The Bells of War
Once a demons tastes blood, his bloodlust only keeps growing
Elisium. Year 5L 21/15
There was a sense of urgency, and even a little bit of panic, inside the command room of the Refuge. After hearing out Alex, George quickly called in some of his soldiers and hurriedly gave out some instructions. Moses was not quite able to understand what was the exact reason behind all this scrambling.
"Why are we in such a panic? What did Arthur see in the last three days which the looters of Aden already don't know about?" asked Moses.
"For starters they don't know that for the first time in two cycles, the people sentenced to drowning didn't actually drown," replied George, "and the reason for them not drowning was a certain amulet in a young man's neck. The very amulet that the regime has been unsuccessfully searching for the last seven cycles. Don't you think this information is potential enough for them to trigger some dramatic response."
"So you think when Arthur tells them about the amulet they are going to come after me?" asked Moses.
"That is not the only problem," replied George, "the main problem is that they don't know about the Refuge. This settlement is built inland, way off the roads which the armies of Aden use regularly. They don't know that almost all the people whom they have drove away from their lands have gathered together in a single place. They don't know that these people are now planning for a rebellion. They don't know about David's army, nor about the weapons we have. They are so much blinded by the overconfidence in their oppressive tactics that they have become a little too complacent. They think they have shattered the souls and hopes of the people of Elisium. They assume that people here have completely resigned to their fate, a fate of subjugation and exploitation, and no one here even thinks of a fightback. As a result of this complacence they have become lousy in their surveillance over the people of Elisium and have no idea about the storm which is brewing here in the Refuge."
"If I am not wrong they might be having troops of around six to seven thousand inside their base," said Moses, "they will not attack a settlement of hundreds of thousand people with an army of six thousand men."
"They will surely attack if they get the information which Arthur has," replied George, "because they will then know that out of these hundreds of thousands a majority are women, children and old men not suited to fight. They will also know that neither our men who can fight are that well trained as their own soldiers nor do we have weapons as good as theirs to counter their firepower. With all this info they will be confident enough of defeating us and destroying this settlement."
"But George if we are preparing to wage a war against them, so sooner or later we will have to face them anyway, so why are we hiding away from a fight?" asked Moses
"Because we are not fully prepared to fight them at this moment," said George, "we need more time. We need to build more weapons and train more men. And you also need time to understand the powers of the biggest weapon we have, your amulet. Your amulets power will be at its peak during the turn of loop. By that time we will also have a much larger army and our weapons factory, which was built just a few years ago and is gradually getting upgraded, will have churned out thousands of more weapons. That is the reason why we are playing a waiting game because we can't win this war right now."
"And another thing we must consider," said Jacob interrupting George, "that we can't fight this war inside a settlement filled with innocent people. It would be a complete bloodbath. People of this world have seen the demonic form of Aden's army seven cycles ago. Those monsters didn't hesitate using their weapons on women and children then and I don't think they will deter from doing it again. Once a demons tastes blood, his bloodlust only keeps growing. They won't mind if they have to kill every single person on this planet to wipe out the resistance against their regime. We can't lead them to the Refuge. We can't let Rivers of Blood flow in this world all over again. We have to take the attack to them, so that even if we fail, the common people don't get massacred."
"And that is why the information which Arthur might give them, could have dire consequences," George said with a sigh "we have to stop him at any cost"
Arthur was checking over his shoulders, looking for any movement around him. He was swiftly moving into the shadows towards the nearest check post of the Army of Aden.
He remembered how, during the drowning, he was seconds away from using the key provided to him by his senior officers to unlock his chains when sudden jets of fire melted the chains. And then he saw Moses kick the door open. During his training, his seniors had said to him that since the last two cycles, since the time the Banishment was turned into the Drowning, nothing unusual had happened and all the spies used their keys to set themselves free. They expected nothing to happen this time too, but if something extraordinary does happen, he was told to go with the flow and stick with the group. He was given a fake identity, with all the intricate details, to prove that he was a descendant of Solomon. He was given maps of Elisium, maps which were originally drawn by Andrews and later updated by the army, to find his way back to the base. His mission briefings were very precise. If the banished somehow survived the drowning, he must stick with them, see what they are up to, gather as much information as he can in four days and return to the base before the seventh day of darkness. If nothing such happens he must go straight to the base.
