Fan Fiction ❯ Kingdom Come ❯ The Six Firsts ( Chapter 7 )

"Well look at that." one of the Engineers said, pointing out a large charred building. "That looks like the town hall in New Silversea, but apparently the raiders didn't torch this one properly."

 

"Not all the other buildings were as lucky. A few of the houses are unsafe and have to be taken down, and the barracks and guardhouses will need quite a bit of attention. They took down a good section of the wall down in the middle as well."

 

"Not too hard a job I'd say, compared with some of the others we've gotten. For one, we don't need to worry about people needing homes or anything, so we don't have to set up temporary homes or anything. Lets take a look at the nearby rock formations. There was something about a possible quarry, wasn't there?"

 

"Yes," muttered the second Engineer, peering at the map. "That rock formation is right over where the quarry would go?"

 

"Eh? Hmm." The first one rotated the map. "It's not wrong though, the sea and New Silversea are correctly aligned. Oh!"

 

"Figured it out?"

 

"Yeah, that rock formation IS the quarry. Silly me, I was thinking of a quarry in the ground."

 

"Well, I'll be ..! Couldn't have wished for better. Should be easy to get the stone we need then, with no need to dig a mine either."

 

"So, that's the plan?"

 

"First we get more Engineers here - the two of us can't do this by ourselves. Then we use fine threads of Water to carefully cut out nice neat blocks of stone, cover the ground from here to there with a thin sheet of Air and then push the blocks down the slope. Once we have a nice large pile of stone blocks we'll have to ask the humans to build or it'll take too long. Since the area was abandoned for several months to a year, Eldon can set up a neat town here if he can hire people. Anyway, you go get help; I'll have a look at this stone. It looks good from here but I'll want to inspect its composition."

 

With that they parted, one to the Temple to find or grab several more Engineers, the other to examine the rock. Holding a thread of Water straight, he gently cut open a large stone that was there. It appeared to have several mineral layers, making it strong in one orientation, but weak in another. Noting that down, he drilled slightly into the rock wall in front of him, extracting samples from several feet in. They looked similar to what he observed in the stone - layered mineral deposits, however, he detected fine steaks of what might be precious metals. The presence of metals and crystalline minerals suggested that there might even be gems. Perhaps they could try to keep the humans busy with construction, keeping them out of the quarry. No one need know if there was a good source of income to be had.

 

He quickly spotted a large-sized rock of about the right side. Using the same thread of Water he cut off bits, shaping it into a neat cube, which would be used as a reference by the others who came. For now, he had to quickly go to town and start getting people interested in the construction effort before any decided to have a look at the rock themselves. Whistling to himself, Malafi of the Engineers Corps walked towards the town of New Silversea. Maybe the new town that would be built on the site of the old one would be called Old Silversea. He laughed to himself as he walked down the beaten road. They would need to pave that sometime, since both the new and old town would be separate entities with close trade relations, simply because they were so close if nothing else. Malafi wondered if they could find lower grade stone to use in that. It would be a shame to waste such good stone just to pave roads.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

It was a measure of their strong presence in New Silversea that the entrance of an angel though the town's north gate occasioned little comment. Lucien herself only gave it a glance as it walked past. Something odd had happened to Elias, and she was wondering if they had anything to do with it. Mingling with higher beings was likely to have some negative effects, after all. In any case, he was her good friend, so it was normal to worry. "I should hope so," someone whispered. Turning around, she saw no one, but could still hear the voice. "There's something about him," it continued as she hurried to Elias' house. Luckily whoever it was decided to fall silent, though that seemed mocking. Turning as she reached the side entrance, she still saw no one behind her. Trying to forget, she carefully walked down the corridor. From somewhere to her right there was the sound of talking.

 

"How is he?" she asked Ardana.

 

"He's been talking. A lot." She shook her head. "I don't understand half of what he says. It sounds half true, but still.."

 

"Why hello Lucien," started the mentioned person, staggering out of his room. His sister tried to move him back in, ineffectually.

