The siege (1)

While the army was marching to the capital...

Rugi could be seen walking by the side of the Crusader as the rest of the army marched, many wagons trotted along, scattered as soldiers surrounded them, protecting their supplies was of critical importance.

She, at the moment, is wearing her elven clothing, which consists of brown leather pants, a green shirt, and a black cloak with a hood. She didn't have her weapons on her anymore, for rather obvious reasons, though the fact she was defenseless now did leave her unnerved.

Still, the man next to her seemed to command absolute respect among the soldiers here, so she only got the occasional look from the men around her, most of whom she could kill even without her weapon. Though that walking corpse, Rushelia as she is called, may slow her down for a while.

Still, Rugi was on her best behavior though the glazed look never truly left her eyes. After all, her mind was far too damaged to even hope for happiness here. Her whole world so far was filled with pain, only her mother cared for her, and even she couldn't do anything to protect her from her father, though she hated to call him that.

"Uh, Sir Crusader?" She asked, causing the Crusader to turn to her, his white eyes still made her feel like an ant, though now there was a bit of warmth to them too.

Rugi finished her question seeing the Crusader waiting expectantly: "Where are we going?"

"Ah, we are heading towards the capital of the Theocracy at the moment young one." Rugi continued looking at the Crusader, prompting him to continue. "There, we shall burn the heathens so they may be judged for their sins by the Supreme Ones."

"...Okay." Rugi nodded and lowered her head again, prompting the Crusader to look ahead.

Rugi silently resigned herself to her fate. There was little she could do as she followed her captor closer and closer to the city, as she did, her mind drifted away deeper and deeper into the past...

She was born a long time ago by human standards, 120 years or so ago, she only remembers thanks to her mother holding her birthday parties, a tiny smile manifested itself on her face as she remembered her mother, though it quickly faded as she remembered some less pleasant things.

Her father to be exact.

The man had raised her like all his other children -with only power in mind- and while he viewed them all as failures, Rugi was the queen of all failures.

She was the weakest by far, and her father showed his disgust every single day, though that certainly didn't stop him from using her to all her worth... All. Her. Worth.

It was only thanks to her miraculous regeneration that she wasn't covered in bruises and scars, and to be frank, it was the only reason she was still alive.

So much time passed by faster and faster as her mind simply checked out whenever things got even slightly dangerous, distancing herself from any and all troubles while simply wishing for things to end. Which, in a way, they did when she was sent on this mission, which she suspected would be her last should she not do well enough.

The Crusader's presence was not unnoticed, and soon, her father had learned of the "pesky fly" as he lovingly referred to him, thinking not much of him, he sent her out to take him down, which she failed to do.

Still, a small evil grin appeared on her face as she remembered her father getting pushed back for the first time, and her eyes flickered with the tiniest fraction of hope as she looked up at the Crusader's wide armored back.

This man might be the key to saving her mother from that evil, cruel, arrogant, stupid, fool of a man.

Her heart, which had laid steady and uncaring for so long, thumped at the thought of revenge being so close. And she had to admit, he did look quite cool when he slammed her father through all of those trees.

At the present moment, with the army fully around the city, the people within were rather terrified, and for good reason.

They had been strictly censored for any mention of the civil war, meaning plenty were completely unaware of the fact there even was one at all, and to put the cherry on top, the guards and priests had been forcing them to stay indoors unless necessary, placing a strict curfew over them all.

Now with such a huge army outside, needless to say, the people weren't very happy with these sudden developments. Many tried to ask questions, but the garrison refused to provide any answers, many of the more rebellious ones even disappeared altogether, prompting the atmosphere in the city to be rather heavy these days.

Within the large cathedral in the middle of the city, the Cardinals could be seen, though not all of the seats were occupied.

The new cardinal of fire, a man with red hair and a crooked nose, looked at the other two cardinals who remained within the room.

The cardinal of light, a woman with long brown hair and a chubby face, and the cardinal of darkness, a man with short black hair and pale skin, looked at him and then at each other, a silent agreement hung in the air between them.

