"Ye' really took ah' beatin' last night, didnae' ya'?"
"You should see the other guy."
Dori was tapping a ball-ended hammer against a piece of red painted metal. Laid out on the table nearby were other assorted pieces of my armor.
"Saw th' massive club them Divisionals had hauled 'ere last nigh'. Thought to meself, 'Dinnae this look like an absolute shite-fest'."
She handed me the plate she was hammering. It was one of my shoulderplates, rounded back into shape.
"Replaced th' paddin' on those too. Should feel like new on 'yer shoulders."
"Thank you, Dori. I really appreciate it."
She grabbed a small crate from another table and placed it in front of me. Peeking inside, I could see parts of Julius' armor.
I returned to the mess hall and dropped the crate down behind Julius. He whipped his head back, startled. Glancing up to me, down to the crate, to where I was sitting before, and then back to me.
Rias smiled back at us from my previous spot.
"By the Celestials I didn't even know you left." He looked back at Rias, "You look exactly like your sister. It's uncanny."
We headed to the command tent and ran into Soren and Alistaire. They were sitting on a makeshift bench, a long timber that had been sawed down to create a flat surface and sunken into the ground. Soren's head bobbed down a few times, popping back up to catch himself from drifting back to sleep. Alistaire was leaning against him, eyes closed and a small sliver of drool was seeping down his chin.
Soren's head popped up from a downward bob and his body twitched, nudging his sleeping companion awake.
Alistaire sat up and wiped his arm across his mouth. As he turned he caught sight of us approaching.
"Oh! Uhm, morning all."
"Hey Alistaire. Hey Soren. You two been waiting long?"
"Not too long. We've been up for a while though. Hard to sleep when your whole body is sore."
"I don't think any of us got any rest either." I pointed to Hailey, Julius, and myself. "Speaking of rest, have you seen the rest of the party? We ran into Luke and Hanna earlier, but I haven't seen Mei all morning."
They both shifted uneasily on the bench. Soren's eyes darted away from my gaze.
"So I take that as a yes. What kind of trouble did she get herself into?"
Alistaire opened his mouth briefly, as if to speak, but shut it quickly and pursed his lips.
Narrowing my eyes, I leaned in close to them.
"Boys, tell me where she is."
We found Mei in the midst of an argument at the armory. The Quartermaster was standing firm about the 'absurd' amount of arrows she was requesting.
Mei's position was that it was not absurd, and that she had run out of arrows last night. Proof enough that the quantity she requested was reasonable.
I intervened when things seemed like they were about to turn into a shouting match. Confronting the two of them, I asked how many arrows we were talking about.
Mei replied quickly, 'only' four-hundred.
I wasn't sure where she was going to pack away four-hundred arrows, but an annoyed 'Just give her what she asked for' from Julius and we were on our way to the stables.
Luke was already there bridling the horses.
Hanna briefed us that she had already dispatched eighteen other parties to Tolin in the early morning. These parties were organized into raiding teams of three, so each group would have about twenty people. They would be clearing and securing buildings one sector at a time.
Our party would be going in as a vanguard again, to clear a way through the garrison district.
A blood-soaked mess greeted us at the gates of Tolin. Large timbers with crude planks hammered into place had been laid into the mud to create a walkable pathway into the city. The demon corpses from last night had been removed. Great pyres had been erected in a newly dug pit some distance from the gatehouse. The smell of burning flesh stung my nose.
Entering the market square we were greeted by the commanding officer, a Knight-Lieutenant.
Their rundown was simple, the six raiding teams were deployed to the remaining three districts; Residential, Port, Garrison. There were two teams per district, and about forty members per team.
We were now supposed to link up with the Garrison team, who were assisting with clearing the riverside promenade of the residential district. Once together, we'd form up as a single raiding division.
A division at its smallest was a militarized group of two or more raid-sized parties led by an uppercore officer. At its largest, you had major divisions like Hailey's.
Before the coup, the Third Division was around one-hundred and fifty officers, and over two-thousand five-hundred divisionals. That single division is too large to handle on its own, so it's broken down further into more manageable divisions, such as the raiding team we were about to form.
The Garrison Citadel loomed over the residential district. The red-stone contrasted sharply with the walls, almost isolating it from the rest of the city.
The street leading to the Citadel was a wide unbending paved through-way. Most of the buildings lining the street were single-family homes, capable of housing no more than five or six adults. Branching from the main street were many winding arterial roads. These led off to all sorts of varying neighborhoods, some of the same single-family homes, some larger homes, and even a few manors.
"Hail Commanders, and good morning," A steel-clad Paladin saluted our approach, "We're clearing the last remaining block of residences. My teams should be back in about an hour."
Hailey had taken hold of my hand on our walk through the city and I fumbled momentarily trying to return the Paladin's salute. Hailey snickered at my clumsiness.
"Good timing. Will you be ready to move forward when they return?"
The Paladin motioned over her wrist and a rune glowed brightly. A large party interface danced in the mists.
"We'll be ready."
I waved over my own rune and brought up the party interface. I sent the Paladin a request to merge her party into ours. She accepted, and my view quickly grew to show an unmanageable amount of party members.
