God Rising: The Cult of Ainz
Written by: AtheistBasementDragon
Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots
AN: Saved enough in the pat-reon to buy the equipment I need to start turning God Rising into an audiobook. All future contributions there will go to paying for illustrations for turning it into a free illustrated E-book. Equipment will be ordered next week and I'll get started producing audio readings then. I may do it in a You Toob format as well, so if you want to submit fan art to transition across that, send it in or post it to my discord.
God Rising: The Cult of Ainz
Written by: AtheistBasementDragon
Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots
...Southern Holy Kingdom...
The still of the forest on either side of the road was broken by the stamping of thousands of feet and the thundering hooves of countless horses. This was for the best, as were it not for the sounds of the vengeful host, they would be listening to the sounds of birds tearing apart the hanging dead. The 'fruit trees' were a gruesome reminder of the brutality leading to the fourth and final Battle of Prart. If Neia noticed or cared, she gave no sign. She rode with her eyes fixed firmly ahead. Skana rode beside her uncomfortably at her right hand, while CZ rode at Neia's left hand.
Skana found it hard to look at her wife, so she looked away, the rage on Neia's face was clear and obvious. Behind them marched tens of thousands of angry veterans. A long, long line of soldiers snaked over the road, undead, humans, elves, orcs, and a handful of other races.
The silence, save for the pounding feet and the noise of horses or armor, was making Skana's discomfort worse by the hour. She shifted on her horse and made a point of looking away as if to check the terrain.
"Something wrong?" Neia asked without averting her gaze.
"No." Skana said sharply.
"Skana?" Neia asked firmly, her gaze still on the path.
"No. How long till we get there?" Skana asked as if to cover her discomfort.
"We made them drag out their march for some time by constant raids and barriers, we're not dealing with that, so if we do repeated forced marches, a few days." Neia replied.
"Repeated forced marches?" Skana asked in disbelief.
"Yes. We sleep, we march, repeat until Wenmark seems like a tourist destination compared to Yanana." Neia replied patiently.
"They can't handle that." She hissed softly.
"They will handle that." Neia replied dismissively.
"They can't." Skana replied.
"They will." Neia retorted firmly, clenching her fists tight around the reins of her horse and gritting her teeth.
"Neia, what's going on? Skana asked gently.
"A lot of things, but for now just this is all I'm worried about." Neia replied calmly as she watched the road vanish beneath her mount.
The breeze blew lightly and with a gentle chill that was only going to get worse, but it did not appear to bother Neia. Neia's face might as well have been etched out of stone. The cool wind whipped lightly at their cloaks, but it was not the reason Skana shuddered. 'She is not. Look closer.' The words of CZ Delta echoed in her mind, when the subject of Neia's wellbeing had come up before the conclusion of the siege.
'It'll be fine, she's just agitated because of this news about Calca, we get her through this, and she'll be herself again.' Skana told herself, and she repeated that statement every time a hint of doubt crept into her mind. A look at her from CZ said that the maid demon had her own thoughts on the matter. Yet despite this, Skana held fast to her hope for a return to calm and comfort in the mind of her wife.
The first opposition came on the second morning. The trio rode again at the head of the column when the screaming fanatics came out of the woods. They held swords and axes, and from the trees a dozen arrows launched into the advancing ranks. CZ batted several arrows clean out of the air with minimal effort, protecting Neia, who was already on the attack at the first sign of motion, her bow came out and she sent several arrows back along the flight paths of those that had been launched at her, this was quickly followed by several loud shots from CZ's spellgun, and screams echoed from the woods. Those who came on screaming for melee combat, Skana charged ahead to face, kicking her mount into a full gallop, followed fast by others on their own undead mounts like hers. She jumped from the undead horse sending her sword out in a deadly arc that decapitated two men before she landed, spun on her heel, and let the momentum carry the tip of her sword into the chest of a third, penetrating his heart.
