The Second Archon War: Carmen Dei 20 (Patreon)

Carmen Dei 20: The Battle of Munich

Beta'd and edited by The Grand Cogitator, Dr_Feelgood, Philosophysics, and October Daye
Brought to you early by my patreon Korean Writer

In the grand tradition of military expeditions everywhere, as Naomi was increasingly certain this was, they did not, in fact, stop in Eichstätt. Instead, they camped in Allershausen at the church, a newer building built in the 50s after the old church had been destroyed in the war. The rest of the trucks and vans were parked around the building, with a few tents set up, and multiple capes on lookout duty.

There had been at least one other attempted ambush, and evidence that two more had been planned but abandoned after the second ambush had resulted in a pitched firefight with the GSG that had ended when Hospitaller had air-dropped a very angry Itul along with Tengu onto the enemy. While there had been more survivors than the first ambush attempt, the only casualties had been on the Gesellschaft’s side when all their ammunition had been returned to them on a heavy gust of wind.

The source of that wind was currently sitting in the front pews, softly playing a lullaby on an acoustic guitar he’d found somewhere. It was close to putting Naomi to sleep, and Capri was already snoring, a bit of drool on her cheek that was soaking into Naomi’s costume. She didn’t mind, overly much, but she wasn’t ready to fall asleep herself.

Dorothy and Geoff were kneeling in the pew behind whispering prayers, which seemed to be making him rather uncomfortable, especially since the prayers were obviously directed at him. Naomi hadn’t heard him tell them to stop though, which did make her wonder. Deciding to do something about that, she gently extracted herself from Capri, who shifted, her eyes fluttering open but still vacant with sleep.

“Shhh, I’ll be right back,” Naomi assured her lover, and Capri’s eyes closed again as she lay down on the pew.

Tiptoeing past a snoring Itul and Tengu, with the big idiot laying on the floor and Tengu curled up atop him rather cutely, Naomi slid into the pew beside Venti, looking up at the altar and crucifix. She smiled after a moment, leaning in towards Venti. “You know, I always thought it was a little odd that Christians celebrate their God’s suffering.”

“Hmm. It’s the one thing that leads me to believe He was real,” Venti said nonchalantly. He plucked a few more chords. “Ask Beelzebul about what happened to her sister some time. Or, well, hmmm. Perhaps not. The tale of Baal is a tragic one, and she still harbors a great deal of pain there. I think Focalors and Buer might have something to say in that regard as well. Morax and I certainly do, though for different reasons. As for Dantalion… well. There is a reason I was willing to surrender my gnosis to her.”

Naomi was quiet for a moment, then flicked Venti in the ear, causing him to laugh. “You know, it’s absolutely infuriating when you talk in these riddles, and especially so when you use a bunch of names I don’t even know. Beelzebul is Raiden, right?”

“Yes. I suppose I can peel back the veil a little.” Venti continued to play, but he looked behind him at Dorothy and Geoff. “You can stop pretending to not be listening. Come, sit at my feet, and gain wisdom. It’s what you’re trying to do anyway, isn’t it?”

Blushing, the two former villains hurried over, crouching on the carpet before Venti and looking rather eager, but remaining quiet. Naomi wasn’t sure how she felt about them. On the one hand, they had been ruthless killers who had been unrepentant Nazis. On the other, they had repented, and if she had the story right, they’d been mind-controlled and tortured for years to become what they had been before Venti had healed them. For now, she settled on quiet acceptance, but there would be a reckoning one day soon.

“Gods are not born as humans are,” Venti began, the tune of his playing changing slightly. “Though some of us, like Dantalion, do come from the ranks of mortal men, others such as myself and Beelzebul, were born of other things. Her story is hers to tell, but for myself, I was once naught but a breath of wind, blowing across the mountains and valleys.”

“I won’t bore you with the long details of the Archon War-”

“Please do!” Geoff blurted, and Dorothy nodded eagerly.

