God Rising: The Cult of Ainz
Written by: AtheistBasementDragon
Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots
Chapter 161: Bottom of the Bottle
AN: Ten days of writing ahead, enjoy.
...Crossroads...
"Listen... Eire, isn't it?" Enri asked, leaning forward slightly in her chair as she looked down at the woman whose wailing was only finally tapering off after several minutes more uncomfortable for Enri than any of Lupu's jokes. "I don't know what's bothering you, but if this is your place... then the food here is yours, get food, get something to drink... I 'am' going to be using this as a headquarters for now, till they've cleared the bodies out of the main administrative building, but I promise I'll return everything to you... or..." She looked over her shoulder, Lupusregina had tilted a bottle to her lips and started chugging, "...ah... compensate you with a fair price for anything that is... used."
As if to underscore the statement, Lupusregina slammed the bottle down, wiped her pretty mouth on her sleeve and said a resounding "Aaahhhh!" followed by, "That's good stuff, not Nazarick good, but real top shelf -su!"
Eire managed to feel a bit of pride and let that show on her face, "Th-thank you, I do stock some of the best."
"Sure we can't stay here, General Enri?" Lupusregina asked with a grin.
Enri looked back at her again, "No, absolutely not, last time I left you alone in a place with this much hard liquor I woke up to you at my husband's side of the bed whispering that you wanted to see what all the fuss was about."
Lupusregina grinned and tugged her left eye down and stuck out her tongue. "Just wanted to know how to best service my general when she calls for me!"
"Such sexual harassment is tolerated among the undead worshippers?" Eire asked with wide and horrified eyes.
"Nooooo!" Enri exclaimed and covered the blush on her face, "Damn it, Lupu!"
Eire actually managed to choke out some weepy laughter as she realized the scary commander of the terrifying undead's armies, was blushing deeply, and that the scary woman that had pinned her down earlier when Enri came down the stairs, was joking.
Enri rubbed her forehead as those who have suffered the same trial for a very long time, often did. "Look Eire, I'm not going to keep you out of here for long, suffice it to say you're not going to be a plaything for one of my goblins, you're not going to be thrown as a concubine to any of my soldiers, I'm not going to turn you into a concubine for 'me' or for Lupu back there," she jerked her thumb over her shoulder to Lupusregina, who gave her a thumbs up and a wink as she popped the cork off another bottle and started to chug even more liquor, "and you're not going to be sacrificed, killed, tortured, or anything else. We don't do that."
"What about General Baraja! She does all that! She burns cities and drowns cities and guts people like fish and does all kindsa terrible things! How do I know you aren't all like her?!" Eire asked emphatically, but it was fairly clear from her tone that she was starting to relax.
Enri sighed, "I've... heard some things about my counterpart, and... we will be having words, I'm sure. But you are not wherever she is, you are where I am, and 'I' will not let any of that happen to you or to this city. My enemy is the government of the Slane Theocracy, not the people of it. Now please, go grab some food, take something to drink, I'll be out of here by the end of the day and this place will be yours again, I'll leave some coins on the shelf behind the counter for you." Her voice was doubtful, calm, but firm, and it was clear to the red headed peasant that the general was done talking. She rushed out of the room just in time for someone to burst into the door.
Enri looked over to the open door and a soldier dashed in, they traded brief salutes and the soldier stood stock still waiting for her permission to speak.
"Report." Enri said abruptly.
"General Enri... we've been unable to locate General Boabdill, but... we have captured one of his Vice Commanders. She's waiting in the dungeon. Would you like to see her?" He asked.
Enri thought it over for a moment, "Yes, but not there, have her brought to the headquarters building, the governor's manor in a few hours, I'll question her in the office there. A nice, informal setting might do more good than chaining her up and asking her... hard." She said, suppressing a shudder.
"And... about the other thing... have you cleared the main gate of bodies?" Enri asked as she broached a subject she dreaded.
"We did, ma'am." The soldier reported.
"And... in the gate house area, were there any... women?" Enri pushed further.
"Yes, ma'am. Just one."
"Could you describe her? Hair color, eye color, build?" Enri asked.
The soldier did so, save for the eyes, which he reported had been stabbed out, and Enri suppressed a great welling of sadness. She kept her eyes hard and face neutral. "I see, thank you, when you go to the manor, have the man and woman named Kirak and Shanda brought to the place where they're held to identify the bodies."
