Chapter 209: Chapter 209

  After my clash with the Demon, I moved to Dragon’s Nest where I could watch the battle from above. The scene below was utter chaos. Without their General, nobody was issuing new orders for troop movements. Nearly half the unit commanders capable of filling that void had also died during my attacks. This left the Ciel army with almost no chain of command, forcing them to simply follow the last order they received.

  This meant that exhausted front-line soldiers that would normally rotate with their more rested companions in extended fights never received that order. Some experienced soldiers attempted to initiate that switch themselves at the normal appointed times but found that the other units did not respond to fill their place. Exhausted rookies on the front line quickly found themselves surrounded by enemies as gaps in the offensive were exploited. Calvary and archer units that normally would have reacted to mitigate this disaster, remained on standby, unaware of the plight on the front line.

  A few experienced men and women of the Ciel army stood out amidst the chaos and led their small section of the army. Their efforts were heroic but ultimately had little effect on the overall course of the battle.

  As I watched the battle from above, I made a mental note of those I saw that responded well during the fight. Even if they were enemies now, they were seedlings worth nurturing in the battle against the Demons.

  Even without my interference, it was only a matter of time before the Ciel army collapsed. My estimate was that fifty thousand would die before the remaining troops scattered or retreated. My hope though was that the collapse would happen much sooner than that.

  While the Ciel army was our enemy now, it did not have to remain that way. The Demons were the true threat to this realm. Any hand willing to rise up against the Demons was our ally, even if we had fought them in the past. It was how the Thirteen Divisions survived until now and was our only hope of surviving this war.

  To that end, the final piece of my plan had already begun. My dad, leading all the undead and immortal guard under my command, had cut a path to the heart of the Ciel army. There were still figures there capable of regaining control of the troops and dragging out this battle. Dad’s job was to make as big a show executing those remaining commanders as he could.

  “What do you think, Dom?” I asked the big man to my side. After rushing to my aid when the Demon attacked, he insisted on staying with me until the night was through. The other warriors of Bellator agreed and started hunting the pseudo-domain warriors of the Ciel army to help accomplish my plans without incident.

  “I think this battle is beneath you,” Dom replied with a sigh, “Compared to our battles with the Demonic horde or our clashes with the Seventh Division, where even a thousand domain warriors are only considered a small force, this empire is too weak. When Envy’s true forces arrive, all of this will be meaningless.”

  “It is not meaningless,” I refuted, “Every soldier we save is one more that can fight the Demonkin. Every Demonkin that dies is one more opportunity for the people to rise up and become heroes. To that end, no battle is beneath me. It is something my teacher was always adamant about. Take my mom for example. Up until a few months ago, she was an average knight that you would have overlooked without a second thought but she just went toe to toe with Seir without losing. That is something even you cannot accomplish.”

  Dom coughed in an attempt to hide his embarrassment. “I have to admit, that is exceptional but your family has had you to guide them. Do you really think any of those soldiers down there can make a difference when hundreds of thousands of mature Demonkin march out of that rift?”

  “Maybe not,” I said softly, “But if there is one thing I have learned since becoming Wren, it is that people are capable of far more than we expect. Even a sickly child has the potential to topple an army.”

  Dom looked at me curiously for a moment. “You really have changed.”

  “Perhaps,” I replied with a shrug, “Either way, I intend to do everything I can to give the people of this realm a fighting chance when Envy arrives, even small things like this.”

  Dom nodded as he looked down at the forces fighting down below. “It looks as if your father has reached the enemy commanders. Do you want to go down and have a look?”

  I agreed and Dom’s domain wrapped around me. I was still too exhausted to fly under my own power and had to rely on him to return to the battlefield. We flew down amidst screams and the overwhelming smell of blood. A few soldiers noticed our approach and shot a few arrows in our direction but Dom’s Domain was more than powerful enough to stop anything those scattering of soldiers could fire our way.

  The battle still raged around us as we landed near my dad. A small area had been cleared by my undead, mostly the thirteen peak Demonkin I had managed to get my hands on. New members of my Immortal Guard also performed admirably. Those with mutated arms or legs were easily able to overwhelm normal soldiers through their sheer strength, even though they were obviously not as experienced as their opponents.

  Soldiers of the Ciel Empire fought fiercely to get past the undead and Immortal Guard but it would be a few minutes before they broke through. They roared with unexpected fervor as they threw themselves against the undead Demonkin in hopes that numbers alone could overwhelm them.

  “What did you do to rile them up so much?” I asked as I approached Dad.

  Dad did not immediately respond as he pointed his blade towards a well-dressed middle-aged man. I was surprised to see him shaking in barely contained fury as his sword inched closer to cutting the man open.

  Concerned by the uncharacteristic behavior, I approached my dad and placed a hand on his arm. “Dad? Are you ok? Who is this man?”

  Dad blinked as if just noticing my presence for the first time but his gaze quickly shifted back to the man kneeling on the ground. “This… He is Albaric, Emperor of the Ciel Empire… My uncle and... the man who slaughtered my parents and sister.”

  The emperor looked at my dad in shock. “You are Renald, the one that got away?”

