Alisson continued on through the tunnel. He didn’t know how long he traveled for, sometimes walking and sometimes jogging where he could. He ate the scarce rations he had on his person as he walked, warily eyeing his backside. Since that last beast that had tackled him, there had been no traces of any other living things here.
His wounds had healed well, but he was still worse for wear. He pushed forward and just didn’t think about them – It was nothing compared to Freigat.
The tunnel was back to its previous state. There must have been some sort of nest, or hive like thing, that had taken up residence within the tunnel in all the years since its last use. He may have already passed the opening where those creatures came from in running forward so fast. He could occasionally hear something akin to a rush of wind coming from above, but concluded that it was the currents of the ocean above.
He eventually saw a light at the end of the tunnel, and hastened to it. There was a single shaft of light that beamed down. It was sunlight. He had reached the end of the tunnel.
There was another vertical hole that stretched up into the sky, much like the one that the 56th had used to descend into the tunnel. In the very center of the shaft of sunlight, stuck into the floor of the tunnel, was a long sword. It was old, and rusted.
Alisson stepped toward it, and then looked back down the tunnel.
He was probably the last living member of the 56th. They had most likely all perished. Such was their atonement in the penal battalion. He reached into his clothes, and withdrew the pendant that was wrapped around his neck, the cross he had received from Michaela. He took it off his neck, and draped it on the sword, before sitting before it.
He realized that here in the light, his cloak and armor had been splattered with blood. He wiped some off his face, but figured it was all dry now and that there wasn’t any point.
He closed his eyes and silently meditated.
A short vigil was all he could offer to the 56th. He may have not known them, but they had still been his temporary comrades.
After a long while, he stood, and grabbed the cross from the sword, and looked to the sky above. He slung the pendant back round his neck, tucking it into his clothes.
The tunnel was climbable, thankfully. With his Opensen activated, he got a head start and jumped up onto the walls, climbing up them, his tails swaying to help his balance.
The climb took almost an hour, revealing just how deep he had been. At several points he had to stop and take a rest whilst hanging.
Alisson finally grasped the lip of the hole, and pulled himself into the light of the sun, shielding his eyes. It was early in the morning, and thick clouds covered the sky above in a gray and overcast day. Behind him he heard crashing waves, and sure enough, he was by the coast.
Alisson looked out across the endless sea for a moment before withdrawing his compass. He’d have to head inland, and find some sort of settlement. He had eaten all his rations, and would need a source of food. The surroundings here were nothing he hadn’t seen before. Just rolling forests and grasslands that were pushed by the increasingly heavy winds.
He quickly spotted a rising smoke stack on the horizon, and his eyes sharpened.
He deftly moved through the forests and the land, his ears fluttering atop his head. There didn’t seem to be any beasts here, or any animals at all for that matter. He reached a hill that overlooked the source of the smoke, and sighed. The smoke rose from charred buildings. A small village had been burnt and razed. Alisson made his way closer, and still didn’t see any signs of people or any clues as to what could have happened.
He neared and crept through the barren streets of the village. Debris was scattered everywhere, and the mud was thick here. He saw many footprints in the mud of both humans and horses. He entered the buildings with his sword at the ready, scanning the insides for anything edible. He found some grain some cellars, and some smoked meat elsewhere. Clearly, this village hadn’t been hurting for food. Alisson ate what he could and stuffed the rest into his pouches. He found a backpack among the remains of the village, and figured if he was going to need to travel, more food would be the safe option.
It wasn’t long until he found the bodies. On the outskirts of the village, were the corpses of what Alisson presumed to be its inhabitants. They were muddy, and their blood was dried, but they hadn’t died too long ago. Some had been impaled on skewers and burned, and others had been hanged from trees, many others lay dismembered. Women, children, and the elderly mostly. Not many fighting age men.
He knelt nearer to a small child’s corpse. Atop their head were a pair of floppy dog ears. Alisson sighed, and ran a hand over the child’s face to close the eyes that had been wide in fear. Each and every one them were ethically Sabasa, with dog ears and tails.
