CHAPTER 403: CHAPTER 403 - LATE TO THE MASSACRE, RECALLED FOR A DIFFERENT REASON

Smoke rose from where the fortress had once stood protecting the lives of thousands. Qatrand er Yecine gazed at it from up close, at the edge of the ritually scorched earth where fire had dealt with the recovered bodies. Her black hair ate the light from being covered in vantablack Voidling ichor from head to toe.

Collapsed stone sections had needed to be moved to find many of them. What was now ruins was still a battleground that her strikeforce had spent hour clearing. Including a fight against the eldritch leader of the invasion group that was responsible for this ’victory’ for the Voidlings.

’Three days too late. Could we have gotten here faster? If communication could have come sooner...’

Instead, the massive structure that had formerly protected so many lay collapsed in an assault that had eventually overwhelmed those fighting on the walls, as it was known to do here and there throughout the continent every cycle. Its fortifying sigils Rended through, so that the creatures could topple much of it onto the last of its defenders.

So far in the war, she had been able to make it in time to prevent such numbers of people from falling - hundreds this time. Casualties in the fighting were minimal whenever she showed up. That’s why this result was hard to swallow and felt like a failure. There was no way to change it now, but shrugging it away and moving on did not feel right either.

"Survivors of these incidents say sometimes all it took was the right combination of battle fatigue, numbers, and persistence."

Leysah spoke while approaching, with someone who was there to see her commander in tow behind her. Pigeon blues closed while taking the comment in for a moment, before her low voice rippled out towards the disaster around them.

"Which is why we must be tireless, worth more than each of theirs, and know when to retreat and when to turn that persistence against them."

She knew that Cynosure could have made the difference here, in a similar situation... if only others with her Aspect could be found for next cycle. Drawing the leader-class Voidling’s attention had turned for her people what would have been being overwhelmed from all sides... into culling the threat that was too focused on chasing the Yecine.

However, she also knew because of her wife that the invasions were not something that could be ’won’, ultimately. Doing better meant next time would be harder. When it came to numbers, there was no telling if the amount she protected this cycle would mean more would die in the next than would have otherwise.

’She insisted that I never think of it that way. That staying true to myself and trying my best was always better than not. But knowing how much she held back, it’s hard not to question these sorts of things.’

"Qatrand. It has been a while."

After they cleared their throat and spoke, Qat turned toward the voice of the other cultivator nearby. Ryder from the Void Defense Society had been coordinating intelligence between different regional commands. He had arrived at the site just a little ahead of them and had been involved in yet another evacuation.

"What was it like for the routes they took?"

The Yecine asked the man, with her calloused and blackened hand tightening just a little on her heavy blade. Two hours of killing the mass of lessers had covered most everything. But it was the way the leader had tried to land on her from above when she successfully pierce its main organ that had been the real drenching.

She was looking forward to becoming a Primalist in essence, to try out her wife’s trick. An application of Adhesion - once she learned how to do that properly - that would grab at anything between her body and field. Effectively allowing her to slough off any of the ichor, dirt, or anything else with just the application of the technique.

"Most of the civilians made it to the next fortress before the walls here fell. Forty-three hundred evacuated successfully. But the garrison and its support staff..."

Standard Continental Army doctrine had led them to leave a holding force. Using layered defensive positions designed to be too tempting for the enemy to dismiss. Because they could always go chase down the noncombatants and minimal protectors later - but removing those who fought back against them was the biggest priority to the invaders.

Similar to how removing those with the ability to direct the Hivemind forces in more effective and intelligent ways was the cultivators choice. Destroying leaders and Intermediates every time they could - and even going out of their way to do so. Which was essentially what Qatrand had been sent here to do.

’Using me surgically is the best thing, El said... I can’t believe it has been over three months since the incursion began. Or that she has been gone for two months.’

Seeing the strained look on the heir’s face... Ryder hesitated. However, giving the hero-to-be a break was probably the right choice. He produced a sealed message case from his pack that he had been given at the other fort.

"This came in for you during the night and was waiting for the clean-up to finish, but I brought it with me. Priority dispatch from the Void Defense Society. According to my own version of the message, you’ve been ordered to report to the regional branch immediately."

