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War of the Fallen year ?

The Directorate. A name I had never expected to hear of ever again. How did they get here? Why are they even on this world in the first place? Yah had been defeated. The wars on earth should be over.

"What in blazes are you talking about?" Nock snorts derisively through her machine's speakers. But the tension does not leave our group. Whomever this "Wu" is, the normal rules clearly don't apply to him. Several Valkyries have already died by his hand without even managing to damage that bog standard civilian grade bulwark the man pilots. Its completely unbelievable yet undeniable.

"Beast girls." Wu flatly insists, "Handover each and everyone of them in your convoy to me. And I'll let you leave. Fair, is it not?"

"Amanda, he knows." I whisper urgently to my lover over our private secure line on the coms.

"Its fine." Amanda reassures, her voice steady, "Our enemy knows the Saint is here, but doesn't know that she's our daughter or even what she looks like."

Of course. If this Wu knew the exact identity of the Saint, he would not bother with demanding the surrender of all the beast girls travelling with us. Wu would just single my daughter out and be done with it.

"What I'm worried is about is how Wu intercepted us." Amanda continues worriedly, "Our path is protected by Iros. She would have turned away such a dangerous opponent."

"Wu is special. He's like me." I grimly confirm.

"You mean -" Amanda hesitantly probes, but I decide to interrupt. There's no time to be coy now.

"He's not from this world." I state while keeping an eye on the intruder, "I told you about the schism we had back on earth right?"

"Yes?" Amanda asks tensely, "Your people had a war between the faithful and the faithless, just like us."

"Difference being, the faithless back on earth figured out how to thwart god's will." I explain, swallowing hard, "Blessings mean less than nothing to them."

"I see." Amanda morosely absorbs that piece of information, "So your people managed to accomplish what the Fallen could not?"

"More like we engaged in a more fruitful line of research than the Fallen." I scowl to myself in frustration, "Different means to the same end. And those aren't my people, Amanda. I was fighting on the opposite side."

"Well, looks like you might have to do a repeat performance." Amanda says encouragingly, "This Wu may be powerful, but everyone here is a first rate pilot. We can take him."

"Amanda, I mean it when I said that blessings mean nothing to the faithless from my world." I insist, "They have a way of outright thwarting divine intervention. That's probably how Wu intercepted us regardless of Iros's protection."

"We might not have a choice." Amanda counters, fire in her voice.

Its rude to talk behind someone's back you know.

Again, that bark of incomprehensible gibberish emits from Wu's bulwark. But my heart sinks as his words from another world reach my ears. Wu has been listening in to me and Amanda all this while. The private line was not as secure as we thought it was.

Come now, I know that the Saint is here. You just admitted it. Let's save each other some time.

"Stop grunting like an animal!" Nock blares in irritation at Wu, "Talk sensibly or move aside!"

"I'll take over from here." I walk forward and push Nock gently aside. The Valkyrie is about to object but an almost imperceptible nod from Amanda gets her to settle down.

You are not one of ours. Wu observes mildly.

"I am the first." I answer Wu, sounding more confident that I actually feel, "You don't mind if we speak the local language? I don't want to leave my comrades out of this conversation."

"No, its fine." Wu replies, smoothly switching to the local tongue, "It does not change what I have to say anyway. So you're the wanderer? We all thought that the prototype machine killed you."

I click my tongue in annoyance and the sound comes out of my bulwark's speaker. This is not the conversation I wanted to have with our ambusher.

Or is that subject too sensitive? Forgive me if I had caused offence. Wu apologizes politely, but I still feel my hackles rise. He's trying to unnerve me, open a rift between me and my comrades here by giving off the impression that both of us share some kind of kinship. Already I feel suspicious looks being drawn in my direction. Wu is pulling at the thread of our relationships, trying to divide and conquer. And divided we fall. I cannot have that.

"No. There's nothing to hide." I say with a clear voice, "I would have died, but the people here saved me. I owe them everything."

An oversimplification, but close enough to the truth. A murmur of approval comes from somewhere behind me. I've passed the first challenge in this duel, but we are not out of danger yet.

"Wonderful." Wu claps the metal arms of his bulwark with a clang, "Then you will appreciate the offer that I'm making."

"Which is?" I ask with a lump in my throat.

"Your daughter. Give her to me." Wu says as despair drills its way into my heart, "And I let all of you go in return."

"You have to be joking!" I blurt out angrily.

