Chapter 71

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

Dungeon Factory, Command Center.

"You know, even a single platoon of golems might tip the scales." Said Alexandra as she contemplated the screen.

"Not this again..." Emilia sighed. "Look, I know you like being hands on with things." Like handling dangerous, explosive prototypes, although the vampire was tactful enough to leave that out. "But we don't have any business in interfering in surface affairs, as long as they don't interfere with ours."

Alexandra chuckled.

"Relax vampy, I was just thinking out loud, not actually considering it." Which was actually true. Still hadn't stopped her from assembling several surface strike formations in her warehouses and golem ready areas. It was good practice...and her sense of paranoia was making her shoulders itch. Which was odd, it hadn't...happened for a while. Not since she'd come onto this world at least.

She frowned, and logged a note to inspect that on her to-do list...and never noticed when it vanished without a trace less than a minute later.

But a program did take careful note of it.

"Regardless, we have things to do." Said the vampire girl as she pulled out her notebook. "The redesign for the royal guard is done, and the room is finally decorated." Alexandra winced at the slightly accusatory tone, but didn't comment. She had, after all, done everything in her power to avoid doing it, short of genuinely pissing off her advisor. "Next is...checking on CQ's manticore puppy, to see how it's coming along. Then we'll need to work on CQ's throne inlays. The ones we currently have are...sub par, to say the least."

"Right, checking the puppy should be interesting." Said Alexandra, carefully avoiding mentioning the throne inlays. If she was lucky, the vampire girl would forget about once CQ started gushing over her puppy. Besides she was genuinely fascinated by how biological processes would work inside of a dungeon. "You said it should be growing faster, right? Due to the mana density?"

"Sort of. It's...complicated. It's status as a dungeon defender matters a lot to, but yeah. Things just...grow faster in such a mana dense environment."

"Right." Which might turn out exceptionally helpful with the hanging gardens. She'd started preliminary work on designing the pyramid in detail, with it's golem complement, so they could better adapt each section to their respective challenges, but she hadn't yet had the chance to get started on the hydroponics part. "Will it grow stronger than in nature?"

"Hard to say. Probably, especially if it regularly kills adventurers, but a manticore could wipe out a frontier village or a wasteland caravan, that would be a huge injection of essence." Emilia shrugged. "But passively? Yeah, by a lot. It's constantly filled with mana, so it's always converting essence at it's maximum rate."

"Wait, that depends on how much mana you have?"

"To some extent. Your core convert essence much faster when you're full of mana, it's kind of a safety valve to avoid an overload. Basically everything living in your influence is constantly in that state if they don't use their mana for something else."

"Isn't that...dangerous?"

Emilia shrugged.

"Not if you don't absorb a large burst of mana through another source, like from a mana stone. If you do, well...It's not pretty."

"Right..." Coming to think of it, a member of her party had told her the same thing when she'd been an adventurer. Alysse, if she remembered well. She instinctively suppressed the burst of anger as she remembered her teammate...but it was easier than last time. Her memories from coming into this world, while still vivid, were still fading, slowly but surely, into the background. "I remember hearing something about that, before...well, before I became a dungeon core."

"Right." Emilia shook her head, and clapped her hands. "Well, better get a move on. That puppy isn't going to check itself!"

Alexandra smiled, and got up from her stool. Her advisor was becoming surprisingly good at pulling her from dark thoughts before she starting mulling on them too hard.

Which didn't prevent her from calmly checking the status of her plans in the background. She might be getting...calmer at what had happened, but her resolve hadn't changed a single bit. She was far from the golem legions she had envisioned...but every day that passed got her one step closer. One step closer to rescuing her team, and one step closer to putting the head of those who kidnapped and sacrificed her, or at least their boss', on a pike.

She also kept an eye on the battle through her screens. Splitting her attention like this was hard, but there was a lot to learn here. Like those soldiers using leap, she hadn't know it could be used for such distances. She might adapt it for a new type of golems for the third floor...

Well, thoughts for later, let's focus on the puppy for now, thought Alexandra to herself.

*****

Allya stepped slightly to the side, and the mercenary matched her movement. They sized each other up for an additional second, then....

Allya stepped back in surprise as the staff struck her ward of protection. Damn that bastard was fast. His weapon wasn't exactly a common one, but he could clearly use his with skill.

