Coda, Ancient Falmart, Modern Saderan Soldiers POV
A battle had just been consumed on the fields around the village.
A dark figure was massacring the fleeing survivors of the slaughter, while Ms. Mercury, the 3000 years old former Apostle, was watching, with eyes full of dread, as if she had just realized something the other were not realizing.
The figure stopped its massacre and could now be seen in all its glory. The modern legionaries were pointing their guns at it.
She was a petite teen girl, with jet black hair, with the exact same face as Rory Mercury, except she had a more deranged, full of anger expression, and wore black gothic Lolita clothing.
"How dare Imperial soldiers disrespect an Apostle? Stop pointing those staffs at me… you did fine, butchering these bandits… much better than what normal Imperials do…"
Decanus Kowanus Zorzal kept pointing his rifle and whispered something in the intercom of his helmet.
Another soldier, hidden in a nearby house, was listening to his commander's orders carefully.
The dark girl, the copy of Ms. Mercury, grew tired of looking at the soldiers that were pointing guns at her.
"I'm going to have fun with you too. FOR EMROY!" the girl shouted, as she dashed forward with the halberd pointing to a Saderan soldier, but just few seconds before she could connect her devastating blow, Rory Mercury from the future sprinted forward, blocking the attack with her own halberd.
The witnesses were confused, seeing two identical girls but with different clothing fighting each other.
"Never expected to meet myself so early" Modern Rory said
"WHO ARE YOU? WHY ARE YOU IDENTICAL TO ME?"
"I'm literally you, from another universe."
"WHAAAT? WE'LL SEE, SHOW ME YOUR SKILLS, IF YOU CLAIM TO BE THE SAME AS ME!" Ancient Rory said, unleashing a flurry of attacks.
Modern Rory was struggling a bit, as she wasn't used anymore to Demigod magical power flowing through her all the time, and she was still adjusting to her newfound abilities, but nevertheless managed to block every attack effortlessly, she predicted every blow and attack pattern with ease.
The dueling pair was balanced: Ancient Rory had less experience, but was bloodthirsty and used to fighting, while Modern Rory had 2000 more years of experience, but was a peaceful and meek person that had spent the last centuries in the form of a wholesome granny.
"HOW IS IT POSSIBLE YOU'RE BLOCKING EVERY ATTACK I THROW AT YOU? I'M THE APOSTLE OF EMROY, GOD OF WAR, I'M AMONG THE 12 MOST POWERFUL APOSTLES EVER"
"As I said, I'm you. I come from a world 2000 years more advanced than this. Back in my world, I defeated Emroy himself" Modern Rory said, while she kept parrying and countering Ancient Rory's attacks.
"OOOH… I now understand…" Ancient Rory said, as she did an evil, psychopathic laughter.
"THIS MEANS YOU MANAGED TO BEST EMROY AND TAKE HIS PLACE, THAT'S WHY YOU'RE SO STRONG, YOU BECAME A GOD!"
"I became an historian, a teacher, a theologian, a scholar and a grandmother for millions of people during countless years."
"I slowly lost my demigod powers after defeating Emroy and the other Old Gods, they faded during the centuries. The only supernatural power I kept was immortality. Until the Gate that connected these two universes opened, and the energy from this world's Emroy somehow made me a demigod again." Modern Rory said, this time taking the initiative, unleashing her own assault, and putting Ancient Rory on the defensive.
"I don't feel depressed yet, so I'd rather not end up causing myself injuries!" Modern Rory said, jokingly.
"WHY DO YOU WANT TO STOP ME, IF YOU'RE THE SAME AS ME?"
"My current values are the polar opposite of yours. I despise pointless war, death and violence."
"DEATH IS PART OF THE CYCLE OF LIFE!"
"Death by being severed in half by a halberd is not part of the normal cycle of life though."
As they were philosophizing and dueling, Decanus Kowanus Zorzal did a sign with his hand to Modern Rory, who took half a second to look back to him and winked, showing she understood.
She did a step forward, and braced her halberd, pointing it at her foe, and as she did that, the soldier that was hiding into the house, pointed his hand at Ancient Rory, doing the finger-gun gesture, then pressed down the thumb, as if he was cocking back the hammer of a real gun. From his closed fist, there was a thin cable connecting it to something hidden in his backpack.
As he did that, Ancient Rory suddenly had a seizure, causing her to stagger for a second, and although she immediately recovered, she was confused.
"H-HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? MERE MORTALS, PUNY IMPERIAL LEGIONARIES, CAPABLE OF USING MAGIC STRONG ENOUGH TO STAGGER A DEMIGODDESS?"
