Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 6
(PART 3)
“Alright, let’s tally the numbers up!” Jessiah said excitedly as he swings his spear above his head.
“I’ll go get us some paper to write it down on!” Olin shouted, he runs off into a house and as soon as he enters, glass can be heard breaking.
One has to wonder just what he’s doing to find a single piece of paper.
Lennox sighs, runs his fingers through his hair and arrogantly says, “I don’t know what you guys are so damn excited about, we all know that I won this stupid bet.”
“Whaaaaaaatever. Did you now see me out there? I was dominating.”
“Please spare me, you just swung your spear like an idiot.”
Jessiah puffs and says, “Well I was the first one to break through the wall and enter the city, that alone should get me bonus points.”
“You didn’t break anything, you just climbed over everyone and jumped to the other side!”
“That still counts!”
Lennox again sighs, to him, dealing with this guy is much more difficult than him breaching this massive fort of a city.
In fact, that exact thing has him quite perturbed.
This city was thought to hold tens, if not hundreds of thousands of demons; but in actuality the numbers in the walls of this city were far less. Maybe 15,000 at most; sure that sounds like a lot, but the amount of work put into surrounding the largest Trojan city in the north with a 20 meter high wall made it seem like they were harboring an entire civilization’s worth of soldiers.
Instead, the forces of WORLD broke through this wall in relative ease within a few days, and once in they found that the entire city was completely void of Trojan citizens. It’s one massive ghost town as no sign of struggle seemed to occur here.
But the battle had just ended in WORLD’s victory, so Lennox hasn’t gotten to the point where he can think too deeply into this. He’s certain that it’ll be a problem later, but for now all he cares about is the results of the bet.
And sure enough, Olin comes running out of the house holding a few pieces of something to write on, trailing behind him are a multitude of broken objects he smashed while looking for those items.
“Okay I got em!”
Olin hands Lennox a piece of cloth that was ripped from the curtains, then hands Jessiah a piece of toilet paper, and for himself he got a shattered piece of tile.
“What the fuck is this?” Lennox asked dejectedly. “You’re seriously telling me you couldn’t find something proper to write on in there?”
“Who cares about that, it’s something to write on is it not??”
Lennox sighs, pulls a pen out of his pocket and turns his back to the other two. “Don’t you guys dare think about fudging your numbers, I’ll consider it insubordination and personally beat the shit out of both you losers.”
“If there’s one thing you should know about us, it’s that we’re amazingly honest. Right Jessiah?”
“Right!”
The other two turn around and begin writing on their respective objects used as a substitute for paper.
At the same time, all three turn around and hold out their numbers so each of them can see it.
“Huh?”
“Eh??”
“What the!?”
271.
That’s the number written on all three. A dead tie.
“There’s gotta be some kind of mistake here!” Lennox shouted.
“Wow what a coincidence huh guys?”
“No kidding, I thought for sure I had you guys beat!”
The way Olin and Jessiah said that made it seem like they don’t really mind that they all tied.
But the look on Lennox’s face screams otherwise, to him, it’s like a bolt of lighting hit his head that caused his face to be stuck in a horrified expression. He can’t believe that they tied, he can’t believe that he didn’t win.
And since he’s one to overreact over small things, something he actually took seriously that didn’t turn out his way flat out devastates him.
“Noooooooo!!” he shouts, “There’s no way!”
“The numbers don’t lie, I didn’t fudge anything so there’s nothing we can do about a tie.”
Lennox throws his hands on his chest and gasps before saying, “M-My pride… Guaah it hurts, my pride!”
“Well since it’s a tie, there’s gotta be some sort of breaker right?” Jessiah asked, ignoring the distraught comrade writhing from embarrassment.
“There’s nothing we can do about it now, we’ll just have to wait until next time. So I guess the tiebreaker goes to the Captain.”
“Ya hear that Lennox? You’re still the leader for now.”
They turn to Lennox only to find that he’s shoddily walking through the door of a house used as a barrack for the occupying forces of WORLD. He certainly heard them admit that he’s still the leader, but his shame over tying far outweighs that.
He cares more about not winning.
“Jeez what a baby.”
“Yeah no kidding.” Olin says with a sigh, “How much more pissed would he have been if he found out that I actually lowered my numbers just to make sure he won? I was certain that he’d have killed more than 271 demons.”
“Oaah, you did that too? I started feeling bad after I got to 400 so I figured I’d stop keeping count.”
“The truth is, he kind of had to lead everyone through the assault on this fort; that really handicapped him, he didn’t really have a chance of winning to begin with.”
“Oh well, nothing we can do about it now.”
Olin sighs and takes a look around the city. It’s just before midnight and it’s a new moon, so the streets are pitch dark, other than the occasional lights in some of the houses being occupied by allied soldiers, the city seems completely empty.
It’s actually quite eerie, even to him.
“It doesn’t look like anything’s going on anymore, I’m gonna go get some sleep.”
“Where at?”
“Just look around.” Olin says as he points down the street. “Take a pick and stay wherever you want, everyone else did.”
Jessiah scratches his head and says, “Don’t you think it’d be better if we all slept together?”
“Hell no! I’m not sleeping anywhere near you two.”
“Whaaaaaaatever, then I’ll leave you to your lonesome ways.”
The two walk off in separate directions and pick a house to rest for the night. There shouldn’t be any more action for now, and within the next couple days, the group will make their way south towards Troy’s Capital.
Barring any major disturbances, that was the plan from the very beginning.
But little do they know, up on the rooftops of this vacant city, a figure clad in black is standing ominously under the darkness of the night sky, watching and waiting for them to go sleep.
London Stott is sitting behind a large desk in the throne room of the La’Juutian castle looking through paperwork, he is surrounded by three higher up government officials who are looking down on him rather anxiously as he flips through the pages and tosses each one aside.
“Is this really all the three of you can come up with?” he asked while still looking through the stack of papers.
“We couldn’t think of anything else to cut. Our budget has been set by the Kings of the past for hundreds of years. All of them are vital to our economy, we can’t carelessly cut necessary expenses in fear of economic collapse once the war is over.”
