Tanya's eye twitched, and then she began stalking forward.
She would be tempted to say that Mary had planned this, but…
She blinked. Even if she had seemed incredibly angry about the undead – which was undoubtedly due to her obsession with Being X – she hated Tanya more. Though how she could have planned this…
Tanya shook her head. Now was not the time.
She heard the muttering of the other adventurers behind her, but she paid them no mind. She looked up to the top of the wall, where she could see two sentries stood, petrified. "Hey! How do we get up there?"
Both of them looked confused, and then they looked down at her. They pointed down, towards a small door in the side of the wall near the entrance. Tanya began to stalk towards it. "Viktoriya! Begin organizing them by job."
Tanya marched up the stairs, only slightly discomforted by her side and the glaring afternoon light that floated through the small windows.
She couldn't feel anything, but she noticed that there was definitely something inside her, if her inability to bend very far was anything to go by.
She reached the top, and glared at the two sentries. "What are you doing? Close the gate!"
They looked at her like she'd said something odd. "How will the adventurers get out to fight, then?"
Tanya raised a single eyebrow as her lips twisted into an even nastier frown. They flinched, and they began to slowly back away from her, like she was some animal.
Well, the pain in her side seemed to be as good as any reason to act just a little bit angry. Tanya lifted up her rifle, and began to wave it around haphazardly. "Lower the gate. We need a defensible position for fighting that many. Why would we fight them if we don't have to? Make them spend the resources conducting a siege."
The one on the left seemed like he wanted to continue to argue, but she just pointed her rifle at him, letting her blade rest a few inches from his face.
"R- Right away, ma'am!" they shouted in unison. Instead of heading towards the conspicuous looking cranks that dominated the back half of the rectangular room, they instead walked towards what looked like an archaic control panel. Both of them pushed a pair of buttons in unison, and Tanya sighed.
She could have just done that.
The floor began to shake slightly, and Tanya reveled in the loud thud the gate made as it hit the ground. She knew that the thing wouldn't stop any strong undead, but it was better than nothing.
She walked out of the room, onto the top of the wall. She gazed down at the group of undead. There were at least a couple hundred, and Tanya could see an ominous absence of light at the center of the thing, out of which more undead crawled.
She looked inwards, towards Axel. Viktoriya had finished, it seemed. She'd arrayed everyone into loose groups.
A Voice Amplification spell saw her shouting at the top of her lungs. Her voice echoed around the area.
"VIKTORIYA. HAVE THE MAGES, RANGERS, AND PRIESTS COME UP HERE! EVERYONE ELSE NEEDS TO GET READ!"
She glared at the two lost looking guards. "Well? Get me a chair! It's tiring enough fighting off the pain in my side."
Again, the two simpletons paused to stare at her dumbly, and she took a deep breath.
"If you don't get me a chair, I'll use your broken bodies instead," she ground out. Both of them rushed back inside, and gave her a simple, wooden chair as ordered.
She breathed a sigh of relief as she saw Mages, Rangers, and Priests coming up on her side. From what little she could see of the interior, she made out that they were all coming over here.
She nodded. They would need to be coordinated, and they could do what she planned, as long as that was true.
Viktoriya saluted her, and Tanya stared down the Mages. None of them could meet her gaze, nervously staring at the undead outside the gate or back towards the stairway they'd just abandoned.
Tanya shook her head, yearning to have the 203rd under her command. They could cut down a couple hundred corpses in moments – or at least force them to retreat.
Sitting, she began to relay her orders. "If we don't stop them here, the undead could roam through Axel and kill everyone," she said, fully aware of the deal the Demon King had with Wiz.
Verdia's notes had been enlightening, and he – along with the rest of the Demon King's army – couldn't kill anyone that didn't attack them first.
Her words were not intended to be truthful. The lies were intended to motivate the adventurers into protecting Axel. "They could cause massive damage to everything and anyone they find. Any buildings you cherish could be wiped away in an instant. You aren't the best, nor are you what I would ask for."
More than a few of them glared at her for her comment or gasped as they remembered that shop. Tanya shook her head. "But we can do this. We just need to conserve our resources, be patient, and remain united. Can you all do that much for me?"
A Mage stepped forward, and then a second one did too. It was Aya, with another Reincarnate behind her. "No problem. Just tell us what to do."
The small, arrogant smile on her face didn't reach her eyes, but her declaration prompted others into joining for her, and soon, all of them were cheering.
Another stepped forward. "I love this town! It's been good to me, and there is much we should preserve! We can't back down, not when they could destroy what we love!"
The others cheered him on, and many of them were making courageous declarations of how they'd protect Axel.
Tanya ignored them, fully aware that at least half of the males had visions of scantily clad Succubi plastered all over the insides of their mind like bad wallpaper in an even worse apartment.
She looked over the wall. She saw that the adventurers below, the close-quarter fighters, were all cheering, and Darkness was standing in front of them.
Tanya smirked. "Alright. This is what we'll do."
-OxOxO-
The Undead Mage scowled. Verdia had ordered that he lead the attack so he could gain some experience.
Personally, he wasn't so sure about doing something like this; he felt that he was more suited to research, or maybe just casting spells. Leadership seemed… daunting.
Still, Verdia had insisted, and Ragcraft had supported him, so here he was, summoning Undead from the castle and from what he could find in the earth in front of the walls. There wasn't much, but there was enough to create a few reinforcements.
The Undead Mage shook his head, and said, softly, "We're advancing."
According to the books on strategy Verdia had provided him, as well as a bit of personal instruction, adventurers would usually mass outside the gates, present themselves as willing targets, and then send their strongest fighter forward to save them all.
It was… annoying to see that they were deviating from the norm, but he supposed they might not have someone that strong, or they were holding out hope that they would receive support from outside the town.
The order to march forward slowly reached the front of the group, and as the Undead Mage stepped forward, those around him stepped with him. Soon, hundreds of bodies marched forward, almost in unison.
Then, he heard it. Shouts coming from the top of the battlements. He prepared himself, to send a spell ten times stronger than anything they could make back at them.
Then he relaxed and let a raspy chuckle escape his lungs.
A laugh to his left mirrored his own. "They're doing a bit of gardening?" the knight closest to him asked rhetorically.
He smirked, suppressing the urge to converse only through the orders Verdia had given him to look professional.
Though Verdia had chosen most of his guards, he had chosen this one as his personal guard in particular, although the Undead Mage couldn't have told anyone, including Verdia, why.
Regardless, the knight was right; he could faintly hear shouting, and while he might need to be wary of spells ordinarily, the fact that each and every spell was aimed at the ground in front of the gate, instead of at his forces, almost made him laugh.
"It seems they think they can slow us down! Continue forward." On they marched, watching as the spells poured down onto the ground in front of the gate. Soon, they were nearly at the gate, until-
He frowned with what was left of his lips. There seemed to be a problem. Scowling – why were they taking so long? They had more than enough Undead Knights to tear through the gate – he pushed through the crowd, and came to a stop.
Not voluntarily, either. He looked down to his feet, and saw that they had become stuck. He looked to the other Undead around him, and cursed; it seemed that they had been caught in some sort of trick.
His own feet and legs were knee-deep in thick, oozing mud. When he tried to move them away, his every effort was stymied by the mud, which wasn't letting go.
He grimaced; the undead in front of him were struggling to move forward, but their heavy weaponry was holding them down. The Zombie Makers and Zombies could still struggle forward, but none of them seemed to be making much progress.
