***

--- Inside Gummus’s Palace, Ticaret, Ticaret Conglomerate ---

Date: August 3rd, 2026

The building shook from a massive explosion from outside. The torches shook, some falling to the ground and catching the rugs on fire.

From the conversation on the radio, Malena concluded that the Rangers and the Legrath Knights were facing the Apostle. It even sounded like there was a traitor, but the details were fuzzy.

“Looks like they are in for one hell of a fight,” Malena commented after listening to the radio chat.

“By Deldort’s vow! What is going on out there?!” Tyuwal asked in a panicked voice, flinching at every explosion, sound, and vibration. “I have been to the Cin Sedi Wall before and witnessed several battles before, but the only times it was this chaotic was when the Empire attempted a large push with bands of ogres and wyverns!”

“Yeah, you will get used to it.” Malena simply replied right after a sigh.

Operating around a war zone for a better part of a year, the loud explosions had become a norm. Looking toward the blue Siren and her fellow prostitutes, she noticed they were covering their ears and looking around with a confused fear in their eyes.

Glancing toward Aldon, she saw they both found the sight amusing, realizing how normalized the Other Worlders weapons had become to them.

She and Aldon took out their bags and grabbed their weapons and gear. After finishing donning their kevlar armors, weapons, and comms, they rushed toward their objective.

"We need to find our target fast," Malena said. "Tyuuwal, where would he be located?"

"Someone…" The building shook again, scaring Tyuuwal as she tried to regain her footing. "Someone like him would be in a special chamber, not in a dungeon. If I recall, he is one more floor above, close to the master chamber."

"Alright," Malena said. "It will be best if you all flee now while you can. Once we find him, it could be a bloody fight all the way out. If you leave now, they will not expect you to work with us."

"No," Tyuuwal said. "Everyone else should go but I want to see this through. In case you get lost, I have been in this place enough times to help with an easy escape."

Slightly annoyed by the blue siren’s disobedience, Malena, however, accepted her proposal as the logic made sense. She was just not pleased by having to protect a noncombatant. "Fine, stay by Aldon."

"Why him?"

Aldon laughed and then said, "Because, she is about to put her legs to work."

Shooting the elf a deep glare, she pulled out her twin Kukri blades and looked toward the stairway down the hall. She slowly crouched then, waiting for her opening.

Seeing two guards recently come down, she charged forward. Using her bunny agility of her race to jump between two walls to bypass them, slicing them apart as she passed them.

Once landing on the ground, Malena hopped forward up the stairs, bouncing off the wall to increase her speed.

Seeing another guard at the top of the stairway, Malena speedily cut through him, slicing his head off.

Hearing the sound of armor and steel clashing against each other and the voices of guards acknowledging her, she turned to see five well-armored soldiers standing by a well-decorated door.

With all the chaos going on outside, Malena figured that door must be the objective because of all the commotion outside. It had to be something worth guarding.

"Hey boys. What are you hiding in there?" She intentionally said, making sure the soldiers had their full focus on her, she sprinted as fast as she could toward them.

Two of the guards held their positions as the remaining charged at her.

Noticing that the ceiling was lower and wouldn’t be able to jump over them, Malena increased her speed. As she got close, she slid on the ground, cutting one of the soldier's legs as she passed.

Quickly getting into her combat stance, Malena realized she was surrounded by the remaining four.

"By the gods," one of the men said. "A Warrior Bunny. I never thought my eyes would ever lay eyes on one."

"Then I am honored to be the last thing you will ever see," Malena said to the four men: two humans, an elf, and a dwarf as they laughed.

"I know of your kind’s reputation," The same man said. "But even you cannot defeat all four of us."

With a smirk, Malena responded, "You are correct. If it was only three of you I could easily cut you all down but four…"

Staring at the man, an arrow suddenly went through his neck. As he fell, the guards turned to see Aldon standing behind, bow in hand.

"I guess there are only three of you now,” Malena said before the men could react. She pierced two of them in the neck before bringing her blades together to remove the head of the third man. They stood in shock before slowly beginning to fall to the ground.

Blood soaked the floor, freaking out Tyuuwal as she held onto the elf while she tried to tiptoe around the pool.