London sighs and scours through the minute expenditures that these three senators offered to cut. Things like how much wine is to be bought by the members of the senate with tax funds, and reading and writing material for children in government run schools, and smaller things to the like. All of which combined won’t do anything to contribute to what needs to be done, these cuts will be completely useless in the grand scheme of things.
“Listen people…” London says while pushing up his glasses and sending them a steely glare. “You fail to understand that there won’t even be a La’Juune once the war is over if you half-ass our budget. All monetary expenses, not just a few, needs to be used on the war effort. I don’t care if it bankrupts us, I only asked for your opinion on what can be cut without resorting to such drastic measures. To be honest, I’m not too keen on finances, so I was really hoping you would take care of it while I strengthen our defenses.”
London stands to his feet and grabs his coat from a hanger and throws it on. The three men look on in silence as he makes his way to the door.
“But now I can see where your priorities are, and now I can see that you people are useless. I’ll make the decisions from this point out. You and the rest of the senate are free to do whatever you want.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“I’m telling you that you have been relieved of your duty. You no longer work for the government.”
“What!?” One man shouts. “You can’t just fire us!”
“Of course I can, I’m the acting King after all.”
“Even the King doesn’t have the authority to expel a senator without approval from the others!”
London chuckles and opens the door before replying, “Just think of it as a budget cut, why would I want to spend the money to keep your pockets full if I can do all your jobs myself?”
“You’re missing the point here!”
“No, you are. In times like these, politics mean nothing. In times like these, it takes a single leader to rule over unruly people whose misguided lifestyles will lead to the death of a nation, or even worse, it will lead to the death of humanity as a whole. Maybe you can get your jobs back if we win this war, but until then I’m changing the entire structure of this monarchy into a dictatorship. What I say goes, so get out of my castle.”
The men shrink in silence at the thought that this person wishes to change the very foundation of their government, they hope this is all a bluff and don’t move.
“We won’t stand for this! We’ll fight you for the right to rule this country!”
This prompts London to turn around and pull out his fencing sword, he points it at them and says, “How do intend to fight me? With voting and backhand ways to get me out of power? The world you know where simple things like that work no longer exists; if you intend to fight me, you’ll have to do it with those fat old bodies of yours. If you and your men find a way to kill me, then I’ll gladly hand over the power to you. But if you’re just going to stand there and shout threats, it’d be best to just kill you now.”
“.....”
The three stay silent, they may be pompous, but they’re not dumb enough to even consider fighting one of the Ten Knights of La’Juune.
And London knows that, so he sheaths his sword and walks out of the room, a young man in the hallway guarding the entrance shuts the door behind him and quickly walks to the Knight’s side.
“Is that a good idea?” The young man who works as London's aid asks.
“What idea?”
“Those old men, they will try to kill you…”
“That’s the plan.” London quickly replies.
“T-Then...”
“I threatened them on purpose. When they try to kill me, it’d give me a just cause to get rid of those bastards for good. Our country can’t depend on men like them any longer, nor can humanity as a whole. We need to take our future into our own hands.”
“What do you mean?”
London smiles and replies, “Set up an announcement at the castle amphitheater for tomorrow morning. Make sure the word gets out to as much of the city as possible. They’ll certainly attempt to assassinate me once they hear the declarations I’m going to make. They'd like nothing more than to take advantage of a public setting to do it too.”
“Yes sir!”
The aid rushes off down the stairs leading to the lower suite and London watches his figure disappear.
He smirks and takes a look out the window and gazes upon the City of Grandeur, a multitude of thoughts role through his head as the lights shine and glow in the night sky.
He hopes that the war doesn’t find its way to these walls, the last time it did, thousands upon thousands of people died. He truly hopes that destruction won’t happen again.
But...
He has a sickening feeling that it will happen, and that’s why he’s planning on making a severe change from the inside out to protect this city and its people. A change that will alter the very foundation on how this country functions forevermore.
“I wonder...” he says to himself, his fixed gaze still on the La’Juutian skyline. “Does this count as a coup?”
In the glowing capital of Eiyalazo, Dive Di’Vore and his royal guard Evelyn are overlooking the rebuilding of the tattered castle where all hope was almost lost.
The construction has continued non-stop since the incident and only now is the structure of the world’s largest castle regaining its structure.
Dice is bitter, watching the hundreds of workers slaving late into the night trying to fix the damage that he himself caused makes him feel uncomfortable.
Evelyn, the girl known as the castle’s monster can sense his displeasure through the handles of the wheelchair she’s pushing him on. She doesn’t quite know what to say to make him feel better, but that doesn’t mean she won’t try.
“Prince Dice, you shouldn’t have to torture yourself over this, you weren’t your normal self when this happened.”
Dice stays silent for a moment before replying, “No, I was… If anything, that was my true self. I remember what I was doing perfectly when all of that happened, I could have stopped, but I didn’t want to.”
Evelyn sighs, he’s been down on himself for a while now, and she had thought that he just started to take a turn for the better once Jeffrey and Diana left. But it seems that there are reminders of his weakness everywhere, and the instant he catches sight of one he falls into the depths of depression.
She has not left his side since they were reunited so she’s been forced to watch as those reminders eat at him.
“Listen... By letting the guilt of your past actions bog you down like this, you’re setting yourself and the people around you up for failure. We don’t have time to worry about anything other than the now. You have people to protect, and just like Jeffrey said, you haven’t lost them yet.”
Evelyn starts pushing Dice away from the destruction he caused and towards the exit of the castle.
“Where are you taking me?” he asks, confused as to why she’s now pushing him towards the gates leading into the city.
Not being able to get up and move for himself, he’s pretty much forced to go wherever Evelyn wants to.
“Hey!” he shouts when he gets no answer, and then he attempts to stop the chair by grabbing the wheels with his hands.
That thought quickly ends when the strength in his arms does absolutely nothing to slow the roll of the chair, it may be embarrassing for a girl to so easily overpower him, but she is perhaps the strongest soldier in all of Eiyalazo.
