Editing Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 2





(PART 2)




“Target: 2,610 yards. Wind: 14 mph from the northwest. Drop: 600 millimeters. Cosine: 4.242. Adjust mil dot scope to 2.75.”

These almost robotic words exit the mouth of Celestia. 

Crouched in some thick brush, she is staring through an odd looking handheld scope and stating what she sees to the person laying on her stomach next to her.

That person next to her is none other than Allia, who is also looking through a scope of her own.

However, the scope she’s looking through rests atop a 5 foot long gun that looks so futuristic it feels completely out of place in this time-frame. This black chunk of metal has so many rivets and seemingly unnecessary designs one would think it came straight out of a sci-fi movie. Not to mention that the pretty girl aiming this massive weapon was just shooting primitive arrows from a bow just two months earlier.

With the sun setting over the distant mountains, the glare shining off of the snow caps temporarily sting Allia’s eyes through the scope. After a few adjustments, her movements completely stop and her body becomes as still as a statue.

“Alright, I’m locked on the target.” Allia said, the cross-hairs of her scope rests steadily on an area just to the upper left of a demon’s head.

This particular demon is dressed in a dazzling outfit, and besides two large horns protruding from his forehead, he looks just like a regular human. He’s surrounded by other demons and is sending orders to them, making hand gestures and sending them scrambling in every which way.

It’s obvious that he’s some type of leader. To be exact, he’s actually a high ranking member of Hell’s Hierarchy, one of the very few to be called a Duke.

This is precisely why he’s such a big target; this Duke is leading the charge of Satan’s Army southbound through the southern tip of Troy. He and his battalion must be stopped at all costs.

“Fire when ready.” Celestia smoothly replies.

Allia obliges and pulls the trigger.

Then...

Nothing, not a loud bang, only a small tinge of recoil came from the massive black gun.

The two keep their glares at the demon captain through their scopes, and are pleased to see the captain’s chest explode violently. A body being struck by a large bullet from such a long range holds even more of a devastating affect; it’s more like being hit with a dull cannonball than that of a aerodynamic piece of metal meant for piercing its target.

The large 50 caliber bullet screams through the demon and bangs into the ground behind him at a 45 degree angle, sending dirt puffing into the air to mix with the red blood. The horned captain's halfway decapitated body twists awkwardly and falls limply to the ground, his frame disappears behind some vision impeding bushes as his underlings all scurry to find out where that shot came from.

This division of Satan’s army does not specialize in powers akin to the likes of the 7 Demons of Hell, instead they fight this war with whatever weaponry Hell has collected throughout the history of man. There is no weapon left out, but guns seem to be the most prevalent one of all.

The leaderless soldiers of Hell begin to randomly shoot into the surrounding hills hoping that they hit the sniper that took out the captain. Even though they are more than a mile away, Allia and Celestia can hear their panicked voices as the popping noises of gunshots landing nowhere near them echo through the mountains.

“Well, that oughta at least slow them down a bit.” Celestia said as she stands to her feet and stretches.

Allia sits on one knee and says, “I sure hope so... Those guys have really been giving us a hard time over the last couple weeks.”

“Hey hey don’t worry about it!” Celestia pats and her partner's shoulder as she smiles. “As long as you got good ol’ Maggie there, we’ll pick off every leader they bring along.”

Allia glares at the black gun that Celestia called Maggie and really takes a good gander at what an amazing piece of weaponry it is. “I can’t believe you made this thing Celestia... It doesn’t even make a noise once it shoots; it’s on a whole other level than the other guns.”

“Well it really wasn’t too difficult of a concept really. It’s pretty much the same thing Jeffrey does, but it’s solely focused on projectiles.”

“Don’t downplay it like that.”

“Alright fine it’s the best invention I’ve ever had! A magnetic gun doesn’t use gunpowder like the rest of them do, so there isn’t going to be any sound when it fires and there’ll hardly be any recoil at all. It doesn't even have a muzzle flash so it works perfectly for sniper missions like this. No one will even know where the bullet came from.”

Celestia puffed her chest out in pride when she said that.

Allia laughs and stands to her feet, she takes apart her gun and puts it in a black case resting a couple feet from her. Lifting the case with her left hand, she winces a little bit and looks down on her hurting arm with a strained smile. 

