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Lergen cannot help but trembles, as tonight is when the fate of Europe -or rather the whole world- is decided. He stands once more in his homeland, near the border of the now ruined Federation of Russy, while foes of yesterday stands united against a horde of millions corrupted humans and inhuman monsters.
Fourteen nations have gathered with their leadership spread out in tents like his, to avoid being vaporized all at once by a daring assault. There are countless orders shouted about, scouting reports brought in constantly, yet for all that Lergen stands alone and ignored by this busy maelstrom. He has a single task: to watch the display showing a lone aerial mage against the night sky, somewhere between allied and infernal forces. The microphone is on to catch every noise around Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov, but it's silent except for the faint splashes of liquid in the thermos she anxiously spins in her hand.
It's almost unbelievable that all of them are waiting for a single teenager girl to carry them through this night. A million soldiers, tens of billions worth of military gear, countless artillery and bullets. Millenniums worth of military experience combined in old officers all watching and waiting.
But perhaps, Lergen's cynical mind echoes, it isn't so surprising given what they all fear.
A cry in the tent, then tense silence as all gazes follows Lergen’s at the blazing orb on the display closing on the lone mage. It stops less than twenty meters away from her and in a flutter of demonic wings, the infernal form of Tanya von Degurechaff is revealed.
What monstrosity he once suspected to reside within her is now plainly visible. The thirteen years-old girl still hold hints of innocence, but her glowing eyes and smoking breath leaves little humanity visible, alongside twisted horns and bat-like wings over a reddened skin. What little clothes she wears, that can resist the flames ever erupting from her, do not hide the pulsing veins of purple blood.
She waves pleasantly with claws that can render steel, and a smile that seems too genuine for someone who helped kill hundreds millions and about to kill a million more.
"Visha," Tanya greets with both pleasure and bemused anticipation. It sounds terrifying but it's the nickname spoken earnestly that reminds Lergen it isn't fair to blame it all on the little monster. It isn't her fault some mad Russy leader decided to summon the real Devil, who then decided to turn the Devil of Rhine to his side with corruptive magic. Most cases don't retain any sentience.
"Good day Major. Would you like some coffee?" Viktoriya greets and asks after a few scary seconds of remaining frozen. Lergen reminds himself it's the first time Viktoriya truly faces her former superior officer since she was taken. It doesn't help.
"...Why yes, lieutenant." The mass killer answers with a tilt of the head. Viktoriya doesn't make the mistakes of closing more than a few meters before tossing the thermos in her direction. A tail flashes and snatches the black container in midair, holding it still as claws make motions to birth magic sigils in the air, analyzing it for a brief moment, before delivering the thermos to Tanya's hands with a single snapping motion. "... No explosive... and you didn't put poison in this either."
"That's not even worth trying against you," Viktoriya primly answers as red eyes peers inside the thermos to check on its content's integrity. The confidence it's spoken with earn her a chuckle from the monster, and Lergen cannot help but admire the brown-haired girl for the audacity. Or finds her insane.
They remains silent as Tanya makes a cup appears out of thin air, fill it with the black liquid, and drink it without interference from the wind even at such altitude. He ignores the grumbling around him in the tent as Tanya appears relaxed, vulnerable, and Viktoriya seems perfectly fine waiting without doing anything. What she could do, Lergen has little clue. Both girls have shields raised up, Viktoriya wears no weapon except for her magic orb and the only notable objects are the magical metal collar at her hip and the bottle of golden liquid he watched her put between her breasts on a necklace chain.
Nothing they have are in range. Viktoriya insisted their guns had to be just outside the maximum range, close enough to make Tanya considers them, but far enough to dismiss them and not interfere in her high-stake gamble. It was only the consideration that Tanya wouldn't bite to meet her, or would just bombard them before approaching, that made allied command acquiesce to the lieutenant’s demand.
"Delicious. I have missed this," Tanya says after a sigh of such deep pleasure that for one moment Lergen forgets he's staring at an infernal mass-murderer instead of the too young girl he taught at the Academy. "So, have you planned how to stop me? I'm afraid I can't not do it." 'It' beings her orders to kill them all, Lergen knew.
