Ella ran back upstairs and brought everyone else down to join us, but they would have to wait in the cramped basement until we cleared the passageway completely. No matter how hard they tried, the sounds of so much metal armor clinking and scraping against itself would echo through the narrow passageway and give away our approach to whoever might be waiting for us on the other side. So, once again, it was just the small group that had accompanied me into the home that came with me as we explored the corridor.
The feeling I had as we walked down that passage was almost like one of my dungeon crawls. Whether it was my solo trek through the kobold mine or the assault on the undead lair with Venna and my companions, sneaking down an unknown corridor in search of hidden enemies again sent a thrill of excitement through me—until Khorim reined me in just a bit.
“You may want to dim the lights, so to speak,” he whispered to me as we started on our way. “Unless your intention is to give us away.”
I had become so used to the green-tinted world I’d been viewing since I’d let the flaring light of my eyes shine back at the catapults, that I’d forgotten about it completely. But with Khorim’s not-so-subtle reminder, I shut my eyes and reined in my rage just enough to dim their glow. When I opened my eyelids again, the world resolved into its normal hues once more, and we began our slow march forward in the near darkness of the corridor.
The passage traveled in a fairly straight line, directly towards the mansion where the lords had sought their refuge. Only at the end did it turn sharply, where we found an abrupt corner that we were certain led directly into the mansion’s lower level.
Khorim, ever the sneakiest among us, peered around the sharp bend to see what awaited us beyond. His quick look revealed what we expected; a thick wooden door guarded by two heavily armed and armored soldiers.
We needed to take them both silently or we’d risk discovery. Although I could eliminate one easily enough in that way, the other would very likely have time to cry for help before I could follow up with a second shot. We whispered amongst ourselves for a few moments, trying to come up with a way to neutralize the two of them simultaneously, but the distance between the sharp bend and their position guarding the doorway was simply too far for most of our talents to be of use.
“I think I can do it,” Tási finally seemed to come up with an idea.
Most of her Spells involve burning things and reducing them to ashes. A rather noisy and painful process, not typically conducive to covert actions, so I was intrigued to hear what she had in mind.
“Just fire your ice arrows into each of them,” she smirked at me, refusing to let me in on her scheme. “Hit the one on the left, and I’ll keep the one on the right quiet long enough for you to take him out.”
Okaaayyy. I guess I just had to work with that.
She asked for just a moment to prepare herself and then nodded to me when she was ready, while everyone else steeled themselves to rush forward if our plan went awry.
The second Tási let me know she was set, I pivoted around the bend in the corridor and loosed an ice arrow at the sentry on the left. His head froze into a solid block as my arrow pierced through his visor, and I drew back on my second shaft as I shifted towards the other guard.
The shot was somewhat more difficult, as he was sputtering and choking on the gush of water Tási had let loose inside his helmet. She’d cast the same water magic Spell she’d used to douse the curtains Bane’s first gout of flames had lit ablaze. In the confines of the man’s helmet, the sudden rush of water had practically suffocated him, and rendered him defenseless for the length of time it took me to fire on him and end his suffering.
With the two sentries eliminated, Ella ran back once more to bring the rest of our people forward. From here on, the element of surprise was secondary. Once beyond the door in front of us, we intended to turn the lords’ tactics against them by launching a lightning strike deep into the core of their stronghold.
While we waited, we used the time to clear away the slowly melting shards of ice that remained after the sentries’ frozen heads had struck the solid stone floors, clearing the potential hazard from our path to the doorway. Khorim dared to pry open the portal and peer into the mansion beyond, and we discovered that the way forward was clear. When Ella returned with the rest of our forces, we went inside and began our hunt for the lords in the sanctity of their own refuge.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, the lower level was completely deserted. With our own Army arrayed outside and confident in the secrecy of their escape route, the lords had focused their attention on the threat outside their walls—an error I intended to make them pay dearly for.
The slaughter began almost the moment we stepped foot on the mansion’s first floor. As soon as we climbed up the stairway, we stumbled upon a group of 20 armored knights. Unfortunately for them, the room we emerged in allowed us to bring our superior numbers to bear, and we ripped through them almost before they had time to react to our presence. The Short Sword of Sharpness made combat practically unfair, as it parted through the metal protection that the knights relied on with ease. When one of them managed to raise his shield in an attempt to block my strike, the blade simply cut through the barrier, severing the arm that was holding it as well. The knight only had enough time to stare at his bloody limb lying on the ground still clutching his shield before I sliced through his breastplate and ended him.
I expected our enemies to respond to the sounds of battle in their midst, and we formed up in anticipation of their counter-strike. After a while, none came, and we cautiously advanced even further into the mansion.
The reason for the lack of any reaction to our incursion became obvious as we moved on—the entire mansion was filled with the shouts of the lords and their loyalists taunting our forces beyond their walls, mixed with the occasional cries of pain as one of the arrows our archers arced over their high walls found a target. The cacophony hid our actions and allowed us to continue undiscovered as we penetrated even further into the lords’ sanctuary.