“Thank you Celestia... Without this I wouldn’t be able to fight alongside all of you.”

Allia’s arm was mangled by Captain Red Spektor back at the weapons plant, and since then it’s been very weak. The strain put on her arm by the bow would have made shooting her arrow accurately an impossible feat. With this rifle however, she can use both of her arms as an aiming and firing mechanism; adding to that is the fact that the magnetic rifle produces almost no recoil. Any other high powered gun would destroy her already brittle arm.

Celestia puts her hand on her shoulder and starts leading her partner down the hill they were posted on. “Hey don’t get all mushy on me, trust me when I say that without you, I couldn’t ever even imagine making a weapon like that.”

“What?”

“No one other than you would be able to use it. Give that thing to any other schmo calling himself a marksmen and he’d never be able to do what you can with it. Just like with Jeffrey’s rings, I built that rifle knowing that only you can use it to its full potential; so I want you to think of it as an extension of your body, and use it to win this war.”

Allia’s eyes begin to water and a completely over dramatic expression reveals itself square on her face. She sniffles a little and clinches her fists in determination when she says, “My dear dear dear dear Celestia! When did you become such a sweetheart!?”

“Hah?? I’m not a sweetheart, get outta here with that. And stop hanging on me!”

Allia rubs up against Celestia and laughs; even though their topic of speech was quite serious, they are still two teenage girls who are very good friends. It’s only natural that they poke fun at each other from time to time to relieve the stress that everyday life as a Knight puts on them.

The two head down the rocky hill towards an encampment of well over a hundred tents about a mile out, down below them is their temporary base. The division, naturally being led by Celestia and Allia is called the WORLD’s Riflemen. It’s a relatively small division of specially trained soldiers who were given the few thousand guns Celestia was able to produce over the last couple months. The Riflemen, most of which came from the Dravic branch of La'Juune, specialize in covert operations that involve assassinations of high ranking targets, but if things got down to it, they’d be more than prepared to settle the fight with guerrilla tactics.

Fortunately for them, close combat has yet to occur; this is almost entirely due to the sniper tactics used by Allia against the army of Hell. She has systematically been killing off leaders of Hell’s army one by one as they come along. The two forces being split by this rather large mountain helps her in this matter, with plenty of places to hide, she’s yet to be spotted. This mountain has also saved either side from direct conflict, because if either of them did decide to attack, they’d be spotted right away and wiped out. This has thwarted their advancement further south into the countries of Eiyalazo and La’Juune.

Of course, Hell has inputted counter measures against snipers; these particular demons leading the charge south are equipped with guns as well. The fact that they have them makes one wonder why the entire army isn’t carrying them.

The answer to that dates back over a thousand years at the conclusion of Armageddon. Once Satan and his army lost to God, the extremely high tech weapons of humanity at that time were utterly destroyed. Things like planes, missiles, nuclear weapons, and many others were all eradicated as to not let humans or demons inflict any future damage on themselves or the citizens of Heaven. Naturally, God couldn’t destroy everything, there were billions of people fighting that day, so there were thousands of pistols, rifles, and other small weapons buried under the rubble of that epic battle. Whatever was left, was retrieved by demons and taken back to Hell for no special reason at all; it only took a thousand years for them to even become relevant again.

Now that they are, Hell and its allies have put it to devastating use against the soldiers of WORLD. Their total weaponry far outnumbers that of WORLD, and for the most part their technology is still far more advanced. The only way the humans can stand a chance against Hell, is to develop its soldiers into becoming killing machines not easily stopped by superior tech; what they lack in that category, they’ll make up tenfold with sheer ability. The times have changed and if the humans don’t change along with it, they have no chance of victory.

Celestia and Allia have been leading this charge, and have been doing amazingly well at it; it’s only a matter of time before their method reaches the rest of WORLD and this war officially begins to tilt in their favor. They’ve trained this group of about 2,500 soldiers so well, that their example will be the military standard in no time.

Proof of their training comes in the form of a small voice heard right in between their legs saying, “Captians, I have a message from the Capital.”

The two girls stop dead in their tracks and look down simultaneously.

“Uwaaah!?”

“Kyaaaah!!!”

They both jump off to the side in shock and hold their chests as they try to shake off the sudden scare. 

