God Rising: The Cult of Ainz
Written by: AtheistBasementDragon
Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots
Chapter 164: Punishment
...Farming Estate near Wheaton...
Belki was happy, he was usually happy, because while the elves labored half-naked harvesting wheat, all he had to do was watch them work. 'Always better to watch work than to do work.' He thought to himself for the thousandth time as he walked up and down the wheat fields. He looked away for a brief moment as a blast of cold hit him in the face. He brought his hands together and blew hot air into them. Even with gloves, it was cold and getting colder.
"Hurry up, you lazy fucks! The longer you take, the colder I'll get. The colder I get, the more it'll hurt when you finally do finish!" He snapped out at them. They bent to the task, threshing the wheat as fast as they could with tools not sharpened often enough.
Their blonde hair was much like the wheat itself, and Belki enjoyed swaggering along behind them as they worked, lingering far longer than he needed to behind an especially shapely elf woman.
She was doing her best to pretend he wasn't there. But she knew he was, and he knew she knew he was. He made his stare obvious, but she just continued to work.
'I hate this... I hate this... I hate this I hate this I hate this... I hate him, I hate this place...' Meeka thought to herself as she felt the overseer's eyes on her behind. Eventually he'd move on and stare at some other girl, every one of them would hope they weren't the last one he looked at, because that was usually the one he'd remember well enough to ask for private time with. Every now and then one of the women would offer themselves up and trade for extra food, or rest time, or other small things. Meeka however, hated the overseer so much that she'd never done so.
The wind bit at her skin, and as she bundled some of the wheat together to carry away, she snuck a glance at the sky. 'Please don't get colder.' She begged the gods who had always ignored her.
The sound of thunder hit her mutilated ears and for a moment she thought it was the sky daring to rain on her, but it wasn't, she looked around, others were doing the same, including overseers. When her eyes beheld the impossible sight, all she could do was fall to her knees and praise the heavens.
Belki whirled to the sound of hooves and went straight for his short sword, the other overseers were doing the same. 'Bandits? Here?!' He thought, then thought better of it as he saw worse. Black armor, the banner, the undead mounts. He went pale and screamed as he saw piercing red eyes lock onto him from horseback. There were only a dozen riders, but those who rode on undead horses did not even consider another possible outcome, nor did they have reason to, and before the thunder closed in, Belki knew all too well that he didn't have a reason to either.
The fight was over with laughable ease. Mixis flashed his charming smile down at a group of elves that had been made to assemble in a formation, not far away, the overseers and their supervisor were in chains. There were perhaps three hundred slaves in front of him, and about thirty overseers behind him, and a family of six who owned the estate, standing behind the overseers.
Most of the field wasn't harvested. He rode his undead horse back and forth between the two groups while the remaining members of the hundred that had come with him, kept bows drawn and pointed down at the Theocracy overlords of the estate.
The wheat was blowing in the wind and as he looked down at the scarcely clad elves, Mixis felt a boiling rage. It reminded him of his own lord's contemptible neglect of the peasants, of the way his parents had barely anything to wear in winter and froze so often that it was a disgustingly often told joke that parents had more children just to have more body heat to share when the snows came.
"I have good news, and I have bad news!" Mixis shouted so that everyone could hear him. "The good news is, you slaves are free. According to the will of General Neia Baraja, who has invaded these lands in the name of His Majesty, the Sorcerer King!"
The overseers and the owners of the estate all turned pale and began to shake for reasons entirely independent of the wind.
"The bad news is..." he turned to look down at the captive humans, "you're all going to visit my General, and she's very... very anxious to see you."
The smell of ammonia filled the air a moment later.
He got down off his horse and began to cut the manacles from every slave that wore them, the chains fell with an almost insultingly small 'clinking' noise, as if they were bound by nothing very strong at all. "You all go into the estate, gather blankets, food, anything you require, Neia's not far. It may take some time on foot, but you'll be there in no time, I promise."
"As to this though..." Mixis said as the slaves went to the estate with an almost disbelieving trudge that grew lighter with every step... he could practically feel smiles start to form even without seeing their faces. "I don't think we can let the rest of this stand now, can we?" He asked over his shoulder as he walked over to the field of golden misery.
He took out a set of flint and quicklight fabric and swiftly created a spark, it caught the fabric and burst into flame. He blew a few times so that it grew large, then stood, turned away from the field. He then walked back to his horse and cast the burning fabric over his shoulder into the tall dry wheat. It went up like a bottle of hundred proof bourbon and the fire spread madly behind him. "Drag the family over, I want them to see!" he shouted, and two of his companions did as he bade, they struggled only weakly against the massively more powerful veterans, the middle aged couple and their teenage children looked on in consternation as the fire spread.
Mixis held his arms out wide as the fire lit up their field of vision and sent smoke up to kiss the sky. "Welcome to the new world, motherfuckers!" He shouted with furious hatred at the wealthy who looked... disgustingly like the faces he remembered lording over his village. His long dark hair bounced behind him as he laughed joyfully at the fear that began to grow on their faces, the two wealthy children began to weep as the world they knew was burned to ash.