"Well Major, we did prepare some stuff," Viktoriya began with an evasive gesture that did not fill Lergen with confidence. It gets worse as she gains steam. "But in the process, I realized I couldn't kill you. You see, I like you. I like you a lot. I love you more than I thought ever possible, and it took me a long time to realize it has been going on for longer than I believed. It was never a question of whether I could kill you, I knew from the very start that was an impossibility for me. You're my star, the hope that came on the darkest day and there is no world in which I would truly hurt you."
Nobody in the tent talked about the very emotional speech and treasonous implications, because they all can see Viktoriya edging slightly closer with every grand declaration. It's a very tense moment made worse by Tanya being clearly aware of the obvious ploy as she watches the older girl half-disbelievingly and half stunned at the sheer audacity and the feelings in every word.
When Viktoriya stops a mere couple meters away, out of breath while Tanya clicks her tongue, Lergen isn't sure where this is going anymore.
"While I can certainly arrange for you to be by my side, it's probably not going to be enjoyable in the long run. I do find myself disappointed in you for selling out without even a token fights for the billions of lives left," Tanya offers in a chiding tone and pointed finger. Lergen worriedly agrees.
"I know!" Viktoriya immediately follows up like that's exactly what she wants to hear, a hand already between her breasts to fish out the bottle there. She pops the cap in a smooth movement even as Lergen watch Tanya reflexively raises a shield to divert whatever is about to splash her, only to stall as Viktoriya puts the bottle to her lips and drinks it whole. Lergen only has the time to notice Viktoriya's free hand brushes her magic orb before the mounting confusion is worsened by a recording echoing loud and clear and in the air.
It's a series of sentences in three different tongues, in dramatic or indecent tones. He can only understand one set, with the meaning utterly lost to him except that it must be quotes from trash fictions. It's all spoken earnestly by prim and proper Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov, and in the corner of his sight he catches many people wincing at what they are hearing.
The effect on Tanya is infinitively worse. The corrupted mage cringes, her full body folding on itself against the onslaught. Visible at pointblank on the display, her sudden grimace betrays her utter rejection and disgust with a full mental shutdown that momentarily leaves her eyes free of crimson fire.
It's all in such high definition because Viktoriya pounces as soon as the record was over, a decision clearly made before Tanya had time to react. The claws and tail fail to slash, and Viktoriya tackles the much stronger Devil without a scratch.
She immediately use her position to place her head above Tanya, and lock their lips together in an awkward deep kiss that leaves Lergen confused for a single second before it clicks. Hints of gold liquid leaks out as he sees that Viktoriya did not drink earlier, but simply placed the allied trump card where she could deliver it most easily.
"Drink for me-" The brown-haired girl orders afterward in a sensual tone that leaves Lergen immensely disturbed, as her left hand and mouth forces the stunned Devil to swallow.
The effect on the corrupted Devil is immediate. He watches Tanya twitches and spasms as the holy magic liquid instantly spread, and momentarily shut down her magical prowess and strength. Tanya's hand holding back Viktoriya's right arm, raised with the metal collar in its grip, can no longer win the contest. Viktoriya wastes no time.
"-and be mine," the girl concludes darkly and far too feelingly, as the metal collar clicks and glows gold. It would make Lergen sigh in relief if the two girls weren't in sudden free-fall after Viktoriya tackled her foe, and they weren't both heading toward the ground at a speed that blurs the display.
The older aerial mage visibly tries to brake while holding on to the spasming devil, but with the ongoing magic mess in progress, it's clearly not working. It's stomach-dropping, because Viktoriya cannot survive the crash, but Tanya’s devilish body probably will, and the holy binding won't hold if the brown-haired girl dies.
Tanya lets out a scream full of too many feelings to identity, a noise to rend man souls apart and shatter all hope. Glowing red eyes looks at the now terrified human mage, and Lergen fears the worst. Then wings flaps with a burst of magic and a series of contortions to break a fall. Crippled by holy forces, bound by ritual and reeling from pain and mental trauma, Tanya von Degurechaff halve their crashing speed eight times in half as many seconds in a display of impossible genius and control that almost let them fly back up without touching the ground.
