Lost Souls

Vilhelm was sitting in his office looking carefully at the map, the map of his country, the map of his home, he could see how the color red filled the whole picture, names, and numbers in every town and critical point, the enemy forces had conquered what was once the place where he grew up. A photograph was near the map, the place where he grew up, the house of his childhood friend, Heidi Lehmann, a home in ruins, the victim of a bomb, a hole in the roof and the lack of a wall, the place where the young girl's room was the exact place where it detonated, he has not heard from her for years, he has no way of knowing if she is alive or dead, probably he will never know, maybe it will take him a decade before he returns home and finds out what happened that day.

The boy had been deceived with promises of honor and glory by the leader of his country, his father had taught him that defending the country was the reason for the existence of his noble house, a general friend of his father had even forged a couple of documents to let the boy enter the army early so that he could gain experience and reputation. All of them were now dead, the leader was executed on the gallows by his enemies, his father had been poisoned to death by a spy, his friend died on the battlefront on the first day of conflict, the boy had been tricked into an adventure from which he would never return, abandoned by all those who sent him. Now he was far away from a home he could not return to, he was part of a group of renegades with no home to return to, a fanatic group that would use their last breath to take revenge for the defeat of their people, many of its members did not even want to be there in reality, they simply had no choice, it was to be rebels for life or accompany their leaders to the gallows. But Vilhelm was different, he was thereby willing, the conflict and the war had awakened something in him that he did not get anywhere else, to feel alive, to be appreciated by others, to have a purpose for his life. It was on the battlefield where he met defeat for the first time and where he found a worthy rival, he could not yet return to see what became of his friend Heidi, first, he had to recover his honor to return home by defeating his enemy, then remove the enemy from his home, and only then would he be allowed to rest. A journey that will take his whole life.

The door opened, and a non-commissioned officer came with a report, left it on the desk, and left with the official salute. Vilhelm reviews the contents of the report, it is the report of the findings made in Lothar Golden, the capital had simply disappeared, a huge crater was what was left of the imposing center of the city, and ruins were all that were in the photos, images in poor quality because the radiation was so high that had damaged the camera lenses. The report showed the remains of an atomic detonation in the city, the generals could not even imagine what had happened, no one in that world knew what the red mercury was for, much less process it, unthinkable that they could build something that could make a nuclear fusion with the lack of technology that this civilization possessed. But that was only part of the report, for, unfortunately, it was still going on and on and on. Garden of Love, the entire country that was owned by the maximum leader had also disappeared, a huge hole in the ground was all that was left, as if a myth of a legend had happened, The Goddess Nediadis could not be found, not a single one of her churches intact, much less the nobles that supported her, as they disappeared along with the city.

The report seemed more like a fantasy than something written for real, you could even see that the person who had written it couldn't quite believe it himself. Vilhelm was completely amazed reading it, he just couldn't stop looking at it, the only ones who could know what happened were the men who stayed behind protecting the Empire's base there. It had been built as a diplomatic relation-building a long time ago when the goddess gave the go-ahead and gave her blessing to exchange progress between the two factions, Vilhelm had even visited the place checking that everything was in order. But everything changed when the Goddess suddenly began to call her troops desperately and to fortify the city hastily. The empire fearing the worst decided not to take the risk and to evict almost all the personnel and leave only a group observing what was going on without intervening. These observation soldiers never returned and a reconnaissance group was sent to see what happened, hence the origin of the report now in Vilhem's hands. They only managed to find the building now in ruins and the bodies destroyed, there were no survivors.

All they were able to find from the observers' research were impossible pictures of horrible monsters. Beings of colossal size to some no bigger than a dog. Armed with claws and teeth, as well as some with armor and weapons. The sky a swarm of these beasts was uncountable. A couple of videos showed the group's desperate attempt to return to base and close the portal to return home and escape the inferno, the same video showed their violent deaths being eaten alive, the screams of panic and regret that were common to Vilhelm. That was not a battle, it was a holocaust. Those creatures in the video had done the same all over the place, there was no way of knowing their full extent. Dragons had taken over that world.

And yet the recon team mentioned that they didn't find a single one of those atrocities, the whole trip went smoothly apart from seeing the survivors trying to stay alive. They only encountered 3 of them, they looked like personal servants of the goddess Nediadis because of their uniforms, but none of their faces matched the database they had secretly made. They were quite confused and did not know what happened either, as they indicated that when they woke up they found everything destroyed as well. The girls themselves were rescued by the reconnaissance team and brought back to be taken care of. Also, it mentions how the group was surprised to find the sunrise because, in an unexpected way they saw how the sun had risen again as if it had always been there, something completely impossible for something that astrologers had affirmed was a Rogue planet that traveled in the void between galaxies. Everything was one contradiction after another, the planet of Aria had the scientists completely surprised, it was impossible to divide reality from fiction in that crazy world, but if the inexplicable existence of the Goddess Nediadis and her strange and incomprehensible powers had been confirmed, what was not possible in reality?

