Chapter 14: Taking responsibility kinda sucks (dont think about people burning)

Lower Wind Month, 21st Day, 600 AGG

"How infuriating," Nigun Grid Luin, Captain of the Sunlight Scripture, huffed as he absentmindedly scratched the shoulder of his horse. "Does that mongrel ruler enjoy wasting her nation's money?"

Equally as infuriating was how he and his men needed to camp outside of the fortress for the sake of maintaining a veneer of secrecy with regards to the Theocracy's involvement in this backwater nation.

"As long as we don't have to take any losses," one of the senior members under his command shrugged. "Then I see this as a win. The Theocracy acquires more resources for less work on our part."

"Hmph," Nigun watched his horse lower its head to drink from the clear stream they were camping by. "It simply irks me that such an incompetent rules over humans."

"Yeah, well," the man pulled his own horse back and headed towards the nearby tents with it. "If they can protect humanity's borders, I don't give a shit what else they get up to."

Nigun scowled at that last statement. Subhumans and mixed-breeds were beings who could not be trusted. It was supremely ironic that the Draconic Kingdom, a nation led by a mongrel, was under invasion from subhumans.

If it weren't for the situation, he would have found it rather humorous. But now with the countless angel summons that flew about Fort Adelemus, he just felt useless.

' I haven't even seen or heard of some of these angels before, ' a seed of inferiority planted itself within Nigun's heart. The Fourth-Tier was a height that only the greatest of spellcasters could reach, but this was far, far beyond him. ' What manner of spellcaster is capable of summoning unnameable beings in such numbers? No, it surely must be a group. There is no person who can be capable of all this by themselves, no matter what that mongrel queen might proclaim. '

The Captain sighed. Whoever was responsible for this change in the status quo, he supposed he may as well be thankful that they chose to defend humankind.

"Captain," another one of his subordinates approached him. "The mayor has informed us that a large beastmen incursion is arriving from the east."

"Numbers?" Nigun half-heartedly ripped apart a fallen leaf.

"Two thousand. Maybe three."

"Hm," Nigun nodded. At any other time, an invading force of that size would have been a grim portent for Adelemus. "Any lords?"

"I only saw one at the forefront," the combat priest shook his head. "But I wouldn't be surprised if there were more."

"What of Crystal Tear?" Nigun sneered at the mention of the pedophile-led team. "I'm sure they wouldn't give up this chance to further improve their standing in the mongrel's eyes."

"Preparing for the invasion alongside the other soldiers," his subordinate immediately responded with a displeased tone. The legendary "Holy Lord" and his preferences were well-known to anyone who bothered to care about such things.

"What a waste of time," Nigun scoffed and got up from the grass as he led his horse back to where the rest of his Scripture was resting. "Tell everyone to pack up. We'll assist in fortifying their front lines and then return to the back as per our combat doctrine."

"Yes, Captain!" the man saluted and ran back to inform his comrades.

' No point in not going, even if those blasted angels seem more than capable to fend this threat off by themselves. The Cardinals would be displeased if we soured relationships with the Draconic Kingdom for such a trivial reason. '

Nigun waited while his men finished packing up and loading everything onto their horses. "We're heading off!" he shouted to the hundred-or-so men under his command. "May the light of the gods shine upon us!"

The knights and magic casters roared as one, and they set off towards the fortress in the distance.

『Nigun.』The Captain of the Sunlight Scripture suddenly received a 『Message』. 『Are you at Fort Adelemus yet?』

『We are riding to its support as we speak, Commander Lauransan.』Nigun respectfully replied. 『Have our orders changed?』

『No, but there have been some new… developments.』Developments that had to do with the legion of unexplained summons, no doubt. 『Do not give the people of the Draconic Kingdom reason to doubt our aid. In other words, keep your thoughts about their queen to yourself.』

『Understood.』Nigun gritted his teeth. Was the group responsible for the summons contracted with the mongrel ruler? It was impossible for them to be rogue Theocracy elements judging by the Commander's tone and warning. 『Is there anything else, Commander?』

' What group would dare blaspheme the gods by putting their angels under the command of a mixed-breed? What could this dying kingdom possibly offer that the Theocracy couldn't? '

『That's all. You and your men stay safe, Nigun.』the Commander cut the connection, and Nigun gnashed his teeth hard enough to be audible even in the face of the wind.

