Chapter 135: Chapter 130: Rescue Operation

Connie filled a bowl with some soup, then put it on a tray alongside a couple rolls and a glass of Lia’s favorite soda. She was obviously going to be feeling bad about what had just happened, and she could use some comfort food to keep her mind off of things. When Connie got back to the bedroom, however, she was surprised to see that Chrys had beat her to it, and was already talking with Lia.

“I just feel so useless.” Lia said. “I’m not good at any of this, I was just a normal kid before all of this, and it’s showing. I’m not good at policymaking or politics or any of that, and while I used to be one of our strongest fighters, I can’t even fall back on that anymore. I just…froze up, and left Amelia and Rose to fend for themselves. So…I don’t know, I’m just feeling like our success is in spite of me, not in any part because of me.”

She looked up at Chrys with watery eyes, then stopped as she caught sight of Connie in the door. “C-Connie!” She said, hurriedly reaching up and wiping her eyes. “Thank you! Um…how long have you been there?”

“Since you said you felt useless.” Connie replied, walking over and placing the tray on a nightstand, casting a quick spell to preserve the freshness of its contents. She sat down next to Lia, laying a comforting hand on Lia’s thigh. “You’re not useless.” She said. “I can guarantee that, were it not you specifically that was in your role, things would be drastically different.”

Connie motioned at the room around them. “We wouldn’t have any of this. In fact, I don’t even know if Rose would even be alive, she might have been kept in the afterlife until a more opportune time. There’s something about you in particular that draws people in to you and makes them want to help.”

“Well, it doesn’t mean I feel any less useless now.” Lia sighed. “I’ve made connections, sure, but at the end of the day I’m sitting here in an extravagant bed while people are out fighting and dying.”

“I know how you feel.” Chrys said quietly. “I was always compared to my mom, and I was always found lacking. I mean…how do you measure up to someone like her? She’s wise, kind, and has the fighting ability of a thousand soldiers, and I was just…an extra. Yeah, I was technically heir to the throne, but no one actually expected me to take over; before I killed her everyone just sort of thought my mom would be in charge forever. And after…who would want the girl who destroyed the world’s golden age to take over? It felt like I never deserved any of what I had, and even now I feel the same.

“I’m here because of luck. I was lucky enough to be Rose’s daughter, and that alone has brought me to where I am now. I made so many mistakes, ruined so much for so many people, and I’m back to being treated like royalty.” Chrys paused, a guilty expression crossing her face. “Sorry, I know I’m supposed to be comforting you, but it just sort of slipped out. As I was saying, I get where you’re coming from, but you’re at least making the effort. Just remember that you’re technically a student, and students aren’t supposed to start doing their work until they’re done learning.”

“Chrys, do you know what Rose told me about you killing her?” Lia asked.

“T-this isn’t about me!” Chrys protested.

“Chrys, she says that looking back on it now, it’s one of the best things to ever happen to her. You freed her from a life she hated, and, these are her words, not mine, allowed her to get everything she had ever wanted. The empire had to fall at some point, Chrys, and her only regret about it was how it negatively affected you.”

 Chrys sighed. “I…I know.” She said. “Did I ever tell you what happened in that bathroom?”

Lia shook her head. “Not from your perspective.”

“I…I walked up to her, a specially-prepared dagger in my pocket.” Chrys said. “She turned around and, for the first time in my whole life, she hugged me. And, when she did…I…I stabbed her. She had to have known I had the dagger, but she let me do it anyway. And, as I stabbed her, she rubbed my head and said she was sorry she didn’t do better, and that she loved me.

“The moment I hit her, I realized what I had done, and I tried to save her, but…my spells wouldn’t come out right. And the whole time she blamed herself for everything, said that if she had done better that I wouldn’t have to bear the burden I was bearing. No matter how much she had accomplished, how many lives she saved and how much she improved society, it was never enough.

“I guess what I’m saying is that you remind me of her. And that’s not really a bad thing, she’s the best person I’ve ever known, but…she’s too hard on herself. And I think you’re being too hard on yourself too; you’re making an effort, and that’s what matters, right? You’re doing the best you can, but it’s still not enough for you. No one expects you to be a great general or stateswoman right away. But, as long as you’re making the effort to improve, you’ll get there, and that’s the important bit. Just…give it time, okay?”

“I don’t have time.” Lia said bitterly. “People are out there dying for me, and I can’t do anything to help them.”

“It’s not just for you.” Connie said quietly.

“What?” Lia asked, turning to face Connie. “But I’m the one who –”

“Part of it is because of the conditioning Amelia put in, yes, but I think a lot of the people out there are fighting because they believe in the society you’re creating. Plenty of people left military service after being converted, so the people who stayed wanted to stay. They knew exactly what they were getting into, and they proceeded anyway.

“They know you’re making an effort, and they know that if they lose you, everything falls apart. I can guarantee that the vast majority of soldiers out there today won’t fault you for this, especially since you wanted to stay but were forced away. So just…take it easy on yourself, okay? Get some rest, and I’ll think of something that can help with the issue.”

