God Rising: The Cult of Ainz
Written by: AtheistBasementDragon
Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots
Chapter 205: Choke On It
...Kami Miyako...Residence of the Late Kasa...
Dominic looked out over the faces in front of him. "I will make this very simple. Yvon dies. Everybody who supports him dies. Everybody who supports those who supports him dies. Everybody who doesn't support him, gets to live. Stay out of the artisan district. Questions?"
A hand among the scores and scores went up. "Ah, Cardinal... 'why' are we staying out of the artisan district?" The curious young man asked hesitantly. "What if our... target... runs in there?"
Dominic laughed. "First, because I said so. Second, because it was the deal I made with Cardinal Raymond. He has autonomy there, and by the way, he does 'not' like Yvon. He'll not let Yvon use his little niche of the city as a place to hide when I strike. And third, there won't be any reason to go there anyway, because it won't be long, before Yvon has no supporters left, at least, none who matter."
...Streets of Kami Miyako...
'I've got to get back up... got... to fight... fight...' The young man thought desperately as he tried to force his body to rise, despite the broken spear through his guts that pinned him to the dirt, until he thought no more, and died. He was not dying alone. Around him were a dozen others in similar states of near death as the military supporters of Yvon finished him and his friends off.
"He was stubborn." A man in thick Theocracy platemail said, casting a glance at the new corpse that had been a struggling young man in his twenties.
"Yeah, funny to find them here though." His comrade said as he drew his spear back up with a sickening 'squelch' as it left the body of his victim. "They weren't that many, but it's like... it's like they were waiting."
One of their brethren was about to answer, when they all felt little 'tinks' ping off their armor. They glanced around, the open space of churned up red snow and muck in the open space in front of the corner home offered a clear view, but still for a moment they didn't see the cause... not until a dozen elves made their appearances known by stepping into view. Some held small stones as improvised range weapons, none wore armor, a few held kitchen knives and short swords.
"Looks like dinner came to us." A soldier said with grim mockery at the defiant slaves. "Lie down and I promise to make it quick." He said generously as his fellow soldiers drew their swords and formed up in greater numbers, with superior armor, shields, and weapons, ready to attack the barely armed livestock.
The elves, dirty, bedraggled, hungry, and with eyes filled with hate, held their weapons up defiantly. And then did the unexpected. One of them, 'waved' looking beyond the soldiers.
Instinctively, the soldiers looked behind them, where black cloaks stood atop the roofs of the homes nearby, effectively surrounding the common Theocracy soldiers.
"Lie down, and I'll make it quick." The elf in front said, mockingly as the Agante agents drew their enchanted long knives.
"The hell... working with Dominic's people... I don't know which one of you is lower..." The commander of the now surrounded band of Yvon supporters uttered as he racked his brain as a way to get out of the situation he found himself in.
"A piece of wisdom to your empty head before you die... you piece of shit. The enemy of my enemy, is my friend." The elf said bluntly, and the black cloaks jumped down from the rooftops, and charged only slightly faster than the elves.
"Fuck!" The commander shouted as the soldiers were beset on all sides, the dual wielded long knives proved effective at cutting through the armor, and elven hatred proved sufficient drive to get the elves to ignore any injuries they sustained as they fell on those who would turn them into food. The commander fell with a kitchen knife shoved through his helmet and into his eye, he didn't get another word out, and could have asked for no finer epitaph than his last one.
It was over in seconds, the sound of steel, curses, and the desperate howling in pain that was invariably cut off with a sick and fear filled gurgling noise, and then Agante stood in front of slave as slave stood in front of Agante.
"You kill good." The black cloak said with reluctant admiration.
"Back at you." The elf slave said as he took up a shield from the dead, and a sword with it.
The others imitated his initiative, and as they did so, a curious thought passed across the Agante's mind. 'Now that he's taken that up... he will never put it down again. Even when we put Yvon down... what the hell do we do next?'
There was no time to contemplate the question further as they finished off the soldiers, and moved off to go hunt for more of the same prey.
...Upper Room of an Abandoned Home...
"So... how did it go?" Raymond asked optimistically.
