God Rising

Chapter 113

Written by: AtheistBasementDragon

Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots

AN: Thank you everybody for your feedback asking about the estimated levels of Neia & Skana, just one more quick question, do you think I've done a decent job showing their relative 'growth' from their beginnings in this story? I 'think' I did, but I may be biased, and I ask because in future stories I want to have a kind of reference to draw from to know what I did well vs poorly.

Also, double releases will begin tomorrow, I plan on writing 4 chapters on Friday, Saturday, & Sunday, for a total of 12 chapters but I ALSO have to allow time for the beta readers to do everything. Most of the chapters will be 'God Rising' but I'd also like to start releasing a new side story as well, that is Momon centered. I've got to say I'm really proud of this fandom, Overlord fans are the fucking best. A more open, welcoming, constructive, and positive fan community I have never seen, you should all be damn proud of yourselves just for being who the fuck you are.

Lastly, in case you're wondering, Vanysa's vendetta will end tomorrow, I know some of you have really enjoyed finally seeing her retribution manifest itself in steady dismantling the life of her former tormentor, but all good things must come to an end, the siege of Prart will reach its climax in a day or two (I just have to rewrite some of Chapter 115 before releasing it) and then it will be back to the wider war at large. Then that will close Act 2 of the overall story. I will try to release 2 chapters every day, but again, editors gotta edit, and some chapters will be longer than others, but fear not, I will drive forward like a bat out of hell and keep my promise to you all. Now...on with the show...

...Prart…

"How long will it take?" Lakyus asked, looking at Neia after they'd mounted the walls to watch the repositioning to what had been Astraka's position.

"Several hours I expect, they have to steer well clear of us, and siege towers are not known for their speed.

"How do we stop them when the time comes?" Lakyus asked.

"We don't, not all of them." Neia said thoughtfully.

"You intend to allow a general attack on the whole city?" Lakyus asked with surprise.

"No, absolutely not, just on three sides. I want some of them to be able to get here so we can kill them off, I want them to feed us their army in pieces. We try to swallow the whole thing, we choke, we take them in bite-sized elements, we can eventually swallow the whole thing." Neia said as they walked towards the top of the wall.

"Makes sense, but I'm an adventurer, not a general." Lakyus shrugged.

"It's like a dungeon. Do you want to face fifty enemies in a large open space, or fight them four abreast?" Neia asked.

"OK, yes that makes sense, they have fewer options and can't use their numerical advantage." Lakyus said as she thought about past engagements as an adventurer.

"Precisely." Neia said, watching as some soldiers at a corner position performed maintenance on a small catapult.

"So what do we do till they come for us?" Lakyus asked.

"Not much, just walk the walls and visit the soldiers, they're all ready to fight, militia from Kedyn, orcs from the Understone Empire, or perhaps better said 'the Abelion Hills', elves rescued from Wenmark, humans from the mines, my own elites from our time at Hoburns, you, from Re-Estize... and many, many more. Everyone is coming together for this, we'll see many fall, but His Majesty's will is going to be made manifest within these walls." Neia said with a fanatical resolve.

"That's right." Skana said as she stepped out of a gate, a few feet behind Neia. "Everything will be as it should be."

Neia's entire body turned tense as a coiled spring before Lakyus's very eyes. The warrior pope turned around to look at her wife. Lakyus bit her lip, she could feel Neia's awkwardness.

"Skana, I…" Neia brought her hands up to her chest, right over her heart, and wrang them together, "It's… I thought… when you weren't there… how do you… are you… are we… please…" Neia was struggling to find what to say, in a rare moment looking as small as she truly was, and riddled with insecurity over the unfortunate things Skana had to learn at the worst possible time.

Though from Lakyus's eyes, if she were being fair, Skana didn't make it easier, when the woman saw how flustered and anxiety riddled the ever confident Neia was, she had trouble meeting her eyes. "Look, I'm… I didn't know how to, or… or what to say. It was all a bit much you know, I know you're not like… a monster or anything, I didn't mean for it to come out that way…"

Lakyus finally could take no more, she 'accidentally' tripped with a very obviously false 'oops' and her hand pushed hard into the center of Neia's back, and the warrior pope fell forward into Skana's arms, her wife instinctively caught her, she wrapped her arms around Neia's body and held as tightly as she could. She stroked the back of Neia's head, as the warrior pope pressed herself hard into Skana's chest.

