Chapter 15 - Rebels of Val Foret (5) (Patreon)

Enchanters!The time has come to be aliveWith the Circle of Magi, where we will thriveWith our brothers.-Enchanters remindThat time will not unwind.The dragon's crooked spine,Will never straighten into line.-What we plea will beA faithful end decree,Where a man will not retreatFrom the defeat of his fathers.-Enchanters!A time has come for battle lines.We will cut these knotted ties,And some may live and some may die.-Enchanter, Come To MeEnchanter, Come To MeEnchanter, Come To SeeCan-a you, can-a you come to see,As you once were blindIn the light now you can sing?In our strength we can rely,And history will not repeat.

—As performed by the bard Maryden Halewell

***

In the end, there was a need for Commander Drautos to personally start melting the vault door of the underground vault. Blasting the doors apart was out of the question, as they were under the ground, which could cause them to be buried together with the rubble.

So, the only other possible option was the more lengthy one, which was to melt the doors down slowly. It took a considerable amount of Magic Power even from him, because he needed to perfectly control his spell to not burn down everything.

Soon enough, the doors led to the hiding spot of the Morelet Laurens, who was covering and hiding at the end of the room. Commander Drautos wasn't a man who would waste any more time, as he directly waved his sword and chopped off the man's head.

"Proceed to the cleaning. Take documents and valuables, start securing the perimeter, and clean up the entire place of the sewers."

The main resistance of the rebels has been killed during their assault on this place, though some soldiers and rebels would still be hiding in the sewers. Glaives had an advantage fighting in areas like this, so Drautos sent them to clean them out.

Obviously, during this, they would also take everything of value from here with them, as they were personal spoils of war of the Prince. Either way, most of the gold and gems that were hers and the possession of Morelet Laurens were supplied by the Cult of Andraste in their efforts to cause chaos.

One's loss was another's gain.

What was a pleasant surprise was the fact that there was a considerable amount of gold.

It seemed that the Cult of Andraste invested a considerable amount of resources into this endeavor, which was an added bonus in fact. At least, this way, they have obtained a lot of money, which was always needed.

Even in this rebellion, Commander Drautos didn't really doubt that money was still needed.

Not everyone would march to die just for the faith and empty promises.

***

Val Foret, Outer City, 3rd District, Former Chapel of the Cult of Andraste

Kordillus and Ciri tore their way through the masses of the rebel troops. Unfortunately, for the zealots of the Cult of Andraste, they were just ordinary humans, and they had barely any kind of training.

It seemed that Priestesses Amabilla Chappelle and Petellia Martiana were pretty much charismatic or just very good at doing their job or whatever. Nevertheless, it wasn't his thing, as the only thing he now cared about was their capture and interrogation.

They were heads of the entire operation of the Cult of Andraste in here, and he knew that they must have some really interesting information. Kordillus and Ciri strode carefully through the corridors of the former chapel of the Cult of Andraste that was still standing, because it was scheduled to be torn down.

In its place, they would raise the Holy Chantry of the Maker, but that was for the future, and maybe it was good, because Kordillus wasn't keen on staining such a holy site with the blood of enemies and heretics.

"There are too many of them..."

Ciri said as she warped next to him, already tired from the seemingly endless horde of enemies, while at the same time, she wasn't keen on killing humans. Which was something that Kordillus knew and understood, but...

Fanatics were fanatics.

They were the hardest kind to deal with.

"They made their choices, Cirilla, as you make your own. You cannot be responsible for the people who decide to raise a weapon to kill and if you decide to do so, then you need to be prepared to be killed in turn."

Kordillus knew that Ciri had a problem with fighting and killing people who were literally throwing themselves to die. Most of these people that they and Glaives encountered, fought and killed were just random peasants and commoners, brainwashed by the Cult of Andraste...

Those who decided to join the rebellion and fight for their cause.

Despite that... Ciri viewed them mostly as the victims.

Something that he didn't share at all...

He worked on the principle that if someone decides to kill, he should be prepared to be killed.

Yet, he couldn't bring himself to be angry at Ciri.

She was kind.

Something that he liked about her.

"Don't dwell that much on it, Ciri... if you don't want to fight, then you can just provide support and fight only against the knights and warriors."

Kordillus said after some time of thought. Hearing what Kordillus said made her ponder for some time, until she shook her head because she didn't want to appear weak and she needed to stand by her choices.

"Nn..."

In the end, they proceeded to the deeper parts of the former Chapel of Andraste, and the deeper they went, the fiercer the resistance became. The zealots were problematic to deal with, but they were moving as fast as possible.

Right now, there was a commotion in the Chapel of Andraste, which was like a beacon for the rest of the rebels across the entire district that would soon swarm to the Chapel of Andraste.

Once the news of the attack was leaked.

Thus, they needed to handle this as fast as possible, grab the Priestesses Amabilla Chappelle and Petellia Martiana, and then teleport back to the Inner City. Even thouhg Kordillus was cofnident in his power and that of his Kingsglaives, the numbers were too much.