Camouflaged perfectly in the shrubbery of the mountain floor is a man, his face is painted to match the surrounding environment so only the blue and white of his eyes can be seen. For whatever reason, he decided to keep himself completely hidden and crawl all the way from base to their position.

Celestia and Allia trained all of them to do so no matter what, with such small numbers, they can't afford anyone to be killed off before the full scale battle likely to ensue in the near future, they just can’t believe they didn’t even notice him until they almost stepped on his back.

“Holy crap you scared me!”

“My apologies Captain.” The man replies, with the hand not holding his camouflage rifle, he reaches in his front pocket and holds up a manila envelope.

Celestia grabs it and Allia crowds over her shoulder to catch a glimpse.

“What does it say?” Allia asks.

After giving it a good look through, she answers, “Jeffrey and that girl’s plan has officially been set in motion.”

“Already!? I can’t believe it’s gotten to that point so quickly... Hell’s army is must really be moving fast towards our Capital.”

“I know, even though we’re holding them back here, there are still a considerable amount of their troops heading towards La’Juune’s and Eiyalazo’s Capitals virtually unimpeded.”

“So... What does it say we’re supposed to do?”

Celestia shrugs her shoulders and replies, “It doesn’t say anything."

“Huh?”

“At the bottom, London wrote, ‘You decide what your next move is.’”

“That lazy bastard.”

“Nyahahaha, sounds like London right? Well, I’m sure he’s focused on beefing up La’Juune’s defenses; we’re part of the offensive force so it only makes since that we’re in charge of the south.”

Allia nods her head in agreement and zips open a pocket on her rifle case, pulling a piece of paper out, she opens it up reveals a map of the three great countries. The three continents are pretty much connected, Troy being the furthest away and separated by two gulfs on its east and west side. The map pretty much looks just like a giant three leaved clover.

Celestia leans in and puts her finger on a point where all three countries connect. “We’re here at the borderline of Troy... So our job is to make a push northward towards the Capital and build enough of a gap between Hell’s army in order for larger legions of WORLD’s forces to catch up with us. Once that happens, we really gotta hurry to meet up with the other invading armies of WORLD right when they converge on the Capital of Troy. If we don't, I'm willing to bet that the whole mission would be one giant catastrophe.”

Allia scours her way north on the map and says, “If we want to pull that off, we must reach a point where we can fortify ourselves in wait for others to back us up before we head deeper into Troy. We’ll need a very protected area to set up base if we’re to hold out for any extended amount of time. Even a couple days is asking a lot.”

“Oh.” “Ahh.”

They both mutter when they catch sight of a large city just north of their position. 

It’s a city they know all too well, it’s a city that was once won by La’Juune, but had to be evacuated when Satan took control of Troy. This city, is the gateway to the south for Hell’s army, and a gateway to the north for WORLD. 

If it can be taken, the tides can be turned in favor of humanity. Just like it was in the world war between the three great nations, this city aims to once again become the site of another crucial battle.

Celestia smiles, Allia does as well, the two glare at each other with adventure in their eyes when Celestia asks, 

“What do you say we retake Tronoble?”



---------------------------------------



“Yo ho yo ho a pirate’s life for meee~!” The young twelve year old girl named Ebihara Seiri sings as she dances dangerously on the bow of a very large battleship.

This ship is huge, 180 feet in hull length from front to back, where average vessels are only 100 feet, and from the top of the deck, it goes down four stories. Each level of this ship is used for different things, on the first floor down are the barracks used for easy access to the deck and to the cannon room one floor below. The cannon room has twenty mounted cannons pointed out towards sea on both port and starboard, an unheard of number in most other ships.

The third floor down carries supplies, the storage area includes food, water, alcohol, medicines, and ammunition; everything necessary for life at sea can be found there. As for the last floor down, twenty long wooden paddles protrude from each side of the ship and make contact with the water below. This is no paddle ship by any means, on the deck are all the sails needed to guide it in whichever direction needed; these paddles are used specifically in the case of a battle. They are not used like the galleys were in the middle-ages; back then the function of the galleys was to maneuver the ship so it could ram the opposing one. And up until just a couple months ago, this ship was used to fight like that. Now, after intense remodifications to accustom it to the new battlefield they've found themselves in, those galleys are used solely as a positional device.