"Let's get them out of here." Mixis said with disgust as they began to drag the 'surviving' overseers away and the slaves began to fall in behind them.
Nobody saw that in the distance, a stray spark picked up and made it to the estate, which quickly caught and began to burn like the field of wheat around it. There wasn't a slave that looked back, and there was neither overseer nor owner who could keep themselves from doing so.
...Golden Fortress...
When the riders left, Skana immediately went to seek out her companions. As it happened, she found them atop the tower at the main administrative building for the Golden Fortress. As soon as she found them, Skana held her hands together in front of her and bowed very deeply to both Lakyus and CZ. "Please! Forgive her!" She said urgently.
Whatever Lakyus was expecting, it wasn't that, nor, evidently, was CZ, if the miniscule widening of her eyes was any indicator.
"You have to understand... all she wants is for this to be over... CZ, you were right, something's wrong, it's been wrong for awhile but... but I know if this war ends, it'll be alright again! She's... I don't know... I don't know..." Skana started to stammer, but did not look up, she held her deep bow until she felt Lakyus's touch on her shoulder.
"Skana... stop." Lakyus said gently.
"It isn't her... it isn't her..." Skana cried out and fell into the arms of the apostate priestess.
"You are surprised?" CZ asked succinctly.
Skana could not pull herself away from the embrace of the priestess, and she couldn't meet anyone's eyes even if she wanted to. "Did you forget? She shot children. Her friends, her soldiers. This surprises you now?" CZ asked in short, clipped sentences.
"She did what she had to, I swear she's not a monster... but... its not her down there in that tent..." Skana tried to whisper out, but it was anything other than convincing.
Lakyus stroked Skana's auburn hair patiently, not saying anything as the veteran of countless fights wept for the sleeping General.
"I don't know what to do... I can't... we're so close, but she's..." Skana started and stopped several times, unable to articulate what she wanted to. "Maybe... maybe if I give her the kinds of targets that she hates the most... but then... the city might already be fleeing, maybe they are Theocracy... maybe I'm making a mistake, maybe she's right and we do have to do this, or let them do this to themselves but... what'll be left of my wife... I can't let her go down this road... but I'm not strong enough to stop her on my own... this isn't who she is, I swear... I swear it isn't..."
"Skana... Skana... she's who she is, and who she makes herself... I know..." Lakyus began, only for Skana to dart a finger up and cover Lakyus's lips, she shook her head fervently, her green eye boring into Lakyus's blue.
"No, I talked to others, I heard something of it belatedly but... before all this began, between the last war and this one, she wasn't like this. She tried to resolve things peacefully, to save lives. Even at the cost of terrible pain, I asked a few of the hundred who were there, she tried so hard to be peaceful... to show her strength without violence to someone she admired, for all the good it did. That person... is not the one who can laugh as an entire population runs to its death. I have to stop this, maybe if I... let her have the lives of the overseers, breakers, slave owners... maybe I can talk her down from the rest." Skana said with urgent hopefulness.
CZ shook her head. "No."
"No?" Lakyus asked.
CZ nodded. "No." Her voice was neutral as usual, but... to the attentive, the emphasis was greater, if only slightly.
"Why no?" Lakyus asked as she stroked Skana's back.
"Necessity. She sees a need, she does it." CZ explained with a hint of sadness.
"But it'll kill her. I know monsters, I've killed monsters, I've fought monsters, if she really thinks it is necessary to wipe out so many, even if she's successful, well... it would be better for her if she were a monster." Lakyus explained.
"She knows." CZ said succinctly. "She'll do it anyway."
"No. No. Please no..." Skana whimpered at CZ's merciless explanation and clutched a hand at the little pendant that hung down between her breasts as she slipped slowly down to her knees and tried to get control over herself, and failed, badly. Lakyus had counseled many over the years who were in dire need of support, but as Skana seemed about to fall into despair, all Lakyus could do, was hold her.
...Crossroads...
Enri sat behind the desk reviewing the numbers given to her. "This doesn't seem possible." She said with a furrowed brow as Lupusregina leaned against the wall behind her with her arms folded in front of her chest looking very, very bored.
"What?" Lupusregina asked.
"As the bodies were being cleared, I had them counted, even including the captives, there are far too few from what there should have been. I'm pretty sure we got rid of the entire Windflower Scripture in that fight, and probably a few others, but... there are still just not enough bodies, I even had our soldiers venture into the sewers, open up warehouses, everything I could think of to find where they could be hiding more people and... they're just gone!" Enri slapped the table in frustration.
"Well, at least they identified Moira's body and you got that boxed up and sent home for proper burial, along with a nice commendation and some amazing honors to go with it, Goan will be the son of a great hero for the rest of his life, it's something at least." Lupusregina said consolingly.
