Chapter 69:
Spoils of War
The Children of Eris
In a single night, after months of fighting in the shadows, the infamous Sons of Tartarus had been destroyed.
After taking control of the estate and slaughtering most of the guards and staff on site, there were close to six hundred dead Sons and seventy dead Machai and five dead Ravens, which included the ones who had perished at the Hierophant.
As planned, most of the city watch and Holy Legion’s attention was drawn to the blaze in the Merchant’s District which was still burning brightly in the night.
The battle that saw the end of the Sons of Tartarus had gone completely unnoticed.
With the estate secure, Mania opened another portal back to the Dread Keep to bring in reinforcements to scour and clean up the site.
Mania and Fenrir escorted the servants and slaves they’d taken prisoner back to the keep for Rebecca to handle, whilst Mimir and his Ravens searched for anything of value they could claim as spoils of war.
Most of the base was filled to the brim with contraband, stolen cargo, stockpiles of food, medicine, poisons, weapons, armour and money, all of which Mímir was very happy to see.
“Regardless of what the Dark Lord feels about the loss of the Hierophant, I’m sure he will be more than thrilled with this,” Mimir confidently said.
“If he asks me whose idea that was, I’ll tell him it was yours,” Mania curtly replied.
“Do as you wish. If he’s happy with this result, then only I will receive praise for this.”
Mania clicked her tongue. “Well, like you said Mímir when we first came to Stonefall, we should all share in the blame and glory for our actions. After all, we live to serve the Demon Emperor, don’t we?”
Mímir smiled beneath his scarf. “We are his majesty’s loyal servants and live only to serve him.”
Mania turned to Fenrir. “Newbie, make sure the servants aren’t harmed. If Rebecca’s plans for the Dread Keep get the go-ahead, we could probably use another few hundred servants to help keep the place tidy.”
“Will do, Mania!”
“Lady Mania.”
“Why do I have to call you that?” Fenrir asked.
“Because I am one of the first of his majesty’s servants,” Mania proudly replied.
“And also one of the first servants to fail him.” Mania glared at Fenrir but the wolf simply grinned arrogantly back. “Fine. I won’t call you Lady and I won’t bring up your past mistakes. How does that sound?”
Mania sighed and nodded. “That will do for now.”
As Fenrir and the Hysminai took care of the prisoners, Mimir and Mania continued to explore and came across a gigantic steel door at the very bottom of the underground base.
The door was three metres tall and five metres wide which excited both generals.
“Get Fenrir and the Machai,” Mimir told the Ravens. “Take over her duties of keeping our guests safe.”
A minute later, Fenrir and ten Machai arrived.
Fenrir whistled when she saw the door. “You need me to crack it open?”
“Yes. Try not to damage it too much. The last thing we need is this estate collapsing,” Mimir cautioned her. “Try just breaking the lock and keeping the door on its hinges.”
Fenrir stretched her arms above her head, said, “I’ll see what I can do,” and got to work.
She went to the handle side of the vault and tried to get a firm grip on the door itself.
Once Fenrir had a strong grip, she put all of her strength into trying to move it but the door only budged slightly.
She nodded at the Machai and four of them went to help her.
Together, they slowly forced the lock free from the wall, tearing it through the stone wall and, with one final pull, they opened the door.
The six Machai in waiting then pushed their backs against the door to hold it open.
When the generals stepped inside, their eyes widened and their jaws dropped.
It was filled to the brim with gold, precious jewels, thousands of metal ingots, raw metal ores, glowing magical weapons and armour, and, in the far corner, were artefacts encased in an enchanted glass box to keep them safe.
“Tell the Machai to get their arses down here and leave upstairs to the Hysminai,” Fenrir commanded.
Two of the Ravens bowed and promptly left as Fenrir eagerly jumped into the vault, inspecting and sniffing everything she saw.
“You’re lucky that this wasn’t boobytrapped,” Mímir said as he went deeper into the vault.
“I bet the Sons were so arrogant that they never thought anyone would ever make it here other than them.” Fenrir laughed as she dove backwards onto a pile of gold coins. “Ah, this is amazing.”
“It truly is. To think that the Sons had all of this and still couldn’t stand against us,” Mania mused as she began exploring the vault.
“It’s not that, Mania,” Mímir said. “I imagine Carlson probably inherited a lot of this from his family and their connections, then kept it to himself. If Herakles knew of what was in this vault, don’t you think he would’ve taken it?”
Mania giggled. “Certainly. I imagine that Sylvan would never have sold out his allies if they offered him even one percent of what’s in here.”
Mímir’s eyes wandered around the room until her gaze was caught by a shiny metal among the pile of ingots.
He picked up the silver-coloured metal and examined it more closely.
At a glance, it looked like ordinary silver but, if you had a keen eye or touched the metal’s surface, you could tell that it was a different kind of metal.
It had a much rougher texture and it was heavier than silver was.
“What is that?” Mania asked as she came closer.
“Did you ever read the book I bought about the rarest metals, ores and gems in Aangapea?” He asked her. She shook her head. “They made mention of one of the rarest metals in the entire world, found only in the deepest veins of Dragon Spine called Draconic Metal.”
“Draconic Metal?”
“It’s was originally named after the mountain range it’d been discovered in, but then it earned its name when it proved to be stronger than even a dragon’s scales. And.” Mímir looked down at the stacks of ingots and spotted dozens of Draconic ones. “Carlson seems to have plenty of them.”
“How much would one ingot cost you in Rham?” Mania asked.
“About a hundred and fifty thousand,” Mímir answered.
“For one tiny ingot?!” Mania gasped in disbelief, then looked at the ingots and the treasures around them. “This entire room must’ve taken centuries for them to assemble.”
“Yes, and it only took us one evening to rob them off it.” Mimir pulled down his scarf and grinned. “This, Mania, might be the greatest gift we could give his majesty.”
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