Chapter 271

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth

Dungeon Factory, Core Fortress

Only silence reigned in the throne room, as Alexandra held the spear.

Emilia opened and closed her mouth half a dozen times, but nothing came out.

What could she say? Her dungeon core was holding a Seraphim weapon, forged by Divine hands, meant for the servants of the Gods.

A weapon meant to kill her.

Finally, the vampire managed to speak.

"I-I…I don't know! It can't be!"

"Yet, it seems like it is."

Sarah, the maid, stepped forward…and came to a halt as CQ half drew her sword out of its scabbard.

The silence became even deeper. None of the golems even twitched.

But they suddenly became sinister. Alexandra could practically feel Ella scanning the room packed with automata, as Sarah stared at her niece in all but name in utter shock.

CQ shook her head minutely, and the maid returned to her spot, with slow and telegraphed movements.

This was between her parents, and them alone.

The advisor hadn't even noticed the commotion. She was completely focused on the dungeon core and her avatar.

"I swear, I don't know! It…some divine relics are left from the Old World! Maybe it's one of those!"

"Perhaps. Perhaps not. But I'd like to know. Would the God of Fire allow them to be used?"

Emilia licked her lips.

"Yes. Yes. Just like artificial dungeon cores."

"Interesting. But not without supervision?"

The vampire seemed to deflate.

"...No."

"Thought not." Alexandra extended her arm, and the commander of her Praetorian guard stepped forward and grabbed the spear. "Then I believe we have a problem, do we not?"

"If the Custodians had wished you dead…"

"I would be already? I'm not so sure. But that is a discussion for later." Alexandra snapped her fingers, and the golems began streaming out as CQ's hand left her sword's pommel. Both maids relaxed noticeably, even through their armor. "We have other priorities for now. Namely, we must warn our allies…and make sure news of this assassination attempt never make it out."

"Why?" Asked Emilia, timidly.

"Because from now on, smokes and mirrors are the only way we're getting out of this alive."

*****

"Holy shit." Said Allya as she sat down, collapsed, really, on the seat of her secure cabin onboard the Dusk Blade.

She had to make her way back to Darthar's airfield, and this time her bodyguards had brokered no delays. When there was a trio of heavily armed spider tanks leading the way, no one, no matter how thankful, was going to stand in the way to try to catch a glimpse of the city's savior.

"Quite." Simply said Alexandra's ambassador golem.

"Are you…alright?" Asked Pyn, the elf looking deeply unsettled.

"Physically? Yes. Emotionally? No. Someone with divine weapons tried to kill me."

"The guild." Said Allya.

"Yes. And the United Dungeon Council. And Sunrise."

"True, but the adventurers guild would be the only ones to have the means to kill a dungeon core on hand."

"Which they wouldn't have without permission or oversight."

The baroness grimaced.

"Yeah…"

Pyn was looking confused, then utterly horrified.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Are…are you saying the church tried to assassinate you?!?"

Allya didn't budge. She'd done the math.

Her grim expression said it all.

"Maybe they did. Maybe they didn't. But either way, they certainly didn't stand in the way."

"Perhaps they didn't know?" Offered the elf.

"Bullshit. The Adjudicator showed up the minute I acquired the NLR core."

"She's right." Allya shifted, and met her fiancée's gaze. "Alex's right. The church has to have known."

"Then…then…"

"We're not dead yet. But our patronage may be tenuous." Said Alexandra.

"And it calls into question the establishment of the temple in Rebirth." The baroness' expression was getting gloomier by the second. "Shit, it calls into question everyone else!"

"It does. We're caught between the hammer and the anvil. A shadow war between the Church and the Order."

"Just pieces on the board."

"Quite. Pawns to be moved or sacrificed. I think this…it might have been a test. A test to draw out the Order."

"Why?"