Connie picked the tray up and set it on Lia’s lap, undoing the stasis spell on it in the process. “Now eat. Chrys, there’s more in the kitchen, so you go get some food too. If you’re going to mope, you’re going to do it on a full stomach, understand?”

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Amelia finished her spell, nodding to herself as the Mana scattered into the air and began to draw up a thunderstorm. The rest of the battle had gone about as Rose had predicted; the two of them caused a panic in the back lines, but weren’t able to grab anyone truly important, then teleported back and waited a bit. While the enemy army was still getting themselves reoriented, Rose called for the retreat and had Amelia cover the army as they did.

The spoils were, likewise, about as expected. While they had lost many monsters, the number of people in the army had grown by about ten percent. Or…at least, that was what the raw numbers said; Amelia assumed that many of those they converted would be unwilling to immediately join the fight against their countrywomen. Fortunately, dealing with all of that was not Amelia’s problem, and all she had to do was rest up in preparation for her rampage later.

That was something she was really looking forward to; she had precious little time at even a semblance of her former strength, and it felt good to let her frustrations loose. And, what was better, she would be experiencing a marked jump in power this time; she had played a pivotal role in the day’s battle, and had leveled up five times from it. On paper five levels wasn’t much, but when you were as strong as Amelia…those levels were few and far between.

She was practically salivating at the prospect of evolving out of the Fallen Hero race. She had been keeping a careful eye on her stats, and she was gaining a little extra each time she leveled up. If her projections held true, she’d actually hit her old stats at about level forty-eight, and that meant when she evolved back into Hero, she was going to be even stronger than she was before, at least in terms of stats.

Having her Worship sealed meant she was still significantly weaker than she should have been, but she was becoming increasingly sure that she wouldn’t need any Worship to handle this war. Her opponents just weren’t skilled enough to make it a necessity. It would make things faster, yes, but it wasn’t required.

Those thoughts filled her mind until it was time for the raid. She and Rose set off with a thousand or so soldiers, stealthily moving towards where their enemy was camped. Rose was fairly confident that they would still be in their same camp; the storm made moving a camp that large extremely risky, and most armies preferred to avoid engagements in that sort of weather, so it would be a reasonable decision to stay put for one night.

When they got close, Amelia said goodbye to Rose, and teleported herself into the camp. She was, of course, met with cries of alarm, but that was all part of the plan. While unbound, Amelia didn’t really care if she was noticed, and she would make an excellent distraction from the others.

Magic circles began to fill the air around her and she lifted into the air as she began to cast her spells. First and foremost, she had to locate the prisoners of war, if any were there. This was the riskiest part of the plan; Rose was confident that there would be prisoners, but if it turned out that there weren’t, Amelia’s bindings would instantly be restored.

Fortunately, Rose was right, and there were members of the swarm deep in the heart of the camp, guarded by a few people that were over level two hundred. So, with them located, she flew herself forward at a breakneck pace, relishing in the sensation of control she had. Tents that had been erected poorly were blown away by the wind pressure of her passing, and anyone unlucky enough to be directly in her way was covered in modeling wax and stored safely in her dimensional storage

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A few times she was attacked by someone with a high enough level to actually react quick enough, and each time she was perfectly capable of retaliating, easily cocooning the fool who thought they could challenge a Hero and adding them to the ever-growing pile of cocoons in her storage.

The best was yet to come, however; Amelia had been keeping a magical eye on the location of the prisoners, and she could tell that not one, but two people at max level had joined the guards. And, after only a couple of minutes, she touched down outside of the makeshift holding facility that contained the prisoners. “Give me the prisoners now and there won’t need to be a fight!” Amelia called out, yawning theatrically. “I’m giving you five seconds to state your compliance, or I’m coming in!”

---

“I’m giving you five seconds to state your compliance, or I’m coming in!” Eliza’s heart pounded in her chest as she heard Amelia’s voice. The Hero herself had come for her and the other prisoners, and that could only mean she would soon be free.

The past few hours had been awful. She had been tied up and subject to numerous interrogations and some rather forceful mind-reading, and she had been completely unable to resist. The difference in level between her and her captors was just too large for her to even dream of making an escape.

“You and what army!” Louis, one of her captors, yelled back. From what she had gathered, Louis and the other newcomer, Raymond, were at max level, but the two men clearly didn’t realize how little that meant in the face of Amelia’s overwhelming might.

The air became charged, and the magically erected earth walls of the building collapsed in on themselves, the ceiling turning into modeling wax as it fell. “You do know who you’re talking to, right?” Amelia replied, stepping into the area that had once been Eliza’s prison.

“A Hero restricted to a tenth of her former status.” Raymond replied, loosing an arrow from his bow. The arrow glowed with power, and the shockwaves it created knocked Eliza’s chair over, but unfortunately did not loose the chains that were holding her.

Amelia caught the arrow between two fingers, looking at it disinterestedly. “Technically right, I guess. Here, I think you dropped something.” She threw the arrow back at Raymond, who hurriedly sidestepped the projectile.

