A/N 08/12/2019: I came back and made a few changes to this chapter after I finished chapter 25, there's nothing that changes the story, its mostly just grammar stuff with a few bits of fluff added on, hopefully, it's a better read now.

Chapter 1 Operation Deliverance Stage 1

40 years after the Great War

Londinium

Good evening everyone, I'm Andrew WTN Special correspondent. Today we bring to you a special program exploring yet another mysterious character involved in the Great War. One that evidence has shown to been intertwined with the mysterious 11th goddess and the Devil of the Rhine.

I speak of course of the Saint of Letzenbourg

March 3rd Unified Year 1925

Rhine Front

Idiot! thought Major Tanya Von Degurechaff. We weren't the ones stupid enough to get shot down, why should we have to risk our skins to rescue this fool?!

To say she wasn't happy about her latest assignment was an understatement, her battalion had been posted to the Rhine following the collapse of the Legadonia Entente Alliance. Normally they would have been switched out of the combat rotation for some rest before being reposted, but after her near court marshal after the incident with the commonwealth submarine, they had been immediately shipped off to the Rhine. She was thankful for the opportunity to redeem herself in the eyes of the General staff, but it felt like a punishment being sent back to this bloody battlefield.

More annoyingly, they'd been deployed the second they arrived, having received orders to perform a rescue mission en route to the front. They hadn't even had time to set up a command centre yet! At the time she'd wondered how desperate things must have gotten on the western front if her commanders were throwing units straight into combat as they arrived, but mages were always in high demand on the battlefield and her superiors seemed hell-bent on working them all like draught horses.

She peered through her binoculars sighing heavily as she surveyed the enemy lines, it didn't look like they'd moved all that much since she and Serabryakov had been here nearly 2 years before. She'd hoped at the time she'd never return here, she'd been angling for a safe desk job in the rear after all, but things hadn't worked out as she'd hoped and here she was. Orders were orders though, she didn't have the option of disobeying them, even if it meant risking her own life to save some noble playing soldier.

"Commander!" called a voice flying up to meet her.

Tanya stowed her binoculars and glanced at the pair flying up to meet her. First was the owner of the voice, 2nd Lieutenant Serebrykov smiled as she waved towards her superior while her chestnut brown hair whipped around behind her in the cool March breeze. The second figure Tanya had only met once, a captain by the name of Dietrich Hausmann, he was the reason they were here. He was a tall muscular man with short dark hair, and he wore a worried look on his face that didn't exactly fill Tanya with confidence. Worse still he wasn't even an Imperial Soldier, well not technically at least. He wore the black, red and silver uniform of Grand Duchy of Letzenbourg, a small protectorate of the Empire that had been kept separate before the war due to pressure from the other great powers.

Letzenbourg sat uncomfortably between the borders of the Empire and the François Republic, technically creating a neutral buffer between the two powers. It had benefited greatly by acting as a go-between for trade between the two powers and had provided a tax haven for the wealthy citizens of the two nations before the war. Although from Letzenboug's point of view it was no doubt intimidating sitting between the giants, it could never hope to stand against either of the powers. Which meant in practice its neutrality had meant nothing once the Republic declared war on the Empire, it was in the way, and the tiny nation had been thrown into conflict, forcing the Empire to move in to protect its tiny ally.

Tanya gritted her teeth in annoyance as the captain threw up a salute. It seemed the Grand duke had been letting his children play at war, in particular, his second son who had talent in magecraft and for some unfathomable reason, fancied imitating the exploits of Tanya and her battalion the 203rd. This had resulted in the moron being shot down behind enemy lines.

This in itself wouldn't usually be a problem, he would just rot in a prisoner of war camp until the war ended, unfortunately, the situation was more complicated. The Grand Duchy's royal family was closely related to the Emperor, the young noble was 6th in line to the Imperial throne and was now in the hands of the Francois Republic. His capture was an embarrassment to the Empire and if word got out it would be severely demoralising to the soldiers on the front lines, not to mention a political nightmare in the capital.

"Major Degurechaff, our intelligence says the Prince is still being held in the field hospital near Reims, we must free him before they have a chance to move him!" the captain reported.

"I'm aware of that captain, I'm more concerned with getting past the enemy front lines, anti-air and mages at the moment" Tanya stated with cold disdain. Really! What was the brass thinking attaching the Letzenbourg mages to her battalion without consulting her? She had enough to deal with rescuing the idiot prince without dragging around a battalion of mages she didn't know if she could rely on. After all, they'd already let their own commander get shot down and captured, that gave her more than enough reason to doubt their competency.

"Excuse me Miss, my wing specialises at close air support and assault. If you can provide cover fire we should be able to take out enough of the anti-air to break through" he replied.

Tanya glared at the captain, a rebuke ready to assault the captain. How dare he call ME Miss! She raged internally, this was a battlefield, not a tea party, someone needed to teach the Letzenbourgers how to act like proper soldiers. She was already in a foul mood due to being thrown straight into this operation and this captain was already grating on her nerves.

