"When the esteemed "heroes" excused themselves to save their own lives, when our cannons ran dry of ether and shells to fire, when everyone in the battlelines believed that all hope was lost… They cut through the sky and lit them with divine fire and righteous fury, and again and again, brought courage in the hearts of all who saw them and their slaughter. The Lunarian Sect always taught us that angels are messengers of the goddesses and nothing more… and yet, if they truly exist, we who were there only knew them as the Angels of Death."
- Major Dekitsugi Momota, Serafina Feudal Army 52nd Infantry Regiment
An excerpt from his book "200 days in Hell"
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
At Irma Island, both the imperial army base and the feudal army itself are in a very badly damaged state. In all aspects, this place and those that still remain in it are befitting of being left behind and left to rot.
"What's that shaking?"
"Are you guys feeling it too?"
"—! Drat! It's collapsing! YOU LOUTS! GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! NOW!!!"
All across the fortress, walls and battlements are burnt or falling apart to the point that even the engineers and workers who are trying to salvage its structural stability can hardly do anything to resolve it.
"Urgggghhh… H-Help… meeee…!"
"Just wait a moment! I'm almost done bringing this guy's breath back to—"
"H-He's dead already…! He croaked an hour ago…"
"Huh? Eeeek—!!!"
At every corridor and corner, there are soldiers lying down in such pitiful states that the dead and dying are difficult to tell apart, just as shown here when a medical mage mistook a man who is already dead as someone whose life can still be salvageable.
Here, the favorable situation from a month ago is nowhere to be seen. Ever since the near annihilation of the airship fleet and much of the elite fighters died out during the offensive of the Atlanterran armada, things have become slow and arduous for the Ostadonian army forces.
"V-Viscount Bougainvillea's force has been detected in the mana sensor! Open the hangar!"
Although it was true that the arrival of 45 Wizards from House Bougainvillea managed to turn the tide at a crucial moment, even their exceptional capabilities failed to keep the more numerous enemies at bay.
Right now, Ostadonia's armed forces are at a difficult defensive posture, as it seems that Atlanterra is beginning to draw up a new extension in their infamous "6-curved lines" claim in the Silesia Ocean after managing to take much of the central islands and waters of the ocean into their control.
"A-Angels!!!"
"They're here! Come on, you laggards! Assist them as soon as they land!"
Nowadays, it's only the brave and capable hands of the Wizard Corps of House Bougainvillea that is keeping the Atlanterrans to unilaterally declare an end to the war and claim their spoils…
"V-Viscount…! W-what just…?"
"…Three body bags. Please, make it fast."
…but even these so-called "Angels" are beginning to face the reality that they are mortals with their own physical and mental limits.
The First Wizard Corps of House Bougainvillea, tasked by their true master, Jonathan Bougainvillea, came to the aid and went under the orders of his elder brother, Joshua Bougainvillea, during his tenure in the imperial army.
From their numbers that almost reached half one-hundred men, what remained of the corps are just 20 or so men who can still keep up with the rigorous missions that they are being given.
And yet, there is no end in sight for them… for they're the only ones who has the strength and the will to continue this fight.
"Viscount!" Gunther crisply spoke with a salute as soon as he entered the Officers' quarters in the fortress. At one of the tables, Joshua was seated and gave back the salute before telling his subordinate to sit down.
"At ease, Gunther. Please, have a seat… Well then, I believe it's time for that "conversation" that I promised, isn't it?"
"…Yes. Viscount, on behalf of the First Wizard Corps of House Bougainvillea, I implore you to listen to my words."
Although they have full trust in Joshua's courage and wisdom as their current commander, the Wizards has begun to ask Gunther to lodge a request to have them to pull back to a better defensive position or at least, lessen the sorties that they are performing every single day.
"…I understand your point, Gunther. But as I already said, I will not yield on my decision. We we're given orders from up top and we will see to it that they will be fulfilled to the best of our abilities."
