Gallus, general of the Sapphire Empire, had his war council rudely interrupted by a massive flash of blue light, followed swiftly by a roar of sound and a shockwave that sent the written reports they had been reviewing flying. Ignoring the papers, he and his staff rushed out of the tent to see a beam of light descending from the heavens, impacting what appeared to be the outer edge of their camp and sweeping across it, dying the world a shade of icy blue as its light lit up the sky.
Quickly, he turned to his chief mage, a man pushing level two hundred and eighty. “Can you stop it?” He shouted, trying to be heard over the roar of the laser.
The mage, beads of sweat running down his face, put on a brave face. “I-I’ll try.” He began to chant a spell, his face screwing up in concentration as the beam vanished. As the sound died, Gallus was able to make out the sound of screaming, but it didn’t last long, as the beam flared back to life and sent another shockwave rippling through the camp.
“I-it’s not a traditional spell, s-sir.” The mage stammered loudly, grimacing. “I-it’s more akin to a m-monster’s innate magic, it’ll just keep going so long as M-Mana fuels it. T-the only way to s-stop it is to o-outlast whatever is m-making it.”
“Do you think you can if you grab all of the mages we have available?”
“M-maybe. This m-must be using a l-lot of Mana, b-but t-there’s no t-telling how much it h-has. W-without h-high level w-wards, w-we might lose more Mana than it s-spends trying to stop it. Most of our m-mages aren’t skilled e-enough in this sort of thing.”
Gallus groaned inwardly, but didn’t let his frustration show. “Then what do we do?” He yelled frustratedly. “We can’t just let it destroy our camp.”
“It’s not.” One of his other aides, their scoutmistress, Septima, shouted. “My distance-analyzing Skills are telling me it’s making contact just outside of our camp.”
By this point, the beam had begun curving, skirting around what must have been the edges of the camp. Mind racing, Gallus began giving orders. “Tell the mages to form up, but only have them begin attempting to stop the beam if it actually enters the camp. We can’t afford to run out of Mana stopping something that isn’t hurting our soldiers. If we do, we’re just leaving ourselves at the Hero’s mercy.”
The head mage nodded vigorously and chanted another spell, only to cry out in pain and fall to one knee. A moment later, a razor-thin beam of blueish light impacted the ground in front of the group, an icy chill emanating from the hole it drilled into the earth. A rapid burst of lasers followed, hitting the ground and drawing a smiley face into the dirt.
A shiver ran down Gallus’s spine. The message was clear; the enemy knew where they were, and with that sort of accuracy, the targets of those attacks could have just as easily been their heads. Gallus didn’t know how strong those lasers were, but his gut was telling him that he wouldn’t have emerged unscathed from the ordeal.
“Can you sense any invaders?!” Gallus shouted. “We need to deal with this now!”
“No, sir!” Septima shouted back, then pointed in the rough direction the laser seemed to be coming from. “But there’s something big in the sky over there!”
“All of you who are under level two hundred, go have everyone form up, and instruct the strongest to meet me near the source! The rest of you, with me!” Gallus ordered, then ran off towards the source of the beam. He may not have been max level, but he was still level two hundred and seventy-three, and all hands were needed to deal with this threat.
By the time he and the rest of his strong aides had reached the edge of camp closest to the beam of light’s origin, it had made a full circuit around the camp and had stopped firing. Gallus was about to ask Septima if she could still sense whatever was in the sky when his question was answered for him as the sound of panic from the camp was overshadowed by a horrific screech. It was half monstrous roar and half metal scraping against metal, an unnatural sound unlike anything Gallus had ever heard before.
“I-it’s coming down.” Septima said, tightening her grip on her spear. “Get ready.”
Gallus clutched his bow tighter, looking up towards the cloudy sky in nervous anticipation, not sure what exactly he’d be facing. He didn’t have to wonder for long, though; there was a loud boom, then something descended through the hole in the cloud cover made by the laser, something that could only have come from a nightmare.
It was as if some sick person had combined a dragon and a centipede, hundreds of powerful legs and wings stuck onto a long, segmented body with a dragon’s face. It flew downward at an astonishing speed, its segments twisting and undulating much like a snake as it closed in on the camp.
“Septima, what is that?!” Gallus asked.
“It…it’s a ship.” Septima said hoarsely, staring straight ahead at whatever the results of her identification Skill was telling her. “A living ship, somehow made from a dragon and two flagships, presumably from Aura and the Glens, and it’s a Calamity-rank monster called the ‘Scourge of the Skies’ to boot. I…I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
Some brave souls from the camp began to shoot arrows and magic at it as it drew near, but they all harmlessly bounced off of the beast’s tough hide, and it was able to make its way to just above the wide, icy, ditch in the ground it had carved into the edge of camp without any sort of injury.
To Gallus’s shock, part of the closest segment detached itself, a small stairway unfolding, though it didn’t even come close to reaching the ground. And, from that stairway, Lia, Queen of the Swarm, stepped down, the unmistakable steps of the Stairway to Heaven appearing below her feet as she left the stairway the Scourge had made. She was followed closely by Rose, likewise descending with the Stairway to Heaven, and Amelia, who simply levitated downwards.