As it stands, Lergen watches Tanya grabs the thick branch of a tree from which they hang a couple seconds longer, before weakness force the devil to let go and both girls fall flat in an undignified manner, but completely unharmed. They do have to let go, with Tanya sprawled on the ground having taken most of the impact, and Viktoriya rolling some distance away from the momentum.
it's silent for five seconds before a shout breaks the shell-shocked stare contest between the two girls.
"VISHA!" Tanya howls with a genuine fury that makes Lergen fears that everything will go wrong, even if Tanya makes no motion to stand up and the collar still hold her. "How dare you? That filth- I will chain you to my bed with a coffee machine!"
"...We probably have the necessary items in stock for that," Viktoriya answers almost naturally after a couple seconds, her back against a tree as heavy breaths shake her whole body while she stares at her ex-superior screaming.
"I can't let you embrace that DEBAUCHERY! Keep going and I'll make you wear THAT maid uniform and clean the whole base while I watch."
"I will make an order with the right measurements right away, madam!"
Lergen is forced to listen to Tanya von Degurechaff trying to protect her former adjutant's innocence, or trying to make her embrace worse depravities, as that isn't clear. He can't look away because the infernal devil is crawling her way toward the human mage, while Viktoriya herself is cautiously backing away while trying to appease her ex-superior.
The man let out a relieved breath when Viktoriya finally let herself be caught, and Tanya doesn't tear the girl to pieces. By this point the devil is standing and she isn't even holding Viktoriya painfully.
The anger in Tanya's voice isn't even genuine bloodthirsty anger. It's a kind of hyperbolic venting that can only takes place between two long-time friends or more intimate people. For his sanity, Lergen has stopped listening to the words and thankfully they sometimes switch tongue in this trilingualistic exchange they are having. His worries are so profoundly assuaged that he doesn't let a deep part of himself think of what others members of the alliances are thinking, when they hear the part of the talk in their own tongue. He's fairly sure their interpreters are refusing the translate the whole thing, like the imperial ones are.
They are all recalled to reality by loud noises from the display. Both girls turning like they do to look at the shouts in the distance and fires lit up in the night. Their commander may be... indisposed, but the infernals needn't her to attack.
Still, Lergen's duty is to keep watching the display instead of giving orders so it doesn't change much for him. He watches as Tanya's expression harden, before she tries to lift them both up in the air. With Viktoriya's help, they manage to clear the trees.
"Are you okay, Tanya? W-we have to go," The aerial mage asks with a lack of proper address that seems fitting after the exchange Lergen witnessed. Tanya's grimace isn't inspiring, nor is how much she's leaning on Viktoriya. Lergen knows they have made preparation for successfully restraining the 'Infernal Devil of the Rhine' but he can't help but have doubts about how that's going to go down when she's so obviously weakened. Too many foolish souls and factions...
"A moment." Then Tanya starts to bleed gold from her body and mouth. It remains all over her for a few moments, then with a shake of her wings it's all sent flying away from her.
"...Did you already have an antidote against it?" Viktoriya asks while rubbing some of gold liquid that splashed against her face. Tanya casually nods.
"Yes. Some people already used it against me." In the next moment the devil takes both hers and Viktoriya's load on flying. Within seconds they are back up where they talking minutes ago.
Lergen shares a disbelieving, helpless stare with others members around the display, and particularly the high member of the Church who gave them the holy draught. The ecclesiastic returns a look of horror and hands spread wide in disbelief. Him and others had told them, and the reports had proved, that splashing the gold substance could render devils helpless for hours or even days for the weaker ones. The fact it took this absurdity of a thirteen years old girl mere minutes to recover from ingesting it...
They are speechless and drawing attention from the others not watching, because really, what are you supposed to do against something like that?
He helplessly turns back at the display.
"Are we going then? Or can you do something about them?" Viktoriya asks the bound devil as Tanya looks the monsters coming in the air and ground by millions.
"Actually yes. It seems I can still use what I was going to throw at the Alliance. Shall I?"
"Sure, Major," Viktoriya reflexively answers and Lergen is about to ask for details, and reminds her that the bound devil should need her authorization for certain things, now that she was collared. Of course, by the time he is turning on the microphone, Tanya is already waving and casting some spell that make the sensors scream.