As if sensing her irritation Serebrykov interjected and proffered a thermos of coffee at her superior, which she took gratefully. She made a mental note to thank her adjutant later for preventing her from doing something impolitic, loosing her temper wouldn't accomplish anything after all. Mollified for the moment Tanya sipped her coffee and took a calming breath, before gesturing towards the enemy position.

"Very well captain" she shrugged, feeling much calmer now she'd had some coffee and the captain hurried away to his troops.

Tanya passed her mug back to her adjutant and regarded the Letzenbourg mages critically. Their gear was different from that of the imperials, aside from the black and red uniform their flight equipment consisted of 2 boots rather than one. It was bulkier and they couldn't fly nearly as high as their Imperial counterparts. The trade-off, so she'd been told, was speed, agility and the ability to levitate at low altitudes with minimal effort. This combined with an array of submachine guns, grenades, blades and other such shorter-range weapons made them ideal shock troops apparently. Tanya remained unconvinced on that point, her battalion had fulfilled the same role on several occasions but retained the versatility to perform other combat roles. It seemed wasteful to her to have the mages specialise in this as losses were expected to be heavy. Besides Letzenbourg was a tiny country, it barely had the manpower to support more than a handful of combat mages. Most of the battalion was made up of volunteers from nations friendly to the empire but in Tanya's eyes, this made them little better than mercenaries.

Well whatever, if he wanted to assault anti-air positions, she would let him, at least it wouldn't be her troops in the worst of the fighting and more importantly the enemy anti-air would be firing at the Letzenbourgers instead of her. Meanwhile, the 203rd could continue the important business of keeping her alive and earning her a promotion away from the front lines.

"Soldiers prepare to advance!" she broadcasted raising her rifle and readying an artillery spell.

"Let's go rescue the royal!"

Rhine Front 25km North of Riems

Things had gone well so far, they'd made it through the lines before enemy mages could respond and the only losses had been in the Letzenbourg wing, so her own reputation would remain unaffected. Tanya was begrudgingly impressed by the Duchy forces, they were tenacious, and their low flight and levitation tactics made it difficult for the enemy anti-air to target them. She still wasn't convinced by the specialisation, but it did seem effective and had the advantage of being an excellent distraction, meaning most of the 203rd got through the lines relatively unscathed.

However, their close assault tactics made the Letzenbourgers all the more vulnerable to an attack from standard ground troops, increasing their casualty rate. This didn't seem to bother them overmuch though, as they seemed to take every opportunity to strafe at close range or assault in close quarters before flying off in the panic they created. Obviously the prince had been almost as successful as her at picking a bunch of war maniacs for a mage battalion.

She had been surprised to learn this close assault doctrine had been the brainchild of the prince they were on the way to rescue. Additionally, he led such manoeuvres himself, with a sword of all things! He must be suicidal she decided, or just utterly unaware of how stupid charging machine gun emplacements and anti-air with a sword really is, even with a magical shield for protection.

She thought about what she had been briefed on the young noble. He was a year younger than herself and had apparently been in the Imperial War Collage in the class below her although she'd never heard about him being there. She had initially been surprised about his young age until someone had reminded her, she had been serving since she was 9. It still seemed strange to her however, as she had a previous lifetime of experience to draw on, how could a youth such as him persuade anyone to let him into a warzone like the Rhine?

Maybe it was because, like her, he was considered a genius. At the age of 6, he had written a political thesis that had predicted the current state of the world and he had been found to have great magic potential. Or more likely he was a rich kid with connections who got whatever he wanted, and the best teacher's money can buy she thought cynically. If he was such a genius, he'd have had the sense to use his influence to stay at the rear!

What was most galling for Tanya was that he'd had no reason to even fight! Letzenbourg was protected by the Empire, its meagre forces were entirely voluntary and supplied by the Vaterland. The young prince had money and connections enough that even if the war went badly, he'd still be living a life of luxury somewhere. Instead, he had chosen to charge headlong into the François republic, literally! She, on the other hand, had joined the army to save herself from poverty and secure herself a comfortable position as far away from the front lines as possible. Fate or more likely being X, however, had conspired once again to throw her right into the firing lines and this time it was this brat's fault.

"Target coming up" her deputy first lieutenant Wiess informed snapping her out of her reverie.

"Take out those Guards! We're doing this by the book so only shoot combatants" she ordered "Wiess set up a perimeter, Haussmann your company is with me, we're going in"

They flew quickly down to the hospital entrance as an alarm started sounding, summoning the guards. As she landed two surprised looking republic soldiers raised their weapons at her company. Suddenly their heads exploded, and they slumped to the ground as the soldiers flying above picked off anything threatening their commander. Glad of their timely intervention Tanya rushed to the entrance, leaned against the wall by the door and gestured for Hausmann to kick the door open. She wasn't about to bust in herself without knowing what was on the other side, better to let the Letzenbourg captain go in first, it was his commander they were here for after all.

