"Mono/Dialogue"

  'Inner thoughts'

  Narration

  [Message/communication apparatus]

  Date: November 1091

  Location: ???

  POV: Narrator

  Nelka sighed after returning from yet another pointless debate on who shall become Nyx’s handler. Each faction, even their sub-factions, is jostling over control, and with Adeptus under scrutiny, they can’t move much. She is about to just call it a day when an arming development reaches her.

  “What do you mean we lost contact with Wdirosa?!” Nelka can feel her heart clenched tight. Her assets are tied up on verifying the news of Ursus’ march, but now she was told that we lost connection with Wdirosa.

  “Can you please verify the situation?”

  [Yes, ma’am! We lost contact, and we found out that the secret communication link was destroyed simultaneously!] Nelka's eyes darted through her contact list, looking for someone who might be able to help her. That being said, this much and effective communication bckout was too much for a prank, and she fears one thing above the rest.

  ‘We must find a way to resolve this without involving Nyx… but I know better than hiding something like this from her! God… this is a mess…’ She prayed that her brother and the Wdirosan were fine… but when something involves Nyx, through whatever retion, her optimism is slim at best and dreadful at worst.

  Location: Northern Kazimierz – Ursus Border.

  “This is not part of the pn! You promised us a vilge that can be capituted with ease! You promised us, promised me! That those dogs will not be in any position to steer the situation in their favor!” A young Kuranta’s temper fred faster than even the bzing fme by the yonder. He watched as the Wdirosan and soldiers for hire fought with bitter fury and unflinching grit.

  His ornate armor is far removed from that of usual Campaign Knights. Embzoned with silvery and golden scripts, the armor is as ostentatious as it is equally expensive and out of pce on the battlefield. The man himself is a rather dashing figure, but unfortunately, his wrathful scowl ruined everything one could imagine a handsome knight from a fairy tale would look like.

  “I want my expnation. You promised us war gears and equipment of quality, not pieces of junk and a whole collection of broken relics! We had poured a substantial amount of capital, and this is all I get?! Answer me! You wretched merchant, answer me!”

  [Which cuses had we crossed this time around? Didn’t you ask for pawns that will serve you well and not become a lingering nuisance once your glorious army made its entry into the combat zone? Sir Koltynz, must I remind you, your very own request word per word?]

  “Don’t try to insult my intelligence, and do not ever think that this transgression shall be forgotten, Kazimierz doesn’t take kindly to your kind in the first pce. If anything, you should have been prostrating yourself and utter the many gratitude you owed us for our helps.”

  [We have our reservations about soliciting your help, appears that our worst opinion of you has been realized. I’m verily appalled to be proven right once more, a pity.]

  “Listen here, wretch, you exist because we allowed you to. Is this how you repay your benefactor!? Without our backing, your little project will be dead in the water, pattering out like rain in Sargon! We sheltered you when those upstart Columbians were hounding your insignificant hide.”

  [We rid you of the Grey Serpent breathing down your neck, if she were anywhere close to being informed of this matter, this little rebellion of yours would be served a bloody end. You’re too blind to see the truth, Nyx is not someone who can be subdued by throwing bodies and hoping it works.]

  “No one asked of you to do such. We have enough power to subdue that outblood witch ourselves! Your action had been a direct attack on our honor and a dereliction to your duty-” He heard a bark of ughter from the other side. His face was flushed with anger, his hands trembled, and his surrounding subordinates stood with clear weariness.

  [Empty bravado and unrealistic sophistry. You spoke of duty and inferring to us about the agreement, yet you failed to provide the precise location of the cradle. Must I remind you of that?]

  “You expect us to prospect and excavate an old mobile instaltion? What is there for us to gain by being ensved to your dishonorable aspiration? We have glory and honor to recim, listening to your drivels of treasure should have made you realize your pce!”

  [Duly noted, marrying the words ‘sve’ and ‘aspiration’ in the same sentence is a fwless reflection of Kazimierz’s rotting corpse.]

  “One more word of you making light, Kazimierz, and I will make you pay the price.”

  [We are not even paid our price as was agreed upon, not even close. You backed out, and your entire social niceties are falsehood. You are drowned in an age long gone, unlike us. We are heralding change, but your inadequacy to find the mobile instaltion stalled it.]

