CHAPTER 11: FIGHTING RETREAT

***The throne room of the Saint’s Tree palace…***

“You…you haven’t learned your lesson, haven’t you?” the Seductress commented when she saw the silhouette of her nemesis coming from the doors on the other end of the hallway. “Why do you have to keep on coming back, only to be defeated again?”

“I guess you have forgotten that I have a personal grudge against you,” the Black God answered, his sword drawn and ready.

“Why?”

“You destroyed my world. You killed my people,” the warrior deity stopped halfway. “And you murdered my loved ones.”

The Seductress fell silent, and her face had a surprised expression on it. However, her lips slowly drew a smirk, and she began to laugh…first, softly and then, it grew louder until her voice drowned the throne room. “Oooh, now I remember,” she quipped, “Your world! Your people! They all died crying for help! But you, their god…the one they praise, the one they give their offerings to! You only ran away, trying to escape the inevitable!”

The Black God then drew the first blood by attacking first, aiming for the Seductress’ head. However, he was hit by one of her miasma tentacles that suddenly shot out of the floor. The deity reeled back, though he felt no pain as his anger transcended any other feelings he had at the moment.

“You made me remember that time…” the creature from the Void reminisced; her voice spoke so sweetly, as if she’s fond of those memories. “Your loved ones…they were all scared, confused. They placed their trust in you. Yet, as I shut my mouth feeding on them, they could only curse you in their hearts! You abandoned them! Their god and the man they loved abandoned them!”

“Shuuuuuuut up!” the Black God’s rage reached its limit and he resumed his attacks. Contrary to his first meeting with her in this timeline, the warrior deity headed straight to his enemy, even as he was skewered by her miasma tentacles. He just ignored the pain she inflicted, cutting off her miasmas with his sword, and healing his injuries on his way to the throne.

When the Seductress noticed that her foe wasn’t affected by her attacks, she panicked. The creature from the Void brought out even more tentacles and lashed out at the Black God, not giving a care if she destroyed the throne room. The warrior deity, though he tried standing his ground, was eventually swept away by her thrashing.

“Stay away from me!” she cried out. “Why do you have to kill me? I just want to eat!”

“A creature like you shouldn’t be allowed to live!” he charged at her again. “If I can’t kill you, then someone else will!”

“Like I will allow that!”

“!!!”

The Seductress finally stood from her throne and brought the fight to the Black God himself. As he parried her attacks, she sent him flying to the ceiling of the throne room. Not wishing a repeat of their first meeting, the warrior deity cast a spell that sent him crashing down to the floor, directly hitting the Seductress with his sword.

----------

**Kuro**

When our counterfire ceased and the smoke of battlefield settled, the port village was littered with leaves and branches, as well as the wights that fell from the tree palace’s canopy. Those creatures were quickly immobilized and destroyed by our soldiers, with many of the poor corpses mutilated and mangled in their anger. At the tree palace gates, images of broken and dead trees, deep craters and thick black smoke reminiscent of Western Front landscape during World War I was clear. Nevertheless, our forces survived the onslaught of raining shells and arrows through the shields put up by our magicians.

“…”

There was a lull in the aftermath of the fight, as the soldiers couldn’t believe what they just experienced. It was the most intense fight they fought in yet. Likewise, the other side ceased in their attacks…my guess was that they lost their ranged ammunition.

But—a veteran of several wars and battle from Chersea to Cherflammen, I know this is just the ‘tip of the iceberg’. If there’s any chance that we would finish this fight we started, we should strike now.

“!!!”

I broke everyone’s trance when I blew into my whistle, and shouted orders, “Resume the attack! Soldiers of the Elf Saint, Her Holiness the Lady Hinwe! On me!”

After that, successive whistles followed, as the commanding officers from the other regiments charged with me. From my spot, I could see that the soldiers from the first wave had already cut down the thick vines protecting the palace gates. They were preparing to move in when I ordered a general advance.

“!!!”

However, with all the failed efforts of the Seductress’ wights to bring the fight to us earlier, the enemy still had the means to resist our army. The dirt road that led to the gates were flanked with thick forest vegetation, and from there, the undead harassed us with their arrows. Those who were out of any ranged weapon attacked our column with swords and teeth.

