Vafum Broadbane cursed as he ducked under a magic warhammer, only the dwarf’s stature keeping his head on his shoulders. He thrust his hand forward, finishing the magic circle he was making directly in front of a golem’s torso. A powerful Water Beam assaulted the golem’s HP, magic bindings, and metal body all at once. The monster staggered back but remained standing. Vafum cursed again.

He was getting rusty with all this paperwork. Agedia would laugh if she could see him now. Tiberius would have a smug look on his face after all the crap Vafum gave him about being a ‘paper explorer.’ But on the bright side, he wouldn’t have much paperwork in his future.

Mostly because the city he suddenly became responsible for no longer had a future.

The dwarven colony of Khalbuldor, the industrial heart of Utrad’s capital Velusitum, was in rough shape. Or rather, the city was little more than pebbles and rubble at this point. All that was left were the fortifications at the city gate, which were crumbling by the second. An army of golems assaulted them in the open, while underground monsters were destabilizing the walls from underneath, as they had with most of the dwarven settlement.

It turned out there were risks to building right on top of a dungeon. And now the Mines of Might had gone rogue.

Under normal circumstances, both the dwarves of Khalbuldor and the Imperial garrison in Velusitum had more than sufficient arrangements for this exact contingency. But these were not normal circumstances. Since the Council of Khalbuldor had thrown in with Caelinus’s little rebellion, they had been forced to flee after the man was slain by the Queen of the Dobhar. And with them had gone all of Khalbuldor’s strongest warriors, most of whom were clansmen and clanswomen of the city’s elite. They had also taken most of the powerful artifacts and weaponry, so Vafum wouldn’t have had anything to arm any potential fighters with. And they had taken what remained of the treasury, so he had nothing with which to acquire new weapons. And most of the best smiths in Khalbuldor were either Yudric’s kin or disciples, so there was no one to make new weapons even if Vafum could have afforded to pay them.

The point was, Khalbuldor was all but defenseless when the monsters began pouring out of its dungeon. Vafum didn’t even bother trying to protect the city, and so managed to evacuate most of the people. He then petitioned Velusitum for help, and was now trying to hold the gates of Khalbuldor with the Legion.

Only, the Legion wasn’t in much better shape.

Thanks to Caelinus’s rebellion, Utrad had lost most of its legions. The Northern Court sent some of its own to man the province, but it couldn’t replace all of the losses without leaving itself vulnerable elsewhere. As a result, the legions it sent were stationed to protect the borders, leaving the interior largely unmanned.

Velusitum managed to keep its garrison, as Caelinus had never arrived there and so it never officially joined the rebellion. But still, the legion had been heavily scrutinized and most of its leaders and officers were either arrested or reassigned to other provinces, including most of its mages. And, of course, Corvanus had not been in a rush to replace them.

Which was a serious problem, as the Mines of Might was an Earth and Metal affinity dungeon. It required specialized tactics to deal with its physically resilient golems and to counter its subterranean monsters. Normal legionnaires and fortifications just couldn’t contain those threats alone.

But normal legionnaires were all they had at the moment.

And since all the legions in the province were needed at the border, there were no reinforcements available. From what little news Vafum had heard since this disaster started, the rest of the province might be worse off. He was told refugees were streaming into Velusitum from across the province...which was bad considering the army of golems about to spill out into the city, should Vafum and the Legion fall.

What he wouldn’t give to have his friends back.

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At that moment a giant mole-bear broke through the ground behind Vafum, disrupting the legion formation around him. Vafum himself was thrown forward, landing right in front of the golem he had pushed back. The golem immediately raised its warhammer. Vafum cursed as he was the hammer approach.

He saw the light flash off the approaching hammer.

Or rather…the light smashed through the approaching hammer. And straight through the golem’s torso. Vafum blinked and glanced behind him. Something was approaching in the distance, from the air.

“GET AWAY FROM HIM!”