  “Have you gone mad to even believe such a thing to exist? If such a treasure is buried somewhere in this holy nd, it is rightfully ours. Kazimierz is not some backwater nation. Our army had once trampled over Kazdel by our own! We have killed and destroyed those devil’s insignificant leaders! Kazimierz had weathered the Nightzmoran pgue by our might!” The man failed to catch the notes and sighs of exasperation from his speaking partner.

  “We fought the Hippogriff Empire, Gaul, Leithanien, Laterano’s Exiled Zealots, Columbian Rabbles, and we were there when those Sargonian beasts fell upon decrepit and weak Tara! Victoria won’t exist without us!”

  He goes on and on about the many great deeds of his ancestors. He was particurly very proud for tracing his lineage to one of the fabled Knights that had exterminated many Sarkaz communities. The man ranted on how his ancestor was also responsible in bringing the nobility to power, how they’re being betrayed by the people they had uplifted.

  [Ah, there is the vanity of old nobilities. Have you not seen the world around you? Have you been so blinded by unrealistic expectations and ideas of grandeur? You spoke of weathering the onsught of the Ashen Horde, but if we look everywhere, Kazimierz merely survived it. You regaled old tales where knights are the best, and yes, there was such a time. However…] the voice paused, and the sound of the battlefield and explosion slowly receded to the very corner of his mind.

  [You speak of beating old power, but let’s pick one of the present foes as an example. What good will line of Knights shall serve when Ursus came barreling down on their Land Battleships? What good is your tactical and strategic brilliance if Ursus can just level a whole mountain? Even the Silvernces, while not completely diluted in prowess, are slowly relegated to mere border guards. Comparing the two of you made me respect them more. They’re blind, they know it, but they do it because that’s all they ever know… What do you know?]

  “Silvernces are traitors wearing the skin of once fabled and honorable warriors. These whelps are nothing more than children swayed by Kiril Nearl’s weak ideology! His sons, retives, and grandchildren are all the same! At least, I can see that Margaret Nearl will bring about the change we desire! Even if she proves no more than a simpleton swinging her wooden stick, she will be honored to restart the new generation of the Royal family.”

  [… I sometimes wonder why we even bother to have you included. Now I know why. This will be the end of our cooperation, good luck in your war, and it made me think hard about what your te father would have shared seeing his entire family crumbling.] The line was cut, and he smashed the terminal. His bde unsheathed and swung rapidly, violently, and haphazardly on the table, eviscerating every bits and pieces that held it together.

  “Insolent cur, I do not care anymore, forget anything about taking those worthless peasants as hostages! Burn the vilge to the ground! These talks about angering that tiny worm had grated my ears! You there, sound the march!” Koltynz angrily pointed his bde at his trembling squire, the poor guy nodded with clear hurry before bolting outside of the tent.

  While he is savoring an expensive bourbon imported from Cais, his advisor entered the tent. He is a withered old man with, a Feline, and his gaze is leveled on him. Koltynz merely watch over the ongoing battle through his drone, the defenders are being slowly but surely pushed back with numbers.

  “Sire, did I hear you correctly? Ordering a general assault? Against the Silvernces stationed on the vilge, no less? Have you gone mad?” The old Feline’s voice is measured and yet filled to the brim with shimmering annoyance. The frivolous young Kuranta scoffed while throwing his gss at him. He dodged and held that same withering gre.

  “Bah! All these talks about that whore was nothing but propaganda. If the Silvernces were as great as they say, then they wouldn’t be standing in the cold around the hicks. These fabled warriors are things of the past. We are the new generation that shall usher in a new time.”

  “Your te father had made a lot of concessions to keep them on speaking terms for a reason. It won’t reflect well on our cause if you try to attack them!”

  “Am I? Look at them.” He half-heartedly pointed at the Silvernces being swarmed and seemingly cornered. The old man sees something else, an unstoppable killing machine that was merely held back by an insignificant road bump.

  “What story of fighting Wendigo to a standstill and becoming a bulwark of Kazimierz? A dead race shouldn’t be used for reference, and they’re dead simply because they’re weak. These people are nothing but fraud in shiny armor.”

