Arascus calls upon the monsters of Arda to lead and fight in his war.
Let it not be said that the White Pantheon cannot get its own monsters.
- Excerpt from the Private Diary of Goddess Allasaria, of Light. Dated to the start of the Great War.
Kassandora stood frozen before Furcas gaze. The demonic knight towered over the three Goddesses before him. Even with Labrys and Aslana both floating in the air behind their Godwielders, Furcas still had a full head above the two opaque, ghostly Goddesses. With the demon’s white horns accounted for, he had more than two heads on above. He stood, eyes fixed on Kassandora, as Kassandora saw him silently analyse the three Goddesses.
And Kassandora analysed him back. He was obviously an animated corpse, his eyes did not even have a single glint in the light. And she had seen him recover from a tank shell and from behind stabbed by Aslana’s blow. He took a step forward. Labrys’ Godwielder, just some unlucky infantryman in the standard Second Expedition grey uniform, moved to the side as the Goddess he was channelling directed his movements. Aslana stood in place, her ghost moved to copy the human before her, or maybe the human was copying the Goddess floating behind him. He lifted the blade above his head and prepared to strike as blades of all shapes and size and style formed protective petals of steel around him.
“I remember you two from the past as well.” Furcas said in an almost bored manner. He extended that glaive of his to either of the Weapon Divines and then took a step forward towards Kassandora, completely ignoring the other Divines. “Although that is more my memory than your memorability.” Kassandora had personally trained these Goddesses not to fall for basic taunts like that. She positioned herself off to the side from Aslana so that the Goddess of the Sword would have a better angle at Furcas for when he inevitably came at her.
And around the three Divines and single demon, Kassandora’s army moved like a single limb, each man a strand of muscle. Anti-armour weaponry was being handed out to counter the demon, if he survived a tank shell then Kassandora saved her ammunition with the small arms. It was the same principle as not sending men armed with swords against Fer or Fortia. The Tartarian horde was close enough to the wall of fire blocking vision in front of Kassandora’s defences that they were audible even over the gunfire.
They screamed, they roared, and obviously died, but they were obviously getting louder. Kassandora directed the first rank to hold in place using the Orchestra and started preparing a second line further back. Furcas made a show of looking around. “Impressive.” He said. “Rarely does one see the silent legion from this close.”
Kassandora raised her black greatsword and pointed it at Furcas. Labrys, out of the Orchestra, got the message thankfully. The Goddess of the Axe made the first move, her Godwielder took a step forward, his movements a perfect imitation of Labrys’. Phantom axes materialized behind the Goddess and followed her swing.
Furcas did not even turn around to look. He took large step forward, utterly unpanicked. Aslana came close to strike him. Kassandora kept her distance and directed men with anti-tank weaponry to fire on the demon from an angle where they wouldn’t hit either of the two Divines. The demon knight finally moved as his brethren leaped through the fire. The first rank got shot to pieces and collapsed immediately, but more spilled through the flames after. A tide of red bodies with horns and black armour.
Furcas took another lazy step to be just outside of Labrys’ striking distance. Maybe the demon was just showing off, but Kassandora wouldn’t let something like that slide. He must have eyes on the back of his head, or some sixth sense, or something that told him how to move because it was simply impossible to dodge an attack from a Goddess that calmly and with shut little of a gap. The closest blade from Labrys’ strike got within a hair’s length to the demon.
A team of soldiers pulled triggers on with their anti-tank rifles. They had originally been brought to serve as snipers against Greater Demons. Kassandora couldn’t catch whether the demon reacted pre-emptively or instantly. He moved like a snake, with Labrys still recovering from her attack, the demon seemingly changed his speed from frozen to a flash.
Kassandora summoned Joyeuse again and moved to stand close to Aslana. She couldn’t tell the woman which tank exactly, but this should be enough. The reports on aiming where given by a Clarinet. If she could get him talking again… “Fair strike.” Kassandora shouted and Aslana immediately to stalk like jaguar off the side.
Furcas laughed as he kept on moving. “You caught me with that once.” He answered back and immediately moved to engage. Kassandora this time, not Aslana. Maybe that was good. Maybe that would give Aslana the chance to strike. Kassandora readied to parry, Aslana saw the blow, she moved in herself as the Goddess of War adopted a defensive stance.
