"Zed? Where are we going?" Jen followed the suit of armor that was twice her size as it left the library.
In return Zed spoke as he continued walking, acting as if Jen following was a foregone conclusion. "We have to check with the refugees coming in, meet with Shinji when Coalition? Confederation?"
The armored golem shook his head in exasperation, "What's the right word here?"
Jen shrugged as she walked, "Coalition or Alliance, though from what I'd seen, Corp was gaining traction."
The goblin laughed as they walked, thankful for the paved pathway. "A corp of Cores."
Zed laughed, then frowned at the path ahead. "You'll tire out and I'll want you there fresh faced if trouble pops up."
He knelt down to one knee and bent over.
"Are you serious?" Jen blinked, but when Zed nodded he climbed onto his back.
As Zed started running, he talked. "Wish we'd gotten to talk under less pressing conditions. I worked with Bonehead, Naoko, all of them."
This caught Jen's attention and focus. "Really? How much do you remember?"
Any hope she had was quickly dashed, however. "Only a few highlights, mostly impressions more than anything. Who I trusted, how they work? Gut feelings."
He gave a light chuckle at the look Jen gave him, "Naoko said it's weird we're all getting spun out here. All of us seemingly in this corpse of some huge mega-dungeon. All these lives focusing Here."
"Well, why weren't you part of the bone guard?" Jen shut her eyes as the golem ran faster, causing her white hair to blow in the wind of their passing. "Shinji's there. I think a few of the others too but he's stepped up while Bonehead's ..."
She couldn't bring herself to say it.
"I... wouldn't say Naoko and I are or ever were a thing romantically, but I like working with her and she says i keep her grounded." Zed pivoted, rounding a corner in the path. "Besides, I don't think we really get to pick. Things just happen. I don't like calling it Fate for a lot of reasons but why else would the whole lot of us get yanked here?"
Jen thought on that as the refugee camp came into view. It was easily as big as the settlement she grew up in. Trenches were in the process of being dug, sharpened stakes on the outer edge, tents were erected in ordered clusters. All of this sprouted up as a mushroom-work of activity around a two story brick building with a pair of automata posted at the door.
Unlike those of the library these had bulbous too-large heads with wide permanent grins. Rail thin bodies with spindly limbs ending with overlarge hands and feet. The pair snapped to attention as the pikes were held at the ready.
"Identify." Both said as their wide goggle-like black eyes looked to Jen.
⁂ ⁂ ⁂
One of them spoke then. In spite of the fighting. One of the armored golems as a too-white hand ripped into its helm, extending inky black blood and ichor into the armor itself. “Keyes... Jacob."
The armor fell, dissolving in front of Jen's eyes. The shock for a moment causing her to forget her surroundings. It was only Zed pulling her back out of the way of a sword strike, taking the hit on his armored shoulder, that brought her back to the hear and now.
Through the fighting she heard it again, and again. Whenever one of the golems fell, whenever one of the skeletons broke apart. “...Keyes... Jacob... Service Number..."
She dove under one of the attacking orcs, gutting it with a dagger, using its body to shield herself from a troll's hammer. Yet the mass difference and sheer force drove her to the ground, weighting her with body and massive war hammer. She saw Zed fall as a dozen blackened hands tore into his suit.
"No," She whimpered. "No... no.... please..."
“Keyes... Jacob... Captain..." Zed's hollow voice rasped as something much like breath rattled in his chest. "Oh. God..."
Jen covered her mouth as much to keep from puking as to try keeping quiet, which allowed her to realize, with a slow dawning horror the body she was under hadn't dissolved. It took her several long moments to realize what that meant as she struggled to free herself.
She had no idea what any of this meant. Who was this Keys? Was it a message for her to pass on? Was it a Saint they prayed to?"
Questions for later. She had to run. To escape from these sickly orcs.
⁂ ⁂ ⁂
Jen snapped awake, startled, franticly looking around. For a moment the terror of the dream clung to her even as she realized she was sitting in a perhaps too-comfortable wing backed chair as Zed stood talking with the post's commander.
Both golem looked to her, one tilting its head one way and one the other. Zed spoke, his voice gentle as possible given his mechanical nature. "Are you alright?"
