Katya was doing what she did best - completely immersing herself in her work to the detriment of everything else. This was a physically and mentally unhealthy habit that nevertheless served her well throughout her adult life. At least now she had a body that required neither food nor sleep, but she still couldn’t maintain her mental focus indefinitely. Her waning concentration would cause mistakes that ultimately cost her more progress than she would make by stubbornly keeping at it. That was why she relied on another old habit of hers to avoid this, one she had acquired since early on in life during her time as a roboticist for the military. She set up alarms for literally everything in her daily routine, which she also optimized to get the most out of every twenty four hours. This rigid schedule included her leisure time, though these days she didn’t have many ways to unwind. There weren’t many venues for entertainment on the moon, after all, so the Original Artificer had to make do.

Katya’s main method of letting off steam, and one of her favorite hobbies, was to spend an hour getting angry about people who had wronged her in the past. Though there was nobody to listen, she would complain on and on about all their perceived transgressions and then vow vengeance against them. Naturally, her last ‘seething session’ had been focused largely on Orrin, who she saw as the main cause of her recent setbacks. How dare he conspire against her after everything she did? Not only had she saved him and that savage greenskin from certain death by radiation poisoning, but she also provided food and shelter while asking little in return. Of course, the giant would need none of her help if she hadn’t left that toxic waste lying around, or if Katya wasn’t the sole reason he wound up on the moon to begin with. Those details were conveniently absent from the otherworlder’s rants as she got herself riled up. She even used printed photos of the Priest to facilitate another of her old pastimes - marksmanship practice with personal firearms. Shout-and-shoot therapy aside, Katya’s main issue with Orrin was he forced her hand with his inability to keep his naive morals in his pants, which led to the regrettable loss of a most promising assistant. Of course, she still had her fair share of complaints about Fizzy, which she would address during her next scheduled seething session.

This approach was perhaps not the healthiest way to vent her frustrations, but it worked for her. By setting aside time for her emotions to run wild, it allowed the Original Artificer to focus on her work. At present, she was fervently chipping away at the problem of adapting her former assistant’s Oscillating Counter-Disruptor for mass production. Much as its creator anticipated, the machinery could not function as intended unless an Artificer worked their magic into the device during construction. Katya was even more aware of that fact, having struggled with this issue many times in the past. So far she’d gotten around it through the use of something she called a ‘standard construction template.’ In simple terms, it was a device imprinted with the arcane techniques required to assemble an article with just the required components and a sufficient source of magical energy. This technology didn’t need an Artificer to function, but it had to be built by one. Katya had personally constructed dozens of these while she was still human and was using many of them even now, but making a new one herself wasn’t going to happen. At least, not without putting her real body at serious risk. Her plan previously had been to make Fizzy de-magic her design as much as possible, then have her make an OCD SCT. That was unfortunately no longer an option since, as far as the Original Artificer was aware, the golem was dead and her body had been taken by the natives.

Under such circumstances, Katya had very few options to finish adapting the anti-disruption device to fit her needs and secure the massive power source she required. An obvious solution was to find an entirely new construction method rather than rely on old, limited technology. However, that was impossible for her. In actuality the Original Artificer had very little talent for innovation. Nearly every single design, schematic, and patent she was credited for was largely based on other people’s work, both from the Kingdom and from her old world. Katya’s strengths lay in persistence and corporate backstabbing, with her technical abilities focused on iteration rather than invention. That was why she needed Fizzy’s creative spark. That was also why she wasn’t currently working on ways to advance and adapt, but figuring out how to sucker another promising Artificer into doing her job for her. Indeed, though she was averse to the idea before, her interactions with the radiant construct had convinced her that perhaps it was time to reach out to the Kingdom once more. Naturally she had no idea how the country had changed in her absence and whether it was safe to reveal herself, given her political history. She needed more information before she sent her mechanical envoys to scout out potential ‘applicants.’