"I didn't want to, I swear it... I swear I didn't want to do it." Neia whispered. "Not ever, not ever, not ever, no…"

"Hush…" Skana said, interrupting the loop and being reminded in that moment quite starkly that Neia was indeed younger than herself, and had been forced into unspeakable conditions. "I know, I know, it's OK, you did what you could to save who you could, if you hadn't, I'd have died then, and our followers, your followers, would have suffered horribly. Just remember, I'm always at your side, even if service carries me elsewhere, I promised you before, didn't I? That you'd never be alone again. So you're stuck with me." She said, and flicked Neia's nose, smiling down at her as she did so.

"Do you two need some time alone?" Lakyus asked with a smirk. "Neia did say we had a few hours, between CZ and myself we can keep an eye on things here."

They shared weak smiles between the two of them, that quickly turned salacious. "Thanks, Lakyus." Skana said, "I owe you one."

"Tell you what, you cover dinner once when the Synod commences, and we'll call it even, there is a fantastic restaurant there I want to try, it's called 'The Platinum Plate'. What do you say? It'll be fun." Lakyus said with a wink.

"You got it." Skana said, before practically dragging Neia back to their room.

...Southern Holy Kingdom…

As Vanysa waited in the library of the manor she'd just broken into, she sipped a glass of wine and looked around. The books were beautiful to look at, the rug was ornate, a spiral of blues and greens, the windows were spotless, and the chairs were well appointed. It reminded her of the homes of the nobles she'd cut to ribbons with a knife, in service to Queen Draudillon's purge.

It wouldn't be long now. As she waited she reflected on all that she had endured, her parents were dead, her would be husband was dead, she had neither aunts nor uncles, and no surviving siblings. She was the last of her line, if she died, nobody would remember who they were. As she looked around, she saw the legacy here, the insignias, the crests, it spoke of centuries of heritage and history.

She resented it just a bit, but she resented it more because it was the family of Astraka. Part of her wanted to kill them all and deliver their heads to him, so that he would be the last of his line. She 'turned' her human hand into talons and contemplated how easy it would be.

"I am not the weakling that I was." She said to the empty room, "Neither in mind nor in body, even if I have my barking mad moments."

She looked out the window at the rising sun. All the information she had indicated that the head of the family and his wife were avid readers, it was a redeeming quality in her eyes, and they would often come to the library to drink tea and read first thing in the morning before any other business was done. She made a mental note to take up that habit herself when her life allowed for it, if it ever did.

She snickered a little bit about the notion of free time. "What is the reward of good work?" She asked the empty room.

"More work." She chuckled at the punch line and watched the sun further.

Her hand became that of a human again. She wore a very expensive set of travel clothing under some light armor provided by the Sorcerer King in case she had to fight, it was far and away the best stuff she'd worn in her life, runic enchantments enhancing the toughness of the otherwise very light, wyvern skin armor. Her tunic was made of silk, and mottled in the design of forest shades, and included a hood as part of the shirt. She had no cloak as she needed little to no protection from the elements anymore and had no intention of hiding her identity now.

Just as the sun had come a quarter way up on the horizon, the door handle turned and clicked, then in walked the lord and lady of the manor. They were an older couple with graying hair and wrinkled skin, though the skin itself was light, indicating that they were not exactly the outdoor types. At the moment, they were dressed in nothing but night clothes with robes over them as the servants would be drawing baths and preparing meals for them, including their regularly scheduled tea. When they saw Vanysa sitting in the chair against a bookshelf looking for all the world as if she had every right to be there, they froze.

Vanysa took a sip of wine and gestured for them to enter. "Come in." She said politely, as if she were inviting them into her room instead of inviting them in to their own.

