Chapter 39: 38. Machines

"Is this the place?"

"Yes, this is the shaft where the cave was discovered."

An elder dwarf kneeled down, holding up a lantern close to the wall of the mine shaft, examining the hole in the wall. The light from his lantern peered into the hole, however, he could only see that there was a lot of space behind the wall. No wall, no floor was visible through the hole and the lantern in his hand was too big to pass through the hole.

The old dwarf, Mozzar shook his head; he as well as four others were called here to search this potentially resource-rich cave. But Mozzar wasn’t a fool to just tell miners to break through the wall. After all, the space behind the wall could be used as a den by a powerful beast, and he alone may not be able to fend it off even though he keeps his trusted revolver at hand. Alternatively, there may be a deep ravine. In either case, it would be suicide to just dig through the wall.

"Narmida, give me the argemhuk."

The dwarf woman named Narmida nodded and raked through the leather bag, pulling out an ampule filled with clear liquid as well as two crystals, one white and the other blue.

"Here."

Mozzar took the items from her and put the two small crystals into the ampule. Once they were in, he sealed the ampule and shook the ampule until it began emitting a soft blueish light.

The agemhuk, as it was called, was a solution made by dissolving ergad and rafen crystals in soriam acid.

When Mozzar determined that the light emitted by agemhuk would not get any brighter, he carefully tossed it into the hole in the wall. Watching how the ampule emitted a blueish light and rolled on dusty flour until it stopped at what looked like a table leg was a good sign, as it meant there was solid ground.

When he did not, even after a couple of minutes, he could not hear any movement from behind the wall. He judged it safe and instructed miners to break through. As the wall crumbled under the strikes of the miner’s pickaxes, Mozzar illuminated the dark space with his lantern.

"Is this… a study?"

"Seems so. Riden can you read any of this?"

Mozzar looked around the dust-filled room. There were a few bookshelves, broken chairs, and an old table covered in papers, as well as what appeared to be an old map of the continent.

What surprised Mozzar the most about this room was simply the fact that none of the writings he saw were in dwarven, despite being deep within Darhgan’s border.

"Sorry, boss. but this isn’t Elven or Beastman writing. Hell, not even human. The closest I can think of is…"

"Vampiric."

Riden apologized as he looked over the shelf to his left. Mozzar murmured his conclusion while studying the papers and the map on the table. He could only describe the lettering as an ancient form of the vampiric language he had become accustomed to seeing during the war.

"So, it’s up to me then. Make a way〜"

Sighing, Narmida squeezed herself past Mozzar to the table and began examining the texts spread there. Since Narmida would take some time translating, Mozzar decided to give her some space and join others in exploring the rest of the room. Why is there a vampiric chamber deep in the heart of our homeland?

He stopped abruptly as the light of his lantern reflected off the glass plate covering a framed painting placed on the corner of the table. The frame was richly decorated with elaborate flower patterns, along with a strange 僕の愛する妹 inscription on the bottom. As far as Mozzar could tell, the painting depicted a young, silver-haired vampire girl, possibly aged 7 to 9.

Mozzar placed the frame back on the table, and the strangest thing in the room just went up. Why would somebody have a portrait of a vampire princess on their desk like this?

"Most of these appear to be spy reports... Just wondering, but did any of you ever hear "the crimson empire"?"

"No."

"Never did."

"What empire? Let me see."

Mozzar looked back as the rest of his team answered Narmida’s question. Riden and Narmida were both hunched over the map on the table. The map showed a big dark red blob covering the southeast of the continent. from the southern coast to the desert in the north. A country that includes the territories of vampires, dark elves, succubus, beastmen, and even our own… just what is this? Even the orcs look like they are subordinated to it.

Mozzar scanned the map; with the exception of the few human and elven countries in the west and north, he didn’t recognize the others. Beastman Republic, Crimson Empire, and Falyug Principality didn’t sound familiar to him, yet on the map, they dominated the southeastern part of the map.

"Collect the reports and the map; we will let somebody from the academy look at it."

On Mozzar’s order, the others began collecting any text they could find in the room.

"Shit!"

"The hell are you doing, Riden? Did that doll seriously scare you?"

Everyone turned to Riden, who was sprawled on the ground in front of an opened door. Right behind which, was a small room and in it leaned against a wall figure of a young fox-eared girl dressed in old maid clothes. On closer look, it was apparent that the woman wasn’t really a living being at any point but a simple real-sized doll of some sort.

"Look I was just surprised, all right?"

Riden defended himself while Narmida helped him back to his feet.

"If you're done, then let’s move on to the rest of this complex."

…

The group led by Mozzar slowly explored the rest of the facility. The more time they spent there, the stranger he felt about it. The corridors as well as the rooms looked more like the interior of a mansion that should not be located underground. like the big windows, through which dirt piled in the rooms.