Eliza couldn’t see where the arrow ended up, but judging by the boom and shouts of pain, it had exploded some distance further away in the camp. Amelia took a step forward, a legion of magic circles appearing in the air around her. “Last chance to run. I know you two are at max level, and I’m telling you straight up that this won’t even be a challenge for me.”

Louis began to cast some sort of spell, a large magic circle drawing itself out on the floor below him, but despite the fact that Amelia was in the process of casting what had to be at least a dozen spells, the circle was nigh-instantly erased, and Amelia took another step forward. “Amateur work.” She said. “Were you even trying?”

Raymond let loose another arrow, and once again Amelia caught it. One of the magic circles behind her disappeared, and the arrow was instantly coated in modeling wax. She threw the arrow back at Raymond, but when he dodged to the side, the arrow swerved to follow him. He kept that up a few more times before quickly nocking another arrow and firing it at the one chasing him.

The two arrows collided in midair, but yet another of Amelia’s spells activated, and all of a sudden there were two modeling wax arrows aiming for Raymond. “I’m going to die of boredom at this rate.” Amelia complained, countering yet another of Louis’s spells. She snapped her fingers, and the two arrows instantly flew to Amelia’s side, hovering menacingly in the air.

“Tell you what, both of you use your ultimate Skills. If you can scratch me, I’ll leave now. If you can’t, then I’m going to start attacking. As much as I love to play fight with you kids, I do need to get these prisoners back to safety.”

“You’ll regret that.” Raymond spat, tugging at his quiver and throwing it into the air. Either his Skill was making more arrows or the quiver had some sort of space magic tied to it, because hundreds of arrows flew out of it, arranging themselves in a dome surrounding Amelia.

Then, all of a sudden, all of the magic circles behind Amelia disappeared, and Louis swelled with muscle, the skinny man turning into a hulking giant as his Skill activated.

“Ah, the antimagic field.” Amelia said. “Did you know that it’s completely pointless if you just infuse your spells with enough Mana to overwhelm it?” Magic circles once again popped up behind Amelia, and she gave Louis a smug grin. “See? Always struck me as a bit of a dud of an ultimate Skill, to tell you the truth.”

The arrows all speared towards Amelia, but she simply rolled her eyes and activated one of her spells. The arrows stopped in midair, then redirected themselves at Louis, hitting him and bouncing off of his body with an almost metallic-sounding plink.

“Okay, mister archer over there is now disqualified, think you can do any better?”

Louis swung a fist at Amelia, who just raised a hand and caught it. “Uh, did you really think that would work?” She asked, activating a spell before lifting the behemoth up and throwing him a few yards away. “Yeah, it buffs your physical stats, but it’s kind of pointless against someone with stats like mine.

“Anyway, those were your two chances,” Amelia continued, stepping forward as even more circles appeared in the air behind her. “I am once again reminding you that my number one priority is the prisoners. If you just leave, I won’t give chase. If you choose to stay, then I will be going all out and converting both of you. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of use for you in the swarm.”

Raymond paused, looking from side to side. From what Eliza could see, all of the lower-level guards had wisely taken the chance to flee, and it was just him and Louis standing against Amelia. He nodded at Louis, and Louis’s transformation faded, Amelia’s magic circles glowing brighter as they were no longer suppressed. Louis cast some sort of spell and then they were gone, leaving Amelia alone with the prisoners.

“Wow, I didn’t actually expect them to leave.” She said, a disappointed look on her face. “Well, we’ll see how he likes the little surprises I left him, if we’re lucky, we’ll have a powerful new ally by the time the night’s over.”

“Little…surprises?” One of the other prisoners croaked.

“Yeah, all those arrows I hit him with were loaded with a delayed-cast spell, if he’s too low on Mana after our encounter he’ll find himself cocooned and teleported away. Anyway, let’s get you all home, shall we?”

Amelia snapped her fingers, there was a wrenching sensation, and then Eliza found herself in the courtyard of one of the border forts, completely free from the chains that had been wrapped around her. “We’ve got food left in the mess and healers in the infirmary, go get yourselves patched up and get something to eat then head to bed.” Amelia ordered. “Talk with your superiors in the morning, they’ll sort everything out.”

All of a sudden, a huge number of cocoons appeared next to Amelia. “I have to get these people converting, so please leave me be for a bit, I want to get through this before Rose gets back.”

Eliza stood, her legs protesting the action. The infirmary and then a meal sounded really nice, especially when she had resigned herself to a night of torture. She almost headed off, but then stopped and turned back to Amelia. “Um, thank you for rescuing us…uh…Your Grace? Sorry if that’s the wrong form of address, I’m not familiar with all of this. And, um, sorry for bothering you when you just said not to, but…is the Queen okay?”

Amelia gave Eliza a smile. “You’re welcome, and that question is the exception. She’s perfectly fine, if emotionally distraught. She was really upset when she saw how you soldiers were getting hurt, and we had to send her back early in case we got into a high-level fight. She just wasn’t ready for something like that in that emotional state.”

“Oh. Um…good. Tell her not to feel bad about it, please. The fact that she cares is enough.”

“I’ll pass the message along. Now, I’m sure the rest of you heard that, and I won’t take any other questions. Go move along, I need to work.”