"Clover, keep an eye out for any news in relation to that Machine God. Odds are it's going to Termia where there won't be any coverage, but if by some chance it attacks Viktor's nation then I'd love to know about it."
"Understood, Captain. Also, the Leviathan has finally been re-fit for its original purpose and it's heading this way." Clover said.
I knew they had been hard at work trying to turn it from a train into the moving fortress it was always meant to be, but some part of me had a hard time believing it'd really be of use to us in the coming battles. So to hear that they actually succeeded is honestly a huge relief...
"So does that mean it's not using the tracks anymore? How long is it going to take to get here?"
"Incorrect. It is using the tracks, but it is now able to venture off the tracks whenever we so desire. It only takes a few minutes to swap over to land travel mode, which is vastly slower, but it does allow us to bring the Leviathan anywhere, and as such, Yulong, among many others, are currently receiving a crash course on how to operate it."
"Excuse me, but is this the weapon we've been told was designed to kill 'Baal'?" The Succubi asked.
"Correct. Although, it was never used for its original purpose, and only had a few test runs as a moving fortress, so outside of simulations, I have very little data to go on. As a result, there may be unforeseen complications as we push westward." Clover said.
Down below I could see Belfos standing up. His resurrection was finally complete, and he was already requesting which area he could grow his lords in.
{There.} Malafir, who had already left an area open for Belfos just in case he'd need it, answered for me.
A large open area next to my half-built Crematory was outlined in my vision. Belfos immediately leaped to that area and smashed both of his fists into the ground. Vines began to rip the ground up, tossing all of the dirt and rocks outside of the base until there was a giant hole in the ground.
I watched as a chunk of our mana supply was drained by Belfos as he created two egg-like plants in the bottom of the hole.
{Don't worry, Rei. It only seemed like a lot of mana because Belfos is only constrained by how much mana he has access to. So uh, like, this would normally take him a few days to create those eggs, but thanks to you he was able to do it instantly!}
Lucky for him that he has access to so much mana now then, but between what he just did and the constant wall repairs, things aren't looking too hot right now...
"Succubus, how long until the Hellfire is complete?"
"Twenty seven minutes, give or take a few minutes." He replied.
We'll last but I want to finish the Crematory and Armory damnit. The Leviathan is ready to go, and the others are recuperating from the Daemon battle and preparing to head west at the same time. So the sooner we're ready to go the better, but all we're doing is repairing the damned wall right now.
"Clover, do those Destroyers ever run out of ammo?? They've been firing nonstop this entire time, and those aren't small rounds either, those things could destroy most Gods I've met."
"They can, but no, they have not nor will they run out of ammo, because the ammo is created internally. The only thing they require is access to new power cores and materials, and while the Destroyers are burning through both of them, the machines didn't come here empty handed. Look here."
The visuals on the TV changed to a view of the battlefield. As it zoomed in I noticed several vehicles strewn about that looked like dump trucks.
"Is that how they transport their materials and cores?"
"Normally, no. Putting aside their underground train network, they also have vehicles specifically designed to move machines and supplies around when required. It is unknown as to why they would be using those antiquated vehicles in their place." Clover said.
"The answer is obvious. Their usual transports are all tied up elsewhere."
Malafir is right, which means that Atraxu is moving materials and/or machines enmasse to somewhere else... I wish we had eyes on him or any form of intel. As it is now, we'll be pushing toward the portal blind.
I stared at the dump trucks for a bit as a single thought filled my mind.
"Is this purely to delay us...?"
"Highly possible." The Succubi continued, "This attack is 'half-assed', as your people would say. Even the approaching machine army is coming at you in a haphazard way."
At the edge of Clover's radar there is a never ending amount of red dots appearing. Meaning, there's a constant stream of approaching machines, which is definitely odd... If they wanted to try and crush me, they could have came at me in many other ways, like hitting me all at once. Instead, they're sending machines at me one by one like a conveyor belt.