"Who's Jacob Keys?" Jen managed before getting to her feet. She'd felt embarrassed at her having first fallen asleep, then disrupting talks that she knew were fairly time sensitive.
Zed immediately looked to her. Though there were no visible eyes Jen couldn't help but feel a pair boring through her from behind the armored visor. "It's from a story from my prior life. A ship's captain that faced long odds, and fought an enemy that corrupted and tried to strip as much information as it could directly from his mind as it turned everything it infected into more of itself. Keys was a man that was able to hold back a thing that he had no hope of winning against long enough that they didn't get the information they really wanted."
As she was confronted by the similarities of this and the enemy they faced, Jen's pupils contracted. "That name was from my dream. Everyone in it repeated that name as they fell, and a number."
Now both golem were looking at her.
Jen frowned, her eyes closing as she focused on the memory. "Oh One Nine Two... Something..."
"Keys. Jacob. Captain. Service Number Oh One Nine Two Eight Dash One Nine Nine One Two Dash Jay Kay." Zed rattled the quote from memory as Jen stared up at him, fear now overtaking confusion.
The golem knelt down so his face was at eye level for Jen as he hugged her close. "It's OK. You're safe. It's from a story." There was a clear forced attempt at remaining calm in Zed's voice. "Do you remember where you heard this?"
"I don't know?" Jen looked about as she wracked her mind. "Maybe Bonehead mentioned it? Maybe Shinji?"
Zed nodded slowly. "Alright. You said all of us had fallen in this dream? Do you remember what happened before that happened?"
There was an immediate and definite shake of Jen's head. "No, it started right when things went wrong." She paused then, "I'm not a seer. This isn't a vision. It's. A..."
"Lonely Hill." Her eyes immediately focused. Everything else about her suggested confusion, but her eyes were steady as she looked to Zed. "I can't say how but he's warning that's what they're trying to do to Bonehead. Take what it views as... Damala's heir's strongest champion and pump everything out of it."
"But-" The other golem spoke. "That makes no sense. Dungeons can reach out to people, but, no offense meant, you have no training, and aren't a magic user."
Zed grunted, "Problems for later. We have to assume initial defensive formations are known." He looked to Jen, "You run faster than me. Spread word through the camp. Exact words. I need this to be an Exact message. Do you understand?"
Jen nodded, fear was forcefully shoved aside as she listened.
"Cole Protocol is active." Zed looked to Jen expectantly.
"Cole Protocol is Active." When Zed nodded. She nodded to him and started running.
The golem that they had been sent to meet nodded once. "Cole Protocol is Active." With that, it took a heavy medallion hanging from a slender silver chain from its neck and hung it around Zed's neck. "You are now in command of this outpost. What are your orders?"
Stolen story; please report.
⁂ ⁂ ⁂
When Midori's forces crossed into the Library's holdings they had been harassed continuously. Those within the ground forces would respawn when killed, but equipment that had been crafted for the siege was not so easily replaced, and even if death was cheap it was still a logistical headache to find the quartermaster was on a respawn timer and the only other person who knew who had what was on the opposite end of the formation.
Four Kobald had been very busy making life difficult. Those four never engaged long. Always a single death, a single key piece of gear broken. A swirl of smoke heralding no attack. Even a few instances of decoys being left in the marching path to cause platoons to peel off to make sure they weren't real.
By the time the formations had reached their goal the proud boastful army of 'liberators' were demoralized, paranoid, and they now were faced with curving paths with trees and shrubbery rather than straight pathed wide roads.
They had their intel, however, and it seemed to be correct. There were the trenches and staked lines There were suits of armor there, weapons ready. Those at the fore quickened their pace in anticipation. Magi were called up to form a shield wall as archers rained down spell-infused arrows hat rained down thunder and fire into the enemy camp.
Yet not one suit of armor moved. None of the confusion such an attack would generate came. No pannicked units caught unawares, for this was a place that wasn't in an obvious place. This was a nexus point where information flowed. That was what they hoped to do here, blind the enemy.
The enemy, however, rose from the ground itself. Suits of armor rose from shallow pits dug into the earth amid the invading army. Spiders leapt from their hollow shells to ensnare and bind even as the armored golem hacked limbs apart, struck with blunted blade, and rushed to join with their own at the opposite end of the formation.