The modern legionaries used her brief distraction and seized the occasion, and started shooting at her all together, while Modern Rory also charged with her weapon.
The magically charged bullet struck Ancient Rory, who got overwhelmed, and was forced to keep walking backward due to the wall of bullets, while she also had to block and parry the vicious attacks from Modern Rory. When the hail of fire finally ended, Ancient Rory was folded on herself, holding her hands on her stomach, barely standing up, full of bullet holes, cut injuries, and magical burnings.
"w-whaat… i-I feel pain… HAHAHAHAH… t-this… this is actually refreshing; it has been centuries since I last truly felt pain…"
"w-wait… why are my wounds not regenerating? Im a Demigoddess…"
Modern Rory walked to her battered ancient counterpart, looking at her maimed body that was lying in a pool of blood.
"They used a magical jamming device on you, and I helped them countering your magical power even further with my own power."
Ancient Rory did an angry, evil grin on her face. She did feel like her powers were less responsive and powerful than usual, and being an experienced warrior, she understood she couldn't win the engagement in these conditions, especially as she didn't have further informations on the full capabilities of her foes, so she took a second to concentrate her remaining powers and ran away, dashing and quickly disappearing from everyone's eyesight.
"…I'll be back… you seem like interesting folks…" She said, coughing blood as she ran.
The villagers had watched the entire scene unfold and were still in a shocked status.
"D-did… did those legionaries fend off the Apostle of Emroy?"
"Well… they do have a… twin, I guess? Of Rory with them…"
"Still… they're normal people, like you and me, yet they made a demigoddess flee…"
"Now I can totally picture them taming even the Flame Dragon… we were fools doubting their abilities…"
Decanus Kowanus Zorzal picked up his intercom device and started making a report back to the HQ, picking up the attention of a blue haired girl and her old master in the process.
Lelei La Lelena POV
She couldn't believe her eyes, she was full of questions and curiosity, she had always been an inquisitive and intelligent girl, eager to learn new things. That day was a jackpot for her.
Imperial looking soldiers using unknown magical techniques and never seen before devices, armed with mysterious weapons.
Coda was a nominally Imperial city, although it was under the control of the Lord of Italica, Count Formal. Imperials were technically bound to help and serve Codan citizens. That's why she gathered all of her courage and went to ask to the legionary leader about the device he was using to talk and about all the other things they used.
"Excuse me, noble Decanus. What is that thing you're using to speak? To whom are you speaking to? What's that shooting staff you used to fend off the Apostle of Emroy? Why is there a twin of Rory Mercury with you?"
The Imperial slowly turned her head to look at her, doing a "uhhmm…" expression.
"Wait HQ, there's a civilian asking me questions… Sorry, what's the matter?" he said.
Lelei was surprised by the politeness of the Imperial soldier. Usually, they acted like douches and bullies, especially with people like her, who were of Rurudo nomadic descent.
"I wanted to ask you about that device you're using to speak and some other strange things you're carrying. Me and my master are magicians and researchers, we never seen such pieces of technology before, not even in Rondel they have such advanced objects, that's why we're interested in knowing more about them."
"…Uh… well, this is an intercom device. This one in particular is magic powered, it can be used to speak with far away people. In this case I was speaking with my superiors who are in Alnus."
"What about that black staff that shoots?"
"This is a rifle, it's a weapon."
"I can see it's a weapon, but how does it work?"
"Well… I'm not a weapon technician, but here's a brief explanation: you pick a cartridge, you fill it with either an explosive spell or gun powder, put a bullet on top of the charge, then they are loaded in the weapon, and it shoots the bullet at incredible speeds. Oh yeah, sometimes we enchant them to increase their durability, accuracy, and rate of fire. Sometimes, bullets themselves are also enchanted."
Lelei's eyes were shining, she was about to ask something else, when a voice from the legionary's device was heard.
"DECANUS ZORZAL, ARE YOU STILL THERE?"
"Yes, I'm here, sorry HQ. As I was saying, the situation is under control. We fought off a group of insurgents that was attacking the settlement and faced… a clone of Ms. Mercury. The engagement ended with her retreat, after we severely damaged her. What are our orders now?"
"Stay there in the village until further orders. Ensure the civilians are ok. Stay there until the Flame Dragon comes here and lands. Update us if anything else unusual happens."
Lelei was excited and happy: she had all the time to spend with these strange legionaries and ask them questions.
Few hours later, Modern Saderan HQ, Alnus Hill
"The dragon it's 20 minutes from here, it just passed over Coda, we can visually see it with the binoculars, what's the plan now?" A radar operator asked to Giselle.
