Welp... Here we are again. I had a very happy realization. My little fiction, that I just wrote for fun, is ranked 122nd. It makes me so happy I can't even describe it. I wouldn't be here if not for the support of all you beautiful and encouraging readers (along with the not so encouraging, heckling crowd.). Hope you all enjoy it. I would implore you to leave behind a review if you really liked this chapter. Thank you all again for all the support. Rate, Comment, and RATE YOU PEOPLE!
{2 weeks later}
Day and Night began their bi-daily exchange of the skies. The sun set as it had ever day since the beginning of time. It cast a mixture of orange and red across the sky as it slowly disappeared under the horizon, the death of the day if you will. In last hour of its descent, as if defiantly announcing its imminent “death” and disappearance, the color it cast turned drastically darker, painting the sky with a hue of red akin to that of freshly spilt blood.
Its last bit of energy spent, the sun disappeared below the horizon, allowing the night to take the skies.
While Night clad the sky in its dark raiment, it could not darken the area around Sefica.
Usually, the plains that entirely surrounded Sefica were completely dark. However, upon this night, an innumerable amount of lights dotted the plains outside the walls, vastly dwarfing the amount of light that was exuded by Sefica. At a glance, it would seem a huge army had encamped a mile outside of Sefica.
The identity of these people was actually much different. These numerous people outside Sefica were not driven by war lust or greed of land to encamp outside of the capital. They were not even citizens of a different nation. Every single person was, in fact, a citizen of the Queendom. A majority of these people were actually residents of the capital. The rest had come from Hillshire and the other towns to the North, East, and West.
One might ask, what in the world had caused such a large gathering of people, and in the peculiar location of outside the capital and not inside of it.
To explain this, we must return to the day 12 days ago.
This was the day of the monthly mass of the Pantheon, the major religion in the Queendom. It honored all the gods equally, with the exception of the Overgods. This event was not only a religious one, but also one of social import. Many people from the different towns would make their journey to the capital on a monthly basis to attend the sermon given by a member of the Pantheon church. This was a huge event, and the nobles, and even the Queen herself would regularly attend these services. Usually, it was given by the gifted orator, Cumilus Varen, and lasted for about 3 hours. Very few of the players attended, except for those that chose a Faith based profession.
This sermon started off as any other would usually. Minister Varen ascended the podium in the plaza and began his preaching. Due to the nature of the Pantheon, innumerable amounts of gods for the stupidest things without any sort of hierarchy, their theology was twisted, contradictory, and full of holes.
However, due to the vast ignorance of the uneducated masses, the emotion and demagogic speech that Cumilus Varen used was able to sway them.
It began to derail about half way through. Cumilus Varen was riling the crowd into a religious fervor, denouncing the anarchic and inferior demi-beasts and elves. He was promoting the authority of the Queen.
His speech was interrupted when a man clad in the robe of a priest accompanied by two men with white and gold armor ascended the podium.
“You DOG! You betray your holy duty by not warning the people here about the coming judgment!”
Now, this shout would have been ordinarily have been ignored as heckling, however, the person who had yelled this was none other than Priest Koleb. He was the head priest of the Queendom’s Pantheon church branch. He was known for being calm and kind, always ready to help the needy and the sick. He seemed to always have a gentle smile, thus, his current expression shocked the audience. His face was twisted into the epitome of wrath.
“You dare preach about the supremacy of the Queen?! We have known about the sick perversion of the Queendom’s since long ago! We have kept silent in fear of our church being evicted from the Queendom!” His voice was filled with self-contempt and utter hatred. Then his face changed to one of joy.
“But no longer must we remain silent! I have no more fear! 2 days ago, we were visited by a divine messenger!”
A look of shock became universal in the faces of the audience. Varen, the skilled manipulator with a silver tongue, was at a loss for words. The voice of Koleb continued to ring through the plaza.
“The Angaellis, in her divine mercy, brought us a warning! Judgment is coming upon the capital!” He suddenly whipped his head to the right and pointed directly at the nobles and royals. His rigidly straight finger seemingly a sign of condemnation.
“Her lord is coming! To completely eradicate the sick perversion and sins of slavery!”
He stared straight into Queen Bose’s green eyes, defiant and triumphant!
“However!”
He suddenly turned, almost spasmodically, towards the masses.
“She informed me, that those that released their slaves and fled from the capital would be spared! For those that didn’t take this chance to repent and change their ways… There would be absolutely no escape, or mercy given.”
This message, though given by only one man, caused a huge exodus from the city. Among those departing were day laborers, a cube smith, seamstresses, a blind training hall owner along with his students (One of which had an elf clinging to his leg and refused to let go), brothel keepers, a woman that looked remarkably similar to the “divine messenger”, blacksmiths, 2 wolf guardians, and a huge amount of freed slaves. These were the people that were repentant in the face of judgment.
