The ruins felt almost grandiose, full of splendor and beauty. Brilliant engravings adorned the halls, and crystallic lights illuminated the way. On the way they encountered more ancient Elvish, although only Amyris and Riza could actually read them. Apparently however, it was mainly lines that advocated for advancement at any cost.

"The lives we use shall help to advance the lives of people everywhere".

"People are the most efficient fuel to creating a better future for everyone".

"Through our new designs, we shall proper forward a golden army to safeguard us all".

Those were the various translated quotes, although some of them required paraphrasing due to no exact translation. Supposedly, what they paraphrased into safeguard, Val'shiar, was actually a far more detailed and specific word that had a true definition that involved words like retribution and "using one against oneself". Considering the level of spite that seemed to be in that, at least from Kuroki's interpretation, what they might find in here was probably going to be quite nasty. Still, it did invoke a question into their minds.

"Sebas is a human, not an elf right?" Kuroki asked.

"Yeah" Riza confirmed as they headed deeper into the ruins.

"Why would he be using Elven ruins like these as a base? Maybe its just from past experiences and things I have heard, but this place seems like it would be rather...anti-human as well".

Amyris seemed a bit shocked by Kuroki's deduction.

"What made you think that?"

"Well, for one thing, humans went and built their own fort over it, as if trying to erase it. Or at least conceal it. I can't imagine that was because they were getting along. But also, the way those quotes were phrased...well, somehow I doubt they would have had as many people join them if they were using their own people right?"

Amyris nodded, remorse flickering across his face.

"It is true that they mainly used others, and being that humans were the most populous, they were used a lot. But they did also use Elves as well. Elves, Dwarves, Beastkin, Humans, ect. All were valid...especially children".

Chills ran down their spines the moment they heard that.

"Why children?"

"Their brains and souls are the most adaptable, making them produce more results with a lower death count compared to others. Probably because they were still growing. As they created their armies and soldiers of magic, their research was propelled forward by corpses. And despite that it was more efficient because death happened less often, it still happened...so their research was in fact pushed forward by mountains of corpses".

"No wonder this place feels like a tomb, despite how pretty it looks" Zak commented, his voice layered with disgust.

"This is a den of misery and evil" Vartra muttered. "Sebas must be more far gone then we thought. I wonder if he has already become a Majaris".

"A Majaris?" Riku asked.

"Its considered one of the apex of magics, but only if you completely lack empathy. Its a method to gaining immortality, but it requires becoming highly proficient at various fields of magic...and a lot of human sacrifice".

"That man tends to bulldoze his way through, I doubt he has the proficiencies necessary to carry out the ritual" Amyris scoffed, while Vartra continued to explain.

"While true he tends to use his extensive mana to brute force things his way, I don't think we can underestimate the possibility that he has gained access to something that will let him cheat it. He has had access to the Guildmaster's Archive for a long time now, and he has connections. And while you have to do the ritual yourself to become a Majaris, somehow I don't think he cares enough to at least try and get around that. Though perhaps his overinflated pride and ego would stop him".

"Its true there have been exceptions, and that a few Majaris have been created through such exceptions or abnormal situations. But if that is his goal, it makes me think it might be best to end him sooner rather then later after all. Very few Majaris are decent people, and notably all the ones that are typically are the exceptions we have mentioned before".

Riza shook his head at Amyris' words.

"He has connections to some powerful people, and kept up a number of beneficial and symbiotic relationships to those people. Taking him down suddenly and without evidence will cause them to lash out at us, and as much as I would love it, we need to do things properly to make sure it all goes well".

As they talked, they soon came into another room. It appeared to be some sort of grand foyer, and it featured a huge chandelier hanging from its high ceiling. It was adorned with all sorts of crystal figurines, showing various elves and creatures upon it, all lit up like a Christmas tree. It was a shining beacon to be sure, a display of wealth and grandiose that usually accompanied someone with a massive ego, or someone or an establishment that tended to love such architecture and design.

Not only that, but large metallic suits of armor and statues seemed to adorn the walls, all of various elves. Each one had a plaque as well, with one especially large statue in the center with an extra big plaque. Amyris quickly read it to them.

"We honor the creator and master of this facility, Arasia Lesara, the Elven Lord who has helped us advance the merits of our work and find true advancement and wonder that will help sustain our empire and our capital".

"Bloody hell...this place was backed by Arasia the mad?" Vartra muttered.

"We should expect the worst within. The magic I sensed should be just below us now, we should hurry".

"Another Arasia ruin? This old man remembers the last one he visited, it was hell too".

