Training Part 3 of 14 - 4D Chess

('Ddraig speaking telepathically')

("Ddraig talking out loud")

['Albion speaking telepathically']

["Albion talking out loud"]

{'Bahamut speaking telepathically'}

'A character's thoughts'

Chapter 16: Training Part 3 of 14 - 4D Chess

Titan

"Loki," Thanos called out to one of the two gods kneeling before him.

"Y-Yes, mighty Thanos?"

"I have a task for you and your brother, Baldur. The two of you cannot speak to anyone about this, not even your own father or that Thor pest."

Baldur turned to his 'brother', exchanging looks. In truth, his mother, as much as he hates to admit it, is Freya while his father is Odin. His only full-blooded sibling is Thor, but he had no problem working alongside their adopted youngest since both of them hate the other Aesir.

Loki didn't dare to look up. His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy (48). "You have my word that we will not tell anyone. What is it you seek?"

Thanos grinned evilly. "Your beloved Asgard holds something I need, something that will help us, the Khaos Brigade, win against our enemies. It's called the Eye of Agamotto. It holds the Mind Stone, one of the six Infinity Stones. Unfortunately only an Aesir can access the place it is kept in."

. . . . . . .

Timeskip Two Days

Day 4 of 120 Training Days

Asgard

Baldur was beyond frustrated. The task Thanos gave to him and his partner was supposed to be very simple, and yet it is impossible to accomplish due to their current predicament. The pair of brothers arrived at the vault somewhere high in the Asgardian royal castle only to find out that the security detail guarding the door is one they will never get past: Thor and Odin. The two gods sat comfortably in front of the gate, drinking tea. They even set up a bunk bed in the way, showing that they intend to guard it 24/7 even while asleep.

If they arrived a couple of days earlier before Odin summoned the Red Dragon Emperor, they would have already accomplished their objective.

"Do you need something, brothers?" Thor asked, smirking smugly. They mistook it for condescension when it was nothing more than a smile that said 'caught red-handed.'

Baldur badly wanted to fight him. "Why you!"

Loki calmly stopped him by placing a hand on his shoulder. "No, it's nothing." He turned to Baldur, who could sense the annoyance in his foster brother's eyes, and whispered. "Let's go."

A shit-eating grin creeps onto Thor's face as they walked away.

. . . . . . .

In another dimension, a raven-haired boy opened his eyes with a loud gasp. He clutched his chest in pain at the memory of his self-planned and successful assassination as this is the first time he awoke since.

After calming down, he looked around and realized where he is once he studied his surroundings. A small, houseless shrine floating in the middle of the sky in its own dimension and bathed in the golden light of a distant sun.

'C's World,' He thought. Why would he be here? He died!

"Hello, Zero... or should I say Lelouch vi Britannia, 99th Emperor of the Holy Britannian Empire," An authoritative male voice spoke. (49)

"What? Who are you?!"

"Calm down. I won't be able to talk to you for long since I have lost much of my former power, so I have to make this quick. As of right now, I cannot tell you who I am other than the fact that I am a deity. I am only here to give you a choice. Seeing the things you did before your death, I felt tremendous grief and sympathy for you, so I am here to give you a choice."

Lelouch raised an eyebrow, still unable to see the speaker, only hear their voice surrounding him. "And what choice would that be?"

"Your first option would be to immediately move on to the afterlife. Unfortunately, because you killed people despite your good intentions, you are not allowed to enter Heaven or Hell. Your soul would roam the universe forever."

"That sounds like a terrible option. What is the other one?"

"Option two is something that you might not like. There is a group of eleven people in another world who I wish you to train by imparting your knowledge of military strategy on them. They are a group that consists of mostly kids between the ages of 15-17 whose universe's fate rests on their shoulders, so don't withhold any information."

Lelouch frowned. This deity is right about him not liking it since he doesn't like to give up any of his secrets. Zero's formula for military success was his and his alone, but a universal calamity sounded even worse. "What do I get out of it?"

"Once you are done teaching them, I will put your soul to rest forever by taking you to Heaven. What do you say?"

After much deliberation, he replied. "I accept the latter."

"Splendid! I will teleport you immediately to the facility. Wait for them there."

. . . . . . .

Great Red smirked. "Hoh? Very interesting."

Ophis looked at him. "... What is?"

"You'll see. Our Issei is getting a very interesting sensei today."