“Is that the real thing?” Gallus asked Septima. “Or is it some trick?”
“The Stairway, or the people? Either way, both are legit, as far as I can tell.” Septima replied. “As little as that means when Amelia is right there.”
Gallus nodded, nocked an arrow, then shot straight at Lia. She didn’t falter in her steps, and the arrow was stopped in its tracks by some outside force before being shot back at Gallus, landing in the dirt in front of his feet. He wasn’t the only one to try, but all those attempts were likewise thoroughly crushed by Amelia or Rose.
When Lia touched down on the ground, she turned, looking directly at Gallus, then cleared her throat theatrically, the sound magically amplified, likely able to be heard across the entire camp. “Consider this our warning.” She said. “The only reason many of you still live is that we do not wish to kill you, and are doing our best to avoid it. However, please be aware that, should we find that we are not as successful as we anticipate being, we will have no choice but to turn these weapons on you. With two Heroes and the ability to create creatures such as this, understand that the only thing you can hope to achieve is to prolong the inevitable and cause more death.
“We would once again remind you that we will accept any and all of you with open arms. We will not force you to fight, nor will you be treated as second-class citizens. You will be treated with the respect and dignity that every sapient being deserves, regardless of who you are or what station in life you were born into.
“I understand that those of you who would normally wish to join us are likely unable to do so at this exact moment for fear of your comrades marking you as a traitor and killing you, but please, rest assured. If you encounter us at any time, all you need to do is not resist. We will not kill you, nor will we injure you.”
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Lia gave a small bow, then stepped up onto thin air, the Stairway to Heaven appearing underneath her. “Think on it, and don’t listen to the lies your superiors feed you. I’ve heard them all, and they’re simply not true. I know you can’t trust me on this matter, but use your own eyes and ears to make a decision; only then can you get an unbiased opinion on the subject. Farewell.”
The entire time she was talking and right up until she disappeared back into the Scourge of the Skies, she was being fired upon by people from the camp, but none ever managed to connect with her. Once she was inside, the Scourge of the Skies let loose that terrible screech again, then accelerated rapidly upwards, another loud boom accompanying its movement.
“Septima, how strong is that thing, really? Could it have done significant damage to the camp?” Gallus asked quietly.
“Yes.” Septima replied immediately. “Anyone under level one hundred and fifty would likely be instantly killed by that beam attack, and it would take until level two hundred or more for them to be able to last more than a second or two of sustained fire. That thing’s stats were only barely below that of the bound stats of Amelia and Rose, it’s not to be trifled with. We’ll need a serious plan if we want to contend with it.”
Gallus sighed. “I suppose it’s time to do damage control, then. The Emperor will severely punish us if we let this impact our results.”
Septima was silent for a moment. “Yes, he would, wouldn’t he? I’ll go reassure our scouts and get a feel for how the average soldier is feeling. I’ll report back to the war tent when I’m finished.”
“Very good. You’re dismissed, Septima.”
“Yes, sir.” Septima said, fading into the background as she ran off into the camp.
“The rest of you are to follow suit.” Gallus instructed. “We need to get this under control as soon as possible. Dismissed.”
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Septima was lost in her own thoughts as she headed towards her section of the camp. Gallus was right; they hadn’t been making as much headway in the war as they had hoped, and the Emperor was not a man who tolerated continual failure. If this incident was to deal a blow to morale so crushing that it would impact their next couple of battles, then her future prospects would be grim at best.
It didn’t matter that the camp had gone through what could only be described as a traumatizing event, they were supposed to be fearless, strong, the world’s finest. If the leaders let the camp get afraid, then that was entirely their fault, regardless of the circumstances. And, as someone in a position of importance, Septima knew more than most about the army’s operations and the moves the other countries were making behind the scenes.
And…if she was being honest with herself, she had been wavering for a while. She was fighting against the Ruby Emperor, no ifs ands or buts about it. The Sapphire Empire had been built upon his legacy and had elevated him to a mythical status, extolling his virtues and praising him as the “rightful conqueror of the world”. They had built the image of their kingdom around him, and…she was fighting against that.
The rank and file didn’t know this, they had been told it was all lies and propaganda, and even most of the higher-ups were in the dark. After all, just like Septima, if they knew, they would be filled with doubts about the situation. And Septima had believed them…right until she viewed Rose’s status for herself. Even if that, somehow, wasn’t the actual Rose and her status had just been spoofed, you couldn’t fake a Blessing from the gods, and you certainly couldn’t use the fact that you had one to legitimize faking other important parts of your status, like the Rose Empress Title.
That made her question everything else even more than she already had been. Unlike most citizens of the Sapphire Empire, Septima had been outside the borders, had read books that the state hadn’t touched. The Sapphire Empire claimed that they followed the Ruby Emperor’s teachings to the letter, but the truth was that they had manipulated the past, retroactively changed those teachings to align with how they governed.
