Chapter 173: A Meeting, Long Coming

- Central Abelis, Near Labyrinth City, Several Hours Later – Rose's POV –

BOOM! BOOM BOOM BOOM! Scurrying around as explosions rocked the battlefield, I was briefly consoled by the sight of those caught in the blast groaning, all their parts and pieces still attached in their proper place. Letting out a sigh of relief I ordered those still upright to take the injured, a job normally reserved for medical personnel that had grown beyond their capacity with the arrival of several dozen cannons that the Church had rolled forward to assault our defensive line. While I didn’t see too many still bodies, I knew it was only a matter of time and with so many of the massive iron weapons firing in sequence our earlier tactic of rushing the line wouldn’t work, especially with nearly a million soldiers behind said weapons as well.

Still though, we needed to do something...

[Annabelle?!? What’s the play her-] - Rose

[Incoming Tactical Level Spell! EVERYONE DOWN!!!] - Unnamed Soldier

Quickly ducking down behind the dirt dike, a massive explosion rocked the Church lines! Followed by another, and another, sowing chaos as the Church’s technical achievements were reduced to scrap metal along with thousands of terrified soldiers. The awestruck whispers of “The Volcanic Calamity...” from the many Lamia around me told me that magic had been my grandma, a power that, while I’d never seen it directly, I’d learned about from history books as well as the accounts of soldiers that had served with her and grandpa. The distant sight of my proud-looking grandma drawn up to her full height with the gallant image of grandpa standing proudly beside her with his sword drawn brought a surge of pride to my, now considerable, breast. Those were my family.

Shaking off the familial pride I yelled above the din for magicians under my command to also let loose their spells before the Church could regroup, joining them in unleashing the full force of my chant less magic that, over the course of the fighting I’d stopped even attempting to hide. In a life and death struggle such things as secrecy needed to be thrown out of the window in favor of saving everyone I could. And it allowed me to not think about the death toll I was racking up, a thought that I knew would wreck me as soon as I had the time to reflect upon it. Now wasn’t that time though, so I let loose with all the force I could muster.

- Central Abelis, Near Labyrinth City, Several Hours Later – Rose's POV –

The next few hours weren’t calm by any stretch of the imagination. The Church, finally responding to our spells, finally brought forward their own mages for a counterattack, the spells thrown by both sides massacring thousands as the two diametrically opposed forces crossed the stretch of land between them.

Forced to stay under the protection of the Queensguard as well as my own soldiers and friends I wasn’t allowed to join the melee but, rapidly firing icy spears over the tops of my soldiers, I was able to help our central line forward slowly, keeping morale high as our forces saw the figure they’d started calling the Chosen of the Goddess standing tall above the fray as if a divine being was looking down upon sinners, my impressive length, even by Lamia standards, allowing me to stretch far beyond the people around me.

Completely oblivious, or ignoring, the gazes of worship from those around me, I noticed a bit of movement in the distance coming from deep in the Church forces. Something was coming.

[Annabelle! The masked woman is heading this way! Our plan worked! Inform grandma and granp- Argh!] - Rose

[Lady Rose!] - Annabelle

Happening far too fast for me to react to I was suddenly yanked backwards as a small hand barely half the size of my own gripped onto my head, leaving behind both my protective detail and my panicked friends. Shit!

- Central Abelis, Near Labyrinth City – Rose's POV –

Finaly succeeding in freeing myself from the vice grip of the woman I now recognized as the masked woman I briefly noted the blindfold that I’d seen when she’d come to the Command tent weeks ago with the rude delegate. I’d heard of her quite intricate mask from grandma when they’d faced previously but, given the circumstances, I wasn’t in any condition to ponder the significance.

[You’re that bitch that hurt my grandma, right?!? Answer me!] - Rose

[Primary capture target escaped. Recommending incapacitation before proceeding. Recommendation accepted, initiating.] - Masked Woman

[What do you mean by capt- woah!] - Rose

Using my long tail to pull me back from her sudden lunge I barely avoided despite preparing for some kind of attack I realized that this woman that was somehow familiar was far beyond me in strength. Her speed so far beyond mine that I wasn’t capable of responding even nearly fast enough and the brief glance I’d been able to get of our surroundings told me that we were too far from the front lines for help to reach me in time. I was on my own.

[Resistance from primary capture target higher than initial parameters. Initialize advanced subdue process, injury to target allowed.] - Masked Woman

[Oh shi-!] - Rose

Hearing her words, a chill came over me as I barely reacted to the sword she’d somehow unsheathed in the time it took for me to even register what she’d said, a burning sensation coming from my side a moment later.

[Argh! Y-You bitch!] - Rose

[Injury to target successful, initiate capture protocols.] - Masked Woman

Reacting to her words while trying to ignore the waves of pain coming from my bloodied side, I managed to block her sword swing with one of my gauntlets, the familiar screech of metal on metal reminding me of another battle I’d once fought in an Arena hundreds of miles away. In that battle too I’d been woefully outmatched, even with the help of my friends. This time I was on my own.

