The God of Cookery

by havok038

"Food is the medicine of the soul". Hitoshi Furuta tried long and hard to distance himself from the stigma of his violent past by following this creed his Shishou left him. But when a kindred spirit reaches out to him from another world beyond the Gate, how much is he willing to let go, to fight in order to save her wrongfully condemned soul? If so, could she save his?

35. Chapter 35 - Steel against Faith

Author's Notes:

Your weekly dose. Still no work placement, I'm stressed out by this outbreak.

Powering through for that Furuta X Tyuule Japanese Vacation we're all waiting for.

Updated on 2nd Nov 2020:

For some reason the chapter would not appear after it was posted. Viewable on phone app but invisible on PC. Apparently, this is a reoccuring bug that haunts the Fanfiction site since its conception. Usually dispells after a day or so.

---

At the evening when there were only few hours from the end of work, all activities were halted, and Rank 3 Orange bands were made to assemble at the office of the God of Cookery. This composed of the employees with the most critical jobs and team leaders, of which Balduin had a part in as the assigned Company IC of over two hundred and eighteen men. He had been given charge of four Platoon ICs of whom were former soldiers of the Velduar Army which had been discharged on basis of disabilities and had fallen on hard times but given a second chance by the God of Cookery in his group of enforcers. At least from his understanding.

He had just come out from having his own uniform fitted by the ladies in Textiles, he was the last to have his done amongst the Gray Division. Ironically, a gray cotton uniform that had pockets and neat collars buttons over tapered sleeves making for a very fitting long shirt and pants secured with a leather belt. He also received black leather boots that were similar to the ones that the Men in Green Warrior named Takeo wore, surprisingly comfortable. Additionally, they were issued good quality backpacks and light armor made from canvas which was made to receive an Adamantite plate in certain slots protecting the wearer, also very comfortable and non-restricting in movement.

Balduin had been to war himself once, but his role was far too negligible to be considered actual combat. So he was glad to have people that had seen the enemy up close and survived. He had good relations with the current chief dispatch officer Kayn and his brothers service as adjutants of that role of maintaining a steady supply train of raw materials and food ingredients for the factory. For the past four days, he'd been subject to good food, warm clothing and bed at the factory barracks, also rigorous exercise just like the rest of the Company in the Gray Division. Too rigorous in his humble opinion for most of the veterans who'd been out of shape for years of declining stamina, but the Warrior Bunny Parna and Men in Green Warrior pushed them hard until they dropped, and then some.

Making them carry backpacks of stones on a force march around the islands such that they were becoming a noticeably common sight, even garnering some laughs at their ridiculous routine. The Warrior Bunny was becoming somewhat of a dreaded nightmare amongst the men and women serving in the Gray Division as she put their fitness at her level of physique which was entirely unjust. But they were being paid to do so, and she wasn't exactly beating or whipping them to follow her orders. Recently, she'd started to instruct them in spear fighting techniques and group formations.

But arguably, the Japanese Warrior's lessons were by far more interesting. He taught them what he called "Firing drills" using wooden dummy crossbow-like weapons. There was also a game called dodgeball which they were introduced which was fun.

Balduin arrived to find everyone from other divisions assembled with him and even some of the VIPs who had previously visited. Whom they were told were now senior executives with the company through the negotiations of the God of Cookery and Queen. So, he'd been mindful to be respectful around their presence. They were a surprisingly friendly bunch for nobles and wealthy men who asked him how his day was or his opinion on what he thought was on today's menu. Perhaps, it was because of his current rank and their affiliation to the company, thus seeing him as one of their own.

He tried to be cordial to return a greeting to them as they awaited the God of Cookery to enter. OR rather, wait for him outside of the closed office door. Around forty other Rank 3 and above members were waiting outside with him.

Until the doors opened and the Men in Green Warrior Takeo and Sir Griffin beckoned them to enter. Balduin had never been inside this room before but noticed that there were rows of seats up ahead, around the exact number for all of them, including the executives. In front was a speech pedestal and a large board.

"What's this about, Dale? Another test?" He whispered to one of the Dallawan brothers.

"Beats me, Burrock. Lord Furuta wouldn't call just us for no reason." He replied as they approached this arrangement and found that their names had been written on a paper left on the seat. Was it asking for them to sit at the allocated spot?

They were told to sit by Sir Griffin as they asked him what was going on, but he told them that there was an announcement that required their attention only. Within seconds, they found their seats and awaited their company boss's arrival.

Then, he arrived.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, please stand for Her Majesty the Queen. Thranmilla Mithram Brightshield. And First Prince, Mayre Lumnatin Brightshield." He instructed as he held out his hand towards the arrival of two Royals in their humble presence.

Immediately, the group stood and bowed as the Queen and Prince walked through the centre and onto a raised stage at the front where two seats were given to them to sit. The Administrative clerks saw to their refreshments and needs.

"And to all of you, friends. Thank you for coming on such unscheduled circumstance. We have many things to disclose to you in the duration of this session. Things that I must have all of you sworn into secrecy at this very moment."

Hitoshi raised a paper that was placed on their chairs and asked them to raise it and read from it. It was by reading it aloud with the group that Balduin and many others realized that this was Oath of Binding and Loyalty to the Throne.

"""On this we swear!""" They said, reciting the final phrase with dignity.

"Before I start, are there any of you that do not wish to partake. If so, I will not force you and you may leave now." He raised his hand to the door that was left open by Kugel.

But as he did so, silence was his answer. Whether because they were in the presence of the Queen or they were anxious, he would soon find out.

"Very well." He nodded to Kugel who closed the door and shut all other openings.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, as you have been sworn to secrecy. You are now been brought into the service of her Majesty the Queen. Under a call to arms." Hitoshi let that sink in for a moment, allowing them to wonder what the Queen had need of them in lieu of the Warriors of the Regular Army.

"Friends, this afternoon we'd received advance intel that the Apostle of Duncan and his Temple have committed treason by allying with the Gnoll army." There was a moment of silence as they couldn't believe the words that were said in their presence, but there was no correction coming from the Queen or Prince, meaning that this was real.

"As we speak…." He spoke again, as the crowd quieten down to hear him on what else was happening. "The Main Army that has routed is putting up a shaken defense against the Temple Guards and Gnolls, but will be here not long." There was no tell if the Command element was still alive, but to put up resistance meant that someone was still leading.

"Not long?! What of our families?!" One frantic worker raised his voice as he hoped that others would follow him in expressing their dread.

"Are you worried about them, or yourself?!" Hitoshi heard Kayn raise his voice against the very fearful individual who sat down on his chair quiet again. He gave a nod of acknowledgement to his friend for his help.

"Friends…. In these days working alongside you, with you, I have learnt what it means to be a citizen of Velduar." When addressing them, he continued to call them as such and they were aware of it from his interactions with them around their factory.

"Outside, people think that because you are Dwarves your talent in ironworks is naturally to be expected. But you and I know that talent is only half the puzzle." Those that were here were not able to prosper because of their lack of talent in life.

"Myself and my companions had built this place as a reflection of what could be achieved through mutual respect and understand. And while sharing this with you, we wanted to see if it was indeed possible for these values to be shared among you." He spoke in a way that made them confused at first.

"Every one of you is unique and irreplaceable, you've had that feeling for as long as you could remember, even when you were told otherwise. In these short few days, you have rekindled this feeling and come to understand that others with you too bear these unique gifts. But in truth. Without one or the other, the marvels which we build here would never have been possible. Without all of you, this place would have never been built at all." He allowed that to sink in with all of them. As backs straightened out of pride with how far they'd gone in this strange employ.

"And now this Kingdom is facing peril at the hands of radical traditionalists. People who called you useless and worthless trash from the gutters." He played on their emotions in such a way that the prince furrowed his brow knowingly. The workers were reminded of the dread of the institutionalization they'd experience and what their children had to in their years of tenure to come.

"They would see that their ways are absolute in their new order of things by the only means that they know how, war." Hitoshi smiled in sharp contrast to his last sentence.

"Friends, now that they've backstabbed the main army. They think it'll be an easy march back to Velduar, but they forget who lives there." His workers knew who he was referring to.

"Sword and shield aren't the only means of fighting a war, my friends. Even if we continue our work at this factory at current pace, we would be contributing to the war effort tremendously. Ensuring that our troops receive new armor and weapons in place of their battered ones, that weapons of war will overcome those fanatical dogs' so-called faith through zeal." He made it clear that their non-combatant roles would also greatly help the cause against the betrayal.

"Friends, Her Majesty the Queen has called you to serve. What shall be our response, do fight, or do we allow the Apostle to have his way with us again?" Then, silence stalked the room as they awaited a response. Queen Thranmilla waited to hear if anyone would take up arms against the very voice of their god for their Kingdom.

And then, a young Dwarf stood up from his chair as faces turned to him. Raising his clenched fist into the air he repeated the same word over.

"Fight! Fight! Fight!"

"""Fight! Fight! Fight!""" In his efforts to raise the crowd, Balduin had rallied his fellow workers in their spirits to oppose the will of the Apostle. For he still had faith that although they were up against an Apostle, a God that wasn't even from Velduar would fight on their behalf as he was asking the same of them in mutual grounds. They had no less cause to fight than he did, and so they must.

"Your enthusiasm gives me great assurance. Now, let me explain how we will defend this city." Hitoshi said as he pulled the blackboard aside and revealed his strategy for fending off the Temple guard elite that were fighting alongside the Gnolls that had breached the Nexus Defense Wall and were on their way here.

It had been made clear that the Apostle still remained in his temple with much of his reserves, planning to open the city gates once they arrived. Since nobody had yet known about the main army defeat or the defection of the Temple of Duncan. No one had the answer to why the Apostle would align himself with the very enemy they'd fought for thousands of years. Not even Hitoshi could give a clear answer to that, but they weren't going to sit around to find out.

"Textiles division. You will begin retooling towards the manufacture of medical bandages, your manager will fill you in on the details. Metal Works Division. We will begin full production of our new toys, Kugel will be there to guide you as will your manager. Communications Division, report with the Crown Prince later after this and we will commence coordination of the city guilds and the garrison forces. Gray Division…." Hitoshi dispatched orders to each of the individual Divisions of the company whilst giving their executives and managers written instructions to carry out their tasks immediately without much supervision. Then approaching the last dubious Division that was part of the company.

"I haven't been entirely truthful behind the premise of your services, you were not conceived on the notion to protect the assets of the Company. But as a concept for a new model army." In this, things started to make sense for Balduin, for not only were their drills intensively focused on group cohesion where individual guards for assets and facilities didn't require such but their kit was far too potent for mere sentries.

In this, the officers of the Gray Division seemed awaken to the idea that they had been selected to partake in battle once more. Some were eager, some were nervous. Balduin was of the latter, but he understood the stakes that were against them and he would act on them.

"Friends….." He addressed them once more with an incorrigible smile that only his companions recognized well.

"Let's make the Apostle and his zealots regret their treachery in these days ahead."

A cold chill ran down their spines as they remembered that Hitoshi Furuta was the God of Cookery, the one that was rumored to have struck down Holy Flare in mortal form and his Elven apostle. A tale that was ironically spread by their apostle perhaps to create suspicion of his character. But the God of Cookery had swiped them all away with his own cunning and made this factory and gave them work and a future that was bright.

It was clear to them who was the villain here.

As Hitoshi went through their plans of gearing up for this upcoming battle with emergency production for the new weapons that took the place of their simulated wood ones. There was to be a supply line linked between the island of Bruneberg, Brightholm and the Royal Castle Island in a trinity of islands formed against the Sturmheim, where the Temple of Duncan resided deceptively quiet.

Their strategy for logistics was simple, isolate Sturmheim regardless of its Dwarven Jarls intent, its people and of course the Temple acolytes. The Temple Guard were returning to try and link up with the Apostle, but he was going to deny the Command and Control from coordinating with its main force. The Queen had already issued a martial law throughout the city and was placing her garrison in a manner that would appear as no less than Martial law to the opposition by spreading out her troops. As far as supporters were concerned, she'd relayed the news of the betrayal to House Grayhoard whose lord was the Marshal of the Army at the nexus and the Queen's maternal family. Gaining their troops and support, but the status of House Mobkis and Strumhammer was uncertain. Therefore, prudent to treat as hostile neutrals under aggression was shown. It was needless to say that House Brightshield and Oakenspire were on their side. However, almost all of the representing Lords of each supporting house was either dead or missing in action.

At the end of their discussions, Hitoshi, the Queen, Crown Prince and Ranked members of the Gray Division accompanied them to the parade grounds where the barracks was made. Balduin did not question why they had come here but did so and was asked to assemble the Company as a whole. In a matter of seconds, the two hundred Gray Division members rushed out and stood at attention in rank and file as they'd been taught to.

"Reporting, two hundred and twenty-five present. Lord Furuta." Balduin addressed him as he complied the numbers that had assembled.

"Gray Division, on your knees." Hitoshi said aloud which triggered them to do as he asked from their training. Even though they were confused by the situation and why there were two Royals with him.

"Do you swear by your God this sacred oath, that you shall render unto the Sovereign and Kingdom of Velduar your undying obedience and as a brave soul, risk your life to keep this oath?"

"I do!" Balduin say bravely on his knee which prompted the company to do the same.

"I repeat, do you swear by your God on this oath?" Hitoshi gave them the chance to say it.

"""We do, by Duncan!"""" As some veterans of the army recognized this as the creed they'd been taught to say.

"Then rise a knight!" The Queen spoke instead which sent lightning down their bodies, as their unquestioning fealty had just elevated from broken commoners into knights.

"Balduin Burrock, Owen Havrik, Lenet Barrowhill, Kayn Dallawan. Step forward, please." Thranmilla called upon the ranking officers of the Gray Division to step before her as they did creeping up to return back into their kneel and head hung low in her presence.

"By the power invested to me through my union to the King, I dub thee….."

"Sir Havrik." She accoladed the first with a sword that was unsheathed from the Crown Prince's scabbard.

"Sir Barrowhill." She did the same to the second.

"Sir Kayn."

"And Sir Burrock!" When her sword left his shoulders, and incredible weight had leaped out of his body as his spirit rose empowered.

