Kaden and Emina left the so called VR room first. The robot seemed to take its time. It was very interested in the shelter it had been in for who knows how long.
"Perhaps it lacks memory of the time it was mad", Kaden thought to himself as he looked behind where the robot was poking walls and everything else it ran into.
He had planned on trying to get more information from it, but after it had noticed Weils's actions it had become more careful.
"I did already get some quite interesting stuff, though", Kaden continued thinking. He felt he had gained pretty useful things. "Maybe I can even convince Emina to give me copy of what she has. If she planned to return with the mercenaries, she probably even took whatever they would be interested in."
Then Kaden frowned a bit.
"Then again, I have nothing to trade with", he continued his thoughts. "I don't even know what I took in the haste. It might be useless. She doesn't have any reason to share anything with me. Perhaps I need to kill her anyway? I might still need her on the way up, but, if there is a good moment, I could go for it."
There were still mercenaries left that had been with Weils. Also the members of sect of Awu. Church might not like him killing her either, even if the mercenaries had completed all the tasks they had been hired for. Emina herself wasn't pushover either.
Kaden decided to wait and if no chance came, then he would give up. He knew Emina now. Elves or even half elves were rare. It should be easy to find her again, if need be. To begin with it might not be neccessary.
The path was safe now. The few corpses along the way were ignored by everyone. Even 7RU-MC ignored them all despite being the one who brutally killed them. It was still far more interested in examining everything else.
By the time they got back up to second level of the remnant, something eventually did happen.
"Now!" A voice shouted.
Kaden had barely time to react as he leaped behind cover. There were no direct hits, but some attacks did slightly graze him. To Kaden such wounds were neglible. Emina played a quick twang and hits were deflected by a shield. 7RU-MC was a bit behind and not even visible so it didn't get hit. Not that it seemed concerned. It had picked up something along the way, but Kaden had not really paid attention to it much. At any rate it was completely focused on whatever it was.
"It's the sect members", Kaden muttered. "I guess its time to kill them. I don't need to go look for them."
Emina didn't reply as she cowered nearby and only nodded.
"Hand over everything you have and we will let you live!" It was Silver Eye.
It seemed they had not managed to progress past the robot and decided it would be easier to set up an ambush, if anyone did survive and manage to gain something. The ambush group seemed relatively powerful. They had probably gathered together all their sect members that were still alive.
Kaden didn't answer anything to their demands. Instead he shot a Fire Beam towards one of the sect members who just happened to be hiding behind something that looked weaker spot. The beam penetrated the spot and hit the person behind. It hit on the upper body, but wasn't instant kill due to some power being lost on the cover. It was still pretty major damage. Still, the best part in Kaden's mind was that the animal suit, that sect member was wearing, ignited and the fire spread.
While the one of the others tried to put out the fire, Kaden tossed a few fireballs to prevent anyone from helping. That way he could watch and listen the man scream as he burned to death.
The sect members got rather pissed about it. They started blasting towards Kaden and Emina who in turn retaliated.
Perhaps the sect of Awu would have had greater chances, if they had directly fought at close range. They had more people on their side. Kaden still felt he could have killed them. In fact, he wished they had since the fight was now taking time when both sides were on the defensive.
"What is going on here?" 7RU-MC suddenly walked out into the fight. It looked strange. It seems it had picked up some pink fabric somewhere and made a dress out of it and was now wearing it.
Some of the spells that the sect members were shooting hit the robot and also damaged the dress it was wearing.
"Its the guardian!" One of the sect member shouted.
The sect members were immediately looking for a way to escape and for a good reason.
Kaden watched the robot just stop and stare at its new dress with holes and tears on it.
"HOW DARE YOU!" 7RU-MC shouted in rage. It was livid. "I JUST MADE THIS DRESS!"
It raised its arm with the gun mounted on it and opened fire. The bullets shredded apart the defensive positions the sect members had and most of the people behind there. Blood, flesh and fragments of their suits splattered everywhere. Large portion of the ambush group died.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
"My beautiful dress!" 7RU-MC wailed and started to examine the damage to its 'dress' and attempt to repair it.
Kaden was speechless. The robot was clearly not entirely sane, but at least one could interact with it without having your skull opened and brains smashed. Kaden decided to ignore that particular point. The remaining sect members were in disarray.
Kaden leaped out of his hiding spot and rushed over where the sect members were and started to tear them apart. Emina followed behind him. It was the perfect chance to finish the fight.
"Wait!" Silver Eye shouted as Kaden eviscerated his last remaining followers. "Spare me! I am Awu's chosen! By killing me you might draw ire of a god! By sparing me, you might gain Awu's favor! Think for a moment!"
That might have given pause to someone, but for Kaden it basically only served to increase his desire to kill.
"Like I give a crap. I only waited for a good excuse to kill all of you", Kaden told him and set him on fire.
