When they returned to Remedios the camp was already in a buzz of activity, Mikan was brought to Remedios immediately and she wasted no time in starting to question him about what happened, the information that was returned ASIDE from Mikan himself, the entire point of their journey, was handed off to an attendant as if it were nothing, which next to Mikan's report, it might as well not have been more than nothing.

"Are you the only survivor?" Remedios asked.

Mikan shuddered, "I don't think so, I mean they hunted us pretty hard, but eventually they had to have turned back to their homes...there was no further point in chasing us, we were done there." He said, his voice carrying a note of horror laden finality. "I'm sure there are more out there." He said breathlessly as someone brought him a cup of something to drink, he lifted it to his lips with both hands and drank greedily, almost choking on it, coughing for a moment or two before regaining his composure as he resumed explaining all that transpired, he seemed oblivious to Remedios's twisted expression, the need to get the horror out of his mind and into the air was simply overwhelming, it rendered him blind to what was in front of him.

"...So in the end, we failed, but...we tried...we really tried, we bled on their wall, we killed their leader on his own wall, but they got reinforcements, they had help, something happened that turned the sky black and it..." Mikan shook his head. "We did kill a lot of them though, I don't know how many, but they paid a steep price to keep their city, if we'd had twice as many soldiers, we would have won, we could have surrounded them, we could have fended off their reinforcements, and even Blue Rose could not have fought a whole army!" He spat the words...and a healthy amount of spit with them, out in bitterness.

Remedios might have been more dense than an iron lump, but Yuri wasn't, and even if she didn't feel things the same way as others, that didn't mean she couldn't understand it from a pragmatic perspective. "You want to avenge your fellows?" Yuri asked, hoping to prompt him in the right direction.

He looked up from the spit stain in the dirt, meeting Yuri's eyes.

Even the dense Remedios couldn't miss where she was going with that. "You'll get your chance, very soon." She looked to Yuri, and on her face was a blissful expression, "This...this was one of the things I was waiting for, get everybody ready, we're going to move."

Yuri was stunned, "What? Move? Where?"

Remedios grabbed Yuri's arm with the strength of an adamantite warrior and yanked her away, quickly snapping out instruction that Mikan be given a cart to rest on while the camp was broken, and leaving the rest of the group stunned behind her as she rushed into her private tent.

"Queen Calca told me, she gave me signs to look for, she was guiding me to this, I didn't realize it right away, but then it hit me, this is our chance to start to really make things right. Its the first great blow against our many enemies and the restoration of the Holy Roble Kingdom." Remedios said, her eyes filled with fanatical glee.

"So...where are we going?" Yuri asked with some trepidation.

"Wenmark. We're going to Wenmark." Remedios said, "Someone is there who I very much want to see again."

"And the...hunting for heretics, the burnings to help you sleep?" Yuri asked, profoundly uncomfortable with the mad ramblings about Calca and quietly wondering if she should get the fuck out of this fight before things got out of her control.

Remedios paused, "We have the schedules, I suppose we might as well use them, send out small parties, no more than a dozen or so each, it'll be good for morale and we need scouts out there anyway."

"As you wish Commander. But who is it that we're going to run into at Wenmark?" She asked as she thought through what she knew of the place, seemed like a solid old religion stronghold from what she knew, perhaps there were military forces to link up with? Perhaps there was equipment to gather, or political allies to meet with for further support? The questions ran through her head only to cut short when Remedios replied.

"We're going to find Neia Baraja, and I'm going to kill her and her vile cult elites in one blow." Remedios said with a face so twisted that Yuri resolved she'd do anything to never see that expression again as long as she lived. She swallowed hard.

"I..." Yuri began and Remedios cut her off by grabbing both of Yuri's shoulders and squeezing hard enough to dent the metal inwards, "I said...get...them all...moving." Her eyes bored into Yuri's like a spoon through milk, and the woman nodded numbly and rushed out.

