AN: Well, we're getting closer to the END of God Rising, for 'once' I think my remaining chapter estimate is right, and there are fewer than 50 chapters to go. All the side stories will be finished, and the largest Overlord Fanfiction Universe will end at roughly 2.5 million words, making it one of the longest fanfictions in the world. Let me tell you, this story has been an overwhelming joy to write, and every chapter going forward, will bring with it a little twinge of sadness because it brings me a little closer to the final curtain. That said, I will be slowing down my release schedule a bit to spend more time on revisions and improve the final product along the way.
But even ending this series, well it won't be completely over yet... I'll be doing audio readings of the chapters and putting them on YouTube as well as compiling readings for an audiobook (the equipment is on the way) I'll be getting illustrations done for a free ebook that compiles the entire thing into one pdf. And I've had two different parties tell me they're interested in getting the story animated. There's still a lot to do, but if you'd like to know more, stop by my discord (invite code is on my author page). Till the next chapter... which you'll get... 100 reviews from now, this is ABD saying... READ ON! :)
...Crescent Lake...
The scriptures were unique among the human nations. Unique because of their collective power, unique because of their record of success against nonhumans, unique because of their raw fanaticism. This was true of all save one. The Black Scripture. Elites among elites, not only did they not officially exist, they were chosen for one reason. Power. Anything else was secondary at best. This included loyalty to the Theocracy. Zesshi, the oldest of the Black Scripture members, typified them all in that she had her own ideas and desires, and cared little for their beliefs or goals otherwise. Loyalty was conditional. As far as she was concerned, they'd broken faith with her, so she had no reason to stay loyal to them. This was why she wondered as she looked at her comrades, 'So, what will it be?'
"Ah, man..." The Captain said and slammed the butt of his spear into the dirt, he rubbed his forehead, closed his eyes, and shook his head. "Damn it, Raymond! You really made this difficult."
"Difficult how?" Thirg spoke up as the rest of the black looked similarly conflicted.
"And you are... who, exactly?" Time Turbulence asked in his almost childish voice. He turned up his nose arrogantly, though given his short height, it was also necessary to see up into Thirg's face. He drew his clock spiral painted rapier and tapped the tip impatiently in the dirt. "I don't know you."
"Because you never read the things I send you." The Captain said, in a long suffering tone. Time Turbulence blushed a little at that. "That, unless I miss my guess, is Thirg Dahn."
"Pleased to meet you." Thirg said with a mocking bow that was low enough to put him at eye level with the diminutive warrior. "Seems to me a pretty simple thing, isn'it? You obey Raymond, presumably you trust him, he's telling you he's taken her side and to believe what she tells you, now you got a choice. Fight your comrade for Dominic, maybe win, go back, and kill or report Raymond. Fight your comrade, lose, and never rise again. Abandon your mission, or... join Zesshi."
That snapped all eyes to him, and then to her. "Go ahead, tell them." Tefl said with a cocky smirk.
"Since I'm... the daughter of that bastard, that makes me royalty here, if I kill him, the Elf Kingdom is technically mine to inherit. I can pull them out of the war, not only with the Sorcerer King, but I can pull them out of the war with the Slane Theocracy, it can 'all' end. All of it, with one swing of my scythe." She looked at them one by one. "You came here because you were ordered by Dominic, but I know you stopped in Kami Miyako, I know you know what's going on there, what's in that letter... is only half of what Dominic has been doing. It's much worse and it goes back years. You tell me, is Dominic serving humanity, the Theocracy, or himself?"
It was an incisive question, an uncomfortable one, one they didn't answer. "Captain, did you know about the deal with the Elf King?" Zesshi probed further.
"The treaty of alliance?" He asked with surprise, "Everybody knows."
"No, what induced him to go along with it." Zesshi's black and white eyes went narrow and focused. She saw ignorance in his blank stare, so she answered her own question, "He was to be authorized the use of any female he wanted. If their army made it through the Abelion Hills, then the Elf King would be raping his way through human women across the Holy Kingdom."