 

"Signs in the heavenly hosts," he mumbled as she pushed at him. "They're coming."

"What?" she gasped. She handed the package of herbs that she was carrying over to Ardana, whispering a few words. As Ardana left with them, Lucien tried, with more success, to get Elias back into his room. After a while Ardana reappeared with a large cup, which the two of them forced him to drink. Something in the concoction sent him to dreamland rather quickly.

 

"That snuffed him out really fast."

 

"Mm.. yes, not too surprising, since my mother uses that stuff."

 

"So how long will be under?"

 

"I haven't the least idea, likely a few hours. He should be better when he does wake though."

 

"No idea?"

 

"Uh huh - he's never used this before as far as I know."

 

"That's kind of - evil - you know."

 

"Don't I?"

 

"So did you see Keith yesterday? He's, you know, hot."

 

Lucien reddened slightly. "Your brother is right there - you know that right?"

 

"He might as well be a thousand miles away. It's not like he would care anyway."

 

In fact he had been displaced more than a thousand miles away, as well as several centuries back. So the far south there was a large expanse of desert, and in the middle of that desert were many broken ruins. That was all he had been taught, but he now knew more. Those ruins weren't left by an extinct group of desert dwellers, as many people believed. It was in fact the remains of a massive fortress, built over four centuries ago by one known as the Devourer, who had, in the course of assaulting the City on the Mount via portals, realized that there was another reality, another area of space-time governed by different rules.

 

Needless to say, he willingly withdrew all his troops from the attack. Before the angels of the City were aware of his newfound knowledge, he opened many large portals into the new world he had discovered, sensing his many hosts in to conquer this "softer" target, in the hopes of possibly finding new sources of power to supplement his strength, or at least more resources to drive his war engines.

 

The angels, needless to say, found out about the Devourer's detour, and similarly sent through a majority of their forces. It was thus that both Heaven and Hell, while fighting on the very walls of the City, were unable to break one another. The Devourer merely left behind many of his least useful troops, stiffened with a hard core of elite units, to continue pressure on the City, in order to protect his foundation in the Spiritual Realm, while shifting his efforts elsewhere. Determined to take everything for himself, he brutally crushed every human settlement he came across. Worse than that, several of his archmagi devised methods to possess the bodies of mortals, removing the need to sustain their normal forms.

 

Up until then, his forces had "merely" massacred anyone who fought against them, tried to surrender, or attempted a truce. With the news of missing scouts and reports of angelic interventions weighing on his mind, the Devourer sent out orders to capture as many humans alive as possible. While he only took several small towns and a city before being forced into a defensive posture by an angelic-mortal alliance, every prisoner taken was used to further his power. With powerful magic, their souls were ripped free and replaced with the consciousness of a demon.

 

It was the last atrocity that would be committed in that war. Several months later, the Devourer's forces had been forced into his fortress complex by relentless guerrilla tactics. Alliance troops kept a vigilant watch over his forces and bombarded it from afar with powerful spells. Attempts were also made to draw out the enemy into the open plains, where snipers could dispatch them easily. Three months after the Siege of Light started, it became apparent that the Devourer's generals were operating on orders for all-out defense. It was decided to assault the stronghold on all sides. A further two weeks was necessary to bring all the necessary supplies, from the mundane, like ammunition for siege weaponry, to advanced weaponry using a potent mixture of technology and magic. Experimental "runes" made of different metals, crystals or even woods were also brought in, in the hope that magical energies could be constrained within them, effectively making each rune a small deposit of magic that could replenish a mage's strength.

 

Once all the supplies were ready, a serious attempt was made to destroy as much of the fortress as was possible. Troops strained to support the 48 hour long mission, "Clearing Ways" that attempted to disable many of the enemy's exterior defenses, thus forcing combat into the corridors and rooms of the fortress. The mission was declared successful when the given time elapsed, on midnight. Many troops rested for the next six hours, though all the angelic forces continued with lighter bombardment, in order to deny the enemy opportunities to barricade the many breaches made. It was later discovered that there were in fact, no such attempts made.

