17 Chapter 17 - End of the War, Ambush, True Hell for Ciel at leas

Slaine's P.O.V.

I close my eyes as I wait for everyone else to enter the room. We are all inside the ship of Ciel, my lord, and we were going to prepare for the final conflict in this operation.

Honestly speaking, I can say that the rebellions inside the Empire are harder to deal with than this. If anything the fighting there seems more akin to actual combat as the enemies there, while much smaller in numbers, actually are prepared to fight against us in some shape.

This war was one where the Japanese was not as ready as they should have been (despite Ciel telling them how the conflict was almost sure to happen) and they only think on terms that are much too inferior. An experienced pilot of a sixth-generation Knightmare could easily deal with at least 10 of the knightmares of this nation and, back in the homeland, our operations are usually against well-organized groups composed of people using sixth-generation knightmares and some even having vibration weapons or plasma weapons that Ciel has invented in the past.

I would feel like a bully to fight here, but orders are orders and if Ciel orders me anything then I, as his knight, am dutybound to follow even if it means my death. Not that he would ever ask me something of this magnitude, my master is far too kind a person to do such a thing.

"Okay everyone, we have confirmation that the Golden Company is approaching the coast of Japan and, in a few hours, they will be here in mass. Right now the forces of Britania have retreated a fair deal to the Uchiha Army as the forces are being redirected to the North and South to accelerate the annexation." Ciel began explaining. "Kirumi, be a dear and tell everyone how things are going on those areas."

"Understood, my prince." Kirumi said with a bow to Ciel before turning to us. "The Monokuma forces are helping keep the peace and are sending a steady stream of information to the Army about pockets of resistance. They also have express orders to stop any soldiers attempting to **** or kill for no good reason, we have sent a message to the Emperor informing him of this and explaining that we do this because we already consider Japan as a new Area of Britania and as the ones with the duty to impose peace in the Empire's lands we are in our rights to do so."

"Phew, and that went by without a fuss?" Neil said with an impressed look on his face. To that, there was simply a shrug from Ciel.

"The Emperor could not care less and when the more irritated officers began to protest I mentioned that I could easily have their faces stampede in all journals across the globe as people who approve of **** and that are pedophiles, I can't say for certain if either is true but since when did the media of the people care about such small matters as the truth of things? Knowing that this noble or that Noble was doing this, whenever it is true or false, would inevitably lead to a spiral of infamy that would see them possibly losing their post. What can I say, they lacked the backbone to follow through with their idiotic ideals." Ciel shrugged with a light laugh.

Chiffon, for her part, spoke up after a moment.

"It is good you did such a thing. As a woman, I don't know how I would feel if other women were suffering in this manner because of me helping conquer the nation."

"Let us return to the topic then." Kirui said as she returned to the previous talk. "As of this moment, the Britania forces here are just enough to keep the Uchiha Army busy, with the addition of the Golden Company we expect that the Uchiha Army would grow to about 600 thousand soldiers."

"Wait, you mean that this army is that big? How can they have so many soldiers like that?" I ask surprised, I have seen how tough it is to command the A-Laws for Ciel and the A-Laws are nowhere near as big. Just the money needed to supply everyone is staggering, needless to say, that their supply lines are cut. They shouldn't even be able to eat properly and their ammunition can't be that much either, with the odds stacked so much against them there should be many deserters by now.

Keep cohesion like this should not be easy in the slightest.

"Religion." Setsuna said, the first few words he'd said since this whole meeting started. "Back in my country this sort of thing happened quite a lot, a charismatic leader would bring others via the fear of others and patriotism that would become like a religion to those who are mentally weak and children. If this army is raised for a long enough time then they would turn fanatics quite easily, I've seen the publicity in this nation and I can see the signs clear enough that this is very similar. These people will not break unless their leader is dead and even then they would easily be swept by the next charismatic figurehead very easily."

As Setsuna spoke thus everyone stood silent, not knowing what exactly they should react.

"My Majesty, I may be presumptuous by saying this but if what Setsuna said is true then we should not hold back now." It was Reisi who spoke this time. "They are the enemies for now, we must eliminate the head of them as well as the Uchiha clan to the best of our ability. Consider them as the White Fang if you must, until they surrender they are the enemy and we are your knights, we exist to cut down all your enemies."

