Siege of Loyts

Siege of Loyts was a battle during Jaldabaoth's siege on the Roble Holy Kingdom. After the city of Loyts was retaken by the Holy Kingdom Liberation Army, the demon sent a 40,000 strong demi-human army to recapture it.

Background
A week after the Holy Kingdom Liberation Army captured Loyts the food supplies of the city were dwindling and the army was about to move out. Outside their walls though a demi-human army appeared from over the horizon. The demi-human army was comprised of 40,000 of the 50,000 troops that the Demi-Human Alliance allocated to manage the prison camps of the Northern Holy Kingdom. Though the humans that occupied the city only numbered 10,000 strong, the demi-humans allowed their enemies a few days to prepare. The commanding demi-human chieftain, Rokesh, under the orders of the Demon Emperor Jaldabaoth was given command of the campaign and instructions to maximize the fear in the humans.

After three days had passed, Rokesh gathered all the chieftains for a war council to hash out their plan of attack. After the Naga Raja briefly restored order among those present, defusing a fight between Vijar Rajandala and Nasrene Belt Cure with a stern warning that their actions would be reported to the Demon Emperor. Rokesh ordered that the army will attack the city in two days, but until then they will be content to observe the human army. While the delay in the attack would give the human defenders time to launch a counterattack, it would also mean to allow the demi-humans time to deal with their human captives that they brought along. It was suggested that they use the humans they bought as food and kill them before the city to terrorize them, though Vijar believed such an action might push the humans to surrendering and make things boring. Rokesh agreed as another part of Jaldabaoth's orders were not allow some of the humans to live. The plan was to attack the western gate and kill everyone there before moving to the eastern gate and chase the humans away. Nasrene Belt Cure and Hectowaizes Ah Ragara were left to handle the eastern gate, while Muar Praxua would lead ranged fighters to harass the northern and southern gates. All the other chieftains though would concentrate on the western gate save for Rokesh who would be away from the frontlines to coordinate their forces. That being said Rokesh announced the meeting over and ordered them to rest and save their strength so that the could lead the humans into despair.

Battle
On the fourth day, the demi-humans did as they planned and brought their captives to the outer wall of Loyts. There before the human defenders who were unable to attack them the demi-humans proceeded to butcher the prisoners and eat them. The demi-humans then proceeded to attack the western and then eastern gates of the city. Remedios Custodio commanding the Liberation Army's forces planned to hold out the siege at least until the nobles that were freed from the camps reached the Southern Noble Alliance and brought back reinforcements. It was her belief that the enemy was underestimating them and that the best strategy would be to gather all her forces at the east gate and crush the attack before moving to the west gate. But realized that the plan would fail as the small detachment at the west gate would be lost to the enemy's main force.

The captain sought an idea from her second, Gustav Montagnés but before doing so the paladin informed her that people were expecting the Sorcerer King to take part in the battle. However the Ainz Ooal Gown would not be participating as he was still recovering his mana and to hold himself in reserve in case Jaldabaoth attacked. Despite the reasons some remaining nobles in the city attempted to offer large sums of money to receive his help to no avail. To Remedios for the people to request the aid of the Sorcerer King an unholy undead was ridiculous and even insulting when they saw him as a hero. The captain refused to acknowledge the contribution Ainz provided to the cause of the liberation, holding him responsible for the deaths of the hostages in spite of the fact his actions allowed her to retake the city. Furthermore she rejected the idea that her friend Calca Bessarez was dead, and any aid received from the Sorcerer King would sully the Holy Queen's reign. The fact of the matter still stood that Ainz came to the Northern Holy Kingdom at his own risk and was able to conquer the city with only two people made him a hero.

To counter this image, Remedios suggested slandering the Sorcerer King though Gustav advised against it as it would turn the people against her. In that case the captain believed that the simple solution was to prevent the Sorcerer King from being seen by the people by silencing them. The idea is even worse, and Remedios wonders if she made a mistake in bringing the Sorcerer King to their nation. Gustav understood her frustration, but pleaded that they needed to appease the people for the time being. In the end Remedios decided to leave the decision to Caspond Bessarez and delay the people's questions and rely on their own strength to defend the city.

