The Greatest Sin

Edmonton saw Anassa’s beam, he ducked to the side. He rolled, another beam from the floor to hit him in the chest. “NO!” He shouted and blasted it with his own magic.

Anassa raised an eyebrow. Edmonton’s beam cut into hers and he realised what he was doing. Sorcery should not be able to stop sorcery, especially not his against Anassa’s. Anassa’s beam disappeared and the Goddess stood up from her seat. “That was good. For a moment there, you went crazy.”

Kassandora and Arascus returned to the frontlines by plane. Cargo-plane, since they wouldn’t fit in normal planes and Kirinyaa possessed nothing large enough to carry Divines, but plane nevertheless. Helenna stayed to organize back in Nanbasa but even then, it was only for a few days at the most. The two Divines only came back here because a guest had arrived.

An important one, one of the few non-Divines Kassandora trusted enough to give him any semblance of responsibility and autonomy: Iliyal Tremali. Probably the only mortal still alive to have that gift. If any of the elves from the Great War were still alive, they had lost that privilege of trust the moment they did not appear in Arika to stand at attention when it became public knowledge Kassandora was back.

Kassandora and Arascus made their way off the plane. Kassandora had finally changed into different clothes, the HAUPT uniform needed a wash frankly. She had simply gotten a pair of shorts and a green shirt, the same style that her men wore. A quick glance at her own camp, next to the huge clerical base said they were. Men were digging trenches, two teams were returning from a march. Buildings had been put up, warehouses and small shacks were being built to house the men. This was an army through and through, the tavern had been the first structure to be finished. The men even worked overtime to get it done.

“Iliyal is there.” Arascus said as he pointed to a group of elves approaching. Each one with a long suitcase for a backpack, as if they were a band carrying their instruments. Arascus had said Kassandora would have to see it to believe it.

“I see him.” Iliyal was impossible to miss. Kassandora had blessed him a millennia ago with her own power of will, even now the man was a shining beacon of her own magic. No matter how lacklustre that magic was compared to her sisters. Still though, it was her magic, however sad it may be, it was hers. That was the hand fate had dealt her, that’s the hand she played with. Wishing for anything more was pure immaturity. “I want him in charge here.” Kassandora said and Arascus nodded.

“Ilwin can handle the management of the Karainan base then.” Kassandora let out a breath. After dealing with the argumentations of mortals, after needing to ask in roundabout ways for Kavaa’s troops, it was simply a pleasure to deal with someone who would say yes or no.

“I’ll want Ilwin too eventually.”

“Then you’ll need to replace him with someone, Daganhoff won’t be able to handle operations by herself up there.” Arascus said and Kassandora nodded. If Ilwin would not do, Sokolowski had the makings of a general about him.

“Why the elves?”

“Like I said, you have to see it to believe it.” Iliyal’s quick steps devoured the red soil between them. He saluted, Kassandora returned it and a new artillery barrage began in the distance. The Binturongs were clearing more of the Jungle around them.

“General Tremali stands at attention!” Iliyal said and turned to Arascus. “The Emperor has called.”

“I did.” Arascus said. “Come, walk, we need somewhere without cameras.” A crowd was beginning to form. Kassandora’s own men were still working, they knew exactly what it meant for them to stop exercises just because she arrived.

With no humans to slow them down, elves moved quickly. In a mere half an hour, they circled around one of the rocks that the native Kirinyaans called mountains. Kassandora supposed it was, to an extent, but she just considered it an oversized rock that sprouted of the ground. The top had some vegetation, some thin tree and meandering bushes and when they circled around it, the orchestra of the camp died down: voices faded away, planes landing dulled, construction vehicles became faded, orders being shouted all became silent. Only the tremendous sound of the Binturongs became a light drum in the background. “Iliyal, show Kassandora.” The man nodded. He put the suitcase down on the ground and opened it.

There it was, the Automatic Alash Mark-One, Mikhail’s newest gun. Arascus did not even care that the man named it after his own surname, and if he allowed that, then it must be impressive. Kassandora looked at it as the elf squatted down, picked up the gun, and one of the magazines. “This is what we’ve been working on. The AAM1.” Mikhail said proudly. “Thirty round magazine, effective range up to three-hundred fifty metres, although we’ve had hits up to seven-hundred.” He said and pointed to the top of the gun. “These are the sights, but we’re working on a design that can slide a scope in.”

Kassandora nodded as the man explained. She had seen muskets in the past, they had proved as excellent weapons, but ironically not exceptionally deadly. Archers had a higher rate of fire, crossbows were more accurate. The strength of the musket lay in the fact that when two hundred men fired and disappeared into a cloud of white smoke, even the bravest soul would turn and flee. Maybe if the war lasted another century, they would have devised ways to improve the hand-cannons, but the war ended, and the hand-cannons had been resigned to history.

Still though, already its range was better than a bow. “This is the magazine.” Iliyal said. “It has thirty rounds.” Kassandora raised an eyebrow. Guguoans had something called the Chu-Ko-Nu, although even a chainmail stopped that. A musket though… “It fires six rounds a second, the magazine is expended in five.” Iliyal stuck it in and pulled a slide on the side. “CLEAR!” He shouted and the other elves moved out of the way.