Arthur felt that he had hit a jackpot. He wasn't expecting much to happen on his mission, but due to his sheer great luck, he didn't only end up finding the whereabouts of the apparent heir of Solomon and the amulet itself, but he also managed to discover the largest settlement of the outlaws, which had a large army of its own and some decent weapons as well.
Arthur was a little shaken when he met his duplicate right upon his arrival in this world. That should have completely unraveled his plans, but thankfully in their excitement on seeing a copy of one of their own, they just overlooked the fact that true descendants of Solomon don't have any duplicates in this world. When they reached the Refuge Arthur found out that this place was not marked on any of the maps of Aden's army. In a copy of Andrews maps this area was marked as Rhonas, a large marshlands with no human inhabitants. But now this place was the very epicenter of the rebellion, the eye of the storm. Arthur was filled with anticipation. He knew this vital information will fetch him huge rewards. He was going to be a hero in his world and might even end up getting a ministerial post.
Arthur let out a sigh of relief when he saw the gateway number three, the outermost check-point of the army of Aden. All that he needed to do now was to confirm his identity and then he would be driven to the base where he could meet the HighCommander. Overjoyed and relieved at finally reaching the safe-haven Arthur rushed towards the post. The guards at the gate asked him for his identity and he showed them the ring in his small finger. The guards outside the gate signaled to the post and the large gate started to slide open.
Just when Arthur was about to enter the gate he felt a tiny prick in his back. As he felt a sharp pain coursing through his body, he instinctively turned around to look at what hit him. The two soldiers, who had let Arthur in, saw a small stain of blood on his shirt which was spreading quickly. Before they could understand what was happening Arthur exploded like a balloon and was blown into pieces. Both the soldiers who were standing near him felt the impact of the explosion and were thrown of their feet.
"Close the gate" other guards on duty shouted into the radio "Quickly close the gate"
The gate was quickly slid back. The soldiers of Aden quickly got into their position to counter any further attacks, but there was nothing more. All that was to follow was a spooky silence.
This was the first ever assault on an army post in Elisium. Although it lasted for just one shot, but that single shot did make a resounding impact.
Christopher Emmanuel, the HighCommander of the Tenebra base, had called in an urgent meeting.
The commanding officer of the outer check-post was standing in front of him.
"So you are sure he was the spy Arthur from Aden, who was blown up at the check post," Christopher asked the officer.
"Yes sir, our soldiers confirmed his identity and then only did they opened the gate."
"So we can assume that he was killed because he had some vital information."
"Yes sir, since he reached the post six days after his arrival, we can safely assume that he must be gathering some information."
"And he was presumably hit by some mysterious pellet that just exploded. That means the Tenebrians now have weapons and maybe even ammunitions made from Star-Rocks," Christopher let out an audible sigh, "Didn't you go out and check the surroundings and try and find out who might have killed him?"
"Sir, we don't have too much of a knowledge about the area outside our outer post. And with no info about how many attackers were out there and what kind of weapons they have, it could have been a very risky mission. So we decided to close the gate and safeguard our post."
"A wise decision, I must say," approved Christopher, and then turned to one of his commanders, "the last batch of officers returning to Aden will jump in the Abyss in a couple of hours. We must send this information to Aden, because after the sunset today, we will be disconnected from them for seven years. We must inform them that our enemies are hiding something from us. They are developing weapons and may be even preparing for a war. If that mysterious pellet is any sort of an indication, they might have even learned how to use Star-Rocks as weapons. We must warn our regime that something is brewing here in Tenebra and we are going to need a lot of reinforcements at the end of this cycle, because that will also be the the turn of loop. What we feared is now upon us and we must prepare ourselves to face it. I think it is now time to ring the Bells of War"