“Oh no—” Viktor muttered, staring at the spiked head display that lined the lobby.
“Black Eyes! Stop!” Griffin roared.
More violent sounds emanated from the second floor above them. Viktor sprinted ahead through the head-spike display, and up the center stairway. At the second floor, he laid eyes on a hallway even more massive than the cavern from the Forest. It was lined by torches and corpses. At the end was a set of doors more massive than the main ones. Viktor caught a glimpse of Black Eyes entering, and the doors were promptly shut behind him.
“Helena! Can you hear me!?” Griffin shouted.
A jumbled mess of garbled static came through the earpieces, making the men wince. “Just get after him then!” Griffin shouted. They sprinted down the hallway, navigating the few remaining Bargemen corpses.
Viktor bore down on the door, ferociously pushing and pulling, desperately trying to open it, only for it to barely budge. He managed to peek through the gap he created, seeing one of Black Eyes’ swords barring the doors.
“He blocked us out! Help me with this!” Viktor shouted. He and Griffin proceeded to beat the door down, screaming, grunting, and heaving with each kick, punch, or bash. Through the mess of their sounds, Viktor could vaguely hear the happenings inside the next room.
“YOU FUCKING ANIMAL! YOU DESERVE FAR SLOWER THAN WHAT YOU’RE GONNA GET!” Black Eyes roared with terrifying primal vigor.
A second voice muttered, but Viktor could not make out the words. As he and Griffin continued to attack the door, he noticed the gap getting larger. Progress, Viktor noticed.
“Don’t let up, Griffin!” Viktor shouted.
They persisted, attacking the door with even greater fervor. The gap continued to get noticeably larger and larger from each bash, until Duncan’s sword clanked onto the ground. Savagely, Viktor bashed the door wide open, nearly ripping it off its hinges.
Inside was the unmistakable sight of the throne room. Decorated with torch lights, marble furnishings, and a handful of bodies that Black Eyes had created, no doubt. The only sound to be heard was a man screaming in agony, just before the throne itself. Black Eyes was mounted atop who was, unmistakably, the Archon. He fiercely grasped his victim’s head, and his thumbs were plunged deep into the Archon’s eyes. The harrowing and agonizing screams persisted as blood erupted from his eyes and spurted everywhere.
“Black Eyes! Stop!” Griffin demanded, drawing an arrow.
“HE CAN’T LIVE!”
“Stop right now, or I will kill you!” Griffin threatened.
Black Eyes kept his thumbs holstered in the Archon’s eyes. He moved only his head, turning towards Griffin and glaring at him.
“You… don’t… know him! He has to die!” Black Eyes seethed.
“Let. Him. Go…” Griffin said with an anger uncharacteristic to him.
The Archon’s body fell completely limp and he was completely silent. His body was greatly mutilated and covered in red. Black Eyes rose to his feet, glaring at Griffin.
“Y—you k—killed him…” Griffin said shakily.
“He won’t be the only one to die if you don’t point that bow somewhere else.”
“Y—you m—monster… I knew you were trouble…” Griffin said, his voice wrought with dread.
Black Eyes descended the steps while Griffin backpedaled nervously.
“Go ahead. Loose that arrow. If you don’t, I’ll kill you,” Black Eyes threatened.
Viktor’s grip on his spear tightened as he took a defensive stance. What the hell is he thinking?
“Will both of you cool off!?” Viktor yelled.
Black Eyes continued his menacing walk and Griffin kept backpedaling.
“I’m warning you!” Griffin shouted, pointing his bow aggressively.
“Yeah? Well, I’m threatening you, pathetic worm!” Black Eyes roared.
Griffin let go of the arrow. Its whish came to a sudden halt as Black Eyes caught it, stopping the tip just before his forehead. Viktor and Griffin reeled back, stunned. Black Eyes’ face became inflamed with red fury as he threw the arrow aside and charged. Griffin struggled to draw another, but Viktor knew there was no time: he intercepted Black Eyes, tackling him to the ground and using all his might to choke him. Black Eyes gasped for air and his body flailed, but Viktor was too strong, even for him. In a matter of a dozen seconds, he no longer resisted as he fell unconscious.
