Jack willed his feathers into a spear, his eyes narrowed as Jessica and the rest of the commando's took up firing positions.
“Lad, are you sure about this?” Python asked worriedly. “A drawn out battle might attract unwanted attention.”
“If we don't deal with them now, they may become a problem in the future. Trust me, this won't be drawn out,” Jack replied, activating energize and lightning imbue, his body radiating with sparks that intertwined with the lightning now coursing through his feathered spear.
Python winced, taking a step back as the lightning turned brackish, the man before him releasing black arcs that made the hairs of the commando's stand on end.
“Well, that's got their attention,” Sahaqiel commented, the Nest Agent in the distance rearing its bird-like head towards the influx of energy.
The best agent roared, releasing its scream that stung Jack's ears.
Jack scowled, twirling his weapon, the feathered pole trailing sparks as its wielder aimed it at the screaming bird face.
“Die.”
With a thunderous boom, the spear flew, a surge of thunder snapping through the snowy mountain as the weapon shot a hole clean through the abomination.
Python went wide-eyed, even Yukino gasped as the commandos eyed each other through their helmets.
Immediately the Rithorns roared, the porcupine chimeras charging through the snow.
“Get ready!” Python barked, his body glowing with mana.
Nonchalantly, Jack flicked his wrist, the feathered spear breaking apart and returning a hundred feathers his way.
Consequently, this attack struck the charging rithorns, the monsters freezing up as lightning conducted through them, chaining and intensifying the attack until every monster was but charred corpses.
Jack lowered his hand, his feathers returning before turning on the commandos.
“Shall we?” Jack said, stepping forward with a few of the commandos wondering why they were even here.
“Jack,” Sahaqiel said, materializing beside a mostly intact rithorns corpse as his group passed. “Why don't you try siphoning this one?”
Jack turned, Yukino and Jessica eyeing him as he broke away from the group to pick up the monster carcass.
“You going to eat that?” Python asked with Jack shaking his head with a chuckle.
“No, I've got plans for it.”
After two hours of walking, Jack and the others finally paused, stopping to make camp within a cave as they waited for the Theocracy Partisans to find them.
“Ugh. Finnnally,” Yukino let out, dropping her bag and removing her helmet, the woman slumping onto the nearby wall as the other commandos set up the cave.
“Lieutenant Ashfied,” Python called out. “I want sentries and rotating patrols. Determine fire watch and have the Damocles-”
“That won't be necessary. I have a three-sixty view of our location.” Jack said, placing the monster corpse at his feet as Sahaqiel hovered above the cave. “Let them rest for now.”
Python blinked, taking a moment before nodding his head. “Right, your friend. Well then, you hear your king. I want everyone to take a moment and rest. Eat. Relieve yourselves. We don't know when we'll get another chance.”
Sitting down to rest his legs, Jack eyed Tangerine, the boy standing in the cold beside his camouflaged mech. The only one not bothering to eat, sleep, or rest.
Jack again wanted to reach out, to talk to the teen mech pilot, but ultimately he reached down, activating Gehenna on the monster corpse.
Lilith.
“What?” The black specter replied as Jack siphoned the monster.
Tell me more about the Green Bishop. What can I expect?
A moment passed before the spirit showed herself, the black-winged being sitting across from Jack.
“He's evil,” Lilith said, her feelings of bloodlust coursing through Jack's veins. “A thing that wears the skin of a human while spouting about the glory of mankind. I don't know what his abilities are, or what he's fully capable of, but… if you have an opportunity to kill that son of a bitch… take it.”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
I'll keep that in mind, Jack replied, recounting Lilith's memories in the facility.
[Monster, Rithorn Drained]
[Drain Efficiency]+5% for C-grade creatures and below.
[Absorption] +1
[Skill Check for obtaining skill… Success! Skill! Harden LvL 1, Obtained!]
[Harden LvL 1: Use mana to condense your skin cells, strengthening them against sharp and piercing blows.]
Jack blinked at the notification and new skill, a skill that allowed him to hardened his body at the cost of mana.
“Interesting,” Jack let out, a bit happy at the selection< unaware that the others were staring at him and the now dessicated monster corpse at his feet.
“Did I do good or did I do good?” Sahaqiel said, the angel laying on his lap.
Yeah, you did. Wish I had a skill similar to this a lot sooner. Jack responded, smiling.
A few hours passed before Sahaqiel notified Jack of movement, small shuffling squares of white.
“They’re here,” Jack called out, alerting his team.
Walking out of the cave, Jack waved in the direction of the partisans. The Theocracy rebels removing their camouflage blankets as they'd clearly been spotted.
Jack eyed the partisans, a hodgepodge of soldiers in mismatched bits of Templar armor and furs. Equipped with Fiddler SMG-12s, and Fuscilla-92 shotguns, the weapons used by the partisans were all urban warfare gear, nothing suitable for long range. Something Jack took note.