Zesshi's eyes filled with tears of rage. "They wanted more like me! Dominic wanted more like me! Don't you understand! They were supposed to let me kill the one who ruined my life! Instead they throw more people like my mother at him as if we're all just toys!"
She blinked away all signs of emotion and spoke coldly, "Trust Raymond and join me. Abandon Dominic. Our nation was wrong, and you are not the servants of humanity anymore, if you ever were. The Slane Theocracy is already dead, and the only way to save its people is to bring this war to an end as fast as possible. I've been to the home of the Sorcerer King, I faced one of his number in single combat, do you want to know how it ended?" She asked as shock built upon shock on their faces, their mouths open, their eyes wide with disbelief and incomprehension.
Zesshi laughed, "I ended up eating dirt several times and then he threw me in a lake. He, by the way, was just a child. Nor was he anywhere near as powerful as their master, and by the way, that 'master' was in Kami Miyako the day I left. He could have wiped out the entire city if he wished, he can come and go as he pleases, he could simply walk into a city, exterminate it, then go to another city on the other side of the country a minute later. We've lasted this long only because he's been holding back, and he's only holding back because he wants this war to be what unifies his empire. We're not the glorious defenders of humanity... we're a goddamn team building exercise!" She shouted the last words while looking straight at the captain, who knew better than any through his position, how unity was formed through trial.
"You're asking us to disobey orders... to betray humanity, the Theocracy..." One Man Army gasped out in horror.
Tefl laughed so hard she had to grab her stomach. "Not the brightest one of that lot are you?" She asked, and his blonde hair bounced lightly as he turned angry pink eyes on her.
One Man Army kept his calm demeanor and held one hand out with fingers spread. "Explain that laugh before I call out a beast to tear the answer from your tongue."
Tefl waved her hand as if that were a joke and turned her red eyes on him. "I'd welcome you trying, human, but there's no need. She's not asking you to do that at all. Well, except for disobeying orders, that she's asking. But I've seen humans working together with other races. I'm a vampire, but I teach humans how to fight, rather than prey on them. You're not betraying humanity, you're helping it on the only path that ensures its survival and prosperity. And from where I'm sitting, you can side with Dominic or you can side with the population. You want the people to survive, you want the religion of the six gods to survive, you're on the wrong side of the fight. It really doesn't matter to me which choice you make, you can't win now anyway. But... I've been with Zesshi for awhile now and I'd not like to see her have to put down her own unit."
"What do you know?" The muscle-bound half-naked tenth seat grunted out as he tapped the handle of an ax on his shoulder impatiently. "You've been with her what, a few months? We came up with her, we've known her for years!"
"Yet we are here, and you're there." Thirg grunted back out as he picked up his maul.
The Black Scripture members thought that over long and hard, their eyes traveling to their former member and to each other as if searching for answers they could not find. Finally the captain spoke in a very tired voice, "Zesshi, I know this is... unorthodox, given that we were sent to kill you and all but... can you give us a minute to talk this over amongst ourselves?"
Zesshi answered with fire in her eyes as she looked at them long and hard before lowering her guard and stepping back away from them as they started to withdraw. "Fine, we have some hours yet, but remember this, anyone who is 'not' on my side for this, has to die, I won't let anyone go back to Kami Miyako and expose Raymond, this is a do-or-die moment."
"Is that wise?" Thirg asked her when the three were alone.
"Yes, brother, it is. If they all side against her, nothing changes. If they all side with her, a little extra help can't be a bad thing. If they split over it, we either have a little extra help or much weaker opponents." Tefl responded somewhat smugly.
"Never thought I'd see this though, we're tearing ourselves apart." Zesshi said as the sound of heated voices rose from where her former unit spoke in private. She kept her eyes focused on that even though she couldn't see them, goosebumps rose on her skin.
"You think there's a chance you won't have to kill them?" Thirg asked with surprise in his voice.
