OH GODDESS, THEY ARE EVERYWHERE! THEY ARE ING OUT OF THE GODDESS DAMNED WALLS! WHAT THE FU--Last words of general Maltza

  POV Esstrey the Mad Queen of Quintillius

  A man stands before me in the dark. He's wearing Spetsnaz gear, and carries an AK-103. His features are visible before me, yet I fet them even while looking at the man.

  "Who are we?" The man asks while he looks at me seriously. I he man.

  "Irrelevant, may our as speak for us. I will not expin ourselves." Expining who we are hasn't been relevant on this world.

  The ma look happy with the answer, but tinues anyway. "Why are we?"

  I look the man up and down a bit. A Russian soldier who still goes unreized. A maached from and, his try, and his people. "We are the wrong that rights, we bring others what we 't have."

  The man looks frustrated at this point, he looks down at his own gloved hands. "What are we!?"

  "Alive." The man grows angry at my ent, but quickly calms down afterward. He looks me in the eyes, and steels himself for what he is about to say.

  "Esstrey!" I look at the man, I wasn't expeg him to say that.

  "Esstrey, wake up, ya halfwit fishstick!"

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  "Esstrey!" I'm face to face with Bessielle, who looks about as pale as someone could get.

  "I'm awake!" I look around me, corpses of many are across the theater, but there are still the living here as well.

  Someories to speak up, but Bessielle instead grabs me tightly. "Esstrey! Luna is real! Remember, Luna is real!" Bessielle stands up, seeming satisfied she brought along the message.

  She then proceeds to fall over to the ground. Ky is already rushing to her. Her st words didn't sound like something a religious fanatic would say to get more devotees.

  "I 't heal her! There are too many poisons running through her system!" Ky gs desperately to the dying minotaur, tears begin to well up in her eyes.

  "I didn't know you were capable of blood magic." Carmil looks like she's been g.

  "her did I, but I gave it a shot when I had nothi." A powerful neon to add to the arsenal, the ability to puppet my own body using blood magic.

  "This is everyone who is left of us." As Eden says that, cloaked men storm in, and I quickly take Urist's crossbow. One of the men is carrying my crossbow.

  "Don't shoot! We are with the Emperor!" Eden holds his hand on the crossbow in my hand. So these really are friendlies?

  Eden begins to talk to the newly arrived group, if he has so much faith that they won't kill him, he choke on it for all I care. I take my crossbow from the imperials.

  "Lady Esstrey, you may want to [see/gaze/behold] this." Cathy gestures me towards the window. This shit just never ends, does it?

  When I look outside the window, I quickly see what's wrong. The sky has a massive tear in it, and strange creatures that look sort of like Cathy run around outside fighting the guard.

  "MY FATHER IS DEAD?!" A cry of anguish is heard, Eden drops to a seat while holding his head in his hands. The Emperor is dead? I could at least begin to guess who the hell could have dohis, but I ime, and information. I look around the room, and see Ky still desperately trying to revive Bessielle to no success. Carmil is hyperventiting at the things outside, and Eden is doing his best to imitate Napoleon post-exile. Everyone else just looks lost, except for Cathy. She looks to me for salvation.

  "ALRIGHT YOU SORRY EXCUSES FOR TRY LEADERS, MAN THE FUCK UP." Everyone iheater is shocked to attention. I don't bme them either, as I'm doing my damo imitate my old drill sergeant. "YOU ARE ALL IN CHARGE OF THE LIVES OF PEOPLE THAT ARE STILL WITH US, ACT LIKE IT. EDE out there and anize your men! They are looking for the Emperor and god bless you will give them one!" Eden actually recovers easier than I expected.

  "Ky! Get out there in the skies, and annihite every invader you ! Someo there is trying to kill the demon queen, are you just gonhem?" Ky wipes some tears from her face, and Jaha forts her.

  "Carmil! Produce a list for Eden of all the nobles who are likely to have betrayed the Empire. Work with Eden to cut their lie spitting tongues out!" Carmil tries her best to focus oask I gave her, and is helped by some of the Shadow Hand members, guidio a separate room.