That hadn’t bothered Septima before. All countries used propaganda, and at the end of the day the Sapphire Empire was better than places like Aura. It had, however, taught her to be careful about fully buying into anything they said, a lesson she had shamefully ignored in this instance. After all, it seemed so open and shut; the swarm was clearly seeking to conquer the world, and you couldn’t actually bring someone back from the dead, that was impossible.
But…all the little things were beginning to come together, and, as much as she hated to say it, Septima was starting to think that the swarm might actually have at least some moral high ground, at least in terms of how they operated. As those skilled in stealth, she and her direct unit had been ordered to capture members of the swarm, and had had the chance to actually speak with them in the process.
It was clear that, though their minds had been altered, they weren’t mindless drones. Or, if they were, they were an order of magnitude more sophisticated than anything Septima had ever seen before, and she had seen more than her fair share of brainwashed people and monsters attempting to mimic people. Applying such precise magic on such a large scale was infinitely harder than simply shifting a person’s loyalties, it just didn’t make sense for them to be mindless drones.
And, unanimously, they had described better conditions than Septima’s own army gave. That…couldn’t all be lies, Lia had the Title “Favored of the Gods”, and that wasn’t something that was given lightly. The gods had taken a clear stance on equality and treating others well, and to make such public claims and lie about them would instantly get that Title revoked.
Septima sighed inwardly. If it had been even a day earlier, she might have been able to ignore all of this. But, unfortunately, it wasn’t, and now she had a decision to make. Just hours ago, she had been given two devices that would teleport whoever they were used on to some secret location, and she had been told to use one on a weaker sapient member of the swarm, and the other on one of the least-useful soldiers in her own army.
She hadn’t been told why, but she wasn’t a fool. It was clear that the Sapphire Empire intended to experiment on its own troops in order to learn more about the swarm and how it “converted” people, and that left Septima with an incredibly bad taste in her mouth. It was an awful thing they were doing, and…in the end, it was likely useless.
The others hadn’t seen the status of that monster, and they hadn’t seen the implications its race description gave. As long as the swarm could capture powerful-enough monsters, they could make more of those. They’d just have to build ships equal to those flagships to do it, and that was a worryingly achievable task.
The swarm would, eventually, win the war, of that Septima had been convinced. Right now, they were being relatively gentle, almost always aiming to capture rather than kill, but if they were pushed to the edge, they would be able to rain destruction on their opponents from above. In a way…in a way, the best thing Septima could do to serve her countrymen was to ensure that it didn’t get to that point.
She reached the gathering point for her subordinates, hesitating briefly as they turned to look at her. This was, potentially, the point of no return; if she acted upon her feelings, she would be betraying her superiors, and locking herself into siding with the swarm. If she didn’t, she could still go about things as normal, but…could she really do that?
With a start, she realized that she could. If she stayed, she’d be forced into doing more and more distasteful things like what she had just been assigned as people got more desperate to stop the swarm, and she couldn’t stomach that. She wouldn’t subject her comrades to experimentation that may or may not even yield results.
“How many of you are here?” She asked hesitantly.
“It’s just us, as always.” Flavius, her second in command said. “You know only we’d come here in a time like this.”
He was right. It was only him and three others, Septima’s personal squad and her most loyal subordinates. Septima hesitated a moment more, then locked eyes with Flavius. “Did you all see Rose’s status?” She asked.
“Yes. She’s the real deal, isn’t she?” Flavius replied.
“I think so.” Septima said, nodding. “I…haven’t told you this, but we were assigned another mission today. We’re supposed to use these two devices to teleport a weak member of the swarm and one of our own soldiers to some undisclosed location.”
The eyes of the people around her hardened. “I see.” Lucilia, their best assassin, said. “You’re thinking of defecting, aren’t you.”
Septima froze for a few moments, then nodded solemnly. “We’re not winning.” She said bluntly. “And…I think we’re going to have to do some heinous things if we stay here. If it prevents our army from getting demolished by those types of weapons…I genuinely think we might be doing our army a service by defecting. If, in the end, we’re all going to be swallowed up anyway…we might as well go the route that gets the least people killed, and that means joining the swarm.”
“I was thinking much the same.” Agrippa, her foremost analyst, said. “I’ve been listening in on the chatter in camp, and lots of us have lost hope, the four of us included.”
“You know we’d follow you anywhere, Captain.” Marcia, the team’s dedicated lookout, added. “To tell you the truth, I’m sort of relieved you feel this way too.”
Septima sighed. “We’re doing this, then. Everyone scatter, find as many people who want to surrender as possible. I’m going to go report to Gallus and probe out the feelings of the other leaders. At midnight, we’re taking everyone who wants to surrender and leaving.”
Grim looks on their faces, the team split up, and Septima turned towards the location of Gallus’s war tent, her heart thumping rapidly in her chest. She was about to betray her superiors, but if it meant potentially saving the lives of her subordinates and the innocent people who had been conscripted into the Sapphire Empire’s army…she’d do whatever it took.