Invasion

Leona’s halberd cut through the body of a griffin with the fury of a falling star. Following the fall of the beast, Sybille showered down with freezing winds at the field of undine monsters.

It was mayhem.

Brenna came in with trolls, chimeras; Ranolkia with drakmars; and against us, Akhronna came with undines, efreets, and griffins.

Through the thickest of their ranks, I charged through, breaking the formations of the monsters, and letting our soldiers engage them with their metal.

“Retreat, retreat!” cried out the Akhronnan soldiers.

Battles were not to be fought to the last man. They rarely were. The moment that a victor was clear, it was best to retreat, regroup, and try again another day.

As soon as the Akhronnan soldiers went on the retreat and left their monsters to die, it became cause for celebration. With the last of the monsters slain, we stood side by side, victorious.

The cries of shared victory roared through the ranks of the Brennans and Ranolkians alike.

“Man, that was fun!” said Leona. “I could have gotten a bit more of a fight, to be honest.”

“The more strength we keep before we reach the tower, the better,” said Sybille.

“I agree with Sybille,” I added. “We should not be that far, right?”

“Right,” said Sybille. “The tower is by those mountains!”

As we gazed towards the distant mountains, we got some glimpses of Master Croghan’s tower. It would have been nostalgic, had it not been my former prison, in a way.

“Hmm?” I muttered. “What is that?”

There was some kind of light coming out from one of the tower’s windows. It was one far too strong for one created by common lighting.

“That’s… magical energy,” said Sybille. “How? No, no… we should have had more time!”

Lightning burst out from the tower, striking at the sky with thunderous fury, and flashing with near-blinding ferocity at all those who dared to see it.

“Is he done making the weapon?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” said Sybille. “He shouldn’t have! We have to stop him…”

Leona walked ahead of the rest of the group.

“Then, we hurry the hell up!” she said.

***

The combined forces of Brenna and Ranolkia burst through the ranks of monsters and fortifications protecting the road leading to the tower of the master mage. We fought against yet more undines, efreets, as well as now golems, and human sentries.

At least, I managed to dedicate my strength to the felling of monsters. Humans were not priority targets.

Climbing the track of the mountain was a challenging ordeal, but after clearing the first few fortifications, the path was considerably tamer. Sybille’s guidance in those mountains were also practically god-sent.

That being said, the battles and mountain-climbing had left the bulk of the army either dead, wounded, or exhausted. The closer we came to the tower, the less combatants did we have at our disposal. What was more, the lightning strikes were becoming more intense. An untold amount of power was bursting from the tip of the forbidden tower. Now that I thought about it, I had never been in that tower. Sybille did not know what was in there, either. Master Croghan had always kept its contents secrets, even from us.

“We are here,” said Sybille. “The entrance.”

I walked forward.

The entrance to the main tower stood guarded by runes and magical wards. Penetrating it would be a difficult task. However, there was no time for us to hesitate. I made some distance to be able to make momentum, planted my soles against the ground, and braced myself for the charge.

“It will be dangerous,” said Sybille. “Are you sure you want to do this, Bastion? Those barriers are not just nearly impervious to magic, but they are also resistant to physical attacks. If you slam at it…”

“I cannot imagine this becoming any worse than it already is,” I said. “You spoke of the barrier’s immunity to magic, did you not? Then, bursting through will be the only way.”

“Be careful.”

“I will be. Now…”

Just before I gave the first step forward, however, the magical barriers at the entrance faded. Then, the doors opened wide.

“On guard, everyone!” commanded Count Victor.

The soldiers prepared their weapons, and the beastmasters the monsters to charge at whatever was coming out from the doors.

It was Siege.

“We will end this here and now, Siege!” I roared.

“Finally, we have you!” said Leona.

Siege came out stumbling through the doors.

“Joseph,” said Siege.

“Wait!” I told the soldiers.

There was something different about Siege. It was like at the first time when we fought, and for a moment, I had caught a glimpse of his true self. It was a lone, fleeting moment, but now, it was more than that. The red glow of bloodthirst that once shone trough his eyes was now nowhere to be found. Now, it was a deep ocean blue, devoid of the tethers from our shared creator.

