Queen's Blade Rebellion Illustrated Stories: Upheaval, chapter 10.5

Extra chapter! Unfortunately, no more weekly illustrated stories, it's been crazy getting them out so far. Still, I'll try to release them every 2 weeks as before.

The battle hyped through the entire "upheaval" arc, Annelotte vs Sigui!
Enjoy!

Upheaval, chapter 10.5: End of the Battle

The battlefield was shrouded in silence.

Two beautiful fighters were facing each other.

Princess Knight Annelotte.

Inquisitor Sigui.

And, the soldiers who watched their actions breathlessly.

It looked like as if it was the Queen’s Blade arena.

Since the Inquisitor Sigui had already freed them from the power of the “Holy Pose: Worship” that she had emitted, the soldiers had regained the freedom to move their body.

But still, staring at the girls in the battlefield had taken their breath away, and they weren’t able to move.

“Sister… Annelotte…”

A voice mixed with a hint of anxiety escaped from the lips of the Hyper Vibration Valkyrie Mirim.

The whisper acted as a signal, as the two beautiful fighters moved at the same time.

“Haaaah!”

“Yaaaah!”

When Annelotte’s sword “Grim Venus” was parried by Sigui’s “Holy Flame Mace”, its form changed into a spear and tried to unleash a thrust on her again.

“That… I’ve seen it before!”

Sigui shouted with a smiling grin, and tried to stop and twine around the spear with the “God’s Chained Blade” around her waist.

“I’ll… show you another one!”

The next to shout was Annelotte. Against Sigui’s “God’s Chained Blade”, the “Grim Venus” restored its form into a longsword once again, and dealt a slash to the former.

 “Kuh…!”

A fragment of the chain was cut off and danced around in midair, glittering as it reflected the sunlight.

Rustle rustle, the chain fell into a circle on the ground noisily, and Annelotte calmly told Sigui.

“I think that settles the match – Inquisitor Sigui, there’s no meaning to continue any further.”

“It’s – too early to say that, Princess Knight Annelotte.”

Sigui acted just a moment before Annelotte could understand Sigui’s words.

 “Teaah!”

Sigui swung one hand, and more of the chain hidden in the inner part of her sleeve extended towards Annelotte.

“Wha…”

She didn’t have the time to evade it.

“S… Sister Annelotte!”

Having her weapon and the upper part of her body constrained, Annelotte’s movements were completely sealed, and Sigui smiled calmly.

“I caught you off guard – Annelotte, you heretic.”

“Kuh…!”

In front of Annelotte who couldn’t move at all, Sigui slowly raised the mace held in her hand.

“Previously, I told you – your sentence, is the capital punishment by burning to death. Some time has passed since those words, hasn’t it?... Now, let’s fulfill my promise.”

Sigui readied the mace shaped like a holy symbol.

“So that not even your bones remain, I’ll burn you thoroughly – with this sacred flame of purification!”

The “Holy Flame Mace”, the high-grade holy utensil only the Inquisitors were allowed to carry, emitted a flame that hit Annelotte!

 “Kuaaaaaaah!”

“Siiiiiiister!”

---

Annelotte was wrapped up in the hellfire, and among the grove of trees away from the hill, it rather looked like a bonfire.

“Demonism is heresy, alchemy is heresy, it’s convenient that we’re not judged… so much for integrity, certainly that’s a flame that alchemy can’t produce.”

Despite the distance, grasping exactly the events that were happening from the hill, one person muttered so, the Iron Strategist, Ymir.

Behind her, the elite force of the Queen’s Army was standing at attention.

No, it wasn’t just an elite force. Behind Ymir, with big frames that exceeded by far an ordinary person’s, giants in armor and helmet were sitting in a row.

“Our magic troop – Maybe in the Rebel Army remains a soldier to try the strength of the giants of the Marshland… Anyway, I suppose I should hurry.”

Leading them, while giving the whole team the order to march forward, Ymir stood alone and muttered so that no one would hear her.

“However… lady Inquisitor Sigui… you’ve gotten a little impatient… what happened…?”

---

“S, sister… Anne… lotte.”

The Hyper Vibration Valkyrie Mirim murmured aghast before the hellfire pillar.

“When your “sister” burns to nothing, it’ll be your turn next, Mirim. That armor made by alchemy, that tool of the devil… I can’t forgive you for that.”

