Devourer

Chapter 88: Safety Zones

Silas seethed as he listened to the report from one of his generals. The attack was supposed to be today but that bitch in the adventurer’s guild had somehow persuaded them to delay it for a day.

“The adventurer guild has seized several districts. These regions have been designated as safety zones and those zones will allegedly be spared from the beast's wrath. No beast will enter the security zone and order will be kept by the adventurers. The condition of such a safety guarantee is that no armed soldiers are to be found. Soldiers may enter but they must be disarmed and unarmoured.” one the generals said as he read off from the report.

“The adventurer guild must have secured this agreement ahead of time. It isn’t possible that they did all this the night before, what’s more Guildmaster Gavril would have to present these safety zones to the Elysians during that meeting.” another general said.

“Traitors all of them! We should seize these security zones at once!” one particularly young general shouted.

“Unwise, part of the agreement is that the moment we attempt to take those safety zones, the Great Beast will initiate the attack immediately. The beastarians were clear, chances are the Hive is right under our feet.” an aging old advisor said.

“If my brother hadn’t failed so catastrophically in Elysia and come back with his tail between his legs, we might not be in this situation.” Silas’s brother said from the side and Silas felt his eyebrow twitch.

Silas shot a glare at his younger brother Dalan who bore similar features to him. Curly brown hair and brown eyes. White skin that was slightly darkened by an olive hue and he had this lanky physique in contrast to Silas's well built body.

“If I died in Elysia, who would lead the defense? You? The person tasked with internal affairs who let almost a fifth of our capital be stolen from under us? What in the name of the searing hells is your spymaster doing?” Silas spat in response. Dalan’s face curled into a snarl and he was about to retort but they were cut off.

“Enough.” a low deep voice said. Silas turned to see his father King Salen with his head of white hair glaring at the table.

“Save your squabbling. Once this is over you can finish your argument, either in this life or the next.” King Salen growled.

“We cannot do anything about the safety zones. But we can use them like defensive fortifications. If the Hive cannot move through them, they are effectively barriers. The Hive has a numbers advantage, we can use the safety zones as areas to cover our flanks.” Silas said.

“And what if they break this agreement?” an aging general asked.

“The current safety zone damages our defense efforts in ways beyond morale. As an earlier report has indicated the conscripts are defecting into safety zones as we speak. The position of the safety zones are designed to allow the citizens easy access into the area. That means the paths into it are less defendable.

So we have a few options on the table.” Silas said as he looked down at the map on the table.

“We can pull back to a defensive zone within High Town and Old Town and abandon the rest of the city. This will leave our soldiers on the external wall stranded. Or we can abandon the external walls completely and set up defensive positions in the inner city. All of the above plans carry significant risks” Silas said as he gestured to the map.

“As you are aware, the safe zone close to the southern slums is where the adventurer guild operates, the small section north of the adventurer guild is the location of the high church. The church's involvement is not surprising. When offered the chance to save the commoners most priests and priestesses will take that chance.

The white doves the church uses as messenger birds have been flying consistently for the past week. Many have arrived from the direction of Elysia. As you know those doves are sacrosanct so we have not been able to shoot them down like the average messenger ravens. No doubt the church in Elysia has advised the church here to surrender.

The luxury merchant districts of upper and lower Gildton have been converted to safety zones. The People’s Church and People’s Plaza that lay south to Lower Gildton have been consecrated by the People’s Church so that is now part of the safety zones as well.” Silas said.

“As it stands now, the best option would be to focus on the inner city. The exterior city is too difficult to defend with the main highway running through the center. The highway is designed to accommodate military parades so it’s extremely wide, making it difficult to defend. Now with the security zones it makes it even riskier to defend.” Silas said as he took a brush stained with red ink and began to draw on the map.

“These are the main gates into the inner city. The gates facing South Town and the Southern Slums are easy to defend. As per the original plan, since South Town and the Southern Slums are primarily made of wooden structures I have filled them with barrels containing flammable alchemical substances. We will then light the two areas with fire magic and turn them into walls of fire to block the advance. It won’t stop the burrowing Hive but it will block off any human advance and potentially catch some Elysians in the fire.

The People’s Plaza blocks one of the gates and the High Church blocks another. The sheer amount of commoners compacted into those locations will limit the Elysian’s avenue of attack. Which leaves most of our soldiers available to hold the area inside the inner city and the inner wall.

