The Battle of Ultopja Finale (21) – Daggers and Mantles [Superchapter]

Close to the edge of one of the many marble houses flat roofs, Alratha unsheathes her dagger. The flawless glass blade glides out of its sheath without a single sound. Slowly, she raises it above her head only to then drive it down with unrelenting force. She hits the stone below the woman, dagger sinking right through the body in front of her. “An Illusion?” She whispers and as she pulled her weapon back up through the unmoving image. Then it vanished.

Somebody is cupping her breasts. “Mhm, I like these.” Anjar said and jumps back as Alratha turns the dagger in her hand and tries to stab the assailants side. “That won’t work.” The Ushyen woman says and slowly walks along the roof. “Give me a few more tries.” Alratha giggles and suddenly throws a dagger with her offhand. Again, it flies right through Anjar, her reappearing a whole step over to the left, continuing her stride as if she is taking a casual stroll down a crowded street.

Alratha narrows her eyes. “You know that won’t help you right?” A voice right by her left ear says. A spinning kick, the assassin hits nothing but air. “Wrong side,” the women has changed position and now Alratha feels Anjar’s hands shoving her forwards. The assassin has to take a few very ungraceful steps to regain balance.

‘What is happening?’ Alratha wonders. She never fell to Alteration like this, she always felt at the very least that she was being manipulated and managed to negate the worst effects. But this. “is on a total different level, right?”

Anjar, who now stood on the roof five times, each holding a different pose but all of them smiling, said. “See, Fate has given me a very interesting gift. When I awakened my magic to control people, you northerners call it Alteration, I was very young. I tried to learn other magic’s, as my bother eventually did. Evocation I burned my own fingers with, I never summoned anything and Transmutation you don’t even have to ask me about but Alteration…In the many years I have travelled I never even found someone who could challenge me in it.”

All five Anjar’s vanish. “I mean you haven’t even realized I have been groping you this entire time.” Alratha looks down and indeed finds the illusionists hands kneading her breasts again. “Actually, that was a lie to make you think that you were being groped and then reinforce that thought.” Alratha tried to suppress all thoughts and just attack her based on instinct. It seemed to work as she suddenly was able to see Anjar standing just a few feet in front of her.

‘Now I got you, you manipulating bitch…oh hey, this is how Tang must feel whenever I vanish behind his back,’ Alratha things and giggles. She ceases the moment and jumps forward, right through what turns out to be another one of Anjar’s images.

She lands at the feet of the real one. Maybe. How would she know at this point? “Not thinking. Bad choice. You know if I wanted to I could have deleted your mind thirty times over.” Anjar said and now kicked Alratha in the shoulder to make sure she remained down. “Sorry, Daughter of Rethal, but you can’t touch me.”

Alratha growled, “How do you know that?” “Not many women have Amber eyes, much less are outside of the Theocracy. Is she dead?” “Yes.” “Nice! Never liked her anyway.” Alratha turned her head to at least have a look at her opponent. “I am not your opponent.” Anjar said, “That would mean we are fighting or have conflicting interests,” she unveiled a book that was lying in her hand.

Alratha’s eyes go wide, her master will not be happy with this thing being out of his possession.

“Which according to this book is not the case. ‘Thrjterna Jarkatzzka‘, Brother sure loves his secrecy. Guess that is my fault.” Alratha raises her eyebrows but then starts laughing. Fuck trying anything if her feeling can be manipulated anyway. “You know him? Did you two fuck or anything.” Anjar makes a discomforted impression, “Fucking a guy? Really? My brother even? Disgusting.”

Alratha is left open mouthed as Anjar suddenly disappears, a piece of paper taking her place. I just lies on the rooftop, Alratha doesn’t even see Ulal’s sister around. It reads the exact conversation they had from the moment she read the title of the book. A last line on the paper. “Let’s have a good time in the future.” With a kiss mark next to it.

“Now I have seen it all,” she grins while her fists clench until her knuckles turn white.

Several hours later, Anjar is still reading through the book she stole from her brother. It contains many things, magical secrets and theories, blue prints for artefacts other nations would make her a duchess for, but most importantly to her was the story of what happened to him.

Hans is watching the whole thing with a wide smile, “Seems like your plan went south there.” His voice startles the Ushyen woman. “Where the hell did you creepster come from?” she asks, furrowing her eyebrows, “Also get dressed, I am not interested at looking at your cock, incubus.”

