The Thieves Guild ch.05

     The water is silent, the only sound the purr of the golem engine pushing the small water-craft along with the operator humming some local tune to himself. To Rhulan, Hollia, Scrags, and Cata the scene of the port town from the water is creepier than when they saw it from the hilltop. From high above one expects to only see rooftops and miss the hustle and bustle of city life, but on the water, especially for a merchant stop one expects to hear the sounds of people bargaining, the sounds of fishermen unloading their catches and arguing, the sounds of commerce, hell one expects to at least hear sea gulls, but nothing, and yet somehow despite the sun beating down, the weather being fare, and especially despite the silence, somehow things seem to be getting quieter and the darker as they approach the southern shore. The very shadows of the trees look as though they are reaching out their fingers, beckoning them in.

    Hollia sees the silent expression Betty’s face, the look of contemplation.

   “Its weird isn’t it?” asks Hollia.

  “Yeah,” says Betty, “The city looks so…fantasy-ey, who’d think there would be a speed here? It really sticks out.”

   *low silent yet intense giggling*

   Rhulan is holding her hand to her mouth trying desperately to stifle a laugh, tears even roll down her face.

   ******

   A few minutes later, they reach what has to be the only bright patch on the southern shore, the cause becoming obvious at the sight of a shadow ward roping off the small segment of beach.

   “A barrier against shadow spirits.” Comments Rhulan.

   “This is it.” says the gruff old man hired to ferry them across, “those there wards, that fancy rope thing, was put there by one of the guys who came before your lot, had himself some foresight to leave that behind so people would land and not be immediately attacked. I’ll be waiting at the mid-way buoy until the sun turns red, after that no amount of money in the world could make me wait longer.”

    “No problem.” says Rhulan, “We shouldn’t be too long.”

   “Confidence gets you killed.” says the man, thinking only he could hear himself talk, mumbling as he turns the boat around and leaves them on the shore.

   “This is some good work.” says Scrags examining the rope with its paper wards flapping in the wind with their kanji symbols on them, “This guy  looks to be one of those balance masters from across the great sea, followers of the goddess who believe she embodies all nature, good, evil, and neutral. If this guy had a hard time with the spirits here, then we really need to watch out asses.”

   The others look around a bit nervously, the shadows beyond the barrier almost seem to move, reacting it seems to Scrags’ words, gaining strength in their fear.

   “Any who,” says Rhulan stepping over the rope with a smile on her face, “Hold that thought Scraggy.”

   The wind rushes, the shadows lunge, some ancient evil force driven from the depths of the forest, pushing the shadows forward like a tsunami.

   Rhulan just smiles, holding out her hands to chant a spell.

    In the name of the dark lord of the molten fire
    I bind the shadows
    Kara-Ra-Ka-Taea

    The wind stops, the shadows vanish, all save for the natural darkness on the forest floor. The forest looks now a thousand times brighter than before, even to the old man in the boat looking back, who had till this moment been shaking his head muttering, “poor bastards” stops the boat and just stares at the shore, “by the goddess,” he mutters, “what manner of people are they?”

   “Okay,” says Rhulan, “the spooks have been taken care of, now the real danger lies ahead, our not so user friendly mechanical friends.”

   “Hold on!” says Scrags, “What in the depths of Hell was that?”

   “yes, yes!” yelps Hollia almost jumping in excitement, Lin Lin mirroring her enthusiasm, “Please, Miss Rhulan, tell us, I…I have never heard of a banishing spell that short…but…” she looks around, “Its so bright, so effective. That, that was....just…cool.”

    “heh, heh, heh, okay Hollia,” she says, “That was the Binding of the Shadows. It’s a very old spell, one of the very first binding spells in fact, its said to have been found on a black tablet found in the Eastern no-man’s land beyond the ocean, the great barrier of the end of the world that separates life from the empty space between worlds. A tablet that changes its language to match any who hold it. Later people would make more general binding spells, less effective on one thing, but a wider range. That spell is pure, only binding creatures and powers based on shadows and darkness; yet this purity while limited in effect and range, is fast to cast and instant. Oh and it will effect everything in the range of my voice, and last for at least three months.”

   “Okay,” says Scrags, “So what about the shadow spirits further in, like in that cave we are going for? Can we expect them to give you a chance to cast it before sneaking up on the rest of us then? We wont have that ward next time?”

   “If you’re afraid,” says Cata, “then wait on the beach, you whine more than Mr. Jones.”

   “Its not whining,” argues Scrags, “What if one of those things is a shade huh? What if it casts a silence spell. All she did was bind them, not exorcise or destroy them, they just can’t manifest around here. They are still there.”

   He points all around, “Still watching us, they just have to move on ahead of warn the others…”

   “Mr. Scrags,” says Hollia in a weak voice, “I could give you a blessing if you want.”

  “Oh great.” he says rolling his eyes, “a blessing, some luck, against an army of spooks who are just waiting for us. You saw the forest, they were covering it.”

   “Whine, whine, whine,” says Rhulan, “First Hollia’s blessing spell would protect you from any ghost attack for at least three strikes from one, and second there are no more shadow spirits up ahead.”

   “Excuse me?” says Cata, “But, while I am not the fearful type,” she shoots Scrags a look from the corner of her eyes, “I am the cautious type, I trust you have some bigger plan, especially as I can see with my…particular sort of eyes what Scrags clearly can’t”

   Betty nods, “yep, Mr. Scrags you underestimate Ms. Rhulan, the oracle was so right about her being special.”

