Suiteonem Prime, Empire of Man, The Imperial Shield, May, 2058

  “I’m a terrible person for doing this.”

  The kids weren’t having a good time.

  They never did when asshole adults threw them into the kid-crushing machine that was war.

  All the hard men making hard decisions from the safety of their heavily defended bunkers or fortresses liked to think they were special for having the iron will to decide the fate of everyone else.

  They were wrong. They had always been wrong. And they would always be wrong.

  Cal’s fortress was invisible.

  He sat in a quiet clearing kilometers away from the Imperial Shield.

  The soft breeze blew snowflakes through the trees.

  A camouflaged snow stalker slithered through the undergrowth near the tree line.

  He killed it with an absent thought. He was focused on more important matters.

  The poor kids.

  Running for their lives through dark streets and alleys while explosions filled the night skies.

  If they only knew the horrors lurking around them held at bay by his will.

  Fear, not terror.

  He lent them a hand to keep them in the former state and not the latter. He helped them keep their bowels under control. He helped them stay together as they reached the fortress in the center of the cell.

  “You just have to endure this for a little bit longer,” he whispered into their thoughts. “It’s okay to be afraid. It’s how you can be courageous.”

  He sighed.

  “God. I’m the worst.”

  Zinna kept thinking loudly at her ‘not-demon’, pleading for help. Not for her but for Dansy, Bilmyth and the rest of her squad.

  He didn’t respond directly.

  It was necessary to minimize any of his traces in her mind lest the empyreals detect them and discover the game much too early. It was a delicate thing to dance around the grasping of their hidden tentacles.

  Two young ladies met Zinna’s squad at one of the side gatehouses.

  Shadowed and quiet with several hidden assassins in the shadows. A mixture of bodyguards for the ladies and agents for the lord-commander of the cell.

  He took a moment to plant thoughts into their heads. They would slowly find reasons and orders to be elsewhere as his chosen group made their way through the imminent battle within the fort to the top and the climax of the first act of his Calamity.

  Yes.

  His.

  It was important to him to take responsibility for the death and destruction. Unlike all those hard men throughout history, through every world.

  He had only been on three worlds to date, but he had seen enough in the thoughts of others to learn that such people were the same at their core on every world.

  So selfish.

  …

  Zinna didn’t like the two young ladies instantly.

  Beyond her general and automatic hatred of nobility she found them especially irksome by their appearance and bearing.

  Faces and clothing untouched by the marks of the siege. They looked like they had come fresh from the baths. Fresh-faced. Natural and beautiful.

  Rich clothing. Like a copy of a soldiers’ but better, looking as if they could be worn in the most gilded of their noble halls during pointless dances, feasts and other opulent nonsense.

  Neither were in dress-robes like Lady di’Seta. They wore pants, which was sensible. But no armor, not even a helmet, which was not.

  Zinna dismissed the thought the instant she had it.

  Their silks and cloth were definitely enchanted. As were the twin, jeweled tiaras each wore around their perfectly plaited hair.

  She’d take a bite out of her helmet if the enchantments didn’t provide protection well-beyond the heaviest-armored soldier in the imperial army.

  She reassessed in an instant.

  Those things were all good.

  The ladies would make good shields to stand behind.

  The older young lady’s nose crinkled like she had caught a whiff of the foulest thing in creation.

  “You’re the ones Lady di’Seta said were the most important players in this play?”

  Her gaze flicked to the rapier on Zinna’s belt.

  Undoubtedly comparing the standard issue conscript weapon unfavorably to the golden-hilted one on her belt.

  Zinna frowned at the intricate basket hilt carved to resembled an eagle’s screeching head.

  The younger young lady sighed.

  “Well, conscripts. I do hope you are worthy of Lady di’Seta’s trust.” She flicked gloved fingers toward them like Ettyre flicked his nose treasures at Bilmyth and Dansy. “Come then, conscripts. We are to take you to the top. Do keep up.”

  Without further preamble the guards opened the iron-barred door and the two ladies strode into the darkness.

  Zinna squeezed Dansy’s hand and led her squad into the darkness.

  She tried not to think about how it appeared as if they were walking into a monster’s mouth.

  The fort was a hive of activity.

  Conscripts ran around like ants with giant rocks dropped on their hive.

  She knew that there were more on and in the walls.

  Bright light flashed overhead accompanied by a dull thud and the sound of cracking ice.

  Literal rocks.

  The empress was dropping giant rocks on the fort’s magic shields.

  Red and orange spells arced upward, blowing them apart but enough got through.

  “Hurry, you worms!” the younger young lady snapped as she broke into a run toward the looming fort.

