Her Majesty’s Swarm - Volume 4 - Chapter 18

The Battle of the Elven Forest

In the southern reaches of the elven forest, thousand-year-old trees were being knocked down and trampled underfoot. A crowd of eighty lindwyrms plowed through the ancient woodlands, showing off their impressive striding charge. The trees the elves worshipped as gifts from the gods were being mowed down without a second thought.

The lindwyrms formed a path through the forest, though some remnants of the natural scenery survived their march. This route would allow the Nyrnal Empire to invade the Dukedom of Schtraut.

The commissioned officer in charge of the lindwyrm force said, “At this rate we’ll be in Schtraut in a few weeks.”

“Will it really go that well, though?” another officer asked. “The elves place traps around their forest. I hear Frantz suffered considerable casualties because of them.”

“Hmph. Elven traps won’t be enough to stop a force of lindwyrms. We will crush this forest and march on Schtraut. And once we defeat them, we’ll invade Frantz and pincer the Arachnea monsters.”

Operation Felix was quite simple. The Nyrnal army would cleave a way through the elven forest with the lindwyrms and invade Schtraut without passing through heavily defended mountain roads. Once they defeated the Arachnea in the Dukedom of Schtraut, they would march into the Popedom of Frantz. Then they would end the war by joining the army at the Phros River and crushing the Arachnea force that was stalled in the Eastern Trade Union.

The invasion of the elven forest was going smoothly. It seemed the enemy hadn’t expected them to travel through the elven forest. There were some Genocide Swarms stationed here and there, but the Nyrnal army had taken no losses thus far.

“In just over a week, we will have broken through the elven forest. Once we’re past that, nature will no longer stand in our way. We’ve already proven that the lindwyrms are capable of breaking through the enemy’s fortress line. At least, so long as we don’t run into any enemy mutations...”

By mutations, they were referring to Sérignan and Lysa. The Nyrnal army was wary of the mutants, since they recognized them as the primary factors of their past defeats. Indeed, Sérignan and Lysa were extremely strong and far more menacing than any ordinary Swarm.

The Empire’s forces had to be wary of them—it’d be extremely incompetent if they weren’t. The army’s new regulations were to handle each mutation with formations of at least three lindwyrms, and, if possible, under aerial support from the wyverns. They were just that wary.

Both the invasion from the northeast and the crossing of the Phros River had been crushed by the mutants’ intervention. Given that these unexpected irregularities had dashed multiple plans by now, the Nyrnal Empire recognized them as the utmost threat. Thus, the military was ordered to eliminate them on contact by any means necessary.

“The operation is proceeding smoothly. The wyvern scouts have confirmed that the enemy’s main army is still in the Eastern Trade Union. We’ll definitely win this time.”

Just as the man leading Nyrnal’s army said that so confidently...

“Ugh!”

An arrow whizzed past and pierced his aide’s chest, knocking the man off his horse and down onto the ground. With that as a signal, arrows rained down on the soldiers walking along the carved path. The heavy infantrymen were capable of blocking some of the arrows, but a number of the projectiles still met their marks, causing unbearable agony. The arrows were definitely poisoned.

“All forces, be on your guard! I repeat, be on your guard! What’s going on here?!”

“It’s the elves! The elves are attacking us!”

Apparently, the elves of the nearby village had risen up against the lindwyrms stampeding through their home. There were other elven settlements aside from Baumfetter, and all their chiefs had made pacts with the Arachnea for continued autonomy within the faction’s territory.

But now, their way of life was being threatened by the Nyrnal Empire. The trees they’d worshipped for generations were being overrun, and the enemy was approaching their villages. And so, the elves had taken up arms to stop the invasion.

The initial attack was a success. The attacks from the forest confused Nyrnal’s soldiers, and more and more of them fell dead from the poison.

But the battle could only remain one-sided for so long. The Nyrnal army regained its bearings and continued the lindwyrms’ charge into the forest.

“The monsters are on the move again!” the elves called out as the lindwyrms drew closer.

The elves tried to escape deeper into the forest, but the lindwyrms and Nyrnal’s soldiers retaliated. With their crossbows and longbows, they shot the elves in the backs and legs, the latter to render them immobile and trample them with the lindwyrms.