That was the long-and-short of why Katya was presently in the observatory atop New Dragunov’s central control tower. She tirelessly scanned both the ruins of Old Dragunov and the capital of Gun Tarum while Tascuna’s orbit permitted it. It truly was infuriating how little appeared to have changed in her absence, but judging from what Fizzy had previously told her, the public’s perception of Artificers had improved greatly since her heyday. Her old assistants had done particularly well for themselves in her absence. Fizzlesprocket, Redbolt, and Castmaster were now big names backed by substantial political and economical power on top of claiming respective ownership of the Arclight, Flamespitter, and Automata specializations. Katya wasn’t even aware that the first two of those were a thing until the golem told her.

All of this was quite promising. Though Old Dragunov was effectively destroyed, each of these gnomish clans had their own compounds and facilities that could prove useful. She was currently scanning one such site, and she liked what she saw. Luck permitting, Katya might even outsource some work to them. The Flamespitters’ alleged expertise with rockets was of particular interest, and the Arclight Artificers had made some impressive developments in terms of arcane power sources. She’d need both those technologies to ensure the completion of her big project. Naturally the gnomes wouldn’t cooperate unless there was something in it for them, but Katya already knew what to offer them. During her relocation to Tascuna, the otherworlder brought with her almost all the gold, jewels, and artwork in her possession. Originally she did that because she didn’t want anyone else to take her fortune in her absence, least of all the state. Nevertheless, she would gladly pat herself on the back for her ‘uncanny foresight’ during her next self-appreciation appointment.

“Vnimanye! Vnimanye!”

An alarm rang out in Katya’s head while she was observing a Castmaster construction yard. Rather than a signal to move on to the next part of her meticulously scheduled day, this was an urgent warning of intruders approaching the perimeter. The elegant white android standing at the semi-circular control panel froze as the mind controlling it turned its attention to the security cameras along the edge of her main compound. Her eyesight was flooded with dozens of views of an armed force emerging from the ground just outside New Dragunov. It was the gremlins. Of course, it was. They’d tried that approach several times throughout the decades, which was why Katya had installed an extensive net of seismic sensors to pick up any suspicious soil movements. It would seem, however, that this lot had evaded most of them and gotten far closer than she expected. This was only possible because Tony’s earth-focused Shaman magic allowed him to shift rocks and soil with greater speed, volume, and subtlety than any Stonesinger. However, in Katya’s eyes, the mastermind of this surprise incursion was the other ‘extra’ that arrived alongside her former assistant.

“Of course,” she grumbled in her language. “I should have known that hairy ape was behind this.”

Orrin could clearly be seen towering over the few hundred gnomes as they flooded out of that tunnel. They were taking fire from Katya’s automated turrets, but their magnetic magics repelled most of the bullets and shells with ease. Furthermore, they began conjuring dozens of constructs that looked like crude stone golems. These were the product of a Stonesinger Skill called Rockfist Guardian. It was similar to a Pyromancer’s Molten Guardian in that it created a mindless servant that ran exclusively on their owner’s magic power. Unlike Xera’s bull-sized lava hound, these appeared like half-buried giants with only their bulbous torsos, thick arms, and tiny head poking out of the ground as they glided through the rock and dirt as if it were shallow water. The Guardians quickly formed a line and rushed forward, providing extra cover to the gnomes as they advanced on New Dragunov. No doubt they were emboldened by the absence of any defensive walls and sought to flood the streets and use the buildings as cover from the stationary turrets.

Katya scoffed at their advance. Did they honestly think a force this small and ill-equipped would ever get close to her factories? Even with the giant doing that strange supernova thing in the back and blasting her turrets with enormous beams, their chances at anything resembling victory were practically zero. Surely they knew that, so why were they wasting her resources? Or perhaps that was the plan? Bleed her out of fuel and materials, like their recent attacks on her satellite facilities? Well, if that was the case she’d make them pay for it in kind. She was already raising her private army of murderous automatons. Sure, their magical defenses were well-suited to repelling gunfire, but she knew from past experiences just how easily those Stonesingers were overwhelmed by numbers. Those she had plenty of. Katya’s factories had been running around the clock for almost a century. Her reserves of automatons were so vast that she could lose five for each gremlin killed and still have enough to genocide the lot of them.