  It jutted out of the ground like a multiple-spired termite mound.

  Its walls of dark stone and metal looked strange to Zinna.

  Dull and glinting in what seemed like a random pattern.

  More gates and more doors passed in a blur.

  Conscripts gave way to hard-eyed soldiers.

  Not regular army.

  She caught the emblems on their armor and shields and on the flags and banners.

  They all belonged to noble houses. Either as household soldiers or hired mercenaries.

  She didn’t know her heraldry because fuck them all.

  As far as she could see there were at least five different emblems.

  Although the one of an ugly, snarling creature was the most prominent in number by far.

  They followed the two young ladies up a spiraling staircase.

  “Why are we walking?” the older young lady hissed. “The lifts—”

  “Every drop of spare mana is being sent to the shields,” the younger young lady said. “Hurry. The others are waiting for us inn the South Solarium.”

  They certainly were.

  Or they had been.

  Zinna caught the scent of iron in the air the moment they reached the solarium level.

  “Rifles up!” she snapped instinctively.

  Most of her squad, at least the ones that hadn’t lost their rifles on the mad sprint through the dark and twisted streets, obeyed and managed to not point their barrels at each other or the two young ladies.

  “What are you doing, conscript?” the younger young lady growled. “Who are you to give—”

  “Shh! Light spell!” the older young lady hissed.

  The dark solarium filled with plants, flowers and even small trees far from their natural environments was also filled with other things.

  Meat things that leaked crimson in the soft grass and dirt.

  …

  Cal hurled rocks with his thoughts.

  Rocks and stones.

  From kilometers away down on every single fortress-cell in the Imperial Shield.

  When he ran low on those he took the shattered remains of what he had already smashed and pulled them back into the sky where he re-formed them to drop again.

  Rocks fell.

  Not very many died.

  The thought brought a smile with memories.

  Of joking around a table.

  Remy and Eron laughing.

  Baby Reyna demanding an explanation so she could also laugh and be included.

  His siblings disappeared.

  Replaced by others, including his young son.

  Boy with that look of confusion mixed with deep thinking on his baby face.

  He had understood that when rocks fell on people they tended to die.

  What he hadn’t gotten at the time was why everyone thought that was funny.

  It offended the little Boy’s sensibilities.

  Cal shoved the memory away.

  Not the time to be distracted.

  His farce of a siege needed to proceed as planned.

  He gathered broken stone and fused it together into a single one that weighed over a hundred tons then dropped it.

  At the same time he forced the mages to disconnect from the fortress’ shield.

  Except for the evil ones.

  He didn’t mind them dying from the feedback.

  The shield shattered with a scream that sent nearly every person in the fortress to their knees.

  The doctrine remained the same.

  Secretly save most of the conscripts.

  The rest would live or die on their own merits.

  Naturally, he cheated.

  He marked targets for Snikter and his other assassins to take out.

  His undead horde surged against the walls like ants trying to get into a jar of sugar.

  Lady Sela di’Seta withdrew back over the walls firing spells as her rich violet robes fluttered.

  Undead-bearing artillery fell inside.

  And one undead flying monstrosity with inky black skin that seemed to drink light slunk in unnoticed and attached itself to one of the fortress’ south towers.

  …

  The older young lady drew her rapier without a sound and a small, round buckler of black steel. The former glittered like a rainbow gem, while the latter seemed to pull in the shadows.

  The younger young lady drew a gold-veined wooden short gun in her right hand and cast a small spell circle in her left.

  Zinna glanced at the weapon.

  It looked like a toy.

  All wood.

  She scoffed silently.

  People that had wands carved into real weapon shapes were objectively fakers.

  Her squad huddled tight as they crept deeper into the solarium.

  It was much larger than she had thought it would be.

  If she had to guess it was about the same size as one of the mess halls that could fit five hundred conscripts comfortably.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Seemed like a waste of space in a fortress to her.

  At least the light orbs cast by the younger young lady were the kind that lasted more than few minutes.

  It would’ve been impossible for her squad’s spontaneous spike-furred beaver formation to move without tripping over each other as a consequence of needing rifles pointed in every direction. It was hard to walk backwards while leveling a rifle. It just was.

  They reached the halfway point when the scent of iron became the stench of iron and piss and shit.

  There was a mound.

  It turned the green grass beneath it red.

  The young ladies made a noise that reminded Zinna of the noises she had made many times while in the walls.

  The mound was people. Rather, parts of people.

  Here and there she could make out the same emblems she had seen on the soldiers in the fortress.

  It was impossible to count how many exactly since the mound was made out of limbs and torsos and heads.

