"Oh indeed, sir, it was a blast!” Said the latest Ölŕun Valkyrie who had yet to fall into the habit of stoic, almost melancholy silence that was common amongst the best of the best. Not that they lacked a sense of humour, the Valkyrie Lance Corporal Asonus had been given the codename Göll because it came from an old tale about a loudmouth warrior. Rainer liked Göll for his down to earth personality and brutal honesty.
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KABOOM!
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The two men look up at the skies and are stunned by what they see. The huge but graceful Dreadnought Firestorm was spewing shimmering black smoke, which could only mean a leakage of Class B Æther.
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“Art our mates in the sky having a wee problem, Lord General?” Asked the enlisted man sarcastically.
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As if in response, the airships Ætheric Storm Generator activated, the Dreadnought was engulfed in an angry silvery cloud that distorted the air like heat while bright blue bolts of electricity bounced about the Ætheric Storm.
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Some idiot had set the superweapon to maximum power on the day that the rebels had organised a surprise bombing. The resulting Storm would slowly form a supercell of similar strength to the Great Ætherical Storm of Vorantis that had been powerful to dislodge a crystalline in addition to a superfluid form of Æther that was previously unknown, they were subsequently added to the Ætheric Classification System as Class F and G respectively.
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The Dreadnought was lost in a blinding flash of thousands of hues of yellow and orange in a spectacular show. The Thermobaric magazines had detonated, anyone on that craft was dead. Including Lord Admiral Blackwing.
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And then the realisation of what this was slammed into him like a shot from the main railgun of the legendary Coalition War Vorantine Superweapon, the Steamhammer.
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Valerie had blown up the flagship of the Fleet as the signal.
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“Men!” Rainer bellowed at his handpicked team of eleven Valkyries.
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They lined up neatly to receive his orders.
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“We have an Ætharch Earl to usurp! We shalt storm Château Ego!”
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______________________________
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The unmistakable sound of gunfire sliced cleanly through the silence of the night as the Earl'a guards were gunned down or surrendered. The Earl's own soldiers were no match for the absolute best of the best that Rainer had selected.
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The main door was left handing off its hinges despite being made of oak.
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The multitude of people were spared: Viziers of the Conclave that were running away, maids that ignored the men and continued dusting, and dishevelled looking clerks that pleaded for them to save them from Malum's wrath.
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There was one person they ran into that was treated very differently: Malum's wife.
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“What is the meaning of this, Rainer dares to have the audacity to aim guns at the rightful Countess of Narciss?” Countess Mi had yelled at Rainer and his men, who had less of a reaction than the statues nearby.
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“Countess Lillian Mi Ego nèe Börte, I find thou complacent in the crimes of thy husband, colluding with malignant religious forces, and for being a huge disappointment to the Glorious Earldom of Narciss.”
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The Countess opened her mouth and then closed it. There simply was no argument to be had. She seemed to wilt like a dying flower as she resigned to her fate.
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“Cosminè, Seraphina, Marla, Icaria, Valerie I, Nyctra, Aurora, Argent, and Calliope were all Countesses of Narciss aswell, four were sovereign rulers, the rest were not, yet they must all be rolling in their graves with laughter at someone like thou having a portrait among them.”
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Much to Rainers surprise, Mi said nothing.
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“I sentence thou to death by firing squad with my powers as Lord Gen- No...as the Marshal of the Grand Narcissian Army vested in me by this state of emergency we art going through.”
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Click. The sounds of eleven fully automatic rifles being aimed.
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“F-“
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All of them fired early out of spite for the cultist Countess. Mi was sent flying a short distance and came to a rest covered in blood pouring out of her.
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She gasped and made no more sounds.
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“Killing a woman is nearly always wrong...Lillian Mi is one of those cases where it is not due to her being a sadistic, even evil conspirator to Malum's repulsive reign.” Rainer told them. The men nodded in agreement.
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They continued moving ever closer to the Wing of Château Ego, where the sovereign traditionally resided.
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A woman wearing the white robes with a fur collar that were only worn by the Grand Vizier of the Conclave.
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Victorine took off sprinting back where she had come from
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“What in Empyrea art the lot of thou waiting for, the second coming of Earl Ego‽ GET HER!” Rainer ordered, determined not to let Malum's Grand Vizier get away quite so easily.
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She was, after all, his sister.
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Therefore, Victorine was an excellent hostage.
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