  “My lord, it goes against what Lady Nyx had taught us abo-” He was cut off when Koltynz threw his entire wine bottle at him. He managed to block at the st minute, shattering the bottle and drenching his body with an expensive beverage that takes years of an average Kazimierzian saryman’s pay.

  “Don’t you ever dare show courtesy to that dishonest and liable slut! She is just an opportunistic and disloyal little girl like her shouldn’t even be granted a title, no matter how honorary. Those titles should have been given to Kazimierz’s faithful servant! I have shown you clemency as a mark of service. My father died because of your negligence, and I won’t have you talking back to me!” The increasingly irate Noble popped open another bottle.

  “Send them in! These mercenaries must earn their keep or die trying.” He was about to continue his endless tirade if not for a message entering his device. His scowl grew deeper, and his lips spouted the caller’s name venomously.

  “Radzvanna… she can’t shut her mouth, can she? She was courageous once, even if insolent… look what happened to her? That meeting with those old coots damaged her mind.” He spat hatefully. There’s a reason why he refuses to be cowed by a council of decrepit old men.

  ‘Can they all just die already? They have no right to steer how we shall move onto the next age. Those old relics are just a bunch of spineless cowards, it is our time, dammit!’

  “Radzvanna… What a coward, calling off the attack is a perfect way to show our weakness, she will watch as the coward she is while I won glory for the day. We must not be meek; else our nation will only be partitioned like Gaul and feasted upon by foreign invaders.” Koltynz went back to savoring his drink, seemingly uncaring to even answer the message.

  “Speed up the assault, and I will reiterate, torch the vilge to the ground while we leave these mercs to their death. Ursus is already massing at our border, and I’ll be damned for not having a chance to be the first on the battlefield. That old and decrepit state will be the first to pay dearly against our new Kazimierz, free from mere merchants’ greedy yoke.”

  ‘Let Ursus take the bme. The worm got too much credit for her intellect. She will probably be raving mad like the beast she is. Hmph, perhaps we can truly use her as an attack dog when the glorious revival truly arrives. Yes… that’s an excellent idea. We can even use her as a scapegoat.’ Koltnyz smiled, imagining the many scenarios where Nyx finally bit more than she could chew.

  He failed to see any appeal in her other than singing back during that abhorrent event. She should have stopped being such a con artist and found an honest living as a mere entertainer. He scoffed and let his mind drift ever further into the deepest recesses of his envy and pride.

  “… at once, sire.” The Old Feline only shook his head with pity and exited the tent with a heavy heart, leaving Koltynz to his usual daydreaming about glory and honor. The advisor had once again lost the ear of his liege, a capable, to some extent, but extremely power-hungry liege.

  He looks around the camp as the house’s militia and squires, with a handful of young campaign knights, are staring down their opposite group.

  Cd in a multitude of modern but mishmash equipment, a detachment of Columbian and Bolivarian mercenaries are meeting the pompous noble’s retinue eye to eye. One side is an untested but loyal force while the other is tested, but with a dubious motive at best, he never can bring himself to trust mercenary.

  He sighed, mencholy and disbelief gnawing at him. This is not the country he had risked himself to serve for decades, but everywhere he goes, clueless young men and women like Koltynz keep cropping up like weeds. He wonders if The Grey Serpent is capable of mercy; she had supposedly reigned in her temper, but the words of sellswords have less value in his eyes.

  He took one st look at his liege’s tent.

  ‘You aren’t like your father. He was a much better man… Shame, he can’t be reasoned with.’ He began moving the army to confront another threat. The separatist force is completely oblivious to an element that has been shadowing them since the start of this debacle.

  “Would you look at that?” Roy stated as he watch one part of the army is moving away from monitoring the situation. Mercenaries and so-called Reformist faction goes separate ways, and this present an opportunity.

  [Sir, Lady Monique had found the enemy artillery camp, and as expected, they’re all mercenaries. We failed to spot anything to further incriminate the Reformists. They separate too cleanly to pull a leverage.]

  “Don’t worry too much about that, tell Monique to start her part on this, I’ll have to smooth talks some people.” He cut off the connection and stands up to stretch his body, ying prone for hours is bad for his spine’s continued health, but a job is a job.