“M, my sister… my sister, won’t… be defeated like this!”

Although the Hyper Vibration Valkyrie Mirim shouted firmly as she got into a ready position, the point of her sword was shaking pitiably.

“Accept it, my “Holy Flame Mace” is an article consecrated by the Pope himself. The wicked people will burn to ashes by the flame, and those who aren’t won’t.”

“Th, then… if my sister is safe…!”

“Such a thing is impossible, as I’ve said. However, that’s right… if such a thing happened, she’d have been accepted by God, and I’d say I forgive her.”

“In that case… then, look… look at that!”

Mirim pointed to the hellfire behind Sigui, her eyes wet with tears. With an overawed expression, she instinctively turned around – and, Sigui saw it.

“What… is that!”

Slowly.

Slowly.

Stepping firmly, one step at a time, from inside the hellfire, a female knight with silver hair and in silver armor was coming out.

“It, it can’t be… that’s, impossible…!”

If one was blessed by God and the Holy Flame didn’t burn them, it could only mean one thing.

That is, they were pure children of clergymen, holy beings who had no evil.

However, in that situation.

The fact that the Princess Knight Annelotte was coming out of the hellfire unhurt.

“Did God… forgive, that woman…?”

Her strength fading, Sigui fell to her knees. She had no choice but to accept it.

But, she didn’t want to accept it.

Sigui was assaulted by a feeling of despair, as if God had abandoned her.

“Why… why is that, an impurity descended from a demon… in the name of God… that’s heresy… I… I…”

Sigui kept muttering grumbling words that didn’t make any sense, and when it finally dawned on her, she looked up at Annelotte, and said without strength.

“…This is my loss. Princess Knight Annelotte… kill me.”

“Kill you… why?”

“God… he’s chosen you, a demon, over me, who has been serving him so far. I cast everything aside in order to serve God, family, my village’s mayor, most of the people I’ve ever met, I’ve judged mercilessly, and I’ve lost the favor of God… I have nothing left.”

Sigui looked up at Annelotte, her eyes wet with tears.

“Therefore… surely now, it is my turn… so I’m asking you, your judgment…”

“What are you talking about, I don’t understand…”

Annelotte said with a worried face.

“Although you’re my enemy – no, for that reason, as we’ve crossed swords, we understand each other better than if we had said many words… my teacher taught me that, and I don’t think it’s a lie.”

Annelotte’s hand wasn’t grasping her sword any longer. While touching the hilt of her sword kept in the sheath, Annelotte calmly said.

“Inquisitor Sigui. You’re very strong. If I consider the great efforts, faith and piety it took you to obtain such strength – I can only respect you, I won’t ever despise you or scorn you.”

“But… I was denied by God. The judgment I gave you was mistaken. Maybe, I may have been repeating the same mistake over and over again… My sin, the punishment for so long, I can’t possibly atone for it… except with my death…”

In contrast with Sigui, who was revealing that while clenching her teeth, Annelotte… laughed.

“Hahaha…!”

“S, Sister?”

Looking sideways at the confused Mirim, Annelotte said to Sigui.

“You are a serious, considerably stubborn person. I was called that by Yuit too, but I don’t know if I can hold a candle to you.”

 “Eh…?”

“What has happened cannot be taken back even if you regret it. So, you don’t have to deal with the punishment from your sin, just make sure you don’t repeat the same mistake again. If you regret that you hurt somebody, the next thing to do is to protect them so that they don’t get hurt… I think that is the “hope” we humans possess.”

“Hope…”

Not punishing one’s sins, and finding a way not to repeat one’s mistakes…?

That was a way of thinking Sigui just became aware of for the first time.

“So, Sigui, I think you’ll be fine from now on if you find a way to protect people so that they won’t get hurt. It surely doesn’t conflict with your faith in God.”

Saying so, Annelotte held out her hand to Sigui.

“If you say that’s difficult on your own, I’ll lend you a hand. What is painful on your own, can be overcome if you’re together with someone… This, is something important that I learnt from people I respect.”

“Together… with someone…”

For someone like Sigui who had been forced to be alone, those words came as a shock.

“I… I…”

Despite her confusion, Sigui tried to hold out her hand towards Annelotte’s. But, before their hands could touch, Mirim shouted.