In response to the demi-humans' attack on the western gate, about 80% of all paladins, priests, soldiers and able-bodied men were set to defend it with Remedios. The remaining 20% were led by Gustavo at the eastern gate and the non-combatants kept watch at the northern and southern gates. The demi-humans made their move during the day and marched to the western gate, at their front ogres carried ballistas and started shooting gigantic arrows at the walls and shatter the battlements of the defenders. The defenders were able to launch a response due to the ogres being out of range and protected by shields. Morale was already falling for the human defenders not just due to the odds but also the absence of the Sorcerer King, but when some of the militia were speared through by the bolts of a second volley, the defenders at the battlements began to panic. To keep them focused, a paladin used [Under Divine Flag] and [Lion's Heart] to suppress their fears and had them resume their posts. A third wave of attack came leading to more destroyed battlements and casualties. A fourth wave of attack was about to be launched by the ogres using flaming projectiles when winged angel summons flew at the demi-humans dropping down, fire bombs. To combat the angels, Pteropuses took to the sky and Spidans shot webs to ensnare them. Many of the angels were caught or knock out of the sky, but their fire bombs dropped with them delivering the demi-humans in a fiery inferno.

The ogres having raised their shields to block away the flames gave Neia Baraja at the walls of the western the opening to use Ultimate Shooting Star Super to strike an ogre in the head injuring it. In response to the attack on their fellow, the ogres loosed projectiles from their ballistas at the wall. Neia and a few of her comrades escape the counterattack. As the fire from the angels was slowly being contained the ogres raised their weapons again at the wall with their shields protecting them. They volleyed an endless hail of lance-sixed bolts while the defends could do nothing but hunker down and weather it. The demi-humans used drumbeats to coordinate the attacks of the right and left wings of the front. The army that was sieging the gate finally moved and it wings moved in parallel with each other with the center detachment in formation. Whilst the wings arched forward, a small detachment of the demi-humans flanked the city.

The demi-humans of the right and left wings carried assault ladders to scale the walls and break into the city. Many of the demi-humans had human children bound to their bodies to discourage the human defends to not shoot them otherwise they would harm the hostages. Neia leading the archers at the western gate killed the prisoners with her bow and arrows, knowing that killing the children would be a mercy. After seeing that their human shields were not effective the demi-humans slowed the pace of their assault on the wall. Neia rallied her unit to cast stones to hit any of the attackers and prevent them from reaching the walls as she continued to mercy kill the hostages. While the militiamen were originally hesitant to continue their attacks due to the children, they eventually came to realize that they had to protect the innocents within the walls first. They followed Neia's lead to kill the human shields first mercilessly.

Neia was hit by a ballista bolt, but her Turtle Shell protected her, saving her life. The defenders put up a valiant effort to defend the walls, but were slowly overwhelmed as the demi-humans were too numerous. Reaching the walls, the demi-human attackers used ladders to scale the walls before the paladins and angels could repel them. Armats and Bladers reached the top and easily ignored the attempts by the militia to push them off and the numbers of the demi-humans on top of the walls grew. Neia confronted the demi-humans at the wall some being Stone Eaters and tried shooting rocks at her but did very little harm to her due to her armor and continued to kill the enemies before her with her arrows until one of her attackers injured her hand. To continue fighting she activated Necklace of Heavy Recover to cast [Heavy Recover] to revitalize herself. One of the leaders of the attack, a Stone Eater named Jajan of the tribe of Lagon claimed the head of the paladin commander, boasting of his accomplishment as he ordered his kin to kill the remaining defenders.

The loss of the paladin turned grim to the remaining forces guarding the gate and the militiamen began to lose morale. Neia out of arrows to fight quickly salvages a quiver from a dead solider to restock. Refusing to be defeated Neia launches at arrow at Jajan piercing his skull and killing him. She capitalized on her kill and continued to shake the demi-humans' morale declaring what to did and her name to all before resuming sniping at the invaders. The demi-humans concentrated their attention on her and upon recognizing that her armor belonged to Buser assume her to be his killer. Seeing her as dangerous the demi-humans refused to advance against wary on her abilities. That with her fearsome glare earned the archer the name "The Mad-Eyed Archer". The demi-humans' hesitation allowed Neia to rally her fellow defenders to hold their defensive line and reform their ranks.