The radio chatter from Leon's side erupted, causing me to look toward the north. The first thing I saw was a panther-like machine dashing through the snow and between buildings as Leon's crew tried to kill it, but it was quickly out-pacing them while dodging most of their attacks. In its mouth I could see an Arcane Power Armor with its blade arm trapped between the machine's teeth.
The transparent black strands in front of me pulled apart and I immediately flew out of the tower toward the Stalker. It only took me a few seconds to catch up to the Stalker and bring my heel down onto its torso. I basically ripped it in half with that strike, but the top half didn't stop, it kept pulling itself through the snow with the APA in its mouth.
It was obviously much slower, and even if it wasn't, I was going to finish it regardless, which is exactly what I did. I leaped through the air and landed on the machine, slamming it into the snow. This time, I ripped its arms and head apart to make sure it was fully dead.
The person in its jaws had already fallen out and stood up. "T-Thank you, Miss Reimia!" A female voice said over the APA's speakers. "I was so focused on firing at a Butcher that I wasn't able to react in time to the suit's warning that a Stalker was leaping at me..."
A group of APA's slid to a stop behind me. They all thanked me before running back toward the main group. According to them, more and more machines were approaching from the underground, so any help I could send their way would be appreciated.
Which is something I would have loved to do, but I was barely holding the front line as it was, and thanks to my Crematory and Armory still being unbuilt I wasn't able to upgrade any of my units either... At the moment my regular skeletons were struggling against the Warriors, and it took a laughable amount of them to bring down a single Butcher. And it was only getting worse as more and more snipers joined the fight from behind the Destroyers. Now my units are being picked off left and right.
It would be better if I had weapons from Arcadia, but they couldn't spare any thanks to the amount of bodies they were throwing at the Daemons. If I pushed for it I'm sure they would have still given me some, but I figured I'd be fine without them...
I flew back to the top of the tower. As I was entering the observation room I could see Belfos jumping over the western wall. He landed directly on top of a Butcher while spearing another one off to his right that was cutting through my forces. He then charged his right arm (his spear arm) to the max before firing the Butcher like a bullet directly at one of the Destroyers.
It hit the Destroyer directly in his chest, sending him flying backwards along the ground for well over a mile. As it slid (and randomly rolled) it destroyed hundreds of machines and several of the dump trucks parked behind it.
This caught the attention of the other Destroyers, who had promptly turned their guns toward Belfos, and while he was only hit a couple of times before retreating back behind the wall, the damage done to him was tremendous. He had to kneel down the moment he was on our side and begin healing immediately. There was a the large chunk missing from the left side of his torso and the small part of his right upper-thigh.
'Destroyers' really is a fitting name for them...
"Captain, they have an internal repair system as well. The downed Destroyer will be back in action soon enough." Clover said.
"What the hell, Clover? Why are these things so strong? Could you really not beat the Velashar with them?"
"That was Baal's plan before he became obsessed with his Machine God, but do not underestimate how much is required to build a single Destroyer and keep it operable. It may seem overpowered, but without support and supplies, they don't last for very long."
While he was saying that I could see half a dozen Warriors carrying large plastic containers out of one of the downed dump trucks toward the Destroyer who was also still on the ground.
... Well whatever, once the hellfire is complete I'll make my move and wipe out every single machine within a few miles around my base, that should give me plenty of time to finish creating the other buildings.
----------------------------------------
"They are beginning now." The Succubi said.
About time... The sound of Destroyers firing into my walls was starting to sound like nails on a chalkboard.
The Demonic emblem on the ground began to glow as the Demons finished channeling the spell, and almost immediately the sky turned orange as fireballs started raining down out of the clouds.
Barely five seconds passed before a large explosion rocked the backside of my tower.
"You guys weren't kidding about the friendly fire huh? That didn't take long at all."
The Succubi awkwardly patted the back of his head and bowed a little, "Y-Yes, it's not an easy spell to aim, so they may have overextended a little in this direction..."
