Chapter Forty-One

  The knight stopped twenty paces away, raised his hand with his palm open and level with his head, then as he lowered it, the bearers of the standards lowered and raised their pennants in turn. Dominic quickly snapped at Cenna, “Forward.” His eyes darted around in doubt, ‘This is an unholy land.’ The Cardinal thought as they cantered slowly toward the waiting knights.

  Dominic and Cenna raised their empty hands in turn and closed the distance, then to their surprise, the knight extended his hand toward them. Cenna took it readily, and judged the strength adequate for a talent bearing human sans a divine lineage.

  Dominic took the extended hand reluctantly, eyeing it as he would a serpent that might bite at any moment.

  “I back my peace with my blood. I bear no arms, nor enmity, nor lies against our guests. So I, Sir Torald Haroldson, swear.” Torald said, and where Cenna’s eyes widened, Dominic’s narrowed. Oaths of that sort were old fashioned and generally considered needless. However, they had the benefit of binding the maker to his word. Neither Dominic nor Cenna had missed the feel of the knight’s own bodily mana, and he had essentially laid a geas upon himself.

  That by itself was not surprising, but the breadth of it was.

  ‘No lies?! I didn’t even tell the truth to Dominic about where I was all day.’ Cenna snorted, ‘Absurd.’

  ‘What is he playing at…?’ Dominic wondered. “Are you our escort?”

  “No, My Lord. The Queen’s process for welcoming you will remain unchanged. You will reach checkpoints, you will be acknowledged, you will carry on. A formal welcome at the capital will see you to the palace of Her Majesty.” Torald answered straight faced, but before he could add more, Dominic quickly snarled…

  “Then why are you here?!” Dominic asked and looked the knights and men-at-arms over. Had Torald not given his oath, he might have suspected an attack, as it was, he could only be confused.

  “I am traveling to the border. A slew of gruesome murders got the attention of the crown, including the death of an adamantite ranked adventurer of our country, Cerebrate, to be precise. It requires a trusted pair of eyes to deal with the aftermath.” Torald looked from one to the other, and here Cenna was grateful for all the long hours he’d spent losing money to Raymond and the others in games of cards.

  His poker face wasn’t perfect, but he kept his expression neutral, despite his desire to raise his hand, wave it, and shout, ‘That was me! Did you like my work?!’ It was laughable, really, but as the showiest of the Black Scriptures, he took pride in his skill.

  The death of an adamantite adventurer had Dominic’s attention. “Cerebrate is dead? What could have killed him?”

  “I’m sure I don’t know, My Lord.” Torald answered truthfully, “Perhaps I will find out. There are many issues requiring our Queen’s attention, and in this, I am her eyes, hands, and will. My other purpose in traveling was to speak to you directly, as it was clear our paths would cross.”

  “To me?” Dominic asked.

  “Yes, My Lord. To explain the situation you’re approaching. My oath, I was commanded to offer before our meeting, so that you would know I speak the truth, and so that if I perish, the hostility would be known to be initiated against us, rather than by us.”

  “And what is it that you are supposed to relay that is so… serious?” The sour expression on the Cardinal’s face got neither worse nor better, but all concerned braced themselves.

  “If you are here, you know of the demon ‘Game Changer’ who has named himself ‘Ulbert Alain Odle’. His destructive power has shattered the beastmen and driven them from our lands completely…” Torald then took a deep breath, and told the pair of the events he knew of, up to and including the ongoing conquest of half of the Beastman Kingdom.

