(A/N: Song of the Day: The Chain by Fleetwood Mac)
/\\//\\//\
"Alright, Rimuru, you wanted to know how we'll combat their airships? Pay a bit of attention. It's going to be cool."
Artoria had found an open field to show Rimuru their weapon to combat the Eastern Empire's airships. Rimuru was very focused on coming up with a solution, and while there were many other solutions—like Carrera launching some nuclear magic—Artoria decided to go with something cooler. The Eastern Empire isn't the only one that could have some kind of fancy-looking airship that would make the big targets.
Artoria held out her hand, and small motes of light began to gather before forming into her lance, Rhongomyniad. Now, it wasn't directly said, but all the evidence was there, and besides, making things was part of Rhongymyniad's specialties.
"What are you doing?" Rimuru questioned, tilting his head to see where she was going with this.
"Just watch," Artoria excitedly told him, a slight tone of eagerness in her voice.
Rhongomyniad shone brightly before branches of light surged forward, taking a shape in the sky. The branches moved with a mind of their own, forming the construct Artoria had in mind.
It didn't take long, in fact, it was short, but the display was mesmerizing and breathtaking. With a final glow of light, it was finished.
In the sky was a floating ship. It was massive and looked like something from royalty. Rimuru looked up, stunned, not knowing what to say or make of what just happened.
"Could you always do that?"
"Yeah, I've done it before, but you were out."
"What else can it do?"
"If I want, I can make an entire city appear and adjust it for whatever different needs are required," Artoria casually threw out in a nonchalant tone, not caring or realizing the magnitude of what she was saying.
Rimuru decided not to dwell on her words before focusing back on the ship in the sky.
"So, that's our own airship?"
"Yup. This is the first, and most likely, only ship of our air force."
"Does it have a name?"
"Yeah. It's called the Ehangwen."
"What does it mean?"
"It's the meeting hall of King Arthur. Anyway, we'll use that to take out all the airships of the Eastern Empire. Except for one. That one will need some more firepower to be handled."
"More firepower? I don't know, that already seems enough."
"It might be, but I'm not taking any chances."
"So, I know you already talked about it, but what kind of help should we get from our allies? You know, I'd like to get Milim to join our fight."
"Well, there is one way we can get Milim to help us, but we'd have to be very fast, and act now."
"What can we do?"
"So, there's this dragon her dad gave her, and-," As Artoria was trying to explain, Rimuru interrupted her.
"Wait, wait, wait, just how old are you? I've been wondering this for some time, but you know a lot about the past of this world, but like in a…personal way like as if you personally witnessed them. You must be really old."
Artoria stayed silent for a few moments, as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath in and out before saying, "I'm going to pretend you didn't say that, so that I don't punch you into a slimy puddle."
Rimuru quickly realized his mistake about asking the age of a woman, even if Raphael had tried to warn him earlier.
"Okay. Noted. So, about Milim's dad."
"Yeah, alright, so," Artoria trailed off slightly as she put more thought into it. The one who created the angels, demons, and the skills, the manas. "…huh…now that I think about it, the imminent war with the Eastern Empire can boil down to daddy issues. Michael, that angel, and the other one, I forgot who they were. Probably not important," Arotira mumbled to herself, but Rimuru heard it.
Rimuru looked at her in confusion. Daddy issues? What could she possibly be talking about? How does a war go back to "daddy issues"? This wasn't making sense.
"You need to fill me in, what do you mean?"
"Oh, uh, it's also kind of related to you as well."
"What? Me? How?" Rimuru said in even more confusion. This was starting to get out of hand.
"Ah, don't worry about it, you're not where you should be at this moment, but it's okay."
Rimuru grew even more confused. Why was she suddenly speaking cryptically? Everything she was saying only led to more questions.
"Is there something I have to know?"
"Not really. So, about Milim's dragon. So, like some time ago, her dad gave her a dragon, she loved it, then some evil wizard guy killed it to try to control her, and it hilariously backfired when she laid an entire kingdom or empire to ruin. That's basically it," Artoria shrugged her shoulders as she quickly oversimplified the event.
"Really? This sounds like something you should go into more detail about."
"Not really. The actual important part is that the dragon became corrupted, and is now sealed in this place called the Dragon's Den."
"You're not proposing what I think you are, right?"
"So, we could go in there, fight it, and then you, or rather, Raphael, can help 'purify' it, and then reunite Milim with her pet dragon."
"Will it be hard?"
"No, but we do have to act. At this point, every day counts. With the many investigations going into members of the Western Council and the Free Guild, it's only a matter of time before they uncover connections to the Eastern Empire, and then that will open a whole other can of worms. Basically, a lot of eyes will be on the Eastern Empire, and some of their plans will be revealed. They're going to attack before it can get to that point, or else they'll face a much more prepared world. But don't worry, unless something unexpected happens, the war won't kick off in like a week or something."
"Don't say things like that! You're raising a flag!"
Artoria just looked at Rimuru with an expression that told him, "really?" before she explained to Rimuru how nonsense it was. "You serious, Rimuru? You believe in those superstitions? Rimuru, we're not in a story; this is real life, or a 'new' real life. This is why you don't judge characters for making the decisions they make when you watch a movie ot something."
"What? What do you mean?"
"Here's an example. When watching a horror movie, as an audience, you know what you would do if you were in a horror movie, but here's the thing: the characters in the movie don't know they're in a horror movie, so they might make decisions you say are 'dumb', but to them, it's normal or even routine."
"Oh, I see what you mean. Okay, okay, I got it."
"Now that that's cleared up, let's check out the Ehangwen."
