I Am The Truth II

Chapter XXXV: They Came for Us All

A few years' worth of time, combined with painstaking developments to reach where they were now. The number of people that all had to work together for a single goal, all the while evading the many opponents that crossed their path.

Kiyoshi was the last hurdle to overcome, and when the news spread of his death, the Necromancers knew their time had finally come.

The first that came was a massive power outage that struck Felora, Riverstead, Ferndale, and the other big cities. Having happened in the dead of night, the effect was sudden. Street lights, computers, desk lamps, water lines, and almost every major infrastructure used in everyday life was at once down. Felora, for one, saw the entire forest city plunge into near-total darkness. Some buildings had backup light systems, but the sudden shift in atmosphere overall didn't have too much of an initial response. Blackouts were to be expected in a tropical area like this, and so there wasn't much reaction as everyone waited for the power to come back on; after all, there was currently a massive storm. They waited minutes, which lengthened into an hour, and then two hours... and then three. And in that time, the Necromancers executed the second step of their plan.

In the apparent darkness that took up most of the attention, ninety-five of the one-hundred-and-eighty-seven lands that constituted the feudal kingdom suddenly found that their lords had been slain at nearly the same time; the Legionnaires that had entered into collaboration had ensured that every major Lord of importance was being tracked tirelessly by one of their expert assassins, avoiding all the bodyguards and other security measures in the process. And chief among these was Nyoko himself, the king of Felden. His entire family had been eliminated, spare an infant son that had been safely evacuated to a remote location. It took another three hours before the discovered bodies began to leak through word of mouth before panic broke loose. All over, law and order began to collapse, the effects from the blackout that pervaded now making a much bigger impact. The armed forces were at a loss as with the power grid inoperative, the King and his Royal Cabinet all assassinated, and the fact that their government had been breached, there was no understanding of what measures were to be taken.

And in this chaos, the Necromancers finally made their public appearance. They took full control of the government, having bribed or manipulated many of the human officials to inadvertently help their cause, Eddie being one such example. As the crisis unfolded throughout the next day, hundreds of Felina soldiers resigned in protest over the regime that had swiftly usurped power, refusing to enforce the rule of this Coalition-backed party. However, the Necromancers had planned far ahead, using the Legion to refill the depleting ranks.

In short, Felden, the last of the feudal kingdoms, had ceased to exist. The fiefs of the slain nobility were immediately taken by the Legion, the remaining nobility of the land going into hiding as their small, regional forces immediately came into conflict with the now-corrupted Feldenese Royal Military. The many complicated citizenship laws that had been in place all this time were all effectively scrapped, ensuring that there would be no means of voting the Necromancers out of power. It was a relatively bloodless coup, and by far the most ingenious in history.

Amid all this chaos was Lucan, sitting in the now-dark bar. He had made it back, though he had come to see that the three Felinas had been taken. He had found out about Kiyoshi's death as well as Eddie's betrayal as well. It was just him now... alone with his thoughts in the darkness of night, twenty-three hours since the overthrow. He had tried hard to find them, especially Niika, but the Necromancers had effectively sabotaged every aspect of his life till he was stuck. And in those moments, a sense of hopelessness came upon him.

Was this the freedom he wanted? Though he had never been one to show his loyalty to Felden, it certainly didn't imply that he was against it. Kiyoshi had worked tirelessly his whole life for a cause that transcended his own self, and only now did Lucan begin to appreciate what kind of sacrifice that needed. Through it all, the captain had still come to rescue him, a thought that made guilt well up inside the man.