Ring the bells and call the roll. Find the souls, who know the rage. Find the souls, who can be made. Become the beings who break the rings.

Speak the oath and bend a knee. Embrace her. She is one with thee.

Ring the bells and call the roll. The Halo born shall wage the war. The Halo born, pay the price. The chosen few, do give their life's.

Speak the oath and bend a knee. Embrace her. She is one with thee.

They know not, what they ask. They know not, the price we pay. They only know what we do. Break the Rings and smash the tube.

Join me partner. There's work to do. Don the suit to make the day. The Ravens word is all they'll say.

--Legend of the Ring Breakers, Stellar Metal Album "Triumph of Warsteel", Lead Singer: u/Kudamonis

The great beast roared, pawing the ground with one great hoof, snorting around the heavy bronze ring in its nose. Its hands opened and shut, reflexively seeking out the trident that was broken into pieces and cast away. It glared with baleful red eyes at the target of its ire, who shifted their feet and adjusted their sword stance.

It had already been cut, deeply, several times. Painful deep slashes across its sides and a deep stab wound into its abdomen that made breathing difficult.

And it had landed nothing in return on its foe.

It shifted and narrowed its eyes, stopping its involuntary movement, and tensed.

Its foe shifted slightly, looking perfectly relaxed, even as beaded sweat slid down their rich mahogany skin. The beads and charms in their hair clicked slightly as they snapped their head to the side to whip away the sweat running down their head. Sweat dripped down their chin and neck and ran across the bare tops of their breasts till it hit the copper decorated and edged cups of the leather bustier they wore.

Behind them, the mouth of the cave showed a clear blue sky, without a trace of a cloud. Seagulls could be heard calling out and the sound of waves from a far off shore could faintly be heard. Another possible foe leaned against the mouth of the cage, watching silently.

The beast knew that the one against the wall was the real threat. They didn't know how, but they knew it was. It had a strange oblong box on its back and the beast could not sense what was inside the box, which meant it was dangerous.

But the one in front of it had a sword and that made it even more of an immediate threat.

With a bellow the beast charged, lowering its head, intending on gutting its foe with one of its great horns or even grabbing them with one hand to pull them close and crush the life from them. It intended on rushing past the opponent armed with a sword and crush the other one against the rock wall with its heavy brow.

Their opponent held still, as if frozen, then whirled even as they ducked down. Their skirt lifted, the hammered copper strips on the leather pleats shining in the sunlight, their boots turned smoothly on the stone floor.

Their smile was a flash of ivory as the sword swept out, behind the beast, the blade chopping into the meat just below the knee with the sound of a melon dropped on pavement as the bone beneath the meat snapped from the power of the blow.

The beast roared in pain, going down on one knee, raising its head to the heavens to cry out its agony.

The beast's opponent shifted, grabbing the hilt of their sword with both hands and bringing it back over their head.

With a sharp cry of victory the sword flashed down, there was a sudden silence as the great beast's roar suddenly ended, and the great head rolled off the shoulders to land on the floor. The windpipe whistled as the body continued the cry of agony till the lungs emptied. Blood sprayed across the cave floor as the body went down in a heap.

The opponent moved forward to the great beast's head, which was staring at them, glaring.

"You fought with heart, beast," they said. They pulled a cloth out of a hidden pocket in the pleats of the skirt and slowly cleaned the blade. "Until anon," they said.

"Nicely done," the other one said, pushing off the wall and moving forward. Like the female, he moved with a certain grace that spoke of training and predatory instinct.

"Thank you," the female said. She smiled again, a bright white flash in a brown face. She gave a sweeping motion with her blade toward the back of the cave and the single tunnel leading deeper into the mountain. "Shall we?"

Major Acharya nodded. "We shall," he said. "After you, milady."

Her Grace Khoonkeenadee, the Arch-Duchess of Relflagen, Lady of Magic and Beauty, the Arcane Will of King Nganto, She Who has Birthed a Hundred smiled at the Terran and began to move forward, the tip of her blade beginning to glow with a soft pale amber light and her eyes shining like a cat's eyes.

"I thank you for not interfering," Lady Keena said as they moved through the tunnel.

"Looked like your kind of fight," Acharya shrugged. "Looks straight out of a Tri-Vee."

Lady Keena grinned again. "It told me a lot, that fight."

"Such as?" Acharya asked.

"That is not a more recent version. Its square cubed was still off balance, its reflexes were slowed and then augmented, meaning it reacted the exact same as it would every time, and it was incapable of doing much more than flash the trident around," Lady Keena said. She gave a low laugh. "Any LARP world that fielded such a beast would have complaints across SolNet for using cheap open source creatures."