Everyone rolled their eyes a bit at Riza's exaggerated comment, but they could tell his concern was real. Mainly by the fact he already had two swords out, and was looking ahead. He held is hand to have them stop, and signaled to Kuroki's group to back up and take a defensive stance.

In that moment, Kuroki suddenly felt a surge of mana all around them. It was almost like Sebas' mana, it was so overwhelming it almost felt like it was invading their bodies. That was how dense it was. Thankfully since then all of them had learned how to defend against it, including Zak apparently.

"Just how bad was this Arasia?"

Riza didn't look back as he answered Kuroki's question.

"Arasia is an absolute psychopath who created countless Elven magics and creations that were extremely lethal and could essentially keep themselves powered indefinently. Powered by everything from actual brains to extracted souls, when the Elven Empire fell a lot of what he had made apparently went berserk. Sealed within ruins and within various wilds and run down places, an Arasia creation on average is an S-Rank threat, but honestly the ranking system is even less good at determining its threat level then anything else. Entire kingdoms were erased by his elven mechanical horrors, and The Tempest is still an active threat that has a bounty on it funded by every nation in the land. It would be subjugated already if it didn't appear and disappear at random, leaving entire towns destroyed in its wake".

Vartra chimed in next. "Simply put, if Arasia was alive today, there would be a kill order placed throughout every guild in every country, as well as by every royal family in existence. Arasia's threat level would exceed that of even the Demon King potentially, although at least he would need a workshop to display his true horrors unlike the Demon King. But that also means that his damage and threat persists for far longer then the Demon King. Rumor has it that he and the first Demon King once battled to a draw even".

"Ironically, Arasia's creations have had a beneficial impact once. We had five hundred years of peace from a Demon King because someone launched one of Arasia's more deadly creations into the spot where the Demon King tends to always incarnate around. Eventually the Demons and Devils destroyed it, since no one other hten them can survive on that continent for long term, but it gave five hundred years of peace. Other attempts to do that were made, which occasionally gave one to one hundred and fifty years of peace, but trying to move them is incredibly difficult even with magic, and its hard to keep one fully functioning while teleporting it".

"I see. I was wondering how people were still able to build up cities like that if they truly attacked every fifty years, especially after the Greater Demon Kings, but I guess that would explain it".

"Yeah, that really helped a lot. Also, some heroes sometimes defeat Demon King's very quickly, like within a year. Its very rare, but it happens. The one from one hundred years ago did that. The one from fifty years ago, as much as a problem maker he was, took two years, which was still sort of fast. Its a shame his personality was so shit and he couldn't think things through and avoid causing everyone problems".

Demon Kings tended to target the more advanced kingdoms mainly as well, since they were the greater threat. Apparently, Demon King's had some strange power which let them unilaterally wipe three cities off the map almost instantly per year. It was always three per year, no more and no less, nothing could stop it and no one really understood how that even worked, but that was what happened. Still, it was a clear sign of things that were strange.

Before anyone could say anything else however, a few of the suits of armor began to glow, as the walls opened up behind them and tubes emerged. This blue liquid went flowing downward, through these tubes and into what appeared to be several large suits of armor. Strange metal spheres were pushed up as the facility came to life, and these spheres, these cores, were placed inside of openings in the back of the suits of armor, before they were sealed shut. Liquid then ran out of the tubes and into the suits of armor, but instead of spilling out all over the place, it remained inside of the suits regardless of the apparent gaps within the armor.

Not only that, but things got even more strange. As the liquid spread itself around, it created a sort of body around the core that filled the armor, as they all began to come to life. Each one was over three meters tall, and they all had various weapons. Swords, staffs with bladed tips, lances, axes, even some bows with bladed edges. All of them began to creak to life, the metal shaking and moving as they stood up together, in a uniformed way. Almost like it was a cohesive military unit.

And if that was not enough, the statues themselves also began to move, their eyes beginning to glow as they fired a beam of mana. Amyris quickly blocked all the attacks, while Riza summoned even more swords which proceeded to fly around him. There were now six swords present, all of them blocking weapon attacks or part of his own assault as he cut apart a statue. The suits of armor meanwhile seemed to be tougher, as they deflected his attacks with the sheer density of his metal. His swords, which were able to break through a mountain wall, were deflected by this armor, and then they proceeded to attack him as well.

And if that was not bad enough, spectral wolves began to appear. Appearing to be something inbetween Ghosts and Mana Constructs, Vartra quickly summoned etheric shards and had them cut through the wolves, as they seemed to be the weaker opponents. Amyris meanwhile summoned forth his familiar, whose wings began to cut through the rest of the statues and allowing Riza to focus on the suits of armor. Even more suits of armor were now emerging from the doorway on the other side, bringing them even more danger. Kuroki decided to support by freezing the floor under them so they had no footing, but the suits of armor were entirely unaffected by his magic.