There had been losses by the defenders. No plan yielded perfect victory. However as a majority of the formation lay coated in webs the trees themselves bent, their branches spreading wide and flattening. Their limbs entwining as they grew together into a wooded net, entrapping but not killing.
Jen looked to Zed as he limped to where she had been told to hide. After she hopped from cover she looked to him. "Why didn't you open with that? Looked pretty effective to me."
"Because we had no way of knowing they would attack Here until your warning. the initial plan counted on them laying siege and encircling rather than whole companies of men rushing an intelligence nexus."
He looked to the goblin girl, "Anything else? That was a lucky break that worked out. Any intel? Any.. anything?"
Jen's head shook, "Maybe I have to be asleep? Maybe it was a one time thing? Either way I think we're on our own. So, now what boss?"
Golem looked to Goblin and knelt so the smaller of the pair could get on his back. "If Bonehead's being drained for intel. Either we're going to save him, or put him out of his misery, but we're going now."
As the pair started running the way the invaders came, a spider sat there watching fro matop the wooded prison that had been flash grown. As her spawn continued to entwine and enmesh its occupants in silk she scuttled off. "This was a victory, an important victory. It was not The Victory, however, so her task was not yet done.
----------
Midroi fumed as it watched an entire company that was intended to be the hammerblow of force to show the library that whatever lies Damala's heir told, they were better served by Midori's banner. Instead? Midori peered through the eyes of their Ogre commander as the whole lot were caged in interlocking vines and trees.
Mana was spent to force them to stop panicking and Obey.
Then, one by one, they died. Dust drifted from the living prison of trees and vines as Midori saw the Company shuffle out of their respawners. He was not angry with them. They had followed their orders admirably and had behaved professionally.
The Ogre knelt as Midori addressed him. "You did well with what you were faced against."
"Thank you lord." The Ogre's rough voice was almost reverent as he addressed the dungeon he served.
A ball of black the size of a grape formed in front of the Ogre. More mana was spent and the Ogre took the orb in his left hand, and ate it.
Similar orbs appeared in front of each creature as they stepped from their beds, stumps, debris, and other markers where such creatures spawned from.
As one they marched wordlessly back to Midori's borders to relieve the forces pulled from the elfin and dwarven camps that served as buffer between his lands and where this Metis had served as his first obstacle.
None of his fliers were close enough in enough quantities to provide anything more than a distant image of the party at the edge of the baby dungeon's holdings.
Why weren't they pressing forward faster? these mockeries of champions long dead. Midori knew the form each were based on. Damala's Heir, this Lonely Hill. It somehow knew how enough of the prior age to do this.
The Library it could excuse. He knew the person the automata was based on would have loved working at a library. Had it not fallen for this monstrous deception, Midroi might have felt fondness for their choice in avatar to meet with.
As his armies marched Midroi's anger grew. The black threads crept into its vision as it saw the second Company engage.
This time they spread out. Archers paired with lumbering ogres to act as shield walls. Shamen countered attempts to use the local vegetation either to snare, or to turn the sculpted plants into weapons by withering them, sapping their life and channeling it into defending the melee skirmishers.
Something felt off here even as Midori could feel several of the enemy being infected with spores. Normally their minds should be open and clear. Even the ones that fought would give him useful data by what they chose to hide and what they chose to throw aside.
Here? An armored figure fell while shielding a white haired goblin rogue with its body. Midori tore into it's mind without bothering with the usual subtile touches he had with prior instances. There wasn't time, and so Midori hemorrhaged mana to sprout the invasive growths into something that could force past any mental barriers the animated armor might have held.
He heard three words before the armor dropped, its component pieces seperating as the animus holding them together dissipated.
Cole Protocol Initiated.
There? An automata manning a brass and gem encrusted ballista that fired huge bolts of magical energy was infected by an orc that ran into enemy lines before its body burst into contagion spores.
Instead of answers Midori heard the dozen or so voices in near unison speak.
Cole Protocol Initiated.
That name tugged at memory. Midori knew it from somewhere, yet couldn't grasp where.
Again, another fell. This one just after throwing the goblin rogue it had almost tagged out of harm's way. Again that damniable phrase.
It shouldn't have mattered. Each enemy unit infected landed in the deepest hole Midori had constructed. One who's only exit was guarded by a hall of traps and gates such that any attempt to break out by anything that had not yet been pacified was doomed to failure.
