Chapter 297: 156. Aslan in Chaos -1 (Part Two)
Translated by A Passing Wanderer
Edited by RED
**
The Aslan soldiers located on the city’s outer walls were in a panicked state right now.
Explosions were going off in the Royal Palace’s direction, and plumes of smoke could be seen rising from there. Then a huge dragon and snake began battling each other in the palace’s vicinity, too.
“H-how can demonic beasts like that be near the palace…?!”
“W-what should we do, sir?” the soldiers asked the nearby Necromancers.
The meaning behind the Royal Palace being in danger was simple: their queen was also in danger!
The Necromancers turned their heads to look outside the city. The Theocratic Empire’s army was approaching. The Holy King was leading them at the front.
The man kitted out in a set of bone armour and the skull-helm of a mountain goat was fully displaying his majesty, a pure white Aura gushing out from his entire body.
Right behind him was a company of Paladins. Their combined fighting spirit seemed to increase the weight of the air itself, ruthlessly crushing down on the Aslan soldiers.
This army emanated a white Aura that drove away the darkness and advanced upon the walls.
If they decided so, it would prove to be too simple to break through the defences of the outer wall, currently paralysed by the unstable command structure, and enter the city itself.
In all honesty, defending the outer wall seemed like a waste of time.
“That… That is…” Before the Necromancer could say something, he saw something that made him doubt his own eyes. He quickly took out a telescope to take a closer look at the Holy King.
That was when he confirmed the figure of a Dark Elf riding on the same skeletal horse as the Holy King.
“Her Majesty the Queen…???”
The Necromancer shifted his telescope, only to spot two of the feudal lords, Jeram and Damon, riding along on either side of the Holy King.
“What on earth is going on here?!”
The two feudal lords and Her Majesty the Queen were all with them?
In this sort of situation, what exactly should the Aslan troops do? No orders had come in from the higher-ups, even now.
The Necromancer became afraid that this was simply an act of subterfuge, and told his fellow Aslan soldiers to get ready, but a short while later, he ended up witnessing the sight of Queen Tina receiving a tree branch from the Holy King. A branch of the World Tree, no less.
Tina lightly swung the branch around. A tree suddenly rose from the grass field before taking on the rough shape of a humanoid: a Woodman.
“…She’s the real deal.”
Only Queen Tina was capable of Summoning a tree spirit like that.
The Necromancer lowered the telescope. “Open the gates.”
“Sir? B-but, the feudal lords ordered us to defend…”
“Her Majesty, our Queen, is right over there, on their side! So is there a reason to listen to the orders of the feudal lords at this point?!”
The rumours of the feudal lords potentially being the actual traitors had long been circulating among the Aslan soldiers by this point. And the truth had just been confirmed to them.
Their Queen was currently accompanying the forces of the Theocratic Empire. The fact that she even Summoned the Woodman indicated that she was fully cooperating with them.
“We shall follow Her Majesty.” The Necromancer issued his order, and the large gateway of the outer wall opened up.
The Necromancers and soldiers stood on either side of the gateway and bowed their heads deeply.
The Holy King stepped into the capital, then loudly roared out, “Set up the defensive formation along with the soldiers of Aslan! As soon as the scouts discover the location of the army of blood, report to me at once!”
His roaring words reverberated throughout the night sky.
The Empire’s Paladins quickly climbed up to the top of the outer wall. They continued to spread out and didn’t bother to threaten any of the Aslan soldiers who offered no resistance.
“As for you, the believers, you are to come with me!” He pointed at the five hundred monks raised by Damon, and the fifty hashashins that served Tina.
“We shall kill Duke Duran and occupy Aslan’s throne!”
Allen dashed towards the Royal Palace, leading them from the front.
**
“What, what should we do now, in your opinion?”
“Are you asking me because you already don’t know?! Rehton told us to defend this place. He also told us that the army of blood will arrive sometime today, didn’t he!?”
“Today, you say?! Just when?! Take a look, the night is drawing to a close already! It’ll soon be morning! Are you telling me to wait until then?!”
The opinions of the feudal lords, currently tasked with defending the outer walls of the Royal Palace, had reached an impasse.
One of the bickering lords looked up at the sky. Even now, the huge Bone Dragon and the Basilisk were still fighting fiercely, occasionally colliding with the palace itself. Stone debris tumbled down from their violent struggle.