Viktor rolled onto the floor, breathing out with extreme relief. How did he catch that arrow? This armor isn’t making me that fast… He slowly got up to his feet and paced around, regaining his wits. Griffin sat on the floor, a terrified look plastered on his face.
“Get his armor off, Griffin,” Viktor commanded.
Griffin hesitated a moment, but set his bow down beside him, got to his feet, and scurried over to Black Eyes’ body. As he got to work, Viktor shambled towards the throne, climbed the steps, and looked down on the Archon’s mangled corpse. Such brutality, he remarked. Part of him understood, but seeing it up close gave him pause.
“This asshole! Everything is fucked now!” Griffin cried desperately.
“If you needed him alive then you shouldn’t have brought him along,” said Viktor.
“We didn’t exactly have a lot of options!” Griffin protested.
“Sure. Whatever.” Viktor descended the steps and walked towards Griffin. “While we’re here, you’re gonna answer my questions. All of them.” He dragged him towards the throne, pinning him next to the Archon’s body.
“What are you—” Griffin began.
“Why did you really bring me down to your little hidey hole, eh? Why didn’t you just let those Bargemen kill me?”
“I, uh…” Griffin stammered.
Viktor brought his fist down onto the stair just beside Griffin’s head, shattering bits of stone into the air. Griffin cried out nervously, but Viktor seized his throat.
“The truth now, Griffin,” said Viktor.
“I thought you could help me! I didn’t think about it, I promise!”
Viktor nodded, inclined to believe. “Why’d you really need the Archon alive?”
“I can’t…” Griffin muttered.
Viktor struck Griffin in the gut, sending him into a violent and painful coughing fit. Then, he grabbed him and threw him onto the Archon’s corpse, mashing his face into the blood.
“No!” Griffin pleaded meekly, spitting blood out of his mouth.
“Tell. Me. The. Truth!” Viktor seethed.
“I will! I will! It’s complicated, so—”
Viktor tossed him onto the throne itself, then stood over him threateningly. Griffin breathed weakly, continuing to spit blood onto the ground.
“Try to explain it simply, so a stupid Winterlander like me can comprehend.”
Griffin caught his breath, wiped blood from his face and looked up at Viktor. “There’s a lot that he knows, things we need to know if we can bring order to Hivemind!”
“Oh yeah! What did he know, huh?” Viktor prodded.
“He knows how to control the Bargemen!”
“Control… the Bargemen? What do you mean?”
“The Archon controls all of the Bargemen! They are quite literally his slaves…” Griffin explained.
“You have the audacity to compare those animals to the Exiles!? They’re not the ones in chains, you realize?” Viktor roared.
“They don’t do it because they want to, it’s because they’re all under his control! He controls them with an Artifact!” Griffin cried.
“An Artifact…” Viktor muttered, looking around himself, perplexed. If anything were capable of doing that… he realized. “Yeah? And how do you know that?”
Griffin looked down at the throne shamefully. He placed his arms on both armrests and appeared to ease into the seat. “Because I was the Archon, once upon a time…”
“You what!?” Viktor screamed, grabbing his spear and pointing it directly at Griffin’s throat.
“I was never like
him! Hivemind used to be different… I was elected by the council to serve my single term, just like any other Archon. That’s how it worked, until he came along…” Griffin looked down at the Archon’s corpse.
“Council? What are you talking about?” Viktor asked.
Griffin nodded. “He had them killed. I was forced into exile, and he used the Bargemen to take control of the city. And now that he’s dead, I don’t know if we can free them,” Griffin said dreadfully.
“Let me guess, he’s got the Artifact on his person?” Viktor asked, crouching down and searching the pockets of the mangled Archon corpse by his feet.
The pant pockets were empty. The coat pockets were drenched in blood, but also empty. Every possible place the Artifact could have been was empty. Black Eyes, Viktor realized.
Viktor quickly turned around to see Black Eyes standing up with a device in his hand.
“Black Eyes…” Viktor muttered.
“I have it. That means I’m its master now,” said Black Eyes.
