Slaughter at Erise
“Tell me about angels. What do you know of them?”
“But… aren’t you…” The mage’s bloodshot eyes glance up at your halo and your wing. “N-Never mind. I will talk. Angels… To most of us, they are monsters out of a fairytale. My mother used to sing a song to me about how if I was bad, the Carnage Pigeon would come and catch me and eat me…” He pauses nervously.
“Don’t worry, I don’t eat men.”
The mage does not seem to appreciate your joke. He takes in a deep breath. The knife in his chest rises slightly, blood oozing from the wound. “Please, I can’t take any more… just help me…”
“You’re almost there,” you say encouragingly.
“Besides… besides the usual children’s stories, there were records from the ancient war… I heard this from my superiors in the Order. They said the angels had large wings… crimson feathers that could set men on fire with a single brush, and a circle of light above their head that fired rays of destruction which could obliterate a city… but they fought for neither the Five Gods or the Demon God. They only reveled in destruction. That is… that is all I know! I swear!”
You absentmindedly touch the halo on your head. The mage jerks in fear. So that thing is more that it seems.
“Thank you. Rin, you can remove the knife now.” Well, he has been rather helpful. You are not going to waste a healing potion on him, but if he can recover from a chest wound on his own, perhaps you will keep him around for more answers. Someone who could translate human writing would be helpful-
“Ugaaaaah!” A strange scream, and the noise of flesh splitting, interrupts your thoughts. Glancing back, you see Rin holding the knife, her cheeks red with embarrassment. Somehow, the mage’s entrails are hanging from the knife. You do not know how she managed that.
“It was… it was an accident!” She says hotly. “The floor was a bit slippery with all that gore, so when I went over to pull out the knife…”
You sigh. “I see. Can you… no, could you call in some goblins to clean the place up?” Standing up, you leave the kitchen.
Rin follows you, looking intensely at your remaining wing. “Crimson feathers that could set men on fire, huh?” Then she looks at your halo. “A circle of light that fires rays of destruction, eh?” Finally, she concludes: “I’m a bit jealous.”
“You can touch them if you want,” you offer, stretching out the wing.
Her fingers tentatively reach out for the soft feathers, but she is quickly disgusted by the strange grin on your face and balls them into a fist. “N-No. I shall refrain. Touching you is something a maiden should only do in the worst circumstances, or in a fight.”
You retract the wing. You are starting to get used to manipulating it; it is like having an extra arm. An extra, large, wide, heavy, bulky arm. “Anyway, what he said at the start concerns me. I would like to investigate the human village,” you say, returning to the great hall where some of the worshipping goblins immediately cheer upon seeing you.
“I see. Do you plan on destroying the rest of his people? That would be an excellent way to introduce ourselves.”
You get the impression that for Rin, ‘the rest of his people’ could just as easily mean the dead mage’s country as it does the raiding force currently gallivanting about the Methussian countryside. And also that she was not being sarcastic at all.
“We will see when we get there. Are you going to stay, or-“
“I am coming along.”
Well, there should be no danger for now. Once you reach the human village, you will be able to teleport back to the goblins’ Grahferde. Now you would have to find one of the goblins to guide you there…
***
“We’re almost there, Shining One.” Petze gives you a happy nod, gesturing at the path ahead with her paw. She licks it twice and awaits your orders. Glancing at the healthy goblin, the potion seems to have done its work by restoring her vitality. On the way here, she had eagerly but shyly shown off her skills in the woods: as far as scouts go, even though she is a goblin, she may be one of the better ones you have encountered. She had confidently guided you along a fast but easy path through the forest, avoiding all manners of beasts along the way.
“Do you come here often?” you ask. “You seem familiar with the route.”
Petze freezes up, her whiskers twitching. “I… ah… yes. But I have never done anything but watch them from afar… wait, I smell smoke!”
“And I smell battle,” grins Rin. The black armor forms around her and she strides forward.
