Chrysalis

The revered Queen Verita of Liria, second of her name, defender of the frontier and upholder of the Lion tenants of her ancestors was pissed.

Long had she puzzled over how the enemy had been able to gather so many more troops than she had been able to anticipate. Her closest advisors had worked with her on their strategy. The careful plotting, endless information gathering, debates and planning had been overthrown when her soldiers had been soundly defeated and outnumbered when the trap had finally been sprung and her enemies dashed out of the shadows into the light.

Where had all these fighters come from?

Seeing those organised warriors at the castle door was one thing and now looking at these disciplined soldiers dressed in mercenary gear arrayed against them before the dais of her own throne it all became clear.

These were not mercenaries or hirelings brought in to bolster the numbers for the fight. These were trained soldiers from a nearby kingdom! There must be a hundred of them there! This isn't a small number by any means. Someone must have wanted to interfere in the political situation in Liria desperately to commit so many of their people to a coup in another country!

Seeing the Andron ambassador standing beside Corrin as the filthy Mercenary Union lounged on Verita's throne she could easily guess who it had been.

"Great Queen Verita, how nice of you to join us" drawled Corrin, one leg dangling over the side of the throne, "we were just wondering when my coronation should be held. You wouldn't have any input on the matter would you?"

Verita disregarded the mercenary as beneath her notice and turned instead towards the ambassador Regix.

"Regix, so interesting to see you here. Incredible how quickly the kingdom of Andron has been able to adjust to the changing landscape here in Liria. One could be forgiven for thinking that you had known about all of this in advance" she said.

The ambassador smiled tightly and turned to Corrin, deferring to the Union leader.

Enjoying the display of her authority Corrin beamed at her former Queen.

"Don't be upset Verita. It turns out people other than me can notice how incompetent your reign has been. Our friends from across the border wanted to assist the people of Liria to have good governance, for once".

roll her eyes at the

since you were born the only thing you cared about was money and

gestured towards the townsfolk nervously clutching their weapons behind their Queen, "I can't very well say to the public that I'll be rewarded with mountains of gold by Andron for destroying your

at those words. Her family had founded this Kingdom, her own kin had fought and died in the campaign to liberate these lands from the monsters. Since then

be overshadowed and eventually absorbed. After all, it was Liria that was able to expand their territory by pushing south, Andron had nowhere to go. Rather than die a slow death, why not strike first? If they were successful the bright

to admit it made sense. Had she been Queen of Andron she might have been tempted to secure the

the Leocor's. Liria was her kingdom and she'd be damned before

to surrender yourself to me for judgement. Regix, order your

chuckled to himself but Corrin was more unrestrained, throwing back her head and laughing

idea how you got back inside the city but the only that did is save me the trouble of hunting you down in the countryside and putting you

the others' eyes Queen Verita sincerely doubted a quick

behind her to appear at the front. As one the soldiers arrayed before her tensed and even Corrin's eyes widened in surprise.

mind bridge to allow communication between her and the monster. As soon as the weave was done the cold and emotionless voice she had still not grown accustomed to echoed in

are these worms?] the voice

spoken to with the constant disrespect and rudeness she received from

me and a century of

could almost feel the weary disinterest rolling off the creature in waves, confusing her. What was

your precious Legion say if they were to find out of this? Or the church of the path

talking much when I separate your head from

turned toward the

the rebellion will fall apart and our pact will be finished monster. Those people all have to die and you will have your

admit she was nervous as she asked. As far as monsters go this ant wasn't that large of powerful, but for some reason it managed to overcome impossible odds over and over again. The baffling magic that it was able to use continually surprised her, even filled her with trepidation. The blast that destroyed the gates was seared into her memory. No City wall,