...Re-Estize Kingdom...
Zaryusu looked at the little girl next to him, she was elegantly dressed in the finest field gear and she smiled sweetly over to him as she giggled at his expression. She touched her hand to her cheek, "I know I am beautiful to behold, even to the eyes of lizardmen, but really, wouldn't it be easier to just draw me?"
Zaryusu shook himself out of his reverie, "I'm sorry Lady Shalltear, it's just…I've never seen anything like that." He said, he looked around, there were fifty men, armed and armored…well…pieces of them still were. The rest were shredded, hands, limbs, heads, feet, whole bodies reduced to variable chunks of meat and scattered around them in all directions.
She picked up the hunk of a leg and lifted it up high, then tilted her head back and let the oozing blood fall past her lips. She did not spill a drop. "Wonderful." She said. She tossed the 'used up' leg away when the dripping ended.
Then she looked back over to the lizardman. "Of course you haven't, I'm of Nazarick, and I am a floor guardian, created by the Supreme Beings to be the strongest of the strong, even if there had been five hundred, or five thousand, or five hundred thousand, it would have made no difference to me, even without my gear on." She gave a sweet 'little girl like' shrug that stood utterly at odds with the havoc he had just seen her wreak on those who had the misfortune to cross their path.
She reached out and touched his cheek, caressing it slightly, tenderly, her red eyes glowed as she stared at him, "Be at ease, Lord Ainz is the wisest, he is the strongest, he even defeated me easily with both brains and brawn, and you are a servant of his now. You are forever safe as long as your loyalty endures."
Zaryusu swallowed uncomfortably, his eyes could not turn away from hers, the power swelling within them seemed fathomless. "I see why you call him a 'Supreme Being'." Zaryusu said slowly.
She stepped back from him with a wry little grin, "No you don't, silly, but you do 'begin' to see, when you see him stand atop the world, and all belongs to him as it should, and when you look back behind you at all that has transpired and see all the best laid plans of his enemies turned to ash, and his own million machinations are now revealed to you as clearly as the text on a page when you open a book, then will you truly understand."
He felt a chill wind blow over him as he pondered how many plans the Sorcerer King had laid before him in the pursuit of his goals. It was an uncomfortable thought, such fearsome intelligence seemed beyond the realm of possibility, yet…here he was…hours from Re-Boulorel leading an invasion to restore King Zanac…of all the strange paths his life had taken, this was not just the newest, it was the strangest.
"Odd that those mere fifty should attempt a raid on any of our positions though, isn't it?" Zaryusu said with some dismay, eager for the shift in subject as he walked next to Shalltear Bloodfallen.
"Is it?" She asked.
"I think so, we're only hours away from the city, why bother with a raid at this point? They're not going to slow us down much, and riding straight at the head of the column? I could almost understand raiding the baggage at the rear, but nothing about this makes sense at all." Zaryusu said somewhat dubiously.
"Maybe they just don't know what they're doing?" She said. "Does it really matter? I'll breakdown the walls, you do the rest." She said with a somewhat bored expression on her face.
"Well, they have been described repeatedly as incompetents, maybe you're right, after all the idiot in command might have just heard of raids as a way to slow down advances, and had no idea how to conduct a proper one, so he just borrowed from all those stupid stories where some mighty hero stops an army by attacking it's strongest point." Zaryusu said contemplatively.
A few hours later they were in front of the city walls.
Zaryusu raised a white flag and approached the silent walls. "Open your gates and surrender!" He shouted. He looked at the walls, they were good ones, strong by conventional standards, impossible for the lizardmen to have taken back when they were more…primitive, but with his current knowledge and the army behind him, no walls could hope to even slow him down, not least because of the delicate looking little pale faced girl who was waiting behind him.
No sound came from the top of the wall.
"I said," he shouted, "Open your gates and surrender! I will only ask once more, and then we will bring down your walls and capture the city by force!" Still nobody answered, but he heard shouting from beyond the walls, he looked over his shoulder at Shalltear Bloodfallen. "Can you tell what they're saying my lady?" He asked uncertainly.
