“You two, sheath your maces and come with me”

“Of course my Praetorian”

They both immediately complied with my command, placed their maces within their hilts and then lined up behind me. I couldn’t help but feel like a mother duck with her ducklings.

But still, to think that everything almost ended this early on because my sword swing was deflected. I really need to keep up my guard in the future. 

But the gas that I released, I think I can do something with that. I was able to override control from two soldiers with the gas from before, I wonder if I can do that with more. Worst case, I will be able to hear the thoughts of the abyssals around me which would be what is most likely to happen with the queens and princesses stationed here. Best case, I can get a small army to cause some chaos.

So, where would be best? Somewhere high up where my gas could spread quickly. Got it. The guard towers, they are the highest points in this place and I should be able to get there relatively unimpeded. While our fighting in the armor did make some noise, I can only hope that nobody heard it.

“You two, help me hide these bodies”

Like magic, they immediately picked up both corpses and hid them within a crate while I tried to wipe away the obvious blood with my hand. I could command them just by simply using my remaining horn, but I couldn’t help but feel like verbally speaking the commands made me more human. At least as human you could be with two wings, a tail, and a horn instead of an eye.

When we all finished I commanded them to follow me, and the three of us walked out of the armory. I felt like a praetorian having some soldiers following them would be relatively inconspicuous and I was right. Thanks to that, heading over to the nearest guard tower was easy. Climbing up though, was not. If only there was something easier than stairs

“My Praetorian, would you like us to carry you?”

Wait, that was an option!? Actually, that would be incredibly embarrassing.

“No thank you soldiers, I’ll uh.. Just take a quick break though”

I know this tower is tall, but how many stairs are in it!? Although, through the cracks in the tower wall I can see the rest of the castle. I can even see what is beyond it.

Looking outside the castle walls I can see nothing but ruins and destroyed buildings. I can't remember the last time I ever actually ventured outside the castle. I have always either been in the barracks or teleported to some other destroyed world. Looking up higher into the dark sky I can make out the sun, but it looked blocked out by something. Most likely the moon. I wonder if it is always like that, or if it is like that only for today. I remember that the world I used to be in had occasional events where the moon would block out the sun, but those would usually only last a couple minutes at their longest. 

Alright, finally caught my breath, time to continue going up these ridiculous stairs.

“Finally *pant pant* at the *pant pant* top. Fuck those stairs”

The three soldiers at the top of the tower looked at me confused. I guess due to both my loose speech and usage of the word fuck. It was different from the stilted dialogue that most units spoke in and profanity was rarely used due to it contributing little to the message. I didn’t care though. What I wanted to know is why was I so out of breath over climbing fucking stairs but never once got winded from anything else in my memory. I remember fighting and flying around before without getting tired, is it something new? No. It's just this stupidly high tower and these annoying stairs. Well, since these soldiers would rarely ever need to come down and nearly everything can be communicated with telepathy anyways, I guess they would not need to improve the way up. 

As soon as I finally caught my breath I pulled the sword from my back and began moving towards the first soldier hoping to catch her off guard. At the same time I told the two soldiers under my control to attack the remaining guards.

“guh -ack”

My sword landed true and impaled her through the chest. Just to make sure, I pulled out the sword and used it to cut her head off. I couldn’t risk the chance of her faking her death, although whether a soldier was even capable of that, I did not know.

Looking over I saw that one of the guards was already dealt with, and I helped one of my soldiers with the last guard by stabbing him in the back. We were so high up I didn’t even bother with cleaning up the bodies and I told both of my soldiers to stand guard.

Looking out the tower I could see even farther than through the crack from earlier. I could see roaming bands of what I could only assume to be fodder and soldiers. I could just barely make them out, but their bodies looked so decrepit it was a wonder how they could even continue their patrol or whatever it is they were doing. 

I could also see patches of roaming masses, with pieces of arms and legs coming out of a hulking body. I guess these were the abominations, although getting to actually see them was something completely different. Suddenly hearing all those poor villagers scream seemed all the more justified. Some of the masses could be described as nothing but blobs, like a rolled up clay ball made of flesh. Others looked like they were imitating animals, I could see one that looked like it was using some arms to try and imitate a wing.

What was most peculiar of all those was some specific patches that seemed to change over time. One second it would be a mess with purple grass and what looked like the remains of a charred house, the next second there grass would be green and there would be a house on fire in a relatively similar location to where the ruins were. And then another second after that patches of the grass would be a mix of green and purple, and the ruins and burning down house would be visible, seemingly overlapping on top of each other. It is like piece land is trying to occupy the same exact space as another piece of land. Almost like those two spots were merging or something. Just thinking of what that could mean makes me nervous.

Sightseeing is not the reason I came up here though. I made sure all the windows were open before finding a spot in the center of the room. Focusing for a bit, I could feel my wings begin to produce the gas that I could use. Assuming everything went according to plan, I could assume control over all of the soldiers and fodder in the nearby area, using them to either kill or capture every praetorian, princess, and queen in the vicinity, and then finally confront and kill the Empress. It was a shaky plan with little hope of success, something that I was well aware of, but it is all I could come up with right now. I can only hope that the element of surprise would be enough to save me.

Thunk Thunk

My train of thought was interrupted by the sound of two heavy objects hitting the ground behind me. In an instant I turned my head around hoping that I did not hear what I think I heard.

The two soldiers that I took control over were not guarding the entrance like I had commanded them too, instead they were collapsed on the floor. One had a hole the size of a fist in their chest, the other had their head split in two seemingly from a strike with a blade. Just beyond them was a figure I could tell just from her presence alone.

The last time she saw me with an eye I was too scared to properly look at her. Her body was slim and was wearing a hybrid between a dress and a ninja’s garb. Her body looked so frail that a normal person would be afraid she would break under the wind, but I was well aware that iron would break before her skin would. Her face looked oh so pretty, like she could win hearts with a simple smile. The smile the face was wearing currently did nothing but strike me with fear. One of her hands was balled in a fist, covered in blood. The other was holding a knife that was also stained with blood. 

They were the last person that I had wanted to see here. The one standing over my soldier's bodies was none other than my Princess.