Wenlianna walks delicately into the tent of her mother's war-camp. It's perched along the shore of the Great Gulf, a massive body of water predominantly surrounded by the kingdom of Bromlund. In exchange for helping recapture the capital, and thus, the Kingdom of Bromlund's treasury and castle, Bromlund's surviving royalty and nobility sold a large portion of the Kingdom's land to the Grand Duchy of Stalvaltan, including the rather large port town they're in now.
Wenlianna does her best to sneak into the tent, where the military command map is. It has a rough layout of all of the troops as they've been reported most recently. Rikuto has helped capture the capital and stabilized many of the cities and towns on the southern side of the kingdom. The current map shows forces from Stalvaltan and the Kingdom, while other sections are marked with the kingdoms further north and across the Gulf. Almost the entirety of Bromlund is under renewed control. Because the Empire had to step in, the cause of the revolution will be investigated, and a sort of reset will cripple the economy of the kingdom while they try to restore order and balance to the lives of the lower classes.
But, Wenlianna has no real interest in Bromlund. She has no interest in the mansion Aramellianna plans to build on the gulf. She has no interest in the revolutionary war nor the greater war with the demons.
"We already have troops en route, Wenlianna."
The Magic Artisan squeaks with a jump as she whirls. Her mother entered right behind her, standing gracefully with her usual prideful expression.
"Your beloved will be in your arms soon enough, Wenlianna. They have orders to ride for Fort Twilight with haste."
Wenlianna blushes. "M… Thank you, Mother. But, what if…?"
"Do not fear 'what if'. Control what is within reach."
Wenlianna glances at the map, and Aramellianna sighs. "There have been no reports of demon attacks on any of the border fortresses. As soon as our troops arrive, we'll reclaim Daniel, and he'll be out of harm's way."
"Mother… What if he thinks we abandoned him? It's been so long…"
"It's only been a couple of months. You should be more angry that he played along with that foolish plan those ignorant cutthroats foisted on Rikuto. If he had given me the chance to respond, we would not be in this mess."
Wenlianna looks down. "Daniel is quick to do what he thinks is right… Even if it means detriment to himself. He was the first one in the water after the princess. He saved two lives. I know in some… otherworldly way, he thought he was protecting us." She murmurs as she clutches the first diamond they made together in her hands. "I want to protect him better…"
"We will, Wenlianna. We will."
A man clears his throat, and they both look to the entrance of the tent. "Your Grace." He presents a rolled up scroll, and Aramellianna accepts it. She unrolls it and reads it briefly. Her eyes narrow, and she asks, "When was this sent?"
"About a month ago, your Grace. From Fort Peony. 'The Flower Garden', at the north end of the mountains."
"Why…?" Aramellianna shakes her head in confusion and frustration.
Worry creeps into Wenlianna's voice, "Mother? What is it?"
Aramellianna hands the letter over, asking distantly, "Why is he…?" She looks at the map suddenly.
Wenlianna gasps upon reading the letter. It's a report of a Divine Summon going missing somewhere west of the mountains during a 'free scout'. Wenlianna asks, "W-... Wasn't Daniel supposed to be headed to Fort Twilight?"
Aramellianna says softly, "They never crossed into Bromlund… Our riders didn't fail to catch them. They had already diverted course…"
"D-... Did King Regent Rikuto deceive us?"
"No. The escort likely made the decision based on merchants and others leaving Bromlund. They would have known problems were arising before anyone else. Our riders weren't stopping as often as the escort. They didn't have a chance to hear about the brewing revolt until it was too late and they were deep inside the kingdom of Bromlund."
The Grand Duchess grips the edge of the table tightly. "If we had known sooner…"
The messenger adds, "Your Grace, there… is a follow-up message from Fort Peony. Perhaps…"
She sighs. "Let me see it."
He hands it over, and Wenlianna leans in close as Aramellianna unrolls it to read it. They both sigh in relief. "So, he was found a week later. Good. That's a relief."
"Will you send a reply, Your Grace?"
"Not in the form of a letter. Thank you. You may go."
He bows and exits the tent.
Aramellianna says softly, "We'll send our own riders. I don't want anyone to realize how valuable he is to our house."