“I may be overstepping my bounds by doing this, but I think you need to get away from the castle.”
“That’s ridiculous! You can’t just take me out into the public without any form of protection!”
Though the times are tough and the world is at war with a common enemy, there are still those who vehemently disagree with the way the Eiyalazoian government is going about this and are very skeptical of it all. Some even believe that the death of the King was planned all along by Dice and Diana in an attempt to take over the power. That thought molded into it all being a military coup staged to impose martial law on the citizens.
The people simply can’t grasp the dangers on such a high scale so they’ll instinctively lower it to their level to shoo the thought under the rug. When people get oppressed by far away influences and powers, they tend to blame the nearby rule in a way to cope with it. This maximizes minute things overlooked by people with a lesser keen eye to the far-fetched theory.
And it’s these very people who think their own government is to blame that would wish to do harm upon a defenseless crippled prince.
“No protection?” Evelyn asks as they enter the main road that dissects the entire capital city leading from the castle entrance all the way into the forest on the outskirts of town.
She huffs a confident air out of her nose and says, “You have me here. I’m the best you’re gonna get.”
This is true, barring the freakish Knights of La’Juune, he doesn’t know of anyone that could possibly defeat her in a fight. And she’s quite famous as well, the citizens surprised glares land on the two and whispers of disbelief float about within the crowd. To them it’s like seeing two celebrities only a few feet away, they’re so close, yet they still feel untouchable, all they can do is look on.
It doesn’t take long before a crowd starts to gather along the sides of the road as though there were a parade and its largest float had just come rolling by.
This makes Dice feel even less safe, sure he has the Castle’s Monster, but she’s just a mere girl when up against hundreds of people, it wouldn’t take much to get overwhelmed by numbers, and with the addition of each person to the crowd, the threat of unrest builds. Once it reaches a certain point, like a rock being thrown or an insult shouted, the tides can turn and all of them will come storming in to rip them to shreds.
“We really ought to turn around Evelyn...” Dice said quietly as to not show his nervousness to the on-looking crowd. “Someone’s bound to do something.”
“You’re wrong.” She replies without a hint of doubt. “You can’t protect people if you doubt them, you need to trust them… “
She pauses for a moment before pointing to the side of the road towards a group of men who all collectively bow to the Prince.
“Because they have put their trust in you.”
Dice is shocked, and continues to feel a rare surge of emotion in his chest he can’t explain when like a wave, the people on both sides of him on the side of the road all kneel.
The bustling city seems to halt and the street lights and house lights all feel as though they are directed at Dice, engrossing him in the spotlight.
This is when a voice is heard saying something that Dice thought he’d never hear in his entire life.
“Hail King Dice!!”
The crowd of people begin shouting his name as well and the roar of his praises is echoed off the surrounding sequoia trees, magnifying them to an even greater extent.
If there were people holding disdain in their hearts for the new crowned King, they have certainly lost their voices. No one would dare shout anything negative in this moment in fear for their lives, the citizens of Eiyalazo would likely string them up if they did.
When opinions are found to be in the minority, the people holding those dear will quickly give up if they truly think nothing can be done about it. If no good can come from believing in conspiracy theories, what’s the point of fighting the general consensus?
Those naysayers will quickly shift their loyalties back to where their fellow neighbor’s reside.
“I... I can’t believe it.”
Evelyn smiles and softly grips his shoulders before saying, “Can you see it now? Can you see what you still have? You will always have regrets, and living in the castle will force you to deal with it every day, but outside is where you’ll find what it takes forget about them.”
Dice fights back tears in his one good eye and grabs onto Evelyn’s hand.
“...You’re right.”
He then pushes the wheels of his chair further down the road and leaves Evelyn behind, he looks to his people and determination brews in his chest with each inhale.
“People of Eiyalazo!” he shouts, causing the gazes of all who are near to land on his tattered form. “As you can see, I’m a crippled man incapable of fighting for you…”
Silence makes its dark appearance in the streets of the capital city, so Dice’s voice rings loud as he continues.
“But I’ve come to realize that even if I could fight, I would not have been able to protect you any better. I’ve come to realize that protecting the ones you love and care for takes a lot more than brute strength and courage. I always thought that it did, but when I found out I had neither of those attributes, I succumbed to despair; I felt I had nothing left to give.”
Everyone can see the look on Dice’s face as he speaks and are mesmerized by his self-deprecating words that no Eiyalazonian leader would ever consider telling anyone else. For a country and a leadership so prideful, they are shocked that he can reveal such a weakness to the public.
“And through that despair I met the enemy we face today, and he took advantage of my weakness and as punishment for letting him do so, I promptly lost the use of my legs, and one of my eyes. But even worse than that, I lost the person who I wanted to protect. I finally saw that no matter what I did, I didn’t have the true strength to protect her. Having that truth hit me in my deepest depths of misery, I lost the knowledge of how it takes to protect all of you as well.”
Usually in times of war, having a leader saying he can’t protect his people would frighten them; but this is different, he’s showing such an honesty that it’s stirring up a different emotion from within. He’s showing himself to be even more of a leader, one that they would follow to the bitter ends of the earth.
“So as a man humbled by weakness, I ask you, people of Eiyalazo, I beg you… Become my eyes, become my legs, become the strong person I can never be so we can all fight together! Become strong so we can take back the future of the world! Please, become my strength!!”
By now, the emotions welling up inside of Dice’s heart begin to show itself through his one good eye in the form of tears. And the people in the streets can see it, they can sense it; and they respond with a resounding applause that only gets louder as each person joins in.
The shouts of encouragement pour into Dice’s broken body and lift his spirit up so high it’s as though it was meant as a crutch to help him stand once more and keep him on his feet.
Evelyn walks to his side and rests her hand on his shoulder, he looks up to her and she shows him a warm smile.
It’s only now that Dice truly feels strong, and it doesn’t come from pride, it doesn’t come from the powers he once held, it doesn’t come from the promises of Satan, and it doesn’t come from the feelings he holds toward Rain Von Ronheim.
