Chapter 45: The Day of Blood
Dawn broke over the Seine with light that promised endings—pale and thin, as if the sun itself hesitated to illuminate what was about to unfold beneath Paris's impossible walls. Paul stood among the assault force, watching three thousand warriors prepare for battle that would reshape relationships and fracture brotherhood into fragments too small to reassemble.
"Ninety seconds until Rollo raises the Frankish banner. Forty-three warriors in his section who don't know they're about to become acceptable losses."
Paul drank his Major Mana Potion as horns sounded the attack signal, supernatural liquid burning through his system like concentrated possibility made manifest. His mana reserves jumped from near empty to half capacity—enough power to save some lives, insufficient to prevent the deeper betrayals that were about to unfold.
[MAJOR MANA POTION CONSUMED]
[MP RESTORED: 17/35]
[WARNING: LAST HEALING RESERVES DEPLETED]
The assault began with thunderous chaos of warriors who believed they fought for victory rather than positioning themselves for political theater. Paul activated Odin's Whisper immediately, burning precious mana to see betrayal unfolding with crystalline precision.
Through enhanced perception, he watched Rollo position his section for strategic collapse rather than genuine attack. The Viking warriors under Rollo's command moved with desperate courage of people who believed their leader shared their objectives, unaware that their commander had already negotiated terms that required their sacrifice.
"Brotherhood ending in blood. Love disguised as military necessity. Everything I hoped to prevent but can't without destroying everyone I'm trying to save."
Paul found Lagertha among advancing warriors, her shield-maiden instincts reading battle patterns with tactical precision that bypassed emotional processing. Her war cry carried across the battlefield—not words but pure sound that communicated orders to fighters who'd learned to interpret her voice through years of shared violence.
"Rollo turns now," Paul shouted over the thunder of boots on stone and the whistle of Frankish arrows. "Get our people away from him."
Lagertha's eyes found his through chaos, reading confirmation of suspicions she'd harbored since their private conversations. Her signal carried across pre-positioned warriors—subtle gestures that meant survival to those who'd learned to read her tactical shorthand.
Thirty-seven of their most trusted fighters pulled back from Rollo's section in crucial moments before betrayal manifested. Paul's careful positioning over previous days paid dividends measured in lives saved rather than glory won.
The Frankish banner rose from Viking ranks like crimson flower blooming in garden of steel.
Rollo's section collapsed with theatrical precision, their resistance crumbling exactly where Count Odo's defenders could exploit the gap most effectively. Warriors who'd charged walls believing in brotherhood found themselves caught between Frankish defenders above and supposed allies who'd become enemies behind them.
The slaughter was methodical rather than passionate—Vikings cut down by people they'd trusted, dying with expressions of confusion rather than rage because betrayal always struck harder than honest enmity. Paul watched men fall who'd shared bread with Rollo, who'd followed him through storms and battles, who'd never imagined that trust could be weaponized so efficiently.
Paul burned through his remaining mana trying to minimize casualties his preparations couldn't prevent. Fate Thread Manipulation to shift arrow trajectories away from hearts toward shoulders and legs. Temporal Echo to rewind fatal mistakes by warriors too shocked by betrayal to defend themselves properly.
[FATE THREAD MANIPULATION: 200 MP]
[TEMPORAL ECHO: 150 MP - MULTIPLE USES]
[MP OVERDRAFT: -298]
[CRITICAL WARNING: PSYCHE DAMAGE IMMINENT]
Reality became fluid around Paul as supernatural demands exceeded safe operational parameters. Past and present bled together in ways that made linear time feel like abandoned concept, cause and effect scrambling into patterns that his mind struggled to process.
Through mental fog, he saw Ragnar fighting with desperate fury of someone whose entire worldview was collapsing in real time. Brother against brother, trust dissolved into something harder and more bitter than simple hatred. The Viking king moved like man trying to cut his way through nightmare that refused to end.