Wenlianna smiles tenderly. "Thank you, Mother. I'm… I'm sorry all of this happened…"
"It's not your fault, darling. More than likely, it would have been wise for us to maneuver in order to help Bromlund stabilize. Under our rule, we can keep taxes and trade at more reasonable levels in our new territory, which should benefit us in the long run."
Wenlianna gives a nod of understanding. "I'll continue to work on my projects, Mother. Diamond powered equipment is working as well or better than salt, though it'll remain limited for the time being, of course."
"Keep it that way. There's no telling when we might need them." She asks at a whisper, "How do they fare with water?"
Wenlianna smiles. "Unfazed, Mother. It's just as he predicted."
She nods in approval. "Good. Make something with those, then. It'll make for good relief equipment."
"Mother, if anyone discovers that we can…"
"I know. It will be mysteriously and seemingly endlessly full water vessels. That is all."
Wenlianna smiles. "I see. I'll make it work, Mother."
"And, I shall send our fastest troops northwest. Let us continue to show the world why the Feldrok is our sigil."
*****************
Destruction engulfed the land, and all at once, Kera'tai found herself without a home, without her family, and without a dream. It's only natural for an orphan to find any means of survival, even if it means joining with the other clans to grow the informal 'army' serving the Demon Queen. While she is nowhere near as powerful, she is descended of the first of her ancestors to have received the blessings of the great Kirin, and informally, her people are known as Children of Kirin, or Chi'rinnis in their own tongue.
The issue is that they need to cross the mountains, and other means are going too slowly. That is why the dragons insisted on leading an assault and breaking through, even though the Demon Queen has held orders of maintaining borders for now. The Dragons are the only beings in the world that can challenge the Demon Queen herself and potentially win, and they can become restless by nature. As such, the dragons sent the younger brother of the Dragon Lord, a shimmering red dragon with a name unknown to all lesser beings allied with him. And, with him, they also sent an ancient flightless drake as backup. The drake is carrying a massive amount of supplies, and while not sentient like the Red Dragon, it can still breathe fire and take commands.
At present, the human sorcerer shouting taunts has yet to reveal himself, and the Red Dragon has just landed on the wall blocking the path ahead. For all of his bravado, the sorcerer seems to be merely a human.
While not all races in the demon lands understand the shared language of the enemy races, Kera'tai does, and she calls out in retaliatory taunt, "Where is your bravado now, foolish, pathetic human!? Cower before the might of the almighty dragons!"
She watches as the melting stone of the wall dribbles down around the dragon's feet, and the drake crushes the last remaining trees in its way as it reveals itself.
However, a terrifying noise startles Kera'tai, and a relatively tiny burst of fire comes from the dragon's left. This 'tiny' burst of fire deceives the observer of the startling crack of thunder that booms out from that very same general direction, and even the dragon is forced to flinch.
No… It isn't flinching. Its head cocks to the side, while its muscles seem to loosen in response. The Red Dragon's left claw slips free of the wall, pulling with it parts of the ramparts. His body pivots from the sudden shift, and he falls like a great, felled tree, slamming into the ground without a trace of strength remaining.
Kera'tai stares at the dragon for a moment. There's an eerie silence that follows the echo of the bone-chilling thunder, and the dragon doesn't inhale or exhale.
Instead, blood pools around its head, leaving from its left eye.
That same voice finally calls out through his metal horn, "BEHOLD THE DIVINE JUDGMENT OF LAND, AIR, FIRE, WATER, AND DARKNESS! I AM THE APOSTLE OF DESPAIR, HARBINGER OF WOE! RUE THIS DAY, AND WITNESS THE END OF YOUR AMBITION! I. AM. THE CALAMITY!"
He finally appears, standing up from right next to where the puff of fire came from. Kera'tai is still frozen in horror, and the drake bellows in anger. Her soldiers are faltering. Those that had stayed are reconsidering.
The Kirin finally gathers her senses, calling out, "{D-Drake! BURN HIM! BURN HIM, NOW!}"
The drake takes a deep breath, inhaling for a long time. The sorcerer leans against the ramparts, pointing his metal staff at them. She hears the crackle of the drake's firebreath, and she manages to smile nervously. This is it! Even if he can kill a dragon, there's no way he can cast that spell again so quickly. Not alone.