It comes from the person standing next to him, and each and every person cheering him on in streets.
It comes from the people he now feels like he can protect.
The next morning at dawn, the sun tries to shine through the gaps in the dense fog cascading over the expansive ocean.
Over the course of the last few months there has been a specific legion of Eiyalazonian soldiers that have been marching up and down the northern shores of the coast as lookouts for any invading forces of Hell.
They go through checkpoints at junctions of about ten miles and leave behind a little piece of their legions to be stationed there. This way, there will at least be a couple hundred soldiers to fight the invasion off for a short time while the other groups converge in to flank the enemy, and some to warn the others deeper into the country of the incoming attack.
This particular group of soldiers have just reached one of those checkpoints, and through binoculars they are looking out to sea, scouring the blue surface for any ships. The marine layer is so thick that visibility is spotty at best, yet the gray clouds break often enough that they'd easily be able to spot something out there if it's large enough.
But to their surprise, there has been absolutely no signs of an invasion thus far.
They have heard that there are smaller legions of Hell’s forces that have made their way on foot into Eiyalazo and La’Juune immediately after their capture of Tronoble, and that the main defense force is tasked with keeping them at bay at this very moment. So they find it odd that there has yet to be a naval invasion figuring that this would actually be the fastest route to the capital.
Of course, they are pleasantly surprised that it hasn’t happened. By them not coming it has greatly helped WORLD’s offensive in the race to the Trojan capital, both sides know that in order to win, they must get to each other’s final destination and sack the city(s) first.
Hell’s seemingly lack of urgency has given WORLD the upper-hand.
The leader of this legion’s name is Fredrick, he is a stout burly man with a mustache that flows from under his nose and connects with his sideburns.
He and a couple others are all standing atop a sheer cliff and are looking out to sea, and when they find nothing, they prepare to leave.
Behind them is a fairly dense forest of pines, and the group of about a hundred who are to be left behind will be calling this place their home for the immediate future. They’ve already begun setting up camp assuming that nothing more will be happening for the day.
That is until a man a little further down the side of the rocky cliff shouts, “I’ve spotted something huge at 1 o’clock!”
Fredrick doesn’t hesitate and holds his expensive looking binoculars up to his face and peers through.
And through the magnification he is able to see what looks to be some kind of ship the size of which he struggles to fathom. This large metallic ship easily quadruples the biggest one in WORLD’s army and looks to be heading right towards them.
“What is that thing??” he asks as its massive frame vanishes behind the fog out in the distance.
A man beside him asks, “Could it be one of ours?”
Fredrick shakes his head before replying, “It can’t be. Not if it’s coming from that direction. Just beyond this channel is the southern shores of Troy, Captain Jeffrey’s forces should be making their way north from the south east. There’s no way they’d be coming back down towards us.”
“Then it’s the enemy? But why just one?”
“Did you see the size of that thing? There’s no telling how many thousands of demons they can carry in there, my guess is that it’s a transport ship…”
His guess was said with such a lack of confidence that the soldier at his side becomes nervous, without knowing what kind of enemy they’d be facing, they can’t properly prepare for it.
“What are our orders Captain?”
“We can only barricade ourselves on this shore line and prepare for an enemy invasion. Begin informing the groups we left behind to make their way back to us, and send a group of runners back to the Capital, and have them inform every battalion they pass on the way.”
“Is this really that serious? Couldn’t we handle this ourselves without having to frighten everyone in the Captial?”
“Whether it is or not we’ll know in time. It’s best to be overly cautious than not. Now get going!”
“Yes sir!!”
The soldier runs off into the forest while Fredrick stays perched on top of a boulder hanging on the side of the cliff. He looks back through the binoculars to catch sight of the massive floating object once more and what he sees sends his heart a jolt.
Just as he catches sight of the ship, the sun peeks through the marine layer and lands on what is behind the massive object.
“!!??”
It’s not a fleet, nor is it another ship.
It’s something that its physics cannot be explained nor accounted for in his mind. It’s something that just shouldn’t be there in the middle of the sea, crawling with demons who look to be building it just as fast as the ship is moving forward.
It’s something that absolutely be…
“IMPOSSIBLE!!”
It’s impossible sure, but it makes perfect sense to him now. It explains why there hasn’t been any naval movement in the channel between Eiyalazo and Troy; this object alone ‘is’ Hell’s navy. And no one has noticed it was inching its way towards them this entire time. It was supposed to happen this way all along.
Fredrick turns around to inform his men on what he saw, he’s pale and a cold sweat falls down his temple and reaches all the way to his chin.
“That isn’t a regular ship! It’s a----“
BBBBOOOOOOOOOOOSSHHH!!
An explosion is heard out in the distance and Fredrick quickly turns back around towards the direction of its source.
This is when he sees that whatever caused that loud bang, split the marine layer above and let the sun blitz through the clouds and painted the dull looking sea a bright blue.
However, he doesn’t have time to marvel at the sudden change of environment, because before he can…
BBBBAAAAABBBBAAAAAAAAMMMM!!!
He is blown to pieces by an abrupt, massive blast that utterly demolished the cliff he was standing on and sent hundreds of yards worth of land and rock tumbling into the ocean. A large number of Eiyalazonian soldiers go down with it and the ones not killed in the initial explosion are buried by tons of rubble and trees.
In a flash, the world has changed for them in the worst way.
Being attacked by a weapon they’ve never seen, watching the ridiculously large metal warship making its way towards them, and lastly, seeing what trails behind it, completely shatters whatever world they were living in before this very moment.
From here on, they must find a way to stop what this ship is building along the ocean surface at all costs.
If they don’t, Eiyalazo will fall.
The problem is, what can they possibly do to stop it?
BBBBAAAABBAAAAAAAAAASHHHHHH!!
Another blast takes out another chunk of the coastline and hundreds more soldiers die instantly.
Now the problem shifts from how to stop it, to how to survive this sudden bombardment.
This is all it took for all hope to be lost.
Once that giant metal ship reaches shore, Eiyalazo will fall.
