Novel Full Chapter 1135: Charge!
Chapter 1135: Charge!
“This is our chance. An hour is all we need. Fight with me! Fight with the Consortium!”
For a moment, there was silence. Then the stronghold shook with the sound of thousands of voices answering her in a tide of steel and fury.
“Consortium!”
“Consortium!”
“Devil! Devil!”
The chant rolled across the walls and out into the chaos of battle, as if the stronghold itself had come alive.
One might wonder: why would these criminals be willing to fight so fervently for the Consortium? Some of them had family in the stronghold, yes, but not all of them, so the explanation that they were fighting to protect their loved ones huddled behind the walls didn’t explain it all.
To those who had no family to protect, surely running away or even being enslaved by the Fujimori was a better prospect than bleeding to death.
That would be a correct assumption under normal circumstances. But one has to remember, the Vraven Kingdom had a feudal government. Even in a world like Thalorind, where one could level up no matter whose womb they popped out of, bloodlines were favored.
A person like Ignis, born into poverty and with no upward mobility, had very few choices in life.
One, become an adventurer, also known as a glorified pest control, who was often given misleading missions that endangered their lives, such as a noble understating the danger so that they could pay less in commission fees.
Two, become a soldier like Iris had chosen. They would be paid modestly, but the main benefit was to receive resources and great training if they showed potential. But the drawback was massive. They were tools of others, spears to be pointed at enemies or shields to protect the lives of others at risk of their own. The ceiling of a soldier’s career was usually the royal guard; only some even among them made it to the Aegis Vanguard. But even the illustrious guard unit was just dogs awaiting their master’s orders, which could easily be something like ’I’m in danger, so please die for me.’
The third option lowborn, but ambitious, men and women had was to go rogue. To reject being lawful citizens and strike out on their own. But doing so was easier said than done. The crown and its vassals hunted criminals very efficiently. The Central Region, where the Valorians ruled personally, was especially free of crime.
So these ambitious youths looked for a place that could shield them from the law, that did not look at them purely based on their blood, and a place where they were given the chance to blossom into their true potential.
The Vesper Consortium.
Here, the law’s reach faltered. Here, bloodlines meant nothing compared to talent. Here, rogues and outcasts found refuge, training, and mentorship. It was not perfect, nor was it kind. But it was a place where people could rise.
Yes, the syndicate was made up of criminals. Yes, they were greedy and hedonistic. But, throughout the years, a strange form of competitive family blossomed into being.
This family offered both cruel punishments for failure but tender warmth for success, all at once. Many members found the loves of their lives here, who were coming from similar backgrounds and possessed the same desire for greatness.
And, yes, the Consortium was responsible for making drugs, for enslaving people, for bringing financial ruin on others.
But, frankly, so were the other side. Taking young daughters from impoverished fathers just so the harem could be enriched by its 45th member, demanding high taxes the poor had to starve to pay, ruining promising youths out of fear, and so on. Their crimes were numerous.
The nobles were not ’righteous,’ they were simply on the winning side. They were stronger, backed by greater powers, so they wrote the laws and history. They decided who was right and who was wrong. As a result, the Consortium became a vile organization harboring psychotic murderers, while the nobles were the good guys who protected the world in the name of the Goddess.
But the Vesper Consortium wasn’t inherently better or worse than nobles. They were simply the underdogs who couldn’t hide behind the law. If they wanted to compete, they had to get their hands dirty.
Rynne stood at the battlements as the chanting of soldiers rolled across the stronghold. The Consortium members below were already moving. Squads were forming as the melee fighters pushed toward the gates with their weapons drawn.
The captain knew that this was not the time for her to remain behind. She vaulted from the battlement and strode to the head of the gathering force. Because some of the known Fujimori commanders were here, and their new leader, Kaede herself, led them, then only fools would think their ranks could stand without her and the strongest warriors at the front.
She could not ask her people to bleed while she lingered behind the walls and watched the level 70+ members butcher her army.
Her gaze moved back once. The mage captain met her eyes and dipped his head. A moment later, he barked his orders.
“Go all out! Spare no mana nor ammunition! If anyone dares to have a single drop of mana left once Lord Maelstrom gets here, I’ll feed them to the pigs!”
Mana flared as thousands of spells took shape at once. The sky glowed with the sigils of protective wards, fire rings, and barriers of force. Then came the bombardment. Fire and lightning shrieked from the ramparts, slamming into the Fujimori. Engineers slammed the runes of their heavy engines, driving them to overheat as they hurled payloads that shook the ground. Arrows fell in black curtains, tipped with poisons, oils, and enchantments.
The walls blazed alive, intending to do their best to provide suppression for their melee units.
At the same time, healers braced themselves with holy light at their staves and wands, already murmuring the first words of their restorative incantations. Enchanters lifted their staves high, voices rising in unison as they layered enchantment upon enchantment over the waiting army. Blades glowed, shields thickened, muscles strengthened as courage itself was woven into flesh.
Rynne raised her spear and shouted, “Open the gates!”
With a groan of chains and iron, the great doors lurched wide.
Her soldiers roared as they rushed out.
The air became a storm of fire, steel, and screaming. Fujimori blades met Consortium steel with a crash that shook the plain. Warcries rose, answered by the guttural bellows of the enemy. Mud churned under stampeding feet, and the air was drowned in blood and fury.
…
Far away, on the slithering hill that writhed under his command, Quinlan narrowed his eyes.