Devourer

Chapter 94: The Fall Part 6

General Montis walked through the city that was his home. He now wore Elysian red, clearly distinguishing his new allegiances. Thus far as he moved through the city he had been securing prisoners, he had been promised that the prisoners taken during this battle would be first examined through interrogation. If found that they are unlikely to remain as agitators after the battle they will be released. An extremely generous and merciful arrangement by the Empress. But that was no doubt motivated by the fact she knows a successful rebellion is impossible. Voleria simply does not have the strength to contest the Great Beast’s power.

At first many of the soldiers were shocked to see what he was wearing but as soon as he explained his reasons they were quick to fall in line. Especially when he told them that the Elysian invasion was reduced to a few thousand survivors in under an hour and that what they have experienced thus far was an extremely restrained assault.

If the Great Beast were to attack with no reservations, bringing the full measure of his power and the might of his hive to bear against this city. Then Tralis would be rubble, its people's meat or ashes. It will be a day where an ancient city is reduced to a haunted ruin.

Montis knew this fact all too well. So sure he was in the futility of resistance, that he helped the Empress and the Great Beast plan the attack. It was his expertise and experience that led to this rather tame and non destructive attack. It was also a good opportunity for him to start to prove his worth to the Empress. If he played his cards right he could end up in control of Western Voleria, which means he will be able to keep the people safe. By having a combined Volerian army at his disposal and keeping the military forces out of the hands of the greedy provincial lords he can help ensure a peaceful occupation. At this time no one knew the true horror of the Great Beast’s hive better than him. The prideful and greedy lords will no doubt attempt something foolish given the chance and the Empress’s wrath will fall upon them like thunderbolt.

Montis then noticed the Great Beast take flight away from a spot on the main highway. He would bet his right hand that the Empress or Legiana was there. As far as he could estimate these two were the only two worth having the Great Beast actually landing for. For any other the Great Beast would probably just hover overhead, give an order and fly off. 

Sure enough when he arrived Montis saw the Empress and Legiana standing next to a group of five adventurers who were unconscious and tied up on the ground.

“Empress…” Montis said as a simple greeting and gave her a small bow. Cecilia smiled as she nodded in return. Montis learned quickly that Empress Cecilia despised grovelling sycophants, she much preferred servants that were useful and to the point. 

“General, how are the prisoners?” Cecilia asked.

“Receptive, docile and more numerous than expected. The Hive showed surprising restraint.” Montis replied with a hint of gratitude in his voice, a hint that would be easily picked up by his most astute Empress.

“My dear friend did some fine tuning before the invasion to ensure such a thing was possible.” Cecilia said as she turned her gaze to Legiana who nodded.

“I had no idea that modifying such a large Hive could be done so quickly.” Montis said.

“Not all change has to be physical, my king has built us with several contingencies in mind. Allowing both flexibility and specialisation as required. He is nothing if not far sighted.” Legiana said with reverence in her voice.

“We know precious few things about the ancients. Especially since in their time, life spans were long so writing and record keeping was largely unnecessary.” Cecilia said.

“I would assume you know more than most Empress, given your rather close relationship with the Great Beast.” Montis asked.

“Curious are you General?” Cecilia asked coyly with a smirk.

“You would be surprised how often I get these types of questions. In truth, some things are better left unknown. For you see general, to the ancients the words profane and abhorrent have little meaning. In the days of the forgotten past, it was not about who was right, it was about who was left.” Cecilia replied and Montis gave her a small bow to show he understood her meaning.

The message may seem disjointed and even rambly to the uninitiated. But Montis heard her message loud and clear. The message was quite simple, be useful, give the Great Beast a reason to do the “right” thing. Because the moment doing the “wrong” thing is more effective is the moment that everything goes to hell. 

Once again Montis asked himself this question. It was a question he had asked himself all his life. His father taught him something very early in his life. In this world there were only two types of people, the winners and the losers. So Montis has tried to win and win many things he has. He rose through the ranks, making a name for himself as a fiercely intelligent and competent individual. So he rose from an unproven young heir of a great house to what looks like to be the military arm of a great Empire. After this battle, the great lords of Western Voleria will covet his favour like drunkards seeking wine. He will be the most powerful Volerian, with a single stroke of a pen or a simple command he can make or break anyone, any house, any city. 

For all intents and purposes he has won. So once again he asks himself this question.

Yes he has won, but what did he win?

“Are you well versed in the Divonia Empire.” Cecilia asked suddenly.

“I’m sorry?” Montis asked, slightly taken aback as he was torn from his thoughts.

“I apologise for tearing you from your thoughts, but there is time for meditation later.” Cecilia replied calmly as she cast her cool gaze to the group of tied up adventurers.

“Of course Empress. As to your question I am well versed with the Divonians, I have spoken with Divonian diplomats on several occasions. Tralis maintains several trade treaties with them, those will naturally have to be renegotiated after the conclusion of this war.” Montis said as he turned his gaze to the adventurers.

“Can you confirm that they are Divonian? The two darker skinned ones are apparently from the Isles of the Merchant Princes.” Cecilia said as she gestured at the adventurers in question.

“Merchant Princes… there may be an easy way to determine that. The people on those isles mark their backs with tattoos to denote their status and life progress. The tapestry of life they call it, I can read it if it’s there. It should include some important information.” Montis said.