Several more explosions rocked the area below us. One hit the foundation for the Crematory, and the other landed so close to the Demonic emblem that it killed six of the Imps. The remaining ones continued channeling into the emblem with the Satyrs.
For the most part it looked worth it though. For the most part, that is. Lots of fireballs were landing on the machines and killing them outright, but too many of the fireballs were being shot out of the sky. The three Destroyers (the other was up again), Snipers, and all of the Warriors were firing wildly into the sky. If nothing else, it made for a very pretty light show.
Luna, I doubt I have bad enough luck to get struck by a fireball in the back, but just in case, keep an eye out and protect me if that does end up happening.
{Okay!}
Malafir and the other Liches cast a mass speed buff on all of the skeletons as I took flight out of the tower.
The skeletons charged forward as the three Liches hit them with the same damage buff that was used back in Xethra to kill the Gheists. Their arms and weapons faintly glowed blue, and while it was clearly making a huge difference, as I could see them cutting through several of the Butchers much easier this time, I also knew this wasn't the type of spell you could use very often. Unlike back in Xethra, this time I had a far greater sense of what was happening to my mana, and that spell wasn't a one-time-use kind of drain, it was constantly draining my generators.
Still though, if there was ever a time to go all out, this was that time.
I flew through the air in an arc on the right side toward one of the Destroyers. Its gun remained firing into the air as its eyes focused solely on me.
"Clover, where is its power core located?!"
"You intend to remove its ability to power itself? Smart, but difficult. It has six different conduits and they all self repair."
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
Oh my god these fucking machines...
He continued, "Remove its arms and legs. Those it can't repair without a large amount of materials. It'll put them out of the fight for now until you can finish them later."
Him saying that reminded me of the very first machine I had seen when I first arrived back on Caedrus. It was a Destroyer on the beach that had broken legs and no arms.
The Warriors around it had shot a fireball slightly above the Destroyer when I was about fifty feet away from it, and while it wasn't particularly damaged, it did make it stumble to the left a little. In that moment it lost sight of me for a second, which gave me time to swing around behind it and punch it square in its back at max strength.
The Destroyer flew into the ground and slid along the snow as it scrambled to turn over, but by the time it did, I was already smashing the joints connecting its left leg and torso.
At this distance it couldn't use its large rifle against me, so it pulled out a 'small' (it was still as big as a vehicle) handgun out of a compartment on its right side. Although, instead of firing it at me, it began swinging the firearm at me. Which honestly wasn't a bad idea. It'd still do massive damage to me if it actually landed, and firing at me wouldn't have been much better at this range.
More compartments on the Destroyer's torso opened up as several quadrupedal turtle-shaped machines came crawling out of them. Aren't those are the machines I saw in the dead zone? I guess now I'll get to see what they're capable of.
I flew over to the Destroyer's other leg and began to punch at its joints as the turtle machines leaped through the air in my direction. The leap itself was going to cover the entire distance between us, and while in the air every single one of them fired a stream of electricity at me from their eyes.
Even with my extreme defense against electricity I could feel something attempting to lock me in place, and the more streams of electricity that attached me to them, the more I could feel my body stiffen up. Ahh, I see now... These ones are meant to debilitate enemies.
The turtle-machines spread out, keeping their electricity streams going as they hit me from all sides.
The Destroyer (now legless as I had just finished breaking the other joint) raised its pistol at me, this time planning to shoot me almost point blank. The barrel was wide enough that I could almost walk into it upright if I wanted, so if I truly was stuck there's a good chance I would've died here.
As the Destroyer pulled back the trigger I flew into the air, dodging the bullet and dragging the turtle machines into the air. Apparently this ability of theirs acted like a tether, so I grabbed all of the tethers one by one until they were all in my right hand and then whipped them into the Destroyer's head, doing far more damage than even I had intended. Its head basically exploded as it tried to hit me with the gun again and again.
