Opening Theme:
"If I have to keep walking through this goddamn mountain, I'm probably going to kill myself..." Y/N shivered.
"Oh, quit you whimpering, the pass isn't even that long." Geralt said.
"We've been walking non-stop for two days."
"Have you? I was wondering why we were going so slow..."
Rathe raised his hand to stop everyone's march. He pointed over the hill crest he was stopped at and motioned everyone to come to him. What everyone saw made them awe-struck.
Over the hill and at the bottom of the mountain was a small colony with people running down below it. Everyone looked confused at what they were looking at; the Arcana's campaign should have destroyed everything on this side of the mountain, so why was there a village here?
Rathe looked at the village through his spyglass. He could see what looked like human and non-human villagers going about their lives, but then he blackfire instances interacting with these villagers.
"Mistress, do you see that?" Rathe gave Reighland his spyglass. Reighland looked through the spyglass and saw what Rathe saw. Blackfire instances interacting with regular villagers.
"It looks like the Arcana's occupied this village and are subjugating the people there..." Rathe said, "We should strike at them quickly and free the people while we can."
Reighland kept looking through the spyglass. It didn't look like that at all; in fact, the people seemed somewhat happy and content with the blackfire instances occupying their village.
"Rathe, I don't think these people are being subjugated at all..." Reighland said.
"What do you mean? Of course they are. Anything the Arcana doesn't destroy, they enslave. It's why they hire brigands to do their dirty work."
Reighland looked through the spyglass again, surveying the village, until she saw three individuals conversing with each other. Two of them were very close to each other; one of them was taller than the other and both of them had an androgynous appearance. The third one was what concerned Reighland the most. It was a tall woman dressed in white robes with blue stripes and wore a blindfold over their eyes. On her sides were two swords that were sheathed. The blindfolded woman was talking to the other two individuals until she turned and face Reighland's direction. She was looking directly at Reighland through the spyglass.
Reighland lowered the spyglass in surprise.
"We've been spotted." Reighland said.
"What? How?" Rathe asked in confusion.
From below, a bell was ringing loudly and the people below scrambled like ants.
"Well, no time to figure out, I suppose..." Rathe drew his sword, "Everyone, forward!"
"Wait, no!" Reighland protested.
Rathe's horse broke into a gallop down the hill and the rest of the soldiers followed him.
"Oh, you..." Reighland was fuming, but she followed after Rathe and his troops. Y/N and the girls followed her.
"Enforcers, up front!" Justice shouted, "Vanguard, in position!"
"You are enjoying this far too much..." Dom commented.
Justice pulled her chief enforcer aside while he was moving to the perimeter.
"Richard, nothing gets through, and if they do, don't try and hold the colony, just pull back. Do you understand?"
"Of course, Madam Judith." Richard answered, holding his pistols up, "Shall we enact the scorched earth tactic?"
"No. Empress won't like that..."
"Very well. Good thing everyone prepared for this moment; the evacuation went quickly and smoothly."
"Well, this was expected when Hierophant came running back here..." Judith rested her hand on one of her swords that hung by her side. If there was trouble approaching, more than likely, that would mean Reighland was a part of it.
The enforcers were not a trained army like Hierophant's was, they were more like a militia that Judith trained for situations such as a colony invasion or a raid. Chief among them all was Richard, a former magistrate whose village was subjugated under Magician's rule. Honestly, at first, he was suspicious and uncomfortable with the assimilation, but as time went on, he and his village actually prospered. Their infrastructure improved greatly, and now, their little village was part of the new "kingdom" that Magician made. When he was offered a position by Judith's side as an enforcer, he took it after great consideration. He wasn't forced to do anything he didn't want to, in fact, he willingly allowed himself to become an instance like some of the other enforcers he supervised.
The militia, both human, and blackfire, were waiting at the village perimeter with their weapons in hand. Some of them held muskets, some of them held bludgeoning weapons, and then there was Richard, who had his trusty flintlock pistols with him. Becoming an instance just made using them easier.
"Richard, hold them off for as long as you can." Judith ordered, "When things get too rough, follow behind us."
"Yes, ma'am!" Richard made a salute with his pistol.
Rathe and his troops stopped short of the village edge where the enforcers were waiting. The knights made their way up front while the musketeers and archers were in the back. Reighland made her way to Rathe and started lecturing him.
"Rathe, some of these villagers are human. I don't think this is a good idea..." Reighland said.
"If they're human and working alongside the Magician, then that means they're our enemy, aren't they?" Rathe asked, "Besides, they're probably possessed, much like your hero was..."