It would be best to pull most of the soldiers from the outer city and just have some soldiers tasked with guarding the main gates and choke points to slow down the Elysians. We can expect the main fighting to be within the inner city. Destruction will be rampant, but if the Elysians wish to rule Voleria after this battle, they will have to use restraint. We can use that to our advantage.” Silas said.

“Or perhaps they don’t care and simply intend to use fear to suppress the population.” Dalan muttered in response in an obvious attempt to provoke Silas.

“If that was true. Then they can just collapse every building in the city by destroying the foundations of the buildings from below. Then they contaminate the groundwater, if you recall Tralis is supported by a massive underwater reservoir that fills from the river to the west. Then they sit and wait for two weeks and watch us tear each other apart in desperation.” the Royal Beastiarian said.

“If their plan is total destruction then the Great Beast can just fly and rake the city with fire. So the only viable defense plan is to assume restraint.” Silas said and the generals all nodded in agreement.

“So are we agreed on the plan?” Silas asked and everyone except his brother Dalan and his father the king nodded in response.

“Good, prepare what you can, begin pulling the soldiers back. Try to maintain what order you can.” Silas said with a nod that was returned by the generals.

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Arias dragged Junie as they forced their way through the crowd trying to get to the safety zone. Word had spread like wildfire and honestly a single day is not enough time to evacuate the population in a meaningful way. Arias was spending the last night with Junie in a tavern, after the ordeal in Elysia the two of them knew exactly what was in store. Last night they decided if it was going to be their last night in this life they might as well enjoy it. Technically a priestess wasn’t supposed to lay with a man but she honestly didn’t care anymore. Arias was engaged so what he did was infidelity but then again it was probably his last night in this life.

Or so they thought…

When they woke up the entire tavern was deserted, they later found out what was happening from a family that was rushing towards the safety zone. Arias immediately dumped all his arms and armor before rushing off to the safety zone with Junie in tow.

They headed for the safety zone at the People’s Church, Junie was a priestess so they reasoned they would have a better chance of getting into the People’s Church safety zone. Thus far they have not been able to confirm the suspicion due to the absolute chaos around them.

Arias held Junie close as they tried to squeeze past the throngs of desperate screaming people. Arias looked to the left and saw a man holding up a toddler in his arms as he tried desperately to squeeze through the throng of desperate people.

Then he heard a cry of pain and he turned to see a pair of men fighting in the middle of the crowd. Fists and elbows were flying, some connected with those nearby but so great was the panic the people around them didn’t even care. Afterall what was a fist and an elbow compared to the claws and fangs of monsters?

Arias continued to try and squeeze through then inevitably he ran into a very angry and desperate man. Arias’s eyes widened as he watched him turn and raise his fist. Arias instinctively raised his arm to block the strike but the man paused. Arias looked up to see him staring at Junie in shock and more specifically at her priestess garb. The man paused then lowered his hand and surprisingly turned to try and make a path for Junie.

To say Arias was surprised was an understatement. He wasn’t the most devoted to the faith but he honestly didn’t expect that man to actively help them. Yes holy men and women were sacrosanct but Arias really didn’t expect this fact to be registered in the blind hysteria. He could hear screams as people were trampled and the sounds of fights breaking out in the crowd.

“MAKE WAY FOR THE PRIESTESS!” the man roared at the group in front of them. They turned around at the words and when they saw Junie they instantly tried to make way.

Arias walked forward dumbfounded, he held Junie close just in case. It suddenly struck him that Junie was most definitely going to be his ticket into the safety zone. It wasn’t long before the two of them reached the front of the crowd and he saw the line of adventurers holding the crowd back. A warrior in grizzled black armor looked at the two of them for a moment before reaching out and pulling the two of them past the line.

Arias and Junie went sprawling from the force and they landed hard on the cobble stand. After standing up he turned around and saw the adventurer’s letting people through in orderly streams. It made sense the last thing they needed was a stampede.

“Sister.” a male voice said from behind them. The pair of them turned to see a priest approach.

“Father.” Junie said with a small bow.

“Thank you for delivering the revered sister to safety.” the Father said as he nodded at Arias.

“Father, what was the agreement with the beast?” Arias asked curiously.

“The Great Beast has promised safety to the members of the faith. The Great Beast has also promised violence to those who would strike a member of the faith as well as to those who would violate sacred grounds.” the Father replied as he walked forward and began leading them towards the massive white structure that was the People’s Church. If that was common knowledge then it made sense why everyone let them through. Strike a member of the faith and receive violence? Yeah might as well just let Junie through.