 

As the sun rose across the horizon, six hours after operation "Clearing Ways" ended, as the sun's earliest rays stretched across the skies, dimly illuminating the base of the fortress, the Alliance launched their assault, which was unnamed then, but would come to be known as the "Day of the Six Firsts." According to records of the Council, if a member dies, all survivors are moved up in rank immediately, so that the highest ranks are always filled. The same records claim that on that day of attack, five of the six members of the then Commanders' Council of Heaven went missing in action during the offensive, one by one.

 

On that day, all six went out to battle. There were five main battle groups, covering the four main compass points, and one from the air. The sixth was a very small reserve force. Each was headed by a member of the Council. Scouts' reports indicated that the First died within two hours of the air attack, which went first. Further reports are not certain as to when the others died, but it was decided by consensus that the records would show that the new First died next, then the First after and so on. In the end, there was only one surviving member of the council, Eferlon. In the space of a day, the Council had a total of six "Firsts."

 

The humans' leader, High Commander Delfer would go down in history for the last words of his attack order - "This is our world. This is our story," as he urged his human comrades to take to the forefront of combat. Even though approximately a fifty died for every demon slain (Half of all kills were credited to angelic forces), it was also true that many kills attributed to humans were of `proper' demons, imps being deemed `lesser' demons.

 

The standard skirmish was as such - a large group of humans, about a hundred or so would follow up to five angels. They would engage small groups of about twenty five imps led by one or two demons. The angels would immediately dispatch the imps, who while inept, were capable of causing large amounts of damage. With each angel against as many as five small opponents, the would be unable to further aid their mortal comrades, who would engage the demons with as many as fifty of their number for each one. Out of these fifty, only about four or five would be proper combat magi. This lack of numbers prevented them from doing more than defending against the demon's magical attacks. In the end, swordsmen would try to keep their opponent on the defensive, while crossbowmen and archers did a majority of the damage.

 

In the end, after several hours of hard fighting, the Alliance forces were unable to push any further. The Devourer's troops had been pushed into the depths of the fortress to such an extent that their force density was too high for successful attacks. Recognizing the fact that the demonic army was more mobile than the human soldiers, who made up much of their strength with sheer numbers, as well as their orders, which were simply to kill as many demons as possible, not specifically to take the fortress, the attackers began to set up defenses right in the rooms and corridors, waiting for their foes to come to them. This continued until about noon.

 

As the sun blazed forth in an otherwise dark sky, its illumination pierced right into the very heart of the Devourer's fortress. In their magical bombardment, the Alliance mages had managed to destroy the top of the stronghold's keep, sending that crashing though the many floors beneath. This was fortunate as it opened a route for air attack. However, the air forces, solely composed of angels, were unable to hold their beachhead, and were now forced upwards in retreat. As the sun shone down on the massive wound, there could be seen a dark cloud arising, growing, as the Devourer himself exited his fortress, accompanied by many of his elite troops. The rest he sacrificed in order to delay the ground troops as well as to inflict as many casualties on them as possible.

 

As this sudden turn of events arose, a messenger arrived, bearing the sword of the First. By custom, it was not carried into battle, but left behind to remind civilians that the war was waged to protect them. Presenting it to the new First was only a symbolic gesture. The earlier four Firsts had likely died without knowing of their new position. Eferlon went into a rage when it was shown to him. There had never been such a tragedy. Grabbing the hilt of the enchanted weapon, Eferlon refused to be relieved of it, saying that if he died, the Council had died. He similarly refused to listen to any suggestions that he stay out of the battle.

