The Queen's Pillars, Chapter 1

A meek, covered carriage travelled along a dirt path, carrying a single driver and a passenger in the cart.  The cart was on route to the Golden City, Aurox, growing kingdom, yet a powerful one nonetheless, in no small part due to its Lilim ruler, Alexi, the eleventh daughter of the Demon Lord.  It was a peaceful enough trip, what with how unassuming the cart was not giving much reason to come up to it.

It seemed that some people think differently, however, as eight bandits, each on their own horse and carrying short swords and bows, came into its way.  The man driving the carriage forced his horse to halt, his fear obvious upon his face.

“W-what do you want?” he stammered out, eyes flitting between each of the bandits.  “If you’re looking for gold, you won’t find much with me.”

The man at the front, most likely the leader of the group, cocked a brow at this.  “You’re driving a closed carriage to Aurox, the richest city within a hundred miles, and you expect me to believe you have nothing in there?  You must be an idiot.”

“Please, sir,” the carriage driver said, “I only have a passenger who wishes to reach Aurox, and-”

“Then maybe your passenger has gold to give us,” the bandit said, cutting off the driver.  “Berril, go to the carriage and shake up whoever’s in there.”

“There is only a monster in there!” the driver, still trying to save this situation, cried.

“All the more reason to bring her out, then,” the leader said.  “We haven’t gotten any relief in a while, and some of us here haven’t had one of them before.”  The largest of the group, obviously Berril then jumped off his horse, and began to walk over to the carriage’s door.  As soon as he opened it, however, a black armor covered hand struck out, and gripped him by the neck, before lifting him in the air.  The bandits all pulled their bows out and nocked an arrow, aiming at whatever was going to come out.  They weren’t expecting what they got.

Out walked a monster, a raiju if the electric blue hair, and weasel like tail and ear told anything, but she was still the strangest sight they had ever seen.  They had seen the gauntlets, but had expected them to be on a second, unmentioned passenger.  Seeing them, along with a full suit of armor, attached to a monster was a surprise.  What little wasn’t covered by armor revealed a bodysuit under it, as black as the armor over it.  Next was her height, and while they couldn’t tell any exacts, they could see that she was taller than even Berril, making her even more imposing.  In her right hand, she held an equally black halberd, poised to run through Berril.

She glanced over at the seven bandits who had stopped her travel, then to her driver.  At her look, they saw her blank, almost bored expression, as if this were nothing special to her.  Her captive, now seeing a chance to escape, pulled a dagger from his belt.  Then, he felt electricity course through him.  But it wasn’t the lust inducing lightning that raiju were known for, as he would have expected.  This caused searing pain to shoot through him, as though a bolt of lightning had just struck him.  He dropped his dagger, partially paralyzed, and the raiju chuckled.  A pang of fear struck those who could hear it.

But the one of the bandits, more brave then the others, loosed the arrow he had nocked, hoping to kill the woman.  She moved Berril into the path of the arrow, letting him catch it for her, and dropped the corpse afterwards.  Then, she began to move towards them, faster than any of them had seen any being move.  As she ran, the bandits all fired their arrows, which were either deflected with her halberd, or caught out of the air.

When she reached the closest one, the leader, she jumped up, tackled him off his horse, and plunged the arrows into his neck.  Then, she vanished from sight, and before the remaining six could begin to look around, the one farthest in the back was pierced through the back.  The raiju kicked off of the horse to another bandit, the weight of her armor causing the horse to stagger.  The combat, only now fully realized by the horses, caused them to rear back and run away, their passengers knocked off.

She rose from the bandit she had just tackled, gripping the blood covered sword of his, her face still showing that blank expression.  She rushed forwards, parrying a slash from a bandit into a strike of her own across his neck.  Wrenching the blade from him, the raiju spun around and stabbed a bandit behind her through the chest.  She looked over to the remaining two, to see one running as fast as he could away from her, and the other nocking another arrow.

She walked towards the bandit still present, the fool still thinking he could salvage this.  When he fired the arrow, she simply dodged it, then kicked at his knee, breaking it completely.  As he screamed his pain, her hand gripped at his head, before slamming it into the ground.  Dazed, and slowly realizing his mistake, he barely noticed the raiju lifting her leg, before stomping on his throat, quickly silencing him.

When she lifted her foot off of the neck of the last bandit - second to last, she reminded herself – she first retrieved her halberd, then began to walk back to the cart.  When she looked back to the carriage driver, she saw that his face held an expression of fear, though it was now directed towards her.  She sighed, then said, in a voice quite befitting of someone who just easily killed seven men, “Let’s go.  You said the queen wanted to see me, and I wish to know what for.”