“Siege?” I said.

Siege walked closer towards us but collapsed halfway through. He went to his knees and gazed at us with great struggle to raise his head. He was practically dead. Dents and cracks, crumbling parts… he was a shambling figure now, more than anything else.

“Master Croghan has fused with some machine,” said Siege. “It is a colossus. A ReConstruct, like us. But larger. Far larger.”

“How larger?”

“Ten meters,” said Siege.

A ten-meter tall ReConstruct.

“So that is what is going on…” I said, gazing up to the tower bursting with lightning.

“He is sacrificed the Divine Scion to use it as fuel,” said Siege. “I was there. The Master… he is using the energy to empower his machine. With the last moment that the Scion had, it warped me away from there.”

“And you opened the door for us,” I said.

“I did,” said Siege. “I… I have done too many wrongs to this world. Taking care of the sentries inside the towers was the least I could do. I could not get all of them, but I got some of them. This will not enough to earn me redemption, I know, but I made sure to do as much damage I could on my way here.”

Sybille squinted her eyes with suspicion.

“And why didn’t you stop him yourself?” she said.

“I am bound to his will,” said Siege. “All he needs to do is call my name, and I will be caught by his leash again. I could not allow that to happen.”

It was hard to believe him.

However, now that I was this connected to the matters of the soul… I could see something different in him. He was no longer the mad killing machine that I once had seen.

He was almost like me.

He is what I could have been.

“Stay here, Siege,” I told him. “We will handle the rest.”

“Wait, you're not serious!” said Leona. “You're letting HIM go?!”

“I am,” I said. “Siege is not our problem. I can see his soul. He was never the enemy who should have been subject of your vengeance. He was a tool, and nothing more.” 

Leona gritted her teeth.

“You better hope you are right,” she said.

I turned towards what remained of the combined forces we had brought. After all that was done, barely just a handful had remained. A couple dozen soldiers, and some monsters, that was about it.

However, Sybille and Leona still remained with us.

“I do not trust its words,” said Count Victor. “We will destroy that thing before it can betray us.”

“No need,” I said. “He barely has any energy left in him. Our priority is stopping Master Croghan before he can complete powering that construct.”

“How large is that construct, supposedly?” said Lieutenant Alistair.

“Ten meters,” I said. “That’s around thirty feet, I think.”

“A thirty feet ReConstruct!” said Alistair. “You will need some mighty ability to fight that thing.”

“Adventurer Sybille,” said Count Victor. “Do you have any knowledge of that weapon?”

“I… I don’t,” said Sybille. “If it is the thing in the forbidden tower, Master Croghan never allowed me to know what was being built there.”

Leona sighed.

“That thing is big,” she said. “But there are already monsters that big. With all of us, we might just make it. We can beat monsters that big, for sure.”

“But not a ReConstruct,” said Sybille. “Not the magnum opus of Master Croghan. If that weapon was his end game… then it will be stronger than anything we have faced before. I cannot think of any weakness.”

“What about magic?” I said. “That always gives me trouble. It even gave trouble to Siege.”

“That is because of instability to attune with the environment’s mana when your runes get overloaded,” said Sybille. “If the Master is using a Divine Scion, he will not have a problem.”

“Then, what is the weakness?” said Count Victor.

Siege somehow managed to stand up.

“The head,” he said. “That is where Master Croghan is entombed. Destroy the head, and then he will lose control of the rest.”

“Just like us,” I said. “Sybille can fly, but I will have trouble getting there to land a hit.”

Leona walked on towards the entrance.

“Then stop bickering on what to do, and get on with it already!” she said. “We will bonk the head until that thing is dead. Bastion, you better not be wrong about Siege.”

She was right.

We had no time to waste, but ignoring Siege right now was a risk.

But to kill him now... I had a bad feeling about doing that. So that is why...

“Everyone with some strength left,” I said, “come with us!”