 

Ironically, the crucial factor in the Alliance's victory was not due to the angel's reserve forces, or the fact that they were highly motivated. Credit for the success was primarily given to the humans on that day, due to the extraordinary courage and perseverance of their mage corps. Having rested for only approximately twelve hours, the usual time needed being forty-eight, many of them refused to stand by. Between them and the Engineers, the latter of whom were very inexperienced at combat magic, they come up with a most ingenious plan - an Engineer would carry about ten human mages each on a platform made of magic, himself in the middle, surrounded by his mortal comrades. Needless to say, the risk for both was great, as the one maintaining the platform was unable to defend himself, and the lot of them made very attractive targets.

 

Their plan in actuality cost very few lives, compared to early, secret, estimates. These "air magi" as they were later known were separated into two groups, "C" and "D" for "containment" and "defense" respectively. The former set up a large anti-magic field covering the battlefield, while the latter were used to defend against magical attacks while the field was being set up.

 

When their magical powers were taken away, many of the Devourer's strongest forces, including the "Choking Darkness" elite heavy troops and his "Blood Mages" were suddenly more vulnerable than they had ever been before. The former, in particular, was powerful due to their ability to cast in mid-combat. Various other groups of his forces were also weakened by the loss of beneficial spells. In the end, the Devourer and his followers were cast out of the sky, down onto their fortress. No demon ever survived that battle but was hunted down and easily sent into oblivion.

 

Stories were told for years afterwards of how Eferlon attacked the Devourer one-on-one, taking him on in an epic midair duel and defeating him. This was, of course, not true. The only element of truth that most stories have is that the sword he carried was shattered. Unlike the stories, it did not break during the final stroke that finished off the Devourer, but in fact the second last. The famed kill was in fact made with Eferlon's own weapon, the standard dual-edged longsword, not the single-edged ceremonial one. Also false is the nature of the enchantment placed on the sacred blade. It did not burn, give off magical auras, magically extend, or any of the other ridiculous stories. It was in fact, simply strengthened. The blade was not, either, made for killing the Devourer, or even as an unused ceremonial weapon. It was simply the weapon of the very first First, which he was carrying while granted the position.

 

Elias blinked, blinded for a second. What - ?

 

"You're back!"

 

"Did I go anywhere?"

 

"Oh." Lucien put down the small candle that illuminated the otherwise pitch-black room. "Can't you tell?"

 

"Tell what?" Elias looked around. "You woke me up in the middle of the night? How did you get in?"

 

"When did I leave?"

 

"What? Don't just question me!"

 

"You have no idea, do you?"

"Of what?"

 

"Try to get up."

 

He could guess before even trying - of course she meant that he had been tied down or something as annoying. "What have you done?"

 

She flashed him a small, amused, smile. "Isn't it obvious?" Brushing unconsciously at her dress with her left hand she perched herself on the edge of his bed. "What? Fine, you win. Why, then?"

 

As she turned to look at the candle, he caught a glimpse of one of her more mischievous looks, which caused him to grimace inwardly. It was always discomforting to have no idea of what was happening, especially when she loved to mess around with him. Being unable to do anything made things even more disturbing. He hopefully watched what appeared to be another light moving towards the door. Lucien spotted it too, and, hopping up, lighting ran out the door, closing it. Sighing, he wondered how to get himself free. Enduring Lucien's "attentions" when she was in one of those moods was certainly never pleasurable.

 

"Hmm .. what to do with you," she told him after returning, carrying a cup of water. "You're quite the troublemaker, making us worry like that."

 

"Us?"

 

"Yep," she replied cheerfully, taking a sip of water. "Your sister was very worried about you. Left only half an hour ago."

 

"Doubtless you spent all that time in productive conversation about topics of great weight, I'm sure," he replied in an exaggerated tone. "Like your clothes, I'd imagine."

 

"Oh, HOW did you guess?!" she returned, in the same tone, putting the white cup down next to the candle-holder. "But she's gone now, and that's no fun. Hey, you're still here. That gives me an idea .. "

 

"Why do I have a sudden feeling of impending doom?"

 

"Don't be such a wet blanket. I've got lots of things to try out. Getting an outside opinion is good. And everyone LOVES to play dress up!"