15 The Lion of the North

The only thing I did not want to see stood, or rather hovered in the air ahead of me. All dressed in white, the light was shining in his pupils ... fuck.

"Not that I don't want to see you... but I'm a little busy blowing this ship up right now." (MC)

" Well, so in order not to take up more of your precious time ... I have a task for you. No time limit, but the sooner the better the reward. Your task is to recover Jurata's heart ... see you ... and I advise you to dive." (Weles)

It wasn't bad advice, seconds after I dived, I heard the blast, chunks of wood, cannons, cannonballs ... and even people started hitting the surface of the water. I waited a few more seconds and surfaced ... The ship was almost torn into two parts, on the starboard side ... actually there was no starboard anymore, only one big hole ... the ship began to take in water ... I don't know how many Swedes I managed to poison and kill in the city, but the loss of the ship and several dozen cannons will surely hurt King Gustav Adolf.

Now I had to get out of the city... I saw my people alive, I signaled them to swim to the shore ... chaos reigned in the port, but not only because of the explosion. The inn was also on fire, and this fire also spread to the surrounding buildings ... I was curious how Olszewski was doing.

A few minutes to meet us, we were already at the shore, nobody paid attention to us, and even if someone looked at us, he saw five wet sailors who had saved themselves from the ship.

"I don't know how much time we have, go to the inn where Olszewski is and tell him that he is to close the business, let him set the inn on fire and run away." (MC)

"Tell him anything else?" (Soldier)

"Yes, let him take a few torches and set fire to a few buildings while escaping, we'll do the same ... panic works to our advantage. We meet at the gate." (MC)

Without waiting any longer, we went towards the gate ... people were leaving their houses and out onto the streets, not knowing what was going on. Nobody stopped us either ... we turned into one of the side alleys and found two Swedish soldiers on patrol ... just keep calm ... just keep calm.

"It's good that I met you ... the city went crazy. I don't know if it's a rumor or not, but someone said that Polish troops are heading towards the city ... people are mad, they want to capture or kill every Swede and hand us over to Poles, they also want to surrender the city to them. They have already destroyed one ship ... they also lock our people in the inn and set fire to ... the city has gone mad. " (MC)

"What?!" (Patrol soldier)

"Inform the garrison, let them take control of the situation, because we will not survive the night ... do not stand like the pillars of salt ... move ... or we will all die." (MC)

I don't know if they believed me, but they ran towards the garrison. If the Swedes actually start to pacify the city and kill civilians, the news will certainly quickly circulate Livonia and only strengthen the resistance against Gustav Adolf's army ... it will not be my fault that the Swedes are so cruel.

An hour later we all met at the gate, we easily overpowered the guards ... for a better effect I ordered their heads cut off ... before we left the city, Olszewski threw a torch into the armory, but as there was no gunpowder in it, the effect was not spectacular.

"We run to the forest, our people have to wait for us some 20 kilometers to the southeast." (MC)

(King Gustav Adolf / Count Axel Oxenstierna POV)

"Your Majesty, I have some disturbing news." (Axel Oxenstierna)

"My dear Count, what is so disturbing? Poles are in the south and are fighting the Turks, Riga is still defending itself, but its fall is only a matter of time. The stars are favorable to me, as my horoscope said." (Gustav Adolf)

"And I believe in the lucky star of your highness ... But the news is disturbing. Yesterday one of our reconnaissance groups found a wagon with thirty dead bodies on the road, they were Swedish soldiers ... they had their right hands cut off, their eyes burned out and their tongues torn out, there was also a barrel with missing body parts on the cart." (Axel Oxenstierna)

"Who did it?!" (Gustav Adolf)

"We don't know, there aren't any clues that would point to the perpetrators ... but they must be some beasts or the devil in the human body." (Axel Oxenstierna)

"Maybe it's some papist spells?" (Gustav Adolf)

"I do not know Your Majesty, but today news from Pärnu reached us. The city reportedly fell into madness. The inhabitants started murdering our soldiers and destroyed our three ships, one warship and two transport ships. The city was on fire, our soldiers had to defend themselves, from the news I got, the city looks like a battlefield ... it was two days ago." (Axel Oxenstierna)

"It must be some kind of magic ... the mind cannot comprehend it ... a friendly city and it goes insane overnight. I need more information to understand this. What else do you know, dear Count?" (Gustav Adolf)

"This is not certain information, I will be sure when we send someone to the city ... but supposedly our people were locked in buildings and then set on fire, a large group of our soldiers vomited and defecated with blood, suddenly lost consciousness, they got fever, convulsions, and then they died ... Of the 900 soldiers in the city to fires, riots and other causes, we lost half of our people." (Axel Oxenstierna)

"If that's true, this city must be punished ... we'll burn this devil's lair to the ground." (Gustav Adolf)

(End POV)

Three days after escaping from the city, we managed to reach the rest of my soldiers. I had a lot to think about ... the further course of the war and a task from Weles.