Something shot past him and crashed into the horde of golems ahead of him. Vafum’s eyes widened as he heard the voice. He shook his head and rubbed his eyes to make sure he hadn’t become delusional in his final moments.

Because standing before him, crushing a golem with her tail while piercing another with her lance, was Agedia, with the Dobhar warrior from before following closely behind. The Dobhar Warrior’s spear began to glow as mana wrapped around it, allowing it to pierce through the golems.

Another flash of light caused him to turn around…and his eyes widened even further. Amulius, the Hero of Elteno, was aiming with his bow. An armored mage Vafum didn’t recognize was raining beams on the horde. And flying in the air above them…were the little lass and lad, Ateia and Taog.

Only, they did not look so little anymore.

Ateia flew on wings of metal and light, the golden and silver glow reflecting off her shiny armor. One of her eyes glowed red from underneath the helmet covering half her head as she drew her bow and aimed it towards the ground. She let loose and arrows of light surged forward, piercing directly into the ground.

Vafum heard monsters crying out from below.

Taog shot below, forming an Earth magic circle to open a hole in the ground. He dove down into it, the darkness moving to wrap around him as he leapt into the tunnels underneath the walls. The roars and cries of monsters continued from below.

Meanwhile, as all eyes turned to Ateia, she closed her eyes for a moment. She then spread her hands out and golden-silver light illuminated each dwarf and Imperial on the field.

Vafum’s eyes couldn’t grow any wider as his wounds healed, his mana regenerated, and his strength surged.

Oh, and as words passed before his eyes.

The spell protocol: Shaped Metal Blast has been shared with you.

Assisted casting is available. Engage spellcasting assistance protocol?

Words that were like…the ones from the Aesdes.

“By the Aesdes above and the Domides below, what is going on here?!”

But under the circumstances, Vafum wouldn’t turn down aid out of confusion. He went ahead and ‘engaged spellcasting assistance protocols’ or whatever this was. Warm Holy mana wrapped around his own as an Illusion laid out a spell circle he had never seen before. A sphere of metal formed in front of him as the spell completed and shot towards one of the golems.

On contact with the golem, the sphere condensed into a thin metal rod that accelerated at rapid speed on contact, piercing straight through its core.

Vafum watched as what few other mages were around casted the same spell. As Holy mana wrapped around the shields of bulwarks, and enabled them to catch blows without budging an inch. As Holy mana wrapped around halberds and warhammers, which now left dents and cracks in the golems. As dwarven miners swinging their pickaxes at random suddenly started to connect, their mining gear striking at the exact spots to tear the golems apart.

And all across the field, tiny flying golems began to buzz overhead, and glow. Mana Barriers formed automatically whenever a fighter was in danger, protecting them from further harm. Beam spells began to rain from the sky, damaging the tougher golems and destroying the weaker ones outright.

It did not take long after that for the horde to thin out.

As the battle wrapped up, Vafum stomped right up to Agedia. She grinned at him.

“Hi Vafum! How are you—”

She was interrupted as Vafum hugged her.

“I’ve never been gladder to see you, lass.”

She returned the embrace, and they let go. Vafum then turned to glance at Ateia descending from the sky and Taog breaking up through the ground. The soldiers and volunteers were all staring at the pair with wide eyes.

“Now, I think you have some serious explaining to do.”

She nodded, and then started to smirk.

“The Hero is back and Ateia’s an Aesdes. Oh, Taog’s a hero now, too. Now if you’ll excuse us, shiny girl told us to handle this dungeon.”

Vafum cursed as Agedia rushed into Khalbuldor, heading towards the dungeon, with the other newcomers following her.

“That is NOT an explanation, Agedia! Get back here!”

Meanwhile, a soldier who happened to be nearby stared with his eyes going as wide as they could. He spoke in a whisper.

“That…was an Aedes? They came for us?”

Whispers began to spread across the defenders of Velusitum as Vafum swore and started looking for a drink.