Godslayer Lysette: Chapter 239

Chapter 239: The Battle Begins

The thump of soldiers marching in formation continued throughout the commandant’s speech, a low and distant rumble which counted down the seconds until destruction’s reign.  At the commandant’s insistence, no soldier made any move against the besieging Elithrians as the armies massed for the upcoming battle, instead waiting for them to arrive on their own terms.  And Lysette agreed— every moment they didn’t have to fight was another moment that they had all survived.  And every moment that they survived was another moment closer to Mirae and Saffron’s arrival.

Back along the northwestern edge of the Spire Mountains, Lysette carried Mirae, jumping through space and time to accelerate her love’s arrival to the battlefield.  Each jump fatigued Lysette a bit more, but hastening Mirae’s arrival by even a few seconds and keeping them in top shape was a sacrifice well worth making.

As they passed over Karchek’s former prison and over to the southern slope, the two separated.  Mirae took Lysette’s ring in their hand and detached from her, sprouting their own wings and gliding down to the surface, with not even a moment to say good-bye or share a quick kiss before they departed.

Lysette headed back down the northern slopes, gliding toward Ciricu once more to make whatever preparations would be necessary to buttress that front of the upcoming war.  She closed her eyes as she drifted down toward the foothills, conserving her strength for the battle upon the immediate horizon.

Back at Ft. James, the first wave of Elithrian soldiers came into view.  Surprisingly to Lysette, they carried the ensign of the Elithrian flag, rather than one dedicated to the Church of Asterion.  This carried with it the connotation that it was an act of war between nations rather than a purely religious or deity-driven conflict.  Though, if it was anything like how Jules and Katie had described Terea, the difference between the two was more a technicality than anything.

At the front of the Elithrian regiment was an officer dressed less like the commandant and vice commandant, and more like the Academy’s former Chancellor in a bright silvery-white gi.  He was old, yes— the scars on his shoulders and neck and the whiteness of his goatee revealed that.  But much like Marquess Dozel, his skin was smooth and taut, his muscles firm and toned, and his entire body crackling with power barely contained within.  He was at least a match for Mirae, and considerably more powerful than this avatar upon the parapets.

The commander was far from the worst of their troubles.  Backing him up were another two to three dozen strong Cultivators between the level of Ari and Dani, with another hundred or so with respectable Essence coefficients.  But every soldier beyond those first hundred carried with them some sort of strange artifact in their hands and upon their back.  At a glance, it seemed that they were each devices that acted as a form of projectile or beam weapon.  More specifically, a way for non-Cultivators to wield a facsimile of Asterion’s Lunar Bolt technique.

To Lysette, dodging Lunar Bolts was easy by now.  But for the thousands of soldiers she planned to defend, a single bolt could mean death, or at least a critical wound that would require immense time and energy to heal.  Neither of which Lysette would have in the midst of battle.

When the army reached a hundred yards away, the commander raised a single hand.  The army stopped in a single motion as he continued his approach.  He stopped fifty yards away from the garrison’s wall and spoke.

“A moment for parley, if you will.  I wish to speak to the commander!”

Commandant Cournot took his time climbing up the ladder despite every indication he could leap fifteen feet under his own power, if not fly much as Lysette could.  He was stalling for time, but despite everyone being aware of this, the Elithrian commander only smirked as his opposing counterpart stepped up beside Lysette.

“This is General Colin Cournot, Commandant of the garrison at Ft. James, and the commanding officer of this battalion.”

“This is General Louis Belzano, Commander of the Second Division of the Elithrian Army.  On behalf of His Majesty, I want to offer you the chance to surrender.”

“Surrender?  I must admit my surprise.  I had been informed by my intelligence staff that you Elithrians planned to exterminate Domaria down to the last woman and child.  Perhaps you are not such heartless monsters as I’d heard.  And for what reason should I and my forces accept such a generous offer?”

Lysette smiled at the tone of the commandant’s words.  It was a perfect mixture of contempt and surprise.  Surprise as though he were seriously considering the offer before him.  And contempt toward his opposition for even feigning that surrender was a real option.

“If you lay down your lives here, I have received assurances from my liege that your civilian population will be left alive until the end of the world.”

“The end of the world?”  Commandant Cournot furrowed his brows.  “I had heard reports that Elithria was attempting to bring about the end of the world.  But I dismissed those reports just as quickly.  Why conquer just to destroy?”

“An end to a world mired in unending conflict, the salvation of our souls at the hands of our benevolent god, and a new world of peace and order in its place.  Lives of order, lives of peace, lives free from strife and conflict and chaos.  That is the singular wish of humankind, to live lives free from unnecessary pain.  It is that desire, a desire for a world in which our god illuminates a single inerrant truth— single grand design— for all of Aimarion, which empowers our benevolent Lord.  And that power enables him to shine His light down upon us all and allows us to carry out his divine will.”

