The carnage that Zain and Verity
caused makes Lampada fearful of them. To defend themselves at this threat, they
all gather at the hub and erect defenses that include a blessed wall that
blocks out anything that isn’t holy. After scavenging whatever they can from the
ruins of the tribes’ towns, Zain and Verity go to the hub to test its defenses.
They try breaking it down with their large spiders and hordes of undead, but the
wall isn’t scratched at all. Even trying to put spiders and undead over the
wall is met with an invisible force.
“Can you get any of your spiders
into the hub?” Zain asks Verity.
“No, I can’t. It’s like the wall has
an invisible barrier underneath it no matter how far my spiders crawl just like
the top of the wall.”
“If this really is a wall that keeps
out the unholy, then it also means that they’ve trapped themselves inside.”
“I really didn’t expect much from
these idiots, but they’ve outdone their stupidity by boxing themselves in.”
“All we have to do wait them out and
mess with them from the outside.”
Zain and Verity use their army to
set up an army and camp around the hub. A sizable portion of their forces
surrounds the hub while another stays to defend their hideout from any possible
vandals. Verity’s spider crawl along the wall to find a weakness and to creep
out the guards defending the wall. While their creatures build a temporary shelter
for them, Zain and Verity sit and eat lunch while watching the hub.
“I wonder why they aren’t attacking
us. Is the shield purely for defense and nothing can go in or out of it?”
Verity asks.
“Yes, it’s purely for defense, but
you could also use offensive prayers that affect both inside and outside the
shield. Both are meant to be used at the same time; however, it looks like they
aren’t doing it because their faith in God is low. No surprise there. Because
of this, if they want to attack, they have to lower the shield.”
“If they do that, they’ll be
letting my spiders in and they’ll have to worry about them.”
“Exactly. That’s why I said that
all we have to do is mess with them from the outside. Since they have low
faith, they’ll easily break.”
“And here I was thinking we would
get an epic final battle against Lampada. By the time they lower the shield,
they’ll be starved and weak. They don’t have enough food and gardens in there
to feed all of them.”
“You’ll get your battle if they
fall to sin, which they probably will if they haven’t. It’ll be a classic
battle of good versus evil that we’ll surely win.”
“I still don’t believe that the
being that gave us these abilities is an angel.”
“How can you not? You forgave the
man who did the most harm to you who repented in front of you.”
“You helped me do that.”
“I have the same abilities and way
of thinking.”
“No, you don’t. You’re purer.”
“Then there’s no reason to doubt
me.”
“I guess.”
“Anyways, today’s Sunday so we
should relax and enjoy our time together.”
Several undead bring them drinks
and cooked food.
“They can cook and make drinks?”
“You didn’t think I made all my
meals, did you?”
For the rest of the day, Zain and
Verity enjoy a relaxing Sunday. The people in the hub; however, spend the
Sunday in constant fear and hardly relax. During the next couple of days, they use
their forces to pretend to try to break down the barrier to instill fear into the
hub.
On Tuesday, Verity asks Zain, “Do
you think this’ll make them lower the shield faster? We’ve been at it for three
days.”
“They will.”
“What do you think is making them
hold out for so long? A kingdom with low faith should be easy to break.”
“Hmm. Maybe they’re waiting for
reinforcements from other kingdoms.”
“Do you think they’ll come even though
they know about our army?”
“It depends on their relationship
with the other kingdom. I don’t know about that many kingdoms who are close
friends with Lampada.”
“Perhaps a kingdom will try to face
us just to get the glory of defeating our army.”
“That’s true. I already deployed a few
scouting parties in case we would face any trouble and I don’t think they’ve seen
anything yet.”
“Just to be safe, I’ll send my own
scouting parties of spiders out as well.”
“Good idea. Do you want to try some
cake?”
“Cake? Made up the undead? No,
thank you.”
“Don’t knock it until you try it.”
The scouts find another scouting party
from other kingdoms the next day. Zain and Verity allow their forces to be seen
and pretend to attack them to send them back to their kingdoms. They wait until
the next day to see if their forces scared them off or mobilized them. What
ends up happening is that three legions of troops from different kingdoms come
at them from different angles. Since they planned for this, Zain and Verity
retreat their army back to where they set traps and thin out the forces that
are easy enough for their army to mop up. They leave no survivors or rather
they take all the troops of the other kingdoms for themselves.
Zain and Verity then take their new
troops and make them walk around the hub as if the bodies of their enemies are
trophies meant to be shown off. This horrific display along with the news being
quickly spread throughout the hub makes the shield begin to lower.
“Yes, we did it!” Verity says as
their army closes in and beats on the shield to make it lower faster.
This is temporary as the shield
comes back up and even repels the army.
“What just happened?” Verity says
in shock.
