God Rising
Chapter 103
Written by: AtheistBasementDragon
Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots
AN: Well I have to say, I enjoyed writing this chapter, in particular because I've been eager to write Vanysa's revenge sequence for almost fifty chapters now, and it is finally on us, do enjoy how thoroughly she works. I do. :D Leave a review if you like this chapter/story. Also I'd love to hear your opinions on various character arcs, I thrive on feedback and reader interaction. So...I get to 2300 reviews for this today, I'll do a double release and put up another chapter no later than this evening.
...Remedios' Camp, post meeting...
"That thing isn't human." Remedios snarled as she threw her sword angrily in her tent as her people packed up outside. "Whatever she is, I have to kill her, she's got demons in there or something." She grabbed her hair and pulled it hard enough that it hurt, but was far enough gone that she didn't care.
"Whatever she is," Yuri said, "kill her and she's a corpse. We need to put some fear into that city, some horror, some nightmare that will give that woman nightmares all her own." Her face was a blank stare, but she smiled inside when Remedios grew distracted by the suggestion, atrocity seemed to fit her nature very comfortably.
"That doesn't change anything about how to take the city." Suchala added, "Though about that woman, it felt similar to the black wave that swept over us before... Could she be behind it?" He asked.
Remedios and Yuri both shuddered, when the wave had hit their armies everything had ground to a halt, horses either wouldn't move or would only run away, the less courageous peasants outright fled and even the fanatically devoted felt the icy grip of death, swallowing up their souls. It had been a very bad day and it had slowed them down far too much.
"No." Remedios said, "Neia isn't that powerful, but whatever she is, she's tied to the source of that thing."
"She seemed plenty powerful from where I was sitting." Suchala said doubtfully, "I've never seen anything like what dwelt within those eyes."
"I wonder what they'll look like when dead." Remedios stated flatly.
"Well if we want to find out, we need to get there, this slowed us down by half a day." Yuri said unhappily.
"Fair enough, but it wasn't useless." Suchala said with uncharacteristic positivity in his voice as he raised a finger to give them pause. "We know she has some connection to the 'event', we know she's gotten stronger than she used to be, back when you almost killed her, and we know they have a weapon capable of killing scripture members with ease. That is a problem, but it is not as big of a problem compared to what it would be if we didn't know about it until it was far too late."
"Alright, I admit that." Remedios said sullenly, "But Calca... it can't really have been her." She asserted boldly, "It's some trick of the undead, my Calca would never have..." She shook slowly as she steeped herself in denial. "It can't have been..." She said slowly as she looked down at the hand that had pierced her guts and shattered her face.
"Then kill the fake too." Yuri said casually, "You'll feel better." She said.
"Good idea." Remedios said, a positive energy coming back into her voice as her lips turned up in a hungry grin.
"We'll send out a few companies as an advance party, nothing dramatic, just watch the city from out of reach, if they pursue with those undead horses, well we'll have an ambush laid for them and take care of them that way." Suchala said casually.
"Fine, but we should do a forced march as well, and get there tonight, we can establish the siege perimeter and keep anyone from getting in or out, the fighting can start the day after." Yuri added.
"Agreed." Remedios and Suchala said after a moment's thought.
"I'll see to it." Yuri said, and walked out of the tent to give the orders.
...Prart...
"Do you think they can be chased down?" Skana asked thoughtfully.
"You know, you're very bold, and I like the idea, but that would be very reckless." Neia said, tightening her arm around Skana's waist. "I'd wager your right eye that they'll have a force back beyond that, hidden away to ambush any pursuers. They know our horses can outrun theirs."
"So they're hoping we try to chase them off." Skana said thoughtfully.
"I think so." Neia replied, then gave an upward glance at her Vice Commander. "You want to go anyway, don't you."
Skana nodded, her grip on Neia tightened. "I owe them pain, I'd like to start repaying the debt." She replied angrily.
"Do you have any ideas on how to do that without getting ambushed yourself? They can see you coming after all." Neia pointed out.
"Bows. I doubt they can outrun arrows." Skana said, baring her teeth in a broad smile.
Neia sighed and caressed her face. "I can't let you do that, if you go out there, there is a high probability that they'll take you down first. I just got you back, I don't want you to go outside the wall again without me, and I can't go out there now."
Skana looked down at her with a small frown on her face. "I've been outside those walls for awhile now, one more hour..."
"Might be your last one." Neia interrupted firmly, "I absolutely forbid it. The conditions we're in right now do not allow for effective mission performance."
"Meaning the siege, or meaning your own feelings." Skana said sharply.
