The Grand Catastrophe

Chapter Nine: War and Faith

Neia looked at the woman in front of her with tired, but frantic, eyes. It was one thing to make an impression on someone. It was another thing to be suddenly thrust at them as if they were about to tear the people behind you apart if they didn’t. What part of her life had led to this?

Neia then looked to the side of the older woman, and saw the girl that she had managed to convince the paladin captain to come with, despite her inhuman nature. She perfectly still. One of her eyes was covered. Her orange hair glittered in the sun from the window at the side. A short blade was sheathed at her hip, and her dappled green camo armor shifted in the sunlight.

This was Lady Shizu, who was very good at killing things, as Lady Calvaria had told them. Remedios hadn’t believed them, until she had wound up on the ground, face in the dirt after a spar. Neia had secretly been hoping for her loss, but it had been too embarrassing for her to laugh out loud at that.

She was also cute, and the recently realized sexuality of Neia was finding it hard to not stare at her. She didn’t know if Shizu noticed, but she was trying to make sure she didn’t. She was failing for the most part.

“Neia,” Calvaria started speaking, and she looked at the dark haired woman, “I haven’t ever been to the Holy Kingdom, what’s it like? At least compared to my own home,” she asked, and Neia looked out to the rolling hills of the country side of her home nation.

Lady Momonga had portalled them all the way to the border of the nation itself, as that was as far as she had ever gone to their home. The sun was reaching the height of its assent. The light of the sun and the wind of the sky made the outside world look like paradise rather than the hell it currently was.

“It’s bigger than your home. There's a lot less undead for one. It’s a lot more militaristic than Nazarick,” she said, as she struggled for the words, less because of philosophy, and more because she just didn’t have a large lexicon, “It feels more solid culturally, if that makes sense?”

“It does,” Shizu said, and Calvaria nodded.

Neia let out a little smile, and Calvaria looked out the window as she did so. Shizu, on the other hand, tilted her head. Then, she lifts up her hand and plunges it into a sudden a black hole in the middle of the air.

From this hole, after her hand came out, was a plastic thing. Neia didn’t know what plastic was though. It was a little colored piece of what looked like paper with a strange writing and a little version of Shizu giving a thumbs up on it. Calvaria looked at it, and smiled as Shizu pulled back the paper backing and placed the now sticky side on Neia’s cheek.

Neia blinked at this, and tried to get the sticker off her face. She couldn’t, it was stuck. She then proceeded to try and get it off for the next five minutes as Calvaria silently shook with laughter.

“Don’t,” was all Shizu said as Neia continued.

“Why, what is this?” Neia asked in response.

“You’re cute. Cute things get stickers. The supreme ones said so,” was all Shizu said.

Neia blinked in mild shock yet again. Her literal god told her that you were supposed to do this? Then the first part of the sentence entered her mind. Neia’s cheeks lit up red as Calvaria finally started laughing out loud.

Neia looked down at her feet, and blushed up a storm. Calvaria shook her head in more exasperated humor than anything. Then she herself reached out into a black space just as Shizu had, and pulled a bow from the hole. Neia blinked at the bow as it was given to her.

“This is s Rune-craft bow. It’s rather good. It’s said to be on par with well made and highly enchanted adamantite weapons,” she said, and Neia blanched.

…

Neia looked out the window as they rode along. The sun had dipped belong to horizon. The stars above them twinkled with light. The moon hung in the sky like a god, guiding them along to their hideout.

Neia then shifted her gaze to said hide out. It was a cave. Trees stood tall in sporadic tufts all about the place. Glowing mushrooms gleamed from inside the cave, and drew the eye. All in all, it was a pretty place. Though, Neia had always thought it was a bit of a poor idea to even set themselves up here. Sure, the northern areas were taken by the demoness, but they could just go south!

If the Holy Queen had died, they would have become a lot less conjoined as a whole. After all, if the queen died, then the south would separate much more than it already had. The people as well would lose hope, and many more of the cities still under control would have fallen.

So far, only the capital, “Hoburns,” and, “kalinsha,” had been taken. Sure, literally all of them other cities in the north were under siege, but at least the vast majority of people were safe-ish. Neia shook her head in her mind. Now was not the time to think of the dead.

“We’re near,” was all she needed to say as she turned back to look at Calvaria.

The other woman looked out the window as well for a second, and tilted her head as she thought. As they rode into the cave itself, as the cave was big enough to hold the carriage, she spoke. Her voice sounded just a tad bit confused.

“Do you not remove the tracks that you leave after you move through an area? Also, why are all the leaders in the same, easy to find location? If you all wanted to stick together, you should just retake a decently large village before quickly moving onto a city for a more defensive location,” she said, and Neia could only tilt her head, then widen her eyes in realization.

“Oh,” was all she said as she then got up slowly, as decorum dictated.

Then, she moved over to the door, and opened it. Her voice was a bit low, but otherwise was fine. She wasn’t actually that stressed about it. She was surprisingly calm. After all, she was assigned to escort a champion of a literal goddess.

As they all left the carriage, Neia clutched her bow to her chest, and helped Shizu and Calvaria down. The last step was a bit wobbly after all. The darkness of the cave was o problem to her with the mushrooms, yet a person of normal vision might trip.

Though, as Neia thought about it, Shizu probably had better vision. She could see clearly, despite the eyepatch and the dim light. Neia then gestured for them to follow, and they did so.

…