"Viscount Joshua… with all due respect, it's not only our men that are asking for at least a pause in the missions. As you already experienced in our last firefight, our equipment sets are barely at a usable state now."
After Gunther mentioned that, Joshua was forced to remember how in their last mission, his rifle misfired repeatedly and caused an Atlanterran Wizard to have all the time he needed to aim and try to shoot him down.
"Viscount, I assure you that we will fly buck-naked and bare-handed if that's the only possibility available to us… but I believe that no one would want to do so as much as possible."
"Three men." Joshua muttered beneath his breath. "Tell me, Gunther… what were their names?"
"…Harold, Lemuel, Joel. They all belong to House Dahlia and were apprentices in our hunters' association. We will give them a fitting funeral according to our faith once we get back home."
"This shouldn't have happened… You were right, Gunther. I shouldn't have pushed our luck too much."
"Viscount…"
As Joshua showed his regret of losing another couple of men, he did all that he can to not think about blaming himself or thinking that it should've been him who died.
"I'll write another request letter for the upper brass to send us reinforcements. Inform our men that until I receive a response, we are grounded and will not participate in any missions."
"B-But Viscount, that can be seen as—"
"I can handle it, Gunther. Leave those problems to me."
"…Understood, sir. I shall take my leave then." Gunther responded and turned around to leave the office, leaving Joshua alone in it.
"…I don't care anymore. I've done all that I can and more than that just to do my duty. It's high time that they do the same as well."
The deteriorating situation in the war in Silesia started all the way during the defeat of the first Atlanterran armada.
The Ostadonian Imperial fleets, both naval and aerial, were practically wiped out after they were overrun by the numerically superior and bloodlust-filled tactics of the Atlanterran naval and air fleets.
Normally, a battle between ships and airships would conclude with the disabling of the enemy vessel's ability to move, which in the case of ships would be the destruction of their masts, and in airships, significant damage in their magic stone-powered engines. With that, it is understood by both sides that the ship and its crew is incapable of fighting, and they are left alone, either to be taken as prisoners of war or to be saved by their comrades later, depending on whose side will win in the engagement.
However, Atlanterra's tactics are brutal at best and bloodthirsty at worst. Instead of directing their cannons and guns at the enemy ship's masts or engines, they direct it right at the lower decks where the cannons and its ammunition storages are located, aiming to wreak as much human casualties as possible whilst also erasing all traces of such act from ever arising by staking out the shipwreck area to look for survivors who would either be shot on sight or taken as an "illegal combatant" (someone who doesn't belong to the enemy side's official armed forces and thus, are not afforded the rights given to prisoners of war), a fact that made the imperial soldiers to fear to experience for themselves.
From the destruction of the Ostadonian Imperial fleets to the hysteria circulating around being stripped of their identity as a soldier, being labelled as an "illegal combatant" and being treated worse than a slave, the weakening war front in Silesia made life a living hell for everyone involved, most notably those of the Marquisdom's Feudal Army stuck in Irma Island because they are bound by the Imperial Magna Carta "to be at the forefront of defending the empire".
"Hmph… When we started off, this room felt a bit warmer… probably because nearly everyone was smoking their cigars and pipes."
"…From 14, we're down to just us few."
"Yeah… Now, it's just the four of us."
Three days after Joshua wrote a letter to the Imperial headquarters and suspended his Wizard's participation in the active battlefield, Marquis Taiga gathered the four remaining nobles leading the Feudal Army to read the response of the upper commanders to not only Joshua's but the three other noble's requests for reinforcements, resupply and repositioning.
"…What is it, Marquis?"
"Haaah… what else? "Due to complications at the rear, we are unable to heed your requests to be reinforced with fresh troops, and as the transport lanes between our positions are infested with enemy vessels, we cannot send ships or airships to either resupply or reposition your forces". That's their response to our three letters. All the same from the first capital letter to the dot." Marquis Taiga replied with an exasperated voice, his disappointment mixed with a sense of annoyance with it.
