The Greatest Sin [Progression Fantasy][Kingdom Building]
Chapter 327 – To Divinity True and Unknown!

“I have to go make a phone call.” Iliyal said loudly to no one in particular. Malam was reading the reports coming out of Doschia, Helenna was monitoring the Lubskan revolution. The Goddess of Hatred made some vague wave of movement to indicate she heard the elf, but nothing more than that.

Iliyal raced out of the command, his boots sliding on the paths of beaten dirt as he ran in-between tents. Soldiers moved out of their way, but no one would say anything to the sprinting general. Malam had done her job, she had cast Rancais into chaos. And then she had tasked a girl without even six months on the battlefield to clean up the mess.

If it was Goddess Kassandora, even if it was Kavaa, then Iliyal could see it done. But Paida?

Iliyal started formulating a plan before the Goddess of Rancais died trying to save her own country.

Olonia stood at the head of the great snake that was about to devour Lubska. How many thousands from Zawitz had gone out to meet her? How many more thousands were filling the streets by the second? Windows were opening, people cheered from above. Several helicopters flew above, their loud blades whirring as they sliced through the air. Above them, two large military drones circled the entire city as they watched what was going on. And Olonia stood at the head of that snake, as the cheers swept over her like a deafening flood. The songs and anthems came next, so loud that it was as if the people were trying to topple the entire city with just their voices. The din of engines and of boots added to the cacophony.

It was a chaotic orchestra that that lit such an uncontrollable fire in Olonia’s heart that the Goddess had never felt anything so amazing before. For a second, she wasn’t just Olonia, she was truly the Goddess of Lubska. She had called and rallied her countrymen, she had shown them the sheer confidence and willpower that they should exhibit, she had called upon them. And Lubska had answered with such sweeping ferocity that for a moment, Olonia had lost herself in that passion.

So as Olonia’s single second of consciousness stretched further, the entire world rushed past her. She cast the song and cheer and rhythm and din and everything else away, and she stood there. A single moment, a blink of an eye that shattered away into timeless, agonizing eternity. She found herself looking at the police blocking her way into the Sejm once again. Four lines of men, three with riot shield and baton, the fourth with rifle. Four lines of men in black armour, they stood as faceless machinations of Jozef’s will. They sought to bar entry to their very own Goddess. They were traitors through and through, destined to be mere stepping stones in the grand march of Olonia’s rule. But then, a tiny little voice said something in Olonia’s mind. A voice she could not ignore, because she knew it was right. Could a Divine not save them?

And Olonia gazed again, the orchestra around her now fell on deaf ears as she listened to the sound of her own breathing and heart. And she saw the dozens of men. So tiny now, each man could barely manage to reach half her height. With riot shield and small arms rifle they stood, and they stood against veterans from the front line, who had come with tanks and heavy weaponry. Four lines that stood still not out of discipline, but out of sheer fear. They were frozen to the spot, Olonia had seen it on the battlefield early on, when soldiers were only getting a taste for the feeling of imminent death.

Four lines of men, maybe two hundred in total, that offered their own blood as sacrifices for Olonia to prove her own resolve.

And as Olonia stood there, she took a step forwards. Now that she knew what they were, there was no need to prove her resolve to anyone, much less to herself. She knew she was here to spill blood, but it wouldn’t be the blood of those who happened to only be following orders. “Men of Lubska!” She shouted and the crowd fell silent immediately. Olonia made her tone more gentle as she took another step forward. No one in the police blockade reacted, Olonia already knew they wouldn’t. She had gone through that same terror when Kavaa and then Fer had both beaten her during their training. It was total seizing of all muscle and an inability to even so much as think. “Do not stand before me.”

And once again, Olonia drew her sword, she aimed it forwards, but above the heads of the policemen. The words started to flow as naturally as her breathing. She stood there, white haired, with the shadow cast by her great eagle sweeping by, and she knew what she wanted to do. “I have come to spill blood, but it is not yours! Are you going to throw your lives away in the defence of some republic that has done nothing but brought war upon Lubska? For a republic that has changed nothing! The change from the Epan Community and into the Epan Coalition has been nothing but the change of handing over the chain that is affixed to our collars!”