This kind of brutality, Alisson was familiar with it. Given the circumstances of the situation here, there was only one culprit. Andestine. They must’ve landed on the island, and the Sabasa rallied their armies, hence the lack of fighting men here at the village. They must have lost. And now, the whole island of Sabasa was probably being razed by Andestine.
Razed was the wrong word. It was genocide, cleansing the world from the subhumans, as Andestine would put it. They would do the same to Sidonia if they could.
For the moment, it seemed that the only purpose Andestine was here, was not to secure resources, or an advantage position, or even to deprive Sidonia of allies, but to simply kill.
Alisson once more withdrew the pendant and offered the townspeople a short vigil.
He reluctantly left the scene. Within the village outskirts was a single hut, plastered over with animal hides. Within, was a horse. Alisson had heard it neighing. It may have been the only survivor of the entire village. He led it out, and gathering the food that he could into the backpack, mounted the horse, and set off.
There was a dirt road that trailed out of the village, from which Alisson could only assume led to a larger settlement. He would follow the road, see if he could find any living Sabasa. He looked to the gray sky and pulled the hood over his head as it started to rain.
The day went on. The sun rose but it didn’t change the gray sky much. The sun started to fall as Alisson spotted more smokestacks on the road ahead. He broke away from the trail and entered the forest as he approached. There were a great deal many more smoke stacks than there had been at the village.
He crested a hill and looked out. There was a peninsular city in the distance, much like the capital of Sidonia. Its walls were destroyed, and several buildings burned. Alisson saw no figures moving or any fighting, and concluded that any battle for the town was already over as well. The city was large, if Alisson had to wager, it may have been the capital of the Sabasa. The rain had let up to a slow trickle, but the ground had still turned to mud. Alisson figured he’d find a horse in the city, and that it would be safer to move on foot, so he dismounted, cut the horse loose, and approached on foot quietly. As he reached the outskirts, the buildings outside the city walls were in similar states as the previous village.
The only difference was the sheer amount of corpses. More dead Sabasa, and again, no sign of any soldiers. Alisson tucked his backpack of food away, wagering that if he needed it, he could come back for it later. He made his way into the city proper, and finally found stone roads. He crept through alleyways and in the shadow of buildings, finding most to have been burned or destroyed.
Bodies littered the streets. The brutality on display was a step above the village. People hung with entrails falling from their stomachs; unborn babies had been cut from wombs and had been impaled on spikes before their mothers’ corpses; men had their genitals cut and stuffed into their mouths; among other sights.
The people who committed this were either extremely angry after a long siege, or were exceptionally brutal. Andestine typically didn’t display this level of prejudice, not that Alisson had seen before.
Stolen novel; please report.
He began to doubt if Andestine was even involved when he finally spotted them. A group of men walked through the streets. Alisson peered at them from out of the shadow of a window. They had long cloaks, but Alisson heard clearly the rustle of heavy armor. It had to be Andestine. On their cloaks, Alisson spotted an insignia he had never seen before. It depicted an eye on top of a tall structure, like an obelisk or monolith, with lines radiating from it.
So, it was some sort of intelligence detachment? Typically that’s what eyes meant, but Alisson didn’t think this was the work of Andestine intelligence officers.
He didn’t stalk them further. They were clearly looking for survivors. They must’ve breached the city not too long ago.
Alisson continued on. There was a large keep in the deepest part of the city, against the coast, where the most smoke rose from. As Alisson neared, he spotted more and more soldiers marked with that insignia from before. Alisson had done well to memorize and research all insignias he’d seen before, but nothing came to mind with these.
He reached the citadel of the city, where siege lines had been recently set up and abandoned around the walls and the doors. It looks like the Andestinians had very recently gained entry and had rushed inside. Alisson crept quickly into the citadel. He heard distant fighting, and hastened to run as quickly as he could without making a noise.