"What the hell?"

"Stay back. We can handle this" Amyris mentioned, as he shielded several attacks that went their way. The suits of armor appeared to be capable of the same beam attack from the eyes as the statues, so Amyris used some sort of magic to fold space and make the beams hit themselves, tearing apart the armor a bit and weakening the soldiers. Still, they had avoided any critical damage, and they were all still charging forward to attack. Amyris twisted his wrist around as he moved his hand, invoking yet another spell. Ice began to coat the soldiers, as their armor began to freeze and become a bit brittle. Once that happened, Riza's swords were able to chip away at it, albiet at a slow pace, and Vartra was even seeing some success with penetrating the defenses and getting them to open up.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Still, as they continued to pour it, it was becoming clear this was a difficult fight. Kuroki wondered if they were just a hinderance and should pull back, but when he tried to look back, the way they had come had disappeared. There was only a wall there now, and they had lost their way out.

"Master!"

"I see! Tsk, this place has some nasty security measures!"

Riza deflected several attacks with his swords, as four of them flew around him while the other two were in his hand. For a moment, Kuroki thought he saw his eyes glow yellow, and then in the next moment, several of the soldiers were sent flying backwards into the walls, giving them some breathing room.

"Fine then. I guess I have no choice in the matter" Riza muttered, as he took a step forward...while not stepping forward at all. Suddenly, there were two Rizas, and then three, and then four. It finally stopped at Six Rizas, as they all charged forth and fought in separate areas. Now the stalemate had returned, but it was only temporary as more of these armored soldiers were coming in. It appeared to be nearly 30 now, but a few more were seen in the distance. There had only been eight in this room to start with, but now they were severely outnumbered. Even Amyris looked concerned, especially when the crystal figures of the chandelier began to move, flying down to attack them and put pressure on them from another direction.

The entire ruins reverberated at that point, as the battle continued to rage on. Still, the Rizas seemed to adopt a new strategy. They were getting pushed back, but they began to focus on the most damaged soldier first, to finally take one down. It appeared they planned to take them down one by one if necessary, to help give them the breathing room they needed. The suits of armor were clearly the greatest threat of all. They were both tough and numerous, putting them at a level that even Amyris could not defeat them so easily, and a lot of his attention was on protecting Kuroki's group so he couldn't go on the offensive as much as they would have liked.

But when Riza finally managed to break one open and exposed the core, Amyris took one look at it and paled.

"Riza! Do not destroy the core! Open it carefully!"

"What? Why?"

"There is a child inside of that core! These soldiers...they are being powered by children!"

Riza paled as he looked at the core, the armor around it already beginning to regenerate.

"Shit. Can I extract them from the suits of armor?"

"Yes, but be careful! The two are tied! Furthermore, if the armor takes critical damage...that core is designed to self destruct! You have to extract the core safely, then quickly extract the child, and then disable the core!"

"Shit! That will require my whole focus!"

"We can't let these children die!"

"I know that Amyris...just...shit! Can we actually do that without dying ourselves anyways?!"

That was the truth behind these powerful soldiers. Each one of those cores contained a kidnapped child, the power sources and brains for these mechanical soldiers. If they wanted to save them, they would need to carefully extract each core without severely damaging the soldier or the core, to avoid triggering the self destruct fail safe. However, they would likely all die before they managed that, as they were continued to be pushed back and they were trapped in a dead end, a wall right at their backs.

Still, they continued the battle. Riza proceeded to try and prepare for extraction as his clones fought off against the soldiers. The Elven Constructs were strong and powerful, made with something much stronger the steel and apparently capable of even deflecting the metal within Riza's swords, which looked like it wasn't steel either. Their mechanical marching intimidated all those who stood before them, and even Amyris was feeling the heat as they marched forward, launching attack after attack without pause. They made no efforts to block any attack made against them, in part due to their mechanical nature, but likely also because of their programming and the fact the materials made to use them seemed to be impervious to anything but the strongest and most well set up attacks, and that was while the material itself was being weakened.

And each of their swings was both fast and heavy. Any time they brought their weapons down, or shot an arrow, it zoomed far faster then a normal arrow and hit with the impact of an eighteen wheeler. Its cold steel metal felt dangerous to even get close to, so Kuroki and the others avoided any arrows that landed their way. Their swords and hammers hit like fright trains, and they could see Riza flinch every time he had to block an attack. It even appeared as if his arm was broken at one point, but it seemed to instantly return to normal immediately after. As for their axes, they seemed able to cut through any defense that one attempted to use, forcing evasion to be the only recourse against those attacks.

