Amazon Apocalypse 7: Chapter 10

The return to Crownhill went smoothly, and half the Nineteenth Legion arrived without issue, invited in by me. Toward the end, the System started putting up some resistance to allowing so many foreign-born warriors to enter the shard, but that was alright. It just meant any wounded could be immediately rotated out for fresh reinforcements. Perhaps eventually I could find a way around the rule.

With more than a thousand people at my back, I made my way to Crownhill. We made no effort to hide, though I had no doubt our march would draw attention.

"Guards, it's me, your emperor. Open the gates." I stared up at the walls.

The guards didn't greet me as they normally did. I'd noticed them becoming increasingly serious as my days of inaction went by, but now it reached a true crescendo. How much of the guard had been won over by Councilman Morris and his lackeys?

They shifted uncomfortably, looking at one another. The army behind me waving my banner stared up at the guards. Eventually, there was some movement behind the walls.

"That barrier looks tough, but if you can bring it down in your usual way, we can take the city by force," Legate Asimi whispered in my ear.

I nodded. "I know. But this isn't Ladwick. These are my people too. Or at least, those that are still loyal are."

Eventually, it became clear who the guards were waiting for. Kyle arrived, bleary-eyed and in hastily assembled armor. He must have been working the night shift.

"Sorry to wake you, Kyle, but it's a big day." I waved up at him.

Kyle stared at the army behind me, then turned to his fellow guards.

"Open the gates!" Kyle ordered.

"Sir, but the new secretary of defense said..." one of the guards weakly protested.

"I don't care what Councilman Morris or his lackey said! Carter is down there waiting for us to open the gates! Are we going to listen to some council of conniving pencil pushers? Or are we going to listen to the guy who led us through the integration?" Kyle shouted back.

The guards opened the gates, and we came marching through the city. I gave Kyle a wave, and he jumped down to meet me on the ground in front of my army just past the city's entrance.

"I hope things aren't going to turn bloody. There hasn't been a major attack inside Crownhill since the Wolfmen," Kyle said, voice considerably softer now.

"I plan to make this quick and smooth. I'm sure you knew it was coming. It was either me or the council, and I'm not comfortable leaving this city in the hands of what's become of the council." I shot a glance behind me.

"I sensed you were hinting at something at lunch the other day. The guards and I will stand down and let you work." Kyle looked at the city, as though envisioning the brutal house-to-house fighting this could have turned into.

"Tell your men all the guards are having the day off. It's a special city guard picnic outside the city, on me." As I spoke, I issued Kyle and every member of the city guard a quest to get out of the city and enjoy a nice long picnic.

For this small task, they'd receive a bonus equivalent to a year's salary. It was bound to be suspicious, but with Kyle telling them to accept I was sure most would unless given very good reason not to.

"Councilman Morris installed another guard captain. It's technically another organization entirely, but he desperately wanted the guard at the behest of the council. I think he was trying to push me out of my position. He doesn't have many loyal men, but they might put up a fight. Watch out."

I smiled and nodded at the more than a thousand elite veteran soldiers behind me. "We'll take care of them."

I gave Kyle a salute, and he returned the gesture.

From there, we marched through the city. Two members of the Nineteenth Legion stepped before the rest and blared their trumpets to announce our arrival, and from there the sound of heavy footfalls marching echoed throughout the city.

Here and there, citizens of Crownhill stepped aside and stared as the banner of their emperor was unfurled before them. Our march drew all eyes and ears.

"Make way for Emperor Carter and the Imperial Army!" Legate Asimi shouted.

Her words drew much murmuring.

"Imperial Army? I knew we had an emperor, but since when did we have an army?"

"I thought those Amazonian ladies were his army?"

"Shh! Look at their levels! So many peak C-Grades! Even B-Grades!"

Eventually, we flooded the city streets and all had seen the unfurled banner. Despite the show we'd made of our entrance, what came next would no doubt draw even more attention.

In the densest part of the city, nearest the obelisk, I made my announcement.

"Councilman Morris, Councilman Heathers, Councilman Saxon, Councilman Warburg, and Councilman Weston are all under arrest under suspicion of colluding with the enemies of Crownhill! Please, everyone remain calm while we arrest the accused."

From there, Captain Asimi and I marched out of the gates with some of my most elite troops. We found Councilman Morris waiting there, along with the other corrupt council members under his influence.

"You! What are you doing here?!" Councilman Morris demanded. He pointed an accusing finger at me.

I could see the fear take root behind his eyes. He was beginning to realize he'd been set up. There was no meeting with his secret benefactors, just me.

"Councilman Morris, you and all your co-conspirators are under arrest." I looked around. There were more than just the corrupt councilmembers here. Most of their lackeys were here too, along with people who I guessed were their bodyguards and personal security.