"Very well. One of my soldiers told Yvon that you'd taken Dominic's head, and wanted to deliver it to him this afternoon. The riots in Dominic's favor made a good excuse, my messenger informed him that you wanted time to get extra security for the way in, so now he's relaxed, he'll have some of his most important supporters brought together for a feast, and then... well you do what you do, and we'll leave the rest to Dominic." General Boadil remarked with clipped, professional confidence from his place at the long table.
Nua looked at him in disgust. "You'd let him 'feast' on my people! You'd really do that?!" She demanded with a rising voice, she fondled her knife lovingly within her loose sleeves, savoring the urge to carve out his heart. The urge began to fade as he shook his head vigorously.
"No. I won't make any pretenses on who or what I've been, but I am not proposing to let them feast. I am proposing to let them choke. He's already got his 'meat' anyway, there's nothing I can do about that. All I can do for the victims, is let them play a role in his destruction. They're the final piece of the trap. Food is scarce, everybody who can attend this, will, and everyone he invites, will be key to his power base. Let them savor the thought of meat, then let them die."
Nua's touch on her precious blade, slipped away and the fury in her eyes began to die down. "Yes... that is right... that is just. The flesh of my people, will be the lure that destroys them."
"I-I'm sorry..." Raymond said humbly.
"Not as much as they will be." Nua said coldly. "Not as much as they will be." She repeated, softer, and with greater vindictiveness.
Enlaith gave Nua a charming smile, her face lit up and her lovely almond shaped eyes glowed brightly with happiness. "I knew we'd get along. Now in other news, the resistance bands have been taking advantage of this pretty well since it started this morning, I've got people slipping away in the chaos, and making their way here. This is a big, but mostly empty district. I'll be honest, despite the best efforts of General Boabdil's twenty, there's not much we can do for organization, there's just no time. People are shacking up in whatever rooms they can find. So some places are going to be packed, and others empty."
"It's fine." Raymond said succinctly. "It's only for a few days, if people want to move around a bit after today, it doesn't matter. When the demon arrives with her armies, my nation will die within two days. Forgive me a moment of indulgence... I know I've said this so many times to myself already but... how... how did it come to this? Yvon and Dominic are monsters, Ginedine is dead, the Pontiff is dead, Maximillian is dead, Berenice is... well I haven't heard anything since her rescue, our armies are gone, all surrendered or dead, our cities are captured or destroyed, our villages and towns are surrendered or burned, our Godkin and greatest scriptures are either wiped out or have turned against us... it's been barely more than a year and yet... nothing remains. Most of my country's population has died."
"It came to this because your country brought it to this." Enlaith remarked.
"It was bound to happen eventually. Aalon's strength was growing steadily, if the Sorcerer King hadn't come along, in another hundred or two hundred years, you'd have had an alliance of Dark Elves, Demihumans, and Mountain Elves beating on your borders, and that's if the Beastmen didn't finish off the Draconic Kingdom and come west. Truth is, you're better off with this happening now, rather than later." Solution added snarkily. "At least this way, your people, well the ones who aren't all dead, can come back. At least as servants of My Lord." Her cocky smile as she spoke, only depressed Raymond more.
He slumped, "I really shouldn't think about these things."
...Kami Miyako...Yvon's Residence...Evening...
"So that could have gone... better." The functionary remarked sardonically.
"Quite a gift for understatement you've got there." Yvon remarked tranquilly as he rang the bell.
Into the room came elven slaves, their eyes were as empty as their bodies were naked. Each carried a tray from which the fragrant smell of meat wafted, each tray had a bowl full of rich stew with meat from a well known source bobbing about.
Each step toward their oppressor at his dinner table was filled with ever greater amounts of fear, self loathing, and a growing sickness in the pits of their pale stomachs as they brought meals of their own kind, to the master of the house.
"Didn't you use up your servants already? I didn't know you had more?" A rail thin older functionary remarked with surprise.
"I did." Yvon remarked as he tried and failed to recall that one's name. "These belonged to people who handed over their slaves. I promised them they could keep their lives a while longer as long as they served in place of the ones I got rid of."