"Don't call for anyone, they'll die if you do." She said, fixing them with her storm grey eyes. "Come in, sit down, and have a listen to what I have to say, and have a look at what I have to show you." Vanysa's voice was cold and threatening, but it was at odds with her smiling, friendly face. The difference between tone and appearance was… unsettling. The older couple didn't move.

"You can sit by choice, or I can make you. Close the door, and sit down, I have ample desire to hurt you, but if I can avoid it, I am not going to." She said, further unsettling them with the sweet voice that expressed the desire to rob them of life, and the willingness to not do so.

The head of the family acted, he gestured to a chair for his wife, then slowly closed the library door.

"Lock it." She said.

The lock was clicked into place, he then slowly seated himself.

"I suppose I should be polite enough to introduce myself." Vanysa said. "My name is Vanysa, and your son ruined my life when I barely had enough of a life left to ruin." She said bluntly. The couple looked at one another.

"He wanted something from me as he pursued the throne, that I wasn't willing to give. To try to force me, he beat me, tortured me, humiliated and degraded me, I won't go through everything he did, but the important thing is that as much as he ruined my life, he failed to get what he wanted. I killed myself." Vanysa said with ice in her voice.

Their eyes said they didn't believe her.

"Oh, it is quite true, but see, I got better. My master recovered my body, he… changed me." She said with a sadistic smile. "When your son got me, I was weak, powerless, I was nothing, as he put it, doomed to die in a gutter. As nobles, I assume you instilled that kind of thinking into him." Astraka's father was about to speak, Vanysa held up a finger, "No, wait, I don't need an explanation for that, whether you taught him that or not makes no real difference." She said patiently.

Disbelief was still in their eyes, but there was a shadow of fear that she loved. There wasn't a terrible amount of guilt coming off the couple, it almost disappointed her.

"I suppose a demonstration of the… change, would be helpful?" She asked.

Their expressions, wide eyed and doubtful, said that it would.

"Fine, but if you scream I will silence you." She said, "Understood?"

They nodded and closed their lips tightly.

Her wings popped out of her back, all the clothing and armor his majesty provided her included two 'wing slits' for them to pop out and allow her to turn.

She stood, her wings emerged, her skin was gold, her horns were hard, her talons sharp, her fangs bared, and her eyes flashed like lightning in storm clouds, she held her arms open to let them behold her new glory. "As I said, I got better." She voiced in a bland sort of tone. Mute shock was on their faces, and her wings withdrew, and she reseated herself.

"Now that all that is out of the way, I have some news for you." She said. They listened.

"Hoburns has fallen to Queen Calca, she sits on the throne again, the siege of Prart will be ending soon, and then you'll have thousands upon thousands of soldiers marching south who are very, very angry with the lot of you. In sum, your entire family is under a death sentence."

They paled. "You don't have a chance in hell anymore. If I wanted to, I could start to cut throats and wipe out Astraka's entire line in a matter of a day or two, and I'd probably get a substantial reward for it. However, I'm going to present a chance for you to save your house."

"How?" Astraka's father asked numbly.

Vanysa reached into her satchel and removed a document, she handed it over to him. He read it, then handed it to his wife.

"So we join her side, and our line endures?" He asked.

Vanysa nodded sharply. "Precisely, however there is one additional condition that applies only to your family and all its branches, as the most senior member, you and you alone can carry it out."

"Yes?" He asked, having a distinct notion of what it was.

"Disown Astraka, from every tie to his household. He is a traitor anyway, if your house had real integrity it would have been the first thing you did, but you chose to at least tacitly support him when it seemed advantageous. The Queen will never trust you, but she'll let your family continue to exist with its noble title intact. No noose, no headsman's ax, no…" she paused and 'turned' her hand into talons, "time alone with me."

"You want me to abandon my son?" He asked in a hushed voice.

"It is that or everybody dies, refuse, and I'll tear out your throats where you sit, then I'll take your heads, and I'll visit every single manor of your branch families and take their heads too, then I'll dump all those heads at your son's feet, and his life will end anyway. There is no saving it, he cast the die and it came up with Skana's eye." She said calmly, using a turn of phrase she'd heard for rolling a 'one' from soldiers who enjoyed gambling with games of dice.

