41

Chapter 41: (Not) Giving upNotes:

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Incredible.

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(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Chapter 41

Where was Emilia? That question got more urgent with every corridor she slaughtered her way through. Hooded figures were streaming out of doors left and right and threw themselves at her with reckless abandon. They truly had no survival instincts. It was as if they were attempting to slow her down regardless of the cost to themselves.

The deeper she ventured into the manor and the redder her clothes were dyed by the oncoming hoards, the colder everything became. Tanya had to layer multiple temperature conservation and isolation formulas over another to keep herself from freezing. How any cultists moved here without supporting magic was an enigma to her.

Another head was parted from its neck and another dagger was reflected to the side when she heard a familiar sounding scream. Raising her tempo she sped around the corner to find the two people she was looking for.

However they were not in a condition she was hoping them to be. Surrounded by literal mountains of corpses Ram was laying unconscious in a corner where the frost was suspiciously not crawling into and Emilia...

Tanya would have never imagined the half-elf to look so... unhinged?

Blood was splattered all over her face and white dress, probably staining it forever. Her eyes were filled with equal parts hatred and fear if her shaking limbs were anything to go by. Although that could also be a result of the crippling coldness in the air. Countless smaller and a few greater wounds littered her body. As soon as her wide eyes spotted Tanya all her energy seemed to vanish and her posture immediately slumped.

"You... Someone... Came..."

And with these words she promptly collapsed to the floor which Tanya bolstered with a lazily conjured barrier formula under the girl´s head. It would be pretty frustrating if she made all the effort to rescue her only to lose her business partner at the last moment because she hit her cranium too hard.

Mana fatigue had most likely taken its toll on the poor girl due to her expending ludicrous amounts of it too freeze half the mansion. Tanya had to admit she was impressed by how long Emilia had managed to uphold such costly spells even though at the end here she seemed to be purely running on spite. Her own mana pool would have definitely not been able to accomplish anything remotely similar without relying on the Type 95.

Cooling something was harder than making it explode after all. One played against the natural entropy of the world while the other sped it up. Not to mention that controlling a small superheated bubble of metal and air was far easier to handle than a whole field of fluctuating temperatures and moisture levels. Emilia was more gifted than she realized. With some training she would be a fine asset and some day... maybe more.

That led to question: Where was Puck? Wasn´t he a great spirit or something? And contracted to protect Emilia in cases like this? Was he dead? Irrelevant for the moment although she would have gladly received some assistance with transporting two injured girls. She was no medic and dead tired on top!

Huffing heavily she lifted Emilia over her shoulder, carful to check if she had any broken ribs beforehand. Even with several enhancement formulas the strain on her body was becoming hardly bearable when she gripped Ram by the collar and attempted the same. There was no way she would be able to run, not to mention fly, like that. Even if she had been in optimal condition that would have been no easy feat.

Which meant that she would need to needed to either both distract and delay the witch´s cult until Rem´s carriage arrived or she would need to kill them before that.

Two seconds was all it took for a decision to form in her enhancement fuelled brain and she sat down the two unconscious girls she was carrying. Going over to a nearby sofa she attempted to pull it, but the legs were frozen to the floor and subsequently splintered at her forceful tug like paper. Well, that was not really an inconvenience for Tanya.

Her living cargo was transferred to the couch where she did her best to staunch the worst flesh wounds so that they wouldn´t immediately die on her. Rem´s healing would have to do the rest. Afterwards she started pulling the makeshift stretcher along the hallway which was thankfully pretty easy due to the thin layer of ice everywhere. Hypothermia would kill the girls before blood loss at this point.

Clearing cultist bodies from her path with powerful kicks left and right was slowing her down, but she was making good progress in her opinion considering that she had to keep an eye out and a hand free for any stragglers that she had missed.

The window to the front lawn (and thus the road to the village) was just a few dozen metres away when a lone figure stepped in front of it. He wore the same unmistakable manic grin as the archbishop she had just killed minutes earlier. Furthermore he differentiated himself from the other cultists by not wearing a mask as well. Was he a different sin archbishop? Reflexively she drew her pistol and shot, but the bullet seemed to halt mid air until it all of a sudden exploded.

