"Hey winged b.i.t.c.h, are you listening to me!?"(Aah, humans. So prideful, so stupid.)
Taking a deep breath Solaris figured there was no more to say, she was Dax"s envoy, disrespecting her was the same as disrespecting Dax.
Something like that couldn"t just stand, Solaris absolutely wouldn"t allow it.
(Scenario 9 confirmed, now prosecuting all hostiles with extreme prejudice.)
"Ascension."
Speaking the name of the spell, Solaris" aura flared as mana from the surroundings rushed in towards her.
"Aegies."
Using a spell she had learned from Dax, Solaris instantly rendered all attempts at attacking her null as a transparent barrier was erected around her. With the issue of her defence taken care of, Solaris turned her attention towards Randell as she raised the palm of her hand towards his fleeing figure.
"Howitzer."
With a single word and the power of magic, most of Rondell"s chest and lower body was removed from existence as a high powered shockwave disintegrated those parts of his body and spread the rest of it over the walls, floor and ceiling. Not even a single drop of blood managed to reach Solaris, as her barrier completely blocked everything, making blood and gore reveal its outline around Solaris as her wings started glowing brightly.
"If you guys want to live I suggest leaving this place, now."
Snapping the numerous goons inside the room out of their collective state of shock with her ice cold voice, Solaris watched how they scattered like baby spiders before she turned her attention to Lia who was still lying on the floor.
"W-why?"
"Because he disrespected me, and by extension Dax."
Crouching down next to Lia Solaris briefly examined her injuries before saying something which Lia would remember for the rest of her life.
"Now. Your boss, who wanted to kill you, is dead. That gives you two choices miss Lia, stay here and bleed out until you die, or come with me. While I can"t promise you some kind of grand life under Dax, I will promise you this: Dax never mistreats his subordinates, or throws them away for that matter. He"s far too kind to do that."
-
"She"s coming out now, get ready."
In and around the Ribdell mansion, the news of the master"s pa.s.sing quickly spread, as did the desire to punish the one responsible for his death. Of course, it was not for revenge or any honour bound reason, but more a collective will to represent the head of the aggressor to the new leader of the house, so the mercenaries and bandits employed by the late Mr Randell could retain their job or even get an increase in pay when a new leader took over. Among those various rejects of society were a number of angels without affiliation to a sanctuary, the leader of which was a 200 year old 3 winged male angel named Gabriel who had taken control of the group and was managing the counter attack.
"Prepare for attack!"
Sensing a spike in the ambient mana, Gabriel raised his spear as the second floor of the mansion in front of him exploded and a two winged figure emerged out of it unharmed.
"... That"s quite the reception."
Holding some random beastkin in her arms, the target seemed completely open to attack, or so Gabriel believed.
"Penance of the non believers."
Raising his hand in towards the angel, Gabriel formed a spear made of pure fire that shot towards his target at breakneck speed, reaching it in an instant.
(Now die!)
With a large explosion and following shockwave which temporarily blinded Gabriel and his self proclaimed subordinates, he showed a confident smile as he hoped that there would be enough left of the angel to identify her.
"Really? Just attacking out of the blue is cold, but I guess I should expect that kind of tactics from a 3 winged reject."
Emerging completely unharmed from the smoke as she still held Lia in her arms, Solaris just looked at the 3 winged angel with scorn.
"W-what did you just call me?"
"You heard me. I"ve clipped a lot of wings in my time so I know the type, you got your second pair of wings due to some sort of fluke and then got overly confident and had your wings clipped before being cast out. I bet you feel like you"re unbeatable out here among all these mortals, poor you."
Pressing not only a few but all the b.u.t.tons of the 3 winged angel in a single sentence, Solaris was instantly attacked by a more powerful spell which was instantly nullified by her defensive spell.
"What!?"
"Is that the best you can do?"
"Tch! Atonement of the sinners!"
Seeing that his spell had no effect, Gabriel stepped up his game and used an even more powerful fire spell which Solaris responded to by deflecting with a spell of her own.
"Howitzer."
Forming a sphere of highly compressed air in front of her, Solaris sent it forth and detonated it within the 3 winged angel"s spell, easily shattering it apart as she prepared her next offensive spell. Switching Lia over to a one handed carry, Solaris used her free hand to precisely articulate a more advanced spell.
"Air pressure control: Annihilation."
Sending out an extremely high pressure thermal pulse while making sure she didn"t set fire to Lia or herself, Solaris mimicked the conditions and raw and awe inspiring power of a thermonuclear warhead detonation which set fire to everything within 50 meters, including wood, stone, hair, skin and especially lung tissue.
"... Oh, good job surviving that one."
With the smell of burning flesh all around her, Solaris was still completely unfazed as she congratulated the 3 winged angel on surviving, after all, this was not the first time she had set fire to people.