Having them there increases maneuverability substantially; and in the battle of warships, maneuverability more or less outweighs firepower. There’s no point in having the strongest cannons if you can’t put yourself in position to shoot them at anything.

By all means, this massive ship seems more than sturdy, that is, if it weren’t for the heavy winds and roaring seas below. The ship rises and dives along waves the size of small mountains as the fierce wind tilts the ship from side to side. If someone fell in, he or she would be swept away by the intense waves and would have almost no chance of being rescued. With these conditions tossing the ship about, the danger level of Seiri’s actions are stupidly high, one can’t help but wonder why she’s willing to put herself in such a spot for nothing but a good time.

Standing safely on the deck and wondering that very thing, is Haas Avondale, he blankly stares at her on the bow and really wants to persuade her to step down so he can scold her for being so reckless. 

But sadly, he’s physically unable to speak for that long, and even if he could, his light voice would be swept away by the fierce winds in no time. Not only is that a problem, he’s been feeling an awful twinge in his stomach since he’s been on the ship; the two of them have only set sail a few days back and he’s yet to get used to the rocking of the sea. Now that they’ve been caught in a rough storm, Haas can hardly contain himself. His face may be as blank as always, but he’s certainly suffering from severe sea sickness.

“Are you just gonna stare at me or are you gonna come up and join??” she asks happily.
[[Image:Dv07-chp02_img001.jpg|260px|thumb]]
This is her first time out at sea, so she’s as giddy as someone who has been given a dream vacation for free; take in to account her age, one could see why she’d be so excited. But her excitement for this trip has gone way overboard, if her attitude and constant singing weren't enough, she's even gone and got herself a feathered hat and a pirate's coat three sizes too big for her and sloppily wears if over her one-piece dress. Seeing this, even Haas wonders just who in the world she stole that outfit from.

Haas shakes his head from side to side, signifying his refusal, he then gestures her to step off of the bow with his hand. 

When she sticks her tongue out at him and doesn’t do what he says, he becomes frustrated, if he could, he’d be wearing a heavy frown right about now.

As if sensing his displeasure, Seiri laughs and replies, “Muahahaha, you dare defy your Captain!?? I shall have you walk the plank!”

Haas is so frustrated at her immaturity that he feels a hot sensation along with nausea brewing in his stomach; he’s on the verge of losing his temper and forcefully pulling her down. That’s when he realizes that she’s only a twelve year old girl, that’d look really bad if grabbed her. To add to that, she actually is the captain of this ship.

Because of Haas’s inability to talk at any kind of normal pace, he was placed second in command to the youngest member of the La’Juutian military. She has yet to let him live that down; even though he doesn’t listen to her most of the time, she’s been doing whatever she can to boss him around. Even now, her defiance is likely a direct attempt to poke fun at him for being a monotonous character that holds no authority.

“...You...Little...Brat...” he struggles to say.

“What?? I can’t hear you!” Seiri shouts through the wind.

“...Come...Down...Now...”

“Haaah?? You need to speak up to your Captain, Haas!”

She can definitely hear him, she’s just purposely not responding because she enjoys tormenting him; she more or less wants to see how far she can take it before he reveals the emotions likely boiling up inside him.

Being trained for years not to show emotion, Haas is stuck in a state of blankness as he finally decides that he doesn’t care what others might think about watching him grab this bratty girl. He takes a big step on to the base of the bow when the ship is struck by an intense wave and sends his already nauseous stomach into a frenzy. Trying to ignore it, he holds his hand out to grab her when...

“Bllllleeeeeeghhh.”

Vomit comes spewing out of Haas’s mouth and onto the wooden floor; the sea sickness finally caught up to him the moment he moved. Haas’s blank face remains and his body doesn’t even jolt in a gag reflex as the waterfall of throw up falls out of his mouth.

Seiri jumps back even further toward the edge of the twenty foot long bow with an expression similar to an old lady jumping up on a chair to avoid a mouse scurrying across the kitchen floor. 

She yelps, “Kyyaaa~! Are freaking serious right now!?”

“...Sorry...” he replied, his usual tone made that sound about as unapologetic as humanly possible.

“I’m definitely not coming down now!”

Haas frowns deep inside his heart and walks right on over his puddle of throw up to grab her.

