CHAPTER ASHBORN 412: OVERTURE TO REBELLION

Nayan paced around the rapidly expanding forest camp, observing the preparations like a hawk. At least, that was half the reason. The fact was, he couldn’t stand still. His heart beat madly, and every minute, he questioned whether he’d made a mistake.

Nayan recalled the recent days and shuddered. His time with the Ravager had been at once the opportunity of his lifetime, and the worst torture he had ever endured.

During the day, he trained so hard that his muscles had nearly fallen off. Once done with that, he’d been forced to delve into mock battle scenarios, fielding question after unending about his tactics, troop organization, and commands.

Not even his ‘off’ days were free from grueling training. When he wasn’t being personally trained by Cirayus, he ran the gauntlet every day with his troops, being subjected to harsh critique after, either by Balagra, the Ravager, or the Akh Nara himself.

His idle moments were spent coming up with tactics to better run the Gauntlet, working relentlessly to find any hole or flaw in his battle plans.

As a result, he had grown more, both as a Warrior and a Commander, in the past two weeks than he had in the months before that. His squads regularly bested the Gauntlet, and he’d gained something of a reputation among the Akh Nara’s troops. The Disciple, they called him.

Nayan might’ve let it go to his head… Were he not subjected to the beat downs the Ravager put him through during each of their sessions. Forget physical combat—Nayan never had a hope of lasting ten seconds against that monster—the Ravager’s uncanny ability to find flaws in his strategies had Nayan’s ego in tatters.

Which, he supposed, was the point. Cirayus always stressed the danger of overconfidence. Had it not been for Nayan’s accomplishments in the Gauntlet and his prestige among the troops, he might’ve actually had the opposite problem.

As it was, Nayan knew his worth. He knew the task ahead of him, and he felt himself adequate—if only just barely.

That did nothing to quell his anxiety, though. If only he could be like the Akh Nara… As placid as a mirror lake.

“Sir,” a demon said, rushing up to him. “We’ve spotted nearby Chitran scouts. Shall we engage?”

Nayan thought it over a moment. “Kill a few and chase off the rest. We want the Chits to learn of our operation here, but we don’t want them knowing that.”

“Understood,” he said, before rushing off.

And just like that, Nayan had ordered the first deaths of his enemies. He thought it would be more difficult—he thought he’d have wallowed in indecision. His trained ensured he didn’t.

Nayan swept his gaze across the clearing. The logging operation was going smoothly, and with each passing hour, more and more trees feel, expanding the clearing around the Ash Gates.

Through those Gates flowed a never-ending stream of equipment, from weapons to troops to food… though the most important and significant asset that came through were the long, disassembled wood and metal pieces of what were the greatest inventions Nayan had ever seen.

Though he’d witnessed the Akh Nara’s airship, he remained skeptical that anyone other than the living god could operate such an impressive machine.

That was until a crew of a dozen demons lifted a ship ten times its size into the sky of the Ashen Realm… seemingly with ease.

Those airships, or air barges, as the Akh Nara called them, had been flying around all the Ashen Realm camps over the past week, serving as scouts and augmenting the ground patrols that were active at all hours of the day.

Being airborne, most Ash Beasts weren’t a concern for them, and Shrikes were rare enough that no incidents had occurred as yet.

Nayan had even ridden on the contraption once… And once was enough. If the gods wanted demons to fly, they would have given them wings. Nayan had never experienced anything more terrifying than the sensation of looking down, only to find the ground some hundreds of paces below with nothing but air between them.

He was thankful the plan did not call for him to ride those terrifying machines. Some others—the saner ones—felt as he did, abhorring the contraptions, but the ones chosen for the task all seemed downright thrilled by the experience. Nayan was glad they did.

No, if anything could foil this operation, it was not a fear of heights, but rather that the Chitran ballista defenses might prove far more capable than the Akh Nara’s spies had let on. That, and a pre-emptive advance on the part of the Chitran—something as unlikely as the sun setting. And past that, the Chitrans’ inevitable reply after Nayan’s forces bombed Samar Patag.

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Nayan’s goal was to draw the enemy away from the true operation, which meant he would be commanding a battle before the walls of Samar Patag. A titanic battle, and while the results of that battle didn’t particularly affect the outcome of the rebellion, Nayan would not allow his forces to lose. More than that, he wished to minimize the loss of life in every way possible.

To that end, he’d prepared a few little surprises for the Chits, should they dare venture inside.

Nayan stared up at the sky, hoping to Adinat it would be enough. There was little more he could do at this juncture, other than worry uselessly. The pieces had all been set, and the greatest rebellion of the realm was about to begin.

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“Company four, proceed now. Company Five, you’re on standby. Stay alert and be ready to move on my command,” Balagra shouted. Thousands of troops stood arrayed before him in neat and orderly lines, all motivated and eager to fight after the Akh Nara’s grand speech.

