“…me?” Cadenza asked after a moment of shock. “Shouldn’t Dr. Kahnton be handling the diplomacy?”

“Ah, well, the doctor declared it a security matter,” the elf called Dalian answered, looking uncomfortable. “I told him you were unavailable, but our ‘guest’ said it would wait.”

“That’s good because they’re going to have to. I have an injured party member undergoing treatment and we can’t move until our cleric is finished. In the meantime, go ahead and send a couple of parties down here with some engineers and at least one cleric that can use a translation miracle. We’ve located the core and I don’t want to leave it unattended,” Cadenza instructed after a frustrated sigh.

“I’m on it. How will they find you?”

“Straight ahead from the elevator. All the physical traps are disabled and the magical ones are marked.”

“Alright, they’ll be down there soon.”

With that, the communicator shut off and Cadenza returned it to her pocket.

“How are they already here? It hasn’t even been two days since we arrived,” Sera wondered. It had been inevitable, really, but she’d thought an attack would come long before any communication after the difficulties of establishing a dialogue had been discussed.

“It must’ve been the skull spider I killed on the way in. I think we just answered the question of whether they can relay information remotely,” Rinnie responded with a one-shouldered shrug. Vivi smacked her in the back of the head for moving.

“And if there’s one trying to talk to us, it has to be a mage- one with its mind intact enough to cast at least basic spells,” Tiriana added. “There’s no way it knew one of our languages, so it must have translation magic.”

“I doubt I need to tell you all this, but stay alert once we get up there. There’s decent odds this is just the prelude to an attack,” Cadenza warned.

Tiriana and Cadenza killed the rest of their time doing a lap of the room and examining the core. Their conversation quickly went over Sera’s head, though, so she found a place to sit and leaned against the wall for a quick nap. Soon enough Vivi was finished healing Rinnie and the additional parties had arrived, so after a quick handover their group headed back to the surface.

When the elevator reached the top, they emerged to find a very relieved junior adventurer ready to take them to the meeting site. Cadenza offered to let them go their separate ways at that point, but everyone present was too invested by now to not at least see what was going on.

They found the nachzehrer envoy close to one of the staircases leading down into the depths of the fortress, hinting at how it had gotten in. They’d yet to have time to seal those off or catalogue all the entrances down there, so it wasn’t surprising for an enemy to have infiltrated that way. Personally, Sera was just glad it hadn’t gotten any further than the stairs- that meant the adventurers on guard duty must have spotted it immediately.

“You wanted to speak to me?” Cadenza asked warily as they approached. Sera and the others held back several paces behind her so as not to alarm the envoy.

“You are the leader?” it asked mechanically, voice androgynous. This nachzehrer resembled the leaper they’d first encountered; black armor with a near-featureless face broken up only by camera lenses and sloped plates covering its body and covering the mechanisms that reinforced its joints. Unlike the conventional plate armor worn by warriors like Layla, it didn’t look metallic- Sera guessed it was actually some kind of modern composite material, crafted with a mold and without the need for rivets.

“I’m in charge of security. Who are you?” Cadenza replied, leaving out her actual name.

“An officer of the Muspelland Advanced Infantry Corps. We would know your purpose in occupying this place, a stronghold of our foes,” the being answered. It didn’t give a name either, but Sera got the sense it wasn’t for the same reason Cadenza had- that royal ‘we’ it had used set off warning bells.

“…we are a peaceful research team here to learn about the culture and technology of a lost civilization,” Cadenza said carefully. “Who were these foes of yours, and what was the nature of your conflict with them?”

“This was the last of the thirty-seven mobile alchemist workshops after twenty-three were captured in the initial assault and a further thirteen that had emerged victorious were subsequently hunted down. We do not know why we fight. We obey. Our orders were to annihilate the alchemists and seize their workshops. This mission has been accomplished,” the nachzehrer explained flatly.

“In that case, could you arrange a meeting with your civilian leaders? Maybe we could reach an agreement regarding our presence here,” Cadenza offered. There was a brief moment of hope that a fight might be averted, but it was shattered with the officer’s next words.

“That is not possible. All civilians in this region have been conscripted into the Advanced Infantry Corps under total war protocols. Furthermore, contact with the capital has been lost.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“…they made the oldest mistake in the book when it comes to machine armies. They forgot to add a failsafe against them turning against their creators,” Sera muttered while the others absorbed that information.

“Everyone?” Cadenza asked in horror. “Children? Local government?”

“Yes. Significant losses were sustained at the start of the conflict. Ongoing operations necessitated a constant flow of new recruits. Once low-value demographics were exhausted, high-value demographics were tapped,” the nachzehrer elaborated as if discussing the weather. Looks were exchanged between the adventurers present.

“…may I speak to your commanding officer, then? Whoever is above your…Advanced Infantry Corps?” Cadenza asked next. Sera thought she already knew the answer, though.

“That is also not possible. General Grendelson was conscripted prior to the assault on this workshop,” the strange being answered coldly.

They’d depopulated the entire region that had become this frontier. Everyone had suspected it, but now it was confirmed. And now there was no one holding the leash.

