Crusade Gone Awry Ch. 16

"Good," Hensley said. "Let's see how this demon deals with the largest army he's ever faced and knights specially trained to kill him. He won't know what hit him."

*

"25,000!?!?" Lilly shrieked, furiously pacing the room still naked. "25,000 soldiers!?'

"That's impossible!" Marcus cried, standing off to the side, also naked. "That's almost our entire military! That's insane! Why would he do that?"

"He mentioned the riches I supposedly have. Maybe he's after that. It doesn't exist."

"You don't have any treasures?"

"Do you see any?"

"I mean...you have none at all?"

Lilly opened her arms. "What does a demon need with wealth? If we want something, we'll just take it! We don't need money! Who will stop us?"

"Right...fair point."

The demon paused in her pacing, cocking her head a little as if she was listening. "Arcane knights? What are arcane knights?"

Marcus's face fell and he turned a little pale. "They couldn't have! Not for all the gold in the world! The borders will be wide open!"

Lilly's pink eyes cut towards him. "What are they?"

The colonel flinched and hesitated. Should he tell her? The part of him loyal to the church said no. The part of him who owed Lilly said yes. He ultimately just spoke.

"They are anti-magic combat knights. They are the elite of our army and protect the kingdom from the surrounding countries. The magic the foreigners use becomes useless, and then it's a numbers game, which we always win. The arcane knights trained us before we left for the crusade. We just never got to use any of it."

"Anti-magic?" Lilly asked.

"They have the ability to cancel out magic completely."

"You mean null magic?"

Marcus blinked a few times. "Maybe...? We call it anti-magic."

Lilly turned away from him. For the first time, she seemed unsettled and unsteady. A massive army with magic-defeating knights at its head. She had never faced null magic before. She didn't even know humans could do such a thing! Her father had warned her about it in the past. It was something demons did to fight and kill each other, but for humans to wield it...would they be as good as demons at it?

The demon began feeling her heart quicken. The humans had gotten clever. They sent out the first group to get her to lower her guard. Honestly, it had succeeded. The only advantage she had now was that she knew they were coming. How was she supposed to face 25,000? She couldn't. Not on her own, anyway.

"Goddammit!" she shouted, stomping her foot. "Why do I have to deal with this?"

"What's going on?" Marcus asked. Lilly shot him a look, but considering he had been honest with her, she could at least return the favor.

"I can't fight that army on my own," she explained. "Not that many and not with people wielding null magic. I don't have a choice. I have to send out the call."

"The call?"

"It was something my father would do during some of the previous crusades. He would call the monsters of the desert to his side, and they would fight together."

"Can you do that?"

"He taught me how to call them, but it might be complicated to command them. He could compel them to his side. He could even break their minds. They all carried his blood, and he could command it. I'm his daughter. It might not work as well for me, but I have no choice."

Marcus gulped and thought for a moment. The crusading army would no doubt bring church officials with them...

"I must go the king and admit my failure," he said.

Lilly jerked her head towards him. "What?! Why!?"

"I failed. I should go and inform him of all that happened."

"Marcus that's suicidal! They used you as a distraction! They threw you to the wolves and used you like bait! You owe them nothing!"

"I owe my allegiance to the church and to the goddess! My sins are still unforgiven, and I've added to them! I persecuted the innocent! I consorted with a demon! I got my entire army killed...!"

"NOT ALL OF THEM!" Lilly abruptly screamed.

There was a moment of silence.

"What?" Marcus asked.

Lilly sighed and shook her head, as if she were reluctant to tell him. "They're not all dead. At least two are in Tarbat.. You aren't the only one who "consorted" either. There are probably more of them in around the desert. I can check when I start calling all the monsters. You have a duty to protect and care for them, don't you? If you turn them in, they will be executed too. Are you going to abandon them to the wolves again?"

Marcus's voice caught in his throat. He didn't know what to say. She had pushed him in between a rock and a hard place. He had a duty to the church, but he also had a duty to the soldiers he led to the slaughter. If it was true that not all of them were dead, he had to make sure they stayed alive. It was the only way to lessen his sins...before he stood in front of the Goddess Vordan.

"You're right," Marcus finally conceded. "The duty I have to my men is paramount. I can't fix my other sins, but I can make it right by them. Please gather them as well."

Lilly let out a relieved sigh as she seemed to calm down a few notches. She turned towards the doors to the balcony and marched over to them. Not caring that she was still naked, she pushed them open. She set up her umbrella to shield herself from the morning sun and then outstretched her hand.

"Please do me a favor," she began. "Tell Jadira what happened so they can prepare us for the journey. She's the chief maid and basically runs the household anyway. We're going to need some barrels of the vitality potion for you too. It's going to take me a while to call all of the monsters." She held up her hand, but then paused. "It was Renard who led your crusade through the desert right? Did he do a good job?"

Marcus thought for a moment. Now, less clouded by his manic desire for forgiveness, he looked back objectively on the fox monster.

"He did, I suppose. He knew about all of the monsters and tried to warn me of certain doom. He knew what he was doing."

"I guess I'll use his services again," Lilly replied, narrowing her eyes. "When I find him, that is."

Lilly's hand glowed for a moment. Then there was a reverberating sound, as if a small explosion emanated from it. Her mind reached out across the desert, one by one the monsters were called. One by one, they answered.

*

*Heed my call! Come to the oasis!*

Renard jerked his head around. That voice echoed in his head as it did all the turantas. He had heard that one day a voice in his head might come calling, but never thought it would actually happen to him.

"Talia, get off of him," Renard said.

"But...!" she complained.

"Just get off. He won't fight you, but you got to get off. Something's changed."

Although she didn't really want to, she obeyed. She slipped off of the monster, the turanta scuttling away with a glare. Talia lifted herself back onto the dock, soaking wet.

"What is it? What's wrong?" she asked.

"We're being called," Renard explained. "The demon king wants to see us."

"Us?" Talia asked, sounding concerned.

"Not us specifically. I think he's calling everyone."

*Renard! You are to come to the oasis immediately!*

Without warning, Renard stumbled backwards, holding his head. The voice now came with a powerful pang inside of his head.

"Ow! Okay, I was wrong. They want to see me, specifically."

"You? Why?"

"I don't know. That voice also wasn't what I was..."

*RENARD! ANSWER AND COMPLY!*

The unexpected female voice screamed through his mind. What felt like sharp knives stabbed into his brain as he could feel her trying to bend his will. Renard cried out and gripped the sides of his head.

"Okay!" he shouted at the sky. "I heard you! I'm coming! Fuck!"

"Renard, what's happening?" Talia demanded.

"The demon king wanted to make sure I heard the call," he explained. "Apparently that means giving me a migraine in the process. I was called, by name. I don't know why."

"Do you have to?" Talia asked, clearly concerned.

"I'm not being given a choice."

*

The call resonated throughout the desert. To the pigmen of the desert and the pigwomen of the oasis. To the nearly extinct hellhounds. To the tiny but crafty lagomorphs. To the last basilisk, the basans and their children the cockatrice. The last remaining centaurs, the unicorns. To the monstrous insect gargantua. To the people-eating alraunes. To the foxmen, scattered all over the desert. To the monstrous snapping trees, believed to gone. To the assassin weevils, the destroyer of armies. To countless others, both monstrous and human-like, the voice was heard and the call was sent out. Even some who didn't hear the voice were approaching, determined not to leave their new loved ones behind. The demon was gathering an army, and the true fight, the true crusade, the true battle, was about to begin.