He looked up towards the walls, arching his head up. His eyes widened fractionally as he realized that the Mages were now chanting dangerous spells. Then this had been their plan…
He scowled as Rangers also began to line up in preparation to rain arrows down on them, but one person in particular inspired… fear.
He studied them, and he realized that it was not the person, but the odd, spear-like object that they were holding.
He blinked in confusion, for a moment. Some unknown feeling or wisp of a memory, perhaps.
He shook his head; he still needed to attack. He eyed the side of the wall, and nodded. His other forces would start there.
"Go around, towards the left, and begin building a ladder!"
The ones that could, those behind him that weren't stuck, immediately sprinted to the left of the mud patch, towards the wall. The Undead Knights ahead of him still attempted to struggle, but they made little progress.
Instead, the Zombies stumbled passed them, followed closely by their Zombie Makers. He smirked as he heard the cries of shock from those inside as his minions did his bidding.
Unlike the flimsy living, undead were immune to the low amount of pain they would experience from stacking up on top of each other, like rungs of a ladder.
He could hear shocked shouting slowly drifting down from the top of the wall. He smirked. Zombies and Undead Knights didn't suffer from something as impure as 'physical pain,' which was why you didn't hole up in a castle when you knew undead were coming: they were superhuman, and could do things like stack up against the side of your walls and climb over.
Obviously, no one in there was experienced enough to know this. His attack would be easy, then.
He turned back to his trapped forces, a spell tapping at the edges of his mind. That could work.
-OxOxO-
Tanya gaped at the undead. That was… unexpected.
And ridiculous.
The Mages and Rangers, who had been jubilant at stopping the invaders dead in their tracks, were now despairing, shouting about doom.
Tanya tapped Viktoriya's arm, and the girl set Tanya's chair back down on the ground. Tanya wracked her hair, for a moment – why did she always have to come up with these things on the fly?
Tanya shook her head. She needed to at least appear confident – morale was important, after all.
She smirked, and shrugged her shoulders. "Gravity hasn't stopped working, has it? Just destroy the Undead at the bottom."
Viktoriya nodded, and immediately went to the edge. The others didn't seem to be nearly as confident.
"We don't have the firepower," one Mage said pitifully. Tanya turned to Aya, and she nodded, confirming the words of the others.
"Most Mages don't have the firepower that you two seem to. The Rangers can't do much either, besides hope for a lucky hit…" she said, trailing off while pointing towards the Priests.
None of them had yet to join in on the battle. All of them were off to one side, playing cards. All of them had refused on the grounds that they weren't allowed to join in unless they were paid.
When Tanya had told them the guild would compensate them, they had still refused. She breathed in deeply, and rose from her chair. The pain in her side hurt, but not as much as the familiar anger she felt towards religion.
Oh, Tanya knew that, if given the option, she would probably leave a battle or stay out of a fight. However, Tanya had tried to assure them that they could win, and the Priests said that they didn't doubt that.
They just refused to work without compensation.
Tanya glared down at their leader. "Alright. I'll pay you all one Eris. That means your been compensated, right? You can fight then?"
They laughed, and a female Priest that Tanya recognized jumped forward. "Sorry, Tanya! The doctrine of the Eris Cult says we need fair compensation for our work," Ashley, the Priest who'd taught her Heal, said.
Twitch.
Most of them stared above her head, at the movement of her ahoge under her hat, but Ashley just turned her nose up at the girl, leering up from her seated position at her. "We won't be cowed! We want your money! Or, you can join the Church. With that Heal you cast, you could be an excellent Priest."
Before Tanya could think of a proper response that wasn't angry yelling or bodily harm delivered upon the woman, an explosion rocked the wall, and Tanya grinned. She turned around, to see that the others were staring at Viktoriya, amazed. Others seemed to be staring over the wall.
Tanya turned back to them. "I think we'll be fine. It seems we won't need your help."
They shrugged, and went back to their cards. Tanya gave them one last glare, and then stumbled back to her chair. Supporting her weight on it, she leaned over the side, smirking at what she saw.
A chunk of the gray, bland walls had been destroyed, but a portion of the invaders had been decimated. A few of the Knights were still clinging to the walls, but even they were still subject to physics, and getting struck by an arrow was enough force for most of them to lose their grip and fall back down to the ground.
Tanya nodded, and made a note to start carrying around a bit of emergency Manatite; she could have ended this a while ago if she'd just had that. As it was, she would be rested enough soon and have the mana to end things nicely.
She smirked down at the enemy commander, a pale, ashen faced corpse clothed in purple-black garments. She didn't recognize what type of undead he was, but she was fairly sure that she could take them on in a few minutes. She just needed a bit longer to recover.
-OxOxO-
The Undead Mage finally pried his feet from the mud. He looked over his shoulder and saw that a few Undead Knights had made it, and not many others. He turned his attention to the wall, and gaped.
A small portion of the wall showed a bit of damage – chipped blocks, blackened surfaces, and even a bit of the stone itself had vanished. The most shocking thing was that all of his undead ladders had been blown away.
Over a hundred undead had been destroyed in the attempt to climb the wall, and they hadn't managed to kill a single person. All of them were calmly firing down, picking off any stragglers that had been left clinging to the wall by the explosive spell.
He spun, holding up a hand and chanting angrily. Mana built up in his arm, and just before it would have burst, he funneled it into the decayed tree limb he was using as a staff.
"FIREBALL!"
From its tip, a ball of fire bloomed, expanded, and crashed into the gate.
The wall, the ground, and the air itself shook. He smirked as the gate's blackened iron twisted from the impact and heat, and he laughed as a few of the adventurers fell off the top, tumbling to the ground below.
If the crunch from their impact wasn't enough, the screams he heard confirmed that they were very dead.
He watched as the undead that had been contained by the mud break out of it, walking on the earth they had been trapped in – now hardened by the . They marched forward, and he cried out another order.
"Towards the gate!"
Those at the foot of the wall began lumbering towards the opened gate. They were still shot at occasionally from the top, but he couldn't care less. They couldn't take them on with just arrows and spells.
Then, his hopes were dashed. Massive chanting could be heard from the top. Chanting that made what had once been his heart quiver.
"Heal!"
The Undead began to wither away, for a moment, and then their attacks became renewed. They climbed into the destroyed gate, and clashed with the adventurers inside. He could see one person of note – a Crusader by the look of her. Otherwise, none of them seemed to be particularly strong.
He turned his gaze to the top, and ordered the knights at his side to follow him inside. They'd mop up the ones at the bottom, and then-
Another spell rocked the ground, and the Undead Mage gaped. A massive crater had struck the ground. Bodies – both his own undead and the defenders – had been sent flying about, and only a few of his hardier Knights still walked about.
His entire invasion force – two hundred undead – had been reduced to his best forces and those still surrounding him.
He snarled and stopped underneath the gate, hidden from the view of those above.
The knights around him protected him from the occasional adventurer as he summoned up yet more forces, taking the time to direct his Zombie Makers – both those currently inhabiting a body and those that had lost theirs – to the freshly made corpses that populated the inside of the walls.
-OxOxO-
Tanya rushed down the stairs, cursing herself the whole way down. She'd made a deal with those Priests – she had promised them each ten thousand Eris, or the equivalent in some sort of good or service, and given them a promise for more once they'd gotten back to the guild.
Now, she was trying not to trip as she made her way down. Viktoriya had gone first, followed by the Priests, who were protecting the Rangers who'd survived. The Mages were following after Tanya, and most of them sounded annoyed to be stuck behind the wounded person.
She couldn't care less. As soon as she got out there, she was going to work out her frustration from letting Mary get away and from having to participate in a medieval siege, of all things, on the undead.