"False apostle of her love, we meet again! Do not think you could escape me so easily. You dare to insult her by trying to stop me? How foolish. To let death come in the way of duty would be most slothful."

Ok, the guy rambled way too much. Had he already forgotten how she had killed his colleague? This invisible barrier that he was now using was a problem though. Her next response to circumvent the barrier would be to fire above his head and collapse the ceiling, but the building was unstable enough and she really didn´t want to dig her way through tons of stone and wood right now.

Retreating down the hallway was also not an option, because of her cargo so she did the next best thing and aimed her weapon at the floor.

Ice, burnt carpet, wood and marble splinters exploded against her flaring shield formula while she did her best to get away as far as possible under the cover of the smoke. With haste she dragged the two bleeding girls behind her to the next door and threw it open. Only, one of them couldn´t be moved. Perplexed she looked down and saw Ram´s foot unnaturally dangling in the air.

"What?" was all she could think before the maid was brutally yanked backwards, out of her grasp.

Something formed a tunnel in the dust cloud, but what it was she could not discern. Then the smoke was blown away as if it was fanned by invisible hands. What was happening? Another two precious shots were wasted when they uselessly detonated in mid air without ever reaching their target.

"I see... Such conviction, such determination... But at the end you couldn´t save your little friend here." The lunatic said as Ram dangled by her ankle in front of him.

"Do you see that her gift, the power of love, trumps all your pathetic attempts? To try so hard, but ultimately fail... How slothful." he grinned as Rams entire leg twisted in his invisible grasp.

Tanya needed to get out of here fast. The maid had become an unfortunate casualty.

Canon Omake: Where is the Colonel?  

"Where is she? Where?"

The general staff room was in uproar. Worry and tension were written clearly on all faces present.

"I don´t know Sir. Nobody has seen even a glimpse of her since she went to her room in the Aurdé Hotel." the messenger reported.

"I want every available mage of her battalion to search of her. Turn the whole city upside down if you have to!"

"But Sir, they´re already doing that! Our scanners aren´t picking up her magical signature and her personal frequency has been inactive since forty seven hours!"

"Of course you aren't going her that way! She is the best soldier in the damn Empire!"

"If you can´t find her that way then monitor all train stations and airports in the country. She can´t be staying in the air forever if she is indeed using magic to hide from us."

"It´s probably too late for that. She could be anywhere at this point! Who knows what she has been up to!"

The thought of an unsupervised Tanya von Degurechaff gone rogue made Rerugen´s stomach churn.

"Remember the Dacia campaign? She ended the war on that front in one day! In one fucking day! Whatever she has planned cannot be stopped by the likes of us."

"Yeah. Degurechaff has a nasty habit of delivering uncompromising results. We will only be able to react to her actions afterwards. Only god himself has any chance of beating her in real fights or strategy games."

"Then maybe we should focus more on what she could be doing right now."

"I reckon it´s a secret mission from the Kaiser."

"What makes you say that?"

"Oh come on Rerugen. Isn´t it obvious? She is loyal as a dog, battle-crazed as a valkyrie and smart as a fox. She is the darling of the Empire, our greatest asset. So much so, that the men have began calling her the imperial symbol of victory even! She´s a one man army! Of course the Kaiser is gonna send her on a mission he doesn´t want us to know about. Who else? If it's more than a few people then there´s a risk that it's going to come out. A secret is only a secret as long as only one person knows after all."

Rudersdorf took a deep, calming drag from his cigar and slowly exhaled the smoke.

"She just recently got promoted to Colonel. Has more medals than fit on her coat and has shown time and time again that she would sacrifice her own life for our nation! Someone like Degurechaff wouldn´t run away and desert in the last few minutes of war. If we´re being honest, she is basically responsible for ending it in the first place! The Kaiser is only one with higher authority than ourselves so he must be the one who ordered her to disappear."