   Hollia has been closing her eyes focusing for this time, “oh my goddess!” she exclaims, her eyes snapping open. She stares mouth agape at Rhulan, “Bi…bi…binding? Ms. Rhulan the ghosts….they are completely gone!”

  “What?” exclaims Scrags, “I know that spell she cast kid. Okay, she’s not the only person in the world who knows it. I’ve met my fare share of ancient secret collectors to have seen it before. Its just a binding, it prevents shadow and darkness magic from manifesting, but the ghosts are still there in their own dimension.”

   “No, Mr. Scrags,” says Hollia, “they…they’re not. I can’t sense any negative spiritual activity.”

   Rhulan has been smiling looking ahead in the forest, “That’s because,” she says, “Those weren’t ghosts, in fact they weren’t even a they, that, was a that.”

   *sigh*

   Scrags pinches the space between his eyes, “Fine, I give, what the hell once again is going on that I don’t have a clue about?”

   “The Dark King’s guardian.” says Rhulan, “Now Hollia, quiz time, what is the Dark King’s guardian?”

   Hollia looks down in thought, Lin Lin cocking her head from above at her mother, master’s concentration.

   “Oh!” says Hollia snapping back up, “I got it, its from the Adventures of Gyro-Lee. The Dark King’s Guardian was a sub-boss monster that served the Dark King one of the more powerful generals of Empress Rhulan. The Guardian was a massive shadow monster that tricked people into thinking they were fighting multiple invincible shadow opponents while keeping its real body hidden behind those illusions. It would feed on the fear the illusion produced to make its self stronger to protect the Dark King. Yeah, it was a sub-boss in the dungeon of the Dark King.”

   Rhulan nods her head, “correct my dear, very correct. You certainly know your history.”

   Hollia blushes at the praise. Betty even claps, Cata smiles with her arms crossed. “Master and Student; you people are certainly interesting.”

   “Oh what the fuck!?” yells out Scrags, “You just told us, that all you just did was told your own damned dog to back off and stop barking. Have you people forgotten that she is the Empress Rhulan?”

    She shrugs, “Any who, the dog as Scrags says is the least of our worries, maybe the scariest thing to the towns people, people are naturally afraid of the dark after all. But it’s those things that don’t care if its night or day that you have to really worry about. So keep your guards up, the machines aren’t anything magical, they are one hundred percent mechanical.”

    Scrags just shakes his head as they walk on into the woods, “Rhulan empire technology?”

    ******

   “Fire Sphere!”
  *Fra-shrooom!*

  “Electric Gun!”
   *zzzzzaaaaap!*
  *kabroom!*

 “Air Slicer!”
  *SSSSaaaf!*

 “Saint’s Fire!”
  *Fwoosh!*

   “Go Lin Lin use the Fire Salamander!”
   *Fra-wooosh!*

   *KABOOOM!”
  The flames reach high into the air as the mechanical hexapod knight explodes.

   From the corner of the clearing Scrags appears from his invisibility.

  “And where in hell fire’s name were you?” asks Cata.

  “Oh did you guys expect me to fight too?” he says smugly chewing on a blade of grass, “Oh yeah, didn’t you see, I used my specialty too, I took one look at that thing, saw that it had no pockets to pick, so being a thief wouldn’t do me any good.”

   *spit*

   “Yeah I would chuck a flaming knife at that thing, one little problem, it was a gods damned metal man…spider…thing!”

   *snort*

  “It’s not like I can toss around fire, or summon guns, or send flashy lightning arcs through the air. When we fight some bandits or some animal then…oh wait I wont have to do anything, because you guys will blow them up too, or put them to sleep, or just chuck them into the nearest creek. Yeah me big tough man guarding you oh so helpless girls, fffiiit”

   A loud laugh draws their attention up ahead, a mad woman’s laugh echoing through the forest.

   “Blossom Beam!”

   a hips wide beam of pink energy accompanied by pink flower petals flies from the tree line, from the source of the laugh, striking the flaming wreckage and flying into the air as a pink flowery cyclone eliminating the fire and carrying the metal shrapnel into the air. The metal shrapnel rains back to earth in a neat pile.

   With a straight legged spinning flip the blond haired woman in her seriously out of place business suit lands before them holding her the back of her hand to her chin laughing.

   “Aaaaah, haaaah, haaaaah, haaah!”

   “My, my, dear little Scrags, has your masculine pride been hurt. Should I give you a little kiss to make you feel better?”

   “teh,” says Scrags, “Pillage, a kiss from you? Yeah make a real woman out of me you mean?”

   She scrunches up her lips and stomps her foot, “What did you say? Am I not the most gorgeous creature you’ve ever seen?”

   She flips her long blond hair.

   “Yeah real cute, but I prefer real women.”

   With out an ounce of modesty she grabs her own chest, “What do call this?” she says, “Lets see, pretty face, pretty hair, wide hips, a bountiful chest, and long legs.”

   She stands proudly, “If it looks like a woman, sounds like a woman, and feels like woman, then it must be woman.”

   She sees Hollia blushing and trying to step out of sight behind Rhulan, “oh,” says Pillage, “And if anyone wants to try I’m real sure I also taste like a woman.”

   “How vulgar.” says Rhulan.

   “Indeed,” adds Cata.

   “Yeah, like…what they said.” says Betty.

   “You say real woman, and then hit on the first petite thing you see Pillage.” says Scrags, “yeah, real feminine.”