A banshee-like scream of bloodlust in their throats was echoed by thunder from the soldiers at their backs and the fight was joined in earnest before the rest of the army truly knew what was happening. Neia was quick to bark her orders, "Column one! fifty meter sweep, left flank! Column four, fifty meter sweep, right flank! Column two and three, road security!" She put power into her voice that echoed to the standard bearers who gave their signals all along the line of march. In this the training of Nazarick and Ashurbanipal demonstrated its superiority again over the more crude maneuvers of the other nations as soldiers acting in step moved as a single organism. Then the hundred hit the massed ranks of the initial strike.
Chaos ensued as swords rose and fell, undead horses fought with hooves and bites, and did not fall or flee from pain. While the hundred swept around the attackers like water flowing around a rock in its downward path, the maneuverability and flexibility, combined with the constant rain of arrows, quickly began to take a toll.
However, it was during this time, after killing her fourth victim, that Neia noticed something different. Embedded among these numbers were a few uniquely dressed figures in brown cloaks who fought with exceptional skill. One she saw kick off the thigh of one of the hundred and use the momentum to slam a mailed fist into the face of another before bringing his sword up to finish both. He might have slain them had Neia not put an arrow into his neck when she did.
She got angry. 'Theocracy... they have to be theocracy... a scripture... Scriptures took Skana's eye, scriptures killed Gustav... the only paladin to treat me well... pay... they have to pay, they have to pay, they have to pay, they have to pay, they have to pay...' The thought ran through her mind on a loop and her eyes went black enough that night itself would crave the dawn. She went from her position somewhat removed from the thick of the conflict, to the midst of it almost before she realized what she was doing.
"I will have your heads!" She shouted in a voice that thrummed with rage and quailed the hearts of brave warriors, who faltered in the face of the daughter of the undead. Death's child could not contain herself as fury took form. Blood splashed to her face and soaked her hair as she ran her sword clean through the neck of a brown cloaked fighter. [Endurance of Unlife], [Death's Grip], [Speed of Death], she activated three of her unique martial arts and her body moved as light as a feather blown in a storm, and fast as an arrow loosed from a fully drawn bow.
Skana watched with horror and awe as her wife became the incarnation of an unhinged nightmare. "CZ! Catch her!" She shouted and pointed her sword at the back of Neia Baraja. "I'll handle things here!" Skana felt her voice crack with fear, but the urgency was not lost on the maid demon who began to pop off shots that turned heads to red mist as Neia, followed by several other Black Justice elites began to tear into the center.
Vargas couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was supposed to be so simple. Ambush the column at the head, everybody knew Neia Baraja was always at the head of a marching column, so was CZ Delta and so was Skana the Bold. Kill those three and the army should fall into chaos. A simple guerilla attack from a prepared position with some skilled southern soldiers and a core of his fellow Holocaust Scripture bretheren, and the heretic would die, perhaps even her faith with her.
But as he learned with grim certainty as he'd seen CZ bat away arrows and Neia send back arrows of her own, no battle plan survives contact with the enemy. 'Damn it all, this was supposed to be so much easier!' He thought. His hope was briefly renewed when the general took the initiative to charge the center on her own with only her two elites accompanying her, only to find before his eyes just how they had built up their reputation. 'It wasn't supposed to go this way!' He shouted in his head as he found that Neia Baraja had come within a few feet of himself, he heard her activate several unknown martial arts, and then her black eyes fell on him. Vargas was no coward, but this was a new kind of fear.
He had a moment for memory, and he remembered the day he became a Holocaust scipture member, how proud he'd been of his elite status. He remembered the day he'd been given the order to go advance the campaign against the Elf Kingdom, and how proud he'd been at the way he and his compatriots had turned the situation around there. He thought of how proud he was the day he'd been given the mission to join with the forces here and advance the cause of the gods.
Lastly he thought of the previous night, making love to one of the women of the army, her warm embrace, she kind of liked him, he promised that when he came back after killing the heretic general, he'd bring her a lock of Neia's hair as a trophy. Now the target was within three longsword's reach from him, and he met her eyes.