"I don't think it's that simple..."
"Hey!" Richard shouted, "I don't know why you're here, or what you want, but you best leave now! We have no quarrel with you. There doesn't have to be any killing done."
Y/N looked at the enforcers from a distance. The fact that some of them weren't blackfire was confusing, but then again, Reighland and Geralt had human forms too, didn't they?
Suddenly, someone fired a shot at Rathe's formation. Everyone clambered behind the shield wall made by the knights. On Richard's end, he was heavily scolding the enforcer who misfired.
"Who fired that?!" Richard shouted. He surveyed the line of enforcers and noticed smoke coming out of one particular enforcer's barrel. He sighed in exhaustion as he walked over to them.
"Goddammit, William!" Richard swiped the young enforcer's musket from his hands and inspected it, "What the hell were you thinking?!"
"W-well...I didn't...it just went off, I-" William stuttered.
"It just went off? This doesn't just 'go off'. You were fiddling with it!" Richard shoved William's musket back in his arms, "Go join up with Judith and the rest!"
William walked off the line and started walking in the direction that the civilians went. The first time he was allowed to be on defense, and he screwed it up...
After Richard scolded William, he looked back to see Rathe and the other soldiers charging at him. He drew his pistols and started firing on the incoming invaders along with the other ranged enforcers.
Rathe was thrown off his horse when it took a shot to its head. He landed in front of his formation as they all moved over him, careful not to trample him. He stood back up and followed the charge.
Reighland was highly against an aggressive charge, but Rathe didn't listen to her. She frustratingly followed after him along with Y/N and the girls.
The first enforcer to meet the charge was Krortis, an orc who allowed himself to the converted. He bashed a knight away with his massive club and started fighting the others in close combat. This new body of his made it so that he could fight without any issue, even with his old age...
Richard stayed at the front while the ranged enforcers moved back. Where he came from, his village was well-known for having problems involving giant rats. Anyone who was a part of the militia was trained to deal with these rats in an expert manner. Those skills translate well to human enemies...
Theme of Richard, Chief Enforcer of Justice:
Richard fired two shots, one from each pistol, into two approaching knights. He shot another knight to his side and spun around to shoot two more that were keeping the vanguard enforcers occupied. His attention turned to the ranged soldiers engaging from the rear; time to see how those little shits like getting shot at...
Richard fired his pistol at the musketeers, disrupting the back line of Rathe's army. He looked up to see Y/N charging at him with a light-imbued sword and backflipped away from the strike. Thinking nothing of it, he started shooting Y/N, only to have his shots blocked by a light barrier. Thinking quickly again, he holstered his pistols and drew his long-bladed knife. In all honesty, it could've qualified as a sword.
Richard was taught by Judith how to use his knife better than he already did. Funnily enough, Richard didn't know Y/N was the hero, and even if he did, he didn't really care. To him, this was just another rat to exterminate...
Richard used his technique of adaptive combat; using his knife to attack Y/N when he was close, and using his pistol as he put distance between him and Y/N. To Y/N's frustration, he found it hard to fight Richard, much less kill him.
Richard did another backflip away from Y/N and started shooting him with his pistols. Y/N blocked the barrage and slowly inched closer to Richard. He would've gotten a strike in, but then a cannon shot knocked him and Richard down.
When Richard looked up, Krortis's upper body was gone and was now disintegrating. Infuriated, Richard holstered his pistols and drew the musket from his back. He fired an explosive shot at the cannon, destroying it, and its two operators. He reassessed the situation and noticed the frontline was being destroyed. He redrew his pistols and pushed back the attackers. It was clear he wasn't going to win this fight, but he did buy some time for Judith and the other villagers to escape.
"Pull back!" Richard shouted, "All of you, pull back!"
Richard continued pushing back the attackers as he turned and ran from the fight with the other enforcers. Rathe, seeing them retreat, told his soldiers to stand fast and establish a foothold in the village.
Reighland had just healed the last injured knight and Miriam and Charlotte helped get them somewhere to rest. Reighland stood up and stomped toward Rathe in a huff.
"Oh, she doesn't look happy at all..." Geralt commented.
"Rathe!" Reighland shouted so loud that it caught everyone's attention.
"What were you thinking?!" Reighland berated, "You took an unnecessary risk, and nearly lost the rest of your army!"
The remaining soldiers were all in a bitter mood. This fight cost them many knights and musketeers. Not to mention they lost their last cannon too. The numbers were down to about twenty soldiers.
