44

Chapter 44: Crucial mistakeNotes:

The chapter I have been waiting for since the beginning. Only took 78.000 words to get here haha

Now the story has properly started.

I literally got no sleep today so please forgive typos.

EDIT: 17.000 Hits!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Chapter 44

Well, her attempted covert operation had failed in the most spectacular fashion possible. By pretending to be a witch cultist in order to escape Petelgeuse and his minions she had led her own ally to believe that she was actually part of the enemy´s faction. How unfortunate.

Tanya still supported her initial decision to deceive the sin archbishop, for it had been the most logical option at the time. Ideally she would have avoided facing a numerically superior force in relatively unknown terrain and a priority target strapped to her back. Not to mention that their leader could apparently revive himself near infinitely and she was running low on bullets.

Now though her plan had backfired, but was not completely unsalvageable. She doubted that she could realistically convince Rem of her innocence in a timely manner while simultaneously escaping. Even if she could, she had good reason not to try. In the worst case Rem wouldn´t believe her, but Petelgeuse would and she would need to defend herself against both parties as a result.

Seeing as there were far more witch cultists than maids on the battlefield she would not risk souring her relations with the deranged psychopaths. Still, she could not allow them to kill Rem or that would paint her as an accomplice in their crimes. Tanya could already hear the voice of the judge in her ear asking her why she didn´t save her ally if she wasn´t actually a criminal.

So she needed to find a way to both not blow her cover and keep the madmen from killing her. (At least until she was out of eyesight.)

"Don´t kill her! She is part of the plan!"

A statement that was made all the more ridiculous when said person was busy slaughtering cult members in droves right in front of their eyes.

"Huh? Truly? Sadly I fear that I cannot allow her to further destroy the loyal tools of her will. If they are all dead they will not be able to serve her. And to not repay her love would be most slothful!"

Dead workers were the worst kind of worker. It seemed he could realize the worth of his subservient employees after all.

"Then only immobilize her. I will handle the rest."

Hopefully Roswaal would forgive the possible mutilation of one of his servants. Although this unpleasant affair was arguable his fault for not protecting his land properly. He had the duty to make sure that nothing major like a full blown invasion happened in his domain. A duty he had outrageously neglected by not leaving behind a single guard to care for a royal candidate out in the woods! Honestly, in the Empire he would have been court martialed for gross incompetence.

Petelgeuse´s host body turned sharply to face the rampaging maid and Tanya´s sensory formulas went haywire. However only the motion and pressure based ones detected anything, but the purely magic focused ones didn´t pick up any signals at all. Tanya had only a few seconds to wonder about the strangeness of whatever he was using before she could see some of the dust particles in the air mysteriously divert their path.

The blue haired maid was truly a ferocious fighter who moved far faster than a normal unaugmented human could. Her strength and control were also extremely impressive which she masterfully demonstrated through the use of her Morningstar. Honestly if the girl had sufficient magical aptitude and switched to a more sensible weapon then Tanya would have welcomed her with open arms into her personal battalion. Although her anger management perhaps required some work.

Nonetheless was she no match for Petelgeuse´s strange (somehow non-magical!) force field. She was just about top swing down the massive spiked ball on some absolutely deserving cultist´s head when she as well as the chain stopped in mid air. Just like Tanya´s bullets had done a couple minutes ago.

Tanya´s current theory classified his ability as a computation-less, chant-less projection of an unknown, seemingly not mana dependent force. The easiest way to imagine it was as if he had invisible arms surrounding him that could shield him and grasp solid objects. They were almost definitely semi-solid as Petelgeuse could conjure and dismiss them at will.

When they were active they presumably connected back to his body, although that could also be a misinterpretation of her extremely limited data. Observing the dirt particles in the wind was hardly the best way to define the outlines of his invisible projection.

Regardless of how his ability functioned she didn´t want to make contact with it the same way poor Ram had done. In the likely event that he would make an attempt to grasp her or Emilia with his "arms" she needed some sort of smokescreen to make his position visible. Without a smoke grenade...

Ah...

All the stress had made her forget Beatrice´s lessons already. Under the many spells that had been mentioned in her books an "Shamak" was ideal for this role. Not only would it reveal his "arms" but also blind and disorient him if hit. It was literally perfect.