The bulk of the otherworlder’s military consisted of a general all-purpose assault model she internally referred to as ‘pawns.’ These were humanoid constructs modeled after marines and commandos that she helped develop during her military days. They had lightweight armor plating and bulky frames that made them resemble knights with guns. Laser guns, to be specific. The gnomes’ improvised energy weapons were made using parts from pawns that they scavenged over the years. Both sides used fire-attuned lunar crystals as a power source, except Katya’s were far more efficient. Conversely, Fizzy’s ‘upgrades’ made the natives’ rifles burn through the energy much quicker than they already did, but also delivered a significantly stronger punch.

So, when the pawns began their counterattack, the battlefield was filled with heat beams of varying intensities from both forces. The attackers’ heavier weapons were able to melt right through the defenders’ armor and even punched through whatever walls and corners they used as cover. The drain on their crystals meant they had to stop and reload a lot more often, but at least they had a decent stockpile. That also proved dangerous, however, as an automaton’s shot struck one of the gnomes’ ammo pouches, causing the volatile fire stones to erupt in a blazing flash. The victim came out mostly intact, although the golden shimmer around him made it clear that he wouldn’t have survived without the Lifebinder’s Seal once-per-day death-cheating property. Seeing that, he immediately fell back and took cover behind those that still had the Sun God’s blessed life insurance. These comrades then did the same as soon as they were ‘popped,’ as they had trained prior to this assault.

Naturally, the other divine boons were putting in just as much work. Goroth’s divine protection reduced all incoming damage by a third, which meant that otherwise grievous injuries were now a lot more manageable by the freshly trained Shaman healers and the radiant Priest. Zephyra’s blessing allowed them to keep fighting even though they’d spent the last six hours in a forced march, lest their surprise attack be discovered. War’s Righteous Might vastly improved their speed and accuracy, allowing them to get a lot more use of their amplified weapons than they would have otherwise. And, of course, Ivan’s chaotic influence caused the largest spectacle as enemy fire bounced off the stout folk at random. It proved a surprising boon to the attackers’ morale, as they knew that if all else failed and they took a laser to the face, there was still a fairly decent chance it would fail to hurt them. The rare occasion where a shot was reflected directly back at its owner was especially emboldening.

Of course, Katya had a lot more up her sleeve than grunts with high-powered flashlights. She also had pawns with grenades, rocket launchers, and mortars, but even those were little more than light infantry. As the fight dragged on, she began to mobilize the heavy armor - her ‘rook’ model tanks. These carriage-sized, fuel-guzzling, tread-propelled behemoths proved far too tough for the gremlins’ small arms fire and limited offensive magics. Even the Lightning Bolts the novice Shamans hurled did little to nothing, yet the tanks’ heavy guns threatened to wipe all of them out with just a few well-placed shells. Though the assault force had barely gained any ground, they were forced to give that up and pull back towards the hole they popped out of as the tanks rolled forward. However, this wasn’t a retreat, but a strategic maneuver. In her arrogance, Katya had flaunted most of her so-called Iron Curtain’s capabilities before her guests, which gave the trio all the information they needed to devise a counter.

“Tony! You’re up!”

The hobgoblin glared at the runed stone in his hand - the rocky-talky, as Fizzy insisted on calling it. He wasn’t upset at Orrin bossing him around, but impressed at how well these things worked under the circumstances. They were, without a doubt, a lot more reliable and durable than those blue crystal cubes the armed forces on Terrania used. Admittedly they were also less secure, but still an immensely useful tool to anyone stuck in the muck and dirt. Tony made sure to remind himself to secure a few dozen of these for future shenanigans, once this mess was over. Until then, he had to do his part, which fortunately didn’t put him in any great danger. The Shaman put away the rocky-talky, stood up, cracked his neck, and then looked up at the crumbling ceiling of the underground burrow he was hiding in.