Somehow, the elves managed to rescue their injured comrades, lending their shoulders as they disappeared into the forest.

“Filthy elven savages...” the Nyrnal officer spat, surveying the carnage.

Roughly twenty infantry soldiers had been shot to death, and two or three of their warhorses had been hit too. By comparison, roughly fifty elves were killed in the fighting.

“Continue our advance! Don’t let the elves get in our way! March, march!”

The Nyrnal army continued its advance, drawing ever closer to an elven settlement—Baumfetter.

♱

At this very moment, I was soaring on the back of a Griffin Swarm. Flying to Baumfetter was a major gamble. Nyrnal’s army had countless wyverns soaring through the skies, and their firepower was not to be trifled with. Even our fearsome, powerful Griffin Swarms would be burnt to a crisp if they tried to contend with the flying reptilians.

But we didn’t have time. The enemy was already encroaching on the depths of the elven forest, and it wouldn’t be long before they reached Baumfetter.

“Your Majesty, you should land somewhere safe!” Sérignan called out as she flew beside me.

“This isn’t a fight I can afford to be away from,” I said firmly.

I’d promised to protect the elves’ right to remain independent. I couldn’t break that promise. They had a right to live without having to fear the menace of inquisitions or knights.

When I first came to this unknown land, the elves had welcomed me with open arms and helped me. I wouldn’t forget that. In my time of plight, they’d both fed me and told me about this world when I didn’t know left from right.

I could still remember the taste of the soup they served me. It was rich with the taste of vegetables, and every spoonful filled me with warmth. Nothing I’d eaten since soothed me like that soup did. It taught me that I didn’t have to survive all alone in this world. That was why I couldn’t tolerate Nyrnal stampeding through their forest.

The Griffin Swarms soon soared over the skies of the elven village.

“Your Majesty, I can see the lindwyrms beneath us,” Sérignan said. “They’re moving in two lines of forty each.”

“So they really were using the lindwyrms...” I muttered.

I could see the lindwyrms pushing their way through the trees too.

“Isn’t Baumfetter nearby?” I asked.

“It is! We gotta hurry!” Lysa answered, clearly alarmed.

“I know. Let’s hurry. We also need to mobilize the Swarms in our base. I just hope they’ll make it here on time!”

I could feel stress building up in my heart too. It was only a matter of time until they crushed Baumfetter—until they destroyed the sacred place I’d promised to defend.

“Wyverns above us!” Sérignan shouted.

A formation of wyverns was swooping down on us from the south.

“Your Majesty, you must land for now! I’ll keep them occupied!”

“I’m counting on you, Sérignan!”

I’d pushed her to take me along, so Sérignan had to handle our enemies in aerial battle—which she wasn’t used to, of course. With this in mind, I resolved to protect Baumfetter at all costs. Otherwise, we’d never make it.

I had my Griffin Swarm go into a nosedive, landing in our first-ever base. When I landed, I addressed the force of new units I’d had in rapid production.

“Everyone!” I called out. “The enemy is threatening our allies! They’re as savage as they are strong, and many of our comrades died at their hands! But we will not submit! We will crush our enemies and defend our allies’ land! That’s the might of the Arachnea! Of the Swarm! That is our power!”

I continued my speech, calling out to the Swarms in attendance.

“That’s right! We are the Arachnea! All who hear us cower, all who see us tremble, and all who speak of us are cursed with nightmares! We submit to no enemy! We shall not besmirch our name with surrender or retreat! Prepare for battle, for the enemy is nearby! We have no time! We cannot allow the enemy to do as they please!”

“All hail Her Majesty!” The Swarm praised my passionate speech.

My Swarm would fight to their last breaths. You’ll get what’s coming to you, Nyrnal!

“I’ll explain the plan, then. It’s simple, really. Very simple. We’ve done it so many times, it’s almost hackneyed by now.”

I transmitted the outline of Nyrnal’s operation through the collective consciousness. The time of battle was fast approaching...

