Unfortunately, I’m Not A Hero: 135: An Empire Soldier

Unfortunately, I’m Not A Hero: 135: An Empire Soldier

…

Commissioned by Shaderic

Wordcount: 2500

…

I awoke to the din of hooves and metal plates, as well as the ring of a trumpet in my ears.

One of my companions in the bunkhouse grumbled, while all the others started to shift awake, and I dismounted from my bunk.

“First, we move from proper tents to damp, musty bunkers and now we don’t even wake at dawn. At this rate, we’ll be run ragged before we fight.” Elijah muttered and rose as I waited for him. Our gazes met and he sighed as at my glare. In the dim light cast by the lantern, I saw a frown plan on his wrinkled visage. “Oh, don’t look at me like that, you young fool. I’ve been through many battles and I know that keeping your men like this will see them dead later.”

He was a veteran of many battles against the monsters and it showed in his armor. It was heavier and sturdier than mine, as he invested his pay into more and more protections as the years wore on. Not only that, but his own body was larger than my own, as he devoted himself to both training and magical enhancement. Many in the bunkhouse could not compare to him in physique, combat experience, and ability… but he wasn’t our superior because of his tongue.

He didn’t know how to hold it, even when he should.

“It’s still better than being blown to bits by magic.” I grunted as I fastened his armor to him, after applying his mail over his tunic and riding pants. Because of practice, I had him outfitted in his armor faster than most others did with their own. He turned to help me with my armor shortly after. “Unless you happen to have a tent as strong as the airships that the Empire has composed?”

“Bah, if I had enough money to make one of those, I’ll lead an expedition somewhere the fighting’s normal. Sacrosanct steel against monstrous hide and claw. That’s how things used to be.” Elijah grumbled, but his speed exceeded mine. In but a few heartbeats, I was fully armored and we were both leaving the underground habitat for the soldiery and relinquished our bunks to the night shift. “Hmph, I suppose it depends though. I think I’d prefer dying comfortably and suddenly, instead of buried underground and barely asleep.”

I shook my head at his words, as we moved towards our gathering point for the morning.

“If you tell our officer that, I’m sure that he’ll be more than happy to give you a tent, a horse, and orders to enter the depraved lands on your own. The same depraved lands that have all but killed every adventurer scout we sent in.” I looked towards the mountain range in the distance of our camp. It was half-a-day away and it would take another half-day to cross through its mountain pass. The leaders of the campaign were planning to make the march much easier with a project that involved an immense amount of magic. Like any normal folk, I did not trust those who had magic, but if it made the length of the march shorter and made it so that we did not have to form a column merely four wide in a chokepoint… I was willing to ignore my concerns. “Would you like that, Elijah?”

“Hah, perhaps, I would! At least, I’ll go out fighting something instead of being killed by something I can’t.” My veteran partner grumbled and settled in place to wait for the rest of our gathering. I frowned at his words and his smirk merely widened. “Of course, I’ll need someone to come along with me. Interested? Want to try fighting instead of just dying? Maybe, we’ll get lucky and find the Demon Lord’s general on a stroll and win some honor before perishing.”

At those words, I had to snort.

“Assassin after assassin has been sent after him. They either never return or return mindless and aged beyond their years.” I shivered at my own words. Skilled warriors and rogues were sent into Ylstu to find a way to kill the betrayer. Those who were lucky entered the forests beyond the mountain range and perished, while those who were not returned shriveled and bereft of their minds. Not in the typical manner caused by the monsters either. It was as though they truly had their souls stolen from them and they were left to wander as mere bodies. “What makes you think you can achieve what they can’t?”

“Hmm, perhaps my stunning good looks will get me past their defenses?” Elijah jested, but glanced around. Merely insinuating he was willing to lay with a monster was grounds for strict punishment. For his sake, I looked around as well and let loose a sigh of relief as no one seemed to have heard. “But, in truth, I’ve fought in Ylstu before and I’ve seen the betrayer. The fact is that he has a bleeding heart for his troops, and I’m sure it’s the same whether they’re monsters or not. If we managed to hold one or two hostages with a large enough force, we might be able to drag him out and kill him when he comes looking.”

