Year 2: The Battle of Rhodes - Chapter 2

The Battle of Rhodes had unofficially begun five minutes before midnight.

Elysa, having left Kayleigh behind at the ball, giddily skipped back to the dorms, a song in her heart and a smile on her lips.

Once there, she greeted the four guards outside like normal and made her way inside.

“Lady Elysa, welcome back!” A maid greeted her. “I told everyone to gather in the main hall like you asked.”

“Thank you, Glinda.” Elysa laughed. “Remember, I don’t want anyone to peek before I bring out the presents, alright?”

“Understood!” Glinda laughed happily. “I still can’t believe all of the heroes pitched in to buy us presents. When did you ever have the time?”

“All shall be revealed later. Don’t worry, the others will be back after midnight, so just make sure you get everyone here for the reveal.”

Of course, Elysa had lied to the servants.

The groundwork for the dorm massacre had been laid two weeks ago, in complete secrecy, by Elysa. First, she had asked Glinda lots of questions, out of the blue, about what everyone working at the dorms liked and disliked. Then, she asked for recommendations on shops and nearby caterers. Finally, Elysa had asked Glinda for a big favour - to gather everyone together for a surprise party of sorts.

“It won’t be a party, but it’ll be merry,” Elysa had said in a whisper. “Don’t mention this to the others, especially not to the other heroes.”

“Why not?”

“Because if word gets out about the surprise, it won’t be as much fun, will it?”

“O-of course not, Lady Elysa!”

Elysa had bought small presents for everyone, very expensive products at that, using her personal funds and made a point of showing Glinda shopping bags whenever she returned from a trip to the city.

Once Elysa had gone to her room, she snuck outside and channelled a tenth of the spare mana she’d been building up inside her Divine Artifact, Draupnir.

Every day, Elysa had poured all but a small slimmer of her mana into the artifact to build up as large of a store of mana as possible.

In combat, she rarely ever tapped into the reservoir as deep as it was, because she had been preparing for this moment.

The day when she would shatter all of the magical barriers protecting the King’s Palace.

In perfect synchronisation with the fireworks and bells and cheers ringing in the New Year, Elysa broke the barriers.

There had been a terrifically loud shattering sound as it happened, but it went unnoticed by all aside from Mímir.

The Demon Emperor’s Spy Master had smuggled himself into the west a month prior and, once inside, opened his portal on the walls, allowing the Gørviligr to start their work. Then, Mania emerged and leapt down to where Elysa had been stood and, from her portal, the succubus summoned Machai and Fenrir.

Not two minutes later, the slaughter inside the dormitories had been carried out, all while Elysa danced an elegant dance beneath the moonlight by herself, a gentle smile spread across her face.

Then, all she did was wait, with the Wolf of the End, for someone to find her.

***

As the reality of the situation sunk into her being, Kayleigh’s mind recalled many conversations and moments she and the others had shared with Elysa.

“Well, we’re not Dao Chen.”

“Meaning?”

Elysa smiled. “Who knows?”

She had heard the conversation Stephanie and Blake had heard with her.

“Well, we can start being friends now.”

After roaring with laughter, Elysa had said, “I don’t mind being your friend.”

When pressed by Akane to say why she trusted Elysa.

“She’s just…trustworthy, I guess? She’s always got my back in a fight and is always happy to talk about anything, so we get along quite well. I do wish she’d take things a bit more seriously from time to time, but that’s about it.”

An opinion Kayleigh now considered to be nothing but an act.

“I might not have many talents, but I am confident in my memory which is not something Guy can say with confidence,” she had said when Kayleigh approached her to discuss potential traitors.

She had lain suspicion and doubt on Ewan, perfectly matching her thoughts with Kayleigh’s.

“Ewan is, in effect, the prisoner’s dilemma or Schrodinger’s Cat of our group,” Elysa had said. “If he is telling the truth about his amnesia, suspecting him will only make his isolation and detachment from the rest of us worse. If he’s lying, then not doubting him will come back to haunt us all. If we had a definitive way of testing the authenticity of his words, then I’d be all for it; however, Dante’s taken quite a lot of interest in him, so perhaps that means we can trust him too.”