“You have no idea what you are doing!” Griffin shouted.
“I don’t? You mean, it was a mistake to liberate the Bargemen and end the riots in Hivemind?” Black Eyes countered.
Griffin twisted his face angrily. “What are you—”
“I could allow Helena’s signal to come in here and she can confirm as much…” Black Eyes turned his hand in a strange way, and the earpieces instantly activated.
“Griffin! Griffin! Can you hear me!? It stopped!”
Griffin flinched, touching his finger to his earpiece, startled. “H—Helena! I hear you! I need an update on the fighting!”
“Griffin! I thought… Uh, the fighting has largely stopped! There are a few spots, but it’s all but stopped! Most of the Bargemen have dropped their arms! I’ve been trying to reach you for several minutes!” Helena exclaimed.
“Are we establishing order in the streets?” Griffin asked.
“Yes! Yes, they are. W—we won,” Helena said in disbelief. “I can’t believe you did it, Griffin!”
“He didn’t,” Black Eyes said resentfully.
CH 55 – Asher XIV
No one said a word when they cast Miles off to the Stars. They simply stared at the cloud of smoke that erupted from his body and the pyre beneath it. No one in the Emberland and Rockland Armies ever spoke of it, but they undeniably all felt the same discontent. Everyone felt gutted by the treason all the same, except for Asher, and most knew it.
Vai held his arm comfortingly, but even her touch could not cure his dread. He did not blame her, but it was her former Guardsman who had murdered Miles. It was not something Asher could easily forget.
Following Miles’ casting, a contingent of two hundred Rockmen arrived from the South, eager to deliver a message. They had been sent by Lord Gorman, the High Commander of the Rockland Army on the Midland front.
Vai read the note aloud to Asher in their tent. “Our forces have continued to pursue the retreating Midlanders. Despite their efforts to destroy any supplies that we can seize, we are giving them pause. Most of them are headed straight towards Habwaken. We will continue to herd the Midland sheep towards their fortress, and if your forces will join us there, we will crush Howell and all the Midlands. Signed, Lord Richard Gorman. The rest is logistics of the rendezvous… We can always go over that with our Generals.”
The ones still alive. “Gorman has around 80,000 men, you said?” he asked.
“Roughly, yes. Gorman’s host combining with ours will be unstoppable,” said Vai.
“I wouldn’t underestimate Howell. Miles told me about the Battle of Mercy…” Asher’s face returned to sorrow the moment he said the name.
Vai walked up to her husband with sympathy in her eyes, gently caressing his shoulders, and looked up at him. “He seemed like a great man…”
“The greatest man I knew… He was there when my father couldn’t be.” A tear ran down Asher’s cheek.
Vai brought her hand up and wiped the tear away. “My love, I am so sorry. I never knew Adrian was capable of such treachery…”
“Yeah. Well, time to bring this note to the War Council,” said Asher.
“Sure. Sure,” said Vai. She stood up on the tips of her toes and gently kissed Asher.
Asher could not bring himself to reciprocate the same degree of warmth and tenderness in Vai’s lips with his own. After she pulled away, he could tell by her face that she was mildly saddened by the depression in his enthusiasm, but she decided not to say anything.
The councilors agreed with Vai’s and Asher’s sentiment, reiterating the need to join the rest of the Rockland Army. Lord Archard had a comprehensive map of Habwaken’s defenses prepared and sprawled over the table. He explained the many strengths and the few weaknesses of the city’s defenses: the plains surrounding the city were vast and flat, offering no cover or readily available resources to construct siege towers with, the city was protected by the tallest and densest stone walls on the continent, and the city was large enough to fit a garrison of tens of thousands of men. Lord Archard explained that with an army as massive as the one they would have, it would be incredibly difficult to properly secure their flanks with trenches that would prevent any potential flanking attacks.
“Emberland cavalry can effectively work as a wall, both formidable and mobile. Our armored units can adapt to the changing landscape,” Schafer explained.
“Our heavy infantry can act as the rear guard. If, for whatever reason, the Emberland cavalry is scattered or the line is broken, the rear guard can hold their line if need be,” said Lord Archard.