Neia released her grip and stepped back, looking at Skana in surprise she said, "It doesn't matter which it is, I've given my instructions and you will follow them."
Skana balled her fists and gritted her teeth. She was angry, very angry. "If you give me that command as the Pope of Black Justice, I must obey, but if you give me that order as my wife to be, I'm going to restock my arrows and go out that gate, there are heads to be taken."
"No." Neia said, it wasn't forceful, it was broken, a small voice that cracked her hard face and caused her lips to shake. "No. No. No. Please don't go." She whispered and grabbed at Skana's hand, she squeezed it with a desperate strength that made the already very strong Skana wince.
"Neia what...?" She asked, her green eye widened in surprise.
"This is always when the bad moments happen, as soon as I start to be happy, something destroys it, and if you go out that gate without me, all I'll get back is your corpse. I have to be there to protect your flank, I have to be." Neia desperately pled.
"Neia... You can't expect to be at my side every time, you already trusted me to be away from you for what, a few weeks?" Skana said incredulously.
"This is different, you're talking about a direct engagement on open ground and into an almost certain ambush!" Neia's eyes went wide and she grabbed Skanas arms and forced her to square off against her. "If you go, you go into a disadvantage without me and that is not acceptable."
Skana's heart melted a little. "What if we do something different?" She asked.
Neia's body became noticeably more relaxed. "If you have a plan that isn't insane, I'll listen." Her voice became more calm, stable, and her eyes returned from their wide and almost frightened state, to the terrifying state that terrified Skana not at all.
"When I was out before, I had Fluder use fly magic to rise aloft and target areas I'd pinpointed with bow shots to the sky. Now we have Tia and Tina," the twins gave blank faced stares and small waves to the pair, "that means we have another option." Skana said, and Neia's face began to turn very interested.
"I see..." Neia said, "Go get Fluder. Tia, Tina, how would you feel about a little time doing some pinpoint targeting?"
The two shared a silent look, nodded, and drew their kunai.
A few minutes later the three were allowed to leave in secret, the hour was not yet late, some light still held, enough for their work. Fluder flew high enough to avoid detection, while the twins raced past the 'bait' and sought the hidden ambushes in the woods.
They found them.
Straight to the tops of trees they went, throwing kunai into the air, and poking his head through the clouds, Fluder saw the glint of metal with his magic enhanced senses and sent fire from the sky as if in divine wrath at their foes. Fire rained down on one position after another beyond the hill, and those companies standing as bait kept their eyes on the gate and not on their backs. Neia kept opening the gate a little, then closing it again, keeping their focus on what she was doing, while well behind them, their ambushes were burned alive by fire from above, while in the shadows the twins cut down anyone trying to flee decimation. When they were done, a full three hundred lay dead in the woods, and they returned with the same stealthy process they had used to depart.
Again they stood before Neia and Skana.
"Now?" Skana asked, hopefully.
"Now." Neia said, approvingly. "Go with double their numbers though, take no chances, I'll never forgive you if you don't come back to me."
Skana's face split with a wide smile, and she lunged in and kissed her betrothed passionately, this time bending Neia back as she had been bent earlier. She rushed off and soon hundreds of cavalry were being assembled.
Fluder looked at Neia curiously. "I miss something?" He asked.
"Nothing to concern yourself with." Neia said with a dismissive voice and a deep blush.
"Lover's quarrel." Tia and Tina said together.
"Ah." Fluder said, losing interest.
The blush did not go away, so she turned her back to them and started to open the great gate, creak by creak it opened until it was wide apart. "GO." Neia shouted down below, and hundreds of Black Justice cavalry rushed out, the thunder of undead hooves shook the very ground. Skana had her bow out well before she'd reached range, nor was she the only one, she nocked, drew, and loosed as soon as she was able, followed almost immediately by the others.
The archery skills of the hundred had all but entered legend and living myth for their many victories, but even a moderately skilled member trained hard to banish the greatest sin they had, the sin of weakness.
The fruit of their hard work now was put to the test, a triangle formation took shape at Skana's command, with herself as the head. Their untiring mounts were rapidly closing the gap. The enemy cavalry did not wait to meet the charge, they wheeled on their horses and ran away, thinking to lead Skana and her people into an ambush a mile away, they didn't have to hold the lead long. Many dark smiles graced the faces of fanatics as they imagined the legendary unit of Black Justice riddled with arrows from both sides, they drew closer, closer, closer to the site.
A few of the more clever ones began to grow concerned when they saw tendrils of smoke rising on either side ahead of them, but with nothing to do but go forward, go forward they did.