Elysa had even thrown in information no one else knew about Hailey, making her out as a strong candidate for the traitor.

“It might not be anything, but our conversation about Guy reminded me of the first time we met Kella and Dante. Just before they left, Hailey said something and Kella glared at her; she was staring daggers, if only briefly, at Hailey right as they were about to leave. I didn’t hear what they said, but something about what Hailey said greatly upset Kella. I didn’t think much of it at the time and thought maybe it was an insult thrown at the adventurer, but now I wonder if it’s something more.”

“…How could it be?” Kayleigh asked. “They’d never met before, so what could she have possibly said to anger Kella?”

Elysa shook her head. “I don’t know, but I think there might be more to that moment now. It might be worth closely examining Hailey and Kella both.”

Elysa’s carefree smile as she stood beside the enemy angered Kayleigh greatly, but part of the reason Kayleigh couldn’t believe that Elysa had betrayed them was because she didn’t know when she’d have had the opportunity to make contact with the enemy.

If it had been during the time when Amen was acting as the traitor, it wouldn’t make sense.

“What did you and Elysa do that evening?” Hajime asked.

“We talked about what we found, or didn’t find, and what to do the next day. Then, we went our separate ways after dinner. I don’t know what she did after that.”

Then, was it before then? Kayleigh considered it, but that wouldn’t fit the narrative either. The traitor clearly was acting to leak information directly to the Demon Emperor’s forces, either to help their efforts in the east or in the west. When did Elysa make contact? Through Amen? No…she wouldn’t trust him with something so important, would she?

I don’t even know anymore…is she that type of person?

Then, what was with the conversation she told me she had with Instructor Kella?

“I had almost dismissed it entirely from my mind until Kayleigh started showing me her list of potential traitors, before Amen was uncovered, and I found it interesting that Hailey’s name was on there. I spoke to Kayleigh about this at the time, but I remember you reacted very strongly to something Hailey said, something that greatly angered you, but that didn’t make any sense to me.

“How could you possibly be that angry towards someone you’ve never met?

“Everything fell into place, however, after the Rivers House attack. David Athelward, Hailey’s childhood sweetheart, is the true name of the Demon Emperor. Only us heroes and the highest-ranking individuals in the Alliance know this, but you seemed to know it before any of us, almost as if he’d told you.

What I do know is-

“Elysa ditched you?”

Kayleigh nodded with a frustrated groan. “The second she could, she bailed and snuck back to her room.”

She left early to let the Demon Emperor’s forces into the palace!

Elysa giggled. “I’m guessing you have a lot of questions.”

“…Just one.” Kayleigh’s glare deepened in intensity. “Since when?”

“Hmm? Oh, well, it’s a little hard to answer that,” Elysa said. “Unlike Amen, I was never selling information about the Alliance’s battle plans or info on you guys. Hmm, hey, Lady Fenrir?”

“What?” The wolf girl growled.

“How much can I tell them?”

“Whatever you want.” Fenrir stood up right and clicked her neck. “Just get it done with so I can have a rematch with her.”

Kayleigh tensed and Hailey’s hand gripped her sheathed sword more tightly, whereas Elysa, excitedly, turned to face them and beamed.

“So, as I was saying, I never really did much other than break the barriers and get the Demon Emperor’s general, Lord Mímir, inside. Once I’d done that, all I had to do was wait here patiently for the other generals to arrive, activate their portals and here we are now.” She threw her arms out to the sides for emphasis, drawing attention to the sounds of bloody violence around them. “I never sold them any secrets or sent them battle plans; the most I did was provide them with a perfect layout of the Palace of Rhodes.”

“…Now it makes sense,” Kayleigh cursed.

“What does?” Hailey asked.

“This attack has been far too well coordinated and executed, even if they had spies spread throughout the palace or nearby to tell the Demon Emperor what the interior looks like. You knew that if all the staff of our dorms were gathered in the front main rooms of the building, their corpses wouldn’t be visible from afar. You also knew where everyone was staying inside the palace, including the locations of the monarchs’ bedrooms.