And Olonia continued as the nation listened in silence. “I am not a mascot Goddess, I am the embodiment of this land and its people! I come to cast the chains of grand ideals off from you! Independence from the Pantheon has given us nothing! It will give us nothing! I will not stand aside as I watch my people exchange one set of shackles for another!” Olonia took a step. “So I command you to step down! Not for my glory or for your the righteousness of my cause, but for your own good, because it is for your own good that I am doing this!”

Olonia lowered her blade to her side and marched with the steel outstretched. Behind her, the city once again cheered. Once again, she felt that devouring flame trying to consume her, but this time, she knew how to keep it from spilling out of the furnace. She thought so at least, so she shouted as she closed the distance to the line of police. “You have families, you have loved ones, you stand for a system that doesn’t see you, but not me. I stood on the frontlines. I stood in places that your politicians can only imagine. Lubska has watched over me for seven hundred years, it is time I return the favour and watch over it!” Olonia took a step forwards. “But I have not come to beg or barter. I have to save this nation. The choice is yours! March with me to pick the bounties of a new world, or be marched on and have your blood water the tree from which we pick those bounties! Your time is now!”

That little voice within Olonia critiqued her once again. She had handed responsibility away to the men themselves. The Goddess of Lubska took a step forward and a boot in Olonia’s mind crushed whatever was speaking those tiny doubts. She trusted that they would be strong enough to make the decision themselves. And she took another step. And another. Until the army she was leading was less than a dozen steps from the police forces. Not a single one of her soldiers fired, but they did not need to.

One man, straight ahead of Olonia, broke rank as he gazed upon the approaching Goddess. He dropped his shield and baton, he took off his helmet, and he plummeted down onto his knees. That man was a domino. The police went from four ranks of men frozen to four ranks of men scattering from Olonia’s advance. And that man who fell let his arms swing by his side. Olonia looked to him, and she said nothing. Maybe another Goddess would have stopped to pick the man up, maybe another Goddess would have tried to show some love to the fellow, but Olonia simply did not know what to say. How could she at this point? With an army marching behind her back, it was unfair to the thousands behind her if she made them wait for this man.

And as she stepped around, so did every other soldier. They swallowed the lone police officer, but that was all they did. The man kept on kneeling as Olonia marched up the stairs to the Sejm. He kept on kneeling as Olonia handed out lists with kill sheets. He kept on kneeling as soldiers saluted. He kept on kneeling when the first gunshots from within the Sejm began.

Olonia approached Jozef’s presidential office flanked by two of her soldiers. They walked great corridors that had been built in the Pantheon Peace era, so they had been designed to accommodate Divines even larger than Olonia. The Goddess of Lubska kept up her quick march. Past one carpeted staircase. She came face to face with a trio of clerks who were working here. The men quickly dropped their papers and raised their hands when they saw the raised rifles by Olonia’s sides.

A pair of soldiers ran past the Goddess to corral the clerks into a holding room. Olonia had only given the biggest names to eliminate here. The men who should be denied a public trial because they would be able to slither out through the cracks in the law: those Jozef had appointed immediately after seizing his own coup of the government.

But these clerks? The day-to-day workers here? Some were guilty no doubt, but Helenna wanted these people. The Goddess of Love said that she would make sure they would reveal all the dirty secrets that Jozef’s government had been hiding: a voice within Olonia questioned whether those secrets would be real or false, but Olonia pushed it away. She wasn’t here to mercilessly kill all in her way, but only fools followed the rules. Iliyal had taught her that.

Every now and then, a gunshot ran out as her soldiers ran around the building, checking and then double checking every room, every wardrobe, every table and every sofa. Whatever was large enough to hide a person was knocked over and dismantled. The men viciously swarmed the Sejm as if they were the injected cells of an antidote devouring a disease, or a flame incinerating kindling.

And Olonia turned down another corridor where she saw two guards with guns. Her own men raised their rifles. Olonia raised her sword to the side as she locked eyes with the guards, and she watched what they were going to do. They stood there, with blue uniforms and rifles slung over their shoulder, their hands by their side. “Do not shoot!” One of the guards shouted. “Goddess Olonia! Do not shoot! Please!”

