you can find your way there... yes? Or do you need a guide?" She asked.

"I can do it, it'll be no problem, ma'am." The elf said and his preparation speed began to move so quickly that she wondered as she left the room if there was a martial art used expressly by chefs.

"Next on the list, get that report sent out, and then check with the quartermaster, and..." She hesitated, as she'd been speaking, her hand had gone into her pouch, and found the document missing.

"No." She rummaged frantically through the pouch as she said the now hated term, papers and other small things rustled around as her fingers flew from one to the next and curses flew past her lips like bees from a distrubed nest. When she didn't find it, she retraced her path, stopping every person along the way to ask if they had found a sheet of paper, and every time she heard another 'no' or 'I'm afraid not', her heart constricted a little more in her chest until she came back to Neia's temporary quarters.

She opened the door, more gingerly this time, and found Neia quiet and where she'd left her. "Neia..." Skana asked as evenly as she could when the door slid open enough to admit her, "Did you... by chance, find a sheet of paper, after I left earlier?"

Neia didn't sit up, she lay with her arms spread out as if the ceiling were going to come down and embrace her, but she did answer. She called on the power of her persuasive voice and said as cheerfully as she could, "Oh, that? Yes, I did, I saw the heading and sent it on to Nazarick. Wasn't it finished?" She asked patiently, now putting a little concern into her voice to disguise where her thoughts really lay.

"Oh, yes, not to worry, you didn't send over an unfinished one, but... you know, we can't have those just floating around, I'll have to be more careful next time!" Skana said hurriedly as her mind raced.

"Not to worry then, I found it, and sent it on. His Majesty should have it now." Neia answered as if to put her wife at ease.

It was effective enough that she could feel, even without seeing it, that the tension left Skana's body. 'Oh my love... you're so... naive, innocent even, in some ways.' Neia thought, as the one eyed Vice Commander seemed to have concluded what Neia wanted her to.

"So... stamina potion, food, or wine, bring me one of those or better yet, all of those, or at least something to read. I'm bored. I can't just lie here like the dead." She said with just a little snark in her voice and a smirk to match. She flopped her arms dramatically and just 'didn't move', she just stared up at her wife looking desperately, desperately bored.

"Well, I ordered food, I'll see to some wine and something to read, I'm sure His Majesty will be pleased that the city has been captured, and we'll get a day of rest before you have to go to the assembly. So for now, just do nothing, let me do everything." Skana took Neia's hand in hers, "Just like out there, I'll watch your back, lots of people in this world, they'll try to get you from behind, but they won't, not if I can help it, not as long as I'm alive."

"That makes me feel better." Neia said and she let her eyes close part way, as they did, Skana felt herself get lost within them, to her... they were beautiful deep pools into which she wished to dive, so different than the face she saw turn around in the Breaker Academy.

'It's like she's another person...' Skana thought to herself, and sat on the bed beside her wife, deciding to stay awhile longer, the Quartermaster could wait, this was more important, at least to her.

...Forton...

"Welcome to my home." Aorli said with a deep bow to Queen Draudillon.

The Queen looked around the room as soon as she stepped through it, "Oh my god..."

Aorli smiled sweetly. "You approve, Your Majesty?"

"What is this place?" The Queen asked with her mouth agape even as she tried to retain her royal bearing.

"This is the council building and my primary residence. I have been afforded this after a locke count chose me for the position of city governor." Aorli said sweetly as she retained her bow.

"Please, raise your head," the Queen began as she remembered her manners and continued to look around her, the stone was countless swirling patterns of black and white stone, in the center of the room, up on the ceiling, was the emblem of Ainz Ooal Gown, while down on the center, etched into the stone in a glowing red, were the names of the vassal kingdoms.

As she saw the Queen's eyes take it all in, Aorli pointed above, "The high king above," she let her hand fall to the list, "all else below, as it should be, when there is a true king worthy of such a place."

