Lena and I carefully made our way back to the castle. The chaos of whatever had happened when I left Milliardo had made its way beyond the castle walls. Soldiers were running everywhere, fighting each other. Some of the interior forces and royal guards had thrown black tabards with a red sidgle over their armor while other soldiers were in full uniform of black and red. I assumed the black and red troops were those that were a part of the Marquis’ faction.
“Those ungrateful, cowardly, turn coats!” Lena growled, threatening to jump into the fray.
“Focus,” I said, pulling her hand. “First let’s try to find your brother.”
She nodded and gritted her teeth, allowing herself to be pulled along. We made our way to the royal guard barracks in time to see an orc in black and red come flying backwards through the yard gate. I poked my head around the corner to see the back end of a heavily breathing Lance Corporal Dash. I glanced back at the unconscious orc and noticed the two hoof prints embedded into his chest plate.
Lieutenant Toadwart was close by her, his mischievous smirk absent. He had two swords drawn and was splattered with an assortment of colored fluids. Easily the most formidable goblin I’d ever seen. As soon as he spotted me, he launched himself like a space wizard, scissoring his blades at my throat.
I caught both blades with my bare hands as swords clanged against the metal of my disguised palms. Toadwart’s eyebrows shot up and he fell back several steps. He glanced at me then up at Lena and took a quick bow with flourish.
“Your highness, my apologies. I didn’t see you behind the gate there. I assume this must be the master artificer in disguise then?”
“You recognise me?” Lena said, looking carefully around. “I’ve changed my disguise to match an Azurious Mystic.”
The Lieutenant looked confused and gave Dash a quizzical look.
“Azurious Mystics have blue skin while Crimsonous demons have dark red,” Dash explained to him.
“Ah. Me apologies again your highness. Ya see, I’m color blind. Ya look the same as before to me.”
I stifled a laugh and tried not to look in Lena’s direction.
“Lieutenant, what is the state of things?” she asked, betraying a bit of a huff.
“Not good if I’m honest. A bit of bedlam throughout. As you can see the Marquis’ forces have descended on the castle while those of their faction have risen up. Normally this many troops wouldn’t be enough to stage a coup but so many of the imperial forces are headed out to the eastern front or engaged with the Jamnasians.”
“Sounds awfully convenient, timing wise,” I added.
“Quite,” Lena seethed. “Where is my brother?”
“We’ve been out here the whole time your highness,” Dash apologized. “The insurgents have us in a bad way and are actively hunting imperial loyalists. There doesn’t seem to be any sort of command structure and everyone is acting on their own. I haven’t even seen Captain Sunni since yesterday before the Jamnasian attack.”
“That’s it,” Lena said, turning on the spot. “Prime, we’re going to find him.”
The gate was suddenly filled with an 8 foot purple gorilla with a single eye and horn sprouting from its forehead. It was wearing the purple and gold armor of the royal guard, but I noticed a black cloth wrapped around one arm.
“Well well, what do we have here? Looks like I found the fake princess and a couple of hold outs,” the ape sneered.
“I thought my updated disguise was well done,” Lena pouted, looking down at me. “Clearly, there is room for improvement.”
“I wouldn’t beat myself up about it, if I were you. We’ll just have to work on reconfiguring the facial features and hair style as well,” I offered.
“Hey!” the ape shouted. “Could you maybe not act like I’m not here and you’re not about to get flattened?”
Lena tilted her head and looked up at him with a glare. “Tell me sergeant,” she said, glancing at the shoulder insignia, “were you well paid for your betrayal of the crown?”
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“Heh,” he chuckled, “no need for a replacement doll to worry about my finances. I’ve been well compensated.”
He raised a large hammer over his head, winding up for a smash attack but was caught by surprise when Lena shot forward and punched her fist through his armor and into his gut. His hand went weak and he dropped the hammer behind him as he peered at the princess perforating his paunch; puzzled.
“Not yet, you haven’t,” Lena growled, “but allow me to extend the crown’s compensation for treason.”
The ape began to convulse as pain etched into his face and frost crept from the wound in his stomach. Lena ripped her hand free and flung frozen chunks of blood to the ground. The ape crumpled over, collapsing as he clutched at his stomach and feebly reached out to the princess. Steadily, the frost expanded until it had completely covered the former royal guard. Lena pushed the frozen corpse onto its back with a foot before smashing the head under heel into meat colored rubble.
“Payment delivered in full,” she said quietly, through gritted teeth.
She turned to look back at us, the jaws of both of her guardsmen hanging low. If I had a moveable jaw, it probably would be hanging too.
“Well? Let’s go,” she ordered.
“Yes’m!” Toadwart said hurriedly, with Dash nodding enthusiastically.
As we made our way into the castle, Lena “paid” three more former royal guards. I noticed that she didn’t go after any of the soldiers in the black and red uniforms, just the ones that were in the imperial uniforms with the black tabards or arm sashes.