Pride was a memory. Hope was a memory. Training took over and he attacked, only to find that his wrist was in her grip as he raised his sword and tried to bring it down as soon as he'd gotten in reach. She squeezed, he screamed. "I see you." She hissed through clenched teeth. The thrumming terrible voice told the story of his end, the eyes engulfed him as if to swallow his very soul as his wrist became powder in her hand and sword fell from nerveless fingers. Her own blade pushed up into his ribs and came out his back. Then he fell and saw her step past his dying body to kill another of his comrades. As the light fled from his eyes, as if she herself were feeding from it, all his next thought was, 'Why did I think this was going to be easy?' Then he thought about the girl he'd been with so recently, her smile, then it all faded to black, and Vargas thought no more.
It was all over in a few minutes. A few sought to flee when at last their will broke. Neia snatched her bow from off her back again and sent the remainder of her arrows into the backs of those she could. Skana looked on at the cold and calculated action, then down at the red-soaked sword in her hand and shook her head. She wiped it clean and sheathed it before approaching the place where Neia and CZ were standing amidst a group of corpses.
"Find me a living brown cloak! Search the bodies for any intelligence and have it brought to me immediately! Send word to Prart for a retrieval group to come and collect the dead." Neia shouted out her orders as she stowed her bow and cleaned her sword. The shout of victory came shortly after, and the signals went out for the ranks to reform and resume the march.
As Skana came close they clasped hands and embraced. "I'm glad you're alright." Skana said happily as they looked at one another's bloodstained faces.
"The same." Neia said, the black already fading from her eyes as she returned to herself, much to Skana's relief. She sighed with relief as she saw her Neia return to form.
"What happened to you out here?" Skana asked cautiously as she reached out and began to wipe the blood from Neia's cheeks.
"The brown cloaks, they have to be scripture members, the way they fight, the way they move, the unnatural skill..." Neia cupped her wife's face in both bloody hands and, trembling, she whispered, "Scriptures killed the only kind paladin I ever met. Scriptures took your eye, they almost stole you from me before I knew to love you... they came here to kill you, this wasn't to destroy the army, this was an assassination attempt... if anything had happened to you... I couldn't, I couldn't bear it. When I realized what they were... I just... I had to kill them, I had to kill them all." Neia's voice trembled, as did her lower lip, and Skana put her hands on Neia's hips and drew her close into an embrace around the corpses they had made.
"I'm alright, I think everybody is alright. Besides, I don't mind the missing eye, it's a good look for me. Like a pirate out of those silly books." She winked with her good one and whispered 'Arrr!' Neia laughed, and Skana smiled at that.
"Plus, if they hadn't taken the eye, then I might never have been able to drag you to the tent in the first place, the way I see it, I owe the scriptures a favor." She grinned widely and swatted Neia on the butt teasingly, Neia jumped a little and stepped back.
"Fine, but not too much of a favor. Like 'quick death' favor." Neia said emphatically.
"Of course." Skana said, "Assuming they cooperate." She added.
"Speaking of." CZ said as she approached while dragging a sandy haired man along the ground by his ankle before throwing him at their feet.
Neia looked down at the brown cloak. She smiled again, but it was not a beautiful smile, it was terrible. He tried to rise, and managed to get up to his knees before Neia's knee connected to his temple. There was a grim crunch as he fell backwards.
Skana took out her sword and, as much for his protection as for theirs, she put the tip to his throat as his eyes slowly regained focus.
CZ's spellgun was put to his temple for good measure. The stench of death around them made focus on his own mortality much, much easier as he regained his sense of awareness.
"Hi. You know, if you'd wanted to meet with me, I'd have been happy to have you for tea." Neia said sarcastically. He was looking around as he came back to himself, but her voice brought his eyes to her face.
"The heretic... gods preserve me." He whispered.
"They won't, we know they won't, because they didn't preserve 'us' remember?" Neia asked mercilessly. "Yes, I'm your 'heretic' and 'you' are my prisoner. As luck would have it, I don't like killing prisoners, I like questioning them."