  “I smell fresh meat!” a deep guttural voice boomed through the solarium.

  “Control yourself, beast. Remember our arrangement. I must select my battle brides before you have your base enjoyment.”

  The second speaker reminded her of every young lord that had, briefly, been her commanding officer.

  “And you’ve already had your disgusting fill.”

  He appeared, leaning against the trunk of the nearby tree as if lounging on a lazy day, which was every day for the nobility.

  Zinna aimed at his handsome face with its perfect symmetry and rich, deep black hair that made the two young ladies’ look as unkempt as hers.

  The other speaker landed without a sound within rapier lunge distance of the older young lady.

  “Stay back, revenant!” She aligned her point instantly on his broad, muscular chest, keeping it on target even as she bounced lightly on her toes.

  Zinna hated it, but she could tell instantly that the older young lady would’ve made quick work of her in the dueling circle.

  Wait— revenant?

  Why?

  Why did she keep running into revenants?

  Two times.

  Which was two times too many.

  Not-demon? Is this part of your plan? Please be part of your plan? Don’t let my squad get killed. I don’t care about the ladies.

  The revenant was a bestial man. He was naked with a thick mane and beard of straw-colored hair. The same all over his body. His finger and toe nails were thick claws. His hungry smile revealed canine fangs like a snowbear’s.

  The less said about his dick, the better.

  She tried not to think about how it was partially hard.

  “I am Carchoras!” He boomed. “Carchoras Sabrefangs! Slayer of Man! Taker of Virgins!” He leered at them all, focusing on Dansy before Ettyre and the others closed ranks to hide the small girl from his sight. “I’m gonna put my claws inside you, then I’m gonna fuck them holes with my monster cock.”

  The other revenant cleared his throat.

  “And there you have what my unsightly partner has to offer you. Please, listen to mine. It would be a tragedy for such young ladies to suffer his attentions.” He pointedly directed his gaze toward the pile of recognizable human meat. “You have the pleasure of my presence!”

  Zinna smelled something in his dazzling smile.

  Sweet.

  Pleasant.

  She couldn’t take her eyes off him.

  Her iron grip on her rifle slipped, making her barrel droop toward his boots.

  “I am Seudur Silvereyes, Hero of Aegis, Holder of Virtue!” His silver pupils leaked out into the whites until the latter was subsumed. Then they flashed and Zinna forgot about what she was doing. “To the young ladies, I offer you my hand in marriage. Become part of my harem! Become my Battle Brides! I will bring you pleasure and fulfillment in all ways!”

  Yes! she thought. I want to be part of your harem of battle brides even if I don’t know what that means!

  “Hey, fop! You said you wouldn’t take all the pussy!” Carchoras growled.

  “Mind your bestial tongue. Remember the Lord Cross’ words. I am in need of brides to reach my optimum combat potential. So, stay quiet and be told your place. I’m sure there will be one or two poor chattel you can have.”

  “I want one of the ladies.”

  “They are the highest quality by far, you greedy bear.” Seudur chuckled.

  “Then two of them are worth more than the rest.”

  “Very well. I shall have the two ladies, the young girl and that one.” He pointed at Zinna. His silver eyes twinkled like stars just for her. “You may take the rest. Compliments of my generous nature.”

  Her heart swelled toward him with all her love and desire.

  He was so generous!

  That left the four remaining women in her squad to the fangs and claws of the beast man.

  For some reason, she couldn’t muster her usual hatred for such men.

  She just wanted to fall into the silver-eyed embrace and press his full lips to hers and—

  Her eyes suddenly cleared of the little hearts with wings flying between her and Seudur carrying a red string to tie them together.

  “Huh?”

  She could’ve sworn she had been seeing literal flying hearts carrying a red string.

  “What kind of spell or Skill…”

  She shook her head, trying to clear it of the foul corruption.

  Silver eyes narrowed.

  She shot between them.

  Reloaded.

  And shot the beast man in the forehead.

  Silvereyes slumped gently against the tree trunk, sliding into the roots’ embrace like a cloth puppet with snipped strings.

  In contrast, Carchoras crashed through the meat mound as if he had been shot by a full-sized cannon.

  The younger young lady shot Zinna a wide-eyed gaze.

  “How— I didn’t detect a Skill or magical munitions. How did you—”

  “Not the time! We must run!” the older young lady took off around the mound.

  Zinna urged her squad to follow, forcing herself to bring up the rear.

  “Not-demon? Thank you?”

  She hoped that wasn’t the two shots the not-demon said he or she or it needed her to make.

  Because she was still far from safety. And if the not-demon didn’t need her anymore then she didn’t think she would get far. And if she went down then the rest of her squad would go down shortly after.