"Yes..." Enri said sadly, "She and the rest of that corps of glorious bastards did one helluva job making a right mess of things in here for us, probably saved a lot of lives by killing that caster, destroying or stealing weapons, and opening the gate, to name some of it. They'll get monuments for sure at the least. But... I don't want martyrs, I want an end to all this." She rubbed her forehead, she was doing that far too much lately, that much she was sure of.
She looked over to Lupusregina, "Where is the captured Vice Commander, Ira, she should be here by now." Enri's voice had a twinge of anger to it, though clearly it was not directed at her companion.
"Waiting outside for the last thirty minutes, I assume." Lupusregina said with a smirk.
"Oh." Enri said sheepishly, "Would you?" She asked.
"Of course." Lupusregina replied and went to the door, she opened it and said bluntly, "Alright, bring the prisoner in."
A few minutes later a youngish looking woman with brown hair and hazel eyes that were as sharp as Enri remembered, was staring at her silently. "Lupu, let's be good hosts, help her to a seat." Enri said politely as the door to the office closed.
Vice Commander Ira stood with manacles on her wrists and ankles that allowed her to only take the smallest of steps. She still wore her official armor, but her sword and all other weapons were gone.
"Pleasant to see you again, Vice Commander." Enri said as she folded her hands together on the desk in front of her, her tone was informal, even friendly, and she cracked a smile, "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't pleased that these are the circumstances under which we meet again.
The captive officer rolled her eyes, "You'll forgive me if I preferred our places reversed, but..." She held up her wrists at chest level and snapped them apart, the chain went taut but did not snap open. "Well, it is what it is, I'm assuming I'm not here for tea." She said bluntly.
"You're right, I have questions, and I want answers." Enri said in a kind, even tone. "You're going to give them to me, one way or another." Her eyes went hard and they drilled into Vice Commander Ira.
The Vice Commander laughed, it was an unexpected reaction, but she quickly explained, "General Enri, I truly respect your acumen as a commander but... you and I both know you're not going to ask me 'hard'. You don't have it in you, you're hard from dealing with loss, not from inflicting it, I know torturers, I know butchers, I know sadists, and you're not one."
Enri looked stumped for a moment, then smiled kindly, "You're right about me, I just... I don't want people to get hurt, and yes, what's made me harder is learning to deal with the loss of my soldiers... I'm not fond of hurting anyone, I just want to go home, back to my sister, my husband, my village... well, city. You're in the way of that but, as you say, I don't have it in me to hurt you. She, on the other hand..." Enri jerked her thumb to her bodyguard.
"That's my best friend, I asked her what she'd do if I suffered a horrible death, and you know what she said?" Enri asked with a smirk beginning to form against her will as Vice Commander Ira shook her head no.
"That she'd miss me, and look after my family, but that my death would give her the best orgasm of her life." Enri rolled her eyes as Lupusregina nodded and gave an enormous, face splitting grin and put her hands on her hips, she nodded fervently, equal parts proud of herself and amused at Enri.
"She's a sadist, all I have to do is walk out of here and leave you alone with her, she'll do the rest." Enri said smugly, Ira's face went pale.
Enri stood.
"Just a moment now." Vice Commander Ira said abruptly, "I didn't say I wasn't willing to talk."
"I'm listening." Enri said, but did not reseat herself.
"I'm 'supposed' to tell you this, after he's gotten a head start of course." The captive said, now looking smug herself.
"What?" Enri asked with a sense of dread at the smirk.
"Well, General Boabdill is gone, along with my comrade, Vice Commander Heikeren. They left when it was obvious the city would fall. All those losses you took from the southern area, that wasn't from some people running for it, that was his organized retreat with a large part of some of his best soldiers. He 'got' you if you will." Vice Commander Ira looked very, very proud, even preening as Enri looked at her, aghast.
"By now he'll have linked up with one or more of the remainder, I don't know where he is, of course, he'd never reveal that unless he had to. But he's well away from here and he's not going to make this easy for you.
Enri raised her gloved fist and slammed it down on the table. "Damn it all!" She shouted as she realized how she'd been duped. "How far am I going to have to chase that wiley bastard?!"
"All the way to Kami Miyako, if I know him." Vice Commander Ira said with an uproarious laugh.
Enri was just letting out a long, loud sigh when a soldier burst in. "What's the meaning of this?!" Enri shouted, and then saw the soldier's face.
"A riot! General Enri, there's a riot! The people of the city are rising up!" He said urgently. Panic etched on his face, his breathing was hard and his entire body shaking with a mix of fear, anger, and disbelief.
Enri was just about to respond to this, when she felt a message spell connect. She listened for a moment and her face went pale.
Lupusregina looked at her inquisitively.
When the message cut off, Enri looked over to her bodyguard, "A riot... in Ikari City... and in a lot of the captured villages."
"Oh. Shit." Lupusregina said succinctly, as Vice Commander Ira started laughing even harder.