♱

We began by setting a twofold defensive line. The first line was intended to separate the lindwyrms from the infantry, and the second was to dispose of the lindwyrms. The most important thing was taking out the troops accompanying the lindwyrms. Much like war elephants, charging lindwyrms were bad at taking sudden turns. If it was just a force of lindwyrms, we could find ways to handle them.

I recalled reading in a magazine somewhere that no matter how powerful tanks were, without infantry to accompany them, they were little more than large targets vulnerable to heavy weaponry. In other words, unit composition mattered. The lindwyrms would be vulnerable as long as we cut them off from their infantry.

To that end, I set up our first defensive line behind Baumfetter. The Nyrnal Empire had already seized the village and were heading north. In the end, I hadn’t been able to defend it. We were simply too late; I’d failed my duty.

It was beyond frustrating. Intolerable, more like. Baumfetter’s elves were the first locals to welcome me to this world. I felt like such an ingrate...and a liar.

“Your Majesty!”

As I was stewing in self-loathing, Lysa came up to me.

“Lysa, how are things in Baumfetter?” I asked.

“Well...many of the warriors died. The sick and elderly failed to escape, and they were hurt. But the women and children are fine and are evacuating north.”

So it was as bad as I thought...

I’d hoped the enemy might just kill the warriors and spare the rest of the elves, but they did no such thing. I peered into Lysa’s consciousness and saw memories of burnt households and severed corpses. It was an act of barbarism.

We didn’t make it, and it was all my fault.

“You’ve done everything you could, Your Majesty,” Lysa assured me. “None of us expected the enemy would try to march through the elven forest.”

“No, we didn’t.” I shook my head. “This forest doesn’t have a road for them to march through or cities to resupply in, so we assumed they wouldn’t pass through the forest with a large army. But we did know about the lindwyrms, and we knew they’d be able to plow their way through here. If only I’d connected the dots sooner.”

I should have predicted this. Large units couldn’t cross forests in the game, but this wasn’t a game anymore. These monsters could level the forest, knocking down the trees. Just like how Worker Swarms could chop trees... I should have seen all this coming, but I’d read the situation entirely wrong.

I was too focused on the Phros River and thought the enemy’s attention was fixed on the Eastern Trade Union. In my eyes, the Dukedom was only a secondary front. And in that thought process, I’d gravely misjudged the situation. Instead, the enemy decided to topple the stalemate by shifting their target to the Dukedom of Schtraut, our most vulnerable flank.

“He outplayed me. I played right into Emperor Maximillian’s hands. But it’s not over yet. If they kill ten of our allies, we’ll massacre a hundred of their men.”

As I said this, I took a look at the operation. The enemy had overrun Baumfetter and would soon clash with our first defensive line. There, the Worker Swarms had set up a basic palisade. Based on the direction the lindwyrms were headed, the enemy would soon enter the densest region of the forest. If we attacked them head-on there, the lindwyrms wouldn’t be able to advance. That would be our chance to turn this around.

“Lysa, you go to the second defensive line with Sérignan,” I ordered. “Leave the first line to the Toxic Swarms, the Genocide Swarms, and the new units.”

“Understood. I’ll give it my all, Your Majesty.” Lysa offered a curt nod and headed to her position.

“All right, time to teach those despicable louts a lesson.” After that, I began maneuvering the Swarms.

I’d already decided—they would pay. They really pissed me off this time.

♱

The Nyrnal army continued its steady stampede through the elven forest and approached the Popedom. The lindwyrms led the charge and paved the way for the rest of the army, followed by rows of infantry and cavalry. If they were to find themselves under attack, they would either move in to defend or send out a unit to pursue the enemy.

“The elves’ resistance is getting more and more bothersome to handle.”

“Agreed. We can’t ignore our casualties.”

The elves had been attacking Nyrnal’s army using guerrilla tactics, hiding in the trees to pelt them with arrows. Nyrnal had sent out a force to pursue them, but the elves had caught the soldiers in a series of ambushes.

In this fashion, the Nyrnal army had gradually lost over two hundred men. As such, the invasion army adopted an approach of simply ignoring the elves. Even if they were attacked, they would disregard the elves and continue their march. A few soldiers would die in the attacks, but at least they wouldn’t lose an entire unit while chasing after them.

