Chapter 296: 295: Marching on Cairo

Months had passed since Honoria assembled her crew, and now on the other edge of the Mediterranean in the lands of Pharaohs and Kings, Arethas was in the process of humbling the Mamluk Sultanate. 

With the military aid provided to him by the Duchy of Austria, the Byzantine forces stationed in North Africa had made substantial progress, so much so that they were now outside Cairo's gates. 

Despite the stable walls built around the proud city, the thunder of dozens of falconets could be overheard by the residents within those walls. With every volley, the city began to shake, and the one-pound cannon balls chipped away at the stone fortifications that had protected the civilians within it for generations. 

If Cario were seized, then the rest of the Egyptian province would fall shortly after. The Mamluke's last bastion in the easternmost region of the Mediterranean was on the verge of collapse. As such, Its defenders desperately fired arrows down upon the Byzantine troops.

Unlike Berengar's forces, which were armored over their vital regions with quenched and hardened high carbon steel plate armor, the troops of the Byzantine Empire were armored primarily in mild steel mirror-pattern armor, over a mail hauberk.

Because of this, there were still some significant gaps in their protection. Thus the arrows and bolts fired by the Mamluke archers were capable of finding their way through those gaps and, as a result, significantly injured the Byzantine Soldiers, if not outright killing them.

Currently, Arethas was standing at the rear of the siege camp that had been set up, watching his artillerymen fire the falconet cannons, while his arkebusiers resisted the enemy's fire. Those brave byzantine soldiers unleashed their destructive volleys upon the enemy defenders while being pelted with arrows and bolts. 

As the Byzantine arkebusiers fired upon the defenders, their projectiles made their way up onto the ramparts. Those Mamlukes unfortunate to be hit by the volley found their armor shredded, and their lives lost. Blood splattered across the battlefield as the number of deaths began to skyrocket. 

After several hours of heated conflict, the bombardments ceased, and the soldiers of both sides returned to their quarters. For the Byzantines, they had set up a standard medieval siege camp outside the city's gates. 

Inside this camp, Arethas chastised his artillery officers; due to the cast iron material that these guns were made of, they could not sustain a continuous bombardment, unlike the high carbon steel that Berengar had fashioned his cannons from. 

They needed time to cool down, or else they would risk a rupture in the bore. Thus the siege had been progressing slower than he initially wanted it to. Who was to take the blame for such a thing? Naturally, it fell to the artillery officers.

"How come those walls are still standing? It has been nearly a week since we have begun our bombardment, and yet to my surprise; we are still standing out here in the desert with our thumbs up our asses! Bring down those walls, or else!"

The Artillery officers looked at one another with confused expressions. They did not dare reveal that Decentius, who was the second Prince of the Empire, and Arethas' right-hand man had ordered them to sustain a bombardment long enough to draw the defenders' attention.

The reason for this was shrouded in conspiracy, and Arethas was unaware of it, as such, he continued to chastise the artillery officers.

"I swear if that wall is not brought down by tomorrow morning, your heads will be--"

During mid-sentence, Arethas cut his words short as the ground had begun to quake, and with it, an eruption had occurred. This was no simple earthquake; soon, the fortifications around the City of Cairo began to crumble. 

Walls and watchtowers began to fall to the ground as the very foundation they were built upon blasted itself apart. It was as if hell itself had decided to sprout from within the cities. The screams of the defending soldiers and the citizens within echoed in the air as a giant explosive blast filled the air. 

Arethas watched this horrific sight in shock as he gazed upon the destruction wrought upon the city of Cairo; before long, he could overhear Prince Decentius, who was his second in command, and godson cheering in the distance as he screamed at the top of his lungs.

"For the Empire!"

with his chant, all of the soldiers in the Byzantine camp began to cheer with him. As Arethas looked around the battlefield and the destruction that was wrought upon it, there was little time before the Byzantines rallied behind Decentius and charged into the ruins of the city.

With the Prince leading the charge, the Byzantines rushed past the broken walls and began to stick their pikes in the flesh of any man unfortunate enough to be still breathing after such a catastrophic event. 

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Blood began to fill the streets of Cairo as the Byzantine soldiers claimed the lives of every soul within its gates. No man, woman, or child was spared the slaughter that Decentius had ordered. Such a thing had never occurred under Arethas' watch, and as such, the brave Strategos instantly tried to stop the senseless murder. 

However, before the man could do so, he found himself beset on all sides by his soldiers, who had lowered their pikes in his direction. These men had been under his care for years, and yet now they were preventing him from stopping Decentius's merciless butchering of the city. 

Arethas, the great Strategos of Ionia and commander of the Emperor's armies in North Africa, had no way of knowing that Prince Decentius had gone behind his back and had ordered a tunnel to be built beneath the city where it was filled with explosive casks along its foundation. 

When this task was finally completed, one of the explosive barrels was lit aflame and before long exploded, resulting in a chain reaction that tore the city to pieces. Why did Decentius do this? It was because he wanted the glory of conquering the last vestige of Mamluke power in Egypt for himself. 

After having failed to locate the runaway Princesses' whereabouts, Decentius had been mired in disgrace and shunned by his father. He knew that the only way to redeem himself was to claim a great military victory on his own. 

With this action, Cairo had fallen, and the prestige that came with it entered the young Prince's grasp. By doing so, Decentius had made a name for himself as the Conqueror of Egypt and would likely convince many of his father's supporters to aid him in his war for succession against his elder brother.

Arethas was held at bay for some time until not a single living Mamluke was present within the city; only after all life had been snuffed out of existence did Decentius appear before the pike wall that had surrounded the mighty Strategos. 

When Arethas gazed upon his godson, all he could see was malice in the boy's eyes. Arethas knew not what Decentius's intentions were, as such he decided to interrogate the boy for his treacherous actions.

"Decentius! This was your plan? Do you realize what you have done? The Mamlukes will never forgive the blood you have shed this day!" 

As Decentius heard this, his expression became downcast as he spoke the words that weighed on his heart.

"I will mourn your loss, Arethas; you were like a father to me; if it were not for that bitch Honoria and her antics, I would not have to resort to this! Forgive me, my friend!"

With that said, Decentius grabbed ahold of a nearby pike and thrust it through the neck of the Strategos of Ionia, where Arethas began to choke on his blood. As he did so, Decentius retrieved the weapon and held onto Arethas, gazing into his eyes as the man's soul slowly departed from this world.

Not once did Arethas ever expect that he would be betrayed by the young man he thought of as his son. In the end, the mighty Strategos of Ionia, who was supposed to reconquer North Africa, with the weapons Berengar had provided him.

The man who was supposed to use his friendship with Berengar to create an alliance between Austria and Byzantium was reported to have died in battle during the early days of the war. The conquest of Egypt and Lybia would be known to history as a feat achieved by Decentius Palaiologos.

What effect these events would have on the relations between the Duchy of Austria and the Byzantine Emperor would remain to be seen. One thing was certain; if Honoria were ever to become aware of the betrayal that her brother had done unto the late Strategos of Ionia, she would stop at nothing to have his head. 

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