The Grand Catastrophe

Chapter 22: The City Falls

Leinas was rather happy. No, that was an understatement. She was more than happy, she was ecstatic. One thing that she had been hoping and praying for was a cure for the curse she had. Now, she had been cured by a goddess herself.

She didn’t need the emperor anymore, she could leave. She simply wanted to live now. She simply wanted to go around and talk to people without them flinching away. She wanted men to gawk at her, and watch as she walked away down the street.

Of course, she would have to actually quit she couldn’t just run away. Yet, that was for later. She owed this goddess something fierce. She owed her, her own life. It was a bit strange to think about. Leinas blinked, realizing just how deep in her mind she had delved.

She looked ahead, her horse under her letting out a snort of some sort of emotion. She was in a march. Her forces that she had been given to lead all marched around her on their horses. Down a dirt path they went, Undead at their backs.

Around her, her men glanced at each other within the corners of their eyes. They were all incredibly nervous. Who wouldn’t be in this situation? After all, they were being trailed by an army of the undead.

Leinas couldn’t fault them. She was scared as well. If the goddess Momonga decided that they weren’t worth the alliance, then she could simply kill them all. She sighed as she looked back foreword. Her eyes drifted to all the details on the sides of the road.

They had been trimmed, as of recent. The smell of cut grass still flittered to her nose. The woods lay behind her and her men, the tree tops disappearing in the distance. The city of E-Rantel was up ahead. Soldiers of the Kingdom stood by the sides of its entrance.

No one, other than them, were on the road and street. There wasn’t really any true noise about their arrival, either. Part of her was hoping that there was going to be some sort of introduction before they entered the city itself.

It would be a bit bare as they simply rode ahead in the streets. She looked back at her group, and the Goddess’s group. There they were marching down the road. The group from the newly made Sorceress’s Kingdom was made up of undead death knights, with a carriage in the center of it carrying the goddess herself.

Around them, in the front and back, was Leinas’s group from the empire. They marched along, keeping pace with the undead that flowed around the deity. Leinas frowned as she looked foreword once more, thinking about how this all would work.

They had made a basic plan, the entire collum would make its way into the city, until they made it to the governor's manor where the king was. Reportedly, the chief warrior was to be there as well, along with the first prince.

She hadn’t actually met the man himself, though she had heard that he was a bit of a loudmouth. Her father had wanted her to marry a man like him, originally. She had agreed to something like that, the man that took her all the way back then was brash like him. After she had gotten her curse, he had abandoned her. Now, after the curse, she found that she didn’t like the thought of big and manly men.

She shook her head, now wasn’t the time for such thoughts. She was to introduce the queen herself, along with the dark elf Mare as well. He was a strange lad, that Mare.

She sighed and led her horse back to the carriage that held Lady Momonga. There, as the death knights parted so that she may knock on the door, she did so, and led the horse a bit away from the door as one of the goddess's maids opened it. She peered her head in, and spoke to her.

“The city is just up ahead,” she said, and Momonga nodded her head.

“Of course, the plan stays the same. Though, is there anyone to meet us halfway there? It seems a bit strange that no one has met up with us,” she said, “it almost seems like a trap. Though, I wonder what the plan was, if it was, then.”

“I don’t know my lady,” Leinas simply said, “maybe they couldn’t get past the fear of your men, and didn’t post anyone?” she answered, though it was more like a question.

The goddess nodded her head, and placed a finger on her chin. She seemed mildly confused by the lack of people so far. Maybe they had set them all near the king? That made some sort of sense.

“Let’s keep going. I would send a messenger to the city ahead of us, we’re expected. Keep going, you’re doing fine Leinas,” she ordered with a serene smile on her face.

Leinas nodded her head in confirmation. She backed off with her horse, and closed the door as she peeled off to the front once more. A small blush had grown on her face. She hadn’t realized how beautiful the goddess was truly, until now.

It was like she had been carved from marble, made just for looking at. Was it so wrong that she found that gorgeous? No, no it wasn’t. All in all, she had a job to do, and it wasn’t to fantasize.

She rode forth, and the collum of troops fllowed after her. She frowned as she rode into the city itself, somewhat annoyed by the lack of people watching. Sure, Momonga was undead, but she had also aided the people in fighting off a demon lord.

That counted for something, right? She sighed as she looked ahead, and then finally spotted the troops from the kingdom on either side of the street. There, the people stood behind them, crowded into groups.

They stood with awestruck faces, their forms obscured slightly by the soldiers in front of them. Leinas frowned as she glanced at them. They were mostly silent. Many of them seemed to have left the city before hand. They probably left, in hopes of moving away from the city.

It was a someone weird thing in her mind. The words of Momonga were clear, all would be in her kingdom in time. Why put off the inevitable, when they could just live in her nation?

A good number of people still remained, though. Many of them looked rather poor. These were probably the people that couldn’t afford to leave in the first place. Leinas shrugged in her mind, that just meant that they’d like their new queen more.

When the front part of the procession moved made it past the first of the kingdom troops, many of them pulled trumpets and horns from their backs and waists. Then, they blew upon them, and a tune rang out that thundered in the air.

Some of the men raised banners up then, they were the flags of the Re-Estize Kingdom, the Baharuth Empire, and the newly made Sorceress’s Kingdom of Nazarick. Leinas smiled, if only a little. The kingdom had been given the banners earlier, and now they simply used them.

As the song rang out, her men took that to mean that they should look a bit better. They straightened up, and rode a bit better in their saddles. Even though it was a bit of a forgone conclusion that they people here saw them as professional anyway.

She smiled as they finally made their way to the manor that had used to belong to the leader of the city. In front of it was a wide and somewhat open fountain, water spewing from it and such. Stone clacked under the feet of the horses as they rode around the area.

There they were, the people that would give this city to Lady Momonga in an official capacity. There the King of Re-Estize stood, with his guards around him. The Chief Warrior stood by his side on his right, his firstborn son stood on his left.

All around them, guards stood. Their backs ramrod straight. Sure, they looked impressive, but they were only as strong as the average legionary. She sighed in her mind as the collum moved and stopped in front of the king. Well, it was directly in his line of sight anyway.

It was then that she herself moved to the side of the carriage. The death knights moving out of the way as she got ready to open up the door. A messenger from her side, a legionary, moved to her side as well. There, he grabbed a scroll from his side and opened it up.

“Now, announcing the entrance and introduction of the Queen of the Sorceress’s Kingdom of Nazarick, Queen Momonga!” he called out, and Leinas opened the door.

Out into the air stepped a deity. Out into the air stepped a woman that looked like she had been made to be beautiful. Out into the air stepped Momonga, Overlord of Nazarick.

As she stepped from the carriage, and took a slight breath of the stale air, she looked up and smiled. In that moment, everyone there knew why she was a goddess. Leinas was fairly certain that Prince Barbro fell in love in that instant. She wasn’t sure though.

“Hello Your Highness King Ramposa III. I don’t think we’ve met yet. I’m the Sorceress queen Momonga. Please, just call me Momonga,” she said simply.

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