The Pteropuses begin to rise from their ranks and fly over to the wall. Rather than cross over it, the aerial demi-humans target Neia who with mechanical precision downs them all. While focused on killing the Pteropuses she fails to notice an Armat sneak to her side and rips her left arm apart injuring her. When it follows up with another attack this time aiming for her head, the archer barely doges it and manages to stun it by smashing her bow into its face and impale it with her sword. Before the demi-human could counterattack Neia saved by nearby militiamen who kill it. By the time Neia gets up, almost all of the soldiers at the wall have been killed. Neia and six others find themselves separated from reinforcements by a mass of thirty demi-humans. Without priests or paladins, one of the men try to convince Neia to escape though she rejects the chance to flee as it would disgrace her master. She led meager force against the demi-humans who cut them down. Neia was the last one to fall as her armor helped her endure the worst of the attacks, but she eventually fell as demi-humans stabbed her with their weapons.

Meanwhile Remedios also at the western gate was contending with the 10,000 demi-humans that were bearing down on her forces. It was help original plan to hold the line and prevent any demi-human from getting past her by constantly drinking fatigue recovery potions, believing that the gate would be an obstacle that would hinder the enemy. Finding no flaw to the plan other than the difficulty to fight one on one ten thousand times, the paladin was confident that victory could be achieved by her countrymen alone. Her opinion of not relying on Ainz Ooal Gown had not changed due to her prejudice towards the undead and also his willingness to sacrifice hostages. Remedios orders the militiamen to hold off the demi-humans first wave assault long enough for her and the paladins to finish them off.

The first rank of militiamen carried greatshields were then set up around the western gate creating a wall of steel, followed by the second rank carrying shields roughly the same size and embedded into the ground. Paladins used [Under Divine Flag] to protect the militiamen from fear so that they would not be pushed back. The third and four ranks were composed of spearmen wielding longspears that thrusted their weapons between the shield teams to form a wall of death. While it seemed like the perfect formation, it had a major flaw in that it was weak against demi-humans with special abilities or magic casters. Despite this weakness the formation was the only one effective in their situation and Remedios ordered the western gate's portcullis to open. The opened gates caused the demi-humans outside to pause considering it a trap. However the paladin captain standing in front of the open gate taunted the demi-humans to come and get her causing the demi-humans to take the bait and chase after Remedios as she turned back jumped over the shield wall. In the chase many demi-humans slipped to the ground as it had been covered by large amounts of oil and those downed were trampled by their comrades. Only large heavy demi-humans made it through without accident like ogres. They charged at the shield wall but failed to properly judge the lengths of the longspears and were impaled. Still the ogres were not taken that easily prompting Remedios to order firebombs to ignite the oil around the western gate. A fire erupted behind the ogres. Faced with the blazing heat and zero visibility due to the smoke the demi-humans had two options to either advance or retreat. The demi-humans outside the gate and unaware of the danger opted to advance and continued the assault. They fell into Remedios's prediction who ordered the spearmen to pull back their spears and thrust at the charging enemy. Those demi-humans that were missed by the spears were taken care of Remedios who jumped over the shield wall and slayed the enemy in spite of the smoke interfering with her vision. Few demi-humans made it through the portcullis and Remedios intended to kill them and weaken the vanguard's willingness to fight.

The demi-humans had retreated beyond the smoke on the other side of the gate. Despite the calls from her men to fall back under the protection of [Under Divine Flag] but the captain senses that something was coming. Soon enough out of the smoke, three individuals emerged: Vijar, Nasrene and Halisha. The captain surmising that they were strong called for her fellow paladins, Sabicus and Esteban to fight alongside her against the three. Despite knowing that her underlings could not hold a candle to the chieftains the captain still followed through intending to call on more paladins like Franco and Galvan to take their place should the first pair fall to buy time. The paladins showed no hesitation at their orders, vindicating the captain that her path was the true embodiment of justice.

The three demi-humans having introduced their named to their opponents, Nasrene and Halisha are instantly recognized by Sabicus. This disappoints Vijar as his father's reputation still overshadows him. The three demi-human leaders know Remedios as the strongest paladin in the nation. Vijar is excited to face her believing that by killing her he will finally succeed his father's title as Demon Claw. Nasrene initially requests Vijar to allow her to fight the paladin promising to use her influence to sing praises of Vijar's name in exchange. Her intent apparently is to curry favor with Jaldabaoth to bear his child which disgusts Remedios. The demi-humans merely laughed at Remedios anger without a care that they were on a battlefield, infuriating Remedios further. Remedios then aims to take Vijar whilst Sabicus and Esteban take on Halisha and Nasrene.