The next group we encountered were resting in some sort of barracks they’d cobbled together, and we were able to rush in and slay them nearly without a struggle. We’d been lucky and had managed to reduce the lords’ forces quite a bit without suffering any casualties beyond the power of our healing crystals. While I knew that luck was something of a hallmark of mine, I was also aware of the fact that it wouldn’t last forever, so we proceeded cautiously, hunting for more of the vulnerable spots in the soft belly of the lords’ refuge.
Time after time, we stumbled upon small pockets of soldiers as we made our way through the mansion with impunity. So much of our enemy’s attention had been diverted outside their walls that we were able to clear the entire first floor without provoking any response. When I peered outside the few windows we came across, it was obvious why things had been so easy for us—the vast majority of the forces that the lords had brought with them were outside, still focused on the threat they perceived beyond their battlements, which left us quite free to roam about inside and slaughter at will.
The second floor fell to us as easily as the first. Considering the scope of the battle, our relatively small force still overwhelmed the even smaller groups we came across. Even when the numbers were more even, our encounters ended quickly as my orbs disintegrated any opposition that truly threatened us. When that floor was cleared as well, and the last of our injured had been restored to full health, we climbed the stairs to the mansion’s third and final level.
Surprisingly, that floor seemed to be completely deserted as first. It was only after we’d explored it cautiously for a while that we detected sounds coming from a room at the end of a long hallway. The large double doors were closed shut, but we were able to approach and listen outside for a time.
The voices inside resolved into the sounds of mocking laughter and callous jests about the lives being wastefully spent below. We’d found the lords, and despite the lessons I’d given them, they were s
till just as despicable as ever.
After all that had happened, after they’d been shown so clearly the folly of treating people like objects worthy of scorn, they continued their spiteful, arrogant ways, even towards those who’d shown them such loyalty. The thought of it brought my rage back in a hate-filled rush of black emotion. The door in front of me surged into focus in a deep viridian light, and I rose from where I’d been kneeling as we’d listened in on the lords’ disgusting antics.
“I only need a few left alive for questioning. Slaughter the rest.”
The entire group behind me seemed to take a collective step away as the fury shone once more in my eyes, but people like these lords and those who would follow their example needed to be wiped from the face of this world, and I cared nothing for how I might be perceived as I did so; only that I eliminated every last one of them.
I didn’t even bother drawing my weapons for this fight—the relatively quick end that my blades would offer them was more mercy than I was willing to provide the vile nobles. Instead, I kicked open the doors, shattering them and ripping them from their hinges as I made my entrance.
My blood boiled when I realized that my actions had interrupted the fucking bastards in the middle of a damn party. They were celebrating while the people below were giving their lives for them. The room flared with light and one of the pieces of shit illuminated more brightly than the others, so I sent my first orb into his chest.
I ignored the inevitable screams of agony that followed when the black sphere tore him apart, and focused only on finding my next victim. Lord after lord fell to my orbs, while the rest of them were cut down by the blades of my guards and companions. Ella’s spear flashed next to me, taking one of the lord’s in the throat, while Saibra’s blades whirled and flowed in intricate patterns as she cut through their ranks with ease. The lords had left themselves nearly unprotected in their revelries, and our slaughter of them was over in only a few moments’ time.
“Who have you saved for me?” I asked as I tried to rein in my rage.
“There are three, Empress,” Saibra replied, and for the first time ever, I detected a slight tremble in her voice.
I stalked over to where the prisoners had already been bound and driven to their knees on the floor. Looking them over quickly, I asked the only relevant question I had for the group of three survivors.
“Which of you are from these lands?”
The lords were not all from Zonnia—some had fled here when Hygan crumbled beneath them. But the information I sought could only come from one of Zonnia’s own—refugee nobles from Hygan were useless to me.
“These are my lands that you’re defiling with your presence,” one of them declared, still full of haughty arrogance, despite his current position on the floor.
“I have no use for these two,” I waved at the pair of nobles who’d remained silent. “Leave me and take them with you. You know what I want done with them.”
Tási and Saibra tried to remain behind, but I forced them to leave as well. I hadn’t tested my unique interrogation technique on a man before, and I was uncertain how things would go. It was not something I wanted anyone to witness until I knew what to expect, and maybe not even then.
“I need just a little bit of information from you, and your suffering will end,” I told him plainly as I stood over him. “Just answer my questions—then you will be free.”
I trailed a finger across his neck and sent a tendril of rage coursing through him as I spoke. I’d hoped that would be all it would take to make the lord give me what I wanted. To my annoyance, he was no soft, sheltered noble. The man that knelt on the floor in front of me was a seasoned warrior, well-accustomed to pain. Even though my tendril made him scream out in anguish, he still looked at me with defiance when I withdrew my influence.
“You’ll… have… to do better than that,” he gasped between ragged breaths.