"I magically communicated to him to land in the huge patch of grass in front of the base, I'm going to get out to see him and reassure him when it comes." The old dragon-lady said, raising her blue tail in excitement.
A massive roar was heard from afar, it was the Flame Dragon.
The beast was totally massive. Many modern Saderans had seen the skeletons and the fossils in the museums, but they never imagined the Flame Dragon to be that large and massive. The bones made it look like a slenderer creature.
Giselle ran to the vast grassland in front of the base.
The few AA and the magic-countermeasures of the makeshift HQ were pointed in the direction of the beast anyway, for added security.
As the Flame Dragon came to land, Giselle let out an excited scream:
"EEEEEENRYUUUUU! MOMMY'S HERE! IT'S BEEN SO MUCH TIME, COME HERE ENRYU! AWWW YOU'RE STILL AS CUTE AS I REMEMBERED YOU"
She opened her arms and ran again to the landing dragon, hugging his huge snout.
The dragon raised his tail and slammed it on the ground several times, causing a small earthquake.
All the soldiers were ready to destroy him with their arsenal, but Giselle kept hugging and caressing him.
The Flame Dragon then rolled upside down, presenting his belly to the sky, gasping.
"Who's my good boy? Who's my good boy? YEAH, YEAH, IT'S ENRYU!"
Giselle was treating the dragon like it was her dog.
Well, it technically was, her dog. An oversized, scaly, destructive dog.
"Friends, it looks like the Flame Dragon will not bother us anymore for all the rest of the operation. I'd say mission accomplished." The former apostle said.
The military high command was happy with the outcome.
It had been surprisingly easy to take care of the dragon, almost anticlimactic.
They wanted to focus again on the diplomatic encounter with the ancient Imperial government, but the new dilemma caused by the second Rory and the battle at Coda had complicated everything.
The Empress and the Saderan politicians were becoming impatient: they expected the diplomatic mission to be done in few days, yet it was now nearly a week they were stuck there.
Most of them were going back to their own world to take care of the government, only the Empress herself chose to stay.
Some days later
City of Italica, Palace of Count Colt I Formal
There was a messenger in the throne room of the Palace, he barged in while Colt Formal was speaking with his advisors.
"Sir, there's a report of a Flame Dragon that flied from Koan to Alnus Hill. Also, travelers speak about Imperial legionaries having crushed an entire bandit army that was sieging our fief of Coda. They also established a base at Alnus."
"Kudos to the Imperial court then. Send someone to the capital city of Sadera with some jewels or gold to thank the Emperor for the help with these bandits." The Count said.
"My lord, it's unsure if those legionaries are from the official Imperial legions…"
"How so?"
"Well, they say they had an unusual armor, had no shields, and fought with fast firing ranged weapons instead of swords. Also, they were able to make the Apostle of Emroy flee with the help of her twin. No known Imperial legion is capable of such feats or is equipped with similar weaponry."
"What the fu- Fast firing ranged weapons? Oh… Goddamnit! They're here already! Thank you for your service, please leave this room, I'll discuss about these events with my experts."
"Nothing sir, good luck with your work."
Count Colt Formal snorted loudly and looked at the experts, councilors and generals surrounding him in his throne room.
"We all knew this day would have come. The Future Saderans want to establish official diplomatic contacts with our universe For weeks we've been studying aspects of the modern world and we're smuggling things from the modern world. Remember, we need to hide the fact we're already trying to modernize as long as possible. Also, I don't really like the idea of them having soldiers marching through my lands. We need to prepare a diplomatic expedition to meet them. We need to be in full control of the situation."
A purple haired catwoman raised her hand.
"Persia, you may speak" Count Colt Formal said.
"I want to lead the diplomatic expedition."
"I need you to take care of the internal affairs though"
"I already set up everything for the… special operation… you asked me to work on. I left the documents and all the details in my office; you can give them to anyone else to carry them out."
"Oh yeah… the special operation… Well… If that's so, very well. You can assemble your team and go to Alnus to meet the Modern Saderans."
"Thank you, my liege."
"Persia, remember, do not wear the Yellowshirt uniform, nor the armband, it would make it obvious we're modernizing. Wear typical traditional garments, so they do not suspect anything."
"That's obvious, my lord, I'm not that stupid." Persia said, as she went to her room to change her attire, preparing for her mission.
"Delilah, you go to Persia's office to get the documents about the plans for the Special Operation, you'll carry them out. The names of the officers and generals that will help you are probably also in those documents, if not, feel free to choose the people you deem the most competent and loyal to help you out."
"Got it, Count Formal!" the warrior bunny girl said.