She came to the door, and pushed it open. Something – probably a body, but she didn't turn around to look – had blocked the door, but she'd shoved it aside. She watched the bedlam.
The last light of the setting sun cast the entire area in shadows, and the angry shouting of more undead that continued to pour from the now-destroyed gate echoed around the crater she'd made and the surrounding houses.
The Warriors and Crusaders that had been standing against them were beginning to falter. She spotted the Priests casting Heal, or purifying bodies, and the Rangers had formed something of a firing line behind Viktoriya. She cast her gaze around, and barked orders to the Mages.
"Concentrate your spells on the gate. Make sure you hit whatever you're aiming for. We don't have mana to waste."
Tanya stalked off, throwing a glance behind her back to see Aya and the demure Reincarnate behind her casting spells. She turned around again, and locked eyes with a Zombie Maker and a number of Zombies around it.
It didn't look very different from a normal person, except for the way its neck was twisted at an unnatural angle and how most of its hair seemed to be turning an oily, thick black. Tanya drew her rifle, ready to fight.
It hesitated, and then turned away, chasing after someone else. The Zombie's lingered, but they followed their master. Tanya felt her stomach sink a bit, but she forced down the feeling, marching over to where a group of people was doing nothing.
One of them pointed behind her, but Tanya simply activated her Reinforcement spells and jetted over, avoiding the attack. She turned around, sliced through the thing's head, and turned to them.
She gave them a once over, and sighed.
Thieves, all of them. She turned her body – her neck was feeling a bit stiff from all of the mana she'd been pushing through her system – to the one in front.
A Thief with cat-like ears – Tanya hadn't asked, and she wasn't going to – stood in the front. The 'Beastmen,' as they were called, were probably the creation of some dick-for-brains Reincarnate who had gotten too horny.
She shook her head in an attempt to focus through the pain. "Why aren't you fighting? If you won't fight because of some inane set of rules like those gutless Priests, I will make you do fight, compensation or not."
They stuttered. "We- Well, we're Thieves, and so we're not supposed to do direct fighting…"
Tanya gripped her rifle, imagining it was a vital organ of one of these idiots. "Then don't! Use Bind, or Lurk, or whatever the hell you want to! Be sneaky, like your job suggests that you are, and take them out! Or just restrain them! We don't have time to be sitting back twiddling our thumbs while we wait for someone else to do the dirty work for us!"
She heard something behind her groan, and she swung her rifle around, decapitating another zombie without looking. She surveyed the battlefield again, calming down a bit as those behind her slowly trickled away, joining other fighters who seemed to be flagging.
Pieces of people were strewn about, but the defenders did seemed to be winning. With the Mages firing at the gate, everything inside was almost gone. She gazed at the gate.
She ran towards the Mages, utilizing a small Flight spell to reach them quickly. She tapped Aya on the shoulder, and when the girl turned, Tanya swiped her staff out of her hands.
Ignoring her angry outburst, she shouted. "Explosive Vaporization."
The spell left the top of the staff, hurling towards the gate at an agonizingly visible pace, instead of the near-instantaneous speed of a bullet. The ensuing explosion destroyed the rest of the gate, and Tanya could see that the stone wall above it began to crack.
She waited, for a moment, and watched as the dust settled. Then, out of the cloud of dust, a concentrated group of undead emerged.
Tanya narrowed her eyes. The purple-cloaked undead was at the center of a formation of ten Undead Knights. The gnarled tree limb in his hand was just as black as the decayed skin on the faces of the undead around him, but the leader's skin seemed to be just as pale as its protectors' armor.
"To think that you could do so much damage to my forces… I commend you all!" he said, gesturing to the corpses around him. Most were starting to rot already – another effect of the undead? – but Tanya couldn't mistake the scent of fresh blood for anything else.
Tanya stared across at Viktoriya. She was standing next to Darkness and another Reincarnate – Takashi, Tanya remembered.
Tanya made a circular motion with her hand, and Viktoriya nodded. Tanya used Lurk, and took a deep breath. She'd need to use her Circlet, if this kept going on.
"You dare to go out, to find monsters, to do anything but cower and pray to your pathetic Goddesses while a Demon General is nearby? Brave, to be sure."
He paused.
"You are all also foolish and naïve."
As the fool talked as if he'd already won, Tanya crept behind his position. She didn't get very close – the Undead would sense her, regardless of her Lurk. She was close enough to see the designs on his cloak, though, not that she could make any sense of the squiggly lines.
"Since it seems you all have suffered, we will be taking our leave. If you leave this battlefield, we will simply collect our dead, and-"
That was enough for Tanya; she knew that letting them get their own dead and the adventurers who had just died would mean they'd have taken no losses, besides the energy and time it took to come get them.
While she didn't want to piss off Verdia, she wasn't on his side yet. If he was willing to send forces here, then he should be willing to lose them.
She dropped her Lurk, and nodded; she couldn't see her, but Tanya was sure Viktoriya had seen. Just as the undead turned around at the call of the knights that had seen Tanya, she activated her spell.
"Artillery Shot!"
The orb travelled more slowly than her Explosive Vaporization, but they couldn't get out of the blast radius in time despite the extra time. As the orb of fiery yellow and white expanded, Tanya threw up an Active Barrier, watching as they were all decimated and thrown about.
Tanya almost smiled, but she shook her head. As the first Sioux had taught her – and the second had reminded her – they weren't dead until she could see their bodies, preferably without heads. She walked forward, Active Barrier in full force.
Then a fist flew out of the smoke, impacting her shield. Tanya could hear the bones break, but all she heard from the rapidly appearing figure was a grunt of frustration.
"What-"
Tanya didn't let him finish. She deactivated the barrier, grabbed ahold of the figure's outstretched arm, and spun him around her body, into what little was left of the gate. A wet thud confirmed that he'd probably broken something, but Tanya rushed over anyway. Undead were hardy creatures, and even Tanya could have survived that attack.
She was right. The thing was hunched over, coughing up blood, but still… going. Glaring, Tanya used her rifle to slice into its ankles.
It cried out at the action. They weren't removed, but they couldn't support its weight.
"What are you… doing?"
Tanya smirked, and activated her Lurk, making sure that it was covering the two of them. "Well, you're pretty strong, so Verdia might miss you."
Someone in her position was willing to switch, if Belzerg looked like it would lose, and pissing off one of the Generals of the opposing side wouldn't do her any wonders. "Teach me a skill, and I'll get you out. Preferably, one that raises undead."
He couldn't move, and at a hint of an attempt to do anything but show her a spell, she could lop off a couple of limbs. She wouldn't have an opportunity to learn magic like this again except for from Wiz, but Tanya was fairly sure that she might object to something like that.
Wiz was staying out of the fighting because she didn't want non-combatants harmed, after all. If she thought Tanya might misuse any spell she taught her – which she would, if push came to shove – then she'd withhold the information.
It glared up at her, and Tanya noted that, underneath the hood, it seemed to be male, if the faint stubble left on its face was anything to go by. Otherwise, the soft features didn't really lend it one way or the other. "Teach you a spell, huh?"
Tanya lowered her rifle again, and it flinched as she rested its blade against its cheek. It seemed it could fear death, then.
It smiled unhappily. "Fine. I know when I'm beat."
Using the wall to support himself, he inched up, crying out as he tried to support his weight with his arms. He held out a shaking hand towards the mound of bodies that was beginning to form from the efforts of those still living. Tanya looked at what was happening around them.