But to make matters worse, they would work together. Launching one attack to make someone evade a certain way, as another attack came down in the spot they would evade to. Amyris manipulated time itself, altering the timing of these attacks to throw them off and occasionally get them to hit each other. Riza deflected some of their blows, trying to knock them into each other or use his strange power to launch them away occasionally, but given the limited times he did that, it appeared to be something he couldn't do often. Vartra was the most diverse meanwhile. He would teleport around them, hit them in their weak spots, and then teleport again before they could react. From what Kuroki had read, this was actually pretty standard for mages capable of teleportation. It was not a common magic to be able to develop, and especially difficult to master, but from what Kuroki knew he was clearly an expert at it. Furthermore, he would occasionally create a barrier that even their weapons, including the axe, could not penetrate, but he seemed to need a few moments to prepare it, and it only lasted a few seconds. Still, the fact it could block their attacks at all spoke highly of his skills. Kuroki was not sure how skilled he was compared to Riza and Ozlo. He was pretty sure he was the weakest of the three, but perhaps he had underestimated Vartra's ability.

Kuroki and the others had tried to launch an occasional attack from a distance, but the mechanical soldiers didn't even once register them as a threat. Zak remained in a defensive stance, apparently deciding to hold off on using his own combat abilities. He did however deflect a few arrows that came their way with the Yo-Yo, indicating that whatever it was made of was strong enough to deflect such arrows. Still, while Zak's actual skill level was unknown, the rest of them did not possess sufficient enough combat skills to turn the tide of this battle. All they could do is watch, wait, and hope for the best.

But like all battles, eventually a breaking point would be had. Unfortunately, the other side appeared to be immune to fatigue or frayed mental states. And yet, it was not them who started to break first...but the wall behind Kuroki.

Pound.

Pound.

Pound.

These noises were heard from behind, as the wall behind them began to crack and crack. With each thud, more damage appeared on these beautiful and ornate walls, which seemed to try and repair themselves with magic. The walls themselves threw barrier after barrier up to protect themselves from the damage, and to prevent whoever was trying to break in from getting in. And yet, resistance was futile. The walls soon began to crumble, as a familiar face came in.

"Guildmaster. Took you long enough".

Those were Amyris' words, but he said them with a smile as the hulking figure casually walked into the room through the hole and assessed the situation.

"Well, this all looks rather terrible".

"Guildmaster, you can't severely damage the cores or the soldiers! They are being powered by the kidnapped children!"

The guildmaster nodded at those words.

"The cores in their bellies?"

Riza nodded, but he looked concerned.

"Guildmaster, are you..."

"Riza, prepare for extraction".

"Shit I knew it!" Riza cursed, as he worked hard to finish prying out the core he had already exposed. Once he got it out, he cut it open carefully and pulled a child out. It appeared to be an eleven year old boy, naked as the day he was born and covered in some sort of weird liquid or gel. It appeared he was in some sort of state of suspended animation, but once he was out it appeared he came to, or at least he began coughing a bit.

Meanwhile, the Guildmaster drew his sword and attacked, cutting one of the soldiers in half across the belly, and opening up their armor instantly. He then moved behind it at crazy speeds, all while swinging his sword as he was moving and hitting it in the back with the flat end. The sheer shockwave from it seemed to pop the core out without damaging it at all, and one of the Rizas proceeded to begin extracting as he moved on to the next one. It was all very fluid and fast, as he seemed capable of taking multiple actions at once.

He was so fast, not a single one of them could follow his movements with their eyes. Even Riza had difficulty doing so, that was just how fast and fluid his movements were. The guildmaster had no issue cutting through the armor that even Riza had difficulty chipping away at, and his presence let Amyris take some more offensive actions as they began to pick apart these soldiers one by one, prying them open and getting the children out. Each one appeared to be powered by a child, and it was clear that whatever was going on here was not some short term operation, but a part of something bigger. After all, there was no reason to assemble such a large and powerful force unless you planned to take on an entire city, or perhaps even an entire nation. The question was, who would it be used against?

"No matter how you look at it, if Sebas is behind this..."

"Yeah, this could be interpreted as treason against the crown. This is just too dangerous. Had it been any other city, or if these soldiers had been fully equipped and refined, these things could have done real damage. Possibly even destroyed an entire city".

"Yeah. We have you and the Guildmaster, as well as myself, but that's because of the terror that lies within the forest seal. Most cities dont even have an S-Ranked adventurer, let alone an SS or X Ranked adventurer. And certainly not all three".