"One life." Wu says patiently, lifting an armored index finger for emphasis, "In return for the safety of several. An arrangement that is more than fair."

I begin to sweat bullets, realizing the trap Wu had lured me into. If I outright dismiss his offer, I would look like a hypocrite and the rest of the unit would start turning on me. And Wu has already demonstrated his ability to easily kill Valkyries. Would the troopers support me if I ordered an all out attack on him?

I honestly don't know.

The thought of invoking Iros's name occurs to me, but Wu is someone from the Directorate. He would not respect the wishes of a god in the first place. Still, Iros's name could be enough to inspire the troopers to fight -

"Absolutely not." Amanda declares and steps forward to confront Wu. Her tone does not brook opposition and divine power pours off her bulwark in a display of her strength. A hushed, reverential silence descends on our group, but Wu remains steady and unimpressed.

"And just why not?" Wu quips, his voice serious but nevertheless bearing an undertone of contempt toward Amanda.

"If you know about the Saint, then you know who you stand before." Amanda demands, her voice rising majestically, demanding obedience.

"The seven times blessed!" Nock steps up as well and bangs her fist against her bulwark's torso in salute. The rest of the troops follow suit and the noise carries high to the heavens where the divines reside.

"Six times." Wu rebuts disinterestedly, more preoccupied with eyeing the trucks carrying the civilians, "Your leader is just six times blessed."

"You dare!" Nock snaps and raises her sword threateningly.

"Hm? Yes, yes I do dare." Wu dismisses Nock mildly, "Your leader might be able to fool rubes like you, but I am far better informed. Six times. That's the maximum number of Divines who could have blessed your leader."

"How did he find out?" Nock hisses to me over our private channel, panic clear from her voice, "We told no one, didn't we?"

What did I say about talking behind my back? Wu starts speaking in earth again, but there's a clear trace of menace in his voice this time.

"If you know this much, then you know we cannot give our daughter up." I answer Wu directly now, trying to divert his attention from a clearly rattled Amanda.

Why not? You can always have another daughter. Hardly impossible or difficult. Wu shrugs without a trace of sympathy.

"My daughter is a gift from the Divines." Amanda rallies and shoots back, "I would never give her away for anything."

"Is that all she is?" Wu laughs as he insinuates. Amanda and I fall silent, unable to answer him. No, we know the answer, but if we said it out loud, than everything would be lost.

Everything.

"Faith can be such a fragile thing." Wu muses, "All it takes is for a formerly unchallenged truth to be discredited and -"

"That's enough." I grit out before Wu can carry on speaking, "You have our answer already."

"I see." Wu hums, "Did you know that I was a teacher back home?"

"I would never have guessed." I remark sourly, "Teaching has nothing in common with what you're doing now."

"Oh, that's where you're wrong. It has everything to do with what is going on right now." Wu demurs, "You see, I taught my students based on the three cardinal principles."

"The three what?" Nock mutters, "If you want to fight, let's start fighting."

"The first principle." Wu continues ignoring Nock, "If the student does not know, the teacher must teach. You did not know the consequences of opposing me, so I taught you that lesson just now."

"A cowardly ambush." Amanda snaps, drawing her own weapon, a divinely imbued claymore, "You will fall here if you keep pushing your luck."

"The second principle." Wu notes, completely unconcerned by the bulwarks starting to draw closer to him, "If the student cannot do, the teacher must help. You do not wish to die here. I understand that. That's why I offered all of you a way out."

"No, you were never a teacher," I scream in alarm as I recognize the three cardinal principles, "You were a camp commandant!"

"The third principle." Wu says and begins unspooling the chains he uses as weapons, "If the student refuses to obey, then the teacher must force!"

And with lightning fast speed, Wu sends the chains whipping out right at Amanda before any of us can react. The chains slice deep and as Amanda is sent flying away from the impact, I hear her painful scream over the coms.

"Get him!" Nock roars, but the chains slash across our ranks, tearing a long furrow in her bulwark's armor, causing her to stumble backward in alarm.

Wu cracks his chains like a whip on the ground, drawing up clouds of dirt. His voice is as level and polite as ever, without a single trace of blood lust or malice. Then I realize why in a flash of understanding. Wu takes no pleasure in hurting us because he doesn't see us as people. We are beneath his notice, nothing more than slaves of gods that he has no respect for. Slaves that refused their chance at freedom.

To Wu, this is just taking out the trash. Nothing more, nothing less.

"Now, let the final lesson commence."