Noting how humorous the blue siren was acting with Albon, Malena took the keys from the dwarf’s corpse and approached the stylized door. "Alright. As the Terrans say, ‘moment of truth.’ "

Malena opened the door and the two stormed inside.

The stench of blood quickly made its way into their nostrils as Tyuuwal covered her nose, trying her best not to puke. The room was devoid of any of the stylized designs that the door held. It was nearly empty, the only thing inside was an odd shape in the center. Upon closer inspection, they noticed a naked man chained on the ground.

With a quick look, Malena saw at least six chains keeping this man on his knees. She has seen people chained before but to this scale just for a man was overkill. However, judging from his fearsome reputation as an unbeatable gladiator, this kind of measure was necessary.

Ordering Tyuuwal to find some clothes as Albon covered the door, Malena rushed over to him.

"Who is there?" The man mumbled. The voice was crackled, desperate for water.

Unlocking the chain around his neck, she quickly looked at the face. To her pleasure, it was their objective, Krysist.

"General, we came to save you," Malena said.

"Then you must be with the Other Worlders," Krysist struggled to comment. "I will never forget the sounds of their weapons."

"They really do like to be noisy," Malena replied. "I am with Vanguard-7. We came just for you, forsaken one. Now, let me get the rest of these chains off."

Seeing the confused but pleased look on Krysist's face, Malena began unlocking all the chains. Once she looked over, she noticed that his lower right arm was missing. She had seen enough dismembered limbs to know this was done by a sword.

After unlocking all the chains, she helped Krysist up. Tyuuwal rushed over and covered him in a red moon pattern high-quality tunic.

"If what you said is true then why is Sharpe not here?" Krysist asked. "Who are you?

"I am Malena, acting leader of what’s left of the Dark Blades, the Clanless," Malena replied. "You’ve met my late master before, Atilius. As well as Aldon here a year ago(1), after the Americans first bombed the city.

"I recall those names," Krysist said. He looked toward her, squinting his eyes as he tried to analyze her. "You look like a bunny?"

Confused by the question, Malena looked closely at his eyes and noticed something strange. "I am. Tell me, what do you see?"

With much hesitation, Krysist responded, "Everything is blurry."

“Hold still,” Malena said while reaching into her side pouch and taking out a small device. A small click could be heard as a bright light pierced his eyes. “Hold still. Ahhh, I know this herb. The damage doesn’t seem to be too bad. Luckily, it doesn’t seem to look permanent but we have to remove that quickly.”

With a million questions filling her mind, Malena began putting her mini flashlight away as she heard Albon state that they needed to go.

Wrapping his arm around her shoulder, the group headed out. As planned, Tyuuwal showed them the way out.

“Vanguard-7. This is Clanless-4. VIP has been secured and we are on our way for extraction,” Aldon said through the hidden comm.

--- Outside Gummus’s Palace, Ticaret, Ticaret Conglomerate ---

Even with the bombing run and constant firepower from the Vanguard-7, the Ticaret force, still undeterred, started amassing a siege at the Gummus palace. Vanguard-7 and the Legarth Knights were soon caught in a perilous situation as they were now sandwiched between them and Gummus’s army. As they could not get close to the positions of their enemies without massive casualties, the Ticaret force started bombarding the Rangers and Legarth knight's positions. Magic, arrows and siege weapons, pinned them down so their forces could make a breakthrough through the line of fire.

"Permission to kill the traitor, sir?" Andrew asked as he aimed his designated marksman rifle at Azariah Galen’s head.

"Not yet," Sharpe said. "Keep an eye on her though."

For hours the city defenders tried to storm up the long stairway to the palace with long-range support from archers, mages and siege engines. Piles of bodies lay on the sandy stone, preventing further assaults. With the bodies acting as a natural barrier, most of the Rangers turned their focus to the Gummus warriors behind them.

Randy approached and pointed out, "It seems they stopped charging at our positions and limited themselves to long-range attacks. However, It will only be a matter of time until they find another way here when we run out of bullets."

"Hopefully our insurance comes through," Sharpe said. "But even if it does, I don't know how we will be able to withdraw with those Apostles fighting."