Artoria jumped into the air and onto the Ehangwen. Rimuru followed suit by flying to it. He was a little skeptical. Not from the ship, but from the lack of weapons. There was nothing that looked like a weapon on here. Unless it fired a giant laser beam or something like that, he didn't know what to expect. He was expecting battleship turrets or something like that.
But if Artoria said it could take out airships, then it could take out airships.
Flawless circular reasoning.
/\\//\\//\
(Border between the Tempest Empire and the Eastern Empire.)
A scout was going through the trees. An Eastern Empire scout. He didn't know why, since not a lot of detail was given to him, but the higher-ups wanted to speed things up. It was clear things were heating up, and they wanted a good scouting report. Which meant deeper infiltration and more details.
It shouldn't be too bad, the dense trees provided good cover against the dragonnewts that would occasionally fly by, and the entire forest was quiet. All that was needed to be done was to do their job as usual; it would just take a little longer, that's all. And it should be easy, there were just trees, trees, and more trees. Not much to write or report about, but orders were orders.
He had traveled much further than usual, but nothing that should be too bad. He made sure to keep aware of his surroundings. Everywhere could be dangerous. Behind him, to his left, right, even above, as demonstrated by the dragonewts that would fly overhead.
Nothing he'd ever faced before. But that was the problem. Unfortunately, on this day, he'd come across something he'd never seen or expected.
As he was going across the trees, he immediately noticed someone trailing him. He went faster and pulled out a medium-length blade, prepared to engage in combat. As a scout, he wasn't heavily equipped for a fight. Speed and mobility were prioritized for someone in his role. The problem was now trying to get back. If one had found him, then it was only a matter of time before more came.
He took sharp, sudden, and random turns in certain directions, but whoever was following him kept up easily. A fight was going to happen. He turned around, ready to fight. Fighting in the trees would be problematic, so he jumped onto the ground and saw who was chasing him. It was dragonewt, but he looked more human-like.
But he noticed that he wasn't chasing him anymore. He stood on a branch, just watching him. He looked away as if he didn't want to know what was going to happen, or as if he winced at someone making a bad decision.
He didn't know it, but he was still prepared.
Until he landed.
The second he landed and touched ground, an explosion took place. No warning, no click, just an instant explosion. Dirt flew into the air in a column. His body and parts of his body were thrown upwards from the explosion.
It was quiet for a moment.
Until a scream pierced through the forest.
The scout let out a loud scream. He looked around and noticed his arms were blown off, and his body from the waist down was separated. It was a visceral sight of blood and other chunks of meat. Only his torso was intact. Seeing such a gruesome scene, he could only scream before the shock made him pass out. He died only a few seconds later. (A/N: Search "Da 5 Bloods - Minefield Scene" on YouTube. Just to give you an idea.)
The dragonnewt quickly inspected the body for any identification. He was warned that it would be a gruesome scene when it happened, but this was something else. At least he didn't suffer for too long.
'Lord Soeui, there's a code black,' the dragonewt sent a mental communication while he kept looking. He found papers that clearly reported what to expect in the forest and other strategic information.
A blur immediately appeared next to him. It was Soeui. Just at a glance, he knew what had happened. A few seconds later, another dragonewt dropped in from above, his wings flapping as he descended.
"Lord Soeui, what do you want us to do?" The dragonewt who just flew in questioned. Everyone here knew that this set off a fuse that couldn't be put out.
"Keep up your patrols, I'll report this to Lady Pendragon immediately. And you," Soeui addressed the other dragonnewt who inspected the body, "you know what to do with the body. Set it up as a trap."
With those words, Soeui disappeared in a blur and immediately headed for Artoria.
Instantaneously, he appeared in town and rushed to where Artoria was. Which was her house.
Unfortunately, it was a bad time. In her house, Artoria was carrying Shuna to their bedroom, with very clear intentions.
'Lady Pendragon-' Soeui's thought communication was immediately interrupted.
'Soeui, not now.'
'It's a Code Black.' Soeui responded immediately. It might've been disrespectful to her, but the circumstances called for it, and it's not like Artoria cared too much about that stuff.
"F****," Artoria muttered very quietly to hereslf as she put Shuna down, "I'm sorry, Shuna, but things just are about to get crazier than a sprayed roach," Artoria exclaimed as she immediately went to the doot of the house and opened it.
"What happened, Soeui? Be quick."
Soeui immediately responded without any hesitation, "A scout from the Eastern Empire was caught in a landmine while in the forest."
"Damn it. Okay, I'm putting our military on Fast Pace. I want our entire military to be able to deploy and fight within 3 hours at any given point in time. Go."
Soeui immediately disappeared. He rapidly made clones and alerted everyone he could as fast as possible.
Hours. They only had a few hours. First, they'd wonder where the scout is, then they'd send another team, and when they don't return, it'll be another, until it eventually escalates into their invasion. Artoria gave it less than a week. It seems there would be no saving Milim's pet dragon. There was no time.
Artoria summoned Rhongomyniad and summoned the Ehangwen. The massive ship appeared directly above the town. All preparations had to be done now.
She turned back to see a worried Shuna. She went to her and hugged her.
"Don't worry, Shuna, you and I will be fine. I'm not going to let a tyrant make you be worried."
"But have you considered the worst-case scenario?"
"I have. The worst-case scenario is a pyrrhic victory for the Eastern Empire. But we won't lose, I'll make sure of it. Even if I have to cross the delicate line of good and bad, and head down an 'unheroic' path that could change me, I'll do it, especially for our future."
"You're making me worried."
"I don't mean to do that, but I want you to know how far I'll go for us. If I'm going to change, or…alter, at least let it be for a good reason."
Artoria released Shuna before rushing to meet and prepare everyone for the coming of war.