Darkness, Takashi, and Aya were looking around, apparently unused to seeing so much death, while everyone else was making the mound. The Priests were going through, body by body, and purifying them, sadly sighing with each confirmed death.
Tanya grimaced at the sight. This was another reason she wanted to be sure of which side she was joining. Sure, being on the winning side was good and all, but she was also sure that, if one in her position did want to join the Demon King, they would want to be sure said Demon King wouldn't abuse his victory to kill everyone.
Tanya turned back to the Undead Mage, only to realize that the ominous, red-black light that was dancing around him and the soft, harsh muttering under his breath definitely were not good.
A casting time this long had to be Advanced magic, and Tanya had no desire to learn something that powerful, when it raised the dead.
Cursing herself for her distraction – she was really getting tired now… – she used her rifle to lop off an outstretched forearm. He'd be-
But he wasn't incapacitated. He didn't waver, holding up his other arm as the lights grew in intensity and the mana continued to build.
"You killed my forces, and-" he began, but Tanya sliced off his other arm. He just watched it fall to the ground dispassionately, emitting a grunt. She wasn't waiting for this-
But it was too late. He attempted to gesture violently, but considering both of his arms ended in stumps, his hoarse shout that followed came off as panicked and just a little pathetic.
"AMALGAMATION!"
Still, it did the job. As Tanya again sliced down, her blade got caught halfway through his torso and a glass-breaking roar ripped through the air.
Belatedly, she realized she'd deactivated her Reinforcement spells to use Lurk.
He smirked. "You should deal with that," he said, gesturing towards the roaring sound behind her. She glared at him, and jerked her rifle away from him, tiredly turning towards the creature.
She heard something that sounded like 'teleport' come from behind her, but she had bigger fish to fry, like the bulbous, monstrous creature emerging from the pile of corpses.
She noticed several things immediately as it began to rise, to stumble out of the mound of unprocessed bodies. It wasn't hard to make out all of its features, even with the lack of sunlight. The lamps by the streets and the moon above did the job well enough.
It was tall – taller than her, and almost as tall as the house-height walls that protected Axel.
It smelled – Tanya couldn't exactly place the smell, but rotting flesh and spent cartridges seemed to be the most prevalent smells she could make out.
It wasn't even vaguely human shaped – it had six, thin limbs that scuttled around and seemed to be picking up more corpses.
And every single inch of it was made of body parts.
Torsos, most clad in armor or some sort of defensive covering, gripped each other with arms and legs to make up its body, while arms and skeletons made up its legs. The skeletons sometimes wore their former flesh like clothing, whipping it about while the bones clasped other corpses.
A razor-thin tail that whipped about and destroyed a house's wall seemed to be made of discarded blades and the arms that held them.
But all of that paled compared to its head.
Or rather… heads. At the front of its body, dozens of skulls and, when they had flesh, anguished faces rotated about, as if their spines were rotating instead of their necks. Tanya couldn't make it out, but she was sure that their eyes were either bloated with blood or spinning about wildly, searching for prey.
The whole thing was dripping. Blood, shit, and any other bodily fluids that could be named seemed to be draining away, spreading out and touching each and every corpse it could.
When it finally reached them, the bodies shot to their feet – if they had them – and flung themselves into… it, being absorbed and torn apart in the whirling tornado of undead.
She saw that everybody – except for Takashi, Viktoriya, Aya, Darkness, and Shizuka – was screaming in terror and running away.
Even the Priests.
Tanya didn't blame them.
She very much desired to run.
She didn't have any superior that could court martial her, and she could grab Viktoriya in an instant.
They could leave.
No one would even blame them, and they'd probably even congratulate the two of them for living through the experience.
Then Tanya imagined Viktoriya's face when Tanya told her they were leaving, or imagined the Reincarnates that hadn't killed her dying or-
Tanya sighed, and she began to limp towards them, trying her best to use Aya's sceper as a crutch as she gathered her mana. Aya and Shizuka would probably fight for a bit, but even a 'Divine' Relic didn't really seem like it would measure up against this thing. They'd be killed in moments.
Viktoriya would fight it, and she would fight Tanya in order to keep fighting. The Russy girl despised stuff like this, and Tanya could imagine that she'd die in a blaze of glory, just like last time.
Darkness would probably leap towards it and enjoy every agonizing second her death took, relishing in whatever that thing would do to her and crying out in ecstasy as it tore her apart.
She looked at the Crusader, fully expecting her to be panting heavily with a flushed face and small, excited pupils. Instead, she only found half of what she'd expected.
The other half was instead determination, as if she actually wanted to do what she was supposed to as a Crusader.
Tanya nodded, honestly proud of her.
One of the people behind her made a noise of protest. "Tanya, what are you-"
It sounded familiar, but not too familiar.
Nothing seemed all too familiar anymore…
Oh well.
She shook her head, and heard another voice, Viktoriya's, plead with her to stop. She took in a deep breath, and began to flood both of her relics with mana, hoping – no, praying. She was god's tool, after all. Why wouldn't she pray – that she wouldn't do anything too embarrassing.
"Oh god. Please, deliver to me the power to eviscerate this unholy terror that dare defy your will! Grant to this unworthy blasphemer your blessing, and watch as your enemies are destroyed!"
Then, consciousness fading, Tanya let herself one last genuine smile as she heard the people behind her gasp in shock. She had gained a certain flair for the dramatic in her last life, with how few things actually threatened her, and this certainly fit nicely into the definition of dramatic.
-OxOxO-
Viktoriya fought to keep the smile off her face as Tanya began to float into the air, surrounded by a familiar golden glow.
A new glow, emanating from her officer's cap, joined the glow she had come to recognize as Tanya's… gospel magic.
"Ah…"
A wave of pure magical power rolled off of her, eliciting shouts from the others. Viktoriya just sighed.
As she began to fall back with the others, towards the nearby house that had been damaged as the monster had woken up, she reminded herself that Tanya despised doing this; she'd told her how she didn't even remember what she did whenever she gave herself over to that thing, and that the Circlet worsened things.
"Ha…"
Viktoriya, instead of the awe she'd looked at Tanya with in the past, only frowned and watched the battle carefully. Tanya would want to review what she did later, to at least pretend that she had full control of the body that she apparently despised.
"Ha… Hahaha…"
One of the others spoke. Darkness, judging by the voice. "How… even the Princess doesn't have this much power. Only Hero Candidates could do something like this…"
Viktoriya nodded. "She was the best soldier the Empire had. Ever."
"AHAHAHAHA!"
Then, she turned back to the fighting, watching.
Her cruel cackling echoed through the rough circle of destruction the earlier fighting had taken place in, shouting a string of words Viktoriya couldn't hear clearly and that she knew the meaning of anyway.
Prayers.
The sticky, clinging fire that had attached itself to the things back meant she intended to burn the thing with Napalm spells.
It screeched, and she zipped away from its tail, coming to its front. Its thin limbs, covered in weapons and bone, struck out quickly. She was faster, ducking around them.
Once, twice, it struck at her with its forelimbs, and then again with its tail.
She dodged it all.
Viktoriya winced as she saw one nearly impale her. She wasn't even using her Active Barriers.
Meanwhile, the fire on its back burnt. Its fast, lightning quick movements became more sluggish as it undulated, moving fresh bodies to its back to stamp out the fire.
"GRRAAAAAH!"
Viktoriya winced as the girl screeched incoherently.
The scepter near her – because she wasn't even holding onto it; it just floated next to her, following closely – rotated, pointing towards the thing.