A pessimistic strategy, to be sure, but the elves’ tactics were passive in their own way. They didn’t try to stop the lindwyrms’ march. Or rather, they couldn’t stop it. The elves didn’t have any ballistae or catapults, which meant they lacked any means of stopping the Nyrnal army’s advance. They never needed siege weapons in the past, after all.

“The elves’ attacks are irritating, but we must ignore them,” said the commander of the invasion army. “Dealing with them will just cost us needless losses. Forget them, just continue the march and—”

But just as he said this, something like an arrow skewered his face, sending him tumbling and thrashing off his horse.

“Attack! We’re under attack!”

“Look out, look out! Enemies ahead!”

More arrow-like projectiles zoomed through the air, and the soldiers crouched down in terror. Countless arrows—no, poison stingers were raining down on them.

“Gaah!”

“Help m—”

Soldiers pierced by the stingers swiftly melted into puddles of liquified flesh.

A relatively calm officer took over for the dead commander. He shouted, “Dammit, it’s not just the elves! The Arachnea are here! These aren’t anything like the bugs we’ve seen before! None of them fired off stingers that big!”

Indeed, the stingers that flew through the air were not those of the Toxic Swarms. They were as large as stakes and thick enough to pierce a heavy infantryman’s armor. The ones to fire them were the newly unlocked units that cost the Arachnea much of their resources—Chemical Swarms. These Swarms inflicted greater poison damage than any other unit, and they were even capable of healing their allies. They were a complete upgrade of the Toxic Swarms.

“Have the lindwyrms move ahead! Infantry, keep your shields up until you have to attack! Move through those stingers!”

The de facto commander sent the lindwyrms to handle the attacking Swarms and had the rest of the soldiers move back.

“Won’t the lindwyrms be in danger?” one soldier asked him.

“Still, we can’t move through this rain of stingers. Shouldn’t we have the lindwyrms shield some of our units?”

“Should we?”

The lindwyrms have avoided advancing without infantry support. A few of the infantry units followed closely behind the lindwyrms, jogging under the pelting rain of stingers and using the gigantic lizards as living shields.

And so they marched ahead, forming two lines behind the lindwyrms as they knocked down trees in their way, seeking the Swarms. The enemy might have been falling back; while the soldiers could hear faint footsteps, the Arachnea was nowhere in sight. Was the enemy even ahead? The soldiers couldn’t help but doubt themselves. Suddenly, the lindwyrms’ footing collapsed, and the gigantic reptiles fell, as if sucked into the ground.

“Wh-What?!”

“What just happened?!”

The confused soldiers lost sight of the lindwyrms, and more bewildered lindwyrms kept going, stepping over their kin and then toppling into pits in front of them. Before long, all eighty lindwyrms were stuck in the ground, struggling to get out. But the holes they’d fallen into were too deep.

“That’s far enough, Nyrnal soldiers.”

Sérignan, Lysa, and countless Genocide Swarms stood in their way.

“This place is your graveyard. Perish,” Sérignan said coldly and dashed toward the Nyrnal soldiers.

Her targets weren’t the soldiers, but the non-commissioned officers and others leading the army. It was easy to tell them apart, since the high-ranking soldiers had unique embellishments on their armor. In the Vietnam War, officers would fake their rank insignias so as to fool snipers, but in this case they garnished their armor to signify their higher status.

“Oh no!”

“Haaah!” Sérignan bellowed a battle cry as she severed an officer’s head.

Blood spurted out as the officer’s body crumpled to the ground.

“A trap, this is a trap! Run!” a soldier called out.

“You’re not getting away,” Lysa said as she shot him through the back.

The fleeing soldiers were all shot down, and they collapsed one after the next. All the arrows fired their way are painstakingly laced with Chemical Swarm venom.

“Don’t let any of them get away, Lysa,” Sérignan told her.

She nodded. “I won’t.”

Lysa’s expression was ghastly. Seeing her fellow elves being killed had hardened Lysa’s heart and imbued it with a thirst for vengeance. She mercilessly slaughtered any soldiers who dared to run.

“Can you take out the enemy infantry, Lysa?” came another voice.

