Shortly after the duel, the Palace Guard, along with Lieutenant Toadwart and Corporal Dash, caught up with us. They looked a little worse for wear though and must have had to fight their way through the Ex-Marquis’ troops, gathering soldiers along the way. The elite whatevers that LeCrueset had been proud of looked uncertain of what to do. Most of them were on guard and ready to fight when Palace forces pushed into the arena. Some of the ranking military officers tried to rally their troops to “Avenge the Marquis''.

That line of thought always pissed me off. Some jerk gets killed trying to murder someone when the would-be victim defends themselves and the jerk’s buddies think they are justified in “revenge” against the victim. It was always a trope in comics that annoyed me. I was sure that sort of thing actually happened with gangs and whatnot though.

Things started to get rough as the worn Palace Guard of only about a hundred soldiers clashed with the “elite” three hundred. I didn’t overly pay much attention to the details though since I was wrists deep in Lena’s systems at the time. Thankfully, I didn’t have to get involved beyond Cyclone popping a few soldiers in the face that got too close.

The tide of the battle shifted dramatically, thanks to the timely arrival of the Imperial Army. General Greevus’ forces had pushed the Jamnasians into retreat. A battalion of 5,000 soldiers continued to harass them to keep them moving but the remaining 15,000 or so soldiers returned back to the capital. An aerial squadron of assorted flying species reached us first, accompanied by a division of Wyvern Riders.

The whole thing was really spectacular, like being in the middle of a fantasy movie mixed with the Cavalry arriving in the nick of time. I half expected to see an ancient looking wizard in white robes riding in on a horse. Magic based combat was all over the place with full mages flinging spells and even foot soldiers using various forms of magic shields or enchanted weapons to boost their effectiveness. Despite having the “extra eyes” of Cyclone, 100% of my focus was on Lena. Oddly, getting any feedback at all from Cyclone required me to consciously focus on him. Otherwise, I was just aware of him being there.

A handful of the ceremonial priests had set up a barrier around us as others tended to Milliardo with healing spells. If they hurt as much as it appeared when Milli healed himself, it was probably for the best that he was currently unconscious.

The air became thick with smoke as pockets lit up with flashes from spells or shields. Things crackled with electricity or exploded in flames. At one point, a slimy and amorphous, purple tentacle shot out of the gloom, wrapped around an armored cat person and pulled him, shrieking, back and out of visible range.

Lena was powered down in order to conserve her strength, given all of the mana fluid she’d lost during the duel. I’d rerouted her circulatory systems to make up for the fact that her lower half was missing and capped off whatever leaks I could find, but her levels were still dangerously low and still dropping.

I wiped the back of my hand across my forehead and rested back on my heels, kneeling next to her. I didn’t have any sweat to wipe away, of course, but the gesture felt like the right sort of thing to do when you finished emergency surgery. Her face was heavily damaged and the magiSteel mesh plating had been torn and hung in grotesque curtains off of her mechanical skull. A splatter of mana fluid and blood mixed across her features. Sections of her gold, wire hair ripped loose. Only the fact that she had her hair braided kept the strands from falling away completely.

I gently tucked her hair back into place and pushed what was left of her facial plating back. The poor kid was completely soaked in the life fluids of herself and her attacker. When Milliardo delivered the death blow, LeCreuset had been directly over Lena, already heavily bleeding. I couldn’t even imagine having to go through something like this at the tender age of sixteen. My mind wandered, thinking about how this event might have unfolded if I hadn’t been here.

There was already a conspiracy to put LeCrueset on the throne before I showed up, and Milliardo had dealt with assassination attempts already, I was sure. If I hadn’t shown up, Lena would still be an organic, though there’s also the distinct chance she could also be dead. Probably Milli too, since Jhiax had whatever plot he was working on. I decided not to get myself down about it, mired in “what ifs”, this time. I could only do what I could do.

The battle briefly grew darker and I looked up to see something decidedly dragon-like pass overhead, and partially block the sun as it passed over the arena walls. The creature wasn’t anywhere near the size of the purple thing I’d run into earlier in the year when I was testing my flight armor. It was covered in green and gold scales, with magnificent horns, really capturing that fantasy feel. Unlike any natural dragon-ish thing I’d ever seen, it was wearing armor and had a cabin mounted to its underside. Cannons hung out of the cabin windows on the sides, two on each flank.

A door was open at the rear of the cabin as the dragon flew past and a figure lept or fell from it. The smoke blew over and I lost sight for a moment as the person plummeted from the vehicle at a height of easily 180 to 200 meters. I caught glimpses of pink and black before a loud “thoom” marked the person hitting the ground. The smoke cleared and many of the fighters froze in shock as the jumper used the drop to cleave a heavily armored draken warrior in half.

The jumper stood up and I got a good look at the figure of a muscular and powerfully built rabbit woman with pink fur and jet black armor. Her eyes reminded me of the dragon’s and glowed red with a manic fury. Unlike other rabbit folk I’d met, she had a human-ish face and was half a head taller than Cyclone, not counting her ears. Her armor wasn’t what you’d call practical and left her belly and upper chest exposed but covered everything else. It had lots of spikes sticking out and a very “demon general” sort of vibe to it. A heavy cape flapped behind her and she hefted a massive sword that was slightly in the shape of a hammer. It was bigger than me by a long shot and could probably double as a shield if needed.