His friends who had been with him since their scavenging days in Oberun could hardly believe that he had rising from a dropout Rune Priest aspirant, to a Knight of Velduar. But Thranmilla had another intention for knighting these four separately.

"Let this be a day of rejoice, a time of renewal in strength, duty and honour. Today, we shall remember as the day of your clan foundings." Balduin and the other three were confused.

"Rise, as Lords of Velduar." Thranmilla had anointed them to be Dwarven Jarls in place of the ones who had turned their back on them.

As they rose, Hitoshi walked up to each of them by the Queen and his companion Takeo who carried a tray of swords engraved with powerful runes. Swords of Iraemite.

Hitoshi took a sword with scabbard belt and tied it around Sir Kayn, as he said some profound words to the latter who nodded and gave his thanks.

He then approached the other newly knighted Lords and did the same. Young Havrik, who had been his friend and trained in the use of a strange contraption with metal tubes separately dropped to his knees as his show of gratitude before being lifted up.

And then, Hitoshi reached Balduin and took the last sword to be tied to his waist.

"Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Know that behind you lie the sanctity of those who live in Velduar. Resting upon your shoulders is not the burden of subjects but their strength as yours. And never, betray your conscience."

"Is that my oath?" Balduin asked to which Hitoshi only smiled as he fastened the belt and stepped back.

"Friends, colleagues. On this day, people will not ask what you were but what you have risen to become. Let them look to you as an example of greatness and deeds that may yet be fulfillled. And may you in the grace of your god and country do right by them to exceed their expectations." He said with an incredible oratory ability.

"Yesterday, you were as forgettable as the dust itself. But today you are not only vassals of Velduar."

"You are knights of Queen Thranmilla's Gray Legion."

And so, the company broke into cheers for this momentous occasion that would soon become known as the Second Founding of Lords and of the patronage of the private military armed force of the Queen which had become known as the Gray Legion. The new model army of Velduar.

In their cheers of flung dress caps and waving hands, Kayn initiated an unsheathing his sword in unison to his fellow lords and exposed the splendor of the bronze finish of the sturdy swords. Balduin in all the excitement, noticed words engraved into this single-edged saber with full guard.

Its engravings were in a language that he did not know about.

"Sir Kuruta. Can you tell me what this says?" He approached the man who'd been his instructor for four days. Figuring that he might know what it said, but the look that he gave seemed to prove that he didn't.

"It's in Nihon. Engraved by you know who." The Dwarf who was no doubt, the swords' creator told him while the company celebrated in their jubilation. The language of the Men in Green. Thus, meaning it had craved by the God of Cookery himself.

"What does it mean?" To which Kugel said the words that Hitoshi had told him as he engraved these special runes into these four swords under his interpretations. As with Adamantite, Iraemite could also bear rune magic and thus carried his spell within.

"It say's "I am the blade who shatters the falsehoods"." To break the swords of Gods.

For the first time, Balduin bowed to the scion of Bloodstein with profoundness. Not just to apologize for the affront he gave to him by defiling his house but of the opportunity that was given to him without grudge. The newly appointed House Burrock owed much to Bloodstein.

"Lord Furuta has wasted enough of our time." Protested the Crown Prince in the presence of his mother the Queen and Hitoshi on their way to the airship that would take two of them back to the palace. He had no confidence that the group that Hitoshi had kitted out and assembled had any better chance than his knights did.

"Mayre! My son does not mean what he says, My Lord." Queen Thranmilla apologized.

"What are knights to you, Your Highness?" Hitoshi challenged back.

"Certainly not something you raise from the dirt." Hitoshi laughed back at the Prince's ideals and attempts to insult him.

"Your ancestor and mine were all nothing before they became something, Your Highness. But really, what's the difference between ourselves and them? Time? Length of Lineage? Deeds?" He questioned him before turned back after the Prince had nothing to answer in return.

"These people had nothing to fight for, certainly not for any god or king that did nothing for them. The same cannot be said for a vast majority of your Kingdom that isn't already mentally subservient to the Apostle. Bless your father's soul." He said out of respect for Novar despite the hardness of his policies, albeit passed down to him from predecessor kings. Squalor in cities was to the benefit of the clergy for giving their version of hope for where there was none. Take the Vaticans' rule over the medieval Christendom, making kings grovel before their supreme power and the populations into their willing serfs.

Hitoshi's presence in Bruneberg giving out recipes and food on a daily basis and the vast employ of the jobless citizenry of Oberun largely removed these parts of the population that the Temple could exploit as fodder during strife.

"Let's have a bet, then." He said as the Crown Prince was certainly not convinced by his words.

"We'll see who captures the Apostle and breaks the Gnolls' resolve. Your inherited knight command or my "paper" legion." On this the Queen was silent.

"You speak of capturing the apostle when we can't even hold the city if they arrive in full force!" The prince said anxiously in reply.

"The fact that you have no confidence even in your own men is an affront to their sacrifice thus far!" The Crown Prince received his first taste of scolding for his weakened resolve in the face of such odds his father would have likely stood fast. But Hitoshi lightened his wordings after this.

"I understand your difficult circumstances, but you aren't the only one that is suffering here." He was of course referring to the Queen as well.

"The time for worry and hesitation for you are over. Velduar will look to you for strength and valor." He further entailed the duties that he had but likely already knew.

"I meant what I said back then. Mortar and the Gnolls won't destroy Velduar while I'm here. But the only one that can save it and lead its people is you." He had to make the crown prince understand this, his mother had done all she could, but she wasn't the reigning monarch, merely its consort. Even if there was no King, there was an heir apparent appointed by the late king, him.

And the Crown Prince understood that deep down. As they reached the airship that would take them back to commence military operations, the prince bowed to Hitoshi.

"As was promised by my father, so shall it become my oath to you, Lord Furuta. I beg of you to save this city." A sword in scabbard came flying towards him which he caught and inspected to be that strange bronze colored sword too.

"I will. We will." With these simple words, the Crown Prince found his courage and spirit renewed. As they left, Hitoshi looked back to the factory and then to where the Temple of Duncan lay.

With careful consideration, he had raised the morale of his own forces who now had the resolve to defy the immortal apostle where other soldiers would shudder. By commissioning them as a unit within the Armed Forces under the direct command of the Queen. But unlike most ceremonial outfits, Hitoshi would exalt them with the blood of their enemies. Fellow Dwarf and Gnoll alike.

"We must." He murmured to himself as Takeo and Parna came to talk with him about the progress they'd made so far.

They had the chemists of the Royal Laboratory and much of the Engineers doing on the job training at the machines they'd created for mass production.

"Let's go make some bombs."

"Still can't believe you'd know how to make TNT, one of these day's it's going to get you in trouble." That it would, but it had also gotten him out of trouble all the same. Trinitrotoluene the building block of all modern explosives being the first popular choice for insensitive explosive that didn't go off in your face because you spilt some like nitroglycerine. He had already made small batches only for testing because it was unwise to set off an explosion while in a place with a lot of dust particles and he also didn't want to accidentally blow up his factory.

"It can't hurt to know a few recipes over everything." He said nonchalantly like it was nothing.

"You should mean recipes that don't hurt people."

"Fudge hurts people."

"Toothache and getting blown up are two different things!" Takeo had long since played the straight man to his antics, in fact, he'd always been like this. When they first met, he thought Hitoshi was a little helpless for lacking many known common-sense things. Like he'd lived his entire live under a rock or in the countryside.

"Yunno, I think I'd rather be back at Ascension, after all." Takeo confessed after the serious dangers they'd been exposed to and were still at risk from their involvement in things that were somehow always about to go off. Hitoshi blames Hardy for giving him that God of Cookery title and for the other Gods buying into it. But Takeo couldn't say for sure that was all. It was hard to admit that Hitoshi was someone who was true to himself. If he didn't like something, he'd change it rather than say "its fine, I guess." Often not in the most subtle of manners, even at their old base.

"At least it'll quiet there." He was not used to this pace of adventure, even if he was part of an expeditionary force that craved excitement. Gods, Demons, Apostles, Volcano cities, civil wars and rebellions. He had joined the Self-defense force for things like disaster relief and advancing his own hobbies.

"I won't be so sure about that." Hitoshi said with certainty.

"What do you mean?" Takeo couldn't imagine that there was anything big happening back at Ascension Glade beyond the introduction of new arrivals.

---

Tyuule could never have imagined what would happen in their settlement. Traitors from within, of all the contriving that went on in the Imperial Palace. She never thought that her own kin apart from herself could gain the ability to deceive and turn against her own on behalf of others. But this was the cold reality.

She'd gone looking for additional hands, preferably amongst the armed militia that had stood guard over the populous in the main pavilion as the last defence. Only to find the main pavilion in a very strange order, being that rather than standing guard protecting, it looked like they were enforcing them by rounding up the populous.

Before she got the chance to demand what was going on, she notices that they'd just finished subduing Yam who warned her to run. A bodyguard that most assassins couldn't get the drop on, yet they had done it. It was here that she realized their actual competence feinted all this while and order of events that were about to take place.

"If you want a hostage, you can have me instead!"

But instead of running, she demanded that they exchange hostages. All of the inhabitants for her, they knew the significance she had over the mere inhabitants and took her along with Yam, Brom and old man Cato out of the pavilion to be held at gunpoint in a three-way stance.

Kenzaki had to face the dilemma that he'd failed not only to hold on to FOS Helheim and the settlement, but also the capture of Iota. But Sindri of all people indicated for him to ceasefire until the moment was right, for Baldr and Bjorn were still out there with much of the weapons at their disposal. However, his concern wasn't about just them, but the way that Imperials treated their prisoners and how his men would suffer under his orders. But then, Rider and Berserker lowered their weapons, preparing for the worst.

As the bastard prefect rode a horse across the wooden shield bridge that cost the lives of its human shields triumphantly. There was a growl of spite that came from Tyuule, for only he could be the one who could made preparations such as these seventeen warrior bunnies blending into their settlement as migrating refugees.

"You've done well, Frau." He said dismounting his horse, accompanied by his men that wore smug appearances despite the losses they'd gained thus far. It was clear what sort of breed of men they were, bandits, thieves and cutthroats pressed into service with Zorzal's Imperium without distinction of their character beyond their aggressive traits.

"Why don't you take our dear Iota and her friends to where the rest of her bunnies are while I have a little talk with our Japanese friends here on their weapons cache." Cimon spoke of everything that she feared and worst.

"Who is your commander, Cimon?!" Tyuule shouted to gain his attention.

"I am commanded by no one, my dear Iota. My party operates…. "Independently" from the legions." Cimon's group was one of several that were sent out to pillage and plunder the routes onto Alnus such that the Japanese wouldn't be able to give chase of the main force on their secret operation for Italica. But he didn't know that Tyuule was aware of their troop positions and formation.

"Yet you are paid and fed, it is obvious that if you aren't under the command of someone, you're simply being handled." Like a dog, she sneered at him which snapped something in his psyche as he walked forwards to confront her.

"Just like you're about to be soon!" He grabbed her by the chin and intimidated her. But Tyuule had long been done being afraid, she understood that what had happened was a disaster. Now all that mattered was that she achieved the least amount of bloodshed. Unlike before, Tyuule was truly ready to lay down her life for her people. But not at the expense of their dignity.

"Viscount Herm, I presume." Cimon was visibly caught off guard for the first time with mere words as her words had cracked his confidence in front of his men who looked to his confidence as their strength.

"How…" He drew skeptic of how she was aware of this.

Which was when she took off her veil for the second time, enchanting him and his remaining three hundred or so men with her unequal beauty.

"There are consequences to your actions that even you couldn't fully understand here, Cimon."

"Like what?!" One of his optio's laughed off.

"Like incurring His Royal Highness Zorzal's wrath." She smiled with a seductive certainty that gave Kenzaki a strange nostalgia seeing her parley with the Imperial despite her situation.

"Do you know who's land you're invading?" She asked him.

"A cook that stepped on some very big shoes, what more?" To his lack of knowledge spoken, her laugh only made him even more insecure.

"That cook is His Royal Highness's favorite cook, the one that he expects no other meals cooked by except him. The cook that had allowed him to leave the Capital and avoid offending Hardy when passing her procession. The cook he awarded these very lands that are His Highness's money-making investment. And you're now raiding that land." Tyuule highlighted the consequences that Cimon was about to face for doing a dirty deed just to sate Herm's grudge against Furuta.

Cimon wasn't stupid and processed these thoughts as he looked at her closely and remembered something that he knew about the retinue of the Crown Prince. As his telling grin had told them.

He then broke into laughter as he figured out something along the lines that most had not even figured out yet.

"What an irony, wouldn't you say, Frau?" He asked his Warrior Bunny subordinate as if she knew. But all she gave was a look of cluelessness as did the rest of her traitorous companions.

"Don't tell me you didn't know all this while?" He laughed even louder when it became apparent that they didn't.

"Did you know, Frau? That there is a member of your harlot race serving Crown Prince Zorzal as his slave even as we speak? A warrior bunny who was said to have been a Queen of your race." Cimon said mockingly as Frau turned pale with shock.

"Can you guess where that person is, Frau? Or shall I spoil the surprise?" It was without a doubt that Cimon was facing Tyuule all this time, and thus, Frau came to piece it together on her own that the person that was in front of her she held at gunpoint was the person that the prefect was referring to.

"You…. Is this true?" Her grip around the furniture of the rifle tightened as her eyes were stricken upon the face that turned behind and exposed her ruby red colored eyes to her, a trait that was only present in purebloods.

"…" Before she had the chance to answer verbally, she'd given Frau all the indications that had suggested that what Cimon said wasn't false. And from that point, Frau became overcome by her emotions as she used the butt of her rifle to strike her back into the dirt.

Grabbing hold of her shoulder and turning her on her back, she screamed a cry of frustration and anger as she let loose a flurry of punches into her face.

"You! It was you all along! Tyuule! Tyuule! Tyuule!" Watching her freak out only gave him satisfaction to watch their relations fall even further into anarchy. But after twenty or so hits that she got off, Cimon waved his soldiers to ply her from Tyuule at the expense of the scratches and bites that she gave to break free only to continue pummeling her until she died.

The optio used his mace and struck Frau in the temple until she quietened down, proving that she wasn't a comrade, but a slave to their will.