“Fix bayonets!” was my order to everyone as we fought in close quarters.

The officers were issued swords, so they killed with those, usually with personal daggers on the other hand. For the soldiers who were caught in surprise by the wights, bayonets, rifle butts, daggers, fists and even stones within their reach were used to destroy their closest enemies. Those who could still shoot fired their bolt-heaters or pistols in desperation, and those with grenades lobbied those deadly projectiles to the thick bocage, causing soil, twigs and body parts to fly. The odds of winning the battle swung on both sides, as one side refused to be outwitted by the other. From my perspective, only one thing was sure…

The Seductress, or the Lord Gerard, won’t surrender the tree palace easily.

As the chaos of battle spread from the port village to the dirt road towards the palace gates, I grabbed the nearest officer to me. I asked him, “From what regiment are you?”

“Lieutenant Colonel Loerh from the Savoy Regiment, sir!” he replied. “I’m the deputy commander of that unit!”

“Get your elves and take defensive positions on both sides of this path. Keep this road open for us!”

The officer saluted and returned to his soldiers. Amidst the fighting, they worked to set up palisades and fortify their hold in this area.

‘That’s one regiment down to defend the road,’ Gaius noted.

I can’t help it. All of us didn’t expect these wights would put up such resistance. And we have to keep the communication lines open.

‘Well, I’m aware of the Seductress’ abilities,’ the Roman admitted. ‘Though, I’m surprised she’d use the people she killed to fight for her. In my battles against her, she always used her shadow children to deal with her enemies. They are weak, yes, but they can always be called back once destroyed.’

Is it possible that the Lord Gerard—given that his body got taken over—can contribute in the wights’ tactics?

‘No…at least, not a direct contribution. I’m sure, even that elf guard would hate the idea of cooperating with her; no matter how much he abhors the Lady Hinwe. However, since she’s using her body, that villain from the Void has access to his mind. And within his mind are the battle tactics he learned from his peers in the Life Guards.’

Tch…this is really a big miscalculation on my part.

‘Even I, the greatest military commander of Rome up to that point, suffered defeats. Don’t lose sight of your goal, and don’t lose heart as well.’

Well, I was thankful for Gaius’ encouragements, but I still had to contend with the reality. While the regiments we sent to attack the gates earlier managed to breach the vine barriers, the defenders within the tree palace complex wouldn’t easily back down. Once our soldiers tried to enter, they showered them with wave after wave of arrows, similar to those fantasy movies I watched whenever the elvish army got their shit together and rained death on their foes.

Thus, the first ones in the palace complex suffered casualties; they have to retreat outside to avoid the arrow volleys.

“Fuck!”

The retreating soldiers crashed to our advance, effectively blocking our way. As our charge bogged down, the wights inside the palace complex resumed raining arrow volleys against us.

Someone then shouted, “Incoming projectiles!”

“!!!” I could make out several circular missiles making its way down on our forces. I thought the enemy switched to bombarding us with rocks using catapults, but my Roman friend had a more chilling answer…

‘Damn it, Kuro! Those are severed heads!’

What?

Then it hit us, and confirmed Gaius’ words. While our magicians did a great job in keeping off those macabre things from our bodies with their shield magic, I doubt our foes meant bodily harm when they hurled those back to us. They not only wanted to put up fierce resistance against our advance, but also conduct psychological warfare. I mean, in one glance, I knew these were our unfortunate guys captured or killed by the wights, and had their heads cut off as a warning to us. And I was sure the rest of the elvish invasion army could tell that as well.

“!!!”

The effect of that was immediate. Some of our soldiers dropped their weapons and ran back to the port village. The officers tried to assert control by firing their pistols into the air.

‘Kuro! Keep your men back behind the magical barriers,’ Gaius shouted his advice. I could tell the frustration from his voice, but we couldn’t help it. I also couldn’t blame the elves for getting unnerved. No one wanted to die, at least, not here and not in that gruesome way.

“Fuck!” was all I could mutter, as I watched the elvish soldiers with melt in face of this onslaught. I have to call off the attack.

----------

While we had to call off the attack on the tree palace, we dug in to hold the advances we made, even if its on dirt paths like the one we used to pass from the port village up to the back gates of the complex. For one, by now the ferocity of the defense was limited only at the limits of the Saint’s Tree. Second, the regiment I assigned to defend the place already built defenses to secure their hold of the area. And third, we could anchor our advance from the beach and into Cherwoods’ interior through this foothold.