Olonia lowered her sword as she felt her own soldiers relax. “Lower your weapons and let us in!” And once again, blood was saved. The threat was enough, the two guards lowered their weapons and stepped out of the way as Olonia strode to Jozef’s office.

She slammed the door open and saw the current president of Lubska stood up, and looking out the window at the crowds. Hands behind his back, the man looked as if he had aged a decade in the span of the month since Olonia had last seen him. He turned, he had grown a moustache since last time, his face was wrinkled and his eyes were tired. “So you’ve come.” Jozef said.

“So I’ve come.” Olonia replied as she strode close to the man in the blue suit. She had been thinking about this moment throughout the entire ride to Zawitz. She imagined herself being stood in this office. It had not changed since the last time she saw it, not whatsoever. The wooden desk was here, the cabinets, the neatly stacked sheets, the portraits on the wall, the ancient sword of a Lubskan king. It lacked the dynamism of Iliyal’s staff rooms, where Olonia could leave for an hour to suddenly find the entire thing remodelled and instead, it reeked of peace time politics. How was this man sitting here, in a room so clean, when trench lines were being dug by the men he was responsible for?

Olonia had thought about this moment a lot, but now, she wanted to end it as quickly as possible. “Any last words?” She asked. Jozef stared at her and sighed. “Any regrets or anything you wish to share?”

“I allowed you to participate in the siege of Drayim Fortress.” Jozef said as he looked up at the Goddess twice his height. “I shouldn’t have.”

“I said I was going myself, you did not allow me, you did not stop me either.”

“Then I suppose that was my mistake.” Jozef said. “Because if I stopped you, we would have never achieved independence, Iliyal would have died, and you would have never become this.” Olonia felt her stomach set alight with rage.

“That’s it?”

“Need there be more?” Jozef asked.

“You have nothing else to say?” Olonia’s answer came just as quickly.

“Nothing that will make you change your mind at this point. You shouldn’t have been in the situation that made you.” Jozef said. Olonia could not believe it.

“I came to give you a send-off personally. To end your story.”

“There is no story Olonia. I am mortal. I did what I could. I know where I should have done something else. That’s it.” He said quickly.

“It will end just like this?” Olonia asked quickly. “No reason? You have no regrets? Nothing? Just that? Your mistake was in the fact you failed, rather than the fact you were wrong?”

“Why try Olonia? We have nothing to discuss.” Something snapped within Olonia. Why was she hiding from this man?

“I came because I wanted closure.” Olonia shared her honesty. “Why did you think you can return to mascotry when you know I hated it?”

“Apologies then.” Jozef said with a sigh. “I suppose as my final indulgence, I will deny you this closure.” Olonia felt her lips curl into a smile for the man. Did he know what he did? She doubted that he was so noble and self-sacrificial or that he knew her so well as to realise the perfect words to say. But he had said them, Olonia once felt the heat of her heart starting to madly beat, and she listened to Bielik, her great white eagle, cry out from above Zawitz. It was a cry of righteous anger.

Deny her closure? Was this man really so spiteful? Was he really such a measly insect? Did he think that he could offer her any closure through any of his words? Did he aggrandize himself that much? Did he think there was a rational explanation for the utter farce at keeping her a mascot Goddess? Did he expect that it was possible for her to return to that pathetic state? Could he really not admit to a mistake? Even when Death had come to stand before him, he still wouldn’t simply admit he was wrong? Did he really think that there was any world in which Olonia returned to mascotry?

No. No once and no forever. There was no justification, no grander reason, no bargaining to be done. The man really believed, in his own twisted way, that things could return to how they once were. Olonia felt all the weight and doubt in her heart as to whether she was making a mistake leave her. That weight grew a cocoon, it transformed into a web of hatred that swallowed Jozef.

His blood had to be spilled. To show Olonia that she could kill for herself and not because of anyone else’s orders. “You just gave me it.” Olonia swung her blade and Jozef’s head fell off his shoulders and fell onto onto the carpet with so little force that it did not even bounce.

It wasn’t the first time that Olonia had killed, and there was no glory in a Divine killing a mortal, much less an unarmed one. But Olonia felt glorious indeed.

Paida began her march into Aris.

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