Qat accepted the case, noting the multiple official symbols and the unusual weight of the contents. The largest Guilds all maintained administrative centers in bigger cities. And in ones that had weathered the initial invasion waves, they became places where strategy or more could be discussed.

’Is it time already?’

"What about the northern defenses? The plan had been to go there next after checking on the civilians this time."

"You might be happy to know that Captain Cyera has been dispatched with a large auxiliary force for that matter. If you open it, you’ll see that the orders specify immediate compliance, Commander. No delays."

"Sounds like you’re telling us not to open it at all if we want our freedom."

Qat broke the seals anyway as Leysah and the longsword wielder bantered about her ’point’. The language of the formal documents was appropriately respectful but unmistakably direct - her presence was required for matters of importance to the Guild’s future continental operations. Not kind of summons that came for routine debriefings.

But it was the kind that Ondua er Goltbred had told her about. Her own elders glossed over it, because there had never been an expectation that she would be doing so well. Even with her standout results in the competition... none of them had taken her aside and suggested that she could be on this route.

Just that she should be doing her best at all times to represent the Yecine. So, nothing had changed in the way they treated her prior to having to leave for her posting. Qat thought of the collapsed fortress here and how it fell. Because someone who could save it did not get there in time.

’I was gotten to, so I won’t fall.’

Another pang of missing Elua er Goltbred struck the swordswoman. Sometimes they were frequent and expected, sometimes they were like a bolt from the blue. Each time she took a lesson from the girl and tried to distract herself.

Thinking of the broader war. Of her goals for her family. And of the plots and schemes her mint-drop left behind, that she could begin to deal with in her absence. The latter was not so good at keeping her from thinking of the girl, but were quite effective at salving the feeling of being no help to her where she was stuck.

"I’ll have to give final orders. Signal the others. After we finish combing through for survivors-"

⟠ ⟠ ⟠

Occupying what had once been a merchant guild’s administrative complex but purchased and reinforced a half a century ago, a set of stone buildings were arranged around a central courtyard. The place was currently staffed by cultivators and some brave mortals who worked with the purposeful goals of an organization under a lot of pressure.

In the middle of that, a raven-haired cultivator was escorted through corridors lined with tactical maps that marked the original and secondary Voidling incursion points. As well as many other things, such as mass casualty reports, and abandoned resource stockpiles.

The very complexity of continent-wide coordination was visible in every rushed conversation and in every stack of urgent dispatches awaiting review by harried officials - who simply didn’t have enough time to get through them all without delegating... at a time when even their underlings were looking to delegate.

Five officials sat in the conference chamber representing the combined authority of the leadership for three regions - including Qat’s own. At the head of the polished wood table sat Kwared, a man whose high Echelon Tri-Primalist cultivation did nothing to mask the exhaustion in his eyes. But when he gestured to the chair across from him, there was a sense of pressure that was not to be denied.

"Commander Qatrand er Yecine. It goes without saying we know of your reputation. Thirteen confirmed leader-class eliminations now. Minimal team casualties and below estimated deaths after your force arrives. As well as a new tactical innovation based on a rare Aspect."

As she settled into the all but ordered into seat, she could feel how the other officials studied her. Expressions of respect and calculation. Her father-in-law had described his own moments of being seen as ’a useful symbol’ much the same... at least in hindsight.

"The Cynosure Formation has proven effective against current Voidling patterns, yes. This has allowed me to accomplish the other feats more readily."

"Effective is one way of putting it. Your success rate now exceeds any comparable sized unit by such significant margins that you may as well be called a statistical anomaly. But that presents us with a few new strategic problems of a different kind."

The woman to Kwared’s left spread a collection of reports across the table. Glancing at them, the Gravity wielder could see that they all seemed to be dossiers similar to how she had picked from her team before - only these primarily included more recent achievements within this war cycle.

Qat quickly put together that they were showing her the other notable figures on their continent. The others that they intended to name as heroes of regions that sprawled like small nation-states across the overall landmass. But she was sure of one thing.

’I have no idea what she said and what she’s showing me have to do with each other...’