“Yes, Your Majesty. We just need to kill the trapped soldiers with Chemical Swarm and Toxic Swarm fire.”

An odd figure entered this bloodstained battlefield. It was a girl—the Arachnea’s queen, Grevillea. With cold eyes, she watched Nyrnal’s soldiers die and the lindwyrms flounder in the pits.

The holes had been dug by the Digger Swarms, who burrowed beneath the earth and crumbled it to the point where the surface just barely remained intact. Normally, these Swarms were used to dig under the enemy’s walls, but now their tunnels had been used to ensnare the enemy. The lindwyrms had fallen for the Arachnea’s provocation and stumbled right into their trap.

“Kill the lindwyrms,” Grevillea said. “Give those ugly reptiles the deaths they deserve.”

At her order, the Chemical Swarms gathered around the lindwyrm pits and stabbed them with their stingers. Even the lindwyrms, who’d boasted some of the highest defense in the game, died from multiple stabs from the Chemical Swarms. The creatures spasmed as they melted into pools of flesh. Within minutes, they were all dead.

“That just leaves the soldiers. They’re pitiable, but they don’t deserve mercy. Make them pay, my Swarm,” the queen ordered.

“Understood, your Majesty.” Sérignan and Lysa obliged.

♱

Eighty enemy lindwyrms had been wiped out in a flash. Without them, Nyrnal’s army only had rank and file soldiers. The heavy infantry couldn’t stop the Genocide Swarms’ fangs or the Chemical Swarms’ stingers. Either way, they would die.

“Genocide Swarms, split up from the Toxic and Chemical Swarms and pincer them. Cut off their avenue of escape. They won’t get away from here. We don’t know which of them raided Baumfetter.”

I didn’t intend to let any of them get away after they attacked the elven village. After all the havoc they’d wreaked here, they needed to pay. If it had just been trampling the trees the elves cherished, I might have found it in me to forgive them. But killing Baumfetter’s villagers, non-combatants, was something I couldn’t overlook.

My force of Genocide Swarms, Toxic Swarms, and Chemical Swarms ran through the forest in an attempt to catch up to the enemy. Nyrnal’s soldiers stopped running, noticing that the lindwyrms’ footsteps had abruptly ceased. Suspicious, the officers debated sending out scouts.

“All right. Figure out what’s going on ahead,” I heard an officer say through the Genocide Swarms’ senses.

“Send out a scout!”

Soon, a scout on horseback galloped across the path made by the lindwyrms and approached us.

“Lysa, kill him,” I ordered.

“Got it.” Without hesitation, Lysa loosed an arrow.

Her arrow pierced the scout through the head, sending him flying off his horse in a splatter of blood. He then lay on the ground, twitching as his life ended. With that as the signal, my Swarm commenced their attack.

The Chemical and Toxic Swarms rained stingers as the Genocide Swarms lunged and chomped on the soldiers and their horses. The soldiers desperately fought back, but unfortunately for them, this wasn’t the game. In the game, heavy infantry had high defense and good attack, but here in the real world, they were sluggish and slow-moving, fell to fatal blows, and all too frequently fled in terror.

This wasn’t a game. It was a real world. The sight before me burned that fact into my mind.

As roughly half the soldiers died, something else came onto the scene—something that might change the outcome of this battle.

“Wyverns coming in from above!” Sérignan called out.

A formation of over one hundred wyverns was swooping down toward us.

Oh, crap. This is bad news.

The wyverns went into a nosedive, blowing their fire onto the woods where my ranged Swarm units were hiding. The trees shielded some of them from the fire, but any Chemical and Toxic Swarms consumed by the flames burned alive until they perished.

Right away, the Swarms switched their targets to the wyverns. The wyverns ascended, accelerating and moving in irregular directions to throw off the Swarms’ aim.

I didn’t have a countermeasure. My only airborne units were three Griffin Swarms, which simply weren’t enough to stop all these wyverns. We were basically at their mercy. For now, I had my Swarms fire their barrage of stingers toward the sky, basically hoping they’d land lucky hits. They shot down five or six wyverns, which crashed to the ground and melted, but those that remained breathed fire on the ground again.