The girl blew it back into the house it had partially destroyed, and what was left of the building crumbled to the ground. The monster screeched in anger, and she laughed back, spreading fire across it and then using several Artillery Shots.
It was decimated. Two legs were blown away, and most of the meaty, massive torso was burnt. Still, it rolled to its feet.
She began to clap as she laughed at it. She slowly flipped backwards through the air, laughing and clapping and-
Viktoriya blinked, and then she felt something stinging her eyes. She…
Viktoriya nodded resolutely, and took a clip out of the bandolier she had helped her purchase, loading another clip into her rifle.
One of the Reincarnates grabbed her arm. "What are you doing?!"
Viktoriya shook them off roughly, putting the clip back where it had come from. "Ending this."
Viktoriya heard nothing, but she assumed they had questions. "I can tell. She could vaporize the thing, if she wanted. Its legs are thin, and she could blow them off to immobilize it and then deliver a final blow to the head."
Choking sounds came from the most diminutive of the Reincarnates, while the tall woman named Aya gaped. "You mean… she's… playing with it?"
Viktoriya nodded once. "That's why she hates this. It takes away her mind, her rationality, and leaves only an enemy hating, god-loving replacement. That's what she's told me, at least."
The 203rd never knew, and just assumed she… really loved God.
Though… this was unlike her former superior, even when she had used the Type 95 in her last life.
She didn't always have the best… sense when she was doing less… harrowing work, but she kept her head when she fought the Bloody Valkyrie. However, despite how much her tone and body language and outlook changed when she used it, she never…
"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! COME ON, YOU FILTHY HEATHEN! MWHAHAHA!"
Laughed.
They said nothing, and as the monster rose to its legs – the front two legs having reformed from the bodies inside it – Viktoriya aimed and shouted. "Artillery Shot!"
The bullet sailed through the air, arcing towards the thing, spinning. Viktoriya watched it, using her Reinforcement spells to watch it closely.
Then, she gasped. She was rushing to intercept it. To block the shot and keep fighting. She had never-
Viktoriya hurriedly pumped mana into a spell and shouted. "TANYA!"
The girl paused for a moment, and the bullet sailed passed, impacting the head. Blown apart, it stumbled around for a moment, before what little mana was left in it drained away, and the pile of bodies slowly collapsed.
Viktoriya watched, angry and scared, as the floating girl screamed, grabbed her scepter, and rocketed up and over the gates, probably to find something else to fight.
Viktoriya turned to the others who seemed to be even more terrified than before the monster had risen. "Come on. We have work to do."
They walked out of the house, looking timidly at the remains of the thing. Viktoriya activated her Observation spells, and looked around.
No one. No one had stayed around to get destroyed, meaning Tanya's acrobatics hadn't been seen by anyone but them. She sighed in relief, and turned to the Reincarnates. "You three, go to the guild and tell them what happened. We'll get started on the cleanup."
They nodded and began to walk away. Just as she turned away, she called out again.
They turned around. "Keep out any specifics. Just tell them that she killed the thing. If you tell anyone that we can fly…"
She glared at them, and Viktoriya heard Darkness begin to pant. She turned around, hoping that her threat would be enough to keep their skills a secret.
-OxOxO-
Verdia ground his teeth. "YOU DID WHAT!?"
The Undead Mage's shoulders shrunk. "I used the Amalgamation spell…"
Verdia turned towards the town that was basking in the light of the half-moon. "We have to go stop it. If non-combatants die-"
The mage scoffed. "So what? We'll get an entire city as an undead playground. What's bad about that?"
Verdia turned to the fool angrily. "We have a contract with a Lich, who is something leagues above what you could ever achieve! If any person not fighting dies, we'll have to fight her!"
He shrugged. "Can she fight us and that thing?"
"Yes."
The Undead Mage's face contorted, but Verdia just stared at him determinedly. "She could destroy it with an Explosion spell, and, even with the armor the Demon King gave me, she'd still have more than enough energy to deal with us. Or, rather, just you."
"M- Me?"
Verdia nodded stiffly. "You unleashed an… abomination that hasn't seen the face of this land for good reason! They've turned entire cities, theirs and ours included, into waste lands. They can't be controlled by any but the most stubborn, willful Liches, and summoning one is tantamount to suicide if you can't Teleport."
Just as it seemed he couldn't sink farther, a golden streak began to make its way through the sky. Above the walls, and right towards them.
Verdia turned towards the Undead Mage. "Begin preparations to Teleport, with or without Ragcraft."
He nodded, and Verdia readied himself. Whatever spell this was, it was powerful. Maybe Wiz had decided to throw something more conventional at them, instead of her trademark ice spells?
Then, it began to slow down, and Verdia's eyes widened; it wasn't a spell, but a person.
And not just any person. Tanya von Degurechaff.
As she floated down, Verdia began to rapidly recalculate his assessment of her power. He couldn't just sense it; he could golden light pouring off her form.
She smiled at him.
Creepily.
Verdia knew that a smile that wide must hurt for a human, but it had the effect she was probably trying to convey. It made him nervous to see the face of a fellow Reincarnate look so very… distorted.
Then again, the Heavenly glow around her told him she might not even be human. He didn't have the skills to tell how much mana she had, but the way that he could hear the Undead Mage next to him shake told him more than enough.
"Very, Very, Verdia! I thought that you might be the cause of this. Move or die!"
He tilted his head. That didn't sound like her. She'd been composed, profound, and, above all, sane the last time he'd met her. This singsong, cracked voice didn't seem like that at all.
He tried to reason with her, to stall for a bit more time. "Degurechaff. I can explain-"
She shook her head. "Sorry, no is no. Undead spite god, that means they must be eliminated."
She paused, and tilted her head, eyes unfocused. "Why haven't I killed you?"
Verdia narrowed his eyes, incredulity blooming underneath his helmet. "You would presume to be able to kill a Demon General?"
"Ehehehe…"
Again, that creepy-ass smile contorted her face, and she dared to take her hands off of her weapon and let it float next to her. "Yes. An interesting challenge, especially after the last enemy I killed! No one will interrupt me this time, and I can play with you a lot longer than that 'Amalgamation!'"
Verdia paused. "You…destroyed it?"
She nodded, her grin becoming more normal but still stretched. "Yes. I made sure to burn it, and blow it up, and slice into it, and I would have figured out what it sounds like when a bunch of severed heads and skulls scream in unison as I punish them for denying god and make them sing his holy name, if my faithful follower hadn't interrupted me."
Verdia opened his mouth to speak.
No noise exited however, and he realized he had no idea what to say after that, because what the fuck.
He cleared his nonexistent throat, still unsure of what to say, when the trees and bushes began to rustle, leading to a disheveled Ragcraft breaking through them.
"Sorry I'm late, it was a real pain to steal that much so quickly, but I…"
He paused as he saw the floating woman. He turned his head to Verdia, a concerned face marking his perfect features. "Is that…"
She giggled. "Ragcraft. How nice to see another nonhuman heretic that should be burnt at the stake!"
He stared blankly at her, for a moment, and then he gaped at her.
He was a Doppelganger, after all; he prided his disguises. "What do you mean? My disguise is flawless, you shouldn't be-"
"You're not sweating nearly enough for someone I could eviscerate in an instant."
A veritable bucket of sweat began to pour from every inch of his exposed skin, and Verdia fought off the urge to face palm. He needed more information.
Before Verdia could try and talk the girl down and before Ragcraft could try and beg for his life, blue, glowing squares and a circle filled with a language Verdia couldn't understand popped into existence below him, Ragcraft, and the Undead Mage.
