Ch9 - Chaos

When the world is thrown into chaos, true leaders reveal themselves.

"Alright, so...

The last general...

From what my scouts have gathered...

He's front lines, leading an engagement with the Kelpshins."

Purpura was examining a map, showing the border between the two nations.

Always fighting for inches of land.

And only ever in the same room, once a decade during the ball.

During the week of the ball, fighting was prohibited.

As such, this battle either had to be won, or would be stalled for a week.

Breaking the treaty meant sanctions against the kingdom who failed to comply.

And the sanctions were not forgiving.

Seemed rather good timing then.

If he eliminated the general now, they'd have time to get some new leadership in position.

It'd weaken them, but they'd still have a chance to win.

Purpura didn't particularly favor his birth nation.

But his trade was looked upon much less favorably by the Kelpshins.

Though the main reason the royal family took personal interest...

Was because of rumors that blood demons were hidden in the Kelpshins' land.

The royal family couldn't allow such a thing.

But they could also not reveal their true motivation.

Purpura only knew this, because Tynan told him.

Tynan had once proudly taken interest in the conflict.

And had before enjoyed the 'blood hunts' his family engaged in.

After learning that Purpura was half blood demon, his interest in these activities quickly waned.

Tynan instead focused his attention on other areas of interest.

"Here's a layout of the camp.

These tents are the most likely to be his sleeping quarters."

Kipsy was pointing to three tents on the map.

"That's the best I can offer.

He moves about the camp a lot.

So far, he seems a rather... hands-on leader."

Kipsy was quiet a moment, as Purpura examined the map.

"Wanna take the map with you?"

Purpura shook his head no, and stood up straight.

He held out his hand.

"Oh, yea!" Kipsy checked his pockets, before checking the table.

Then checking all about.

Purpura rolled his eyes a bit, as he waited.
Finally Kipsy popped up, "Found it!"

He handed Purpura the picture.

"Oh, and I got a note for you."

Purpura paused and looked to him, confused.

Kipsy offered a piece of paper.

"I can't read it.

It's in a language i don't know."

Purpura took it, and opened it.

He could read it, it was written in neko.

He picked up a pencil and wrote something on the bottom.

Purpura then handed the paper back to Kipsy.

Purpura then turned and walked out.

"Not suppose to keep secrets from me!

...Cheater...

Know a secret language...

Share secret messages with people..." Kipsy grumbled.

------

Pupura walked thru the dense brush of a forest.

The flat horizon suddenly turned into a mountain climbing high.

He looked left then right, and walked right.

After a little, he paused.

There were guards, and a road leading thru a narrow passage of the mountain.

Or between two mountains.

It was hard to tell.

Purpura looked about, the guards certainly wouldn't let him walk in.

He moved towards the mountain, and began climbing it.

His childhood had been useful in many aspects.

Practice climbing trees, cliffs, and rocks.

He made it look easy, as he climbed higher.

Once he was rather high up, he began moving to the right.

Occasionally looking out to gauge the best course.

Finally he had a perfect view of the camp.

It was large, and he could see the enemy's camp as well.

Both sides were using the sheer mountain cliffs to guard their rear.

The whole area was rock, and oddly devoid of any life.

Though, it was possible that it was the soldier's fault.

Perhaps they had cut down trees, and driven the wildlife from the area.

But he didn't see stumps anywhere.

It was none of his concern, he began descending.

There was a scout range, looking out at the enemy.

They weren't concerned with something coming down the mountain.

So he descended carefully, avoiding knocking down little pebbles.

The noise may cause them to check.

Finally he was a close enough.

Any closer, he risked them glancing him.

So he pushed off, and roughly landed on the roof.

From the sound they were confused.

He stayed still, listening.

There were two of them.

"Go check it out!"

"I can't get up there, it's to high."

Purpura waited as they went to one side.

So he rolled to the opposite side, before quickly rolling off.

Grabbing the edge as he did so he swung into the room.

"hu-" one barely muttered, before Purpura froze the passage of blood to his lungs.

In barely a moment the male collapsed.

And Purpura did the same to the other when he stepped around the corner.

He pulled them both inside, and leaned them up against the wall.

They weren't dead, but would be out long enough.

He went down the stairs, watching about.

Once low enough, he climbed onto the stable.

Sad that the horses had proper housing, but the soldiers were all in tents.

He looked about, perhaps he was best waiting until nightfall.

Suddenly the ground began to shake.

He looked about, the soldiers were mostly ignoring it.

Others preventing items from falling.

They seemed used to the ground shaking.

Purpura didn't like it though.

The ground didn't randomly shake.

Waiting till nightfall wasn't an option.

He didn't want to be here a minute longer than he needed.

So, he climbed over, before letting himself fall into a bail of hay.

He laid on top of the bail before rolling off and looking about.

He examined about, before spotting a group of people.

In the center, giving orders, was the general.

Perfect.

He simply had to get the general alone.

Though, he doubted that was really an option.

Perhaps simply... less people, was the best option.

So, he began to move.

Following the general, and hiding behind tents as he went.

The general certainly was a rather busy body.

He moved from tent to tent, and gave orders as he walked.

He barely stayed in one spot for more than twenty minutes.

Purpura felt tired, just following him.

Given Kipsy's report this was normal.

Was there any sort of method to his movements?

