AN: I'll do a Christmas Day triple release IF… 10 people donate food to a food bank. (Or some equivalent charitable act that helps people this time of year, such as Wintership program support, soup kitchen volunteer work, etc) Happy Holidays everybody!
...Wheaton...
Captain Graff didn't have time to regret the death of Wesda, he had to do something to restore order as panic spread. "Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!" he muttered under his breath. "Damn the long knives, how could they have been so stupid?! Don't they realize they were doing that bitch a favor by disappearing some of our chain of command? By the six, replacing the competent but questionable with the politically reliable..." he shook his head and shut his eyes against the treasonous thought as he ran along the wall.
"Damn fools." He cursed again as he reached shouting distance of a gate. "Get that gate closed you fools!" he shouted.
People were streaming out like water out of a bucket that had just sprung a leak. Pushing and struggling, a few fell down and were being trampled. "Those are dead." He said numbly.
Others were riding out on horses, some clearly had supplies, but even those who didn't, well they were on horseback and it wasn't an impossible distance to Kami Miyako. "You'll live." He said of them. Others were on foot and had packs on their backs, assuming they'd grabbed supplies, "You'll be lucky if the rest don't kill you, but you have a chance." He thought out loud as he continued picking out groups from the crowd and quickly categorizing them as he would military units. Last were those who ran with no supplies, or who ran with children or others who looked unfit for the wild open spaces or who were not adequately dressed for the freezing temperatures night was going to bring on. "You're already dead, and just don't know it." He said aloud of most of them.
"I said close the gate! Do it or I'll come there and kill you myself!" He shouted and drew his sword for emphasis when the guards looked at him as if he'd gone mad.
That did it, they began to close it. "Gods, we'll inflict more losses on ourselves through sheer panic than she will through violence! I hope somebody has had the sense to do the same at the other gates." He said to himself as he sprinted on, he quickly spat out, [Agility Boost], activating the martial art to restore his energy as soon as he felt his pace slowing down. 'Not exactly what it's meant for… but it'll do.' He thought to himself as his pace picked up again.
"Guards! Restore order! Get the population under control!" Captain Graff continued from point to point, bellowing orders from atop the wall. Elsewhere, he heard those orders being echoed independently of himself and he let out a small sigh of relief. 'I see we haven't lost all sense. That is something at least.' He thought.
He sheathed his sword, along the streets he saw that somebody had the sense of drawing out the cavalry having them use long spears to control key points and lock the entire city down.
The clip clop of horse hooves and the clink of armor gradually dominated and the citizens' fear of their own soldiers resorting to violence was drawing them back away from the fear of the demon beyond the gates that they had learned was coming for them.
As he saw that order was being restored, he made his way back to the headquarters building and main administrative center for the city. He walked brusquely past the guards and pushed open the double doors that led to the council and strategy office as soon as he reached them. The sound of his meaty hands slamming the door open in his way and then falling closed behind him gave pause to those present.
Graff spoke clearly and succinctly as he made a report they didn't ask for. "It's done, order is restored, but many citizens have fled, the remainder... I don't know how many yet, but let's just say that the end result will be that buying a house here will be very cheap for quite some time." He said with gallows humor and frown on his face. "If you want our people to live, you have to send out scouts and wagons to retrieve them to bring them back here, most of them will die out there long before they reach Kami Miyako, if not from the cold, or thirst, or hunger, it'll be because they kill each other for what meager supplies some of them managed to carry out, or they'll destroy our own villages to sustain themselves. It'll be chaos out there."
"Forget them. They're dead." The Count said as cold as the wind outside. He slammed his fist down on the table and gnashed his teeth, "Serves them right for abandoning us and not holding faith in the six to protect us! Besides, this way we have more supplies and can hold out in a siege for much longer."
Captain Graff barely restrained his urge to sputter in outrage. Instead he simply kept his hands folded behind his back and clenched them into tight fists. His bright blue eyes went around the table looking for any sign of disagreement, he found none.
"The real question is how we can keep her from taking the city, what about the use of elven slaves as hostages. Put some of them on stakes along the walls, and use them as shields against arrow fire, or perhaps offer to end their lives if she doesn't withdraw." The Count proposed, stroking his long white beard as he spoke.
"That won't work." Captain Graff replied bluntly.
The Count sputtered, "How do you know that, soldier?!" He demanded abruptly.
"Because, My Lord, she executes hostages first. It's in the reports I submitted to your ah... predecessor. Simply put, hostages will just piss her off. They won't slow her down longer than it takes to put an arrow through their hearts. Hostages are useless, maybe we can negotiate for a surrender and a withdrawal with them, but... I honestly doubt she'll even go that far for us."
"I suppose 'you' have a better idea?" Commander Miniver asked sarcastically.