"Ma'am." He said, and saluted, before departing promptly. Enri waited until Eire had made her exit, then when they were alone again, the peasant general went to the bar that Lupusregina was rummaging behind, sat down in front of her best friend and said, "Pour me one too, Lupu, this is going to be a really long day." Allowing some of the sadness to slip into her voice. Her friend didn't say anything, merely opening another bottle and handing it to her.
...Wheaton...
It didn't take long to find out where the citizens were going. People were running towards the northern and western gates, those with horses took them, people loaded wagons with supplies and passengers, both the loved and the merely profitable alike. The city was in a panic the likes of which no living resident had ever seen.
Shops were smashed as people simply grabbed the supplies they needed and ran for it, guards attempting to keep order were ignored, or stabbed if they got in the way, more than one citizen fell bleeding or dead when a guard had to use lethal force to protect himself.
Graff grabbed Wesda's arm and said roughly, "Come with me, I have more questions, but we've got to get a hold of this situation."
Wesda wasn't sure what else to do, so he ran with the captain as the man pounded his way up the stairs, the echo of his footfalls dominated Wesda's mind even more than the shouts outside.
As soon as he got to the wall he shouted, "People of Wheaton! You must not panic!"
"Yes we must! We've got to get the hell out of here!" Someone shrieked and threw a pack over a horse, got in the saddle, and rode off for dear life.
"Gods damn civilians for their cowardice!" He snapped and began to run along the length of the wall.
"Sir, what does it matter, if they leave, they'll be out of the way, right?" Wesda asked as he followed.
"No, Neia will ignore the city and exterminate them, and that is if they're lucky, if they're not lucky, she'll ignore them, and they'll die, look out there!" Captain Graff said forcefully and waved his hand out over the city.
Wesda obeyed, and over the large city he saw fires start to spring up, he saw people rioting like mad below, some were dead or trampled already. But those who weren't were streaming towards the gates in all directions.
"They'll realize a few hours too late that they have not enough food, or warm enough clothing, or firewood, or anything they need, they'll try to get it from the farms and villages, but those will turn them away or exploit them, or panic themselves, they'll turn on each other, to take each other's supplies, fathers will kill the families of others to take food to feed their own children, many of the young will outright freeze to death before dawn if we have a cold snap tonight. If there are no people, this city no longer matters. That bitch has really stuck it to us." Graff explained patiently.
"So that was why..." Wesda began to reply.
"Yes, you were her tool, you worked her will, you were the means by which we destroy ourselves." Graff said calmly.
"I- no... I didn't mean to..." Wesda said as he looked down, he saw two men struggle over a horse, one stabbed the other in the neck, but before he could get into the saddle, a guard ran over and ran him through with a spear.
"I... I didn't mean to..." Wesda said with a choked sob as he realized how he'd been used by the demon of the undead, and flung himself from the wall, head first to the stone below. Graff could not move fast enough, and he saw the boy soldier go down and hit with a sickening crunch that, though it wasn't possible over the din of the city, he could have sworn he could hear.
"Gods be damned... foolish boy." Graff said frustratedly and ran off along the wall alone to try to shut the gates and bring order to those he could still save.
...Golden Fortress...
"When you have them, what do you do with them?" Lakyus asked as she fell in beside Neia in the tent at last as they discussed the matter of the battle's aftermath.
Neia looked down at the crude table and the map of the city laid out before them. She looked over at her friend and gave a laugh that might have been yanked out of a demon's throat.
"I show them what breaking someone really means." Neia replied.
Her companions traded uncomfortable looks. "Neia... you need to stop this." Lakyus said gently.
"You can't kill the whole country." Skana said softly.
Neia looked around at the three of them, CZ was just shaking her head.
"They'll do that for me." Neia replied calmly as she began laying out tokens on the map to represent the two sides.
"Who will?" Lakyus asked with surprise, "Is there another army?"
Neia laughed, "No, I mean the Theocracy will."
Three blank stares met her, but anxious shifting of their bodies began.
Neia put a hand on her hip and another on her forehead, which she rubbed slowly. "OK, I guess I'll need to explain. In the simplest terms, we can't take Wheaton, not without heavy losses as it is, but if that army is in the field, we can crush them easily and then the city will fall. Those two boys I let go will be carrying two messages, the first got the army into a tizzy, they'll be preparing to meet us, but the second one, do you know what benefit he was?"
The blank stares continued.
Neia slammed her hands down on the table with a loud clap, "Terror!" She said enthusiastically. "I saw it myself, the power of terror through Jaldabaoth, the way he sent people fleeing just by existing, he could empty a town, even a city, or make an army of hardened veterans run like hell by walking. I destroyed Yanana utterly, Fortress Cross is a ruined husk, the second messenger is going to ride in there screaming with terror and coated with blood. The soft citizens in Wheaton can't handle that. The activity of the soldiery will inflame them as well, and they'll run in a panic."
