And (N)one Shall Remain

After the meal was finished and the group took the chance to relax around a campfire while nursing mugs of hot tea, Sir DelVillar and the rest briefed Alissa on the situation that has developed on the frontline thus far. The fighting at the defense line they were presently at had been going on since a mere two days after the fall of Fort Gurzil, which was far earlier than what Alissa had expected.

 

Apparently, the nearest defenders, who were stationed at a small fort by the bridge over the gorge further north of Eastcliff and Westcliff had caught wind of Fort Gurzil’s fall on the same day it happened. They reacted with haste and embarked on a daring mission, sending out every last one of their elites as fast as they could towards the south. 

 

It was those elites that made the daring decision to set up an ambush by the end of the river, where the current defense camp was located. At that time, the demons were still reorganizing things after they took Fort Gurzil and had yet to launch a further foray into the kingdom’s lands. When the demons launched a foray two days after the fall of Fort Gurzil, the ambush had been waiting for them for nearly half a day already.

 

Those elites sprung the ambush on the unsuspecting demons and made themselves appear to be a far larger force than the hundred-odd – three fourth tiers and around a hundred third tiers – that they actually were. That ambush decimated the party sent out by the demons and made them retreat in surprise, and it was not until the third day after Fort Gurzil’s fall that the demons launched a larger foray.

 

By that time, the remainder of the troops – all of the available soldiers had been mobilized – from the small fort had gathered together with their elites and built makeshift defensive positions by the river’s end. They fought with their lives on the line to hold the demons at bay, and while they paid a heavy price for it, lasted long enough until the first batch of reinforcements arrived the next day.

 

As more and more reinforcements poured in, the frontline stabilized, as the demons were either unwilling or unable to take on the defenses set up without paying an unacceptable price. Many speculated that the demons that actually took down Fort Gurzil had moved on elsewhere, which was why the demons were slow with their follow-up attacks and why they couldn’t break through the defenses when it was weak at first.

 

Of course, the bravery of the soldiers from the small fort was not without cost. Out of the hundred-odd elites who came first, only twenty four survived. The casualty figures amongst their weaker troops was even worse, with only one out of ten or so of the weaker soldiers surviving the ordeal. The fort’s commander, one of the fourth tiers who set out first, perished in battle, while the other two who survived were grievously wounded.

 

Even at the present date, they were still in bad condition as there had not been any particularly skilled healers amongst the reinforcements that arrived earlier. Only after Sir DelVillar led his reinforcements over was there hope for the two injured fourth tiers. Leda, Cerilla, Vesta, and a couple priests from Mother Magdalene’s group worked together to heal their injuries, but even then it would still take them a long while to recuperate given the severity of their injuries.

 

“I didn’t think it got that close to disaster,” admitted Alissa with some surprise after Sir DelVillar briefed her on the situation. Had the demons advanced faster after the fall of Fort Gurzil, they would have infiltrated deeper into the Kingdom’s territory and forced the defenders to react to their movements. Fortunately the situation remained under control for the time being, due to multiple factors that overlapped with one another. 

 

“It is how it is. The demons brought more troops to Fort Gurzil as time went by, but our reinforcements came in time to match them at least in quality if not in quantity, and whoever is commanding the demons seemed to be a rare worrywart, which is a point in our favor,” said Sir DelVillar as he shook his head. “At this point we’re just counting our blessings, to be honest.”

 

“What about the demons that took down the Fort, Sir? What if they actually already moved on to a different target like we assumed?” asked Ethan with some worry in his voice.

 

“We can’t do much about them. All the nearby forts and bases have been warned to fortify their defenses and to not let their guard down. Reinforcements from the inner kingdom are also on their way. We can only hope that it’s enough,” said the old knight with a shake of his head. “For the time being we need to focus on the here and now. Take care of the situation here first, then worry about others.”

 

“You’re right, Sir. Apologies,” said Ethan rather sheepishly as he shook his head with some exasperation. It was frustrating to know that the enemy might strike elsewhere while they were occupied at the defense lines.

 

“Either way, these demons won’t be easy to root out. Our military power is roughly equal, so it would be a bloody fight that we might not be able to afford if we try to push them back,” said Sir DelVillar with a frown. “As it is, our only choice is to maintain the situation until more reinforcements arrive. When we find an opportunity, that is when we will make an attempt to push them back out of the kingdom’s territory.”

 

For the time being, the demons still outnumbered the human defenders, but with Sir DelVillar’s group’s arrival, the number of high tier combatants between the two sides actually favored the humans slightly, since Alissa’s party was included in that count. The demons were capable of sensing that change, which made them more cautious and unwilling to commit their forces too much as a result, resulting in the current stalemate.