"Oh, well yes, that makes sense. But... can we save the conversation until 'after' we eat? I'm starving."
Yvon looked up and down the length of the table, commanders, senior officers and various other government figures lined it's great length. He smiled his sinister, thin smile. "Normally I would say yes, but in just a few minutes, our 'centerpiece' will arrive. I assure you, it won't be long, and then we can put this little riot down the rest of the way. How much longer do you think Dominic's supporters can hold out against the army?"
"Days conceivably if he's alive, but prove he's dead, and that will change, I think most would give in to you then, with nothing but a pardon in return for surrender." A burly officer remarked, all while staring hungrily down at the bowl that stared back up at him, taunting his nearly empty stomach.
Yvon's smile grew wider, but his planned out words were cut off by the sound of a distant knocking. "That would be him now." The wiry old man uttered.
"Go bitch, go let him in." Yvon said to the last of his original slaves.
Misu whimpered a pathetically obedient yes, and scurried to the door as fast as she could from where she'd been standing a few feet away from him, with her head down and hands folded in front of her in a mockery of modesty and dignity.
She rushed to the door as her owner bade her, and flung it open, her body trembled at the sudden influx of cold from the outside, and she stepped aside, and in came a man with chiseled features despite his middle years, a hard look, and a beard that had clearly been well kept not that long before the present. "Sir..." She asked demurely, blushing as his eyes went from head to toe over her as if he had not expected the kind of welcome he got.
"I am Cardinal Raymond Zarg Lauransan, here to see Cardinal Yvon. I know the way... you don't need to announce me to him, and he's expecting me."
His eyes were locked on hers and she could not look away, the hardness she'd first seen was all gone, and there within was something she hadn't seen but a handful of times in a human expression. Sympathy. He set the tray he carried in his hands, down on a small nearby table, and removed the cloak he wore. She stood transfixed as he did the unthinkable, and put his arms around her to drape the impossibly soft cloth over her body. Her mouth fell open in mute incomprehension at the gesture, and as he finished he leaned in and whispered to her. "Go outside, I know it is cold, but you won't be there for long. Please... just trust me, just this once, it won't be long."
She bit her lip, 'Is this a trick? Is he just going to go tell my master I stole his cloak and ran away... just to get me punished... I'll end up in the stew pot... I... my brother's sacrifice will have been for nothing...' She shook her head vigorously at his words.
Then he sighed and reached for the covered tray, he looked at her with tender eyes, and cracked it open slightly, so that she could see what lay beneath. "It isn't a leap of faith... this is the end, just go, wait outside, it's cold, but you'll be safer."
She didn't hesitate again, she slipped out and went a stone's throw back over the open ground, her feet felt profoundly cold as they sunk into the snow and down onto the frozen dirt, even with the cloak held tight against her body, the cold nibbled at her skin as Misu waited for the impossible to become real.
When she was gone, Raymond walked boldly to the dining area, and found exactly what he expected. On a finely made table, stained dark and polished to a shine, sat the leaders Yvon had handpicked for his 'administration' and along the wall, stood husks of elves, their souls all but gone from their now empty, vacant, haunted eyes. Like houses that had been gutted and left to rot.
They barely registered his presence, nor did he fault that, what was one more monster in a room already full of them?
Yvon raised a cup to welcome Raymond as soon as he saw his fellow cardinal enter and saw the covered silver platter in his hands. "Welcome, Raymond, good to have you. Would you care to skip straight to the honors or... join us for dinner first?" Yvon asked somewhat teasingly.
Raymond rolled his eyes to hide the hate that he felt burning in them.
He forced a fake smile that he thought was convincing, at least from a distance, and walked near to the head of the table. "I'll just say a few words, and then we can begin." Raymond said as he set the tray down and kept one hand on the silver knob from which it would be lifted.
"As some of you already know, Dominic is not someone I have long gotten on well with. The same of course, is true for most of my fellow Cardinals, perhaps because of my relative youth compared to all the others. But... I, like all of them, have always been loyal to the Theocracy and to the gods." Raymond let his eyes wander up and down the table, every eye was focused on him, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement outside the window.