"This could've been avoided!" Reighland continued her rant, "No one had to die on either side! Look at the beings you killed! Some of them weren't even blackfire! They were flesh and blood like all of you!"
Rathe shot up from his seat and grabbed Reighland by her robes.
"Who do you think you are to order me around?" Rathe snapped, "This village was occupied by the Arcana, our enemies, mind you. Human or not, if they try and fight us, I won't hesitate to end them!"
Reighland grabbed Rathe's wrists, and to his surprise, she started pulling them off her robes. She pushed him away from her.
"Rathe, I have no love for the Arcana either, but doing something this risky will not help us defeat them. Besides, our fight is with them, not their people."
"Well 'their people' attacked first, mind you!" Rathe shot back.
Everyone stared at the two arguing with tired eyes. Everybody knew better than to interrupt an argument between the General of the Capital's army, and the Mistress of the Light Temple, two figures of high standing.
Everyone except Geralt...
With a quick request, Geralt possessed Y/N's body again and walked up to the General and the Mistress in his human form. He picked up a fallen enforcer's baton and whistled heartily as he walked over.
When Rathe and Reighland saw Geralt walking toward them, they stopped arguing for a brief moment.
"Who are you?" Rathe asked, never seeing Geralt's human form before.
Without replying, Geralt swiftly hit Rathe and Reighland on the head with the baton. The two of them were knocked onto their rears as they rubbed their heads in pain. The scene looked like someone disciplining two children.
"Geralt...!" Reighland grumbled.
"Dammit! I could have you executed for that!" Rathe shouted.
"Your arguing was getting annoying..." Geralt replied, "Especially you, Reighland. You and I need to talk later..."
Geralt threw the baton down and unpossessed Y/N, who stumbled slightly before he regained his footing. Y/N rubbed his head and waited for the fuzziness in his vision to disappear before noticing Rathe and Reighland standing back up.
"So, uh...what did he say?" Y/N asked.
Elsewhere...
The centurions that Magician lent out to Hierophant were poking at the dug-out ground with their large spades in an attempt to find the blackfire reservoir Emperor mentioned. Hierophant himself had gotten into multiple arguments with Colin, the lead centurion. The centurions themselves were members of Magician's personal army, not like the one Hierophant controlled. Being ordered around by a "lower ranking figure" irritated them greatly.
"No! No! No!" Hierophant said as he hit his head, "What are you all doing? The reservoir's to the right!"
Colin growled deeply, blowing out steam from his mouthpiece.
"When I told you to 'keep poking around until you find it', this is not what I meant!" Hierophant continued his rant.
Colin was about to snap back with a remark of his own, but a whooshing sound and the arrival of Magician stopped him.
"What are you two doing?" Magician asked with irritation.
Hierophant started talking first, "This idiot-"
"Shut up." Magician said harshly whilst pointing at Hierophant, "Colin."
"We've found the site...but not the reservoir. The others are looking for it as we speak..." Colin's voice was deep and intimidating, as expected of a centurion.
Magician looked at the other centurion's poking at the ground. The dig site itself was made large enough to roll the giant crystal in, the only problem was finding the blackfire reservoir and letting the crystal have access to it.
Magician grumbled to himself as he eyed the dig site. Then he materialized a spear in his hand and aimed it somewhere on the ground, right next to where a centurion was standing.
"Arianna, move!" Magician shouted. The centurion in question jumped back from where they were standing and Magician threw the spear at a random spot in the ground.
"Start digging there!" Magician said.
Arianna only moved a small amount of dirt before she felt something strange below the ground. When she pulled her spade out, a torrent of blackfire spewed out like thick oil onto the ground. The centurions started making their way out of the hole they dug and regrouped near Colin. Once they were all clear of the blackfire, Magician kicked the large crystal so that it rolled into the pool.
"There. Problem solved." Magician said angrily, "Now all of you regroup at the tower! The Hero and their lackeys have already reached the outer colonies! It won't be long until they reach the city!"
Magician disappeared once again, leaving Colin and Hierophant alone. Hierophant looked back at the crystal as it was being buried by the ever-rising blackfire pool, and then back at Colin.
"Alright, get your people, and let's go back." Hierophant spoke.
Colin grumbled in response before he motioned the centurions to turn around and leave.
***
Reighland felt a strange sensation in her chest, like a kind of tingling. Then she widened her eyes in realization.
Magician was creating another member of the Arcana.
Time was not on her side.
Ending Theme:
(A/N: I'll admit, this was a bit "filler" and hastily made. Future chapters might be better.)