The mercenary drew back, eyeing her, and then pulled out a small vial, crushing it in his armored fist, and lathering it on the weighted tip of his staff. Allya immediately lunged forward, and managed to duck under the strike, and get a couple of her own strikes in. One of her daggers only threw a shower of sparks from striking metal, but the other found it's mark, and pierced one of the leather bindings holding the armor together to find soft flesh underneath.

Her opponent swore, and took a step back, looking at her with renewed respect. He swung his staff again, and this time Allya managed to dodge in time...and watch her ward spark but fail to stop the blow as the mercenary adjusted and the staff struck her arm.

It was her turn to swear under her breath. Wards of protection weren't exactly rare on the battlefield, so of course they'd have some counter measures! At least it had softened the blow somewhat, otherwise she was pretty sure her bones would be in pieces. She went over her options in her head, and winced. She'd been so occupied in administering her city she hadn't thought of updating her equipment. Her daggers and poisons were good...but not against armored opponents. She was an assassin damn it, not a freaking soldier anymore! And she was geared as such.

Which was something she'd have to correct...provided she survived the battle to do so.

She took a step back, and immediately the mercenary lunged forward. Allya had anticipated this however, and instead of retreating, met his own charge, passing his guard...and planting a trio of her kunais in the ground.

The mercenary whipped around as she slipped by him, and was already swinging his staff back around when his legs erupted in flames. He screamed...and got distracted enough to only intercept the first dagger Allya threw at him.

The second one buried itself in his throat, and he convulsed briefly, his hands trying to staunch the bleeding, before a third dagger ended up in his eye socket, and he fell for good, with the accompanying, although faint, rush of essence.

Allya panted, and whipped around...only to see a group of her own soldiers crash into the mercenaries' backs. Some of the commandos turned around to face the new threat...and promptly learned that turning their back on her bodyguards was a death sentence. As soon as she could, Éclair outright jumped free of the melee, somersaulting through the air, before landing with her gunblade in it's gun form, and emptied it in less than second.

And with that the mercenary flankers just...died. They didn't even have the chance to surrender as her men simply hacked them to pieces where they stood.

"Well...Surprise handled, I suppose." Said Allya with her best faked calm tone as she retrieved her dagger from the mercenary she'd fell, and smiled in thanks to the soldiers who had come to their rescue, who simply nodded back, and charged back into the general melee.

Éclair frowned.

"One that could have killed you milady." She looked at the rest of the bodyguard squad. Only one of them was on the ground, and fortunately seemed to be still alive, although he wasn't going to enjoy swallowing for a while, even after the healers were done with him, but they were all wounded to some degree or another. Comparatively Allya had gotten off exceptionally easy.

"And probably not the last one they had." Said Anders as he joined them. The captain was covered in small cuts and his armor clearly had a rough time, but he looked noticeably better than before, somehow. "Still, they used that card at the wrong time."

Allya looked past the captain, and gulped, nodding slowly.

Her bodyguards had been good. They'd held back three times their number in equally experienced and armed mercenaries, who had the advantage of surprise to boot.

Anders...Anders had just massacred a squad. By himself. Gods she couldn't even count how many bodies were in that pile!

Allya made a mental note to give the captain a raise. And a promotion. Screw not wanting to have confusion with the ship captain, he had more than earned it!

"Alright." She took a second to look over Pyn for any injuries, the elf having immediately gotten back to firing into the throng of enemies assaulting the redoubt, before nodding. The elf had a few cuts, but appeared to be otherwise unharmed. Allya looked at the defensive line, and winced. Their men weren't retreating...but they were clearly overmatched, and courage could only do so much. They were standing their ground...but that only meant they were dying standing. "Now that this is handled, we need to-"

A roar interrupted her, and she whirled around...only to watch as the line broke, and a group of mercenaries pierced through the line, and overran the reserve squad that tried to bottle them in.

Immediately, what looked like the mercs' officer gestured at the Kingdom's standard, and they surged towards Allya and her bodyguards.

The baroness stepped back, and drew her kunais. If Philia didn't get there soon, there wouldn't be an anvil for her damned hammer!

*****

Aline stepped back for the melee a bit, and looked around, angrily swiping the blood off of her face. She'd lost her helmet....she didn't even remember when. She remembered charging, yelling at the top of her lungs with the rest of the mercs, and then colliding with the enemy lines, and then...a blurr. Parrying blows coming from everywhere, the madness of the constant surges of essence.