Seeing the three Apostles and Djinn fight, Sharpe realized that another could be hidden, like in Rondel. Mabel’s surprise attack in Rondel(2) caught everyone off guard so he assumed there was a good chance she might be here to spread whatever agenda she might have. Based on Martimus' eyes, he realized he had been brainwashed like the other Apostles.

“Yao! Have you spotted Mabel yet?” Sharpe asked his spotter who was sniping at the enemy forces.

“No sir, she is nowhere to be found and I cannot sense her mana signature either,” Yao replied.

“Dammit! The last thing we need is another Apostle attacking us from out of nowhere!” Sharpe cursed.

“Mabel was here but I don’t think she is anymore,” Rory replied through the comm.

“What do you mean?” Sharpe asked.

“Much like Yao, both Frayen and I cannot sense her presence either but more importantly if she were here, she would have attacked us with Martimus already,” Rory replied.

“Thank god! Keep Martimus away from us or subdue him. And get rid of that Djinn,” Sharpe ordered.

“Looks like our plan will be more difficult than we planned,” Atlin stated. “If we do not convince Martimus to stop the war, we could face the full populus of this city.”

“So there is no way we can make him break the contract?” Sharpe asked in a worrying tone.

“I think we can,” Frayen replied

“How?” Sharpe and Rory asked

“From what I have sensed, Martimus has just been recently brainwashed, unlike Jasis and Envira. Therefore, I can try to remove the spell cast on him so we can reason with him but first, we need to subdue him first,” Frayen stated as he fought Mors Efreet.

“Ok, do it,” Sharpe stated.

Alicia rushed over and said, "Sir, Malena just reported in, they found the objective and are heading to the rally point."

“Roger, tell 3rd Recon to come here and provide a path out of here,” Sharpe then looked to his mortar team and said, “Let's finish up here. Chapman, fire flare.”

Specialist Daniel Chapman looked toward his superior with a confused look and asked, “Sir? It is daytime and for what?”

“To signal the Seckin Sanctum,” Sharpe answered.

“What do you mean?” Chapman asked

“Just do it,” Sharpe ordered.

As the flare fired, Sharpe thought back to the briefing with everyone. The Seckin Sanctum leader, Azariah Galen, wanted to speak with him in private.

The Dark-Elf liked Sharpe’s plan but believed it would fail. Galen stated that she thought it relied too much on the enemy doing what he wanted and once they adapted, his force and Altin’s would be overrun. There were just too many to repel.

So, Galen wanted to tip off the enemy. As the leader of the Seckin Sanctum, her leadership in internal security would allow her to influence the other Houses' reaction so that it would allow them to maximize the damage while giving free rein to his warriors to position themselves accordingly. This way he could capitalize on the enemy's confusion and loyalty.

While Sharpe agreed with the idea, seeing no choice but to trust Galen by that point. Still, as a rule, it was not wise to inform the enemy about what was happening.

Looking around the buildings that towered over everything, Sharpe wondered where the Seckin Sanctum warriors were. Up to this point, they had seen none in the battle, and while Azariah Galen was spotted leading the enemy, the tactics seemed to be assisting his Rangers. Small, easy-to-spot waves up a funnel stairway. Easy to be picked up and bunched together enough to maximize their CAS from their B1 bomber that's on overwatch.

Yao said they saw people at the windows, freaking out many of his people and allies. Looking up, Sharpe saw archers, dozens of them.

The archers fired into the incoming soldiers while other warriors broke out of the nearby builds and engulfed the enemy warriors, slaughtering them.

Walking over to the cliff, many rangers looked down as they watched the slaughter. Many young men who thought they were allied with the Seckin Sanctum now betrayed them.

“That is brutal,” Scott said.

“What is going on here? I thought that bitch betrayed us,” Andrew said in confusion

Sharpe then briefly explained to everyone about Azariah Galen’s idea. That he intently sold everyone out to doublecross the city’s armies and the other Houses.

“So she was our Trojan Horse all along,” Andrew commented. “I have to say this plan is ingenious, especially the fact that in order to fool the enemy you must fool your allies first.”