Before anyone could say another word, the girl – he hesitated to call her that, after this encounter – leaped towards them.
"NO! I must, must kill!"
Verdia grabbed her by the arm, wrenching her grip off of his armor.
With difficulty.
"How are you-?"
He meant to ask how she was so strong, but she just screamed at him as his grip tightened. Growling, Verdia tossed her out of the circle just as it activated.
In a flash, they were gone. Dazzling lights flashed passed his eyes, but they subsided, revealing they were back at the castle. A hundred of his best Undead were still there, unable to be summoned by such an inexperienced Undead.
Verdia still felt that they weren't enough between him and the possibly-crazy Reincarnate.
In a flash, the three moved. Ragcraft began barking orders to the undead that were milling about in the courtyard of the castle, and Verdia tried to make sense of what he'd seen.
She had acted completely different to their previous encounters. She hadn't been courteous, and all the tact she'd possessed had flown out of the window arm in arm with her sanity.
She'd even dared to say they should be burnt at the stake, which was terrifying in how ridiculous it was.
She thought she had the power to not only fight him, but weaken him enough to tie him up and then burn him to ashes?
Preposterous…
And decidedly off-putting. He swept inside, heading for the study. He needed to clear out everything of importance before he left a token force to protect the castle. It was much too dangerous to try and fight her without more information.
Ragcraft, panting heavily, thrust a large bag into the waiting hands of a nearby skeleton. It was the money that the small bit of his espionage forces inside the city had been able to gather, along with whatever else he had taken under the guise of a noble.
Verdia turned to him as they half-ran through the castle.
"We're leaving. We leave twenty undead here and head back to the Demon King with the rest. We tell him we found the Double Blessed Hero Candidate, and we do everything in our power to get her on our side."
Ragcraft, for once in the time Verdia had known him, agreed without an argument. "No doubt. We should ask her what God she's devoted to. If they give her that much power, we should add them to the ranks of Wolbach and Regina, even if they haven't fallen from Heaven."
Verdia swept into the study, grabbing books and plans, and making sure to leave nothing. If she was actually hostile to them or on some blood-frenzied warpath, she'd come to the castle and raze it. Leaving anything for her to pick through would be exceedingly stupid.
As he did, the Undead Mage sitting outside on the ground stared down at his body.
He had no hands. His shoulder and body ached, telling him that the fresh air that was touching his insides meant he should be feeling pain and that he should be thinking about that. He couldn't.
That knight he felt drawn towards…
He let himself fall back to the ground, looking at his stumps and staring into the sky. He noted that didn't seem like it was a bad night. The clouds didn't seem too overcast, and it was honestly cool for the time of year.
That knight that had been at his side… they were gone.
Whoever they were.
Whoever they had been.
If he'd had hands, they would have clenched. Verdia had told him that Undead gained power and permanence through their grudges. As long as they held onto them, they could continue to persist through most any attempt at exorcism.
There was a secondary effect of that. Grudges meant remembering their past, or forming new angers towards current circumstances.
The Undea- no, Evan, sat up again, assured that he had a pretty good grudge to keep him going for however long it took him to figure out who that knight was and earn justice for them.
-OxOxO-
She spiraled towards the gate, grinding her teeth.
She stopped suddenly, and coughed. Blood came flying out, and she used a bit of magic to make the blood float in front of her face.
She saw bits of bone, and thanked god she had her spells up. She must have chipped a couple teeth.
More calmly, she floated back to the ground, and walked inside the gate, kicking the melted, twisted pieces of metal out of the way, sending them flying into a pile of rubble that might once have been a building. She gazed around, and saw that there didn't seem to be any people out.
There was still damage, but she accepted that. Body parts lay strewn about, a building or five were totaled, and it looked like one of her spells was still burning.
She gazed at the large mass of meat that was giving of the familiar scent of rotting flesh.
She smirked happily; that was what she loved to smell: dead heretics.
She tapped her chin, wondering where else she could find someone to kill in the name of god. The Thief was an option, but she'd not be any fun…
The Crusader wasn't any fun either. She was pathetic, and she served her god faithfully, even if it was heretical to serve any deity but god. What about…
She smirked and began to stroll through the carnage. The Lich might be fun.
Then she remembered another possible target. Viktoriya.
The Friend.
She let a harsh bark exit her body; friend? When had she grown so soft? She was the Devil of the Rhine.
But…
She furrowed her eyebrows angrily. No, she did have friends. They were important; they helped her, she helped them, and they gave her something else to fight for than just her own survival.
That was the only reason she'd been able to beat…
She gnashed her teeth again; the Bloody Valkyrie. That fight had been too close. She should have prayed more and harder, should have been able to win without the people that obeyed her.
She shook her head. No, she was just happy to have survived. She didn't want to do anything like that again. Why…
She smirked again, and began to jog towards the Lich's residence. Of course she'd love to fight like that again! Her faith had been tested, and she'd proven a more able follower of G-
NO!
Tanya violently shook her head, ripping away her mana from the relics. She threw her cap off, letting it land on the muddy, bloody ground. She cursed, ripping open her thin white shirt and ripping that stupid thing off of her.
She took a deep breath. No, she wouldn't be ruled by those cursed pieces of jewelry. She wouldn't fight Wiz. Tanya wouldn't do that.
Slowly, her breathing evened out, and she shakily picked up both of her relics.
She tried to gather her thoughts. Viktoriya probably saw what Tanya had done, so she'd go to the guild first. Her memories were getting a bit fuzzy, and the longer she waited, the less she would remember.
Then… she had to leave. She was sure to get some sort of reward for whatever she'd done – there was a recollection of some sort of monstrous thing, but that was about it – and pay off whoever had seen her with the reward.
Darkness was still an unknown variable. She needed to distance herself from the Succubi and the charity so she didn't ruin their reputation. She had to decide if she would join the Demon King-
Tanya gasped as pain wracked her body, and then sank from her knees to the ground. Her side was aching, her teeth were screaming at her for daring to breathe, and Tanya was fairly sure several somethings were broken.
Tanya groaned, but she began to pour her last into a Voice Amplification spell. She needed Viktoriya to hear her, since she was rapidly losing consciousness.
She inhaled and screamed, "VISHA!"
She fought down the urge to shout more as the pain in her mouth tripled, and then let unconsciousness take her.
Viktoriya would defend her, regardless of whatever came.
-OxOxO-
She shouted, she raged, she even pleaded. Nothing worked.
The scowling, holy being, their ruler, before her moved not an inch before her cries.
"She's weak, weaker than ever! We can take her on! Just send me down, and-"
"No."
She stared at Him, and then turned around and stomped the ground. She was sure she was causing some sort of weather anomaly somewhere, but she couldn't care less.
"What do you mean? She is a possible threat! Just let me-"
"No."
Eris clenched her hands, fighting to calm herself down. It wasn't working very well. She opened her mouth again, but the God in front of her held up a hand.
"You presume that you have more justification for going down and personally killing her than I?"
'Yes. I had to kiss her. You haven't had to do anything that disgusting, have you?'
She wanted to say that. She really did.
Instead, she just retorted simply. "I can actually go down there."
He snarled at her, and she let her shoulders fall. "I would like nothing more to personally instruct The Atheist on why she should have begged for forgiveness for being just that, but the power it would take would literally cause the end of times, even in a more 'fanciful' world like this one."
"Besides," He groused, ignoring Eris's glare, "I probably couldn't leave Heaven. We have so many contracts binding us together that it's a miracle that Heaven only stopped functioning properly for a few decades when Wolbach and Regina left. If I left, it could simply cease to exist."
