It was a spell he could leisurely disrupt, at least, for the likes of a mighty transcendent like him- no matter how big and complex they were, human-casted magic would always remain woefully inferior, as they meant absolutely nothing in the face of true arcane prowess.
With a flick of his finger, part of the supposedly complex systems of the translocation spell had easily been twisted and tangled according to his whim. Funnily enough, none of the humans would have ever been able to notice this defect he had caused.
"Now then... To enact my plan..."
By twiddling a bit with the rune codes of the spell, he had redirected the teleportation routes of his most prized pawns: the general and the forces of Arslan, and scattered them throughout the endless maze-like hallways and rooms of the castle, to distract any form of opposition against the ghastly task that had been entasked upon him by the elders:
To isolate and slay the false dragonkin who was never one of their own from the very start... The half breed who had led to them losing the great war they would have won all those centuries ago.
The stage had been set, and the main actors were already on the stage and performing rather well- all there was left for him to do was to enact the final step...
And not a single one of these pathetic humans would even notice such a great loss on their own side...
________________________________________
"Kill him! Kill the cultist before he fires that weap-"
As Novus navigated the endless, infested hallways of his own home, multitudes of the armored men came surging from every corridor he explored once more- of course, while they were no match for the quick and brutal efficiency of his pulse rifle, their teeming numbers whenever they charged against him were slowly becoming a notable cause for concern.
"Oh crimson flames, bathe our enemy with your searing arcane energies! Hellfire!"
One of the mages he encountered had casted a spell: a wave of red fire that poured out from the small gem on his staff. Novus would not let himself get hit, however, as he immediately realized that he would burn to death if he so much as touched it- as a result, he took cover behind one of the walls to prevent himself from being turned to soot.
"Where are you?! You cowardly servant of the dragon! Come out and face us, you vile misc-"
It was another perfect mark that instantly hit its target- this time, the shot had perfectly turned the mage's head into a fine, bloody mist. Soon enough however, his quick triumph over one of his seemingly mightier foes would come to an end as more soldiers came rushing towards him with their weapons ready to strike him down.
"Javelins forward!"
This time, the armored men would try a different tactic- the ones with spears had all quickly turned their weapons into makeshift projectile weapons, throwing them into the air as the javelins came hurtling towards Novus' unarmored body: if they had hit him, they would have easily pierced his body like a hot knife through butter, which would have quickly rendered him unable to fight back against other attacks and leave him dead in the process.
However, Novus had more tools than just the blaster he had brought with him.
With a quick tap on the small, metallic bracelet device on his wrist, a blue shield had formed around him, dutifully protecting him from the attacks as the spears bounced away harmlessly from the barrier's surface- a personal shield, one that Novus had already been familiarized with in his previous life as a soldier. While it was vastly weaker compared to the one Anastasia used, the inferior device he currently had was more than enough to deflect such a weak, massed attack that was aimed towards him.
"Cursed cultist!" one of the soldiers cursed. "Why do you resist the inevitable?! Give up and surrender, and your death shall be quick!"
"Oh please..." Novus scoffed, finding his words to be nothing more than a bother. "Just die already."
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
It only took him a few seconds to aim his rifle and fire at the armed men- it was a gift that had been honed by his countless years of experience as a soldier in his previous life, one that had proven its use time and time again: most importantly, such a skill had become incredibly handy during this time of disaster, and because of it, Novus was easily shooting down the soldiers as if he had been doing nothing more than swatting down a couple of slow, old flies.
Eventually though, the number of soldiers that were rushing towards his location would gradually grow smaller and smaller- it was becoming apparent that the dead of the enemy were slowly starting to outnumber their remaining, living men. Many of them, as expected, had easily fallen prey to the dragon's might, as well as the unexpected help she had received from the 2 other people who lived with her in her abode.
As the knights, mages and common soldiers gradually thinned in number though, a portion of the assistance they had long been waiting for would finally arrive...
________________________________________
"Is this the cultist you lot were having a lot of trouble with?"
"Really now? You guys were having trouble with such an average looking fella? He doesn't even look strong!"
In front of Novus were 2 seemingly important people who had suddenly appeared from one of the corridors that led to the hallway he was in right now- the one to the left was fully clad in a thick, knightly armor that clearly differentiated him from the common soldiers, while the one to the other side was equipped only with standard leather clothes meant for combat, with only his impressively sharp, jet-black longsword being the only thing that made him notable compared to his other companion.
"Oh heroes of Arslan! You've come and blessed us with your grace!" one of the mages would immediately greet as he walked towards them and began prostrating. "Please assist us with this battle against this foolish cultist! We've lost too much of our men to this monster already..."