Just that we have to go back to lick our wounds, and rethink of how we can breach the ‘plant’ walls of the Elf Saint’s place.

“…”

Man, I assaulted well-defended forts, and walled cities before, but this tree palace is proving to be quite a challenge.

Any case, while the first wave of our army routed, the forces I commanded conducted an orderly withdrawal back to our lines. Thus, not only our forces were saved from humiliation, they also kept us safe from the pursuit of the enemy. Though, if I may add, marching while being bombarded by severed heads isn’t something I expected. I can only imagine the effect of those grisly projectiles on the minds of our soldiers…

‘That villain is using all ways to demoralize us,’ Gaius commented.

Well, I got to admit, her scare tactics are pretty effective.

‘She’s not Seductress if it’s not.’

Well, that made sense. As a creature that could manipulate thoughts and memories, fighting her unprepared was disastrous. I’d like it if we could re-plan our invasion; maybe land in some other place, and march from there. But then again, I remembered that the reason we opted to invade the Saint’s Tree was because of logistics. There was drought currently affecting Cherwoods because of the advancing sands; water—a primary need of every military force out there—was in shortage. We couldn’t rely on any elf cities for supplies, as they were suffering as well. We’d only march into our sure deaths.

‘From a commander’s point of view,’ the Roman said, ‘your decision to land close to the heart of the enemy is risky and dangerous, though I don’t think you got any choice, given the situation in this land. So, don’t lose heart; casualties are always expected in any wars.’

We got limited reserves, as well as equipment.

‘True. That sucks.’

Don’t state the obvious if you have nothing good to say.

‘Yeah, my bad.’

----------

Just as we neared the port village, however, I saw another commotion going on. The soldiers with me readied their guns, as we heard shouts and gunshots. Tension suddenly rose once again, and our march slowed down. Some officers with me went to check the ruckus.

A few moments later, someone came back and told us, “Sir! Her Holiness! She’s in the village!”

“Huh?” I couldn’t believe what I just heard. “What do you mean Her Holiness? Are you telling me there a saint visiting us?”

The soldier nodded, “The Lady Hinwe is here!”

At once, I rushed back to the port village, where I saw our lead columns joining in the celebrations at Her Holiness’ arrival. True enough, I saw the distinctive dark blue hair of our muse…the Lady Hinwe Tal-Inwir of Cherwoods, going around the place with her maid, the Lady Meanor, and some of their guards.

“What are you doing here, Your Holiness?” I asked the moment I got near her. “I thought you’re still back in Chersea! You shouldn’t have crossed yet, not until we secured this place!”

“Look, I’m the Saint in-charge of Cherwoods, Kuro!” the Lady Hinwe replied. “Of course, I can always teleport back in, even if Seirna blocks all border crossings.”

“Yes, I know! But I did request that you remain there for as long as it isn’t safe, Your Holiness!”

The Elf Saint gave me a long stare. It’s as if she was saying, “Dude, are you hearing yourself?”

I heaved a sigh, and asked, “I know that look. Let me guess, the Lady Madelaine, Lady Ruro and Lady Natasha forced you to go here and watch me.”

“And Lady Seirna too.”

“Even that saint?”

“Well, Lady Seirna sent me here so I can see how difficult it is for you and your soldiers to take my palace. She wants me to realize the folly of my decisions.”

“Hard life.”

“While the other three, well, they’d butcher me if something happened to you,” the Lady Hinwe explained, and sighed. “Between the Seductress and those four, I’d rather choose to be here.”

“Not that I can’t understand where you’re coming from,” I countered. “Still, you can just stay at the ships; it’s safer there.”

“Lady Seirna’s point is valid. I don’t want to sit in the comfort of those ships, while my people are dying in my name,” the Elf Saint reiterated. “And also, I concur with the other saints as well. For all we know, you’d be rushing to your death sooner than we can even teleport. And don’t tell me I’m lying; one look at your right eye, and I got all the proof I need.”