"Three… wait, then who's the one who got a different reply?"
"That would be our honorable flyboys, Young Joshua's Angels of Death."
As he said that, Marquis Taiga threw the envelope towards Joshua like it's a card, which he skillfully caught and carefully opened from its wax sealed packet.
"…"
"Viscount, is something the matter?"
"…Those damned fence sitters." After reading the first paragraph of the seemingly long letter, Joshua spat those words beneath his breath with figurative venom.
"V-Viscount—!"
"Please, Viscount! Keep that to yourself!"
"Let him be, you two!"
Fearing that someone may hear it and have him reported as an insubordinate soldier, the two other noble officers warned him to mind his words, even standing up from their seats to force him to be silent if needed. However, they were interrupted by the marquis who hit the table with his fist.
"M-Marquis…"
"Hrm! Young Joshua, if you don't mind me asking, what did they send as a reply to you?"
After a short silence, Joshua spoke the main point and the true meaning of the reply that he received.
"Here's what they have to say: "In accordance with the Imperial Feudal Magna Carta and the orders given by the Imperial government, your unit is forbidden to withdraw or suspend your participation in battle unless you are near the state of being wiped out. Failure to comply will be seen as dereliction of sworn duty and be grounds of having your noble houses dissolved…" Basically, they're telling us to go f*** ourselves while they run for their lives."
"W-What—!?"
"T-That's not what they told us in our letter!"
"Hmph… As I suspected…"
After hearing the truth that seems to have been reserved only for the man that the imperial army higher-ups still see as a viable pawn that can be threatened, the two other nobles had their hopes crushed while Marquis Taiga had his expression remain resolute despite their current situation.
For the next few minutes, the four remaining leaders of the East Serafina Feudal army would be stuck on their seats, contemplating their state.
"…If we do that— No, it's too rash. If the enemy is there and we act according to their predictions…"
Their commander, Marquis Taiga, took a few puffs from his cigar while racking his brain with ideas, trying to come up with a way to alleviate the difficulties in their situation.
"Should we risk facing an Imperial Inquiry once we get home so long as we can get back?"
"You fool! Then those senators and magistrates would just order to have our families pay the price for our cowardice!"
For the two nobles, they were thinking of ways to safely get home to their families, but they knew that if they abandon their duties here, there isn't much future awaiting them back home anyway.
"…Tell me, father. What would you do in this situation…?"
It was Joshua who still has a burning desire to fight on despite their current state that ended up breaking this silence just moments after asking that question to himself.
"Right… while you told us to always be cautious and never throw safety to the wind, you also taught us one thing that's a constant in life. It has always been that, isn't it, father…?"
At that moment, Joshua remembered the motto of his father during his youthful years when in his eyes, he was his childhood hero.
Victory belongs to the willing! If life keeps hitting you, then hit back harder!
Throughout his life, Joshua lived more in accordance with the lessons of endurance and patience that his mother taught him… it was only after the death of his father and him becoming his own "made man" that Joshua decided to honor the way of life that his father taught him.
And in this battlefield, he's going to do just that…
"…If that's what they want, I'll give it to them and much more."
"Joshua? Viscount Bougainvillea! Where are you going?!" Surprised with this statement and his move to leave the office, one of the two nobles raised his voice with a question that was promptly answered by him with a wide and excited smile.
"Where else, gentlemen? I'm going to war!"
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Several tens of kilometers away from Irma Island, the crew of the last Ostadonian Imperial navy ship left combat-worthy is sailing in their last patrol voyage around the area before they will be forced to withdraw back to the territorial waters of the Republic of Marl Kah, effectively leaving the island and its defenders to fend for themselves.
"Poor souls… abandoned by those b******* whose only interest is to protect their own selves."
"Captain, can we really do nothing but leave them there behind?" Faced with that question from one of his men, the ship's captain gave him a curt and unfiltered answer.
"…There's "personal command discretion", then there's "personally negligent meddling". If we do what you just said, we'll be on the latter."
