"They've certainly been making a good habit of getting everything out of this place." Baltanthan remarks as we pass by another shadow caused by a lack of dust and filth. Lingering by a stripped-apart doorframe, I frown at where some likely important equipment used to be. It's getting worse, the deeper we head into the facility. So many rooms that I cannot even fathom the meaning behind now.

Glancing up at a set of signs with directions on them, my eyes shake a little. I've been so uninvolved with my own people and our most basic of works that I might as well have aphasia. Maybe there is hope I will be able to relearn my mother tongue, but... Something bangs.

Shaking my head, I gently grab Baltanthan by the shoulder and point him down the path on our left.

We both barely catch a glimpse of a boot rushing out of view and the noise stays within our ears. I look down at him and he nods with a set brow, we steadily begin to head that way. Pulling a shield up, I take point and expand my defences as we come across new paths. The noise of soldiers is growing in a very specific direction.

"I will do what I can to keep them contained and us protected, Baltanthan." I tell him, my voice shaking. Each step I take feels weaker than the last, a shiver doesn't need much strength to bypass my armour. I practically hiccup with each breath, the sound of my rattling armour bothering me more than it needs to.

"I know you will." he tells me, his hand patting my back before we arrive at what sounds like the room a bunch have gathered in. Breathing in deeply, I turn the corner and keep moving forward even as bullets shatter against my shield. Underfoot, grainy crunching. I stop right at the doorway and the men stop firing.

"Any idea of what to do...?" I whisper back to him while the soldiers reposition themselves. They're now in front and will soon be right behind us when we step in. Baltanthan's magic brightens up my back and a small orb is tightly locked between his caging fingers. He opens the lid, the magic's stability remaining.

"Lift the shield up a little." he tells me, my legs spreading as he crawls under me. Flushing a little, I do as asked and the spell rolls out into the room. Its form distorts rapidly and elongates into a tube and it explodes. The air in the room takes on the patchy traits of Baltanthan's rhyolite glow.

Metal throughout the room starts to scar with rust and shattering bangs fill the air. The cloud is wrangled into a corner and dismissed.

"Go." Baltanthan urges, his hands pushing at my back. Shifting my magic onto my tail and gauntlets, I recreate the weapons I was once grafted to. Running in, I barrel towards the man on my left, crushing him up against the wall. Shifting about, I do the same to the next one, barely catching his leg and making him swing against a weakened pillar.

Bringing my arms up out of habit, I then smash them against helmet-covered heads and let the bodies fall. Baltanthan slips in, his eyes cautiously watching the way we came. His staff quickly finds its bottom end in a series of chests and he knocks its bloody end on another. My magic vanishes and we return to just bathing in the lights the humans brought down with them.

Well, except for one thing throbbing behind us.

"Come on, where's my technical lesson?" Baltanthan asks and I focus on the great, alive machine rumbling with power. It's too big to have been brought in here by the humans and I step closer to its familiar controls. Cluelessly pressing some buttons and flicking a few switches, I try to remember what it all does. What appears to be emergency lights turn on but with everything scavenged out already, the red just looks pink next to the human ones.

"Possibly the or a power generator. It's not powered by God's power, though." I explain, noting the way the electricity within is a palish blue. Or, at least, the containment material shades it that way. Either way, I am glad it does not have the tainted colour of the Thundering Evil.

"And what is it powering?" he asks, tapping what was once a light socket. I glance around at the room, noting where the ground and walls were once bored. A lot of the ancillary equipment is gone. Only marks like skin that escaped a tanning bit of halolight remain.

"Uhm... Lemme..." I go, fiddling with some details until the cracked screen on my right shows a schematic after much trial and error. Thankfully, I don't need to be able to remember my mother tongue or its script to know that I've opened a map. Leaning in closer, I blow my lungs out across the dusty screen in order to reveal more details. A container appears, an individual seemingly locked inside.

There are a lot of details flashing up but it's probably just a soldierbot of some kind.

Straightening my back out, I put my hands on its lower side and stretch against them, "I think we're just looking at the last vestiges of emergency power."

"Built to last alright." Baltanthan whistles and I smile a little.

"I suppose we should be glad that magic is the way it is." I try to giggle, recalling a little factoid from a left-behind newstablet a customer forgot about. It went on about the process of decomposition and why flesh becomes clay after death. So long as we keep magic in our body or in the case of machinery, within its parts, everything is effectively immortal. Though, clearly, machines have an easier time with it as I've heard nothing of thousand-year-old men.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I am probably one of the oldest things alive and it's entirely through sleeping in some kind of freezer. And down here is not ice cold.

"Well, what do you say, should we go and find out where this is?" Baltanthan asks as if a soldierbot didn't already try to kill him. But, still, I give him a little smile and start to walk.

"I would rather see it all destroyed by at least my hands than have it shipped out of here." I say, shaking my shoulders and taking one final glance at the screen. The directions are somewhat in my head, they repeat over and over until I believe I have them down. Yet, the moment I look away and repeat them, it becomes a messy jumble. Groaning, I use the amulet's magic to make a shape resembling the way we need to go.

"Don't think that will protect you from anything." my friend remarks as we leave and I look back to him.