Gulping heavily, the driver nodded, then flicked the reins to spur the horses on once the raiju was properly seated.

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Luckily for the both of them, no events like that came up again, and the rest of the ride was in silence, though the quiet felt unnerving to the driver, with the only stop made was by a river, so that the raiju could wash off her armor and weapon.  Within ten minutes of that stop, however, the two were inside Aurox, and within five, they were in front of the castle.

“H-here we are miss,” the cart driver said, still wary of the raiju after their run in with the highwaymen.  “The queen’s castle.  One of the guards will be able to lead you to the throne room.”

“Thank you,” she said.  “I’m sorry to say, however, that I can’t pay you right now, as I am lacking in gold.”

The carriage driver shook his head at this.  “The queen paid me generously to retrieve you, so you have nothing to worry about.”  At the raiju’s raised eyebrow, the driver jolted up, before he waved this off.  “Nothing like that!  She paid me in gold, truly!”

She nodded at this, but before she entered the castle grounds, she took a good look at this place.  Not of note was how defensible it looked; it was home to the queen of one of the richest kingdoms in the country, so having it as well guarded as it was should have been expected.  What was not to be expected, however, was the strange, spire-like structure barely visible behind the castle, and the fact that the top half of it looked to be destroyed, and recently at that.

Growing more intrigued by this castle by the second, she then headed off towards the castle, where a soldier that she recognized as a human raised an arm.  She assumed he was the one she needed to follow, and trailed behind him as he led the way.  Looking around, she noted the great many paintings and stained windows in the castle, many of which depicted Lilims who were likely the family of the queen.  Yet, one was the most prominent among them, who she assumed was Alexi.

Soon, however, she found herself looking at the door to the throne room.  The soldier opened the door for her, and in she walked.  The first thing she noted was that yes, the Lilim was her, however the thing none of them showed was the scar along her face that left her right eye useless.  Otherwise, it was the same person: same light skin tone, same aqua tinted eyes, same long, silver hair.  Once she was within ten feet of the throne, she knelt down, and bowed her head.

“You may rise,” Alexi said.  The raiju promptly stood, allowing the queen to inspect her.  “So you are the one who defeated the Thunder God, then.  I must say, you are more than I had expected, miss…?”

“Hisako Tanaka,” the now named raiju said.  “And, Thunder God?  I only remember one who called herself that, but I don’t believe that was true.”

“There was a thunderbird that you fought in Feruuk,” Alexi began, smirking.  “I believe her name was Ojibwe.  Trust me, that bird was no liar.”

Hisako’s eyes widened at this, then pulled the feather she was given after their fight.  She was truly a god?  She had thought the harpy was simply bluffing when she said that.  And yet, she had beaten her, even if it was a hard fought battle.  “I… was not aware that she was a god.  Should I be worried for the future?”

“No need,” Alexi said, leaning forward in her chair.  “She respects those who can best her in combat, as the fact that you have one of her feathers should tell.  Though, were you a male, like the four others of centuries past, she would have made you her husband, instead.”  Leaning back, she sighed.  “But I didn’t send for you just to hear about how you beat a god.  I wished to ask you one simple question.”  Suddenly, from the left, a wall that Hisako had already deemed unimportant pushed out, and slid to the side, and out came four women.

The first was a tanned amazon with fiery red hair, garbed in a bikini (Hisako would ask about that later), vambraces, and greaves all made of dragon scales.  She carried with her a spear of sorts, though it looked more like someone attached an oversized blade to the end of a rod, so Hisako wasn’t sure what to properly call it.

The second was a blonde dhampir, who wore black boiled leather armor, with a metal plates placed in vital areas, and a plumed tricorne hat.  At her hip was a rapier and a parrying dagger, alongside a belt of throwing knives, a collapsed bow, and a quiver of arrows.  Hisako hoped she was better with the bow than the bandits.

Third was a demoness, with purple skin and black hair.  She wore perhaps less than the amazon, and lacked a weapon.  However, Hisako could feel power coursing throughout her, and so assumed that she simply didn’t need a weapon.

Finally, a black furred baphomet walked through, the smirk upon her face in contrast to the stoic expressions of her companions.  Somehow, she wore less than even the demon, with a string bikini bottom and essentially gold bars covering her breasts.  Across her shoulder was a scythe, with a softly glowing crystal in the base of the blade.

They each took their places by the throne, the amazon and dhampir taking the right side, and the demon and baphomet taking the left.  Hisako wasn’t sure if they did it intentionally, but from left to right, they were lined up shortest to tallest.  Once the four turned to face her, the queen spoke once again.

“Would you like to join the Queen’s Pillars?”