. . . . . . .

As they teleported to the soccer field, Issei and co were expecting to continue working with the Chief. Instead, they were met with a boy who looked around their age.

"My name is Lelouch vi Britannia. I will be training you all today. To be honest, I don't even know any of your names as I was just assigned this task."

One by one, they introduced themselves to him.

He nodded. "I see. What year is it in this universe? I died and was brought here."

Issei answered. "It's 2020."

Vali couldn't help but laugh at how accepting everyone is of the fact that the 18 year old in front of them died. It should be surreal, but at this point, with the way 2020 has gone, nothing is a surprise anymore.

"Did World War II happen?"

"Yeah."

"Hitler killed himself?"

"Nein! Nein! Nein!" Rossweisse yelled, earning looks. She blushed and scratched her head. "S-Sorry. I'm part German, so I guess that side of me came out. Hehe." She finished with a nervous chuckle.

Issei laughed. "Yes, Hitler killed himself."

"Excellent. Is there a classroom nearby? I am going to teach you all some history and military strategy."

They led the former tyrant to the next-door building and into the same massive college lecture hall that Chief used for them.

Lelouch looked around for any tools he could use. "Let's see... Ah, a map."

He pulled down a political map hanging from the whiteboard. Uncapping a red sharpie, he began drawing on it. Turning to the group, he projected his voice loud enough for everyone to hear, even though everyone was sitting in the first two rows.

"World War II is the most interesting part of history on both the political side and the military side since it shows both the best and the worst of Humanity, but we'll be focusing on military only. Now, raise your hand if you know the strategies Hitler tried to use during Operation Barbarossa."

Raynare, Arisu, and Rossweisse raised their hands while everyone else shook their heads.

Raynare has lived for thousands of years, so of course she knew it. It is still fresh in her mind when hearing about and seeing the insane amount of evil Humans are capable of.

Arisu is the daughter of the most powerful Dragon to ever live, so her father wanted her to be smart too. World War II fascinated her. Truth be told, it fascinated all of them, but she has done her research.

Lelouch grabbed a meter-long ruler and used it as a pointer. "What you see here were his plans to invade the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa, which commenced on June 22, 1941 and ended December 5, 1941. There were several Russian cities that he wanted to capture along the way, but at first, the Germans focused on these five as their goal: Kiev, Minsk, Smolensk, Leningrad, and most importantly the capital in Moscow.

Other famous battles include Rzhev, the Caucasus, Stalingrad, Kursk, Berlin, and others, but we'll get to them in a moment.

Because Hitler invaded and conquered France not too long before, Stalin thought the Germans were vulnerable and was planning to invade Germany since Hitler put 3.3 million troops into France, but much to his surprise, the Germans invaded first with only weeks to spare from a Soviet invasion.

While he did read Hitler's autobiography Mein Kampf and highlighted the parts where Hitler mentions his hatred for Slavs and plans to invade Russia, Stalin was not prepared for an invasion at all, and his troops were taken completely by surprise, despite knowing that a conflict with the Third Reich was inevitable. For example, at the beginning of the war, Soviet tanks were so useless that their shells would shatter on impact of German Panzer tanks, leaving no damage and the only way to destroy those Panzers would be to fire those shells at point-blank range.

Operation Barbarossa was the single most massive invasion force ever assembled of over three million Germans willing to fight and die for their Fuhrer, and only a few thousand would ever return, much less survive the duration of the war.

More people, soldier or civilian, died in the Eastern Front of World War II than any other theater of war in history. Hitler was sure that he would win against the Soviets in a few months using Blitzkrieg, but he didn't. Instead, the Soviets clapped back, brutally murdering and raping Germans left and right between 1942-1945.

Do any of you know why Germany lost the war?"

Rossweisse raised her hand enthusiastically. "Oh! I know!

Firstly, they declared war against the Americans, which they didn't need to do. The US was already supplying the UK and Russia through the Lend-Lease Act, giving them hundreds of thousands of trucks, planes, guns, ammunition, clothing, and other equipment, so fighting a war on two fronts with a country that had those logistical capabilities and can also invade while keeping many soldiers at home to defend was very dumb of Hitler.

Secondly and most importantly, they underestimated the Soviets and their will to fight, plus the Russian's faithful ally, the winter, destroyed any chance of the Germans advancing.