Then the horizon vanishes in crimson. Both girls momentarily disappear from the display under the overwhelming red light, and every other display in the room brightens in various fashions. Fire, first red then blue to reach heat strong enough to melt infernal monsters covers nearly the whole enemy army. A couple minutes later, when both and smoke fades enough they can see something useful, it’s clear very little opposition was left.
"...and you were disappointed that I wasn't trying to stop you," Viktoriya comments at long last on the display. Tanya shrugs, not even looking particularly winded.
"Well of course, you pretty much had the only shot before I used it and killed everyone."
Lergen definitively feels that Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov deserves all the medals, worldwide, and is probably going to get them. As for Tanya? He is happy not to be further involved in that mess.
*
Unfortunately, Lergen gets further involved in that mess as Viktoriya and her newly united companion shows up at their command tent to deal with the immediate aftermath.
On the upside, they learn the massive devastation laid by Tanya on the army was a lot of fuel and magic being detonated at the source instead of launched at their targets –the Alliance-, so she can’t just do it again.
On the downside, Lergen had been the first recognizable and 'friendly' figure Tanya had met that hadn't acted or been busy. It had been his mistake. He knew who human Tanya von Degurechaff had been, and shouldn't have been surprised when her infernal version had thrown binders of papers and plans at him.
On the whole, it isn’t surprising Tanya had access to all the campaign plans and internal reports on the infernal armies, since she had been the planner. It’s slightly more surprising that she had the plans for the various fortresses and their security systems. It's much more extravagant that she had all that information on her, till she reveals that she had deliberately carried the whole thing in a container secured by stolen orbs she wore with her, just so they could pick it up from her corpse and go murder the author of that mess in Russy after she died. Originally, Tanya admitted with a sincerity Lergen wasn't sure about, she hadn't expected to survive in a way that would free her from the brainwashing. But in her own words: ‘that wasn't the hardest part of the plan she had to make adaptations for!’
It makes General Zettour's job easier, because this is a proof beyond any other that Tanya had been forced to the Devil's side, and did her best to sabotage it both in life and afterward, if said death had come up. It’s going to be much easier to convince the Alliance Tanya wasn't the bad guy, and thus neither was the Empire in this mess. It unfortunately doesn’t make Lergen's job easier, quite the opposite.
There are so many reports and most of it is written in Imperial by Tanya, meaning they were the ones who had to triage important information to translate first for members of the alliance. Since Tanya is -probably good given she was the source of it all- still viewed with suspicions, it’s up to Lergen and the poor staff officers alongside him to sort it out for higher instances.
All of which is still good news, and would be tolerable, if he wasn’t drawn to the hushed conversation between the two young girls regarding Viktoriya's plan to steal back her superior most had written off.
"-the conditioning of drinking what you offered me, against me, was masterful."
"I thought that was a nice opener, and useful to make you drop the filter spell since you wouldn't be able to enjoy the aroma otherwise."
"Clever. what were you going to do if I wrapped you in my tail before you could feed me the neutralizing draught?"
"Try to get you to bring me closer, which you often do to people you don't regard as threats."
"...I guess I might have done it since you didn't have explosives on you, and I had your orb locked down. No fear I took the draught or collar from you?"
"Knowing you, you wouldn't dare snatch the bottle from between my breasts. Given the narrative, I believed you were more likely to use the collar against me than destroy it outright. I would have unlocked it at the appropriate time, then used it."
"...I do love using my foe's tools against the fools themselves. You have grown far too clever, miss Serebryakov."
Said Viktoriya is blushing madly while being stared at by an increasingly awed Tanya, both girls sitting on the ground inside a circle newly-traced by church officials and supposed to help contain her, just in case. They have been given drinks and food, Viktoriya because she deserved it, and Tanya because they didn’t want to anger her, so it was starting to look like some demented picnic for gossiping schoolgirls with overdressed chaperones lurking around. In a military command tent.