They all sighed in defeat.

They were all doomed, they had lost.

"...To think the others would flee so quickly..." The cardinal of the earth spoke up, his voice deep and quiet as he spoke.

"Yeah, though I can't blame them." The cardinal of water agreed with her friend.

"Cowards is what they are...!" The cardinal of fire half shouted and half lamented, his voice cracked and twisted as he spoke.

A silent tension hung in the air as they all looked at one another, each one thinking of something that could be done to save themselves at least, but alas, they missed their chance, which the others didn't.

Their world items were in an unknown location too, originally, there was a person whose job was to know their location and to retrieve them whenever the Supreme Council requested them, but they too were long gone, dead or alive far away.

Suddenly, through the glass above, a white creature with multiple floating blades behind it fell onto the round table in the middle of the platform. It cracked as it fell on it, causing the room to shake.

It stood up, and as the dust cleared, in front of them a creature with glowing neon blue eyes and dressed in heavy sparkling armor could be seen.

The Platinum Dragon Lord spoke, its voice heavy and serious, "I hope I've not arrived too late."

The members of the Supreme Council, or the remaining members of it, were already standing in shock and alarm.

"Guards!" The cardinal of fire screamed, but no one responded to his calls.

"Dont bother, I cast a silence spell before I arrived, and I don't intend to hurt you." The Platinum Dragon Lord spoke, its full attention on the fire cardinal, who grew pale under the gaze.

"What do you mean you will help us? We have nothing to offer you back." The cardinal of stone took the attention of the Dragon Lord, much to the fire cardinal's relief.

"I will give you this," the Dragon Lord suddenly reached into the air, and in his hands, an item appeared, "And in return, you will do as I say."

"We accept your proposal!" The water cardinal, now with hope to live again, immediately agreed to the Dragon Lord's proposal.

The other two cardinals looked at her in shock and disbelief, she just agreed without their consent! Though, they had little choice in the first place.

Ignoring the outraged looks of the other two, the Dragon Lord nodded his head in satisfaction.

"Good," he extended his hand, and from it, the world item flew to the water cardinal.

The item itself looked like a ruby-red crystal, with fire constantly burning within it. The fires formed shouting and angry faces, and if one put their ear to it, they could hear shouting of rage and fury.

"Break this item once a powerful creature appears. Not the Crusader entity, but another, more powerful one, an amalgamation trying to pass itself off as an angel."

The water cardinal nodded, clutching the crystal close to her heart, now, she had hope once more.

The Dragon Lord nodded once more, and with that, he disappeared, content with his new plan going as expected.

These other-worlders had brought with them great chaos, as did their predecessors, but with this, he should be able to measure their strength.

The world item he gave the cardinal is known as "Wrath of The Broken," it would drive whoever it was used into an uncontrollable rage which would last for an hour, during this time, the affected creature would be forced to use all of its strength. With this, he should be able to observe and see how powerful the new invaders are, though he has yet to grasp the player's identities.

So, the Dragon Lord cast "[Perfect Unknowable]" on himself, disappearing into the sky and observing the battle from high in the air kilometers away.

As the Cardinals had their hopes reignited, the army had already fully encircled the city.

Now, it would be onto the long game. A couple of months might be necessary before the city began starving, sieges were arduous and expensive after all, the only constant was they were never fun.

The soldiers rushed around as they set up their tents, with men on horseback being sent between the various camps to keep up communications, patrols were sent out to intercept any supplies or possible reinforcement, of which there was likely next to none.

The capital, as mighty and imposing as it was, stood alone against the crusade now on its doorstep, the men were full of energy as the Crusader and Rugi ran around and helped with various preparations.

Or rather, Crusader helped, he refused to watch a child work, though he did appreciate Rugi's willingness to help, which the soldiers did as well.

And so, as time hovered on the edge of fall, both sides were entrenched and prepared for a brutal, cold, siege.

-x-x-x-

Apologies for the late chapter. School has been rather tiring recently, hope you liked this one.

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