The gap was closing, their horses were tiring, 'not much further' was a phrase on every one of the enemy cavalry's lips, until 'not much further' was turned into 'where are they?'. No arrows flew to strike down their enemies, no ambush was sprung, instead Skana, laughing with glee as she dispensed with her bow after bringing down a half a dozen men and horses with her bow, a number others wished to surpass her at themselves, and some did or nearly did, and instead she drew her sword.
"Come here you sons of bitches, I owe you some payback!" She shrieked above the thunder of hooves as she ran the first man through at his back and as she pulled the sword out, his body went flying off his horse, where he was promptly trampled by her comrades.
Seeing that it was too late and that the trap had failed, the rest of the horseman tried to swing around, and found that this resulted in the V shaped formation piercing deep into their ranks, Skana's sword flew like a bird through the trees, and she shrieked her war cry like a half mad banshee, dancing among the soldiers halfway into their ranks, the V began to break apart as they overwhelmed the would be ambushers. Numbers, equipment, and skill began to tell the tale of the encounter as the undead mounts feared nothing, felt nothing, and obeyed perfectly. The excellent custom equipment of the hundred made short work of the common equipment of light horsemen, and even the lower quality gear of the non-elites were superior due to the overwhelming ability of the dwarf craftsmen.
Skana laughed as blood soaked her hair and horse and armor, blows glanced off her breast plate and her sword opened up many necks until one unfortunately heavy hammer blow unhorsed her. The armor absorbed the worst of the shock, and she responded by stabbing the horse the rider was on, sending him falling to the ground with his leg pinned underneath it, he had only a moment to realize his horrible luck when a smiling Skana pushed her sword into his left eye and all the way to the back of his skull.
Other unhorsed warriors came to take her down, only for her acrobatic skill to leave them waging war against the air around her. A high swing resulted in her ducking and stabbing a soldier in the thigh, only to follow it up with a forward roll that ended up in a thrust into a soldier's guts just below the armor, she caught a man's attempted blow at his wrist, twisted it to draw a cry, and brought him down to the ground. Before he could recover she drew a knife from her pouch and jammed it into the back of his neck, severing his spine.
Her own people were all around her now, there was no mercy being asked for and no mercy being offered, shouts and screams did not long endure from the lips of the wounded, as they became the forever silent dead. So it was until the last man fell and Skana staggered to her feet and raised her sword up. Her hands and face, sword and armor, were all slick with the blood of her prey. She licked her lips clean of it, and found what vampires enjoyed so much about their nature.
Her eyes wild with fury and bloodlust, she shouted the victory call, a gesture imitated by all her surviving people.
She wiped her sword on a patch of grass that had been mercifully unstained.
"Gather our wounded and our dead, leave their own." She said, cutting off a sudden desire to leave only a pile of heads, and doing so chiefly because she did not think there was time.
There were few of either dead or wounded from her ranks, and they quickly stormed off back the way they came with the few riderless mounts they had, as well as all their people. The gates of the city opened immediately for them, and Skana took the lead, riding in to cheers for her heroism, remaining upright and smiling as the blood soaked terror of the battlefield she had become. When all were in and the gate was closed, she dismounted her horse and turned to find that Neia was already there, pulling her in for a passionate kiss, heedless of the eviscera, the odor of death and blood, or the slickness of it that permeated Skana's armor and clothing.
"You came back." Neia said happily, grasping Skana's blood soaked cheeks and looking into her eyes.
"For you, I will always come back." Skana said duskily, "But now I need a bath, perhaps... you'd like to help me... clean up?" She winked, and Neia nodded.
"Nothing would make me happier." She said with a toothy smile that had the corners of her mouth upturned boldly.
"We'll see about that." Skana said archly, and lowered her hand down Neia's back, beneath the base of the armor of the Grand King Buser...
For once, Neia did not blush, she only took Skana's hand, and led the way back for both of them.
...Astraka's Camp...
Doppel-One and Doppel-Two were completely undetectable when they made their way to the tent of Astraka in the middle of the night. He was thoroughly drunk and unlikely to awaken. However, to be safe, they used a scroll of 'deeper sleep' to ensure he would not awaken for their next task.
