At the entrance that appeared to be the front one. Fifteen minutes after the Land units from 61 to 80 rushed in through it while it was left open.
Reiko, Ann, and Jin’s substitute puppet ‘Deus Ex Machina’ also entered.
“There’s no mistaking it. These are the ruins of an ancient fortress.”
Ann said after checking the structure.
The place where they arrived after going through the entrance was something like a wide hall. It was the place where soldiers who warped in would wait for orders.
Similarly to the ruins in Yada Village, in the floor there were traces of a Warp Gate. Although the parts left behind were very few so there was no hope of reconstructing it.
It had probably been destroyed when the fort got abandoned.
From the front there, a passage extended out. At the entryway to the passage there were concaves where guards had likely once been stationed in, but now there were unmoving golems there that the Land corps had destroyed.
“We should find stairs after walking for a bit.”
Following Ann’s guidance, the three progressed.
Just as she said, after walking 20 meters more there were stairs leading up and down.
“The stairs down go to the armoury while the stairs up go to the control room. Where should we go?”
Ann turned to ask for Reiko’s opinion, and at that very moment. The sound of people walking up the stairs from below was heard.
“!”
Reiko immediately got on guard, but after sensing the Magic Energy Patterns she realized that they were Land golems and moved her hand off her sword’s handle.
The ones that came up were Land-70 and Land-71.
“Oh, milady. The basement seems to be an armory, but there were nothing but broken golems and Magi Tools that had become useless. Land units from 41 to 60 also joined us and we’re continuing the investigation.”
Hearing the report, Reiko decided to head upstairs.
“Let’s go up.”
They went upstairs taking Land-70 and Land-71 with them.
“Oh my, we’re not the first.”
The door leading to the second floor hallway was left wide open, and in the hallway there were the Land units from 91 to 100 who were supposed to have entered through the wester side.
“Milady, there was nothing but household golems. Yet they’ve all been neutralized.”
Land-100 reported to Reiko.
“Most likely the control room is on the fourth floor, let’s go.”
Ann suggested. Reiko nodded and called out to Land-100 and the others.
“You guys please keep on investigating this floor.”
Reiko’s group then went to the third floor.
The door to the third floor was left wide open, the Land units from 81 to 90 were there investigating.
Reiko’s group left that floor to the Land corps too and went to the fourth floor.
The stairs reached their end there, and a robust-looking door blocked their passage.
“Milady, let us try first.”
Land-70 said and pushed the door together with Land-71. But it didn’t budge.
“It feels like it’s been barred from the inside. What shall we do?”
They had a few ways of opening it. He was asking about that.
Then Jin contacted them. The substitute puppet’s mouth opened.
“Just now Land-61’s group discovered members of the Unifiers. The 17 people in total were all neutralized. From questioning those guys it seems that the control room is on the fourth floor.”
“That’s the floor we’re on, isn’t it.”
“That’s right. Most likely the ‘Golden Princess of Destruction’ is also here. Be very careful.”
“I understand. What shall we do about this door? Should we open it with force?”
“Let’s see, chop it off with the Vibration Blade.”
Jin gave instructions while borrowing the mouth of his substitute puppet ‘Deus Ex Machina’.
“Yes, Father.”
Reiko felt just a little disappointed. The substitute puppet turned to Reiko and said to her as if consoling her,
“Reiko, you’ll be headlining today so it’s better to not go ahead recklessly. ”
Then,
“Also, stop calling this puppet ‘Father’. This goes for all of you there, make sure to call it ‘Machina’.”
The word Deus meant ‘god’ so Jin refrained from that and decided to have the substitute puppet nicknamed ‘Machina’ which meant ‘machine’.
“Yes, Machina-sama.”
The group then passed through the door and stepped into the fourth floor proper.
There in the comparatively wide hallway a carpet had been laid down.
“There’s no mistaking it. At the end of this hallway is the control room. It’s clear that a rather high-ranking commander had been in charge of this fort.”