"Yes." She said sweetly, "Someone is ordering that you be shot, he wants the archers to kill you, the idiot seems to think that if he takes your life that your army will scatter and he will retain control of the place. Poor fool, even if your army ran away, I'm more than enough to kill them all." She smiled sweetly and the bored expression returned to her face.
"And…are they going to?" He asked, "Should I be concerned?"
"Probably not," she said, "the other person is yelling at the idiot giving the order, saying you have a white flag up and it violates the rules, and someone else is telling the idiot that if they do that and it doesn't work, we'll kill everyone when we take the place to punish them for violating those rules."
"I see." Zaryusu said, "So one is an argument for honor, and the other is an argument to avoid revenge, pragmatic, I wonder who will win out on this one." He thought out loud. He shook his head, it didn't matter anyway.
"Last chance! Open your gates and surrender, or we will bring them down!" Zaryusu shouted up to them.
A spear fell down, it didn't land anywhere close to him, whatever incompetent had thrown it, he or she had no idea what the hell they were doing. "OK, your choice!" He said and walked over and picked up the spear, plucking the head from the ground, there was yelling on the other side as he returned to his lines, he remounted the undead horse and lifted the spear up as if the weapon had always been his, the steel head of it gleamed in the sunlight.
Shalltear looked over at him next to her, "Oh, this is interesting." She said.
"What is that?" He asked curiously.
"Wait just a moment." She said, the yelling intensified, the clattering of armor was audible from the top of the wall, Zaryusu could make out what appeared to be several men struggling with one well dressed foppish looking fellow.
"You can't do this! You can't! You can't! You just can't!" He was shouting as he flailed his arms around, Zaryusu could hear his words clearly now from where he was, and a moment later the foppish looking idiot found out that they could do that, they would do that, and they were doing that. While Zaryusu found out just what 'this' and 'that' meant…when the ones struggling with the fop heaved him up and tossed him over the wall. He screamed all the way down and landed face first in the dirt.
There was a moment of utter silence. Zaryusu lowered the spear straight back down instead of forward, putting a halt to the order of destruction. From atop the city wall, there was more shouting, and one voice clearly seemed to take command over all others.
"Wait there! We're going to open the gate for you!" The voice said with great urgency.
"We'll wait." Zaryusu said firmly, "But not for long!"
They appeared to have taken his words to heart, because he did not wait long, a few minutes later the gate began to open, and the portcullis began to rise.
"Forward…march!" Zaryusu shouted, and he threw the spear away. It clattered into the dirt and dust rose around it and began to settle, only for it to be kicked up again as the soldiers of his army began to march behind him. Shalltear rode on an undead horse beside him with a minor pout on her face.
"Something wrong?" Zaryusu asked the little guardian.
"Well…" She said with a little frustration evident in her voice, "It's just that I wanted to be useful to Lord Ainz, and today I didn't get to do anything for him, unless you count that bunch of raiders, and that was nothing." She sighed somewhat dejectedly.
Zaryusu thought for a moment and said, "Forgive me, lady Shalltear, but you're mistaken."
"Ehhhh?" She said to him, giving him an expression that was somewhere between anger, disbelief, and confusion.
They rode into the city and looked around, and as he was looking the place over…which seemed to have had better times, depressed if not ruined at least, he answered her, "You came here, that is what the Sorcerer King commanded of you, isn't it? Obeying his orders is always useful, all serve, including those who stand and wait. True you did not use your strength today, but you were prepared to do so, and we took a city for him without a fight, he will be pleased by that, and I'm sure he will praise your readiness to work on his behalf." Zaryusu said, and Shalltear's face lit up.
"Thank you." She said, "I hadn't considered that."
"Anytime." Zaryusu replied.
As the army moved in, one man stood and blocked the way, he was not there to challenge them, he was on his knees with his head bowed. "I am commander Nimorav, I officially surrender my city to you."
"Then the fop who was tossed over the wall was…?" Zaryusu asked.
"The idiot was the one 'King Philip' had left in charge here, a complete incompetent more hellbent on drinking and whoring and shouting than he ever had been about ruling, I ordered him thrown over the wall because he was obviously more concerned about having his good time ruined than he was over the lives that he was going to be casting aside to try to keep that 'party' going for himself. He was worse than garbage, he was hot burning garbage in a latrine pit."