As the carnage ensued, Sérignan approached me. “Your Majesty.”

“What is it?” I replied, shooting her a dubious glance.

“There’s something incredibly dangerous hiding among the wyverns. We must be wary. From what I can tell, it is even more powerful than the Seraph Metatron.”

Something stronger than the Marianne faction’s hero unit is hiding among the wyverns?

I couldn’t spot any dragons or great dragons flying in the wyverns’ formation. That only left one plausible option.

“The Gregoria’s hero unit...?”

I squinted as I looked up at the wyverns again. Each wyvern carried a rider, and I tried my best to see if any of them seemed out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, the wyverns were moving too fast for me to see properly.

All the while, the forest floor was on fire. Both flanks of the road the lindwyrms had carved burned, and the Genocide Swarms were still finishing off the Nyrnal foot soldiers. Their numbers had whittled down to a third of their original size.

Then, a single wyvern landed.

“Arachnea Queen!” a hulking man called out, brandishing his claymore. “I know you’re here! Show yourself.”

What an idiot.

Striking a pose there would just end with him getting hit with a Chemical Swarm’s stinger or torn to bits by the Genocide Swarms. My will traveled through the collective consciousness, prompting four Genocide Swarms to lunge at the man.

“Hmph!”

But the next moment, he caught a stinger flying at him with his bare hand, using the other one to swing his giant blade and mow down the Genocide Swarms charging at him in one fell swoop.

“So that’s the Gregoria’s hero... Georgius the Dragon Slayer...”

In the game, his backstory was that of a hero who slayed countless dragons in an ancient era where the dragonkin menaced humanity. He slayed dragon after dragon, protecting the people. Eventually, mankind and the dragonkind reconciled, but he continued his slaughter, eventually making him the most hated man alive among the dragons.

When he made his way to slay the ancient dragons, they cast a curse on his younger sister. Should Georgius slay any more dragons, his younger sister would die. He was told that the only way to lift the curse was to serve as a warrior under the wise leader of the dragons, Augustus. And so, Georgius bitterly reconciled with his old enemies, becoming the Gregoria’s hero unit.

He was a formidable unit in the game. He was no match for Sérignan’s final form, but his defense and attack were both very high, and he could overwhelm large crowds of enemies. I recalled many matches where he’d easily dispatched many of my Arachnea units.

As one would expect of a hero unit, ordinary units couldn’t hold a candle to him.

“Your Majesty, please wait here. I shall dispose of that man.”

“Sérignan, no! Wait!” I called out to stop her. “The way you are now, you—”

The way she was now, she couldn’t beat Georgius if he was in his final form!

“You there!” Sérignan shouted, facing him.

“Hm? Oh, one of the Arachnea’s insects.” Georgius turned his eyes toward her in a provocative manner. “I have no interest in fighting you small fry bugs. I only have business with the Arachnea’s queen. She’s here on this battlefield, right? I will not kill her, so bring her before me. The Emperor seeks to speak to her.”

“You dare call me a small fry...?” Sérignan asked, glaring at him. “You disrespectful lout. We will never leave our queen in your hands, no matter what your intentions are. No, you will instead become another corpse to feed this forest.”

“I see,” Georgius said, holding up his claymore. “Negotiations have failed, then. Die, insect.”

“Try it if you can, human,” Sérignan spat back, readying her longsword.

Their clash would be resolved quickly. As she was now, Sérignan couldn’t beat Georgius. I should have stopped her, even if it meant stepping out myself. But my feet were shaking too hard. Their fighting spirits clashed and filled the place like a storm, leaving me rooted in place.

“Then let the battle...”

“Begin!”

Sérignan charged ahead, and Georgius moved in too. Sérignan made the first move, swinging her longsword down on Georgius’s head. But he deflected her blow with a swing of his claymore and swiftly dived into her flank.

“Heh, is that all you’ve got, Arachnea?”

The next moment, Georgius’s claymore swept sideways across Sérignan’s body, rattling her.

“Ugh!”

Thankfully, her armor blocked the slash, but she clearly took damage.

“Now, come on out, Arachnea Queen!” Georgius called out as he landed another blow on Sérignan. “You’d better hurry up, before I turn your servant into mincemeat!”

