Weaver turned back, then entered the pool chamber. He was immediately greeted by the humans.

“Well? What did he or she say?” Gerard asked.

“You… maybe go,” Weaver replied.

“Finally!” Aefelred huffed.

“Two conditions. You follow our orders. And she…” Weaver pointed at Elena and continued,” stays here.”

“Elena? We need her abilities to defeat the wraiths!” Gerard protested.

“No. She stay here. Too weak in combat. Your repairer-… healer… must alive,” Weaver explained.

Aefelred ran his hand against his beard then said, ”He has a point. Out of all of us, only Elena is trained in medicinal arts. If she dies, our chances of getting out of this place would be slimmer than before.”

“I don’t mind waiting here. I will pray for your safety. All of you.” Elena bowed and gave a bitter smile.

“But still, what’re we going to do about the spooky ghosts?” Dyvona asked as she rest her crossbow against her shoulder.

“About that…” Weaver looked behind his back. The chamber doors going to the core room opened, revealing three tall people draped in red silk robes and banners. They all held a golden staff, and an axe was rested against their belt.

The new prototypes based on Magus were tall, slower, and needed more direct control, but were capable of creating anti-mana based spells which were half as strong as Magus’ spells.

They had Freeholder Minds, just like their other combat kins, in order to supplement the creation of spells, but they were still clumsy and unreliable since most of the thinking processes had to be focused on making magic. Nevertheless, it was the best Custodian could offer for now.

Besides, the A.I. didn’t want to increase the survivability of the humans anyway.

“These are my people’s… mages. They are strong. Wraiths… no problem,” Weaver as he beckoned the mages to come.

The mages bowed to the humans, then began speaking to the humans. To the humans, all they were hearing was a choir of small bells being played.

“Shut up. They can’t understand you,” Weaver berated the mage drones in the automatons’ language.

“These people do speak a strange language,” Dyvona whisperer to Gerard.

“I heard elves spoke in the language of the songs,” Osvart, the younger man in the group, interjected.

“Elves don’t live underground, fool,” Aefelred replied then turned to Weaver. “These people can help us defeat the wraiths?”

“You also… mage. You understand power of magic. Yes?” Weaver asked back.

“True, but magic is limited, but the wraiths…”

“Then don’t use magic if no wraiths.” Weaver shrugged.

Aefelred sighed, then placed his hand on his sword’s hilt. “Fine. I won’t use magic unless I have to.”

The redbearded mage walked up to the mage drones then examined them. Their hood was low and loose, covering their faces, so he couldn’t see anything.

“Which Order of Magic do these people use?” Aefelred asked Weaver.

“Eh.. Arr… dar?” Weaver scratched his head, trying to understand what the mage just said.

“Old man, it’s even possible they don’t know what that is,” Dyvona suggested.

“Oh, that’s right… my bad.” Aefelred had forgotten these people were different and, at times, eccentric. He should have expected that they didn’t follow how the rest of the world used magic… or maybe Weaver doesn’t understand, since he was still a novice at speaking their language.

“It’s alright, Weaver. Even simple folk like me don’t understand what those order nonsense.” Dyvona laughed as she slapped Weaver’s back.

“It’s not nonsense, woman!” Aefelred replied in anger.

“Guys, let’s go. The army’s about to move,” Gerard said as he pointed at the opened chamber exit where a group of freshly assembled and repaired drones were awaiting marching orders.

“Ah, finally. I was getting sick of this place,” Aefelred commented.

The automaton army marched in unison towards the city after reinforcements came. Repairing drones was easy as long as the brain wasn’t destroyed, and Custodian didn’t stop making combat drones.

With the help of fifty drones bringing back bones and monster cores, additional freeholders could be made in a short period of time.

The humans were put at the back of the army since Custodian planned to separate them from the main force.

As they watched the drones at the front, Gerard was impressed at the discipline of the soldiers.

“I can only hear one footstep at a time. This is incredible,” Gerard commented.

Osvart walked next to Gerard and asked, “Don’t they remind you of the Great Republic’s troopers?”

“No. Those guys are good, but not as good as this. But we’ll have to see these people in action before we judge them,” Gerard answered.

Entering a crossroad, five wraiths noticed the army and called for the nearby skeletons. They began swarming the street, all hell bent on destroying the drones.

“This is too much…” Osvart whimpered.

They saw one of the bigger drones raise their sword, then a loud sound resembling a metal ball falling on hard floor boomed from the same drone.

In an instant, the front line locked their shields, the second line covered the head of the front line, and the third line raised their spears.

“What a beautiful shieldwall! This reminds me of when I was in service!” Aefelred remarked.