But inside Vilhelm's mind dwelt another thought of this enormous armageddon, that of divine retribution. The Goddess Nediadis had sworn to take her beloved rival off his hands as if she were above all, untouchable and arrogant and thereby ignited the flame of the extinction of his world. God had punished Nediadis' recklessness with the yoke of power, making sure to punish each and every one of those responsible. This great little coincidence proved once again the true divine now of Adelis, who seemed to be destiny's favorite daughter. Vilhelm was smiling joyfully inside to see how his rival was still alive again, how he still had a chance to see her again in his favorite game, strategy.

Another man entered the place, and another officer, Fred had just arrived to talk to his superior. As he approached and saw the photos, he immediately realized what Vilhelm was reading.

"Did it just come to you too?"
"What do you think of that? Absolutely Brutal"
"Scary, isn't it?"

"It's as if I were reading a story from the bible"

"We were lucky we didn't bet big on that place"
"Otherwise we would all be in those photos"

"What will the Oberkommando do?"
"There is no way to even take this report seriously"

"What do you think"
"Abandon the whole place, it's the only logical reason to that damn place without God now"

"....."

"Oh no, you've got that "thinking" look on your face"
"What is the noble prodigal son planning now?"

"This report, the damage, the devastation"
"Isn't this the kind of story that appears in the Bible as God punishes sinful people?"
"There is no way Aria wasn't"
"....."
"And if this really was that?"
"Wouldn't this mean then that Nediadis is no more?"
"...."
"That would be good news for us too"

"Hold it right there for a moment"
"Don't get so far ahead of yourself, genius boy"
"Nobody's going to set foot back in that place, nobody's that crazy"
"There's no way to guarantee that one of those giant skeleton demon dragons isn't out there on the loose"
"And no one from Oberkommando will green-light an idea like that"

"I know, the place is lost, no one disputes that"
"....."
"But what if we are going to help the survivors?"
"A small presence helping people rebuild?"
"They'll appreciate it."

"Well, it's not like we're being uncivilized and leaving them to their own luck"
"Obviously we'll look for ways to help, but there's not much we can do, by a little and the planet almost exploded"
"But what's the real idea?"

"Survivors will not ask our intentions as long as we help them to live"
"...."
"And what if while we help them we use some people to check the mines again for more Red Mercury?"
"After all there is no longer Nediadis' castle above it, and with her dead, they will surely bother to reclaim what we do."
"We can use heavy mining equipment"

"It could be ....."
"But it won't be permanent, the risk of those monsters coming back is high"
"They won't let you use heavy equipment and you will be lucky if they approve a small humanitarian aid project for a while"
"Your idea doesn't have much future this time"

"It doesn't matter"
"Every milliliter of Red Mercury we extract is valuable enough"
"We can't miss this opportunity to get more quickly!"

"Brave and bold"
"Opportunistic even on reversals"
"Yes, that goes more with you"
"Interesting, I will see what I can do"
"I'll try to talk to Rembrant first so that when I ask him he'll agree right away"
"That should make things a little easier"
"I think he was just checking the barracks, maybe if I go now I can catch him before he leaves"

"Time to take advantage is short"
"Hurry then"

Fred put his officer's hat back on and left the room. As he went out on his little messenger mission he passed by another man who entered the room, a new report for Vilhem's hands, detailing his next possible opportunity to find his rival. Fred put his officer's hat back on and left the room. As he was leaving on his little messenger mission he passed by another man who entered the room, a new report for Vilhem's hands, detailing his next possible opportunity to find his rival. Dilan the defector scientist was reporting the completion of one of his projects, The Project: Salty Whisper, which had given positive results in the tests carried out, so now he was handing it over to the Oberkommando for its use. The problems with the transfer of large masses of water had finally been solved, with it they had free use without restriction to deploy their largest armed forces currently available anywhere they wanted, a revolution in the military field. With it, they would finally fulfill their promise to force its return home. Now it only remained to find an opportunity to make the first use of it and show the world that the Empire was still a force to be feared, and who better to decide that than the boy genius of Vilhelm, although for this occasion he would need to work alongside a real superior in a long time, The Großadmiral Holtzendorff.