As Kaden continued further down, he noted that he had not seen many signs of the church suffering losses against the robot. Perhaps it was due to Weils.

“Weils totally could fight the robot”, Kaden determined as he thought of the matter. “It may even avoid Weils’s group due to it. As for the sect members, they better hold it for some time. Once it stops killing them, perhaps it comes after us.”

It couldn’t be helped. If Kaden wanted to gain anything, he would have to get to it first. Weils had already picked the best place to go to and he wasn't going to share. Kaden was not going to let the sect of Awu to take over anything else either, if he could help it. Both had already left each other to die so there was no possibility of working together anymore.

“Well, I probably can’t directly compete with Weils”, Kaden thought to himself.

“The place we saw on the map should be just beyond these corridors”, said the heavily armored mercenary.

The mercenary then communicated to rest of the mercenaries their progress. Kaden was somewhat unhappy about it, but he wouldn’t say anything. He would rather collect whatever benefits he could and hide all he could, if it was a problem.

There were also some other, significantly more major, bad news soon. This also might have explained why the robot had not yet come after them. The way was blocked. Some kind of thick metal blast door was closed and blocked the way and wouldn’t open. Also, only way out was return the way they came from. Kaden’s fears of why the robot had not messed with them were confirmed soon too.

“I AM BEAUTIFUL!” The robot shouted yet again somewhere nearby.

“We better get this door open quickly”, Kaden said and started looking around a way to open it. He did not find one. “I’m going to try blowing it up.”

The mercenaries stepped backwards as Kaden tried to throw a few fireballs at the door. Yet, the door was sturdy and was only blackened a bit. He then tried a few Wind Blades, but they also did nothing.

“Anyone else have spells that might break it open?” Kaden turned to question the others. “I have one spell that might do it, but it will likely take time we don’t have.”

While Kaden did have formations that should create explosions far more powerful than he could simply cast, building one would take more time and that would be his last choice. He was planning on drilling through the metal door with a continuous Fire Beam, but if even that would leave no mark on the door, then formation would be the last resort.

Emina wanted to attempt and shot a some kind sound blast towards the door. Yet, only thing the spell was succesfull at was to make Kaden’s ears ring.

“Try your way”, said the armored mercenary. “That thing is here soon.”

“I AM BEAUTIFUL!!!” Sounded from uncomfortably close distance.

The mercenaries arranged themselves to protect the way towards the blocked door. There was no direct line of fire at Kaden, but as soon as the robot managed to get a bit closer, it would.

Kaden found the entire arrangement to his liking. The mercenaries would die first to protect him. Of course, if he wanted to live, he would need to get the door open. There was no other way out.

Kaden stopped wasting time and shot continuous Fire Beam at the door, intending to cut a large enough hole to get through. After a moment he could tell the spell was able to cut through, but it would indeed take some time.

“I’ll be wasting quite a bit of mana for this”, Kaden also thought. “I will need to rest to not be overly exhausted.”

It was secondary matter, though. Better be exhausted than be dead.

While Kaden did concentrate on the door, he could not ignore the sounds of battle right next to him. The robot was screaming its usual nonsense while the two mercenaries kept it at bay. Kaden was pretty sure the robot could kill all of them whenever it wanted, but simply did not. It was probably malfunctioning and did not use all of its power.

“ALL WOMEN’S UNDERWEAR IS NOW FOR SALE UP TO 30% DISCOUNT!” The robot continued shouting its nonsense as it started to move forward. It looked like it was planning on busting through the defenses.

“Get the door open quickly!” Shouted the heavily armored mercenary to Kaden. “We can’t hold it any longer!”

Kaden mostly ignored the shouts. Its not like it was making anything go faster. At any rate he was almost done. Perhaps thats exactly why the robot had decided to put an end to the fighting due to it.

The mercenaries were force to retreat towards the door. They also shot what were their trump cards towards the robot, which then seemed to effortlessly shrug them off and continue forward.

“Shit”, Kaden cursed in his mind as he could hear the robot come closer. Shrapnels where flying about as the robot kept firing continuously. Yet, Kaden ignored all of that and concentrated on his work. “Just a bit longer.”

He had been cutting rough circle on the blast door. Just large enough to pass through. For a while he had considered cutting it small enough that only he could fit through it, but he was pretty sure Emina was smaller than he was. Kaden did not wish to have unneeded fight against the woman using her strange magic. Besides the mercenaries could be useful.

Finally just as the robot’s bullets were starting to hit too close for comfort, Kaden beam connected to the already cut spot. Immediately he struck at center of the cut area and caused the loose part fly inside the previously closed area.

Kaden immediately leaped inside. It was a large open area. Probably largest section he had seen so far. He wondered for a moment why there had been such a strong blast door preventing entry since it did not appear to contain anything important. There were dusty tables and chairs and as far as Kaden could determine, it seemed like a place where people could casually spend their time.