London takes a rather deep breath as he readies to walk out the doors leading to the balcony overlooking the amphitheater filled to the brim with La’Juutian citizens. Standing behind him is an aid, along with a few other guards, and all of them look anxious.
London can feel that look, and his lips faintly rise as he pushes up his glasses. “Relax will you?”
The aid, who is the one who set up this mass gathering shakes his head and replies, “We can’t accept this, going out there by yourself is far too dangerous.”
“I told you, I know what’s coming.”
“Just because you know what’s going to happen doesn’t mean that you can’t get killed.”
“Actually, it does. All you have to do is follow the plan, worrying about me has nothing to do with it. So get going, ‘they’ll’ be waiting to seize the moment I’m to be assassinated.”
Reluctantly, the aid gestures to the guard and says, “Y-Yes sir…”
The rest of them leave the room and London turns away, he grabs the door handle and as soon as he opens it, he’s met with a loud roar. Thousands upon thousands of La’Juutians fill the amphitheater and the numbers stretch deep into the city and around street corners. Even the roofs of the nearby buildings are covered with people.
This should make London nervous, any of these people can kill him, and he is absolutely certain that at least one will try. That means he has a lot to pay attention to, not to mention give a speech.
(Well, here goes nothing.)
“La’Juutians!” London shouts, quieting down the once ruckus crowd into a dead silence. “As you all know, we are at war with an enemy far greater than Eiyalazo and Troy. It’s an enemy that has the intention to rule over us, to control us, to destroy us… The enemy is so strong that many of you, and many others chose to join with them to protect themselves.”
London pauses for a moment and takes a look around, he’s steadily ruling out whole groups of people solely by the looks on their faces. The person in the crowd who’s going to try to kill him will have a certain look in his eyes he’s all too familiar with.
“But I ask you, if you could protect yourself with your own hands, which side would you choose to fight against?”
The crowd stays silent and contemplates that question during his brief pause.
“People want to protect themselves, but they do not have the ability to do so. So instead, they choose someone stronger that promises to protect them if they just give them their allegiance. I admit, even I would be tempted if I had no way of protecting my family. But I’m confident, no, I’m positive that if you no longer needed your country to protect you, you would choose to protect your country.”
Now there are murmurs spreading about in the numbers, they don’t understand where he’s going with this.
“Having said that, I am going to give you the power to protect not only yourselves, but your neighbors, your family, your country. I’m going to give you that power, and let you decide how to use it.”
London is sure that whoever is plotting to assassinate him is appalled upon hearing him say that. Now that the crowd knows what he’s talking about, the murmurs grow so strong it almost feels like a steady roar.
The assassin will make his move as the crowd gets more and more behind him.
“All of you might not know this, but we’ve entered into a new age in warfare. One where swords and shields are steadily becoming obsolete. There’s a new weapon we’ve stumbled upon, and have been distributing it to the soldiers in the front-line from right here within the castle.”
That was classified information just leaked to thousands of people, enough to really push the assassin into killing him before he reveals anymore. Yet the time has not come, and London continues to enrage every political head hearing this speech.
“But giving the people power isn’t enough to ensure your loyalty; after all, no man would choose to protect his oppressor, and oppression is exactly what you all must have been feeling since the first world war started. We’ve raised taxes, heightened our already brutal food rations, and now that the enemy is even stronger, we’ve just about taken everything from you.”
This is a common strife during war time, and it was to be expected by the people who cheered Noah’s decision to go to war with Eiyalazon and Troy. But now that the scale has seemingly gone up tenfold, the daily struggle has just about crippled the citizens.
“To add to even that, those unable to pay have to live with the fear of being taking away by the Exes...”
The Exes are a branch of the government that harshly regulates the poverty line in the Capital. Those too poor to pay taxes, or those without a certain income are taken away and forced to work in camps until they pay off their debt to the country. The Exes are ruthless in their pursuit of these people, and many are constantly on the run. Even Napoleon had to flee from them for a couple years before he could join the military.
Now here’s where London is sure that the assassin(s) will strike; the Exes are funded and run solely by senate officials, and those big-wigs treat it as their pride and joy. Not to mention, one of their main sources of income.
The ones running the Exes branch are the ones who collect on the possessions left behind by those taken away to work at the camps. Whether that be land, houses or places of business, everything from personal items and silverware, anything can be scrapped or sold to make a profit.
Naturally they don’t count the money gained from such things and put it towards the victim’s debt, thus making it a huge money making machine. They push the envelope and even take people above the poverty line in an attempt to earn that extra bit of money from their possessions. And if that particular person meets an unfortunate end in the work camps, no one will know.
They’ll go to any measures for the extra buck, even if that means murdering off whole families.
And that is exactly why they will try to kill London immediately upon hearing what he has to say about this.
“So as a gesture of good faith from those in your government who truly care about you… I hear by declare that the Exes are abolished!”
The crowd roars.
London can feel their relief and excitement, he can feel their emotions.
“Not only that, none of you will have to pay taxes on anything more until the war is over!”
Someone in the crowd is squirming at this very moment, just how in the world does he expect to pay for the war effort with no steady source of income? Surely this move will bankrupt La’Juune.
Not only is London a nuisance as a temporary leader, but his is downright detrimental to the financial future of the country.
But London doesn’t care about that, nor does he worry about that aspect of the future. Because without the people on his side, there will be no future for anyone.
“And finally, to those whose families have been ripped apart by having their loved ones taken to the camps, I have already ordered them to be freed! They are on their way back to you! If we are to fight for each other, we all have to fight together! I choose to fight the people who wish to wrong you, be that the people who decide how you are to live here in the castle, or the ones allied with Satan who wish to enslave you, I will fight for you! Now I ask you again, if I give you the power to fight, will you fight for me as well!?”
The level of noise emitting from the crowd is almost defining, the citizens of La’Juune have given London his answer. The tides of power have shifted from those in the hierarchy of the castle, to the people.
That is unless the castle dwellers do something about it before it gets even more out of hand.
