Steel and Mana

When the next day came, Yuri dragged Pion over to the construction site, where around 500 enslaved citizens were being worked to dig channels along fixed lines, breaking up the streets of the city and demolishing buildings that were in the way. They had to be precise, and if their work was not to the specified measurements, the slaves were often beaten to death on the spot.

Nobody asked a question about where Yuri got him, and because she and her gang were one of the primary supervisors, their plan went on smoothly. Pion's role was simple. While working on the channels, he had to memorize their form, where it began, and where it ended so that later on, they could superimpose it onto the maps they had.

"Don't you dare break my favorite plaything!" Yuri laughed, warning the other Scorc warriors who were already used to her antics, chortling and understanding what she meant by it. In their eyes, Yuri was simply enjoying the payback for what the Ishillians did to her and kept Pion around as a personal pleasure toy.

For Pion, the work wasn't that harsh; what was hard was the constant verbal abuse and seeing others, weaker slaves, being whipped to death around him. He endured it, and his mind tried to close out his surroundings, focusing on memorizing every line they were made to dig. This mission was what made him understand why there were so many different classes in his training, where they were studying instead of running around or lifting weights.

Almost two weeks went by like that before they finally had something tangible. In the hideout of Yuri, a practically completed map was developed through it, and parts of it were copied into a smaller letter and sent out with pigeons every night.

"Does this make any sense to you, Lady Yuri?" Pion asked, looking at the sketches and intercrossing lines on a local, older city map.

"It is a magic formation... for sure. As to what for, I can't tell. But it has to be a weapon!" She pointed to the middle of it, where slaves were dying in accidents almost every second day, assembling an obelisk-like structure from materials provided by the Scorc army.

"What about these? Future mass graves?" Pion murmured, tracing his fingers around deep holes that were left empty for now, but most of the slaves thought the same when walking past them.

"No." Yuri replied at once, shaking her head, "I know enough by now to realize those are for future CC inserts. We already sniffed it out; multiple obelisks are still in their boxes and waiting to be built. You just began with the biggest one in the middle. That is going to be the tallest, while the others are all different in size... From what I saw, all of their tops will have a pretty big CC sitting on them."

"The Sovereign will know what it means, for sure!"

"I hope so..."

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Throughout our journey, we managed to evade several local nobles' forces. On the surface, we looked like a mercenary group, and if we stopped at some roadside inn or traveling merchants visited our camp, we always told the same story. We were on our way to the east to earn some coin by joining the war. Of course, if someone with authority had stopped us, we would have told them that our small group was sent forth by my uncle and me, hoping to help the Empire's efforts.

Would we be laughed at? Most likely. Would they be suspicious of us? I don't think so, not with how they view our regions. My only fear was that they would try to conscript us, and then how was I supposed to infiltrate the city and get my wife back?

So, if we could, we avoided bigger cities and only rode through small towns and villages, letting the horses rest when required. I can't lie; I felt a bit nostalgic. It reminded me of how it was when I was starting out in the army. Deep down, I may have missed this unique feeling, the camaraderie, talking with my soldiers, joking around the campfire... it was just like in my old life. They needed a little time to ease up toward me, but after that, I think they finally saw me as another soldier and not as just their ruler.

Who I was most surprised by was Merlin. He never complained, and amongst all of us, he had the best stamina. I don't know what's up with him or if it is because of his access to magic, but he only had three or four hours of sleep and was full of energy once again for the next sixteen hours. Hell, he was pushing us on to travel further before making camp every day. I was slowly getting how he could do so many things at once... he barely needed sleep!

When we arrived at the forest leading us towards the city of Roria, the weather was beginning to warm up, and I was sure that the snow would start melting very soon. It would turn the whole region into a muddy hell, so the armies of the Empire would have a hard time walking across this region, which also means we would be stuck if we were not careful. As I was thinking about that, we heard a bird's cry as a crow landed on Oleg's shoulder, signaling us the presence of my soldiers. Soon enough, we eventually found the hidden camp of our scouts, and hearing their reports, I could breathe in relief that Yuri was okay and alive within the occupied city. The subsequent days proceeded with me going over all that they learned, including studying the smuggled-out city maps while Merlin was examining the formation, trying to fix its errors and decipher its purpose.

"I think I get it, My Lord!" He came to me when I walked out of my tent one morning, holding a mug with hot coffee in it, trying to wake myself up.

"What did you find?" I yawned, listening to his explanations and watching him holding his much more complex drawings than what Pion and Yuri sent back. It was a good idea to bring him along.

"This is for sure an attacking formation! It has one central focus point and four auxiliary projections. By Lady Yuri's description, they are adorned with a skull-sized CC at their top... I also managed to break up the formation because it is made out of eight zones, each being able to be operated by one mage!"

"So we can safely say that they have at least eight wizards present who will control this formation. Do we know its elemental state?"

"Not really, but my current guess is that it has something to do with light!"

"Hm... could be a laser..." I murmured, "Or some kind of beam-weapon. Yuri did describe that when the Justice appeared, there was a blinding light from somewhere in the city, hitting the ship in the air, forcing it to flee."

"What is a laser?"

"I will tell you when we are back home! So... the Kingdom is building a devastating weapon, which also means they are here to hold the city for the long haul. This could be advantageous for us!"

"Hm?"

"If the Empire is bogged down with this war for multiple years, they will have less and less time to scrutinize us. So... I will send a letter to Yuri to NOT sabotage it. Instead, I want more information. I want to know more about the obelisks, the CC on top of them, and how it is built! The best option would be to see what it is capable of."

"What does that mean, My Lord?" He asked, looking up at me, tilting his head to the right.

"That we may stay here for a little bit longer than expected..."