Yuri was efficient in the best of times and in the worst of times she was at the very least 'collected' but this was the first time in all her life she'd ever been driven, she worked with a mad fury as she rushed from place to place, calling on commanders and ordering the immediate preparation for a military march out of their hideaway, while all the soldiers were not ready, many were, and the rest would be training by doing in life or death combat. There was no chance Yuri was going to argue the matter now, and with her inhuman energy and drive to get the camp moving, it soon was. She calculated the duration of the march, and it fortunately wasn't all that far...far enough, but if nobody was looking for them, and nobody should be yet, then they had a good chance of arriving safely. Small teams were sent out as scouts far beyond the military perimeter, and even though an army could only move at the pace of its slowest soldier, an advance party, a flying column of cavalry could move far in advance of the main host to seize objectives and take the initiative in a fight. Even the dense as lead Remedios knew enough about strategy to know that in spite of the risks posed to a smaller element, the value of surprise often more than made up for it, and while she tasked Yuri with leading the main host...thus taking up the boring minutia work, Remedios took command of a flying column of hundreds of horsemen and moved on a straight course to the city.

When they arrived two days later, it was nightful, but the noise gave it the sound of a bustling daytime activity, fighting, it was battle, violent and desperate, this was what Remedios had been expecting, this was what she knew she'd find, what her queen had told her in the quiet dreams of the previous evening, this was her chance to finally start to make it all right again. She called the charge and her cavalry rushed forward, the fire that was ever present in war illuminated many faces, and these were the faces of elves, elves on foot, fleeing the city. "Kill them all! Kill the elves and save the city! For the Queen! For Calca! For the Gods!" Remedios screamed her bloodlust and severed the head of an elf as they crashed into the ranks, fighting was still fierce within the city, but those coming over the wall fleeing it found themselves facing her unexpectedly, and it spelled disaster, there were clearly multiple escape points, but on horseback, it was more like sport than fighting...it was the beginning of a massacre.

In Nazarick...

Demiurge watched it unfold with detatched interest, like one would listen to background music while working, Shalltear was more attentive quite frankly, and she interrupted his own thoughts with her questions, "Why did you do that?" Shalltear asked. "I mean won't they find it hard to have faith in the supreme one if they're massacred?" She asked.

Demiurge pondered how best to answer the slow witted vampire, "The dead won't care, but the living will be grateful to be saved, and frankly their numbers had to be culled, we can't take on that many refugees all at once, and if we fall short in anything after saving them, we won't look as overwhelming as we should, so I thought it best to have some of their numbers culled first."

"I see..." Shalltear screwed up her face in thought, "But...won't Lord Ainz be displeased if Neia is killed?" She asked.

"We have the power to resurrect her, and we can save her if we must, plus if she is without any setbacks ever, her reputation will overshadow that of the limitless lord she is meant to serve, she must know her own limits before she becomes conceited over it, let her be reminded of our lord's grace at her most desperate and vulnerable hour, it is in that moment when all hope seems lost, that it is easiest to control the one trapped in the world's chains." Demiurge replied. "I'm sure there are more levels to this that I have not detected yet, our lord is truly unfathomable." Demiurge added somewhat sadly.

"This was his plan?" Shalltear asked.

"What I have been able to cobble together with my feeble mind from my lord's casual words, oh how I wish he would simply speak his plans to me in full instead of leaving me to riddle them out, surely nobody can know the frustration of never knowing just what others want, expect, or think, how much fear we feel in the possibility of failing our lord, if only I could tell him, but how can a god understand such fears as ours?" Demiurge shook his head, and Shalltear mimicked the gesture as she remembered her own failure and betrayal.

"So this is what I cobbled together, I'm sure my lord will correct any failings I may have overlooked along the way..." Demiurge began, only to be interrupted.

"In what way do you fear failing me Demiurge?" Ainz asked as he approached the demon, who swiftly turned and knelt, revealing the mirror of remote viewing behind him.

"It is of no consequence my lord, I was merely carrying out the plan you gave to me." Demiurge said with a hint of apprehension in his voice.

'What plan?!' Ainz thought desperately, just as a message came in.

"My lord, your servant begs your aid in her hour of need!" Neia's voice shouted over the sound of clashing weapons, and the desperate screams of women.

AN: This ends the Queen in the Sword, short chapter I know, but from here on out the story picks up with 'God Rising' which will cover the last two days in Wenmark, and flow in to this event, and move forward from there to the end of the war. Speaking frankly, while I enjoy writing all my stories, this was honestly my least favorite among them, I liked some aspects of it, and I'm still glad I told it, it gives more detail to motives and character development leading up to the war, explaining why those who are participating in the war, sometimes seem different from how they were in the LN. I WAS going to do an epilogue for this story, but I chose to scrap it since that would include more spoilers than I like to give away, and besides the next chapter of God Rising will be out very soon anyway, so you'll just have to wait. Till then, reviews are welcome! :)