They were dressed in suits, but had the distinctive sunglasses, earpiece, and a pistol at their side. Maybe they'd look intimidating... to someone in F-Grade. To me and the troops behind me, they might as well have been children with water guns.

"Take out the guards. Apprehend the others," I said to my troops.

To the low-leveled people before me, Captain Asimi and the others must have moved as fast as lightning bolts. The bodyguards drew their weapons and tried to fire at me. Two guns jammed and exploded in their hands. One of them accidentally set off his gun while drawing it and shot himself in the hip. Councilman Morris ended up taking a shot in the leg from another misfire. The only guy who actually managed to get a shot at me had his bullet fly straight at my chest only to come to a dead stop like it had struck an impenetrable wall.

Pretty soon, the corrupt councilors and their high-ranking officials were standing alone.

"Hold your fire! I'm an elected official of Crownhill, you can't kill me!" Councilman Morris said.

"Did you ever look at the charter for the council? It's called the Supervised Council of Crownhill, meaning it serves at my pleasure. The System recognizes me as the Shardlord of these lands, all the people within them as my subjects. Absolute rule would be as easy as declaring it so." I stared him and the other corrupt councilors down.

"What about democracy? The will of the people! This nation has laws!" Councilman Morris scowled at me.

I shook my head. "The nation you refer to is gone, Peter Morris. I've built something that resembles the old world, but some parts of the old world are gone. I know you were some big shot political staffer before, but power from that world isn't power here."

I turned to Asimi and the others. "Bind their hands. We're taking them to the city's prison."

Despite the finality of my orders, Councilman Morris seemed to regain some strength at the sound of them.

"I see. You don't dare kill us! That'll just prove you're a tyrant. Listen, there's still a chance for you and I to come to an arrangement. Those treaties you forced the other shards to sign could have been full of exploitive loopholes that could have had them sending every penny they scraped together our way! Think about it! With me at your side—" Peter Morris started talking and showed no signs of stopping right up until I slapped him across the face.

"Listen to me, Peter Morris. I looked up your records. You were in a refugee camp. I saved your ass from slowly starving to death in squalor. You've been eating food I've given you. This suit you're wearing? I bought it from scavengers who sold it through the Obelisk, then donated it to survivors like you so you could walk about well dressed and well fed after your ordeal. The home you live in was constructed and paid for by me. Even the fact that you made it to Crownhill from the military base was something I arranged." I jammed a finger into his chest, and he shrunk back as I continued.

"If not for me, you'd be naked, starving, and probably in the belly of a monster. And what have you done with my charity? You greedily gobbled all of it up and then spat in my face when all I asked for was the work of an honest civil servant. You disgust me."

Peter Morris rubbed the reddening skin on his face.

Captain Asimi raised her eyebrows after hearing my tirade. "You sure you don't want me to off him? We could do the whole bunch here. We could even make it extra painful if you want."

I shook my head. "Death would be too simple a fate. He and all the other traitors will be taken before the city as the truth of their betrayal is revealed. They will be humiliated and disgraced. After they have been convicted by both a jury and the public, then will be permitted to die. Their sorry ends can serve as a warning to the next generation of councilors."

And so the corrupt councilors were marched through the streets of Crownhill. Their arms were bound, and their fine suits torn. Their shouts to the crowd for support were met with nervous silence for the most part, but eventually the people I was waiting for revealed themselves.

"Halt! You have no right to arrest members of the council!" shouted a vaguely familiar man. I was pretty sure he, Kyle, and Councilman Morris had butted heads in one of the meetings I'd spied on.

I'd hardly paid any attention to him and didn't even know his name, but he was the lackey that Councilman Morris had gotten elected to the secretary of defense position he'd created.

"I have every right. But go on, try and stop me." I gestured for him to attack.

Nearly forty armed guards materialized from the nearby buildings. They'd clearly prepared this ambush in advance once they realized what happened.

The guards only looked like Crownhill city guards at a surface level. The cloth overcoats matched the city's colors and symbol, but instead of steel breastplates they wore Kevlar vests. Instead of swords and spears they wore more standard guns, which were easier for low-leveled people to use. They must have raided the supplies at the military base, because most of their gear looked military.

This was the second guard organization that Councilman Morris had assembled to usurp the role of Kyle and his men. They were clearly Morris' loyalists and would do me little good to keep around, even after breaking the back of this whole treasonous network.

"We'll take care of them," Legate Asimi drew a short sword. Behind her, several of the magically inclined legionaries opened fire with spells. Bullets traveled faster than most spells, but peak C-Grades moved a lot faster than F-Grades and E-Grades, so the spells struck before the bullets.