Once inside, we were at a bit of a loss as to where to search. Pockets of fighting were still going on, and it looked like the Marquis’ soldiers had claimed control over most of the key locations within the castle. Routes leading to the throne room were thick with the black and red soldiers.
The halls were also thick with bodies of fallen soldiers. It was one thing for me to wrap my head around seeing Automata broken and damaged. I supposed that in a sense, I still had a long way to go in terms of accepting Automata as a people myself. I still had the disconnect of a mechanic looking at a crashed car. Sure, one might have an emotional response to seeing a cherished car get totalled but it was nothing like seeing the deaths of organic beings. Even if looking at different species, seeing a field of dismembered animals wouldn't generate the same reaction as being in a junkyard.
The whole scene was a somber one that, honestly, shook me. Lena was fully wrapped up in her grief rage, while Toadwart and Dash were veteran soldiers. I was just some dork that liked making robot toys, what business did I have in this place? I followed along but I didn’t attempt to help fight or offer any of my usual quips. I could feel myself withdrawing, and half wanted to allow one of my subRoutines to take over. Was that even possible? Could one of the subRoutines take over my main body? If so, then what would happen to me? Was what I thought of as my primary consciousness a subRoutine as well?
I was jostled out of my inner thoughts by Lena grabbing my arm and yanking me back and pushing me against a wall. Before I could complain, she’d already turned away from me and was watching Toadwart peer around a corner. He looked back at us and flashed a series of hand signals with his free hand. I thought one of them might have been a number but I doubted he would be the sort to be this cautious of only 3 soldiers.
I glanced back at Dash, who had taken the rear position, to see her nod back to him and flash some more hand signs. She poked her head around another corner that we’d just come from and flashed more signs without looking back.
Toadwart sighed and sheathed his short sword. He then pulled out a small red gem and began chanting under his breath, whispering the words to the gem. As he did, the gem began to glow from within, getting brighter with each line of code he uttered.
“Wait... is that a bomb??” I asked as quietly as I could.
Lena shushed me with a glare. I shushed, but radiated anxiety. Toadwart ignored me and kept chanting until the gem started smoking. He then dropped to his knees and lunged around the corner, flinging the gem along the floor. Frantically, he pulled himself back and flattened himself against the wall, turning away from the corner and squeezing his eyes shut.
A soft vwop vwop sound came repeating from around the corner, picking up speed until a bright burst of pink light flooded the corridor. A sucking, shwoomp sound followed the light and then everything was quiet. Toadwart opened his eyes back up and took a look around the corner before waving us to follow.
The “bomb” wasn’t what I’d been expecting. In fact, I didn’t see any damage whatsoever to the corridor or any of the furniture in it. There were two large pots of dirt along the wall that looked like the sort that usually had decorative shrubs in them. I found that odd. As we crept further along I spotted several piles of clothes and armor laying on the ground, like several someones decided to dump their laundry in the hallway.
If that gem did what I suspected it just did, that was a pretty nasty bit of kit. Super effective and something that any covert paramilitary group would give their first borns for, but highly likely to be outlawed by the Geneva Convention. I mean, there wasn’t even a body to send back home and if you combined it with a [Storage] device then it would be like the person just stopped existing. The idea was frightening by the standards of my old life. I wondered if the gem would have any effect on an Automata though...
We slipped past the piles of laundry, headed for the Inner Guard security division. The entrance to the dungeons would be located within the division and I convinced Lena to help the Academy kids since we didn’t actually know where Milliardo was, or if he was even still in the castle.
More of the black clad soldiers were milling about at the entrance to the security division. I could see them laughing in a cruel way and taking lazy kicks at someone on the ground. Lena gasped and covered her mouth and we ducked back behind cover in case she had been heard.
“That was Commander Rook,” she whispered.
“We have another squad coming up on our rear,” Dash whispered, kneeling behind us.
“Time to go ham?” I asked, dropping my [Cloak], shifting my arms to weapon modes, and really not looking forward to what was coming.
“I could go for some ham,” Toadwart said thoughtfully as he drew both of his blades.
“You wanted bread before and now ham? Since when do you get hungry? And at such inopportune times?” Lena chastised.
“Look, I know you Automata are really strong,” Dash opened, unlashing a weapon from her flank that was basically a scimitar on the end of a staff. “But I can’t say I like these odds.”
A panel on the wall opposite of us slid open and the head of an Automata maid poked out and looked both ways before gesturing with a “come with me if you want to live” sorta wave.
“229?” I asked, incredulously.
“I’m so glad that you’re alive Sir Hero! Come! Hurry!”
Lena glanced down at me before glaring up at the FSU maid. Her hands looked like open crab claws, ready to clamp down on a throat and possibly turn it to ice. She stalked over to the opening and I heard a panicked squeak come from 229 as the princess shoved her back into the darkness before turning to us and gesturing with her head to follow.