The two teams responsible for the residential district had joined under a single group with the two garrison teams. By accepting my merge request, I had added over one-hundred-sixty new members to my group.
I raised my eyebrow at the Paladin. She shrugged and gave me a look that said 'I'm just doing my job here, lady'.
The awkward exchange had garnered the attention of my six party members—they looked at me expectantly.
"Good news, we're the proud leaders of a small army." I joked, "It's us, plus four whole raiding teams."
Luke and Hailey both stared, slack jawed. First at the Paladin, then at me. I stared blankly back at them.
"I knew nothing about this."
Julius broke the brief tension.
"Last night, I asked Hanna to relay orders to consolidate the raiding teams when they got close to the Citadel. After our encounter last night… I wanted to play things safe."
"We've never fielded a singular force this large before, Julius."
"Well you know what they say, never a time like the present."
"I don't think that saying applies to commanding four raiding teams through a derelict castle."
"Difference of opinion I guess." He shrugged and flashed me a grin.
Bastard.
I spent the next hour reviewing my party configurations, trying to make mental notes to remember which members were defenders, casters, soldiers, or rangers.
Ultimately I resigned in defeat.
There were just way too many to make a meaningful effort. One-hundred-seventy-two members in total, including myself and my party. I counted twice to confirm the number.
There were twenty-three healer specialty casters between the four teams. Adding in Hailey, I wouldn't need to focus on watching anyone's life bars. She would let me know if they needed help.
The raid team members joined us at the square that was just before the garrison district's gatehouse.
The garrison gatehouse was noticeably different from any other in the city. Instead of the pinkish-white Vyae stone, it was constructed from rare, red granite. Practically all important structures from the old Vanixian Empire were built from this type of stone. It was incredibly tough from a hardness level, but it was near-impossible to penetrate with magick. The crystalline formation of the stone absorbed all types of magick and would become harder and more resilient the more spells that were cast upon them. Stonemason Guilds that built with this type of stone typically charged exorbitant rates that could empty the pockets of even the wealthiest nobles.
Also noticeable, was that the gate was suspiciously shut. All the other gates in the city had been locked in an open position, which was pretty standard for a city that was caught unaware during an attack. The fact that this gate was shut, implied it was closed some time after the city fell, or it was closed before or during the attack.
None of the scouting teams had breached the Citadel. We had no way of knowing if there were more hordes of demons nested here, or if it was abandoned.
That uncertainty obviously being the exact reason Julius arranged for four raiding teams to accompany us.
Luke and two other rogues made their way into the gatehouse to find the mechanism that would raise the inner gate. Their bodies shimmered and faded away in stealth.
Ten minutes passed and a loud 'click' was heard from above the gateways corridor. Another 'click' a minute after that, and the grinding and scraping of the gate raising gnawed at my ears.
Luke and his partners emerged from the gatehouse and waved us over.
"There are clear indications of recent movement in the halls leading up to gate controls."
"Great, squatters. Think they'll just leave if we ask nicely?"
Soren sighed at Alistaire's attempt at humor.
"Be ready for anything," I warned my party, "keep your guard up. Call out anything that seems out of place—"
A familiar scraping noise followed by dark runes appearing above the gate cut me off.
The flash of words etching in my mind stopped me in my tracks, "TURN BACK OR BE CONSUMED."
The deep recessed voice, the same as from my demonic nightmare, emanated from my own mind and sent sharp jolts of pain through my head.
I looked to Hailey, but her expression said it all. She heard the voice as well.
Almost every member of the raid had the same pained look on their face. A look of shock and panic paired with a clenched jaw, fighting through the searing pain each word inflicted on them.
The only two people seemingly unaffected were Julius and Mei, though I'm sure he was just being stoic.
I would bet that he was screaming on the inside.
Mei's eyes were trained on the darkness beyond the gatehouse.
"Commander."
"Y-yeah, Mei?" I grimaced through the residual pain.
"Terror Demon."
"Terror Demon, or one of the Celestials themselves, it's in my castle."
Julius brought his shield off its mounting plate on his back and unsheathed his sword. Calmly he gave orders, "Mei, you're on point with me. Airis, you stay two lengths behind me. Soren. Alistaire. Take up positions on Airis. Luke, stick to Hailey like glue. Don't let anything get close to her."
Silver light glowed from Julius' shield as he spoke an incantation, "Light, grant us Strength. For in Strength we find Power. In Power we create Unity. In Unity, we serve the righteous and bring forth justice to these tainted lands. Despair forces of darkness, Silver Bulwark!"
The raid was enveloped in its glow. The protective barrier would provide a great defense boost to everyone.
Channeling my own power, I began to cast my own aura.
"Source of light that dwells among the veiled. Journey with us as we make our way in the darkness. Come forth and guide our way, Radiance!"
The soft golden glow swept over the raid. I turned to face my small army, to offer them some sort of encouraging words...
I don't know what to say at a moment like this…
In an effort to avoid embarrassing myself at this critical point, I drew my blade and raised it above my head. It sparked to life, the rush of crimson flame roared over me.
A war cry echoed through the stone gateway into the halls of the Citadel. Four words in defiance of the usurper hiding inside.
"For the Crimson Blade!"