"I think so, for some at least." Zesshi replied calmly, "The Black is like no other unit, we're chosen for our exceptional strength, we're in a class like no other, and because of that, our seats are most loyal to one another. Besides, Raymond was our leader, and everyone, including me, would walk into the mouth of a Dragon Lord if he said it was necessary. He might have commanded 'all' the scriptures, but it was us that he came from. He bled with them, helped train them, selected them, he's like a father. If there is any unit in the Slane Theocracy that would disobey the order to kill me, it's them."
The voices that had been loud, became shouts, the shouts became calls of martial arts, she could tell that people were taking sides. "I guess they can't agree on what to do." Zesshi said with quiet regret.
"Do we... wait here or...?" Tefl looked somewhat uncomfortable, her eyes going between the sound of fighting and the road leading the rest of the way to the city.
"We wait. I don't know who is on my side and who isn't." Zesshi took up a guard position with her scythe crossed at an angle in front of her body. Thirg hefted his maul for use, and Tefl drew a pair of knives from her pouches.
The fighting intensified as magic started getting hurled around, but it did not last. The shouts began to die down, and she counted the casualties by whose voices she ceased to hear. One by one the Black tore itself apart, until finally only three voices could be heard. Zesshi felt her fingers tense around her weapon, as the first, second, and fourth seats emerged into view again, looking much the worse for wear, bleeding from numerous wounds, bodies shaking from pain, and faces numb with disbelief. Their eyes glassed over and downcast, they barely met one another's eyes, let alone Zesshi's.
"Well, what'll it be?" Zesshi asked as she slid one foot behind her so that she faced them from the side, ready to launch herself in to finish what the others had begun, if that was what it took.
...Neia's Army...
Neia stood with her command staff at her back atop a low, elevated platform of quickly assembled wood. CZ, Skana, Inta and his sister, Lakyus and her Roses, along with some of her other aides responsible for various larger unit groups. In front of her stood her army, arrayed in their tens of thousands. The memory of the destruction of Yanana was still fresh, the screams of the dying, the pleas of the drowning, the prayers unanswered as the flood... her flood, swept them away from life forever. She looked over her shoulder, her wife was smiling at her. Neia swallowed, nodded, and smiled back as her face became a mask.
She turned her gaze back to the assembled host. "The war in the west is won!" She shouted to them all, holding her arms out and open before her as if to embrace her soldiers as her children. The cheers were as thunder, they were as waves crashing upon her, the rock who received them. "There is no further cause for war, as the Theocracy soldiers and the fanatics of Remedios are now completely exterminated, as are those who would host them! The South has learned a lesson it will never forget!" The cheers redoubled. But she bobbed her hands up and down to calm their cheers.
When they quieted down, she spoke further, her voice full of confidence as her words carried to every corner of her army. "However... the war itself still rages in the east. The Slane Theocracy sent their soldiers to snuff you out, to douse out the fire that following the Sorcerer King has lit within you! They would have snuffed out your lives and your inner light as if it were a candle in the dawn. They failed. They failed because they did not see you as 'I' see you, as Her Majesty sees you, as our divine God sees you! You are not a candle in the dawn! You are a torch blazing in the night! A raging flame that will spread to all the world to burn away terror, weakness, and injustice! The Slane Theocracy underestimated you, and scarcely two of their number survived to learn how badly they have erred. So now... now I march east, I go into their heartlands, I go to punish them for their affront to our Queen, to punish them for their oppression! To punish them for their destruction of our villages, our temples, our lives!" Cheers resounded again, and she allowed them to carry on for some time.
When they faded on their own, she continued, "I, however, will not command that you go so far from home. You have done more than anyone could ever ask of you, and I can ask no more." She halted her speech to let her words sink in, she saw confusion on many faces. "Those of you who wish to go home, are free to go. I will bless you all to my dying day, I will thank you all for your service every day until my passing, and you may go if you wish, without shame or loss of honor. Return to Prart and the temples will see you home safely." The confusion on their faces deepened to disbelief, many a mouth was open, many a pair of eyes were wide and staring.
