Chapter 366 - Misstep

Note : Apologies for the late upload, got distracted.

Chapter 366

Ytakan Scrublands, Archduchy of Rebirth

Darthar-Asaria Trade Route, Town of Myriu

Myriu might still bear the marks of the civil war, from its occupation by Sunrise to the fortifications erected by colonel Rim and his twentieth heavy infantry, but it had been reborn from its ashes.

All around, former slaves were bustling with purpose. Fields left fallow after Sunrise's occupation were being cleared up, plowed and seeded by vast work groups overseen by druids and professional farmers. Entire woods were being felled, as blacksmiths worked in field workshops to return the makeshift weapons they had once wielded to their original purpose as tools.

For all its lack of amenities and basic nature, there was euphoria in the air. Compared to the living hell they had been subjected to in the months before, this was paradise for the former slaves.

Still...not all were touched by that same euphoria.

A man, in torn clothing so generic it was almost beyond description, walked through the crowd, on the way to his next work assignment. His head was always down, but his eyes saw everything nonetheless as he effortlessly moved through the press.

It was why he spotted the commotion. His instincts told him to move away, but old habits died hard, and he stopped, hoping to gather some snippets of information, even just a glance.

He watched as the crowd parted, and his heart froze in horror.

A young woman was walking alone, her eyes downcast and hair in front of her face, holding a basket...and clad in an almost impeccable maid uniform, her skin the rosy perfection of freshly regenerated flesh. No one dared come close, horror and pity clear on everyone's features.

The maid came to a stop, and her head whipped around, like a Mackie's gun tracking its prey. Her eyes locked onto the man.

For a heartbeat, the world froze.

The man broke the spell, as he dashed into the crowd, using his training to slip through.

An inhuman, beastly howl filled with rage beyond measure resounded behind him, and he heard as the maid punched her way through the press of bodies, making up for his dexterity with sheer hatred and brute force.

He looked back, his eyes wide as he saw people thrown aside as the maid closed in. Fuck fuck fuck why did he have to wait?!? He could still lose her. Get far enough into the crowd, make her lose si-

He wasn't looking, and gasped as the guard barred his way.

"What the hell is going on here?" Asked the soldier, the livery of the duchy of Sarth on her breastplate.

The man could have slipped by her. But the momentary distraction was enough, and the maid pounced on him, pushing him to the ground, driving the breath out of his lungs as her hands closed around his neck.

He gasped for air, only to feel the grip tighten. He clawed as best he could at the young woman but to no avail.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" The guard reached out intent to tear the maid off of him...only to stop as a voice rang out.

"Lay a finger on her and I will kill you with my own hands." The guard spun around, her hand on her weapon, only to freeze, and nod, swallowing heavily.

"Y-Yes lady governor."

"That's knight-governor to you, soldier." The man's vision swam as he saw a vague figure in shining armor, towering over him. The figure moved towards the maid, and gently removed her hands from his throat. "Kaisy. Kaisy, let him go. What happened?" Said the figure, gently, as the man gasped for air.

His lungs burned as oxygen reentered them, and his vision sharpened.

If his heart had frozen in fear before, it reached absolute zero now.

The woman before him had the armor of a royal knight...and he knew her face.

Knight-Commander Philia Elcanor, now Knight-Governor of Sunrise by royal decree. Or, more accurately, by the decrees of Allya Nouvelle-Aurore, archduchess of Rebirth and arguably the most powerful woman on the continent.

And behind the woman, a part of fellow knights and golems, their firearms gleaming the sunlight.

He felt the maid shift on his back. Just a bit more...

"I...he..." The maids' words sounded hoarse. Hoarse, he knew, from a throat that hadn't spoken for a long time. Unless screams of pain and terror counted as speech. After all, she'd learned that begging for mercy was useless. "S-Spymaster!" She finally managed to let out, shifting a bit more, probably to gesture at him.

It was enough. The spymaster of Sunrise threw her off, and rolled into a crouch, before dashing into the crowd.

He was fast. Hellishly so.

The golems were faster.

His world dissolved in pain and thunder, and suddenly he was on the ground. His brain took a few seconds to realize that the automata had gunned him down like a dog in the street, and he grimaced as he started the activation sequence of his suicide implant.

He wouldn't be taken alive. He wouldn't give them the satisfaction of torturing him. Or even using his body. Only ashes and mysteries would be left of him.

But the few seconds he had lost in stupor were seconds he didn't have. He heard the crackle of energy a split second before the arc of lightning hit him. Carefully calibrated, it only mildly singed his flesh as he spiraled into unconsciousness.

Philia looked at the man, lowering her hand, still sparking with residual energy from her spell.

"Get me lady Crystal, now. And someone find me a medic and a stasis field. I have a feeling she'll want that scum alive."

*****

Amelia sighed as she looked at the gargantuan fortifications before her.

The city of Pavrow has the biggest, most impenetrable fortifications in the entire Republic. Maybe even the whole continent. Mostly made of Old World ruins and materials salvaged from them, it had walls taller than any siege tower and repurposed skyscrapers turned into gigantic bastions.

A million men could have attacked it, and a million men would have been repelled.

So, instead, she'd signed a deal with Crystal, set up a hundred howitzers, and proceeded to pound half of those bastions into rubble over the last few months.

