Chapter 20 City of Despair
A day has passed since Choryrth's attack on Lescatie and Druella's greatest prize is ruined beyond recognition as chaos and cries run rampant throughout the city with no signs of recovery. Inside her castle, the dining area recently converted into a meeting room since the original meeting chamber had been destroyed by the last falling tower which also killed the husband of the Fallen Brides. Sitting at the head of the table was Lady Druella covered in bandages and a brace around her shattered arm as she painfully listens to the damage and causality reports from the remaining heads of power.
"The man who calls himself Choryrth, The Dragon Lord, and his two skeletal dragons have basically demolished the entire Poor District though it was mostly finished off by the out-of-control wildfires that spread everywhere. The Commercial District as a whole took serve damage as many of our food and medical storages have been destroyed and a few wells have been contaminated making them undrinkable. Over half of the inns and resting areas are also gone leaving a great many people with no place to have shelter and sleep. Finally, here in the Central District, most of the converted churches are either completely destroyed or structurally unstable where they could fall at any moment and thus are being blocked off. The castle itself has suffered the least on the inside but many outside towers and expanded buildings are pretty much gone. The rooms that are safe and insulted are housing those who have no place to stay unfortunately we have already reached full capacity and there are still a huge number of homeless people on the streets." A Dullahan Captain finishes her report and sits back down.
"I see," Druella says with no emotion in her voice. On Druella's right side sat all the logistical and security leaders including the Dullahan Captain and on the left side were all the remaining and available Fallen Brides who all look like walking corpses. Druella looks at Merse and says, "What do you have Merse?"
Merse nods and slowly stands up as she fumbles with her words, "We-e have aan e-estimated guessss of h-h-how many ppeople was lossst; close to six hun-hundred confirmm d-dead but we are still…d-digging out bodies from c-collapsed building-gs and spotting skeletal *hic*mains inside the burnt down housess." At this point Merse is ready to burst out crying as tears start dipping out of her eyes as she starts reading the next bit, "Future predictions of the t-total amount deceased is *inhales deeply* somewhere between seven to eight hundred." All present reacted with sorrowful or in anger expressions or both as that is close to half the population of Lescatie possibly dead.
Merse continues, "Some of the noticeable people we lost are S-Sasha, we found Amanomiya's hand near a hole where Choryrth blasted his way to the roof and, and." Merse breaks down and cries to which Primera stands up and hugs her. Merse buries her head into Primera's shoulder as her muffle wails are easily heard outside of the dining room.
Druella quietly says, "I'm very sorry for your loses Merse, Primera, Mimil." They didn't say anything but they heard Druella's apology. "Merse if that's all, you can leave if you want to."
Merse slowly calms down then shakes her head no as she resumes, "I-I'll be fine, finally, for those who are injured; we are taking care of the critical injured first but due to the sheer amount of people with loss of medical supplies some them are in danger if we don't get new supplies now and fresh healers. Francisca is in stable recovery but Wilmarina is in a far worse state. We unburied her after she was the one who took down one of the dragons and judging from her injuries; she was most injured from the crash with the dragon and then got buried by the debris and a portion of that damn dragon. Both her legs were crushed and the many deep cut lacerations result in a lot of loss blood if we didn't get to her soon, she would have bled to death." Merse sits down but Primera remains standing up, looking at Druella.
Druella asks, "What's your report Primera?"
"Lady Druella, there has been a slow but steady flow of people leaving the city as they are heading west towards other cities and mamono-controlled settlements. The groups consist of mostly families and couples who haven't lost anyone and have gathered whatever they have left and left. This will hopefully ease some pressure off our current problems but lately, my packs have spotted survivors from the destroyed hidden village and the remaining army personnel from the battle with the Dark Guard and the split group that was going after a nearby human village heading back to the city. We are helping some of the wounded but our portals are becoming living stretchers carrying the grievously wounded back here for proper treatment. Lastly, no has been no signs of the Order or the Dark Guard anywhere nearby but we'll keep watching for any incursions." Primera sits.
"Thank you Primera and send my thanks to your packs as well." Primera nods her head in acknowledgment then a Salamander stands up.
"My lady there has been a sharp spike in crime as many mamono and incubuses have started fighting each other over remaining resources and robberies are being committed everywhere. My forces are spread so thin and have their hands tied as they are currently helping out with recoveries, putting out the remaining fires, and assisting in the medical tents. Another problem is whenever we do catch the suspects, we have no place to hold them as all available areas are being used to house the homeless even the castle dungeons are full. What should we do with the criminals, Lady Druella?"
All eyes looked at her as they didn't know how to handle a situation like this since most offenses before the attack were mostly slight property damages done by couples who want rough sex. Now fights and looting occurring in a mamono city are unheard of until now Druella has to decide on what the punishment should be.
Primera mutters, "We have enough problems, people now turning on each other, it's starting to be bad when the Order controlled Lescatie."
Mimil unconscionably says, "No this is far worse than the time Lescatie handled by the Order. At least we had order and peace not chaos and death back then."
