Imperatrix Fallen: Alith's Cradle

XXVI

The key to an effective interrogation is not just reading the target's words, but also their posture, tone, and movements. Only ask what is necessary. If you already know the answer or can deduce it from a more reliable source, don't ask the question. Jump between topics to check the consistency of their story. Relax your target, and half the task is done.
Manual of Effective Interrogation, by Rola Mantis.

Rue's shots tried to slow down the advancing attack, but none hit their mark. Cisa, who rode among the cavalry, played loud melodies that protected the troops behind her.
Thomas, with a slight hint of nervousness, ordered his forces to prepare for hand-to-hand combat. He was confident in his numbers, nearly twice the size of the attacking force, but Valeria's confidence insulted his intelligence.
Cisa suddenly stopped, as did the entire Victrix forces. Only the cavalry, along with Roth, charged forward. They were too few, and one by one, the riders began to lose their mounts.
"They're children, just children!" Thomas heard through the Rue's exclusive radio channel.
The skirmish dragged on too long—something wasn't right. But before Thomas could grab the radio, the next report came like a lightning strike.
"They won't die! Sir, they keep getting back up!"
Before Thomas could respond, a thousand shots decimated almost all of the Rue vanguard. Cisa, still playing her melodies, signaled to Valeria to fire at the precise moment she lowered their defenses, her invisible wall. The Rue tried to return fire, but Cisa blocked every shot.
"Take aim," Cisa sang to her troops. "We can do this all day."
Cisa gave another signal, and the attack was renewed. Thousands of bullets for hundreds of Rue casualties. Thomas grew impatient. Even though half of Roth's cavalry was being overwhelmed, and Roth himself could only inflict so many casualties alone, Cisa's tactics were wreaking havoc.
"Ignore the riders—surround them," Thomas ordered.
The Rue forces began to encircle Cisa. She tried to close her shield, but the perimeter was too large.
"Roth!" Cisa shouted.
Roth quickly returned to her side.
"Valeria, now!" Roth commanded.
All of Valeria's forces surged forward, and just as they were about to make contact, Cisa struck her final chord. Dozens of threads tightened on Cisa's harp, threads that were tied to hundreds of Rue soldiers scattered between the thirty riders and Cisa. The soldiers were sliced through like butter, causing chaos in the Rue vanguard, as they saw their comrades fall dismembered to the ground. The thousands of Victrix soldiers now seemed like hundreds of thousands before the terrified Rue.
Thomas swallowed hard and gripped his daughter's hand tightly.
"Rafiel, help us," Thomas prayed to the second Angel.
The Angel, with straight hair and a slender face, glided toward the Rue's rear lines. With a single movement of his arm, she created a barrier, similar to Cisa's, but massive in scale. The shield halted Valeria's Victrix advance, causing casualties along its edges, both among the Rue and Valeria's forces. A handful of Victrix soldiers were trapped inside the barrier, quickly cut down by the Rue majority. Outside the barrier, the balance tipped against the Rue, but the battle was far from over.
"We need to fall back—she'll do it again!" Cisa warned Valeria.
"Where the hell is Quinta?!" Valeria yelled, not seeing any Sacra soldiers.
Indeed, the Angel signaled to Thomas to follow, and with another motion, he advanced her own invisible shield a few meters, this time without causing any losses in his own ranks. Roth threw himself against the shield, attacking it irrationally, knowing he couldn't break through. The Angel did it again; Roth managed to retreat, but Blanca and a handful of soldiers couldn't.
Valeria, who narrowly escaped, saw her sister on the other side of the barrier. She called for help, trying to break through the shield, while watching the troops on the other side get slaughtered one by one, Blanca at the end of that line. It was like being back in that closet again. She couldn't scream for help anymore—she just pounded on the barrier, weaker with each strike. Most soldiers had retreated, leaving only Valz and Roth trying to help. Cisa attempted to create a shield over the Angel's barrier, but it shattered with each try. Blanca looked around, seeing soldiers crowding around her to defend her. "Protect Alith!" the men shouted, trying to hold the line. "Who do they think they are...?" Blanca thought as she watched Valeria. "Do they think they can control my fate...? Do they think I owe them something now, owe them my life? My name is Blanca, daughter of my father Agora and sister to my companions..." Blanca ran from the Victrix soldiers' protection toward a group of Rue soldiers. "If I am to die, it will be under my damn control! I refuse to be part of some nobles playing at manifest destiny," she thought, firing her gun into the air to attract the Rue soldiers' attention. "Father, I will see you soon..." Blanca said to herself as a dozen Rue soldiers approached.
Valeria watched, desperate.
"Someone, do something!" she screamed at her soldiers, but no one could help her.
The Rue soldiers were about to reach Blanca. Valeria almost closed her eyes, not wanting to witness her sister's death again, but forced herself to keep them open, fighting the impulse. Suddenly, a rider in full withe armor sped toward Blanca, dismounted quickly, and began fighting the Rue soldiers. He took them down one by one, performing acrobatic maneuvers that defied physics, using a long spear to defend and attack.
"Makia?" Blanca thought, watching the soldier fight fiercely against the Rue until he was shot in the thigh, momentarily bringing him to one knee. The soldier checked that the bullet hadn't pierced his armor and stood up again. Blanca snapped back to reality and rushed to help him. Valeria watched with growing hope.
"Someone help that man!" Valeria yelled to the soldiers on the other side of the barrier.
Blanca fought with all her might alongside the soldier, who took a blow to the head while trying to fend off three opponents at once, causing his helmet to fall to the ground. Blonde hair spilled over the soldier's shoulders as he kept fighting, despite the blood pouring over his eye.
"Quinta!" Valeria shouted when she saw the soldier.
At the same time, she noticed that the Sacra forces were crashing fiercely into the Rue lines from the left flank, trying to reach Quinta. But before her eyes, the Rue soldiers began to surround Quinta and Blanca, and Valeria knew they couldn't hold out much longer.