Several seconds later, the ground underneath the advancing tanks began to churn and split as sinkhole after sinkhole opened up, burying them one after the other. Sure, those things were terrifying machines of war, but they were so easily eliminated by a bit of earth-bending that they would be practically useless against any modern, civilized army. These pipsqueaks were still too primitive to have prepared such magics, and Katya knew this, but that was exactly why Tony’s subterranean ambush proved so successful. It was worth noting that his interference didn’t actually destroy any of the tanks. They could still take potshots at the gnomes with their top-mounted machine guns, but they were a much lesser threat now that their main guns were buried in rock and dirt. Even if they tried to fire, they’d accomplish little beyond blowing themselves up.

The explosive projectiles Katya kept bombarding the gnomes with - those were the real issue. They were far too heavy for the gnomes’ magnetic and wind-based defensive magics to deflect, and the invaders didn’t have the sort of heavy shields and plate armor that would allow them to ignore the bulk of the shrapnel. Their protective gear was resistant to slashes and punctures since it was fashioned from the carapace of moon-roaches, but there was only enough to cover their torsos, waists, and heads. Their limbs were basically fully exposed and even a near hit from an explosive shell would cause heavy bleeding if it got through all the layers of divine protection. Even if the wounds weren’t lethal, they didn’t have to be for a combatant to end up incapacitated, either physically or mentally.

Thus did the assault force’s biggest weakness bubble to the surface - their lack of discipline. Only about half of these people were soldiers. The rest were brave civilian volunteers who were seasoned bug-hunters at best, or completely green at worst. Without years of training and active combat to harden their resolve, every skin-cutting, bone-rattling, ear-ringing explosion made their morale plummet. Considering their formation and strategy of cycling people out of the very front, one gnome losing their nerve and abandoning their position could put several others at great risk. This was why Orrin’s presence was invaluable, as the Priest practically radiated hope. He used his Celestial Avatar to maintain a massive golden barrier that sheltered the bulk of his allies from direct mortar hits. On top of that, he was constantly chanting large-scale Spells to mend both their wounds and their spirits. Without the Hero of the Sun there, this entire operation would have already collapsed.

What instead happened was that the natives were holding strong against a numerically and technologically superior force. Not even the inevitable chemical warfare Katya unleashed upon them could stop them, for this too was anticipated and prepared for. They had brought a few dozen of the warding totems meant to combat the Blight, which were so effective at cleaning the land and air of toxins that they rendered gas attacks completely ineffective. Furthermore, the Level-boosted Shamans could conjure gusts of wind to disperse any smoke or dust. This ensured that their line of sight was clear, and that Orrin’s super-powered state wouldn’t end early because he got cut off from the morning sun. Overall, the only thing the gnomish fighting force was lacking - besides discipline and experience - was air superiority. Katya’s flying gun-toting, bomb-dropping drones filled the skies with angry buzzing, but the aforementioned solar barrier made it difficult for them to get a clean hit on anyone.

All of this seemed like a resounding success, but the battle was far from over. In fact, it was barely even getting started. Katya had so many automatons in reserve that she literally did not have the space to field them all at once. She was even recalling other units that were deployed on patrols or gathering missions. It really was a matter of time before the primitives ran out of magic and were overwhelmed, but if all went to plan, Fizzy would settle this before things turned for the worst. At present, the golem was all the way back at the natives’ mountain home. She paced nervously around the circular stone platform at the base of the Heart of Light. Her left fist repeatedly slammed into her right palm, producing a crisp and rhythmic series of clanging sounds. As the excited grin on her shining lips suggested, this behavior wasn’t caused by worry, but eagerness. She wanted to start breaking things so much that she could hardly bear the wait.

“Are you ready now?!”

That question was directed at a small group of gnomes currently attending to the old Astral Nail inside the massive cage at the center of the platform. Among them were Krak and Krum, who were presently double and triple checking their gear. They would be carrying a lot of vibroglass bombs and needed to make sure that each one of the multi-colored prisms were stable and inert before they went into the thick of it. The other meatbags were a bunch of wide-robed scholars - or the closest thing this tribe had to academics - who were fiddling with the teleportation device. Tizoc was seated a little off to the side in a meditative position, his eyes closed and his mind elsewhere entirely. As the most senior Lighhtbinder around, it fell to him to remotely monitor the ongoing assault. That also meant he could neither hear nor see Fizzy at present, but he had already given both his children the Enlightened Speech boon, so they were both capable of answering her.

