God Rising: The Cult of Ainz
Written by: AtheistBasementDragon
Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots
Chapter 208: The End Begins
...Kami Miyako...
Raymond felt the snow crunching under his feet, he savored that. He'd stepped on the freezing corpses that resulted from the riot and the counter coup often enough to savor the feeling of cold snow. Even that though, was tainted.
He kicked a pile of snow out of his way, and his boot came away red. Blood. Blood had mixed with snow in thousands of places all over the city, numerous households and their retainers had been slain fighting Yvon's orders. Numerous soldiers attempting to enforce those orders, had likewise perished painfully. Numerous elves, who no longer had any hope except rebellion, had died just hoping to take one of their hated enemies with them. Some had slain their own masters and mistresses, entire families, right down to the young had been killed, while some slaves had the misfortune of never even getting a chance to resist, and were promptly turned over, slaughtered, and eaten by the soldiers who backed the Cardinal of Light.
So now blood stained the streets everywhere he walked, and almost every large lump of snow effectively served as a marker for where a body had fallen and had yet to be disposed of. As he moved through the streets however, he caught sight of a few younger people dragging off a frozen corpse.
'Laws or no, their hunger is greater than their fear.' Raymond thought with disgust, certain that the knives at their sides were not there for any use relating to the burial of the body.
Around the city, the restoration of relative peace, or at least order, was largely completed already. Nobody accosted him for his ration card. Nobody tried to rob him, and city guards patrolled the streets in relative order again. 'I suppose the diminished numbers have resulted in at least somewhat solving the food problem for the time being.' It was a grim, cynical thought to have. Yet he couldn't apologize to himself or even think of an apology to the population. 'Dominic! Dominic! Dominic!' The memory of the chanting of his name loud enough that the entire city could hear it, well into the evening, had done well to keep him from both sleep and sympathy. He frowned deeply as he turned down a dark alley.
He listened with care as he walked slowly through the grime, garbage, and bloody muck. Finally he stopped next to a crate, he tapped on it lightly with his knuckles, like he was rapping on somebody's door.
"Listen carefully." Raymond said to the person hiding inside. "Don't open the lid, don't make a sound, just pay attention. Yes, I know you're in there, and no it isn't safe to come out, 'yet'. You were spotted earlier, but you've lost your pursuers. I'm a friend, and I'm here to help. Stay in there till nightfall, then go into the Artisan district, avoid being seen, but once you get there, you'll be safe. Go to the carpentry house that has smoke billowing from it's chimney in the dark. There, they will hide you. You are not alone. Don't speak, just 'knock' if you've understood me." Raymond went quiet and listened.
Three hesitant knocks answered him. "Good, be careful, it's still only morning, it'll be a very long day for you, I'm sorry, but just endure as best you can, there will be food at the end of it, I promise you." Raymond whispered, then moved on.
"What a lucky break." He thought out loud. As he went down the major street. He barely restrained the smile on his face as he thought about the 'busywork' Dominic had sent to him that morning, to search out where the surviving slaves were hiding to return them to their surviving masters, or if their owners were dead, to set them to public works projects, preparing for the siege.
An ironic smirk came to his face despite his best efforts. "I've never been so glad to 'fail' at something." Raymond whispered to the snow as he headed to the next spot, while around the city, his little enclave of resisting humans were engaged in the same things, checking every hiding place they could, for surviving humans or surviving elves, or both, who had gone into hiding together, fearing to confront or give in to Yvon, and who did not yet know the outcome of the short conflict between he and Dominic. He thought back to the encounter at Wenmark, what the Peasant General had uttered to save his country, or what she could of it, from the vendetta of the Black Paladin. 'Not being able to save everyone, doesn't mean you have to kill everyone...' he felt his heart skip a beat again at the memory of her impassioned words.
"I will repay you, someday. Somehow." Raymond promised the absent woman, and went on about his work, to prepare for the end of his country.
...Kami Miyako...The Wall...
Dominic walked the parapets beside an escort of Agante warriors, his steps were slow and even, there was no reason he could think of to rush. The fighting outside was clearly chaotic. He stopped at a good vantage point to watch.
"This was something that Yvon and I agreed about." Dominic said bluntly, with one hand behind his back, he looked out over the chaos and extended a hand outward, "Look at them. What do you see?"
The soldier standing watch was young, late teens at most, he had dull, cow eyes, a boyish, soft looking face with a number of freckles over his pale skin. "I see... people? People fighting, killing each other?" He said dumbly.
"A crude, if accurate description." Dominic said. Down below a group of people from two different villages were hacking at each other to steal any remaining food held by the other, desperate to get enough together to buy their way into the relative safety of the city.
Not far away, closer to the riverbank, a group got the upperhand on another, and pushed them bodily into the freezing black that was now the great river which swept all the way through to the Southern Holy Kingdom's greatest lake, near Wenmark. 'I wonder if it will turn the lake black. That could be a problem, they'll remember the demon longer. Well, a problem for later, after they come here to destroy themselves.' He pondered briefly. There was a great scream with the splash as the scores who fell into the water struggled in futility at the freezing rush, only to go down one by one, and not come back up again, at least not in sight of the wall.