Venti chuckled. “A God has to have some secrets! Well, let us just say that after much strife, I won a Throne. Note the capital letter there. There were Seven Thrones, for Seven Archons.”

“Electro, Anemo, and…?” Naomi prompted, but Venti just winked at her.

“Precisely! Well, I won the Throne of the Anemo Archon. Well, won is a bit of a strong term. I eliminated a tyrant who would have been entirely unsuitable for the position, and there were no other takers. I was already the… well, the term doesn’t match exactly, but Spirit of Freedom works as well as God of Freedom, due to my actions during the war, and my name was Venti. But, upon ascending to my Throne, I became Barbatos as well.” Venti paused, and there was the sound of furious scribbling.

He turned around, only to find Cookie writing in a notebook. She paused, looking up. “What? Genius Invocation needs a lore background. Also, someone’s gotta keep those two idiot’s theology straight. I’ll read it back to you later.”

“Ah, I see! Well, don’t let me stop you,” Venti chuckled. He continued, “I am still Venti the Bard, but I am also the Anemo Archon.”

“So, like, the Trinity?” Cookie prompted. “Two beings in one?”

“Hmm,” Venti strummed the guitar thoughtfully, then nodded. “Not a bad analogy, though keep in mind that if you do call me a god, it’s with a lowercase ‘g’. I make no claims to being the creator of all things, far from it. That holy being is far above me.”

“But you can do miracles, like you did with us,” Dorothy prompted.

Geoff nodded in agreement. “Those don’t really seem like parahuman or Vision powers.”

“They aren’t,” Venti agreed. “I have a certain amount of Authority, and so long as it relates to Freedom, especially as expressed by the Wind, I can… cheat just a bit, with a miracle or two. My Authority is tied to my Throne and my Aspect, which are separate but related things. Really though, I prefer to distance myself from Barbatos. I’d rather you know me as Venti the Bard instead of Barbatos the Archon.”

“What if god was one of us,” Dorothy whispered, tears in her eyes.

Naomi, however, was thinking of more pressing concerns. “So why can’t you help fight the Nazis as Barbatos? You said something about not being a tyrant. Does that have to do with you being the Angel of Freedom?”

Dorothy and Geoff gave her odd looks, but Naomi did her best to ignore them while Venti nodded. “Yes. I cannot trample on mortal will.”

“So it’s not that you don’t want to,” Dorothy said slowly. “It’s that you can’t?”

“But you healed us,” Geoff said, his brow furrowing. “Or… freed us?”

“That would be more accurate. I view my job as more of a, well, shepherd. I keep out the wolves, but it’s up to you to sort out problems amongst the flock by yourselves,” Venti said.

“And what are the wolves in this analogy?” Cookie asked, her voice soft and tense.

Venti plucked a few more notes, then stood. “That’s for me to worry about. You all get some rest now. There are battles ahead; more than one, I fear. You’ll need to be well-rested to face them.”

“Oh come on! Give us a straight… answer… for…” Cookie’s eyelids began to droop, and by the end of her sentence, she was laying on the pew, snoring softly. Dorothy and Geoff were curled up together, and Naomi was feeling exhausted herself.

“Venti… Barbatos… what is coming?” she asked tiredly as he guided her back to Capri.

“A storm. But don’t worry. I’ll be there with you. Every step of the way,” Venti promised. Naomi didn’t remember what happened after that, only that she was holding on to Capri, and that her sleep was surprisingly peaceful for the terror ahead.

They did awake early the next morning, shivering and cold in the late fall air. There was frost on the ground, and the day was cloudy and gray, bare branches of trees sticking up into the sky like skeletal hands. The Knights were grim, but focused, and they along with the GSG and now some mechanized infantry from the Bundeswehr, mounted on Marder Is, and even a platoon of Leopard II tanks. They had arrived in the night on trucks, but for the last 38 kilometers to Munich, they would be going down the road.

Naomi was pretty sure that some bureaucrat was having an aneurism about the thought of panzers driving on a highway, but considering how close they were to the seat of Gesellschaft power, they weren’t taking any more chances.