Eris nodded. She gave Him that. Things had become much more complicated since the days of yore.
He stopped pacing, and loomed over her. "Of course, the Anniversary is closing in on us. You aren't trying to make Heaven even more unstable, are you?"
Her jaw dropped, and she prepared to rail against Him for even suggesting such a thing.
However, He'd apparently seen enough, and He just sighed. "No need, I'm sure you couldn't have faked that anger."
He smiled at her contemplative, storming expression, and He clapped a massive hand on her shoulder. "Now, next time you go down, you need to get relics."
"But I already-"
He cut her off. "No. You used those relics to try and stop The Atheist by funneling them into disloyal Reincarnates, and those that did wish to atone were killed. Give them to well established Reincarnates."
She frowned at His dismissal of work that had taken her so long to accomplish, but she nodded regardless.
For a moment, there was silence, and His words echoed through her head for a moment. Chris winced.
Those people had… not been nice in the slightest. She understood that they needed people who were loyal, but…
"Ah, sir… are you sure we can't send anyone down there who's more… stable?" she asked.
He blinked in confusion, and then He made a face that mirrored her own wince. "Ah…"
He shook His head. "Chris, while I would like to, there aren't exactly many people we can send down."
She raised an eyebrow, and He rolled His eyes. "Oh, how I wish that no one doubted me," He said, holding up a hand when she began to apologize. "No, your a dedicated worker, and you didn't insult me while asking, so I'll… pull back the curtain, as it were."
Just as she was about to ask who would insult Him – besides The Atheist, of course – He cracked his knuckles.
"Alright. There are three groups of people. Those that go to Heaven, those that go to Hell, and those that get Reincarnated until they do something horrible enough to go down or they opt into living in Heaven."
"Most people, when given the option, would rather not lose their identities, memories, and things that make them who they are, so they choose Heaven to avoid what is essentially an end beyond their deaths," He explained.
He made to continue, but He stopped, sighing. "Being Reincarnated in this world could result in another death, and mortals don't like that. That leaves a very, very narrow pool of people that are willing to face death again, even with the promise of a rule-free wish."
Eris nodded along, captivated. She… hadn't known that.
He grimaced. "I really shouldn't have let those last few people go down. Most of them didn't have enough Karma to go to Heaven, and that Hiroshi should probably gone to Hell, but I thought he'd be loyal…"
He shook His head. "Well, the past is in the past. Now, what are you going to do next time?"
She pouted. "I'll go get Divine Relics and give them to Reincarnates that are already there, if they can help."
He smiled widely at her. There were two very dangerous Divine Relics in the capital that needed to be contained, and she might as well begin looking for them.
As he turned around and busied himself with something, she smirked. She might make a few donations to the Eris Cult as well, when she pinched them from whichever corrupt noble was using them.
"What will you do about Degurechaff?" she asked.
He rolled His eyes. "If she is as weak as you say at some point after the Anniversary… we'll send in our newest angel to finish her off."
Eris almost said something she shouldn't have, like 'What in the fresh Hell do you mean,' but she managed to make her outburst into a cough. That angel was…
He nodded, oblivious. "Yes, she's come along quite nicely. More powerful than she ever was as a mortal, maybe once she finishes off The Atheist, she'll gain a few followers and I can use them to replace Wolbach and a few of the weaker Gods that ran off with her."
Eris blanched; He was giving that former mortal more power?
Hesitantly, and with as much respect as she could muster – because the last person to loudly object to what He did had been shuffled to the lowest position available – she asked, "Is that a… wise decision?"
He waved her off. "Of course! I made her what she was! I made her what she is now: I gave her the ability to do what The Atheist can without the relic, I bestowed on her more power than any mortal had possessed in that world."
Eris didn't say anything, or remind Him of how she had still managed to lose, despite what the Gods and Goddesses had given her, or how she now stayed by herself most of the time, flying about with her wings, or how she wasn't very good at doing anything the Gods asked her to, unless it had to do with violence.
"Now, I need to keep preparing. Go help Aqua with the Reincarnates; The Atheist should be leaving Axel soon enough, if the suggestion I planted in her mind while she was connected with us works. Then, we'll get more people there to fight the Demon King!"
Eris just bowed her head and left the vast area of clouds where He liked to spend his time, ideas already whirling through her mind.
He'd told her to give the Reincarnates that were loyal relics, right? She'd do just that.
Give them a few dreams, have the Divine Relic show up in their room or something. That would work.
And, once they were indebted to her, she'd suggest that they kill The Atheist! With two – or more! – Divine Relics, they'd make handy work of them, and eliminate a possible threat.
Eris smiled softly, and went back to her dimly lit desk, searching through sheaves of paper, looking for someone who would do the job on their word alone, no questions asked. There had to be at least a few of them that believed in Heaven's divinity enough to do that.
-OxOxO-
Revelry. Plain and simple, the loud shouting, cheering, jeering, and generally good atmosphere could be described with no other words.
Well, there were probably a few words that worked, but Tanya didn't care enough to try and think of them. In one hand, she nursed a single beer that was, if her eyes weren't damaged, only half finished, despite how tipsy Tanya was feeling.
In her other hand, the huge bags of her rewards were grasped. That thing she had killed – because the grainy recordings on Viktoriya's Type 97 showed her that she had killed some sort of terrifying beast that she barely remembered – was apparently some sort of disaster-level monster.
The Demon King hadn't used them in something like fifteen years, so the guild staff had delivered a thanks on behalf of the entire nation, and given her several million Eris as a reward.
She was burning through it at an alarming rate right now, paying for every single person's meal, drinks, and anything else they could think to buy.
The costs might have been smaller, but she wasn't just paying for the adventurers.
The towns guards, the clergy, and pretty much anyone that could get into the guild was having each and every thing the ordered paid for. It was like what she imagined a rave had been like, in her first life.
She was sort of upset about it, but she couldn't honestly blame them. Viktoriya's recording showed that the thing was truly terrifying, and she wasn't entirely sure that the town would have survived.
Plus…
Tanya looked around again, and nodded to herself, taking care not to spill her drink. There were far fewer people here. The only reason that as many of the guards and common folk could get in here was that many adventurers had died.
She took another sip, and mused that Wiz could have stopped the killing, but that she had her own beliefs and constraints. Even if she had wanted to – which Tanya didn't doubt she did – she couldn't act against Verdia until he attacked an innocent.
She looked around, trying to peer through the crowd of people. Viktoriya had left some time ago, for some reason. Tanya assumed it had to do with the Eris Cult and how not-dead she was.
Tanya closed her eyes, and sipped the rest of her drink down. It wasn't horrible, but it was too strong. She wouldn't be able to have another drink, if she wanted to keep control of her facilities.
Suddenly, the sound of someone slamming into the seat across from her interrupted her thinking. Tanya opened her eyes, and saw that Darkness was sitting across from her. She was staring at everything around them, except for Tanya's eyes.
She sighed, but Tanya sat up, and set her now empty glass down. It seemed it was time to talk.
"Darkness. Something I can help you with?"
The woman across from her side, opened her mouth, and then closed it again. She took a deep breath, and began to speak. "Tanya. What I did, what I accused you of… they were justifiable."
Tanya raised an eyebrow, waiting for the other shoe to drop. "But… I didn't have all of the information, and I wasn't willing to consider what you said."
Tanya nodded, letting a small smile mark her face. Then Darkness's stare turned stony. "You made a deal with Verdia. I can't ignore that, but you did risk your life protecting the town, and I helped Chris and those other people hurt you. I admit that I don't understand what you did to get that much power, but Viktoriya claimed you hated it."