"That's a vivid image." Zaryusu said succinctly.
Shalltear crinkled her nose. "Ew." She said just as briefly.
"It is an accurate one." Commander Nimorav said. Zaryusu looked him over, he was marked with scars and his hair was cut short in a style he'd come to recognize among humans as one of military utility, his armor was burnished and clean, but with no evidence of enchantment of any kind. In his own mind the lizardman general considered that…if this man who acted as commander had no enchanted gear himself, it was highly unlikely that anyone did, and against his own armies, they had no chance at all if it came to a fight.
"You did the wise thing by surrendering, Commander Nimorav." Zaryusu said, "You saved the lives of your soldiers and any unnecessary casualties among noncombatants, and you saved your own life as well."
"I thought that might be the case." The kneeling commander said grimly, "And all it cost us was the life of one incompetent moron, I'd call that quite a bargain."
"That is one thing to call it." Zaryusu said, "Now, escort us to the manor he was using, and we'll go over what we need to for now. Also, you'll need to take that thing down," he pointed to the banner of King Philip, "and put up the one for King Zanac."
"Wait, you're not here to seize our city for the Sorcerous Kingdom?" Commander Nimorav said with surprise.
"But…the idiot told us…" He began to say and then trailed off.
"The idiot was also a liar. He was obviously thinking you'd be more willing to fight if you thought you were protecting your city from a foreign invasion than if it were the returning forces of King Zanac." Zaryusu said thoughtfully.
Commander Nimorav shook his head, "I should have figured…I guess he was just smart enough to tell a lie."
"So…why did you surrender?" Shalltear asked. "If you thought we were here to take it for the Sorcerer King, shouldn't you have at least tried to resist?" She sounded more curious than anything, though from her tone he got the feeling she didn't think anybody was mad enough to seriously oppose her master, not anyone within a hundred miles of where she was anyway.
Commander Nimorav touched his forehead and shook it slowly, "For one it was reported to me that there were banners of King Zanac among your ranks, I thought it a deception at first, till now anyway, but the real reason I gave in was that one of the men on the wall got a look at you, my lady." He said and gestured to Shalltear.
"At me?" She said, pointing at herself and asking curiously.
"Yes, he has an appraisal talent, he can tell the odds of defeating any enemy, he saw you, and sent word to me and to me alone that you could not be defeated, that if we tried, we would simply all die." He said with a shudder.
Shalltear grinned with her eyes closed and touched her chest, "Well yes, only one can actually defeat me, only my love." She sighed happily, "Now I feel much better, I was more useful to my lord than I thought I was."
"Please follow me, General…?" Commander Nimarov began.
"Zaryusu Sasha, and this is Lady Shalltear." He added, gesturing to the little vampire girl.
"General Zaryusu, Lady Shalltear, I'll show you to the manor." He said politely.
The army resumed its march and Zaryusu looked around him, most citizens had decided to hide in their homes when the gate opened, but he could see them peeking out at the mishmash of various species marching through the streets, and they were clearly on edge. Zaryusu had no intention of leaving them on edge for longer than he had to.
When they reached the manor, the city's commander called for one of his subordinates.
"See that all of them are given suitable quarters for as long as they're needed."
"One day." General Zaryusu said.
That brought his head snapping over in surprise. "What? I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you right."
"Just one day, my soldiers will get one day's rest, and then tomorrow we will all leave, I will leave you in command of the city until King Zanac can send someone he appoints to take your place." Zaryusu explained.
"You won't leave a garrison?" He asked.
"Are you going to lose control of the city? Is there anyone in the city that wants 'King Philip' or some other idiotic member of his faction to regain control?" Zaryusu asked, his voice showing a pretense of concern even though he was already quite confident about the answer.
"Absolutely not." The commander said with iron certainty in his voice.
"Then I see no reason to linger and no reason to leave anyone behind. Tomorrow morning we'll leave for E-Asenaru and you'll be back in control again, all I ask is that your shops and taverns remain open to us and that my forces be adequately fed and housed overnight." General Zaryusu said in his most reasonable tone of voice.