   Rhulan shrugs, “eh”

   “In any case,” says Pillage with a roll of her eyes and hands on hips, “You are a real embarrassment Scrags, hiding like a coward while your team mates fight, you may fool them, pretending to be all hurt in the pride and acting like you can’t do anything. But you and I both know you could have handled that thing all by yourself, yep one exploding strike move of your’s and that hunk of metal would have been taken care of. I just bet your going to act like this waiting for the right moment to jump up and save the day, and they’ll be oh, you’re my hero mr Scrags, oh yes, please take me mr strong hero man thief, oh yes, yes, yessss!”

  She is actually hugging herself pantomiming the whole thing.

   “I take it you two know each other.” says Rhulan to which ever cares to answer her first.

   “Yeah,” says Scrags, “She’s a thief, and I’m willing to bet the real problem behind all this.”

   “Got over your insecurity awfully fast,” mumbled Cata, Scrags just shoots her a look.

  “Tell us,” says Rhulan, “thief, did you break the seal that is causing all the trouble in these woods.”

   “Aaaaah, haaah, haaah, haaah!” she laughs.

   “Found me out did you? Oh yes, I wouldn’t stand a chance ambushing your lot, figured I’d get my hands on a legendary weapon sealed away in the cave to give me an edge attacking Rhulan’s party. Oh yeah,” she looks up in thought, hand to chin, “Didn’t think that shadow thing and those robots would still be around after all this time, could have sworn the legend said all of the Rhulan Empire technology turned to dust when Rhulan was defeated and…”

   She looks at them with a surprised look on her face, “I…I just said all that out loud didn’t I?”

   They nod.

   “Ohhhh…shit.”

   She waves her hand, “Well something to look forward too then, bye bye.”

   She blows a kiss and winks in the direction of Rhulan and Hollia, “till next time cuties.”

   She vanishes into the air spinning with her oh so annoying stuck up laugh echoing through the woods.

   “Uh…what…was…that…” says Betty pointing to where Pillage had been standing.

   “A real pain in the asses of oh so many people.” says Scrags with a sigh.

  “Any who,” says Rhulan, “We have a legendary weapon to check on.”

   “cool,” says Hollia with Lin Lin chirping in approval.

   As they walk up the hill Cata keeps back to where Scrags is, “Just for the record,” she says, “If you are intentionally holding back to try and look more bad-ass later, I will personally kick your ass. And if your not, then get on the ball, I am not the type to put up with loads, I wouldn’t imagine the woman known for conquering the world is going to want a jester dragging us down, down the road.”

   “What ever you say,” says Scrags with a shrug falling behind as she trods on ahead, “bitch,” he thinks, “believe what ever you want to you magically over the top psycho chicks. Holding back… when this shit is over me and Pillage are going to have a long talk with Drache about interfering with someone else’s job.”

    ******

     ♪ Over the hills
        and through the woods
       to the dark scary cave we go ♪

   Betty sings as they walk through the forest, drawing the attention of every mechanical freak hiding there in, but no one seems to care…well except for Cata because of her extra sensitive hearing but she bares it for the one other who cares, Scrags.

    Scrags grinds his teeth as yet another metal-skeleton rises from the ground saying as they have all said with their metal grinding electrical voices, “Trespassers are to be terminated, prepare to die.”
As the machine lunges at Rhulan in the lead she uses a simple telekinetic trick, surrounding the target in a light blue aura, to throw it over her head, over Hollia, over Betty, over Cata, even high enough that Lin Lin can watch as it falls behind them and lands with a thud in front of Scrags.

    “Damn it!” he thinks, “again and…”

   “Trespassers are…”

  “Slicing Edge!” he yells as blue chi streaks slice the air in front of him passing through like illusions the head of the metal-skeleton.

   “Tres…pass…errrrr.” Its eyes go dark as the head falls apart like bread slices and it collapses to the ground leaving Scrags with his arms crossed in the air holding twin diamond shaped daggers.

    The girls claps and Lin Lin chirps.

   “Wow,” says Betty, “That makes twenty Scrags has handled all on his own.”

   Rhulan smiles, “Just a few more to make up for every opponent on this journey you ditched out on there Scrags.”

   “Well, well, well,” says Cata, “Good to know you aren’t worthless after all.”

   “Must you say that every time?” hisses Scrags under his breath.

  “Yeah, yeah, I said I could hold my own.” He says as he puts his knives away in a flash, “must I keep proving it.”

   Rhulan just smiles and shrugs as they turn to keep walking.

  “Its okay Mr. Scrags.” says Hollia, “I think your friend just struck a nerve with her is all. The whole harem comment probably…” she thinks back to the woman named Pillage and how she looked at her and acted thinking to herself, “maybe…”

   Scrags just shakes his head, “No problem kid,” he says while thinking, “Damn it Pillage, why’d you have to show up, you’ve screwed up my whole gods damned plan!”

   ******

   After a few dozen more robots, a giant snake with one red gem like eye, some more metal-skeletons, a couple more of the stronger hexa-pods, Scrags can’t stand it anymore, even though about ten opponents ago the others started to fight as well. Although he can’t be certain if they had forgiven him or decided the enemies were just getting too strong for him to handle alone.

   “What the hell is going one?!” he yells out echoing across the forest.

   Everyone just turns.

  “I mean it.” He says, “These things shouldn’t even be here. Seriously, we all know the legend, when Empress Rhulan was defeated all the technology of the Rhulan Empire turned to dust. So why…why in the name of every hell, heaven, god and goddess in the universe are there fricken robots out here!”

   Hollia cocks her head, Lin Lin imitating this as well, “Come to think of it,” she says, “Miss Rhulan, why are there robots out here. I mean we only found rubble back…” she remembers the basement of Stratalia.