Slipping into the tent, they simply waited, their superior senses informing them of the activity beyond, as the man who would be king lay unawares of the ruin that was to befall him. It was a richly appointed tent, befitting a king, he even had a small carpet transported for his private use so he wouldn't be on the ground when he walked around his personal area. His armor had been polished to a shine and rested on a varnished wooden T shape, but no equipment lay around to care for it, it was done for him by a servant. His bed was not just a crude cot, but a mobile bed that was disassembled and reassembled at each new camp, and as his mattress he had a series of furs from beasts like foxes and bears, along with a warm blanket over him that kept out the chill of the worsening weather.
Nothing compared to their lord in Nazarick but... as good as any human king could ask for.
They waited patiently until they heard voices outside indicating a shift change in the predawn hours, and Doppel-One notified Vanysa via a message spell.
"Alright, do it, assume forms two and three." Vanysa replied.
A moment later the doppelgangers took the shapes of naked, young children, a male and a female, their bodies took on the appearance of deep bruising in various places, and they opened up cuts and created abrasions on their pseudo-skin. They then took expensive cloth from a drawer in Astraka's tent and fashioned crude gags for themselves. Then, with heavy tears flowing down their false faces, they crawled out of his tent in the middle of the shift change, whimpering and begging for help.
They'd taken the forms of beautiful, innocent children of the sort that none could ever fathom hurting, but most importantly, they included features of the children of these, his most trusted guards, so that each of them might see something of their own children in this pair. The guards to see them first jumped backwards in horror as they came out of the shadows. The torches they carried cast light and shadow to dance across the despairing, agonized faces of the two doppel-children.
The reaction of the first pair of guards caused the other two on shift to turn around and look down. Playing up the reaction, the doppelgangers grabbed at one of the guard's feet and looked up at him in a desperate, whimpered but muffled plea for help. He knelt immediately in horror and removed their gags.
"Please... please... no more... no more..." Doppel-One whimpered as he fought 'sobs'.
"Don't send us back in... pwease don't do dat... anytin but that." Doppel-Two whispered plaintively.
The realization of what they were seeing, hit home for all of them at almost the same moment, the bruises, the bleeding, the abrasions, their nakedness and fear and obvious pain. And as they looked at the despairing little ones who had been gagged for who knows how long as they suffered at the hands of the man who would be king, each saw elements of their own child's faces.
"What can we do?" The first guard whispered to the others.
"We've got to get them out of here!" Another said, the little doppel-boy turned on his side and held his stomach, an enormous boot print and bruise was visible through his opened fingers, that mark seemed to fit Astraka's own boots flawlessly.
"Not like that, they'll die out in the woods for sure!" A third guard whispered hoarsely.
"Little boy, little girl, where is your home, can you tell us that?" The fourth guard asked as he crouched down over them.
"W-we're brother an sister, w-we live tha way." He eeked out through an agonized voice. "Momma an papa fell asleep in the fire after the white man came, took us away while momma and papa slept in the fire with the red on their clothes..." Doppel-boy said in a soft, pained voice.
"White man?" The first guard asked the others uncertainly.
"Oh by the gods... the Theocracy adjunct... he rides out sometimes with the other Theocracy scouts, he wears a white robe, I get it... he came into their home, killed the parents, took the children, then burned down the home. Then he brought them back here to... give... them..." The second guard said, then trailed off as he couldn't finish the sentence.
"Is there anywhere else we can take you?" The third guard asked urgently. "Where you'll be safe?"
The little doppel-girl nodded, "Auntie house in the woods behind ours, put us a our house'n we can get ta her, pweease don't make us go back in... it hurts in me..." She bit her arm hard to keep from making noise while she started to cry.
"I'll go sneak a few healing potions, we're coming off shift so the two of us will get these children out of here. Oh gods, what are we following...?" The fourth guard said in absolute horror.
"OK, do it, we'll stay here and pretend nothing is wrong." The first guard said and took his position with his companion.
"Good, Wilam, pick up the girl, I've got the boy, let's get them out of here!" He whispered hoarsely. The two did exactly that, while the children whimpered their 'pain' to all the world, they rushed to a supply tent, quickly stole two healing potions with the assistance of the two guards watching over it. When they saw the two little ones and heard the story, they were utterly disgusted and got right out of the way. A few minutes after that they rode like demons out of hell as fast ahead of the camp as they could until they found the house that Vanysa had burned down the night before.
The 'bodies' of Doppel-3 and Doppel-4 looked suitably burnt, further confirming the story in the minds of the two horrified guards. "Auntie lives ova thisay." The little doppel-boy said, pointing towards the woods.
A quick message later and Vanysa, taking on her human form, put herself outside the door, covered her arms and legs in fresh soot and ash from a small bin she kept handy after burning the house down, making it appear that she'd been digging through the wreckage. She tossed the bin back inside, and then started sobbing uncontrollably and rocking back and forth while she waited for the guards to appear. She did not wait long.