“Especially so if she's willing to betray her own people so quickly,” Jerry added. “I don’t know if I could have done that.”

“Never underestimate a fiery woman, guys,” Sofia replied.

“I know we are the beneficiary of this betrayal however, this is not sitting well for me,” Jerry commented.

“Well look at the bright side,” Sharpe said. “At least she manipulated the enemy force to get into a favorable position for us to bomb them to kingdom come.”

Looking to Jerry and then looking back to the Seckin Sanctum now executing the survivors. A part of him agreed with Jerry, that something unethical or unhonorable just happened, spoiling their victory. However, he knows this is war and is not in the position to debate the ethics of war. “Let's go.”

---

Rory dodged another swing from Martimus’ mace, using her agility to stay on the defensive. She tried to attack him but he channeled his magic through his mace and swung at her halberd, causing her to be blown away with a magic wave and slammed through a wall.

“Frayen, anytime now?” Rory asked as she pulled herself off the destroyed wall.

“Hold him off a little bit longer until Beluutie and I can get rid of Mors Efreet,” Frayen stated as he generates a shield to protect himself against the Djinn’s spear strike.

Seeing the mace coming from the right, Rory spun her halberd and then used the momentum to block the strike, holding it back.

Martimus moved his mace back, grabbed Rory’s halberd, and then lifted her up. She, however, used her weapon to spin, kicking his head, and pushing him back.

Once landing on the ground, Rory looked back over at Frayen to see how he was doing.

He just stood in one spot, eyeing his surroundings. The Djinn had duplicates of herself scattered everywhere, surrounding the Dark-Elf and the Pink Siren. Seven of the shadows went in for the kill, six of the shadows evaporated when they got close to him as he dispersed the illusion with a massive magic wave from all directions. With all the shadows gone, both he and Beluutie magically blasted a huge gust of wind toward the real Mors Efreet, causing her to be blown backward

“I have studied from the Library of Elaish that Djinns of Smoke Element, like you, rely on illusional replicas to attack the enemy from all directions. You seek to cause confusion and conceal a covert attack from behind a direct one, usually from a blind spot,” Frayen said. “Dispersing each one of the illusion replicas is not efficient as you can just summon more, but by unleashing a massive magic wave of illusion-dispersing spell at all directions, I can take down all your illusion replicas all at once. Detecting you and immediately attacking afterward is child's play. So give it up, your trickery has no effect on me. Go back to your theater and leave us be.”

“I shall not” Mors Efreet, frustratedly retorted. “Because you think you are an Apostle, that means you can defeat me so easily. You might be able to see through my technique but my kins have repelled Taylin and Rory’s Empire for centuries. As long as my kind and I live, the Other Worlders will never lay hands on the Ticaret, and those traitors that side with them will be purged. Darkness shall not reign over the Western Desert.”

“Darkness already reigns over the Western Desert within the ignorance in those heads of your kind,” Beluutie mocked as she knew there was no point in reasoning with the ignorant Djinns who knew nothing of the outside world of the Western Desert.

The enraged Djinn then summoned seven illusion replicas to prepare to attack them again but this time she, and her clones started flying around in circles to confuse both Frayen and Beluutie. The seven clones then attacked all at once but were easily dispersed by Frayen as a spear was thrown at him from a distance but he quickly used his phantom magic to faze through it.

“Using your clones as a smoke screen to hide your long-ranged attack, huh? This time we will end this,” Frayen signaled Beluute to finish the fight once and for all.

As the Djinn dashed to recover her spear, Frayen generated an air sphere and launched it at Mors Efreet, and successfully trapped her in it.

“Finish her!” Frayen shouted to Beluute as she charged her wind magic and compressed it.

“Time to apply my science lesson to my wind magic! Compressed Air Cannon!” Beluute stated as she blasted a powerful air blast at the air sphere that held Efreet.

The rotating air from the sphere and huge Air Blast caused the Djinn to scream in agony as she was quickly dispersed into nothingness, leaving behind only her armor and some accessories.

Frayen then drew his attention to Martimus and rushed to restrain him.

