The situation in the sector commanded by Verus and Aetius had developed in a weird direction. Two of the border fortresses controlled by the Assembly had quickly fallen, and several more were in a precarious situation. The two had assumed the Dragonflight had the power to punch through, but the speed at which it had happened still left them flabbergasted. Even if the Dragonflight had caught the Assembly in the middle of their preparations, it wasn’t like the border fortresses were ever lightly manned. Lords of the Assembly were required to spend some time defending the forts every now and then, specifically to prevent a situation like this. The forts should have been able to hold out for longer than they had, but the reality was what it was. As a result, the majority of the forces the two leaders had managed to gather had been sent to man the still struggling fortresses to stem the bleeding.

That left the duo with a problem. Both of the fallen worlds were by a quirk of fate only connected to a single other world leading towards the heart of the Assembly controlled worlds in this sector. All the other gates those two worlds could reach were among the fortress world that still held out. The single world the fallen two worlds were connected to was a largely unprotected one, as it had no real resources and it was protected by fortress worlds that had just fallen. That solitary world only had one important thing about it, and that was the fact that it connected to a dozen unprotected worlds in the sector, thus forming a natural choke-point. The only reason this world was not fortified was because it was deemed redundant while it was already protected by other fortifications on the actual border, and because it was not the only world of its kind in the sector.

As Aetius had been forced to deploy most of their forces to protect the beleaguered forts, it left very little to protect the world in question. Perhaps fortunately, they did have a trio of powerful red-sashed Lords that had recently arrived. Verus had mentioned his suspicions about the trio to Aetius, but they had very little choice in the matter. If the trio turned out to be some sort of infiltrators, then the world in question would be lost. However, since they were likely unable to defend it without their help anyway, that became a moot point. Still, the duo decided to set up their command post on that same world, just so they could keep an eye on the three suspicious reds.

As the Assembly had plentiful mages among their number, and an even larger portion of research focused mages, it was not surprising that the bulk of their forces that were not made up of the Lords of the Assembly were constructs. Magical constructs could be produced in large numbers, were easily controlled by a small group of mages, didn’t have morale issues, never became tired, and required little in the way of supplies. In addition, the mages that created the constructs could customize them for the mage controlling them, making the constructs immune to the favorite spells of that mage. So the mage controlling the constructs could throw all his spells that affected a large area into the melee without concern for hurting his forces.

The Assembly had conventional forces as well, but they were usually not deployed unless absolutely necessary. In general, those people were better utilized for economic purposes and as support staff. Even now Aetius and Verus had several secretaries and messengers running on a hundred errands, as well as cooks, healers and logistics crew. Of course the elite forces of the Assembly were mostly made up of living people, but they were not thrown into the meat-grinder battles on the borders, as the loss of life would be vastly out of proportion with the gains, unless you were aiming for a big breakthrough.

Unfortunately for the Assembly Lords gathered at Io, the choke-point world in question, none of them was especially skilled at controlling the constructs. Verus was mainly a holy warrior, while Aetius had sent his forces elsewhere. They were shocked to note that all three of the reds they were relying on were people without constructs as well. The handful of Lords present beyond these five were not chosen for their combat ability, otherwise they would have been sent to the forts as relief forces. Dee reassured them that they did not need to worry. She had something better. Io saw a lot of traffic at times, so it had a single gateway complex that worked both ways, and the group had taken a ‘defensive position’ right next to the gateway.

As soon as Dee revealed her ace for the defense of Io, the two generals were reassured. Or at least they should’ve been. There were simply a few details that bothered both Aetius and Verus greatly. “That’s…a mountain right?” Verus asked a little strained.

“It looks like one.” Aetius replied a little subdued.

“It has a halo.” Verus stated a little dumbly. It wasn’t that they had never seen mountains infused with a lot of magic before, but this particular mountain had several features that made them mentally off-balance.

“It does, yes.” Aetius once again replied dumbly. That wasn’t the detail that bothered them, it was simply one that was easy to bring up.

“The mountain seems to be alive.” Verus pointed out. Mountains that had a level of intelligence were not completely unheard of. In fact, the capital world of the Assembly had a mountain that had self-awareness, and the two had visited said mountain several times on official business. The mountain watched over the most important facilities of the Assembly, including the place where the Lords assembled to decide on important matters. That’s where the similarities ended though.

“It certainly seems that way.” Aetius kept his line of answers.

“Why does the mountain have an apron?” Verus finally asked the question both of them really wanted an answer to.

This time Aetius did not reply and they both looked at Dee in question. Dee, in turn, had pulled out a very cozy chair and was looking towards the gateway. If someone had asked, she was guarding the gate, while staying comfortable, but in reality, she was very pointedly trying to not look at the mountain and the gateway was simply a good excuse. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She straight out lied.

“…the mountain clearly has an apron.” Aetius couldn’t help but point out.

