Chapter 147

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth

Dungeon Factory, Second Floor Boss Room

"He looks ridiculous."

"He looks intimidating!" Retorted Alexandra and Ella in unison, before exchanging a smile.

Emilia huffed.

"Hardly. It's a golem in flashy robe ontop of a throne with legs. He just looks dumb. What were you going for anyway?"

"A bishop." The vampire girl blinked in confusion, and Alexandra sighed. "It was a senior position in one of Earth's biggest religions." Well, a subset of a subset of a religion, depending on how you defined the term 'religion' to begin with…terran beliefs and ecclesiastic matters were a mess before the Terran Hegemony War, and it had not gotten better afterwards. "Basically think a guy on a big throne making big speeches that sound ominous and holy."

"So…an upper-priest."

"Something like that, yeah. Since the entire boss fight was already centered around a group of golems protecting a boss, namely CQ, I tried to make something that would look like a command, look cool, and packed a punch, enabling it to, you know, actually support their troops."

"Is that why there's so many runes on this thing? It's a support caster?"

"More like a mobile magical artillery unit. The armrests have slow firing power beams, the legs can leap and emit electric arcs. The entire throne is shielded by a ward of protection, albeit not a very good one. But the big thing? Is this." She gestured at the halo, embedded on top of the backrest of the seat.

"Uh?" Emilia squinted, then her eyes went wide. "Oh no. You didn't!"

"Oh yes, I did. Rapid fire fireball launcher. Takes forever to recharge and cycle for another volley, but it will give anything it shoots at another rear hole."

"I can imagine. You've made a lot of casters lately."

"It is a blind spot I need to fix. Besides, you've seen my military, does it look like I need more conventional golems?"

"True. Do you intend to make those…bishops for your troops?"

"No. But they are crucial in the process of understanding how to make better golem casters. Especially 'proper' casters, because what I have right now is just golems lugging magic artifacts around. Even the cobras just have inbuilt runic artifacts."

"Unless you are willing to start transposing the soul of people, and create a neonite, or just mass produce AIs, that's going to be extremely hard."

"Neonites?"

"Think a lich, but using a golem instead of a corpse. Surprisingly effective, all things considered, but you lose a lot during the ritual."

"Ah. Well, I wasn't thinking in terms of golems. Not…exactly."

Emilia frowned.

"You're thinking of living monsters? That's going to be problematical. You haven't made a single one besides the pup, it's going to take forever to create monsters tough and powerful enough to keep up with your golems!"

"Which is why I said 'not exactly'. Ever heard of cyborgs?"

The vampire girl blinked.

"Yes, obviously. But you don't have implants."

"I don't need to. Cyborg is a whole spectrum. I was a cyborg back on Earth, with my neural implants. But so would have been Adam Smasher."

"Adam who?"

"Fictional character. Basically organs inside of a giant killer robot."

"Oh. You're thinking that kind of cyborg. So, create monsters purely so they get a core and are able to cast magic…"

"And put their organs, with a life support system of course, inside of a heavily armored combat frame. Won't have to bother trying to get tough monsters, or fast one. Just need one that can cast spells and, you know, not go crazy inside its giant armored suit."

"Just allowing the monster to control said suit is going to be a problem."

"We'll figure it out. If nothing else there's nothing saying that the suit can't be a golem of its own, with its own way of getting orders from the monster, and if the monster is killed, it'll still keep kicking ass, just without spells."

"That…Might work."

"Hopefully. But to start off of, I'm thinking just building an armored combat suit would be enough. Powered armor, or even a full sized mech. Then we can put a monster in it and test the basic concepts. It doesn't have to be pretty," There was a tinge of warning in the dungeon core's voice, and Emilia nodded. She knew when to lay off the 'design' stuff. Besides, the Earth-born was getting better and more proactive at it, as seen in the bishop itself. Gone were the days when the vampire girl had to forcefully drag Alexandra to even slightly embellish something. "it just has to work."

"Right. You'll still need to obtain a monster though."

Alexandra smiled and Emilia frowned.

"But darling, we already have a monster in the dungeon. And CQ would be elated to get an upgrade for her little puppy, so it can finally follow her into battle."

"Oh. Oh dear."

"Indeed. Which reminds me honey, after we're done with that, would you like to help me design something? See, Ella informed me of a most fascinating concept called 'unwinder rounds', but I'm having trouble designing them, and I think you could help me with that."

"Unwinder rounds? What, do they make people fall asleep?"

"Well, no, although I suppose it would be a precious commodity if it was." Alexandra smiled, and Emilia had the sudden feeling that she'd stepped on a trap of some kind. "Everyone likes to unwind. Like you, when you got into it so much you wrote soapy love poetry about your librarian."

Emilia froze.

"...What did you just say?"

"When you were young. Well, young for a vampire, you wrote love poetry about your librarian didn't you? And got into a bit of trouble since you were not particularly careful with it."

"I-What-How do you know about that?!?"

"Oh, just girl talk, don't worry about it!"

Emilia gazed at Alexandra, and the dungeon core could feel the gears turning inside her head. Then the vampire girl turned her head and locked onto her maids like a hunter killer missile, as the vampires were doing their damnedest not to laugh.