“Our king, Rahamma, has returned!”
“You feudal lords, kneel in obedience before him! Go and assist him right away!”
The Aslan citizens that had successfully escaped from the Royal Palace began shouting out to them from the grounds inside the castle walls.
The feudal lords asked in confusion, “What kind of crazy talk is this?”
“Shouldn’t we go and see Duke Duran, and find out what’s going on?”
“Haven’t we already dispatched some soldiers for that purpose?”
“But none of them have returned so far!”
The feudal lords remained undecided despite everything. The news of their former king coming back to life was making them shudder in fear.
{King Rahamma has become a Death Knight, and protected Her Majesty the Queen.}
Treating that news as fake seemed difficult when the Necromancers that were fleeing the Royal Palace, along with a thousand citizens, were all saying the same thing.
That news was basically the same as the former king personally acknowledging Queen Tina as his legitimate successor.
These feudal lords had dared to raise the flag of rebellion against the legitimate successor. To make matters worse, they had even joined hands with the vampires, which was practically the same thing as going against the will of the God of Death as well!
With everything they had done so far, these feudal lords now found themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place.
“We should open the castle gates now. It’s not too late. The Theocratic Empire is cordial towards Her Majesty, and as such, we also need to join hands with them. If we say we were threatened with death…”
“Do you think they’ll believe such a lie?”
“The Holy King’s legion has already reached us. Can’t you tell from just looking? The army of blood?! Those bastards have abandoned us!”
Just as the three feudal lords began bickering with each other, one of the soldiers urgently cried out to them, “They are here! T-the Holy King! The Holy King is here!”
The feudal lords quickly turned their heads.
There he was, the Holy King, now approaching the castle. In his embrace was Tina, while hundreds of monks were following steadily behind him.
“Her Majesty the Queen…”
The soldiers grew agitated after seeing this scene. But on the other hand, the orc soldiers defending the Royal Palace began roaring out raucously, instead.
“What should we do, sirs? Defend, or open the castle gates?” the soldier asked, but the feudal lords couldn’t reply, their lips trembling nonstop.
Their reasoning had frozen and they couldn’t come to a decision. But then, one of the feudal lords managed to roar out suddenly, “Stop them!”
“…!”
“The army of blood will definitely come. We, we will get to enjoy eternal life after becoming vampires! That’s why… That’s why we must stop them here! The Theocratic Empire will obviously try to annihilate us all, while using this event as a pretext, anyway!”
The shouts of this feudal lord managed to convince his fellow lords. They all nodded in unison.
The orc soldiers raised their weapons, while the human soldiers heeded the orders of the feudal lords and began tugging on their bow strings, even though they tightly clenched their teeth.
“As long as we have the castle wall, we can endure for some time!”
“Once the morning sun comes… The army of blood will arrive!”
The feudal lords hadn’t lost all hope yet. They continued to hold on to the contradictory delusion that the vampires would definitely arrive, even though the undead generally avoided appearing in the morning.
Just as they yanked out their weapons…
“Nasus, Kasim.”
A Lich and a Berserker were Summoned, and mounted on their own skeletal horses. Even as they were charging forward, they raised their heads to look up.
“Go and handle the feudal lords.”
These two undead were now tasked with handling the three rebelling feudal lords of Aslan.
As for the Holy King, Allen…
“And I’ll be…”
He sucked in a deep breath, and extended his right hand.
Bones began sprouting forth from his hand, constructing a larger hand of bone around it. This ‘hand’ grew to an abnormal size, then sank heavily towards the ground.
Inside this enlarged frame of bones was a huge metallic barrel. Allen pointed the cannon manufactured by Hans at the castle gate.
Divinity rapidly filled the cannon.
The powerful divine energy began swirling around within the weapon, before violently shooting towards its target.
The huge projectile of pure divinity slammed straight into the castle’s gateway, melting the gates of solid steel before completely obliterating them in a massive explosion.
The gates were completely broken apart under the overwhelming assault!
Even as the feudal lords began freaking out, Allen said something that everyone around could hear, “And now, I shall hunt down Duke Duran.”
He broke through the choking dust and stepped onto the grounds of the Royal Palace.
< 156. Aslan in Chaos -1 (Part One and Two) > Fin.