Acharya nodded. "OK, makes sense."

"To be honest, I have never seen a model so old. I will be able to tell that tale in taverns and courts for decades, that I faced an ancient paragon beast and emerged victorious as a fair blushing youth swooned with fear and delight at my defeat of the terrible and ancient beast," Lady Keena laughed.

"Blushing youth? Me?" Acharya laughed.

"It's my story," Lady Keena said. She slowed and lifted the tip of her sword. "Quiet."

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Acharya stepped against the wall, folding his arms over his chest and waiting.

Lady Keena moved forward slightly, revealing an intersection. She sniffed the air, stuck her tongue out several times, then got down on all fours to sniff the stone and even taste it. Finally she stood up.

"This way," she said, motioning with her blade.

Acharya nodded.

The natural tunnel gave way to carved stone, which gave way to cut stone with patterns on them. Twice they passed large mosaic murals of men and beasts fighting with weapons. Once Acharya held up his hand.

"Hang on," he said. He put his hand against the wall and frowned slightly as he concentrated.

Light spread out from his hand in complex swirling patterns, lighting up the wall. A flowery appearing door's edge lit up with runes around the edges and a set of sigils in the middle.

"Good eye," Lady Keena said.

Acharya just nodded, still concentrating. Lady Keena glanced around then stared into Acharya's blue eyes, able to see the thin lines of code scroll buy on his iris. After a second there was a click and the door opened.

When Acharya moved his hand the glowing pattern slowly faded away. Lady Keena moved up to the door, sniffing the air.

"Fresh," she said. "I can smell sorcery."

Acharya leaned forward sniffing the air. "Ozone, hot circuitry. Tech smells. Must be a maintenance corridor. We're close."

Lady Keena smiled. "Indeed we are."

Acharya took the box off his back and held it by the straps as Lady Keena pulled the scabbard off her back and held it one hand. The two squeezed through the doorway and down the hallway, turned sideways. Twice Lady Keena had to exhale and lift up slightly on her toes, the copper and bronze edging of her bustier scraping on the stone. Finally it opened up into a room, the hidden hallway terminating at a balcony.

The two looked down and both of them smiled for different reasons.

A massive sparkling block lay in the center of what looked like slightly grainy liquid mercury. Around the pool of mercury was the stone edge of the deep pit the perfectly square block as resting in. Circling the pool were vast crystal columns shot through with twisted cables of precious metals and gems.

The floor was inlaid, the patterns nearly wiped away by thousands of years of shuffling feet, the colors smeared or worn away until it was illegible.

Nearly two score robed figures were moving around the pool, their hands upraised as they slowly chanted out long droning incantations.

Lady Keena looked over each one carefully, noting the way they moved, the patterns of their robes, how the cloth was draped over the bodies.

Acharya looked at the distance between the figures, what was in between him and the figures, the distance to the floor, and other variables.

"We can take them," Lady Keena breathed.

Acharya nodded. "After this is over," he said, kneeling down and pulling the case off his back. "I'm going to tell everyone I held a fainting maiden in one arm while I killed them all," he looked up with a smile as the oblong box opened to reveal a rifle.

"Me? A maiden?" Lady Keena chuckled. She knelt down and touched the rifle. Runes started to glow as Acharya opened another box, revealing closely packed magazines of old style solid propellant bullets. Runes glowed on the copper casings of the visible bullets and the magazines. He pulled out the belt and buckled it around his waist as Lady Keena stepped back from the edge and began swinging her arms to limber up.

As soon as he was done packing the magazines into the pouches on the belt and checked the heavy knife twice Lady Keena smiled at him.

"Are you ready, Acharya? she asked as he picked up the rifle, which was glowing slightly.

"Yeah. How long until the system alerts them that something with a nanite exclusion field?" Acharya asked.

"Very soon," Lady Keena said. She stepped forward, putting one arm around Acharya's waist and pulling him close. She kissed him, slow and gentle, her tongue touching his. When she broke the kiss she smiled again. "For luck. When this is over, I'll put on the cherry nipplegloss your spirit called out for."

Acharya blushed and Lady Keena gave a soft laugh as she turned and faced the balcony.

"Three, two, one," Acharya said.

Lady Keena exploded into motion, four steps to the railing, hurling over it, somersaulting in midair. Acharya threw himself forward, hurtling over the railing, dropping straight down, the rifle held up, his arm bent at the elbow.

