Gustav as it turned out, had no intention of waiting until dawn to start sending bad information out, he started using them that night, sending out information that Kedyn's army was concentrating itself on the East gate and had pulled back into the western one. He sent signals that the city was short of water and thirsty, as well as that it was short of food and hungry. When Ulthis drew his unit back into the city, he sent them immediately to rest, the people worked in shifts, with untrained peasants on the walls whose only job was to observe the enemy while the soldiers slept, in this the city had the advantage, their soldiers had only to fight, while they had thousands of citizens who could tend every task from boiling water to preparing food, neither of which was actually short. Soldiers slept on the walls or on the ground up against them, there wasn't a single warrior who was not coated with blood and sweat and wishing for a hot bath.

This was the scene that Cercei saw as she moved through the city, far from being disturbed by her blood soaked appearance as she moved from soldier to soldier, offering words of encouragement, or visiting the wounded, her bloody frame was an inspiring sight. The death of Rava who was so young, had been used to hurt the city's unity, it had made the noble couple into a household name almost immediately, the large reward Yamoc had offered had done nothing to still the talk, and Yamoc's speech along the wall, his sudden death, and his final words, carried from man to man in hushed whispers of awe at his courage in the face of death, had given him immortal fame among the defenders. Cercei's time visiting the soldiers who had been wounded, without distinguishing between Black Justice and follower of the old religion, had seen her popularity skyrocket over the course of the evening as one man spoke to another, and he spoke to two more, so the positive sentiment was carried, and her reputation for fortitude and stoicism despite having lost her entire family in such a short span of time, made her an inspiring figure.

Blue Rose at last had the breathing room to eat and to sleep, and they did both eagerly, little time was reserved for conversation as they laid themselves down into their respective bedrolls after a meal of fairly decent stew and fresh made bread.

Ulthis approached Gustav from the signal position when most of the city was asleep. "What happens tomorrow?" He asked.

"Tomorrow we finish this. We now control the flow of information, they're basically under my command now, and I will be a poor general to them." Gustav laughed at the humor, and then continued, "I will get them to concentrate their arrow fire on one part of the wall, and I will report mass casualties. I will have them send their angels 'pursuing' people who have 'fled' the wall, who are not there at all and deprive them of their angel cover, and I will see them climb the wall where it is weakest, and when in fact that is where we are strongest. Yesterday we danced to their tune and survived by luck. Today we win." He said firmly.

"Have you seen the casualty reports?" Ulthis asked.

Gustav gave a nod, "We suffered about twenty percent casualties yesterday, we ran out of healing potions, and I'm guessing every priest capable of healing ran out of mana."

"That is about the size of it." Ulthis said, "I healed as many as I could, but it will take time before I can do so again. In the meantime I used what knowledge I acquired in my training as a priest to help treat the wounded so they could recover naturally...but that won't do any good if we're overthrown tomorrow...so I have to ask, what do you think they suffered?" He asked.

"Hard to say." Gustav said and stroked his chin in thought. "We've got hundreds of their dead inside the walls, and more are outside, at a guess between the raids, the traps I heard about, and so on, they've lost somewhere between one and two thousand lives."

"So we could still lose here." Ulthis said grimly.

"Maybe." Gustav said, "But our odds are very good, and remember, we do not have to win, we just have to not lose."

"What?" Ulthis asked in confusion.

"Victory for us doesn't mean we crush them, it just means we survive and they fail to take the city, if we inflict enough casualties, they will be forced to retreat because the city can no longer be taken. Since they think we're now short of food and water, they may try to delay the fight tomorrow, to make us anxious with thirst. I want that delay, fighting in short bursts along the wall works for us, not for them, they need to go deep into the woods to forage for supplies, I intend to turn the tables on them and make that a dangerous exercise. It will be late in the day by the time they realize they're going to be short of food and water as well, and then they'll have to take this city in one shot or retreat immediately."

"You're...good at this." Ulthis said, impressed.

"I am commander of the paladin order, I should be good at this." Gustav replied sardonically.