He stood there and watched Silver Eye burn to death. In fact, Kaden had expected he would have to give more effort to fight the man, but it seemed was pretty weak for his cultivation level. Whatever he had been doing before he became leader of the sect of Awu, it surely had not had anything to do with fighting. He must have wasted a lot of resources. What a waste.
"Please don't burn all of them!" 7RU-MC suddenly said. "These suits have good fabric."
Considering how the robot reacted to its clothes, Kaden was not going to risk anything so he stopped whatever plans he had for incinerating the remains. He didn't really even plan to eat them.
"Sure, whatever", Kaden said with a shrug and stepped next to Silver Eye's smoldering corpse. Kaden only used Devour to mend minor wounds he had received.
Emina frowned as she watched Kaden do so, but didn't comment.
"Thank you for helping us deal with those people", Emina thanked 7RU-MC.
"They damaged my dress", the robot replied. "Hmmm, what color do you think would look best? These suits have a lot of colors to choose from. I still think pink is best, but now I get to choose."
"Uh...", Emina mumbled, but didn't really know what to say to the robot.
Kaden ignored them and wanted to continue upwards. There were still the church members and remaining mercenaries. He had very little worries about them, though. It was unlikely the church was going to do anything. He had obeyed their orders very well. Church didn't need anything from him.
Greater question was what to do outside. Should he go see the possible remnant the robot revealed to him. It might even take some time to search for it. There was also no telling, if it was even accessible.
Kaden still lacked resources to cultivate faster. There had been none to pick from the remnant. Others, likely the sect, had already taken everything that they could. He would have to seek opportunities later. Even without any extra resources, his mana system was slowly taking him forward on his path. Yet, if he wanted to have his vengeance any time soon, he would need to be faster.
Going back to Corand would not be that good choice. The nobles were still likely going to suppress him. Kaden decided whatever he did, he should stay away for a while and grow strong enough to deal with the nobles. Strength was always the key to success!
Now with the latest and probably last interruption was dealt with, Kaden felt there was no need to tarry inside the remnant.
Once outside, Kaden found out that he and Emina were the last to return. The robot seemed to wait behind once again. Kaden was pretty sure it stayed back to craft its clothes that it seemed very concerned about.
Weils didn't seem particularly happy. Kaden could see the number of people being far less than originally entered the remnant. Perhaps whatever explosion the robot had caused was more powerful than he had thought.
That and he had probably lost quite a bit of information he came to collect. Church might even count that as a failure on his part. Church didn't like failures.
"Hmmm, you survived", Weils said after he noticed Kaden and Emina coming out of the remnant. Perhaps he had already written them off. Kaden's assessment of how much church cared about him was probably correct. "Did you gain anything?"
Of course he was going to ask that. Kaden did not wish to make enemies with the church directly yet so he was not planning on lying. In fact, he hoped whatever he had was completely irrelevant and Weils would ignore it. He already knew the questionable stuff he had managed to ask the robot before it decided not to tell anything more.
"I managed to find some kind of interface", Kaden started. "I'm not perfectly fluent with more technical vocabulary of the ancients language, but I managed to pull out something. Then suddenly it all stopped working and we decided to come back up. Not sure of contents."
With slightly obfuscated way of saying it, Kaden hid the fact that they had help from the robot and that it had been the one to destroy the servers. If the robot was revealed to Weils, that would just benefit the church and Kaden wouldn't willingly give them any help.
He did not mention Emina and her questionable information either. If Weils was interested what the mercenaries did, he could ask her directly. Emina could also deal with her own problems herself. Surely she had plan to ensure her survival, if she poked into matters she shouldn't have been.
Weils gave a look at Emina too with a clear intent to have her stay too.
"Church requires all knowledge found from this remnant", Weils told Kaden. "Hand over everything."
Kaden cursed in his mind, but pulled out his crystals he had made at the interface.
Around at this time something strange was starting to happen. Before Kaden handed over the crystals, shouts of surprise and alarm were heard.
A thick mist was spreading from the forest and soon visibility in the entire area was significantly reduced.
Weils ignored Kaden for the moment and tried to make sense of the situation. The mist was too sudden to be a natural occurence.
Kaden himself took steps backwards and looked for a defensive position closer to the remnant entrance.
Then there was somewhat familiar roar from the forest. Soon after a blast of burning hot mist hit the area. Kaden watched the damage from his position and felt lucky that he had decided to take cover earlier. He could feel the heat from where he was and those unlucky who did not avoid the attack were seemingly boiled alive on the spot.
About half of the people had died just like that. Even Weils had taken damage. In fact, it seemed the attack had been directed at him.
Rushing sound came from the forest. Something very large was crashing through trees.
"Shit", Kaden had to curse once he saw it.
While there had been some changes, the familiar form of the crazy boar appeared from the mist.
"I can smell you!" The boar shouted. This time it was very clear speech. It had clearly evolved into a Lower Cari.