The OP Lich is a Returnee, Chapter 156

Chapter 156 – On the Move

“Holy shit.”

First Lieutenant Leo Hughes couldn’t really fault his Radio-Telephone Operator (RTO) for the outburst. If the sergeant hadn’t said it, he probably would have. There are some sights that just demand an exclamation, and seeing two dragons land in the middle of a campground at the mountain’s base, with a full company of undead cavalry riding upon skeletal steeds with blue flames rising from their hooves and eyes? That was one of those sights.

Sergeant First Class Ella Scott, his second and the platoon sergeant, whistled softly as the undead broke ranks in clean, perfect unison, allowing the Lich Queen and several others to ride forth from where they had been, in the center of what was obviously a defensive formation. As if the Lich Queen needed protection. But then, the people behind her looked normal, or at least still had more of their flesh than the skeletal knights, so maybe it was to protect the people who followed her, more than for her own protection. Or maybe it was just habit and training, picked up from the years she had spent in the other world?

Hughes forcefully cut off that train of thought, and walked forward to meet his ‘guest’. Or, rather, meet the person who had invited him and his headquarters section on this trip. As he approached, he looked more closely at the knights. They were primarily armed with spears, or maybe lances? At any rate, they had long spears, and each had a shield slung across their back, and a sword at one hip, and a mace or hammer upon the other.

Sergeant Ewan White, his Forward Observer (FO), and a history professor when not in the field, nodded slightly at the sight. “We know knights primarily for swords and shields and the like, but, historically, the sword was a sidearm, like how riflemen today would treat a pistol. These look like heavy cavalry, so they would have been focused on the charge more than anything. Other cultures, or units designed more for skirmishing, would have the primary weapon be a bow and arrows.”

Looking more closely at the knights, he said, “The lance would be used in a charge. If things turned into a melee, or they lost their lance for one reason or another, then the knight could switch to using their melee weapons. A sword for slashing at unarmored or weakly armored foes, and a mace to help with armor. I don’t know of any historical knights that were armed that way, but I suppose undead would have less problems with weight causing fatigue.”

“Very good, Sergeant White,” the Lich Queen said, her words radiating power. Hughes wanted to shake his head and scream at the pencil-pushing bureaucrats and wannabe spymasters that had angered her to the point where she felt torching CIA headquarters was a good way to put people on notice. Clearly, they had never been in the same room with her, or they would have realized that trying to fight her was a fool’s errand. “Indeed, that is how my Death Knights operate. Though I will say that their weapons allow them to attack at range, without needing to switch to a bow. The enchantments upon their weapons allow them to be used by those of the Warrior’s Way to channel their mana into ranged attacks, as well.”

The Lich Queen, dressed in her armor and with blue flames glowing from the eye sockets of her exposed skull, then turned her attention his way. “Lieutenant Hughes, I trust the townsfolk have been informed of what is going on?”

He nodded, once. “I spoke with Pastor Bill Collins, the man in charge of the local Baptist church, and he promised to get the word out. The church is a central point of contact for the people in town, and he’s been helping keep the locals from getting curious about the mountain, while we looked for the entrance. No one wanted a repeat of the Azores, or what was reported in Australia. I’ve heard a couple reports of some troublemakers, mostly contrarian types who always set out to do whatever you tell them not to, but the Pastor and his people are sitting on them, for the time being.”

“Excellent,” she nodded. Then, she turned towards the mountain. “According to my scouts, the barrier hiding the entrance is in a cave, not far from here, but it is almost half-way up the mountain. Can you and your people ride?”

Hughes looked at the other members of his section, each of them giving noncommittal gestures. Turning back to the Lich Queen, he said, “Riding upon horseback is not a common pastime in the modern world, but if you would be patient with us, and not expect any complex formations, we should at least be able to follow your lead.”

The Lich Queen nodded, and waved her hand to the side. A portal opened, and six steeds, identical to the ones the knights rode, walked out. “Very well. Mount up, and we shall proceed to the cave, where my scout awaits us.”

Hughes had been on a horse all of once in his lifetime, and that was as a child, at a summer camp. Still, using the stirrups and saddlehorn, he was able to swing himself up into the saddle of the steed in front of him, and the rest of his section followed him. As they set off, he couldn’t help but shake his head at how surreal it was. The skeletal horse moved like a normal horse, but somehow smoother than he remembered as a kid. Oh, and they were flying through the air, with dragons circling the mountain above them. Couldn’t forget that.

Much more quickly than he had expected, they were stopping, half-way up the mountain, near a ridge that had an almost seventy-degree slope. And yet, he saw a person standing on an outcropping there, as though it were nothing. Of course, as they got closer, it became obvious that this was no normal human. The gaunt face and exposed teeth suggested that this was some form of undead, but he hadn’t studied the undead enough to know which type was which, beyond what Hollywood portrayed.

“Sergeant Bertran, well done. We would reward you for your efforts and your long service with us, but it seems you have refused promotion several times. Is there anything you would ask of Us?”

The soldier bowed low, a somewhat impressive task given that they were balancing on a ledge barely wider than their feet, and said, “All I ask, your Majesty, is the chance to continue serving you, as I have done.”