"You can have your reunion talks after I'm done, not before. Remember who owns you, Frau." Cimon gave her a warning as he lifted her chin with the end of his baton. When he'd passed along his point, he turned back to Tyuule who was alone in the dirt wiping the blood from her nose.

"I wonder what His Highness would say about you though, consorting with the enemy."

"You are mistaken, Cimon." She said confidently as she got up.

"Am I?" He couldn't imagine how so.

"They're here because I asked for their help." Cimon looked at her suspiciously of her claim.

"You should know how these outworlders are, always lending a hand to anyone that asks for it." Tyuule tried to fabricate the story that she'd tricked them into lending her their aid and resources freely through her own cunning. The expression that she gave was the genuine article, because in a way she did feel that she did at times.

"I suppose so…." Even Cimon understood that from their willingness to help the refugees that were part of their ruse.

"But that still doesn't explain how you knew how to contact them." They were all the way at Alnus, which meant that she would have had to go there at least once to plead her cause.

"I didn't need to, they came to me." She countered that suspicion off of herself.

"If you knew so much about me, why wouldn't they know as much too?"

"So what do you want me to do now, if you'd come clean earlier I wouldn't have lost a whole lot of my boys."

"That fault is still yours. You came under the orders of the Viscount without knowing the whole story, nor did I expect that he would send one of his groups here." What she said was fair, it was a matter of mere coincidence. She pinned the blame on Herm for making him do such dirty work as well as for Cimon to accept it without question. It was clear that the strife within the prince's retinue was apparent. Tyuule continued to put up a strong front without backing down and distracted the Prefect with her negotiations.

While Kenzaki, SIndri and the SFGs were faced with the Imperials all around them. Having gathered their weapons, they were without means of protection. But they weren't touched, not without the okay from their boss the prefect. Thus, they were forced to sit in the dirt while they watched the debate go on.

"What's Iota doing?" Kenzaki murmured.

"Buying time." Sindri answered. But for what, Kenzaki wondered.

It just seemed to him that Iota had just exposed herself as someone undercover in Prince Zorzal's favor, like a double agent. He was confused, was she the spy that Hitoshi was referring too?" Having no knowledge of her actual history.

"Sir, we must prepare for the possibility that she'd prioritize the inhabitants' safety over our own." Sindri exchanged with him these facts as coldly as possible whether he accepted it or not.

"…. What should we do?..." Kenzaki grieved to himself rather than said it to Sindri since he was the commanding officer and he had no idea of what to do to escape this predicament.

"Prepare to lose an arm or leg, but give'em nothing." Sindri said before one of the marauders told him to shut up by kicking him to the ground. He was effectively asking them to receive the torture and possible death without disclosing anything to the Imperials about Alnus or the weapons cache items.

"I lost eight of my mates because of you!" The Imperials decided to make Sindri the centre of their attention as they kicked him about for talking behind their backs.

"Not so tough without your killing staffs now, are you!"

"Stop it! You bloody heathens!" Rider stood up and punched the man that started the bullying and caused a brawl to happen between the Imperials and them as Kenzaki got dragged in and punched anyone in his way without reason. But the shear numbers on their side easily overpowered them and pinned them down after several teeth were loss and noses broken between the two groups.

"Enough!" Cimon's roar could be heard all the way from where he stood listening to Tyuule justify herself. It was already getting on his nerves that they brawled without his say so and that Tyuule's reasonings only irritated him further with what he was going to face when he returned to the Command to resupply.

He sent the Optio to detain them in their own stockades. While he discussed with Tyuule further.

"And send Frau and the rest in with them to cool off." He noted that his warrior bunny accomplices could not be trusted with their own nature and ordered his men to bring them together despite the help they'd contributed to their successful surrender of the Japanese soldiers. At least, they wouldn't think of helping each other whilst inside.

"You were saying?" He returned back to the proposition that Tyuule gave in face of his dilemma of making a poor casting of his fate dice with Herm, his sponsor.

"They're more valuable to you as captives to deliver to the Crown Prince whom I'm sure will promote you to a General at very least. Consider that a consolation to the troops you've lost." In this, she was confident that Cimon understood the significance of them being kept alive as leverage for the Prince in ransoming. The Japanese certainly wouldn't sit around and let their soldiers be held prisoner.

"You'd betray them at a drop of a hat?" What mattered was that there was still someone alive to save, and that applied to both the Japanese soldiers and her people here today.

"The fact that you insinuate that I had been an accomplice to theirs of some kind is utterly revolting. If you hadn't come, I would've milked them dry nonetheless." Tyuule presented herself as a devious seductress that conned men into giving her what she desired. But it seemed like she was conning both sides rather than helping Zorzal solely.

"And what do you want?"

"This settlement and its people are mine to do my bidding." Cimon realized that she wasn't asking him to spare her people, she was asking him not to touch her property. It appeared to him that she was far more two-faced and cruel than these inhabitants could even imagine. But then again, she was the former queen that sold out her entire kingdom. He understood that Tyuule was in fact, Prince Zorzal's property as well, thereby off-limits.

And it really bothered him that it was so.

"Alright, Tyuule. I'll settle my losses and take them with me." Tyuule inwardly sighed in relief that she'd spared her settlement inhabitants from the cruelty of the Imperial marauders at the expense of the Japanese soldiers. But she knew that they would understand, Sindri at least. And the Japanese army at Alnus wouldn't let them remain captive for long either. But no one would care if her people were mistreated or killed. Even though she felt ugly inside from selling out the people who had helped her tremendously, she couldn't allow the tragedy of Volgia to repeat itself all over again. It didn't matter if she was found out now, nor if the inhabitants berated her for it. All that mattered to her was that they were safe, she didn't mind being called a traitorous queen again. Because at least there was someone that believed she was otherwise.

"But not until I've acquired their weapons cache." Tyuule showed no bother that he added this condition to his demands as it would buy time regardless. For it seemed that those on the mountain had not yet been caught even as the rest of the Imperials closed in to scour the houses for booty.

"I'm sure it'll take some time, so we'll be around for a while." Cimon smiled menacingly as he would not leave until he and his men were sated of their desires.

Tyuule was not sure how long could she buy for the settlement and the Japanese soldiers. Her only thoughts were on delaying as long as possible. Yet, deep down, she yearned for someone to rescue her from this predicament.

---

"Come on, stay with me!" He dragged a Dwarf missing two of his legs a long bloody trail that went from the dead mounts to the edge of a cave in the outskirts of Velduar two hours walk away.

"Forget it, my lord. Leave me!" Hekrel ignored the common soldier's plea as he struggled to bring him to concealment from the elements of Gnolls hunting down the routed remnants of the Main Army.

Hekrel couldn't accept what had happened as much as the Dwarf next to him. No sooner had the Gnolls attacked the Nexus Defence Fortress did the Temple Warriors attack him and the Command Staff of the Marshal. Marshal Grayhoard was protected by his guards as they went out to see that the Temple Guards had slaughtered the garrison of the fortress and opened the gates for the Gnolls who attacked only them. It was treachery on the highest order, not only did they betray the country, but their own race as well. It was no doubt to who had ordered this attack.

"The Apostle has betrayed us all!" He remembered the Marshal screaming at the top of his lungs enraged.

"Young ones, you must warn her majesty quickly! Send word to her! Send word to the God of Cookery!" He ordered him, the spymaster and his retinue as he and his personal guard stood in the face of the converging Gnolls and Temple Guard.

No sooner did he mount his Ram did the horn of the Gnoll King sound as the monster that hulked over its brethren twice their size meet with the Marshal in personal combat, while their guards clashed into one another. Along the way, Dwarven soldiers in the encampments rose to face the enemy in their state of unpreparedness or fled alongside them. Some remained behind to delay the advance and keep the Gnolls at the Nexus Defense Walls until help arrived. But by then, they would be dead. All that awaited the reinforcements would be the whole Gnoll army coming through the opened gates.

Just as they were reaching the halfway mark, they came under an ambush of another cluster of Temple guard at the lava crossing. Blocking their way and slaughtering his men without a conscience. Yet there was something eerie about the Temple Warriors, they moved almost sluggishly almost as if their emotions had been robbed from them, even when their limbs were hacked apart. Hekrel offered to distract their ambushers while Hadric and a few of the Generals made haste for Velduar. He and fifty soldiers put up a fierce resistance that resulted in the costly victory for Hekrel as their ambushers lay vanquished. But he'd lost every soldier under his command, except this poor fellow. Putting him on his injured mount, they rode as far as they could back to the city while the Gnoll riders could be heard following their trail. He tried to lose them in this labyrinth of caves that were unfamiliar to the Gnolls but not to the Dwarves. As they speak, they were now searching for them. Fearing that Velduar would be warned too soon of the Gnolls' success and the fall of the fortress, the greatest military disaster in Dwarven history.

Hekrel did not let that worry him right now as he tried to bandage up the crippled soldier's stumps.

"Stay with me, lad. When we get back to the City we'll fix you up good." At most, the soldier groaned in pain as he tightened the bandages to seal the wounds.

"I don't think they could fix this, My Lord." The Soldier wasn't stupid. But Hekrel was not deterred as he remembered he had something in his pocket and produced a vial of medication.

"Here, this will help you with the pain." Hekrel produced roots from the vial and forced himself to chew it into a paste before applying it to the soldier's wound with excruciating pain as a result. But after a few minutes, he calmed down.

"The pain's gone." He said confused, unable to believe that any such herb would do so. It must have been an expensive herb for private use.

"Lord Hekrel's charity is wasted on me…" He said with difficult breaths still.

"Then pay me back when you recover." Hekrel said after spitting out another lot to apply to the second leg and feeling his tongue getting numb from the effects working on him too.

"It would probably cost a lifetime of servitude." The soldier imagined the cost.

"Nonsense, its merely a plant that came from the forest outside." Hekrel didn't lie about the plants origin. The soldier was relieved to hear, but also grateful that his life was being saved by the Lord of Oakenspire.

"Did you know, that it was harvested by the God of Cookery himself? I think he calls it Yarrow in his language." The soldier had been up to date on the rumors of the God of Cookery and who had accommodated his stay through this duration.

"Why must the Gods be so cruel?" The soldier began to weep not for himself alone, but for the abandonment of the entire Dwarven race. As the apostle had turned against them held the word of the Forgefather. And the God of Cookery happened to be around to spectacle their demise.

"Lord Furuta will not abandon us, lad!" Hekrel said firmly in his beliefs. Such that the soldier believed it from the sincerity in his eyes. Hekrel continued to wrap the soldier's legs.

"Did you know, that those Amarel floozies call him Al'aelsaire, the stormcrow in their language?" Hekrel tried to tell stories that would inspire some hope not just in the soldier but himself.

The soldier nodded weakly, as he too had heard what he was being called and what he did.

"He wrecked Amarel and conned the Eliwatir…" Hekrel shook his head as only the dreadful details of Furuta's trip had been disclosed by the Temple to inspire fear of the God of Cookery's deceptive ways.

"Those pointy-ears enslaved their minorities, including some of their own." Hekrel began to tell the story that he heard from Kugel, the story that he himself believed in.

"Lord Furuta confronted their Apostle and God over this and fought both of them on behalf of the enslaved ones." Hekrel retold the story that Kugel did in his own fashion and manner to bring about excitement.

He not only fought the God of the Sun and the Elven armies, but an ancient Demon the crazy elves locked up in a temple structure. Apparently, this demon played a long con game while posing as another Elven God, Wareharun.

"But Lord Furuta shrew the Demon too." The soldier was finding it more than hard to believe since he not only fought another God but a Demon that captured the Goddess as well. How powerful was this God of Cookery?

"He won't leave until he's gotten his armor though." Hekrel ended off with the story of why the God of Cookery was really here.

"So he want's our weapons in the end." The soldier said with doubt.

"But he's not left either." Hekrel also pointed out, as Hitoshi started to visit the Queen Mother regularly to treat while even building his own crazy business in an old cheese warehouse.

"The God of Cookery…. My son wanted to meet him. But I didn't think much of it, then." The soldier regretted not even having a look when his child wanted to.

"Then come back with me, and when this is all over, I'll invite you to have a meal with him." Hekrel offered the soldier.

"Thank you, My Lord…." The soldier said crying at his own helplessness.

"I didn't even bother to ask, what is your name, soldier?"

"It's Huewin, My Lord." The soldier's eyelids became heavy as they closed one after another.

"Huewin… Huewin!" Hekrel checked his pulse but found that the soldier was just tired from the stress, bloodloss and fatigue from running nonstop.

In fact, he too was tired. But needed to keep watch in case the Gnolls found them.

Resting his back against the wall, he tried to think positive things under the chaotic circumstances. Hadric and the Generals had escaped, so Queen Thranmilla would be warned, so would Hitoshi. Thus, they could coordinate a counterattack before the Gnolls arrived. His only worry was that the Apostle had planned something different at Velduar itself. Things had honestly been strange not only since the God of Cookery's arrival but that of Iraemus' return. In fact, he dared to believe that it was the latter's reappearance that ignited the strange happenings to occur again. Starting from Lady Hambelyn's trial and Lord Rambek's disappearance. Then the scandal of Iraemus cheating and his subsequent exile with Brom.

The Apostle and Temple related to both affairs. And now with Iraemus returning, the Apostle concocted this treacherous alliance with the Gnolls behind everybody's backs. Two complete opposites coming together, not even he could believe them getting along with one another. Or maybe they still hadn't but made a compromise. What sort of compromise though? What could the Apostle give to the Gnolls that they wanted to badly beside the extermination of their race? Hekrel didn't like the answer to any of these queries. But to think that the Apostle had become so desperate to consort with Gnolls, was he actually afraid of Iraemus?

The wonderchild of the Bloodsteins who'd unlocked the previously lost potential of Adamantite that even the Apostle failed to do in his centuries of service. Someone who could quite possibly be a worth candidate to replace him as an apostle to the forgefather. Or maybe it was related to Rambek. Lord Bloodstein had something that the Apostle feared, and he worried that Iraemus would find the truth of it.

And he couldn't act because the God of Cookery watched over Iraemus closely. Hekrel drew only more questions than answers. Most of all, why did the Apostle resent the Bloodstein line so much, it was likely more than just pettiness?