After that it didn't take long for me to destroy both of its shoulder joints, and once it was incapacitated I made my way toward the other two Destroyers who were firing into the sky while staring at me.
The moment I looked at them they began to shimmy toward one another. Apparently they were hoping that if they were close to one another they'd fare better against me, but I had no intention on attacking them. There was no need for me to bother now that a large contingent of my skeletons were about to reach them. I had one group split off and make a mad dash for the Destroyers, and while some bad luck had resulted in a third of them dying to a fireball, the others were most undamaged and moments away from reaching their target.
I flew into the sky to avoid several sniper rounds as my skeletons began to scale the Destroyer's legs. More turtle machines emerged from their torsos and did their best to lock as many skeletons down as they could, but it wasn't enough. With the ancient magic buffs to my skeletons weapons, they were cutting through the both the turtle machines and the Destroyer's joints at a pace they couldn't keep up with. It wasn't exactly fast, but they were still achieving something that would've been impossible without the magical buffs given to them.
One of the Destroyers dropped his rifle and began grabbing groups of skeletons off the other one before crushing them in his hand, which was a wise move, except the time at which he chose to do so had not quite worked out in his favor. The Warriors and other Destroyer weren't able to deal with the mass amount of fireballs coming down onto their location, which resulted in one of them hitting the Destroyer square in his upper torso.
This was both good and bad. It wiped out a lot of my skeletons in the process, and for whatever reason part of the other Destroyer's upper-right chest exploded from the inside (I vaguely heard Clover say it might have been an overload or overheat issue), so both of them were collapsing onto their backs from the force of the explosion.
Before they even hit the ground my skeletons had already chopped off one of their arms and were making their way toward the other one.
While this was going on I was killing one Sniper after another (and whatever Lobbers I happened to see along the way). They had given up their positions long ago and hadn't bothered to reposition, so it made my job quite easy. Although a few of them were attempting to hide as they saw me slaying their comrades, but by that point it was far too late.
{Mother, the Succubi says the spell is going to finish soon.}
As fast as I could I finished the remaining Snipers and killed swathes of Warriors before flying back to the tower while ordering the remaining skeletons to retreat as well.
"They are bringing more bodies for you as we speak." The Succubi said as I entered the Observation room.
"Time on Leviathan arriving?"
"Four hours." Clover responded.
We'll be fine until then unless something else happens, but I really doubt it if they're only trying to delay us.
After meditating for a few moments to repair the slight injuries I had, I flew down to the two unfinished buildings and began channeling into them. While I was doing that Belfos kept jumping over the wall to bring more skeletal remains back to the base. Hopefully some of these can be repaired...
The Crematory was halfway finished when I heard fluttering from my left. Looking in that direction I saw hordes of mantis flying into the air, spreading out in all directions. Even with all of this tech my best scouts are still a bunch of flying insects. It'd be different if I had a Titan on my side, but alas, there's only one of them. And speaking of which...
"Clover, how is everyone doing near the Daemon portal?"
"Anyone who needed medical attention has been taken care of and is currently recuperating inside the Titan. Any salvageable Mechs have been broken down and are on their way back to Arcadia. Lastly, everyone who remained is waiting for you."
"To move west?"
"Correct. Although, do not think it a negative that you require more time. They are happy for the breather. Even that Archdemon is." Clover said.
A few moments later the Crematory was finished, and all three of us immediately moved over to the Armory.
{This one will require far less time, Mother. The building itself is rather simple. The issue is the creations themselves. They'll take far longer if you mean to fully equip all of your soldiers.}
Hmm, for now we'll equip enough to start moving west, and then we'll continue gearing them up in groups before shipping them west.
I need to look for another base while we advance as well... In the end I'll probably have two dozen bases by the time I reach the bridge to the portal. If there are any large negatives to having that many ether generators, then I'm about to find out.
Skeletons began to walk into the Crematory on Malafir's orders.
{Mother; Giants, casters, scouts, and soldiers. Please determine the ratio.}
They're kind of self explanatory, but even so can you go into more detail?