Oh, how Kera'tai wishes she was correct.
Just as the flames are starting to leave the drake's mouth, the puff of fire leaves the staff of the sorcerer, and the thunder booms loudly, flinching the remaining troops and Kera'tai as well with its devastatingly frightening volume.
The spell the sorcerer cast, whatever it was, crushes Kera'tai's attempted invasion once and for all.
With that one spell, the drake's head explodes, violently detonating a blast that throws Kera'tai into the dirt and shreds her allies with shrapnel of bone and drake armor. She loses consciousness as she hits the ground.
She doesn't know it yet, but a miracle protected her from being shredded by shrapnel herself.
*******************
Moments before, Daniel's first shot pierces the eye of the red dragon, and its head cocks away. It barely manages to groan, sliding from the wall and flopping to the ground with a perilous thud that threatens to shake what remains of the wall to rubble.
But, Daniel doesn't have the luxury of time. He pulls the bolt up and back. It takes a fairly firm tug to pull it all the way back, but the spent shell ejects as it's supposed to. He pulls a fresh bullet from his bag and feeds it into the breach of his rifle, shoving the bolt forward once more. It takes a few surges of strength to get it to slide, but he manages to get the bolt forward and down.
Maintaining the whole facade, Daniel taunts through his horn, "BEHOLD THE DIVINE JUDGMENT OF LAND, AIR, FIRE, WATER, AND DARKNESS! I AM THE APOSTLE OF DESPAIR, HARBINGER OF WOE! RUE THIS DAY, AND WITNESS THE END OF YOUR AMBITION! I. AM. THE CALAMITY!"
Next, he spins up to his feet, taking another breath. The second dragon doesn't appear to have wings at all. It has all of the other features of a colossal reptilian with impenetrable scales, skewering teeth, and deadly claws and tail. He can tell by its head movements that it spotted him, and he quickly lays the rifle on the edge of the rampart, hooking the bracing hooks over the rampart edge. His shoulder still aches from the first shot, but this should help reduce the recoil on him. He aims at the dragon's head, just like the red one. This dragon is actually even bigger, but it's still near the tree line. Its scales are a more neutral blend of green and brown, and it has less ornate horns and angular scales. It reminds Daniel a fair amount of a Komodo dragon from Earth, but much larger.
He takes a deep breath, and aims, glancing only once at the Kirin as she stares at the fallen dragon with mouth agape. He exhales calmly, and then takes a controlling breath, exhaling slowly. The dragon's mouth opens wide, and sparks begin to crackle in its mouth. Daniel keeps his eye on his target; its maw. If he can hit anything vital or enough of them simultaneously, he can cripple or kill the creature.
The flames begin to form and race towards him, and he pulls the trigger.
The kick is reduced by the hooks clinging to the wall, but the burst of fire obscures his view.
It doesn't matter. His shot confirms itself when a startling blast thunders from the dragon, and Daniel flinches his face below the wall. It's like several tons of TNT just exploded, which is far more than the black powder Daniel made for his landmines and bullets, and far more than any single landmine could do, assuming one hadn't detonated until now. Additionally, rather than a powdery explosion of dust, dirt, and some fire, like TNT, the fireball is more reminiscent of a fluid explosion, like the pyrotechnics of a movie, but larger in scale. The color is also a vibrant blend of blue, violet, and white, briefly casting the illusion that everything around it is nighttime from the immense brightness, which is searing to look directly at. Daniel realizes as he shelters from the blast that, whatever chemicals are present, they're producing flames on par with a welder at the point of contact with metal. The temperature is several thousand degrees for what might be seen as a blink.
And, when the blast subsides, it pulls a vacuum for the briefest of moments, drawing dirt and smoke back in towards the blast.
In the moment of clarity, Daniel can see the damage. The blast completely obliterated the head of the dragon and most of its upper torso. It also finished off the rest of the infantry that were lingering in hopes that the ground dragon would be able to defeat the sorcerer. What few survived are fleeing into the forest, their weapons discarded on the ground.
Daniel leans his weight on the ramparts of the wall, sighing in relief. How he managed it, he's not sure, but it seems he just won a battle in another world.