"I-I know that, but still…"
"Trust me, young man. Even if it may seem like the right thing to do, in the eyes of those who see it as inconvenient, the right is wrong and the wrong is right. Swallow your conscience and get used to it, it will help you sleep better later on."
As their ship moved further from the island and it rescinded from their view, the people within the bridge all uttered their prayers for their fellow soldiers and men that has effectively been damned because of the orders of their higher-ups.
"Forgive us, brothers… While we cannot save you, we will pray for your peace in the other side."
"C-Captain—!"
"What?!"
Just in the moment when the captain uttered those words, a few streaks of light rose from the ruined fortress of the island and flew towards the direction of their enemies.
Seeing this and the numerous glowing blips on his monitor, the ship's mana sensor operator shouted what amounted to the best encouragement that one can hear from this situation.
"Streaks of light from magic spells and active mana signatures! The Feudal army! The Feudal army is still aching for a fight!"
"HAHAHA!!!"
"They're really built tough! They're not backing out!"
As cheers arose within the bridge amongst the officers and soldiers, the captain who had his head hung in discouragement earlier raised his eyes and took the small ManaCom transmitter on his console and spoke into it something that only the First Mate heard amidst all the cheers of those around them.
"C-Captain… those words are—"
"I know. In practice, it's something similar to inciting a mutiny… but in paper, I've done nothing but tell the truth with everyone on the open line, something that no one can punish me for."
What the captain said was "Irma still stands", but what it meant was something greater for the soldiers of Ostadonia… "There is still hope".
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Up at the air, the remaining 28 men of the Bougainvillea Wizard Corps followed their master to an all-or-nothing attack against their enemies.
"Gentlemen! While it may seem like nothing more than the babbling of a suicidal fool, I still want you to take what I'm about to say seriously and to your heart."
Joshua spoke in their ManaCom and received a reply from one of the Wing Captains. Before he can continue on though, the others began to bicker for the sake of fooling around, dispersing the feeling of nervousness among them.
["Go on, Viscount! We're all ears!"]
["You're all ears! Dude with frickin' elf-like ears!"]
["What was that?! Say that for me one more time!"]
["Oh, screw off! You heard me with those ears!"]
["""GAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"""]
With a hearty laugh from their comrades exchanged, everyone felt a less nervous and had a boost in their mood. Once that was finished though, Gunther spoke in the line to return everyone to their prior conversation.
["Alright, alright! You've got your quips out! Let the big man speak already!"]
"…Thanks, Gunther. Back to what I was saying, I'm honored that even if what I am planning is suicidal to anyone with a common sense, you still joined me for what may amount to be our last flight together… that, gentlemen, is something irreplaceable to me, and I wish it's the same for you too at this moment."
["Viscount…"]
"I didn't tell you this before since I knew you'd feel hesitant because of how hare-brained this is, but I'm planning to finally put "the arrow into the firehawk's throat" once and for all."
At that codeword, everyone in the formation had their eyes perk up and narrow into focus. It was as if that one statement made their minds all imagine the same kind of thing to the only place they know which has the image of a firehawk.
"…That's right, gentlemen! Tonight, whether we'll have to pay with our lives for it or we'll live to tell the tale, our objective is only one thing! We're going to destroy Fort Nickson!"
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Tch! That brat is going to be the end of us!"
"We should've stopped him even if it meant disobeying the Marquis!"
After the news of Jonathan and the Wizard Corps' flight towards Fort Nickson was reported to the three remaining noble leaders, the two nobles rallied the remaining troops of the fortress to board the airships that can still fly.
"Get in! Everyone who can still move and fight for their motherland, get in and prepare for battle!"
"Come, lads! We're going to show those Atlanterran scum some righteous Ostadonian fire and fury!!!"
The airships, unlike the dedicated combat craft led by the late Viscount Paller and was subsequently all sunk, are nothing more than transport airships whose main job was to transfer troops and supplies. In terms of armaments, all they have are a pair of Volley guns that once fired and emptied of ammunition, becomes unreloadable and useless.