No, he forcibly exhaled and calmed himself. Now was not the time to consider such things, especially not when they were about to face a powerful demihuman force. Nigun focused on this fact as they arrived before one of the gates of the fortress.

"We are an unaffiliated group here to help defend against the subhumans," he spoke before the guards behind the portcullis could ask.

"Unaffiliated," one of the guards snorted in amusement. Nigun resisted the urge to kill the man where he stood for the disrespect. "Right. You fellas just head right on in then."

The portcullis was raised and the Sunlight Scripture filtered into the structure. If the angels appeared to be legion from their view outside the fortress, then they were as uncountable as the stars now that they were within.

"By the gods…" one of his spellcasters muttered in awe. "This surely must be the return of Alah Alaf!"

"Silence, fool!" Nigun could hold back his frustration no longer. "The gods would not deign to lay their blessings upon a mon—" he bit his tongue before he could continue, the words of Commander Lauransan echoing in his mind. "It is more than likely that they are the creations of some rogue heretical group. Do not speak of the gods so lightly."

"Y-Yes, Captain," the mage lowered his head in shame and fear.

"We head to the eastern wall," he set aside the lingering embers of rage and pointed towards the east. "Avoid excessive fraternizing and stay in the back. Spellcasters group up with at least two knights each. Three groups will remain here and guard our possessions. Go."

The Sunlight Scripture smoothly broke off into smaller squads and kept to the edges of the walls, not wanting to attract undue attention from the populace that called the fortress city home.

"You all here to fight?!" one of the soldiers—a sergeant in command of this small section, presumably—yelled at them from atop the walkways once they neared their destination. "Hurry and get the hell up!"

' Tsk, how dare this plebeian command me, ' Nigun bit back a frown as he and his men ascended the wall. ' The things I subject myself to in the name of the gods… '

"Here they come," one of the knights of the Sunlight Scripture mumbled as he peered past the battlements. Nigun cast his gaze out in the same direction and grimaced at the horde of demihumans rumbling ever closer from the horizon.

' This is… a sizable force, ' even he had to admit that this was an impressive feat for subhumans who were more prone to infighting than cooperation. It was clear that the scum of the Beastman Country were a step above the trash from the Abelion Hills.

They all watched with bated breath as three four-winged angels with a faceless flaming sphere for a head approached the invading army and fired bursts of flames into the air, likely as a warning.

The beastmen halted, and seemed to fire a volley of arrows to no effect.

' Idiots! Mundane, unenchanted projectiles mean nothing before a divine being, ' Nigun mocked the subhumans in his head. To his surprise, the spindly summons refused to retaliate, instead choosing to remain still and continuing to hover in the air.

The beastmen army shuffled forward. The air around the angels flared for an instant, igniting with a heat that Nigun thought he could almost feel despite the distance between them. Foolishly ignoring this second warning, they rushed ahead with a war cry that shook the walls, causing the feeble-hearted among the defenders to tremble in terror.

One moment Nigun beheld green hills. The next, he was confronted with hell itself.

A great conflagration engulfed the subhuman army, flame-headed angels strafing the pitiful—and even Nigun couldn't stop himself from feeling a small amount of pity—mortals with holy fire that roared forth from their heads.

The subhumans' screams reached all the way to the fortress city, even louder than their war cry had been. Nigun shuddered and gulped. Was this why Commander Lauransan contacted him when he had? What manner of group—or gods forbid, an individual—could have the ability to call into existence beings of such terrible might? Surely, even the Demon Gods would have fallen before a force even a fraction of the one he was witnessing!

"Gods…" the people around him—from soldiers, to the few adventurers who chose to stay in the region, and even the Sunlight Scripture itself—all mirrored his thoughts. Fear and reverence filled their hearts in equal amounts.

The wind blew towards them from the west, and with it, the coppery stench of burnt flesh. Beastmen broke ranks and fled, many of them failing and joining their brethren as charred corpses, as their lives were claimed in holy judgment. Nigun absentmindedly noticed that the angels didn't give chase to the ones who managed to escape from that hellish inferno.