With nods from everyone, including myself, Ciel sighed.

"I was afraid it would turn out this way. Why are people so stubbornly idiotic about such petty notions like patriotism? Can't they think of their families and what will happen to them should they fall? They have no chance of victory, if they think the Golden Company will save them we only need to dash their hopes I suppose." As Ciel spoke he turned to the Dylandy brothers. "I will give you both the mission of destroying the Golden Company as they approach. Your knightmares should have good enough ultra-long and long-distance sniper ability to shoot some ships. Don't worry about eliminating them all, they are a large fleet and I feel no need for either of you to force yourself to the point you might die, just do as much as you can until you see the enemy starting to represent an actual danger to you. After that, you both are to return to the Dominion and help with suppression fire to any commander you see.

"Reisi, Chiffon, I want both of you to go to the beach where the Golden Company should appear. I want you both to eliminate as many of them as possible whenever they land, focus on their anti-air unities as well as the knightmares, you can leave their supplies as is for the most part.

"Setsuna, you and Slaine are to go to the center of the enemy army to destroy their headquarters. I will try and send commands to the Dominion this time around to ensure that their main army cannot form any form of organization and spread mayhem, while I do that I will be moving to the Uchiha Clan compound, I will eliminate them to the best of my abilities and ensure that there is no one to command whoever is left after this fight. The most important thing is that we have to kill Madara, no mercy for him whatsoever since he could always become a martyr or something, best to have him die now as a symbol of the death of the current Japan than letting him become some sort of symbol of hope."

After orders were given I sighed in relief. When I heard how Ciel decided to go to the possibly toughest battlefields that anyone here has faced in this mission and he did it alone, that was far too reckless. He should pay much more attention to his own safety in my opinion, but he sometimes can be far too reckless. I know mentally that he is the safest when inside his knightmare, but this fact and my emotions in knowing he is in a dangerous place are two completely separated matters.

I move to the resting area, the operation will only start in about three hours and despite being in the middle of a war Ciel always wants us to at least try and take 8 hours of sleep per day and the food we get is great.

I take a plate of chicken and mash potatoes with a serving of spaghetti and feel that this may be a bit much, but I don't really mind. I, like the others, have taken the formula that Ciel made to allow the body to grow stronger and accelerate the speed of the organism, thus I can burn through this quite easily.

After finishing eating I lay my head on the bed in my room and begin taking a nap, soon enough I was fast asleep and felt satisfied in knowing that my liege will not be anywhere near a place as dangerous as the battlefield, facing only the Uchiha Clan without its guards should be a piece of cake by comparison.

///---///

Ciel's P.O.V.

After finishing up the meeting I went to review all the information regarding the Uchiha I could find. There was quite a bit I had to go through but, in the end, I managed that in under half an hour and after memorizing everything, especially about their compound, I moved.

I went to my Knightmare, this is an important matter and thus something I must take care of. Entering it I activate it and begin my travel. If I go now I should arrive at the Uchiha Compound at about the same time as the combat here will explode, this way even if they figured some message method it would no longer matter.

I board my knightmare and depart, the travel is smooth and while I move I begin to think about what steps to take to ensure that this place will not be suffering nearly as much from the revolution as before. I want this place to be peaceful, for that I must ensure that the occupation is not nearly as bad and that what natives there are they can still find good well-paying jobs. From what I could gather in my fights against rebels is that most of them are not really that interested in bringing back their nation or with misguided patriotism.

They fight because they see no other way of survival, they can't get good jobs and the discrimination is too strong against them. If there were better conditions (not necessarily equal but not so despair-inducing difference) then the numbers of those willing to fight against the system are sure to lower.

Besides, the more people are willing to work in the system the more chance some of them will be rough diamonds that can enter my city.

And so I strategize in ways of improving what is left of this whole situation after the war ends.

///---///

3° Person P.O.V.

As Ciel moved forward he failed to notice a single human that saw him fly by. He was one of ROOT's agents that were spread across the territory where the Dominion was believed to be, all of them had as objective finding where the prince was located so as to have a better chance at eliminating him.