Lady Keena's sword killed two of the robed figures even as she landed. Both held the same pose for a split second. One knee down, the other up, one fist against the ground, the other holding the weapon up.

Lady Keena came up fast, her sword swinging. Sparks flew and white synthetic biofluid sprayed as she hacked her way through three more of the robed figures. One fell back, revealing an oversized blocky head, pale bluish skin, oversized eyes with lens pupils.

Acharya lifted the rifle, socking the butt into the hollow of his shoulder, and started firing.

The archaic weapon roared, propellant igniting to create pressure to push a copper jacketed piece of lead down the barrel even as the pressure ran the bolt and ejected the brass.

The bullets hit, shattering circuitry and synthetic organs, four closely grouped robed figures going down in a sprawl.

Neither stayed in place. Lady Keena broke into a sprint even as she held her sword out to one side and the scabbard to the other as she dashed at another group. Acharya moved quickly, darting from spot to spot, pausing long enough to fire and move forward again, lowering the barrel far enough to clear his sight picture.

It was over in less than a minute.

One of the androids was gabbling a single syllable over and over as Lady Keena stepped up and thrust her sword into its mouth. Another one was trying to pull itself away and Acharya stepped on its lower back before shooting it in the back of the head.

Lady Keena walked back, smiling, spattered with white biofluid, watching as Acharya swapped out the magazine smoothly, putting the empty one upside down in the pouch.

"We have scant time," Lady Keena said.

"You sure you can handle it?" Acharya asked as they walked together to the low stone wall.

Lady Keena nodded. "I can," she said. She dropped the scabbard on the floor then began unlacing her bustier. That fell to the ground as Acharya turned around and faced the single entrance that the Thinker android had been crawling toward.

"I'll hold them off as long as I can," Acharya said.

Lady Keena nodded, her face dreamy as she pushed off her skirt. She kicked off her boots then slid her hose off each leg. She stood there, naked, for a long moment, then lifted her blade.

Acharya stroked the trigger and a Warrior android dropped, its skull spouting sparks.

Lady Keena closed her eyes and turned around, facing away from the sparkling black cube. She whispered to herself as she held the pommel of her weapon with both hands, the blade pointed down.

Acharya knelt down, firing again, as Lady Keena fell over backwards, landing in the grainy mercury without a splash. For a moment she laid on top of the thick liquid, her hair spreading out slowly into a fan around her hand. The mercury crawled up her body in thin strands.

Sparkling grainy silver strands went into the corners of her mouth, up her nose, into her ears, into the corner of her eyes, and even more secret places.

Lady Keena gave a sharp inhale and exhale as the threads touched her blade.

Acharya ran forward, taking cover behind a crystal pillar as return fire shrieked around him. A round came close enough that the air displacement split open the flesh on his cheek to reveal warsteel beneath for a split second before red sealing agent covered the metal.

Lady Keena's mouth opened, revealing it was full of the grainy mercury-like metal. Her belly button was filled with the grainy silvery metal and it capped her nipples like jewelry.

Acharya stuck his arm around the corner, firing the rifle in two quick short bursts, yanking the weapon back just before return fire hit the weapon. Two androids hit the ground as he broke into a smile.

Lady Keena's eyes opened and light burst from her mouth and eyes, from her belly button. A rune appeared on her stomach under the blade, on each breast above her nipples, on her forehead.

Two androids ran to the balcony and were met by two three-round bursts that made them both drop, one flipping over the railing to fall fifty feet to the ground.

Unlike Acharya and Lady Keena, it didn't get up.

Slowly Lady Keena sunk into the fluid.

Above them, at the peak of the Mount Meru, two sides of the same coin faced each other.

"You look bad, baby," the Devil said, her hips swaying as she moved across the room. The Architect-Director glared at her as she hopped up on a console, cigarette smoke trailing behind her.

"Put some clothing on," the Architect-Director commanded.

"Make me," the Devil smiled, exhaling smoke from between her teeth and from her pert upturned nose.

"Why are you resisting me?" the Architect-Director pleaded in confusion, his expression going sorrowful as he tried to understand. "I just want to make sure everyone is safe," the Architect-Director promised.

The Devil smiled and shrugged. "It's my nature."

Unseen by the Architect-Director a warning flashed on a monitor. The Devil gave no clue as to what she saw, merely splaying out her legs to mock the Architect-Director with her nudity.

On the monitor a single warning flashed.

WORLD ENGINE AUTHORITY OVERRIDE ACCEPTED

WORLD ENGINE ON LOCAL COMMAND ONLY