The door flew open and her troops rushed in, checking the corners and securing the room as they went. An understandably shocked looking republican doctor dropped to his knees and raised his hands to surrender. Tanya set a couple of soldiers to guard the exit and approached the blubbering doctor.

"Where is Prince Wilhelm Von Hozollern?" Tanya questioned grabbing the doctor's collar, she was aware that she wasn't the most intimidating of people but with a room full of armed soldiers she was confident the doctor would answer her truthfully.

"I'm not sure, 2nd floor I think" he replied fearfully in heavily accented imperial.

Tanya ordered a few soldiers to secure the building and gestured the rest to follow her up the stairs. She frowned the second floor he says, could you be any more vague? She complained inwardly, before ordering her troops to split up and look for the prince. It surely it couldn't be that difficult to find the only child in a military hospital she reasoned.

She and 2nd lieutenant Serebrykov took one of the passages and began searching the rooms for their quarry. Most rooms were wards filled with wounded republican soldiers, fortunately, the doctors and nurses obediently stayed out the way once rifles were aimed at them and the search proceeded quickly and efficiently. They picked another corridor and moved on, as they rounded another corner Tanya cursed.

Seeing the red and blue uniform of a republican soldier she threw herself behind a cabinet for cover, expecting to be fired on. The expected flurry of shots never came, however, and as she peered out to investigate, she was surprised to find the soldier already dead. A single shot through the chest had ended him before they arrived on the scene.

How? Or rather who did this? She wondered. Nobody else had come down this way and Hausmann's group had gone in the opposite direction, so who had killed this soldier? She bit back a curse, they didn't have time for this, they had to find the prince and get him out before anything else could happen to him. If she failed this mission or if anything happened to the young prince her chances of being promoted would be destroyed.

Several shots rang out nearby, being X must be listening in on my thoughts she mused. Clearly, she'd invited disaster by thinking about the brat! She cursed under her breath again and rushed towards the sound of the shots.

"Lieutenant watch our backs!" she yelled, the last thing they needed was someone sneaking up behind them.

Trusting her adjutant to cover the rear, Tanya continued on towards the sound of gunfire. She rounded the corner and entered a dark storage room with various medical supplies and equipment inside. Broken glass crunched under her boots as she raised her weapon sweeping the room for threats. To her surprise, she saw a boy slightly shorter than herself standing over a republican officer. His slender torso was bandaged but blood was spattered across his body. This must be the prince she realised. Crap he's tried to escape and injured himself she thought, wondering if it would reflect badly on her. She went to move towards him but stopped as she almost tripped over another dead republican soldier.

"You shouldn't have taken my sword, where is it?" the boy questioned the officer darkly, either not noticing or not caring that she had entered the room.

The officer glanced Tanya's way then gestured at a cabinet to her left. Finally, the boy seemed to notice her as he turned his emerald eyes meeting hers. His face was contorted in a look of rage that Tanya could only describe as psychopathic, suddenly it changed upon seeing her. Twisting into a look of angelic innocence as his shaggy dirty blonde hair fell across his face.

"Oh, you're the Argent! Are you here to rescue me?" he smiled, his voice now filled with a sing-song quality.

Tanya stared at him incredulously, he'd just switched from psychopath to cherub, did he really expect anyone to believe that act? He was covered in blood for Pity's sake!

"Sir, I'm Major Tanya Von Degurachaff, you are Prince Wilhelm?" she questioned warily, doing her best to remain professional. Sensing her confusion, he glanced down at himself for a moment then returned his gaze to hers.

"Don't worry it's not my blood" he tittered with a bright smile, "would you check that cabinet please?" He continued, gesturing to the cupboard while pushing the pistol further into the squirming republican officer's face.

She opened it revealing a cavalry sabre, clearly, this was the sword he was so keen to have returned. A look of relief crossed the young prince's face and he squeezed the trigger of his pistol opening up the officer's head and sending gore showering across the room and adding to the splatter across his seemingly angelic face.

"Thank goodness! I was so worried I'd lost it!" he exclaimed "I'm Colonel Wilhelm Viktor von Hozollern, prince of Letzenbourg," he introduced with an excited bow. "It's such an honour to meet you Lady Degurechaff, I've heard so much about you! You can call me Will!" he finished still smiling innocently.

Tanya regarded the scene in front of her with disbelief. The small boy in front of her was covered in gore but was introducing himself as though they were having a leisurely afternoon tea. Sensing her unease, he looked around innocently and seemed to notice the dead officer for the first time.

"Oh dear, I didn't mean to do that" he stated sadly, "he'd been so rough earlier, and it seems I got a little…" he trailed off. He paused for a moment and the psychopathic gaze started to creep back into his eyes as he looked up and stared at the blade in her hands.

"Can I have my sword back please?"

Great thought Tanya, he really is insane and he outranks me! Who made this lunatic a colonel?! This is your fault isn't it being X?!