“Let’s go Pops, the general’s opened a path for us, we’re getting the royals out of here,” Cyclone shouted at me.

“What? General? Yes? Okay!” I stammered, distracted by the huge bunny woman.

I had stored away any bits of Lena that weren’t attached and scooped up what was left. Cyclone gathered up Milli and we ran off, following the priest group. The various aristocrats that had been captured along with Milliardo had been cut free and ran after us; or in the case of the seaweed-looking guy, sorta flopped and shambled like a... well, like a pile of seaweed rolling down a hill. I learned, later, that the aristocrats that had sided with the Marquis had gotten the heck out of dodge the instant they saw him get killed. If what I knew of Lena’s sense of justice was anything to gauge Milliardo by, then they’d probably want to keep running till they hit a country without any extradition laws.

We were ushered through the palace where more evidence of intense fighting was present, though now it looked like the imperial forces were cleaning up. The palace had its own mini hospital infirmary where Milliardo could be properly treated. There were service maintenance rooms for the Automata staff, but nothing that would help me fix the Princess. Naturally, the Crown Prince was the priority so no one really paid any attention when I fell behind and stopped following after. My priority was getting to the AutoForge.

I suspected that outside the palace was likely still a battle ground, but wasn’t sure of the best way to proceed. Should I head down into the dungeon and through the secret passage? I could move a lot faster than the group of students could, but it would still take longer than I’d like.

I gently set Lena down on one of the loveseats that were placed in the long hallway and regular intervals. Did people actually use these? Was walking around this building so arduous that regular rest stops were required?

I donned my Convoy armor and ripped down one of the heavy drapes adorning a window looking out on some courtyard garden. Carefully, I wrapped Lena in the cloth and secured her across my chest like some sort of crude baby carrier. I didn’t actually know where I was within the palace or where the best way to exit it was.

There were violent battles going on, powered by magic, all over the place so property damage was to be expected, right? I smashed the window to the garden and stepped through it. A quick burst shot me up enough to grab onto a drain hole and burst again to reach a higher window. The window didn’t survive me using it as a hand hold, but I repeated the process destroying windows in a straight line, up five stories, until I reached the roof.

It was funny, standing on the roof shingles made me think that ‘If I’m on a roof, I should be Carnivac’. I found myself worried about the subRoutine. I’d lost proxy bodies before, but not the subRoutine running them. Somehow I had lost the subRoutine MainFrame and now Carnivac. Was I corrupted somehow? Was it related to my growing separation from my subRoutines?

I shook my head, trying to terminate the process and burst across the roof top until I reached the outer walls of the building. Below, I spotted the familiar shape of one Lieutenant Wendy Antilles of the third cavalry. She looked a little worse for wear and tired but otherwise in fighting shape. She, and some of her troops, had several of the black armored soldiers, along with a handful of imperial troops in arm bands, bound in groups on their knees.

The Lieutenant was a tiger-type centaur, around the seven foot mark, broad shouldered, and heavily muscled. She once gave me a ride to the palace on her back after I’d fought Jhaix’s Automata dragon and was near mana exhaustion.

I hopped off the roof and pulsed my jump jets a bit to slow my descent, and hit the ground with a thud. The soldiers all sprang to life in surprise, brandishing their weapons.

“Lieutenant Antilles, good to see you again,” I said, raising my hands in an attempt to look non threatening.

She looked around at her comrades in surprise and then back at me.

“Who are you?” she growled, pointing the tip of an oversized saber at me and revealing a mouth full of blade-like teeth.

Around me, I could see several soldiers creeping around to flank me, though they had been previously collecting the fallen bodies of their friends and enemies. I spotted the palomino-looking centaur captain on the ground. He was heavily wounded, but alive, with field healers working on him.

I nodded, and slowly got to my knees, carefully untying my Lena parcel and setting her in front of me. I kept my hands up where they could see them and removed my armor. As the Convoy armor dissolved into [Inventory], Wendy’s sword drooped and her face went slack.

“Little guy? What... What are you doing here?” she asked, confused.

“She doesn’t have much time, Wendy. I need to get her to my shop in the city if I’m to save her.”

“Save who?” she asked, getting more confused, but motioning for her soldiers to stand down.

I pulled the bundle open a bit to reveal Lena’s mangled face.

“The Princess Relena. She was badly hurt fighting Marquis LeCrueset but there’s nothing any doctors or healers would be able to do for her.”

“That’s... the Princess? I’d heard the rumor but... Really? Why is she so small? How does that work?”

“She got ripped in half, this is just her top!” I snapped.

“Yeah a healer’s not going to help much there...” she muttered, her mind wandering off somewhere.

“Lieutenant!” I barked.

I armored up in Convoy again and held Lena to my chest, standing up.

“Right,” she said, nodding. “Sergeant Meadows, you have the squad. See to the Captain and this lot of traitors, the safety of the Princess takes priority.”

“Aye ma’am,” a stag with human arms and four legs said, giving a sharp salute.

“Okay little guy, we’ve still got some insurgents that need cleaning up so I’ll escort you to your shop to make sure you get there safely so that you can help her.”

“Do as you wish, just try to keep up, tiger lady. I’m not all sleepy and in need of a ride this time.”