He came upon a group of Andestinians who had just killed an armored figure. In their hands gripped a longsword, and at their feet were a pile of dead Andestinians. Alisson realized then that the Sabasa were at their last stand. He blitzed forward and attacked the Andestinians from behind, quickly impaling one. Before they could even turn to him, he had dealt with them all. He gave a brief glance down at the Sabasa knight, before he continued on through the door he'd been protecting. The door had already been breached, and that was where Alisson saw a large struggle. Two Sabasa fought against a dozen Andestinians. One was another knight, and the other wore a regal furred cape. When Alisson looked, he saw that the man had a crown atop his head, alongside his graying dog ears. It was the king. He was covered in blood and wounds.
This was evidently a throne room; and within, there must’ve been hundreds of dead Andestinians and Sabasa alike.
Alisson rushed forward to aid the Sabasa, and with his help, the Andestinians were quickly dealt with. He shoved the body of an Andestinian off his sword, and stepped back as the Sabasa pointed their longswords at him.
He pulled his hood back, revealing the feline ears atop his head.
“Nekomata…” The king muttered.
Alisson bobbed his head.
“Are there any more of you?” He asked in Sidonian, which Alisson wasn’t expecting, but spoke back regardless,
“No, my detachment was wiped out in the tunnels on the way here, and further reinforcements either won’t come or would probably take too long. What happened here?”
The king sighed. “More will come. Let’s make this quick.”
He stepped closer and put a hand on Alisson’s shoulder. “The men of the sea invaded with their large boats to our northern coasts; They brought with them an army, and they beat our combined armies in one great battle. That was about a week ago. The men of the sea have since left, and these, Monolithians, have been tasked with killing every last one of us.”
Alisson nodded. Andestine was in the ‘cleanup’ operations phase. The bulk of their manpower had already departed. They came to destroy Sabasa’s ability to defend itself, and then left. How Andestinian of them.
The king looked gravely into Alisson’s eyes.
“This was our last stronghold. And We three may the last Sabasa left.”
“Three?” Alisson tilted his head. There was only the king and a single knight.
The king nodded. “My daughter…I told her to go clear our escape route. Theres a hidden path behind the throne. She wouldn’t leave me to my fate otherwise, and I would rather she not share in it. Please,” He tightened his grip on Alisson’s shoulder. “Go find her. Keep her safe. I intend to die with honor here, with my knights.”
He let go of Alisson and hefted his sword up.
“The princess, alone?”
The king shook his head. “She’s not the princess. And she can handle herself. There’s no time to explain. Just go. Farewell, fellow warrior.”
Alisson nodded. He heard more ‘Monolithians’ approaching, and slipped behind the throne to find a hatch that led downward. Alisson quickly slid down a ladder and reached the bottom, to find a cave. He looked up to see the entrance had been blocked.
Alisson readied his sword and looked around. There were a couple of dead Monolithians here, but nothing out of the ordinary. Alisson continued down the cave.
He turned a corner and heard a yelp, or perhaps a bark of surprise. He had come face to face with an armored girl. The two of them looked at one another for a long moment. Behind her were the bodies of dead Monolithians, and in her hand she held a longsword. She was half Alisson’s height, but was fully clad in steel armor that was splattered with blood.
She stepped back, looking Alisson up and down with her dull blue eyes. She didn’t look to be related to king by blood; her hair was a dirty blonde, unlike the king’s.
“You are…The daughter of the king?”
She looked at him and slowly nodded. She didn’t seem very talkative. Alisson opened his mouth to ask more questions when she started to step toward him. He backpedaled slightly, wary, but didn’t go far. He didn’t realize what she was doing until she embraced him in a hug, and looked up at him from below, placing her chin on his chest. Her floppy ears raised a little, and her tail began to sway behind her.
Her grip was strong on him, it stunned Alisson for a moment before he averted his eyes.
“…We should get going and get as far away from your attackers as we can. Please, unhand me.”
She didn’t respond and raised her head into his neck, sniffing him. Her tail began to sway faster.
“H-hey…”
Alisson objected, momentarily, before the girl opened her mouth and licked Alisson’s neck.