[I-I can’t hold her ba-] - Rose

[Don’t give me that shit!] - Wrath

[H-Huh?!?] - Rose

[Don’t “H-Huh?!?” me, you fucking weakling! How could you be thinking about giving up to this bitch?!?] - Wrath

[B-But she said she was here to capture me! Maybe if I-] - Rose

[Bullshit! So what if she’s only here to capture you?!? Does that make it easy to just give up?!? You and I both know what will happen if the Church gets their hands on you, what kind of fate awaits you!] - Wrath

[I-I know! Of course, I know... but what can I even do? We’re behind Church lines, with no help, and no hope of defeating someone that can play with us like we’re children.] - Rose

[Pfft! And what does that matter to someone like me? I’m not worried about some Church puppet bitch! And, as the one who defeated me, I won’t allow you to be beaten by some weakling the Church can only control using cheap tricks!] - Wrath

[Control? What?!?] - Rose

[I’ll jump in here. It highly likely that the woman in front of us is being controlled by the Church in some way. Her way of speaking indicates that she was ‘programmed’ to respond to various scenarios. That sort of thing is nearly impossible without some form of outside intervention.] - Logic

[T-Then how do I snap her out of it?!?] - Rose

[I’m not certain that such a thing is possible, but I’d stake my name on the blindfold being at least partially responsible for her current state. Your grandma said that she once had a mask, perhaps this blindfold is a hasty replacement for the one that she broke?] - Logic

[So, if we tear off the blindfold...?] - Rose

[...we stop her rampage. I can’t guarantee that, but I find it highly likely. Ah, you should pay attention, it seems she’s done waiting for our move.] - Logic

Bringing myself out of the trance that I was in, even if it lasted only a few seconds in real time, I found myself face-to-face with the blank face of our blindfolded opponent, her sword aiming to render one of my arms useless.

[Not happening! Urgh! Kof kof!] - Rose

Hurriedly moving to block her deadly swing I was wholly unprepared for her other fist to be driven right into my stomach, flinging me away from her as I tumbled across the rocky terrain, glimpses of her running figure catching up with me before I’d even recovered.

[S-Shit!] - Rose

She wasn’t speaking now, the robotic voice from before, completely silent as she bounced me around like a toy, my barely managed defense only stopping her from finishing it completely as I tried to think up a way to get the tightly bound blindfold off of the woman. My brain racing as I tried to think of something I noticed two hills in the distance that made me come up with a plan.

Bracing myself against her next strike I jumped back at the moment of impact, my tail, coiled like a spring, flung me towards the valley between those slight peaks, her face impassive as she sprang after me.

[NOW!] - Logic

[Die!] - Rose

Already knowing my plan since he was connected to my thoughts Logic told me the exact moment to achieve the desired effect, a plan that I couldn’t have done without his help. Letting off countless fireballs at either wall of the path through the two hills I knocked loose the fragile rock faces from their precarious positions, nearly releasing the entire side of the two hills as the suddenly unsupported stone rushed to fill the area between them, engulfing both myself and the masked woman following me, her impassive face turning to the wall of rock rushing to crush us.

- Central Abelis, Near Labyrinth City – Rose's POV –

Kof kof! I came to an unknown amount of time later, pitch blackness yielding no information on how much time had passed. Slightly shifting myself I felt my breath leave me forcibly as a sharp pain radiated out from my side!

[U-Ugh... W-What happened? I’m... alive?] - Rose

[I don’t seem to be captured so... what happe- Ow!] - Rose

Clutching my side, I sighed in relief at the fact that I was in pain meant that I was alive. At least for now, I thought as I brought my blood-covered hand up to my swiftly adjusting eyes. Wincing as I slowly maneuvered myself upright in the stone coffin I’d made for myself, I quickly confirmed that, besides a few bruises and the nasty cut I’d gotten from the masked woman prior to my desperate move, I was more or less uninjured. I hoped the same couldn’t be said of that masked bitch but froze when a familiar sounding voice came from the far wall of rock.

[Subject experiencing extreme injuries, switching to recovery mode.] - Masked Woman

[Dammit! She was still alive?!?] - Rose

Carefully making my way over to where the sound was coming from, I quickly found my worries amounting to nothing as I noted the massive boulder pinning the woman to the ground. Luckily for her it hadn’t seemed to have crushed anything, but its weight made sure she couldn’t move or continue to attack me. Even so, I needed to deal with her one way or another before she recovered completely. A task that became even more urgent as the light from a healing spell filled the same space, illuminating just how screwed I was.

[Hold still you robotic bitch. Kof kof! I hope this works...] - Rose

[Capture target reacquired... unable to procee-] - Masked Woman

[Shut up! I’ll get that damned blindfold off in a second.] - Rose

Reaching my trembling hand for her head as the arm that wasn’t pinned under a rock attempted to grab me, I finally succeeded in removing the item that was obscuring her face from me only to freeze in shock at the familiar visage of the woman below me.

[M-Mary?] - Rose

Still struggling to grab me despite her predicament was a face I knew well despite the age difference between the one I recognized and the one before me. It was the face of my sister. The one I’d left behind on Earth.