  …

  Stupid revenants.

  Seudur and Carchoras actually though they had fooled him.

  They weren’t willing to change. To be better than they were.

  The former intended to continue his raping ways once he had made it to another world.

  The latter intended to do much the same, but with more murder and cannibalism.

  Both were in the Level 35 to 40 range.

  Perfect for the scenario.

  Deadly threats, but not insurmountable for those in the fortress.

  Thus, the imperials would find it impressive that Zinna and her squad managed to fight them and even kill them.

  The two young ladies weren’t the worst examples of their kind. They were perfect for the Silk Mothers and with the right mentorship they would be important in the dismantlement of the nobility system in the aftermath of the Calamity.

  The perfect witnesses to Zinna’s skill, courage and heroism.

  “Get up,” he said coldly. “You displeased me.” He pulled the plain lead bullets out of the two revenants’ heads.

  The flesh and bone knit on their own.

  Carchoras sprang up with a roar and bounded off after his prey.

  Seudur stood slower.

  “Lord Cross? I if may—”

  “No.”

  “Ah, yes, of course. Very well. I hear and obey as always. Your loyal servant is off.” A silvery shield shaped like a rose appeared on his left arm. “I suppose I can block for that cretinous beast.” He sighed as he sprinted off.

  Cal subtly slowed the two revenants, giving Zinna and the others time to reach an ideal ambush point and some conveniently arriving meat shields. He also planted the thought to ambush in his child soldiers.

  “Falliana, you may depart.”

  “Yes, my lord.”

  “Bellicosiaxtramondagron.”

  “Human lord. I am forced to obey.”

  “Good.”

  Not much longer.

  Zinna and the others were close to their freedom.

  …

  “Ambush!” Several voices spoke out at the same time.

  Odd that.

  Zinna had the same thought as she rounded the soft corner into a long narrow corridor. Cold stone on both sides. No windows to jump out off.

  At the other end was another spiraling staircase.

  She was tired of those, especially with a slavering manbeast howling and snarling on her heels.

  Soldiers emerged from the dim staircase.

  “You!” the older young lady barked. “We are pursued by revenants. Form up!”

  There was the briefest hesitation but the twelve men and women took up defensive formation as Zinna and her squad streamed past them.

  She spun.

  “Firing lines!”

  She badgered them into two lines.

  “Soldiers, take a knee!” the older young lady nodded at her.

  Right.

  Zinna had totally not forgotten about them.

  She was definitely not going to shoot them in the back.

  They were better meat shields without bullets in their armor or flesh.

  The nobles’ soldiers had their own ranged weapons but in a motley assortment.

  Thus, Zinna concluded they were a mix of mercenaries given noble emblems to wear.

  “We’ll send two volleys first!” She raised her voice, thankful that it didn’t break. “Then it’s in your hands!”

  The hard-eyed captain, an older woman with an ugly claw scar across her face, grunted affirmative then began shouting Skills.

  Zinna felt instantly less terrified and more angry.

  She was perhaps seventy percent the former and thirty the latter. An improvement over the one hundred to zero it had been.

  A naked, hairy blur came around the corner without slowing.

  Instead of slamming into the wall, Carchoras leapt onto the wall and carved stone as he ran on all fours like an enraged plains striped stalker.

  “Fire!”

  Zinna squeezed the trigger a hair ahead of the others.

  Iron drew iron-scented blood, but the revenant barely slowed.

  She dropped to a knee to reload.

  “Second Rank! Fire!”

  The concentrated bang over her head hurt in the enclosed space.

  White smoke stung her eyes and nose.

  The soldiers took their turn.

  Firing bullets, spells and loosing arrows or bolts.

  A more exotic and effective barrage with their superior levels.

  Carchoras emerged from the smoke with shredded skin and flesh weeping crimson.

  Exposed ivory shone in the dim crystal lights.

  Still, he bared his fangs in a happy smile as he leapt on the first man to meet him.

  Shield and mace met fangs and claws.

  One clash.

  An instant.

  A Skill to empower the flanged head with a slick shine.

  A furious slashing of clawed hands and feet.

  “You Might As Well Be Wearing Paper!” the revenant roared in the dead soldier’s face.

  Thick steel plate, enchanted or not, protected nothing.

  Grab, pull, hurl.

  “Close ranks!” the hard-eyed captain barked as she batted her soldier’s head aside.

  Dansy squeaked at the wide-eyed head leaking crimson on her boots. She kicked it away frantically almost dropping her rifle.

  “Steel Wall,” the hard-eyed captain said. “Multiple Shooting: Three Shots.”