When morning came, the army beyond the walls was a tired one, the raid had forced them to keep many of their men awake to keep watch for further action, but contrary to the expectations of those on the wall, the enemy did not attack when the sun broke the horizon. Instead, they simply formed up and waited. As they stood arrayed against it, Gustav went out into the city and called for volunteers, he was quickly swarmed by people eager to do what they could to keep the enemy from their homes.

"I need for you to create something for me, and I need it quickly." As he relayed his instructions, they began to understand, and an impromptu assembly line formed of people carrying straw and wood, people binding materials, people painting flesh colors on the visible areas, and people dressing the false figures in the armor of the dead. Within two hours, there were hundreds of them. Gustav then ordered them taken and 'walked' on to the wall, while the real people acted as if they were being relieved. From the enemy force's distance, all it seemed to them to be was a shift change, with a much more substantial daytime force than a night time one.

As that happened, Gustav returned to the signal tower, and indicated that arrow fire should be concentrated on one segment of the wall, where most of these dummy soldiers were concentrated. "It's payback time you sons of bitches." He said softly to himself.

When Blue Rose got up, they were feeling shockingly positive, given their circumstances. "What's the plan for the day boss?" Gagaran asked Lakyus with her oafish happy grin.

"I want you where you are, but Tia and Tina I want you to do something different. I want you hunting in those woods, pick off stragglers, pick off foragers, take out anything that walks on two legs, because if it is not in here, it is not on our side. Evileye you're with me again."

"Right!" the universal answer came out, then Gagaran and the twins took off to their respective tasks.

Hours came and went, and in late afternoon, with only a few hours of daylight remaining, the raiders Gustav had dispatched and the work of Tia and Tina had become noticed. For that mission Gustav had chosen the formerly imprisoned hunters and trappers, the prey had become predators, and those woods were their homes. The force beyond the wall made ready to move, and Gustav himself returned to the signal tower, he watched as hundreds of arrows fell on the dummy soldiers, and they began to fall over from the force of the impact, it appeared to be a devastating blow, and the enemy cheered and began to march. Gustav 'reported' mass casualties in that area, and then reported soldiers moving to the Eastern gate, forcing the foe to deploy soldiers to prevent their forces from being flanked. That single false signal had effectively removed five hundred men from the fight. He then sent a signal reporting that numbers of soldiers had fled the base of the wall with their spirits broken, and they were fleeing towards the center of the city. A number of summoned angels were dispatched to deal with them, but there were fewer angels today than the previous day, the high mana expenditure had taken its toll, and they were weakened. By contrast...

Gustav let out a vicious smile, his own forces had expended most of their mana days ago defending against the interference on their march to Kedyn, so now, today, most of their mana had been restored, the imbalance in angels had swung the other way. When almost a third of those angels that the foe had summoned darted over the walls and into the interior, the imbalance was worse. He sent a signal indicating that the center was weakly manned. He looked down at Gagaran's bulky frame from where he stood, funneling a few men at a time directly into the path of an adamantite ranked adventurer was almost too cruel...almost.

The arrows continued to rain down until very few of the dummies remained, and in standard paladin siege tactics, they rushed with ladders to mount in both places. However not only did the angels give scant cover now with their reduced numbers, but the city defenders summoned angels of their own and rendered them impotent, while also using their superior numbers to harass the men trying to mount the wall, and forcing the advancing force to expend arrows and magic and even lives to fend them off.

Lakyus waited beside Evileye until the arrow storm had passed, and she said to the common soldiers, Black Justice members, paladins, and red paladins that were near to them, "They're coming now, those renegades, coming to kill you, take your homes, and do gods alone know what to your wives and children, your elderly and your sick, your neighbors, your friends, your businesses, and they are not too weak to do it. But You have something they don't have! You have something to fight for, and that makes you more powerful than they could ever be! Now follow me and finish this!" She held up the demon sword, and turned to the steps that would carry them up the wall where dummy soldiers 'died'.

Evileye and Lakyus led the rapid ascent and waited at the top, the arrow storm had stopped, but their own was just beginning, the now refreshed soldiers of Kedyn loosed arrows at the defending ranks, dropping men here and there, and another went to fill the ranks. In some small way, both Evileye and Lakyus pitied them, they were trying to raise ladders in a position defended by two adamantite ranked adventurers, it wasn't a situation she would have wanted if their places were switched. And when the ladders hit the wall and the soldiers started to climb, it yielded about the results you would expect.

