Chapter 106 - The Void Blades (Patreon)

Note : Chapter 107 has been added to the schedule !

Chapter 106

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

City of Rebirth

The mercenary commander was…not at all what Allya had expected. Perhaps a gruff old woman, like the old sergeant that had served as the senior NCO of the Crimson Swords.

Not someone encased in an obsidian suit of armor.

No, not an armor. This was a golem. She was a neonite.

"Hello! You are the baroness, I assume?"

"You assume correctly, commander Assaria. What brings a neonite such as yourselves to the depths of the wasteland?"

If Allya recognizing the woman as an automata (or in this case closer to animated armor) turned into a soul container and glorified lich phased the mercenary, she was remarkably good at hiding it.

"A great deal many things, but, well I am a mercenary, so mainly the opportunity for pay."

"One would think a mercenary commander looking for a contract would have taken their majesties' generous offer to join the defense of the northern border from the Saphire kingdom's depredations."

"True, most mercenary commanders would jump at the opportunity. But I am not most commanders. First and foremost, despite the crown's deep pockets, the offer has gotten enough bidders that they could discard anyone that would negotiate a high price."

"And I am in no position to negotiate, is that it?"

"Oh no, you most definitely are. But you have deep pockets as well, and not many mercenaries will make their way here, which makes the competition less fierce. Furthermore, I doubt your need for mercenaries will abate for the near future, and I would rather take a long term employment with someone whose solvency is beyond question than a big one time contract with someone whose finances are more…dicey."

Allya laughed.

"Are you calling into question the capabilities of their majesties to pay their mercenaries?"

"No, mearly remarking upon the sometimes…problematic pay issues when mercenaries sign up with governments bracing for war."

"That pretty much describes my frontier principality."

"True, but you have a dungeon to finance your activities."

"So does the royal family. There is a dungeon under the capital you know."

"I am aware, but it is a minuscule fragment of their income, the rest comes from taxing peasants, corporations and nobles, and those revenue can be…unpredictable even at the best of times."

Allya gazed at the woman for a few seconds, before nodding.

"A point well taken commander. Very well. You have my attention."

"It is a simple proposal really. I currently have a full company of soldiers, with individual power ranging from a steel ranked adventurer to an electrum one, if you disregard me."

"In what proportions, exactly?"

"Around thirty electrum ranked, a hundred steel, fifty copper."

Allya had to stop herself from whistling. It was rare for mercenary company to have such powerful individuals, let alone in such numbers! The thirty electrums could probably take out half of the town's defenders on their own, provided Crystal stayed out of it.

"That is a high number of elite troops, I'm impressed."

"You flatter me."

"That remains to be seen. You have more than caught my interest, please follow me, I think the least I can do is get you some refreshments and a place in the shade to talk this out. Well, provided that you wish for any refreshments?" Quickly added Allya as she realized she didn't know if the neonite could drink. She knew some could, but it wasn't standard, as far as anything could be for those one of a kind testaments to the power and skill of a master artificer.

The mercenary chuckled.

"I'll drink whatever is available, although I wouldn't turn down some cold fruit juice."

"Well, I believe we can accommodate that. If you'll follow me?"

*****

"I have to admit, I'm impressed Ella." Said Alexandra as she gazed at the vast array of plants. It almost felt like being in some kind of pocket jungle, which was exactly the atmosphere she wanted for some of the challenge rooms inside the pyramid itself. "Especially on such short notice, how did you get them to grow so quickly?"

The maid tilted her head.

"What do you mean? Its because of you milady, obviouly."

Alexandra blinked, and looked at Emilia, who facepalmed.

"Right, I never actually talked about it because you don't use biological monsters, but your mana concentration makes…everything grow faster. Plants and monsters accumulate mana passively just like humans do, and when they gorge themselves too much they start growing and mutating at an insane rate. Part of how so many dungeons still have new monsters to throw at adventurers without having an intake of unique creatures. It's actually a danger and a boon for cities on top of powerful dungeons, as some animals might start becoming dangerous. There's a reason most capital cities have sewer patrols, actual monsters can evolve there thanks to the local dungeon's mana."

"That's…terrifying. Will CQ's puppy have the same issue?"

"Boon, really, if you want a monster."

Alexandra grimaced.

"Right. Feels…weird to be giving my daughter something that'll turn into a mutant abomination, but she lives for combat."

"Indeed. But yes, manticores take decades to get to the size of the one that attacked the town, at least. Here it'll take a couple of years at most."

"Right. Speaking of which, why is the pup staying so small?"

The vampire girl shrugged.

"Manticore grow explosively at a certain stage, kind of like going through a growth spurt as a human. It's closer to metamorphosis really."

"Right. Well, it'll be one hell of a change for CQ when it happens I guess. Anyway, Ella?"

"Yes, milady?"

"I assume these plants have alchemical properties?"

"Of course! I used as many as I could get to grow here. Some plants just died or refused to take root, but all of those have some alchemical use. In fact, all of the plants required to make the explosive mixture are here!"

"And a fair few poisonous ones I wager?"

The maid looked vaguely embarrassed, squirming in her wheelchair.

"Well…"

Alexandra chuckled.

"Relax. I'm not begrudging your…hobbies. Besides, I'm sure they'll come in handy. Speaking of the explosives though, any luck in stabilizing the mix?"

The maid sighed, shaking her head.

"Not yet. I've managed to lower the volatility somewhat, but only by making it decay in a matter of hours, and even then the gain was minimal."

"Mmmhhh…I think we might need some external help on this, and probably some more ingredients."

"Intending to cut another deal?" Asked Emilia.

"If possible, although with the adventurers guild breathing down my neck, its going to have to be very discreet."