“Noooooo stay away!!” Seiri shouts, certain that some of it has to be on his hands.

Haas is about to achieve a much needed victory when a man up in the crow’s nest shouts down to them. “Captain! Incoming Trojan ships out in the distance, bow and starboard!”

Hearing him say that, all forms of childlike mannerisms cease and Seiri leapfrogs herself over the head of Haas and back onto the deck. 

She looks up to the man and asks, “How many?”

The man, dressed in a white and gold sailor uniform looks back into his scope and shouts, “Twenty!”

“Ohooo that’s quite a lot... They must be some sort of recon armada, if they really were serious about invading the northern shores of La’Juune they’d send a lot more.” she said to herself while holding her chin.

Haas glares at her, wanting more of an explanation. By now, dozens of La’Juutian sailors have crowded around them awaiting her words as well.

Seiri sighs and says, “My guess is that they sent these guys to see what our defenses along the northern shores are. These ships are probably just bait being used to draw us away from shore, but they don’t know that we’re the ones on the offensive right now.”

“...We...Must...Eliminate...” Haas said, he fully knows what needs to be done next.

“I agree, they brought so many ships in order to insure that at least a few would be able to return to base and inform them on what’s going on with WORLD’s naval position. We can’t afford to let any of them escape, if we do, our surprise invasion is as good as dusted.” Seiri then looks up to the man in the crow’s nest and loudly says, “You know what to do, inform all the others that we’re heading into battle.”

“Yes mam!”

The man positions himself behind a posted light bulb and flips a switch on and off, he points it south as the bright light flickers in what seems to be some kind of code.

With that taken care of, Seiri turns to the rest of the sailors crowding her and shouts, “Everyone! Get ready for battle!”

“YUUUAAAAAAHH!”

They all roar in excitement as they run to their positions. The sound of battle takes over the quiet deck as people all move about; the atmosphere has no doubt become hectic within a second. 

Seiri starts walking towards the captain’s cabin where the steering wheel of the ship is, if she’s going to lead these men in to battle, she’s going to have to hold the reigns.

“Haas, you know what to do. I’ve equipped all the cannons of this ship with some special ammunition. So why don’t you do me a favor and show me a good light show?”

“...Understood...”

Haas opens up a large latch in the deck and disappears under the wooden floor. With him gone, Seiri heads up a couple flights of stairs and enters her cabin; from here she finally catches sight of the opposing ships. They are about a mile and a half away, far out of reach of any cannons; that is, except one.

There’s a particular cannon loaded in a bastion under the bow of the ship, the biggest cannon on board points itself outwards to the sea whichever direction the ship sails. Normally, the position of this certain cannon is quite unpractical, under high rising seas like the one they’ve found themselves in, the water would splash into the barrel of the cannon and make it obsolete. Not only that, if the water is cold enough, it could freeze onto the cast-iron of the cannon as well.

But the way the bow is designed, water can’t reach the cannon unless the entire hull of the ship capsizes. When the cannon is not in use, the cannon is retracted back into the bastion and a sealed latch closes air tight.

It’s already loaded so with everything prepared, he holds on to the string that ignites the flint and takes a few steps back. He pulls down a dark gray tube from the ceiling and looks through it, the tube is actually a periscope that winds through the front of the ship and points straight above the latch to the bastion room. Being far away from the recoil of the firing cannon, Haas is completely safe and ready to attack, all that’s left is to lock on target.

Seiri turns the ship’s wheel and aims the hull of the ship out towards the closest ship in the opposing armada. She steadies the movement and rocks up and down on the rough sea, she understands that there’s no way the cannon ball would reach that far if fired straight on a flat surface. Seiri just hopes that Haas knows the same, there is a way, they just have to time it right.

Up the ship goes on a wave, and Seiri looks on in angst.

“Not yet...”

It steeply goes back down a crevice of water and rises right back up again, this time even steeper than the last. 

Now’s the time to fire.

She yells to herself, “Do it now, Haas!”

BBAAAAANNNNNNGGG!!!

Haas knew exactly what to do and fires at the perfect moment, the large cannon ball screams through the wet sea air in a rainbow arch. It takes a few seconds until it disappears out of sight, and as soon as it does...