"I won't say a thing." He answered, his pride warring with a fear that he'd forgotten he was capable of, but which was now clearly expressed by the slight quavering in his voice.
Neia's retort was cold as ice and her eyes looked down at the captured scripture member with the utmost loathing and contempt. "Yes, you will, either to me or to my god, I 'will' send you to face my god or those servants of his who can extract every ounce of knowledge from your skull, one way or another."
"No." He replied, trying to sound resolute and not doing very well at it.
"I want to know how many more of you there are, and if there are any other positions ahead like yours. How many survivors there are, and..." She started to say, and the prisoner looked up at her and tried to spit at her face, he failed, the arc went up and landed on the top of her boot near the toe.
She froze in mid sentence, she looked down at the spit, then looked at his face, and she laughed. "When I did that to Dominic, I was on my feet, and I got him on the cheek. If we weren't enemies, I'd praise you, as it is..." Neia shrugged and gave a look to CZ. She understood that look and a few moments later a whorling gate opened in the air.
"CZ, please throw him through that, let them question him in Nazarick. If there's anything left of him after that, then I guess it doesn't matter if he goes free at the end of the war or not." Neia said sweetly and stepped back.
As CZ reached down to grab him by the hair Neia added, "I hope you haven't been responsible for any of the atrocities we've seen or heard about in the last few years, otherwise your existence will be what you wish you had the power to inflict, and you'll beg to die and be denied that precious luxury." Neia waved with just her fingers as a resolute face twisted in pain before being thrown through the gate with a cry that was immediately cut off.
"Thanks for the help." Neia said to the pair, then walked back to the waiting undead horse and mounted it again. The ranks of her army had begun to reform as a handful of volunteers sorted through the dead looking for any bodies of import or any correspondence or other information there might be.
"Always yours without ever asking, my love." Skana said as she strode to her own horse and remounted it as well.
"My job, and my friend." CZ said in her customary monotone as she did the same.
As they got the column moving again, Skana decided not to let the silence rule again. "What do you think our casualties are going to turn out to have been?" She asked thoughtfully.
"Minimal. If those were who I think they were, they were relying heavily on the element of surprise, but this is our country and we've been here before, there was very little chance of that. I'm guessing they thought they could kill us before the rest of the army could respond, and the rest were just to be sure they got the chance still if the first strike failed. Sensible in other conditions, but a bad idea on this one." Neia answered.
"What should they have done?" Skana asked thoughtfully.
Neia stroked her chin and thought it over, it was a comfortable silence as she thought it over. "Strike the rear with a sizable force, use a small one on either side of the road then a surgical strike here when we turn to go deal with that. I'd have chosen a faux envelopment."
"Why?" CZ asked, only the slight variation in her flat voice told Neia that she was curious.
"Individually our soldiers are considerably better, with the exception of their scriptures. Plus our morale is running high after our victories. This failed because they underestimated the strength of our lead element and were counting on surprise with a temporary local superiority." Neia casually broke down the failures of the assassination attempt in a clinical sort of way, and it left Skana with an abiding sense of relief to hear her do so in such a professional manner.
'Good.' She thought, 'If she can still think of things this way, she's fine.' Skana told herself with relief. Her eyes sparkled as she listened, but as she did, she thought of the black eyed wrath, the murderous bloodlust and she interrupted.
"Neia, I want you to stay back from the next battle." Skana suddenly said, stopping Neia's breakdown in mid-sentence.
"Back... like back to Prart?" Neia asked with disbelief at what she thought she'd just heard.
"No, not that far, I mean just back from the front line." Skana said placatingly. "You're the commanding general, you shouldn't be here, you should be staying back and giving orders."
An oppressive sense of anger began to build from where Neia sat on the center horse. Neia did not say a word, but that her temper was steadily rising, was evident with even just the smallest shift and tension.
"Neia." Skana prompted.
"Why?" Neia asked calmly. "Do you not trust me, wife?"
"With my life, I do." Skana said with the surest affection.
"Then explain." Neia kept her voice calm and clipped, but every word was like a chip of ice broken from a larger whole.