The city's greatest asset had always been that the skyscrapers gave a ridiculous height, and thus range, advantage to its artillery. That worked...until the technological difference became too high. And it had. The bronze bombards housed within the neoconcrete buildings were impressive, heavy guns with alchemical gunpowder and enchanted cannonballs. But no matter what they couldn't even come close to matching Crystal's artillery.

So she'd pounded them. Battery by battery, bastion by bastion, slowly hammering the city into submission. It was slow, grueling work...and a superb way to stall and distract. A giant pile of guns annihilating your greatest defenses had a habit of doing that to people.

Meanwhile her two other field armies moved to break open the fortresses holding the other enemies of the Republic in check.

It was a brilliant, cost effective strategy.

And she probably shouldn't have bothered. The news of the devastation Crystal had wrought up north had reached everyone. First the repeated attacks by Sunrise, each a bloodier pyrrhic victory than the last for the rebel duchy. Then the Mackies.

And finally, the entire slaver duchy coming down in blood and fire.

Many within the Republic saw what happened to Sunrise, the horror unleashed by its slaves, and were getting extremely nervous. Doubly so, now that the dungeon core was free to swing south, to the rescue of her allies.

And that would only increase once the summit began, and 'allies' became 'vassals'.

Which was why the city was currently flying flags of truce. Not surrender, not yet. And cold military logic would have dictated that she reject the offer and continue her bombardment. But she knew people.

Allowing the truce, the reprieve in the bombardment, would help widen the crack in the city's resolve. Even if it was only for a day, the damage to the morale of her enemies would be staggering. After all, if the other side wasn't there to destroy them, what were they even fighting for?

Besides. The people manning the fortifications she was blowing up were the same people she was trying to save. If she could spare them and further her goals at the same time, she'd do it without question.

She didn't even blink as someone moved to her side. She was surrounded in so many layers of bodyguards she didn't particularly need to worry. And even if that failed, she was warded against most conceivable means of attack. It was the only reason she'd been able to even get into a position to have a view on the city. She may command the entire New Republic's military, but she was under no illusion that she could impose her will upon her bodyguards if they thought she was putting herself in undue danger.

"Madam President." Said the soft, almost musical voices of one of her new aides, and she sighed.

One day, she would manage to get the idea that she was neither elected nor interested in leading her country into the heads of her people.

And one day, maybe the Gods would descend in glory and restore Alcheryos to its age of light before the Great Night.

Both were starting to seem roughly as likely.

"General. It's General, lieutenant." Her tone softened as she saw the young man flinch at the corner of his vision. "What is it?"

"We have received news. Major Malcom has signaled that he will arrive at Rebirth within the hour. You have also been convened for a meeting with Archduchesses Allya and Pyn Nouvelle-Aurore, as well as Crystal the dungeon core."

Amelia's eyebrow rose. A meeting? That meant they had something they wished to unveil during Malcom's arrival, then discuss the implications of.

Crystal did seem to love her theatrics. At least this time it wasn't being demonstrated by murdering most of her army.

"Very well. Inform the archduchesses I shall be honored to attend."

"Yes mada-General." The aid bowed, and left, his face burning as she chuckled.

Amelia simply gazed back at the city. She had time.

*****

"Well this'll be an interesting conversation." Said Alexandra as she looked at the images sent by Philia, floating above the command center's holographic projector. "Just make sure to take all precautions. And Seraph?"

"Yes, milady?"

"Shift things around on the fabricator schedule. I want a full medical suite. Not just a pod to interrogate him in. He's going to have surprises and I'm not letting him slip through our fingers. That fucker will die when I say so, understood?"

"Understood milady."

"Good." Alexandra turned towards Emilia, who already had her notebook open. The dungeon core smiled. "Next thing?"

"Well, we have the New Republic representative to greet."

"Aaaah, yes. That's going to be quite the spectacle."

"You do seem to enjoy giving people heart attacks far too much."

"Well I can't do it to Allya anymore, and I have to get my fun somehow." Alexandra held up a finger as Emilia opened her mouth. "If you say I need to get a hobby, I'll reiterate that despite recent events people still get nervous with me conquering stuff. Furthermore, I tried with the virtual reality games."

"And CQ kicked your ass. Still got wounded pride with that?"

"She cheated! Ghost briefed her on my tactics, I know it. I just can't prove it. Yet."

The vampire rolled her eyes.

"Fine then. But yeah, we have to do the ceremony. And then meet with Amelia. Not worried that'll undercut his authority?"

"What, immediately having a call home with the general? No. If something this small was a problem, she wouldn't have sent him. I do wonder how he got here however. I could have sworn he was heading the push towards Mystral, to cut off the Western Wildlands from Elkis."

"Well, you'll be able to ask him yourself soon enough. Shall we do some final checks?"

"Let's. I'd rather avoid something going wrong."

"Don't you mean 'spectacular explosion'?"

"No, that's 'rapid unscheduled disassembly', and you know it!" They exchanged smiles, while the AI simply watched the banter with mild interest and what seemed like the hint of a smile. "Alright, alright. Let's go double check everything. The mechanical parts, at least. CQ doesn't need us breathing down her neck. Same for Frankie or the triplets."

Emilia nodded. Frankie was short for Frank Exchange of Views, the new Culture-class siege ship, and 'the triplets' referred to the trio of AI-controlled Tetsudo-class light cruisers meant to escort it.

"I'll keep that in mind. Now let's go, we are tight on time."