To Naomi’s surprise, Venti rode on the roof of the van, claiming that he “wanted to feel the wind.” They weren’t traveling very fast, only going 40kph, but the slow speed was proven wise when they found the first ambush of the morning.

This time, the Gesellschaft were pulling out all the stops. Instead of an armed group lying in wait in concealed terrain, this time they were waiting in an open field. However, they also had some sort of Stranger power. They weren’t actively camouflaged but had some sort of aura about them that hid them from people’s perceptions.

The enemy had allowed the tanks to pass by, waiting for the van with Venti riding atop it. Naomi had looked right at where the Gesellschaft were waiting for them, her eyes sliding right past them a mere 20 meters away in plain sight. She was later able to recall it, but in the moment, she’d not been able to mentally piece together what she was seeing.

Not until a ball of flame nearly as big as the van roared out towards them. Naomi had a brief moment to scream in panic, before a wall of wind popped up, sending the fireball harmlessly up into the sky.

Seeing their first attack fail, the four Gesellschaft capes charged, one of them the bull-headed shifter from the Berlin facility.

Capri swore and swerved, gunning the engine to try to dodge the fireballs and attacking capes, but Naomi undid her seatbelt and jumped out of the passenger door, summoning her blade as she did so. Snarling in fury, she dashed towards the bison headed Nazi, the winds guiding her steps. The changer bellowed and lowered his horns, but Naomi dodged to the side, striking with her blade as she went and delivering a deep gash to his side.

The enemy stumbled, bellowing in range and struggling to turn to face Naomi. Even as he did so however, a blast of lightning struck at him, staggering his movements as Capri burst out of the van, Skyward Pride forming in her hands as she raced forward.

Sensing an opportunity, Naomi channeled a burst of winds through the Skyward Sword, the metal humming with elemental energy. The winds wrapped around the bison-man, who roared in pain and anger as the residual electro energy Swirled about him, amplified by Naomi’s power.

“NAOMI, DUCK!” Capri screamed, her face full of fear and fury.

Not questioning this, Naomi drew the Anemo about her like a cloak as she hit the asphalt roughly. Flames roared over her head and hit the bison man. There was a massive detonation as Electro met the flames, blowing the Changer’s arm off. He fell to the ground, smoking and twitching faintly, but Naomi didn’t have time for him.

Dismissing her cloak of winds, she ran forward again, spying yet more Nazis. It was hard to focus on them, and she realized one must be a Stranger, the same person who had kept them from noticing the ambush. The other was forming a ball of fire between her hands, her face contorted in pain as the flames licked over her arms, leaving blisters and burns.

Ignoring that, Naomi struck out with the Winds again, calling the last of the Anemo energy she had together to form a lance of pure power. It hit the ball of flames the Nazi woman had, as she and the Stranger who had been cloaking screamed together in agony as their own weapon was turned against them.

Still, the fire women didn’t go down, and she tried to form another flaming missile, cocking her hand back to throw it at Naomi. She never completed the gesture, as Naomi’s sword pierced the Nazi’s chest right through the heart. Naomi met the other woman’s eyes as she coughed up blood and gave one last slow, dull blink. Then Naomi wrenched her sword free with a burst of superhuman strength, and the Nazi fell over, dead.

The Stranger was mewling on the ground, weeping and moaning. Naomi very nearly skewered him as well, but he was also clearly no longer a danger, curled in a fetal position and with third-degree burns all over his body. Then she simply forgot he was even there, and turned around as the Leopards fired.

Another attack had come from the other side, this one had destroyed an APC before Legend had blasted that group to bits, but Legend was falling from the sky, a sword through one leg and trailing blood.

Energy suddenly infused Naomi, the winds wrapping about her and restoring her drained abilities. She shot forward again, leaping up to Legend and catching the American hero in her arms before landing hard enough that she should have broken both her legs. She was fine, however, and turned about as one of the Leopards that had fired exploded in flames.