 

Alissa also didn’t fail to notice that other than a couple noble lords whose domains were close to the region, most of the Kingdom’s forces gathered at the defense base were under the lead of senior knights like Sir DelVillar and Sir Inolet. She knew that members of the semi-independent faction led by the old knights mostly spent their lives by the frontlines, so that sort of distribution was not unexpected, but the way that no other noble lord was present despite Sir DelVillar’s reinforcement having arrived left a bit of a foul taste on her tongue.

 

It was as if the kingdom was tossing the responsibility of the border’s defense to the Old Knights without providing much in actual military backup. Granted, they were not stupid enough to mess with the supply lines so there was at least that, but the lack of military forces affiliated to the royal family at the frontlines was quite telling.

 

As for the temple, there were detachments present from at least a dozen different branches in the vicinity, including those who gathered at Fort Abernal and traveled with them. Mother Magdalene had directly assumed command over the entirety of the temple guards and priests present, which ended their bickering for power prior to her arrival.

 

Not unexpectedly, Alissa’s assumptions about the old nun were mostly right on point. Mother Magdalene was an existence much akin to the old knights, except instead of being a thorn on the royal family’s side, she was one on the temple’s side. She was devout and zealous to a fault, utterly uncompromising in her belief… and what she felt was the right way to carry out said belief’s teachings.

 

In other words, she gave no fucks whatsoever to politicking and was extremely intolerant to corruption, which naturally won her few friends amongst the Temple’s upper hierarchy. In fact, Alissa was told by Sir Inolet that one time Mother Magdalene happened to run across a distant relative of the archbishop forcing himself on some unwilling women and directly crushed said relative’s head using her bare hands in her rage.

 

Yet at the same time, she was a veteran from the previous war, one with a storied history of courage and devotion, an exemplary case of zealotry who kept returning to the battlefield to rescue her allies and smite her enemies without a care for her own safety. Her fame was to the point that it was impossible for the temple to openly denounce her without destroying their own credibility. It was also difficult to deal with her through underhanded means given the Mother’s personal power, so the best the temple could do was to exile her under the guise of setting up a new monastery for her to administer.

 

They probably never expected for Mother Magdalene to instead take upon the task with great enthusiasm. She had not only founded one of the largest monasteries in the kingdom, but also thoroughly indoctrinated the graduates from her monastery in her personal brand of uncompromising faith and zealotry, effectively forming her own faction within the temple. A faction that many admired and idolized as an exemplar of unyielding faith and proper conduct, even.

 

Thanks to her force of personality – and again, personal power, as none of the other leaders from the temple guards measure up to her – Mother Magdalene had quickly cowed the other representatives from the temple and put them under her thumb. All considered, her actions made Sir DelVillar’s job as the overall commander of the defenses easier, as Mother Magdalene saw eye to eye with him and was most cooperative with the military’s arrangements.

 

A great difference from the typical temple representative who tended to be bossy or off doing their own thing instead. 

 

With the seamless cooperation between the leaders, Sir DelVillar had first made certain that the defenses of their makeshift base was as solid as they could make it in the limited time they had. Additional patrols were sent out to prevent the demons from sending infiltrators past the base, while the fighting was kept to a stalemate on purpose. 

 

The experienced old knight was fishing for a reaction or opening from the demon side, something he could exploit, at which point he would press hard by taking advantage of the higher number of high end fighting power on his side. While having more fourth tiers would not necessarily win a battle with so many people on each side – even fourth tiers tires, after all – they could be used for a great variety of purposes that could lead towards eventual victory.

 

And a wily old fox like Sir Leonhart DelVillar knew many, many ways to do so.

 

To their surprise, however, the opportunity came unexpectedly and unbidden. Roughly five days after Alissa’s arrival at the camp, the army’s scouts informed Sir DelVillar that the demons’ usual supply convoy had not arrived on the schedule they usually adhered to. At that time, the old knight had not paid too much attention to the matter. Delays happened, and he knew from his scouts that the demons kept their supply convoy tightly guarded with several fourth tiers present amongst its escort.

 

When that convoy failed to materialize the next day, and even the day after, however, he realized that something must have happened to it. The demons at Fort Gurzil attempted to hide the incident, but the departure of two teams each led by a fourth tier towards the backlines failed to escape the army’s scouts and the report came to the old knight’s table on the evening of the same day.

 

The demons had made a rapid attack on Fort Gurzil and had not brought all that much in terms of rations with them. They were reliant on their supply convoy to feed their tens of thousands of soldiers. The supply convoy’s disappearance meant that there was likely a lack of food amongst the demons, and they probably already started to ration what they had left. 

 

It was the opportunity Sir DelVillar was waiting for.