After a brief break, Daniel cautiously reloads his rifle and slings it over his back. He then checks his revolver and makes his way down to the ground. He has to be careful of the molten stone from the wall where it has pooled. Some of it is still radiating heat waves from the intense heat that melted it in seconds.
Beyond the wall, the carnage isn't much better. Goblin corpses are littered about, and Daniel inspects what he finds. He throws up briefly from the nausea caused by the scene of death surrounding him. He is able to steel his nerves, though, and proceed forward. It was them or him, and he chose to win this fight if it was in his power.
Unsurprisingly, the goblins don't have much worth salvaging. However, he does find some nicer equipment on the beastmen and lesser demons. The most notable is a small-looking bag, about the size of a fanny pack, that almost all of them are carrying. Simply opening the flap of the bag reveals nothing but strange markings and a dotting of stones etched with various symbols. A brief inspection finds a control stone on the outside, which looks at first to simply be an embellishing decoration. However, when he moves the corpse's finger across it, it lights up. A holographic image displays various objects, and the mouth of the bag glows. Some of the objects, if they are normal sized, would never fit inside the bag, such as a spare sword, a container of some kind that looks to be rations, and a shield. Daniel selects the sword, and sure enough, the hilt of the sword emerges at the mouth, and he's able to withdraw the sword.
"No way… Never in a million years would I imagine I'd be holding a magic bag…" He keeps the corpse's hand on the crystal, and he puts the sword back into the bag. Sure enough, it dissolves down into the magic pocket-dimension of the bag, and it appears in the holographic display. Daniel also notices some kind of indication change, which he suspects is the capacity indication.
However, he has a more pressing drawback; his own fingers can't activate the magic of the bag. It likely circles back to the usual suspect; because he is devoid of magic himself, he can't interact with magic devices unless they have a non-magic mechanism of operation, which the bags do not.
That said, he's not about to pass up this opportunity. He plucks a stray leaf from a plant nearby, and he attempts to use it as a 'glove' over his own finger. Sure enough, it produces enough mana interaction to light up the display and allow him to make selections.
The next experiment is to see if he can store these bags within each other. In certain fictional systems from Earth, the magic of the bags, because it's extra-dimensional magic, can interfere with each other and cause a blackhole… or something. He remembers there being some gimmick in a tabletop game where doing something like that could banish an unbeatable boss monster to nothingness; one of the very limited ways to defeat that boss.
Daniel collects another bag, and as long as he's touching it, it doesn't glow. It's just a leather bag with stones studded into its interior like a pair of tacky jeans.
He activates one of the two bags, and he holds the inactive one over it. "Well… Here goes nothing." He lowers the inactive bag into the active one.
Thankfully, it simply dissolves magically into the active bag, appearing in the readout of the active bag. It also doesn't seem to affect the capacity reading much, though Daniel isn't sure how to read it yet. That said, he now knows he can start storing things. He withdraws the stored bag, and he begins collecting the equipment and bodies of his enemies. He doesn't really want the kingdom army to know what he's capable of, and hopes that they'll believe he simply drove them back somehow, rather than slaying two dragons and half of an invasion vanguard.
More curious are the three different sized bags Daniel finds; the small ones that the infantry are wearing, the medium ones, about the size of a backpack, that the wall breakers were carrying, and the large ones, about the size of a 50 gallon tote, which the ground dragon was carrying two of them like saddlebags. Inside the large bags seem to be the supplies for half an army, mainly rations and water barrels, by the looks of them. Daniel stores the body of the ground dragon in one of them, and the capacity seems to still have more room. So, he stores the red dragon in the same bag, and it manages to fit. He'll need to figure out how to read the capacities, but for now, he knows he can fit more than enough of everything he could ever want.
And, though its size is large and two dragons are inside, even the large bags are little more heavy than the leather and stud stones they're made of. And, the large bags conveniently fit in even a small bag. Daniel performs an experiment on multiple bags within bags, using small bags first. None of them seem harmed by being stored multiple bags deep, meaning he should be able to store the large bags in small bags, and ultimately, store everything within one medium bag that he chooses to carry on his person. The small bag will be for his weapons and ammunition, though he'll have to find a reliable way to operate the bags. For the moment, he finds gloves on one of the lesser demons that fit him, and their leather seems to retain the mana of the living thing they're made from. As such, unless it's residual mana from the demon, he's able to operate the bags himself.