"Forgive me, but... I don't know you?" The Queen said with some embarrassment.

"You wouldn't, I expect, please follow me to your quarters. Until some time ago, I was nothing. A few people changed that." She walked gracefully away and the Queen fell into step beside her. "I was a... resident, of Kami Miyako." Aorli explained in a hushed voice, the tension of the muscles on her pronounced, sharp elven features, was impossible for the Queen to miss.

Draudillon didn't say anything. "Yes, that is the appropriate response, Your Majesty." They walked down the long hall, and she continued, "I was rescued by His Majesty during a failed Theocracy plot to manipulate the Re-Estize Kingdom, you might have heard that much, but I doubt my name came up as one you'd remember. But... I would wager you know my half-sister, Queen Zesshi Zetsumei. That was where we encountered one another, I'm part of why she abandoned the Theocracy to join with the god of the elves."

"God of the elves?" Queen Draudillon asked doubtfully, looking away at the intricate art hanging on polished stone walls, all of it depicted nature scenes, fitting for an elf region. "And... what is 'counting lockes?" She probed further.

Aorli looked apologetic, blushing a little as she used expressions that were clearly alien. "Oh, I'm sorry, I should explain. Most of the elves in Forton, and the other two cities, we worship the Sorcerer King as god of the elves. Unlike Neia Baraja, who has become something of a patron saint for us, we don't worship him in one single aspect, but as the entirety of what matters most, the savior of our race. Some focus on a single aspect or value for themselves, but for most of us, he is worshipped not for the shining example of his character traits, but for the thing he did which gave us back our souls. Saving us from our bondage."

"I guess that makes sense." The Queen replied in an understanding tone.

"As for counting lockes, it's how we choose public officials, none of the elven nobility made it here, so to choose leaders, every elf grows one finger length of hair extra beyond the rest and, when it comes time to choose a leader, they go to the collection station, cut that locke off, bind it in cloth the color of their favored candidate, and then the bands are counted. Frankly I think I won only because I was personally freed by His Majesty, and my half sister was a General in his army at the time." Aorli looked a little embarrassed at the admission of why the position had come to her, but her face tightened up and she pursed her lips.

"I am determined to do a good job hough! His Majesty gave me undead labor, advisors, access to his library, and supplies to let us all rebuild. The reason why I have 'this' and what I wear..." she spun briefly to encompass the luxury and then touched the fabric of her marvelous clothing, "is because I think I touched a nerve with him in a brief conversation. I... talked about the way I lived before, the misery, the filth, the drabness, I guess it reminded him of something else, because the next thing I know... all this was made for my use. I guess it might also be his way of saying, 'Now you have a lot to earn.' If so, I'll live up to it, that is for sure." Aorli said with vigor and determination as she stopped in front of a door. "But I'm rambling, sorry to go on over that simple question." She became visibly shy for a moment, but Draudillon gave a regal smile in return.

"It's alright, you'll learn how to control that over time, it really is interesting though, such a fascinating way to govern, and, if it isn't too hard to speak of, I'd love to hear your story some time." The Queen replied.

Aorli gestured into the room, it was carpeted wall to wall, had a large four poster bed with a thick quilt with the emblem of her country over the top of it, a mirror, a small private workstation, and a table with tea hot and waiting for consumption. "Thank you, Your Majesty, this is your room, some of the other delegates are already here, they've been trickling in as we've prepared quarters and their tasks have reached points at which they can be done without. All relevant reports on the latest actions will be delivered to you shortly, then if you'd like, you can join the other delegates and I in the dining hall tonight, the rest of them should arrive tomorrow, and we can begin."

"I look forward to it." Queen Draudillon replied kindly as she entered.

"As do I, an official servant has been assigned to you, and will join you soon. Please don't hesitate to ask for anything you need or want." Aorli added, and then as the Queen entered, Aorli bowed, and held the bow until the door was shut.