"You've become prone to taking risks that you shouldn't, you're the commander, and you're relying on your skills to carry you safely though, or on CZ or I or the hundred to watch your back. I understand you want to lead from the front, it's what you've always done, it is what made me fall in love with you, but a part of yourself is getting lost out there. And also, speaking as your Vice Commander... General... you're making finding you profoundly predictable." Skana laid out her reasons calmly, but could not restrain herself at the end when she added, in imitation of the voice of a Theocracy commander, 'Let's target Neia, bring down the command and we'll win.' then imitating his subordinate, 'Uh sir where will we find her?' then back to the commander again in a voice strongly imitative of a thick headed moron, 'Where we always find her, front and center.' Skana finished her little three line performance and looked hard at her commander. "That's how easy it is, and your death would hurt the cause badly. So in the next battle, I want you to stay back."
Neia was still and looking ahead, the edge was gone from her anger, but before she could speak, CZ interjected herself, "She is right. You will stay back."
Neia snapped her head over to CZ and looked at her in surprise. "You too, CZ?" She sighed heavily and slumped slightly on her undead horse. "Fine, I guess it is a bit predictable."
"Just a bit." Skana said sarcastically while in her mind all she could do was exhale a deep sigh of relief that Neia had responded to the professional critique.
"Think we'll see more of these ambush and assassination attempts before we reach Yanana?" Neia asked as she scanned the line of march ahead.
"I doubt it, they don't have the manpower to waste, and expect us to be on our guard after the first one. They can't do what we did to them, we had the villages support, they don't, anyone they try to send out will start getting ambushed by vengeful peasants and militia very quickly." Skana replied, then let a twisted grin form on her face. "Be nice if they tried, it would make this easier."
"Agreed." CZ added shortly.
...Crossroads...
When Rascal returned to the warrens there was a new guard on shift, also something of a meat headed look, bald, muscles aplenty, but a little better armed, bearing a short sword instead of a truncheon. "Here to see Kirak."
The thug looked at him for a long moment, sizing him up, then nodded. "Fine." He grunted out and stepped aside, knocking on the door. "Let'm in."
The door opened and Rascal walked straight to the back without issue.
He was pulling out the letter before he even got to the back. He held it in his left hand and shook Kirak's hand with his right, firm grip still as it had been on first meeting, they met each other's eyes and Rascal held out the promised letter. "As I said, here it is, signed by the whole... squad I guess we are."
"Fantastic." Kirak replied, "I'll make sure all your companions have honest work, but not long hours, also if anyone 'new' shows up or 'special' shows up in the prisons, I'll make sure they're handled."
"No leaks." Rascal said firmly.
"Needs of the many, got it." Kirak confirmed.
Shanda wrapped her arms around Rascal's waist from behind as she approached and leaned in to whisper, "If you've got many needs, I'm sure I can handle them." She whispered in her dusky voice that had driven many a faithful husband into faltering.
Rascal however, only rolled his eyes. "I just gave the letter to Kirak, we're set."
"Great. Here's my first piece of help." She said sweetly and trailed her fingers long his torso, up to his shoulder, and down his arm, all the way to the tips of his fingers as she moved to face him from the front. "One of my girls tells me that they're aware of your 'escape' at least most of you. The one drunk was misidentified, and I gather the dead girl was your work?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
"It was." Rascal confessed.
Shanda frowned at him.
"This is a war, we're behind enemy lines, you know how this goes, Shanda." Rascal said unhappily and folded his arms in front of his chest defiantly.
She blinked first, "I know, doesn't mean I like it."
"Doesn't mean I do either." Rascal reminded her.
"Well in any case," she said as she moved on, "that one wasn't connected to you, they think one is dead, but they're sure there are six of you out there still."
"I guess it was too much to hope for that we go completely undetected this whole time." Rascal replied, "Thank you for the information at least." Rascal rubbed his temple unhappily.
"On that note, Kirak do you think you could get us some weapons, good ones? Nothing that stands out too much, but something better than iron daggers?"