The demon sword cut through armor like scissors through paper, and Evileye seemed to be toying with lives like a cat with a wounded mouse. She used reverse gravity on a group carrying a ladder, raising them several times higher than the wall, then cancelled the spell and letting them drop onto their comrades, killing the ones who fell and injuring the ones who 'caught' them. Her shard buck shot cut through limbs and her crystal dagger killed twenty men by severing their heads before the energy in it was expended. Her acid splash hit a ladder and its carriers sending men screaming to their knees clutching limbs that melted before their eyes, and incidentally ruined the ladders, keeping the uninjured down on the ground below and reducing the pressure on the wall's defenders.

Gagaran's fel iron was rising and falling like a miner's pick ax, only if she were mining for anything, it seemed to be for brains. Nor did the defenders spirits break or even wane, red paladins and white alike on the same side covered flanks and exacted a heavy toll for every inch of ground. Whatever had been said to the ranks of their enemies had clearly been inspiring, because the soldiers who made it to the top fought with desperate courage. Ulthis and Cercei had apparently considered this an opportunity, as near as Gustav could tell, because they gathered several hundred people held in reserve, and massed them near the western gate, Gustav decided to give them a hand and signalled to the enemy ranks that another thousand were preparing to march out the east gate, forcing the enemy to pull hundreds more to prevent a charge that would never come. The gate opened in the west, and out went Ulthis and Cercei. Gustav idly pictured whoever the commander over there was, wondering why no one had signaled the departure of another column, and concluding all to late that his system had been compromised.

The charge was swift and brutal, as men on foot and on horses smashed into the long lines of people waiting to ascend the ladders, the fierce strength of vampires making the moment of penetration much, much easier, the disciplined ranks became chaotic, and the chaotic ranks became panicked.

When Tia and Tina had begun the harrowing of the wood, they'd had great success, the trappers and hunters were confident in their home ground and eager for revenge against their captors, and through most of the morning they managed their work without incident, as the hours passed though, whoever their enemy was, he or she had clearly realized that their foraging parties were not coming back, thus putting urgency on the conflict's quick resolution. When they hadn't spotted another foraging party for awhile, Tia looked to Tina and said, "They know there's a problem."

"Agreed." Tina replied. "Gather the others?"

Tia nodded somberly, "Easier to hunt them when they're nice and lined up and have their backs to us."

Gathering up the two hundred hunters and trappers proved easy, through the use of bird calls, the message was relayed throughout the relatively small area of the forest in a short span of time. Of course gathering them together took longer than letting them know it needed to be done, and by then the battle was in full swing. Tia and Tina were assassins, not used to commanding groups of people, go in, kill, get out, that was the meat in their stew of talent. However it did not take a great general to know that archers needed to be lined up, or to be made ready to shoot, and they did that well enough.

"We wait for now." Tia said to the gathered men.

"Till the best chance." Tina finished. The eerie connectedness of their thoughts and their general lack of emotion sent shivers down the backs of the peasants, but they listened to the two dangerous women, and that was all the twins needed for now.

They held back, in bowshot from concealment, behind the lines of the advancing force. They simply waited for hours, and watched as the attack commenced. Even to the calm and collected twins, it felt strange to see the battle from the other side, the large men and women so close, turning to dots and shrinking as they went farther away, climbing a ladder only to fall to their death, the people scurrying among the enemy lines conveying information, ammunition, or moving up to replace the fallen. Today had not gone as well for them as the previous day, that much was clear.

Then Tia and Tina saw the surprise attack, Ulthis and Cercei moving full tilt into the thin lines that were unprepared to receive a charge. Organization fell apart, and the twins shared a look and a nod and not a word between one another.

"Draw." Tia said.

"And loose." Tina finished.

The hunters and trappers pulled taut their bows, bows meant to give an arrow enough force to bring down bears, arrows meant to pierce thick leather hides and deep fur, were loosed at the mostly lightly protected backs of their former captors, and two hundred arrows fell like a steel rain on ranks already driven to chaos by seeing the sudden attack. Arrows were launched in earnest as the vengeful band chose to expend their quivers in full, and Tia and Tina chose that moment to run to different parts of the line and scream out in panic...