Lysette clenched her fist for a brief moment.  The temptation to tell off the Elithrian general and his sick bastard of a god was almost too much to bear.  She held her tongue though, if only just.  She reasoned that the commandant, in his wisdom of experience, would do better at keeping the troops’ morale high and stall for as much time as possible.

He frowned.  “No.  There is no singular wish for all mankind.  My forefathers and the leaders of this great nation have long since realized that our wants, our wishes, our hopes and dreams are as varied as each of us.  We all have different visions of our own ideal futures.  And some of our different visions clash with another.  Such is an inevitability.

“But it is my belief, shared by His Majesty, that we find strength in our diversity, not by our uniformity.  That we are strong because we share so many complementary, and sometimes competing visions for tomorrow, and yet still come together as one in defense of our homeland.”

Lysette noticed the air of Essence about Commandant Cournot shifting again as he once used his emboldening technique.  Soldiers both up on the battlements and down upon the ground were gripping their weapons with anticipation, all but salivating at the opportunity to engage the enemy.  Lysette herself was much the same, barely restraining her demonic urges for the sake of buying as much time as possible.

“So that is your final answer?” General Balzano asked.  “You would sacrifice your people just for an opportunity of temporary resistance before the end?”

“Of course.  If it came down to it, I and every one of my men would gladly lay down our lives to defend our homeland.  But that’s not what’s going to happen this morning!  This morning we’ll fight!  This morning we’ll endure, repel your attack, and live to see the dawn which awaits afterward!”

“You are a fool, much like your country and your king.”  General Balzano leapt back the full fifty yards to his men in a single bound.  “And you will die as fools.  May your souls and those of your families forgive you.”  He turned to his men.  “Open fire.”

The sound of explosions rattled the surrounding landscape as wave after wave of bullets of light fired out from the army and its strange artifice.  Lysette prepared to pounce in and at least try to whittle down the enemy numbers, but she stopped when the first volley was completely repelled by the fortress’s outer walls.  A second volley followed with the same lack of effect.

Though, it wasn’t quite a lack of effect, upon closer inspection.  The hundreds of soldiers standing just inside the walls, mostly meager Cultivators who were tasked with projecting the barrier outward, did start to sweat upon the third volley.  After the fifth, they began to rotate out in groups, allowing the weaker ones a chance to recover what strength they could.  Even General Cournot and Vice Commandant Bertrand were showing subtle signs of fatigue as they used their power in tandem to keep the spirits of their enlisted soldiers high.

But the waves of faux Lunar Bolts kept coming.  Less in coordinated barrages now and more a constant pummeling.  And if the Elithrians were growing fatigued as they continued their assault, Lysette could detect no signs of their attacks weakening or slowing down.

Lysette clenched her fists as she waited.  She wanted to attack, craved Elithrian blood to sate her demonic lust.  Wanted so badly to use every bit of the strength she’d accumulated since her rebirth to wreak Reciprocity upon the same Elithrian scum who slew her family months earlier.  But she resisted.  Every second they survived without casualties was a victory.  Was another second closer to Mirae and then Saffron arriving.  Another step closer to winning the first of many more battles to come.

The opposing general furrowed his brows and shook his head.  He raised his hands above his head, gathering a sphere of light which grew in size, brightness, and overall presence as he forced more of his power into it.  Lysette saw it.  The Domarian commanders did too, though they dared not break their calm exterior.  The attack would breach their barrier.  Pandemonium would ensue.  Death would follow in its wake.

But all they would do was wait.  Lysette knew her avatar was insufficient to fully block an attack of that magnitude.  Were she alone, she could move quickly enough to disrupt it, but with General Balzano surrounded by an entire legion of soldiers, she would be eviscerated by enemy fire before she could reach him.  A wall of wood or even ice would shatter on contact with firepower of that magnitude.  A wall of diamond might’ve reflected or refracted such an attack, but even if Serrena were here and every Earth Cultivator she knew were able to work together, they’d never be able to synthesize enough in such a short time.

Lysette gritted her teeth as General Balzano launched his attack.  It screeched a high-pitch wail as it flew, bombarding Lysette’s impromptu ice wall and shattering it after only slowing it down for a half-second.  Bits of ice flew in every direction before Lysette released her technique and allowed them to sublimate away, but the slightly deflected burst of light still dealt severe damage to the garrison walls.

What was a colossal barrier was now broken.  What was once garrison walls was now shrapnel and pieces of wood and iron strewn about.  Soldiers screamed in pain as medics rushed in to cart off the most grievously injured among them.  The remainder of the soldiers readied for combat, and upon their general’s command, they charged.  Lysette jumped into the fray thereafter, finally ready to do her part for a country and king that she did not fully trust or support, but was, in statement and deed, far closer to her ideal than the enemy standing before her.

Chapter 238: https://www.patreon.com/posts/113980364

Table of Contents: https://www.patreon.com/posts/101896170

Chapter 240: https://www.patreon.com/posts/114112001