  ‘Hah… I always have to talk with guys, can I get girls for once?’ A compint that will never see the lights of day, maybe. Unfortunately, his work still stands. Trying to reason with unmistakably furious Silvernces won’t be an easy feat, but he will manage.

  ‘Still though… why do we need to wait until the damage has been done? Nyx will be more grateful to have us keeping it clean… Boss, just what the hell are you scheming with her?’ The Lazurite sighed before taking one st pitying look at the embarking army. Most of them look too young to be on the battlefield, but war won’t wait even for babies.

  Location: Wdirosa

  POV: Liam

  “Bst it all! Retreat! Back to the shelter! Retreat!” I helped a wounded vilger to get back on his knees and parried an incoming beast leaping out of the scorched wheat fields. This is beyond catastrophic. I dread what to say to Lady Nyx for this failure. Smokes and bzing fmes stretch endlessly while screams of angered men and beast snarls accompany the madness unfolding.

  My hand sweep against a snarling beast, choking it within my grasp and a sickening crunch of bones turned to shattered pieces grace my ears. I evaded a lunging enemy leaping out of the fming field, his guttural scream signaled his loss of reason. The maddened foe swung widely in wild and unpredictable arcs, but I merely step onto its range and smash his head on my helm.

  I continue with this repetition of making it closer to the vilge as swarms of these unknown hordes cascade around me. Soon, I arrived at a flipped-up truck. A few dead bodies were lying beneath it, but I had no time to secure them as hostiles were running rampant on survivors. Dead men and women, people I had sworn to protect, are being cut down and torn like meat by a school of jagteeth finbeasts.

  It irks me how they merely leveraged their toughness, and suddenly, I found myself held back time and again. They tried to keep my bded side embedded into their body, but with a burst of my art, they were reduced to cinder. Cries and groans of pain ensue, but their body refuses to yield unless I truly smash their heart or head.

  My feet crackle with energy, and I lift a thunderous kick to shatter another caninebeast, frothing and maddened with feral drive, unching it towards its many kin. My situation worsened when I was forced to cover for the running vilgers and their wounded. My hand snapped towards one of the lunatics trying to gnaw upon a vilger, it lost both of its limb but keep on persisting.

  “T-Thank you!” The vilger is a young girl with tears and dirt marring her beautiful face. I remember how she had once gifted us some of her finest cooking. What a shame that her kind and serene expression is now morphing deep with fear.

  I pulled her to her feet just in time as another fming beast leaped toward where she was. She screamed when it lunged again, but this time, I was ready and split the monster into two. The gruesome scene made her face turn a shade paler, but she pushed the feelings of fear to keep on moving.

  Softly nudging her onward unto the vilge, I turn my gaze back on the battlefield. It would have been much easier if my brothers and sisters are here, but I realized that our attackers had seemingly strict procedure on which to prioritize. They are paradoxically rabid but with some measures of control, like a weapon that has been crudely tuned to allow limited autonomy and improvisation.

  A part of me was relieved for not bringing our entire Silvernce unit. It came as a blessing that if we insisted on breaking out as one, those hardier, sturdier, and more lethal madmen would have been crashing against those we passed. It also came as a minor detriment, my brothers and sisters will have a harder time letting loose of their full potential when there are noncombatants caught in the middle of crossfire.

  Such as these mercenaries; sellswords, but Lady Nyx insisted on calling them PMCs.

  I do not wish to insult her, but I suppose she has a good reason. One such thing I’m seeing right now is that those PMCs are standing their ground with extreme discipline. Younger me would have balked at the idea of sharing a battlefield with these supposedly dishonorable folks, but I stand correct.

  Knights, Businessmen, Merchants, Rulers, Commoners, Mercenaries… all of us are not a cut-and-dry category. If only that was the case, we wouldn’t be stuck in a deadlock where countrymen turn on one another. It made me envious that these PMCs are working seamlessly with trust that compliments their training and sense of self-sacrifice that is very much alien to their nature.

  Lady Nyx does have penchant on forming retion with peculiar people as her contacts, and it made me suspicious that Cordelia is less of an archeological company and more of a military unit under different terms. It certainly eye rising that so many of these men are loyal to this degree. Sellswords I had the displeasure to meet would be running for the hills seeing this complete chaos.