Both sides proceeded to collided their blades against each other. In the case of Remedios her strikes were answered by a counterstrike of equal force. In her second strike she grazes Vijar's body and retaliates by striking her chest with his battle axe. The blow left her without enough oxygen to counterattack, so she raised her sword to defect Vijar's axe from coming down on her. Missing her by a few millimeters the axe slams into the ground. Vijar now defenseless with his weapon in the ground, the paladin lunges at him with "Strong Strike" but the demi-human counters with "Fortress" and brought the hilt of the axe in front of him as a shield. The sword merely grazed his right arm due to his Martial Art and also Remedios unable to exert the full force of her attack.

The paladin then planned to apply more force to her weapon, but Vijar swept the human's left out from under her using his forelimbs. The claws injured her leg and Vijar was able to pull his weapon free. Both warriors continue to exchange attacked like "Strong Strike" and "Strong Claw", going back and forth in a series of martial arts. While neither side sustained mortal wounds, both were drawing blood from the other. Remedios herself was certain that she was putting her foe on the defensive and confident that she could even defeat the remaining two demi-human leaders so that she could rekindle the trust of the people of the Holy Kingdom. However she seriously underestimated Nasrene and Halisha who already finished off their paladin opponents who she overestimated. Her moment of distraction allows Vijar to attack her forcing her a short distance away as Franco and Galvan take the place of their fallen comrades. But they two are no match and fall within seconds against the chieftains. Vijar seeing her focused on her comrades then attacked Remedios again but the paladin managed to parry it and follow up with her own attack but missed. Vijar allies then allow him to take care of Remedios to sate his ego while they announce their intent to target the militiamen.

Remedios is again distracted by the statement causing her defense to be full of holes and allowing Vijar to kick her away. To prevent her militiamen from panicking Remedios decided that the battle needed to end. Using her blade Safarlisia's special ability to enhance her holy strike she swung a holy light imbued attack at Vijar. The attacked passed through all defenses and into the demi-human's body, but to the shock of the paladin Vijar was unharmed. The reason being why it was so ineffective was that Vijar was not a evil-aligned being and thus the holy attack had no effect on him and was merely startled by the flashy attack.

As the other two chieftains plan to slaughter the human defenders and Vijar prepares to cut Remedios down, the paladin stubbornly refuses to concede that she is defeated. However he attempts to fight are regarded as a nuisance as Nasrene proceeds to kill of the militiamen with her magic. To save what's left Remedios calls for a retreat and tries to attack Nasrene. Vijar knowing her intent halts her attack by using "Showdown Declaration" causing her to be compelled to attack Vijar instead.

Remedios could only look on helplessly as the demi-human magic caster shoots a [Fireball] at the fleeing humans. But just as it closing the gap on its targets, a [Wall of Skeleton] appears and blocks it. Sorcerer King Ainz Ooal Gown to revealed to be the one who saved the militiamen. His appearance at the battlefield causes the demi-humans some pause assuming him to be an Elder Lich. Unappreciative for the save Remedios demanded why the undead came for him to answer that he came to help. Still holding a grudge for him being late to save her men, Remedios has no choice but to accept his help and eager to seek another fight which she can be of use orders the militiamen to pull back. Ainz now left to attend the three demi-human chieftains is annoyed at the lack of respect by the discriminating paladin, as he had been observing safety since the start of her duel under the cover of [Perfect Unknowable].

Ainz attention is drawn to the demi-humans who are arguing amongst themselves on who should kill the undead. The disrespect causes Ainz to cast [Death] on Halisha and Vijar making they die where they stood. Nasrene is shocked by the situation finally dawns on how powerful Ainz is. But when the Overlord uses [Death] on her, he is confounded to find that the spell was resisted. The idea that the enemy had some sort of defense against his magic makes him uneasy making him hesitate on attacking Nasrene thinking she was a powerful foe. To the contrary Nasrene had no hidden trump cards and was terrified by the undead. Out of desperation to survive casted multiple spells like [Burn Lance], [Freeze Lance], and [Shock Lance]. The spells though never reached the target as Ainz's magical countermeasures were in place. Seeing that was all she had to show him, Ainz used [Maximize Magic Reality Slash] to slay Nasrene.