A good number of cities did have at least one A-Ranked adventurer, but a single A-Ranked adventurer typically wouldn't be able to deal with this. There were of course exceptions. Riza knew Ayazi could help even the odds against this force, but that was because he also employed mechanical soldiers for large scale battles. It was similar to how Necromancers could be way more useful for large scale conflicts then normal because they would be able and allowed to raise the bodies of the enemies back at them, although typically only a very small amount of them would be able to do something like raise hundreds all at once. Still, even a few dozen over the course of the battle could have great benefits.

"To think an entire army was being raised down here though, without anyone knowing...that is truly terrifying" Vartra muttered, being the only "normal" one of the group of him, Riza, Amyris, and the Guildmaster.

As they were prying the last core out and saving the last child, Amyris kept his guard up. It appeared they had defeated all the defenses, but he refused to drop his guard for a second since they knew Arasia was behind all this.

"There might be more children up ahead. Guildmaster, can we leave it to you to protect everyone? That should be everything, it felt like they sent all they had after us, but make sure they stay safe. Kuroki, your group can come with us. Whatever we find, we should be able to handle it so long as we keep our wits about us".

"Yes, Master".

"Rodger that, Amyr. Just make sure you capture those mercenaries alive. We need to hear their testimony".

"Of course".

And so, the group decided to head downward into the abyss, to go and capture the ones who brought the kids here and who had to have been looking over the facility this whole time. They eventually found the large room where twenty four of the thirty two soldiers they fought had come from, the tubes and whatnot being clear indicators. What truly terrified them all however was the other suits of armor there. At least one hundred or more of them were there, all standing at attention, but clearly deactivated. They didn't have that blue fluid in them or any cores, a relief to be sure since they were not sure they could go one hundred more rounds. They eventually found what appeared to be a control room, however...

"They are all dead" Vartra noted, looking at the corpses, which were dissolving into goo even as they spoke. Amyris used magic to shield them all as he investigated the air.

"It appears the moment they activated the soldiers, something was triggered in this room, a sort of gas, which proceeded to eat away at them. Leaving no one to testify against who it was, and given the state of the corpses, not even a Necromancer could get answers out of them. The gas is even coated with Holy Water too, to expunge the spirits just to be safe. There is no way we will ever be able to get answers out of them".

"Shiza, this guy was willing to do that to his own men just to make sure they couldn't testify against them?"

Vartra shook his head. "That is why we have yet to arrest Sebas yet. The guy is very careful. Even when he had those people go after you and Riku, he must have had them purposefully put you in a separate shipment, just in case we were able to link it to him somehow and then would be able to link this facility to him. Remember this Kuroki, this is why you can't ever hold back against scum like this. Especially if it means protecting the lives of you and your friends, you have to make sure not to hold back and take the lives of others. Because if they get away, then tragedies and bodies will just continue to pile up".

"Right..."

"That said, don't go murdering people in cold blood either. That will only lead to trouble for you and those you care about. You have to let them start the fight, and then you have to end it. That is the best way to go about things like this".

Vartra gave them some advice on how to deal with things in this world, as they watched the corpses fully dissolve into goop.

----------------------------------------

Meanwhile, Sebas was frowning as he sat in his office.

"So they found the facility, and survived? How disappointing".

He muttered that to himself, as he looked at the crystal ball on his desk, which had shown him everything that was happening there.

"Still, I made sure to leave nothing there that links back to me, so in the end, I won't take any direct damage from this. It appears our business can proceed as planned, Relias".

He looked at the Elven woman who stood across from him, seemingly blended into the shadows themselves.

"It's a shame we lost such a useful facility, no doubt there will be people watching and keeping an eye on it from now on. But there is still some useful information we got from it. We are one step closer to Legacy or Arasia, and perhaps even the Truth of the Demon King will soon be in our grasps".

Sebas had a despicable smile when he heard that, as did Relias.

"Its a pleasure doing business with you as always. I believe I may need to call upon you again soon though. Leaving those people around is just getting far too risky".

"I agree, but we need the right circumstances for it. We don't want to risk exposing ourselves after all, not after all the hard work we have done to leave a history full of blank pages".

"Of course. Still, they are becoming just far too much of a threat...we need to snuff them out sooner rather then later".

"I will discuss it with some of the others. I look forward to hearing an update on some of our other joint ventures when I return".

After speaking those words, Relias melded into the shadows behind him, disappearing entirely. And so, the day ended on such an ominous note, as plots and plans continued to be propelled forward towards the future.