Eodem: A Rifle and Sword Adventure (Complete)

Chapter 54: To Bleed the Bleeders

The Capital had been violated; Devastation had been brought to Haringpoint as the vulgarian Otherworlders defiled the most sacred of bastions of Slaegia by their profane presence.

The panic within the Senate had been intense with guards aiding fainting Noble Lady's and soothing the outraged Lords and Princes of this most unconscionable of denouements.

All around the Capital, reports of routs and defilements soared through the Imperial Elite's ears that many began to despair, doomsaying that the End of all Times had finally came. For Emperor Uldin, His Imperial Majesty of the Slaegian Empire, he has been cruelly trapped in an unceasing yet oh so graphic daymare. A horror that he could not wake up from no matter how hard he fought to rouse away from its grasp. Such manifestations of his many aged anxieties have now come to seek its fruition for the long-ruling steward of Ysanigrad. All around Uldin, the very long-aged enemies of the Empire appear before Haringpoint's enshrined burghal heart: The Lich-King Martainne marching side by side with the Goblin Hordes and the Beastfolk Tribes had lain their obscene presence upon the immaculate city of Haringpoint.

Try as his Legions had might, but their strength alone was simply not enough to withstand such a cataclysm. All the lifetimes of diligent work by his ancestors and generations of the Slaegian peoples have begun to crumble, neigh, burn before their very eyes as the Otherworlders devour all they touch. Worse, some Legionaries report that the Shareholder herself is butchering the Fellowship of the Light along with her Vampiric Mistress, the corrupted Elven Princess, and the treasonous Karliah. He couldn't comprehend that Chosen One known as 'the Shareholder' and secondly Lady Silverdane would turn their swords against their people without hesitation or thought. Were there previous attempts to dispel their enthralling too weak to disenchant whatever spell they were permeated by? Or were their wills held a deeper of tales behind such seditious acts?

Yet despite all of those betrayals, the most frigid of them all had now braved his treacherous head for all of the Empire to see: The sight of the rebellious Vassal-Prince himself, Clovich Rian who had vivaciously announced his treasonous act of 'Amelioration' atop his Demonic Steed. Brazenly staking his Claim upon the Imperial Throne for his own selfish grandeur, boasting his patronage to his new Demonic Masters. After all that the Empire had given to him, his land, his titles, his wealth, and yet it was not enough? Such a callow announcement of his delusions, now insultingly unfolding into reality before the Emperor's eyes would have enraged the aged sovereign to a temper he had never fathomed of seething.

What great transgression that he and the Empire had done that the Gods abandoned all favor of to him and his people?

"My Lord." Ser Huguet hurriedly bowed before the Emperor.

"What more grief can you give me?" reddened tears fell from Uldin's eyes as he looked at the Legion's Marshall.

"I bring none milord." Huguet explained himself. "But your bodyguards, the Teaghlaigh Garda urge you and as many of your Court and Imperial Possessions depart from the Capital at once whilst there is still a chance for escape."

The Emperor caught his heavy respiration. "Escape... Escape... We must flee away from here..." walking urgently as his weary body could to his luggage and his two children.

"Milord I am afraid we are not likely to save all of our possessions." Grandmaster Owyne approached the Emperor. He was accompanied by a now placid albeit anxious Faithleann, Mita the Crow Master and Ser Reikdorf.

The Crow Master crashed her fist by the wall. Her suspicions of their previous Elven guest confirmed, "That Black Elf lied to us!" Mita snarled. "There is no other means to explain how the Otherworlder's came here so fast than his army WAS defeated by the Demons. 'I delayed them by one week'." The pale woman mocked his condescending la-di-da accent. She had always distrusted in general with the Elves of Alfel Nora, although she is marginally allied to say the politest of terms with the Entente, she never hides her disdain for the Black Tree Pact's. Always seem to eloquently speaking in words with double meanings.