18 Chapter 18: Tanya the Genius
October 1924 C.E. an unexpected event were two major superpower declared warn on the Empire which led to a chaos in the capital Berlun. Thankfully it was hastily suppressed by the rising star, Lieutenant Rayark now promoted to Colonel due to his achievements of supressing the riot and even killed an Ace of Ace of the enemy nation.
A day after that, he was immediately given a secret task by the high command of the Imperial military to cripple the enemies and deny the said major superpower from having easy access to attack them. The target in this regard, were the Francois Republic and their capital, Paris.
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"Put on Optical Spell and disguise ourselves. Our movement until reaching the Rhine Front will be carry out in secret because the Intelligence office had yet to fully clense our ranks from traitors, especially the non frontline area that isn't the highest priority."
"As you can hear, gentleman. Our mission is a top secret mission that will be carry out in absolute secrecy. No mistake will be tolerated! Its not an exaggeration to say that our success will determine the future of the Empire." Tanya standing upright in full military uniform, sternly reminded again the flight mage under her command.
"Do I made my self clear?"
"Yes! Commander!" Everyone replied with a shout that carries their blazing will and determination. They cannot afford to fail either because if they did, their families back in their hometowns will be affected.
"Good. Now gear up and we are returning to our beloved Rhine Front." Tanya giving an approving nod and a sarcastic joke before stepping down the stage to put on her gear.
Since order had been given, everyone put on their combat gear and took off the the air with Tanya.
My packs were rather light than the others since I do not need to carry ammunition and grenades etc. I can Trace them whenever I need. So, the stuff I carry were materials for my magecraft and research since I had yet to finish the explosive device I am trying to create.
"Oi bitch! Move faster, we don't have all day to waste on you." I scolded my adjutant that was taking her sweet time putting on the flight gear.
At first I wanted to just leave her at the HQ since she would be in danger on the frontline. Besides, she have absolutely no experience in battle except for training. She is useless in live combat but Tanya told me Charlotte still need to come with us because she is my official adjutant. She is supposed to be next to me doing errands all the time except some occasions like during battle.
I can't exactly say I told her to stay at HQ for no justified reason when questioned by the higher rank officers.
After she managed to put on the flight gear despite her exhaustion, We immediately took off and rejoin Tanya's Wing and put on illusion spell to cover the whole group. Then we fly up to 10,000 altitude to avoid detection from the ground.
This flight is a long distance flight that takes 10 hours long of constant flying. The 10 hours were for them. I can actually cross the distance between our HQ and Rhine Front in less than 3 hours by flying high and then glide down towards the destination.
Other than boredom from the long flight, nothing else happened to everyone. We do arrived approximately ten hours later.
The frontline that look gloomy like a dead wasteland, filled with trenches, deads along with their gears and broken machinery of war. It was relatively silent with the usual sound of artillery fire or gunfight that Tanya usually experienced.
"It's feel odd and disturbing that the lively Rhine Front would be experiencing calm and peaceful moment like this." Tanya described the anomaly she felt.
But for me, I can see what others couldn't. The amount of dead souls wandering below is staggering. All the way to the end of the horizon, I saw the deceased souls wandering aimlessly on the land and my lips curved up into a smile. With this much souls, I wonder how much of Piece I could create? Or other Piece that I have yet to have the opportunity to create because the lacks of resources.
Soon after, we are radioed by the patrolling mage squadron that detect us after we shed the illusion and fly low.
"This is the Rhine Command Post, please identify yourself."
"Rhine CP, this is Flight Mage Wing V203 commander, codename Pixie, requestioning permission to land." Tanya immediately replied to the radio transmission.
"Magic wavelength sequence analysed, identification match with the archive. Welcome back to the Rhine Front, Argent. We are expecting for your arrival, Major Degurechaff."
"Mhm."
"We received the permission. Time to land, everyone." Tanya informed everyone on the main broadcast channel before dropping from the sky to the empty spot next to the fortified stronghold.
Few commented they feel great returning to their home turf. The majority complained about their hunger after ten whole hours of non-stop flying and quickly went to the canteen to eat while me, Tanya and our adjutants went to meet the officer in charge of this place for a briefing regarding our task.
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"That's the gist of the plan, sir." I explained the plan Tanya and I came up with to the commanding officer.
The similarly ranked officer as me, adopted a thoughtful gaze at the plan I explained to him on the map and evaluated it for a while before he exhaled the breath he didn't realize he was holding back. Despite us being of similar rank, he still holds the seniority between us and my appearance makes little space for respect when he looks like a 12 year olds. Thus, I have to still show respect to him.
"Colonel Ray, it's… a brilliant plan indeed. I couldn't even fathom the degree of knowledge you have in not just tactical, but also psychological warfare."