"What is the Forgefather doing…..?" Hekrel cursed on his god's name for the first time. As he was fairly sure that Duncan had not orchestrated these events and they were the Apostle's doing alone.

In the God of Cookery, Hekrel trusted. He was confident that the former could beat the Apostle senseless if he wanted to by storming the temple. What worried him was the Gnoll King, Malerki. That Gnoll wasn't just a head chieftain, but a powerful warlock that had confronted Velduarite Apostles before and was surprisingly more powerful than Mortar, he dare say. At least after what he'd just witness that towering monstrosity do. What mortal being could confront an apostle…. Unless, there was something behind the Gnoll King. Something…. Someone…. An omnipotent entity that had changed the Gnolls' natures into the newly conceived monstrosities that they were now, who had not revealed itself to them yet.

"Duncan's grace…." Could it be, that the same entity had manipulated the Apostle to do its bidding as well?

Hekrel became fearful of the odds. He had no proof of this yet, it was bare for him to see. Something lurked behind the shadows of this impending war, seeking to profit from their demise.

Hekrel looked into the inside of the cavern that they were in that led further into the mining shafts. He realized that if he could not leave this place by the way he came, he had to go in instead to seek another exit to Velduar. And quickly warn Hitoshi of the threat that lay behind the shadows.

All that stood between it and Velduar now was the God of Cookery and Iraemus Bloodstein.

---

The brig was a container that had been used as a makeshift quarantine area for any serious symptoms that were deemed too dangerous to interact with the populous or the recipient was simply uncooperative. Kenzaki, SIndri and most of the SFGs had been shoved in with five of the Warrior Bunnies who'd turned against them including their leader.

Sindri surmised that it was a sick joke of the Prefect to put them together and see how their resentment took hold of them. On a surprising, note Komurazaki had offered to cooperate with the Imperials in exchange for his freedom. And it was a surprise how he managed to communicate despite not knowing the Imperial Language well enough. It was clear that he was doing this out of his resentment for his ill-treatment, as he convinced them that he knew how firearms worked.

Kenzaki was too tired to confront him on this treachery and conserved his energy as Sindri had suggested. After this situation was resolved, Komurazaki was dead. Sindri promised him, since the SR would leave no loose ends.

"You knew!" Sindri was affixed to the bars by Frau after she had recovered from her mental breakdown that had lasted for ten minutes since they were detained.

"Knew what?" He replied calmly. Her sisters-in-arms only tried pulling her away because it was affecting her mental health, they too were likely feeling the same resentment towards Tyuule.

"Who the hell is Iota, Sindri?" Kenzaki got up and asked as it was clear that Furuta had disclosed to him more than he did to Kenzaki.

"She was their Queen not too long ago." He pointed towards the Warrior Bunnies with a nod.

"She's not our Queen!" Frau growled back as she stepped threateningly close to grappling him again.

"As they see it, she sold them out for her own safety." Sindri got straight to the point of the question as it prevented them from making such a fuss.

"Then why did Furuta choose her?" Kenzaki revealed why what Furuta considered the most important to this whole operation whilst still asking a question.

Frau shuddered at the mention of that name even before she had the chance to shoot him down for continuing this discomforting history that all Warrior Bunnies had suffered because of her choices.

"Sindri, be clear with us. What was Furuta planning here?" Kenzaki was tired of charades that Furuta played alongside his former colleagues in the SR.

Sindri sat comfortably despite their circumstances.

"Answer him!" Frau became impatient when the things she wanted to know also were being kept from her. But Sindri looked at her was a sneer.

"What's with that look?" She demanded.

"Why can't I laugh at you? You spent two weeks in this settlement being fed, sheltered and given options to pursue a future beyond what was forced on you by those Imperials. And you still chose this." He referenced the fortunes that were given to her simply by being a member of Warrior Bunny race and still decided to not only leave, but betray all of her kin.

"Please, enlighten me. How different exactly are you from who you say Tyuule was?"

"What would you know about choice?!" Frau got worked up again, grasping his collar as she shouted.

"Were your sisters and family taken hostage and killed off one by one, unless you fought for them!? Watched as sister-in-arms fell one after another at the Imperials' leisure, constantly defiled and tortured with no respite except through death, have you?!" In her confrontation and the truth of her existence since the loss at their homeland, Sindri laughed hysterically at their expense. Only provoking the Warrior Bunnies with Frau even further to respond with violence.

"I see, so that's what drove you to betray this settlement. You've all lost hope in a future for yourselves! And you don't care if you drag everyone with you." Sindri laughed not at their expense in actuality, but the irony of their circumstances to his.

"Sindri, that's enough." Kenzaki tried to extinguish the confrontation further as his men were sitting in idle to themselves not getting involved.

"Girls. Lemme tell you the purpose of this settlement. And why Furuta chose your so-called traitor." He was also letting the SFGs know since he wasn't whispering it but announcing it aloud.

"Its purpose is to destroy the Empire." For the first time, Frau was taken aback. Kenzaki was even more so, since the political objective of the Parliament was to cease hostilities and work towards peace with the Empire.

"We aren't blind to the many atrocities the Empire has committed in their expansion and what it'll do to Japan when things start coming to light. So Furuta, Hazama and Defense Minister Kano collaborated on a plan." He now had the absolute attention of the whole cell as he spoke further on the details whether they understood or didn't. As far as the Warrior Bunnies could understand, the Men in Green military had decided to let the Empire crumble under the weight of its bureaucracy.

"Obviously, with the Empire gone, it leaves a destructive void. More soldiers turning to banditry, coin becoming useless and bloody famine everywhere. And of course, our lovely Government has to deal with this nonsense." Kenzaki could understand now that this was a long-term plan.

"The Captain proposed that in place of the Empire, they could introduce a new super state. One that was self-sufficient, didn't have problems like racial discrimination and had one hell of a welfare system that would lead the old citizens of the Empire to join this state instead. Leaving no chance for the Empire to recover at all, it ends with that Princess Pina." It was too much for Kenzaki to absorb let alone comprehend. They were taking about creating a nation out of thin air.

"You really thought we could continue to have relations with such uncivilized human beings as these Saderans, lieutenant?"

"You're talking about another human being!" He tried to scold him for his racism.

"Why would you start caring now, sir?" Sindri challenged him on this duality of his.

"You've been in the Special Region longer than we have, what exactly have you done noteworthy in your mission for peace and stability?" Sindri caught him in his own guilty conscience.

"If you tell me nonsense like you held back because you were following orders, then they should have sent a drone in your stead."

"I won't have you lecture me about initiative, petty officer Iskander."

"Don't call me by that name!" Sindri suddenly burst out in their debate.

"None of you deserve to call my name, none of you!" He pointed deliberately towards the SFGs and their commander.

"As I was saying…" He went back to his composed state as if his outburst had never happened. But the SFGs now learnt that they weren't allowed to call them by their real names, only callsigns.

"With the Empire gone, the Restoration takes its place and everyone is happy except the displaced ex-Imperial hegemony." Kenzaki couldn't imagine that they would do something as harsh as depose the princess and her royal lineage after the relations they'd established after so long.

"Does the PM know about this?" Knowing the current Prime Minister Morita, his anxious character wouldn't have even allowed for such a controversial operation to even be authorized.

"What do you think, sir?" It was an obvious no.

"You have not answered the question, why Tyuule?" Frau butt in as she had let them talk out their differences for too long that they were forgetting the query that she yearned.

"I honestly don't need to give it to you." He said with a sneer.

"What?"

"The fact that you can't even piece it together just makes me question why Furuta spared you up till now?" Sindri revealed yet another mind-boggling truth, he knew about their affiliations.

"Stop answering in riddles and just say it!" It was getting on her nerves, she didn't want to think about it she wanted answered.

To which Sindri rolled his eyes.

"What exactly makes her a traitor to you lot anyway?"

"What else?! She sold us all out for her own wellbeing!" Said a battle sister of Frau's angry that Sindri was so dense on that point that she had to remind him of her betrayal.

"Right, her wellbeing. Being enslaved by an asshole prince, forced to serve his needs under the condition that you all be spared." He said in an almost sarcastic manner.

"What-…." Frau opened her mouth for the longest time as her sisters were not speaking against his claim.

"You can't be that dumb, right?" Even after giving that hint, they still refused to believe it.

"D-Don't lie on her behalf!" Frau made them believe once again that he was telling a lie to stick up for Tyuule once more.

"See, this is exactly what I meant."

"No! That's not possible! She abandoned us in the middle of the night!" Frau had a different accounting of what had happened that day when Zorzal approached the hardy defenders with their Queen in his bondage.

"Sindri." Rider spoke for the first time in a while, to which Sindri gave him his attention in the Warrior Bunny's instable mentality.

"She clearly has been through a lot, probably worse than we imagine. I think she deserves a proper answer if you know anything about it. Whether she believes it or not, is entirely up to her." Rider spoke rationally such that the Warrior Bunnies and Frau calmed down at his willingness to speak for them despite the clarity of their allegiances.

"Alright." Sindri was appreciative of Rider speaking his mind in a way that didn't conflict with his words like Kenzaki had gotten. He then faced the Warrior Bunnies who were eager to know about this.

"From what I've been told, Furuta believes that your war with the Empire was a no-win scenario. No matter how much you threw at them, whether it was the entire population regardless of elderly and children, the Empire was still going to win. So, your Queen made a choice. Between her dignity and your safety, she chose the latter." Even as he paused to let them take it in, they did not rebuke him this time. It was as Rider said, it was their choice whether to believe or not.

"She threw herself before our arrogant bastard Prince we all know as Zorzal, promising her body and soul for sparing you sorry lot."

"But it didn't!-." A Warrior Bunny hastily spoke before Frau stopped her from speaking it out.

"No. It didn't. Zorzal decided that then and there that it didn't really matter if he kept his promise or not since they already won. But he wasn't done torturing her yet. He wanted to see the look on her face when she found out that he lied, but your Queen didn't break. Not after three years, not now." Kenzaki understood that Sindri had a good relation with Iota who was also known as Tyuule, it came down to mutual respect and empathy for their causes and drives. He obviously got irritated when they badmouthed her as well.

"Furuta chose her, because there's no one else who would rather crush the Empire like her. And hell hath no fury for anyone that got in her way to do it. You remember the outbreak of this Civil War, sir?" He asked Kenzaki who only recalled that the Crown Prince had imprisoned Pina and launched the coup de tat.

"That was orchestrated by her." It shook Kenzaki internally. For someone to have manipulated all the things that had happened, had to have such a commitment that was fueled only by hatred yet temperance in the face of plans that could easily go wrong.

And that was all Sindri had left to say, as they could figure out the rest on their own time. But now, their expressions were read as complex with nothing to say in return. Imagine being tormented by the bastard that started it all whose only wish was to see her despair as his only means to get his sadistic vindication. It was just as bad as what they were going through, if not worst.

But no time was given for them to think as the Imperials returned and dragged out Sindri, Kenzaki and kicked out Frau as well. Bringing them to where the armskote stood locked by Sindri, it was clear why they had been let out for.

Walking through the streets they'd built, there were Imperials ransacking everything. It pierced Kenzaki to see that and that his failure had resulted in this.

Soon, the armskote entered their view. As did the presence of Cimon, Tyuule and two dozen of his men waiting to get their hands on their weapons. It appeared that they were already fiddling around with the weapons surrendered and even fighting over who got to have it.

"All calmed now, right? A shame you didn't claw each other's eyes out." Cimon greeted them in his taunting manner.

"Happy to disappoint." Sindri managed to say before the Optio struck him to the ground for speaking without permission.

"Where are the keys, smith?" The prefect got straight to the point.

"What, is one lock proving so much for you so called soldiers?" SIndri taunted them to take it out on him, which they did. A couple of kicks here and there, before Cimon spoke again.

"Tyuule tells me that you are the only one with access to vault, so opening it."

"Or what?" Sindri challenged him in front of his men and proved that hitting him wouldn't get what they wanted.

"Or he dies." The prefect laughed as he pointed the recently acquired P7 pistol at Kenzaki.

"Then do it. You'd be doing me a favor, after all." Sindri showed no fear of Cimon gunning down Kenzaki and the latter believed it.

"Thanks for worrying." Kenzaki said sarcastically as it appeared to him that the Imperials were fumbling in their attempts to get the cache open but proved unsuccessful.

Sindri had bolted the armskote with reinforced bars made of heat-resistant steel and the imperials had nothing to break through. As was seen by the scorch marks and broken tools they had lying around.

"I just have one question, what do you intent to do with weapons you can't handle and don't know how to use?" Sindri instead asked thinking that Cimon would at least entertain an answer.

"I'll teach them!" Declared someone in Nihon that had been behind Cimon all this while.

"Kuzunari…" Kenzaki growled under his teeth, the journalist truly had no shame.

"After all, someone's got to stand up for the local resistance trying to defend themselves against you brutes!" Once again, his mentality was something they couldn't understand at all. Less of how he could convince himself that what he did was right and ethical, more of how someone like him had managed to survive so long in the demography he rides in. But it was clear that he was doing this out of spite more than anything.

"If I'd known you were this much of a weasel, I would've sat and watched Bjorn tear you apart." Sindri said to frighten the journalist as Komurasaki turned to Cimon remembering that Bjorn had not been accounted for, but since he didn't know the language, he struggled to say but Cimon didn't care. All he wanted was directions on how to use Japanese weapons from him, and whatever this Japanese monkey was useful for before he was discarded. Tyuule wasn't helping him translate either, she'd seen how rotten to the core he really was and the standard of how horrible the Japanese people could be.

"What to do…." Cimon pondered as he rested his chin on the pistol he had commandeered and struck a eureka as he turned his gun in Tyuule's direction.

"If you don't open this weapons cache to the count of five, I'll blow her away." Cimon tried to use her to get them to open the cache as he had a guess that they were still conscious of her safety.

"Five…. Four…." Sindri showed no sign of doing anything that suggested he would comply.

"It's not happening, even if you shoot all of us."

"Three… Two….."

"Sindri-." Kenzaki finally caved in and turned to Sindri to remind him that under no circumstances could they allow Tyuule to perish. But that was also giving away their concern for her.