Primera doesn't say anything but instead looks at her clutched claws in frustration.
Druella has an idea as she addresses the Salamander, "Give those who you have captured a choice; help out on recoveries or be exiled from the city forever." Druella's choice causes some to raise an eyebrow or have a concerned look. Seeing the reactions, Druella says in a slowly rising angry tone, "If someone has a better idea than SPEAK!"
All faces look away as not one of them says anything except for Merse who stands up, "Excuse me, Lady Druella but I need some air." Druella waves her away thus Merse slithers off.
The room turns quiet for a few minutes until Mimil asks, "Will you be contacting your mother?"
Druella dreading the thought of calling her mother and informing her what has happened and more frightening is telling her that her own daughter has provoked some organization with powers that rival her mother's, "I'll tell her eventually."
"Did you know of them?" Mimil's question caught Druella off guard as everyone else look at her with surprise.
Druella is speechless for a moment then quickly says, "No, I didn't!"
Mimil presses on, "Then how did you find out about that world, a world with more humans."
"I've been experimenting with teleportation spells and I've accidentally discovered that world," Druella admitted half of the truth and told a lie in the other half. She needed to stop Mimil from asking more questions along this topic or else. "Mimil, I was exploring the possibility of finding other worlds to help my mother in her task of gaining enough power to fix the mamono race as a whole to give birth to sons along with our daughters."
Mimil squints her eyes but doesn't say anything. The room return to quietness again and seeing no one has left to say, Druella stands up, "I know the state of our city is bleak but not broken as long we continue to work together we'll recover then we'll show the error those Dark Goons have brought upon themselves. We can't, we won't fail in achieving my mother's dream of a world filled with our loving embrace and eternal ecstasy!"
The rest of the group rises but their spirits don't as they silently leave the dining room, Druella glances at Mimil and sees streaks of tears running down her cheeks. They all left, leaving Druella all by herself and her thoughts as she contemplates whether or not to ask for aid from her mother. She really doesn't to tell her what happened and who is responsible for this terrible mistake but others are suffering now or died because of her. She is the cause of all this and as a leader must take responsibility for her actions. She has a flashback to the battlefield with the Dark Guard as she sees Scarlet being stabbed as she cries out to her before being blown away by her opponent.
"Forgive me, Scarlet, I broke my promise to you and everyone. I failed." Druella clutches her chest as the pain and realization finally sink in as tears start flowing free. She now knows she went too far and her guilt is threatening to drown her so she starts walking to a storage room where a spare magic mirror is being held. She grabs the cover and pulls it off the mirror revealing the battered appearance of the person standing before it. She taps the mirror, thinking of her mother and father then the image of Druella's reflection fades into darkness and she waits for a few minutes. The wait felt like an eternity until her mother comes into view.
"Hello Druella what-!" The Demon Lord stops speaking as she sees her beautiful child beaten, cut, and her arm in a brace. "My sweet child, what has happened to you?"
At that moment, hearing her mother's worried tone and her scared caring eyes made Druella's strong and independent persona break completely as she falls to her knees and cries out, "Mommy I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! Please forgive me, I didn't want things to go this way! I wanted to help you, mommy! I-I-I-" She starts bawling uncontrollably as her mother tries to calm her down. Druella told her mother about this new group that broke her unshakable city and her morale. Lilith listened to every word her daughter said, knowing this will be a disturbing tale.
Outside of Lescatie, a figure approaches the destroyed gates as numerous guards sort out the rubble until an orc spots the stranger.
"Who's there!?" she yells alerting everyone around her as they quickly look over at the path and see the walking figure too. They dropped what they were doing and form up around the entrance in case this was an attack.
"Jean Potter, I've returned from our siege on Highland City. What happened here? Did the Order attack us?!" A battered Lizardman walks into the torchlit area holding a broken sword in her right hand loosely.
The orc runs up to her and says, "No, we were attacked by something far worse. Are you ok?"
"I'll survive though I can't say for the rest of our sisters in arms. We were defeated by some unknown people in black clothing wielding unbelievable power. Did Lady Druella make it back to the city?"
The Orc answers, "Yes and she is recovering but in a meeting with all her staff right now.",
"Oh, thanks the Fallen god she is ok!" the Lizardman places her left hand over her heart. "Did anyone else from the army come back safety?"
The Orc looks at the ground and gloomily answers, "Yes but not very many, you might be the sixth or seventh to return so far."
Jean also looks at the ground before the Orc says, "Come on Jean, let's get you back inside."
"Thank you." A small smile forms on Jean's face but it's not one of appreciation but of ulterior motive.
Alrighty I have some news to share, my favorite work season has ended so my time working on my stories has been cut. New personal problems have come for me and it's also cutting into my personal time to work on my stories. I'm going on a break for a while so I can deal with these problems as well as any more that show up. I'll get back to my hobby when I have the time again. Thanks for understanding and your patience.
To D.J. Scales: Yes and soon.
To EndlessFun99: Don't worry, it'll come but understand there is more to my story than just violence and carnage as there is an end goal.