"Yes, those are people killing each other, but what kind of people are they? Not townsfolk and villagers, not even 'Theocracy', not city folk, what I mean is, they lack something fundamental. They lack 'faith'. They lack true 'courage'. They will destroy their own for even a bit of safety. Yesterday they were ready to storm this city themselves, today they kill each other based on even the slightest hint that killing each other will make things easier or better or safer for them." Dominic looked briefly at the dull eyed young man and saw his utter lack of comprehension.
"If the gods descend to save us, then what is there to fear?" Dominic asked slowly.
"Nothing." He answered Cardinal Dominic with the confidence of the well taught.
"Right. Nothing. But look at them, they are in a state of terror. They fear the Western Demon so badly that they haven't the will to fight her without eighteen feet of stone between them and herself, so badly that they'll strike down their countrymen to buy that space. If they only united, they might oppose her, but... they have abandoned their faith in the gods, and put faith in stone instead. Foolish, very foolish." Dominic remarked, and watched as some of the weaker turned and fled mindlessly from the melee. He watched the desperately weak flee the walls, the refugee camps, and run as fast as their limbs could carry them, some carried children, and for those he felt some pity swell within his breast, but he crushed it ruthlessly. 'You should have had faith.' He thought as they became tiny dots, fleeing with fear through the snow, not even realizing they were running in the direction of the advancing demon.
He cocked his ear slightly. "Say, do you all hear something?" He asked.
"Sir?" One of his Agante guards asked. Dominic raised his hand to call for silence, as the slaughter down below slowly began to die down, and the gates of the city opened up to take the 'gifts' of the winners and accept the strongest into the safety of the walls.
Wails and cries were still plentiful, but without the sound of fighting in earnest, he could hear slightly better.
"Yes, I definitely hear something." Dominic said suspiciously.
"From what direction, sir?" The agante guard asked him as he and his comrades strained to listen.
"Every direction, but... mainly from that one." Dominic pointed to the Southeast.
"Sorry sir, I don't hear anything." The solid Agante member said innocently, and looked to his comrades, who shook their heads in shared denial. "Sir... what do you hear?"
"It sounds like... drums." Dominic replied quietly as he strained to make out more.
...Roble Holy Kingdom...Hoburns...Palace of the Holy Queen...
"So, what's the word, Lord Robel?" Calca asked from her throne.
He knelt in front of her with his head bowed. The court of the Queen was packed with her supporters, a few pardoned former Astrakan supporters were present, but... few. Very few. "My Queen, the current word is that the Pope has her armies almost in sight of Kami Miyako, her last missive to us tells us to prepare to receive her army home."
Queen Calca smiled with overwhelming happiness, "Home. They're coming home, the last stages of our long war, and the last of our fighting warriors still in action, coming home again. Tell me, do you know anything about what makes up their numbers?" She asked thoughtfully.
"Yes, Highness." He pulled unfurled the document and began to summarize what he read.
"The bulk of her army consists of northern Holy Kingdom volunteers, peasants and some former common soldiers. This is also true of the entirety of her 'hundred' the hand picked of Tinamoc's escort. We do not know if those numbers will return to us, or if they will stay with her after, but we can expect at least thirty thousand to arrive home, one way or another. There are also elven survivors out of Wenmark and surrounding areas, Blood Miners and the Vines, who want to remain in the North where they fought hardest for their freedom, or mercenaries like the Sons of Iontariil, orcs and goblins primarily, and lastly, Demihumans who chose to go with her instead of going home to the Abelion Hills region."
"Then we have much to prepare for, I want to ensure we have villages ready for their people to go to, send word to the temples of the Sorcerer King. Have them tell us how many men and women the villages they serve are willing to take on. Inform them that any returning soldiers will be entitled to forty acres of land and a mule. If the villages and towns can't accommodate so many, we'll allow the remainder to charter new towns and villages, and provide support from the crown for supplies to get started, and a five year, no... seven year tax exemption to allow them time to get started." Calca said calmly, and a scribe wrote every word as fast as their quill could manage.
"Your Majesty is generous." Robel remarked in a voice full of gratitude.
"I have learned from my mistakes." She said with a smile, then caught her reflection in the shining armor of a guard who stood nearby, and involuntarily flinched when she caught sight of her face again.
"Is there anything else?" She asked in a more neutral, somber voice.
"Just one thing, the Pope has a special request." He said, an enormous smile on his face as she prompted him with a wave of her hand.
"Well, let's hear it?" The Queen urged.
...Baharuth Empire...Arwintar...Imperial Palace...
"So, she has a special request for me?" Emperor Jircniv remarked with surprise and glanced to the Empress at his side.