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However, the northern district remained habituated. In the face of divine judgment, Queen Bose, far from repentant, pursued her own hedonism in an even greater scale.
Immediately after the sermon, her herald announced that she would be hosting a huge ball, as well as a slave trade among the nobles.
It could be said that some people just cannot be saved.
Anyway.
The message from Priest Koleb was disseminated quickly. Those that were at the monthly sermon quickly returned to their families. While those in the capital fled to the outside, those in the towns on the outskirts of the Queendom actually came towards the capital.
Thus, it arrived at the current situation.
A ring of sparkling torches surrounded the city, all the people sat in an atmosphere filled with expectation and anxiety. An unnatural stillness was in the air on this night. All these people were from different walks of life.
One light departed from the circle, followed by two others. Rumbling down the path to the capital was an ornate carriage followed by two covered wagons.
Drawn by two horses, the carriage with its darkened windows, along with its entourage approached the west gate. The guards atop the west gate spotted the incoming carriage and immediately recognized it.
“Open the gates! Duke Wellsing is back with his shipment of slaves!”
The portcullis was drawn open and the carriage, along with its wagons were allowed to pass through the gate. No one would dare to stop the Duke’s carriage. As the main slave provider for the kingdom, he had a particularly fearsome reputation.
The people that caused him trouble just had a tendency to disappear.
The Duke’s entourage made its way down the lonely and quiet streets. Taking the path to the plaza, not a soul was seen. The only light in the lonely streets came from the torches held by the coach and wagon drivers, who wore floppy hats that covered their ears. Behind the wagon driver’s bottoms peeked a white tails.
The light from the torches created shadows that seemed to dance in ways that they should not have. The clattering of the wheels upon the cobble stones echoed throughout the streets, the sound waves kept bouncing off the walls of the narrow streets, creating an unholy cacophony.
The carriages arrived at the luxurious Wellsing estate. The gates were immediately opened for them and they were allowed in. The guards of the Wellsing estate knew the carriage well, and it was customary for the gates to be opened on the sight of the carriage.
The carriage drew into the large circular courtyard to the front of the manor accompanied by the two wagons, filled with male and female elves. The wagon drivers dismounted from their position and began to unload the elves from the wagons. The carriage door still remained unopened when the manor doors burst open.
A man in full, grey, armor came out flanked by 4 other guards carrying halberds and swords at their waists.
The man in the front was actually a warrior of significant repute. Known as the Slate Rook, Gregory Vorn was a knight that sported the highest defense in the Queendom. Loyal to the House of Wellsing, he was a virtuous person, just loyal to the wrong people.
After descending the steps, he stopped suddenly, turned around and raised his gauntlets to cover his face, just in time to block the two throwing knives that would have embedded themselves in the back of his neck. The other four that were following him fell to the ground, a knife embedded in the back of their neck, cutting off the brain from the rest of the body and effectively killing them.
“Huhuhuhuuuu… Impressiiiive… You could block that huh?” said a figure dressed in shinobi robes. Her beautiful face smiling, her long elven ears protruding outwards, and her hair ponytail hanging downwards as she hung by her toes from the edge of the overhang reached over the from doors.
“Veila Moon. What business do you have here? I believe Sefica has a non-aggression pact with Trelay Moon, or should I say, the Moon Assassins? If you leave now, I believe Duke Wellsing would be magnanimous enough to ignore the slight transgression.” Gregory Vorn said.
Veila smirked and then held up three fingers.
“There are three reasons why I won’t do that. 1: If I do, Abrum will not give me my reward.”
Her body shivered slightly after saying this, as if thinking of something overwhelmingly pleasant.
“2: Duke Wellsing is not in that carriage. His body was thrown in some ditch for the Gorils to devour, just like he deserved, but we brought you his head.”
Gregory’s face turned ashen at this and he turned to look at the carriage. The door opened slowly, and his face blanched even further. Out from the carriage came a man with longish white hair, ice blue eyes, wearing commoners clothing. In his right hand, he held a katana sheathed inside of a gorgeous pure black sheathe. In the other hand, he held a severed head that was severely decomposed. Abrum tossed the head to the ground with a grave expression upon his face.
“And 3: this isn’t just a slight transgression upon my part.” Veila said while smiling. She snapped her fingers, and something very surreal happened.
All the elven “slaves” that had been unloaded from the wagon’s tossed off the rough, oversized garments that covered them. Underneath, they wore a silvery tight fitting garb, the custom uniform among the Trelay Moon. Each had a bandolier full of assorted throwing weapons. At the hip of each were two daggers.
The wagon drivers took off their hats to reveal the fox ears that sat atop their heads and to allow their gorgeous white hair to unfurl. The carriage driver simply grabbed something from around her neck and in the next instance, a large white scythe was in her hand.
Gregory Vorn couldn’t find the words. Veila simply smiled and said
“This is your queendom’s extermination.”