Iliyal pulled the trigger and Kassandora’s eyes started to glow. Her mouth became a hungry sneer. The gun fired five bullets and Iliyal let go of the trigger. “We can change it to semi-automatic.” He flicked something on the side and pulled the trigger. One shot sounded in the Kirinyaan outback. The elf demonstrated with three more shots. “The magazine can be removed, changed, or reloaded with a bullet still in the gun.” He took the magazine out, showed it to Kassandora, and put it back into the gun. He pulled the trigger again and passed the gun to Kassandora. “My personal opinion on it is that it completely changes warfare. There has never been anything like it.”

Kassandora inspected the gun herself. “Can it penetrate armour?” It was small in her hands, but that would be obvious, she was a Divine after all and this was a weapon for mortals to use. Her eyes would not get close enough to align to the sights. She gave up eventually, held it in one hand and let out a gunshot. Amazing.

“It can. Not the Binturong plate, but it’s effectively made infantry armour redundant. We’d have to stick an inch of steel onto a man at least.” Kassandora flicked the little switch on the side. She pulled the trigger and emptied the magazine.

“What do you think?” Arascus asked. Kassandora gave the gun back to Mikhail in awe. She remembered the advent of the catapult, the trebuchet. The birth of air-cavalry. This though…

This revolutionized warfare. A man trained for a day with that rifle could mow a whole team of nights who spent decades being mastering combat. A cavalry charge against twenty of these rifles would be suicide. The armies of the past…

They were simply inept. They paled in comparison. She would want a thousand men with this gun than a million with sword and shield. And logistically, the lack of smiths, the lowered amount of mouths to feed… Kassandora sat down and looked up at the two men. “No one is prepared for this.” Kassandora said. It was simply the truth. With Pantheon Peace, all developments of military technology had been stopped entirely. With this though… “It’s that simple. This has changed everything.” She stood back up and brushed her rear off. “You were correct, you had to see it to believe it.”

“That’s not all.” Arascus said and nodded to Iliyal. One of the elves with those large cases on their backs stepped forwards. He put the case gently on the ground and revealed the contents. A gun larger than the AAM1. Mikhail pulled a small telescope from it and handed it to Kassandora.

“This is the ADR Prototype. Anti-Divine Rifle.” He picked up a bullet. It was the length of his finger. “We don’t have a lot of this ammo with us, so excuse for the lack of presentation.” He said. “Range of fifteen-hundred metres, it can pierce the Binturong.” Kassandora nodded as she looked through the device.

It was like the telescopes of the past, but far stronger and far clear, with a dot in the middle and a series of lines, presumably for aiming the gun at different ranges. She handed it back to Iliyal as the man continued. “This is the team of snipers I’ve brought. They shoot…” He turned and sniffed the air in humour. “Well, they shoot like elves.” He said. A few of the men smiled in pride.

“Kassandora.” Arascus said. “Whatever assistance I can give, I will provide, but this is not my demesne.” He said slowly. “But if you need to run tests or anything, then I am here.”

“What do you need done?”

“We obviously see that with this, the armies of the past are out-dated and irrelevant.” Arascus gestured to the case that was back in Iliyal’s hand. “With the passing of Kirinyaa’s Army Implementation Bill, we have the men now. Now we need a structure for them. Based around this rifle.”

“Every soldier outfitted with this?” Kassandora almost could not believe what she was asking. An army like that? Even mages would not stand up against that.

“Guns can be manufactured in mass. Obviously at the start we use swords, but a full transition to firearms?” Arascus shrugged. “Our Karainan site has to work in secret, and it can make a thousand every three days. If we worked openly in Kirinyaa, then I give it no longer than a year for production levels to rise enough to outfit the Clerics twice over in a month.”

Kassandora nodded. So a new structure based around the gun the and radio, not around the sword and the flag. “How long does it train to a men to proficiency with this?” Kassandora asked Iliyal.

“A day?” Mikhail sounded as if he questioned himself. “A week? I give it no more than a month. I’ve been training men in Karaina, it depends what level you want them at. Aiming itself isn’t the difficulty. Endurance and everything else is.” Kassandora nodded. She saw it immediately, without the workouts given by sword practice, men would grow weak. She stared at that case. Even a child could hold a rifle like that and be a killer.

Her smile revealed her teeth as her eyes blazed red.

“It’s not particularly advanced technology when compared to what we have today. Once this is revealed, I give it two months before the White Pantheon develops their own. Their aware of muskets too, and this design was invented by a man of today’s time.” Iliyal said. “A madman, but a man nonetheless.”

“I see.”

“So our technological will be short-lived.”

“It will be enough to secure fronts and allies.” Arascus said. “That’s my domain to work in.” Arascus pointed to the elves. “And there’s something else too.”

“What?”

Arascus pointed to the elves. “The reason I’ve brought this team of ADM snipers for you to work with.” Kassandora raised an eyebrow.

“Why?”

“So that when Elassa comes here, we send her back to Olympiada in a bag.”