Chương 126: Chapter 125. A Swift Battle

Qorbin Ravenbane hadn't changed one bit since the last time Levi saw him. His messy brown hair was a little longer and the stubble coating his chin was a little coarser, but other than that, he looked the exact same as he had a month ago, with a roguish grin on his face and a brazen lightness to his posture as if he hadn't just successfully snuck up on and attacked one of the most dangerous people in the world.

"Raven…bane?" Anastasia said slowly, looking as though she couldn't believe Qorbin was actually there.

"Ravenbane," Terminus said, looking as though he was dearly wishing that Qorbin wasn't actually there. The Crucible was an organization that thrived in secrecy, and Qorbin was a man who had just spent the past month sending the entire international criminal underworld into utter pandemonium to uncover those very secrets.

"You're late," Levi said, smiling widely despite himself.

"What took you so long?"

"My apologies," Qorbin said.

"I was a little busy. Had to sabotage an army, kill a bunch of nobles…" He grinned.

"You know how it goes."

"What?" Yuki said, sounding hopelessly confused.

"Who… Who are you?"

"A colossal pain in the ass," Terminus muttered under his breath.

"Yuki, please let me introduce you to Mythmaker Qorbin Ravenbane," Levi said.

"Grand Assassin of Luminarche, all-around degenerate scoundrel, and my master." There was a long moment of silence.

"Oh," Yuki said, a very strange note to her voice.

"I – I didn't know you were into that." Levi blinked, then balked. Off to the side, Anastasia had to look away, her shoulders trembling.

"What? Wait, no, not like that. I'm his apprentice!"

"He especially enjoys whips and cream," Qorbin confided to Yuki with a wink before letting out a series of demented giggles as he danced out of the way of a vicious Sever and Cleave. Yuki's eyes widened, scandalized, before a faint red dusted over her cheeks and she refused to even look in Levi's general direction.

"Really now?" Selene asked, and – was that a hungry look in her eyes? No, surely not, it must be Levi's imagination.

"He's lying," Levi said.

"You know he's lying to your face, right? I do not–" He sighed.

"Oh, forget it. Qorbin, do remember that I know where you sleep." Yuki let out a small gasp, Qorbin waggled his eyebrows suggestively, and even Terminus paused and looked at Levi in careful consideration.

"... I hate you all," Levi said.

"Let's deal with the Ascendant, shall we?" They immediately sobered up, turning back to where Ayako had landed, still obscured by a thick curtain of dust and ashen debris. Levi's magic thrummed under his skin, Qorbin raised his blade, Anastasia began chanting prayers, and the space around Terminus began rippling. The cloud slowly cleared to reveal Ayako… hunched over on the ground, clutching her head with one hand?

"Oh," she moaned.

"My head…" She looked up, a pained grimace on her face.

"What… Where am I? The last thing I remember is…" Suddenly, her eyes flashed with lucidity, followed by sheer horror. She bolted upright, glancing around wildly.

"My [Worldrender]! Did it go off?"

"No," Levi said, watching her carefully. Was this an act? Or had Ayako truly regained control?

"Say, do you happen to feel the inexplicable urge to hunt down and kill an individual known as 'Levi Ironwood'?" Ayako frowned, focusing on him.

"Who? Wait…" She winced, pressing a hand to her temple as she furrowed her brow in visible concentration.

"I saw you a few days ago. I… I spoke to you?" Levi regarded her for a long moment. Then his magic died down, and he smiled.

"You did. Welcome back, Ascendant Ayako. My name is Levi Ironwood. It's a pleasure to formally meet you."

"The pleasure is… all mine?" Ayako said haltingly before wincing again.

"What… What happened?"

"Long story short, you were possessed by an eldritch entity called the Chorus," Levi said.

"It was controlling you to, well, kill me, for reasons I don't really want to go into right now. Fortunately, it seems my friend here," he gestured at Qorbin, "was able to disrupt the possession by, uhh, hittingyoureallyhardinthehead. His name is–" Ayako's gaze landed on Qorbin, and she let out a poisonous hiss.

"Qorbin Ravenbane." Qorbin gave her a sheepish grin.

"H-Hey, Aya. It's… It's been a while." Levi blinked. Oh. Oh, fuck. A small part of Levi idly realized that this was probably why Qorbin had only used a nonlethal attack earlier. The rest of Levi, meanwhile, was busy panicking. Maybe… Maybe the two were just old friends? Old friends on good terms with each other? His hopes shriveled up and died a painful death a moment later.

"You…" Ayako snarled, her bloodshot eyes fixed on Qorbin. Shakily, she stood up and began stumbling forward with lurching steps.

"I haven't seen you in twelve years, not since our joint mission together."

"Hahaha, yeah," Qorbin said nervously.

"What a mission that was, am I right?"

"You double-crossed me! You used me as a diversion while you looted the Imperial Vault!" Slowly, Levi's, Anastasia's, Yuki's, and Terminus's heads swiveled over to stare at Qorbin. Qorbin flinched.