"I, or at least the dungeon, seem to be vital to their plans. Something has gone wrong, or I wouldn't be alive. But they either seem determined to keep going regardless or simply aren't aware of it." That would explain a lot. Especially if they thought she was on their side, or maybe one of their own. "The Church-" The Custodians, really. "-must have figured that out as well, and used me as bait. Maybe, just maybe, if I was in actual danger, the Order would throw itself in the way, or at least be drawn from the shadows."

"That makes a frightening amount of sense. So we're just, stuck between two leviathans?"

"We always were. They've just begun tightening the gap."

"...It's going to get a lot worse, isn't it?"

Alexandra sighed.

"As I said. I think the Order's goal is to cause a planet wide war." And the Church's. But one step at a time. First a crack, then widen it, and finally bring down the whole edifice of belief. "They might succeed. But even if they don't, they'll cause enough chaos that, yes, things are going to get a lot worse. The Eris Empire only needs a simple shove to be brought down, and the Order is preparing a veritable tsunami."

"...You're planning a lot more than what you've told us, haven't you?"

"Yes. As I said from the very beginning. I will keep some secrets from you."

"Will you tell us?"

Alexandra looked at the baroness, and for a second she looked…vulnerable. A tired soldier with the weight of the world on her shoulders.

"Will I? I don't know. In time…maybe. But you said it yourself. This calls everyone into question, doesn't it?"

Allya nodded.

"I understand."

"Thank you." The dungeon core's voice was soft, almost delicate.

"So…what do we tell the guild? Or the UDC?" Pyn shrugged as they looked at her. "I know, I know! We have to bury it, we talked about it. But should we, like, hint at it? Make them sweat a bit?"

Alexandra shook her head.

"No. It's tempting, but…no. The attack just vanishing without a trace will buy us time. And time is our most precious commodity now."

"Plus, the less they know, the less they'll have to go off of for the next attempt." Allya shrugged as her fiancée looked at her. "You know what my job used to be. There's never only one assassination attempt. Or even only one successful kill. Once you've crossed the line…"

"Each order makes the next one easier." Whispered the elf.

"Yeah. It's a slippery slope. Frictionless even. Best solution is to never step on it to begin with."

"Well, they have." Alexandra's voice was grim. "And I don't think they'll be stopping."

"No. No they won't." Allya shook her head. "But at least if we keep quiet they'll probably try to figure out if their team even made it to begin with."

"They might also delay their cleanup efforts to break the trail."

"Perhaps. Or they could double down on it. The commandos, did they get soul sealed?"

"No. I don't know why."

"Why bother?" They both looked at Pyn, and the elf shrugged. "You said it yourself back then. If we accuse them of trying to kill you, they say it's to justify your conquest, the UDC attacks, they win. You die, they win. They win no matter what."

"Right. Yeah, that makes sense. But they have to be worried about us interrogating them at least."

"The goons won't know anything the higher ups wouldn't want us to." Allya rubbed her eyes. "And I mean those high up in that mess. Sunrise clearly realized there was no point in trying to deny who they were, if it came down to it."

"Most likely. Well, I'll start working on contingency measures."

"Good luck. We'll do what we can here. Try and convince the Count to give you access to that crashed voidship."

Alexandra looked at the baroness, pityingly.

"Allya…I already have access to it. I entered it a few hours after the Count showed it to us."

Her golem left the room, with the two speechless nobles simply staring as she closed the door.

*****

"Status report." Alexandra's voice brimmed with authority and sheer command power as she stalked her core fortress' hallway.

"The teleport redirect room has been restored and restaffed. Additional conventional security measures are being emplaced, as ordered." Said Seraph. The vampires were absent, but Alexandra was being followed by a gaggle of AIs, including CQ and Ghost. Her daughter who looked positively grim, and not just because she'd been pulled out of Darthar.

"The blast doors?"

"Replacing them as we speak. Though the one to the core fortress will take longer. Thankfully, the fabricators will be able to salvage the materials."

"Good. Ghost, point defence?"

"I'm rushing forward a prototype. It should work against one attack. Maybe two. But not sustained orbital bombardment." Her other self shrugged. "I'll be working on expanding that, but without orbital assets or a city wide shield, it will mostly be a waste of resources."