I was about to speak about the matter when three blasts of a horn resounded across the camp and the white barges above us began to shift.

“Now’s not the time to gawk, boy!” Elijah was swift to move and seized my arm. Within moments we were barrelling into the nearest barracks, which had many confused men taking off their armor to get some rest. “Get into your bunks and lean against the sides! If you can use magic, reinforce everything you can!”

Elijah and I found ourselves at the doorway, our crash through it breaking the frame apart, and he noticed my worried look at it.

“We might be better off without it, magic sometimes does nasty things if you’re in a sealed place.” With those words he grunted and placed his hand on the door frame and funneled power into it, his power joined with many others and soon we were cocooned in defenses. I joined him on the other side of the door, recalling my training as best as I was able, and creating a shield… but my gaze was focused on the sky. “Here it comes.”

I didn’t know how Elijah knew, perhaps it was because of his long experience in war, but he was right.

The mages on the flying barges began to fire at something in the sky, while the lesser, large balloons massed to work as flying walls. Things I could barely see exploded in the sky, struck by magic, while others smashed against the defensive barges. When a few of the things began to slip through, I was able to perceive them with my arcane senses, and I felt revolted as I felt the corruptive influence of monsters leaking from the weapons in massive amounts, as well as the telltale energy of necromancy.

I recoiled when one hit the gathering point and I flinched at the sight of it.

“What is that?” My question escaped my lips at the sight of the creation. It reminded me of undead familiar sometimes used by necromancers. Layers and layers of bone wrapped into each other to form a pillar, with large wings of bone that were surrounded by corruptive power. It was a massive amalgam of undead magic meant to speed through the air, flying at a target, but it appeared to not have worked as it simply embedded itself into the ground many meters from us. “An explosive?”

My question hung in the air as, suddenly, a drizzle of rain began to fall from the sky.

I realized that it was corruptive in nature… but questioned why when it was in such small amounts and used against the Empire. We had immense protections against such attacks and there were plenty of priests with us. The attack made by the betrayer was ineffective and he wasted his fearsome weapons in the process against our defenses. That wasn’t all, even, because the liquid being dropped was rapidly turning into vapor right before our very eyes.

For a moment, I felt confidence rise within me as the seemingly insurmountable foe beyond the mountains seemed to fail.

That’s when I heard Elijah’s voice filled with fear.

“By all that is good… no… please… no.” Terror filled the veteran’s lips as he gazed at the rising mist at the base of our camp. Through the visor of his helm, I saw his eyes as he filled with power. He was analyzing the growing fog… and he began trembling as he held out his hands towards the door and created a physical shield of magic. “Close all the entrances! Block any place from which air can enter! It’s poisoned air! Pure poison!”

For a second, I didn’t understand because what poison could the monsters have that would endanger us. All their poisons were trite things that could be cured after causing only grave embarrassment.

Then, just as I recalled that I wasn’t facing monsters, the screaming started all around the camp.

“May the goddess preserve us.” Elijah whispered as we witnessed through the shields the terror inflicted upon us. “He has refined Manticore poison into something truly horrific.”

My mind worked as my eyes witnessed true horror.

Manticore poison was a simple affair. Upon being hit by a needle of a Manticore, a man would become subsumed by lust and the slightest touch would bring him to a maddening, incessant climax. The fearsome manticore was rarely faced by anyone in less than full plate and protection against arrows because of this. It was one of the deadliest poisons that monsters had at their disposal because it could incapacitate a man as his nerves were set alight by pleasure and pleasure alone and he would spasm and spasm while losing control over his body.

What if someone refined that poison to be deadlier?

What if they sought to inflict pain instead of pleasure?