Emilia stepped forward, and Ella, without even the slightest shred of honor, pointed at her colleague.

That worthy took the hint, and started running, the advisor hot on her heel.

"SARAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!"

*****

For a Sunrise airship dock, it was almost eerily silent. Yes, there were overseers loudly barking orders, and the grunt of workers shifting crates, but not the crack of whips or cry of pain of slaves being taken off ships, or used as labor.

In this case, it was not a case of mercy on the overseers' part, but prudence. No one, not even them, were insane enough to trust slaves near this particular cargo.

Workers carefully unloaded and stacked crate after crate, each unmarked and seemingly anonymous, but watched by inventory specialists like hawks. For each of these crates contained weapons the likes of which the kingdom had never seen. Arquebuses, bombards, their ammunition…and a handful of crates of machine guns, rocket launchers and even a few battle tanks. All old, obsolete models, decommissioned by the Erisian army decades ago, but they were still Erisian armaments in a kingdom for which crossbows were the height of weapon technology.

The level of secrecy in the dock was close to absolute. Every single person in it had been carefully vetted by either side for their loyalty to their nobles or their senators. And they handled it like professionals, unloading the ship, which was supposed to be kilometers away on a trade route, like a well oiled machine.

Unfortunately for their patrons, vetting someone for loyalty could only go so far. And under the constant repression by Sunrise's slavers, mainly had realized that they needed to keep their mouths shut. Their nobles mistook that fear for loyalty.

But the could not have been more wrong, as repression only breeds obedience and silence. Not fealty.

One of the inventory takers continued taking notes, carefully, memorizing everything he came across.

And a few hours later, thousands of kilometers away, in a city hidden in the mountains, a vast fortress dedicated to protecting its citizens from those who would do them harm, Rook the Sunderer read his report, and got up from his desk.

"Wonsnot." He called, calmly, and his second in command came to attention. It wasn't necessary, they'd known each other for literal millenia, but the ex-slave still kept up the proprieties as a sign of respect, whenever possible.

"Yes Rook?"

"I need you to contact our people in Rebirth. The twins, if I remember well. We need to accelerate our plans, and…" He gazed at the flimsy, unassuming sheet of paper, which detailed how a duchy of the Asarian Kingdom was getting ready to put their entire realm to the sword. "We need to talk to an old friend. Dust up the old communication channels with Grant."

"Are you sure that is wise?"

"Wise? No. If we tell him he will tell his employers. One of the reasons he and his mercenaries command such a heavy price is absolute loyalty. But that is why the Asarian crown hired him, and it is why he is the best person to give the information to. He will verify it, and their majesties will believe him."

"I would not lose sleep over their downfall."

"They are trying to do better, my friend. Not out of a moral duty, although I doubt even they can miss the misery slavery creates, but they understand that this…practice-" He almost spat out the word"-is a dead end that is slowly rotting their entire realm from the inside out. I do not necessarily condone their lack of moral compass, but I have to recognize that they are trying regardless, even if the impetus is the preservation of their own power."

"And that is why you lead us Rook." Wonsnot smiled, white teeth seeming almost like a brilliant chasm in his weathered face and sizeable beard. "Otherwise me and the others would sooner let them rot, and we would be not one step further to our goal."

"So it seems." Rook looked at the report once more, and sighed. "We cannot afford to compromise the twins, or even risk compromising them, and this new baroness in Rebirth could be a valuable ally. We might need to deploy some means of warning her as well."

"You do not expect the majesties to do it?"

"We are talking about evidence that the single most powerful and prestigious duchy in their realm is preparing to overthrow them. They would be mad to not keep it close to their chest. They might issue some vague warnings, but probably not more. And this baroness…you have seen the reports of what has happened there recently. She turned against her own mercenaries in a heartbeat when she found they were slavers, even with the Republic breathing down her neck!"

"My kind of gal."

"Exactly. If the kingdom collapses, she is our best shot at rebuilding a new power that will liberate the oppressed instead of just trying to maintain the old status quo." Rook looked back up at his friend and brother in arms. "So we will need to send someone. Preferably to deliver a discreet message, but with such allegations will need somebody with weight…" He tapped his finger against his desk. "We do still have our contacts within the merchants guild, do we not?"

Wonsnot wordlessly nodded. He understood, intellectually at least, the need to keep a finger on the pulse of an organization so embedded into the slave trade, especially as they could be monumental in putting a stop to it, but it still grated to have to work with them.

"Then we will attempt to have the message delivered that way. Maybe even through the Syndicate. The dark elves' Syndicate has little love lost for slavers, even if they do have their own rogue elements, and we might be able to send the message through there as well." Wonsnot firmly nodded. Dark elves had been little more than living weapons when they were created, soldiers meant to fill a role in a gene forged army, and their enslavement had endured beyond the destruction of their creators. New Raleigh had served as a safe haven for them for centuries before they liberated themselves and founded a kingdom of their own. The ties might be old and long, long cold, but honor could last a long time among immortals, and if Rook himself sent the message, some would listen. "If there is one person that baroness will take seriously, it will be Elkaryos."

"Agreed. I will make the preparations immediately."