“Who are you taking orders from now, then?” asked the veteran adventurer warily.

“We are currently following our most recent standing order: halt the progression of the final workshop at all costs. All alchemists have been conscripted. This workshop should be abandoned. A contradiction has been logged: presence of unknown group detected in final workshop. Similarity to alchemists is high. We have reached a conclusion. Successors to alchemists residing in the workshop qualify as alchemists under current rules of engagement,” announced the macabre cyborg to no one’s surprise.

“…that’s why you gave up so much information. None of it exposed any details about your capabilities or current numbers, but you were able to gauge our reactions to information we would have already known if we were your allies,” Cadenza concluded as she stepped away, clicking her tongue.

“Correct.” The nachzehrer was silent for a moment, but it panned its camera-eyes over the budding town past the cluster of adventurers. “You do not meet the requirements for conscription. Nevertheless, your brains will suffice for auxiliary units. Analysis concluded.”

With that, the self-proclaimed officer leapt away, making several long bounding jumps to the edge of the fortress before hopping the wall and plummeting out of sight. It would have looked comical if not for the final words the nachzehrer had left them with. Everyone present now knew once and for all that the nachzehrer did could not be negotiated with, as they saw them as nothing but parts.

“Huh. That was weird. Guess it doesn’t change much, though, right? After all, anyone with sense already knew they were baddies,” Rinnie said casually, hands clasped behind her neck. Some of the tension faded; she wasn’t wrong.

“We would have been keeping an eye out for them either way, but at least we know they’re definitely coming now,” Sera stated with a sigh. “Should we evacuate…?”

“That’s going to depend on what kind of forces they return with and how Dr. Kahnton wants to handle the situation. At the very least I’d prefer to get all the civilians loaded on the airship, just in case…though we may need to retain a team at the secondary core,” Cadenza replied.

“I’d like to head back down there as soon as possible, in that case. We might be able to find useful documents in the offices on that level,” Tiriana declared.

“I’ll send more parties to that floor to check, but we need you here,” Cadenza told her. “Less than half a dozen people have fought the nachzehrer- and you’re the only mage with direct experience against their anti-magic capabilities.”

Tiriana looked disappointed, but she didn’t argue. Technically speaking Cadenza couldn’t make her do anything, but Tiriana had agreed to follow her lead and she didn’t disagree with the reasoning she’d presented.

“Miss Cadenza, how did the meeting go?” asked Dr. Kahnton from behind Sera. She hadn’t heard him approaching.

“That wasn’t a meeting, that was the nachzehrer making a threat assessment,” Cadenza corrected with a scowl. “I’m calling a meeting of all senior party leaders. I’d like to request your presence as well as that of anyone you think needs to be there.”

“May I…ask how I should decide that?” the diminutive doctor asked, taken aback.

“Choose whoever might be relevant to defending this location against a nachzehrer assault.” There was a grim tone to Cadenza’s voice as she spoke. Dr. Kahnton noticed it and nodded rapidly- had he been human Sera thought she’d have seen sweat rolling down his face as he hurried off. Layla spoke up next, much to everyone’s surprise.

“I will seek out Broviss,” was all she said before turning and walking away without further elaboration. Not that it was needed; her armor was battered and her weapon was now more of an axe than a poleaxe.

“I’ll…rest up, I think. I need to be ready to tend to the wounded,” Vivi chimed in, waiting for the others to nod her way before leaving. Sera realized then that Rinnie had simply vanished at some point, leaving her alone with Cadenza and Tiriana.

“I…guess I’ll go work on my core? I feel like I’m getting close and it might be helpful,” Sera suggested, though Tiriana was quick to nix that idea.

“Actually, I think you’re going to be as important as me during the meeting,” the elf said as she placed a hand on Sera’s shoulder. “We haven’t discussed it in detail before now, but…I think it’s time we hear everything you can tell us about their armor.”

“Have you held something back?” Cadenza asked sharply. Sera was quick to wave her hands in denial as she shook her head.

“No, no, nothing definite. I would have shared anything I knew for sure. Power armor wasn’t really practical yet on Earth, so I can only speculate,” she said firmly, uncomfortable with the sudden scrutiny.

“Be that as it may, you at least know what type of armor it is. I think there’s a good chance you can tell us more than you realize,” Tiriana told her encouragingly.

“Ugh…” Sera groaned, running her hands through her hair in agitation. “If you think it’ll help, then sure. Just don’t take anything I say as gospel.”

“It might help if we had something to work from. We should retrieve the bodies of the nachzehrer we killed in the primary core room,” Tiriana suggested, satisfied with Sera’s answer.

“That should have occurred to me sooner,” Cadenza admitted with a heavy sigh. “I suppose it got lost in all the chaos, not that it’s a valid excuse.”

“Don’t beat yourself up over it,” Tiriana told her with a shake of her head. “Setting up security and getting the defenses powered were more important at the time. Besides, we don’t know if they’re even still there.”

“You have a point. At any rate, I’ll go ahead and contact my party leaders- we need to make sure everyone’s on the same page as soon as possible.”