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Inside the city, Yuri was reading Leon's handwritten letter, unable to contain her wide smile and girlish giggling that sometimes escaped her mouth. She had already memorized it, but reading it repeatedly made her feel strangely cheerful.

"Lady Yuri, are you sure? I could still go on!" Pion spoke up, interrupting her thoughts, yet they had already reviewed their plans multiple times in the past few days.

"Yes!" She answered with an annoyed sigh, looking at the bruised and battered face of his. Even though he took multiple beatings while working at the construction site, his eyes were full of vigor, something that irritated multiple Scorc warriors who caught it. "I told you, the construction is coming to an end, and they will kill off every slave when that happens. We need to get you out of the city before that."

"But..."

"No buts!" Yuri commanded, sitting up straight, making the soldier go to his knee and lowering his head.

"My apologies, Lady Yuri!"

"It's okay..." She shrugged, shaking her head, softening her voice, "Tomorrow, it's my group's responsibility to take the corpses out of Roria and bury them before they begin rotting within the city's limits. They need to see your remains, or there will be questions asked about where you have gone, and we want to avoid that! So keep to the script and let out some screams through the night as usual!"

Their plan was simple. Tomorrow, when they would begin collecting the dead bodies, Pion would be amongst them, carted out with the story that Yuri had finally snapped and killed him because he wasn't bending his knee. Something that was already displayed many times when she beat him down in front of others. Within the rest of the slaves, Yuri and her gang were seen as one of the worst possible people to serve under.

"We can't save everyone." Yuri continued, "And I don't intend to. You read Leon's message, too! He doesn't want to interfere with the Kingdom's plans; he wants them to face off against the Empire as long as possible."

"Then how will you leave?" Pion asked, sounding worried for her.

"That... I don't know yet. But I will let Leon think of something up for that problem. You should focus and clear your mind! Getting you out will be... nasty business."

"I am prepared, My Lady... I am the soldier of Avalon; I won't fail the Sovereign!"

Yuri wasn't joking about it, and Pion knew it too. When morning came, he was being carried out on a cart through the city by Yuri and her gang while they picked up the rest of the dead slaves who also had their last night spent in Rorira. When soldiers realized that Pion had 'died,' there were good laughs and jokes all around; some even kicked the 'corpse' lying on the cart, spitting on the half-covered body.

Initially, there were some doubts within Yuri, but seeing that Pion didn't react to it at all made her much more confident. Still, to make sure someone wouldn't come up and stab him for fun, other unfortunate Ishillians' remains were quickly thrown onto his body. It was something that would have made many others freak out, but Pion was repeating the same mantra within himself, focusing on his mission only.

"For Avalon, for the Sovereign."

The smell outside of the city then became even worse as the bodies displayed on the stakes were in different stages of decomposition. Even if they were lined up a few kilometers from the main gate, the stench washed over everybody when the wind blew in the wrong direction. For Yuri, it should not have been something bizarre... yet, after getting used to Avalon, she couldn't help but feel disturbed as they were dragging the carts along. Passing by the many other deep, freshly dug ditches filled with spikes, still water from the melting some, and floating corpses made her feel deep disgust rising in her heart.

She could see the many watchtowers, soldiers keeping alert, scanning the horizon for the Ishillian army, but, more importantly, if the Justice would reappear, trying to approach the city. The vast flatland before Roria was now a death field, not just because of the countless corpses but because of the hundreds of traps, ditches, and holes dotting the land. One wrong step and one would land in a pit of spikes. With the melting snow, the landscape had turned into a muddy hellhole, and with every step, it was like someone was trying to drag them down the underworld. Running was out of the question, and even if they had tried to, the soldiers in the watchtowers would have been able to aim their bows and shoot them down before they reached the treeline in the distance.

"Here!" Yuri shouted, heading further away from a tall lookout, straight to where there was a freshly dug mass grave with the fewest remains thrown into it. As they began emptying their carts, Pion's body was the last one to be thrown into it. "Wait until it's dark, or you die... Good luck, Pion..." She whispered into his ear while stuffing their last report into his rags before they left him there.

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"My Lord! Our scout is back!" Oleg hurriedly said, coming into my tent. When I walked out, hurrying after him, the scenery made my eyes shrink as the poor guy looked like he was taking a beating every day, not giving his skin a chance to regenerate.

"Sovereign!" He said, going to his knee, but I quickly pulled him up.

"What happened...? Ugh... you smell like you just climbed out of a grave!" I added with a smile, watching his mud-covered body.

"Ah..." He flinched, and when he began retelling what had happened, I couldn't help but twitch my mouth.

I mentally recorded that Pion must be given extra pay when we got back and forced to rest for a while. I think I will also ask Mikan to speak with him privately. I know that right now, the adrenaline is still working, and he is still feeling numb to all this... but I will have to make sure he can deal with the images within his mind later on. Maybe I should tell Mikan about what little I know of psychology.

I saw the dead on the stakes, and I watched from the forest how people were used for digging holes in the hard ground, filling them with spikes, and if someone couldn't take it or fell over, they just left the body there, uncaring. Even my stomach felt that this was a bit too much...

"Oleg, bring him something strong!" I smiled at Pion, patting his arms. "Take a bath, my soldier, and then, we will go through what you experienced inside the city in detail!"

"Ah, yes, yes, My Sovereign! I almost forgot, here!" He mumbled, taking out the thick, rolled-up parchment, and when I opened it, I couldn't help but smile.

It was a beautifully complete bundle, with the current layout of the city, patrol routes, and rotation with all the traps they knew about marked on it. After I reached the last one, I couldn't help but chuckle, as there was one short comment left on the bottom of it, with Yuri's handwriting.

"Hurry up, I want you to fuck me already!"