While their soldiers are loading up into the airships, they saw the Marquis exit the fortress and they ran up to ask him the most important question they have in mind.
"Marquis! How did it go?"
"Will the Imperial army finally come to help us?!"
The elderly nobleman's dreadful reply made their hearts sink to their stomachs.
"…No reply. They're clearly receiving my words but they're not picking up their microphone to at least give even a response that they received my requests."
"N-No way…"
The Imperial army's commanders remain stubborn about not providing their aid, effectively leaving the Feudal army to fend for their own selves.
"Hrm… We got no choice now whether they're going to help us out anyway or not. We could just sit here and let the Atlanterran fleet encircle and besiege us, killing us with starvation and disease… or just like young Joshua chose for him and his men, we can risk death while showing these Atlanterran scum a hard time."
"But that still…"
"Earl Olfrey! Count Seith!"
""S-Sir!""
Yelling their titles and names, the Marquis' gruff voice made the two young nobles to straighten up as if they are soldiers standing in attention.
"This is not a time to cling to your life! I know you two still consider yourself young and your life still long enough that you want to experience all kinds of things, HOWEVER! A long and well-enjoyed life is not what your nation and people require from you two right now! What it desires are your courage and duty! Ostadonia needs its protectors, and we will be that right here and now! …Now tell me! Are you going to keep making excuses or are you going to do all that it takes to win this war?!"
At the mention of those words, the sense of noble duty and pride of being a soldier returned in the eyes of the two as their faces forgot the expression of fear and hardened into ones that has resigned their selves to the work ahead of them.
""Ostadonia shall never fall!""
"""NEVER AGAIN!!!"""
As the two shouted that line, everyone within earshot replied with vigor, winning the Marquis' pleased expression.
"Alright… let's—"
However, before Marquis Taiga can finish his words, a shout came from within the fortress from the mana sensor officer.
"M-Marquis! Marquis! We have an unidentified airship coming from our east!"
"Hm? Reinforcements from the Imperial Air Fleet? Then why did they tell us to shove it—"
"I-It's not the Imperial Air Fleet, my lord! It's… It's—!!!"
What came out of the officer's lips next shocked not only Marquis Taiga but everyone who heard about it too.
"It's Baron Fenris Bougainvillea! The Wolf of Serafina has come to our aid!"
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Inside the Ghost of Fenris, Jonathan's console was connected to the ManaCom call from the Irma Island fortress where Marquis Taiga is calling to his force.
"…Greetings, Marquis Taiga. It's an honor to be here."
["Baron Bougainvillea… No, Baron Fenris Bougainvillea. I don't remember receiving any messages from either Kazuto or Madame Selena that you are coming here."]
"If you're worried about having to form a band to welcome me, there's no need to. I'm not here for any of that, I'm here to help."
With a half-joking tone, both to downplay his sudden arrival and his clear disobedience to the chain of command, Jonathan replied but was rebuffed by the stiff tone of the Marquis.
["Help? Young Jonathan, as much as I'm glad and thankful that you've come here to reinforce and resupply us, I don't think you and your meagre forces can do anything to change our situation as it is right now."]
"Please don't be like that, Marquis. I promise you that I've brought much more here than men and munitions… Captain, let's show them we mean business."
"Understood, sire!"
Jonathan's order to his airship captain was received with a barely audible reply in the Marquis' ManaCom, moments before a series of screams came from outside at the open field of the fortress. Suddenly, one of the soldiers peering out of the window shouted, calling for the Marquis to look out too.
["M-Marquis! L-L-Look there! Look up there!"]
["Just what did you bring here, young Jonathaaaaaaa—Ahhh!!! Dear Promethea!!!"]
With his heart almost shooting out of his mouth in shock of the sight above them, the Marquis finally understood what it was that made Jonathan absolutely confident about what he can do by coming here.
"I'm not here for just a fight, Marquis. I'm here to win!"