"Well... We were supposed to be brought along with our companions... Hell, we're supposed to be saving our strength for the dragon and not waste it on this weakling, but... Sure, we'll help you, since you idiots really need it."
"Of course, that's the reason we came here for, it is our duty after all..." the one in heavy armor spoke with his deep tone of voice. "Anyway-"
His words would suddenly be cut off by his companion, the one with the jet-black longsword on his right hand. "Oi, dragon worshipper. Remember our names before you die: My name is Joseph the Bladefeller, 15th rank among the 100 Seats Arslan, get ready to be cleaved in half if you choose to continue resisting."
The one in heavy armor then moved his left arm and pointed his thumb towards himself rather proudly. "As for me, I am Margus the Steelrender, 18th rank hero of Arslan's warriors! Try as you might, but I am certain that that puny weapon on your hands won't work on this armor I personally crafted! Prepare yourself!"
"Although... For a dragon worshipper and a traitor of our race, you look rather... Young..." the one with the sword said, lifting his seemingly heavy weapon as he pointed its razored edge towards Novus' direction. "Tell you what, why don't we offer you a deal?"
For a moment, Novus would actually become curious with what sort of 'deal' these 2 offered him- while he knew that it would definitely being something rather unpleasant, he decided to entertain their notion and feigned ignorance to try to hear them out.
"... Hmm... A deal, you say... What would it be then?"
"Easy! Just surrender, kneel before us, and tell us where your other conspirators are. If you're this capable, then, at the very least... surely you must be a member of some big cult worshipping this lame-ass dragon." his speech was rough as he said his words, as if he had been raised in the slums from birth. "If you do, maybe we'll let you off with just a broken limb or 2, who knows?"
"What my friend here is saying... While incredibly exaggerated, is quite true." the heavily armored man interjected. "If you surrender now, we may spare your life, and you might yet to live in this dreadful predicament of yours..."
... Ridiculous... How utterly ridiculous this truly was. Were they actually expecting him to fall into such a measly, elaborate ruse? No, surely these fools couldn't be that stupid? Then again, Novus couldn't just deny the reality he was in... Perhaps they were not as threatening as he was initially expecting them to be...
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
"Well then? What do you think?"
"... Hm... I think..."
The man with the longsword would then raise his left eyebrow. "Yeah, what's your choice then? Hurry up and decide, we don't have all day-"
"I think... That you people..." Novus would interrupt him, as a mocking grin instantly surfaced onto his lips.
"... Are complete fucking idiots..."
Novus then primed his weapon and dabbled with a couple of its controls- this time, there were many of them, and he definitely had to change the settings of his weapon a bit in order to make it more effective. In only a couple of seconds, after flicking one of the switches of his blaster, the mode of his weapon had switched into that of which was perfectly suitable for the situation he was currently in.
[RAPID FIRE MODE ON.]
This time, the blasts would come in rapid successions, like a rain of light that had come to adjudicate sinners during judgment day- while each of the shots in this firing mode were weaker when compared to the single shot ones, they were more effective at mowing down the scores of men that were in front of Novus right now like endless fields of wheat before a sharp scythe.
After all, how would he be able to deal with the 2, powerful looking figures that had appeared before him, when their lackeys remained full in number and were ready to support them with their overwhelming numbers?
Novus was expecting these 2 to survive this barrage anyway- in his calculating mind, he was already expecting that these 2 could survive even a single shot round from his weapon.
"S-shit, take cover! Take cover!"
Soon enough, the rain of light would finally come, as energy beams of intense, searing heat would come and shower them all with their splendid radiance.
________________________________________
It had been done: the armored men and their robed cohorts once present in teeming numbers in the courtyard were no more. By now, these men were either dead or dying, as their beat-up bodies and corpses alike laid motionless on the snow-enveloped grass- there were so many of them that they could probably serve as a new layer of ground for the blood-soaked, snow-ridden fields of the plaza.
"Well... That took a while..."
Still, while none of the soldiers could even hope to pose any sort of threat to her, it took quite a lot of time for her to deal with all of them- they had quite literally numbered in the thousands when they charged at her like savages in dense battle formations after all. What's more was that, due to the amount she had slain, the mess that had been left behind would take almost forever to clean up...
Fortunately for her however, it was not her primary role to clean such a massive mess, and she could leave such bothersome, menial tasks to the golems that lurked about the castle: jobs like those which usually required manual labour were their duties in the first place.
That is, of course, assuming that at least some of these automata managed to survive during all of this.
"... For heaven's sake... There just had to be more..."
Whitlea's face then twisted into a slightly pained expression, as she quickly covered her eyes with her left hand- another blinding light dazzled into existence within the courtyard's vast space, and it became clear that there was going to be a couple more enemies that were about to arrive, though their exact numbers wouldn't be confirmed just yet due to the light's extreme radiance.