"I am going to say though. You're going to regret point that gun at her." The armorer folded his arms and said without fear of him being true to his word. The Imperial marauders laughed at his bravado.

"There's literally no one left to stop us from taking what we want."

"I'm surprise Fraulan didn't warn you about Furuta." He said just as the Prefect was thinking of shooting Tyuule in the leg to make a point. But ended up laughing himself at the prospect of what he was saying.

"What's the cook going to do? Cook for us?" His men laughed with him.

"You mean cook you, only if he's in a good mood."

"The fact that I still captured this place even though you defended it with all your might, proves that all you're blabbering on is hot air."

"I'm surprise that even after all this time, you Imperials still think he's just a cook." There was a tinge of worry that grew from what Sindri suggested to Cimon, as he too felt something strange about the conveniences he'd been having.

*PiPiPiPiiiii….PiPiPiPiiiii….* An alarm went off which caught the group by surprise. Particularly the Imperials who scanned the surroundings before Komurasaki pointed at Sindri vigorously to tell that what it was if any of them bothered to listen.

And just as they noticed that it came from Sindri, he laughed louder than he'd ever done before.

"What's so funny, smith?" Cimon became more interested in why he snickered than the device that informed him of something instead.

"A bet that I made with one of my mates who followed the empty trail that your Bunnies provided us. He didn't believe that you'd get this far and thought that Kenzaki would've actually done the hard choices and kept Iota from falling into your hands at the expense of the settlement. You've just made me a hundred thousand yen richer." At first, they wanted to silence him from his non-stop jabbering, but he took the initiative to walk towards the cache as he unlocked the gate which had given them so much trouble with a key he left under an obvious doormat. Making them feel stupid for pushing this hard all the while.

"He thought wrong." Cimon tried to hide his surprise that they had been aware all this while that it was a ruse. But the bulk of the Company had not been heard from since, and in the last four days there had been no activity to suggest they were returning any time soon. That's why Cimon took his chance now while the bulk of the Company was away.

"Yeah, he has to see in person what a cunt you are." Sindri opened the door and immediately the Imperials rushed in only to find out that they had entered the handling table and not the actual armskote where the guns were neatly stacked on benchrests behind another set of bars.

"Open it!" The Optio demanded whilst waving his baton as if his intimidation would provoke him further to cooperate.

"As my associates here have asked, open the door, smith." But it seemed that the streak of cooperation he gave had ended. As the brought Tyuule and Kenzaki forth to threaten at gunpoint again.

"Are you not even going to ask what this was all about?" Sindri reminded them of the beeping watch. That only Cimon seemed concerned about as he wanted him to hasten the opening of the armskote to access its inventory of weapons.

"I'll tell you what it is then." Sindri said as he walked over to a drawer and took out a key.

"Since the Company left, I've been giving them scheduled pips from the EWACS that is disrupting all outgoing and incoming calls from this base." This was more of directed at Kenzaki to notion something to him without them knowing.

"Seems that if you adjust the jammer you can create pulses that'll reach as far as the SRs comms without compromising stealth. And if you play around with it, you can send morse code signals quite well." If what Sindri was trying to tell him was true, it meant that from the beginning the Company had regularly received updates on their situation through Sindri's encrypted method.

In other words-.

"You mean- (BOOOM)" Kenzaki barely got out a sentence just as he recognized this news as a rocket howled and impacted upon the centre mass of imperials outside of the armskote.

"Enemy attack!"

(Babaababababaam) The report of machine gun fire silenced the trumpeter as the Imperials scurried around frantically looking for targets.

Wielding firearms themselves, instead, they became prime targets as their heads and torsos exploded from anti-material rounds passing through.

"You!-" Cimon became aware of the significance of the armorer's words as the reports of gunfire exceeded the number that remained, which only meant one thing.

"(Crack)Arggh!" Smashing the optio's nose and causing him to stumble back, Sindri reached under the table and drew out an MP5K. But while he cocked it, Cimon had already hidden behind Kenzaki's frame and held him as a hostage with the stolen handgun. Tyuule had been taken hostage also by Frau who was still unsure of where her current status was.

"You ran out of time, Bandit." Sindri duly informed him of the change in situation.

The SR Company had returned and had taken up favorable positions before commencing their assault upon them.

---

Minutes before settlement recapture –

Baldr and Archer followed Bjorn's lead as they crept towards a better position from the original vantage point they held at Charlie that was now overrun with Imperials trying to figure out her the M167 cannon worked even though it had just recently emptied its drum.

Archer found himself reluctantly cooperating with the two SR operatives. As the rest had been captured, it fell to them to observe and exploit the element of surprise they still had to free the rest.

"Shit, they're at the Pavilion." Baldr watched via his rifle scope as a few Imperials dragged out some Bunnies by their ears towards a yurt each. It was clear that they meant to enjoy the fruit of their comrades' sacrifices by having their way with the Warrior Bunnies. Even from their distance, they could hear the sharp screams as they begged and pleaded and when the awful deed was being done.

Bjorn motioned for him to focus on the objective.

"Right." Baldr had been tasked with identifying the Warrior Bunny insiders amongst the Imperials, which was easy. Since they walked around aimlessly while the population was mostly gathered in the main pavilion. None of the Imperials touched them also, which gave them another hint.

"Archer mark the targets." He told the SFG to do his part as well.

"Don't tell me what to do!"

"Suit yourself, your fellows aren't our problem anyway." Baldr motivated him to pick up his rifle to check on the brig where most of the Warrior Bunnies working with the Imperials had been detained after some fiasco broke out and one of the members punched Iota a lot.

Bjorn checked his watch that read five minutes away from the alarm going off. Before drafting a rough plot of the settlement streets and where the traitor bunnies were as well as where the Imperial Marauders had made camp. As if to make preparation to assault the settlement to retake it.

"You're not planning to take this whole place by yourself, are you?" Archer posed half-believing that they were crazy enough to try. They would at least take a whole day dispatching the Imperials silently, provided they didn't slip up at any point that would raise the alarm. He couldn't see that happening, then again, his priorities were different.

"Of course, they aren't." Archer swiveled his gun around in his prone position to the shadow casted on his back at the speaker.

Only to find that it came from someone who had left almost three days ago.

"You….."

"Always addressing people without their names, damn rude as ever." Ymir replied to Archer's surprise at his return.

"Ymir!" Baldr responded with elation, while Bjorn signed back.

"Boys, let's take back our castle."

It was as Ymir said. Ascension was their castle and they would take it back from those that thought they could steal in from under their noses. After consulting the situation chart that Bjorn had drawn, two teams of fifteen operatives converged on the settlement discreetly whilst they took out the sentries and move on in closer. Awaiting the big one, where all hell broke loose and they used the confusion to take out the Imperial Marauders that numbered around three hundred strong, two hundred and ninety after the outside wanderers were taken care of.

Then, Alvis unleashed a barrage of tear gas into the crowded areas with a rotary grenade launcher. Flushing out the unprepared marauders into the open and tearing their eyes out to care for the gasmask wearing operatives walking up to them and gunning them at point blank range as helpless as a baby.

Amidst this chaos, a stand off had reappeared between Sindri and Cimon's marauder group holding Kenzaki and Tyuule closely.

"I need to know, Bandit. Did you not ever question how easy it was for you to get the jump on us? Like you were being led in by hook…. Line…. And sinker?" Sindri asked him with a malevolent smile that mimicked Cimon's when he had first gained the upperhand with the hostages he held. It caused the prefect to stagger as he pulled Kenzaki in to hide his silhouette. Between them stood Cimon's men, caught between surrendering or fighting their way out while they still had the chance. Or so they thought.

"What are you standing there for, get him!?" He prompted them to act which resulted in some of them hastily spraying their stolen rifles in automatic without considering the recoil and stumbled backwards whilst hitting nothing.

(Babababaam)(Baabababam) Sindri, on the other hand. Dispatched them quickly and efficiently with short bursts that caught a few in their spray. Leaving only the Optio, Cimon and Frau alive as the ran out with their hostages into the open. Constantly moving as, the marauders put up an even more pitiful resistance that they had without the rifles they had acquired and hadn't gotten used to yet. With firearms, they were as helpless as babies.

"Boss, what do we do now? What do we do?!" The optio asked Cimon as he looked around at the exits closing in around them scraping his mind for a backup plan that didn't exist.

"Shut up! I'm thinking!" He said as men fell all around them like flies. Some begging to surrender, others calling out to their boss for directions that he failed to give them. It all happened to quickly and without warning.

In twenty seconds, over a hundred marauders in front of them had fallen to precision fire from the mountaintop or the fireteams that closed in on them. Coming out of the clearing burning smoke removing their gasmasks, the SR operatives had the Cimon and the Optio surrounded.

"Stay back, you hear! I'll do it, I swear by the gods I will!" Losing all his composure which he had previously had in his absolute that he had been victorious, it was indeed short lived.

As Sindri came out the armskote after kicking out the last of the corpses of the fallen marauders. While the rest of the marauders were being taken care of by other fireteams sweeping up the settlement street by street, house from house.

"I demand safe conduct out of here, or I will kill your commander!"

"We're not playing that game anymore, Bandit. And for the record, Kenzaki ain't our commander, Furuta is." Sindri said as he stepped forwards with his gun reloaded. Cimon's eyes widen in disbelief, did he just call the cook his commander? That would mean that the cook of the Crown Prince was actually a Men in Green warrior. Cimon felt a swell of worry that he had information critical to the war effort that he might not be able to bring out and himself to enjoy the rewards for telling this.

"You have no idea the fear that awaits you." Ymir provoked the situation by laughing at the encroaching despair of the Prefect. For it was clear that these soldiers were not like the typical Men in Green, who were valiant and humble. These men that wore a different color of uniform were just like him but worse.

The only ones left standing was Cimon, the Optio and Fraulan Kruger who had realized as well that the SR had never really left the base vulnerable but deliberately used her to lure the Imperial Marauder warband in to annihilate.

The cook had tricked her all along.

"No… NO! I won! You should be surrendering, not me!" Cimon refused to believe that he'd been tricked into taking the bait that Ymir had left. It would mean that from the beginning, he never had the chance. And he refused to believe that after all he'd been through, he couldn't lose now when it was only the start of his destiny.

"Really, that's a shame. We were thinking the exact same thing." Sindri turned his rant into nothing more than a foolish fantasy that only he had. And the exact opposite of how a hostage situation should have been.

"We can make a deal!"

"We don't negotiate with bandits, terrorists or pirates. You either give yourself up and be subject to interrogation or we will make sure that you die painfully." On this Ymir swore to him.

"Shut up!" Cimon had lost his cool entirely as he dragged Kenzaki around with the gun to his forehead.

"How much longer are you gonna play around, Kenzaki? You're SF for pete's sake." Sindri called out to the lieutenant who woke to the circumstances he was in.

"He doesn't even know how to undo the safety." Kenzaki realized what Sindri meant and immediately acted out a disarming hold in his struggle.

(Click) "Wha- aarrghh!" Hastily pulling the trigger, the gun refused to fire. And so, Kenzaki swiped the gun out of his hand in an armlock and threw him over his shoulder onto the hard surface. Then, he successfully pinned his hand behind his back while his front embraced the floor. The prefect had been successfully apprehended.

"What will you do?" Ymir turned the Frau who still held Tyuule as her hostage while the Optio was standing aimlessly for a moment before he tried to use magic to all their surprise.

"Stun!" At Ymir's order, two operatives drew out a smaller handgun that had two prongs in front of it. Firing in sequence at the second-in-command as he tried to use crack a vial that would create a smokescreen to escape. The pitons wired to the plastic gun fired outwards and embedded themselves into the Optio's skin before a strange crackling sound emerged.

The Optio spasmed on the floor as two taser darts had been used on him. And then, a transmorphic change occurred with Cimon's right-hand man as his skin and bone changed in size. His hairs started to grow in length until it became fur while his face became longer and more snout-like. In this new transfiguration, his body became slender with womanly curves behind the bulky clothing of the Imperial legion that fell apart without support.

"Wha-…" Cimon watched in disbelieve as his trusted subordinate underwent this demonic change.

"What, you've never seen a Haryo Dars before?" Sindri said to the defeated Prefect as he never expected that there was such a creature amongst his company.

"And what about you?" Sindri's words were directed at Frau who held Tyuule even closer, there shouldn't have been any reason more for her to fight, but there was.

"Frau, there's no longer reason for you to fight." Tyuule tried talking to her instead.

"Shut up! There's always a reason to fight, just because you make homes and pretend that we never lost our homeland doesn't mean it didn't happen!"

"Frau, you…." She never imagined that her captor felt that way this entire time.

"If you're worried about your sisters, they're fine but detained." Sindri knew that her concern was mainly for them since they had already betrayed the trust of the settlement.

"Let her go, and you have our word that not a hair on their heads will come to harm."

"You don't understand…" She said in an exasperated manner, like all the remaining strength and hope had left her.

"He has taken the rest of my sisters as hostages in the encampment. If Cimon does not return, they will kill them all!" Sindri and Tyuule now understood the gravity of her circumstances. The only reason that Cimon was able to coerce these Warrior Bunnies in fighting condition to fight on his commands was because he held hostages of their kinswomen. For how long, they could only imagine what bandits did to these sort of people.

"That's right! If you don't get me back, you can kiss all two hundred of your people goodbye. Young, old, it won't matter to my boys. They'll do it with satisfaction!" Cimon was quick to pick on how he could escape this situation with his last hand.

"I won't be so sure about that." Ymir declared as he holstered his rifle.

"What?" Cimon couldn't understand.

"Oi, bunny. Catch."

Ymir tossed something her way which she caught with her free hand and realized the significance of what had come into the Aesir Warrior's possession. An amulet necklace that belonged to one of her imprisoned kinswomen.

That hesitation was all they needed as the same pitons impacted her ribcage and sent a surge of fifty thousand volts into her system. Causing most of her muscles to relapse as she collapsed, and the rifle fell out of her grasp.

(clackclackclack) Followed by a noiseless scream of agony that came in the wake of the clicking sound of electricity surging in.

Freed at last, Tyuule stepped away from the incapacitated Frau who had lost all bodily control being tied up and carried off the where her sisters were being detained.