I fell silent with her words, and my hand went for my right eye. Honestly, I could still see in this part of my body, though all I could make out were black, or grey shapes. My deal with Lady Time took out my ability to sense details and colors from this eye, in exchange for ‘rewinding’ the timeline and saving Meanor.

I inadvertently gazed on the elf maid, whose attention wandered around, even as our soldiers surrounded us.

“Well, it is what it is,” I told them, pointing to the infected bocages and trees. “The Seductress’ corrupting influence infected these plants, and is slowly consuming Cherwoods.”

“I’ll knock sense into that guy…” I heard Meanor mutter; I don’t know if she noticed, but her hand rested on the hilt of her sword.

“And we don’t want to rush things,” I added, just to make sure the elf maid remained in senses. “Two times we assaulted the tree palace, and two times we retreated. It’s difficult to punch through the defenses.”

“I can teleport you inside, if passing through the walls is your concern,” the Lady Hinwe offered.

“No, we can’t. For one, there’s a big risk of the enemy cutting us off should we teleport inside. Unless we’re raiding this place, I can’t recommend doing it. Second, we all know who’s in that place. The Seductress wanted your god-powers; teleporting in is like heading straight to a monster’s mouth.”

“So, what’s your plan?”

“Rethink of our strategy.”

The Elf Saint looked towards her tree palace, and then heaved another sigh. Then, she said to me, “You’re the one who’s got more knowledge than me in military stuff. I defer to your judgment.”

----------

We still haven’t finished talking when we heard the defensive lines stirred once again, this time coming from the beach sectors of the frontlines. Some soldiers started rushing towards that direction, and only when we heard a trumpet blast that we knew that it was a friendly group.

So, I also went to the pickets to meet with the people arriving. The Lady Hinwe and Lady Meanor came with me.

“Milord—and Your Holiness,” an officer didn’t hide his surprise when he saw the saint. “One of the airborne groups you sent finally made contact.”

“Which one?”

“They say it’s the Eastern Confederacy regiment,” he replied. “And err…m-milord, you need to come and see this.”

The Lady Hinwe and I exchanged glances, then followed the officer. Based on his expression, I doubt it was any good news. Nevertheless, I wanted to check what the airborne soldiers found…

“!!!”

The officer led us a few distances away from the lines, and into that part of Cherwoods where the ‘corruption’ of the Seductress had only begun to infect the plants. There, what we saw was way above our expectations. Elves—both young and old, males and females—was with the airborne regiment we sent. Their drab leather armors contrasted with the bright red colors of our army, yet they were an impressive bunch of armed elves.

“Sir!” the elf captain of the newly-arrived unit saluted. “These are our brethren that came with us from the city of Berondin further east.”

“B-Berondin?” the Lady Hinwe exclaimed. “That city of mud elves?”

“Your Holiness…” a female elf came forward, with a set of well-oiled and maintained armor, and bow behind her. Then, she curtsied before the Elf Saint.

“I see that you’re still alive and well, Lady Elsa of Berondin!” Meanor greeted. “And it’s great to have your forces on our side, even though we got our differences.”

“Yes,” the leader of the Berondin army greeted back. “We should set those aside for now and work to topple the monster in the tree palace.”

At that moment, Meanor reached out a hand for a shake, which the Lady Elsa of Berondin received. While they were talking, I turned to the captain of the regiment.

“Where are the others?”

“Sir, we left them at the blocking positions,” the officer replied. “The landings yesterday went off without problems, and we’re coordinating properly. Nevertheless, the attacks of what we call ‘undead elves’ continued. We’re hoping that we can reinforce them soon, or they’ll be overwhelmed.”

“Right, I’ll note that. Any case, you said earlier the phrase, ‘that came with us’?” I pointed out. “You mean, there are still more left from where you came from?”

The patrol officer nodded. “The ones who remained in Berondin are mostly the invalid husbands, sons, brothers, and some of the females and children of the refugees and the city locals. An elf calling himself ‘Lord Ingwer of Dorian’ will follow our group soon, bringing in more warriors. Another man donned in black dress came with us earlier, and transported us nearby. Though, after that, he suddenly disappeared.”

That must be the Black God. And I’m relieved to hear that the Lord Ingwer also survived…

“Any word for me from that person, that man in black clothes?”

“He said he’ll meet you soon, inside the Saint’s Tree…is what he said.”