"But if you want... you can follow me still! Follow me into the maw of the dragon, into the heart of darkness, the Slane Theocracy is weakened, and the wounded dog may yet bare its teeth! They will fight to the last, and not all those who follow me will return alive." A 'gate' suddenly appeared at the side of the platform. "The choice, as with all things, is yours, and you will live with it until you face your own end, whether as an elder in your bed many years from now or as a soldier in battle against the Theocracy on the other side of that gate! No matter your choice, even if I go alone, I am proud of you all!"
Neia walked down the small steps of the platform, and her closest aides followed her. Silence ruled over the army, and they watched with mute fascination as she walked to the gate and without even a backward glance or a moment's pause, stepped through it.
So too did her other leadership, and silent disbelief held, until the first man moved. "Fuck the Theocracy!" He shouted, and headed for the gate. As if shaken out of their disbelieving moment they then began to move. Thousands upon thousands marched in massed ranks four abreast, directly through the gate, abandoning the platform to the elements as they launched their counter invasion.
Neia's face was stoic on the other side as she and her peers gathered together. "So, where are we, exactly?" Inta asked as they waited to see if her army would join her.
Neia took out a map from her pack, marked an 'X' on a spot, and tossed it to him. "There." She said succinctly.
He unrolled it and looked the map over. "So... just a little south of this fortress." He said thoughtfully, "I'm guessing we take this and march on Wheaton?"
"Yes." Neia said calmly, "There is little left of the Theocracy now, a few large towns, a few cities, they're desperate. Or rather, they 'think' they're desperate. I'm going to show them what 'desperate' really means." Her eyes went dark as she looked over at her companions and a terrible reverberation filled her voice.
The first soldiers began to cross over, it took what felt like forever for them to form up, and both Inta and his sister went to see to the ordering of soldiers for an attack on the next position.
As they filtered through, Skana approached her wife and drew her aside. "Neia, are you alright?" She asked, leaning in close, holding her wife's shoulders as she spoke.
"Why wouldn't I be?" Neia asked with surprise, "I'm just doing what needs to be done." She reached up and touched her wife's cheek and smiled weakly, "I'm fine, I'm not tired or anything, everything is alright. We'll do this and bring an end to everything. There's only a little bit left."
"Neia, you killed over fifty thousand people at that city, are you sure you're alright?" Skana asked tenderly.
"They made their choice." Neia said starkly, she shook her head, her lovely straw blonde hair bounced side to side, "They made their choice and I made mine, this is what war is. If you can't handle it, then I don't need you here." Neia looked calmly at Skana as she replied, and her wife reared back as if slapped. She looked with shock, and Neia immediately covered her mouth as if to keep the words from coming out, but they already had, and it was too late. They could not be unsaid.
"I'm sorry!" Neia said rapidly and clasped Skana's hand, "I'm sorry. I didn't... I didn't mean it. You didn't deserve that." Neia said and bowed her head in shame, coincidentally hiding the welling of tears in her eyes..
Skana was still, and as if seeking distraction she looked away, she saw that the others had already begun forming battalions into ready positions. "I have work to do." She said in a small voice, and stepped away. "Tell us when you're ready to go, General."
Neia gritted her teeth without looking up as Skana stepped away, breaking Neia's grip, "As you say, Vice Commander." Neia did not try to hold on, letting her hands fall at her sides.
...Nazarick...
Yuri's eyes fluttered open, she looked around. "Well shit, so much for that." She said unhappily. She looked at her wrists, there were chains on them, that was the only thing she was wearing. "OK, so this just went from bad to worse." She mused idly to herself, then laughed a bit, "Or maybe not, maybe I can have some fun here. Maybe take a chunk out of whoever tries anything."
She tensed her muscles, nothing was broken, her injuries were all healed, there weren't even any bruises. "Tip-top shape before torture, eh? Well whatever, at least they're not amateurs." She said as she looked around, there was an empty chair a few feet in front of her, and a wall and table held numerous tools of pain. She looked with care at the horrific implements. "I suppose those are left out to terrify the victim." She thought out loud, then shrugged with further indifference.