"That is…I…I don't understand." Commander Nimarov said. "No plunder, no treasure, no demands or hostages, just stay overnight, eat overnight, and you'll leave tomorrow?"
"What don't you understand?" Zaryusu asked.
"Why?" He Commander Nimarov said in surprise.
"Because we came here to restore what was stolen, not steal what is rightfully held." Zaryusu said, opening his arms as if to say how obvious it was. "If you are back on the right side, there is no need for any of that which might weaken you, I'll even go one better, our soldiers pay will be dispensed on dismissal and they can spend freely overnight and we'll leave after breakfast in the morning. It seems to me your city could do to have some money flow into it." He said.
"Ah…yes, well, thank you, you are truly gracious." Commander Nimarov said, and he gave a deep and respectful bow to the lizardman general and the lady vampire beside him.
"Those are the words of my master, the Sorcerer King." Shalltear said proudly, "He is the wisest ruler in all the world, restoring King Zanac to the throne was his plan all along." She sighed like a lovestruck girl and but for the earlier ferocity she'd shown, Zaryusu could never have thought her to be anything but a young human girl.
"Yes, it seems that 'King Philip' was a tool of the Slane Theocracy, they were giving him money and weapons and who knows what else, in order to allow him to seize the throne, they wanted him to open up another front against the Sorcerer King and seize control of E-Rantel and bring the war to a conclusion in their favor." Zaryusu said with a roll of his eyes. "Idiots."
Commander Nimarov's eyes went wide, "Is that true…the Slane Theocracy was…using my nation, turned us to civil war and forced my people to fight and kill each other over one idiotic man's foul and undeserved ambitions for himself…all so they could throw my nation into the fire all over again to fight a king who saved us from famine after overwhelmingly defeating us at the Katze Plains?!" His voice became outraged.
Zaryusu and Shalltear simply nodded in sync with one another and Commander Nimarov's body began to shake with anger.
"I was AT the battle of Katze Plains, I saw what the Sorcerer King was capable of in terms of violence, and I was only able to eat for months after that because he also showed us he was capable of great mercy…had I…had we…been left to starve after the battle, I could have understood this desire to reclaim E-Rantel…I could have understood and forgiven some kind of war of revenge, however doomed and futile it might have been. But he gave us food to eat, he let our wounded live and go free and home to their families, he returned the body of our greatest hero, undesecrated with all his treasures, so that he could be properly honored and buried…and our neighbor threw us back into the fight all over again, manipulated our entire country just so THEY could have an advantage?! How DARE they!" He snarled, fumed, and his face turned red with rising anger…then purple with fury.
He forced himself to calm down and he bowed to them both again. "Forgive my display of emotion, that is…much to take in. I will go and see to the lowering and destruction of that idiotic banner and replace it with one for King Zanac immediately."
Zaryusu and Shalltear looked at each other with great satisfaction as the furious commander showed them his back and went off to carry out his stated task.
AN: Not the most exciting chapter, but it was nice to get Shalltear in there for once, I really don't get a lot of room for the guardians in in this epic, largely because they're nuclear weapons in a world of muskets, there's no effort involved, no chance for development or growth for the other characters...I know you all have your favorites...I do too, I'm especially fond of ones like Demiurge and Albedo...but to bring them in is to just stop the conflict in its tracks for the most part. I have had the occasional use for an OP Nazarick figure, such as when Sebas saved Neia from Remedios, or Cocytus as an instructor, but there's just no conflict to bring them to battle. I mean I 'could' have just had Shalltear show up and massacre Wenmark on day one. But then all that character development for Neia would never have happened, the heart rending passing of Illyana, who freed herself in dying and got one last strike at her oppressors...gone. Overuse of Nazarick characters in a story is a lot like drawing a picture of a terrible dragon, and then just crossing it out. I really do want to unleash Shalltear on at least one more location, but it just didn't 'work' for the story here.
Anyway, if you enjoy this story so far, join my discord server, some story fans have started creating some pretty awesome fan art, you'll find my invite on the author page here.