Transcendence?

***Norfolk, Sarn-Valley, Southern Col***

***Sera***

“He said that he would be back by now!”

My mother is running in circles, while carrying me with her. We are at the southern col to check on the state of our defences. Although when I look at our situation, there is nothing to do.

The enemy will have to advance on a narrow mountain road with the mountain to their left and a steep cliff to their right. The road is about ten metres wide. It is not an easy task to get fifty thousand men through such a bottleneck.

Father was right when he said that it will be almost impossible for them to pass the col. As long as we don't lose this position, there should be no problems.

“And why am I taking my baby with me? I seem to be a little stressed recently.” Mother continues to talk to herself.

“You took me with you because I said that I may be able to help.” I grumble while being held like a teddy bear.

“You are a baby, what could you know.” Celestial takes another look down the mountain. A long line of people is advancing towards us. The train of wagons, men and animals is darkening the road at the foot of the mountain. Quite impressive if you think about it. We are looking down on them from a height difference of a little more than nine hundred metres.

“I fought a long and cruel war in my previous life. Doesn't that count?” I look up and try to get a glimpse of her face. “Playing the baby is just a temporary job of mine.”

Celestial sighs. “There are still so many of them! They must have gathered some reinforcements from somewhere else. Like Ascathon feared.”

“That's another point I wanted to talk about. Daddy said that I was an ~accident~ and that you planned it.” Suddenly mom's grip gets a little tighter. It seems like she knows what I am talking about.

“… That's a matter between the two of us!” She smiles with closed eyes at the sky.

“We still need to talk about it! But for the moment let's think how to improve our defence.” I look down at the mountain road.

“I don't see how they intend to attack us. They will either have to climb the mountain, or use the road. We have everything covered with our railguns and if they advance too far, we can blow up the road with a mana bomb.” Celestial muses over our possibilities while looking at the array of railguns which are pointing down at the road.

There are also about one thousand and five hundred of our soldiers up here. They are almost everything we managed to mobilize. The rest is occupied with holding positions throughout the rest of our principality.

All of them are equipped with hand-held versions of our railguns. Ascathon hurried their production and they look very crude compared to real guns. In addition they built fortifications at our positions and enhanced them with portable devices to create barriers.

“I guess it would be smarter to think about what our enemies are able to do, instead of being satisfied about the things they can't do. For example, they could send small teams of special forces over the cliff to attack us from behind. They don't have to fight us up front.” I look up at Celestial again. “It would be smart to use our guards to keep an eye at the mountain around us.”

“You mean because they are werewolfs? That's right. Their good senses make them perfect scouts. Having them fight with the regular troops could be a problem, as they would get in each others way.” Celestial looks at the eighty burly men and Den.

The captain of our guard is actually a big help in commanding our regular troops. They regard him as their highest authority because he and his men trained them.

Celestial walks up to the big guy and informs him about our concerns. After hearing us out, Den nods and strokes his beard.

“You have a point. That's surely something they will try. I will send forty of my men to scout the area around us. Although I strongly believe that they will go with standard battle tactics first.” He looks down at the advancing army.

“Hoh? You have military experience? How do these battle tactics look?” Celestial asks eagerly.

Den gathers his thoughts for a second and answers. “First they will test our abilities by sending regular troops as cannon fodder at us. If that doesn't work, they will try to add in their mages with long range attacks. And finally an all out charge at us, but I have confidence that something like that won't become a problem.”

“That doesn't sound like battle tactics at all!” Celestial calls out in shock.

“~♥More like total disregard of human life.♥~” I can't help it and add my gibberish to the conversation.

“It's not like they need any tactics. They should be able to run over us by using their numbers alone. But I am confident that they will fail in doing so. When I was still in the military, I discovered something which I call casualty-shock. It doesn't matter to soldiers how many people are behind them. Once they have to climb over the bodies of their fallen comrades, everyone starts to think that the other direction may be the better choice.” Den folds his hands and smiles.

I don't know what to think. Did Den end up in a situation like that? It sounds gruesome!

“And you think that you will be able to drive them off by inflicting so many casualties?” Celestial looks at the railguns.

Den nods with vigour. “Of course! I had those things tested against a herd of wild animals! The impact itself isn't a problem, but it creates enough shrapnel to shred everything around. Even if they don't break and run, at some point, they will start to trip over their fallen comrades. The road isn't very wide.”

He looks back at our camp. “I am more concerned about their mind magic. They could defeat us without our knowledge if they pull a weird trick. That's why I asked your parents to keep an eye on this position and warn us. They are mind magicians too, so I hope that they can warn us, or interfere with an attempt to manipulate us. It's sad that Celestial lost her ability for mind magic.”

“I see. Then I guess I will have to help in another way!” Celestial turns and walk away, while carrying me with her.

She is heading towards the medical quarters of our troops. I guess she has something in mind? “Mom? What are you planning?”

“Nothing my dear, I will just take a look at the substances which are at my disposal.” She has a strange expression in her face.

After a short walk, we arrive at a big tent and step inside. An elderly doctor and a few assistants are taking note of different fluids in jars. Opposed to what someone may think, this world has medicine.  There isn't always a highly skilled magician around to cast healing spells.

And only the best healers are able to cast magic which is able to deal with illnesses which are caused by germs.

“~I need the stuff here for a while. Please wait outside.~” Celestial shoos the personnel out of the tent. Her orders are followed immediately. The people of this world are fast to follow orders if they are given by a noble.

Celestial takes a look around and places me on the worktable. Then she starts to rummage through the bottles while sniffing and occasionally taste testing the contents. I watch her with curiosity while she sets up a big bottle on a fire and starts to pour seemingly random bottles inside it.

I approach to take a look at the bubbling mess inside it. “That doesn't look very tasty.” I already had the chance to watch Celestial making chocolate on several occasions.

Since then I am certain that mother must have been one of those real witches I always heard about. The bottle starts to emit a fluorescent light and mother's expression becomes a little scary.

Yes, I can perfectly imagine her with a long nose and some warts in her face while being bent with a buckled back over her pot. She surely was one of those beings in a previous life!

***

Five syringes. That's all we got from Celestial's experiment. I doubt that this will be enough to stop an army of fifty thousand. Even if it's the best poison in the world. How does she intend to administer it?

We join Den at the pass-road again. He is still occupied with organizing the building of barricades. Celestial is playing with the syringes skilfully in one hand. I marvel at her skill.

On the other hand, she would never play with the dangerous looking green stuff if it would really pose a threat?

Arriving beside Den, she places me on the ground and starts to massage her shoulder. Den turns around and looks at her. “What are you intending to do?”

“~Just administering a medicine to the enemy.~”

She flicks her hand into the direction of the enemy army and the first syringe is gone. Number two, three, four and five follow in short order.

“~Hopefully that takes care of most of the vermin. You should have it much easier now.~” She smiles at Den and picks me up again.

Den arches an eyebrow and looks at the army which is coming up the pass-road. “That green stuff … was that poison!”

“~Probably.~”

“You can't do that! We didn't even have proper negotiations!” Den shouts outraged.

“~I am not interested in negotiating with someone who shows up with such a big army without invitation.~”

.