It was all chaos and confusion for a few moments, with small arms fire, rockets, and blaster powers flying in both directions. Naomi didn’t focus on that however, paying attention to Legend as Capri ran over to her.

Pale faced, Legend was grimacing as a truly unhealthy amount of blood pooled about his leg. Feeling slightly panicked, Naomi was at a loss for what to do until Capri skidded to the ground beside her. She took one look at Legend’s leg and the blood and cursed. “It hit his femoral artery. He’ll bleed out in minutes.”

“What do we do?” Naomi gasped, looking at Legend who had his teeth gritted in pain.

“Tourniquet,” he gasped through bloody teeth. “Above the wound.”

Capri already had a belt that she was wrapping about his leg, along with a tire iron. She twisted the belt until it was so tight that the flow of blood had slowed, then nodded. “Right. We can heal you, but we’re going to have to get this sword out. Allfather?”

“Didn’t even see him, but probably,” Legend agreed with a jerky nod. “They were trying to lure us. Do it.”

Wrapping a cloth about her hands, Capri looked to Naom. “I’ll get the knife out, you heal the wound. You ready?”

She wanted to protest that she had no experience with healing more than a few minor cuts and bruises, but Naomi swallowed and nodded hastily. “Ready.”

“On three,” Capri said as she wrapped a cloth about her hands, and Legend leaned back, gritting his teeth and closing his eyes. “One, two, THREE!”

Thanks to the tourniquet, less blood than Naomi would have expected gushed out when Capri ripped the jagged blade out of the wound, but Legend still screamed in pain, a sound lost in the deafening roar of battle. She put her hands on the grievous wound, already wrapped in Anemo power, and uttered the first prayer that came to mind. “Barukh ata Adonai, eloheinu, melekh ha'olam, bo're p'ri hagefen!”

The power rushed into the wound, knitting the flesh back together before Naomi’s eyes, sealing it shut as Legend gasped and shuddered. He lay back, groaning, and Naomi looked down at her hands, covered in blood.

“Here, wipe it off, and let’s get to work,” Capri ordered, tossing Naomi the rag and heaving herself up on her sword.

Biting her lip, Naomi turned back to Legend, offering him a hand. He accepted it, then floated up into the air, before gingerly testing his leg on the ground. He raised an eyebrow, then stomped lightly once, which did draw a wince. “I’m good to go, thank you. Let’s get back to it.”

Naomi sprinted up to Capri, through clouds of biting smoke and towards the roar of battle. All four Panzers were destroyed now, as were three of the Marders. There were dead soldiers on the road, and more wounded. Seeing that, Naomi raced forward to one, even as Capri fired off a bolt of lightning at a Gesellschaft cape that had come swooping down towards them, a glowing spear in his hands.

“M-mother?” a panzer trooper asked, his eyes bleary and distant. There was blood on his face, and one of his arms ended in an oozing stump halfway to his elbow. Naomi drew upon the Winds again, repeating the prayer she’d said before.

“Barukh ata Adonai, eloheinu, melekh ha'olam, bo're p'ri hagefen.”

It wasn’t until she was halfway through the prayer, Anemo power flowing into the man’s wounds, that Naomi realized just what prayer, exactly, she was saying.

Blessed are You, o Lord our God, King of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine.

Stumbling over the rest of the prayer, she finished, looking around guiltily, but the man in her arms simply gasped. “What? Oh God, the pain! My arm! My fucking arm!”

“You’re alright,” Naomi told him. “You won’t die. I’m sorry, I can’t regrow your arm, there’s too many more to heal.”

Seeming to snap out of it, the soldier nodded, grimacing in pain. “Thank you. You’re an angel. Please, help the others. Fuck, we never should have stuck our noses in a cape fight… those blades ripped through our panzer like it was made of cardboard.”

Leaving the man, Naomi went to the next wounded soldier, Capri guarding her back as she tended to the wounded. She found several wounded Knights and one wounded Meister as well, but she had them back on their feet and returning to the fight, despite the fact that at least two of those wounds should have been lethal.