"Oh no! Its an ambush, we're doomed! Retreat! Retreat! They're beside us, they're behind us, escape!" And the panic they created, spread throughout the masses, when the hundreds and hundreds of men stationed to prevent an exit from the East gate, saw that not only had they been outflanked, but that their army had begun to panic, their commander, whoever it was, began to order a withdrawal. Men on wall without reinforcement were quickly dispatched, while those on the ladders who had tried to replace them, could only descend one at a time, and had to contend with rocks, swords, arrows, and angels harassing them, few would successfully flee down the ladder, even fewer would get away at all. The ordered soldiers guarding the East Gate had kept their wits about them, and began to move towards the wood line.

The attacking force melted like butter in a frying pan over fire, with men trampling over each other in their panic to escape, charging blindly into the woods in the hopes that the cover of the trees would save them, a few steady heads tried to retain order, but as the East gate force withdrew, the gate opened and soldiers from the walls began to descend and exit out the gate, putting more on ground as the attacking contingent under Ulthis and Cercei tore in from the west, left little hope of restoring order.

In the end, even the steady heads were either separated from their bodies by angels, swords, or worse...or they fled afoot or on horseback, with the pursuing army disinclined to prisoners, it was no longer a battle, it was butchery the angry citizens unleashed their wrath and slaughtered anyone they could get hold of, yanking back helmet to bare a throat and cut it as cleanly as they would slaughter a lamb, the oppressors had become the oppressed, the predator had become prey, and many of the living became the dead.

The cheers of the wall and within the city as word spread, seemed to add fuel to the pursuers fire hours were spent hunting men in the forest, before at last people began to lose their bloodlust and energy and stagger back to the city, it was hours more before they had all returned, in the meantime, Blue Rose went about the battlefield with a handful of volunteers to search for survivors.

Broken banners, broken spears, broken bones and broken bodies lay scattered about, most would never rise again, but every now and then they found someone groaning and desperate to move away from further danger. Lakyus was not a woman known for her bloodlust, and she instructed her roses to take prisoners where they could and to treat the injured they were able to treat.

She had no sooner finished doing just that to one unfortunate who had two broken legs, a missing nose, and several missing teeth, which he appeared to have swallowed, and as someone was carrying the man away under Lakyus's orders she stood up and looked around the field, not bothering to shake the blood off her hands. As she looked around she noticed that those in the black armor of Black Justice were taking prisoners, while many others, when finding the wounded, would simply run them through with whatever weapon they had, and turn the wounded into the dead. Curious about this divergent practice, and not seeing any other wounded near in need of care, she looked around until she found Ulthis, who was himself tending a wounded man among his own ranks, he had no sooner finished with that one and dispatched the rest back to the city, than he saw the leader of Blue Rose approach him, and he waved politely.

Lakyus approached Ulthis with a wave in return, and when she came near, she held out her bloody hand to him with genuine sincerity and honest warmth in her smile, he blinked for a moment, still unused to this, but took it gladly, each equally undisturbed by the blood mixing between their palms. "You did very well out there today." Lakyus said.

"Thank you, same to you and all your roses." Ulthis said, "As expected of an adamantite adventurer team. Your reputations are well earned." He added.

"I can't help but notice that your followers treat the wounded and take prisoners." She said.

"Yes, don't you?" He asked curiously, an eyebrow raised in surprise.

"We do actually." Lakyus replied, "I'm just...surprised to see that...you...do...too." Her voice slowed down and took on a somewhat embarrassed note as she realized the implication of what she was saying.

He gave her a sardonic, crooked little smile at what she said, and her own emotional reaction to it as she realized what she was saying. He graced her embarrassment with a laugh, "It's alright. You're still getting used to this," He dropped his illusion for her, revealing his blood red eyes again, before restoring the disguise, "being anything but a mindless evil predator. Evileye had a talk with me, she explained things, a lot of things, and for what it's worth, she's proud of you. Change isn't easy, not even for those...like us. Long held thoughts are not easily dispelled and can come out in unexpected ways at unexpected times. I see why you might expect us to do...well...that." He said and pointed to a peasant putting a sword through a paladin's throat, ensuring the man who looked dead, was dead. "Black Justice however, is required to accept surrender and to take prisoners."

