VI
The defensive fortifications were made up of three main blocks. There was no difference in the construction of each. Earthwork ramparts stood in a grid pattern, connected by rudimentary bridges that allowed soldiers to move between them. Between each block there was a high, long defensive wall and a deep moat to turn back the ghouls.
The battle naturally began in the section of the fortifications closest to the marshlands—the first block.
“If I had any doubts, the sight of you lot has put them to rest! None can withstand the combined might of Sutherland’s armies, not even monsters! Darmés the fool, they will call him, after we have shown him our power!”
So proclaimed Leisenheimer, who was in command of the first block. His soldiers bravely raised their longspears in response. Though twice the length of a standard longspear, these ones were light and easy to handle, and had been designed especially for fighting the ghouls. It was easy to stab with these spears even from the top of the high ramparts, and because the soldiers had spent the bulk of their training on mastering the technique, they could use the longspears to accurately strike the ghouls’ weak point on the right side of the chest.
A human opponent would have responded with archers, but all their intelligence on the ghouls made it clear that the creatures did not use weapons.
“We can do this! We’ve got ’em!”
“Yeah! Take that, you bastards!”
The avalanche of ghouls that swarmed against the ramparts met a rain of newly forged steel and fell, unable to mount a counterattack. The morale of Sutherland’s armies had never been higher. But though it seemed they would overpower the ghouls...
“This is bad...”
“Julius? What are you talking about?” Lady Diana Christine of the Eighth City of Rune Barrés reacted first to Julius’s muttered comment. She was the only city ruler, apart from military men like Shaola and Leisenheimer, who had voluntarily come to the battlefield.
“Lady Diana, you ought not to be on the front line,” Julius said, but the only ones who looked reticent at his direct reproof were her guards. Diana didn’t seem bothered in the slightest.
“I’m already on the battlefield—if I die, I die,” she said, still looking from left to right through her spyglass. “Anyway, what is bad? Even to my civilian eyes, it looks like things are going rather well.”
Diana was too shrewd to accept a throwaway explanation. Julius was cursing himself for having let the words slip out, but there was a silver lining to Diana being the one who’d overheard him.
“The supreme commander’s plan is to keep all the fighting long-distance. It was the correct call, and as you say, Lady Diana, it is going well. The problem is...” Julius pointed to one of the earthwork ramparts. Fallen ghouls lay piled on top of each other. There wasn’t a single one of their soldiers in sight—indeed, the same was true for the other ramparts. The Sutherland Army’s defense had so far played out perfectly.
“All I see is a steadily growing mountain of corpses...” Diana said, the question plain in her voice.
“Exactly. The more ghouls we kill, the taller the mountain becomes. If left unchecked, the others will eventually climb over them to tear out our soldiers’ throats.”
Diana could tell that this was not the result they had intended—indeed, it was entirely outside anything Julius had predicted. A shadow came over her face.
“That certainly is not good. It isn’t as if we can skip down there and pull the mountain down either,” she said. “Does the supreme commander know about this?”
“I haven’t told him yet, but considering I noticed it, well...” Julius replied. “He won’t be looking happy right now, you can be sure of that.”
“Hmm...” Diana moved closer to Julius, then, starting at his face, her eyes ran over him right down to the tips of his boots. Julius, whose experience of being this close to someone of the opposite sex was limited to the ballroom, stiffened.
“Can I do something for you?” he asked.
“I’ve always been curious,” Diana said. “For a man with so many excellent qualities, you have an excessively low opinion of yourself. Why is that?”
This was not at all where Julius had been expecting the conversation to go. He let the tension go out of his shoulders.
“I hardly know what to say...” From a purely objective perspective, Julius thought of himself as a thoroughly ordinary individual. If he really possessed the “excellent qualities” that Diana spoke of, surely Lion’s plans for domination would be far, far ahead of where they were.
“Any of that which you see in me is only a pale reflection of Lord Lion,” he replied.
“You mean I give you too much credit?”
Julius conveyed with a wordless look that she was right. But Diana’s clear jade eyes stayed fixed on him.
“You could aim for higher things if you wished. And yet you are satisfied with your lot. You are content,” she said, making it sound like something unfortunate. “It is my belief that everyone has a place that accords with their ability, and to my eyes, your present ‘place’ is entirely unfit for you. The sight of it is repugnant.”
“Well, given I am a senior general at barely twenty-three, I can’t deny what you say about my place.” Their eyes met. Diana gave a relenting smile.
“I’m getting nowhere, aren’t I?”
Julius made a conscious effort to smile. “I have to wonder what led you to say this now of all times,” he remarked. “I’m sure it couldn’t be that you wish to drive a wedge between Lord Lion and myself.”
“I would never dream of such a thing.” Diana hastily waved both her hands in adamant denial. “It seems like a waste, was all I meant to say.”
“Then I shall keep this between us.”
“Yes, by all means. I would be mortified to be thought to have hostile intent.” With that, she twirled on the spot, then shot him a mischievous smile.
Julius gave a small sigh. “I understand. One other thi—”
“I won’t breathe a word of what we spoke of. I’m not about to interfere in military matters. I haven’t any authority there.” Diana turned and walked lightly away, her hair the same shade of pale blue as her armor swishing behind her. Her guards trailed after her, bowing repeatedly to Julius as they went.
“Bold as brass...” Julius muttered to himself.
Five days later, Julius’s fears came to pass. Lion made the soldiers fighting in the first block retreat back to the second block, then ordered Heaven to fire a second time. By the time they had fully evacuated the first block, the Sutherland army had lost less than a hundred soldiers. In contrast, they had sent more than forty thousand ghouls back to the land of the dead.
Sutherland continued to fight back the ghouls with historic success. But there was no sign of complacency on the face of Supreme Commander Lion.
The living and the lifeless—the twain that never should meet—collided in a clash that distorted the world around it. The world simply accepted it and watched on.
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