Chapter 56: Deflection
Aria lying on the grass helplessly, showing despair in her eyes, she does not feel like moving anymore. The cold wind whispered through the fields, but it carried no comfort. Her chest felt hollow, her strength sapped not from battle but from something far more devastating.
"How did it come to this?" she thought bitterly, her fists clenching weakly at the grass.
A wave of helplessness washed over her. These were the same people she used to fight together, side by side and now she couldn't recognize them.
Serina walked beside her silently, listening to what she was saying.
"I used to thought, that it was never possible to change someone's mind in a short time, a real loyal patriotic will always be, and a traitor, no matter how it shows his patriotism, one day he will take off his mask. So we try to prevent the appearance of those traitors. We used religion to control them for many years, we used wealth, we use magic, mind control and I think these are the correct ways"
"But I am wrong, the Soviets did it without using all these. Crimson, someone who has built so much and contributed honour to the kingdom, changed his attitude in such a short time, how long is it? Three months, if I am not wrong. I just don't understand... How did the Soviets do this to our army and people, in such a short time."
Her doubts soon be answered.
"Belief. It is belief Aria, or if you know, in other words, it is the ideology infiltration."
"What you are saying, is the same way the Soviets doing, just there are some significant differences. We use religion to control our people, but they can't see it, feel it, and enjoy the benefit of god. It just came different to the Soviets. Just like the nuke, people see it, feel the fear, and lack knowledge of that, the Soviet commissar then turned that into a penalty to Karak, plus their dissatisfaction with the current status, making more to believe what they said."
"Similar to wealth, we have nobles in the Kingdom, they don't want to share their wealth and food with the poor. Of course, I went to the Soviet Union, they have similar problems, but the main difference is, that their people can feel that their living standards are improving, and better products have been produced for them, no one will starve to death, everyone gets treated like a human being instead of animals. But how about ours?"
Tears welled up in Aria's eyes, not from fear but from heartbreak. She wanted to scream, to shake them from this path, but her voice felt small, insignificant. For the first time in her life, the unyielding defender of Karak felt utterly powerless.
Her despair wasn't just for herself, it was for her kingdom, for the ideals she had sworn to uphold, and for the comrades she had lost, not to death but to a transformation she couldn't stop.
In fact, Serina's ability can see the changes in the kingdom. Before the Soviets came, most of the country did not have any energy stream in the sky. Even if there was, it was some light green energy stream representing the religion, and gold representing the royal.
But now, the sky is flowing with a light red energy stream, and it even starts to cover those green ones. The red is getting stronger meanwhile the green is weaker.
In the predictable future, probably in just a few years, there will be a colour revolution happening in the kingdom. The whole country will just change into something exactly similar to the Soviet Union.
Aria closed her eyes, in the field, she whispered to the wind, her voice trembling with grief,
"Karak... what have we become?"
Better or worse. No one in the kingdom will know, they are going down a path that the Soviets have gone through, but how will it proceed remains a question.
"Alright Aria, you need to be strong, it is too far for us to decide all this. Get up, remember our mission, we are a step to go, by then, you can have a better understanding of what I said."
Aria gets up, her face remaining expressionless as always, but his eyes have already lost their former lustre.
Both walk to the port again, but this time, they do not go to their army camp, but straight to the Soviet side.
"We wish to surrender and defect from Karak."
Serina brought Aria, appeared in front of the Soviet guard and said.
The guard was stunned for a second, he didn't even see how they came in front. But he still does his duty, sending the message to his supervisor.
Ten Minutes later, in a room. A KGB officer sits in front of them.
"You are defectors, then. Explain your purpose."
"Karak has abandoned us. We're here because we see no other choice. But we're not just soldiers. I'm a mage, trained in Karak's arcane arts, and Aria is one of its finest warriors. We can offer you our skills. In return, we want protection... we just want to survive." Serina explained.
She then takes off his shirt, showing his slim body, and also all the scar on it.
"This is what they did to me, just because I went to the Soviet Union, they lost trust in me. We get a chance to escape, and in the process, we stole one of the significant devices that the Karak intel Department used, we hope this will help the Soviet Union against the Karak in the future. "
A polished obsidian disc encased in a lattice of gold and silver, with intricate runes etched along its edges was put on the table. 'The Ecliptic Veil' is a device that can predict the future in multiple possible, of course, incomplete ones.
The device is rare in the Karak as well, not only because of the materials required, but also the only very few people can use it.
Weekly Power Status
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