“That is them, yes?” Kervantes asked, pausing his digging.

Rieren had gone still too. She was trying to see if she could make out specifics from all those yells and shrieks, but it was more difficult than she had thought. They were too far away, nothing more than vague spectators not to the battle, but the fact that there was a chaotic battle itself.

“We will need to hurry,” Rieren said.

Kervantes resumed his little pulses. “Good thing then that I have nearly finished.”

In fact, a few moments after he stopped talking, a little hole popped open. A tiny bit of the ceiling fell away from them and water seeped through the crack, granting the first view of the chamber’s innards.

Of course, it was still rather tiny. The ceiling was also thick enough that Rieren couldn’t simply press her eyes against the incision and hope to angle herself in a way she could see everything. Instead, she had to wait until Kervantes had finished making the hole bigger.

But it had still opened them up to all the scrams. The shrieks and yells were far louder now. Most of the noise was obviously from the various monsters, but among them, Rieren could make out people yelling too. Those were accompanied by muted thumps and other noises indicating battle. Whatever was going on below them, it was furious.

“I am done,” Kervantes said, pulling himself away from the crumbly edge of the hole.

Rieren, however, leaned forward. The view was spectacular.

Just as the pandemonium indicated, the battle was ferocious. The invaders, as Kervantes had called them, had come through the western end of the chamber. It seemed Essalina’s theory had held a great deal of merit. The hole she had carved was natural and smooth, not a jagged entry created by blasting apart rocks with powerful skills or techniques.

Numerous though the combined might of the Sect and the Arteroth contingent was, there were far, far more Abyssals than them. Not a single one of them could hope to take down that entire army even all together.

Rieren could spot E-Grade Armistice Enforcers all over the battlefield, D-Grade Blightmane Lykans running all over the area, and several C-Grade Life Stiflers and Malomen Shifters. There were even some Limbthieves here and there, if her vision wasn’t lying. Dozens upon dozens, scores flooding the entire room.

The dungeon had pulled out all the stops.

Worse than all that was the fact that it wasn’t just the Abyssals themselves fighting against the Sect and the Arteroth. There were several different Ceramic Automatons among the enemy too.

“Kervantes,” Rieren said. “I suppose you do not have control over your fellow automatons, do you?”

The gears in his head clicked. “Not in the way I assume you wish I did.”

“Regardless, we will need to stop them, however we can.”

If Kervantes was dismayed that they would have to act against his own kind, he gave no sign that he truly minded.

Sighing, Rieren tried to spot the greatest threats, the ones that she could best help with from her current position. Several of the largest Ceramic Automatons were hanging back near the rear of the press of monsters. They were tall humanoid beings, each armed with a gigantic metal staff that threw pulses of energy resembling the ones Kervantes had used.

Their attacks were raining down upon the invaders without giving a single moment of care for the monsters that were caught in the blasts. Of course, it seemed the guardians were smart enough to fling their violet pulses at the rear of the humans, where they caused most havoc without endangering their own side.

But the greatest chaos happened at the frontline. If ever there appeared a moment where it looked as though the invaders were about to take advantage of the situation, then the enormous guardians flung in their barrages to throw everything into disarray.

“The large ones,” Rieren said. She had seen them working before, and was well aware that they could be exploited, though she wasn’t sure about the specific location from which it could be done. “Where is their weak spot?”

Kervantes was silent for a moment. Maybe he was reluctant about revealing the vulnerabilities of his companions to a cultivator. But now wasn’t the time to hesitate on such matters.

“Kervantes! We need—”

“The rear. Worry not, I was only attempting to remember where exactly they were weak. There is a small platform on their rear where those who wish to perform technical maintenance on them head to, which is what you must use to bring them down.”

Rieren was about to ask why he had specified her, but then, Kervantes was still under the dungeon’s influence. He couldn’t go directly against it, even now.

“Good enough,” she said. “Thank you.”

Kervantes might have granted her more helpful information then, but there was no more time to waste. Rieren had enough to be going on with.

She got up and placed herself several paces away from the hole the automaton had dug. Then she ran, jumping off right when she reached the lip of their entry into the chamber below. As she was pelted by the rain, Rieren activated Fray Passage to boost her momentum.

As soon as she entered the chamber proper, the noise of the battle seemed to have grown exponentially. Besides that, the room was incredibly huge, threatening to invite her eyes to scour over the whole area and keep her distracted from the main fight. She pushed it aside and focused on her main objective.

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Her speed and angle were both nearly perfect. Rieren shot through the air towards the nearest gigantic guardian’s shoulder. Since she was coming from above, the unwary Ceramic Automaton didn’t see her falling. Not until she touched down with a heavy clang on its shoulder plate did it finally notice that there was someone far too close.

Rieren didn’t give it much of a chance to react. Her went condition meant actually landing with a proper footing would have been impossible.

Thankfully, Rieren wasn’t interested in landing down. All she did was use the shoulder plate as a platform to modulate her trajectory. A quick kick was enough to shift her momentum and redirect her closer to the actual platform that Kervantes had indicated.

The enormous guardian was too slow to react. Rieren landed heavily, then immediately swung around. She hadn’t needed to enquire what she had to do after the landing. Having seen the giant automatons in action before, she knew that all she needed to do was destroy just enough of their internal mechanisms to ruin their functioning.

As the Ceramic Automaton groaned out and tried to bring its huge staff to bear upon her, Rieren slashed forward. Right ahead of her on the platform, there was a hatch. One quick slice of her sword opened up the guardian’s innards to her.