Gods, the Order had trained her, but not for this!

She shook herself, and looked around for Gothram. Fortunately the commander was easy to see, in his crimson armor, now as much from it's original coloring as from the blood covering it, yelling insults at his enemies and exhorting his troops. That made him a supremely attractive target, but fortunately his ward of protection was tailored specifically to his visibility and...peculiar style of leadership, and it had deflected the projectiles with contemptuous ease. Except for one archer, who had somehow evidently gotten their hand on a bow with some impressive enchantments, as half a dozen arrows were stuck in his armor, including one in his helmet's visor, having somehow only half penetrated, turning it into some weird, feathery parody of a unicorn.

At least he was alive, that was something. Sometimes she wondered how a gung ho, theatrical idiot like him had even survived this long, but then she'd seen the effects on his troops for herself. Gothram wasn't a tactician or a strategist. Hell, he wasn't even a good warrior! But what he was was a good leader. His people wouldn't quite follow him into the hells -they were mercenaries after all, not honorbound soldiers-, but it was close.

She looked behind them at their ranged troops...and caught a glimpse. She squinted...and for a second her brain simply refused to process what she was seeing, as the invisibility spell's distortion of the air grew worse and worse, and the spell failed altogether, the mages casting it evidently running out of mana sustaining the extremely costly spell, and no doubt exhausted at the incredible strain required to maintain illusion magic.

A platoon of knights. An entire fucking platoon of knights in literal fucking shining armor had just snuck up on them! Where had they even come from? There were supposed to be only corporate troops and some ducal reinforcements here!

Then she realized that they were caught between them and the redoubt. If they finished getting into position...

She turned towards Gothram, and began shoving mercenaries out of her way as she made a beeline for him.

"Sir!" She called out, but her voice was drowned by the sound of battle and Gothram's own fiery exhortations. "SIR!"

The commander stopped mid tirade, and looked at her, raising his shield just in time to block one of the ward piercing arrows.

"Aline, what is it?"

"LOOK!" She pointed at their rear line, and Gothram looked back, puzzled...then his gaze sharpened.

"Shit! Shit shit shit!" He threw his sword to the ground, and grabbed the standard from the standard bearer that accompanied him. "Everyone! Fall back! FALL BACK! Battle order, MOVE IT!"

His voice, trained specifically for this kind of thing, cut through the sound of battle like a knife, and his mercenaries hesitated, before starting to pull back, closing their ranks back into a coherent formation as they did so, and trying to pick up wounded and bodies as they raised their shields and began slowly pulling back.

Gothram then whirled around, and stumbled as another ward piercing arrow struck him. This time the arrow hit a week spot, and he swore viciously as it stuck through his armor's shoulder joint. But he recovered, and waved the standard at their ranged troops, before pointing behind them.

It took only a few mercenaries look behind them to warn the rest, and the ranged formation whirled around, in a surprisingly coherent move, and formed up just in time to try and absorb the knights' charge.

The mercenaries tried their best.

Their best wasn't enough.

The ranged formation came apart under the sheer power of the charge, as the core elements just plunged through them, and a furious melee ensued.

Gothram hesitated, clearly weighing whether to break the shield wall and try to rescue them, or continue falling back safely, but a new volley of projectiles made him grit his teeth. It was clear that just running to the rescue would be suicide.

"Form up! Keep up the shield wall! And double time it you dogs! We have knights to kill!"

His army roared in response, and they began moving back, step by step, staying coherent under the hail of projectiles and the screams coming from their comrades at the back.

Gothram looked at the standard bearer, gave him back his flag, and grabbed his sword off the ground, before sheathing it and taking a cylinder from his belt.

He pointed it at the sky, and poured magic into the fire rune. The cylinder sputtered, and erupted as a flare soared through the air on a pillar of fire, and exploded above the combatants.

A second passed...then horns began to sound, and the reserve forces began moving. Then the most terrifying a soldier on the battlefield could ever hear began.

Mages incanting. A lot of mages incanting. In unison.

Aline smiled fiercely. The city bastards might have gotten them, and almost derailed everything, but they were going to learn that victory would not be this easy. After all, the Order had decreed that the Scarlet Swords still had an important part to play...