"Short swords and chainmail do?" Kirak asked smugly then added. "Military grade."
"Fantastic." Rascal grinned, "You're a lifesaver."
"Nah, I'm a life taker, but you're an exception." Kirak replied with a grim chuckle.
"Good enough for me, listen, they... my people, they want to meet with you. Do you think you'd be OK with that?" Rascal asked a little more dubiously.
Shanda and Kirak traded a look. "Yes, but I'd rather not do it here. I have another place, two blocks over, same street, little faded sign with a horseshoe over it. Upper floor. Have them meet me there tomorrow." Kirak replied, "I'll have some weapons and armor ready for you upon arrival, and you can store it there during your operations, nobody will bother it, I promise you."
"Great. We'll see you tomorrow then." Rascal replied.
Mananak found Petyr easily enough. The smith had taken to working at a young boy's smithy whose father was at the wall, work he'd found himself conveniently enough. He approached the stall and, true to form there was the beefy smith pounding hammer over metal while humming joyfully to himself. Wanting to appear casual, Mananak approached with a wave and asked, "Watcha workin on there?"
Petyr grinned, "Sword, or it will be when I'm done if that lazy lad would keep the fire hot!" He yelled in jest over his shoulder, and a freckle-faced boy turned beet red.
"I got it!" The boy said in his cracked voice.
Petyr laughed and hefted the hammer over his shoulder. "What brings you here today, you need somethin, neighbor?"
"Just hoping you had something capable of maybe... hurting a dragon?" He asked in passing. Petyr's eyes narrowed. Mananak started scratching at his arm, "Don't mind my scratching, got stung by a scorpion earlier. So... do you have... anything?"
Petyr shook his head as the meaning of Mananak's words sank in. "I'll look into it. But for now, I can't help you."
"Thanks anyway." Mananak said, "I should get going."
As Mananak departed Petyr slung his hammer over his shoulder, "Hey 'boss'" he said sarcastically, prompting the boy to blush at the senior's bestowing of a title, "I'm wrapping up here, you can handle the shutdown right? Easy as wipin yer ass id'n it?" He asked gruffly.
"S-Sure thing, thanks again Petyr! Couldn't do it 'thout you!" Cormeum replied with a half smile on his face.
"Yer damn right, I'll come by for my pay tomorrow." Petyr replied with a semi-smug look on his face before he set the hammer down and walked off back to the inn.
Mananak was quick to move on to his next volunteer position. He didn't much mind the boulders that occasionally came sailing over the wall. He looked up at the sky as a shadow swept over his body. "Big one." He said casually as it went past. "Amazing what you get used to." He shrugged as it smashed into the street not but a quarter bowshot in front of him.
He reached the place where the stone landed and touched it gingerly. "Close one?" A passerby asked him.
Mananak shook his head, "Not really, shadow overhead. Quite a sight though." Beside him stood a man in chainmail armor with a bow on his back and a short sword at his side. 'Archer.' Mananak thought immediately.
"No kidding, I've seen lots of those when up on the wall, but their general out there doesn't seem interested in coming up to play, it's like they expect we'll give in because we lost one measly fight." He snorted.
Mananak chuckled. "Yeah, crazy, right?" He asked.
"Right. I mean we butchered that army of tens of thousands just recently, sure we lost one fight, but so did they." the Archer said proudly, "We'll break that heretic bitch and her monster army and send them scurrying back over the border before the moon's cycle ends." He said brashly.
'Oh, so that's how they've been selling our little diversion, my suicide mission has been sold as some grand Theocracy victory. Oh, that is funny." Mananak almost laughed, but he kept it to a broad grin that matched that of the soldier speaking to him.
"Everybody who deserves punishment, will get it in time." Mananak said as he patted the boulder confidently.
"Yes, they will." The archer replied.
"Off to work for me, may the god keep you." Mananak replied and started to walk away.
The archer was two steps away when he turned around.
"What did you say?" He asked curiously and cautiously.