Just like that, the false guard contingent was wiped out in the blink of an eye. My legionaries cleaned up the bodies and got them out of the way. By now, Councilman Morris and the other corrupt councilors were starting to realize nobody was going to get them out of this.

Terrance welcomed me at Crownhill's prison, and there we dropped off the corrupt councilors in our most secure facilities.

"Make sure nothing happens to them. I don't want any of them hanging themselves before the trials," I said.

Terrance made promises in the affirmative, and soon the corrupt council was firmly behind bars. In the meantime, Legate Asimi and I rendezvoused with her centurions, who had several more prisoners for me.

"We've stormed every house you indicated for us. The city is clear," Legate Asimi assured me.

"Not yet. There's one more person I'm waiting for..." I drummed my fingers while standing by the prison.

Eventually, Myrina showed up. She was carrying a human-shaped sack over her shoulder.

"Got her! It was actually pretty fun. I should kidnap women for you more often," Myrina said.

"You're arresting her, not kidnapping her. There's a difference," I chuckled as Myrina ripped off the top portion of the bag to reveal Lydwyn's disheveled face.

"Carter! That red-headed lover of yours is a traitor! Listen to me, she must be possessed or being controlled! She grabbed me in the middle of lunch, and—"

Myrina slapped Lydwyn across the face. "Blah blah blah! Shut up!"

I leaned down and tilted Lydwyn's chin up.

"The real Lydwyn would have done a much better job."

Lydwyn's eyes went wide. I sensed the parasite within her squirm as it realized it had been detected. I'd seen it as soon as I laid real eyes on Lydwyn. My Kindling Architect vision allowed me to see through higher dimensions and look inside a person. This sort of trick might work well on just about anyone else, but against me it fell apart at a single glance. Besides, I had no desire to end up like Prince Herius had.

I reached behind Lydwyn's neck and fired a tiny spell directly into the parasite's brain. A burst of mana destroyed its higher cognitive functions. Unfortunately, it had already eaten and replaced most of Lydwyn's spinal cord, so she'd be paralyzed until I helped her regrow it. Any other time and I'd see to it right away, but this was going to be a very busy week for me. Hopefully she'd understand.

"Take her to our apartment in the city. Make sure someone's there to help her. She's a Sage of Camlaan, and by the time all this is over, we might be running low on those," I said.

Myrina scooped Lydwyn's limp form up. Lydwyn's eyes rolled to me. She seemed confused, dazed, but also profoundly grateful. Even being paralyzed was better than being a prisoner in her own body.

With Lydwyn taken care of, I turned back to Captain Asimi.

"Crownhill's cleaned up, and I've got some announcements to make. But the job's just getting started. There are two armies on their way to Crownhill. We're going to take them out before they can join forces."

"The troops will be ready to leave when you are, sir!" Legate Asimi saluted.

***

The people of Crownhill needed a good explanation for why several members of the city council had been arrested, and I was happy to provide them with a great many of them.

During the recent renovations while fixing up the city, Governess had installed quite a few screens throughout the city. She could activate and play them remotely.

Before, I thought it would all merely be part of a large emergency system, but ever since realizing Crownhill was desperately in need of more news outlets, I'd let Governess think things over. She ended up coming up a non-stop broadcast channel of news and educational content.

For now, we decided to simply play the hours and hours of evidence we'd compiled proving Councilman Morris and the other councilors guilty. The recordings would speak for themselves.

I gave a little explanation in my own words, then randomly selected a few dozen citizens to serve as jury. Despite having hours and hours of footage, it seemed like they'd come to a guilty verdict in just a few minutes. Naturally, the public came to a decision even quicker.

With the fate of the traitorous councilors decided, I was only waiting for a message from Cyra. She had united her Amazonian warriors with what remained of the military base and its troops. She'd volunteered to do the scouting for this project, and when I heard the whirl of helicopters in the sky, I knew why.

Lots of people could fly in the Arcadia Multiverse, but a formation of modern military aircraft just had a powerful feel to it that was hard to match. Her troops and the military men would meet the Nineteenth Legion and join us for the fight.

<Note>

Hey guys. My grandmother died recently and I have to make a trip. Don't feel too bad, she lived to a very ripe old age and met plenty of great-grandkids. But I'm going to have to break with the release schedule for a bit.

I can probably finish Friday's chapter as long as I stop at a motel somewhere in the evening, since there isn't too much left. But I think I'll need a pass for Saturday.

I'll still try to get to the original ending point for book 6 before stopping to fully outline book 7, but this will likely bleed into a period of slower release while I also edit and finalize parts of book 6 for publication on Amazon.

Sorry for the inconvenience.