Her Majesty’s Swarm - Volume 4 - Chapter 11

The Ravages of War

Just as Grevillea believed she’d turned the tables with the appearance of her Dreadnought Swarm, a force of wyverns appeared in Khalkha’s skies.

“Wyverns! Wyverns are coming!”

They took advantage of the city’s lack of aerial defenses to swoop in from high above the Phros River. The wyvern formation nosedived down to Khalkha and began blowing fire onto the buildings and streets. Grevillea believed that consolidating one’s forces was a basic tactic in war and hadn’t expected the wyverns to attack a city so far away from the front lines. After all, even if the enemy attacked a city from the sky, they couldn’t occupy it afterward.

“Help! Help me!”

“Aah, it’s burning... My shop is burning...”

Terrified civilians ran in search of cover. Shops that had been in business for generations became nothing but cinders. The throngs of people trying to escape crammed Khalkha’s streets.

Grevillea, Queen of the Arachnea, had positioned herself on the front lines and left the capital practically defenseless. The city’s militia fired a ballista every now and then, but there were too few of them to make a difference.

“The shelter’s over there! Guide the civilians to safety!”

As the wyverns’ fire raged through the streets, the local militiamen guided the civilians to stone shelters underground. But as the people of Khalkha ran toward safety, the wyverns rained merciless torrents of flame upon them. The surface soon became an inferno.

“Over here! Come on! Hurry!” the militia captain shouted.

A mother urged her two young children, “Keep going; we’ll be safe soon. Hold on to me and don’t let go! No matter what!”

“Okay, mommy!”

The father of this family, like many others, had stepped away to fight in the war. Thus, it was up to the mother to guide her children to safety here and now. They ran through the streets, fleeing for their lives, as the people around them burned in dragonfire.

“Let’s go!” The mother sprinted ahead, pulling her children along.

They ran toward the shelter with all their might. The keen-eyed wyverns noticed them and attempted to blast them with fire, but only the families around them endured the attack. Thankfully, the family of three managed to get to safety.

But just as the mother thought they were safe, a nearby burning house collapsed, falling down upon them.

“Go on!”

The mother thrust her children out of harm’s way and fell to the ground as the house caved in all around her.

“Ugh...”

Although their mother was trapped under the house, the children managed to escape.

“Go! The shelter’s over there!” she called out to them, pointing to the shelter.

“But you said not to let go of your hands!”

The little ones tried to lift the house’s beams and save their mother, but they only succeeded in burning their hands.

“Forget about me! You two have to live on!”

Her children wept, unable to heed her desperate cries. One shouted, “No! I don’t want to leave you!”

Having confirmed that the children were still alive, a wyvern rider urged his mount to finish them off.

But the wyvern’s blast never came.

“Haah...!”

A ballista bolt gouged into the beast, which floundered in midair and crash-landed on the ground. The rider who’d targeted the children was shaken off its back during the wild descent and fell to the earth, hitting the flagstones with a bone-crunching red splatter. The deadly threat of wyvern and rider had been eliminated in the blink of an eye.

“Go ahead!” yelled Lysa, the one who had slain the wyvern. “Hurry to the shelter! We’ll save your mother!” With her longbow in hand, she helped the militia rescue the surrounding citizens.

“Lady Lysa! There’s a wyvern on your two!” a militiaman told her.

“I’ve got this!”

Lysa pivoted a little to the right, nocked her bow, and fired with one fluid motion. The projectile pierced the wyvern and sent its rider plummeting to the ground.

“Where’s the next one?!” she asked.

“On your six!”

Lysa shot down the wyverns one by one. The flying reptilians tried to counterattack, but Lysa’s sharpshooting was too precise for them to get close. Soon, they realized their numbers were shrinking, and fear settled in the wyvern riders’ hearts.

“Wyverns at four o’clock!”

“They’re coming in on your three!”

Lysa kept firing at the wyverns, the enhanced strength of her Swarm form boosting her shots.

“We’ve rescued the woman! Let’s move!”

“Roger!”

Seeing that the militia had retrieved the woman from under the house, Lysa dashed over to her next target. She’d sent a distress signal to the queen of the Arachnea, but she hadn’t gotten a response yet. She knew Grevillea was in the middle of a decisive battle and couldn’t move even if she was aware that Khalkha was being attacked. Nonetheless, there was no way the queen would have predicted this.

“Your Majesty, please hurry back! At this rate, Khalkha might...!”

As powerful as Lysa’s sharpshooting was, she had her limits. She couldn’t shoot down every single wyvern attacking the capital, and fifty thousand citizens still had yet to be evacuated—all easy pickings for the wyverns.

And so, Lysa did her best to buy time for them to evacuate. She was still suffering from the aftereffects of the Witch’s Blow, but she fought on just the same. After all, this city was a place where she and the queen had spent time together. A place rife with precious memories...

♱

“I’m sorry we’re late, Lysa,” I said upon arriving in Khalkha.