"You're right." A voice said from the other side of the door at the far end of the room. It was bouncy, feminine, very cheerful. The door opened and she got a look at the owner of the voice.
"So. You're this 'Yuri' I've heard soooo much about." A 'creature' of some sort said as it sort of waddled in. It was obese, it was slimey, it was a greenish gray monster with dangling tentacles and long strange fingers.
Yuri was many things, but 'coward' was not among them. She smiled at the creature, "I suppose I am." She said bravely, giving the monster a cocky little smile, "I didn't know I was famous among monsters."
The being came closer and placed its slime coated, long fingers, over Yuri's breasts, trailing them slowly over her skin, the creature spoke. "Oh everybody here who is anybody; knows about you, my dear. You're a brave one too, how wonderful. You're everything I hoped for. Now for introductions, my name is Neuronist Painkill." Though the creature couldn't smile, Yuri felt that it would have, if it were possible.
"There was quite a bit of discussion held about what to do with you. I wanted you as my plaything, Lord Demiurge wanted you for his farm, and my dear friend Vanysa wanted you for her personal service. Would you like to know how the argument came out?" Neuronist asked, a long wormlike tongue emerged from the round mouth and began to tickle over Yuri's cheek.
"I suspect you're going to tell me no matter what, so... why not?" Yuri asked. The sensations of these intimate touches was 'unpleasant' but not intolerable, no worse than other viscera she'd been coated with before, so she simply kept her body relaxed.
Neuronist stepped back a pace and placed her hand over her chest, "A compromise, you see, first you will spend time with me until I have deemed you properly broken. Then you will spend a few years with Lord Demiurge on his farm assisting with his many experiments. Finally after your baptism, you will be a present for my demoness friend, you should be quite grateful, most do not earn such high honors as drawing the attention of all three of us!" Neuronist laughed gleefully, her body shaking and giggling, tentacles bouncing like a maiden's hair around her.
"So... what did I do to earn this... honor?" Yuri asked as calmly as could be, her eyes not taken away from the one addressing her even for a moment.
"You showed resourcefulness, talent, manipulative ability to handle Remedios Custodio and combat skills good enough to hurt what passes for 'dangerous' adventurers. That drew the demoness's eyes, you defied Nazarick, that drew Lord Demiurge's eyes, and you showed bravery in the face of pain, that drew my eyes... because I love to hurt those like you best of all." Neuronist giggled again.
"I've been a busy little bee, haven't I?" Yuri asked with a winsome smile at the monster.
"Oh yes, very much so, you've got a number of hard years ahead, but be grateful, you first fall into the hands of Nazarick's most beautiful servant." Neuronist said, preening slightly and tapping her webbed long fingers on her chest to ensure Yuri knew that she meant herself.
"I see." Yuri said patiently, "So you're saying I'm going to live then, but probably spend most of that time wishing I wasn't?"
Neuronist slapped her slimy hands together, splashing some onto Yuri's belly from the force of her physically expressed happiness. "That's it exactly! Oh you are a sharp one! There is just one problem."
"A problem?" Yuri asked, mystified, she tilted her head to one side and raised an eyebrow, "I don't understand."
"We already have a 'Yuri', so we're going to have to give you a new name. What shall it be, what shall it be…" Neuronist tapped one finger on her own cheek as she thought it over. "I know! Your name will be 'Myne'. Now say it for me." Neuronist said with glee.
"Make me." Yuri challenged as she stared at Neuronist defiantly, her jaw locked tight and her eyes hard and unblinking.
"I'll be happy to!" Neuronist chirped as she danced over to a small pear shaped object and began to twist a cap on one end of it. "Want to guess where this goes?" She asked playfully, and a slight widening of Yuri's eyes as it was held up, told Neuronist that the brave captive had just felt the first twinge of fear that would fill years of her existence henceforth.