And in this very moment, a projectile is shot from the crowd and zooms directly at London’s chest.
The Knight doesn’t catch sight of it until the very last moment, and it’s not enough time for him to dodge it; so the projectile, which turns out to be an arrow likely shot from a bow-gun, scores a direct hit.
London’s body jolts back and he is sent to the floor as though someone had tackled him down.
The crowd noticed this and falls deathly silent; a lot of them don’t know what happened, but most of them do, and think they had just witnessed the people’s hope shot dead right in front of them.
And when after a few seconds go by and he doesn’t get up, the once jubilant crowd begins to moan in horror. Then it molds into anger when people are heard shouting about the whereabouts of the shooter, then pandemonium flows into their movement as they try to find him.
This is when the double doors to the castle open, and out come three older men in very expensive looking robes.
The three walk right on by the downed London and step up to the podium; the man in the middle who looks to be the leader raises his arms and shouts, “Please everyone, calm down!”
Soothing the rage of thousands of people at once is just about impossible, and despite the old man’s appearance the majority of the crowd doesn’t listen.
These three men are the senators that London fired the night before, and they have every intention of taking advantage of the untimely death of the temporary ruler; and these men want to make sure that everyone knows it.
“Please be calm! This man was nothing but a rebel who wished to destroy the history of our country. He was attempting to take the power from the King and change the foundation of what we stand for! He was a dangerous revolutionary who was trying to fool you!”
The crowd begins to calm just a little, but people are still heard shouting obscenities at the old men, they don’t believe a word he’s saying. But without power, there’s nothing they can do about it. The senators above them are protected by the castle and all its soldiers, they can only watch as the hope promised to them by London is viciously taken away.
“This country shall never change! Even in the worst times, we have always ended up victorious! So you have no need to fear, no need to fight! You only need to------“
BANG!!!
If the old man’s voice wasn’t enough to get the crowd’s attention, the front of his face exploding in a big puff of red certainly is.
The senator slumps over the podium and the other two have no clue what had just happened.
“Didn’t I mention in my speech that the way we fight is obsolete?"
Standing on his feet, with an arrow protruding from his chest is London Stott; and the Knight is pointing a smoking rifle at the two old men without a hint of emotion in the eyes behind his glasses.
“W-Wha..??”
BANG BANG!!!!
Two more shots are fired, and the other two are killed, their bodies go flying over the balcony and into the crowd twenty feet below.
London nonchalantly tosses the old man slumped over the podium to the side and takes his place; he pulls the arrow out from his chest and pulls his coat open, revealing what looks to be a very thick leather vest.
Mixed with chain-mail and wood, this leather vest did enough to keep the arrow from piercing his flesh and saved his life, but even wearing something like this wasn’t enough to quell the severe pain from reaching him.
Yet the Knight doesn’t flinch, he simply holds up the rifle he had concealed under his coat and loudly says, “Those are the people who wish to keep power from you, and these are the weapons you will use to protect yourself from them!”
London then gestures to the double doors and out comes the remaining ten senators, forcefully being pushed by five La’Juutian soldiers. The old men are led to the edge of the balcony and soldiers behind them stand guard at the door.
The men look frightened, it’s likely they had planned on the assassination to succeed and were prepared to make their triumphant return to the top before they were rounded up sent up here. Now their minds are racing with the thought of what London intends to do to them.
Attempting to assassinate London is the same as attempting to assassinate the King. One can only imagine the tortures that’ll go along with their punishment.
The Knight doesn’t pay much mind to them and again gestures to someone. And upon that, hundreds of soldiers go into the crowd and begin handing people rifles and backpacks filled with ammunition and instruction manuals.
It didn’t take long before over half the crowd has their hands on such fierce weaponry, and the other half of the crowd all rush to get one.
“I will give as many of these to the citizens as I can, and I will leave it up to you to decide on how to use them. Unlike these men standing next to me, I trust your judgment, and I trust you will use them for the greater good of your family, neighbors, and your country.”
London looks to the members of the senate to his left and right a smirks at them with a puff of air escaping from his nose. He can see it in their eyes, how crazy they think he is for doing this. There’s simply no way that giving so much power to the people won’t back-fire, they will use it on themselves before they could ever put it to good use.
But the Knight knows something that they don’t, and is very confident that doing this is the only way this country survives.
“Lastly!” London shouts, his resounding voice gathers the attention of the people like the old men could never dream. “I’m going to let you choose how you wish to punish those who chose to take this power from you.”
London turns from the podium and along with the other soldiers, enters the castle, leaving the old men behind.
“!!”
“Wait!” One of them shouts. “You can’t do this! This will be the death of La’Juune you bastard!!"
But when the door is obviously locked from the inside, the old men know their fate, and can only look back into the crowd of people calling for their heads. This is when they see that hundreds of rifles are pointed at them.
“Huah..!”
BBBABABABABAABABABAAAANGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!
Hundreds of people who were lucky enough to take to the guns so quickly let loose bullets at their bodies in such short intervals that it sounded like one giant shot.
The poor old men had no chance, and their bodies are ripped to shreds.
The ones that fell over the balcony and into the crowd are beaten and shot even more, and everyone erupts in a cheer that can be heard across the entirety of the capital city.
At this very moment, power has returned to the people.
London is walking in the hallway with the soldiers, and one of the men to his side is bold enough to ask, "What if the shooter aimed at your head?"
London doesn't turn his way when he plainly answers, "Then I would've moved."
The soldier doesn't know what to say in return to that, and loses any chance to do so when the aid comes rushing up the stairs below him.
The young aid is breathing really hard and it takes him a couple moments to catch his breath before saying, “Sir! I just received a report from a runner!”
“How close are they?” he smoothly asked.
“They are only a hundred miles away! Our soldiers can’t keep them at bay for much longer.”
“Get word back to them telling them to begin a fighting retreat back towards the Capital, that should give us a little more time to prepare. If we can’t stop them out there, then we need as many of them here as we can. Tell them we now have over a half a million reinforcements.”
“Yes sir!”