   “Oh yeah!” says Hollia excited, “Remember Mr. Scrags, there was some technology in the basement back home too.”

   Scrags blushes, especially as this means despite his thief awareness of his surroundings and ability to gather details of every situation he has trained his whole life for, he has been walking around for weeks now and just now realized this wasn’t the first time he saw tech that shouldn’t exist still working.

   Rhulan chuckles, “That’s easy, that’s because these things aren’t my technology. If they were I could control them and we wouldn’t need to fight them. Lord Marshal the man in charge of this region a thousand years ago had a thing for precursor technology.”

   “Precursor technology?” asks Hollia.

   Scrags’ attention is drawn as he narrows his eyes, “shit.” He thinks.

   “Well,” says Rhulan, “You see these days from what I can tell back at the school everyone seems focused on learning the spells, and methods for producing the technology from my time. But a thousand years ago people were busy trying to discover what we called Precursor technology.”

   She takes a breath, “For most of the last two thousand years, the population of the world was small, focused around specific areas with the best chances for crops, livestock, and keeping towns safe. After I came back and eliminated the greater threats and started to unite the world, the people started to have the time and health to raise larger families and explore this wide empty world more, and what they found was amazing. We had a notion back when we first arrived here that this was some weird parallel Earth…”

   She looks around, only Cata and Scrags seem confused, “Any who,” she continues, “We had thought this world primitive, no signs of anything by some scarce ruins on the surface. But a little over a thousand years ago adventurers began to report findings that confirmed a number of local legends small towns would tell of strange sounds in deep caves, rare metal monsters, metal tunnels, and such. It turns out there was a pretty advanced culture here at some point, and they left behind some impressive technology, technology that in some cases is self sustaining and repairing, like what is under Los Rodos.”

   Cata nods in agreement, “Yes,” she says, “So that’s the deal then.”

   “Yep,” says Rhulan looking up at the tree tops, “We had whole teams trying to research it, most of the things found were the schematics…plans, and instructions, on how to build plenty of these things.”

   She shrugs shaking her head, “Of course if too much of THAT got out it would ruin my method for controlling the still mostly barbaric kings I had to put up with…which kinda lead to the issues with that whole issue a thousand years ago.”

   She looks at Hollia who is looking away trying to picture it all and make sense of it all.

   “In any case,” she continues, “The research was spread out to many different secret bases, one of those was right here in a castle belonging to Lord Marshal” she looks over at Hollia, “Who,” she continues, “You’d know as the Dark King.”

   “Oh right,” she says, “I forgot.” she remembers the short incident with the guardian creature that had created the shadows; Rhulan had mentioned the Dark King then too.

  “In other words,” says Scrags, “This ass-hole built himself an army of dangerous robots that he could control but you couldn’t?”

   “More or less,” she says looking around, “You know what, it’s a good thing Gyro-Lee beat this guy when he did, no telling what he was really planning to do…then again…” she smiles, “Defeating him, himself would have been a cake walk for me.”

   “What?” asks Scrags with a raised eyebrow.

  “You’ll understand in a little bit.” She says, “We’re here.”

  She points ahead at the entrance of a cave; or what could more accurately be described as a ruin black hewn stone entrance from an ancient forgotten structure.


   “The Guardian, and the robots.” She says, “Were more than likely sealed up inside here.”

   Scrags examines the remains of a door with an archaic symbol on it, “yep, this is Pillage’s handy work all right.”

   “My guess,” says Rhulan, “Ole Marshal, er, Dark King couldn’t handle it’s power, after he was beaten the backlash of spiritual power likely destroyed all the active machines…if Gyro’s party hadn’t, and stunned the guardian…if Gyro’s party hadn’t. They then took it back this vault, which they likely looted for treasure, armor, and weapons, and sealed the machine maker, the guardian’s soul stone, and it in here.”

  “Machine maker?” asks Hollia.

  “huh?” says Rhulan, “my mistake, guess I didn’t mention it, yeah its how my minions would make robots and what not using nano-machines from other materials. The machines are normally linked to my power and designs, but for the research they would input the schematics of the precursor tech, I’d say Dark King took it one step more and replaced the astral energy connection unit with a precursor mystic battery. We found whole vaults of those things in plenty of places.”

   “Oh.” Says Hollia wide eyed, “Man, if only my history teachers knew all this then I wouldn’t be so bored in class.”

   Rhulan bursts out laughing, “So true, so true.”

   “Another damned history lesson.” says Scrags, “following these people around is going to make my head explode….but…is the machine maker still working?...” his eyes narrow at his own dumb question remembering the robots he’s been fighting for the last three hours, “duh.”

    He snickers as they start to walk into the cave, Rhulan and Hollia illuminating the way with magic, “I might just have something more to take back after all.”

   ******


   The tunnels are dark, silent, the air is stale yet despite the fact that here is where the machines had come from none appear to be present. Around a turn they find a door with light coming from behind it through the bars, standing guard are two metal-skeletons.

    “Damn.” says Rhulan, “We can’t fight in here.”

   “Leave it to us,” says Cata pointing at herself and Betty.

   They nod and charge around the corner.

   “Electric Gun!” yells out Betty pulling her left hand blue electric weapon from its sub-space pocket and zapping the metal-skeleton bringing it down with one shot.

    *Zzzzzaaaap*

   “Shocker!” yells out Cata with one claw out, a bolt of blue electricity firing from her hand and taking out the other metal-skeletong.

