Queen of Miracles

The people all formed a small mob and followed after Henrietta as she mounted a horse and headed toward the outer walls along with Iris, Molly, and Cain.

The other academy teachers were all astonished by the sudden turn of events but still followed through, curious about what Henrietta was planning.

Seth watched the precession with a smile before teleporting ahead of everyone else atop the western outer wall, where most of the enemy troops had already gathered.

Since the attack on Oath was nothing more than a distraction, the enemy soldiers only had ordinary humans and no ascended. Not even the kings had joined the attack, remaining behind using the excuse of coordinating the attack on the Blood Race.

The army was under the leadership of hundreds of generals, who were given the simple order to march on the capital of Oath and report only critical changes.

Looking at the endless amount of enemies in the distance, Seth sighed and said: “This must be the grandest distraction in the history of the entire continent. Does Ronald know about the situation?”

<Not yet. Host’s plan to have communication intercepted and destroyed by Raven was a great move.>

“I have my moments.” Laughed Seth. “How long until everyone is here?”

“Two days. The generals plan on waiting for all the troops to arrive before attacking.”

Seth nodded and opened his soul link to speak to Henrietta.

‘Change of plans. Wait for two days before we begin siphoning. We might as well get them all.’ Said Seth.

‘How am I supposed to keep this rallied-up crowd entertained for two days? Couldn’t you have thought about it earlier?’

‘Be honest. Tell the people you plan on waiting to kill all the enemies in one swift move.’

‘Do you think that will work for two days? Who is crazy enough to wait that long?’

‘Then you better make use of all of your charms. Queen of Oath.’

‘Asshole.’

Seth chuckled and teleported away, arriving next to Caitlin on the main square. No one was left there anymore, and all the people gathered for the execution followed Henrietta toward the outer capital walls.

Caitlin had her eyes closed but still felt Seth’s life energy and asked: “What is it?”

“I came to assist you… Are you ready?”

Caitlin opened her eyes, already red from all the crying, and shook her head: “I will never be ready….”

Seth sighed and moved to sit down in front of her. “All those deaths are on me and not you. Will you blame a sword for slicing thousands of lives on a battlefield or the man who wielded it?”

Caitlin let her tears run down her cheek as she said: “But I’m no sword, and these are not a thousand lives… There must be millions of soldiers there.”

“Billions.” Said Seth, wiping the tears from her face. “But as I said, those deaths are all on me. I’ll also be with you every step of the way.”

“Billions?” asked Caitlin, her hands shaking briefly: “You plan to wait?”

Seth nodded and said with a sigh: “This is the best chance you will ever get to perform such a large siphon, or maybe the only one… we can’t let it get to waste. It’s also a great way of hitting all the kingdoms at once. After such a big screwup, their people will kill their kings with us barely having to lift a single finger….”

Caitlin lowered her head and said: “I know we made a deal all that time ago, but I never imagined you would ever ask me to kill billions of people…”. With a sad laugh, she continued: “... all the food in the world won’t pay for all those lives, Seth.”

Seth sighed again and said: “I know, and there’s no justification for killing all these innocent humans other than my interests. While there is no justification, if we forget about our own emotions, we can rationalize it. Billions will die, yes, but they will die to allow us to better the lives of many more people.”

“You have already seen Endora, know of the future I want to bring to this world, and each of these lives will serve in furthering that goal. They will all die to become the power we need to claim that future from the winds of change.”

“The world I envision needs them to die, and even if you were to back down and decline, I’d still kill them all the same. The death I will bestow upon them won’t be as peaceful as the one you will.”

“It’s not fair, Seth. It’s not fair.” said Caitlin, her voice trembling.

“Nothing is fair in life, Caitlin,” said Seth with another sigh. “I want to know if you will do it or do I have to?”

Caitlin took a deep breath and nodded: “I already said I’ll do it. You can go. I need to focus.”

Seth smiled and shook his head: “You won’t be able to handle a siphon of this size on your own.”

Caitlin frowned and looked back at the theory behind the ability before saying: “But it doesn’t make sense. As long as there are enough life anchors, there should be no issue with it….”

“That is if you form a circle, but we don’t want the entire city to be wiped out, do we?”

Caitlin’s face turned ashed as she asked: “Will it activate even as I extend my energy to the anchors?”

Seth nodded and said: “It won’t, but the initial paths will need to channel a great deal of energy, and everyone stuck above it would be sapped of their life as well, so you need to control the energy to avoid them.”

“But that’s impossible. I can’t know where every person in the city is at every point in time… we should have Henrietta move everyone to safety.”

Seth shook his head: “That would be almost impossible. Controlling every single person is too difficult to do in only two days. Also, I have a way for you to know where every person inside the kingdom is, but I need you to trust me.”