It takes a few hours, but Daniel manages to clean up the battlefield of everything obvious, though he made a not-so-surprising discovery during his cleanup; not everyone was dead, and unlike many fictions, he can, in fact, store living things. He's not sure of all of the physics within, and he tested it on an unconscious goblin. It went in unconscious, and it came out unconscious and unharmed. The goblins are as creepy and aggressive-looking as he would expect, at least the males are. The females have a somewhat cute appearance, but he doubts that will affect their aggression. As such, he stores the male goblins as an experiment, and he carries the females to the triage area he's setting up out of immediate sight of the fort. Evolutionary biology trickled down through the eons to make men more expendable than women. A single woman surrounded by men would not be able to keep a population stable. A single man surrounded by women can recover a suffering population, even if there are consequences longer-term.
Daniel has no interest in being that one man, but that knowledge encourages him to protect the women more than the men. Not counting the handful of men, he recovers four female goblins, two tiger-like beastwomen, a single demon woman with curled horns and a slender tail, and the Kirin woman. He performs first aid on them, but also ensures to bind their hands and feet without leaving anything in immediate reach for them to cut the ropes with. Their injuries are relatively mild, as they were the ones that survived after Daniel spent hours cleaning up. He sterilizes as best as he can and stitches any cuts that reopened from him moving them. It's basic first aid, but unless they have magic potions stored in the bags, which he has a couple readily available, particularly the Kirin's, it's the best they're going to get for now.
One of the goblins is the first to wake up, and she squirms and writhes against her bindings.
"Calm down. Do you understand me?"
She jabbers at him unintelligibly, kicking her feet as she whines in frustration.
"I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to talk. Calm down…"
"NYAH! GA-LAKA SHEEEE!" She pulls and squirms, but she's unable to get free.
"Alright. We'll try this again later."
Daniel approaches with a storage bag he's using for living people, and she whines, "GYA! GYA GYA! GYAAAAAA-..." She vanishes inside the bag. When he looks at her 'icon' on the interface, she's in the same pose she went in, seemingly frozen in time. Daniel hopes that's the case. He's genuinely not trying to hurt her. Though, if time is stopped for objects within the bags, then she won't heal any faster, either.
That said, multiple people can fit inside a small magic bag, which, if living people can be stored, begs to question why infiltrators wouldn't carry living soldiers behind enemy lines like a Trojan horse. In fairness, the Trojans don't exist in this world, but it does surprise Daniel that no one has tried.
Then again, if someone does get killed carrying a bag full of comrades, it's a definite risk that they'll never see the light of day again.
Though, if time is paused, they'd never know the difference.
He'll check in a few minutes. In the meantime, he poses the other three goblins and stores them so they're identifiable. He then ponders his other four survivors.
The tiger women look ferociously powerful, so he decides he probably shouldn't chance it. He stores both of them as well, and then eventually talks himself into storing the demon woman. Her appearance screams succubus, and he's not interested in finding out if her powers will work on him where her feminine wiles might not.
That leaves only the Kirin woman. He suspects she's capable of magic, so he binds her mouth for the time being and carries her a little further west. He assumes that it'll take a day or so to reach the main garrison, and they'll go to Quarters and stage for battle. It'll then take a day or so for them to decide that it's taking too long and send a recon team, who will discover the base damaged but intact.
That said, Daniel can't rest until he's certain the Kirin woman is awake and try to pick her brain for some intel. He knows she can understand him, at least, and he's pretty sure she shouted a return taunt in Imperial Common.
Daniel makes a small camp and tucks the Kirin woman in while he keeps watch. There are no signs of returning combatants yet, and Daniel hopes it stays that way. He did kill two dragons, so he's hoping that gives the demon troops a good spook. As far as he can tell, no single person is strong enough to kill a dragon alone, judging by how people speak of them. And, he doesn't know how anyone would get past their scales. Though, in fairness, even he hasn't tried to attack them yet, so he doesn't actually know if they're impenetrable.
He makes idle work with his hands cleaning the rifle. He also applies a more liberal application of oil to try to help lubricate the bolt, which was giving him some trouble. Thankfully, it worked as well as he hoped.