“You gave them everything they’d need to devise a perfect plan to assault the King’s Palace, and then all you had to do was provide them a way in.”

“Exactly.” Elysa exhaled peacefully. “It makes me happy you understand me so well.”

“The feeling is not mutual.”

“How harsh. I thought we were friends.”

“So did I, just like Hajime thought Amen was his friend.” Kayleigh’s gauntlets sparkled with lightning bolts. “I don’t even want to know why you did this.”

“Really?” Elysa smirked. “Why not?”

“Because it wouldn’t make a difference to what I’m about to do!”

Kayleigh kicked off the ground and flew towards Elysa, her fist drawn far back, and threw her full weight behind her first punch.

Fenrir, however, leapt into action and caught Kayleigh’s fist. Lightning shocked the wolf girl’s fur, but it seemingly had no effect. Fenrir went to kick Kayleigh in the stomach, but Kayleigh ripped her fist free and skidded back a few metres across the pathway.

“I said I came for a rematch,” Fenrir reminded them, clicking her knuckles. “She’s not your prey; you’re mine!”

The wolf girl moved too fast for Kayleigh to see her, but her instincts made her body move defensively.

She raised both gauntlets before her chest just as Fenrir slammed her claws into Kayleigh, sending her flying back and into a wall; the force was so great that Kayleigh’s body burst through the bricks and landed inside the building.

The wolf girl, eager for a good fight, followed close behind, leaving Hailey and Elysa behind.

Hailey drew Excalibur and readied her shield, but Elysa didn’t move.

“…Why aren’t you-?”

“I’d leave if I were you,” Elysa told her.

“…Why?”

“Your beloved childhood friend’s here.”

***

“David Athelward…” Duncan hissed through gritted teeth.

The Demon Emperor stood before Duncan and his teammate, joined by his general Abaddon the Cruel, five Dread Knights and a cohort of demons that were engaged in battle with the Alliance forces.

“Duncan Wilson.” The Demon Emperor turned to face them, flashing his bloodied claymore that resided in his right hand.

***

“Watch out!” Akane barely managed to pull Hajime out of the way of the throwing knives that were aimed at his jugular.

“Impressive reflexes,” Mímir mused, emerging from the shadows before them. “Truthfully, I had imagined that your friend would’ve been skilled enough to block such a low-level attack.”

“…Unfortunately, our leader has a lot on his mind.” Akane readied her war hammer as the rest of the team formed up behind her and Hajime. “With the five of us, I think we can handle him…barely.”

“I think so too,” Hajime said softly back, straightening his pose. “Mímir, right? I thought you were just meant to be a severed head.”

The Spy Master lowered his scarf just enough to reveal his scar. “A head is more useful when attached to a body, unless the head belongs to your enemies.”

“Lame.”

“Akane?!”

Unable to decipher what Akane had said, Mímir simply drew his blade from his back and drew more throwing knives from one of his belts. “Tonight, I am not here for you, Hajime Sakamoto. Instead, your teammates have the honour of facing me.”

“And how do you propose to draw him away from us?” Akane asked.

“Simple.”

Suddenly, a chain wrapped around Hajime’s ankle and pulled him with great force behind Mímir and into a separate chamber, the door slamming shut behind the boy.

“Hajime!”

Instinctively, the team rushed forward to his aid, but Mímir stood confidently before them.

“As I said, I shall be your opponent tonight.”

***

“…You…Amen!”

Dressed in his heroic attire and sat upon the bed, groping a dishevelled maid, was Amen, the traitor, a former friend and teammate of Hajime’s.

“It’s been too long, my friend.” Amen stood up right, the chain around Hajime’s ankle untangling itself and returning to its master. “One moment.” He turned to the maid, wrapped a chain around her neck, and snapped it in two like a twig. Amen then threw her lifeless corpse on top of a small pile of dead soldiers. “Now that the annoyance is gone, shall we?”

Amen laughed as the chains from Gleipnir burst out all at once.