"Is there no other option?" Astraka's father asked sadly, "He's still our son." His wife clasped his hand.

Vanysa's eyes held no mercy. "After what he did to me, no, nothing. He sealed his own fate, he made his own choices, and now it will be seen through to the end."

"Please… something… anything…" Astraka's mother whimpered.

Vanysa stared at her long and hard.

"That was what I sounded like, when I was begging him to just kill me, when I was crying for my master to save me, when I just wanted the pain to stop and was asking for anything, and I got nothing but more pain." Hate poured out of her lips like burning acid, and his mother looked down.

"He's my son." She whispered.

"He was my torturer, now he is my prey. Either you sign the document disowning him and save your nieces, nephews, and cousins, and switch sides over to Queen Calca, or I start killing." Vanysa said. She removed a document and slapped it down on the end table next to Astraka's father.

"Please, don't do this." He said.

"I asked the same of your son." Vanysa said. "I asked the same of the jailer he left me with." They sought mercy with a desperate gaze into the demoness's hate filled eyes.

"You have three seconds to sign it, or your entire family will be exterminated as traitors to the crown." She said, her wings came out her back again, and the demoness stood before them with talons clicking.

"Please… anything, some small bone, our son, whatever he did, I'm sorry, but if he ever showed you any hint of decency, any kind of mercy, please, offer some small token to us, even if he has to die, let us have something so that we don't go into the ground with nothing but ash in place of our hearts... please, in the name of your mother and father, in the name of your master's mercy and kindness to you… anything…" They stumbled over their words quickly as she walked over to them with talons reaching out to end their lives as they failed to obey, but then she paused just before the deed was done.

"Alright, it is true, whatever he did to me… there was one thing he did not do. He did not rape me, and he promised not to actively permit anyone else to either, and… he did let me make a few sandwiches… too, I remember my mother's fear for me, and my master's kindness in what he did for me, very well, I will promise three things to you." Vanysa said calmly.

"The first is that his suffering will not last forever, though I have the means to ensure it does, his life will end, and his suffering with it. Two, I will have him buried next to you when the time comes. Three, the pain he chose not to inflict on me, I will not inflict on him. There was precious little he didn't do to ruin me, but that little he held back from, I will hold back as well. Do not ask me for more, this is your final opportunity." Vanysa's voice carried iron in it, there was no question that they could get naught else from her.

"Alright… alright, just spare the rest, I warned him about this, but…" He shook his head, took up the quill, and signed it, then he took a copy of the family tree from off the wall, and blotted out Astraka's name. He then signed the first document and handed it to his wife, who wept as she signed it in turn.

"You can save your children from many things in this world," Vanysa said, "but one thing that you usually can't protect them against is the consequences of their actions, and these are his. You can go ahead and start mourning him now." She said as she watched the family seal get affixed to the document that disowned Astraka.

"You can start to mourn him now, he is already dead." Vanysa repeated as she picked up the documents and put them in her satchel, "I'll see myself out. But know this, if you ever consider some form of uprising or revenge against anyone over this, if I even suspect you have, I will ensure your house is wiped from history, that it is torn up root and branch, that your homes are turned to ashes and any record that any of you ever existed at all, is purged from history so that not even the memory survives. Do not doubt that I have the power to do it, ironically enough, in a twisted way, it is because of your son that I do." Vanysa said, and unleashed a wave of killing intent on the pair that ensured her words were driven home, before cutting it off entirely.

"What… are you?" Astraka's father asked in mute horror.

As she turned herself back into the beautiful golden haired girl, she looked back over her shoulder at him and answered. "I am the fruit of evil, born from the misdeeds of your son, and others like him. Whether he likes it or not, whether you like it or not, the world you know is changing. Tell the rest of your family, that nobles that act like rabid wolves, will be purged." She held up a forearm and 'turned' it, baring talons, and smiled back at them, baring fangs, but most disturbing of all were the gray eyes that were wide with madness. "Or don't," She said, "Ah'll be happy ta see em!" She laughed insanely, then restored herself to the semblance of normalcy, and walked the rest of the way out of the room, shutting the door behind her and, leaving them alone to mourn in peace.