"It's too high," Makia said, standing beside Valeria, dressed in an Aeterna jacket with his hands in his pockets. His scythe was buried in the ground next to him, and near him lay the first Angel they had faced, now agonizing. "I won't be able to pull the same trick I did with you to try and kill her."

Valeria stood motionless next to Makia.

"Help them, please..." Valeria whispered softly.

Makia looked ahead, through the crowd, and spotted Rafiel. Rafiel tensed and glanced back at Makia. Without a word, Makia grabbed the first Angel by the wings, pressing her naked body against the barrier. He started pulling the wings, bracing one leg against the Angel's back, tearing them off slowly.

"World-killer! Sister-slayer! She was right, your mother, the whore, she doomed us!" Rafiel screamed.

As the flesh tore, the Angel let out sharp cries for help, which only irritated Makia. He sped up the process, ripping off the wings and silencing the screams. Quickly, Makia adorned himself with the fallen Angel's wings and, with crude movements, flew up to the barrier.

The Sacred front was stunned, while most of the Victrix soldiers, those who had been behind the wall when Makia had attempted to kill Valeria, began cheering. "A miracle," Quinta whispered as she collapsed in Blanca's arm, due to her head injury.

Makia soared hundreds of meters. Rafiel dashed toward Carlota and, with a swift motion of her arms, generated a barrier that barely encompassed the two of them. This freed Blanca and the rest of the soldiers from the previous barrier, allowing the battle between the Rue forces and the bulk of the Victrix and Sacred troops to continue.

"He's trying to break through the barrier," Cisa said to Valeria.

Valeria was beside Blanca, checking her for injuries. Blanca ignored her, eyes fixed on Makia. "By shrinking the perimeter, increase the height," she thought.

Makia finally reached the barrier's highest point. Now, on the descent, his wings brushed against the shield walls. By pressing his arms and legs against the inner walls of the barrier, he could slow his fall. Rafiel lowered her arms, deactivating the shield for a second, and reactivating it, severing Makia's wings. Then she generated a flat shield above her and Carlota's heads, causing Makia, now unable to slow his fall, to plummet quickly and without resistance. Blanca aimed her rifle at the Angel but paused when she saw the terror on her face. It wasn't Makia falling—it was his black sword.

Blanca refocused, aimed again, but stopped, again. Carlota was no longer next to the Angel.

"No!" Rafiel screamed just before Makia, who was by her sid in the place where Carlota was before, grabbed her by the mouth with one hand.

With a single pull, Makia tore off the Angel's jaw. He let her cry and writhe for a few moments before splitting her in half at the navel with the sword that had fallen from the sky into his hands.

Makia walked toward Roth, who was fighting alongside Valz, Blanca, and Valeria against a Rue contingent of at least thirty men. Around them, the Rue soldiers cleared a path, careful not to turn their backs to him. Makia didn't attack anyone; he simply strode toward Roth.

"Finish it," Makia said to Roth.

"There are too many," Roth responded, out of breath.

"Didn't you think about that before coming back?"

Valeria noticed the exchange between Makia and Roth. She tried to pay attention, but Blanca still wasn't safe.

"Ma'am!" Valz shouted to Valeria.

Valeria turned and saw a large Victrix force approaching from the rear.

"Alegor..." Valz said heavily.

The advance was fast and disorganized. Valz and Valeria stopped fighting, overwhelmed by despair. Blanca kept fighting, oblivious to everything around her, and Roth just watched, exhausted. The rear guard was about to make contact with the massive attacking force, but they passed by, far beyond them. Without warning, all of them, like animals, lunged at the Rue forces. There was no discipline, the captains were scattered without any apparent pattern, and some soldiers even forgot their weapons in their frenzy to attack.

Behind all the action was Marchit, mounted on Alegor's steed.

The battle was nearing its end.