  "Xygar! I want you to start bringing the dead bato the fight. Revive as many as you , and bring the fight outside the capital. I want that pce to be a special type of hell!" The lich looks baffled at what I want from him. He looks to Eden, who simply nods to give his approval. He instantly gets to work on raising our fallen cssmates. The others look on in disgust, but don't do anything to stop it.

  "Nylchai! Get in tact with the mermaid spies you have in the river! Get word out to the world what happened here!" Nylchai's face grows red at me calling out her spies, but the ones who would care don't bat an eye.

  "Urist! Help Eden draw a defense pn." Urist was already taking out quill and papers, no doubt expeg what I was going to ask.

  "Jaha! Get my guns delivered to the Royal Library. I will hem there." Jaha gives me a baffled look, but does not protest.

  "Cathy!" The Shoggoth is already at my side before I even say what I want from her. "Uood Lady [Esstrey/Spetsnaz/N???i???g???h???t???m???a???r???e???]."

  "I am heading to the Royal Library to firm some suspis. We will meet back at 20:00 in the ."

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  Arriving at the Library, I find that the pce is sparsely defehe royal guards that normally hang around here have all moved to active patrols throughout the pace against incursions from eldritch horrors. he library, I was also informed by a Shadow Hand member that the former Emperor was bmed for the massacre of the academy, and the Emperor was killed by multiple high ranking nobles who were visiting at the time. After they heard of the sughter, one of the nobles presented evideo the others g the Emperor was the cause. It was effectively a failed coup from there on out, sidering the assassins never mao kill Eden.

  Cathy follows me inside, and I already hear the heavy footsteps of people carrying heavy equipment. A squad of heavily armed minotaurs are carrying the onry of aire former Spetsnaz team. onry that apparently had something of mih it.

  I take a half sgged shotgun from the rge hands of one of the minotaurs. The Vepr-12 floods me with memories of a paranoid man. Dmitri Artyomov was always thought to be FSB by the other, but even if he was, that only served to increase his paranoia. "Listen <@(*&#>, it's all in psychological warfare. Think like a fhinks." Now that I remember him, I realize how truly paranoid he was all the way to the end, but he did care for his team.

  I put the shotgun aside, and grab the PKM. The couriers havi while Cathy is simply going through some books. The PKM itself ractically a on, but Ivan Smirnov used it heless. Saying that his father used it in Afghanistan, and it never failed the man. Ivan liked to smile, yet he never seemed truly happy. "<%^*&@#>, I don't think it's normal to want to be a soldier, but it is important to remember why we fight." Even if he wasn't the happiest of us, he was the most seal.

  Putting the PKM aside, I make a quiote of how it's the only gun to still somewhat fit in my cw if I were to remove the trigger guard. I pick up the SV-98. The memories I get are vague. From what little we knew of Boris Novikov is that he wasn't the brightest tool in the shed, but he knew he didn't o be if he simply remained silent. The memory that stands out is one where we go berated by the quartermaster, but Boris stayed so silent, he was never eveioo the drill sergeant. He got out of triy that time by simply not saying anything.

  Moving on from the so the st gun, the AK-103. I pick up the AK and hold it close to me. Nothing. I try reloading. Nothing. Not even a speck of what should be my own memories. Just a signifit ck of anything. A shame, but I have enough of what I wanted.

  "Cathy, you fihe other thing I was looking for?" Cathy looks up at me, and begins to trate. I don't know how, but she always seems to know things slightly ahead of time. I don't o know how it works to know I use that to my advantage.

  It doesn't take long for Cathy to point at a piece of the floor. I grab the PKM, and smash the floor in with the butt of the on. Below the false floor lies a small notebook, and an arm goes off.

  "We should have enough time to get back before I have to expin anything to anyone. Would you be so kind as to carry the other ons?" Cathy gives a curt bow, and easily s the guns iendrils, those will e in handy ter.

  I pick up the small notebook titled 'Logbook of The Grand Stist', and leave the Royal Library.