There seemed no logic to his schedule.

Yet as he followed he listened.

Soldiers talked, or things were mentioned to the general.

"It's to hot, even for summer."

"Another tent collapsed from the quakes."

"We have more cases of heat exhaustion, and another soldier collapsed of heat stroke."

"I just hope the gods aren't mad at us."

"I swear the horses are going thru the water really fast."

"These quakes keep getting worse."

"You think the enemy is having these issues?"

Finally the general entered a tent, it was late-day.

The sun was setting, yet the temperature didn't change.

The soldiers were right, it was to hot.

Purpura peeked thru a slit in the tent.

There was at least five people.

But it was small enough, the scouts had awoken earlier.

Though most believed them to have simply suffered from heat exhaustion.

Their attempt to raise alert had gone unheard.

How hard did he want his escape to be?

So, he focused intently on the general.

He started under the uniform, as he created his signature injury.

The purple rash.

No other assassin could create the purple rash.

The general paused his eating, he could feel something was wrong.

Yet he had no inclination of what it could be.

Suddenly he collapsed as the rash spread up his neck and side of his face.

Purpura kept focusing, he had to be sure the general was dead.

The others quickly attempted to attend to the general.

Even shouting for a healer to be summoned.

Purpura felt satisfied, and stepped back.

Yet stopped abruptly, as he'd bumped something.

He looked behind himself, to see three soldiers.

They quickly grabbed his arms.

He twisted about, trying to free himself.

"We got him!" one shouted.

Purpura cursed his luck.

A man came out of the tent with the general.

Purpura quickly focused on the soldier who had one of his arms.

The soldier collapsed.

Purpura then shoved his hand against the other soldier.

"Wait, please!" the man from inside the tent pleaded.

Purpura paused, 'please?' that wasn't often something he heard.

Especially when escaping.

He looked to the man.

"You... you are Purpura.

Prince Tynan's assassin, yes?"

Purpura watched as a small crowd was gathering.

Yet, none were attacking.

This was weird, so he nodded a bit absently.

"We need your help...

We are simply soldiers of the Heartless Empire....

We do not owe Princess Crudelis any loyalty like the general did...

Stop holding him." he commanded, and the soldier released Purpura.

Purpura looked about, and dusted his arm off.

"Please, he was an awful leader.

We need someone to lead us against the Kelpshins.

He simply had us throwing men at them, without any type of plan."

Suddenly the ground began to shake.

The soldiers all barely managed to not fall over.

The tremor stopped.

"And he insisted we ignore these tremors."

The soldiers all nodded, clearly it had concerned them all.

Purpura rolled his shoulders back a bit, he wasn't a military leader.

He had no training in war, assassins weren't exactly ever expected to lead a war campaign.

He had listened to Tynan argue with generals about proper strategies.

"Will you help us?"

Purpura sighed, he already knew what to do.

He just had to convince them to do it.

He walked towards the man, and nodded.

He walked passed towards the tent he'd learned was the planning tent.

He then went inside, a small cluster of people followed him.

Purpura looked to them, as they encircled the table.

It was a map of the battlefield.

He went to the side with the Heartless army, and pulled them all back off the map.

The group looked to him confused.

He looked to them, before drawing a circle of blood around the inside of the mountain.

They still looked confused.

He shook his head, then wrote.

'Volcano.' in the middle of the circle.

"This isn't a volcano."

"There's no way, volcanoes come from mountain tops.

This is a crater."

"Yes, a valley."

Purpura sighed, all the signs were there.

The quakes, the heat, the 'valley' was a circular shape.

This was clearly a collapsed volcano, and it was getting ready to blow.

Given the frequency of the quakes, it was going to erupt soon.

Another quake broke out, and Purpura crossed his arms as everyone stumbled about.

He pointed to the word again.

"What if he's right?"

"If we leave and he's wrong the Kelpshins will quickly over take the area."

"But, if he's right, and we don't leave. Everyone will die."

"True, the Kelpshins don't look like they're leaving any time soon though."

"What if they were told the same thing?

To ignore the quakes..."

They all looked to each other, unsure the proper course of action.

Purpura shrugged, he had offered his help and advice.

If they didn't take it, that was their fault.

He was leaving.

So he turned and walked out of the tent.

"Purpura! Wait." the man from before shouted, as he followed.

"Is this the only suggestion you're offering?"

Purpura nodded, and suddenly two men came running over.

"Sir, the grou- Who's this?" they asked in reference to Purpura.

"Not now, speak."

"Ah, the ground.

There's a crack in the ground."

"A crack? With these quakes I'm not surprised.

Why is this-"

"They couldn't get close enough to investigate.

The soldiers said it was oozing heat.

To much for anyone to withstand."

The man's face went pale.

He then looked to Purpura, "You're right, we must retreat."

"Retreat?" the soldier asked.

"Yes, spread the work.

This is a volcano, and it's getting ready to blow.

Tell everyone, we must get to safety."

The soldiers nodded, and hurried off.

The man went back inside, and soon everyone came out.

Everyone was spreading the word.

So, Purpura walked out of the encampment.

Almost every assignment he'd been on recently had been weird.

He blamed Tynan.

It seemed no job for Tynan was straight forward.

Weird things happened.

But next week was this 'ball'.

Tynan had asked for a plethora of info on neko customs.

It was time to visit home.