"Ymir, the people-." Tyuule's main concern was the populous, which Ymir answered instantly.

"They're fine, Ma'am. The pavilion was the first place we secured before getting rid of the Imperials. I left Fenrir in charge of watching them." This news assured her of the situation that they were safe.

"Most of the inhabitants are safe, just a few cases of rape but no fatalities or injuries. As for the Warrior Bunnies that were in cahoots with the Imperial, we'd like to bring them in for questioning one at a time for now."

"Yes, you don't need my permission for that." Since he was responsible for all their security.

"Ymir…. About what Frau said-…." Ymir smiled as she even concerned herself with the hostages that Cimon had taken to force Frau and her sisters to fight on his behalf.

"The encampment was secured two days ago, we liberated over five hundred people over there. Two hundred were Warrior Bunnies. No casualties, we had a bit of difficulty bringing some of those crippled back by the trucks, but no one died as a result of the raid except the captors." Hearing this Tyuule truly sighed in relief that they had also succeeded in their original objective of destroying the slave encampment while freeing its occupants also.

"Those imperials did some really sick things over there, so we were worried we wouldn't make it back in time. And left half the group to escort the slaves back." Ymir had lots to unpack regarding their raid and of the things that were beyond a written report. But there were better times.

"Guess who I found?" Baldr pulled out a real traitor by his back collar.

"Let go of me, I know my rights! You'll answer for this slaughter!" As Komurasaki was pulled towards them after Baldr caught him hiding when the firefight broke out, Sindri whispered the events that had taken place concerning the what the journalist did.

"And you'll answer for yours, Kuzunari." Ymir informed him in a cold and ruthless manner, no longer giving him the consideration as a civilian. For he had learnt that he not only tried to bludgeon Bjorn with his back turned, but also sold them all out for his own safety by telling the Imperials how to use guns.

"In fact, why don't you start answering with this." Ymir indicated to Sindri to do something, as the latter unholstered a taser gun from his pocket and pointed it at the journalist, who recognized what it was from his protesting days.

"No-… Don't-.." If there was one thing the journalist was afraid of, it was instantaneous pain without respite. As the piton harpoons fired out of the taser and lodged themselves into his shoulder, Komurasaki hit the floor like a limp fish jittering about. For almost a minute, Sindri held down the trigger and let the current run until the battery was out.

"Put him back in the brig, we'll let the Captain decide his fate." Ymir ordered his men to carry the journalist to the cell where he belonged, awaiting judgement.

"Get some rest, we'll take it from here." Ymir assured them both as he moved on to give orders to his men to detain their prisoners and removed the broken bodies of the marauders before it began to rot.

He did the same for Kenzaki as more operatives came to relieve him by taking the prefect away for interrogation along with the Haryo that had blended into the marauder group without them knowing.

"One moment. Please." Tyuule called out to them as they halted in their steps.

She walked with deliberate steps towards Sindri while he discarded the cartridge of the plastic gun.

"….." Without asking, he had already guessed what she wanted as her outstretched hand indicated just as much. After inserting a fresh cartridge given by one of the operatives, he passed it to her.

"Push the safety lever down and pull the trigger gradually, don't jerk." He gave his advice before he motioned for those holding the prefect to turn their way.

"What are you doing? Stop! You barbarians! Stop!" After realizing what they were doing, he struggled with all his might, but with his legs tied together and his hands cuffed. There was little resistance he could offer other than to squirm about like a giant larvae.

"Aim centre mass and hold the trigger to let him fry." As the prefect struggled in vain, Tyuule aimed the taser gun at the centre of his exposed torso after they'd removed his plated armor.

"Empires sake! I'll tell you what you want to know, just stop her!" Cimon pleaded as he'd seen how excruciating that device that caused one to seize up wearing faces of agony and remaining paralyzed like they'd just ingested basilisk venom. And now, she was going to do the same thing to him.

"Don't let her do this to me!" Even Kenzaki stuck around to watch the prefect… no-…. The bandit Cimon receive his just reward for the torment he put them through. Even if it was only the beginning of his torture, he earned it for his villainy. He operated as a bandit, using rape, pillaging and pilfering to sate his frustrations with the norm. But worst of all, he used displaced townsfolk he enslaved as human shields in the dozens. And as Tyuule said when they had first thwarted his infiltration plan she wanted to be the first to cause him agony that he inflicted upon Noriko.

(Pak)(clackclackclackclackclack) As she was instructed, she allowed the battery to run dry as fifty thousand volts stunned him and caused him to lose control of his bowels. Both soiling and wetting himself at the same time. His urine contacted the barbs that had struck his lower torso and smoked as it not only electrocuted him internally, but everywhere he pissed himself. Cimon let out a silent cry that was smothered by the agony he experienced for the first time in his life, subsequently passing out from it.

Disappointing her that he didn't remain awake through it. However, she had sated her feelings of spite as it was now replaced with relief. It was an indescribable feeling that she had inside of her, one that she was unfamiliar too yet felt accustom to.

For in her success at saving the settlement from peril, Tyuule had come to receive closure and reprieve to the mistakes of the past that had haunted her every night since then. She had finally overcome the stigma that had stained her character and turned her from the benevolent leader into a pitiful grudge holder.

Tyuule looked Kenzaki's way to see that he had also been relieved that things had turned out for the best in the end. To express her gratitude in the simplest of ways, she smiled to him in the most lighthearted manner that tugged on his heart strings and caused it to beat erratically. The operatives who had caught a glimpse of this smile had also stumbled in their present work to gaze at the brightness that was her joy and elation replacing her sorrow and torment.

And in their grueling work to restore the settlement to some degree of working order, that expression of gratitude she gave had somehow made it all worth the trouble. Noriko, coming out of her slumber against Mari's instructions had spotted this smile nearby and taken a snapshot with her polaroid camera. Which produced one of the pictures that became the most coveted item amongst the Jietai soldiers of Ascension Glades.

And from the woman herself, it seemed to stay on as she walking towards Noriko to express her feelings to her and her deepest regrets for wishing to do her harm. But Noriko was ready to forgive, after known what sort of life she'd lived. And the sunny smile that she now wore, the Japanese of Ascension Glades swore they would stop at nothing in order to protect it.

Tyuule laughed in the most beautiful manner, as if she'd become a pure maiden once more. She had become to joyful. For the old Tyuule had finally been absolved of all her troubles, while the new one rose to take her place. But now, she was certain that unlike the old Queen, she would not return to the old style of ruling for that was no longer who she was. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, she would rise as the Restoration would.

Tyuule broken spirit had been resurrected anew.

---

It was approximately an hour since the commissioning of the Gray Legion, the new model army of Velduar. Hitoshi had been conferred the provisional responsibility of commanding the Gray Legion soldiers by the current Supreme Commander of the Velduar armed forces, Crown Prince Mayre. As it was certain that the marshal had perished. For his first order, Hitoshi was given the responsibility of containing the Apostle within the temple of Duncan. While the prince and the garrison army defended against the incoming slaughter of the Gnoll army.

Prince Mayre didn't believe in the untested strength of the Gray Legion and thought it bogus all the while, comprised of rejects from the regular army and vagrants until recently. It was an insult to the integrity of the order of knighthood. But desperate times called for desperate measures, promoting people in status was the quickest way of getting them motivated to pursue that lifestyle if it meant loyalty to the kingdom and that there was still a kingdom worth saving.

He did however have faith that Furuta was at least able to pressure the Apostle and the rest of the Temple Militant into staying contained within Sturmheim. After all, only a God to beat a God. Or in this case, an Apostle against a mortal God of Cookery. If the rumors about him were true, then it was an even match. The problem for the remainder of the Velduarite Armed forces were the Gnolls and the turncoat Temple Guard who they were informed had grade seven adamantite weaponry, resulting in significant losses. The Gnolls numbered in the range of thirty thousand, that was every warrior from the thirteen Gnoll tribes. Standing against them were a mere five thousand with two thousand mustered from the reserve forces. Hitoshi knew that the Gnolls would hit hard and strike fast like they did at the fallen Nexus Defense. And his objective would be to acquire what they wanted before them.

The temple of Duncan itself.

The profanity of his very intention to storm the Temple, beat the Apostle and assert what the Gnolls wanted from the Altar would have placed him on an even higher level of notoriety if not for the fact that the Apostle betrayed the Kingdom first.

Hitoshi had ensured that all the Gray Marines had been issued their kit and weapon, as well as ammunition. Though sparing, he left the metal works to continue production of the ammunition he dubbed "Ferro slugs". A sabot casing roughly twenty millimetre in diameter and ninety millimetres long held a slug that was shaped similar to older tank Armor-piercing discarding sabot rounds. And "Cluster shot" Which replaced the slug for steel pellets that were 00 buckshot for close quarter situations, since the barrel was smoothbore. The Ferro carbine was quite versatile if not for its weight, roughly that of a high-powered sniper rifle. Its heft wasn't something Dwarves would complain about but couldn't compare with modern firearms if not for one attribute that made it unique.

Hitoshi had allocated another half-hour for the Gray Legion to equip themselves and pray to their deity for strength. Receiving their canvas flak jackets with Adamantite inserts and Iraemite bayonets. Hitoshi would do the same, while Kugel and Dwight refitted the warship engines to their new specs. The culmination of all their new technologies was to be implemented hastily into the engines to propel that mighty war machine from its trappings.

"Takeo, could you come over here for a moment?"

He finally spotted his companion pacing around the corridor with his own thoughts, mainly concern after Hitoshi had disclosed something to frightening.

It was time to reconcile before there was no time at all.

Hitoshi recalled the dialogue that followed and led to Takeo seeking a place to cool off after denouncing his actions.

"You, what?!" Was his response after being told about the impending incursion of the settlement by marauders in league with the Empire.

Was how Takeo responded when he was told about an imminent attack on the settlement perpetuated by pro-war faction aligned Marauder Groups. Basically bandits sanctioned by Zorzal as paramilitary forces. They helped in his scorched earth policy to hinder the Jietais progress by flooding Alnus with displaced refugees, and in return they get to keep their plunder. Some were given rewards and titles depending on their performance, in a very strangely meritocratic way.

Hitoshi had already identified a group of advance scouts posing as Warrior Bunny refugees that had been integrated into the settlement to report back their findings. So, he should expect an attack some time around the period he was out. He did know that Fraulan Kruger was one of these Warrior Bunnies working for the Imperials and that if given the opportunity, she would inform her outfit of the state of the settlement.

Hitoshi had entrusted Ymir with protecting the settlement and locating any nearby strongholds to destroy, he let Ymir decide how he wanted to do it. And of course, he kept Kenzaki out of the loop because his feint was terrible, thus, it was better that he was oblivious to what was about to happen. Another of Ymir's objectives was to isolate and capture these Warrior Bunny collaborators. If the leader of the Imperial group was captured along with his Haryo handler, they were in for bonuses at his word. Since Bouro had become the head of Zorzal's counter intelligence group, informing him about the status of his commanders and monitoring the Oprichnina personnel as well. The Haryo patriarch had seeded Dars agents into many parts of their organization. Partly to monitor them, but also if the Imperial Officers showed incompetence, they had permission to replace them as doppelgangers silently, thereby increasing the influence of the Haryo. So, these monitors were actually more valuable than the Imperial officers themselves for intel.

Furthermore, he had specified that Bjorn and Sindri be left as permanent watch if they needed to conduct a raid on an enemy stronghold so that Kenzaki and the SFGs didn't cock up anywhere.

"And armorer and a mute? There's barely anyone left!" Takeo had reason to worry that there would be so few remaining. But that was more than enough in Hitoshi's opinion, given that these two were the most capable in these sorts of circumstances.

"Bjorn knows how guerilla fighters operate and think, and Sindri… well, you heard his piracy story about him being an armorer then, right?" Being as friendly and affable as he was, made Takeo a lot of friends in the SR than the SFGs ever did. Since the latter couldn't leave behind their stoic one-man army commando character which the SR operatives regarded as cute. Takeo was just an average soldier with above average vehicular driving skills and humble. There was no way they couldn't get along with each other.

Those who heard Sindri's story of piracy as an illegal gunsmith was only half true. He wasn't just a gunsmith on that remote island the SR partook in the joint assault with the Government forces.

He was the pirate warlord himself.

Hitoshi said to convince Takeo of the odds in their favor, but it only served to alienate the latter more towards his wayward mannerisms.

"Back then, Sindri went by the pseudonym "Daun Besar", the green bird. A reference to a rare species of magpie from the rainforests of Java and Sumatra." And like magpies, SIndri had a fixation on hoarding, particularly for weaponry and parts that he came across on the black market and sold them if it got him bigger guns.

For a time, the local government couldn't care less as long as he didn't touch their officials, as he had done them the favor of keeping a few isolated villages in the archipelago supplied and trading, thus making them a taxable population. It was win-win for everyone there. Until a certain incident broke out in the Phillipines, when ISIS occupied the city of Marawi.

One of his subordinates, a sympathizer towards this radical group had naively supplied the insurgents with a shipment of arms with Sindri's name all over it, albeit without his knowledge or permission. This immediately blacklisted him as a target by the government who feared it would reflect badly on their administration and anti-piracy efforts. Naturally, the Filipino Government were also going to pin the blame on them for any civilian and military casualties sustained by these weapons. The time for backdoor dealings was over, a kill order was placed and a strike team assembled to wipe him and his pirates off their island. Needless to say, Sindri and his group fought back surprisingly well with their dizzy array of weaponry he'd amassed.

When he was caught by the SR instead of the task force, Hitoshi made a deal with them for the subjugation to be entirely credited to them in exchange for Sindri. Since all the government was asking for was that he be removed from the island. The task force got the glory, while the SR gained a very talented gunsmith and professional straits pirate. Crucial was his input especially when traversing shallow waters in a freighter, knowing how deep the reefs and seafloors were.

Takeo sympathized with Sindri and what he specialized at when it came to putting up fierce resistance to invaders. But that didn't absolve Hitoshi for knowingly putting the inhabitants in danger including everyone else over there.

Nor could he forgive Hitoshi's last reasoning. That if they didn't clean house now, these elements would cause more damage in the later parts of their campaign. If Takeo was back there instead, would he have ordered the same directives? So, they did not talk after that since.