Lakyus blinked. She didn't know of any nation that was 'required' to take prisoners.

"Why?" She asked witha voice full of surprise.

"When I was training to be a priest, the Sorcerer King told us that the ultimate victory is not winning a battle or even a war, but in winning without fighting, to make people glad you are who you are, and you are where you are, to make even your enemies regret that they opposed you, and come in turn to support you, turning obstacles into assets. He said that you destroy your enemies, when you make them your friends."

Lakyus could only blink and keep listening as he drifted off into memory.

"He said that when we did have to fight, if we treat the wounded of our enemies as we would our brothers and sisters, we win moral victories that erase enmity, which is the final goal of war, the achievement of peace by ending enmity. Traditional war says to do so just by killing our enemies, but he says to win enemies to friendship. When a man has lost the fight, what more is gained than another corpse by killing, there are plenty of corpses already without deliberately making more. He says that is the path of kingship, that is what it means to stand above others. And so we accept surrenders, we treat the wounded, and we prohibit abuses to the defeated such as slavery and rape, which are crimes he does not forgive. Plus...he also mentioned practically that people who know they'll be left alive and unharmed if they surrender, are not inclined to fight to the death." Ulthis said softly, as if he was preaching before his followers, finishing his last statement with a wry grin.

Lakyus was left dumbstruck. She knew the traditions of war were to take prisoners, accept surrenders, treat the wounded. But she had never heard of any nation 'mandating it by law' and here it was part of the religion, which she assumed meant it was also his national policy and his laws. It was equal parts inhumanely humane and...very practical. A discomforting feeling of respect began to grow in her gut for the undead king. She thanked Ulthis for his answers, and walked almost trance-like, off to tend to another task.

That afternoon the victorious leadership met in the Great Hall. Cercei sat at the head of the table, while Gustav, Ulthis, and the members of Blue Rose took up the remaining positions.

"Gustav," Cercei said, "We don't you begin?"

"Yes m'lady, our total casualties for fighting forces by the end of the battle were two thousand seven hundred and fifty eight dead, another three hundred wounded, half of those critically. We're still counting the dead of the enemy, but they are estimated right now to have suffered roughly three thousand five hundred dead or captured, or about seventy percent of their total forces. The captured total was fewer than three hundred, all from the second day of fighting. Out of civilian casualties we suffered roughly one thousand five hundred dead, no captured, and around two hundred and fifty five wounded."

Cercei's eyes went up, "So many?"

"Yes ma'am, civilians had to perform many tasks that took them close to the fighting, from preparing boiling water to bringing food or replacement arrows, some were caught on the walls or suffered deaths by arrows or angels who did not discriminate between combatants and noncombatants."

"We are also still missing another two hundred of those who pursued the enemy soldiers who routed into the forest, if they're not back by now, they are also presumed dead. We've sent out recovery teams, but so far only bodies of both friend and foe have been found." He finished reading, and set down his document.

"So what you're telling me is, almost fifteen percent of my city has been killed." Cercei said grimly.

"I don't know how many people lived here before now, but if..." he ran the numbers in his head, "if your city's population was somewhere around thirty thousand, then yes, around fifteen percent is dead or missing and presumed dead, not counting my own forces that I brought with me. Out of my one thousand, five hundred died just trying to get here, and we were augmented by volunteers among Red Paladins, of the seven hundred or so I brought to the city, I lost three hundred and fifty, bringing our final tally...barring any deaths among the wounded, to four thousand eight hundred and eight." Gustav said grimly, "In my case, I no longer have an effective fighting force, and I will have to return to the capitol to rearm and replace my losses."

It was grim news that sank in among those present. It made the victory more something to mourn than to celebrate. A lot of eyes looked down at the table, the funerals would last for weeks.

"Any word on any further pursuit?" Cercei asked Ulthis, I know you took a force scouting out there." Breaking the silence.