Martimus knew what the dark elf was up to. As Frayen prepared, he charged toward him, causing Frayen to put up his shield to defend himself. But the impact of the magically-enhanced mace launched Frayen through the same wall where Rory was.

Beluute then unleashed her Air Cannon Spell to stun him long enough for Rory to flank him in order to immobilize him.

Martimus charged with his mace and slammed the tip of it into the ground, shattering it. The ground collapsed, plunging him, Rory, and Beluutie to the lower ground.

Rory landed on the ground with ease, being an Apostle this distant would have no real effect. However, she saw the Legrath Knight land on the ground hard, now vulnerable against Martimus. She rushed over and blocked his mace with her halberd, now stuck in a strength contest.

In battle, Rory has always relied on her speed and agility to fight, avoiding a contest of strength when an opponent is stronger than her, which is rare. Martimus, being one of the few Apostles that is physically stronger than she realized that she is in a bind.

While it seemed that Martimus would overwhelm her, Rory got a quick idea. She went for her Glock 17 sidearm that Sharpe had given(3) her for emergencies. She reached under her skirt with her right hand and shot at Martimus’s leg. Gaining some freedom, she unloaded the magazine into Martimus’s eyes, temporarily blinding him and causing him to drop his weapon in pain.

“Frayen! It is now or never! Release him from the Blood Sword Diva’s influence,” Rory yelled at Frayen while she restrained Martimus with all her strength so he could not move.

Frayen jumped at the scene and quickly placed both his hands on Martimus’s head and concentrated his magic to disperse the brainwashing. As both Martimus’s eyes were regenerating, he could see that the red eyes had gone and returned to the natural green eyes of the Apostle of Deldort before he fainted.

“There, he has been successfully released from the brainwashing. Now we can reason with him. We can start by-,” Frayen said but was interrupted by a radio call.

“The Clanless need assistance. The palace guards are surrounding their position. You talk to him while I go to help them,” Frayen said as he dashed to the Clanless’ position, not asking for permission.

After Frayen left, Martimus awoke from the effect of the spell and Rory approached him.

“What happened?” Martimus asked.

“Martimus, you had been brainwashed by Mabel for quite a while. However, there is something I want to discuss with you about…,” Rory stopped suddenly as Martimus grabbed his mace and swung at her, forcing her to dodge his attack.

“What the fuck?” Rory yelled.

“I know why you're here, Rory. You and the Other Worlders are gonna bring down the Ticaret and I am gonna stop you all,” Martmus then goes for another attack.

“Shit! You are still brainwashed,” Rory stated as she dodged his attack.

“I am no longer under Mabel's control, Rory. The reason for my brainwashing was that Mabel was afraid you were going to sway me to side with the Other Worlders as well as the traitors, Atlin and Tozuko, so she forcefully brainwashed me as insurance. While both she and I agree that NATO must be stopped, that wretch lacked any faith in me to properly defend this realm and thought that I would be easily swayed by you and your Other World patrons to plunge this realm into darkness. I will show her that I can defend the Ticaret and take down the menace of the Other Worlders,” Martimus declared.

“Look Martimus!” Rory said. “We need your help to stop this war. Even you must see this is different.”

“Silent Rory,” Martimus replied. “I know your agenda all too well and I have no interest in it. You and your lover Taylin brought darkness to these lands when you formed the Empire. Now you are gonna do the same to this land with the Terrans”

“That was a different time-.”

“And this time is not different? What makes you think the Terrans are not going to turn out like another Empire? You and Taylin do not have the best of record in dealing with mortals.”

“And is that why you are being such an asshole right now?” Rory said. “Look, the Terrans, while far from perfect, are far more developed than any civilizations of this world ideologically, philosophically, and socially. With my guidance, I will make sure that there will be no Empire to emerge ever again. Please have faith in these people, they have outgrown far beyond everything in this world without a single Apostle to even guide them throughout centuries in their world. Even I have to learn a lot from them. Please listen to me for the sake of your homeland, your people, and the worshipers of Deldort.”

“All a man has is his word and a contract must never be broken,” Martimus said. “I will not make the mistake again.”

“Nope, now you are making the one me and Taylin made,” Rory angrily responded.