At the end of their preparation duration, the legion assembled at the square outside of their barracks. Wearing the newest in weaponry and armor that Velduar and the God of Cookery could offer together.

Commander Balduin stood at attention as did his proud soldiers of the Legion. Over their smart uniforms they wore a light body armor made of canvas with Adamantite plate inserts, dubbed the "Flak jacket" by the God of Cookery. It protected their torso, shoulders and neck with plated padding also. Resting on their right hand beside their black leather boots were their primary armament, what was being called Ferro Carbines. A repeating crossbow-like contraption without strings that was similar to the Men in Green staff weapons and not at the same time. They had been given only three hours of practice firing and three ammunition types to be used against different opponents. Standard ammo against unarmored targets, cluster against close ranged targets and pointed away from friendlies, and a special ammo type that was rationed to the riflemen which the engineers were calling the "Silver-bullet" denoted by its silvery jacket sandwiched inside a sabot. Used only against Adamantite-shielded Rune Priests, the most dreaded opponent that the inexperienced Gray legion had to face. The select warriors of the Temple Militant that could bring out the full potential of the alloy through their Rune magic.

There was a total of two hundred and twenty riflemen carrying these weapons, while seventy were led by the Dallawan brothers as logistics couriers and escorts for the people from the dubious Communications Division and whatever role they had in this conflict. The last fifty so men were in charge of their artillery battery, commanded by Owen. His oldest friend in Oberun, now a fellow Lord as he was. Although his role as the leader of artillery was not known well to him, Lord Furuta had kept his training and studies a secret even from him. All Balduin knew was how to call it with a whistling light shot called "fireworks".

"Gray Legion, stand at attention!" He ordered them as a silhouette emerged from the factory to stand before them.

Accompanied by Kugel was a figure that was cladded in full-armour, from feet to head. His face covered by a half-mask that Kugel recognized as a menpo. As it also identified with the rest of the armor that was samurai-esque in design.

An armor that was dyed white, in contrast to their gray and would certainly stand out in the battlefield to friend and foe alike. The God of Cookery had prepared himself to face the Apostle head on if he ever took to the field personally, in these preparations he had made, the Legion was assured. As the Temple Warriors they meet would surely know by his outstanding color and strange design that this was none other than the God of Cookery himself leading these men against them.

The figure stood before them and reached to his waist and drew his sword out from its scabbard.

"Prepare to march!"

The order was given. It was time for the Legion to face their greatest foe in the streets of their homeland, for their home and for their future.

"Legion! About face, march!" With strict commands, the company had shown what a few days of drill had done for their unit and were inwardly impressed with their own performance as they turned around and marched as a column out of Bruneberg. The civilians outside bore witness of their movements and thought to themselves that this was indeed a disciplined army. Men and material marched out of the factory grounds with a figure in strange white armor, wearing a helmet with a crest badge of golden crow with a lightning bolt identified him as none other than Al'aelsaire.

The Stormcrow would lead and fight alongside these discipline and brave men and women soldiers. Word would be passed on to the Apostle no doubt, as he made his own preparations for the God of Cookery's clear motive of attack on his temple.

As the crowd became enamored by the figure leading this new army out of the factory, they failed to notice two figures in cloaks exiting the facility, plotting their own destination towards the front where the Gnolls were about to arrive in full force.

One looked back at the procession which gained a few cheers from the residence of Bruneberg as a sign of reinforcements for their Lord out in the frontlines. Staring attentively at the figure in white armor mounted on a horse with Kugel beside him in full battle gear as well.

Kugel noticed eyes on him and turned in that direction, only for the cloaked figures to have disappeared into the quiet streets.

"…."

"What is it?" The "God of Cookery" asked him.

"Nothing, Kagemusha." Kugel referred to him as the alias that he had been instructed to call the latter.

"Please don't call me that, Kugel." Kagemusha replied with a tinge of worry that the menpo mask concealed from his face.

"Why, what kind of significance does it have in your world?" He asked oblivious to its cultural significance. As Kagemusha sighed and explained.

"Kagemusha is a play about a body double playing the role of a warlord named Shingen. Meaning an early end, it was left to this political decoy to take his place to fool their enemies into thinking that the warlord Takeda Shingen had not passed on." Kagemusha, the shadow warrior brooded at the role that he played that mimicked the part of Akira Kurosawa's greatest period drama movie.

"But the body double dies in the end." This was what "Kagemusha" feared for his life despite accepting this role that had to be played for the sake of occupying the Apostle's attention away from the already outnumbered Royalist forces.

"There's nothing to be afraid of, I won't let anything happen to you, friend." Kugel gave his word to the Kagemusha. Not that the armor of Kagemusha wouldn't already protect him from harm.

It was a one of a kind armor, incorporating a blend of his alloy and rune magic with the assistance of the Royal Weaponsmiths who had come at the orders of Queen Thranmilla to make an armor worthy of a living god to wear into battle. The form that was chosen was that of the God of Cookery's heritage, samurai-like armor made on sketches and descriptions of how the armor was built, bound and worn. On its pauldron, bore the sigil of another emblem. One of a hydra bearing nine heads reaching up into the sky to devour the stars. And ominous heraldry, but one of untold significance.

Sucking up his worries and straightened his back to demonstrate his confidence to the waving crowd, returning it like a renowned celebrity. Kagemusha prepared himself to play the Apostle for the fool for as long as he could.

"If I die, I'll be cursing him in the afterlife." Kagemusha declared in his reluctance to carry out this mission of deception no matter how crucial it was to the morale of the Gray Legion and shaking of the Temple militants' resolve. Kagemusha thought of what was most precious to him that would motivate him to play this role as well as possible even if the Apostle appeared before him.

Someone that was always on his mind. Gentle short hair waving in the wind, eyes that shone like the moon at night. He recalled the sensation of her affectionate tone used to convey her words following his confession to her. That she would be waiting for him when he was done and they would take their time in getting to know one another better. In reflecting on this, he found his courage to confront the obstacles that lay before him with more involvement than before. For her, for himself and the future, bright and certain.

"Persia-san…"

---

Tharl Sturmhammer was at a loss, when word of the Apostle assisting the Gnolls reached his ears from the Queen's handmaiden herself, he refused to believe it and confronted the Apostle. He was an avid follower of the temple, loyal to the word of Duncan as much as he was to the King. He was the Lord of House Sturmhammer, the renown Dwarven Jarl who took an oath of celibacy. His beloved island, Sturmheim was also the home of the Temple ground itself.

But to hear it from Mortar Mobkis himself, robbed him of all of his strength.

"Join me, Tharl. And together, we will rebuild Velduar anew." The apostle had believed he would blindly follow him in his cause just as so many of the people of Sturmheim had for generations. As the temple guard and militant had even still.

But the words of the Apostle were as alien as they were frightening. The brave Tharl Sturmhammer turned and ran out of the Temple as nothing more than a sad and pathetic old man who had lost his way.

He ran until he was cornered by his own subjects who pledged their allegiance to the Apostle in his madness. And was meant to be sent to the dungeons where he would be locked up and kept until they would use him to make an example of.

But then, a report of a strange army entering their island via the main bridge from Bruneberg set them about preparing their forces in number to face this threat on their street in glorious hand to hand combat. Tharl had been made to sit tied up, to watch the supreme might of his own personal guard blessed with the divine authority of the Apostle and cladded in the Adamantite that had come from fresh from the Temple forges.

Kuewell, his righthand and trusted advisor was entrusted with leading the assembled force of fifteen hundred to meet with this army that dared to tread on holy ground.

"Bruneberg….." Tharl recalled that Oakenspire left three days prior at the to heed the call of Marshal Grayhoard along with his private army and retainers so there couldn't be a reserve army remaining except for the city garrison itself. It couldn't be who he thought it was, could it?

"Once we have cleared up these rabble from Bruneberg we shall move on to capture the Royal Castle and drag Thranmilla out." His former general dared to address Her Majesty the Queen that way, given his assurance by a "higher" power that what he did was the justice of Duncan.

"Kuewell….. You and the apostle have gone completely insane!" Tharl snarled in his bindings.

"So misguided you are, My Lord. Can't you see how mundane it all is? In the last seven thousand years beneath this great fiery mountain, what have the Dwarves achieved for the Forgefather?" His former general explained the premise of his support for the Apostle's ideals.

"We've warred with the Gnolls for too long, lost too much ground. And in our ignorance, we were gradually losing the gift that was ours! When we've finally forgotten how to form Adamantite, carve runes, what will we have then, My Lord? What will Velduar have to defend themselves having squandered Duncan's gift?!"

"And yet you consort with them to bring Velduar to ruin." Tharl couldn't believe it either when he heard that the Temple Guard had opened the Gates, letting the Gnolls rush in and slaughtered the regular army before they continued onwards. From that point onwards, Tharl considered the Apostle to have become insane.

"In the past, it was one or two tribes at most. But now, it is every one of their damnable tribes gathered here in one place. Once the trap is sprung, every last of the Gnolls warriors will be annihilated and then we will ride out to exterminate their heretical kind." Now, he even gave the notion of a mass genocide that no one in Velduar had ever dared to conceive. The Apostle had taken their ability to reason and replaced it with an undying obedience to his word.

"Forgefather, how far you all have fallen…." Tharl lamented the radicalization of his fellow Dwarves into nothing more than bloodthirsty zealots. They were no better than the Blood Shamans that the Gnolls depended on.

"It is truly a shame, My Lord. You should have accepted His Holiness' hand, you could have even become anointed Velduar's new King." Kuewell's treasonous words were beyond what he could stand as he stood up though binded to attack him with his head. But the warriors prevented him from doing so.

"You treasonous swine! I should never have adopted you as my aide! Who in Hardy's realm would accept such a worthless throne and crown!?"

Kuewell smiled in a strangely knowing way as if to answer his question. He believed that he would become nominated as the new king of Velduar with his show of loyalty to the Apostle.

"You have no honor, Kuewell! You will be nothing more than a bandit king, no-….. a loyal dog of the Apostle." Of this, Tharl was certain. As his former subordinate struck him with the back of his hand to silence his taunts.

"We'll see who is King and who is the fool, Lord Sturmhammer." His subordinate replied.

"Report!" A scout returned and knelt before Kuewell to give his summary.

"Well? Out with it!"

"A cluster of warriors approach from the Bruneberg bridge, wide column. Under three hundred!" The scout informed him.

Kuewell sneered at the ridiculously underwhelming number that approached them, as the rest of the subjects laughed and declared it easy pickings.

"We wouldn't even be warmed up from that!"

"What artifice to they bring?" Kuewell was sure to be thorough, as a small well-armed force was still a force to be reckoned with.

"No Adamantite weapons spotted. Nor heavy armor. They seemed to be dressed lightly in gray with leather armor." Kuewell laughed at those pitiful armor and weapon qualities that equipped this contingent that dared to attack Sturmheim.

"The Successor of Oakenspire must truly be desperate to summon a mere force of armed villagers."

"Furthermore-…." The scout hadn't finished.

"What more?" He responded impatiently.

"A human… cladded in strange armor. We heard chanting over from Bruneberg calling this mounted knight in white armor, Al'aelsaire. My lord!" That name was known only to a few in the nobility as the name that the Elves referred to only one person.

"God of Cookery…" Tharl couldn't believe it. The God of Cookery had been the one to march against the Apostle and foreseen his madness, had chosen to act in favor of the Kingdom.

For the first time, Kuewell and his subordinates showed worry.

"Kuewell, should we be fight him?" His subordinates expressed their concerns over the things that the Apostle himself validated about the anomality that was Hitoshi Furuta.

"The Rune Priests say that he fought against the Elven Goddess and Holy Flare in single combat."

"I heard that he smited them with lightning bolts!"

"Scout, where is Al'aelsaire's current whereabouts?" Kuewell did not let these rumors affect his ability to command.

"Four blocks from this command post, My Lord. He is at the very back of this invading forces procession."

"Good. He'll stay that way whilst we clear off his weakling force."

"But what about Al'aelsaire!?" His subordinates were still scared of the God of Cookery who could easily annihilate them himself.

"If he really wanted to fight us, would he need this army? He is obviously saving strength for his bout with his Holiness."

"Then!- We should take care of the smaller problems on his holiness' behalf, then!" His subordinates got motivated by themselves after this reasoning was explained that the Stormcrow would not partake in the battle between mortals. Just as Gods refused to interfere with mortal affairs, so did this so called God of Cookery.

"Indeed we shall. Rally the men! We go to meet his lackeys!" At his command, his staff dispersed amongst the warriors to lead them forward under the call of the warhorn.

Tharl Sturmhammer had been brought along with them, tugged along by an alloy chain tied to the pony that was Kuewell's mount. He was no longer their lord in their eyes, only their unwilling slave. His people, his friends had all succumbed to the temptations of the mad apostle's dark promises.

They marched with victory assured in their proud and conceited strides towards glory with little prospect of failure.

Even as he was tugged by the chain bound around his hands, he closed his eyes and prayed. Not for his former subjects but that this brave group that dared oppose the Apostle be given Duncan's blessing and strength. For he was sure that the Forgefather would never resort to such means as the Apostle would. And if he was there, he would certainly give the righteous his divine justice.

Little did he know, that in the battle that was about to break out. It would be swift and merciless, cold and indiscriminate. And then, he would finally realize that….

On the battlefield, there were no Gods.

---

Standing at three rows of fifty in each cohort, the proud warriors of Sturmheim marched through the dense but familiar streets of their hometown. Flanked by Rune Priests in House Sturmhammers' employ and that of the Temple itself. In these streets, there was no advantage of numbers, only quality of equipment and of course, the warriors themselves. To which these warriors had no equals, now that the regular army had been crushed by the elite temple guard and the Gnolls.

Kuewell ordered the contingent to halt as a row of figures could be seen in the distance.

"Shields at the ready!" The vanguard officer ordered the frontmost row to raise their shields of adamantite as the protected the rest behind them from all forms of damage that could come if any at all. They were locked in from both ends of the street leaving not a single gap to be exploited.

As their opponents of the day came closer to the point that they could make out their appearances and what they were carrying.

