The Greatest Sin [Progression Fantasy][Kingdom Building]
Chapter 275 – You Can’t Ring Death

Helenna returned with a bottle of cognac for Malam and wine for herself. The Goddess of Hatred was already writing things down on paper. As silly and jovial as the woman was, when she put her head down, it reminded Helenna of Kassandora working. Total concentration on a goal and nothing else. Helenna walked around to look at the main piece of paper that Malam was planning around.

It only had four words, each one in a bubble.

Disrupt. Discourage. Dismantle. Demoralize.

Neneria turned her gaze as ghastly Pegaz carried her forwards. She sat on her ghost horse and gave her legs a kick as they turned down yet another junction in the city of Kifili, a small town, although most of the cities in the area were small. Nanbasa was not far away and that city had cannibalized the local populations to grow itself.

More of Uriamel’s forces were here, although the waves of attackers had been getting lighter and lighter over the past few days. It was almost as if Uriamel was running out of steam, but Neneria could not imagine that such a huge underwater empire, could be drained of manpower after such a short conflict.

Neneria waved her hand, several hundred of the Dead Legion’s cavalry started circling around her. The horses silently entered a galloping charge. They passed through buildings only two or three stories tall so quietly that there was no tell, not even so much as the rustle of a disturbed curtain. And eyes traced the ghostly riders through the walls, Every now and then, her eyes would pass over an opening in the structures, an alleyway or a set of windows so positioned that they made the building see-through. And Neneria would see her army charging through, like a massive sickly flood of ethereal grey-green bodies.

And Neneria’s eyes touched the street which contained what remained of this attack-wave. Men with dark scales for skin and gills and limbs that were all too long. With sea-wolves that ran and tore and bit and supported by only one crab. There was a platform on its back, a tall pavilion with plenty of archers and someone who seemed to be the commander shouting down orders. The soldiers supporting Neneria, Kassandora’s troops, enclosed themselves around Neneria to shield her with their bodies. Two huge Lynx tanks parked by her sides as the men took formation.

But her support did not matter. Nor did the amount of forces Uriamel had deployed in Kifili. Ultimately, Uriamel had not brought magicians, nor Divines, and they were fighting against the ethereal in an urban area. Neneria readjusted her black silken dress, it was light for dealing with this weather, as she watched. Ghostly cavalry charged out of the buildings on one side of the street, as if they were a wave of water. They went straight into and through the invaders that had crawled out of the ocean.

And the invaders fell. Slashed by sword or pierced by lance, their bodies undamaged but their souls torn apart. Neneria’s Legionnaires through the small and the large and they circled around the crab. A few hit the leg, the crab recoiled, it lost balance. It tipped over. Ghosts swarmed into it. The crab’s claws relaxed one final time as they gave up trying to swipe the invaders away. Neneria let her cavalry pass on through to the next street. It was wide, the shadows of the short buildings didn’t even stretch off the pavement yet. Another set of Uriamel’s forces were here.

And once again, the men around Neneria readjusted their rifles. The tanks turned their turrets. The commander issued an order to hold for his men. And they waited and watched. It took all of twelve seconds for Neneria’s Legion to pass from one street to the other.

Once again, cavalry silently burst from the walls. Horses wounded, riders headless or with the chests blow apart. As everyone in the Legion, they all carried the wounds that felled them. Ethereal blade slammed against metal, horses gnashed their teeth in mad fury, riders screamed a war-cry: all silently.

Into and through the beasts that had crawled out of the sea they went. Into and through, without taking even a moments pause, they raced across the street, cut everyone down, and disappeared into the next wall as Neneria guided them closer to the beach. The troops around her cheered, the sergeant from one of the tanks shouted a thanks, and they moved forwards as Pegaz slowly started trotting behind them.

Neneria looked down at the ground as she suddenly was enveloped in shadow. Then she looked up and saw the silhouette of a huge vulture. She narrowed her eyes, it didn’t look aggressive, and she had heard the soldiers talking about some giant bird that killed some giant monster in Nanbasa. And as Neneria looked up at the bird, she saw something fall from it.

Neneria sighed. She could tell it wasn’t some bomb that the bird was dropping. Nor some supply crate, or anything like that. No. It was a moving object, with arms and legs outstretched and a tufted tail. And it was screaming.

Fer landed in the middle of the road, close to Neneria. She sent up a cloud of dust and concrete hail, as if the woman was a meteorite that had just crashed into the road. Neneria gave one quick glance to the tanks and soldiers around her. The roads here were secured, although there was gunfire and explosions of artillery sounding from the coastline. The road to the left was bodies, the road ahead was bodies, the road to the right was the Kirinyaan military.