"Faking a retreat with the recent incident in the capital, lying to our opponent regarding our weakness. Then gave them bait to stretch their forces thin into their enemies territory, forcing them to not just waste manpowers, but also resources to fortify their hold on the new territory." The Colonel explained the plan with clear amazement.
"Indeed, sir. And that is just the first phase of the plan."
"Yes, indeed. After stretching their manpowers and wasting their resources. You will lead your forces to infiltrate behind the enemy's lines to strike and shatter their command chain while they are distracted by the bait."
"Wonderful, this is simply brilliant. I can see why his Imperial Majesty and the Imperial military have high regards for both the Argent and you. There is nothing needed to be considered anymore. You will have my full support in this operation, the Fatherland will flourish with you two prodigies under its wing." The Colonel praised us before sending us off to our merry ways and preparing for the operation that will take place in six days from now.
After rejoining with our adjutants waiting outside the door, Tanya and I went to our temporary assigned barracks. Since she is familiar with this place, we didn't need any guide or direction. I simply followed her while discussing our part of the operation.
"I could rain down large scale Incendiary spells on the more concentrated area to keep the Republicans busy taking out the fire while we snuck in under the veil of night."
"But, large scale spells have big and obvious mana signatures. It would alert them that someone had infiltrated their stronghold." Tanya argued back before stopping at the front of our temporary barrack. Although I do call it a barrack, it's actually a room within the repurposed medieval times fortress.
"I could store pre-casted spells and unleash them when needed."
"That's war crime, Ray. Your sister raised you to be better than that, Ray." Tanya sighed with a fake disappointment.
"You never did, 'sister'. I am trying to be serious over here." I addressed her fake title with sarcasm.
"Me too, Ray. Me too." Tanya sighed before opening the door wide to see her troops fighting over MRE that tasted better, clean pillow etc. She even caught Weiss in a compromising position with another man, probably by accident but regardless.
"I get it that you are all probably on edge with stress and wanted to enjoy your time a little before the day of our operation. But, please keep the image of our unit in mind before doing anything. Especially you, Weiss. I don't question your weird hobby but please do it in private."
"Major, wait! This is a misunderstanding!" Weiss tries to defend his dignity as a man but is sadly ignored by Tanya who pretends to act considerate when caught by her roommate having sex with someone.
"Don't worry, Weiss. Your secret is safe with me. The rest of you, enjoy all you want for the rest of the day but be mindful of your actions. That's all." She said before walking toward the private room that isn't shared like the rest of her unit with me.
"Here is our room. The higher ranking officers usually have their own room. Normally I would share this room with Visha but since you are here, our adjutants will sleep in the shared room while we share this room." She pointed at the bunk bed and the minimalist room that is actually already a luxury in the frontline like this.
"So, about the wad crime thing. Not that I am blind to logic and seizing victory is the absolute end goal. But, if we openly commit war crimes, then our enemies can use it against us and pin us as the evil instead of them. We will basically give them a free point to label us as the villain." Tanya said while tearing off the stuffy flight boots that were designed to be very tight and constricting to keep the blood from flowing down the legs when flying at high speed.
Her reasons do make sense from a logical standpoint. But we are basically fighting against God, not humans. The superpowers were led by humans and they are compelled by Being X to fight the Empire, to kill me. He probably wouldn't stop with just Albion Kingdom and Unified States. He could very well make the Russy Federation, the Dragon Empery, the Akitsushima Dominion and the whole world declare war on the Empire. There is little that I know regarding his limit but to play safe, I simply overestimate him rather than underestimating Being X and suffer a defeat.
"Tanya, do remember that we are fighting against the puppets controlled by Being X. Rationality simply doesn't work and you can even assume that sooner or later, the whole world will declare war on the Empire." I said and took a seat on the bed while dismissing the Traced flight boots. "Besides, even if it did. That's not our problem. We're gonna dip out of this world as soon as the preparation on my side is done."
Tanya stopped for a second before coming to a realization. Our plan was to leave this world and only participate in the war because I am depending on Zettour's contract to supply me with material for research and this is the safest place to be in this world.
"Yeah, I almost forgot about that. Sorry, the stress is taking a lot out of me." She said while signs of exhaustion are showing on her.
I do always forget that I am very different from a normal human despite having the same genetics and whatever that shows I am human. My abilities and stats made me way superior than a normal human does. While Tanya is basically exhausted from the long flight then briefing immediately after, I actually felt normal as usual. I felt like I just went for a short walk. No physical exhaustion at all since mana constantly flooding and Reinforced my body to rid off any exhaustion and immediately replenish the stamina loss.
Speaking of my stats, I haven't opened my status yet for quite a while and been keeping it aside because I get a bad feeling. Especially the ability section below. I got a bad feeling about it somehow especially after seeing few ominous looking notifications that I missed in the notification screen.