And then Furcas spun around as he stood. That glaive which Kassandora was prepared to parry and then dodge suddenly found itself piercing the chest of Aslana’s Godwielder. Kassandora sword the Goddess of the Sword drop back down to the ground as the man channelling her power slowly died, but Kassandora saw the chance too.
A furious piano slammed down through War’s Orchestra and a man pressed a button. A tank fired, even if Furcas heard the sound, he wouldn’t react. Kassandora knew what she was looking and even she missed it under the din of screams and combat. The frontlines were being assailed in melee now. Soldiers were pulling back to the tune of the Orchestra as the hastily-formed second line opened fire. And in all that commotion, a tank shell flew the through air.
Kassandora saw it impact into the demon’s side. She saw the tip bury itself into the monster’s armour. She saw the two-stage detonation. One pushed the charge deeper, the other blew up inside the knight’s torso. Armour and scraps of dead flesh were ripped apart and showered from above. Kassandora’s eyes took a moment to adjust to the lack of light down here after they had just been blinded by the explosion.
She saw legs still standing. She saw a skeleton with half its ribs missing. She saw half a body remaining. She saw Furcas stood looking at the man his glaive had just pierced as Aslana screamed out in pain, grabbing her own torso. They shared movement and they shared sense, the only part of the open wound she lacked was the physical hole in herself. And Kassandora saw the heart.
Floating by itself, in that shattered ribcage and lack of a chest, there was an ugly heart fashioned out of black metal and woven together with some blue wires. Kassandora didn’t really care to analyse or inspect or even think. The only way it could be more obvious that whatever that object was had to be destroyed was if there was an arrow pointed to it with the sign: Break this. Furcas’ body started reforming immediately. His spine began to straighten and muscle twisted and split. Not as strands of sinew that regrew under classical healing but as cancerous bits of flesh that bubbled and exploded and eventually formed something resembling skin.
Kassandora launched herself into the air without a moment of hesitation or caution. It had to be now. The demon had to be killed. She wouldn’t get another shot like this. And Kassandora swung into that black orb as Furcas dragged his blade out of Aslana’s Godwielder. The Goddess of War put all the power and speed she could into that blow and she grit her teeth to be as silent as possible. Every instant she bought herself before Furcas reacted was another instant she had to close the distance before he began to move with that impossible speed.
At the very last instant, Furcas noticed it. It was too late though. He started to move, but Joyeuse was already smashing through pale, cracked, dead bone. Black metal touched black metal. Joyeuse touched that heart. Kassandora put all the force she could behind the blow. It would be enough to smash through a wall. She felt the blade shake. She felt force ricochet through her arms and bounce into her shoulders like strikes of lightning. The sheer feedback of that blow ripped Joyeuse from her hands and knocked her down.
For a moment, for only a moment, Kassandora had hope. She saw Joyeuse remain in the air for a second, and then it slid down bone and clattered on the ground. The demon stood, his body already beginning to reform as Kassandora saw steel move and beat.
Furcas looked down at himself and patted his own heart as his ribcage began to reform. He traced a nail into the tiny scratch Kassandora had made. “Well well well.” He said. “I praise you on striking me Kassandora. Talent, you have plenty.”
Kassandora got to her feet as she saw the demon turn. He was more confident now. A hail of gunfire smashed into his body and he didn’t even flinch. The Goddess of War curled her fingers, summoned Joyeuse, and dropped it immediately when the butt of Furcas’ glaive poked her lower arm right in the nerve. The demon left himself exposed with that move, Kassandora wouldn’t have done it herself.
But what would come of it? She had just landed a full blow on his heart and the most she managed was a scratch. Still though, she had to try.
Kassandora released her sword and closed the gap. The Goddess of War moved like a hurricane. Her crimson hair spun around, one of her hand’s clasped around Furcas’ wrist, the other went above her head as she held his arm still. Kassandora dropped her armoured elbow onto the inside of Furcas’. The strike should have broken bone and torn tendon. The strike should have popped joint out of socket. The strike should have at least looked as if it hurt! Kassandora slowly turned her head towards Furcas, at this point, it wasn’t her holding him still, it was her holding onto him to be still. The demon’s lightless black eyes stared down at her.
“Talented you may be, but you were still overestimated.”