It was everything Balagra could have asked for, and more. Still, while speeches might’ve given the soldiers an extra spark, they didn’t solve the logistics of mobilizing an invasion force. That took planning. Lots and lots of planning.

Balagra had pored over papers with Malik over the past week, organizing the various stages of the attack. He likened it to a Panav dance—choreographed at every step, the sequence and the broad strokes known, while the actors filled in the rest.

If the tapestry was mangled, the dance broke down, a fact both the Akh Nara and the Ravager knew well.

And so, both he and Malik were given no end of support, with significant involvement from all of their leaders through the every step of the process. More than once, Balagra wondered who the real mastermind was—the Akh Nara, the Ravager… Or Malik.

The demon was everywhere, coming up with plans, revising plans, and giving orders to everyone up to and including the Akh Nara himself.

Well, perhaps more like suggestions in his case… Which their divine leader most always accepted, surprising Balagra.

Few leaders were content to be treated like everyone else. In Balagra’s experienced, even the Panav leadership that so often touted humility as their defining trait, enjoyed their luxuries and titles.

Not so with the Akh Nara. If the demon wasn’t off on some mission to ally with other clans, he was either overseeing the preparations, training troops, or training himself. Balagra had never once seen him actually use the room they’d prepared for him in the compound. In fact, the Akh Nara had been the one to suggest they repurpose it into something more useful… Balagra didn’t even know if the Akh Nara had a bed to sleep on. It would not surprise him in the least to learn that their living god and supreme leader slept on bare rocks in the Ash.

Yet another absurd tale to add to the list,

Balagra thought. The number of legends and myths surrounding their leader seemed to balloon by the day. Balagra could only imagine what the fervor would be like once the Akh Nara took the throne.

The naga shook his head. Before he could even think of such matters, there was a war to win.

Two-dozen Ash Gates had been erected, each two hundred paces apart. Each leading to Samar Patag, to one of the many subterranean chambers the Akh Nara’s most trusted forces had constructed in secret with the help of the locals.

Each company had their assigned Gate, their assigned path through the city. To minimize any confusion amid the inevitable chaos, Balagra had ordered each squad to rehearse their path through the city. While the Gauntlet was useful for the most elite squads to test themselves, the less dangerous courses in the forest near their garrisons allowed for such practice.

Each and every demon in the Akh Nara’s army knew their task, and they knew where they had to be. They knew the overall battle plan and the contingencies.

And so, it was with pride that Balagra watched the troops enter the Ash Gates with the mechanical efficiency of a veteran army. For there was no doubt in his mind that they were real veterans. Most may never have slain another demon, but there was not one among them that had slain less than a hundred Ash Beasts. If they weren’t veterans, Balagra didn’t rightly know who was.

That warmth lasted all the way until a certain voice spoke up behind him.

“Have there been changes to the plan?” the demon asked.

Balagra turned to face Raoul, looking very much as though he had just swallowed a pill.

“You look confused, Raoul,” Balagra said. “How may I be of service?”

Balagra wished he could commission a painting of the cult leader’s face. Confusion mixed with indignation, and more than a little panic. It took all that Balagra had not to laugh at the pathetic traitor.

The Akh Nara had taken an awful risk keeping the vermin alive. Balagra had reservations about the decision at the time… And yet, he couldn’t deny that his gambit had paid off. By selecting only the most tight-lipped demons for the excavation of the caverns, they had managed to avoid leaks. By framing the forest exercises as training for after they broke through Samar Patag’s walls, and by involving the traitor in fake meetings—with the real ones being held in secret at a different location—Raoul had had the wool pulled over his eyes.

“I was under the assumption that there would only be a handful of Gates to the forest? Due to the limitation of Goddess Ashani’s powers…”

“Yes, the Akh Nara recently discovered a few Gates he’d forgotten about,” Balagra lied. “He was able to close… As such, we now have plenty of extras.”

“Quite astonishing,” Raoul said, barely holding onto his composure, “that someone as esteemed as the Akh Nara would ‘misplace’ something like a Gate…”

“I wholeheartedly agree, Raoul,” Balagra said, nodding gravely. “Truly, who can comprehend the power of someone so great, they misplace a Gate?”

“Of course… Of course… It does not appear as though these Gates lead to the forest, however? Has the plan changed?”

“As a matter of fact, I believe it has,” Balagra said. “In fact, I believe the Akh Nara has a very special mission for you.”

“What mission? I’ve heard nothing of this,” Raoul said, becoming more indignant by the moment. “Stop avoiding my question and answer me!”

“Why would I do that?” Balagra said, allowing the barest trace of a smile onto his face as the Akh Nara put a hand on Raoul’s shoulder from behind, “When you can hear it from the Akh Nara himself?”