Thirdly, Hitler didn't equip his soldiers with the proper clothing in winter; their vehicles also couldn't move since they got stuck in the dirt and oil was freezing.

Lastly, the Battle of Stalingrad was the turning point of the war."

The former Emperor nodded. "Very good. Speaking of the Battle of Stalingrad, we also need to remember that Stalin did not allow any of his soldiers to retreat, and once the Battle of Stalingrad came, he ordered that none of his own people would be allowed to leave, that if any of his soldiers takes even one step back, they would be shot. It was cruel, yes, but he believed it would make his troops fight harder to protect the civvies, which they did.

As a result, 2 million people died in Stalingrad, 800,000 of them from the Axis. Operation Uranus was a big reason for this since a lot of them starved.

But why did this happen in the first place? Hitler was trying to reach the Caucasus, which contained 90% of the USSR's oil supply. Capturing that would mean starvation for Soviet military machinery that relies on oil, and a huge blow to their economy. Unfortunately, the city of Stalingrad stood in the way of this goal, plus the Volga river, which ran through Stalingrad, was a key supply route for the USSR to deliver goods throughout the nation.

By the end of the war, the Russian government declared the official tally of dead soldiers being 8.7 million, and that's soldiers alone. Some have said as many as 14-18 million. They lost as many civilians as they did soldiers, mostly from hunger due to supplies being cut off, most of the times intentionally by Stalin himself."

Silence ensued. Issei was shocked. He knew Stalin was cruel to his own people, but this cruel? It was yet another reason for him to hate communists.

Lelouch broke the silence. "After the Battle of Stalingrad came the Soviet counteroffensive, leading to the Battle of Kursk, and later on in 1945, the Battle of Berlin. Kursk was the biggest tank battle in history, and the Battle of Berlin was a one-sided massacre in which the Germans were getting slaughtered on all sides and desperately fled west to surrender to the more merciful US or UK rather than the Red Army.

Stalin basically played 4D chess and outsmarted Hitler, even though he didn't listen to his closest advisors and Generals at first. Both commanders were very intelligent but too emotionally driven or prideful.

What is the lesson here? Why did the Germans lose despite outnumbering the Soviets at the beginning of the Eastern Front?

Hubris. Never underestimate your opponents. Never underestimate what they are willing to sacrifice for victory. The Germans had the Soviets surrounded, but Stalin essentially pulled an Uno reverse card by surrounding the Germans and attacking from their rear with the goal of either neutralizing the target or die trying.

There's a question as old as war itself: If someone is trying to kill you, are you not to rise against him and kill him first?

In military strategy, if you have to bide your time and be patient to win, do it, just don't pull a Hitler and push your men to invade enemy territory at sub zero temperatures."

He earned laughs from the group.

"I could name countless other examples in history such as the 300 Spartans of Greece for one, but my point I am trying to make is that in a fight, it doesn't matter how many enemies you are up against whether it's a thousand or a million or more. At the end of the day, it is your willpower to fight that determines if you win."

They felt their hair stand on their heads as shivers crawled down their spines from his inspirational words.

Lelouch suddenly felt cold. He looked down to see his lower body slowly evaporating. "It seems my time in this world is over. Make sure to remember what I taught you: the strategy of Barbarossa, Stalin's counteroffensive, and the moral of the story. Goodbye everyone."

And with that, he disappeared, but everyone felt like their intelligence just went up tenfold just from being in his presence.

To Be Continued

I'll explain who that deity is eventually, but not anytime soon. Unfortunately, this is the only chapter Lelouch will appear in lol.

References:

(48) "Lose Yourself" by Eminem

(49) Lelouch from Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, my favorite anime. I highly recommend watching the English dub which is just amazing, and this is coming from someone who watches anime in Japanese 90% of the time. Give it a chance you bunch of sub Nazi weebs. :) Also, Lelouch is just the smartest anime character ever.

Issei's Harem (same as peerage members, most to least powerful, will not change):

Issei Hyoudou (Mutated King)

Arisu Yamauchi (OC, Six Mutated Pawn Pieces)

Raynare (Main Girl, Queen)

Akeno Himejima (Knight)

Kuroka Toujou (Bishop)

Irina Shidou (Rook)

Tsubasa Yura (Knight)

Rossweisse (Rook)

Ravel Phenex (Bishop)

Natsuki Murayama (Two Pawns)