“W-What—”

At that moment, we all heard an explosion coming from the Saint’s Tree. Much to everyone’s shock and horror, jet-black smoke came out of the ancient trunk of the tree palace, and from the complex itself, we could see the wights emerging from their hiding spots and defenses, marching to attack our forces.

“Enemy attack!” was the shout that echoed throughout the defense lines, and the soldiers rushed to the foxholes and trenches to defend their positions. Magicians also erected barriers to keep off the volleys of arrows raining down from above. And the tank crews reoriented their vehicles to meet the counter-charge.

I pulled my pistol and went back to take personal command of the army.

----------

The counterattack of the wights was no laughing matter. Unlike the undead of the fantasy games I played, where they walk clumsily, these wights could run, and worse, they could shoot with deadly precision. Nevertheless, our side had no intention of backing down; the elves, even the lowest ranked soldier, could hit their enemies where it hurt the most as well. As the instructions before told them to aim and try to destroy the head, that’s what everyone’s doing.

For this battle, however, the army of elves from Berondin joined in the defense. While the wights focused on overwhelming our defenses, the airborne regiment and the elvish warriors attacked their flanks with bullets, magic and arrows. What’s even better was that the elvish warriors knew how to deal with them—while the Berondin archers peppered our enemies, their other fighters closed in for the melee, even scaling the Saint’s Tree’s walls as we pushed back the wights.

On my side stood the Elf Saint herself, and Meanor, who were taking turns chanting barrier spells to fend off the deadly projectiles, while I shot at our enemies when the opportunity presented itself. However, I don’t wish for them to be around me, as the chance of us getting captured remained. I told the elf maid, “Get away from this place! We should separate for now!”

“Milord,” she replied, “I can’t leave you! I swore to the saints that I would protect you, even if it costs me my life.”

“Your duty is to your saint, not to anyone else, including me!” I retorted. “Now go! Leave this place and wait at the ships! I’ll talk to the others if they ask you about it!”

Seeing that I was pushing them away, Meanor pulled her mistress, trying to pull her towards the shores, opposite of the soldiers rushing to reinforce our lines. However, the Lady Hinwe stood her ground.

“I won’t leave you, Kuro!” she declared. “I think it’s only fitting that I fight with the soldiers fighting for my name and honor than running away, and hiding in the safety of the ships.”

“Damn it, Your Holiness!” I bellowed. “While I admire your bravery, we have to be practical! It’s all over if you’re killed, or captured! Trust me in this; you’re only hindering us by your mere presence!”

I guess that was enough for the Lady Hinwe to realize the gravity of the situation. She fell silent, throwing me a blank stare as Meanor pulled her away. Then, I called a pair of soldiers…

“Hey, you two!” I gestured to them. “Your names?”

“Glamden, sir!” the smaller one answered.

“And, Behrien!” the taller elf followed him.

“Good. Glamden, leave your things to a fellow soldier,” I ordered them. “Take your buddy Behrien with you and escort the Elf Saint out of here! Go!”

They saluted, and off they went, running after Meanor and the Lady Hinwe. I think those two elves are relieved to know they’ll head away from the battlefield, without attracting scorn.

----------

When they were finally gone, I could now fully focus on the battle ahead of me. The soldiers of our army poured concentrated rifle and artillery fire against wave after wave of wights marching to our line of sight. As the Berondin warriors pierced their flanks, I ordered a general advance from my direction. Tired of the recent defeat they suffered, our soldiers were itching to get even with the undead, so they used everything their hands could reach to destroy their enemy.

Rifle butts for makeshift clubs, bayonets for swords, used for slashing the limbs and heads of the wights, and even stones to crush the heads of the undead, should the rifles break because of the repeated bashing. The wights had no ‘sense of preservation’; it just continued to attack and attempted to overwhelm our lines, though we would immediately counter-charge if they broke into the defenses.

There were many points in the entire trench system that changed hands multiple times. I thought the enemy was making a coordinated, and determined effort to drive us back to the sea, with how intense the battle was turning.

However, our woes are far from over…

“!!!”

Another explosion from the Saint’s Tree, and this time, I could clearly see someone flying off from the tree palace. Then, slowly, I recognized that figure clad in black clothes…

It is the Black God himself!