{Of course. Giants are the most expensive to create, both in terms of time and mana costs, as it requires that we expand every single bone, but they are more than worth it. I suggest you keep at least two in every unit. They'll be very useful at bringing down those Butchers that are giving us so much trouble. As will the casters for that matter.}
I listened as he explained how each type of skeleton operated, and as expected they were definitely self explanatory. However, one part really stuck out to me.
... The scouts can really turn invisible and they're harmed by light?
{Indeed. Just like you.}
That explains why I couldn't find anything in the Abyss' logs about a God that could turn invisible or was harmed by light. I figured it was a lord or spawn to a God that wasn't recorded in those books, and looks like I was right. Although, it's still surprising that it was Naza'shier again. Most of my core is from her it seems.
I'll leave the ratio to you. For now I just want to see how they operate.
Just then something stuck out to me about Clover's last message.
"Clover... You said the Archdemon is happy for the breather?"
He simply replied, "Yes."
"Why would any delay on my part give him a break? I mean, the Daemons are far to the south of us now with their God."
"I believe I see where the miscommunication is. The Archdemon known as 'Asmodeous' will be pushing west with us. He affirmed this soon after the Daemons left." Clover said, leaving me even further confused.
{Perhaps he believes the Machine God will come back to assist his ally.}
Do you really believe that, Malafir?
{Not even a little bit.}
Me either... Admittedly, it'd help a lot if the Demons truly are sticking around to support us -a line I never thought I'd utter- but... Yeah, the only reason I can see him doing that is because he intends on taking over Arcadia with his little sex cult. He managed to rally all of those losers into battling a Daemonic force, so swaying them into killing anyone who disagrees with him ruling over Arcadia wouldn't be very difficult.
Glancing behind me, I could see the Imps and Satyr who survived the hellfire resting. Unsure of whether they could hear me or not, I walked into the Crematory and ducked behind a large black vat.
"Clover, in your estimation, how would we fare against Asmodeous and all of his followers inside of Arcadia?"
"A necessary precaution. I was going to bring it up later, but I see you were already worried about such a future coming to pass." He continued, "High odds we would win, but would that be a true victory? The population inside of Arcadia would drop to around twenty percent, and that's only if we lost nobody on our side. Which is statistically impossible. Also, more will fall under his influence as time passes, so Arcadia itself could possibly end up as a ghost ship again if it becomes necessary to purge Asmodeous and all of his followers."
T-Twenty percent?! I knew his influencing was growing but I didn't know it had gotten that bad that quickly...
Ether swelled up around me as the Crematory came to life. Malafir floated into the room, followed by dozens of skeletons pushing black-blood wheelbarrows full of bones.
Malafir rubbed his boney palm over the vat, "This here, is what attempts to fix bones that are beyond our ability to repair. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't."
The skeletons dropped the wheelbarrows and began to toss all of the bones into the vat. Once they were done a thin veil of blood covered the top as the vat started to hum.
"How long does this take?"
"About an hour." He replied, before leading the skeletons over to the coffin-like objects lining the walls. He placed one skeleton in each one, but the only one whose purpose was obvious, was the one that was twice the size of the others. However, once they were all inside the coffins I felt a pulse from him that held a message which activated each coffin accordingly.
Ahh, so that's how it's done... Very simple and easy to use.
"Just to confirm. A 'Soldier' is basically a stronger version of the regular skeletons?"
"Indeed. More base mana, stronger bones, and they are more intelligent."
Didn't expect that last part, but it's a nice bonus. Sometimes they screw up even the most basic of orders, which is a pain to deal with, so hopefully that won't happen anymore.
After that I finished building the Armory while Malafir stayed in the Crematory, empowering as many skeletons as he could while creating new skeletal frames out of any bones the vat managed to repair.