“W-what are you doing?”
He quickly became flustered and unbalanced by her actions, which is why when she threw her weight into him, he fell onto his back. The dog did nothing more than lick at his neck and face obsessively, her tail wagging quickly behind her.
Is this how the Sabasa greeted new faces…? The king seemed normal, so then why was his daughter not saying a word and slobbering over him as if she were a…dog? Alisson looked to the ears atop her head.
“C-cut it out!”
He utilized his strength fully to rise and grab her by the scruff of the neck to attempt to wrench her free. The dog was strong, but not stronger than Alisson, thankfully.
“Let’s go.”
He ordered in as commanding and deep a tone as he could, pointing down the cave. She slowly shook her head.
“…You want to wait for your father?” Alisson tepidly asked, and the girl nodded. He closed his eyes solemnly. “He wished to die with his knights, and he beseeched me to make sure you didn’t share in his fate.”
The armored dog took a step past Alisson. He could see the wheels turning in her head; thinking about whether or not to make a break back toward her father. Evidently, this girl was either extremely tight-lipped, or did not possess the ability to speak.
“Come on.” Alisson said after a period of silence, grabbing her hand. “He wanted to you to live.”
He pulled on her and after a moment she followed him. She held a somber expression, but was mostly stoic, despite the circumstance. Alisson decided not to think too hard about the peculiarities until after they were safe.
He figured he had the time to search the bodies of the Monolithians that the girl had evidently slain. He quickly tore one’s patch from its seams and stuffed it into his pouches for safekeeping. He didn’t find anything resembling orders on them, but he did find something perhaps more useful – A map. It appeared to represent the island of Sabasa, and had some notes made in Andestinian.
To the north there was a circle that denounced the position of the Andestinian landings, a base of operations had been set up there. To the west, there was a large cross that was noted to be tunnel entrance that led to Andestine. Other circles were sporadically made around the east and the south, saying that they might have been potential positions for tunnels connecting to Sidonia and that more searching was required. Alisson stuffed the map into his pockets and rose.
It looks like he had his reason why Sidonia considered this place important. It was functionally a land bridge between Andestine and Sidonia. To think such a thing had existed all this time. It was clear what Alisson needed to do. He needed to move west to the tunnel that connected Sabasa to Andestine, and collapse it. It seems that only recently Andestine had discovered this place and the tunnels – If Alisson was quick, he could sever the connection before Andestine massed their whole damn army on Sabasa, and rammed it into Sidonia from within.
Certainly, a cataclysmic scenario that probably wouldn’t take place, but prudence was a core Sidonian tenant.
He flicked his head to the king’s daughter, and they moved deeper into the cave.
“Do you have a name?” Alisson asked as they walked. She didn’t respond, and only pointed to her backpack, which Alisson only now realized she wore.
That didn’t answer Alisson’s question, but he supposed it was a matter for later. The cave exited onto a beach beneath the city. Alisson looked up at the high cliff face, and spotted the rising towers of the citadel above. They continued moving along the beach, staying in the shadow of the cliff when they could.
“You’re quite impassive, given the circumstances of your country and your people…”
Alisson tried to make small talk, but she only ever gave him nods or shook her head, sometimes only staring on at him with those large, blue eyes of hers. Maybe she was in a state of shock, from everything that’s happened.
They made their way back further into the mainland, and Alisson took the time to find the backpack of food he’d left behind. They found some horses that belonged to the Monolithians tethered near the city, and Alisson commandeered one of them. The dog was small enough to ride with him on one horse. That, and Alisson would rather keep her close.
He mounted up, and extended a hand to her. She looked to him again with her large, empty eyes, before reaching out, and firmly grabbing his gauntleted hand with her own. He pulled her up to sit in front of him, and then spurred the horse forward. For the meantime, they would head west, across the island. He took one last glance at the razed city behind them, and he caught a glimpse of her doing the same.
***
Woof.
image [https://i.imgur.com/NEqOFcR.png]