“Very well. You shall continue to serve. But We shall use your talents elsewhere. Several friendly governments have expressed interest in a training program, as we have developed for the British military. You shall join one of those programs, when they are established, and be one of the first to train on new weapons and tactics developed from studying what this world has to offer, and combining it with what we knew from Onerth.”

The undead soldier saluted crisply, with his right fist brought to his chest. Sure, it was not a salute that would be seen in modern militaries, but Hughes knew a salute when he saw one, all the same. Different militaries had different styles, but the attitude behind a salute was always the same. Though that did bring up the question of whether militaries in the other world had rules about not saluting in war zones. Were snipers even a concern, there?

The Lich Queen turned her attention to the rough rock wall, and nodded slowly. “Yes, there is indeed a barrier here. How interesting. It is physical, as well as an image. If one weren’t sensitive to magic’s flows, then you could climb it like any other section of rock. How did you find it, Sergeant?”

“Was born with magesight, your Majesty, despite being an Earthsoul warrior. I could feel the change in the natural flow as I moved up the mountain. Led me here, and the barrier stood out plain as a dragon in the town square.”

“Very good, Sergeant.” The Lich Queen nodded, before turning her attention to the rock wall that her soldier claimed was a barrier. Raising her staff in one hand, a bolt of magic blasted from the headpiece, striking a portion of the wall. A portion that then rippled, faded, and then disappeared, revealing a small cave.

“Well, we will have to dismount here, I’m afraid. Knights on foot should have no problems, but there would be no room for the horses to properly maneuver, there. To say nothing of the dragons, of course. They will ensure no one else comes close.”

Hughes was about to ask just where they were supposed to dismount, but the Lich Queen seemed to already have a plan for that. She raised her staff once more, and a platform of what looked like solid shadow appeared in the air beneath them, anchored to the stone wall of the mountain. However, despite it being smoky and translucent, the platform didn’t even sway as the Lich Queen and her knights dismounted their steeds.

After only a moment’s hesitation, the Lich Queen’s mortal followers followed suit, prompting Hughes to take a breath, and dismount. Looking at his subordinates, he said, “Come on, now. If she was going to drop us, she would have done it long before now. And she doesn’t seem like the type to carelessly forget that mortals can’t fly.”

The Lich Queen just smiled as they all dismounted, and sent the steeds back through the portal they came from, along with the knights’ lances. Instead, the knights unslung their shields, but left their other hand free, for the time being. That much, at least, made sense to Hughes. Even if this tunnel looked to be big enough to drive one of the larger army trucks through it with a bit of room to spare, it was still close enough quarters that swords and shields would probably be more effective than cavalry lances used on foot.

Once everyone was on solid rock, the platform disappeared, as though it had never been. Smart, Hughes figured. Don’t want to go wasting power on maintaining a spell when it wasn’t needed. He wasn’t sure how much power it took to make a platform out of shadow capable of holding over a hundred skeletal horses and their riders at once, but it couldn’t be a small amount, especially given the size.

As they walked down the long tunnel, the Lich Queen took her place at the head of the procession, with the knights at the front and back, and everyone else in between. Which is how Hughes found himself walking next to the woman he knew from the news was Princess Eri, the Lich Queen’s mortal sister.

“So, come here often?” He said, in a rather lame, joking way of starting a conversation.

Fortunately, the Princess grinned, and said, “If I didn’t know better, I would say you were trying to flirt, Lieutenant, instead of just breaking the silence. But, to be honest, this is the first time I’ve talked face to face with Nee-san since just after the kidnapping. She’s been busy, after all, and I still had to finish my dissertation.”

“Congratulations on that, by the way. I couldn’t bring myself to go past a Master’s in Law. I was fairly certain that my brain would murder me if I attempted a doctorate. I read your dissertation, when it was published. I’ll admit, I’m not a terribly powerful thaumaturge, but the idea of translating spells from another world’s methodology to use on CADs was fascinating. What I could understand of it, at least.”

The Princess smiled at him. “Oh, thank you. I’m hoping to spend the next few years looking to make that a reality. It may be a bit of shameless nepotism, but Father arranged a position for me at Phantomline.”

“Damn. Well, maybe I’ll get some of the benefits of it in a few years. Eventually someone in one of the countries Phantomline sells to will reverse-engineer things, but until then? I feel like a poor kid at a good school, watching everyone else come in with designer clothes each day.”

“Hehehe,” she giggled. “Well, some things cannot be helped. After all, my Mother said that, even as a child, Kaori was not one to back down, when she believed she was right. And that was when she was a normal human, without any magic. I doubt the restriction on sales to the US will end anytime soon. At least, not until someone with authority apologizes for their mistake.”

“Ah, so sometime after the heat-death of the universe. Wonderful,” he said, wryly, getting a laugh from the Princess in return. And it was probably just his imagination, but he felt like it was getting a bit hot…

“Ease off the charm, Sir,” Sergeant Scott mock-whispered to him. “You’re not ranked high enough to go ‘Captain Kirk-ing’ with foreign royalty.”

“Shut it, Sergeant,” Hughes blushed as the mortals around him laughed. And he was sure he just seeing things, and the Princess wasn’t blushing, as well. Yeah, must be seeing things. For sure.