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

A perfect hit, the cannon smashes right into the middle of the Trojan warship, and a huge explosion ensues that instantly engulfs it in flames and sends it sinking into the sea as if it were a massive stone. The explosion was so powerful, it sent a circled shock wave of white wash screaming onto the surface of the deep blue ocean.

There are likely a couple hundred people on that ship, and watching the way the debris flies about before disappearing into the water, there certainly aren't any survivors.

BAM!! BOMM!! BOOOM!!

The other nineteen ships begin firing at Seiri’s vessel, the Trojan armada under the command of Hell's army assumes they can hit their target from that distance solely because they had one of theirs taken out from that range. Of course, their cannon balls can’t reach that length, and bang helplessly into the water about a hundred yards shy.

“Buahahahaha how exhilarating! To see my work in action on the open sea is the best!” Seiri yells joyfully from behind the wheel.

She keeps the ship on a collision course with the armada straight ahead and steps out of the cabin and onto the open deck.

All of the sailors are out and about, manning their positions in preparation for the upcoming battle. Sensing that things are really about to get crazy, she can’t help but smile. 

Though, looking closely at this situation, there should be nothing to smile about. 

One warship vs. nineteen is certainly not feasible, no matter what firepower she’s configured to the cannons. If one wanted to know why she’s smiling as if victory is certain, they’d have to be where the man in the crow’s nest sits.

Trailing behind them about a half mile away, are over seven thousand warships of many different shapes and sizes coming to their aid. There are so many panning across the vastness of the ocean that they seemingly blanket the horizon of blue from one end of the world to the other. All of these floating weapons carry more than a million of WORLD’s soldiers en-route to the western shores of Troy. The Navy of WORLD and all of its marine infantry are prepared to partake in the biggest invasion in the history of mankind, even the likes of Alexander the Great and D-Day can’t even hold a torch to this scale.

While on the sea, leading all of these men is none other than Ebihara Seiri. When she said she was the Captain earlier, she did not mean just this ship alone; she meant the entire military of WORLD’s western front.

The same amount of men and weaponry make their way from the eastern sea of Troy as well. 

Mankind’s offensive to destroy Satan’s army has officially begun.

With these numbers, those nineteen ships are nothing more than punitive obstacles in the way of an unstoppable tsunami.

Knowing that, Seiri is overcome with adrenaline as she spreads her arms and takes in the sound of the cannons.

“Alright! Let’s get this war started!”



----------------------------------



“Goodness gracious it’s cold as balls out here!” shouts Jessiah as he throws a fluffy fur beanie over his bald head. He shoves his hands in the nape of the neck of the horse he's riding on, trying to warm himself up.

On a white horse sitting to the left of him holding his right ear in annoyance is Lennox Applewood. “Do you have to shout about everything!?”

“Hey hey give him a break, he’s the resident retard of our group after all.” Olin, also on a horse, said with a stupid smile on his face.

“You’re in the same boat with him!”

“Whaaaaaaatever.” Jessiah shrugs it off, taking no offense to Lennox and Olin’s harsh statements. “If I’m such a retard, then why is it that I’m always the one with the most responsibility whenever we get paired together?”

“Hah?”

“What the?”

The both of them grumble in confusion.

“I’m serious! I’m always put out in the front of the rest of the Knights to lead the charge! I’m the guy that weakens our enemies before the rest of you clean up my leftovers!”

Lennox throws his hand over his face and drops his head. “You gotta be kidding me.”

Olin starts to laugh when he replies, “You really have to be retarded if you think that you’re sent out first because you’re so important to the crew! Buaahahahaha!”

“Bullshit!” Jessiah replies, “Let’s have a bet then!”

“Forget it, I’m not betting shit.” Lennox spat in reply.

“I’m in! What’s the bet??” 

Of course, Olin takes the bet with pleasure, raising his hand like a school child.

“How about we count off how many kills we have by the end of this battle? The winner get’s to be the official leader of WORLD’s northern army.”

“Oh come on that’s such a typical and corny bet. I’m not tak---“

“Deal!” Olin yells, interrupting Lennox’s refusal.

“Wait a second.” Lennox says as he holds his index finger up in front of the two. “I’m already the leader of this army! There’s no fucking way I’m handing it over to one of you clowns!”

“Then are you gonna take the bet or what?”