' If this is truly the work of a single individual… Then the rumors of Mohajar were more than mere propaganda? Does that not mean the gods walk among humanity once more? ' Indeed, antagonizing a foe that could command the divine would be foolish.

Nigun felt lost. If the gods have returned, why did they choose to stand on the side of a mongrel? Did they find the Theocracy unworthy? His thoughts were interrupted by the murmuring and shouting of the people beside him pointing in the direction of the western walls.

Red smoke drifted into the skies alongside the cacophonous clanging of bells, a sure omen of nothing good.

' Enemies from the west? But how?! ' Nigun was baffled. ' How did we not see them? Were they waiting for all of us to gather in one area? '

While he was still frantically analyzing the situation, a massive partition of flames rose in the west to join the one still blazing in the east, and the Captain of the Sunlight Scripture knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the invasion had been completely and utterly foiled.

"What did…" he found himself murmuring, mesmerized by the enormous funeral pyres. "What did we even come here for?"

"—and that's why we're halting our tributes to the Baharuth Empire but not the Slane Theocracy," Draudillon concluded. "Did that make sense?"

"So it's because one group would get less mad than the other?" Yuriko accidentally flipped the gold coin she was playing with off the bed. "Ah."

"A little oversimplified, but yes," she sighed, bending down to pick up the fallen coin. The intricate pattern on it wasn't one she had ever seen before. Probably from Yggdrasil then; she doubted Yuriko had the time to plumb ancient tombs during the moments when they weren't together. "From your game?"

"The coin?" Yuriko accepted it with an outstretched hand. "Mhm. You need to use them to summon stuff like mercenary mobs, buy things from NPC shops, and errrr. There was a lot you could do with them, to be honest."

"NPC? Mercenary mobs?" Draudillon fell backwards on the bed with a groan. Maybe she should call it an early day?

"Non-Player Character," Yuriko clarified. "Like, um, this is sorta hard to explain. So a super customizable summon? Kind of? And it doesn't disappear. You could also program their behaviors, but I don't know how that would transfer over to this world… And mercenary mobs were just summons you bought with data crystals, money, and whatever other items."

"Building a person from scratch," Draudillon murmured with the back of her hand covering her eyes. "The entertainment of your world is ridiculously advanced."

"It wasn't anywhere close to a person , but I guess they were pretty complicated," Yuriko admitted before plopping her back on the bed alongside her. "So."

"So?"

"What do we do next?" Yuriko began counting off on her fingers. "Supply lines secured, frontline cities secured, other important places that you told me to secure are secured."

She raised three fingers and looked at Draudillon. "What next?"

"I wanted to wait until Fort Adelemus has been confirmed to still be standing," Draudillon mulled over the thought in her head. "Perhaps it's time to begin liberating the captured cities."

' Almersia. Caldevera. Tens of thousands enslaved, if not worse. Their blood is on my head. '

"Okay, that makes sense," a brief guilt-ridden look flashed across Yuriko's face at the mention of Adelemus. Draudillon wondered if she didn't just imagine it. "Capture-the-city quest. That's easy. I should probably fly over there myself for this—"

"I'm coming too," Draudillon said in a voice that brooked no argument. Yuriko opened her mouth to object before Draudillon shook her head. "No. I need to see this through. I have to."

' Even if I can't save them myself, the least I can do is see how they suffered because of me. '

"... Fine," Yuriko reluctantly agreed. "You don't want to tell Martin or anybody?"

"They would say no and then keep me locked up," Draudillon bluntly replied. "I'll talk to them—after. After it's over."

"I don't think it's a good idea," Yuriko stared at the coin in her hand with an odd mixture of apprehension and determination. "But I—I'll protect you. I need to summon more angels first though."

"You can still summon more ? Today ? Yggdrasil seems…" Draudillon trailed off.

"Unbalanced?" Yuriko offered. "Everyone could do pretty cool stuff once they hit the level cap. Like, my summons are sorta just chumps compared to a lot of the really good players."

"You don't consider yourself 'really good?'" And how horrifying was that? That Yuriko might not even be considered that strong compared to her peers. Peers that had almost certainly found themselves in this world in the past and would likely continue coming for who knew how long.