Captain Graff took a deep breath and began. "Sir, yes Sir. I propose a defense in depth, we all got the same word, she'll grant one hour to consider surrender and then destroy her opponents, we can't surrender this place or there will be nothing but villages between her and Kami Miyako. But we can make this city into a multi layered fortress and buy time. Simply put, we are all dead men. She outnumbers us. The only things we have going in our favor is that she 'probably' won't slaughter the civilians if we fight her as warriors, and we have good defensive positions to hold out from. We set barricades at every intersection, destroy buildings, lay out fire traps with oil, we make her walk through hell itself and wrest such a price from her that when she gets to Kami Miyako, she has no more will left to fight us."
"Are you really proposing that we essentially treat our entire force here as a suicide corps?!" The Count practically shrieked as he clutched at the thinning gray hairs that feebly clung to his head while his body shook like the leaves that clung to nearly bare limbs.
Captain Graff was already regretting his proposal, he closed his eyes gently so he would not have to see the cowardice around him, his body tensed as he prepared for the rejection of his proposal, but he carried on anyway. "My Lord, that is exactly what I propose. We put fallback points everywhere, we destroy every building that can be passed through, we gather everyone able to fight and put a sword or spear in their hands and ready them to fight to the end. If we wear her out enough, we 'might' be able to exact some concessions from her, there are only a few ways we'll get absolutely none, and that is to use hostages, especially elves, against her. I have no idea why, but for some reason something about how elf women are treated seems... by all reports, to put her into such a blinding rage that she goes on killing sprees. We're not dealing with something normal here."
"What if we kill her?" The Count asked thoughtfully, "I could... call in a favor, see if I could get an assassin to strike her while she sleeps. Even the most powerful general is vulnerable in their sleep." He said in his raspy, aged voice.
'Yeah, I'll just bet you could do exactly that, you slimy bastard.' Captain Graff thought to himself, biting back the urge to so much as whisper it under his breath.
Graff pretended to give it some thought before shooting it down, he stroked his immaculate brown mustache as if deep in thought. "Not impossible, but that still leaves her Vice Commander, and her army is with her by choice, they have very strong bonds of loyalty, they'll likely fight on to take revenge for her if we kill her.
"Could you kill her, do we have anyone who could defeat her in combat?" The Commander asked, pointing to Graff anxiously, his finger shook enough that his armor rattled all the way to his shoulder. "You've killed dangerous beings before."
"I can try... but there's no guarantee I can win, but maybe... maybe if we can draw her in, but listen, I don't want to just let all those people out there die... I've... you know I'll follow orders gentlemen, but this is different. You do one thing for me, and I'll challenge her to a duel when the time comes." Captain Graff replied in a very 'mercantile' voice, sly and thoughtful as he approached these men of influence on their own terms.
"What?" The Count asked, his sharp beady dark eyes staring at him in suspicion.
"Like I said, a lot of people ran for it, they're our people, I'm not willing to let them die, I took an oath to defend them. Gather some wagons with supplies, blankets, food, that kind of thing, bring back those willing, but give out the supplies necessary for survival to the rest, that should let more people make it safely to Kami Miyako. Do this within the next three hours, before sunset, and I will fight Neia Baraja by myself if that is what you want. What will it be?" He asked and folded his arms defiantly in front of himself, and awaited their answer.
...Golden Fortress...
"Now, get walking." Neia said in front of the grunting, groaning, and crying overseers.
They looked at her with uncertainty. "I said, get going. Go, run along to Kami Miyako, it'll take you awhile, but you can make it if you're careful. Tell everyone you meet what happened here, I'm sure you'll encounter plenty of villages along the way, they might help you, if you're lucky. Don't let me catch up to you though, or else I'll hand you over to the first group of elves I encounter, I doubt they'll give you a better offer than I." Neia said quite reasonably as if her bowl of wrath had been emptied bare.
The warning of the 'head start' got them moving, and they began to fall all over themselves to flee, as if they forgot for a moment their chains and wounds, tumbling in a tangle of limbs and curses. Neia let out a sadistic laugh that would have made a guardian proud, and watched as they struggled to leave.
She slowly reached down into her pouch at her side and put on her visor. "Skana!" She called out as loudly as she could.
"Up here!" Skana shouted back from atop the tower.
"Well, come down here!" Neia shouted almost frantically.
With a quick glance given to her two companions, the one eyed vice commander rushed down the steps and presented herself with a quick salute of her fist to her heart. "Ma'am, you called?" She asked.
"See that the former slaves are given a cart to rest in, they can come with us, we could use the extra hands for now, give them food and clothing, some warm blankets, that kind of thing. Have the breaker secured in a cage for now, we'll put him to use at Wheaton as an example. And get the army ready to move, we've given the city enough time, I want us to move out in a few hours I... I think I need a little more rest."
"Neia..." Skana looked carefully over the pope, bitter cold wind picked up and whipped her hair around behind her, there was a small and constant tremble to her body, so small that Skana almost missed it. "Neia are you alright... talk to me." She whispered and reached out to take her wife's hand through her gloves, "You're shaking."
Neia smirked a little, "It's kind of cold, you know, this is what winter feels like."
Skana looked at her for a moment, Neia's eyes were hidden by her visor.
"Neia... let me look at you..." Skana said gently, and releasing her hand, she reached with both of her own up toward Neia's face to take the visor off.