Paul's vision grayed at edges as mana overdraft pushed his consciousness beyond sustainable limits. The world tilted sideways, colors bleeding into each other like watercolors in rain. His last clear memory was Lagertha's face above him, expression carrying concern that spoke to love deeper than tactical alliance.
Darkness claimed him like water closing over a drowning man's head, pulling him down into depths where dreams tasted of system warnings about permanent psychological damage.
Paul woke hours later to the taste of ash and defeat, his skull feeling like someone had filled it with broken glass and shaken hard. Around him, the Viking camp processed casualties that spoke to mathematics of trusting the wrong people at critical moments.
"You saved me," Ragnar said, settling beside Paul's makeshift bed with exhaustion that went deeper than physical fatigue. "Again. Despite everything you knew was coming."
"It's expensive." Paul's voice emerged as barely more than whisper, each word accompanied by spikes of pain. "How expensive this time?"
"Seven hundred and fifty casualties. Rollo's defection cost us a third of our fighting strength." Ragnar's eyes held something Paul had never seen there before—doubt wrapped in betrayal and seasoned with bitter understanding that even family could become enemy when circumstances aligned properly.
"You could have died," Lagertha said, appearing beside them with warrior's assessment that read Paul's condition through medical precision earned from years of tending wounded fighters. "Pushing abilities beyond their limits to save people who were going to die anyway."
"Not all of them." Paul struggled to sit upright despite protests from muscles that felt like they'd been beaten with hammers. "Thirty-seven made it out because of positioning. That's thirty-seven families who don't mourn tonight."
Rollo watched from across the camp, his expression unreadable as he processed wreckage of relationships that had defined his existence for decades. When their eyes met, Paul saw something that might have been regret or relief—impossible to distinguish in features that had learned to hide emotion behind tactical necessity.
[SYSTEM WARNING: SEVERE PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMA]
[RECOMMENDATION: EXTENDED RECOVERY PERIOD MANDATORY]
[MENTAL STRAIN: 85% - APPROACHING CRITICAL FAILURE]
The device pulsed with updates painting a picture of timeline stress approaching dangerous thresholds. Paul's dramatic intervention had saved lives but accelerated instability across multiple regions, as if preventing one catastrophe triggered compensatory disasters elsewhere.
[CONVERGENCE COUNTDOWN: 45 DAYS]
[TIMELINE STABILITY: 67% - CRITICAL ZONE]
[WARNING: REALITY STRESS APPROACHING FRACTURE POINT]
Paul closed his eyes and tried not to think about how preventing Ragnar's death had cost seven hundred and fifty other lives, or whether mathematics of heroism ever balanced properly when calculated across sufficient timescales.
Outside his tent, the siege continued its grinding progression toward inevitable conclusion. But Paul's attention had shifted toward deeper battles—the kind fought between forces that moved across centuries rather than battlefields, where victory meant survival and defeat meant watching reality itself fracture under weight of too many impossible choices.
The brotherhood was broken. Trust had become weapon. And somewhere beyond immediate concerns of siege warfare and personal vendettas, countdown timers measured approach of confrontations that would make fraternal betrayal look like minor family disputes in wars fought over the fundamental nature of time itself.
+1 CHAPTER AFTER EVERY 3 REVIEWS
MORE POWER STONES == MORE CHAPTERS
To supporting Me in Pateron .
Love [ In The Vinking With Deja Vu System ]? Unlock More Chapters and Support the Story!
Dive deeper into the world of [ In The Vinking With Deja Vu System ] with exclusive access to up to + 50 chapters on my Patreon, you get more chapters if you ask for more (in few days), plus new fanfic every week! Your support starting at just $6/month helps me keep crafting the stories you love across epic universes like [ Game Of Throne ,MCU and Arrowverse, Breaking Bad , The Walking dead ].
By joining, you're not just getting more chapters—you're helping me bring new worlds, twists, and adventures to life. Every pledge makes a huge difference!
👉 Join now at patreon.com/TheFinex5 and start reading today!