[Requirement fulfilled, defiling 1000 souls of the dead. New ability unlocked.]
[Requirement fulfilled, killing 10,000 living being of similar species. New ability unlocked.]
[Requirement fulfilled, inflicting physical harm to another person. New ability obtain.]
[A Transcendental being looks at the Player in favor for opposing the God of Reincarnation and Player's tendencies to commit evil. He granted the Player with his blessing. He will look forward for Player's performance in the future from his Abyssal Immaterium realm.]
(An OC character from my first fanfic. The one before Ray Elliot.)
"Damn… it's like I've been building a resume to somekind of demonic overlord." I murmured while looking at the notifications I missed.
"Hm? Villain? What are you whispering about?" Tanya heard my mumbling and suddenly become interested.
"Nothing much, just my recent deed that gain myself some infamy for defiling souls and killing a lot of people." I casually told her without batting an eyes. If it's just killing people then Tanya understand because they are soldiers and soldiers kill people. But defiling souls? How do one even defile a soul?
Ray suddenly notice a weird look from Tanya. She is looking at him like a train molester due to her misunderstanding.
"I didn't take you as a depraved person, Ray. How do you even defile a something that you cannot touch?" Tanya disdainfully asked while simultaneously distancing herself by rolling to the edge of the bed and grab the pillow at the end to use as shield. "Is Charlotte not enough for you?"
"What? No. Wait, that not what I mean…" Ray quickly try to denied it and even flustering for a moment when he realised Tanya know about the deed he does with Charlotte.
"What I'm trying to say is. I don't do sexual act on deceased soul. I just sort of use them as material for creating certain artifact and the process unfortunately need me to literally turn souls into pile of minced soul." I tried to correct her misunderstanding.
"I see…" Tanya accepted the explanation rather easily without any doubt.
"Also, how did you found out about me and Charlotte having sex?"
"You both aren't exactly discreet when her moan and your voice literally leaking out to the hallway. You two also have the same weird smell this morning." Tanya points out the mistake I did while hugging the pillow and peer over to me as if wanted to ask something.
"Of course… I was tired and too occupied with my thoughts to remember reactivate the Bounded Field of my office." I control the urge to slap myself on the face before looking back at her, asking why is she looking at me like that.
"Say, Ray. Could it be that the artifact you talking about is the Piece?" Her eyes narrowed down at mine, trying to look for the sign of me lying. As if she expected me to lie at such trivial question.
"Yes. The souls were used to make the Piece. No material could really stay stable while having multiple enchantments and able to be absord without affecting the host's body negatively." I explained proudly as an inventor would when showing off his greatest creation.
Tanya however didn't show the same enthusiasm and even frowned while staring at me in scrutiny. I quickly stopped my lengthy explanation and panicked because Tanya is a modern person who have strict believe in rules and order that unfortunately includes something called human rights. Though I doubt that applies on soul of dead human.
"You are one dangerous person I'm grateful that we isn't an enemy. To go such length to spite on Being X by stealing the souls from cycle of reincarnation while also weakening him by lowering the number of soul that become his faith dispenser." Tanya said after a moment of pin drop silence between us.
I immediately exhaled the breath I unconsciously holding, thinking Tanya might turn against me. But instead, she went and analyzed my action to deduce reasoning that I didn't actually did. I used soul to create Piece because that is what available and suitable. Definitely not because of stealing soul from cycle of reincarnation to weaken Being X. Heck, I didn't even realise it until Tanya point it out. Being X indeed will be weaken the more soul I take out from the cycle of reincarnation because he will have lesser believers in the long run to supply him with faith.
After all, although numerous. Soul are still limited in numbers. Which is why the act of defiling soul are frowned upon.
This mean, by harvesting as much souls as possible, means Being X will be weaker and weaker!
I couldn't help but look at Tanya with surprise. I who have ability and stats that literally make me have superhuman intelligence, couldn't think of this and yet someone without such ability and stats could easily did it. This prove that literally having godlike intelligent would be useless if I couldn't use it to the best ability.
"You are a genius, Tanya!" I cheered to her bewilderment at my sudden cheerful outburst. "I just need to take as much souls as possible away from the cycle of reincarnation to weaken Being X. Because, if there is lesser people can be birthed into the world, wouldn't that mean he will have lesser people fo believe in him and gain faith?" I said before diving toward her to give her a hug and kiss on the forehead out of excitement that I can now deal a significant blow to Being X instead of being a sitting duck, waiting to be hunted.
"Wah! Wai- …"
I immediately jump up from the bed and Trace a common boots before skipping out of the room to immediately put the idea to work. She wanted to stop me but I already left before she could even lift her hand to call me.
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