"I'll trust her, and I'll trust that you have a plan," she said.
For a moment, there was silence between the two of them. Tanya heard Dust loudly declaring that he'd beat anyone at any competition, whether it be manliness, picking up women, or singing.
"I want some of the information you got from Verdia, however," Darkness said. Tanya's enjoyment of her surroundings faded as she frowned, but Darkness shook her head. "No. If you aren't a noble, you aren't well placed enough to use it. Just give some of it to me."
Tanya mulled over the proposition in her mind. Darkness didn't think she'd lost her to the Demon King or to mind control, and giving her something might cement the idea that Tanya was loyal to Belzerg in the Crusader's mind.
The answer, then, was obvious. Despite her reservations at manipulating her friend, Viktoriya's and her own safety were most important. Tanya nodded slowly.
"To start, you should be looking out for a fallen goddess by the name of Wolbach."
Darkness's eyes widened. "Right now, she and her minions are apparently searching Belzerg for 'her other half' and she is weak because of this. If she gets it, you'll have someone more powerful than a Lich to deal with."
Tanya had no qualms at selling out self-proclaimed gods anyway.
"Additionally, you only need to worry about seven of the generals. Wiz is a Demon General."
Darkness almost shot up, but Tanya violently shook her head. "In name only. She's a Lich, but she doesn't do anything besides maintain the barrier. We might need to kill her eventually, but you shouldn't think of her as a threat, unless you start killing non-combatants."
Darkness scoffed, but Tanya ignored her skepticism. Both sides in her own world had committed atrocities in the name of 'preserving the peace' and clamping down on dissent. She didn't doubt that both sides here would be doing the same, if they could have.
"What else… oh, they have some sort of 'Poison Slime' going on a secret mission. Verdia didn't know much, but he's in Belzerg somewhere."
"Finally, someone named 'Vanir' is becoming less affiliated with the Demon King. He's not going to be showing up on the battlefield much anymore."
Darkness's eyes lit up, and she did shoot up this time, giving Tanya a quick goodbye as she left. Tanya just waved at her. She'd say goodbye to her in the morning. For now, she would retire, try and find her in the morning, and then leave.
The posting on the quest billboard said that the capital was demanding more adventurers at lower levels to come to the front. They needed the help, and she would provide it.
They would level up, they'd become well known, and then they'd look around for recruits willing to join their party.
Tanya knew that only having two people in her party wasn't the smartest decision, and without Darkness and Chris, they needed someone else to at least watch their backs. Gaining a bit of reputation would help convince anyone that was wary of their jobs to join them regardless.
Besides, Being X wasn't sending anyone else while she was here, besides Mary. He'd made that clear during their last chat, and he hadn't sent anyone new down, besides his personal pet.
Their last chat…
Her blood boiled at the thought of that bastard using Viktoriya as his mouthpiece, but she calmed down quickly. If she killed the Demon King before the other Reincarnates, she'd get that wish.
That wish…
Tanya smiled dreamily. Oh, how would she use that wish?
She could think of several things immediately – death to Being X, going back to her last life to finish off the Cordiale, torture for Being X, going back to her first life to give them magic and make them even less reliant on religion, making Being X relive her last life, a crate full of stuff from her last two lives that she could reproduce here and use to build some sort of business and rule the country through technology, making Being X into a Giant Toad – but all of them seemed too good to choose between.
She knew she wasn't getting more than one wish, and that she'd need to word it carefully so that he didn't turn it back on her. He wouldn't follow the spirit of what she wanted, especially if she wished for harm against him.
Of course, her getting that wish depended on her killing the Demon King, so her daydreaming was next to useless at this point. She needed to decide if she was against him, and then outpace all the other Reincarnates.
As she rose from her seat, she sighed. The other Reincarnates, that had come before her, were a potential problem. If they got wind of how she had deprived a bunch of their countrymen of their weapons, they might get angry.
They wouldn't find out, though. The attack of Verdia's forces had distracted everyone from her street fight, and she could go clean up any residual evidence on her way back to her inn.
She began to walk out of the guild, thoughts of Reincarnates, wishes, the Demon King's Generals, and how crazy her life was swirling through her head.
Tomorrow, she'd be heading towards the capital, towards greater things, regardless of whose side she would end up on.
It was time to leave Axel behind.
-OxOxO-
A/N 1: In case you all are interested, I've posted a whole bunch of stories that aren't crossovers for Saga of Tanya the Evil. You should check them out.
I've also posted the Omake story, in case you all didn't see the A/N at the top of chapter 17. Check that out too.
A/N 2: So. Tanya is… just a little bit not okay right now.
I mean, it was kind of obvious something like this would happen to someone with the stuff she's had to go through, and that doesn't even take into account what happened during the month before they got killed that she hasn't talked about. I wonder what would happen if someone tried to force her to talk about it?
Oh wait, I don't have to wonder. I can just look ahead a few chapters. Too bad you guys can't. Hehe…
Ah well. The Anniversary is coming up, I wonder what that could be? If you've got any guesses, please, tell me – it'll be humorous to see what you come up with.
A/N 3: Replies to reviews on this website.
Kweh Viola: WHOA! Slavery was not the direction I was thinking… uh… at all. Try for something slightly less horrifying. As a hint… think along the lines of weapons of war.
SoleReclaimer: Yes, it was, and as I've addressed on AO3, I will have an inordinate amount of fun while she's oblivious and when it finally gets it spelled out to he.
Rex will get a bit more time, especially due to the manner in which he was heroically saved.
Prometheus-42: Well, you see, the reason that she didn't give the potion to an animal is because…
*Insert surprised Pikachu face here*
I am an idiot; the YouTube video titled 'Slow Clap' is permanently open on my computer; I should have my writing license revoked; FUCK!
While I might be able to bullshit something about potions not working for non-human things or a funny line about dosages, I completely missed this. Maybe she'll realize later on? Idk man… Idk…
xBUBBA1995x: I'm glad you're enjoying it so much, and make sure to stay warm.
As I've said before, Chris is… an interesting character, with her rabid hatred of demons and very… high opinion of heaven as a whole. REgardless, she's a good stand in for Sioux, especially since Tanya's gotten them confused.
Father Chaos: Thank you for the support and spotting the unnecessary repetition.
A heads up: commenting '...Vik?' is not especially telling of your possible question/praise/concern. I'm forced to assume it's a question about the spelling of Viktoriya's name. The spelling of many characters' and terminologies names – besides Tanya's – is inconsistent across the various forms of media, but the Russians spell the name this way, as does the majority of the stuff I've read, so that's what I'm going with.
Thank you very much for the support for the OCs. As a reward, I'll reveal that an OC becomes a teammate in three or four chapters.
While it is odd that they can't kill human things because of their job, they aren't exactly soldiers either. They aren't expected to kill human-like things that often, and the Tranquility Girls do technically have mitigating circumstances that make you think twice before destroying them.
Uh… I think your idea of Tanya's death is a bit off. The wiki says she's born in the eighties, and she dies in 2013.
AnimeA55Kicker: While Chris surely opposes such things – it's Aqua's cult that allows pedophiles in – she isn't exactly inundated with people she can use.
Besides, he's religious, if he got reincarnated to that world with a karma score that reflected his predilection, and the Church in our world doesn't have a lot of problems with that :D
fwterrorista: While that would be hilarious, Aqua makes sure to tell Viktoriya that The Atheist and the Demon King have to be killed.
Don't worry, though. Kazuma isn't going to die instantly.