“Father, how do we know the Great Beast will keep his word?” Junie asked tentatively, the horror of Elysia no doubt still seared into her mind. Last night when Arias was sleeping he awoke to Junie crying in her sleep. He remembers cradling her against him as she wept from the night terrors.

“We don’t, we can only put our faith in the divine to deliver us from this crisis. May the divine protect the faithful.” the father said as he brought the rosary around his neck to his lips and kissed it.

“The divine protects.” Junie said as she did the same with her rosary.

“The divine protects.” the Father said with the barest of tremors in his voice.

“Father, where did this promise come from? Did the Great Beast send a representative?” Arias asked warily, the last thing he wanted was some talking monster roaming about in the city.

“No, Guildmaster Gavril of the adventurer’s guild went beyond the wall to parley. She had highlighted this plan to us before that fateful excursion.” the Father replied.

“But the city is locked down, isn’t it Father?” Junie asked.

“Yes, but Guildmaster Gavril, bless her brave soul, was once a mithril rank adventurer. She is an older woman now, in her fourth decade upon this world. Yet she grew old in a profession where most die young, that fact alone should give some credence to her abilities.” the Father replied.

Arias continued to follow the Father deeper into the church then he saw someone emerge and he balked visibly at the sight.

“Mother Justina!” Junie shouted as she ran forward and Arias watched as Mother Justina turned in surprise.

How the hell is she here? Shouldn’t she be in Elysia?

“Father Ingram, did she just arrive? I was looking for her.” Mother Justina said as she looked up at Father Ingram.

“Yes, this young man was escorting her through the crowd.” Father Ingram said.

“You are dutiful, I charged you with bringing her safely back to Elysia. I didn’t expect to find you guarding her still.” Mother Justina said gently.

“Well… I couldn’t just let her wade through that by herself… she might get trampled.” Arias replied as he averted his gaze. He definitely didn’t deserve this praise considering the two of them were a tangle of sweaty and shuddering limbs just the night before.

“Mother Justina, how are you here?” Junie asked.

“The Elysians brought me along as a witness to their deeds. I persuaded those that I could to surrender and I ensured that the war was conducted in accordance with the laws of the divine.” Mother Justina said wearily.

“Was it?” Arias asked tentatively and Mother Justina nodded slowly.

“The Great Beast’s army conformed to the divine laws but they do not share our human sentimentality. There are no laws covering the bodies of the deceased so the Great Beast’s hive devours them to make more soldiers. The laws do not cover quarter and mercy during times of combat, so no quarter or mercy is given.

They tow the line in a manner that is distinctly inhuman. The divine law stipulates that civilians must be protected during times of war. I saw a Elysian soldier attempt to rape a young girl in an alley back in Voler after the city fell. I approached shouting for him to stop but I noticed a group of the beasts were just staring at the scene. I didn’t think much of it at the time but then I heard the girl let out an ear splitting scream. Then the beasts pounced…” Mother Justina said as her gaze grew distant.

“They snatched the man off her and began tearing him apart. Later when I tended to the girl I found her nethers bloodied. I asked the Great Beast on the matter and he told me the instructions were to kill anything conducting rape. Apparently the line given was the moment of penetration. So the beasts were waiting to see if that man actually went through with it.

The beasts were the type that mostly served as laborers. They resembled horse sized wolves and had no blades for arms. The man must have thought that they were harmless laborers meant for pulling carts.

I do not know what possessed him to do such a thing in that dark alley. But those beasts had teeth and if a single one of those beasts can pull a filled wagon then imagine what they can do to a man. Unfortunately for him, there were four of the beasts on standby waiting for them to be reassigned to wagons. In the end the man was in pieces and the beasts calmly dragged the bits of him deeper in the alley. They dumped the pieces in a pile and I watched as a hole appeared under the pile of flesh before reforming like nothing else happened.” Mother Justina said as she turned to look at Arias and Junie.

“Heed my words you two, the Great Beast has kept every promise thus far. Every promise to the letter, but not one step more. While men live according to their own personal sensibilities, these beasts do not…” Mother Justina said before sighing and casting her gaze at the crowd of civilians being slowly let through.

Men fight for their own reasons

The Hive fights only to obey the orders of their master…

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