You secure your cloak and hood before catching up to them. The expensive cloak that you had looted from the commander has been useful: the hood is large enough that you could cover your halo with it, and the cloak itself is also thick enough that by wrapping your wing close to your body, you can conceal it underneath. Of course, this means that you are unable to move your right arm, but that is a small price to pay. You still look strange, but at least you would not be called a pigeon on sight.
As you reach the edge of the woods, you see the fences and fields belonging to the village in the distance. Erise Village. From what you know, they keep out of the goblins’ way, never venturing into the forest unless it was an absolute necessity. They appear to be a small, self-sufficient farming community. You would have to look at the conditions of the roads leading in and out of the village to know if trade is thriving, but that can wait. The goblins do not know how many people are in the village – Runde had estimated the population size to be roughly the same – but at this point, there must be less people than there was before. Black smoke is billowing into the skies.
You can see horsemen galloping around the outskirts, cutting down fleeing villagers. Strangely enough, they are not boldly displaying their Galbaldian flags. If this was an attempt to frame Galbaldy, the riders seem to be trying to hide it. If not for the better-than-usual weapons and armor, and their large numbers, they would seem indistinguishable from your normal bandit gang. And to the uneducated villagers, they would have seemed to be just that.
Ah, perhaps that is it. You had been wondering why they needed as much as a hundred men just for raiding undefended villages. When the reports came flooding back to Methuss, they would have sent out a punitive force in response to what they thought were bandit raids. Once those soldiers inevitably caught up, they would have found not bandits, but a well-equipped force that would wipe them out handily. It was both a political and a strategic trap. They were pretending to be Galbaldians pretending to be bandits. You begin to wonder if there is not some other hidden purpose behind this ploy, beyond framing Galbaldy and weakening Methuss at the same time.
“They aren’t very efficient at sacking, are they?” Rin comments, swishing her tail in boredom.
“What… what do we do now, Shining One?” asks Petze, bowing before you. She appears to dislike the sight of the villagers being slaughtered. Strange, for a goblin, and she demonstrated even more hostility for the intruders in the ruins than you did.
“Let’s see…” You ponder your next move. To observe, or to interfere?
You spot people running in your direction. Their aversion of the woods seem to have been overridden by fear for their lives. You check your invisibility spell As they draw closer, you see that they appear to be two children, about fourteen years of age. A boy and a girl, both could be described as budding flowers that would bloom beautifully in a few years: their facial features are similar enough that you think they could be twins. Children… you were not too far off that age yourself when you were thrown into the war, barely of age to marry.
***
Your gaze is naturally drawn to the:
A. Boy.
B. Girl.
***
They trip and fall close to where you are standing. The three men chasing them approach slowly, their swords drawn. None of them seem to have noticed you standing by the trees. The girl clutches her brother to her chest, inching away fearfully from the marauders.
“Hm, they don’t look half bad for a bunch of country hicks. A pity they have to die.”
“Orders are orders. Fuck them, then kill them.”
“I’ll take the boy, as usual.”
“You know, my wife wouldn’t be happy if she knew about this. Ah, they’re my daughter’s age, even. It’s sad. So sad.”
“Stop sighing and do your work. It is for the greater good.”
The twins are now so close that you could reach out and touch them. They are mute with despair, huddling together tightly as they avert their eyes from the men about to despoil and murder them.
***
A. You interfere. You are not so far gone that you would watch innocents die without batting an eyelash. Besides, earning their gratitude would be useful if you should need information from the village.
1. You do so diplomatically. You try to talk the men out of it. After all, you cannot solve everything with violence. This would be good practice.
2. You kill the men quickly, without messing around. Since they appear to be common soldiers at best, Petrification should be highly effective and subtle.
3. You defeat the men non-lethally. A few broken bones should be enough to keep them down. You will be starting your captive collection from now on.
4. Gigadyne is the way. You fry them.
B. You wait until the men are finished with their job and their guard is down before you strike.
1. You kill the men quickly from behind.
2. You take the men captive.
C. You move away quietly and head further into the village. There should be more important people there you can find. At least, more important than two sniveling brats.