"Rei! How much longer?" Shizue said from behind me at the entrance. I was currently in the Armory watching the new Soldiers being outfitted. This group was being given war hammers and medium armor - a step below my own (as I was currently wearing heavy armor). The war hammer was done within ten minutes, but the armor was taking about an hour.
"A couple of days, probably. Is anything wrong?"
Shizue shook her head, "No no, I just really want to get this march started. I uh..." She looked around the Armory with a disgusted look on her face, "... I really like you, Rei, but your base is making me sick. Not mentally, I mean my soul... It wasn't too bad at the start but it's starting to feel weird lately."
"What the... How come you didn't say anything?? I would've sent you to be with Yulong!"
She chuckled, "Because you needed our help, dummy. I know you've been busy so you probably don't know what's been going on south of here. I can manage, but the others were running on fumes for a while there, especially Eve. We've had to alternate groups so some of us could get a few hours of sleep and a break to eat, but they were nearing their breaking point before that uh, Eldritch of yours showed up."
I hadn't heard a peep from Eve's group so I thought they were fine. Every time I looked to the south they were fighting and winning, but as usual I forgot there is one major difference between me and regular people. I can stay awake and operate for a long time, and I can eat weeks worth of food to sustain myself, which are both things that they obviously can't do. It would've been risky to assist them in person, but it still would've been better than leaving them to fend for themselves...
"Sorry I left you guys alone, Shizue... And thank you for all the help. You should go join Yulong now and get away from this place." I looked at one of the Soldiers who had finally finished arming himself, and at the same time Shizue had to step out of the way to let a Skeleton Giant into the Armory. I finally got a good look at one of the monsters and chuckled, "I'm pretty sure I'll be fine from here on out. And even if Atraxu does hit me with a massive force out of nowhere, Yulong is in the Leviathan and it's almost here, so there's no need for you to harm yourself by staying here longer."
Shizue smiled softly at me, "You don't need to apologize, I'm glad we could help, and I'll see you again soon, okay?"
I smiled back at her as she waved and left the Armory.
{Such a sweet girl! And we'll be fine without her now. Belfos says it's still a wave of the same machines coming at us. Oh, and a few more Destroyers too.}
Which are still devastating as a unit, but it won't be long until they're going to need far more to bring me down.
----------------------------------------
I watched as a dozen of the Caster Skeletons summoned fireballs and dropped them into the palms of the Giants, who then proceeded to throw them far off past the walls into the machines outside.
I merely thought about how nice it'd be to cast hellfire again before we start pushing west, and the Liches came up with their own version of it... I'm really enjoying this feeling of having useful and intelligent subordinates.
I flew up into the Observation room and watched as the fireballs decimated large swathes of Warriors and eventually brought down one of the Destroyers.
As entertaining as it was, I could see the armor on the Giant's hands beginning to break apart. Not an issue with the Crematory and Armory nearby, but outside of the base this strategy can only be used sparingly it seems.
{The Casters can fire the magic themselves, but they will not achieve the distance the Giants are able to produce while using very little mana.}
The 'very little mana' part is key. These new and improved skeletons cost a hell of a lot, so we tried building another ether generator, but it turns out there really is a limit. We're completely draining the area around us of its ether, so this is our max until we create another base far away from here.
The radio buzzed before I heard Yulong's voice, "You done, Rei?"
"Yeah, the experiment is over, you can push forward and start wiping them out now. We'll be right behind you."
The Leviathan was parked a mile behind my base currently, and as soon as I finished speaking it began to move again, circling around the mountain.
We'll need to stop a few times to setup new towers and a few more bases along the way. Bases for a multitude of reasons, and towers because they connect my generators to me and my army over long distances. It'll be devastating if Atraxu manages to destroy a tower while I'm not in range of the base or other towers, but that's just how my army works. Gotta take some risks to push forward, so I'll need to leave summons behind to defend each area, but at the same time each base gives me more access to ether.
All in all, I'm actually really happy with the skill set I inherited from Naza'shier. Her 'Dark Architect' title is a perfect fit for her.