     *kra-kow!*

    “What the hell?” exclaims Scrags, “and how long have you been hiding that technique?”

   “hiding it?” says Cata pulling out her sword, “Those electric arcs I throw from my blades, my air and earth slicer moves, come from that attack.”

   She runs her claw of the blade which vibrates and emits a faint light, “These are chi-channel swords, they focus elemental attacks into a nice compact arc form. Otherwise my shocker attack could potential split or veer off course and hit any conductive surface in the area, and worse yet the range becomes severely limited because of that.”

   Rhulan smiles, “How serendipitous.”

   She walks past the door, the only indication there is a lock spell, or was in place, is a small shower of green sparks around the handle when Rhulan opens it.

  Scrags watches her hand carefully, “No sign of a hand signal so its not like the Nipponia magic, no sigils on her hands so its not advanced alchemy…lock breaker huh? Pillage had to shatter the whole front door.”

   He looks up, even in the dim light he can see the same archaic symbol on this door as the main entrance, two seals, the machines and the guardian likely shoved into the corridor while off…

   “Wait a minute,” thinks Scrags, “That doesn’t make sense, the machine maker had to come back on line, those hexa-pods and metal snakes would never have fit in these corridors, so it had to re-activate and then seed them out into the woods. Which means…”

   He examines the walls as the rest of the party enters the back room. Centered in the room is a black sword in an alter.

  “Cool,” says Hollia, “It’s the legendary dark sword of the Dark King, said to grant him his power.”

   “What?” says Scrags over hearing this,

    however as he comes in right behind Betty she exclaims, “Wow, totally cool, it’s a Runic Blade? I wouldn’t have thought to see one here.”

   She says to Hollia with her finger up in a gesture of informing someone, “Yeah, those are manufactured in the Dimension of Darkness, you barely ever see anyone but like really tough demon lords holding those things. Oh man to think someone had one just like stashed down here all these years.”

   Scrags glares at the sword, “So that thing has some strong dark magic does it?”

   “Oh yeah,” says Hollia, “In the legend it said the Dark King had a weapon, the legendary sword of darkness that gave him his powers.”

   “yeah,” says Cata, “she said that like two minutes ago, or were you too busy looking for the secret passage with the electric hum coming out of it?”

   He looks at her quizzically, her only answer is point at her ears.

   “Yeah,” he says, “I figure the machine maker is near the end but off to the side somewhere. I mean we…can’t allow that thing to keep running right.”

   He points at the sword, “But more importantly is destroying…”

    *shiiink*

   Rhulan pulls the sword from the sealed alter, the sigils in the stone base burning out and vanishing as she says, “I would rather not keep fighting bare handed.”

   “So.” says Scrags with a glare in his eyes, “Now you are more powerful huh? Gaining the powers of that evil sword.”

   Betty puts her finger to her chin and cocks her head, “uhhhh, huh? They don’t do that.”

   “What?” says Scrags, “but you just said.”

   “She said demons used them.” said Cata grasping the hilt of her own sword, “but I take it this thing works differently than your usual magic sword.”

   Rhulan holds her hand out a black portal much like Betty’s gun portals appears before her outstretch fingers, the sword floats in the air as red hour glass symbols appear online the two sides of the black broad sword as it floats back into the portal and vanishes.”

   Rhulan looks at Hollia, “quiz time, adventurer observation skills, given everything you have just seen and heard what can you tell me about the true nature of the sword?”

   “ummm,” says Hollia thinking, “Miss Betty said they are manufactured, so its not really a one of the kind legendary sword…ummm, but it is special, something really rare, valuable.” She shrugs.

  “How serendipitous” says Cata pulling her own sword out, “Yes, indeed,” she flicks her swords blade, blue spiral symbols appear on the blade.”


   Hollia looks at the blade and back at Rhulan, “wait…so a Runic Blade is like Miss Cata’s sword.”

   “My sword,” says Cata, “a chi-focusing sword, otherwise called the sword of chi-lines. I’d say the two are similar but I’m guessing that the Runic Sword is something different in some fundamental way that makes it more dangerous.”

   “Indeed,” says Rhulan entering lecture mode, “The Runic Sword focuses the life energy of its wielder into either arcs, enhanced slashes, or even blasts of energy, in fact with focus you can create a spirit bomb of your elemental specialty on its tip and throw it. Only problem is that for most people it also drains their life.”

  “But for you Miss Rhulan I bet it doesn’t hurt at all.”

   “That is correct,” she says, “But for Dark King using this sword would have to be a desperation move, each time he would use it in battle it would weaken him, lower his defenses while harming him, yeah each focused strike would be like taking poison.”

   “Why would he use it then?” asks Hollia, “In the legend it said he used it all the time in battle and to show his strength.”

    She thought for a moment, “ooooooh, I get it, the legend got something wrong again didn’t it?”

   “Nope,” said Rhulan, “It was right, he showed off all the time, he would even boast about being stronger than me, even though I’m the one that gave him this sword as a reward for his victory over an uprising.”

   “and yet you knew what it would do?” asks Scrags.

   “Yes.” says Rhulan,

   “uhhhh, why  would he use it like that then?” asks Hollia,

   “because she didn’t tell him I bet.” says Scrags.

   “Mr. Scrags!” says Hollia, “Miss Rhulan would never…”

   “I did.” says Rhulan.

   “huh?” says Hollia confused, “but…but…why?”

   “Because,” says Rhulan coldly, “The man was a lunatic, he would boast to his captains about some day killing me and taking over the world. He executed people just for stealing, he would abduct village girls, rape them, and those that refused to join his ever growing harem were killed, and their families killed. He was not a nice guy, think about it, he named himself the Dark King.”