Finally, the Kirin woman coughs. She flutters her eyes open and rolls her head, making sense of her surroundings. She realizes she's bound and gagged, and she squirms. As she pieces together how she's tied up, she writhes and kicks.
Daniel approaches, making his presence known. She glares at him, and he gestures at his mouth, pointing at her. He eases close to remove the gag.
However, she headbutts him and rolls adeptly pinning him down with her body weight. She tries to howl through her gag, apparently calling for help.
Daniel points his revolver at her chest from beneath her, and he remarks, "This is a miniature version of what took out your dragons. Wanna find out what it does to a person?"
Her eyes widen in horror, and she looks at the revolver, and then back at Daniel's face. He says calmly, "Now, relax. I just want to talk. You're the only one I'm fairly confident I can communicate with. If you try anything, you'll end up like the second dragon. Do you understand?"
She hesitates, but nods her agreement. She even shifts off of him using her knees. She waits patiently as Daniel sits up and keeps the revolver trained on her chest. He says gently, "Now, I'm going to remove the gag from you so we can talk. Will you behave yourself?"
She nods once. She seems strangely calm and confident all of a sudden. But, Daniel is playing the game as he had been; do what he can to survive and hope magic really can't affect him.
Daniel holsters his revolver for a moment, and he removes the gag from the Kirin woman.
He then asks, "Now then, you can understand me, right?"
"Yes. Are you indeed the sorcerer who defeated me and my allies?"
"I am. Sorry you ended up against me."
She nods softly in agreement. "I see…" She takes a deep breath and carefully lays down on her back, spreading her knees as much as possible. "I accept my fate."
Daniel cocks his head. "Uhh… What fate? I haven't decided what to do with you yet."
"I have been told humans, especially, make use of their captors. Do with me as you will."
With a scoff, he retorts, "I don't know what you're talking about. Or rather, I don't care about that. I want you to answer some questions, first."
"I was the commander of the infantry. I did not command the dragons." She squirms a little, adding, "If you wish to make use of my body, it will be my first time…"
Daniel sighs. "Let me ask the questions, please. Why did you attack the base?"
She hesitates, but she does answer softly, "It was the dragons. The Dragon Lord, the red dragon's older brother, believes the Demon Queen is being too pacifist with you eastern races."
"Really?"
She confirms with a nod. "His brother chose to lead the attack for glory, and we were to prove that the eastern races are weak and complacent, capturing the border fortress and the main fortress in the first strike." She murmurs as she looks away, "It seems, we were bested by a single sorcerer." She looks at him, asking surprisingly curiously, "Are you a Feldrok sorcerer, by chance?"
"A 'Feldrok' sorcerer?"
"Yes," she replies before explaining further. "Descended from the Feldrok race. Your power is unprecedented."
"I probably shouldn't say one way or the other, should I?"
She bows her head, "You can trust me."
Daniel chuckles. "That's probably the laziest counterintelligence I've ever seen."
She shakes her head. "I belong to you, now. I shall not betray you."
"Why do you say that?"
"I have been defeated. That is the way of things."
"Is it?" asks Daniel skeptically.
"It is."
Confused, Daniel remarks, "A minute ago, you thought I was going to take advantage of your body, and now you seem to welcome it. Do you have no intention to fight to the death for your freedom?"
She shakes her head, looking into his eyes. "Our people pride ourselves in continuing strong bloodlines. If we are defeated in battle, it is only natural, should we survive, to pledge ourselves to the victor."
"Uh… Natural?"
She nods confidently. "Should I survive my trials as your captive, and our children make it back to their native lands, then my greatest duty will be achieved."
Daniel shakes his head, confused. "That… What if you get killed? Or the children are enslaved immediately after? What then?"
She cocks her head. Now she's the one not understanding. "We cannot choose who is stronger than ourselves."
Daniel sighs. "Listen,... I'm not claiming you as property or anything of the like." He moves closer to her, saying, "I'm going to help you sit up so we can continue to talk. If I find what you say convincing, I'll be letting you go. If I don't, then I might just leave you for the soldiers when they return to re-man the fort."
She nods agreeably, and he helps her sit up. "I already told you. I am yours, now. You may do with me as you wish."
Daniel sighs once more. It's going to be a long night.
**************