“I can only assume someone’s faith
increased. Instead of making them fear us, they feared God instead and
repented. After seeing the shield rise, the faith of the people instead also
increased.”
“How are we going to deal with this?”
“Don’t worry about it. Their faith
will diminish soon enough. They have no one else that can help them.”
“Oh, that’s right. We should still
have patrols just in case more come.”
“Good thinking. So, to celebrate
our victory, do you want some cake?”
“It doesn’t matter how many times
you ask me. I don’t want cake.”
“Suit yourself.”
“But I will share a drink or two
with you.”
After sending out their patrol,
Zain and Verity celebrate their victory with food and drink. Their celebration continues
to Friday when they get the idea to make their army dance and celebrate as
well, which is both a confusing and unsettling sight to see from the hub. Even though
the shield was strengthened yesterday, it is weakened again today because of
the reality of the increased number in the undead army. The people in the hub
start to panic about it getting bigger if more armies come to face the undead
army only to fail and double its size. While enjoying themselves, Verity notices
the shield weakening and strengthening,
She says to Zain, “Look at the
shield. Is it just me or is it acting weird?”
“It’s just the wavering faith of
the people inside. Maybe they’ll break soon.”
As soon as Zain mentions it, a
small hole opens in the shield and a spider immediately goes in before it
closes.
“I got one in! What should I do
now? Should I start causing chaos?”
“No, you should just make a few
undead and start scaring them. To end this faster, we need the shield down
completely so making them lose faith is our goal.”
“Right.” Verity uses her spiders to
quietly make a few people turn undead. “I turned a few people undead. What should
I do next?”
“Make them dance in front of
everyone then hide them.”
“Got it!”
Verity makes her undead dance for
everyone in the streets to scare them before making them run and hide. The two
get a good laugh out of it and continue to make the undead scare the people in
the hub as the shield gradually weakens to allow more of Verity’s spiders in
it. By the time Saturday morning arrives, Verity has enough spiders in the hub
to destroy it. The shield still stands but can hardly stay active.
“What should we do now, Zain?”
“Let them stew in their fear.”
“What? We have them where we need
them. All we have to do is close the noose to finish them off.”
“This is not about defeating them. Most
of them are probably feeling defeated with the few faithful holding them up.
This is the real result that we wanted. We had to put the fear of God into them,
so they know what they did wrong.”
“And now you just want to push that
fear in deeper to make sure they’ve learned their lesson?”
“Exactly.”
“Okay, I get it. I guess we won
then.”
“Let’s throw another celebration,
and-”
“Alright, alright. I’ll try the
cake.”
“Yes! It’s my tribe’s special recipe.”
An undead brings over a cake.
“You already had another made?”
“Of course. I knew you’d eventually
give in and try.”
“Hmph. How could can a cake made by
law enforcement b-”
As soon as Verity tries the cake,
she’s surprised by how good it tastes.
“Well? How is it?”
“It’s…it’s pretty good.”
“I knew you’d like it!”
Zain and Verity celebrate again just
like they did like yesterday, but this time Zain makes the undead play musical
instruments at nighttime. Confused by this, Verity asks why he’s making them do
this only for him to take her hand and dance with her.
“Hey!” she says in embarrassment.
“What? You don’t want to dance with
me?”
“N-no, it’s just that I, uh, can’t
dance well.”
“That doesn’t bother me as long as
we get to dance together.”
“Tch, if you say so.” Zain and
Verity keep dancing until she starts to talk to ease her feelings of awkwardness.
“So, what are you going to get after we win? There must be something valuable
that you want.”
“A ring.”
“A ring? For what?”
“To marry you with.” Verity is
completely thrown off guard and stops dancing even as Zain tries to make her. “Haha,
is there something wrong?”
“Yes, there is!” Verity says with a
red face as she thinks of things to say to hide her embarrassment, “You’re
supposed to ask me to marry you with the ring and not without it!”
“Okay? But would you marry me?”
“We haven’t our first kiss yet-”
Zain kisses Verity on the lips then
smiles at her as her head feels even more light than before.
“We have that box checked off now. So,
will I get an answer now?”
“I…I still can’t believe you want
to be with someone like me.”
“Why’s that?”
“Look at me and what I do. I’m not exactly
an example of anyone good.”
“I see a beautiful woman in front of
me who can do wonderful things. There’s nothing wrong with you that I can see.
You shouldn’t compare yourself to what other people think is good.”
“Yeah, but-”
“Shh, you’re perfect for me. Isn’t
that all that matters?”
“Yeah, but-”
Zain kisses Verity again and she stops
talking for the moment as they dance together.
“So, back on topic, do I have a
yes?”
“You will if you get me the ring.”
“Deal.”
For the rest of the night, Zain and
Verity enjoy the night together happy that they’ve achieved victory over the kingdom,
but even happier in their love for one another.
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