All around her, the tide was turning, the fighting moving off towards Munich, into buildings and houses. Naomi had heard of cape fights before, but nothing like this. This wasn’t a game of cat and mouse, or the sort of thing where one side went off to lick their wounds afterwards, then came back for more the next week. There were a great many bodies that no amount of healing would be able to restore, men and women that were ripped apart with a primal savagery that spoke to the nature of this conflict.

She even saw one GSG soldier executing a Nazi cape whose fingernails had turned into blade-like whips, blowing the woman’s brains out of the back of her skull while she was kneeling in front of him, gasping for breath, one arm gone. The fact that half a dozen GSG officers were disemboweled around the Gesellschaft cape made Naomi think that the act had been simple justice, even if it had been tinged by murder and vengeance. This wasn’t the sort of fight where you took prisoners.

The area was also crawling with civilians, which Naomi realized when a bellowing Itul ran up to her, several children cradled in his arms.

“NAOMI! CAN YOU HEAL THEM!?” he demanded.

One little girl’s face was a bloody mess, her left eye gone, and there was a little boy who was pale and quiet, his pants stained a dark red. Naomi managed to heal the girl, but the boy had gone cold. There was no spark left for her to tend. When she looked up, Tengu was covering a weeping man and woman who seemed to be the children’s parents, while Itul had crashed through a brick wall, where screams and shouts began breaking out as he fought.

“Take them, go, that way!” Naomi ordered, pointing back down the road. The man and woman complied, taking their now monocular daughter and the corpse of their son with them. More civilians streamed past, apparently having ignored the evacuation orders Naomi knew had been issued.

She lost track of time, one moment trying desperately to heal wounds and sending her comrades back into the fight, another fighting a desperate duel for her life alongside Capri against a Nazi tinker in power armor. Capri managed to bring the monster down with Naomi swirling her Electro, then carved the enemy cape’s head from his body.

Through it all, she saw not a single sign of Venti, and wondered desperately where he was. Was he rescuing the hostages? Healing the sick? Where was the Angel of Anemo?

After what felt like hours, but by Naomi’s watch was a mere thirty minutes, the fighting petered out as the Gesellschaft pulled back.

“REGROUP! DON’T PURSUE!” Cookie bellowed, and the cry was taken up as the Knights, Meisters, and soldiers pulled back to the road to try to figure out what was happening. They’d advanced several hundred meters and were all spread out and scattered, and it took agonizing minutes to account for everyone.

Vornehm was found with two of his capes and a dozen GSG troops in an apartment block, having fended off multiple Gesellschaft assaults and saved a score of civilian lives, but at the cost of both of the Meisters who’d been with Vornehm and six GSG troopers, as well as a bloodied arm that Naomi had to attend to.

“It’s nothing, just a scratch,” he said absently as Naomi laid hands on him. “See to the others.”

“You first,” Naomi said firmly, wincing as she saw that his sleeve was absolutely soaked with blood, and a blade sticking out of Vornehm’s bicep. “Allfather?”

“Just a quick brush, Legend scared him off,” Vornehm said dismissively, but he groaned as Naomi mended the wound. “Thank you.”

There were casualties, but not as many as Naomi might have imagined. They’d found dozens of dead and dying Gesellschaft capes, but captured nearly a dozen as well, and there was a hasty discussion as to what to do with them, especially since most were rather severely wounded.

“We follow the rule,” Cookie said, overriding what an extremely angry Meister had been saying. “First aid, but don’t put them back at combat effectiveness. Handcuff them and stuff them in a paddywagon, we brought a couple. They try to break out, no second chances: kill them. This isn’t a police operation anymore, as I’m sure you all figured out the first time they tried to kill you. Understand?”

“Yes sir,” a GSG major said, saluting. The colonel was nowhere to be seen, but Naomi figured he was either dead or too wounded to be on his feet with how intense the fighting had been.