“Why would I take that bet if I already have the winning prize!?”

“Because the pride of your stupid snot-nosed face depends on it.” Olin replied happily as he slaps Lennox’s back rather hard.

“Snot-nosed what??”

Lennox hurriedly reaches into his jacket and pulls out a small hand mirror. He looks into it and sees that just like Olin said, his nose is dripping and the cold has discolored his pretty face. His jaw falls towards the floor and he takes a gasp in horror.

“L-L-Look at me? I look awful... This can’t be happening; here I am, stuck in the cold of the northern hemisphere with two idiots. To top it off I’ve become ugly... What’s there to live for?”

“Your pride as a Knight duh.” Jessiah points out.

“There’s no pride in ugliness.” Lennox’s depressed tone gets darker with each word. The distinct way he overreacts to something so small easily makes him the most dramatic character in the group of ten Knights.

Olin bangs him on the shoulder once more and says, “Well there is pride in ruling over a large portion of the most important army in the history of the world. So if you don’t want it, you can go cry into a toilet and vomit away your sorrows fat-ass. I’ll take it from ya.”

“F-Fat?” Lennox raises his downed head and frowns. “I know for damn sure I’m not fat! I’ll fucking kill you!”

“Now that’s the spirit!”

“Okay! So the bet is on!” Jessiah smiles and points his spear out in the distance.

“Fine, now that you mention it, it’s pretty damn nice being the boss. I’ll bet my good looks on a warm day that you two couldn’t hold a torch to me in a fight.”

“Whaaaaaaatever.”

“Bring it on. All that’s left is to give the order Captain.”

“Right.”

Lennox turns around and addresses the group of men that were forced to watch the spectacle of their higher up’s immaturity. 

Well, it can’t really be called a group; it’s more of an entire civilization’s worth of armed and ready soldiers. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers stretch as far as the eye can see. They wear different uniforms, stand different heights, have different skin colors; but the one thing they all have in common, is the determination in their eyes.

The Stage: 

The northern border of Troy, this place isn’t near as mountainous as the rest of the country, the environment up here is more to the akin of a tundra. The weather is definitely below freezing but snow has yet to fall, only clear blue skies stretch above them without a cloud in sight.

The People: 

The soldiers of this massive army are filled to the brim with every country in the northern hemisphere, though these certain countries are nowhere near the power level or size of the main three, they’ve decided to join the battle and give it all they got. Whether it be the small country of Algia to the northwest, Calisto to the east, or the snow nation of Orion, they’ve put their differences aside and joined their brothers in arms to the south. All races of man pepper the face of this army, black, white, brown, yellow; they stand united without any form of distrust. It’s a collusion of people never before seen, it’s a true testament to human nature once the threat of annihilation surfaces.

The Obstacle: 

Though there are going to be many coming in the near future, there is one specific obstacle that has firmly planted itself between them and their goals. About a mile out to the south is a Trojan city, this city has now become the most massive fort of Hell's army, stretching for miles, the city is fully surrounded by a 20 meter high wall. Thousands upon thousands of demons and perhaps even defected humans allied with Satan are stationed there, fully planning an all out blitzkrieg into the northern countries of the world to spread their deadly influence on the lands least affected by the war thus far. Little do they know, WORLD’s forces have crafted up a do or die plan that switches the role of the invader; they have no idea that they will be attacked before they can do the attacking. Even with the surprise however, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t ready to inflict serious damage on WORLD; they’ve still barricaded themselves in a large city that’s being used as a fort. Not only that, but the demons of Hell are much stronger than the average human, some even have supernatural powers; so there’s no telling how this battle will turn out. But failure is not an option in this case, without victory here, victory for the war would be unattainable and the human race will succumb to the tyranny of Satan.

The Destination: 

Simple, the Captital of Troy, Satan’s home. If they can reach that point and join with the rest of WORLD’s forces, they can win this war. With the determination of the entire race of man as a whole, they truly feel that nothing will stop them from reaching that far way place.

“Everyone!” Lennox says as he holds up his sword. 

He maneuvers his horse and turns around slowly with his blade still raised to the blue sky and slowly lowers it towards his target. With it pointing directly at the enemy city, he shouts the word that will send the world into its greatest war.

“CHHHAARRRGGGGEEEE!!!!”





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