Caitlin nodded with a sigh and watched as Seth created a giant wall around the two of them. On the wall’s ceiling, a map made out of glass appeared, depicting the entire kingdom and the surrounding area.

Slowly, tiny red dots started appearing on the map, as well as blue lines extending from their position toward small violet dots in the surroundings.

Caitlin looked at the map with an astonished expression, and Seth explained: “The red dots are the people, the violet ones are your life anchors, and the lines are the ones you must follow as you activate the energy.”

Caitlin nodded with a shocked face and asked: “How can you know so much? This goes beyond simple knowledge….”

“I’m a god, did you forget?” said Seth with a chuckle. “Now focus on following those paths and extending your energy.” He then gave her a hand and said: “I know your source might not have enough energy, so use my lifespan if you need to. I have enough for you to use as you see fit.”

Caitlin nodded and started focusing again.

———

Back at the outer gates of the city, a large crowd was gathering, looking anxiously between the endless army surrounding the city and their new Queen, Henrietta.

As everyone was wondering what Henrietta was planning, she turned around with a wry face and said something that left everyone stunned.

“There are too few enemies. Let’s wait until more of them arrive.”

———

Two days passed, and in this time, between Henrietta’s attempts at making the people wait and the enemy numbers continuing to increase, the faith of the people started slowly fading, some even wondering if their new queen had gone crazy.

Eventually, the awaited day finally arrived, and Henrietta heard Seth’s voice in her mind. ‘It’s done. Do your grand show and let me know when to have Caitlin activate her energy.’

Henrietta cleared her throat loudly, attracting the attention of those still stuck around all this time. Many had already returned to the kingdom, losing their fate in the new queen or having other businesses to take care of.

“My people, the time is finally here. The entire enemy army is now surrounding our capital.” Laughing loudly, she looked at the vast plain of soldiers surrounding the kingdom before saying: “Now it’s time for you all to witness the power of your Queen.”

‘Tell Caitlin to do it.’

———

Back inside the center of the town square, Seth was holding hands with Caitlin and nodded towards her with a serious expression.

“It’s time.’

Caitlin took a deep breath, and an eerie presence enveloped her body, extending slowly outwards towards the enemy army. Her energy passed from one anchor to the other deep underground, continuing deeper inside the enemy lines, surrounding the billions of enemy soldiers.

Those anchors were nothing more than dead bodies she had filled with her life energy, all of them provided by Necros.

———

Green, eerie energy suddenly rose from the ground up, covering the entire enemy army under the stunned eyes of the people watching from the city gates. The energy only remained active for five seconds before returning to the ground, leaving the entire field covered in nothing but armors and weapons.

No noise or movement was coming from the entire enemy army. Caitlin’s death energy did not spare even the horses they planned to ride into battle.

A shudder passed through the backs of the people who saw it firsthand and turned their terrified eyes to look at their new queen, who had her back towards her people, watching the show with a conflicted look.

———

In the town square, green energy kept entering Caitlin’s body through the earth, turning her entire face bright red. Her nails dug deep into Seth’s hands from all the pain assaulting her body as she grit her teeth and tried to direct all that energy towards her source.

*Pop*

*Pop*

Two popping sounds resounded inside her source, and Caitlin’s eyes snapped open, a pained look in her eyes.

“That’s enough, Caitlin. You can’t break the seventh shell. Send the energy away.” Yelled Seth in a panicked voice, revolving his destruction energy to eliminate as much life and death energy as possible.

Caitlin nodded with a pained look and bent her head backward, sending the extra energy high up into the sky.

A sudden ray of green light appeared in the center of Oath city, extending high up into the sky and even changing the light coming from the sky into a pale green one.

Caitlin’s body was enveloped by life and death energy for over ten minutes until the energy density started to decrease.

Checking with the system and seeing that she was okay, Seth said: “Keep the remaining life energy and spread it around the city. You should be able to heal everyone.”

Caitlin nodded, and the ray extending upwards became only half as thick while turning a deep black color. Her eyes opened and flashed deep green as white energy left her body, spreading throughout the city.

That day, three miracles happened in the Kingdom of Oath, being etched in people’s minds for years to come.

The first miracle was their new queen’s instant annihilation of an army of billions of people.

The second miracle was the green pillar that touched the skies and changed even the color of the sun.

And the last miracle was the sudden healing of the entire population inside Oath capital.

People on their deathbeds stood up, more energetic than ever. Wounds disappeared like a miracle, and missing limbs started growing back up. Any disease inside the capital was eradicated, and even the starving people started feeling full and healthy again.

It was a day filled with miracles for the entire capital, and a single person’s name was being chanted that day.

“Queen of Miracles, Henrietta Annabella.”