Ribbons had long since provided special communication devices that could bypass the information lock Ciel had going, even if Danzo believed he himself had managed it. It also was Danzo who thought he had decided to fight Ciel at all costs and Danzo also believed that the special knightmares he had in hand were ones that he commissioned and obtained. All wrong assumptions since Ribbons was controlling Danzo much like a marionette but that is beside the point. But the knightmares were good, they were only sixth generation, but they would do. Ribbons had better, but he could not bother giving something actually valuable to a mere replaceable pawn.

Danzo and 30 more ROOT members entered their knightmares, all of them taking flight not long after and their eyes all flashing red with the Geass symbol in them, the only exception being Danzo whose entire arm flashed red, more than 20 different Geass ready for use.

///---///

In the battlefield things developed in big part like what Ciel said they would. Dominion showed it's, well dominion, over the Uchiha army by bombardment via, in no small part, to Deidara's bombs and the simple fact that the Dominion was better. They took many hits, true, but the ship stood despite that and it was a huge distraction to the bulk of the army.

Yes, distraction since their communications were all down and the soldiers started trying to fire at the Dominion instead of running or organizing themselves, their commanders trying to keep things organized but, with the current lack of communication, the commanders could not relay orders well enough. It did not help that the Uchiha army was the one with the most fanaticism and 'hot blood' amongst the entire Japan.

It was actually surprising how, due to this, hardly anyone noticed the few knights from Ciel's personal squad moving. Honestly speaking, the only ones who realized the danger these few knights meant were those in their immediate surroundings. The Dylandy brothers had already sunk 23 of the 30 ships from the Golden company before they retreated to the top of the dominium with the express objective of shooting down anyone who seemed to be getting things in control as well as the anti-air unities in the army.

On the shoes, the 7 remaining ships docked but even then they were not given any respite since Chiffon and Reisi were working as if meatgrinders to all those trying to pass, for every 100 unities that tried less than five managed to pass through and even they were under the fear of the Dominion who was raining down death all around.

And finally, both Setsuna and Slaine were moving to the headquarters of this place, both CQC experts were moving as if hot knives through butter, they were almost emulating the scene shown by their lord a few days ago when he did the same for the Todoh army. The two were evading and cleaving through any opposition and they quickly got to where the headquarters was. They began destroying everything in sight there but Madara himself they could not find.

The man was long gone, escaping the moment the conflict started and by now was impossible to be found.

Slaine, feeling like he failed, decided a course of action to, at the very least, break the spirits of the Uchiha Army. If he could not find Madara he would do the next best thing. He communicated with the Dominion to send a certain message across all the communication devices in the army on the maximum volume.

Thus, the Britania National Anthem started echoing across the entire battlefield, joining that with the destruction of the headquarters and the flag of Britania atop it the result was immense. Soldiers all around broke and they fell into the pits of despair, spirits were broken as they felt the pressure of utter domination and the pressure of fighting a truly impossible fight.

///---///

Meanwhile, in the Uchiha Compound, blood and screams were the norm. Itachi had used a strong poison in the water of the clan to kill as many as possible at once. He had given stealthily the antidote of said poison to Sasuke, as he was Itachi's younger brother, and to Lelouch, as it would not do to have the likely reason for Ciel's coming to Japan die right now.

Of course, not everyone drank the water and even amongst those who did drink it there were some who had a certain resistance to the poison. That meant that Itachi was now 'cleaning up' the place by going into a killing spree. He knew that any survivors would represent a danger as possible symbols for the Uchiha Army after their inevitable defeat. Beyond just the army, they would be able to call upon the more patriotic Japanese civilians and the conflict would not end.

He decided that, for the sake of the nation, he had to kill the entire clan. Of his blood only his brother was left alive, he left both him and Lelouch in the edge of the clan compound area as a way to make them as far away from danger as it was possible while he would take on the entire clan.

What he failed to see were three children, little bigger than Lelouch and Sasuke themselves, who saw him put the two there.

The three entered the place and a few minutes later found the two boys. Without much of a second thought they took the two away from there, they had no idea where to go but knew that this place was dangerous and they had to take their king away from there.

Thus Lelouch escaped Ciel's reach by pure luck. He would later, in his hubris, think that Ciel is the one who organized the execution of the entire Uchiha Clan and that he was left for last as he wanted to kill him himself, on his mind, it was the only explanation as he could not believe in coincidences.

///---///

Ciel was now almost upon Kioto. He would arrive soon and with luck round things up in this place to end this bloody mess of a war.