"Leather armor and clubs….. Oakenspire and Al'aelsaire must be so fond to make a fool out of us!" Kuewell quivered in rage at the sight of their kit which barely resembled anything remotely threatening.

A command in the distance was given for their contingent to halt as well, as a warrior of the same uniform as his comrades walked out with a white flag to demand a parley.

Kuewell swished his reins and rode his mount forwards through the columns that parted for him with Tharl being dragged hurriedly behind.

The ones answering this flag of truce on the opposite side was the flagbearer, the white armored figure with a flamboyant helmet crest and none other than the traitor himself, Kugel Griffin.

"You wish for parley has been granted. I am Kuewell Diehause, first herald of the Apostle of Duncan. And this, is Lord Sturmhammer." Kuewell tugged the chain that pulled the imprisoned Tharl forward for their enemies to see his shameful appearance.

"Lord Sturmhammer!" Kugel couldn't believe his eyes seeing the Lord of Sturmheim held against his will like a slave.

"Bloodstein. By the Gods, whatever you're planning, don't let the Apostle have his way!" Tharl tried to warn him before he was pulled to the ground by his former subordinate.

"That is Lord Sturmhammer!" Kugel told his opposite who had treated his former lord like an accessory.

"Was Lord Sturmhammer!" He corrected. "Now he is nothing more than a filthy traitor who turned his back on His Holiness when a graceful hand was reached out to him. He deserves none of your pity!" Kuewell rode the pony around and dragged Tharl along the pavement as he struggled to his feet in vain.

"Kuh!" Kugel stormed forward and raised his axe, bringing it down upon the chain which shattered upon contact. Causing Kuewell to be more shock than angered by his actions, for those chains were made of none other than Adamantite. Yet, the bronze axe smashed it as if it were clay.

Kugel began to undo the chain off the Lord of Sturmheim as Kuewell rode towards them.

"You dare to release an unrepentant of the apostle?!" He said raising his sword.

"If we're infidels to the bloody apostle, then it shouldn't make a difference if he's with us or with you!" As Kugel was suggesting that they take in Tharl.

"If he takes you in, I will have no choice but to run you down where you stand, My Lord." As if that was even a choice, Tharl didn't even look back as Kugel carried him by the shoulder back to the rear of their forces. Leaving the flagbearer with Kuewell.

"I am Sir Balduin Burrock of His Majesty's Gray Legion. Sir Kuewell, I ask that you lay down your arms and surrender as we bring justice upon the apostle's wrongful actions." To which the herald of the Apostle laughed at his words.

"Lay down our arms?! It is you who should be doing such! And how dare you pass his holiness' actions as wrongful! You are the daring ones who consort foreign deities!"

"We need not waste Dwarven lives so carelessly, Sir Kuewell. Can you not even see reason?"

"Can you? Then again, perhaps not. From what I've heard Al'aelsaire has been adopting beggars and paupers from Oberun into Bruneberg. To think he would dress them up so weirdly and call them warriors. You are a living sham, boy!"

"Don't do this, Sir Kuewell." Balduin pleaded with him.

"It is you who forces out hand, you come to Sturmheim and expect submission. You'll only receive broken backs. We're done here, may your new god have mercy on your pitiful soul, for we will have none."

"Nor will we, Sir Kuewell." Balduin and Kuewell ended their parley and returned to their respective parties.

In the distance, the warhorns of the Gnolls could be heard telling the city of Velduar that peril was upon them. The pressure of the fate of their home was at stake, strengthening the resolve of the Gray Legion marines as their leaders returned with news that their opponents had declined their offer of surrender from them. Kugel brought Lord Tharl Sturmhammer his own steed to ride alongside the white armored knight which he wasn't sure was really Al'aelsaire because this figure wore a mask and hid behind the concealment of his armor.

"What are your plans, Bloodstein?" He asked as he intended to offer the best input that he could to the people who could liberate his island from that menace that was the Apostle.

"Storming the Temple, apprehend the Apostle and end the Gnolls rampage."

"Simple enough. But how will you break through them?" He pointed at the warriors who were only moments ago part of his own private force, loyal but now corrupted by the Apostle's whispers.

"Like knife through butter." Kugel said as he turned to Balduin and gave him a nod.

"Riflemen! Five rows for a volley line!" In response, the gray uniformed marines moved in concert to form the formation that he had asked for, displaying to Tharl that they were a professional army if not peculiar in choice of equipment.

"All units, forward march! Trample those rebels!" Kuewell shouted towards his army contingent.

In the distance, Kuewell's orders moved the army into a continued match forward. With the shield column taking the front most row and cancelling out any form of momentum. As they did with the hulking beasts that were the Gnolls. This unbreakable phalanx had now been empowered by the new properties of the higher grade Adamantite provided by the Apostle's forges.

"Here they come." Tharl knew these tactics best being their former lord and commander. What will the God of Cookery's forces do in response.

"Row one, load silver bullet!" Balduin yelled.

"""Load, silver bullet!""" The repeated their orders as they carried them out.

"Row two and three, load standard sabot!"

"""Load, sabot!""" These rows loaded the suggested ammunition via magazines of ten rounds each.

"""Rows four and five, load cluster!"

"""Load, cluster!""" The last two rows were given their loading types in correspondence to the ranges they were expected to engage the enemy.

In each row, there were fifty, matching that of the cohorts that marched towards them in the wide street that seemed narrower due to their large presence.

Kuewell's forces marched on high notes and began to chant with vigor as they approached the infidels with a daunting aura of dread and violence contained in their mortal shells. Reaching the Two hundred yard mark of distance between them, Balduin gave his next order to the contingent on standby.

"Rows one, prepare to fire!" With his call, said row adopted their kneeling firing positions.

This behavior seemed strange from the perspective of the Sturmheim defenders, were they using some kind of crossbow weaponry? Surely they knew that it wouldn't work against shielded units, let alone adamantite. This action had no effect on their steady advance.

"Row one, aim!"

"""Aim and ready!""" The row announced as they pointed their weapons down range through their primitive aperture sights.

From the rear, Tharl watched as the steady group awaited the approach of the defending army closer to them.

And just as the defenders were getting bore of moving too slowly, they had reached the hundred yard mark of distance.

"Fire!" Balduin yelled the command that would unleash a new type of hell upon the god fearing zealots of Sturmheim.

(Crrrrack)

A volley of white smoke discharged from these weapons, but no projectile was seen hurled out. Or so Tharl and the Defending army though.

As in a split second later, the shields that were standing were turned into broken metal hulks bent and smashed out of shape. Lit up as sparks exploded from a high velocity projectile impacting its hardened surface. And those that carried these shields collapsed one after another with large diameter holes coming out of their backs. Their blood staining their comrades behind them as some too fell to the ground with holes in their front torso. The survivors of the leading cohort screamed in their agony as they had almost been incapacitated by an invisible force that ripped through them like they were sheets of paper.

"Duncan's beard-... All units, charge! For Velduar!"

"""For God and Kingdom!""" The rest of the contingent let out a war cry before they charged with wild abandon.

Witnessing the death of over seventy warriors in an instant, Kuewell was in disbelieve. As he ordered his men to charge before that same death magic was unleashed again with the same devastating effect. But he did not know that it was not a one-off deal.

Tharl witness something unbelievable, he saw Adamantite getting pierced by something those weapons shot out.

"Silver bullets?" He recalled that commander's orders. Wondering what they were.

"Anti-metal." Kugel replied to him but not disclosing the properties of this alloy which defeated the invulnerable adamantite. A steel-jacketed round of iraemite held in a sabot gave it incredible penetrating powers and prevented the projectile within from shattering against steel plates.

"Row one, withdraw! Row two and three form up!" Said rows approached in a firing line after the first row had expended all of its silver bullet ammunition to break the shields of the adamantite. Now it was time to break the charge with overwhelming firepower.

"Fire!" Row two took a knee as they expended their magazines, while Row three adopted a standing position for firing their carbines.

Projectiles whizzed through the air and mercilessly cut down the warriors in their entirety, another cohort fell to this single hail of bullets. One hundred warriors had just lost their lives, but gave the rest the chance to avenge them.

"Row two and three withdraw! Row four and five form up!" The former two doubled back to reload their weapons, while the latter two hurried to form up. Adopting the same positioning as the previous ground. By now, the defenders were fifty yards away.

"Fire!" Balduin immediately ordered as they converged on their en masse.

Instead of the single projectiles. These rows were loaded with cluster munition, a casing of 00 buck-sized shot pellets that were fired in quick succession, creating a wall of steel rain equivalent to claymore mines exploding in the general direction ten times over. When the cluster of steel pellets came into contact with flesh, it ripped it asunder and detonated a mist of blood as the pellets passed through at incredible velocity exceeding even shotgun rounds due to the ferro carbines' electromagnetic accelerating properties.

The floor in front of the volley line turned into nothing more than red chucks of meat littering the streets, a total body mass of at least two hundred new victims. And a third of the defenders' forces.

The contingents stopped in their tracks shocked by the carnage that had been wrought by the weapons these people they had previously mocked wielded to such a terrifying yet awesome might.

"First row, form up!"

And then, Balduin gave the order for the first row to repeat the nightmare all over again. Shattering the last of the resolve of the next frontline contingent who tired to run pass the following cohort that were preventing their retreat.

"Get back in line, you cowards!" Kuewell screamed at the routing men, even striking one or two down with his sword for their cowardice.

Instead of firing this time, Balduin raised his gun and fired into the air a whizzing light that burst many pretty colors in its glittering demise.

And following that was a howling whistle that all could hear coming closer and closer, until-..

(BOBOBOBOOOM) The entire herd of disorganized warriors were consumed by bright orange fireballs that also contacted some of the houses and blew their structure open, sending shrapnel of brick shards and wood splinters injuring dozens more in the vicinity as well as crushing a few more.

"Rocket artillery." Again Kugel answered Tharl who had his ears cupped by his hands over the sudden loud sounds of explosions happening. In a safe position behind the rear, a rocket battery of four multiple rocket launching carriages were assembled. With their azimuth aligned and the position coordinates zeroed by sighting the grid square, the rocket launchers unleashed their devestating howling barrage upon their unwitting foes. While primitive to the standards of its original inspiration, the unguided rockets was built more advanced than the congreve rocket, somewhere in the built quality of the second world war land mattress, calliope and katyusha rockets with a somewhat simplified non-mechanical piezo-electric fuse.

Wiping out another third of the forces of Sturmheim, in just thirty seconds, over a thousand lives had just been put out of their misery in the most brutal yet efficient disposal of warriors. Unable to discriminate between who was experienced and who was not, who was lucky and who wasn't. All fell equally under the power of the rocket launched artillery battery manned by Owen and his rocketeers. As their lessons in ballistic trajectory and practice had paid off in the most precise hit imaginable.

In this shock and awe, Balduin gave another order that would drive their enemies quaking.

"Fix bayonets!"

The men began to attach knives at the end of their rifles in dovetailed grooves that locked them in place. And sounded out their attached bayonet with a shout and thrust of their weapon forwards. Indicating that they meant to charge. Seeing this, many of the surviving warriors turned and fled back the way they came. And with no one to keep them in line, they stopped at nothing to get out of this merciless battlefield.

And the whereabouts of Kuewell were nowhere to be seen, only black charred stains where he was before the impact of the rockets loaded with TNT compound. Eviscerated from the face of the earth along with the rest of Tharl's treacherous former subjects, such that there were not even bodily remains to recover for a burial.

Lord Sturmhammer was left in awe by the frightening weapons that had taken all the honor and pride out of combat and replaced it with a new kind of dread. One that said that God had no place on the battlefield as it had on this one.

He who wielded these weapons of war, would win not through skill, but with application of force. An untrained partisan could even kill a veteran soldier.

Seeing the army before them rout after their significant losses, the Gray Legion let out a cheer for their first victory before Balduin gathered them again as they were still in enemy territory.

"Alright, settle down. We'll have plenty time later to celebrate. Videl, Dale, Warren! Have your platoons take each street and secure the island of any remaining dissidence." Balduin directed them to split up into their respective platoons of men to clear the streets as these men weren't the only ones who inhabited Sturmheim.

"Surely you would not do harm to the innocent." Tharl became worried for the wellbeing of his citizens, most of which were now non-combatants.

"Can you help us?" Kugel asked him.

"I am at your service." Tharl did better by offering his full cooperation instead which was valuable at restoring order in the island and ceasing all hostile action against the Legion.

"I'm not sure how you intend to rally the people." Since they would have problems complying with strange armed men who were not native to the island.

"We won't need to, here." Kugel passed him a strange apparatus with a brass funnel cone facing him, it comprised of a box with a wire connecting to a network.

"What am I supposed to do with thi-?" As he spoke, he heard a louder sound mimicking his in every way except amplified.

"With this, your voice will be transmitted wherever our men go." As he spoke, the platoons communcations division specialist attaché unraveled a wire that connected to a loudspeaker he or she carried with the platoon of riflemen conveying the voice of the island lord.

In this, Tharl was left once more in awe at the amazing inventions that had made certain feats impossible before, now possible. He could speak into the tube and allow his voice to convey his assurance to his people of their safety.

"Good people of Sturmheim, this is your Jarl speaking. Tharl Sturmhammer." Hearing his voice resound was like a dream come true to him.

"What is this device called?" He asked, oblivious that his query was being passed along too.

"Its called a speaker." Like the representatives in the senate, how inventive he thought to himself.

"Many of you at home are hearing me through this speaker device these strangers carry, but fear not. They mean you nor I no harm."

Tharl glanced in the direction of the white armored figure who had not even lifted a finger since the fighting stated. Instead, allowed his actions to be conveyed through these Dwarves loyal to him. As he would through Tharl's voice conveyed to his people. As no sooner had the force that the Apostle sent to repel the attackers would he learn that the island had fallen from his grasp.

"... For they are here to save our kingdom from the evil within."

---

Author's Notes:

So as annoying as the recent issue with the disappearing chapter, I'd like to share a little about the special one-off that Tyuule gets to visit Japan. It benefits me by giving a completely different demographic and how they react to it. But also exposing Hitoshi for all his inadequecies, opening a little vulnerable moment for him and the duality of his drive to own his restaurant. Was that really his dream?