Skana went pale. "Neia... you can't mean what I think you mean."
"I can, and I do." Neia said calmly.
Lakyus looked at them both, "I'm still lost, mean what?"
Skana swallowed with wide eyes and a chilling shiver running up and down her spine. "The cold, it might even snow soon, all those... people. They'll run from the city, but they don't have time to pack or anything. I promise they won't have enough warm clothing, I promise they won't have enough food, or a means to make fires, and even with the little river, well most won't dare follow that, so no water either, or not much. They'll turn to banditry or steal from villages, lots of them will freeze, others will go hungry, or get sick or..." She stopped talking when she saw Lakyus understood the thousand ways the terrified thousands would die.
"They turned my people out, naked and cold to live or die. They sent their inquisitors to drive us out to starve in the wilderness, they raised Remedios against us and helped her try to kill us all in our sleep, they tore my country apart for a second time. It is as I said. I am coming for them, if they want to die in the wilds instead, it makes no difference to me. I didn't make them flee, I'm happy to accept their surrender if they want to stay and offer it. But..." Neia's laughter was half mad as she shrugged, "They decided to paint me as a demon, it isn't my fault if they believe it."
"No. No. No. No. No. No. NO." Skana said on a loop and shook her head, "I won't let you do this." Skana said with a vigorous shaking of her head.
"They're doing it to themselves." Neia said blandly. "The irony is beautiful. They turn us out by force to die, and now they turn themselves out by their own volition. When we pursue and ignore the city, the soldiers will come after us, and when they do..." Neia punched a fist into her open hand and flashed a predatory grin that made it easy to see why the children of her village had thought her such a terrible sight, and why in that most noble hour that Skana had witnessed when she was a frightened peasant girl... even demihumans shrank in terror of the mad eyed archer. "All we need to do then is ignore them all, we can take the outlying little towns and villages with ease after that, if there is anything left of them and move on toward Kami Miyako."
"I agree with Skana, that is madness, that is monstrous, what you did in Yanana was one thing, this is something else again! There are children in that city still, there are more non-combatants than combatants. They'll die before they get to a city that can care for them. There'll be so many dead that we could make a road out of their bones from there to the gates of Kami Miyako. You can't do this." Lakyus said with urgency.
"Not for long." Neia said simply, "Besides, it's a little late to say 'no'. The messenger has already been dispatched, he'll arrive soon if he hasn't already, the panic will set in, the population will flee, and…" She tapped her finger rhythmically on the table and looked away as she calculated out a set of numbers… "If I were to guess, about one in every ten of them will die, every day, for the better part of the next week. More if the weather turns bad, fewer if it turns good." She opened her hands to her side, "What did you think was going to happen exactly? This is a war, the worst this world has ever seen, and I'm including Jaldabaoth's demihuman invasion. I will fight this to the end, everything and anything and anyone in the way, will bend a knee or break as our army rolls over them."
"No… we can't let this happen." Lakyus said as she saw what Neia must have been seeing, the line of streaming refugees, desperately trying to escape east, west, and north, a spiral of flight as villages fled in all direction into a countryside that couldn't possibly support them all.
Skana was meeting her expression one equally shocked as she heard the voice of her beloved speak as if all the humanity had been hollowed out from within it. "No." Was all she managed to utter.
Neia was still then, quiet, as if she could not understand the words they'd just spoken to her. She looked to CZ in confusion, with her head cocking curious and an eyebrow raised as if to ask, "Did you hear what I just did?" But to her surprise, the very small movement of CZ's eyes, undetectable to almost anyone, indicated that CZ was in agreement with the other two.
Neia straightened up sharply, her dark cloak bounced behind her with the sudden motion, her lips pursed tight, but her sky blue eyes remained as if what darkness they feared might come upon her, was crushed not by their denial of her stated will, but by the deep compassion she found within the faces of those she'd come to love, one as wife, the others as dear friends, even sisters in a fashion, or so she reckoned it must be like, having had no siblings of her own.
"I... will take your views under advisement. For now then, send out the cavalry, I will not see within reach of my army, a single breaker standing proud or a whip hand still attached to arm before I sleep. On that I will not compromise." Neia crossed her arms in front of her breasts defensively and stared at them one by one, ice blue eyes did not waver even by blinking.