  Resolving to give them a better fighting chance, I burst and blitzed through foes with speed that belied my Kuranta’s heritage. Arms severed and broken, flesh gutted and blooded, corpses and broken beasts id beneath my feet.

  While I cleaned the fnks as best I could, I watched as one of the wounded PMC hailed me.

  “Sir Knight! We will hold them off here!” Cried a PMC who lost his right arm, but he kept on swinging and bashing his warhammer against the ongoing horde. I understand his reasoning, but if they colpse, the vilgers will be in more danger.

  “Are you mad?!” I take stock of our situation. Telltale signs of rge Originium crystallization began cropping up on the nd. The sheer scale of it all confirmed that whoever wretch had done this they aimed to precipitate and trigger a catastrophe. Bckened crystal with corpses jutting across its body, dead livestock and branches of trees transforming, and most of all, the clumps of Originium dust floating around us.

  I watch with clenched heart as the less protected body parts began getting infected. These men and women cared not for their safety, and continues on fighting with ferocity to make up for their enemies’ unnatural resilience. Crossbows and bows never stops in picking off foes, polearms fends off enemy at bay while axes and swords chopping up flesh into ground meat.

  The shielders are being pushed back, but they use their support exoskeleton to stand tall. I can feel how their bodies are screaming for a chance to rest, but combat stimunts and sheer grit made them lucid against the odds. I tried my best to keep on helping them, fearing that if they were to fall, the running vilgers dozens of paces behind us would be the next victim,

  One of them sensed my reluctance and shouted aloud, enough to cut through the cacophonous sounds of battle briefly.

  “We are here for a reason, Sir! The Vilge will need you more than us. I can’t fucking believe that I’m saying this, but please have faith! Have faith in us!” His words stuns me briefly. I had been so lost in worry and shame that such a simple word was all I needed to refocus and try harder. I forgot how fighting to the death wasn’t the point.

  “We will make sure the stragglers reach the vilge even if that’s the st thing we do!” He roared his words before smashing a caninebeast dead in the head. His fellows never turned their backs on the scared civilians.

  “The hell are you waiting for, huh!? We got this in the bag!” Another cried with a painful grunt, her knife stabbing and shanking a beast trying to tear her face off. She is trembling, she is scared, but god forbid she will allow any of this abomination to get through this line she and her comrade had drawn.

  “Get the fuck out of here, Knight! We will fucking murder these shits and send their souls straight to hell! Just go! Go!” A dying man cried out before pulling the explosive from his vest, engulfing himself and his tormenters in a bright Originium bst. I saw how his comrades grimaced, but they never stopped.

  “We had been trained by the fucking Grey Serpent herself! We got this!” Shouted a PMC who moved around, giving healing and medication to those who needed them. More and more voices are urging me to press forward.

  Offering them a silent apology, I left these brave men and women to the rear guard duty and sped past the vilgers to open up a path as their vanguard. My bde shimmered with Arts energy of light and fme, eviscerating this monstrous horde with a rapid and bloody vengeance.

  “Hear me! We must not stop, keep pushing on! I’ll carve open a path, and I want all able-bodied men to protect the wounded, we will leave no one behind!” I push forth through corpses and rain of mortars or artillery shells. I push forth as these people, sons, and daughters of Kazimierz, cling to survival despite how the state had failed them terribly at this moment.

  We ran and ran, and ran, and ran as more corpses are piling up on the road. With my adrenaline slowly ebbing away, I noticed the drumming of explosions around us had petered out unto nothing.

  ‘Enemy artilleries are losing their momentum? Are they running out of munitions?’ I had no time to question this sudden turn of events other than hoping that it wouldn’t devolve into a worse situation.

  END OF CHAPTER]

  Author’s Note:

  Yo there, this is me, myself, and I, the author who is under good amount of stress.

  Btw I wrote an original, albeit inspired, fiction at https:///series/1426935/records-of-regalia/

  Now, with shameless plug aside, we see how the situation is unfolding. Wdirosa was caught off guard, and there were quite a few actors behind the scenes. You might also notice that many things are moving in parallel, including the convoy. Remember, though, Nyx has a penchant for obfuscating the truth.

  Albeit two or perhaps the st one this month, I don’t know, just wait, I guess…

  Ciao.