“No, don’t worry.” Lysa shook her head. “I could tell through the collective consciousness that you were fighting a very hard battle.”

I’d made it here just when the wyverns were about to launch their final attack. The city had already mostly been burned down. As I thought back to how Khalkha had looked before the chaos, I ordered the Toxic Swarms to shoot the wyverns out of the sky. The aerial units melted into liquid, sending their riders hurtling to the earth.

“How dare you do this to our city, you bastards!”

“Nyrnal scum!”

Khalkha’s citizens grabbed the fallen riders, their minds set on retribution. These scoundrels had destroyed their city without mercy, and they would have to pay.

I wasn’t going to stop them, of course.

“Hang them! Hang these dogs!”

“I’ll hang them myself!”

As the masses bristled with white-hot rage, they got some ropes from some of the still-intact buildings and strung up one of the wyvern riders. The man tried to resist, but to no avail. He died a slow, agonizing death. But one man’s death wasn’t enough to quell their anger.

“Hang the rest of them too!”

“Hang them! Hang theeem!”

At that point, I felt my own wrath bubbling up. The restaurant we’d dined in was nothing but rubble. The bazaar we’d toured was in ashes. The commercial district we’d gone shopping in was a smoldering heap.

All these people wanted was peace, but Nyrnal had chosen to send their wyverns to Khalkha instead of the front lines and reduce this city to ruins. The cowardice of their tactics enraged me.

Having finished the battle in the northeast, Konrad and his mercenaries entered Khalkha. Upon seeing the burnt remains of the city, they raised their voices and hurled disparaging words at Nyrnal. They were apparently even angrier than I was, which made sense; this was their capital.

Families whose homes had been destroyed by wyverns wept, but the mercenaries who should have defended them had done nothing to stop the assault. The mercs’ shame and indignation swirled into tempestuous anger. Konrad was already a hotheaded man to begin with, so he couldn’t stand for the Empire’s craven tactics.

“Listen up, men! We can’t let this keep us down!” Konrad raised his voice, breaking through the gloomy air. “Don’t act like their wrecking of our city is the end of the world! Khalkha hasn’t fallen yet! It’s still in your hands! Nyrnal just set it aflame like the spiteful cowards they are!”

He spoke in an attempt to rouse his people.

“And since they did that, it’s only fair we spite them by rebuilding Khalkha so it’s better than ever before! We’ll make them wonder how a city they once burned to the ground could be so glorious!”

Konrad’s impassioned words weren’t just an attempt at encouragement; he truly believed in his message. This man had the kind of charisma I lacked. I was impressed with his leadership skills.

Your subordinates are lucky to have you, Konrad.

“And we’re lucky to have you, Your Majesty!” Sérignan said, sensing my thoughts.

“That’s good to hear, Sérignan,” I replied, looking at Konrad. “I can’t make those kinds of rousing speeches, though.”

“Us mercenaries will help as you all rebuild!” he continued. “If nothing else, you can count on the One-Eyed Black Wolves to help Khalkha! For free, if need be!”

Konrad’s words were met with thunderous applause. Those who’d lost everything probably couldn’t begin to imagine how they’d rebuild. But with the mercenaries’ help, the future seemed a little brighter.

“The Arachnea will also help you rebuild Khalkha,” I added. “We have talented workers who will help reconstruct your stores and houses. We, too, have important memories of Khalkha.”

When a single Worker Swarms learned how to refine lumber and metal, that knowledge quickly spread to the entire group. The Arachnea’s power didn’t just lend itself to destruction; we could use it for restoration too. Now was the time to put those skills to use.

People who had lost their homes would need new residences. Workers who’d lost their businesses would need new workshops and storefronts. There were so many things that needed to be rebuilt.

“I knew we could count on you, Arachnea!” Konrad said with a booming voice. “You are our dependable allies! Come on, men! Now’s not the time for moping around! We will reclaim our city with our own hands! We can’t let the Arachnea do our jobs for us, can we?!”

“That’s right!” a citizen called out. “We’ll rebuild the city ourselves!”

“We will rebuild Khalkha!” Konrad said again, pumping his fist into the air. “That’s how we’ll show we’ve beaten the Nyrnal Empire! We’ll make this city into a symbol that proves even they can’t defeat us!”

His words, full of endless optimism, were encouraging to hear. After pitching in my own promises, I couldn’t very well retreat. I ordered Worker Swarms from all around to come focus on restoring Khalkha.

Even if the Worker Swarms didn’t know how to construct these buildings, they’d just need to follow a craftsman’s example so the rest of them could learn. The collective consciousness allowed them to learn with optimal efficiency.

Soon, one Worker Swarm learned how to build walls. Another learned how to make bricks. Yet another learned how to build ceilings. The knowledge they absorbed quickly spread to the others, and the Worker Swarms all learned the ins and outs of how to create human structures.

Keep it up, Worker Swarms. Work hard!

Meanwhile, we had to prepare for the next battle. In this conflict, we would strike a blow against the source of this tragedy—the Nyrnal Empire.