The Grand Catastrophe

…

Remedios Custodio rode her steed through the capital. While there weren’t demons, demi-humans, or undead running through the place there was a great disturbance. Civilians ran to and fro. Custodio didn’t really know what had happened. She wasn’t one to think too hard on politics.

Yet, she had been told that there was a enemy in the capital. That enemy was apparently very powerful, as she had killed a large portion of the forces stationed in the central plaza of the capital. Her sister rode behind her, while her queen as by her side as well.

Their forces had gone ahead in front of her to soften up the target, and distract her. This may or may not have worked. She didn’t know, nor had they retreated. The foe had yet to bring any backup, nor did she seemingly have any plan other than, “Kill Everything and cause a ruckus.”

Custodio’s tactical acumen told her that this was more too break them in a simple attack, rather than plan out a whole war. This foe wasn’t here to fight them. She was here to sow chaos and cut off their leadership. That way, the demi-humans could wreak havoc on the country itself.

Sooner, rather than later, they reached the central plaza. Then, as the sight before her clicked into her mind, horror set in. The forward forces that they had sent here, they were all dead. Their corpses had yet to even start to cool, yet to rot as the sun above her head shone.

It was a utterly terrifying. As soon as her mind settled on the image, her whole world turned red. She then looked up, at the demonic looking woman standing in the center. The Paladin captain verbally growled, and rushed her horse to charge the monster. The horse, being not-a-smart-horse, agreed and charged forth.

The demon looking up from her reading, she was reading a book, sighed and lashed out with a back hand strike at the paladin. The blow evaporated the horse, but Custodio hopped from the beast at the last second, and dived down on the demon with a slash from her holly blade.

The demon took the blow on a set of elongated claws. She then threw off the paladin. Yet, she was forced to sidestep a lance of magic as the queen chanted out a spell and fired. The demon then went in for the attack. She spoke as well, but Custodio was only half listening.

“Who starts a conversation like that, I just got here,” she said as she slashed with her claws.

The other woman responded with a block and a stab. Then, she dived below a swipe again and stabbed into the demon’s belly. The demon rudely ignored the idea of being gutted, and instead flew back from the force by a dozen feet or two.

“You killed my men!” she shouted back.

“Yes, but really no. They killed themselves, after all,” she said, and continued as the fight wore on, “I was simply trying to get the attention of an old enemy of mine. She’s been ignoring me, after all.”

“Who!?” was all that she responded with.

“Momonga of course,” she stated calmly, and kicked Custodio in the gut.

…

“Should we just leave?” Holy Queen Calca asked, her face a mixture of confusion and worry.

“What do you mean?” Kelart Custodio asked, her head tilting to the side.

“I mean, like, look at them,” she said, and pointed to the two of them fighting.

Her paladin captain and good friend, Remedios, was trading blows with the demoness in the middle of the plaza. They were really going at it too. With her paladin making grunting sounds and the demoness just kind of snarking at her every now and then.

She kept going on and on about the god-queen in the north, like she was an old enemy and such. She was starting to kind of sound needy too. It was kind of uncomfortable to just stand there. Part of her just wanted to leave and go get reinforcements. After all, this didn’t really seem to be going anywhere.

Calca nudged her horse to back up slowly, but surely. Sooner, rather than later, she was clear of the plaza. Kelart stayed behind to aid here sister in the fight, but she didn’t think it would come to that. The demon just seemed to be distracting them.

The idea that the demoness was distracting them came out in her head after a split second, and she sighed. She had had so much work to do. So many people were calling her to denounce the new nation on the horizon. Many more people were urging caution.

Now, she felt like she would need her aid. After all, the demi-humans were pouring all over her home. She needed some extra help if she was going to win whatever type of war this was.

She urged her horse to gallop back to the palace, and she was off. She could see and hear the guards and soldiers escorting the people to safe locations away from the fighting. All the while, different sections of the city were being boarded up.

As she was halfway to the palace, a paladin upon horseback rode up next to her and told her some extremely piss poor news, and she sighed in her mind. This day had just gone from bad to terrible. After all, what kind of day had hundreds die?

“My queen, Demi-human forces have been spotted on the horizon,” he said simply.

“Where are they coming from?” she asked in return.

“From the east ma’am,” he told her.

“Any other forces?” he shook his head no, “get a scouting force out and have them come back quick. Then, prepare the civilians that can fight for war. Make sure that the civilians that can’t are ready to leave. Send out messages to the neighboring cities for backup.”

He nodded, and made his way to the central barracks and paladin offices. She sucked in a breath then, and kicked her horse to push farther. The day hadn’t ended in their defeat yet. She had a city to defend. Maybe she should also call the Momonga person for some help?

…