"W-what are you?"
Suffering intense burns all over and inside his body, Gabriel barely managed to speak those words as he looked with horror at the angel still hovering above him.
"An insignificant ant like you have no need to know. Siege formation: a.s.sault hammer."
Reducing the 3 winged angel, the area around him and a significant part of the ground beneath him to a mix of ash and molten stone Solaris immediately started thinking about what Dax was doing.
"I wonder if he"ll be done with that "networking" of his when I get back, I"m sure he"ll be happy that I"m bringing a new to- I mean Lia back with me."
---
"So, why have you reached out to me? Don"t you know that I"m aware of what you did in the imperial capital?"
"I"m reaching out to you precisely because of what I did in the imperial capital that I"m reaching out to you dear Eos."
"Don"t call me dear…. So, what do you want with the 22nd sanctuary?"
Standing in front of the 10 winged archangel and de facto leader of the most powerful sanctuary in the Empire, Dax wore his overly friendly diplomatic smile as he took a step forward.
"I wanted to know where the 22nd stands."
"In reference to what exactly?"
"Your pledge to defend the empire, if my information is correct that promise was made a long time ago and under very different circ.u.mstances. Would you consider changing it?"
Getting straight to the point Dax tracked the time it took Eos to realize what he had just said twist her face into one filled with pure rage.
(0.6 seconds huh? I don"t know if that could be considered impressive, or slow.)
"HOW DA!-"
"Yeah, yeah. Before you rip me to pieces allow me to fully express the thoughts which led me to such a suggestion, if you"re not swayed by that then you"re free to do as you want to me."
"... Fine. But if I find your explanation to be unworthy I"ll personally bring you before the Emperor and execute you myself."
"Sure, that"s fine. Let"s both take a seat."
(That actually works out perfectly for me.)
Still having an overall relaxed att.i.tude Dax waved his hand as a table and two chairs made of polished stone emerged from the ground.
"Are you aware of the change the Empire has gone through since some of my property landed in the Empire?"
"That strange obelisk which floats on its own and kills most things that come close to it? Yeah, it caused a great change within the Empire, suddenly this "technology" was vastly more important than magic ever was. Due to that, the new Emperor managed to secure the position he has now."
"That"s not all. Where I"m from this "technology" is something which is developed over eons, throughout that time and gradual development my people learned to have a certain amount of respect for that technology, as there was a very real chance that the technology could completely annihilate them without warning. That respect is something that this world lacks to a dangerous degree."
"What?"
Hearing of a previously unknown danger to the empire, Eos unconsciously leaned forward as she wanted to hear more of what Dax was saying.
"I"ll give an example for clarity: When my distant forefathers first learned to split the atom they did so doing a war which had split the entire world in two. That development, like so many others, was to create a weapon, but this one was a bit special, it was unlike anything that had ever come before. When the winning side finally finalized that weapon it was believed that they could use it to win this great war, but they still hesitated to use it. Do you know why?"
"Because they feared the weapon?"
"Not exactly. They feared using it would make them lose the war."
"How so?"
"Because by using the weapon they had calculated a that there was a very real chance that they would ignite the planet"s atmosphere and kill all life including themselves and their sworn enemies…. About a 40% Chance if the surviving records are correct."
"... So what did they do?"
Taken with the story Dax was telling her, Eos completely forgot her earlier anger towards him as she wanted to hear the rest of the story.
"Of course they used it, and not for some n.o.ble reason like winning the war, but to reduce their casualties so they could save soldiers for their next war. On a completely unrelated note did you know that a fuel cell which contained several magnitudes more raw explosive power than that weapon was recently ignited by accident? And that the so called
"obelisk" contains something that"s magnitudes more dangerous and also inherently unstable? To my knowledge, the Emperor plans to use that "obelisk" for its vast power, without taking into account its risks, but unlike my distant forefathers, they have no idea of the risk involved, they simply don"t want to know... But luckily, there"s still a silver lining."
Seeing Eos patiently waiting for him to continue, Dax figured she knew about the annihilation event.
"This time the risk of annihilation is not just 40% it"s 99.99592%. You won"t even be safe on that lost sanctuary on the moon as the gravitational tidal forces will quite literally rip this entire solar system to shreds on a subatomic level."
"How exactly is that a silver lining?"
"Because then there will be no pest remaining to keep me from returning to the war that my people are currently losing, isn"t that great?~"
Seeing that Eos was entirely speechless Dax continued his planned speech.
"Now your pledge to protect the empire is self contradictory, which it by itself should be enough to leave you with an existential crisis, but I"ll leave you with this last message: In a bit, the empire is going to tear itself apart in a really ugly manner, so you should start thinking about what"s more important, the empire or your sanctuary."