“What’s our next step?” Vornehm said, rubbing his healed arm and frowning. “We’ve bloodied them, but we’re in rough shape as well.”

“Fifteen minutes. Get some water, then we form up and we go after the fuckers. There will not be a single goddamn Nazi left in Munich after today, understand!?” Cookie barked. “From here on out, the only good Nazi is a DEAD Nazi! If they surrender, fine, but we’re not playing games here. You don’t ask them to surrender, you go for the kill and if they happen to survive, you cuff them if you have time. But no risks. It comes down to you or them, you pick the side that isn’t a bunch of evil fucks, got it?”

There were nods all around, faces grim. “You got it, Grand Master,” Legend agreed.

Cookie blushed at that, but simply repeated, “Fifteen minutes!”

Taking a canteen from a soldier who offered it, Naomi sat on a pile of rubble near the road and downed it, feeling exhausted. Capri slumped beside her, pouring a bit of water first over her head, then Naomi’s. Despite the cold air, she realized she was sweating, and the icy water felt good.

“I’ve never felt so worn out in my whole fucking life,” Capri groaned, then took a mouthful. She rinsed her mouth, then spat out a pink stream before downing the rest.

“You’re hurt?” Noami demanded, taking Capri’s head in her hands.

Capri opened her mouth, but then sighed and nodded. “Yeah. Took a shot to the face. I mostly healed it up, but-”

Grimacing, Naomi poured Anemo into her lover, and Capri grunted, then relaxed. “There.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes, before Cookie strode over. “Where’s Venti?”

“I… don’t know. I haven’t seen him since the fighting started,” Naomi admitted, looking around. The air was still hazy with smoke, and she looked up, then started. Black clouds were filling the sky, and great green currents of wind blew over their heads. “What in heaven…”

“He’s up to something, but I haven’t seen him either,” Capri agreed. She cracked her neck. “You want us at the front.”

“Shit,” Cookie muttered, looking about. “Yeah, I guess. We need capes spearheading this, and you two are some of our best Vision Holders. I’ve heard what you did. You took out Wittmann, and you saved a lot of lives. We could use you at the front.”

“Yes,” Naomi agreed. She groaned when Capri offered her a hand, and let her partner pull her to her feet. “Venti’s around, I can feel him, I just… I’m not sure.”

“Yeah, well he better-” Cookie began, but then a tremor ran through the ground, all of them staggering.

Above them, the wind roared, but it did not drown out the unearthly sound that echoed through the city.

TTTTTTTHRRRRRMMMMMMMMMMM

It wasn’t a roar, more of a vibration in Naomi’s teeth and bones. She whirled about, and her eyes went wide. “No…”

Above Munich, but below the clouds, a giant shape loomed. It was twelve meters in height, jet black, and though it was hard to make out details at this distance, it was round and bulbous, with four limbs that had some sort of intricate pattern on them, scales or armor of some sort.

A deadly hush fell over the city, and dread filled Naomi’s heart. One word came to every lip:

Endbringer.

TTTTTTTHRRRRRMMMMMMMMMMM

The vibration came again, and this time, Naomi saw three spheres even larger than the horror appear around him, orbiting like swirling, distorted orbs that distorted the air. The three spheres suddenly shot away from the Endbringer, barreling down towards the city, one seeming to come right for Naomi and Capri. She screamed, clinging to Capri, as death came for them.

Then a green arrow the size of a street lamp blasted the sphere, sending it off course to crash into one of the deserted buildings.

Above Munich, below the Endbringer, an angel spread his wings.

And Barbatos, Lord of Anemo, took his place in the heavens.

Fear not. For I am with you.

The voice whispered in Naomi’s mind, and she nearly wept for joy at them.

The angel’s arrival had not gone unnoticed, however, and the black demon above turned empty eyes towards Barbatos.

TTTTTTTHRRRRRMMMMMMMMMMM

Spheres reforming about him, the Endbringer began to drift lower.

Barbatos raised his bow in answer.

The true Battle of Munich had begun.