Chapter 599: The Hidden Shadow
Hera knew what Levia meant as she had felt it herself. She just thought it was her nerves or some other unseen force. Still, it was enough that Levia said what she did to allow Hera to understand that he feeling was right, even if she didn’t know where it had come from.
’I feel so much more in turn with everything ever since... Heh. I guess the essence of an Asura really is the most wonderful tonic. Not only has my senses progressed, but my realm has begun to move as well. Sigh. How long has it been since I felt this... alive. How long since I became lost in the sacred world of motherhood and of running the country that I forgot how it felt to just let loose. Ah. Now I’m thinking about him again. To think he would make me do such horrible things? And then suggest there was more I could do? Who does he think he is? Some young boy thinks he came dominate me?... But... It did feel so good...’
Hera’s thoughts were a mess, but her mind was clear. While that sounds contradictory, it just goes to show how she was able to focus on two things at once. More even, if she wanted.
"I want scout teams to report in every fifteen minutes. No solo teams either. Teams of three at the least. Once we make camp for the night, I want double the guard on at all times. Have the formations set up to use as well," Hera said, after giving it some thought.
"The formations...? But Empress?"
"No excuses. I know that they haven’t been used in your lifetimes, or even your fathers or grandfathers or even their grandfathers. But each of you has been trained without fail on how to use them and if I am right, we might be needing them tonight."
"Yes your highness."
"Your thoughts Julius?" Hera asked when everyone had begun marching again, their rest stop for the night just up the road.
"You don’t believe that we are being premature in setting up the formations? I have never had the chance to use one before although each of us were trained. But the cost of doing so is enormous and the resources needed are not something we have ever found any more of," Julius reminded Hera.
’That’s because they don’t exist in this word,’ Hera thought, but kept it to herself.
"I understand. Perhaps my husband would be angry at my use of this? But even he should know the cost of being negligent in such a situation isn’t a price we can afford," Hera said, her voice cold although if it was because of the cost or the thought of her husband, even she wasn’t sure.
They quickly made camp and set up the formations, four of them that looked like old banners, one at each corner of the camp. After that, everyone began going about their business as Hera took to her own tent to get some sleep.
It was a couple hours before dawn when she awoke, the dying fire in the tent leading to a rather cold wake up call.
"Your Highness, reports are coming in from all around us of shadowy figures in the night, amount the trees and in the sky. They currently have us surrounded," Hera’s maid said, her voice frantic.
Hera calmly rose from her bed and clad only in the thinnest layer of silk, grabbed a wooden board from off the makeshift nightstand. In the four corners of the little square piece of wood, Hera turned the four flags outward before twisting the small gem in the middle into an upright position. A sudden whoosh flew through the doors of the tent, sending shivers down the spine of the poor maid.
"Commander, are you out there?" Hera said, covering her body in heavy robes.
"Yes your highness."
"The formations have been activated. Have the scouts return to camp and have everyone ready on standby. No sense having them look for an enemy who has already found us," Hera ordered.
"Yes your highness." The commander said, make off with his many assistants to relay orders.
"Dress me," Hera ordered her maid.
"Yes your highness. Things are exactly as you expected them to be?" Her maid said while sliding the armor over the once again almost naked Empress.
"Not everything, if I’m being honest."
"Something else has happened?" The maid said, a look of confusion on her face as Levia arrived at her tent and quickly entered, one of the few people who Hera allowed to do so.
"Yes. I never expected a shadow warrior would be able to get so close to me," Hera said before grabbing her sword and plunging it downward, though the chest of her maid and out the back of her.
"MY EMPRESS!" Levia yelled as guards ran in from outside of the tent.
Cough. Hack.
"Why...? My Empress..." her maid said, coughing up several mouths full of blood.
"It’s such a shame Lydia had to stay back home. She never would have been taken as unaware as you obviously were," Hera said, looking down on the spasming maid as the blood pooled beneath her.
"You shouldn’t have come here. I have a mission for my master and any of you who gets in the way will die!" The maid said, her voice sounding low and hoarse, like the sound of a beast and not the young woman she appeared to be.
Hera grabbed a torch from the wall and indicated to the guards to drag the maids body out of her tent, which they did. She then followed them with her seer, Levia in tow.
"Move away," Hera ordered and the guards complied, leaving the dead remains in the snow as Julius along with a legion of guards came running up.
"MY EMPRESS!"
"Relax Julius, I am fine. I could smell the problem with her right away and knew she had been compromised. The enemy this time is exactly who I think it is although it seems to not have figured out who I am yet. But no matter. It will learn of me soon enough." Hera said, the torch still in her hand.