He ignored it, and carried on. "I have always tried, through all of that, to do the right thing, even when I wasn't sure what that meant. And yes, I, like most of you, have paid a steep price for the sake of my duty to the Theocracy."
A rumble of agreement went from one end of the table to the other.
"Duty though, is a harsh thing, and doesn't give us easy choices as a rule. And from the start of all this, I've found my choices only got harder and harder. It put me in conflict with Zesshi, with Berenice, with Ginedine, with Dominic, and yes, with Yvon, it even put me in conflict with myself. But recently, I realized something." They looked at him expectantly as his fingers twitched.
"I realized I was really only half in, trying to reconcile the irreconcilable, and I couldn't do it anymore. I had to make a choice between two things, both of which had been very dear to me. And this... this is the fruit of that choice." Raymond said with an obviously heavy heart.
Yvon was moved, deeply. 'Raymond... I had no idea you felt this way about me... not that I'm not flattered but...' He started to think, then tore his eyes away from Raymond's face when he heard the gasps of shock with the sound of the cover being removed from the platter.
He looked down, expecting to see the head of Dominic Ihre Partouche, bloody, soulless, and maybe with his tongue hanging stupidly out of his open mouth. Instead, he saw the sacred text of the gods with a familiar knife stabbed straight through the center. He pushed away from the table and stood up, as the rest of the table was doing, appalled at the blasphemy.
Raymond took the knife out of the book, and in a smooth gesture he mockingly said, "The Sorcerer King sends his regards."
Blasphemy atop blasphemy, it bought time, and the Agante threw off the white cloaks they'd covered themselves with, and jumped in through the windows. Chaos ruled the house as fireballs flew left and right, incinerating the unarmed, unprepared guests, the long knives worked a deadly toll on the unsuspecting enemy. The elves one and all fled from the room as fast as their bare feet could carry them.
Dominic laughed as he followed his Agante into the building, he used his wind to rip men from where they stood and fling them head first into stone pillars, painting the pale cream colored marble a deep red with blood and viscera.
Yvon snarled with fury, [Divine Wrath] [Holy Chains] [Divine Blade] [Divine Protection] Yvon snapped out quickly as Dominic's howling rage filled laughter drowned out the rapidly dying cries of people caught completely off guard. The handful of scattered security around Yvon's manor that came rushing into the room were quickly cut to ribbons by enchanted knives and the element of surprise, combined with localized superiority as they came in ones and twos to the sound of the sudden emergency.
It was over in minutes, Yvon's supporters lay draped over the table or crumpled dead to the floor, the black cloaks that had been concealed briefly by the white camouflage, were now on full display as they moved around the room checking corpses.
Fire had consumed most of the table, bowls dripped the 'wasted meat' vegetables, and broth down to the floor where it spread to the pools of blood that formed around the corpses of Yvon's leading staff members. The holy book that Raymond brought with him, had been reduced to ashes, and the tray melted from the heat.
Yvon looked at the two cardinals closing in on him. "You're siding with Raymond, Dominic? He's a traitor! A traitor! He's betrayed us to the Sorcerer King!" Yvon hissed out as he backed away from the two men as the three of them activated various martial arts.
[Wind Speed] [Hurricane Strength] [Gale Blow] Dominic laughed at the raspy, furious voice of Yvon as he closed in. "You'll say 'anything' to save yourself, won't you? Pathetic."
"It's true!" Yvon snarled out with fury as he called up another divine sword, putting two glowing golden blades in his thin hands.
[Prediction] [Sense Weakness] [Lesser Penetration] [Ability Boost] Raymond uttered, and chuckled, he winked at Yvon with the eye farthest from Dominic, leaving the slender cardinal sputtering with rage. "Really, how low can you really sink?"
"Fine! I'll kill everyone here myself, pick a new staff, put your heads on pikes, and when the city finally bows to the chosen of the divine, peace will come again! Peace and victory!" He hissed, and charged them both with swiftness his aged body apparently did not inhibit in the least.