As they went further, the group split to cover more ground, so Mozzar stayed with Narmida. During their exploration, they found a couple of dolls destroyed by debris, as well as crates with a wolf insignia and the winged sword crest of the vampires. Most of them were empty; some were filled with gold and jewelry, and one had what looked like rifles.

"This is a dead end, isn’t it?"

Mozzar looked from the crate towards Narmida. She was standing by a railing leading down into the water.

"Let’s regroup with others and return for that gold. The bottom floor is inaccessible anyway."

Mozzar scanned the hall, but finding nothing of interest, he turned back to where they came from.

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"Umm. Boss? Is it just me or is there something in the water?"

As Narmida pointed out, there really appeared to be a small light moving in the water. While Mozzar thought about what it might be, the light moved toward them.

"A woman?"

Narmida gasped, seeing a silhouette of a woman emerging from the water.

"Step back!"

Mozzar pulled out his revolver as the woman walked from the water's depths. A long, wet black hair covered the woman’s face, but she didn’t seem at all concerned. Her eyes, partially visible behind her hair looked ahead with emptiness. Not to mention the missing arm and the hole in her chest, through which a red crystal in place of her heart was visible. No matter what, she reminded him of the dolls they saw in the other rooms.

"Befehler zur allen eiheitung: virias uranma du honturagu. Zulässig."

A subdued voice, speaking in a mix of vampiric and an unknown language, was heard from the woman, yet her mouth didn’t move.

"Jawohl."

Bang

"Was that a gunshot?!"

Another cold, emotionless voice answered the first one, after which gunshots were heard from the other side of the complex.

"Don’t stand there! Move!"

Mozzar grabbed Narmida by the arm and dragged her down the hall. ducking into a cover as soon as they passed the corner, just in time to avoid an ice arrow.

"Shit! To hell with this!"

Mozzar aimed his revolver at the woman and pulled the trigger. Three bullets were fired. Two of them hit her shoulder and abdomen, while the third one hit her head, making her lean back briefly.

"Ari zu befehler: honturages uirun verhen markan. Schaden an der Einheit: sechzig Prozent"

"Befehler zu ari: Antiamur honturas am delianon. Aus."

The woman launched more ice arrows at Mozzar and Narmida. as if she hadn’t gotten shot at all. Shit, what is that thing? It's like she is a machine or something.

"I will cover you; get ready!"

As Mozzar yelled out, he opened fire at the woman, this time aiming at the crystal in her chest. Narmida ran as she was told, reading her own weapon; once she reached the doorway, she turned around, aiming at the woman to cover Mozzar.

Multiple shots landed a clear hit on the woman, who promptly ignored them while slowly retreating to cover. But just before she managed to do so, one of the bullets hit the crystal, shattering it to pieces.

The woman's arms went limb as the crystal shattered and she collapsed to the ground. not giving any sight of getting back up.

"Let’s just get to the others."

Narmida followed Mozzar in silence through the corridor and debris-filled rooms.

"Say, boss, do you think it was that? The varkyus?"

"It seems so."

Mozzar couldn’t deny it, even if he wished to. The varkyus. An ancient dwarven legend tells of a master craftsman creating machines in the shape of a beautiful woman called varkyus. No one knew why the craftsmen made them, but one thing was certain. No one knew them as anything other than weapons of mass destruction.

According to the legend, the craftsman was killed in his home and without a master to command them. The cold machines slaughtered thousands, erasing entire towns off the map, before disappearing for good.

"If it was really valkyu then we fucked. Especially if the other dolls we passed by are also valkyus."

an army of machines on the outskirts of Darhgan’s capital. There was no way this would not be a disaster. as they neared the room through which they entered. An injured Riden emerged from another corridor.

"Boss… Narmida. …run."

His face twitched in pain when a couple of bullets pierced him from behind, killing him. Mozzar urged Narmida to hurry up; there was nothing they could do to help Riden. It was pointless to risk meeting the thing that had killed him.

"Achtung: Hosturages feriang. Allen Einheitung, rederis amlat."

Mozzar only got a brief view of the thing that killed Riden before he slammed the door closed, confirming what he feared, in the hall behind them stood a mechanical "doll" in the appearance of a sweet-looking fox-eared child. Her artificial eyes looked coldly at them.

But he didn’t have time to worry about that. Barricading the door was a priority for now so that the evil on the other side would not reach the capital.

"Mr. Mozzar? "What happened, and where are the others?"

"They died. Don’t just stand there; we need to barricade this door or the entire city is doomed."

Piling anything they could at the door with the help of miners Mozzar doubted that this pile of furniture and stone would be enough to stop the machines on the other side. But strangely, they didn’t try to break through the door. Even though he was sure he heard mechanical clicking from the other side.

"Go inform the council; they need to know about this."

Narmida nodded and sprinted through the mine as fast as she could. hoping that the council will even hear her out. Ideally, before those things breach the barrier. 

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