Shortly after Ainz slayed all three demi-human chieftains, the Sorcerer King made his way to the wall and used a 9th tier resurrection spell and a healing potion to revive Neia Baraja. As he attended to the human girl, many demi-humans attacked him, which he dealt with by using [Chain Dragon Lighting] sweeping them all away. To deal with the demi-humans forces that were still climbing the wall, he casted [Napalm] and [Widen Magic Wall of Skeleton]. The Sorcerer King used his magic to summon undead to fight against the demi-human army in formation, after he handed Neia to be in the care of the remaining militia members and asked them to move the bodies of the three chieftains to a secure location. The magic caster then rushed to meet the demi-human army, attacking them with spells from above. Half of the army was destroyed while the rest were were pursued by Ainz's Soul Eaters. Once the army was all but obliterated the undead returned back to Loyts and was greeted by cheers from the human defenders.

Aftermath
After defeating the demi-human army, Ainz Ooal Gown returned to his quarters in Loyts to rest with the recovered the equipment from the three demi-human chieftains that he killed. The undead then used magic to check his surroundings to ensure no one was eavesdropping before he established a [Message] to Demiurge to inform him that he expected him to meet him back at Nazarick once their communication ended. Before departing he briefly examined the items that he claimed as his spoils and found why Nasrene was immune to his [Death] spell because of Arm Band of Death Guard. The discovery was considered boring to the Overlord. Before he could depart he was interrupted by Neia at his door who he greeted. Neia wished to offer her thanks for reviving her and to pass the gratitude of the people. To keep up appearances he humbly accepted her message.

As for the casualties on the Liberation Army's side of 6,000 militiamen, 2,400 had been injured or killed. According to the priests around a 1,000 defenders had died from the siege. In addition half of the paladins were killed, and eight priests were among the dead. Though the odds against the Liberation Army, saw that they survived, leadership though were conflicted over how it was achieved, through the aid of the Sorcerer King. Some wonder if they were making the right choice, and considered that perhaps another character like the adventurer Momon would be more acceptable. The idea was discarded as bring the adventurer to the mix could potential spark a war with the Sorcerer Kingdom. More pressing concerns were brought up such as the food shortage, and while the stores of Loyts contained some preserved food, there were also supplies of meat of unknown origin that could possible have been made from humans. The army faced a conundrum on whether or not the meat was safe for human consumption. It was decided to be safe to to show some respect to the dead that the flesh found would be given proper burials in the earth. However due to the time that would be needed to conduct this Gustave recommended that they concentrate their efforts on salvaging equipment taken from the slain demi-humans. Burials for the dead would be taken care of by the paladins led by Remedios who also would ensure that the deceased would not return as undead.

Ciriaco Naranjo reported that Ainz had requested to keep some of the magical items he took as spoils which was fine as long as they were not holy relics and belonged to the royal family. When Prince Caspond commented that their victory was made only possible thanks to Ainz's aid Remedios became infuriated with the notion and disgusted by the praise the undead received. Her behavior before the crown prince while unsightly and inappropriate was forgiven by Caspond understanding that she was suffering from loss and severe stress. Remedios though insisted that they were being exploited by the Sorcerer King, despite being reminded that it was the Holy Kingdom that invited him to save their nation. Even so Remedios attributed the blame to members of Blue Roses for directing them to the Sorcerer Kingdom instead of the other nations for aid. Gustave states that Ainz's incentive in the war was to claim the Demon Maids of Jaldabaoth. Before the conversation could go on, Caspond deemed it to be over as he wished to have a logical dialogue and not an emotional one. Caspond excused Remedios who left the room whilst the prince conversed with Gustav and Ciriaco about the future of the kingdom.

In truth the prince was not sure if he would be the next Holy King, as the northern part of the kingdom was exhausted while the south was still very much strong, and predicted that the nobles there would elect their own monarch. If they come to power the likely thing they would do is arrest Remedios and blame her for the affair of losing the former Holy Queen. This of course would be an excuse by the nobles to remove all vestiges of the previous ruler to install people more compliant with their views. Also the priests that were under Kelart Custodio's command may already have been bribed to higher positions for their cooperation in the south.

To prevent this from coming to pass the prince resolved to locate Calca Bessarez and also drive the demi-humans to the south. Such a feat though was agreed could only be done using Ainz's power which Caspond was willing to accept to reunite his nation. Thus among the three, the Liberation Army's course was to continue attacking the undermanned prison camps, both destroy the demi-humans piecemeal and increase their own forces at the same time. Thanks to Ainz's presence in the city of Loyts, the prince was confident that those who remained at Loyts would be safe. The attack on the camps were to be led by the paladins and priests. Caspond also granted them full control of their choice in targets. However Gustav would be leading the attacks, not Remedios as she would be forced to remain in Loyts under the allusion of protecting the city.