“A true lesbian, such a bore,” Hans sighs and just sits down in the air. The rules of the mortal realm are not binding to him in their full extent. For this meeting he chose the form of a brown-skinned rough man in his forties, with oiled abs and his characteristic horns.

“I come to take my payment,” the arch-demon sensually sighs that last word. Truth be told, he already got everything he wanted from this siege. His plan had worked from the start to the end. “Sure, just name it, can’t be that high seeing how all you did was give me a way through the tunnels,” Anjar shrugs.

It actually had been a whole lot more. He had needed to hide his arch-bishop as a simple senile botanic first and put him in charge of the alchemical gardens to put this whole thing into motion. He remembers the talk he had with the twins about it.

“But why would you need to do that?” Aelana, the white-haired succubus, had asked when he had opened up that truth to them. Hans loves explaining his schemes, so he took the provoked question as an opportunity to lay it down to them.

“Because it will be important at one of the later steps of the plan, dear,” he had giggled; “See, after I make sure that nobody finds out about my arch-bishop, I will then wait for the siege to progress a few days. Then I will have the cultists transmutate a whole load of chicken into rats.”

“What the shit?” Analea bursts out; “I thought you wanted to help Ulal do his thing. You want to crush him now all out of a sudden?” “Sister, you are talking to the Arch-Incubus!” Aelena reprimands the redhead, who falls silent for a moment afterwards. “I still want to know why,” she presses out between fanged jaws.

“I was getting to that,” Hans muses and then his tone suddenly becomes very harsh, like a whip it lashes over the spirit of the twins; “Because you two managed to lose the trust of Ulal, I have no direct way of influencing him unseen. This cannot stand. This scheme is all to clear up your failures!”

The twins shrink back at their true masters tone, in fear and awe. “You are going to unite us with Lord Ulal again?” Aelana asks, true hope in her voice. “Listen to the plan to the end, stupid girls, and you may learn a thing or two how us trickster demons should seduce the mortals to our ways,” Hans switches back to an easeful tone.

“The rats will create the need for the city to look for alternative supplies and, oh wonder, they will look at the alchemical gardens for something edible,” Hans giggles, shifting in the chair in Tarzana’s office to get more comfortable. Staying in this world for too long a timespan makes his skin burn, but for the moment it was just a bit of an annoying prickling.

“Where your arch-bishop has assumed the leading function,” Aelana noted. “Yes he did, and he will fool whoever comes around that the only viable solution is a mushroom by the name of Jutz, which only grows in damp caves, I am afraid. Oh! Thankfully the Wekgrond has a lot of those…almost all of the deeper ones also connect in some way. Of course, it is entirely impossible that vast darkness,” Hans waved off.

“Unless one of the most powerful demons in existence would help you,” Analea whispers; “Okay, that is pretty impressive so far.” “And thus I will send someone, who is not important, even though I have someone in mind who will make this extra amusing to me, with an artefact called the ‘Mirror of Stasis’ to paralyze Ulal,” Hans explains.

“”But then…the defence mechanisms will fail,”” the twins both speak out in worry. They do not want to see their masters work fall, they are too interested in seeing it flourish.

“Indeed, they will, but don’t be alarmed, your master has a weapon that will take care of the invaders…once he awakens again with your help. When the city gets stormed, that is your signal. Be at the ready to be found by Catherine, act like you have no idea, then use your advanced connection to Ulal to free him from his memories yoke. Maybe you will find out something interesting about him in the process,” Hans can’t help but giggle some more; “But that would just be an added bonus. The fact that the two of you will be the ones who, effectively, will save his city should put you in good graces with him again, don’t you think?”

“In conclusion…” “…you want us…” “…to resolve…” “…a situation you yourself caused?” the twins speak in turns. “I am just breaking this siege to fit my schemes, I will help in the clean up too. I don’t think I need to tell you what happens if Ulal ever finds out about this little talk?”

The twins look at each other and smile. Their feelings for their master, how close to love they may ever be, do not matter. They are demons and their own interests come first, ever and always. “”We understand, thank you for your held, oh great dark one.””

“So, what is it?” Anjar asks for perhaps the third time, Hans has just been staring at her to make her uncomfortable while he recalled his pleasant little chat. “I want of you to convince Helena of an armistice between Ultopja and Estara.”

End of Arc 4