In the end, he was just a Silver-Tier.

Silver-Tier beings were beings that exceeded the limit of men. They were basically walking cannons. Yet, they were still not at the level where they could decide the fate of the entire battle and overrun the entire battlefield with their might.

That was the domain of the true Extraordinary experts of the Gold-Tier and higher.

"Prepare for the final push into the inner sanctum of the chapel. We will regroup with Ulric's and Lazarus's units as we make the final assault on their stronghold."

When Ciri opened the Portal to the Chapel of Andraste, which served as the headquarters of the rebel forces in the Val Foret, Kordillus dispatched two officers of the Kingsglaive, Nyx Ulric and Luche Lazarus, to take different routes through the Chapel.

They would regroup before the entrance to the Inner Sanctum of the Chapel, as they would clear most of the Chapel this way when they regroup at a later date and make their final assault to capture the heads of the rebels.

"I will fight... cannot be left back... grandma would have laughed at me from the grave..."

Ciri muttered as she tightened the grip on her sword.

***

In the heart of the Chapel of Andraste, both Priestesses Amabilla Chappelle and Petellia Martiana were already waiting for their attackers, as they had been notified about the attack by someone.

Obviously, they were not aware of who was attacking them, but the two women were pretty smart to figure out that it must be someone dispatched from the Val Royeaux. What was troubling them was the fact of how they got here and how they got here so fast, but they attributed it to some foul Magics that were employed by the Orlais.

Since the formal establishment of the Orlais Kingdom and the birth of the heresy they called the Holy Fundamentalist Order, their faith in Andraste had been struggling. Mages across all of the Thedas that were previously escaping the pursuit of followers of Andraste in the aftermath of the 1st Blight, were now stronger than ever.

Most of them congregating within the Orlais, gave the new rising kingdom tremendous power. Especially when the forces of the Cults of Andraste couldn't match them on the open battlefield due to the lack of Professionals.

Both Priestesses Amabilla Chappelle and Petellia Martiana knew that many of the Cult's powerhouses were killed during the Blight, subsequent wars against Tevinter in the Exalted March, and other events.

And when the Orlais began countering the Cult's Anti-Magic measures, they began losing ground. With the appearance of the Orange Fundamentalism Bible, the common masses started turning away from the teachings of Andraste to something that two women viewed as heresy.

Yet, both of them were also aware of the most primal truth of the world.

Ideals don't matter.

Ideals don't dictate what is right or wrong. 

Power does.

And those who had the power would dictate everything.

Now...

That power was in the hands of their nemesis.

Amabilla Chappelle and Petellia Martiana knew that once in the past, some of their Clergy and Reverend Mothers considered the young Kordillus Drakon as the means to establish the Cult of Andraste as the national religion of the Orlais.

Unforutenaly...

The Prince of Drakons was born as a Mage.

This destroyed all their plans before they even got started.

The stance of the Andrastianism on the Magic was clear.

The root of all the evils that happened in the world.

Ironically, due to that, Kordillus Drakon became hellbent on destroying the Cult of Andraste and spreading his own religion, and started a war on all fronts against the Cult of Andraste.

Most of the efforts of the Cult of Andraste were headed toward sabotaging the Orlais and finding a new kingdom or person who could be the champion of the Andrastianism.

Unfortunately for the Cults of Andraste, finding such a person proved to be much harder than one would have thought. 

"They have cut all escape routes... the only way to survive through this is if the reinforcements arrive from the outside faster than they could breach the Inner Sanctum."

Cleric Amabilla Chappelle said to her fellow Cleric Petellia Martiana as they were located in the Inner Sanctum of the Chapel. The entrances to the Innace Sanctum were now sealed and barricaded to buy them some time.

Neither of them was stupid enough to believe that their adversary didn't send their best after them. Either way, in their current situation, they could only hope for a Miracle that the Andraste would bestow upon them and that the reinforcements from outside the Chapel would arrive in time.

They were aware that they were in a race for time.

"Yes, but as long as we bel..."

Cleric Petellia Martiana didn't get to finish her words, as the main entrance to the Inner Sanctum was suddenly blown apart by a huge blast of Magic that also obliterated several tens of troops that were in the vicinity.

All soldiers that were in the Inner Sanctum with Priestesses Amabilla Chappelle and Petellia Martiana were actually at the Steel-Tier or Silver-Tier. These were not the ordinary kinds of soldiers, but they were the most un-ordinary. 

They were the elites of the Cult of Andraste that the Reverend Mothers sent together with them to the Val Foret to act as their personal bodyguards. Yet, even several of the Silver-Tier Knights were killed in one blast of Magic that destroyed the entire entrance to the Inner Sanctuary.

Both Priestesses Amabilla Chappelle and Petellia Martiana could feel the overwhelming power from the flames, and even though the Cult of Andraste condemned Magic and killed Mages and people with Magic on sight, it didn't mean that they were ignorant about the power of Magic.

The power was...

Overwhelming

And that was the moment when the chaos descended.