"Technically, our mission was already complete by that point, so our alliance was void…"

"And then you faked your death to escape! I watched you get ripped apart by a mutated kraken! There was so much blood!" Anastasia narrowed her eyes at Qorbin. Qorbin coughed.

"I… I got better?"

"Worst of all," Ayako seethed, "since you were legally dead, I had to fill out all the post-mission paperwork! You dumped everything onto me!" Levi joined Anastasia in glaring at Qorbin. Qorbin opened his mouth, paused, then closed it when he realized that there really was no good defense for that transgression. Ayako came to a stop right in front of Qorbin, completely ignoring the rest of them. He was a solid head taller than her, so she had to tilt her head up to glare into his eyes.

Mist seemed to swirl to life around her, suffused with the power of an archmage. Then, her gaze softened.

"You liar," she said quietly.

"You said we'd get a drink together afterward." Qorbin blinked. Then, his lips curved up in a small, almost rueful smile.

"I did, didn't I? I'm sorry. Here, let me…" He reached into his cloak, withdrew his metal hip flask, and silently offered it to her. Ayako took the flask, uncorked it, recoiled at the incredibly strong fumes, then tentatively took a small sip. Immediately, she choked and spluttered.

"What the… What is this swill?" Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

"How dare you," Qorbin said, taking the flask back.

"This is the good stuff."

"Right…" Ayako eyed him suspiciously for a second. Then, her face softened into a smile.

"Thanks for knocking me back to my senses." Qorbin paused, then grinned.

"Anytime." The rest of them relaxed as it became apparent that a fight wasn't breaking out. Qorbin's strike must've been enough to give Ayako the push to reclaim control.

"Why did Emperor Toranaga have you bound in that prison?" Yuki asked. Ayako turned to her.

"You… You're the Emperor's daughter, aren't you? Resistance Leader Yuki Toranaga." Yuki narrowed her eyes.

"Yuki Samura," she said.

"And he is no father of mine." Ayako considered her.

"Ah, my apologies. But to answer your question…" She shook her head.

"Much of the past few years has been a haze to me. I was… guarding something? A location." Levi blinked. Ah, that made sense. The Chorus must've only commanded the Three Pillars to guard the System Source. That was why the Three Pillars had never attacked the Resistance or participated in the war despite technically being on the same side as the Emperor. The Chorus benefited from constant warfare, as it served as a smokescreen and deterrent for outsiders.

"The haze lasted up until a week ago," Ayako continued, "when I was able to temporarily return to sanity. Since then, I've been trying to break free of whatever was controlling me. The Emperor must've noticed, because he forced me into that capsule for the past few days." Her gaze darkened.

"Where is he, anyhow?"

"He's dead," Yuki said. Ayako blinked.

"Truly?"

"Truly."

"But what about his [Bloodline Rebirth]?" Yuki tilted her head at Levi.

"He managed to neutralize that." Ayako examined Levi with an assessing gaze.

"Fascinating… Well. Whatever the case, Qorbin's strike earlier provided the opening I needed to fully reclaim control." She hesitated.

"I… I didn't hurt anyone, did I?"

"You didn't," Levi said.

"Oh, thank goodness," Ayako breathed.

"I was so worried…" Her legs seem to give out under her as the stress of the past few days — few years, really — finally hit all at once. She collapsed and would've hit the ground if it weren't for Qorbin catching her.

"Shit, you alright?" Qorbin said worriedly.

"Hey, Ana, you mind?" Anastasia nodded as she knelt down next to the Ascendant and began healing her.

"Well," Terminus said.

"That ended better than expected." He snorted.

"Took quite a few years off my life…"

"She's strong," Levi agreed.

"It would've been a difficult fight–" He froze. Wait a moment. Something wasn't right. Levi mentally replayed Qorbin's earlier words in his head…

'I was a little busy. Had to sabotage an army, kill a bunch of nobles…'

"Hey…" Levi said slowly, turning to the Grand Assassin, who looked back at him questioningly.

"When you said you had to kill a bunch of nobles…" He narrowed his eyes in accusation.

"Qorbin, did you assassinate the members of the Imperial Court?" Terminus drew in a sharp breath before whirling on Qorbin. Qorbin smiled like the cat that caught the bunny.

"No…"

"You ass!" Terminus said, aghast.

"They were mine to kill! I was looking forward to it!"

"Yeah, well," Qorbin shrugged.

"Didn't wanna risk them escaping while you lot were busy here." He coughed, suddenly not meeting any of their eyes.

"Also, quite a few of them had rather substantial bounties…" He paused.

"Who are you again? My sources tell me you're a Valarian covert operative, but you don't seem very Valarian to me…"

"That's Terminus of the Crucible," Levi supplied helpfully. Qorbin blinked.

"Oh, really now?" he said softly.

"Interesting…" Levi could literally see the dots connecting in the Grand Assassin's head. The Crucible was here in Yukihasa, the Crucible was working together with the Resistance, the Crucible had a track record of destabilizing nations… That, combined with all the other information that the Grand Assassin had no doubt gathered over the past month–"Oh, hells," Qorbin said.

"You were the ones to set off this civil war?"