BANG

Suddenly a shot got on his side. As he did not detect anything before and did not expect an ambush the hit actually was felt in the knightmare. Ciel twisted in the air and redirected himself, activating the defense system of his knightmare and using every trick he could try to identify where his enemies are.

After a few seconds, he could not see them. Ciel knitted his eyebrows, not being able to find the enemies was simply impossible for him.

Suddenly impacts began to ring around him, they came too quickly but Ciel could not react in time as it happened. He noticed that his knightmare was working strangely.

He moved to attack but the knightmare was failing to hit anything. Regardless of how he tried to attack, no attacks were working. Even his movements were not how they should be, when he tried to move his right index finger he would instead move his left shoulder and when he tried to move his arm he would have his head move up and down. It was disconcerting, to say the least.

Feeling frustrated Ciel understood what was going on.

"A Geass ambush, huh. Is it the Directorate?" Ciel said as he tried to move.

Multiple Geass were being used against him at once. He could feel his knightmare moving slowly and his own moves were not working as they should. If not for his armor he would have died already but even so there was a limit to how many attacks he could take before his armor weakened, especially since he had to use it in his entire knightmare instead of only the necessary places.

In Danzo's knightmare a small smile could be seen in the old war hawk's face, this was working perfectly and he could not see how this could possibly go wrong now.

BANG

A shot could be heard and one of the knightmares exploded. Danzo's eyes widened as he saw this. He looked around but could not see anyone around that could have done so.

BANG BANG BANG BANG

Multiple shots could be heard and about 7 more knightmares were destroyed. He finally understood what has happened and cursed inside.

"That damn brat! How could his snipers hit from this far away!"

Yes, it was the Dylandy Brothers. As soon as Ciel realized what was going on he sent a distress signal to the Dominion and the Dylandy Brothers, that were already on top of it, moved at once. Using their sniper riffles they took aim and fired at more than 150 kilometers away with pinpoint precision despite the terrible footing. It was something that should have been impossible since no machine should have this much range, but Ciel had long since improved the sniper riffles of both Dylandy brothers to be able to reach these distances. It was already close to the limit of where they could hit but it was still enough.

Gritting his teeth Danzo was about to order a retreat when his mind changed, his right arm twisted a bit as the cells in it took effect and the mental control of Ribbons took effect. Danzo sounded a full charge, but he failed to realize that amongst those who were taken out were the ones who made Ciel fail to see them.

Ciel smirked, during the time he was waiting for the support he figured out the new 'configuration' of his body's movements and even if slowed down he still moved, taking out his glaive he moved forward. His commands were coming out slow, true, but that just meant he had to predict what his opponents would do before they could even begin to think about it.

One by one the knightmares were being destroyed by Ciel despite their numbers and Geass. Ciel continued moving without fear, his eyes set as he moved to destroy everyone perfectly. Let it not be forgotten, in the midst of all the capacity that Ciel has shown, that he was a genius pilot like rarely has been ever seen.

Danzo himself was the last one to reach Ciel, as he was the furthest from him so as to lower the chance he would end up in any danger. But now he completely forgot such matters, Ribbons commands overriding all of Danzo's cowardice, and instead, forcing him to attack.

"For Japan, for my PEOPLE!"

"Yeah, no." Ciel said as he moved his Glaive, cutting the knightmare despite everything. Danzo activated the ejection system and flew out. As he did so the amplification effect that existed inside his Knightmare that allowed his Geass to affect others within a knightmare was no longer in effect.

As soon as Danzo's pod hit the ground he tried to escape only for Ciel to shoot his right leg off. Falling to the ground the old man tried to crawl away but Ciel calmly walked to him and held his body in his hand.

"I am gonna extract every little thing of importance you have in your head soon enough. Secret locations, military stashes of this country, connections to foreign powers, even the locations of the Yakuza and other such organizations that might cause problem. And especially, I will find out exactly HOW you have a Geass and got a force like that." Ciel said via speaker only for Danzo to go deathly quiet before his face morphed, from what it was used to, into one that exuded sophistication and superiority, a smug expression on his face.

"Impressive, young Geass holder. To defeat this ambush I laid out to you, truly impressive. It might not have been nearly the best I could manage, just a way to test you, but it still was not a bad display." Danzo spoke, but his voice was different now.