With resolve in her voice she called out to the grinning Petelgeuse before he could start a new tirade: "Please just knock her out. There is no need to harm her. That would be a waste."

She could have sworn he pouted for a moment before his grin returned. A seemingly random jerk of her head ended her struggle and the maid went limp in his imperceptible grasp.

"Indeed, indeed. Such diligence. Perhaps she has not understood how loved she is? Her diligence could serve our cause well."

Tanya resisted the urge to roll her eyes. The lunatic was annoyingly persistent with his platitudes.

"Yes. I will take her under my care and explain to her to the truth. After a while even the most stubborn mind must understand reality."

She didn´t even need to lie. That was exactly what she intended to do. After a good night´s sleep of course. If Rem spread misinformation around then nasty rumours could develop that damaged her reputation.

"Marvellous! So thoughtful! So attentive! Bringing more souls into her service is a noble goal."

So far everything had gone extraordinarily well. Rem had shown up not even a minute ago which meant that the carriage was somewhere nearby. Her escape was almost in arms reach.

"I would appreciate it you could set her down. I am going to handle her from now on."

He complied and Tanya tentatively made her way over to the madman. Even if he believed her to be on his side she still didn't trust him. Petelgeuse could snap at any moment and decide to kill her for any number of idiotic reasons. Careful not to let her precaution show on her face she picked the maid up and hefted her over her other shoulder. Her eyes did not leave his position as she slowly backed away towards the front gates.

Despite her relaxed smile she was inwardly shaking from both exertion and anxiety. What could go wrong on the last few metres?

"Forgive me Pride, but you cannot leave with the vessel candidate. Leave the half-elf here."

Shit.

Plan B.

"Petelgeuse! Oh no! Look over there!"

He twisted his neck to look where she was pointing and was promptly turned into a human piñata by her trusty sidearm. Truthfully Tanya was not even surprised that he fell for the oldest trick in the book. She guessed that carelessness was a side effect of practical immortality.

The game was up and deception would no longer work so she bolted as fast as she could to the exit. Simultaneously two less than photorealistic illusions rushed out in different directions. They were hastily made and would not hold for long, but their function was only to divert the initial fire of the remaining cultists.

Her muscles ached and burned, but she pushed on with as much strength as her enhancement formulas could give her. Mana was being used up fast. Time was running out. Where was the damned carriage?

Fireballs and daggers were largely missing her, but a few managed to hit which consumed more energy than normal, because her shields were already weakened from having to cover two more bodies. The situation was getting direr by the second.

"El Shamak" she almost cried out.

Behind her a huge black cloud blocked the line of sight to her pursuers and gave Tanya enough time to reach the gates. There! The coach was rapidly approaching on the road. Soon she could load off her charges and delay the cultists afterwards until they got back to safety.

Subaru and her useless guard were sitting on the front seat and looked appropriately alarmed at the situation.

Nearly there.

Everything could still end well.

Nearly there.

Nearly there.

Suddenly from one moment to the next her strained shield was shattered in an instant and she was thrown through the air. She made an attempt to stabilize herself with a flight spell, but before she got the chance her whole body was gripped tightly by an invisible power...

Oh no.

Petelgeuse had hidden away more vessels in the woods.

She was fucked.

"You are unworthy of her love. You thought you could so easily deceive me? Wrong."

Pain.

A scream.

Unimaginable pain.

Nearly all her bones were crunched at the same time.

Only her enhancement formulas allowed her to stay conscious and register that she was fling in the direction of the carriage.

A hard impact, but she barely noticed.

Subaru was saying something that she couldn´t understand over the rushing of blood in her ears.

A loud ripping sound.

More pain.

Was she dying?

After all this time...

This was how her existence would end?

Disappointment weighed harder on her mind than the agony of her crushed rib cage and failing internal organs.

"F-Fuck you..." she whispered with the last air in her collapsed lungs. If she could she would have laughed in Being X´s stupid face, but she lacked the energy for it.

The pain dulled...

Her vision dimmed...

And Tanya von Degurechaff died.

Notes:

What? How could you do that? What is happening?

Stay tuned for the next chapter :)