  Guns, a bow and a crossbow fired three projectiles with one squeeze of the trigger or draw of the string.

  “My Claws Are My Shield.” Carchoras snarled, cutting the air in front of him in a blur of massive, muscled arms.

  Crimson rips hanging in the air blocked everything before they vanished like blood dripping down a shield.

  “I need a wall.”

  “On it, captain.” A priest raised her holy staff with a prayer.

  Golden light shot through with crimson streams sprang up in between the soldiers and the bestial revenant.

  “Foolish gash.” He raked claws across the wall of light. “We worship the same God. And I embraced his rage when your grandfather was just spunk his father shot into his mother!” He plunged claws into the wall.

  The crimson streams flowed into his fingers.

  The gold cracked.

  Then shattered.

  And then?

  The soldiers found out what it was like to be armored in paper.

  Zinna had a thought strike her like lighting strikes the lone tree in a field on a clear, sunny day.

  “Lady,” she eyed the younger young lady. “Do you have a spell that can slow him for at least an instant.”

  The lady’s eyes flashed with fury at being addressed directly by a common conscript. “You dare—” Her eyes glazed over and twinkled like stars.

  The instant was so quick that Zinna dismissed it as a trick of the light and smoke.

  “Yes. I do, conscript.”

  “Then please cast it the moment the revenant finishes them.”

  It tasted like bile to say that word to a noble.

  “Lady.” She turned to the older young woman.

  “Twin thrusts in that moment?”

  “Yes, lady. The heart for you and an eye for me.”

  “And then? That undead creature heals before my eyes.”

  She regarded her squad.

  Their backup weapons weren’t like her rapier, which required training to wield properly.

  They had hatchets, maces, hammers and short, chopping blades.

  “We keep hacking until he’s in pieces.” She returned her gaze to the younger young lady. “And then you burn the pieces.”

  Hopefully.

  Blood-drenched Carchoras howled.

  Somehow, he was even bigger than he had been. Bulging muscles stretched skin to the breaking point while veins wriggled like fat worms beneath the surface as he flexed.

  “I’m gonna fuck and eat you all. Might even be in that order.”

  He laughed and leapt.

  Glowing pink ribbons erupted from the younger young lady’s hand like they were at a solstice celebration to wrap around the revenant.

  He tore free in the next breath but that was enough.

  Zinna and the older young lady had already activated their Skills.

  A lunging thrust.

  Zinna’s was lesser and her blade was plain steel.

  Her entire body shook but somehow her sword arm remained as stable as the Eternal Empress’ ice.

  Twinkling rainbow blade pierced a dark heart.

  Dull steel pierced a light eye.

  Zinna thrust deep with all her strength against her training to use the minimum amount of strength required to score a fatal wound.

  “Now!”

  The rest of her squad rushed in like a pack of ankle nippers.

  Weapons rose and fell in a frenzy.

  It felt like one of the Gods had deigned to give them strength and luck.

  They hacked through thick skin, muscle and bone as the revenant shook and strained as if the lady’s ribbons were still restraining him.

  An eternity passed as Zinna wiggled her rapier around in the Carchora’s skull so hard that she managed to snap the tip off.

  By that point her squad had turned him into a mound of meat.

  “A fitting end to a foul creature,” the younger young lady said as she wrapped his many chunks in ribbons of magical fire.

  The older young lady graced Zinna with a begrudging tilt of her head as well as a lesser tilt to the rest of the squad.

  “Come. We are to bring you to the top of the tower.”

  “Um… why… my lady?” Zinna ground her teeth at the politeness.

  It truly tasted like milk left to age in the sun.

  …

  Cal took a moment to save the life of a revenant seven fortress-cells to the east of Zinna’s.

  Then he held Carchoras in place while the brave conscripts hacked the revenant to pieces.

  They wouldn’t get as many leveling points, Universal Points and rewards from the Quest compared to if they had done everything without his aid.

  Granted, that path would have seen most of them maimed and dead with perhaps one or two uninjured and in possession of the bulk of the rewards.

  That was how the spires worked.

  He watched Seudur peak around the corner.

  The Aegis Hero revenant decided to go elsewhere for his battle brides before returning to the assigned task.

  Cal almost killed him there but allowed him to run of in search of a certain true death.

  He kept an eye on Zinna as she climbed the tower.

  Two things waited for her.

  A gift and an opportunity.

  “I believe in you, Zinna.”

  “Um… thanks, not-demon… What happens to me doesn’t matter as long as my mother and brother get to live safe and happy lives. Also, please save Dansy and Bilmyth… and, I guess, the others.”