Ciel knitted his eyebrows and spoke.

"And who, might I ask, is the one controlling this old sack of shit?"

"Haha, you truly are funny, young Ciel. I am quite certain that by now you should be able to at least guest as much."

"... Peace mark." Ciel said and Danzou laughed heartily.

"Great, truly great. It seems like the next few years will be quite entertaining if someone like you is out there in the world now. For the answer I will give you a small gift, I would be destroying Danzo's entire body but I will gift some of it to you. Consider this your reward for managing to impress me such." As this ended Danzo's face bloated up and exploded in gore.

Ciel could only look and feel immense displeasure. It seems like there was someone out there that would be a true annoyance to deal with in the future.

///---///

Five Days Later Ciel was back in the Holy Britania Empire's capital. He was in a procession like the ones of old, everyone admiring him and speaking of how he was a hero and things like that.

Truthfully, he would rather be back in his city already. Partially because he still had to get Nunnally to feel well again after he failed to get her brother back, something that made her highly depressed, but even more importantly because he wanted to study what he could from Danzo's body. he found out that one of Danzo's arms was made of human tissue of unique properties and that it could sustain and allow for the use of many Geasses.

Mayuri was beyond ecstatic when he took it, he was going crazy with one experiment after another, and honestly, Ciel would rather be right there in the thick of it, paving the way of discoveries, instead of right here doing little more than being the face of the victory for the Empire.

Beside him were his knights with one recent addition, Itachi Uchiha. He appeared in front of Ciel when he arrived to deal with the Uchiha and said how he eliminated his clan for the good of the nation, that he would rather have the conflict stop already.

Ciel accepted his request and took him in. After talking for a bit Itachi accepted giving his loyalty to Ciel in exchange for ensuring that the lives of the Japanese citizens would be protected, which Ciel accepted without much of an issue.

And now Ciel ended up with one more Knight to him. That raised a lot of questions, but it was something Ciel decided and he would not mind the opinion of others when it comes to things he was decided about, especially when this decision could mean his life or death.

He was now certain that there was a big enemy hidden somewhere, he would not simply ignore this and to deal with it he would need to grow in power.

When Ciel got to the throne room he walked with confident steps, his figure imposing and, despite his youth, no one dared look down on him. He was someone who had basically took out an entire country in a matter of days, anyone that before thought of him as just a kid now felt that it was better to not provoke this little asura.

After the pleasantries everyone expected the Emperor to give Ciel the right to request something, but instead, the Emperor directly gave him something to make sure that Ciel would be as far away from the capital as possible.

"Young Ciel, I understand that you already is quite busy with the A-Laws and Academic City but it has come to my attention how extraordinary your work in the administration of your city and the A-Laws is. Under your supervision, the corruption across the Empire is being rooted out and I also know that as a war hero you ought to be properly gifted something of value, as such I decided on a most appropriate gift.

"You, from this day forward, is named Ciel Phamtomhive Zi Britania, Viceroy of Area 11."

As soon as these words rang Ciel felt that it was good that he allowed Kirumi to put on some make-up on him otherwise people would see how quickly he paled as he thought of what exactly this means.

'Oh gods, so much paperwork!'

///---///

AN:

FINALLY, I was trying to finish this chapter for a whole lot of time. It was way too hard, and I did not have the right motivation for it. It was just luck that I got a bolt of inspiration today and managed basically the entire thing in one go.

Anyway, changing topics, yeah Ciel is not the Viceroy of Area 11 and next chapter I intend to be a time-skip to around CANON time. Not that CANON would happen as it did, Ciel already screwed it up big time long ago with the changes he has made, but especially how he changed the ways of the battle and the end results of the war.

Japan was not nearly as ruined as before and while they lost the actual life loss is relatively small. Madara escaped death this time around, but Danzo did not and I felt great pleasure in having Ciel explode his leg off and in the talk between Ciel and Ribbons. Especially with Danzo's head going pop, that gave me great satisfaction.

Well, I will end this here. Ideas or thoughts about who the other knights should be would be appreciated, the MVPs of this last battle were the Dylandy brothers who saved Ciel big time.

Expect great things in the future ;)

Oh, and try out my other fics, I have quite a few of them after all kkkk