"Fuck," Terminus said.

"How did you… No, never mind. It appears the stories about you weren't exaggerated. If anything, they understated your acuity." He sighed.

"I've already told Levi what happened. Needless to say, things got a little out of hand."

"Just a little, huh…" Qorbin glanced at Levi, and Levi could hear the assassin's silent question. Should we jump him? Levi considered it for a moment. Then, he shook his head.

"Not yet," he said out loud.

"Let's finish the war first." Qorbin nodded.

"Fair enough." Meanwhile, Terminus was frowning.

"Veli Maplewood… Oh. That's why you came up with such an obvious alias? You knew that the Resistance would ask around about you and Qorbin Ravenbane would inevitably hear about it."

"Yep," Levi said, grinning.

"Because Qorbin is a paranoid motherfucker who refused to give me a normal way to communicate with him–""A line out is a line that can be traced, you know this!" Qorbin protested.

"–so Veli Maplewood it was," Levi finished.

"I knew that the moment Qorbin heard about a Veli Maplewood in Yukihasa, he would come straight away."" Broqin Ravenlover would come straight away," Qorbin corrected.

"At any rate, there's a bunch we need to catch up on – why do you have an archdemon with you? – but first things first… Remember that army I mentioned I sabotaged?" Yuki blinked before tensing up.

"I was wondering where the rest of the imperial army was." Right. The Emperor had said that he had seen through the Resistance's diversion in the east and sent only a small force to respond, keeping the majority of his military on standby. Yet, Levi hadn't really heard the sound of intense battle off in the distance.

"Yeah, they were lying in wait on several nearby islands," Qorbin said.

"I was able to stall them for a while with a few, ah, surprises, but… They should be here any moment now." Yuki narrowed her eyes.

"Is that so? Good. I wish to speak with them." A great fleet of warships approached the imperial capital. They docked on the beach, tens of thousands of soldiers disembarking and gathering into formation. Their eyes were furious, if a little shell-shocked, and their uniforms sported the Emperor's mark. Together, they marched forward in perfect unison– They stopped. Ahead of them stood a single woman. A very recognizable, infamous woman.

"Soldiers of the imperial army!" Yuki Samura shouted, her voice amplified by an unknown spell.

"The Emperor is dead!" A wave of shocked swears rippled through the army.

"You lie!" a soldier snarled.

"It's true," she said.

"We were able to neutralize his immortality technique. The Resistance has captured Endo, the palace has burned to the ground, and the Emperor's long reign of terror has finally come to an end." The soldiers exchanged uncertain glances. Feverish muttering broke out amongst the entire army. Finally, one of the commanders stepped forward.

"If you are indeed telling the truth," he shouted, "then that just means we must avenge him! We will take down as many Resistance pigs as possible and die a glorious death in the name of the Emperor!" He sneered.

"And that's assuming you're not lying to us. How do we know this isn't some ploy? You stand here alone, not even a single ally at your back, and you expect us to believe you?" He laughed.

"The bluff couldn't be more obvious if you tried…" Yuki raised an eyebrow. Then, she snapped her fingers. Instantly, writhing seaweed burst from the volcanic sand and surrounded the entire army. Simultaneously, the ocean behind them came alive, the waves twisting into three roaring hurricanes. The soldiers yelped in fear and alarm.

Then, a loud crack echoed throughout the beach before the air behind Yuki shimmered, the illusion falling away to reveal two thousand Resistance fighters, a certain Archmage, Sea Druid, and grinning Spear Sage floating in the air. The commander swallowed, his face suddenly looking a lot paler than before. Nevertheless, he narrowed his eyes.

"This changes nothing," he said.

"We will fight to the death if need be–""Why?" Yuki asked.

"There's no way you'll win – you know it, I know it, your soldiers definitely know it. Why would you order them to a meaningless death?"

"Their deaths would not be meaningless–""Yes they would!" Yuki snapped.

"There is no point in loyalty to a dead man. They would be tossing themselves on the blade for no reason other than honor." The commander sneered.

"Honor is all we have – though I'm not surprised you know nothing of it, kinslayer–""You have your lives!" Yuki said.

"Your lives are not so inconsequential or worthless. Don't throw it away so easily." The commander opened his mouth to respond, but then paused at the look in her eyes. Despite the anger in her words, her eyes looked almost… pained, as though she were speaking from experience. And perhaps she was. Yet, behind that pain shone something more, a tiny spark of light, small but undeniably there, that said she now understood the value of her own life but more importantly she also understood the value of his.

"What do you want?" he asked quietly.

"Peace," Yuki answered simply.

"Peace, and a better future for this country. I want to see our children grow up without fear, I want our citizens to trust and rely on each other, I want the people of this country to dream. So please, surrender. Then, we can work toward that together." The commander regarded her for a long moment. Her crimson eyes were determined, hard, but sincere.

"I need to confer with the rest of my men." Yuki nodded. The commander returned and began talking to other high-ranking officers in hushed voices. Exactly two minutes later, the imperial army gave their unconditional surrender. After ten long years, the Yukihasan civil war was finally coming to an end.