“A good plan, and a good backup plan.” Vai leaned over the Habwaken defense map and studied it closely. “What might Howell’s plans be?”
Miles is dead, Asher thought.
“Here’s what I would do, if I found myself in Howell’s shoes.” Lord Archard leaned over the map, pointing at various points. “The ramparts atop the walls are massive, and easily navigable, offering plenty of space for large numbers of troops to move to any location they need to. If we centralize our army onto a specific part along the wall, he can redeploy his men to fight on that side with ease, and probably send out an army from a different gate and encircle us.”
“Our army should encircle the entire city, so as to trap the garrison inside?” Vai inquired.
“That may stretch our line too thin. If much of his army is away, they can quickly close in and break up our siege,” Schafer pointed out.
“Well, how might we know where most of his army is?” Vai asked.
“We can guess it by looking upon the ramparts to see how many men are atop or listening to the rumbling of an army’s movement from inside the city, perhaps…” said Lord Archard.
“Probably not. His Majesty was able to trick Nobunaga into believing his army was much larger than it was, and Howell could easily do the same to us, fooling us on where his soldiers…” said Schafer.
Miles is dead… Asher reflected sadly. The voices around him began to fade into mumbles as his senses refocused themselves. He only felt the steady beat of his heart, saw the map in front of him, and heard his breath. Miles is fucking dead, he thought again.
“Your Majesty?”
“Huh?” Asher asked, perking up and widening his eyes inquisitively.
“What are your thoughts, your Majesty?” Lord Archard repeated.
Asher furrowed his brow and narrowed his eyes on the map. This map isn’t speaking to me at all, he thought. He shuffled his feet through the dirt, looking down at them briefly. Wait… He began to feel excited at the thought of it, but unsure if it was even possible.
“At the Furakuhold, we found our strength above, but I see nothing above Habwaken that we can take advantage of…”
Lord Archard cleared his throat, somewhat unimpressed. “Fortunately for Howell, I would say. But what can—”
“Can we take advantage of what’s under?” Asher asked, smirking.
“Under?” Lord Archard crossed
his arms and furrowed his brow curiously.
“You said it was vast open plains surrounding the city? That means shrubs, dirt, soil… Stuff that can be dug through,” Asher clarified.
“Dig under the city?” Lord Archard scoffed. “That’s an interesting idea but think of the logistics! Digging tunnels large enough to fit a worthwhile force inside would take several weeks! Not to mention that we would easily be spotted digging those tunnels, as we have no cover!”
“Several weeks? I must be more patient than you.” Asher crossed his arms and furrowed his brow, mirroring Lord Archard. “Howell will think me impatient, how I attacked the Furakuhold with so few men while deciding not to wait for reinforcements. When he sees our forces setting up a siege and waiting outside for weeks, he will be confused. I want Howell confused. When we hide our tunnel-digging operation behind the massive siege towers we’ve constructed, but never seem to use, he will be even more confused. Then, when our underground forces are in the city, it’ll be ours.” He finished with a smug expression.
Lord Archard uncrossed his arms, speechless.
“That’s quite brilliant,” said Vai. “I agree. If we implement Schafer’s cavalry perimeter and Lord Archard’s rear guard, we may have what we need.”
“I concur!” Schafer said excitedly.
Lord Archard continued to look at Asher with a slight hint of disdain, but he resigned. “Agreed.”
“Wonderful news. Since we have our plan, this meeting is adjourned.” Asher turned to Vai. “Shall we commence our march at dawn?”
Vai smiled sweetly. “We shall.”
“Great! You are dismissed, Colonel. My Lord,” said Asher.
Schafer stood up, a satisfied look on his face, nodded, then walked out of the tent. While Lord Archard was standing up, Asher marched right up to him with a stern look, to Archard’s surprise.
“Listen to my words carefully, Lord Archard. Now that Vai and I are husband and wife, you are as much her subordinate as you are mine. You will not speak with such insubordination ever again. I’d ask if you understand, but we both know you do.” Asher backed off a step, his stern glare lingering.
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