 “Sister! The enemy, the Queen’s Army! We’ve been surroundeeed!”

---

The battlefield was shrouded in confusion.

The Rebel Army had certainly been ambushed, and as the commander, Inquisitor Sigui, had been defeated by the Rebel Army’s side, the Pope’s Army of priest soldiers hesitated about the aim of the attack.

To crush both parties, the elite soldiers of the Queen’s Army, huge soldiers of sorcery were rushing on.

Seeing the soldiers of sorcery smashing up both the Rebel Army and the priest fighters with their battleaxes like children, Mirim turned pale.

“Sister! T, these people, they’re somewhat weird! T, they don’t care about friends or foes…!”

While parrying a battleaxe with the “Grim Venus”, Annelotte replied to Mirim’s scream, gnashing her teeth in frustration.

“Kuh, these guys, they’re wild monsters with superhuman strength… besides, there are too many of them!”

“Haa-haaha! I remodeled the Marshland giants, they’re an army of soldiers of sorcery! No matter how much Annelotte draws from her demon blood, you’re no match for them!”

Ymir’s loud laugh, however, quickly grew dim.

Goo! [flame sound]

A huge hellfire, that wrapped the body of a few soldiers of sorcery at once.

“Hmm…?”

Of course, the flame was the power of the Inquisitor Sigui.

“Marshland giants strengthened with alchemy… If I’m not mistaken, an existence that renounces religion. In other words, veredict: guilty… I’ll humbly burn you to death!”

“Sigui, I’m sorry!”

Annelotte shouted. Sigui smiled and spoke with a calm voice, it was visible that she had completely regained her former confidence.

“My hellfire hasn’t lost its heat yet. That is to say, God didn’t deny my faith itself… for letting me realize that, I thank you… Elder Sister.”

 “Ah…?”

Annelotte stopped moving.

“Elder Sister?”

So far, many people had called Annelotte “Sister” and “big bro”, but this was unexpected.

“Yes, you shaped my new life, if I don’t call you “Elder Sister”, what should I call you?”

“N, no, you don’t need to call me anything special…”

“Elder Sister, we’ll continue the conversation later, let’s defeat our enemies!”

“Ah, aah, yeah.”

While feeling like she had been skillfully tricked, Annelotte readied her sacred sword “Grim Venus” once again.

“Gaooooooh!”

Screaming like beasts, the giant soldiers of sorcery trampled down the Rebel Army.

“Ahyaunn! T, this many… hiuu, t, they don’t give up! Hiaann!”

Every time she received a blow, the Hyper Vibration Crystal vibrated, and Mirim involuntarily let out her voice.

“This number… is too big! Besides, these monsters aren’t affected by the “Holy Pose”!”

Lying down on the ground, keeping her legs in the stance of the “Holy Pose: Fear”, Sigui gave a cry of fright.

And Annelotte, now able to control the demonic power, was struggling as well.

“Kuh, I, I… can’t defend against them either…!”

Grinding her teeth, Annelotte spoke in despair.

“Haa-haaha! Rebel Army, even if the pope’s agency has sided with you, feel the power of the Queen Claudette’s troops, and bow down nicely before us!”

With a loud laughter, the Iron Strategist Ymir was issuing instructions to the soldiers of sorcery to run down the Rebel Army.

But suddenly, her face got clouded, as her eyes turned towards the distant deserted land.

“What’s… that sound?”

A faint rumbling from the ground reached Ymir’s ears.

Looking slightly beyond the deserted land, there was a cloud of dust.

Rumm…ble.

Rumm…ble.

Along with the heavy earth tremor – a thing like a hill slowly appeared from beyond the cloud of dust.

No, it wasn’t a natural object.

From the form “it” had, it was obvious that it was a man-made object, and unmistakably, it was moving, drawing nearer.

“T, that thing… what, what is it…”

Before they noticed, everybody in the battlefield had stopped moving, as they were staring at “it”.

“A fortress? A fortress, that moves…? Such a thing, it can’t be… heresy, it’s heresy…!”

“S, sister, that thing… would you say it’s our ally, or our enemy?”

“I, I don’t know… j, just what is, that thing…”

Neither the enemies nor the allies in the battlefield could hide their confusion. From there, a huge “voice” roared like thunder.