Of course, randomly swinging at a bunch of spinning gears would have been too dangerous. Instead, Rieren slashed apart several of the nearby pipes and wires. She had also summoned her Domain to send her water in through the guardian’s back. That was enough to send violent sparks bursting around the automaton’s insides, wires jumping every which way.

Meanwhile, the cut-off pipes crashed into the spinning gears and turned everything into a mechanical disarray. Rieren pulled herself to the side as several of the mechanisms burst right out of their proper places and shot through the giant’s innards, severing even more along the way.

The gigantic automaton was already twisting about and trying to reach Rieren. But she had acted fast enough. The enormous arm making its way to her now fell down, having lost use of all the mechanisms powering it.

Next up, its leg fell too. The entire automaton started crashing towards the ground several dozen paces far below.

Rieren wasn’t about to wait and watch. The fall of the first automaton had alerted the others that there was something going on. While Rieren had gained their attention, it had at least given her allies the space they needed to take on the Abyssals without needing to worry about being hammered by a rain of violet death.

There was a lot around her that could have distracted Rieren then. The changing battle near the front of the chamber, the goings-on closer at hand.

Unfortunately, the violet pulses were now aimed at Rieren, so she had no time to gawk.

They were faster than she had thought. Rieren had to use Fray Passage to get out of their way, targeting the giant before her. It was better not to deflect them just in case.

Getting to the platform behind its back was going to b terribly difficult as well. She couldn’t very well jump that high, but one of the things that made the giants such terrifying enemies was the fact that they could fire from range with little repercussion. Now that Rieren was close enough, she could attack directly.

When the next violet pulse came at her, she jumped away instead of just dodging. The first gigantic Ceramic Automaton had finally reached the ground, and its impact set the entire chambering thundering and shaking. Rieren’s quick leap had allowed her to evade the worst of it.

As soon she landed again, she rushed towards her second opponent. Before it could launch another attack upon her, she activated Gale Blade.

The skill made the world blur as always, but as ever, its accuracy was inch perfect. Her Mind stat was high enough to let her react even that blurring speed, if just enough.

More importantly, her sword sheared around the automaton’s enormous leg. The appendage was thick enough that one slice didn’t do the trick. Rieren had to complete one slash, then turn around and finish the entire rigmarole with four more slashes.

Above her, the giant Ceramic Automaton groaned as its leg started buckling under it. Rieren began pulling herself away, but then, the giant stopped its fall. It had stabbed the butt of its huge staff to act as a substitute leg.

She blinked. Kervantes hadn’t mentioned these things were smart enough to do that, though she wasn’t truly shocked.

What did take her by actual surprise was its enormous mouth opening to reveal a thick nozzle ejecting from its centre. A moment later, a jet stream of violet aura shot at her even faster than the pulses had. Rieren was able to evade those too, but she had to use Fray Passage once again to take her out of the danger’s range.

She had to go pretty far. The third giant was firing at her too. She couldn’t focus on one of them only to have the other strike her down from behind.

But she could still take advantage of the terrain created by the first giant’s fall. Rieren dived back into the fray. If they were smart enough, they wouldn’t be able to manoeuvre around easily nor would they be able to keep shooting their attacks.

It turned out just as she had expected it to. Rieren rushed through the still-standing giants. When she used Gale Blade on the second giant’s other leg, the skill allowed her to both evade its violet jet and to take out its remaining limb. Of course, it tried to twist as fast as its enormous body allowed, only for its staff to get caught on its compatriot’s corpse.

That, combined with Rieren cutting through the other leg, finally caused it to crash to the ground. Once again, she had to jump to evade the worst of the impact when its wight touched the ground.

Rieren hadn’t destroyed its innards, so it was still trying to right itself and attack her. She wasn’t about to allow that for any longer than she had to. Rieren quickly found herself at its back, slashing open its hatch and cutting through the wires and pipes.

The giant attempted to roll around even as Rieren destroyed its innards, attempting to crush her before she could finish. Rieren was quick to dodge away, using Fray Passage to pull herself to safety while leaving a good bit of water to destroy the monster from within.

After a moment of ferocious clangs within, the second giant fell still.

The final Ceramic Automaton was trying to hit Rieren as well, but blocked by the bodies of its fallen comrades, it couldn’t reach her easily. All its violet aura did was strike down its own compatriots even more.

It was no great matter for Rieren to work around the corpses of the other two guardians and get behind the one still standing. Then, she unleashed another barrage of her skills to bring it down as well. There wasn’t a great amount of space for her to dodge to when this one fell in, so she was forced to head towards the front of the chamber to ward off the worst of the impact.

This brought her too close to the fight against the Abyssals. But for a moment, Rieren caught sight of the centre of the chamber that was still a bit distant from where she stood.

A strange construction of webs was situated in the distance. She couldn’t tell what its purpose, or even properly make out its shape in the brief moment she was able to glance at it, but the main point hammered home. Webs.

That meant the Gravemark Puppeteer was involved with it. Very likely, it was here among them.

“Rieren!”

She didn’t recognize the source of the shout, and certainly couldn’t place it in the cacophony behind her. But its call was enough to bring her back to the present.

With her taking down the giants shooting the enormous pulses, the invaders had been able to focus more on the press of Abyssals, pushing them deeper into the chamber. This had led to the battle approaching Rieren’s location at breakneck speed. Her name had been just the warning she needed to prepare.

Rieren held her sword at the ready and attacked the Abyssals from their rear.