Around at this time Emina who had been just next to Kaden leaped inside too and the heavily armored mercenary was quickly moving to do so too. In the darkness it was easy to see flashes as the robot kept firing its weapon. He was too slow.

“He won’t get in”, Kaden determined as he watched the scene and then looked at the woman who had been much luckier. “Forget about him. We better continue and see what we can find here. I doubt that thing can get in… at least not immediately. There should be time.”

Kaden was saying these things while the unlucky mercenary was just entering the hole as his body was starting to be shot into shreds. Pieces of meat and blood splattered around the doorway and the shredded body was now hanging in the hole.

“PLEASE TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE SHOP MEMBERSHIP CARD!” The robot shouted outside the doorway and stopped firing once it’s target was confirmed dead. “I AM BEAUTIFUL!”

It did not try to shoot through the hole, but instead stood at the doorway. Kaden frowned as he watched the robot seemingly observe the hole.

Then it too started to cut. This time large enough hole for it to fit through.

“It won’t hold”, Emina mumbled.

Kaden didn’t answer and started to look for a place he could go.

“Map showed some kind of interface nearby”, Emina continued quietly. “We should go there. Otherwise it would have been pointless to even come here.”

Kaden noted that the woman didn’t seem very concerned about the death of the other mercenary. Also that she was speaking far more normally. Not entirely so, but at least it wasn’t as difficult to understand as before. He decided to ignore these matters. Perhaps she merely knew how things work. That her own life was what mattered. Kaden could approve of such thoughts. He didn’t even notice her communicate any reports to Weils. Perhaps she merely didn’t feel there was time to do and Kaden for sure wasn’t going to tell her to do so.

As for the suggestion, Kaden did not yet have reason to decline it. It was the only way to potentially get something out of the entire trip. The known way out was blocked by the robot anyway.

“Lets find it then”, Kaden replied. “We will have to find a way to get around that robot later, though.”

Kaden and Emina left the doorway area and followed the rough map that they knew. There was supposed to be some kind of interface to the network that ancients used. Weil’s had gone for what was supposed to be an information storage, which was probably higher chance of having something interesting. The interface might have access to something, but there was no telling how high chance there was to find something useful.

Kaden did not mind. Weils was strong and he could decide what he wanted. In fact, he probably could have simply destroyed the robot too, but didn’t bother to do so due there being ample supply of meat shields. This too was perfectly sensible method in Kaden’s opinion. It was a good reminder to get stronger so that he wouldn’t have to take part in such plans.

Those who were strong could decide how things went and the weak would obey.

As for the search for anything valuable, Kaden and Emina found another closed area the back corner of the area. The door, while closed, didn’t seem very tough. Yet there was something strange about it.

“It feels like a lot of mana is crammed in”, Kaden said. “More than rest of this remnant.”

Emina walked to the door without saying anything and pressed some buttons next to the door seemingly randomly. They appeared to be still quite functional, since the door opened. What was inside was the interesting part.

“It looks different than rest of this place”, Kaden muttered with a frown and walked closer.

In fact, Kaden’s comment was an understatement. The remnant was like an old and dusty building with trashed things all over plus an extra crazy murderous robot wandering the corridors. What was inside the door was like an entrance to outside. Sunny day. Extremely bright green grass, trees, flowers, birds, wind. All felt natural.

“This doesn’t look like interface to some ancient machine”, Kaden continued.

“Uhm… it says so in the map”, Emina mumbled. “We should check it out.”

“Could this be a double layered remnant?” Kaden said as he wondered the scene.

Apparently it was possible. Remnant might have an entrance to an another remnant in it. While nothing could be said to be certainty, usually these remanants should be relatively similar. There was nothing similar with these two vastly different area. Additionally, the longer Kaden stood at the doorway, he could also feel, despite the stale mana of the remnant, there was no change. It felt the same.

While Kaden was still wondering what to do, Emina took the first step in. While the woman was taking steps inside, Kaden calmly watched from outside. If the place was dangerous or mana was somehow degenerate or unable to support living being, she would quickly show signs of it. Without Emina, Kaden would have had to test it himself.

“It seems safe”, Emina said and pointed towards something Kaden could not see. “There is something in the distance.”

Kaden decided to feel the place himself and stepped in. It was relatively surreal thing. Kaden could look behind him and see the doorway seemingly floating in the air. If he wanted to, he could walk a circle around it.

“Could this be work of space mana?” Kaden wondered to himself. Someone at Formation stage would not be able to sense it, but he felt this was not the case. Illusion? He wasn’t sure about that. He stopped thinking about it and looked at the thing in the distance.

There was some kind of building, a platform with things on it, at the distance where Emina was going to. Kaden decided to do so too and see, if that would answer his questions.