This was the part I’d dreaded—the thought of inducing… pleasure in this man, or any man for that matter, held no appeal for me. Even in the context of the torture I was administering, I was repulsed by the concept. I had no reservations about ruining this ‘noble,’ but that was not the point. I wouldn’t even consider unleashing my powers on anyone who hadn’t fully earned that fate. It was different this time—my hesitation was more about myself than it was about him. I could deal with what I’d done before to my female captives; it was, in a sense, consistent with who I was. This, however, was quite different. Sending tendrils of pleasure into a man, even as a means of torture, went against the grain of my very nature. Men simply held no attraction for me. Well, one did, and only one. But he was forbidden to me, and I banished any thought of him from my mind whenever my thoughts strayed in that direction.
“Better it is, then,” I sighed reluctantly as I flooded him with a wave of unrelenting pleasure.
The noble had been bracing himself for a second bout of pain and was taken completely off-guard when I struck him with violent passion instead. I’d closed myself off from him emotionally, but just watching his physical response sickened me. His body jerked and spasmed, and he cried out in bouts of tortured ecstasy as the power I’d unleashed inside him overwhelmed every single nerve in his body. Even after I released the flow, he lay twitching on the floor, spilling himself out again.
I waited for him to recover before asking him the question he hadn’t even seen fit to hear.
“You had opposition,” I whispered. “Nobles more decent than you. Ones who truly deserve the title. Who are they and where can I find them?”
He looked at me in utter confusion, completely thrown off by what I’d done to him. But he still remembered the pain I’d caused him, and in his befuddlement, let me see the fear in his eyes for the first time. His glance held more than that—despite the violence of what I’d done, how cruel and overpowering it was, there was a hint of desire in his look as well, and it sickened me even more. There was a truth to be learned in his eyes. For men like him, and in truth, for most men, they cared not where or how they emptied themselves, only that they did. Even if it was in torture.
He withstood my next round of pain, but then, rather than let him sense a pattern to my methods, I sent a third bout of agony into him before I overwhelmed him with pleasure once more. The second time around, the passion seemed to cause him a great deal more discomfort than pleasure, and after enduring the fourth assault of my dark tendrils, he finally gave up the information I sought, verified by the See Truth Spell I cast on him.
The few nobles of Zonnia who’d stood in opposition to their vile brethren had fled downriver to the city of Ayden. There, under the leadership of a Lord Olton, they’d set up a de facto resistance, defying the rule of their former leaders.
Once I had what I needed from him, I slit his throat as he lay weeping on the floor, fulfilling my promise to set him free before I strode out to rejoin my guards and companions.
“The nobles who led our opposition are dead,” I stated simply. “I’m going to offer their followers a chance to surrender before we kill them.”
“What do we need to do?” Saibra was the first to respond.
“Bring the bodies,” I answered her plainly. “And do what I tell you to.”
A large balcony overlooked the front courtyard of the mansion where most of the soldiers loyal to the nobles were gathered, seeing to the defense of their masters. Once I’d given my instructions to everyone, I only had a moment to wait for the final piece of my victory display to arrive.
As soon as everything was ready, we opened the balcony doors and marched outside, in plain view of all those below. Our appearance above the courtyard would likely have gone unnoticed amid all the activities, but for Bane’s roar of triumph from his perch on the roof above us.
As every head turned in our direction, I let the light of my eyes flare again as my guardians and companions slung the corpses of the fallen nobles over the balcony railing.
“Your masters are no more,” I called o
ut, channeling my Charisma into my words. “There is no one left for you to fight for. This war is over; there is no need for further bloodshed. Surrender, and you will not be harmed.”
Several glared back in anger, but nearly all dropped their weapons once they saw the truth of my words. The bodies of those they’d followed were clear for them to see—without the nobles, they had nothing left.
The gates were soon opened, and my own troops rushed in and quickly took the nobles’ soldiers into custody before any of them could have a change of heart. Our victory had come with a cost, the price of which I did not yet know, but it was complete. We had defeated those who’d opposed us, eliminating them down to the last man.
“Stel,” I called to him as I watched the events unfold beneath me. “I imagine that the nobles who fled here brought a great deal of their personal wealth with them. I won’t punish the people or even the Realms for their actions, but I am perfectly willing to confiscate the lords’ individual assets as compensation.”
“I will begin the search immediately, Empress,” he replied eagerly. The thought of gathering loot, even if it wasn’t for himself, always held a certain appeal for Stel, and he relished the opportunity I’d given him.
“It’s time we head back, Dreya,” Venna reminded me. “There will be those who need your attention in camp.”
With the fighting over, save for a few pockets of resistance who hadn’t learned of their masters’ demise, we hurried back to where our Army was encamped. The dead and badly wounded waited there for us, and I had the unfortunate task of choosing among the fallen for the scant few I could restore to life.
Hundreds had been killed, most of them during the battles that raged inside the narrow choke points where they’d been forced to fight through the ambushes that had been set for them. Fortunately, the Curates and those with the scrolls I’d provided had raised the majority of them, and in the end, the final toll we’d had to pay for taking the Realm was relatively light—just 127 of my soldiers had lost their lives. While every one of them spoke of a personal tragedy, the loss of a loved one or even just the potential life that was snuffed out before having the opportunity to run its course, considering the circumstances, the total was remarkably small.
Second Skin: Unified: A litRPG Adventure (Second Skin Book 3) Page 85