"Are they going to be a lot again...? This is such a huge pain..."
It would be a few seconds before the light would finally cease to shine and rapidly faded away, leaving behind the new enemies who had been translocated within Whitlea's general vicinity.
Much to her surprise however, as she stopped covering her eyes and immediately set her sights upon the ones who had been brought here, she couldn't help but feel... Perplexed with what had just occurred...
...
"... Argh... Where are we, Alryn... This isn't the place we were meant to be... Or am I just being dumb again?"
"... I don't know either, Falmuth... Although... I'm certain that we weren't supposed to be brought here by the translocation spell in the first place..."
Instead of another massive army of armed men, what the blinding light had brought into the area were simply 2 individuals- while they seemed insignificant at first, even at a glance, Whitlea could tell that there was something notable about these people, as if they were radiating a form of power from their bodies... These people, she thought to herself, perhaps they were actually dangerous this time around.
The 2 of the them would then look around their surroundings, confusion written all over their faces for a reason Whitlea couldn't understand- of course, as they did, their faces expressed the madness surrounding them, as a look of horror emerged from them both in a quick succession: they had seen the hundreds upon hundreds of their dead comrades surrounding them from every direction, as if they were sailors whose ships were being surrounded by the waters of the sea.
"W-what... What the hell happened here?"
"Oh, that, those, and everywhere else?" Whitlea responded. "... I killed them. It's their fault in the first place. I mean, I did give them a chance to leave, but they kept refusing, so-"
The one known as Falmuth would then turn towards the maid- even without her confirmation, it was obvious that she was the monster who caused all of this, as her uniform was quite stained with a red fluid that he could easily tell to be blood; the blood of his allies of course.
"... Y-you... You witch... Were you really the one who did this?" Falmuth's face twitched with a burning sensation of anger as he clenched his teeth.
"You vile monster!" the one known as Alryn said, the emotions running through her heart being the same as her partner as she screamed loudly at Whitlea in total madness. "Don't you dare expect mercy from us!"
"Mercy? Hah, what fools you are..." Whitlea scoffed while a mocking smile simultaneously formed on her face. "You people come here with your barbarism and invade our home... Ending up dead should've been the primary concern of your friends here..."
"Ah well, not that it matters... They're already dead anyway. What can you 2 fools do about it?"
"You bastard! You must be a dragon worshipper!" Alryn retorted angrily. "We were sent here to cull the dragon who had laid waste to the countless villages it has already burned down! You dare to slaughter our soldiers... You even have the audacity even protect the den of this creature with your inso-"
"Enough yapping, you barbaric miscreants." Whitlea would quickly cut her off, not wanting to hear the nonsense she had to say. "If you want to kill me, then just do it already."
"Be warned however: I have concluded that it's very likely that both of you will end up like your dead comrades over here... There... Everywhere... Ah, well, you get my point."
"You bitch!!!"
And so, Falmuth would then speed towards Whitlea in frightening speeds, as Alryn began chanting her incantations in order to cast the deadliest, most effective spells she could use against the monster before her.
Thus did the battle begin in earnest, a fight that Whitlea would not have expected to be much harder than she initially thought it would be.
________________________________________
It was tiring... She already knew he was there, yet he still tried to hide himself with his pathetic, half-assed attempt at concealing himself. How completely idiotic, she thought to herself.
"Come out, you lizard. You can't hide your faint, disgusting presence of magick from me."
Anastasia was alone in one of the castle's massive rooms- she had been waiting for the true mastermind of all the events just now to finally appear and reveal its presence before her very eyes. In truth, she had already managed to figure this out from the very beginning, which was why she had sent the young prince away to go look for his maid... The purpose of it was something involved with the maternal instinct that had long been rekindled within her once cold heart.
The reasoning was straightforward in the first place- anyone could understand why she had chosen to split up with her son despite the dangers that came with such a decision- after all, there was still that ever so slight chance where he could have been engulfed by a large number of soldiers and gotten killed by them in the process...
Ultimately though, she had decided that splitting up with Novus was safer for him than to let him stay with her.
It was to prevent him from getting swept up in this massive fight that was about to begin: she didn't want her son to die, even if it would cost her life, she would never let his life get swept away all because of a fight she had to partake in.
After all, she could practically smell the scent of vile, draconic magick on this particular infiltrator- this was a matter that only her, and her alone could deal with, and she didn't want to risk losing someone she loved to some form of madness again.
"... And here I was taking my time to observe you first..." a voice would then suddenly come from out of nowhere, its tone full of seriousness as it spoke. "Well, not that it matters anyway... You're meant to die today, and I made sure that there will be no way for you to be helped nor saved by your friends."