"Legionaries of the Holy Empire. Hear me. We are in enemy grounds now and you need to be on your guards at all times while never being alone. My former maid here must have gone off by herself at some point, perhaps to relieve herself and he body was taken over just like that. All of you come get a good smell of this girl as that is the only sure way of knowing who has been changed. The shadow that clings to their bodies can be naked to the human eye, but the smell of the shadow is not something of this world. It smells old, but sweet and intoxicating, just like how power always smells to those who desire it. When you smell that on a person, there is no denying it is one of them so memorize it well. The only other way to detect the shadow corruption on a person is to make them come in contact with fire. Because the shadow beast hates fire almost as much as they hate lightning," Hera informed her men before throwing the lit torch on the now dead body.
Unlike when burning a normal body which required a lot of fuel to roast it, the dead maids body burst into flames as the shadows around it became visible and ignited quickly.
A massive howl of anger and pained seemed to ring out all over from outside the camp.
"And one more thing. They are connected like a hive mind. While they don’t feel each others’ pain, the do sense when something happens to one of their own. So if you see anyone acting strange right at this moment, grab them and pin them down," Hera ordered, causing everyone to look at one another while searching for unusual signs, of which there were none.
Sudden loud yells and grunts sounded out as the ground around the camp started shaking.
"THEY ARE ATTACKING THE BARRIER TO THE FORMATION!" Call out one of the watch men.
"Good. Let them throw themselves unto death," Hera said as she watched the shadow being burned away.
...
Dozens of men and fourteen guards laid in tattered heaps upon the ground, groaning and wincing as the guard commander placed his hand on his forehead and shook it while laughing bitterly to himself. Next to him the old man from Laz’s slave block was grinning like an idiot while drinking to his hearts content as Laz stood panting in the center of the circle of bodies, struggling to stay on his feet.
"Ha. I won." The old man said, taking another drink.
"Fine. You won. I can’t believe that even my men were felled so easily," the guard commander commented, thinking that these men would need to pay for this failure during their next training session.
"Ah. Don’t feel badly about it. This boy is far more than any of us make him out to be. I’m not even sure this is his full strength as it seems like he held back, despite being armed with only that thick wooden stick. I think that if he wanted, none of them would be alive right now," the old man laughed, still happy at his own judgement.
"That is a scary thought indeed. His back seems to have been healed too?" The commander observed.
"Perhaps a reward from her highness, the Empress? While she only visited him briefly, perhaps she rewarded him for his victory against that strange bear beast. The Empress has always been good to her subjects, even those of us with a statue lower than citizens..."
"You don’t have to be in here you know. Your freedom was guaranteed years ago when the Emperor forgave you!"
"Perhaps the Emperor in all his glory and mercy forgave me, but how could I forgive myself? Those men died and I lived. It doesn’t matter who’s fault it was, the truth remains and such and I should have died with them."
"None of their families blame you either sir."
"As I have said, they don’t need to. I blame myself enough."
"Still so stubborn I see former commander of the Empire!" Aphrodite said, walking up to the two men who were off to the side.
"Your highness! Please forgive out behavior with this... display..." The guard commander said, knowing that letting this kind of fight go on was against the law. Never should a slave be allowed to strike a guard.
"Relax. I am neither my sister nor my father, who just so happens to not be around again today while my sister seems to be itching to be sent northward into battle once my mother calls for reserves. Like she would ever need it. Anyway, I’m just a bit bored and was out for a walk. Now I see that missed a good show..." The blonde beauty said while staring at the shirtless and winded Laz who had begun to stretch his muscles to relieve their tension.
"Yes. The boy seems to be both strong and talented your highness!" The old man said, looking away along with the guard commander. Both knew that staring too long was a bad idea since her nature was one of seduction and lust and while neither man was young, they didn’t want to make fools of themselves either.
"I see. Hmm... Perhaps... I should reward him for this display today?" Aphrodite said with a seductive smile on her face, causing both men to experience shivers down their spines.
"Your highness. While it is true that any man would enjoy a reward from one as beautiful as yourself, perhaps you should get the kings permission first as the slave is technically his," the old Commander of the Empire’s Armies said, trying to keep the fear out of his voice. He had seen what happens when she ’rewards’ men in the past and the boy was special enough that he didn’t want to see anything bad happen to him.
"Heh. Daddy is way to busy with his whores to pay attention to what I’m doing and besides, he has never told me no before. Now prepare him to go to my special room. I shall be waiting for him in one hour," Aphrodite said and without waiting for another word, she turned away and vanished in the blink of an eye, leaving both men shaking.
