Chapter 67: Divinatus

 

Early dawn, about one thousand soldiers from the Seventh Army arrived at Divinatus. Yuupiecca was what the people would say astonished. Amaze at the sight of Divinatus. At the sheer size of the coastal city. He stood at the outskirts with a still body and a slack mouth. Yuupiecca hasn’t been to Divinatus before, only heard of it from the stories that Balestra and the others told him. 

From what the stories tell him, he expected a normal city by the coastline. A couple of large buildings and settlement by the beach. Perhaps even harbour and some fishing boats. 

What he did not expect was Divinatus to be a literal fort. It isn’t some small countryside city where one goes for a trip.

No, Divinatus is a sizable city with large walls surrounding the whole diameter of the place. The thick walls even extend out to the ocean in a complete circle. If one looked closely, one could see that the City was actually seventy per cent on the ocean. It was a city that could give Prashyufa a run for its money. The great floating city of Divinatus.

Yuupiecca had his doubts at first, he didn’t want to say it to everyone, but he thought Klauna had finally lost her mind when she asked him to make a city sail out into the ocean. But now… now after seeing the great city first-hand, he could feel a surge of hope within him. He started having thoughts that maybe it was a plausible thing to do after all.

“Amazing ain’t it?” Kazakiel asked the Analyst.

“Yeah… this place... I didn’t think it would be this big of a city.” Yuupiecca replied, still a little bit short of breath.

“Let’s go. We have a mission to complete and it’s not standing here doing nothing,” Blackmask said as he led the way on the shortest path to the gate of the city. The other soldiers nodded and followed him from behind.

As great of a city Divinatus is, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows over there. Outside the walls of the great city, were refugee camps scattered all over the place. These were the remaining five hundred thousand or so Ak’hims that were still alive. From as far as the eyes could see, there were just beaten-up looking Ak’hims walking around, scavenging for supplies and shelter. It was a terrible sight to say the least. Yuupiecca had no reason to believe that it wasn’t the same inside as well.

As the Seventh army, or rather, the Eighth Army walked towards the gate, they could feel the various gazes of the civilians as they observed the men in uniform. 

Some of them were the eyes of discontent, discontent about their current living conditions and the situation that they were in. Some of them had eyes of wonder and amazement, children and hopeful citizens who came to view the soldiers of the kingdom as war heroes and the best of their kind.  Some of them, the eyes of despair, for the very presence of soldiers within Divinatus only meant that the Alliance had pushed them back so far. That death was inevitable for them.

And finally, some of them a look of fear, fear of what the soldiers of the Kingdom would do to them. The military was a very scary entity to a lot of citizens. With the bulk of the army facing off against the Alliance, the people of the kingdom were left to fend for themselves. And if that wasn’t enough, they were robbed blind and forced out of their homes by their very own soldiers. It cannot be helped that they were to look at the Soldiers with such eyes.

The men under Yuupiecca and even Yuupiecca himself were shaken under the intense stare. Nonetheless, they moved onwards towards the gates of Divinatus. If their glares were enough to bring them down, they wouldn't be here in the first place.

“You know… I’m wondering. Who is in charge of the civilians while we are gone?” Natahiniel asked, making an idle conversation in an attempt to ignore the stares.

“It should be the governor of Divinatus. I heard he’s a good man,” Aki replied.

“Must be tough being him. I can’t imagine having to take care of half a million people in this situation.” Sladar said to the group.

“He’s not alone, scouts have reported that there are several powerful merchants and Familias still in charge of the place,” Blackmask added to the topic.

“Familias? I thought they all ran away?” Natahiniel asked.

“The ones that are in Divinatus are the ones who are too afraid to even run away. We will do well to get rid of them when we have the chance. We can’t allow them to interfere with our task,” Blackmask said. A little hint of grudge in his voice.

“In due time. We need to first have a round of discussion with them. Sladar, Aki, since you two know about this governor so much, you’ll be in charge of arranging our meeting," Yuupiecca ordered the two Analyst recruits.

Both Sladar and Aki rolled their eyes and looked at Yuupiecca with an annoyed face, displeased about the task that they were given. Though they replied with a salute. “Yessir.”

Crossing the permanently opened gate of Divinatus, the Seventh Army came into the sight of more civilians. The stares intensified as they weaved through the sea of people further inside the great city. The people inside weren’t as bad as the people outside the city, living life as normal, but one will not miss their looks of fear and despair. 

One other thing about the city that it feels very weird to step into. The city felt a little bit slanted, and the Ak’hims could feel the city wobbling somehow.

“What do we do now, Capta— General?” Yuuki asked, ignoring the strange sensation he was feeling in Divinatus.

“We need to set up a base of operations. Lord Klauna said to me that she has a warehouse within Divinatus. I think we set up there. You two, get to your jobs,” Yuupiecca replied as he pointed at Aki and Sladar.

Nodding at their officer in charge, Sladar, Aki and a group of small Analysts and Saboteurs split off to another part of the city. The other soldiers of the Eighth Army saluted as they followed Yuupiecca through the floating city towards a warehouse that Klauna owns in Divinatus.