"We'll have the shield soon. Subtlety, as soon as you're back, load the baroness' gifts onboard. I'll have the launchers to use them ready when you arrive."

"Yes ma'am." The AI didn't even blink. Ghost did however.

"Not afraid of the guild reacting?"

"There's very little escalation beyond what they've already done, and they know it. We'll get those Old World missiles, and make a show of loading them in. Fuck them and the horses they rode in on."

"Not arguing, just pointing out potential issues."

Alexandra stopped, and turned to face her other self.

"I know, and I appreciate that. Trira has contingencies in place however."

"It's going to be bloody."

"I don't care. Either the guild jumps or it doesn't. Either way, it's days are numbered, in Rebirth and beyond. We also have our own win/win situations."

"Point taken. And…and Emilia?"

Alexandra closed her eyes, and took in a deep breath.

All the AIs knew exactly what was happening. CQ had also been briefed.

It hadn't been an easy decision, but after she'd had visions of the nuke, at the height of the battle of Darthar…there was no choice.

"I've cracked her belief in the God of Fire. That's all we need. The Church's actions will widen it all on its own. Then we'll just need to give the final push."

Everyone nodded, and Alexandra…she wondered if that was exactly what the Order was doing, but on a planetary scale? Preparing the way for a collapse of belief in the God of Fire. Setting the stage for the Church to kill itself, just like they'd set up Starvak to destroy the guild's moral authority, and were bracing for its destruction.

Something to dwell on. But later. Much later. For now, there were other, more immediate priorities.

"And what about her family? They'll be unshaken. And we can't just tell them what happened." Not without contradicting what the control programs had seen anyway.

And somebody had downloaded a report on it. They'd seen the code.

Yet another point for the Church being behind this.

It was just a question of time until they flipped the killswitch now.

"We can tell them a partial version."

"What if Emilia contradicts us?"

"She won't." Everyone turned towards CQ. "Mommy would never betray mom. She already cries a lot when you're not looking about everything she has to keep from you, like blood magic."

Alexandra nodded.

"I know she won't." Said the dungeon core, softly. "If she hasn't betrayed us to the Adjudicator, she won't now. I'll tell her our official version of events, tell her it's modified to throw off the next attempt, in case those that sent the assassins managed to get wind of it. Hell, it'd be true, more or less."

"Roger that." Ghost, for once, wasn't arguing for Emilia being a liability, which was a refreshing change.

It looked like the vampire had finally fully broken through her other self's armor. About damned time.

"And one last project for you. I need bunker busters."

"For Subtlety?"

"No. For the nuclear missiles." Alexandra smiled mirthlessly. "If we're fighting the UDC…we're going to need to fight dungeons. The Custodians themselves we can't reach with nukes. But those they control? That's a different matter entirely."

"What about the other plan?"

"If we free them from the control programs, it might not change their opinion of us at all. They may be entirely sincere and free of manipulation in their beliefs we must be killed." Alexandra's gaze sharpened as Ghost opened her mouth. "And I refuse to stoop down to the Terran Hegemony's level and start brainwashing AIs or puppeteering them. Understood?"

"Alright."

"Good. But we still do need to clear our friends in the UDC of those programs." Alexandra's mirthless smiled turned wicked. "Thankfully, our dear would be dungeonslayers brought all we need. I'll handle the physical parts, you just need to finish the code."

"And what of the vectors?"

"I'm sure I can convince Emilia to gather the advisors at some point."

"The neutralizers…"

"If we do it right, they'll implant the codes in the advisors, and piggyback into their dungeon cores. No one will be harmed, the advisors will just have a headache."

"That's a pretty damned big if."

"I know. But sometimes you have to roll the damned dice."

"I prefer not to rely on luck."

"That's why we're going to cheat as hard as we can. Just like we always have."

"Roger."

"Alright. Then everyone, get back to your posts! We have work to do, and its about damned time we got started in earnest!"