Out of the snow, an armored woman covered head to toe in gold and white armor emerged, walking with the gait of a seasoned warrior.
The helmet’s mechanisms peeled away the visor as the knight drew close, revealing a familiar face in the form of Lita von Strongarm, the blonde woman’s features sharper than Jack remembered.
Jack walked forward intending to shake the woman's hand, however, in a twist, the knight kneeled.
“Lumenese. Colonel Est, it is with great honor that I welcome thee to the Theocracy.” Lita said, the paladin kneeling alongside her soldiers.
Lumenese… thats what she called Selfia back at the academy… Jack said to himself, realizing the honorific was because she was aware of Selfia’s identity the entire time.
Jack cast it to the back of his mind as just another thing Selfia hadn’t told him.
“On your feet Lita,” Jack instructed, helping the paladin up. “You’ll never have to bow to me, it's not something I'm comfortable with, especially from a friend.”
“You are too kind, your Grace,” Lita replied, the blue-eyed blonde rising with her gaze fixed on the Damocles behind Jack. “Please, if you would, follow thy companions. There is much to do.”
***
Trudging through the snow, Jack's party eventually reached the outskirts of a ruined village covered in snow.
The first thing Jack noticed was the lack of defensive fortifications. No walls, battlements, litany of cannons, or mobile homes. A completely exposed village of destroyed shacks and ruins, a far cry from the settlements of the Imperium and Alliance.
Littered around the village, Jack could make out numerous mounds studded with dull gemstones. Deactivated War Golems from the looks of it.
Jack had read the reports about the frigid winters of the Theocracy, the cold landscape that served as a harsh counter to many monsters that roamed the surface. But with their numerous awakened, and magecraft, the Templars had managed to keep the demonspawn in check thanks to their extremely specialized brand of awakened.
You either controlled a golem, became a healer, or fought on the frontline as a Paladin.
There were also the Judicators as well, an uncommon class within the Templar ranks that were more akin to Imperial Black Hearts and Black Rose. However, unlike the two groups, the Judicators served as both inquisitor and Special forces, using skills not seen by their other papal soldiers.
The Jester of the High Table had been a judicator, and apparently so had the Green Bishop.
“This way,” Lita instructed, leading the team to a frozen river. Following the trail, the commandos and Jack eventually came to a large sewer well, one big enough to fit a truck, or in Jack's case, a MECHFrame if it crawled. “This pipe leads into the old city waterways. Your Battle Chariot will have to crawl if it wants to follow.”
Python signaled to Tangerine and The Damocles, the MECHFrame crouching down and going into a low crawl.
“From the reports, I was led to believe the entire Theocracy was overrun with monsters,” Python said, voicing a thought Jack had.
“The infestation is mostly centered around our city centers and borders,” Lita explained as one of her partisans activated a lighting spell for the party to navigate the tunnel. “When Hugo Fritz activated the bombs to escape our Judicators, most of our strategic bastions were eliminated, including the bulk of our armed forces being converted into night terrors.”
Hugo Fritz, the Green Bishop’s name.
“Your… Judicators?” Jack asked, the conversation taking his interest. “Your government attempted to arrest him?”
“Yes,” Lita replied, leading the group into a frigid catacomb of pipes “Before his death, Cardinal Veltrilli had tasked a group of Judicators to investigate Mr. Fritz. There were… concerns about his experiments and obsession with souls. When the Judicators had discovered what he was really up to and a part of, it was already too late.”
“The bombs.” Python said.
“His creation. We lost seventy-percent of our total population during his attack. Anyone that was left was forced to bend the knee or face execution by his Neo-Crusaders.” Lita explained.
“Except you didn't,” Jessica chimed in. “That's very commendable.”
“Of course. As a Judicator in training, I was sent to the Imperium to illicit aid on the behest of Cardinal Veltrilli.”
“So, that's why you were at the academy,” Jack said, putting two and two together.
“Yes, your Grace, forgive my deception,” Lita said. “Lumenese Selfia heard my proposal and promised me aid, of course. Through my time with her, I discovered the nature of the threat Mr. Fritz truly posed and the organization he was a part of.”
“I'm sorry that it's taking us so long to honor our agreement,” Python said. “With the war-”
“What matters is that you're here now,” Lita said, cutting the colonel off. “With your help, we shall cut the head of this Hydra and put to rest the victims he has claimed.”
Within Jack, Lilith stirred, the specter resonating with Lita's words.
“We're here you're Grace.” Lita said, pausing at the exit of a pipe.
Jack narrowed his eyes, walking forward towards the light, his mouth going slightly ajar as he stared at a junktown metropolis built into sewer lines.
But, perhaps more than that, was the monument at the center of the refugee camp that took Jack's attention, a marble statue of a woman in prayer, her wings unfurled to cast a shadow over the town.
A statue that was, of Sahaqiel of all things.