Standing on top of Martimus body, she rams the end point of her halberd straight through his back in an attempt to keep him fixed to the ground.

“Listen Martimus,” Rory said. “We need your help stopping this war. Whatever reason these people had to go to war no longer applies. We all are at risk.”

Hearing footsteps, Rory looked up. She saw the half-elf, Altin with Sharpe, and the Seckin Sanctum leader, Azariah Galen. She noticed that Martimus stopped struggling to stare at the group.

“Galen, what is the meaning of this?” Martimus demanded. “Have you been conspiring with them all along?”

“That is true,” Galen said. “I do not know the business you once had but this is important. Falson...”

Falson Altin approached and then stood, staring down at Martimus. “Please note. I have nothing but deep respect for you Martimus. Our following of Deldort is why our beautiful homeland remains united and strong.”

“United,” Martimus said after spitting on the ground. He then groaned as Rory twisted her halberd. “You have betrayed your god to pursue your own agenda.”

“Not at all,” Altin replied. “You must understand, everything I have done has been to protect everything we have built. We were lied to so we could be dragged into a lost war by the Empire. The other Houses voted for war not because it was in the best interests of Ticaret.”

“He is correct,” Galen said. “The war is a farce.”

“It is true,” Altin said. “With that, we have proof that the other Houses have already broken our agreement, which by law means they have betrayed Ticaret and Deldort will.”

As the three-spoke, Rory looked down and saw that Martimus had calmed down. Removing her halberd from his back, he suddenly reached around and grabbed her leg, tossing her off.

Not knowing what just happened, Rory regrouped herself. To her horror, she witnessed Martimus holding Falson Altin by the throat with one hand, lifting him two feet in the air.

Everyone reacted, Beluutie grabbing the Seckin Sanctum leader to safety as everyone took a step back. Rory saw the fear in everyone's eyes, fully knowing the threat of an Apostle.

Even Rory, knowing if she made a move, Altin's neck would be snapped.

"Do not do it Martimus," Altin said. "I just want my people to live. All of us."

Martimus just stared at Altin. "You have always been an honorable man, Falson. How could you be fooled so easily?"

"Not a fool," Sharpe said. "He is a patriot."

"Martimus," Galen said. "His opposition to this war has always been public. However, he has always been loyal. We came to learn that many of our Houses and Oprichnina have betrayed us on the battlefield."

"And you blindly trust these Other Worlder's words?” Martimus asked.

There was a short hesitation as Atlin struggled to speak. He finally said, “Of course not. They have proof. Gagnog Sand Shield…”

“Sand Shield…,” Martimus mumbled and slowly set Altin down.

Seeing an opportunity to strike, Rory burst forward, not willing to let her guard down a second time.

“Rory!”

Hearing Sharpe yell her name, Rory stopped. Her blade stopped right against Martimus' head. Staring at her opponent's eyes, she only prayed that Sharpe was correct not to finish him when they could.

Sharpe placed his hand on Rory's shoulder, getting between the two. “If you give us time, I can prove it. We learned that Gagnog Sand Shield forged an alliance with the Oprichnina and led a coup against the Imperial Army and Seckin Sanctum. Back in Elies, we have a force rescuing them right now.”

Rory knew what Sharpe said was partly a lie. While it is true Pina was rescuing Fabius, she recalled that finding the Seckin Sanctum commander was a secondary objective. Being mostly out of contact with the rest of the world right now, there is no way they could confirm how Pina's mission went so for all he knows, Pina was rescuing a corpse.

“I will hold you to that, Other Worlder,” Martimus said. He then looked to Altin. “However, I will not fight a civil war for you, nor support anyone who wants to form a dictatorship.”

“I did not expect you to assist,” Altin said. “And, I promise I will not create a dictatorship. I just want the war to end and replace those houses that are using the war to self-profit with new ones. I do not want to be King.”

“I see,” Martimus commented. “I will free you from the bonds of the Declaration of War; however, before you can continue I expect a new covenant to be forged.”

Listening to the three talked about the future of the Ticaret, Rory looked to Sharpe. “I guess our work is done.”

“Yes, it seems so,” Sharpe said. “We should get out of here.”