“Big broo, we’ve been waitiing!”

“T… that voice… is it Yuit!?”

“With this “Sacred Treasure Fortress Bligh” here, the Queen’s Army is in a pinch! Gooo!”

“Gaooon!”

At the same time the “Alchemy Android” Vante replied to Yuit’s command, Bligh started moving once again.

“Kuh… That’s the Sacred Treasure Fortress Bligh…! We don’t stand a chance if we get run over, though it’s mortifying… we’ll retreat from here!”

Shedding cold sweat before the pressure from the huge fortress, Ymir gave an order to her whole army.

“The Rebel Army, obtained something like that… I must think of a way to deal with them in the future…”

---

The Rebel Army was excited with its victory.

At its center, the Alchemy Strategist Yuit had run down from Bligh, and came smiling to Annelotte, jumping into her bosom.

“Big bro! I’m glad I made it in time, big bro!”

“You had me worried, Yuit… you probably ran into a great deal of troubles over there.”

Vante was in the rear, waiting with Yuit’s gear, and noticing she had more small wounds, Annelotte stroke her cute “little sister” ‘s hair.

“Fwa… I, I’m fine, everybody has helped me… we even have new comrades now.”

“Now that we’re here, we’ll stay with you until the end! In for a penny, in for a round!”

“I think you want to say, in for a penny, in for a pound…”

Tarnyang with a guts pose, and Sainyang whispering behind her playing the straight man, that was the Taimashi duo.

“I, I’ll also be more useful to Sister from now on!”

Burning with rivalry for some reason, the “Hyper Vibration Valkyrie” Mirim raised her voice.

“Are you Yuit’s “big bro”? I expected a boy, guess I was wrong.”

Luna Luna, the dancer that wore a fascinating outfit, peeked at Annelotte from behind Yuit.

“And you are?”

“The one who protects the hidden treasure of the Calibara tribe, the Solar Dancer Luna Luna! I was allowed to come for the sake of watching over the fate of this treasure, the fortress Bligh.”

“Is that so? That’s reassuring… but, you know, that exotic outfit… looking at it for a while is embarrassing.”

“Embarrassing…?”

“Ah, big bro, that’s…!”

Yuit and the others panicked, and in front of the puzzled Annelotte’s eyes, who didn’t understand what was happening, the color of Luna Luna’s skin and hair quickly changed.

“Giggle, don’t be shy. BROTHER.”

“W, what’s this…?”

Luna Luna brought her face close enough to touch her, and whispered at the flinching Annelotte.

“Don’t worry about me… worry about yourself.”

“A, a, about me?”

“Yes, if you defeat the Queen, what are you going to do, I wonder? Will you become the new Queen, will you rule the Continent in her stead, I wonder, using the great power of this Bligh?”

Yuit raised her voice at Luna Luna’s words.

“Don’t mix big bro together with someone like Claudette! If big bro handles this great power, she’ll guide us to peace in the Continent!”

Tarnyang and Sainyang raised an objection.

“But, there’s no guarantee for that.”

“…Before becoming Queen, Claudette was a great general, Yuit said so herself.”

“T, that’s… yeah, but, but…!”

Yuit couldn’t answer back, and caressing her head to calm her down, Annelotte said to everybody.

“I don’t plan on doing anything like ruling this continent.”

That was something Annelotte had been thinking since long ago.

“If I, no, if the Rebel Army is able to defeat the Queen… then, I think we should try to revive the Queen’s Blade.”

 “Queen’s Blade…?”

“Uh-huh, and we’d do like before, whoever won through Queen’s Blade, the fighter who reached the top would become Queen, and rule the Continent for a fixed period. And then, why don’t we try ourselves?”

Like that, the Rebel Army obtained the base called the Sacred Treasure Fortress Bligh, obtaining a power equal to the Queen’s Army’s.

The Rebel Army, the Queen’s Army, which one will win, and how will the Continent be ruled?

They, won’t know that unless they fight.

-To be continued-

Everyone calls Annelotte however they please, don't they?

I wonder if Annelotte being the daughter of a priestess helped towards God's "forgiveness".

Now that Sigui is with the Rebel Army, will she become a little less radical? (I doubt it)

Next chapter: the sands bring a familiar face?