Midori was winning. It was slow and measured by the dozens or in one instance of some truly inspired spellwork by whomever was on the tower, several hundred at a time. Yet each of their losses was permanent. Each minion they lost might have been theoretically replaceable, but it would be unskilled and untrained, making it near useless in this kind of battle.
Yet Midori felt unease. The units that got near to quartet that advanced on his position died without being able to get into range for infection. Worse still. Metis was claiming territory. It was a thin strip of road between claimed dungeons, but it was ground that Metis held and Midroi's enemies were defending.
His unease grew into rage when Metis revealed its water avatar.
HER.
Deceiver. Devourer.
Liar. Destroyer.
Midori felt stupid. This had been HER play. that hateful woman.
Made midori focus all its efforts and plans into a boogyman while she had been quietly ignored just beyond his doorstep.
A memory flashed. Brief. A flash.
Ami's souless eyes stared down into Midori's as she held an obsidian blade covered in blood. Breathing slowed as Ami knelt to whisper words that couldn't be remembered. Gloating that she had finally won. Then. For the briefest moments. Just before black took him. Midori remembered a man standing there in mute suffering grief. Someone who was dead yet lingered.
Threads of black etched through Midori's vision.
SHE was here.
Surrounded by puppets designed to look like the people she murdered.
There were whispers now, as there had been ever since Midori had started using magically infused fungus to ensure troop loyalty. Those whispers had always been easy to ignore.
Now. They whispered the words Midori wanted to hear most. Revenge. Retribution. Remaking this world so She wasn't part of it.
Midori drank in the poisoned lies because in his heart he knew it made what was going to happen easier to live with if he wasn't truly in control anymore.
Vision blackened as mycelial threads wrapped almost tenderly around Midori's core, and then everything came into sharp focus. This fungus. It was everywhere. It couldn't act everywhere, but where even a piece of it existed, Midori could tap into its senses.
"Metis!" Ishida dove as a water whip from Meti's avatar sliced into a wulfen Midori had inherited from the same dungeon Corwin had served.
Ishida rose, sword in hand, using the momentum of her roll to slice the straps of an armored opponent apart. "He's already starting to cycle infected units in!"
A grunt from Bonehead as he pushed back an elf that tried to step inside Hotaru's effective bow range. "Plan stays the same. Ami, how're you holding up?"
This got a grumble from Stone Soup. "Oi. Dead Naming."
"Right, my bad." Bonehead looked to Meti's water construct. "Sorry."
"No worries. I'm still on my land. Inflow is exceeding outflow." Metis paused to spear an elfin duo that were carrying what looked like lit bombs. "You?"
Midori howled. Mana torrented out as he forced Bonehead's guard to drop. The skeletal fighter repositioned. Midori forced him to leave Taru's side.
This caught Taru's attention. "Talk to me."
Bonehead let go of his sword even as he swung at the orc he had intended to stab.
Midori laughed as he made Bonehead turn. the amount of mana spent was above and beyond what he had to spend on anything else, but he was forcing this new unit to bend.
Bonehead picked his sword up as he looked to Taru. "Keys. Jacob."
"No." Her voice an order as she started running to him. "You can fight it off."
"Captain." Bonehead brought his weapon to a guard position. The blade trembled as it swung, meeting taru's bow as she brought it up to block.
Midori's laughter grew wild as he forced Bonehead to press. Even with a prodigious outflow just to control one unit this was the crack needed to stall out this desperate thrust by his enemies.
"Service Number...." Bonehead tore away from Ishida's grip. "01928-19912-JK Oh... One Nine Two Eight."
His hand snaked out, snatching her sword even as Stone Soup kicked his away. "One... Nine Nine...."
Midori's laughter turned to screams as the blade turned, its tip touching Bonehead's sternum.
"You. Will not." Bonehead's voice was labored, as if spoken through gritted teeth. "Have Me."
Bonehead's body dissolved almost the moment Ishida's blade pierced his chest.
Midori saw Taru's bow raise, and from that point until almost up to his very boarders his eyes were put out.
Yet he could not help but give a low sinister chuckle as Bonehead spawned inside the vault he kept newly squired and not yet loyal.
"I already do."