"That is... acceptable." Skana replied hesitantly.
"Good, but remember this. War is the cruelest thing in all the world, and the crueler it is, the sooner it will be over. It cannot be reformed, and even if we could, we shouldn't, because we don't want to grow too fond of it. The terror they know today, will keep their children in line tomorrow, and our children will not have to come back to fight again." Neia said resolutely.
There was no thrum of the evangelist in her voice that they could feel. She had refrained from using the power of her profession on those dearly cherished. It was obvious to each of Neia's comrades that she did not wish to manipulate or intimidate those closest to her, and that filled them with great relief that even as she was, such considerations were not far from her mind.
"Can I... have a minute?" Skana asked of her companions, looking at them with pleading, glistening eyes, there was only one possible answer, and it required no words.
Lakyus and CZ hesitated for a moment, then left the tent.
"Neia, when did you last sleep?" Skana asked when they were alone.
"L-Last night." Neia answered hesitantly. Her posture instantly changed, it went from resolute and even defiant, to a downcast gaze and her fingers danced nervously.
Skana locked her one green eye deeply on Neia's blue. "The truth." Skana demanded, as she struck the posture that had been Neia's not a moment before.
"It... is but... it wasn't for long. An hour, maybe two." She answered in a voice that was almost timid.
"Neia, you're not yourself, how many hours do you think you've really slept?" Skana asked fervently, moving closer to her wife and putting her hand over Neia's heart, she could feel it race beneath her fingers, even through Busar's armor.
"I... don't know." Neia said quietly. "I've started to... you know... remember after Wenmark?" She asked, her voice now well and truly small.
"Nightmares?" Skana asked.
Neia nodded numbly.
"I'm saying this as your Vice Commander and as your wife. I want you to go to sleep, you're far too much on edge, it'll take hours for the cavalry to hit all the farms and villages this side of the city, and we can lock the captives up in the stockade here for the night, get some rest in here, let me take over for awhile." Skana said passionately. "We're close to the end, and you need a clearer head now than ever before."
Neia did not speak an answer, she didn't even nod, but when Skana took her hand and led her over to the cot at the back of the tent, the same memory came to both of them, of their first night together, after a victory that, small as it was, told the world that the Hundred were not to be taken lightly. Both thought often of that night, those first tentative explorations of one another, where the veteran lover Skana, taught something of love to the veteran soldier, Neia.
But now in this hour, when the dead burned in heaps not fifty yards away and soldiers set about establishing themselves before the next great battle of the war, this was a different lesson in love, recognizing a moment of vulnerability, exhaustion, and even weakness... and giving to the one who endures it, the tenderness that they need when they need it most. Neia did not move as Skana removed the armor of the Grand King Busar, and with a gentle press to Neia's shoulders, got the Black Paladin to sit herself on their little cot. When her wife was seated, Skana lifted Neia's leg by the foot and drew off one boot, then the other, and helped her to lie down.
As Neia laid there and Skana stood back up, she looked up to her wife and said, "Skana?"
"Yes?" The auburn haired warrior woman asked after covering her wife up and starting to leave.
"Thanks a lot." Neia said, and smiled weakly and forced herself to close her eyes. When she was alone, she reached under the cot for her pack, pulled out a bottle, and took a very long drink before setting it back and finally trying to drift off in earnest.
When she left the tent, Skana immediately sought out the cavalry, gathered them together, and gave them their orders. "You are to ride out from here, hit every village, hit every farm, hit every estate that you can. Rescue any slaves and send them this way, destroy all food supplies you can't take, but allow the farmers time to gather grain and whatever else they need to start running. Tell them that Neia is coming and if they want a chance at not facing her, they need to go that hour."
"Ma'am," a younger man with dark hair and dark eyes began to ask, "are you saying we're trying to 'not' fight the Theocracy?"
Skana shook her head, bouncing her auburn hair. "No, not at all, anyone resists, cut them down immediately and don't bother asking twice, but get them running, then and only then should you start setting fires, but after that, set fire to everything." Her voice was hard and calm, and brooked no argument.
"Yes ma'am, anything else?" He asked with a serious expression, rather than the one of glee she expected.
"Yes, if you find overseers or breakers, capture them and send them here." Skana said fervently, "They belong to the Pope."
"As you say." The young man said and saluted sharply. He put a foot in the stirrup, then flung himself bodily into the saddle, his peers did likewise, and drove their undead horses onward.
Skana watched as they rode away from the camp, quietly, so that nobody else could hear, she said, "Please... please let those few be enough to satisfy her..."