Comrade (6)
Obsidian spearheads scattered like shotgun pellets, targeting every inch of the Toothwheel Count Arunback's body. But unlike Tuškin Gabi, he was different. Gauging the mana inherent in the automaton, he deployed a defensive spell. He couldn't block every attack, so his left arm was inevitably mangled. But to Arunback, this body held little meaning anyway. The real problem was that his prepared spell had been disrupted. He'd planned to toy with Armed with words to buy time while projecting a high-output magic blast for a surprise finish.
Arunback clicked his tongue. Nayd's ambush using a proxy body had failed, and the spell he'd been charging while stalling was shattered. It was a flaw in the advisors themselves. They weren't designed for combat. Preparing a grand spell while using defensive magic had overloaded their mana circuits, scattering the casting. Nayd's proxy had attempted physical attack instead of magic because that was the limit of what the body could handle mana-wise. This low mana capacity was an acquired defect from the Ket count family's repeated modifications. When the two advisors first arrived as wedding gifts, they had stronger mana circuits and combat capabilities, but for safety, their combat power was gradually reduced, reallocating resources to cognitive functions.
From the moment Nayd's ambush was blocked by a strangely shaped blade and Dein's assault turned defensive, Arunback was in an extremely disadvantageous position. If the Automaton Totality fully seized Helbrinke Ket's body and intervened in the battle, a counterattack might be possible. But the odds were slim. The procedure on the countess wasn't perfect, and the Totality hadn't fully acknowledged Arunback's value yet.
Despite the crisis, Arunback remained unflustered. He'd prepared for this plan for a very long time. The most dangerous element in his scheme was Armed. Failing to prepare countermeasures against her would be psychotic negligence.
The advisors' underground maintenance room. A place managed by Countess Helbrinke Ket as chief overseer. It housed records and parts from over a century of modifications to the advisors, along with materials for future upgrades. It served to document history and as spare proxy bodies to transfer the cores into if an advisor ever malfunctioned.
After binding Countess Helbrinke Ket to the Totality's control, Arunback could freely exploit the maintenance room's resources. Using Dein and Nayd's previous proxy bodies and stockpiled materials, he replicated mechanical bodies for himself. To deceive any external eyes, production was disguised as spare parts for the advisors. Thus, the completed units couldn't stray far from humanoid forms—a regrettable limitation. Arunback knew well how efficient machines could become by abandoning aesthetic elements like limbs and focusing solely on lethality.
Turning his consciousness to the underground maintenance room, Arunback awakened his minions.
At that moment, Armed was brutally dismantling Dein. Her subspatial pouch was stocked with countless catalysts, mostly types of stone. She had enough obsidian rounds to fire dozens more. Armed lavishly expended obsidian, pulverizing Dein's body. First, she severed its left arm, then targeted the legs to shatter its balance, relentlessly pounding the right arm where mana gathered until it crumpled. Finally, what remained of Dein's arms and legs became scrap metal laced with obsidian shards.
As Armed paused to catch her breath after finishing Dein, Orishin screamed. Armed recalled Nayd's structure. Though humanoid like a human, its cognitive core wasn't in the head but the chest—a mana engine powered by a magic stone. Comparable to a human heart and brain combined. Armed once more borrowed the chill of the Wild Hunt. Freezing both legs solid, she reverse-gripped the horn blade floating in the air and stabbed where Nayd's power core should be.
Light faded from Nayd's eyes. The advisor closed them forever.
Armed panted heavily.
"Impressive!"
The severed head of Dein, left for interrogation, spoke up.
"As expected of Miakh Ket's prized daughter."
Its faint, wavering tone was automaton-like. But beneath the mechanical voice, Armed sensed a sticky malice.
"What the hell are you?"
"Think I'd answer that?"
"You will."
Armed aimed her staff at the automaton's power unit—a gesture saying she could kill it anytime.
"What did you do to Countess Helbrinke? It wasn't standard brainwashing."
"Figured that out at a glance? No wonder your siblings fear you, Armed."
Armed's eyebrow twitched. This bastard was deliberately provoking her. What was he after? A suicide blast if she got close?
As Armed pondered, Orishin, sensing something, peered out the window and shouted.
Armed, close the window!
Below, featureless, sleekly completed automatons were crawling up the walls. The storm masked their movements.
"Shit!"
Armed swung her staff urgently, reinforcing the shattered window with thick ice.
"A ghost horse head sprouting from a flying blade. More convoluted hybrid than me."
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The automatons pounded the frozen window, chanting in unison.
"Let's make a deal, Armed."
"Leave the lord's chambers. Testify you saw nothing, and we'll promise mutual silence."
"You're an outsider leaving Ket anyway—no change from before."
"Hey."
Armed replied coolly.
"Think I can't kill all you fuckers?"
"Haha. You think this is everything I've prepared?"
"The Abyss Prevention Society's mages are swarming the castle below. Bring more if you want."
"Ooh. I didn't expect you to rally a force. But Armed, the minions I summoned to the castle are just a fraction."
"Bringing more? There's a limit without alerting the finance chief. 30? 50? Not even 100. That ice won't break easily—give me time, and I can handle them solo."
"No, not bringing more. Spreading them out."
"What?"
"If you don't withdraw, we'll scatter across the county, wreaking havoc. How long to catch us all? A day? Week? Month?"
Arunback mocked, mimicking Armed's tone when she'd mentioned numbers.
"Even if your society's mages chase us everywhere, half the territory gets contaminated. Can you harvest next year from land soaked in Evil Dragon poison?"
"You disgusting bastard…!"
"So, let's deal, Armed. I'll bolster your society. If you want, the next lord can be your puppet. Rest easy—I just want this dying count's body. Cooperate, and the people suffer no more."
Armed took a deep breath. Every passing second, Arunback's puppets would spread to every corner. She had to decide fight or compromise fast.
Then it happened. Orishin turned his head.
Eh?
He was staring beyond the frozen window.
"What trick is this, spirit? Trying to bluff with empty bravado?"
Ignoring Arunback, Orishin muttered to himself.
I hear hoofbeats….
Armed felt something off. Hoofbeats piercing this storm?
"The county troops are wary of the Wild Hunt. No reason to send reinforcements to the lord's castle already crawling with mages. Drop the bluff. Time to decide."
Clop-clop— Hoofbeats brushed Armed's ears too. Legends of the Wild Hunt surfaced. Their approach was clear even in storms, heralded by banshee wails and the ghost army's march.
Orishin peered out. Beyond the storm-blurred ice, something approached. A pitch-black horse like living shadow. Uniform ebony coat without variation, as if cut from black paper into horse shape. No neck atop its head. The headless horse of the Wild Hunt's riders. Sticky shadow oozed from the severed stump. The dripping shadows fell toward the ground, then solidified midway. The headless horse galloped the air, trampling its own congealed shadow blood.
A humanoid shadow flickered atop the bare saddleless steed. Orishin realized it wasn't shadow. Black garb made it seem so at a glance. Gripping an ash-gray straight blade in its right hand. A man with bone-pale hair. Beneath storm-tossed white locks, ominous blood-red eyes gleamed. Rain-slicked black armor, charred and ominous, soaked darker in the horse's shadow droplets, growing more eerie.
Now Armed saw it too. Terrifying visage for anyone—but she wasn't just anyone.
Kriel swung Tuon. Night-sky sword aura's chill froze the automatons and tower walls. The bone-numbing cold shattered even magic, crumbling metal and stone alike.
Through the collapsed wall, Kriel gazed at Armed.
"How is that man here? The duel shouldn't be over…!"
Her knight had arrived.