  “That’s right,” Dad growled as he pushed his blade against the emperor’s neck. A trickle of blood dripped from his skin as the cold steel cut into his flesh. “You never expected this day would come, did you? So worried about the fact my family might one day rise up in rebellion, you never considered that the only reason I became a soldier is because of your actions.”

  The emperor chuckled. “I never considered you at all. You are just the child of an illegitimate prince. The only reason you are alive today is simply because I did not care enough to hunt you down. When Zaccai returns with the Calamity’s head, that will change.”

  I chuckled at the emperor’s words. “I hate to be the one to tell you this but Zaccai is not coming back. He died rather easily; all things considered.”

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  “That’s impossible!” Emperor Albaric shouted in a panic as he looked towards the sky as if expecting his great general might appear at any moment, “The Calamity is supposed to still be weakened. There is no way she could have defeated Zaccai now that we have the power of the Demons on our side.”

  “You really don’t know much about me, do you?” I replied with a sigh as a flicker of green fire ignited in the air around me.

  “You…” the emperor said as his eyes locked onto me.

  I shook my head, feeling embarrassed that I shared any of the same genes as this pitiful excuse for an emperor. “What do you want to do with him, Dad? I did not expect the emperor to come here himself but I guess it makes sense he would not want to stray too far from the only real domain warrior the Ciel Empire has.”

  My dad closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I do not know what to do. Revenge does not matter to me. I simply wish for this to end.”

  I grinned wickedly at the Ciel Emperor as an idea came to mind. “In that case, let’s make an event out of his death. We can use it to put an end to this silly battle in a way that might be favorable for us.”

  My dad frowned as the emperor started to panic as if realizing for the first time that he might actually die here. “You can’t kill me! I am the emperor! If you want this battle to end, the only way is if I command it. My death will only rile up the troops further and cause more casualties.”

  “You think too highly of yourself,” I replied as a flicker of blue and green flames danced across my fingertips, “Not even Sebastion was willing to call himself emperor after my death. Do you know why that is?” The emperor watched the fire with fear as he shook his head. “The difference between a kingdom and an empire is not the size of its land. It is the respect it commands, and you… you do not command any respect. With your death, your army will scatter into the wind and your empire will crumble like sand.”

  Using my words as the catalyst, I sent a spark of blue fire towards the emperor. It was not enough to completely debilitate the man but he quickly turned into a sobbing mess and lost any semblance of regality. I then turned to Dad and explained what he should do.

  “Are you sure that will work?” he asked skeptically.

  “Even if it doesn’t, it will still demoralize the enemy enough to end their assault,” I replied with a shrug.

  My dad nodded as he grabbed Emperor Albaric and rose up into the air. I then motioned to Dom who used his domain to shield my dad from any stray attacks and amplify his voice. Using what little energy I had left, I created a corona of blue and gold fire followed my dad into the air, and illuminated him for everyone to see.

  Dad held the sobbing emperor aloft as he spoke with a booming voice that echoed across the battlefield. “My name is Renald Ventus, grandson of Aldrich Ventus, first emperor of Ciel. I stand before you now to expose the hypocrisy of this man, Albaric Ventus, a man who slaughtered his own family just to secure a throne that was already his. This is a man who sacrificed his own people to the Demons you now fight beside. Look around you. See the blood mist devouring everything it touches, the monsters that turned on you without a second thought, and ask yourselves, is this really what you want? This man has betrayed you all for his one personal, shortsighted gain and you all know it… No more! Today, this ends!”

  As my dad spoke, he brought his blade up to the neck of the sobbing wreck of an emperor “No, no, no! The Demons were supposed to protect me!”

  “The purpose of a ruler is not to protect himself but the people he serves,” Dad spoke as his blade began to cut skin. The action was slow on purpose as I further ignited the blue flame still burning inside of the emperor.

  The man started screaming like a child as he begged for his life. “I only sacrificed the beggars and poor! I am the emperor! You cannot kill me. The Demons promised me power, real power. My life is worth more than those pathetic worms…”

  With those final words, Dad slit his neck open completely. The emperor’s words turned to an unintelligible gurgle as his body was dropped unceremoniously onto the ground below. There were a few cries of outrage from the soldiers but most remained in shocked silence.

  Dad wiped his blade clean and sheathed it before continuing to address the army. “The people you are attacking up on that plateau gathered together, not to recrown the empress, but as a last-ditch effort to stand against the Demons and their allies. They do not give their lives for some corrupt king or queen but for all of humanity. Ask yourselves, what it is that you are fighting for and what you hope to protect. Do you really want a world ruled by monsters or will you fight to protect the realm?”

  As Dad finished speaking, I extinguished the fire illuminating him and the sky once again turned dark. He slowly descended to the ground and took a deep breath. “How did I do?”

  “Better than I could have hoped,” I replied with a smile.

  “Do you think any of them will actually join the alliance?”

  “You can already see their reactions,” I said as I motioned towards the crowd outside the ring of undead. The fighting had stopped and much of the battlefield had fallen silent. “I doubt they will immediately switch sides but at the very least, they are unlikely to remain our enemy.”

  Dad nodded as he looked down at the corpse of the emperor crumpled on the ground in a bloody mess. “I cannot even begin to count how many times I imagined this man’s death but now that I have finally avenged my parents and sister, I just feel… nothing. In the end, his titles did not mean anything. He was just a small man that died an insignificant death.”