   Hollia looks about to cry, “but, why would you allow all that?”

   Scrags looks about to talk but the look from Rhulan shuts him up, “Hollia,” she says putting her hands on the girls shoulders, “He did all that while ruling a land in Anglish, after his victory and giving him the sword I used it as an excuse to have him moved closer to me. But I put my foot down on his behavior. Being as much a blow heart tyrant as he was, I knew he would make himself too weak with that sword to accomplish anything and some hero or revolt, or someone else wanting his job would take him out at some point.”

  Hollia shakes her head flinging tears, “but…but…you should have killed him.” She looks up at Rhulan with tear filled eyes striking a chord in the once Empress of the world’s heard.

   She shakes her head, “Hollia, I can’t make any good excuse, all I can say is its politics, and I…” she remembers back to her own behavior in those days, “I was detached I think from the world…Its not a pretty time, trust me, I created my empire with ambitions to protect, and ended up as corrupt as the people I put in charge, it was all about power, I felt like I needed strong scary individuals to keep the world under control. I was obsessed with control. I learned while taking my…forced…leave that no one person should rule the entire world, its too much to handle, and you can’t control every person who works for you…for the politics of it all, for the sake of keeping the appearance of a power to be reckoned with I gave the show or rewarding a man while putting him in a place I could keep an eye on him, and make him weaker, that a few centuries earlier I would have been right there helping others to over throw.”

   She stands up holding back her own tears, “I went from a hero, to a savior, to an evil queen.” She lets out a soft forced laugh, “I think I’d like to only be the hero.”

   Hollia grabs her around the waist and cries, “thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,” she cries, “I knew you were good, I knew it.”

   Rhulan sighs, “Damn it Marshal,” she thinks, “even in death you’re a pain in the ass. Next time I’m just going to kill stupid ass-holes like you, fricken Gyro killed you before I could catch you in the act and have a legitimate political reason to execute you.”

    Rhulan pats the smaller girl on the back calming her down as Lin Lin licks Hollia’s cheek, “I’m fine now …*sniff*,” says Hollia.

   Rhulan looks over to Scrags, “Why are you standing there?”

  “huh?” he says.

  “Weren’t you looking for the secret passage to the machine maker, I’d think that a more important use of your time than eaves dropping on personal matters.”

   He shrugs and walks out, “personal issues?” he thinks, “if that’s what you call making excuses for being evil, what ever.”

   As they walk into the passage Betty thinks, “How peculiar…I sensed a half lie, even that shouldn’t be possible in my presence. You really are something special indeed Miss Rhulan. The only entities I have ever faced before able to do that are The Thing Named Jim, and the more powerful demons and celestials. What are you anyhow?”

    ******

  A few minutes of waiting, and waiting, Scrags has finally unlocked the door made to look like stone, but made of metal. Finding the door was easy, unlocking it another matter.
      As the door opens,
     “Intruders are to be terminated.” A metal-skeleton is waiting on the other side.

   “Slicing Edge!”
   *sssssliiiink*

   The head of the metal-skeleton slides off and thuds to the ground, the body is soon to follow.

    Scrags sighs, “Okay, ladies this way to the treasure…okay, the other treasure.”

   Inside the room they see the odd device, a metal circle platform with four pillars around it, curved in at the top like some four fingered claw, with lights along the base and up the sides.

   “Kinda small, isn’t it.” says Cata, “you mean to tell me those robots came from this tiny thing.”

   The platform would just be large enough for one person to stand on it.

   “It makes the nano-seeds” says Rhulan, “it produces small dots with a total program in them that then are shot up through that little hole in the roof, which wasn’t there before the first seed was made I’d imagine. The odd pits through out the floor in the passage are also likely the result of the seeds producing metal-skeletons. After the seal was broken the spell that surrounded the whole vault was lifted thus allowing the machine to produce the larger ones. Before any one asks it can sense a range and materials, so it doesn’t try to send out a seed for something too large into a small space.”

   “In that case,” says Scrags as he throws a knife at the machine. It sticks into the side of the right pillar nearest them and the lights all go dark. With a second knife, this one connected to a string, he stabs the machine again. With slight tug a panel opens and out flings a red circuit board.

    *snatch*

   Rhulan grabs the board out of mid-air. Scrags hadn’t even seen her go past him. She removes his hook knife from the board with a smile on her face.

   “Well, well, well,” she says, “What have we here? Good job Scrags, you both found and turned off the machine.”

   She points at it, “Nice shot there, you hit the off switch perfectly.”

   “What switch?” asks Hollia as all she can see is a flat surface with now off light panels.

   “Any who,” says Rhulan as she takes from the darkness under her cape, the dimensional pocket she told them about before, a large chicken egg.

   She sees everyone looking very puzzled, even Lin Lin who has gone to being carried by Hollia now that all the threats in the area are gone.

   “This,” says Rhulan, “Is my personal nano-egg.”

   She holds it over the circuit board, the bottom half of the egg illuminates blue with a strange pulsating light scanning over the board.”

   Rhulan starts to laugh but stops short and stares wide eyed at the board, “Scraaaaaaaags!” she yells seething through her teeth, “I don’t know who, or for how much you were hoping to sell the schematic board, but you….you…you DESTROYED IT!!!” her voice echoes through the passage with such an intensity to make it shake.

    She taps the egg a few times and above the thin top end a blue grid appears. Rhulan lets go of the egg, now floating in the air, and moves the screen with her finger.