And Neneria turned to Fer. The woman was on her feet and walking out before most of the stones had returned to the ground. She beamed a smile at Neneria, uncaring that a tank had to bring itself to a stop to avoid the rubble and hole she had just created. “I knew you weren’t dead.” Fer said.

“Why would I be dead?” Neneria asked. Her sister did not respond.

“Kassie!” Fer clicked something in her ear. “I found her!” And Fer turned to the men around them who had stopped in surprise. Obviously no one dared interrupt a Goddess, but just as obviously they were waiting for an order. “Go on boys! This isn’t a show, it’s family business! Get a move on and get to work!” Kassandora’s men through and through, they immediately started heading off. One of the Lynx tanks crushed several civilian cars as it swerved around the hole Fer had made.

“You were looking for me?” Neneria asked and Fer nodded as she pulled out a flare-gun from her belt.

“Oh ho ho Nene.” Fer said as she aimed the gun straight up and pulled the trigger. “Kassie is not happy at all with you.”

“Is she not? Why?” Neneria asked. She had done everything that had been asked of her. Frankly, the cities under her watch were holding far better than the cities which had been under Anassa’s or Olephia’s protection. At least hers were still standing!

“I’ll let her explain.” Fer said as she squinted under the red smoke. “But we’re getting moved. Kassie is calling it Operation Draft, we already have confirmation from Dad too to go ahead.”

“We’re drafting people?” Neneria asked in confusion.

“You are.” Fer replied. “I’m just here as a bodyguard.”

“I need bodyguards?” Neneria was almost honoured by the opportunity. It had to be important if Fer had been forced to tag along.

“Ana too.” Fer said, she stopped suddenly and sniffed the air. “I’ll tell you later. Kassie is here.” And as if Fer had summoned the Goddess of War, a huge helicopter with a massive set of rotors appeared from behind a building. It slowly hovered to a stop then lowered in between the buildings to the height of several floors. The rear door opened.

A mass that Neneria immediately recognised appeared from out of there. She wasn’t wearing her armour, nor was the iconic blade there, but it was obvious from the mass of bright crimson hair that trailed downwards as it fell. The black suit which made the hair stand out so much too. The thump as it hit the ground, nowhere near as chaotically as Fer, only cracking the tarmac rather than coming in with all the force of a cannonball.

Neneria saw those furious red eyes focus on her, and she knew immediately that something she had done had made Kassandora very angry indeed. The Goddess of War stalked over to her with large steps, as if she was in a hurry. Neneria tried to smile, but she knew whatever expression she managed to put on would be smeared with nervousness, so she didn’t even bother. Kassandora came to a stop before Neneria, she looked up at the Goddess of Death on her ghastly horse, and she did not look happy at all.

“Jump down.” Kassandora hissed angrily. Neneria did not jump, Pegaz merely started to slowly fall into the ground until her feet touched the tarmac, and then she merely straightened her legs. It was all done with all the grace of a noble princess, which Kassandora did not look to be too happy about. “Why are you smiling?” Neneria wondered what she had done. Definitely something, Kassie was not the sort to get mad for no reason.

“I’m enjoying myself?” Neneria said, she wanted the words to be more definite, but it was difficult without being angry. Kassandora always had a way about her that threw Neneria off.

“Great.” Kassandora hissed. “Are you deaf?”

“No?” Neneria replied as Kassandora stepped forwards and ran her hand down Neneria’s hip. Down one side, then the other. Neneria tried to contain her laughter. How the others weren’t ticklish, she did not know. Of War straightened and looked up at Neneria with a flat glare. Neneria forced the stupid smile down. “Have I done something wrong?”

Kassandora grabbed Neneria’s coat and ran her hands down its insides. She stared at Neneria again. “Do you seriously keep it in there?” She asked.

“Keep what?” Neneria asked back.

Kassandora’s hand landed into the gap between Neneria’s bosom. She slid it in down in disbelief and shook her head, Neneria giggled at the sensation. “Did you actually lose your phone?” Kassandora’s voice was half-shout, half-exasperation.

“No.” Neneria said. “I have it on me.”

“Where then?!” Kassandora screamed as Fer made a terrible hur-hur-hur of a laugh.

“Someone is in trouble now.” Fer cooed from the side, her tail swishing from side to side. Neneria started hiking her dress until she showed off her thigh. There was a belt there, with a knife, a roll of bandages, a bottle of water and her phone. Kassandora looked at the leg, then up at Neneria, then back down at the leg.