"No!" Neia said and jerked herself away from Skana suddenly, "I'm fine, alright! I'm just going to... go relax for a little while before we get under way, and you've got work to do, Vice Commander, tend to that first, then worry about me."
Skana stopped her hands before they reached the visor hiding the eyes she loved, Neia's reaction was unexpected at the least. She slowly let her hands go back to her sides. "A-Alright... General." Skana said with the smallest bit of hurt in her voice as she backed away.
Up in the tower, Lakyus had been watching beside CZ. "We need to watch her, we don't know how far she'll go, or what His Majesty will do if she goes too far."
"I will report to him." CZ said in a monotone that would have sounded indifferent, save that her look down below lasted just a little longer than it needed to, and that spoke volumes about her concern.
"Good, for now, we need to go, I'll get my Roses in order, help with the elves, and join you up at the front when I am finished." Lakyus said and with only the smallest acknowledgement from CZ, she departed, leaving the maid demon alone to report to the Sorcerer King.
Neia, unaccompanied at last, went to her tent and sealed it behind her. She went to the table, yanked off her visor and threw it down. Her palms slapped down with a crack on the wooden surface and she leaned forward so that her small weight was resting on it. "Keep it together, just keep it together, you're fine, you're fine, they deserved it, they all deserved it and somebody's got to do this. You don't have to do it forever, just end this country and it can stop. Yes... that's right, it can end, it will end... get rid of the ones in the way, get father his due..." She spoke quietly to the empty air, and slammed one hand over her chest where the armor protected her breast, she started breathing hard and could practically feel the sweat spring to her brow despite the cold. "Wheaton..." She felt her eyes widen and nearly bulge, "Yes, they're in the way, but not many, no not many anymore. Get them out of the way, and they have only two cities left." She wiped her eyes clear as soon as they blurred over so that she wouldn't let anything fall and stain the map.
"Maybe... an hour's rest, that'll do me some good, I could use it, and that's plenty." She thought out loud and went to the cot to lie down. She took out a bottle and took several long hits of it before putting it away again, then she closed her eyes to rest.
...Crossroads...
Enri was swearing up a storm while the Vice Commander laughed at her frustration. "Lupu, with me." She said and looked down at the smug Vice Commander. "You," she said to the guard who brought the news, "Guard her." She turned to the smug looking prisoner and said, "You, don't even move."
"Yes, ma'am." Vice Commander Ira said sweetly and resumed laughing as Enri stalked out of the room with Lupusregina loping behind her as fast as they could go together.
She was just about to open the door to the outside when another message came in, she froze, she froze so completely that Lupusregina almost ran into her.
"Enri, what is it?" The red haired beauty asked.
"It's... Lord Ainz. He's going to open a Gate for me in a moment, the meeting in Forton is about to take place and I'm expected to attend." Enri looked at Lupusregina with a hint of fear.
"Oh god, I have to report this... all of this... in person, when I arrive..." She started breathing hard.
Lupusregina touched her cheek, she smiled sweetly, "Relax, Lord Ainz is wise and merciful to those who are loyal, you didn't want this to happen, and more importantly... to take care of this problem, you'd have to stop being you... just... leave it all to me, I'll go find Sun, and we'll get this mess sorted out before you've finished apologizing... or close to it anyway."
Enri cracked a fragile smile, "It's not... I'm not afraid of what he'll do to me... he's a good king, I just don't want to have disappointed him is all. He's put so much time into me, into making me into someone worth more than just a dirt scrabbling peasant, I wanted to give him victory and good service in thanks... and now I've let riots break out all over the place..." Her eyes glassed over with angry tears as she waited for the Gate to open.
Lupusregina pulled her into an embrace, the sentiment Enri had just expressed was one worthy of a Nazarick born servant, the Grand Matriarch pounded her little fist against her bodyguard in frustration. "Not only is this a terrible failure, but... my soldiers... my soldiers... how many who trusted me will pay the price?"
"Everyone does so willingly, you said it yourself, so learn from it, make your apology to His Majesty and we'll make things right here, by any means necessary." Lupusregina said, and holding to Enri's shoulders, she pulled her straw haired friend back. "It'll be fine, only Supreme Beings don't make mistakes, it is a show of their mercy that they forgive ours when we make them. Remember, I failed him once too, you know. He forgave me, he'll forgive you." She matched the cracked smile of General Enri, who wiped her face on her sleeve and sniffled loudly.
"Thanks Lupu, you're the best." Enri said as she straightened up and got control over herself.
Lupusregina giggled, "Well, to know if that's true, you'd have to let me have a turn with you before you go back to your husband, that way you have something to compare to."
She gave her large toothy grin and tilted her head as she giggled. Enri laughed, "You may be a perv, but I love you for it." She darted a finger up and wagged it, "Not that way though! No more rumors!" She laughed, and the Gate opened a few feet away.
"I'll be back soon, I leave the city in your hands." Enri said, and walked through with the command confidence that time, training, and victory had given her. She would need it all in the next few minutes.