"For today, the meeting is over. Long live Italica!" Count I Formal said.
"HAIL ITALICA, HAIL FORMAL, HAIL THE YELLOWSHIRTS!" the members shouted, raising their arms with their hand fully extended to do the salute.
"I see you've already learned the new salute I introduced! Very good!" The Count said smiling.
Ancient Italica City POV
Those days were days of change. The average citizen didn't understand much, besides that the Lord of the city was gong to introduce new reforms and that since some weeks, a new military group, named the "Yellowshirts" was now patrolling the city.
"Whaddya think of them new Yellowshirts?" a peasant asked to another, in the city's forum.
"I don't know fellah, 'think they are like a new kind of Knight order… Yah know, the Count created them himself."
"Yeah, but everyone can apply to join 'em, not only nobles or warriors"
"Well, regardless I appreciate their work. They do be bringin' order to the streets. Hehehe!"
Just as they were speaking, a group of 20 Yellowshirts marched behind them, led by a Warrior Bunny woman with a scroll in her hand.
They went to the city center, to the announcement stage, and one of them ringed the bell of the stage to gain attention from the bystanders.
"HEAR YE HEAR YE! I have a series of important announcements for you!" The warrior bunny shouted as loud as she could.
"FIRST, OUR COUNT HAS DECREED THAT STARTING FROM NOW, SLAVERY IS ILLEGAL, AND WHOEVER STILL PRACTICES IT BY EITHER SELLING OR MAKING USES OF SLAVES AFTER THIS ANNOUNCEMENT, WILL BE PERSECUTED!"
"SECOND, ALSO STARTING FROM TODAY, WE WILL ORGANIZE FREE WRITING AND READING LESSONS AT THE COUNT'S PALACE, IN THE BIG GUESTS ROOM"
"THIRD, SELLING POTIONS AND MEDICINALS OF ANY KIND WITHOUT OUR EXPLICIT PERMISSION IS NOW ILLEGAL. WE ARE PLANNING TO CREATE A SYSTEM OF PUBLIC HEALTH; THE STATE WILL HAVE THE MONOPOLY ON HEALTHCARE; THEREFORE, WE MUST ENSURE THE QUALITY OF HEALTH-RELATED PRODUCTS, STANDARDIZE THEM AND DISTRIBUTE THEM."
"FOURTH, EVERY ARMORSMITH, WEAPONSMITH AND MAGIC WANDS PRODUCER MUST GO TO THE PALACE TO GET AN OFFICIAL RECOGNIZEMENT TO CONTINUE THEIR ACTIVITY, WE ARE NATIONALIZING THE WEAPON INDUSTRY. AND THAT'S ALL. YOU CAN GO BACK TO YOUR DAILY ACTIVITIES."
The warrior bunny closed the parchment scroll and she and her squad marched away.
"Hah, that's ridiculous, no more slavery? How is it possible, how can we live without it? Did the Count go mad? Why does he even care about slave vermin? They're not even true people like you and me" a citizen laughed.
The warrior bunny heard him, she looked at her squadron and pointed at him.
Nineteen people wearing yellow clothing ran to the citizen, with their batons raised, took him down and started mercilessly brutalizing him until he passed out, with his face swollen and bloody.
"This is what happens to feudalists and slaver fucks! REMEMBER IT!" the warrior bunny woman said.
Everyone in the crowd was panicking and remained frozen in their place.
"This is preposterous! You and your Count are antagonizing the most powerful Guild of Italica, don't forget it! We'll not accept the abolishment of slavery so easily!" A man dressed in rich, beautifully decorated clothes said.
The warrior bunny once again, pointed at the dissenter and the Yellowshirts started running to him.
"HAHAHAHAAH! You'll never have the balls to actually beat me up, I'm not a peasant like that other guy, I'm a rich nobl- AAAAARRRRRGHHH!" The slave trader shouted, as a baton hit him right in the face, smashing the mandible.
Two Yellowshirts took his arts and held them firmly horizontally, while a third one swinged his baton with all of his might, snapping both of them out, then started to wrest, tug and tear the broken limbs to expose the bone and cause as much damage and pain as possible.
The slave trader screamed of pain all the time, and after the torture ended, they ripped off all of his jewelry, removed his clothing and started throwing them to the surrounding people.
"HERE! KEEP THE RICHNESSES OF THIS SUB SENTIENT BEING! HE'S A SLAVER FEUDALIST BASTARD, HE'S NOT A PERSON! HE AND HIS KIND ARE THE TRUE VERMIN! YOU CAN EVEN MURDER HIM, HE HAS NO MORE LEGAL RIGHTS!"