"I am more scared of the damage getting lost can do." I say and he huffs, the picked at halls passing us by. The noise of others starts to louden and accented shouting reaches our ears. Using my other arm, I present a shield for us to hide behind and bring it down when we reach another chamber. Me and Baltanthan get on our stomachs and crawl a little closer.

"How close are we to getting these things online!?" what seems to be their last remaining officer demands to know. The stressed-out technical crew throw some tools about and one rises to his feet.

"HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO TELL YOU THAT WE DON'T KNOW!" he shouts out, a gun butt quickly hitting his face for the trouble. An armoured man with a sword steps between the two before things can escalate. The worker won't let the blow go unpunished and the soldier is struck. Pride satiated, the pair seem to back down and I look to a grumbling Baltanthan as he glares.

That must be the one who attacked him.

"Know that we have no way of controlling these machines. We need to turn them on and pull back into the final chamber until help can arrive. Carry on bringing what supplies we can deeper inside and prepare to activate the machines." he orders and the men start to get moving. I shuffle about, my plate catching and scraping against some structural reinforcement. Eyes turn up our way and I swear under my breath.

"Way to go Liadanann..." me and Baltanthan somehow let out at the same time. I gently elbow him and get another shield up, sighing against the floor.

Standing up as there's no point in hiding again, my eyes follow those retreating deeper into the mountain. Those here seem to be aware that they can't get through my shield and instead take up positions elsewhere. The armoured one pulls back a little to grab a sword and shield. An uneasy truce seems to settle in as me and Baltanthan continue to be passive and inactive.

"Any ideas?" I ask, not sure how I can get us down onto the ground floor while keeping Baltanthan protected. I have my doubts as well that he is powerful enough to affect the entire chamber. Regardless, my insides twitch a little at what I am seeing and now know. They're trying to turn the soldierbots on so that they can fight us.

"Well, you heard them. They're trying to turn on the robots and I'd rather not be dealing with lots of them." Baltanthan almost hisses, his eyes narrowing while his grip flexes.

"I feel much the same though I want them to be intact..." I mutter, the fairly recent sight of his victory over one before flashing in my head. I get they're weapons designed with a singular purpose, but, I want at least something from this. Something I can take apart and keep as a meaningful memento, something I can use to remind me of the fading memories of my older brother. He was a general, these machines were his men.

That much I know, that much I can remember clearly.

"Grab onto me, I think I know how to get us into the chamber." I tell him, bending down slightly so it's easier for him to get up. I take hold of his staff and his arms and legs wrap around me. He rebuilds his grip around the stick now pressing against my chest. Carefully, I reshape the shield, my focus blurring and clearing up without end.

Taking a step forward, the orb I have put us in forces its way out onto the walkway with a shattering pop. Guns start to fire and I roll us out towards an opening. We crash into the rock below and Baltanthan groans in pain when my bulk goes against him. Breaking the orb, I put up two barriers, one on either side while my back is up against a depowered soldierbot.

"Are you ok!?" I demand to know, checking his bandages for any sign of provocation. He smacks me away and grips his staff properly, a spell forming at its tip. It goes against the metal stopping most of the bullets trying to get for my back. Moving back a little, I scratch the places I've felt harsh pokes on and whine at the dents I can feel.

Little bits of metal fall out along my tail and towards my feet. I think I can see blood.

"If you're able to keep that shield on my left up, you can go right and I can keep firing magic out from here." Baltanthan explains and I nod, getting rid of what he asked and bringing my weapons back. Rushing into the open and diving under a workbench, the bullets start to focus on me. Peeking out, I nod and like a nozzle, Baltanthan's rusting magic sprays out like poisonous gas. The men near us yelp in surprise and pull back to grab new weapons.

My friend audibly strains trying to push the gas towards the soldiers. Going for one of the workers, I knock him aside and throw aside another. My inner anger at these professional looters grows with each second. I run one through with a harsh stomp and tightening my toe-claw grip.

The man roars and buckles up against my footed daggers.

"GET OUT OF MY PEOPLE'S HOME!" I roar, kicking the man out into the bullets coming in my direction.

"GET ME A GRENADE!" one man cries and I watch a small orb pass hands. Eyes widening, I rush out with all the speed I can muster, flinching to the dictations of bullets. Crying in sudden pain when my flesh suddenly feels something hot digging in. They're piercing my armour!

Bringing up a wide hand for a shield, I catch and roll the grenade out of the way. It explodes and something sharp disturbs my hair. Getting back up and covering my overhead, I look back at the pinkish lines left on the grey floor. A little bit of warmth spreads across my scalp.

"POWERLINES ARE ACTIVE, CLEAR THE ARE-" a man screams with all he has before wet tearing stops him. His voice blended into it without a hitch.

"WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! VICEROY'S VAULT IN DANGER! EMERGENCY COMBAT MEASURES ENGAGE!" one of the machines roars aciently and Baltanthan yelps in surprise. His magic suddenly choking out the far end of the room. The soldiers and workers start to run, some firing back while others are suddenly blown open by divine magic. Heavy metal feet stomp throughout the chamber.

One turns towards me, weapon arm locked in an upright angle. Its glass eyes shimmer with the same glow as my natural ones. A shadow overbearing me while its parts whir. I gulp as it starts to unlock itself into something more flexible.

The weapon arm lowers, brightly shining.