"Yes, the Pope requests that you attend a common ceremony to be held in Kami Miyako, on the same spot that the six gods supposedly appeared over six centuries ago. She asks that every ruler of every Kingdom in the Sorcerous Empire attend, to kneel before the Sorcerer King and proclaim your belief in his godhood, and accept officially, publicly, and forever, her faith in him, as your faith in him also." The messenger read calmly.
Jircniv looked over to the priestly leaders who had followed him into the divine realm of Nazarick. Not a one of them so much as flinched at the proposal. "Has it really been that long ago now?" He quietly whispered.
"My Emperor?" The messenger asked, the priests were looking at him with not one flicker of doubt as he briefly lost himself in thought when the memories of that night consumed him.
"Yes. The answer is yes. I, my Empress, and my chief priests, will all attend, and proclaim this truth together, the day Kami Miyako falls." Emperor Jircniv proclaimed with bold confidence, and the bold eyes of the bloody emperor swept the room for any hint of dissent at one of the most critical junctures of his reign. He found none.
"I will send word right away, My Emperor!" The messenger said with joyful enthusiasm.
Jircniv stood up from his throne and looked at his Empress. "My Empress, I think I'd like to take the air of my city. Would you care to join me on a walk?" He asked as he extended a hand out to her.
"Husband, My Emperor... you know I would like nothing better." She said as she let her hand fold into his own.
...West of Kami Miyako...
Chindai grinned boyishly from the saddle of his horse, "I can't wait." He said enthusiastically with his wives flanking him.
Zanac nodded, "He's given me absolute revenge on those who tried to ruin my kingdom, who killed my father, and he's rebuilding my country entirely. He makes the impossible, possible, if that isn't a god, I don't know what is. Plus... I know this will sound strange, given that I grew up with the worship of the six... but I can't think of a more fitting place to do it than that one. The final fuck you to the church that destroyed so many of our people. I hope Dominic lives long enough to see it happen. I hope they chain him down and make him watch while their 'Demon of the West' stands before us all as we kneel and intone our acceptance of the Godhood of His Majesty. His howls will comfort the soul of my father."
Shalltear looked at the lump of a king with an almost respectful eye as his raw hatred and sadistic longing was put on full display. "I did not think you would do that so easily. Your nation fought him before."
"He was a political enemy, not a personal one. Besides, he treated Gazef with respect, sending him home unmaimed and with his body still bedecked in our treasures. He also fed our people rather than let us starve when it came time for the harvest. He is a good king, if he were only that, that would be reason enough to do as much as we already have, but he's more, that much is clear. His unbridled wisdom and will have steered the world I know as nothing else ever could have. He has made peasants into nobles and common people into generals. The world we know is changing, and I will see my nation change for the better with it. If he's not a god, I don't know what is, and he's close enough for me." Zanac said with a decisive voice he once did not think he could have possessed.
If anyone thought to argue with him, they didn't give it a voice.
...Northwest of Hoburns...
"Honey, you got a letter." The matronly woman said as she approached her husband at the table where he sat eating. He looked at her and extended a hand without saying anything.
She gave it to him, and he tore open the seal and read through it, he lowered it slowly, and a bright smile lit up his face all the way to his eyes.
"Dear?" She inquired, and he yanked up a quill and scribbled a note and slid it over to her.
"Well that is great, I know you've been very worried about her since you parted ways, but you..." She paused as he took up another scrap of paper and scrawled out another note.
She dropped the first one absently and read the second. "Oh. A new opportunity for expanded trade eh? Yes, I suppose it is, but this time... this time I am coming with you. We'll hire Black Justice guards, even an undead escort if we have to, but you will never journey without me again. I almost lost you last time, and I won't risk you not coming home again. Wherever you go, I go, and whatever happens, happens to both of us. I won't go on alone if something goes wrong while you gallivant off to Kami Miyako to establish a trade network before your competitors. Understand me, Tinamoc?" She asked with her hands on his hips and leaning over with her eyes on the mute merchant.
He reached for a paper, and she grabbed his wrist, stopping him. "No." She whispered, he froze, looking into her eyes where he saw painful tears welling up. "We've been together for so long, but hearing what happened, knowing you were alone, without me while they hurt you, that you might not have come home and I never would have known what happened to you, it's too much to contemplate happening a second time. Don't use words, if you understand me, and don't plan on arguing, then shut your quill up, and kiss me."
He let the quill slip from grasp, rose, and kissed his wife, it was still odd, without his tongue, yet the ardor and affection of years was undiminished, and she glanced to the stairs that led to the bedroom. "First we do that, 'then' we prepare for our trip, and maybe if the chance comes, we can plan a diversion to go see this little warrior girl in person. I'm curious to see how she lives up to all your letters." She grinned, and pulled his hand, drawing him away from the table, and up to their bedroom for the next few hours, leaving him so drained that he had to write a note telling her they'd prepare for the trip tomorrow, instead. She didn't mind.
Not even a little.