"Not only the guild." Emilia shrugged as Alexandra glanced at her. "You're involving yourself in surface politics, which means that governments are going to start trying to figure out what you're up to."

"Right, spies."

"Spies, recon units, sleeper agents."

"Well, at least we are beyond infiltration. But not the people we're dealing with." Alexandra sighed. "Wonderful."

"Wasn't that something of an issue in your world as well? You seem surprised."

"I guess I got a bit too used to being treated as outside politics on this world." The Earth born shrugged. "Regardless, the point stands, I'll need to be very careful. Fortunately." He looked at Emilia. "I have a good advisor, and I'm sure we'll come up with something sufficiently sneaky."

"I'm sure we will."

*****

"What the fuck is she doing here?"

Had anyone been close enough to get through the discreet privacy field surrounding Sylvia and her executive officer, they would have been extremely surprised at the pirate captain's venomous tone, despite her outward smiling appearance as she looked down at the town below from the railing of her ship.

"Unclear captain." Said Maria with a warning tone. The privacy field had been a relatively recent acquisition from one of the town's artificers, and while it was immensely useful, blurring people's lips and jamming their voice to prevent people with enhanced senses from eavesdropping, it wasn't perfect. "But I doubt a lot of people are happy to see her."

The pirate captain chuckled harshly. Joachim, and the rest of the Order would go ballistic once they learned that merc had made her way here, of all places.

The last thing they could afford was for someone to link that mercenary bitch to the kidnapping of that extradimensional, and start joining the dots with the strange dungeon that had popped up.

"You know he'll want a course of action. Any thoughts?"

"Elimination, total. If possible indirectly. She has enough enemies a proxy could be found."

"Agreed." The pirate captain sighed. "Alright, let's do a round of the ship, talk to the crew. It wouldn't do to look worried, wouldn't it? And we'll probably want to have a talk with our…prisoner."

Maria nodded. After all, everyone knew the captain liked to spend some time interrogating or gloating to her prisoner. And not at all getting orders or advice from a senior agent.

"Of course captain, right away."

*****

"Very practical and ascetic." Commented the mercenary commander as she stepped into the council room, Allya and Pyn in tow, the elf having joined them at the manor's entrance after the baroness had sent a runner fetch her.

"We are a frontier principality commander." Simply said Allya. "Besides, we didn't really have the time to get around to flattering our own egos with decorations."

The mercenary chuckled as Allya pulled up a chair for Pyn, before sitting down herself.

"I doubt you will resort to that. In any case, I assume the assassin in the rafters is here for your protection?"

Allya barely froze for a second while sitting down, before continuing like nothing had happened, while Pyn looked studiously neutral, having practiced her poker face in the mirror with her girlfriend's help.

"Yes. I have found that sometimes overt security is not the best solution."

Assaria gave the baroness a look that seemed to radiate…approval? It was hard to tell from someone that was effectively possessed animated armor.

"So have I. Unorthodox solutions are often very effective, for those willing to pursue them." The mercenary sat down. "Alright then, I assume you are interested in my services. I suppose it is time to discuss payment."

"It is. My knight will conduct negotiations." Allya gestured at Pyn, who leaned forward. The baroness could have handled it, but the elf was far, far better at this kind of stuff.

"So, I assume we will be discussing in terms of monthly payments?"

"Yes, plus an initial fee, and agreements about insurance payments for injuries, deaths, equipment losses."

"Very well, in that case…"

Allya leaned back in her seat, tuning out the negotiation while looking politely attentive. It looked like after so many setbacks, things were starting to go their way after all!

*****

"Basic, but workable." Said Alexandra as she flipped the spider golem on its back. "Now to make sure the message self destruct works…"

"Yes, having your 'commercial correspondence' fall into the wrong hands would be pretty embarrassing." Emilia looked up at one of the screens lining the upper wall of the workshop, most of them displaying the vision of the golems overlooking the town. "Uh, looks like there's some activity up there."

"I know, received a couple of alerts."

"What's it about?"

"No idea, I didn't check. There's always some crap going on up there, and unless the alert is urgent enough I save it for later. Otherwise I'd never get anything done."

"Fair enough. Classy armor though."

"What armor?" Alexandra looked up and-

The first inkling that something was wrong was when the workbench screamed in protest as the Earth-born's fingers dug through it, punching through metal and solid rock like butter.

Next was the wave of hatred that hit Emilia and her maids through their link to the dungeon core.

And lastly was when the crimson haze ability triggered, and Alexandra vanished in a blurr of motion.

Sarah barely had the time to draw her sword before the dungeon core's avatar was past her, moving with a speed only the fools who had tried to take out Emilia had seen in the last few seconds of their miserable existence.

I'mgoingtoripthisbitchapartfeedherherownentrailsandmakeherpay-STOP

Alexandra's thoughts were only a single thread of hatred when something willed her to freeze. And she did. It was like someone else had reached out and taken control of her body, and in a single, crashing moment of terror, she realised that someone had.

Then she felt like she was being pulled out of her body, and falling…

She opened her eyes, gasping, looking around wildly. She was in…she had no idea where she was. Some kind of void, with strings of data floating throughout it, with nothing but a marble floor for a few dozen meters around. Then she realized with a start that she wasn't in her avatar. She was in her old body. Not the rejuvenated version she'd received upon arriving on Alcheryos either, just like the one she had when-

"Hello Alex."

Alexandra looked up at herself, except that this 'self' was clad in the impeccable uniform of the European Federation Navy's High Admiral, with its ever so ridiculous half cape.

"This isn't how I wanted to do this, but your…reckless behavior gave me no choice." The apparition snapped her fingers, and two chairs appeared. "Sit down, we need to talk."