Land-70 and Land-71 were side-by-side as the vanguard, behind them was Machina, and Reiko and Ann were the rearguard. They were likewise side-by-side.
On the left and right there were a number of doors, but after opening them and checking inside they found nothing particularly notable.
Then finally only the door at the back was left.
“Opening.”
Land-70 and Land-71 pulled on the door. Because this time there was a handle on the door.
Slowly the door opened. It appeared it hadn’t been bolted.
“Please be careful.”
Ann said, and at that moment.
Once the door had opened enough to let a person through the gap, a number of golden and silver figures holding spears rushed out. They were golems.
“As I thought!”
Reiko who had stayed cautious immediately unsheathed the Vibration Blade and in the next moment cut down two of the attacking golems.
Even though Reiko didn’t know any sword arts, the golems were no match for her physical ability.
Then Land-70 and Land-71 too cut down an enemy golem each.
This time nothing jumped through the door and it was opened wide.
“So you’ve reached this far.”
In front of them at the back of the room there was an aging man. He was sitting with gold and silver-colored golems like the ones defeated just now standing on his left and right.
There was another golem about two meters tall, but it stood in front of Reiko’s group as if protecting the man from the front.
“I am the top seat of the Unifiers, Donald. You will be the opponents of my masterpiece, golem number 457. Go!”
Along with this words golem number 457 kicked the floor and rushed to attack Ann.
The aging man, the current leader of the Unifiers Donald, had been watching Reiko’s specialness through the Magic Screen so he was aiming for Ann who seemed the easiest to deal with.
Ann wasn’t indeed very strong.
“[Barrier].”
But she was fast enough to activate the Guard Ring she had received from Jin.
The Guard ring had once defended against a hit from Reiko at 30 percent output.
Golem number 457’s fist came to a halt ten centimeters before reaching Ann.
“W-what!?”
Land-70’s Vibration Blade mowed down golem number 457 which had stopped briefly.
Even steel hardened to the utmost couldn’t offer even a little resistance against the Vibration Blade.
The golem number 457 was cut in half at the waist and collapsed to the floor making a massive sound.
“Wha-wh-whwhwhw… My masterpiece was…”
Donald turned pale. Machina = Jin turned towards him and spoke.
“A masterpiece like this is shameful. The masterpiece is always ‘the next one’.”
Reiko stayed silent and nodded as he spoke.
“Why you… Cheeky brat! As if the technology from the past could lose so easily! That’s right! It can’t looooooose!”
But Donald was close to being half-frenzied as he didn’t appear to accept the reality in front of him.
“Ann, the Paralyzer.”
Machina = Jin couldn’t just watch and gave the order. Ann immediately cancelled the [Barrier] and zapped Donald with the Paralyzer.
“Agh.”
Then again, she changed over to [Shock] mode and once more zapped him.
Perhaps because of something related to [Shock]’s wavelength, or its waveform, there were also people who weren’t knocked unconscious by it. Therefore it was necessary to zap the people thought to be mentally manipulated twice.
At the same time as Donald fainted, the gold and silver golems on his left and right side rushed for the attack but they were promptly beaten by Land-70 and Land-71.
“Now then, I thought that the Golden Princess of Destruction would be here, but she isn’t.”
Reiko looked around the room and said.
“Ah? Elder Sister, someone has collapsed over there.”
Ann who had been similarly looking around the room found a collapsed person concealed by the tapestry hung on the wall.
“Who might he be?”
Ann who found him, Reiko, and Machina went there to look. Land-70 and Land-71 stayed vigilant of the surroundings.
The collapsed person was an old man. Ann examined his wounds and her diagnosis was,
“His sternum is broken but he seems to still be alive.”
Machina = Jin decided to use the restorative medicine he brought with him, thinking that the person might have some useful information.
He applied it on the chest wound and the old man’s breathing seemed to become easier. Next Jin made him drink it.
The old man managed to somehow drink the restorative medicine. His breathing became regular and color returned to his face.
Then the old man opened his eyes.