The aid runs back down the stairs and London gestures the other five soldiers to follow him.
He takes a deep breath and instead of following the others, he turns and walks up the stairs. After a bit of a walk, he ends up at Noah’s room and sits beside the bed carrying the sleeping Prince.
“I’d like to think that I did what you would have done. Hell’s army is closing in at a rate I never thought possible, I guess this particular army encroaching in on us is said to be far worse than any regular demon… Giving the people such a destructive gift and hoping that they won’t use it against themselves is something I’d never do otherwise.”
He looks to Noah and has a genuine expression of worry when he says, “We’d be lucky to hold them back for month, and there’s no telling how many soldiers we’ll have left once they get here… It’ll be the people vs. monsters.”
He sighs, he may be worried but he can still hold out hope on one thing, and that’s his allies. However, judging by how quickly the opposing force is closing in on him, he still can’t help but doubt that his allies are doing anything quickly enough to save them.
He pushes up his glasses and folds his arms when he says softly, “I sure hope our offensive isn’t going as bad as our defensive…”
“W-What the fuck is all this..?” Lennox asked through a raspy voice.
It is early in the morning up in the north, and his shoddy breaths are seen in the form of vapor leaving his mouth as he stands in the cold streets with eyes wide open in shock.
Bodies and lights.
If he were to summarize it all, that’s what it’d be.
Bodies and lights.
There are hundreds of dead soldiers of WORLD sprawled out on the ground, and little orbs of light are exiting from their bodies and floating into the crystal clear sky.
Lennox follows the orbs and watches them get sucked into a giant mason jar being held by some kind of giant demon. The monster in the sky looks like a cat, but has more human like arms and its tail looks like that of an opossum. Its scraggly, haggard looking tail is wrapped in rope and from those are a dozen more mason jars, all of which are collecting the orbs as well.
Now here comes the question, just what is that thing? And what are those orbs?
“Hey snap out of it!” Olin shouts at Lennox, who’s staring up at the monster.
Unbeknownst to him, Lennox is the only one that can see the thing. Jessiah and Olin can see the souls flying and disappearing into the sky, but they can’t see the demon collecting them.
The can't see the demon looking down at them, smiling with its tongue hanging out, as if mocking them.
Surely they’d be as shocked as Lennox if they could.
But now’s not the time to worry about that, WORLD is under attack, and the soldiers are all frantically running about trying to find the enemy. They need an order, and even though the bet was technically lost the night before, Lennox is still the leader.
“Hey!!”
Olin punches his dazed captain in the stomach and Lennox snaps out of it.
“We don’t have time to sit here with our thumbs in our asses in shock! Something's out there is killing us!”
“R-Right...”
Just when Lennox is about to organize his thoughts, Jessiah, who is standing amongst the dead soldiers is heard shouting, “I found one!”
From inside a house, a man clad in black comes flying out of the window and right at Jessiah.
A couple other soldiers happen to be standing in the way and are taken out so fast they didn’t even know what hit them.
The man in black with two open palms leaped forward and simply slammed his hands into the chests of the soldiers and their bodies instantly went lifeless.
A purple orb of light exited the soldiers and as if they were being vacuumed by the demon holding the mason jar above, the lights are sucked up into the sky.
“Holy shit!” Is all Jessiah was able to say before the man in black leaps at him.
With reflexes much faster than the average man, Jessiah falls back and lifts himself into the air with his spear; using his centrifugal force he flips backwards and kicks the man in black. But he doesn’t necessarily land a pure kick, instead the man is launched over Jessiah’s head and does a couple flips before landing back on its feet and begins its pursuit once more.
Jessiah is in no position to defend himself and as far as he knows, all the monster in black needs to do is touch him to kill him; he’s dead unless someone else comes in to help.
And to his relief, in comes Olin at the last second and axes the man in black square in the gut.
“!?”
But the man in black doesn’t slow down and literally runs through Olin’s attack and swings the off-balanced Knight around awkwardly.
“Lennox!”
Lennox jumps forward and swings his sword at the man in black, and scores a direct hit on his outreaching arm, sending it flying into the sky. But the man in black again pays no mind to his wound and reaches out his other glowing hand towards Jessiah.
However, thanks to the interference of his fellow Knights, he gained more than enough time to recuperate and protect himself. So using his spear and his body as a human spike pit, he leans down low and points his spear up until the man in black impales himself on the sharp end and quickly uses every last ounce of strength in his legs to rise back up.
This sends the impaled man off his feet and into the air.
“Ooooooorryyaaahhh!!!”
Jessiah twists around and runs towards a building, as though he were a javelin thrower, he chucks his spear with the man in tow directly into the side of the wall and skewers him.
With feet dangling in the air, the man in black struggles, and to the three’s surprise, the man begins pulling the spear out with just the strength of his one good arm.
Olin is shocked, but not dumb enough to just watch him do it.
He runs at full speed towards the man and jumps, in the air he does a 360 degree turn to build even more speed in his attack.
“Haaaah!!”
THHUNNKK!!
Olin smashes his ax into the man’s neck and his head is sent flying off his shoulders and his body immediately goes limp.
The three take a sigh in relief until more screams are heard deeper into the city. More soldiers of WORLD are dying, which means there are more of these monsters around.
It’s common sense right? If they woke up to find over a hundred people dead, one would have to assume there would be more.
What really has their surprise, is just how many there are.
Or rather, it’s how few.
There’s only 9 of these men clad in black, and they are taking out dozens of soldiers at a time, and for every ally that falls, an orb of light rises into the sky and enters one of the many jars held by the odd looking cat demon above.
“Are these things their special forces or something??”
Lennox gives that question a deep thought, it could be that these guys are same elite soldiers of Hell as the Knights are for La’Juune. It could be that just ten of them are enough to inflict massive damage to their enemy.
But 10 vs 800,000?
That seems ridiculous, no matter how strong these monsters are, their numbers are simply too little to have any real effect. That being said, this could mean multiple things, one being a suicide mission, another being an assassination mission that had their cover blown… The thing is, he feels that both of those explanations can't be it, this whole mess is too sloppy even for Hell.