He punctuated this comment with another swing of his claymore, this time striking Sérignan’s abdomen.

“Ngha!” Sérignan groaned, coughing up blood.

No more. I couldn’t stand to watch it any longer. I had to save her.

“Your Majesty!” Lysa cried, but I ignored her and stepped out into the clearing.

“Stop it,” I told Georgius. “That’s enough.”

“Your Majesty! Why?!” Sérignan moaned, looking at me as if to say she could keep on fighting.

Sérignan, no. If this goes on any longer, you’ll die. I can’t stand by and let that happen. Never.

“I’m the Arachnea’s queen. You wanted me to come out, right? Well, here I am. Take me away.”

But then I found Georgius gawking at me, his expression completely drained of bloodlust.

“Katja...?” He muttered an unfamiliar name. “Is that you, Katja?”

“No. I’m the Arachnea’s queen, Grevillea,” I told him tersely.

Eventually, he said, “Right... So you are the queen. Yes, you fit the description. A fourteen-year-old with black hair and brown eyes.”

He began approaching me, his eyes once again lighting up with intelligence and fighting spirit.

“Will you come with me peacefully?” he asked.

“You’ll kill my knight if I don’t, right? Then my answer is yes.” I nodded.

“Follow me, then. We will not tie you up, but do not resist. Otherwise, I will have to kill you, and I don’t want to do that.”

Oddly enough, Georgius seemed to regard me rather gently, as if I were a dear family member or something.

“Fine by me. Dying isn’t in my itinerary either. I promise to come along quietly.”

“Farewell then, Arachnea Knight,” he told Sérignan. “We will take custody of your queen for a time.”

With that said, he carried me to his wyvern and then took off. As we launched into the sky, I could hear Sérignan shout something from the ground.

Just bear with it for now, Sérignan. I can’t let you die. 

♱

Watching as the Nyrnal Empire took Grevillea away, Sérignan was overcome by a terrible sense of helplessness.

Protecting her is my duty. I was to be her sword. Her shield. I ought to have sacrificed myself before I gave her up. But I couldn’t protect her.

The queen, Grevillea, had sacrificed herself to save Sérignan.

I couldn’t protect myself. I couldn’t protect my sworn sovereign. I let her fall into the enemy’s hands.

“Dammit...all!” The words slipped from Sérignan’s tongue out of sheer frustration. Her failure to meet her duties was simply that vexing.

“Lysa, we must save Her Majesty from the enemy!” she cried.

Lysa shook her head. “Sérignan, you need to heal those injuries first. Her Majesty let herself get taken hostage to protect you. If you die, she’ll surely be beside herself with grief. Are you all right with that? We can still feel her through the collective consciousness. She’s still alive.”

“But—”

“No buts. You have to focus on recovering so you can be in prime condition to rescue her. I’m sure that’s what she wants. Don’t forget, she can still give us accurate orders even when we’re apart. Or do you not trust her?”

“That’s not what I mean! I do believe in Her Majesty! You’re right... She’s always given us the right orders so far. This time should be no different. But I’m still worried. Her Majesty is held prisoner, and who knows what these Nyrnal outlaws might do to her. You know as well as I do how rotten these people are, Lysa.”

“Yes. I know.”

Lysa’s home village had been burned to the ground once again. The elves had been massacred, and the forest they called home had been ransacked and ravaged. Despite the elves not wanting anything to do with the war, the Nyrnal Empire dragged them into the conflict and unjustly torched their entire settlement.

The Empire’s crimes far surpassed the cruelty of Maluk’s knights. Lysa was hardly calm about this. She, too, was worried about Grevillea. Given what the Nyrnal Empire had done to the elves, there was no guarantee they would treat her fairly.

“Your Majesty... Please, stay safe. We’ll definitely save you.”

“Yes. We will save her, Lysa.”

Lysa and Sérignan were determined to strike back against the Nyrnal Empire. Right now, the two of them couldn’t do much, but their queen, Grevillea, would surely come up with a plan for them. So Sérignan, Lysa, and the Swarm believed. They kept their minds fixed on the collective consciousness, awaiting her voice.