“No,” Krum did so bluntly. “It is not yet charged.”

“Ugh…” the golem groaned. “Could you people go any slower?”

“The junior Skyseers’ work is done. You know this.”

“Yeah, yeah… So is it ready now?”

“Still no.”

The issue at hand was that Tizoc’s students could not provide the Astral Nail with enough power to activate it. This was through no fault of their own. Much like the Forest Gates of Azurvale, the giants’ long-range teleportation device was designed to tap into natural sources of magical energy. An example of this were Terania’s vast underground currents of mana known as ley lines. Mother-crystals like the Heart of Light were Tascuna’s equivalent. All the lightning rods and buried crystal-based capacitors lining the cavern not only shielded the residents from the crystal’s electrical discharges, but could also harvest them for power. The array surrounding the Astral Nail was especially designed to handle the juiciest jolts and feed them into the claw-shaped structure. All they needed was one good zap and they’d be in business.

“… Now?”

“No.”

Unfortunately, those emissions were completely random and could not be tapped into at will. To make matters worse, the gnomes couldn’t pre-charge the teleportation device since it would activate prematurely and ruin their plans. As such, Fizzy’s group had no choice but to wait until after the assault on New Dragunov started to hook everything up, then hope for the best. That was several minutes ago, and the awkward wait was starting to really grind the golem’s gears. Her mind was so preoccupied with thoughts of violence that left little room for patience.

“What about now? Is it ready now?”

“Yes.”

“Really?!”

“No.”

“Argh! Okay! This is taking too long! I’ll just do it myself!”

It was mathematically impossible for Fizzy herself to serve as an Astral Nail’s power source. At least, not this one. It was so old that it rapidly ‘leaked’ whatever mana was funneled into it. That meant the golem would need to provide it with tens of thousands of MP within the span of several seconds. It just couldn’t be done without tapping into some immense natural force. She knew it, the twins knew it, and the white-robed scholars knew it. However, all of them were getting quite anxious by now, and not just because of the golem’s impatient attitude. If this ancient pillar of rock and bone didn’t come online soon, then all of their comrades’ efforts on the front line would be for naught.

So, a few quick looks, nods, and shrugs saw the gnomes silently yet unanimously agree to let the weird golem do her worst. In all honesty, even an arrogant, egotistical, self-absorbed lump of vanity like Fizzy didn’t believe she could pull it off, but she had to try something. So, the mithril construct walked up to the nearest lightning rod while the meatbags gave her space. The golem grabbed the steel pole with both hands and cranked her Static Charge as high as it would go. Blue arcs of power danced between the spherical coils on her head and leapt out from her frame, licking everything within a few steps of her. Most of the energy flowed into the lightning rod, funneled through the crystal capacitors it was connected to, and poured into the Astral Nail. The carved runes near the base of the claw-shaped pillar began to light up, signifying it was indeed powering up.

As expected, however, the charge barely reached a tenth of what was needed before it began to peter out and wane. She never stood a chance, especially since the device’s current destination was too obstructed. Due to a quirk of its light-based function, an Astral Nail’s method of teleportation consumed energy proportional to the amount of solid mass it had to ‘shine’ through. Conversely, travel distance was barely a factor. This meant that the Astral Nail would achieve peak efficiency whenever it was trying to establish a link to a point that was in a direct line of sight. That was one of the reasons why it was built at the base of the Heart of Light. With the proper orbital alignment, the overhead gap in the hollow mountain would provide it with a straight shot to its original counterpart somewhere on the Percepeia. At present, however, the gnomes’ Astral Nail had to punch through several thousand tons of rock, dirt, and metal. Fizzy might’ve actually been able to power a one-way trip to the Blighted Lands, but at present the sole golem’s output was completely inadequate.