Mananak froze. "Nothing, excuse me, I've got to get going."
"No, I think you need to come with me." The archer replied as he reached for his sword and took it by the hilt.
"What for?" Mananak started to panic, his eyes darted around.
"Just don't resist. Come along quietly and you won't get hurt." The soldier's voice was tense, the sword was slowly coming out of it's leather sheath.
Mananak turned on his heel and took off running as fast as he could. The archer started to chase him. "Stop! Stop!" He shouted.
"Does anyone ever do that?" Mananak laughed with bitter irony as his legs and arms pumped hard, he ran and ran, people saw him running down the street, but it wasn't until they saw he was being pursued by one of their soldiers that anyone did anything.
"Stop him!" The archer shouted, an arrow sailed past Mananak's body and clattered off the side of a building.
'Shit, he's serious, lousy shot, even for being on the run, must have put up his sword, goddamnit! Sloppy, very sloppy!" Mananak thought as he took off down an alley as a group of citizens tried to interfere and tackle him.
He pulled down barrels and stacked crates in the filthy alley, slowing down his pursuers. Water from the last rain formed puddles in the shelter of the shadows and in the unrepaired and neglected alley, he splashed through them, sending echoes off the walls.
He looked behind him, he'd slowed them down some, a few more twists and turns, he ducked around a corner as fast as he could, only to find himself landing flat on his back at a sudden impact.
He had only an instant to realize what he'd crashed into. An enormous man in platemail armor. "Ah shit." He said and tried to get up. "Sorry, being chased by some thugs, could use some help!" He said as he breathed hard and put as much fear into his voice as he could manage.
The sound of running feet lent credence to his claim and the armored man… and the bevy of similarly armored companions lowered halberds. "Wait here." The behemoth of a man said in a deep command voice.
"But…" Before Mananak could complete that sentence the first of his pursuers came into view.
"Get on your knees or your heads will roll." The behemoth said sharply.
Mananak had just enough time to look smug when, to his surprise, the archer emerged.
'OK, their soldiers are more physically fit than I expected, thought he'd be much farther behind.' Mananak thought.
"Take him!" The archer snapped out, "He's a spy."
The sight of a theocracy soldier emerging from the alley was a surprise, but the behemoth was clearly no fool.
"The thing is…" Mananak started to say, just before he was tackled to the ground by four soldiers. A blow to the back of his head, and it was done, he was unconscious before he could complete his protest or even shout.
-End chapter-
AN: Yeah I know, you want to say it is short, it's almost 20 pages at font size 12, be happy. I know, it has also been about 20 days, but I 'remind' you that I pumped out 100,000 words in sixty days to complete 'Blood in the Streets' plus pumped out a Halloween Special with 'The Telltale Spot' started and finished 'The Undiscovered Country' a 14,000 word story, released 'The War Game' and 'The Birthday Party' as well as the first chapters of 'Tales out of Crossroads' and 'Acting in Good Faith', and both started and finished 'A Heart for a King' at just shy of 49,000 words. Between all of that AND what I released of God Rising, I've pumped out almost 200,000 words in the last 60 days even without considering that I have started my own original work. I 'realize' you're used to me pumping out daily chapters and all… but it's not 'my fault' if you're not reading what I happen to release, or you're not visiting the discord for the exclusives I reward those visitors with, or you're not reading what is on my pat-reon. :) I can only do so much. Now I'm back down to just '3' stories to do. God Rising, Acting in Good Faith, and Scales of Trust, all of which will have chapters out over the next few days.
So if you're going to complain about 'short chapters' or tell me to kill myself 'again' or complain that I 'should have spent that time on God Rising' well… save it. It's still one of the fastest release schedules on the entirety of FFN for what is now one of the ten longest single continuous fanfiction stories in the world with more total material than the original author completed, at over ten times the speed. Pop a ritalin or an adderall and be patient. :)
Also...I was going to do chapter 138 today and do a double release, but had an emergency vet appointment and had to put one of my dogs to sleep so… that's pretty much out now. I'll write tomorrow.