The crawling feeling crept up to them. At first, it made them a little nauseous, but it soon faded away as they got used to the feeling. The Eighth Army marched through the roads as they observed the large houses and the beautiful sights of the city. The flea markets where merchants were selling goods to thousands of citizens who were buying their necessities. It was a weird sight. 

Things were going along as usual for the citizens as if a large war that will determine the survival of their entire race was never happening. As if the hundreds of thousands of refugees didn’t exist. The place looked to be largely unaffected by the war.

Or at least citizens that were trying their best to ignore the war.

Yuupiecca ordered the soldiers to stay focused and concentrate on the reason that they were here. They then speed through the residential area in order to reach the warehouse faster.

 

* * * * *

 

It took them a few hours, but they finally arrived at the warehouse. Another voice of amazement came to Yuupiecca. Not just him either, the other officers of the army let out looks of amazement as well. Klauna’s warehouse, which they assume was just a large building in the middle of Divinatus, turned out to be a matrix of interconnected storage units. 

But what shocked the Eighth Army was the sight of troops stationed within the area, to protect the warehouses from looters. They weren’t exactly military like the Army, but they worked the same. A small private army of about a few hundred men that were being led by a certain handsome man with long hair. He has an endless smile on his face and eyes like a hawk, constantly observing a person’s actions for a weakness. An Analyst.

“Officer Yuupiecca! Long-time no see!” The man said. His arms stretch out in a motion as if he wants to hug Yuupiecca.

“Sennari… I should have known…” Yuupiecca replied with an annoyed tone.

“You know this guy?” Kazakiel asked, taking note of the intimacy of their voice towards each other.

Blackmask and Natahiniel were interested in his identity as well.

“This is the guy that I replaced when he left the Seventh Army. The last officer within the battalion.” Yuupiecca explained before facing the said person. 

“Also, it’s General now. Not officer, Sennari. Get that right,” Yuupiecca brought out his chest. Wanting to flaunt his new position. Nevermind the fact that he didn’t really care about it.

“Yes, yes." Sennari gave a dismissive wave. "Lord Klauna had already informed me about who is in charge,” Sennari said to Yuupiecca, not caring about his newfound status.

“What? When? She never told me about this?” Yuupiecca got a little bit more annoyed at him.

“Via a letter addressed to me. We’ve been keeping in contact ever since Prashyufa.” Sennari turned his back towards the officers. He then started moving slowly towards the storage units.

“The shipments we sent to Divinatus…” Yuupiecca muttered as he remembered a certain event in Prashyufa. The moment where Klauna sent a ton of food and various other resources to a ‘warehouse’ in Divinatus. He himself inspected the papers.

It was then followed by a look of realization. ‘Have she planned this from the very beginning? Or was it just pure coincidence?’ Yuupiecca thought to himself. 

“Come on, don’t lag behind. I’ll show you guys around.” The smiling Analyst said to the officers. They followed after him.

“I wasn’t aware we still have some reserve armies,” Kazakiel said as he looked around the warehouse, specifically the soldiers moving around the area.

“I believe you are Captain Kazakiel? Some of these people are my men that followed me when I retired from the position. The rest of them are just people that I recruited into my private corporation. Or rather, my private army.” He let out a small laugh as he guided the soldiers to the warehouse.

“I wasn’t even aware that Lord Klauna owns lands in Divinatus,” Natahiniel commented.

“She doesn’t. You guys are new here, so you won’t notice. But this place used to just be slums. Slums where Klauna and the other ‘street rats’ Analysts loiter around before we joined the army. It wasn’t until last year that I started changing this place to suit my liking. She sent a lot of resources to these warehouses and we are still retrieving stuff as we speak.”

“Yeah, I was wondering where all those resources that we harvested from those mines went,” Yuupiecca said. 

Yuupiecca then did a double-take. He felt that something was off. “But wait, if she doesn’t own these lands, won’t the authorities get involved?”

“What authority?” Sennari turned around and winked at him. “As far as I could tell, she’s the one in charge now. And if somebody wants to mess with us, like those incompetent Familias and the governor. Well… that’s what the private army is here for. All loyal followers of Lord Klauna.”

Yuupiecca doubted their loyalty to Klauna but decided that the mission is above him. He would have to cooperate with Sennari. He doesn’t really hate the person, he just didn’t like his flamboyant attitude.

“This is it. The warehouse she wanted me to show you when you arrive," Sennari said as he pointed at the wall. 

He then moved out of the way, instructing his men to open the large bulky door in order to show Yuupiecca and the others the content inside. The gate slowly opened before revealing what was inside.

For the third time that day, Yuupiecca was shocked. Inside the warehouse were tons of magic crystals. Various different crystals from all shapes and sizes. Beyond that, there were tons of gold, possibly taken from when they stripped the mines. Yuupiecca had often wondered how he would get this mission off the ground with the resources that he has. But now, he was starting to see that it might actually be a possibility.

The soldiers of the Seventh, rather the Eight Army, secured the funds that they needed for the next step.