This attack can only mean one thing.
“You two go help the others and take those bastards out!” Lennox shouted as he dashes away and runs into a building.
“Hey wait!”
Despite their pleas, Lennox doesn’t listen, and he quickly makes his way up a swirling flight of stairs and hops out of a window before springing himself on top of the roof. From there, he sprints across a few more buildings until he reaches the 20 meter high wall used to barricade this city in.
Though the wall is over ten feet higher than the roofs of this particular building, Lennox easily jumps up and grabs the ledge and pulls himself to the top of the structure.
There he sees that the men ordered to stand gaurd have been killed during the silence of the night, and looking all around the city on top of the wall, it's obvious that those ten men in black killed every last one of them before they could sound any kind of alarm.
Out in the distance is the rising sun climbing over the Trojan horizon, painting the sky a purplish orange color. Under the light of this bright sun casts the ominous shadows of thousands of those monsters in black; and once Lennox and the massive force make eye contact, all of them sprint towards the fort city at a speed unattainable by any human standards.
“!!”
It didn’t take more than a few seconds for the force to be within a hundred yards of the walls. Lennox knows that if only ten of them can kill off hundreds of soldiers, there’s no telling what thousands of them can do.
This is a battle that can be drawn out and turn into a month’s long bloodbath. Even with the numbers of WORLD, there’s a good chance that the majority of their almost million man army could be wiped out, leaving their offensive in a huge failure.
This battle is going to mess up the entire timing of Jeffrey’s and Rain’s plan, and leave the other two invading forces stranded once they reach the Capital of Troy where they’d likely be crushed by Satan.
Lennox can’t believe things escalated so quickly, from finally sacking this city the night before, to having to defend it against a much stronger force in less than a day is a bit of a kick in the mouth. It’s like sacrificing a limb to save the life of a friend, only to have that friend die anyway. Just how many others must die before they can continue on?
Well, that answer actually presents itself clearly in front of him when the bulk of the thousands of men in black split in two and run along the other side of the fort city.
“W-Wha..?”
The answer is, no one else.
These monsters aren’t here to take back the city, in fact, they are here to make their way past this city.
By enclosing the million man army of WORLD within the walls of the city, it solidifies the unimpeded invasion of the Northern countries and makes any kind of counter attack impossible.
By sending the ten men in black into the proverbial cage that WORLD has enclosed themselves in, it shifted their focus to inside the walls instead of outside.
Just as Lennox's instincts told him, it truly was just a distraction leading to a bigger attack.
However, the attack isn’t going to be on them, instead it’s going to be on the North.
And judging by that cat demon in the sky who’s now following the thousands strong force of men in black, he can pretty accurately guess what they are going up there to do.
It’s going to be a massacre.
The Northern countries are already weak, all of them combined can barely hold a torch to Eiyalazo, Troy and La’Juune; and those weak countries exhausted almost all of their armed forces to join WORLD’s invasion of Troy.
They simply don’t have the population or the resources to protect themselves, and whatever they did have is now in a foreign country.
This in turn, leaves them utterly defenseless.
As of right now, those monsters in black are far closer to the Northern countries than WORLD is to the Capital of Troy; if they don’t do something, these poor soldiers might not even have a country to return to if the war is won.
The problem is that there is nothing they can do, there’s no way they’re going in the opposite direction of their final destination to stop them. Even if they did there’s just about no way they can catch up. The only thing they can do is count their blessings and move forward; no matter how brutal it sounds, Lennox knows that they caught a break in not having to fight those monsters in black.
If they did, the invasion was lost.
“Damn it...” Lennox hissed.
Now comes the real problem... Does he tell them?
If he told his soldiers that thousands of those things were heading towards their families, he’s quite certain that most of them will abort this mission and head back to protect them.
And if that happens as well, the invasion will be lost.
He must swallow his guilt and make a decision that will benefit mankind as a whole; if telling them that their families are going to be slaughtered will hurt humanity's chances of winning this war, then they don't need to know.
He’ll keep the secret to the grave.
After making his way back to streets of the city, he’s pleased to find that the other nine monsters are dead on the ground, cut to pieces by the soldiers just to make sure that they don’t get back up and move.
“Where did you go?” Olin asks, huffing hard as he speaks in fatigue. “We coulda used your help, these things were seriously tough!”
That’s an understatement, well over 200 allies are dead on the ground. For every one man in black killed, 20 humans perished in the process. That kill ratio is ridiculous.
“I had to make sure that there wasn’t any other attack on the city, I couldn’t find anything out there so I’m thinking this was just a suicide mission by Hell to kill one of us that went wrong once their cover was blown.”
“It’s a good thing there weren’t anymore of them, they did some serious damage, and they were almost impossible to kill unless we cut off their heads.”
“Huh?”
“That’s not the only way to do it.” Jessiah says, “I stabbed one through the left side of its chest and that stopped him in his tracks.”
Lennox looks down at a decapitated man in black and clicks his tongue, he then looks to the two Knights and the exhausted looking soldiers of the North.
He’s about to send out an order that looks to betray the feelings of every last one of them, sure he feels guilty about it, but somewhere deep inside the guilt is overrun by the duty of being a leader.
“Olin, Jessiah, grab one of these bodies and take them with us.”
“Take them with us?”
“That’s right, we need to study the anatomy of these things in case we run into more of them in the future.” He again looks to everyone else and in a stern voice shouts, “We’re leaving this city immediately, since these ten were able to infiltrate the city, the enemy knows of our victory here. We can’t afford to be stuck here in a drawn out battle when reinforcements come. So let’s move out!”
The others don’t ask questions and quickly disperse to gather their things.
Olin and Jessiah however, are skeptical of the sudden change of plan.
“I thought we were supposed to leave some people here behind to guard the city?” Olin asks, “If Hell’s army comes back here and reclaims the fort, they’ll have the ability to attack the North as they please.”
Lennox replies with a cold, deathly glare before saying,
“The North is already doomed...”
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