XXXVII.

XXXVII.

Tress observed the ruins of the village left behind in the wake of their thorough annihilation of the possessed caravaners and citizens. Of the eighteen Guardsmen she had been delegated, only thirteen were alive, though fortunately Arn was amongst the living still.

Tobias, their falconer, had released his messenger bird to return to Helmsgarten with Tress urgent request for reinforcements, outlining exactly what kind of enemy they were facing, and hammering home the necessity to utterly destroy it, lest the Daemon spread its vile corruption to their entire nation and become too great a foe for them to handle.

The fact that over eighty villagers and caravaners had been possessed by its influence was a worrying sign of what they might find as they continued on to Rooskeld. Certainly, apprehending the Fleshcrafter was now the least important task they had. The strength of the Crown hinged on their ability to curtail the Daemons ruthless expansion.

why have you closedyour clinic

Dont be daft, Guillaume. You know why. After all, you brought the Crowns eye to us. To me.

I need morevessels

Jakob regarded the corpse-puppet before him. It was not the usual red-haired man, but rather a woman who had once been a baker in town, and whose pastries Jakob had been delighted to eat in the company of Pernille. But he was not angry with the Daemon, though his desire to help him had expired. Besides, he was no longer needed for retrieving the Branch, though he might still serve as the catalyst for a different Esoteric Toll, for which his presence was not required, which suited Jakob just fine. Still, he was careful to not upset his unsteady alliance with the insufferable Entity.

You are perfectly able to make your own, without my help.

my methods arefrowned upon by humans

I dont care. You have already doomed this town. Go wild, if it so pleases you.

will you stay and fightalongside me

No. Nharllas summoning takes precedence.

let one of my vesselsaccompany you

So long as the Crown is tracking you, that seems unwise, given that I wish to remain out of their sights. That is why I came to Rooskeld in the first place, after all.

I insist The grating-and-awful voice of the Daemon grew in volume, as though trying to overman Jakob. But Heskel and Ciana, not to mention Wothram and Zelesti, stood behind him, waiting for the slightest sign of danger to interfere and neutralise the eight corpse-puppets in front of them.

We made a promise, Guillaume. You have violated it by intentionally alerting the Crown to my presence.

it was notintentionalThe source of this content nov(el)bi((n))

When Ciana returned to his side, her bone carapace was spotless as the day he and Heskel had constructed it. It was almost like a second skin, with the face sculpted to look like hers, with her eyes and mouth closed as in sleep, but slits allowing her to still see and breathe. Holes in the right side of the helmet allowed for her horns to poke through, and a hole near the nape allowed for her silver-blonde hair to fall through in a long ponytail. The gauntlets covered her fingers, but allowed for her claws to reach through at the end, similar to her horns, and her wing likewise had an aperture on her right shoulder-blade, where it was rooted, to emerge from. Lastly, her hooves were reinforced in the bottom, similar to how a horseshoe ensured integrity in the hooves of a horse. As far as armour went, it was quite a bit more durable than Heskel and Jakobs robes of skin, but it also reflected Cianas new role as their vanguard, graciously awarded to her by Heskel, who, it seemed, had tired of being the brawn of their party.

How are we going to carry that? she asked, as Zelesti was finishing up with the last two Priests in the background, her gleeful massacre echoing all around the clearing with its warped laughter and plentiful shrieks of pain and despair.

Heskel grunted in reply, but Jakob quickly overtrumped him.

Wothram, if you would.

The Wight made a sound, as the Golem began lifting the long branch. He struggled for a few moments with figuring out how best to go about it, but settled on hefting the end onto his wide shoulder and dragging its length behind himself.

Jakob chuckled as they returned to the path leading out of the Grove, I have not made you obsolete. In fact, such menial tasks are beneath you, or so I always thought.

What have you done with Jakob? he questioned.

Not this again, he replied annoyed.

Ciana simply laughed at the interaction.

With seven additional squads to reinforce her two partially-depleted ones, Major Tress set off for Rooskeld, already two days behind schedule.

They left the ruins of the fortified village in the hands of one squad of guards, though she was unsure what they could do if they encountered more of the Daemon Slaves.

The sixty-plus Royals rode through the night. Well aware that, come dawn, they would lay siege to the town of Rooskeld, from where they would spread out in smaller units once the main evil was exorcised from within, to strike at the manifold pockets of Daemon Slaves that were sure to be hiding in the hamlets and villages nearest the border.

From Sirellius curt reply to her request, Tress had been told to let the Daemon scum roam beyond the Lleman border, but to absolutely exterminate any and all traces of it within their nation. They had been given the go-ahead to strike with impunity and not fret about civilians caught in the crossfire. To be benevolent and hesitant now might after all return to strike them later and do untold harm. It was considered necessary for the Greater Good, and Tress wholeheartedly agreed. The incident with the Underking and his vile spawn had shown her what unpreparedness and the tolerance of vile heretics would lead to, and she aimed to keep that knowledge firmly ingrained in her heart, so that she would never forget.

Of those Guards she had been delegated, many did not yet understand what they were dealing with or why such drastic measures had to be taken, but, come dawn, they would follow their orders with the terrible knowledge that they were to be the bastion between vile powers and humanity.

Roused by her inner turmoil, Tress, whose Charger thundered at the head of their army, roared out loud:

We ride for the sake of our fair Helmsgarten! We are the cleansing light that abhors all evils! We are justice incarnate! We are the Royal Guard of our Proud King, Patrych the First!

Her delegation roared in sympathetic shouts of passion.