  “One…” she says, “One schematic copied.”

   A small hologram of a metal-skeleton appears, “and its just those weak Metal-Skeletons.”

   She makes a fist but then calms down with a sigh, “At any rate I got the sword back, I guess only one schematic is good for now. But I am taking this out of your payment.”

   She tosses him the damaged schematic board, a hole made by his knife clearly in the middle of it.

   “Oops,” he says with a pathetic chuckle, “That’s not good.”

   “Um,” says Hollia, “Miss Rhulan…what’s up?”

   “huh, oh sorry if I scarred you Hollia.” she says, “The nano-egg copies machines and then can reproduce them for when we need them. I have had this for some time, but the feed back from when my main mystic generator was destroyed erased its memory.”

   Hollia thinks for a moment, “oh yeah,” she says, “In the legend it said you would summon metal monsters during the battle with Gyro-Lee’s party.”

   “Yeah,” says Rhulan, “I kept about six different designs in it at the time, no reason to keep too many as the main generator had the majority of the schematic in it, but yeah, those are lost forever.”

   “So you can scan and do what with any design?” asks Cata.

  “Oh this.” says Rhulan as she touches the egg again, the hologram vanishing. The egg floats down to the ground where with a gentle push of the foot it phases into the ground. With a short rumble a mole like tunnel moves away from the egg and…

   *pwooosh*

   with a spray of dirt a metal-skeleton rises from the ground…and it just stands there, no threat.

   “Metal-Skeleton,” she says, “Salute.”

   The metal-skeleton salutes them, its eyes strangly glowing blue instead of red, “my own touch,” says Rhulan noticing Hollia’s puzzled expression, “I like for my robots to have blue eyes rather than the creepy typical red eyes you see.”

   “Now Metal-Skeleton,” she commands, “Return to dust.”

   It turns to dirt and collapse into a pile of dirt on the ground.

  “Huh?” says Betty.

   The egg floats back out of the ground and into Rhulan’s hand, “I can now summon anytime I want a mindless obedient soldier to aid us in battle. Unfortunately,”

   She glares at Scrags, “because of someone I only got one of the three designs on the schematic board, I would have liked to have the stronger Hexa-pod knight, and guardian metal snake, but guess we can’t have things too easy now; nope just the weaker one.”

   She mulls the egg around in her hand, “Guess it’s not too bad, after all its not like we’ll really need them for anything more than perhaps a distraction.”

   “For now,” she thinks.

   “What about the others?” asks Hollia with a smile.

  “Others?” asks Rhulan

  “yeah the ones we beat coming in,”

   “hmmm,” thinks Rhulan answering, “too bad we didn’t just disable some of them like we did the two in the tunnel. Sorry Hollia, but it has to either be a working schematic board or a whole functioning machine, broken pieces will just manufacture a broken machine, good enough if we had a mechanic, but no such luck, especially as the idea is to summon and then disregard as
needed, not keep them around and have them follow us.”

   “oh,” says Hollia,

   “huh?” says Rhulan, “sorry, didn’t mean to sound mean, I’m just disappointed, in myself really, I figured the schematic board was working…” she glares at Scrags, “I was right, shame it didn’t stay that way. In any case lets get out of this dark tunnel and get paid for this job.”

   “Paid?” thinks Scrags as they leave, “She just got a sword and can now summon a monster at will, and she is going on about being paid.”

   “I was wandering,” asks Hollia as they reach the water’s edge, “Miss Rhulan, you said the Runic Sword was like Cata’s sword, but fancier, so I was wandering, what would it do? I mean you have all those cool spells, and you said it focuses one’s spirit, so I was…just…you know curious.”

   “You are too cute.” says Rhulan making Hollia blush, “No need to be so nervous, you are my student after all, I would be ashamed if you didn’t want to ask about that.”

   As they hit the beach, past the wards left in the ground Rhulan holds out her hand, a portal forms, out of which the sword emerges floating waiting for Rhulan to grab it. As she does the hour glass symbols glow for an instant before returning the sword to its dark black luster.

   She aims the sword in the air, and with a swing yells out, “Mystic Arc!”

   An arc or purple energy flies into the sky, the air rippling around. She points her sword at the arc as it speeds away, “negate!” the arc vanishes before it has gone far enough to move out of sight.

  “It would keep going till hitting a large enough mass, or passing through enough air to equate to the equivalent mass. No reason to needlessly destroy things like that.”

   Hollia, as well as the rest remember back during the battle with the giant Dah-Hoth monster Ravana. Rhulan had flown into the air and unleashed a massive blast of similar energy, an attack she called the Mystic Destroyer. After words there was an aura around her that caused the ground and air around her to be destroyed for a short time. However this time there is no aura, no destruction of the air and ground around.

   “Miss Rhulan?” asks Hollia as Rhulan calls the sword back into its portal, “The sword means…?”

   “Yes,” says Rhulan walking over to her and putting her hand on the smaller girl’s shoulder, “I can interact immediately after with the world. No more fearing I will harm any of you.”

   “Great,” thinks Scrags, “it really did make her stronger,” he also thinks back to that Mystic Destroyer move and imagined Rhulan flying around yelling out “Mystic Destroyer” over and over again as the massive blast is unleashed from the sword destroying monsters, houses, castles, and mountains, with Rhulan standing upon a tower of rubble, sword raised high into the air laughing as Hollia holds onto Rhulan’s waist, Betty and Cata scantly clad sitting on the ground on either side of her. Rhulan grabs Hollia’s chin leaning her face up to meet hers, lips coming closer, Hollia blushes, eyes closed puckering, closer, and closer, almost…

  “Scrags! We’re outta here.” yells out Rhulan.