"None. We know they've fled South, that seems to be where they've come from, we found the remnants of their camp and there was a long trail leading beyond it, they'd been gathering there for quite some time. If it helps, we've taken the provisions they've left behind, between the metal, materials and foodstuffs and other goods they weren't able to get to thanks to the very effective work of Tia, Tina, and her team," he gave a polite and appreciative nod to the pair, who returned it in kind, "that will at least help feed the remaining population for awhile, and they also by the way, seem to have taken to hunting to sustain themselves, they had many furs as well, so I suggest a trading expedition to let the surrounding areas know that Kedyn is back in business again." Ulthis said, finishing his statement with great enthusiasm.

"Evileye, what have you gotten from the prisoners?" Cercei asked.

"They're definitely Remedios's people. From what we were able to gather, these were mostly volunteers from the South, they joined her out of a religious frenzy to crush the heresy of the North, it wasn't hard to get out of them, they practically spat that at me." Evileye said.

"Was Remedios there?" Gustav asked grimly.

"No. She'd dispatched someone else for this, and supposedly, this was only a small fragment of what she now has at her disposal."

Gustav slumped. "It's going to be a civil war...my country is fucked...just...fucked. We worked so hard...we worked together, we beat Jaldabaoth, fended off a demihuman invasion the likes of which we've never seen before...and now we're fucking ourselves over this...this is insanity!" He shouted and slammed his meaty fist on the table, causing the heavy thing to bounce and clatter under him.

Nobody was willing to criticize him over his reaction, and the tension hung for a minute before Cercei continued. "Lakyus, did you find anything in the priest's quarters or offices that could help us?"

"Yes. These priests were from the Slane Theocracy, they also knew about the army stationed there and had worked with them before and during the siege, that much we knew when we put them down, but what we didn't know was just how widespread this was. They've dispatched inquisitor priests throughout the South, but also parts of the North to keep tensions high and create 'recruits' for a holy war against Black Justice and the followers of the Sorcerer King."

The tension went back up and she paused before continuing and looking straight at Gustav, "So you were wrong, this isn't just a civil war, your country is the target of a full blown crusade, I suspect Neia Baraja has been encountering fragments of it, but if this continues your entire country is going to collapse into chaos within a year, if what I've been able to glean from these private documents is even remotely true."

"I can't believe I'm saying this...but we should let the Sorcerer King know." Gagaran said, "Its kind of part of our job description, we were hired to protect a part of the population, and the threat is a lot bigger than anyone realizes."

The twins nodded numbly in mute agreement.

"I'd like to read through those in detail." Cercei said, "Set them aside for me if you don't mind, and I'll read over them tonight."

"Of course m'lady." Lakyus said politely.

"Outside this room...how is the city feeling?" Cercei asked.

"Very good." Ulthis said, "Frankly we've never been this unified, the attack may have been brutal and costly, but with the old gods followers and Black Justice fighting side by side, there are warmer feelings there than previously held, and they're still working together. I should also add, that your ladyship presented an inspiring figure when visiting the wounded after your husband's death, and in your willingness to put yourself at risk fighting personally in front of your people, many have asked when you'll be confirmed as the new ruler of the city, though you haven't even been officially nominated yet, and that includes the members of both the faiths in the city.

Cercei nodded. "I think that finishes things off for now, I'm going to go out among the people for a time, I want to see how they're doing. While I'm out, please walk the city and simply take initiative to solve what you can, most especially the treating of the wounded and the cleanup. With so many dead, we'll be weeks if not months alone in sorting out inheritance issues, I don't even want to think about sitting in that chair yet." Cercei said, pointing her thumb over her shoulder at the place occupied by the former Marquis.

...In Nazarick...

"What do you think, Sebas?" Ainz asked his butler as he watched the meeting unfold.

Sebas leaned over to look and said, "I think she will make a very fine ruler my lord, not so well as yourself, but she will do well, and she will make a good servant to you."

"I agree, I was just thinking the same thing." Ainz said. "When things have settled down there, have a trade mission established, sponsor some merchants willing to operate out of that city, I think they've earned their prosperity, and the blessings of their lord." Ainz said thoughtfully.

"It will be done my lord." Sebas answered, "I will ensure the city is watched to see when it is ready for your grace to fall on them." He bowed as he spoke, and Ainz watched intently as Blue Rose took control of various cleanup efforts. "They are a very interesting lot." He said in a low voice, before he cut off the viewer and walked away from it.