What if they sought to turn the body against itself by making all the spasms intensify all over the body?

I received the answer as I looked through the blue, hazy shield cast by Elijah at the door of our shelter.

“It hurts! It hurts! IT HURTS!”

“I’m burning! HELP ME! PUT IT OUT!”

“Make it stop, please! MAKE IT STOP!”

“GAAAH!”

The chorus of screams melded into one another. Men and women screamed and screamed as they fell to the ground because of pain and breathed in the forming vapors. A man suddenly fell from one of the barges, convulsing and screaming all the way down, and his quick death from the impact was a mercy as all others breathed in more of the poisonous air.

Men and women began to shiver and shake at first, but then they began to spasm, lose control over their limbs, and give off no more than sputtering sounds… then the cracking, crunching noises of muscles moving with great strength and necessity in directions they shouldn’t began. Limbs broke, necks swung skulls in every direction, while their legs spasmed back and forth in the air, smashed against the ground, or twisted out of their own hips. Torsos twisted unnatural one direction while the waist move in others. Bowels voided, skulls smashed against the ground, vomit left the mouths of the afflicted, and blood left their eyes, noses, and ears as the poison seeped into their every pore.

A man vomited behind me, and I feared that there was a gap in our bunk’s protections, but after a few moments of fear nothing happened to us.

The man’s simply retched at all that he saw… and none of us blamed him.

I could barely stand to look at it and Elijah was whispering beneath his breath.

“Protect me, oh goddess. Please protect me.” His eyes were closed as he prayed. He couldn’t stand to look at what was happening, despite all the horrors and terrors he witnessed in all his life. “Protect me here and I swear that I will give my everything to you forevermore. It’s yours. My whole life. Save me from this hell.”

A tinge of divine power suddenly flowed from him because of his earnest words and the shield he cast became stronger.

Soon enough, many others were praying and dedicating their lives to the goddess and her Church, and I found myself the sole, silent witness of what was happening.

As they prayed, I found myself biting my tongue, because a single question lay upon my lips.

How?

How could they pray to a goddess whose angels were slain just days ago? How could they dedicate their lives to the Church that brought the betrayer here in the first place? How could they submit to a people whose protections have failed so many times… and who could barely protect us now? Where were the Church’s priests and priestesses now? What were they doing against the storm of hatred that they unleashed upon the Empire? Why were so many flocking to them when they contributed so heavily into unleashing the beast that struck against us now!?

I held my tongue.

These weren’t my people.

They would kill me, if their earnest words managed to elicit such a response from the Church’s power.

So, I stayed silent and witnessed the horror as the rising vapors were swept up and carried by the wind, as protections failed, screams began, and the scent of shit, blood, and vomit filled the camp. More fell from their barges, their deaths easy compared to those on the ground. Soon, the screams became farther and farther, while the vapor began to disappear.

A part of me wondered what could be done against a mind filled with such hatred, loathing, and intellect… and as if to answer that the flying amalgam that struck the ground and did nothing at the start of the bombardment suddenly came to life… and its cargo began to glow a bright, clear orange. The flying casing, having lost all its power to maintain itself, began to turn into nothing more than dust in the wind.

Nothing more than fine dust in great quantities filled with the power of necromancy around an explosive, incendiary payload.

A firestorm to clear the lands after his poison did his work.

Elijah and all the others present in the bunker began to pray fanatically to be saved, to be granted more power, and to survive… but it was too late.

We were just soldiers trained with magic.

Not Saints, Champions, or Heroes.

After protecting ourselves for so long, unless we were granted a miracle by the goddess, we were going to die.

And, as I knew would be the case, no miracle came to my rescue or Elijah’s.

Today we died by Hikigaya Hachiman’s hand, the monster that the Empire and the Church created.

So, I stepped past the barrier to face the flame and power head on amidst all the others brought low.

I knew I was lucky.

My death was going to be swift.