Her actions did, however, seem to resonate with the Heart of Light.

*KRRRKROOOM*

The enormous crystal struck the lightning rod she was gripping with a thundering discharge almost identical to the one that triggered Fizzy’s sudden and violent Rank Up. This time around she was, of course, completely unaffected due to her Lightning Affinity Skill. It actually went up a Level as a result of this exposure. More importantly, the Astral Nail was now fully lit up and bathed in a familiar white glow, much to the Paladin’s smug satisfaction. She didn’t actually plan for this, but the meatbags didn’t need to know that.

“See? Easy,” she boasted. “Come on, then!”

Fizzy thus ran into the Astral Nail’s blinding aura and disappeared with a bright flash. At the same time a beam of light shot out from the arcane divice’s pointed tip. It went horizontally rather than vertically as it phased right through the side of the mountain. Krak and Krum readied their weapons and followed suit, producing a similar light show. Moments later, all three of them arrived in a dark, cramped, and musty space encased in slightly rusting metal. An Artificer-made Astral Nail rested in the center of the circular chamber, its runes an exact match for the ones Orrin had recorded in his notebook. The Paladin wasted no time and ran to the nearest wall, climbed up the vertical column of giant gear teeth, and punched a hole straight through the sliding steel platform above.

The war golem thus erupted from the floor of Katya’s observatory. She looked around and was both surprised and delighted to find the otherworlder standing completely immobile at the telescope’s controls. The android was so busy dealing with the invasion that she could not react fast enough to the internal intruder alert mixed in with all the other notifications flowing through her mind. She just barely turned her gaze towards Fizzy to see her tungsten-transmuted wrench knock her head clean off. The mostly plastic appendage flew off and split in two against the giant screen. A few moments and several furious swings later saw the decapitated body similarly reduced to a million tiny pieces.

“Hah-ha! That’s what you get!” the Paladin cheered. “Who’s in control now, bitch?!”

Krum and Krak only caught the latter half of that display by the time they emerged from the golem-shaped hole in the floor, and they were more than a little stunned by what they just saw.

“Was that… the Nemesis?”

The sister appeared to be in severe disbelief.

“Seemed like it.”

The brother was slightly more nonchalant about it.

“Oh, yeah! Did you see how I flattened that bitch like a coin on mine tracks!? That’s not gonna buff out, is it?!”

The golem stomped on the pile of crushed parts a few times for good measure, then rapidly reigned in her gloating and turned to the twins.

“That felt good, but this is far from over. That was just a shell, her real body is elsewhere.”

“Right! Of course. You said that might be the case,” Krak remembered, “but how can you know?”

“Trust me, I’d know.”

The war golem then raised a middle finger towards the security camera in the upper corner of the room. Her hand then swiveled open at the wrist, her Magitech Cannon popped out, and she reduced the surveillance device to a molten lump of slag with a well-placed shot.

“Krak, did you see what that was?”

“The glass orb thing in the ceiling?”

“Yes. Those are Katya’s eyes and ears. Blast any of those you see.”

“On it.”

The huntress pointed her rifle over her shoulder and took a seemingly blind shot that took out a second camera in the opposite corner.

“Pft. Showoff,” Fizzy scoffed. “Anyway, Krum - you keep her safe while the two of you follow my lead. Remember, you’re here for demolitions first, combat support second.”

“I know, but you will forgive me if I want a piece of the Nemesis as well.”

“Do what you want, just don’t get your head blown off. But for now…”

The golem turned to the massive vault door on the other end of the observatory chamber.

“Any ideas on how to get through that thing?”

Krak and Krum were momentarily taken aback by how unprepared the so-called High Templar was. They spent close to two weeks planning this assault, and yet she already ran into a problem she didn’t foresee. This surely did not bode well for the rest of their mission.

Then again, the twins probably wouldn’t have agreed to accompany her at all if they knew that huge parts of Fizzy’s game plan could be described as ‘violent improvisation.’