  Dominic remained silent throughout, even where Cenna expected him to blow his top, the Cardinal held his tongue, and listened while it was explained that the demon would become the Emperor and husband of an Empress in a Draconic Empire, and worse… the Queen’s planned union with the Sorcerous Kingdom.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Cenna had seen his fair share of maps, he knew the span of territory that encompassed. ‘He already has Baharuth, Re-Estize will knuckle under if they have an ounce of survival instinct in their souls, even if they don’t, they’ll collapse under the weight of their own corruption soon enough. The Holy Kingdom is already dependent on him… if this ‘Ainz Ooal Gown, has a Demon Emperor on his side strong enough to crush the beastmen… and he rules the Draconic Ki-Empire? That leaves us very, very vulnerable…’

  “This is… a truly unholy land.” Dominic breathed out with horrified disbelief when he finally spoke. “I can’t believe it, I won’t believe that even that creature could fall so far!” His voice rose as he spoke, his entire body shook with quiet rage and his voice came out like a rising quake, “Even dragons know demons are not to be dealt with! They are the enemies of all! Even each other! This-”

  “Shut up!” Torald snapped, stopping Dominic’s words with his mouth still open, “I walked beside Lord Ulbert! I saw what he could do, how great his power was! He has no need for games… Cardinal. He is a God! And that is our Queen you speak of with such disrespect!”

  “Even Gods can die.” Dominic snapped, and turned toward Cenna, “Come along, we’ll make that thing see reason!”

  Dominic’s sword came out in a flash and buried itself to the hilt in Torald’s chest. The finest armor in his possession was not equal to the weapons wielded by cardinals, all of whom were themselves once elite soldiers who fought on the front lines of humanity. “Demon worshipers do not deserve to live.” He snarled as Torald reached down to touch the blade, staring at it blankly as if he wasn’t sure if it had been there the whole time or not. His lips moved, but no words came out as the feeling of warm blood touched the skin beneath his armor. His eyes widened as the knight stared dumbly at the blade and the blood that slid down its edge to drip like water from a leaky pipe. He stared at it like it was a curiosity instead of a mortal wound. His eyes went blank, his body went limp, and as Dominic moved his blade, the corpse of Sir Torald Haroldson began to slip off the enchanted adamantite weapon.

  “No!” Cenna shouted, far too late as the body slumped over, barely able to believe that even Dominic could go so far, the knights and men-at-arms fell into a sudden wild disarray as their commander fell with a clatter of flesh and metal to the dirt, and battle was joined.

  While they were a dozen, veterans, and had martial arts, they were neither Scripture members nor Godkin. “Idiot!” Cenna bellowed as his spear came out and he beheaded two soldiers who charged with wild disregard for their own lives, lances down and aimed at Cenna’s own heart.

  Dominic’s martial art enhanced body rushed between two soldiers, dispatched their horses, and as they tumbled, he took their heads, sending those tumbling away before the bodies fell halfway to the ground. They began their fall alive, and landed already dead.

  Cenna’s spearhead pierced through three who charged on foot, swords out and voices loud, he rushed into them, his spear piercing one, then the other, then the other, turning them into shishkabobs that could only stumble and flail their dead and dying limbs about, like puppets whose master was drunk, until he swung his spear, casting them free of his pole and into their comrades with such force that they too perished from the impact, and all tumbled together into a heap… like puppets whose strings had been cut.

  It was over within a minute. “You damn fool!” Cenna roared in an uncharacteristic fit of foul temper as he turned on his charge, “Are you insane?! They’re our allies! He,” Cenna pointed to the corpse of Torald Haroldson, “gave us an oath. They’ll know you started this! You may have just dragged us into a war! A war against a demon at least as strong as Jaldabaoth, and the granddaughter of a dragon lord!”

  “There are ways, Cenna, to combat both.” Dominic said with serene confidence as he wiped his blade clean and sheathed it again. “Besides, all I did was put down demon worshipers, if any of this comes to light, and I don’t see how it will, the Queen will know it for the warning that it is, and she will abandon her foolish plan. And if she doesn’t, we will have her and the demon removed.”

  “He gave us his oath!” Cenna snarled, “I vowed to protect you, not to lie for you. Not to start a war!”

  “You don’t have to vow to do that to fight in it anyway. Now get on your horse, Cenna, and let us continue, leave the trash to rot, and we can be on our way.” Dominic returned to his horse, mounted it, and did not wait for Cenna to stop staring and obey, before he spurred his mount onward on his own.