Multiple magic circles would then surround her from every angle, as multiple chains of light then burst out from the center of these ethereal constructs and began to slither towards their target like wild snakes: it was one of the many spells the assassin had prepared to take her down, though of course, there was plenty more where that came from.
"How quaint..." Anastasia scoffed as she made a smug huff- simultaneously, her eyes began to glow with an orange radiance that intensified the colour of her irises, their radiance increasing by several degrees, a sign that she was using the ultimate power she had always had access to.
[Break.]
With one word from her mouth, the chains would shatter into a million pieces, all while the magick circles began deconstructing themselves and fading away into nonexistence- such a weak spell of magick meant nothing to her power, as she had easily stopped countless other spells with power that greatly exceeded this one.
Of course, however, this opening attack on her was only just beginning- the prelude to a long battle that would be take a lot of time and energy.
"!!!"
And so the assassin would finally reveal himself as he fled from his world of invisibility and materialized into reality- a man of above average height in a jet-black uniform, whose face and reputation were already quite well commemorated throughout the lands of the continent.
A thrust from his sword aimed at the very neck- he had materialized from her near right and had its pointed tip aimed at one of her vital spots. In lightning quick speeds, he had closed the once-extensive gap between them, and his sword was only mere meters away from her vulnerable neck.
CLANG!
Anastasia rapidly moved one of her arms to parry the blow, repelling him and sending him back into the air, though naturally, the assassin would manage a perfect, acrobatic landing as he descended upon the ground.
"... Oh my... Even I couldn't have expected a twist like this..." as the realization dawned upon her, her eyes would widen a bit as her smug display would momentarily be dispelled. "How did an elf like you end up becoming one of 'humanity's heroes'?"
For a moment, the assassin's expression would change into that of sheer rage. "Silence, wench, don't you dare associate me with those common inferiors..." he fumed angrily.
"I have wasted 15 shaatri of my life mingling and associating myself with these monkeys... All for the sake of fulfilling my mission... To kill you and be finally allowed to go home..."
Stephan Kaenrhion, or so was he known as by the masses- a prestigious member of the upper echelons amongst Arslan's Hand, which he had earned after dutifully fulfilling missions for the benefit of mankind. In truth, however, he was no human acting out of good will in the first place: he was an elf who had managed to worm its way in as one of humanity's finest warriors, all for the single-minded purpose of fulfilling the mission he had been given all those years ago.
"It was easy to fool these imbeciles, you know..." Stephan continued, as he then placed his hand on his hand and began gently squeezing his skin, as if he were taking off a mask.
"The hard part was pretending to be one of them. Once I got their trust, all I had to was burn a couple of their settlements that were close to your little castle, convince their feeble minds using a few illusionary spells... and tamper with this half-assed teleportation spell of theirs... Everything else just went by naturally..." he narrated slowly as his voice seemed to teeter into insanity.
"I hate it... I hate everything about them... Even this damn face I had to keep wearing for years without rest!"
Instantaneously, he would then pull out the skin of his face, revealing the true face that had remained concealed from the outside world for so long- a short haired blonde with the charismatic looks of a male elf. The appearance he had adorned as a 'human' had never been a part of him in the first place after all- the identity of Stephan, even his very appearance had been nothing more than a facade he had kept up. Now, there was no longer any need to conceal his identity, as it was finally time to fulfill the last step of his long awaited goal.
"You'll meet your end at my hands! Come, this sword had been forged within the deepest arcane wells! It can easily cut through your feeble metal armor, false dragon!"
"Hm, how interesting... However..." Anastasia replied, with her face quickly switching to an incredibly cold expression as her eyes began radiating with that beautiful orange radiance once more. "It's time for you to die."
[Explo-]
"I won't give you that time, wench!"
It was a fast attack he had made- he had moved faster than the blink of an eye and aimed his sword towards one of her vital spots again. Anastasia was then forced to stop using her ability, to instead block the dangerous strike that was about to land upon her.
This was the only true weakness of Anastasia's ability- indeed, it was a powerful strength, the ability to enforce her will upon the world with her thoughts, needing only a few words to execute the change she wished; it would have been a nigh-unstoppable power, had it not needed for her to stop her movements and utter the words she needed to use her power.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
The parrying of his sword and her mechanical claws echoed throughout the room, as Stephan prevented Anastasia from using the horrifying ability she could easily use to kill him- this way, he could at least somewhat hope to be able to match against her for a while.
Eventually though, the battle would finish and move to a drastic conclusion- it would only take a few minutes for it to happen, with the victor already having been decided by fate from the very beginning...