“Are you serious?” Kassandora asked.

“Serious in what?” Neneria asked.

“This is where you keep it?” Fer burst out in more laughter from the side.

“Well I’m not going to keep it in my bra, am I?!” Kassandora returned with a flat expression.

“Frankly, if that makes you answer the phone, I don’t care where you shove it.” Kassandora said. She grabbed the phone off Neneria’s leg, slapped her hand away to let the black silk fall and then pressed the power button. Neneria cracked a smile and laughed nervously. “It’s uncharged, isn’t it?” Kassandora asked.

“Oh Nene.” Fer said as she walked around them. “Shouldn’t you be more sensible than this?”

“I charged it a few days ago.” Neneria said.

“Uh-huh.” Kassandora replied flatly as she pulled out a small black box from her coat pocket. Frankly, Neneria had no clue what it was, but Kassandora audibly clicked a cable into her phone, another into the small box, waited a few seconds and then turned Neneria’s phone on.  Neneria never used it, it still had the default wallpaper and stupid jingle that played whenever it turned on. And a sound for notifications. It repeated and overlapped on itself with each notification. So when Neneria’s phone turned on, it was an auditory blur of overlapping beeping. “What is this?”

Neneria’s cheeks went red as she looked at the lockscreen of her phone. Fifty-one missed calls. Several dozen texts too. “That’s…” Neneria tried to explain as Fer came in close.

“Tut-tut sister. Little Kassie is mad now.” Neneria prepared for the insult Kassandora would hurl back at them. They were all tall, Kassandora was one of the tallest Divines in fact, but Neneria and Fer were even taller. Of War never liked when her height was mentioned.

“You know what you should do when you have nothing smart to say Fer?” Kassandora asked.

Fer’s ears jumped, she made a stupid smile, her ears sat up straight and even her tail stopped moving. “Say nothing?” Fer asked.

“I’d phrase it as shut the fuck up.” Kassandora said. “But sure, let’s go with say nothing.” Her attention was refocused on Neneria soon enough though. “Why are you incapable of answering your phone?”

Neneria raised her hands defensively, she honestly had no defence. “Because I don’t?” It was a stupid answer, Neneria hated that she even said those words. But when Kassandora questioned like that, her questions demanded answers, no matter how stupid those answers were.

“Mmh.” Kassandora said. “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.” She grabbed Neneria’s coat and thrust the phone into one of the pockets. “Why do you not keep it here?”

“Because…” Neneria thought for a moment. Well, there was an actual reason for this actually, that was the fact that if she had it there, she found herself using the phone too much throughout the entire day. If she kept it on her leg, under her long dress, then it was a pain to take out so she didn’t use it as much. But that was a stupid reason, and Kassie always got annoyed at stupid reasons. “I don’t?” Neneria said as she grabbed the sides of her dress.

Kassandora did not even humour the answer. She swung Neneria’s coat back into her, Of Death felt her phone bounce against her side. “Well you do now.” Kassandora said. “And you better answer next time I ring.”

“I’ll try.” Neneria said.

“It’s not a case of try or no.” Kassandora said. “It’s a case of you will do it, because everyone else can somehow manage it. Even Olephia answers her phone and she doesn’t even speak!” Kassandora finished off with a shout. She stopped, sighed heavily and finally gave Neneria some room as she took a step back. “We’re already behind schedule, because we had to collect you Nene, so Fer is taking you.” Neneria blinked as she felt Fer slide close to her.

“Excuse me?”

Kassandora merely kept going. “You are getting sent to the UNN, you will vacuum up souls there for your Legion. If you answered, maybe we could talk about it, but I’m in a bad mood as of now, so Fer will inform you of the situation once you’re on the plane.”

“What?” Neneria said in disbelief. She was getting transferred already?

“Anassa is going with you too, for protection, but it will be just you three. I’m not going.” Kassandora said quickly. “I think that’s everything you need to know now.”

“And here?” Neneria felt Fer’s arm hook around her.

“Kavaa is taking over here. Her Clerics will assist in the clean-up.” Kavaa will do the fighting? But that Goddess could only wave a toothpick around!

“And if something big comes?” Neneria didn’t even know why she was arguing back, frankly, it didn’t matter whether she was in the UNN or in Arika, but these questions were simply appearing in her mind now.

“Olephia is a city over.” Kassandora replied quickly. She gave a nod to Fer.

Neneria’s vision all became a blur as Fer yanked her from the ground and into the air in a jump that went from zero to a thousand immediately.

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