"Wellll," the angel awkwardly scratched her neck. "I'm not really a combat person, you see? I can cast some attack spells and all, but I'm mostly meant to stay in the back to heal and buff people up. And summon too, I guess."

"So even in a game, you wanted to be someone who could help people?" Draudillon softly asked. Yuriko was undoubtedly a good person and yet…

' I'm about to lead you towards a scene that will make what you saw at Mohajar look like a stroll in the gardens. Taking advantage of your goodwill for my own selfish purposes. What does that make me?'

"I-It sounds weird when you put it like that," Yuriko ducked her head with a blush. "I just liked playing support roles. Th-There's no big reason behind it."

"Then why did you decide to fight that Bafolk Lord one-on-one?" Draudillon's smile grew brittle. "Without magic, even."

"Wha—?! I was kinda hoping you forgot about that…" Yuriko nervously laughed. "It was fine! Wasn't in any real danger since I figured she and her stuff weren't high level enough to hit through my 『High Tier Physical Immunity』. Probably."

"And if she was? You could have died . Died to something so easily avoidable."

"Um, uh, I guess I should've tested it out first?" Yuriko cringed back with a guilty look in her eyes. "Sorry?"

" Fool, " Draudillon looked away. She was sure her face had an unseemly expression on it. "If you fell…"

' I would have missed you, ' the words got stuck in her throat. "Then the kingdom would be done for. My life is expendable, unlike—"

" Stop, " Yuriko glared at her with damp eyes. " Don't say that. Just don't ."

"... sorry," Draudillon felt small and weak and useless . She hated it. "It's true though—"

" It's not, " Yuriko pulled her into a fierce hug. "Stop lying . It's not true. It's not."

"You don't know that," Draudillon muttered. "You haven't seen Caldevera yet. Haven't seen—" She couldn't finish the sentence as a lump settled in her throat.

"It's not your fault," Yuriko softly stroked the top of her head. "You didn't ask for any of this to happen. And we'll fix it—together."

"Are you sure you want to go?" Draudillon closed her eyes and despised herself for her hypocrisy. What was the point of asking a question like that in the first place when she herself was incapable of saving anybody? To assuage her own sensibilities? Even still, she worried. "It's… The whole city, it's probably a farm by now. A human farm. You shouldn't have to see that. It'll be better for you to just send me off with your summons—"

"I'm going," Yuriko tightened her embrace. "I can't—can't half-ass this. You said that you needed to see this through. And I'm not letting you go with just summons."

"Okay," with a heavy heart, Draudillon dropped her admittedly weak attempt to dissuade the angel. "Okay. When do we go then?"

"We could go today," Yuriko released the hug and in its place came a sense of loss. "Um, could you maybe leave a note this time? I don't want Martin getting angry and lecture me for another hour again…"

"He did that?" Draudillon raised an eyebrow in surprise. The image of the Prime Minister reprimanding the angel like a disobedient child was… amusing. "Oh gods, he actually did that?"

"Yeah, well," Yuriko got up from the bed. "It's not really funny when you're the one getting chewed out. So, wanna go outside?"

' I did get 'chewed out' though. I just didn't expect him to do it to you too. '

"Why?" she asked, confused by the sudden change in topic.

"Uhhh, I could summon angels in the room too, if you want."

"No, let's go outside," she wasn't in the mood to have her room accidentally burned down. In fact, she didn't think she was capable of being in that sort of mood in the first place. "Just let me leave a note behind."

"Mm," Yuriko looked out the window, a serious expression settling over her face. Draudillon quickly wrote ' going out, be back soon, ' on a scrap of vellum and carefully laid it on top of a table. "Done?"

"Yes," she took the angel's hand with a curious glance. "How are we sneaking—woah?!"

Where her bedroom once was, the scenery outside of it replaced. Her chest was still rapidly beating in response to the unexpected shift. She half-heartedly glared at Yuriko. "Could you warn me the next time you do that?"

"M'kay," Yuriko bit her upper lip with a distracted expression and raised a hand outwards. "Time to get started, I guess. 『Gate』."

A swirling portal ripped open and the two walked in. Before completely stepping through the threshold, Draudillon took one last look behind her.

' We'll be back, ' she swore to herself. ' As soon as we put an end to this nightmare. '

And then she stepped through the rift.