At first the citizens were too horrified and scared to do anything, but then, some beggars quickly ran to the jewels thrown on the ground, grabbed them and ran off.
No one complained anymore, and the Yellowshirt patrol marched away.
The slaver and the other beaten-up citizen were still lying on the ground, everybody was too scared to dare move them.
Eventually, the slaver own guards found him and brought him to rescue, while the family of the other man retrieved him.
Delilah's POV
She had always been very happy to serve Count Colt I Formal. He was one of the few lords to accept species and races that were not humans in his service. She loved him, not romantically, but she thought he was a kind, intelligent person.
That's why she was so eager to join the new movement the Count founded.
He promised that his plans would bring a revolution to Italica, that he would rewrite society into a better one, he described her his utopian ideals, but also said that the ways to bring that utopia to life were going to be hard and sometimes, harsh, difficult to accept for the normal person.
The kind, sweet and flirty man that just wanted to sometimes cuddle and talk with his demi human maids was gone. That man was gone ever since he came back from the Gate. Before, he only tried to normalize demi humans in his palace, and even then, he didn't push so hard. When Colt Formal came back from the expedition, he told her that beyond the Gate he saw the literal future of Falmart, since then he spent all of his time studying and working, something he hardly did before, until he came up with all of his plans, with a newfound resoluteness and will to carry his dream out.
Delilah truly thought his plans to make every species equal and to advance society was something beautiful, worth fighting for. Only genuinely evil people would oppose such a good plan. And those evil people deserved to be eliminated.
"You're now National Coltists" she remembered her master saying.
"Whoever opposes us is a Feudalist, an enemy of the people, of true unity, of our nation, of progress. Feudalists taint our culture and society. They must be eradicated." Colt also told her.
"This is a fight between us, the good side, and them, the evil side." Colt had concluded.
That day she had the confirmation. The man who mocked the Count and the slaver were evil, and they got rightfully destroyed by the forces of good. The true good citizen didn't complain, for they surely understood that their plans were rightful.
Delilah smiled.
"My liege, I cannot wait to truly carry out your special operation!"
The day after, town of Coda
"Welcome to our village, noble knights!" The village elder said, bowing to the people on horseback that showed up that morning, carrying the standards of Italica and the house of Formal, their lieges.
"We heard news that strange legionaries came here and saved the fief from bandits, is that true?" The leader of the people on horseback, a purple haired woman with cat ears, said.
"That is very true. Actually, our saviors are still stationed in the village, they took some unfoldable tents from the backs of their strange horseless vehicles and camped just outside the town all night." He said, as he led the knights to the makeshift camp.
The twelve legionaries were eating breakfast when the elder came to greet them.
"Noble legionaries, the men of the Lord of Italica want to talk with you!" the elder said.
"Greetings! Ave Imperium!" the cat woman leading the horsemen said.
One legionary stopped eating, got up and did the military salute.
"Ave! I'm the Decanus Kowanus Zorzal, leader of this contubernia. What do you want?"
"Kind elder, leave us be, for we have to discuss about important matters." The woman said, dismissing the elder that was still there.
When he was away, she dismounted, and her group followed suit.
"We heard you saved the town from bandits. We want to thank you for that, Count Colt Formal is very grateful. We also heard you're not from the Imperial Legion we know, and you've got a base at Alnus, is that rumor true?"
"The Count must have been one of the commanders during the expedition in the Gate… we're indeed not from the Empire, we're from Sadera, the Sadera from the other world."
"In quality of diplomat, I'd like to arrange a meeting between your leaders, so I can negotiate in the name of the County of Italica. Can you bring us to your leaders or into your world?"
"We're only soldiers, but I can indeed call my leaders. By the way, I thought that the Count in Italica served the Emperor during this time period"
"We are indeed subjects of the Empire, but only in name. We're a de facto independent political entity. And by the way, we claim Coda and Italica as our lands, and since we never officially gave you military access, right now you're technically trespassing, so we need to meet your leaders as soon as possible anyways to formalize treaties and such."
The Decanus picked up his communication device and started speaking.
"HQ, this is Decanus Kowanus Zorzal. There's an urgent question. Diplomats from Ancient Italica came, they want to discuss with our leaders, they also said that technically we do not have permission to cross their lands."
"Mmh… that's indeed a problem we need to solve… tell them to come here to the base, we'll work something out."
"They said you can meet them at Alnus." The Decanus said.
"Thank you, may our fate cross again!" The woman on horseback said, as she made her animal start galloping, followed by her fellow knights, riding on the horizon to Alnus.
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