“If you mind it, you’ll lose.” Dee had long ago given up trying to apply common sense to the Living Mountain. It was better not to even try.

“Can you at least explain what happened to the other mountain that used to be near here? It wasn’t exactly big, but I’m pretty sure there was one this morning.” Verus decided to change the subject a bit.

Dee gave the duo a suffering glance but finally decided it was easier to answer. At least she wouldn’t be the only one disturbed by the answer. “Apparently my mountain didn’t like how it looked. Specifically, she didn’t like how the other mountain was blocking some of the sun. Yes, I’m quite sure my mountain is female.”

“…is that a sign of disrespect between mountains?” Verus finally asked, not entirely sure if he wanted to know the answer.

“No, apparently she was worried her tan might get uneven. I highly recommend not thinking further into the implications of that sentence. It’s entirely your fault I even had to say it.” Dee had been quite surprised to see the Living Mountain remove the obstruction so she had made the mistake of asking. She had assumed some sort of odd kinship between the Living Mountain and normal mountains, but that apparently didn’t extend very far.

“Verus.” Aetius suddenly tapped on the shoulder of his distracted friend. “I’m not sure if you noticed, but I’m pretty sure that apron is made of a material that is even rarer than whatever they use to make our robes. And that being a mountain, the apron is really damn big. That thing alone is worth more than this whole damn world.”

Verus cursed in frustration and simply walked away.

“I told you you’d lose if you mind it.” Dee’s quiet words followed the man back to his tent. Dee was rather gratified to see she wasn’t the only one the mountain was giving headaches to.

------

“So what’s our plan here?” Moirai asked as soon as the two people watching them had drawn back to their own battle plans. “While getting achievements might make it easier to get on the social ladder of the Assembly, I don’t think antagonizing the Eternal Dragonflight is a very bright idea. The reward might not be worth the price.”

“Well, that depends a lot on how things develop. Originally I was worried we’d get stuck in some fortress, but successfully holding a strategically important world like this is a lot better. For now, I’m planning on establishing the three of us as a reliable asset. Our current military power is limited to us three and the slightly insane mountain, so that won’t win us too many wars no matter how much power we have personally. This isn’t a short-term project, as the leaders of the Assembly won’t suddenly just trust a group of powerful individuals that appeared out of nowhere. This all suits me just fine, because we need time anyway, and this is a good way to spend that time. If they trust us enough to send us to do something, we might even get to see the universe a bit more and they might share their information with us. I think most of the information we want is something that isn’t publicly circulated. For instance, I don’t think the information brokers can tell us where all the surviving Fallen Angels disappeared to.” Dee explained her thoughts.

“As a positive note, the dragons can’t really blame us for anything if we’re simply defending ourselves. It might be better to spare the life of whatever comes through the gate at first. Give them a warning. That might be even more effective. And even if it isn’t, well at least then they’ll have absolutely no grounds to blame us of anything.” Araqiel posited.

“Or it might tick them off and draw even more attention to us.” Moirai pointed out rather pessimistically.

“There’s always that possibility.” Dee laughed. “Either way, we should get a fair bit of credit.”

Moirai frowned a bit. “Still, the Assembly kind of dropped the ball on this one. If we had not been here, they’d be in real trouble.”

“You don’t suppose that’s on purpose?” Dee suddenly asked.

“You mean that this is supposed to be a trap of some sort?” Moirai realized where Dee’s thoughts were going.

“Something like that. Otherwise this whole thing seems a bit weird. The whole defense by the Assembly seems awfully half-assed. Even if our two leaders seem relatively competent, they are not getting enough support. Even if we assume what they mentioned about the preparations of the Assembly being incomplete as the whole truth, this is kind of pathetic. If the Assembly was caught completely unawares, then they’d be pretty incompetent, but even that would not explain the weak borders. Now granted, we’re only seeing the situation of a single sector, but even a lone first circle community on Pantheon could do better, not to mention a huge community like the Celestial Court. Yet the Assembly is supposed to be more than a match for the entire Pantheon.” Dee explained with a small shrug.

“Well, even if that is the case, there’s very little we can do about it. No one bothered to inform us or our erstwhile leaders that this is supposed to be a trap and we’re supposed to fail. We can’t just fumble our defense on the assumption that something seems to be going on. Besides, that would hardly earn us any merits even if our assumption turned out to be true. And if we are wrong…” Moirai left her words hanging in the air, the implication clear.

“We’ll just have to see how the situation develops. Besides, it seems that we are out of time. It’s your time to shine Dee.” Araqiel quite happily stated. She certainly didn’t mind if they spoiled some carefully laid Assembly plan.

“Sure, push all the work to me.” Dee grumbled and got ready to act as the gateway showed signs of activation.

