Tyranny of Steel

Berengar sat within the medical tent, back at the forward operating base that had been established on the coast of South Africa. His right bicep had been punctured by the sharp teeth of the highly intelligent leopard and was now being treated by the doctors who had accompanied the German expedition. After suffering the attack, Berengar and his hunting party were forced to withdraw back to the coast.

He was still in confusion after what had happened the night before. However, what bugged him the most was that out of the thousands of lifetimes and their possibilities that he had perceived when he drank from the norn's well, none of them displayed these events that had just occurred. 

The reason for this was because, though Berengar could see many of the possible timelines that could occur as a result of his actions, he failed to see information regarding deities or other reincarnators. This, combined with the fact that the African woman was a shapeshifter led Berengar to believe she was a local deity.  However, he was confused about why she was so hostile to him. Was it because of the village he had massacred? Was she their local deity? If that was the case, then he would retaliate swiftly and decisively. 

An attack on his life, whoever it was from, was something Berengar did not take lightly. In times past, there would be serious repercussions for doing so. However, how he had responded then would pale in comparison to the vengeance he had in mind at this moment. The camps' doctor had prescribed him antibiotics in order to fight an affection, and had made sure that his wound was cleaned, and bandaged properly.

The arm was placed in a sling, after all, he could barely use it without causing more damage to the appendage. This was not a good look for morale, and because of this, Berengar needed a scapegoat to enact his vengeance upon. Naturally, he could not inform his men of the supernatural nature of his attacker. Instead, he could only pin the blame on the local tribes.

Thus, after ensuring he was in good enough condition to make a speech, Berengar departed from the medical tent, where he gazed upon the thousands of soldiers who had taken part in this expedition. They gathered outside the tent waiting for news on their injured emperor. With a heavy sigh, Berengar announced his current physical state, and began to spin a tale about how he had been attacked.

"The Doctor says with enough time, and physical therapy, I will make a full recovery. So do not fret, your Kaiser will be back in action soon enough. However, I am troubled. I am sure you are all asking yourselves why that might be the case. The reason for my ire is that during my journey into the mountains, I was attacked in my sleep by a savage woman and her tamed beast. 

This woman brought with her a beast of the land who beset itself upon me in an attempt to not only claim my life, but devour me. I struggled to survive the onslaught on my own, but in the end, I succeeded in repelling my attackers. However, this attack has inflicted scars that I will bear for life. Such a thing is not only an insult to my personal honor, but to the Prestige of every German citizen!

By attacking me in my sleep, these savages have shown that they do not understand nor care for the civilized rules of war. I will not lie. For some time now, the Jaegers and Jagdkommandos who have been acting as our scouts into these foreign lands have been telling me Kaiser, these people are savages, they eat each other; they are not human, or at the very least not civilized humans. We should not afford these cannibals the proper respect that we have given our other opponents. 

To that I have responded with the adage that we must treat our enemies the way we wish to be treated. However, after this incident, I have come to the conclusion that my Jagdkommandos were correct in their perspective. I am here to tell all of you that I will be taking on this war in a manner that I have never conducted warfare in the past.

And that is to fight until the very last! They wanted it, so shall they have it! Since these savages seek to destroy us, and dine upon our flesh, then I will show them who shall be destroyed! By attempting to feed me to their beast, they have started a madness that one way or another will see their entire population annihilated! To the savages of this land, who shall eventually become extinct, they only have this assassin to blame!"

With this said, the soldiers of Germany who gathered in the encampment let out a cry as they cheered for the devastation that was about to occur in South Africa. Berengar had exaggerated many things in this speech, but he had succeeded in his goal of dehumanizing the enemy.

He had been scheming for some time how to make Germany appear to be the victim in this conflict, and an "unprovoked assassination attempt" on the Kaiser while he peacefully camped in the mountains turned out to be the perfect incident. 

Though Berengar had annihilated a village previously, these tribes had no written language or history, they could never present a counter to Berengar's portrayal of events in the conflict. History would not judge him for the ethnic cleansing that was about to take place in these lands, nor would they condemn him for the use of Chemical weapons, after all his defenders would use the excuse that such weapons were new technology, and because of that they were perfectly justified in being used. 

After walking back into the tent where Honoria stood with a worried expression on her pretty face, Berengar smiled and stroked her chocolate hair, before informing her that everything would be alright.

"I'll be fine. There is no reason to worry. In fact, this attack on my life has given me the perfect excuse to act with excessive cruelty in this conflict. As far as the world is concerned, this was an unprovoked attack on my life. They can't blame me for being merciless when the Africans tried to feed me to a leopard, now can they?"

Honoria shook her head. She knew the sinister look on Berengar's face; it was the expression he had whenever he was about to engage in a massacre. She could only sigh as she questioned exactly what he had in mind this time around. 

"What do you intend to do with the natives?"

Berengar chuckled when he heard this before reprimanding Honoria for her curiosity.

"You should know better than to pry into my affairs. However, I will by generous and inform you just what I have in mind for this conflict. There are new weapons currently undergoing development in the Royal Kufstein Armory. I intend to make use of this war to explore the depths of how effective these weapons can be. I shall push those few who survive my onslaught back beyond the Orange River. This should give us more than enough space to colonize these lands in the coming decades."

In his past life, chemical weapons were labelled as weapons of mass destruction and were banned in the use of warfare by the international community. Should someone break this rule, they would immediately find themselves listed as a war criminal and undoubtedly would be executed upon capture.

Truth be told, Berengar had limited information on how much destruction chemical weapons could actually cause. After all, they had seen their most use in the Great War, but that was a war fought among peers, who were quickly able to create countermeasures to protect against the new style of warfare. Thus, in his past life, the disastrous effects of chemical warfare had never actually been fully realized.

To Berengar, South Africa was more than just a treasure trove of natural resources. It was an area where he could act with impunity and conduct trials to see just how effective such weapons could be in the field of battle. Whoever this goddess was, she had fucked up by attacking Berengar. His wrath was something that she could not afford to endure as a fledgling goddess of a culture that did not even exist yet. 

The prospect of these new, experimental weapons frightened Honoria. Especially with how Berengar spoke about them. She did not know what terrifying new device the man had created, but whatever it was, it was sure to cause plenty of casualties. She could only ask one question that appeared within her mind.

"Should I be worried about these new weapons?"

Berengar shook his head when he heard this and informed the woman that she would be perfectly safe.

"Not at all. With the creation of these weapons, I have also developed countermeasures to ensure that our troops are safe from their effects. However, without these counter-measures, anyone who comes into contact with these weapons is almost guaranteed a brutal death."

Berengar did not know that while he was planning to amass a chemical weapons stockpile so that he could easily drive the South African tribes from the region, the tribal leaders were having a conference about how to deal with the Germans who had trespassed on their lands. A great African Confederation was about to be born, and it was the direct result of Berengar's interference with the timeline.