  He immediately snaps out of his day dream…which had turned on him, looking over to them as the boat approaches the shore, the old man smiling like a goof, “I had a feeling about you people.” He says laughing, “Right away the woods looked brighter, must have been a sign of good fortune. Loved the signal flare by the way, although we do have those watchers sneaking around remember? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.”

    ******

   Unbeknownst to the party as they leave Magistrate O’Bish’s mansion payment in hand and heading to a descent inn they as well as the mansion are being watched.

   When they are out of sight the eyes of a man shine from a nearby rooftop, “About time,” he hisses, “I thought those adventurers would never leave.”

    The man waits until the sun is fully set before making his move. With the stealth of a cat he jumps from roof too roof and to the street level. With a smirk and silent leap he easily jumps the wall of the mansion. He runs along the wall with the speed of mach-rabbit.

   “One fatal flaw,” he thinks, “in your maze is that the wall goes around it back to your house you fool.”

    With a leap he jumps up to a window and with a few a flick of his finger mentally pushes the lock open with his will. In the dark interior of the guest room he sneaks across to the door, unaware that what he thinks is just a statue is in fact watching him. Through the crack of the door he can see the down the well lit hall the door to the audience room, and hear the laughter of the obese magistrate.

    Down the hall he can’t help but wander about the complete lack of guards, as he approaches the door he has no inkling of the shadowy female figure behind him.

   He adjusts a mask he had hidden in his pocket, “got a put a show on for his watchers,” he thinks, “boss said make it nice and gruesome.”

   *slam*

   He kicks open the double door startling the large man, “Magistrate O’Bish!” screams the man, “On behalf of the Magnus Empire you are to be executed!”

   “huh?, wuh?, muh?” staggers the man.

   His two golem attendant girls stand in front of him speaking in unison, “Intruder detected, orders are to protect the magistrate, you are to leave or be destroyed.”

   “This way to freedom and life, remain and be destroyed.” This voice startles him as he looks behind him to see a third purple clad girl identical to the others walking in behind him.

   “Dolls.” says the man, “Ha! Now…”

   *pow*

   *crash*

   The next thing he knows he finds himself flying through the door, through the walls, and into the air above the garden.

   He stops in mid-air thrusting his arms out, “Ha!” he yells, “Strong dolls then, nothing can defeat the power of the true masters…of…”



   He see one of the “dolls” come leaping out of the building into the air above him, “I warned you.” She says as she comes down with a kick slamming the man into the ground shattering the walkway outside the gate.

    “eeuh, ehh” he staggers coming to his feet.

   The golem girl stands in front of him.

   “Guess that explains the guards, fat bastard has him self some eye candy golems. Well no problem.”

   He focuses a rippling clear energy between his hands, “Take this! Psionic wave!”

   The rippling blast hits the golem dead on, shredding the cloths revealing a body clad in skin tight black material with red geometric stripes with a red circle above the cleavage. However other than this the golem doesn’t move, in fact its floating above the ground.

   It holds out one hand, a fire…a black and deep red fire forms, with a toss the fire ball dissipates the psionic wave hitting the man dead on sending him flying back a good forty feet. His body rips up the ground as he lands.

   “Shit.” He exclaims, “what…what the hell?”

   The golem appears to vanish and re-appear next to him, “tele…teleportation?” he says while trying to get up, he sees another one, still in the purple attire appear next to them with a gust of wind and holding her hat down, “spee…sp…speed.” he staggers, “wha…what…are…”

   *brow-koom!* the new one blasts the man in the hole with a blue beam of plasma.

   “Orders are to terminate.” she says and looks to the other one, “Aesthetic attire destroyed.”

   The first just says, “Returning to dress maker, report in my place.”

   “Understood.” says the second.

   The second one returns through the gaping hole in the mansion carrying the charred remains of the would be assassin, dumping it before the terrified and confused Magistrate O’Bish, “what? How? Wha..wha…wha…wha..what did Byron-Lia sell me?!”

    “We are Petite Juggernaut units sir, our orders, from commander Lia are to protect and serve Magistrate O’Bish… with-in reason.”

    Beyond the mansion, in a nearby building another man glares at the commotion outside, “damn-it!” he exclaims, “Who would have thought such a minor figure would be so well guarded.”

  He picks up a radio transmitter sending a signal to a far away land, to a dark room where another man answers after the password clicks have been sent, “Report field commander Stevens.”

   “Commander Stevens reporting in,” says the man in Delca, “Our mission has failed, we encountered un-expected resistance.”

   “What!?”

  “My apologies sir, Sergeant Franks was just now killed by unknown female guards using much higher than expected magic.”

  “So even a minor merchant port has a small army?”

   “No sir, a single woman easily overpowered the Sergeant, a second identical one came out and finished him off. They have taken the body.”

   “hurumph, return to base. Do not investigate, do not make a second attempt.”

    *click*

   In the dark behind the man, “So general,” says a younger looking man clad in the shadows, “the mission failed, well perhaps not as much, they now know we can reach them. This un-important man’s death was just to be the icing on the cake, we simply under-estimated their defenses. It wont happen again…will it general.”

   “No sir.”

   As the man walks from the communications room the lights of the metal complex with its iron beams and walks ways over a deep hanger like interior illuminate his young plain face, “Stratalia,” he says, “This was only a test. You will fall, as will the entire continent, and then the world.”