-----

Nurlaessus was ecstatic. The elders had picked her to lead the attack on the important Assembly world of Io. Their initial information stated that the defenses of the world should be almost nonexistent, but it was still important that they send someone powerful as the vanguard to create an opening for the rest of their forces to flow into. Despite their apparent weakness, the robed bastards of the Assembly were not stupid and they should have realized the importance of Io. Thus the job of the vanguard would likely not be as simple as the initial information suggested.

The honor of being the vanguard had been given to Nurlaessus. As it rightfully should! She was after all a mighty Azure Dragon, much stronger and larger than any of her lesser kin. She would be able to beat five dragons of the similar rank and age from the other dragon races at the same time! Why the elders bothered to use anyone besides Azure Dragons as the vanguard was a mystery to her. The only dragons capable of matching her kind one on one were their hated counterparts among the metallic dragons, the Platinum Dragons. Even those prissy pricks could only barely match her might, and they didn’t have the nature for this sort of thing. Well, there were the Abyssals and the Astrals, but the first were crazed lunatics and the less said about the latter the better.

Nurlaessus grinned in savage glee as the Dragonkin mages had to expand the gate just to accommodate her enormous frame. The gate on the other end would have to automatically do the same to match. She was sure the defenders on the other side were already shaking in fear. As they rightfully should! She still scraped some of her nigh indestructible scales against the pylons of the gateway, leaving small grooves in the stone. Bloody useless Dragonkin not making the gate big enough!

As soon as Nurlaessus appeared on the other side, she let out a mighty roar to scare everyone present. Every dragon possessed an aura that instilled something called dragon terror, but the Azure Dragons especially excelled in that. Surely the defenders were quaking in their boots! ‘Speaking of, where…’ Her thoughts were interrupted as she barely registered a flash of light and it felt like an enormous meteor had hit her right between the eyes.

Darkness almost overtook her, but her willpower managed to prevent that shame from falling on her. She had already been caught by surprise, and she would not fall from a simple blow. That would be an insult to her kind. To her dismay, she heard a male voice from a distance. “Did she just punch out an Azure Dragon?! How is that possible?!”

‘My thoughts exactly!’ Nurlaessus screamed in her mind. She felt like her entire body was bound in the vice grip of hands that she could not see, and something tiny landed on her nose. Well, tiny compared to her at least. For a humanoid, the tiny thing might have been fairly tall.

“Why did they send a weakling through the gate first? I assumed they would send something actually powerful and struck out accordingly.” The female being uttered.

Nurlaessus was too incensed to pay real attention to her assailant, which wasn’t helped by the being standing on her nose, limiting her vision. “Weakling?! I’m a rank eleven Azure Dragon! You should be trembling in fear!” She tried to growl in defiance, but the mental pressure that suddenly fell on her turned that into more of a loud swallow.

“Like I said, a weakling. Moirai, Araqiel, prepare the gate. We’ll send this one back in hopes that they’ll send us something bigger. It feels like I’m picking on children. Oh, by the way. Can you see that mountain over there?” The tiny being pointed at the enormous stony form nearby. “That mountain could have squashed you like a bug as well. Do tell your leaders not to bother sending more if they’re not serious. It feels like bullying the weak if we have to kill beings like you. And that mountain will not be as merciful as I am. She doesn’t know how to hold back.”

‘She?’ Nurlaessus wondered at the choice of words. However, there was something that bothered her even more. “Why is the mountain wearing an apron?” She uttered in complete confusion.

“There’s no such thing.” The tiny woman stated, her voice turning a little icy.

“But clearly…” The situation was so absurd that Nurlaessus couldn’t prevent herself from trying to argue back. The reality was obvious to her eyes, even if it made no sense. The aproned mountain was right there!

“Did they send an insane dragon against us? Did I hit your head too hard? Why would a mountain be wearing an apron? Is that what you’re going to report to your elders? That the defense of this world is handled by a mountain, supposedly wearing an apron for some reason, and a little girl that punched you out with a single hit? I would advise against that. They’ll label you an idiot, and for a good reason, because clearly you’re hallucinating. I’d come up with a better story.” The tiny woman’s voice didn’t sound entirely balanced.

“Yeah but…” Nurlaessus was unable to let this go. This situation was such that she was not at her sharpest and could not take a hint. Not that she could do that in a normal situation.

Suddenly the vice grip around her squeezed a little harder and the tiny woman stomped her foot. Nurlaessus heard and could feel several scales breaking. “There. Is. No. Such. Thing. Understood?”

This time Nurlaessus was able to notice the scales on the hands of the tiny woman, which bewildered her even more. Maybe this was something she could report? “I understand!” She certainly couldn’t report the truth, the tiny woman was right in that.

“Good girl.” The tiny woman said in a very condescending voice that would have infuriated her if she wasn’t already more than a bit scared. “Now scoot!” The woman made a shooing motion and Nurlaessus was thrown back through the reactivated gate.

‘So much for my glorious assault.’ She cried quietly.