As soon as she saw the children, she popped up to her feet. "Vale, Bera! You're alive!" She shrieked and rushed with a desperate stumble towards the children that the guards carried. "My niece, my nephew! But how? How?!" She asked desperately as they reached out to cling to her. "Who are you noble heroes?!" She exclaimed, lavishing them with desperate praise as they let go of the children.
"We're some of King Astraka's soldiers, miss, we... well we wanted to get them home to safety." One of them said.
"I see, well I would do anything for such a noble King, who would be so kind to a mere peasant as to personally return our poor littles to us, could I perhaps go pay my respects and gratitude to him?" She asked with a sweet, innocent, winning smile that elevated Vanysa's already great beauty.
"Ma'am, listen to me, you must not seek the King, something terrible happened, your... family, they didn't die naturally, they were killed, the children were taken and... the king... he did things to them, terrible things, you must not be here when the army passes by., Wwhen he finds them gone, he may look for them, you must run away." His companion said, and Vanysa let herself collapse to her knees and shake and cry.
"He is who will rule us... oh gods, what hope is there for us if our children are to be his playthings...?" She sobbed for a solid minute while the two men stood there awkwardly.
"If he could keep this secret, oh gods... we're damned! We're the country of the damned..." Vanysa said in a hoarse voice filled with despair.
"Miss, there are plenty of witnesses now, us, two others, and the two guarding the supplies where we stole the healing potions from, this will not stay secret, and our line of march will take us past the house, plenty will see, all will know just what a monster he truly is." One of the guards said, placing a hand comfortingly on her shoulder.
"Do you have money, something to help you get away from here?" His companion asked.
"A little, a horse and enough food for a few days, about twenty coppers." Vanysa whimpered, the guards then looked at one another, and in unison reached their hands into their purses and handed her twenty five silver each.
"Y-you'd gimmie this ta help me get away?" She asked in awe.
"We've got children too, miss, and your niece and nephew, well they look a lot like... please just go, go quickly before the camp awakens." One of them said.
"I'll pack my bag and go right now, thank you, thank you!" Vanysa said and embraced them both.
"I will never forget what you've done today, I promise you that." She said, her storm gray eyes held their gazes, and within them, to her pleasure, she felt no more guilt from them than any common man., Sshe resolved that, if the opportunity came, she would keep them from harm, even if her little 'play' was false, their character was true.
She rushed into the cabin, and when they were well and truly gone, Vanysa burst out laughing maniacally, within a few hours the whole of his own army would think that their king enjoyed the bodies of children. There was vile, and there was vile; even a brute who preyed on women might hesitate when it came to innocent looking children, so such figures were thought to be the worst of the worst.
The doppelgangers restored their former shapes.
"Now," Vanysa said, "assume shapes five and six. Return to the camp, and make it worse." She smiled with absolute viciousness as her erinyes shape was restored.
The two doppelgangers took the forms of soldiers and crept into the camp. Rumors were already flying within minutes of the sun breaking the horizon, and the two doppel-soldiers were quick to confirm everything, claiming to have seen the children and seen them carried away, while the two actual guards confirmed to their comrades the burned up house and the two bodies of the 'parents' and for many that was the only evidence they would accept, even when the other guards produced the cloth that still bore teeth marks fitting small children who had bitten hard in pain when the cloth had been used as gags to keep them quiet while they suffered.
Astraka did not hear the rumors for most of the day, but when the line of march passed the burned out house and someone suggested a brief halt for men to relieve themselves, and many wandered over to the home and the 'bodies' of Doppel-Three and Doppel-Four' the rumors were accepted as true.
King Astraka then had someone bring the rumor to his attention, and it was vile enough that he stood in front of the entire army, shouting, sputtering, and raging his denials, but so vigorous and angry and not to mention more than a little intoxicated as he'd indulged in a few drinks on the road, that he did not come across as believable. His denial was taken as proof of his guilt, and the morale of his army plummeted.
The doppelgangers that remained in disguise as soldiers, continued to spread rumors about his 'seedy side' and many perversions.
Their many reports of the growing hatred that built over the course of the day, warmed Vanysa's heart.
When the day was over, she called the doppelgangers back to her little improvised headquarters. "Wonderful work, next... oh, I am going to love this next part." The Erinyes declared, laughing with absolute joy. She shook so hard that her wings trembled and her talons clicked together as she leaned her head back and laughed harder and harder, as if her laughter could reach the sky itself.