"But there is one thing that escape me," The infernal girl goes on with one hand under her chin and another tapping the ground. On the ground with one leg spread and the other half raised, the blonde girl looks far more civilian than Lergen had seen her in life. It’s immensely disturbing that she is acting more human after turning into an infernal mass-genocide monster than before she became one. "Your speech had to be rehearsed, but how did you say it so convincingly when I knew you as a terrible liar. Were your bad lying skills a deception too?"
Lergen had wondered the same thing, but mostly repressed what the angel-like girl had said out there, and hadn't considered whether Viktoriya had lied or been truthful till now.
However when the brown-haired girl opens her mouth and struggles to speak for several moments, with an expression that was too telling and raw, he already knows the answer and wants to throw himself down a cliff. Anything to escape this.
"N-No. I knew from the beginning me lying to you was hopeless, so I didn't lie at all. I relied on your teachings and just emphasized the truth in ways that fit my goals." The mumbled words came out loudly in the sudden silence of the tent, which made Lergen notice that pretty much everybody else was joining him again in watching this trainwreck.
He watches Tanya tilt her head with a hum, before shifting her posture so she is properly on her knees and bending forward. An intimidated Viktoriya draws back while sitting on crossed legs. The tiny devil clicks her tongue in that sinister way that precedes many of her verbal offensives, and Lergen prays.
"The 'truth' huh?" Tanya begins and you could see the gears click in her brain. "So, you 'like me a lot', 'my star', 'the hope that came on my darkest day', and let's not forget 'Be mine.' All 'truths' then?" Tanya quotes in a mischievous tone.
"...Yes?" Viktoriya tentative answer is less damning than her sudden paleness followed by turning bright red seconds later, that and her heavy breathing is far too indecent to be mistaken as an expression of horror.
Tanya hums again, her body lightly leaning right and left in consideration. Lergen’s earlier charitable thoughts disappear: this is pure Tanya -a shark lapping in bloodied water and about to score the feast of a lifetime yet again-.
"Well, I did consider settling down after all this," starts the eldritch horror in a far too reasonable tone. "Very well, I accept." She nods and the lack of understanding in Viktoriya's eyes matches Lergen's, but it doesn’t seem to bother the devil as she raises a finger at her collar. "This is a most unusual way to put a ring on me, you understand. But I can't deny it has a certain charm as a romantic gesture."
Lergen passes out. No, it’s truer to say his mind shut down to protect himself and he stands frozen in place denying all form of information until the storm passes over. It’s sadly only a minute later, instead of an eternity, that the world swims back into focus. He cannot see Viktoriya's face with it being buried in Tanya's arms, but given the later far too smug smile he has no doubt that the monster achieved her aims somehow.
Oh screw it. If they were together, at least there wouldn't be more Degurechaff running around in the decades to come. Unless of course, the recent medical advances panned out but that wasn’t happening yet. With this silver lining, Lergen decides to focus on a question that mattered for the wider world. He addresses Tanya.
"Since you might be busy with this, are you planing to join the operation to get rid of the mastermind in Russy?"
The girl's expression shifts from smug to considering. It lasts several moments before she becomes a fiery picture of reluctance. It’s soothing. Still holding Viktoriya with one hand, she waves with the other then points at her collar.
"On one hand I want to go back to make sure he's dead with extreme prejudice. But there is too much risk he can reestablish the brainwashing if he gets close even with this, so I can't go anywhere near Russy. I will have to shore up the defense while you go put him five hundreds feet under, after burning him to ashes."
The bloodthirsty devil sounds quite upset about that, and Lergen finds himself quite a bit happier about everything. Sure, it’ll make the invasion much harder without a mage of her caliber... but an opportunity to reel back Tanya von Degurechaff's bloodthirstiness offered on a platter was too good to pass up.
Now to announce it to the alliance...
"...We certainly wouldn't want that after tonight. I'll go talk it out with the rest." Tanya looked genuinely grateful that he was offering to do the talking, and he decided to put it into motion before she deemed the risk not so great after all.
Beside, at least Tanya would be left behind somewhere safe while he accompanied staff officers closer to the action, so he wouldn't have to deal with her newest madness!
*
The next day, general Zettour assigned him as an intermediary between Tanya and the rest of the Alliance, for the foreseeable future