“I see, I have heard of the tapestry of life but it slipped my mind. Strip those two.” Cecilia commanded and a pair of royal guards approached.

A short while later the two had their backs bare and Montis looked down to examine their dark skinned backs covered with white tattoos.

“The man and the woman, they were low born slaves… they may also be siblings…” Montis muttered as he examined their backs.

“May?” Cecilia asked.

“They have the same family seal, but that may mean they are simply from the same batch of slaves. The woman was a whore for a period in her teenage years, then she and her brother became gladiators after being purchased. 

It is unclear if they were born on the isles or if they were simply owned by an islander slaver on the Divonian mainland. They were then liberated by an adventurer who saw potential; it can be seen here from a man breaking chains and him pointing a spear at the wolf.

Then they went into service of… the crown… the eagle is the symbol of royalty…” Montis finished as he reached the end of the wall of tattoos.

“So spies masquerading as adventurers. Still, why leave this evidence on their backs?” Cecilia asked.

“Most outside of that region don’t know how to read it, I only learned about it because I had to negotiate a slave deal with the Merchant Princes a few years ago. I read about it beforehand, it took me a lot of time to get my hands on the books. Or it could simply be incompetence, as I am sure you are aware corruption and nepotism is rife in the Divonian Empire.” Montis said.

“A slave deal? I thought slavery was illegal in Voleria.” Cecilia asked as she raised a brow.

“It is illegal, officially we sold a contract of service. Their labour was contracted to the slavers… in perpetuity. They were condemned so they were serving hard labour until the time of their execution.” Montis explained.

“I see… a contract of service loaned in perpetuity… now that’s a joke and half.” Cecilia replied with a chuckle.

“At least we now have an idea on who they are. They will be a useful bargaining chip. They are a casus belli for war, after what we did to Voleria they will be wise to take our threats seriously.” Cecilia said with a smirk.

“Still this mark was very sloppy, their subterfuge divisions must not be as good as they would have us believe.” Montis said.

“It could also be possible that they were contracted for this job specifically, they were here to gather information on my dear friend. Mithril ranked adventurers are hard to find and nothing less than a mithril rank adventurer would even stand a chance… or so they thought.” Cecilia replied.

“Then they probably should have sent one of their Hero ranked team, but I suppose that would be harder to hide. A hero ranked team would draw a lot of suspicion.” Montis said.

“Indeed they would, a mithril ranked team like them drew quite a lot of attention on their own.” Cecilia replied as she cast her gaze upwards and faced the inner wall. 

Montis followed her gaze and the two watched the Hive swarm up the inner walls. It looks like the next phase of the plan is beginning. This means the outer city has now been occupied to a satisfactory degree.

“Work is never done, when you finish something you always have something else to do.” Cecilia mused.

“Good work begets more work, I learned that a long time ago.” Montis replied.

“I suppose that is true. Come, we have much to do.” Cecilia said as she turned away from the adventurers and began heading down the highway.

“Yes my Empress.” Montis replied as he made to follow.

◦◦,`°.✽✦✽.♚.✽✦✽.°`,◦◦

I looked down at the battlefield below me. My not so surgical removal of that section of wall has greatly accelerated the fall of the outer city. The loud bang from the ether explosion combined with the now gaping molten hole shattered the morale of the lesser defenders. Relatively calm and orderly surrenders devolved into panicked desperate militia throwing themselves at the feet of the Elysians.

There was now only a few hours until nightfall which meant we didn’t have the time to take the inner city. Starting an all out battle in the streets of a city during night was a good recipe for accidentally burning the whole thing down. Especially considering most of the professional soldiers were in the inner city.

For today the next main objective was to take the inner wall. If the Volerians remained in control of the wall they could rain spells and arrows down onto the outer city. So now my Hive was swarming up the walls and engaging the defenders. The phoenixes dived onto the wall, raining ether fire on top of the defenders softening the defences for the clash. However, the Phoenixes weren’t exactly known for their stamina so Azatherine has already pulled the weaker phoenixes back to recuperate for tomorrow's final assault. Now only the Azatherine, the blues and about half of the oranges were still in combat. The reds and other oranges have already retreated. 

The side of the wall where I had rampaged through has already been taken, even now I could see my Hive repelling the counter attacks. The lesser Hive soldiers were already on the ground disrupting any reinforcements that were attempting to retake the section of wall. The ranged Harrier Hounds were at the top of the wall firing down at the Volerians below. I added some adaptations that allowed them to scale vertical surfaces and I also created something new…

I couldn’t help but smile at my new creation, it was a prototype and thus far I have never sent anything into battle with so little testing but it could also be said that battlefield testing was the best kind of testing. This not so little creation was called the Spider Ballista. It had a dual purpose: it was either for assaulting a fortification or holding it once captured.

This design was made to be modular to an extent. As of now it was made as a more heavily armoured artillery unit but it could also be outfitted with a different configuration. Specifically that other design was a lighter anti air model with a higher fire rate. In the event of war with the Seraphin I intended to flood the skies with projectiles and force the angels to the ground where I can fight them on my terms.

Also the current projectiles these new creatures were using was also the projectile that was designed for anti air. Using the type of ammunition that was designed for destroying buildings was not a good idea when you wanted to keep the city mostly intact. It was an interesting concept and design I pulled from the Eternal Mother. She called it living projectiles, and what did it do?

Well those poor shits down below are about to find out…

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