"Mmmm... I can´t quite disagree, my old friend."

"Ha! I'm not that old."

"Of course that would only be the most logical conclusion if we assume that Colonel Degurechaff has gone AWOL voluntarily."

"You don´t mean..."

"Yes, indeed. The Colonel has always been remarkable professional and level-headed despite her age. Even if the Kaiser had personally sent her on an urgent mission she would have left a note to detail her absence. This is completely unlike her."

"Are you saying she has been abducted?"

Zettour nodded solemnly.

"Preposterous! Who could kidnap the White Silver? Those Russy Dogs and the damned Republicans couldn´t do it when they still had thousands to throw at her! How would they manage to accomplish the impossible so deep in enemy territory?"

"They didn´t." said Rerugen.

"Huh?"

"Gentlemen, it seems we have a traitor among our troupes." he continued gravely.

"No..."

"The Argent has been betrayed and sold out by one of our own men. Most likely the Unified States have pushed for this, because they are getting desperate and want to make up for their losses by holding Degurechaff at ransom. They could even try to execute her for supposed war crimes should we not agree to their conditions in the upcoming peace treaty." Zettour explained.

"That would be insane! She is just one soldier!"

"Yet at the same time they know that she is much more for us than that. Morale would plummet should we lose our symbol of victory. Maybe the Russy would even try again now that their most feared enemy is no longer able to crush them. As much as pains me to say, we need the Argent until the war is officially over." Rerugen answered while adjusting his glasses.

"Ow, I think I'm getting a headache."

"Don´t we all."

"Damn it you monster! Causing me trouble even when you aren´t even there!" thought Rerugen.

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Meanwhile the Salamander Kampfgruppe was in a similar state of unrest.

"Where could she be? Where would the Colonel hide?"

"She has probably found a nest of rebels or insurrectionists and is singlehandedly rooting them out. You know how she is. Thos poor sods are going to live through hell on earth! Ha!"

"I'm telling you! She´s been kidnapped!"

"That doesn´t make it better!"

"Yeah but..."

"I don´t want to hear it!" roared Victoriya. "Silence, you all!"

Her voice had an edge to it that instinctively quieted everyone down who had seen her "Mr. Shovel" in action.

"What would the Colonel think of us if we were running around like a bunch of headless chickens? She would be disappointed!"

Everybody shivered. Nobody wanted to disappoint their commander.

"We have searched every room in the hotel and have flown over every quadrant of the city. The woods nearby have been combed through by me personally and no one has picked up even a hint of her magical signature."

Many frowned or nodded grimly.

"That is why we must widen our search. Take provisions for a week and form pairs of two. Patrol above main streets and cities in a one hundred kilometre radius. Stay in frequent contact and keep an eye out for any people that look like her or show any other sign of suspicious behaviour. Just like she taught us: Code Alpha 3766 – Scatter and Observe. Is that clear?"

"YES MA´AM!"

Strictly speaking Viktoriya had not the ultimate authority to order such manoeuvres, but as the Argent´s aid and the one person who knew her the most they accepted her judgement. It wasn´t like they didn't want to find their leader as soon as possible after all. Even though they feared her, they also trusted their Colonel with their lives. She was the woman who had made them who they were today; the elite of the elite, the best combat mages in history.

"Don´t worry Tanya, I will find you. Even if it takes my life. For without you I am nothing." vowed Viktoriya to herself. If she had to rip the whole world apart to get to her love, so be it.

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Schugel whimpered silently in his bed. The past few days he had been inconsolable. They told him to stop moping and get back to work; to eat and smile, but how could he? The comforting presence at the back of his head was gone. The light of god that had gifted him with divine inspiration was absent. His soul felt like he was being swallowed by darkness never to return from it.

Later historians would link his life-ending depression to the disappearance of the Argent. How right they had been, they would never truly know.

Notes:

The Omake is for "SunlightOverdrive" who whished for a short reaction from the Youjo Senki cast.

And no, Visha will not come to Lugnica if any of you are wonndering that. :(