Frankly, Custodian only studied war manuals and copied the tactics, especially since most of the unburnt books came from the military barracks scattered across the ruined city.

It took a couple of skirmishes to get to a decent level, but the A.I. was beginning to learn.

‘Hmm. This would’ve been useful against the rats…’ Custodian thought to itself as it watched the current battle.

Aefelred noticed that the wraiths were approaching so he took out his sword in anticipation, but then Magus stood behind the shieldwall.

He took his position then slammed the floor with the butt of his staff, causing the shieldwall to open even without uttering a single command.

Magus raised his staff until purple lightning was starting to dance all over his staff before pointing at the incoming wraiths.

The lightning rushed forward, disintegrating three of the wraiths at once. With his job done, the shieldwall closed again. The last two wraiths were destroyed by Apoth, who threw vials of holy water at them.

“He…” Aefelred was left with his mouth open wide. “I’ve never seen that magic before!”

Aefelred didn’t feel the mana in the air changed. In fact, it was as if it was fully absorbed by the robed mage. His understanding of the fundamentals of magic was shattered.

Not only that, the army encountered a few more undead until they were close to the castle. Until then, the mage continued to produce either purple lightning or fire without tiring.

“What, Aefelred? You look like you’ve seen a ghost… I mean metaphorically. We are fighting the undead, after all,” Dyvona asked Aefelred as she snapped her fingers.

“Nothing…” Aefelred felt it was best to keep this to himself. Even if he told the others, they wouldn’t understand. After all, simple folk didn’t even know the basics of magic.

Regardless, he had a huge desire to study the magic these strange people used, but now was not the time.

At a crossroad, the army halted. Slayer approached the group of humans and in turn, they stiffened. They didn’t talk much to the other drones since they believed that only Weaver was capable of learning languages at an incredible pace, so seeing Slayer approach them was agitated them.

Gerard looked up as Slayer stood in front of him. “You all…” Slayer’s extremely deep voice sent shivers down the spine of the humans. “go that way. Kill all.”

By separating the humans from the main force, Custodian hoped to increase the chance a human would somehow meet an unlucky end. Not only that, it could also clear the area around the castle faster.

Just as Slayer was about to leave, Gerard stopped him. “Wait, why are we splitting? Wouldn’t it be better if we stick together?”

“No. This way faster. Or you weak? Cannot handle skeletons?” Slayer answered.

His question was genuine, but the humans took it as an insult. “We can handle a few undead. Gerard, let’s move. We agreed to follow their orders,” Aefelred huffed.

“Good. My mages… join you.” Slayer nodded in satisfaction as he went back to his army while the humans went the other way.

Gerard’s group did well thanks to the mage drones accompanying them. Even though they were ordered to help the humans against wraiths, they weren’t forbidden from attacking other undead with their magic.

In fact, they were encouraged by Custodian in order to gauge their effectiveness. Just as predicted, their spells weren’t as accurate or strong as Magus’, but they did their job well enough.

With the help of the humans, it took less time to take the area around the castle than Custodian had estimated.

There was only one task ahead for the automatons and the humans - taking the castle itself.

It has two walls, the inner and outer walls, but they were defended by living armors and skeletons armed with bows.

Obviously, it was impossible to bash down the walls with swords and spears, so Custodian had to devise a plan to breach into the castle.

First, Custodian secured its gain and opened a route from the pool chamber to the castle. Secondly, weapons and prototypes were made. Spider drones with a ladder attached to their top were the first weapons made. Then a large battering ram to break down the gate. Lastly, a catapult to try and smash through a section of the castle outer walls.

A castle assault would incur too much losses if it was poorly done, but the drones were patient and cunning so everything was meticulously analyzed.

The first attack against the city’s castle started with catapults. Using rocks mined by Niner’s drones, the automatons began smashing into the walls. Unfortunately, it seemed that the castle was also equipped to respond to siege weapons.

Boulders were flung from within the castle, and began striking back at the catapults. The drones remained unrelenting, going as far as continuing the attack for one whole day without stopping.

In the end, they managed to tear down a section of the wall at the cost of several combat drones. Some were crushed by the large rocks hurled from the enemy castle, so there was no hope of recovery for them. These were the first true casualties for the battle to take the city’s castle.

Custodian believed it was time. The army surrounded every attack point of the castle - the destroyed wall, northern wall, eastern wall, and the southern gates were to be assaulted by Slayer, Apoth, Princeps, and Magus in their respective assault points.

The humans were free to help whichever so they decided to help Slayer’s group.

All along, Custodian watched as the army prepared for the attack. ‘Now, then. Let us begin.’