The Karcist and the Lord
a S.C.P. Foundation Mythos x M.G.E. crossover
Chapter 43: Entrenchment
MEKHANITE WEAPONRY AND THEIR ARMS HISTORY:
The weaponry of the Mekhanites are categorized into two main groups: Lesser and Greater.
Lesser weaponry are made to be used by all members of the Broken God Mekhanes' followers, and typically are designed as simply more advanced version of weapons of those armies that are not of the Militant-Litigant branch, often to the point a single Mekhanite weapon was worth twenty of the same kind. The Cult of the Broken God also kept the secrets of how these weapons were constructed and their operation within their ranks only as a result, and would hunt down those outside it if they were caught with one of these tools of Mekhanes power. As such, when the War of the Flesh opening battles started, many of these armies and their kingdoms were overwhelmed by the Sarkics as a result of being outmatched by the ferocity of their infantry and the various abominable forms of the Adyites who they faced in battle, as the Mekhanite forces weren't numerable enough to be everywhere to counter the heretical abominations.
Eventually the many city-states and kingdoms that declared themselves allies to the servants of Mekhane, now seeing they needed the arsenal of the Mekhanites and not just the Militant-Litigants fighting alongside them, began to put political pressure that they be allowed to used the gifts of the Broken God, and accusing those who refused of hording the only means to fight back against the Flesh to save themselves. The Oracle of Mekhane of the time, known as Rolt-Kertus the Bronze Avatar, eventually declared to fabricate and distribute Generalist weaponry to all their allies, much to the chagrin of many Magi within the Cult who argued that this would open the doors to the Cult losing the favor of Mekhane, and risk their own weaponry being one day turned against them. To ensure this did not happen, Rolt-Kertus added that only the Mekhanites Fabricator-Litigants would be allowed to make these weapons, and the training in the use and maintaining of them would only be done by the Magi of Mekhane.
Greater weapons were still reserved for the followers of Mekhane however, as they were made to be used in tandem with the battle-focused enhancements and augments of the Militant-Litigants. These in particular were not as common as their counterparts, and were just as much work of art as they were weapon. These are often more expensive to create and maintain as a result, as well as made to counter specific threats and manipulate the natural laws of nature and the universe in favor of the Mekhanite armies. Examples including the Gauntlet of Hades, which is able to allow the wielder to enforce the natural law of the universe around them, limiting the strength of magical spells an enemy mage can use, which is typically also design to have some form of ranged weapon built into it.
As Mikheal opened his eyes, he let out a startled gasp, looking around as his vision began to clear. He quickly perceived that he was in an unlit cell of some kind, however the Demonic Mana which flowed through his body granted him many blessings, including seeing in the darkness. The cell was four solid walls of what looked to be bronze, with circuitry, wiring and the perception of Spiritual Mana, or some variant of flowing through said circuits and wires. All he could see otherwise was some sort of highly ornate door, with a bronze skull of some strange design gazing at him with black holes for eye. Confusion raked the Monster Kings' body, as he wondered where in the blazes he was. Then he remembered what had happened to him, and tried to move his arms, which felt sore.
Suddenly he felt his wrists get caught on something, and realized he was bound and tied to a rack of some kind, with his arms stretched out and his legs hanging uselessly in the air. Upon also feeling how unnaturally numb he was, Mikheal turned and look to his right arm, and saw clear a tube of some rubbery material was injecting a pale yellow liquid from a bag made of what was likely the same stuff as the tube. He could barely feel his own tongue as he groggily spoke up, the sedative or paralytic the Automatons injected into him apparently strong enough to overcome even the adaptive abilities of Demonic Mana.
"Aegila? Are you there?" he asked. The skull suddenly glowed with a baleful red light centered at its eyes, and a voice came out from its direction. While it spoke, the light was focused on Mikheal, who let out a wince at how it hurt enough to make him look away.
"Be silent. You are awaiting your trial." the voice said, its cold, harsh and unfeeling yet hate-filled tone sending a slight tingle of fear down the Human warrior-kings' spine, who looked at the skull now that his eyes had adjusted. "You will be taken to the Magos after the abomination of flesh and blood that came with has been judged."
'Abomination of flesh and blood' that came with me? Mikheal thought, before his eyes widen in fear as he realized what that could only mean. "What are doing to my daughter?!" he cried out hoarsely. "Where is she?"
"You are in now position to make demands of the chosen of Mekhane. You will await for your trial, and you will be judged as the will of Mekhane so demands." the skull said in reply.
"Let her go! She has done nothing to you, you have nothing to charge her with!" Mikheal yelled.
"On the contrary, 'King Mikheal,' we have more then enough to charge her with the following: Actively and passively spreading the worship of the flesh, following a servant of one of its chief and greatest abominable forms of corruption, conspiring in enslaving Humanity to the whims of the flesh, and a thousand thousand sins and heresies."
"What do you mean, you have already sentence her as guilty, even before your so-called 'trial' had begun? Are you mad?!" the Monster King gasped with shock, before letting a hacking sound as he felt himself choke accidentally on his own saliva. Gods, he could barely swallow with how numb and dead his throat felt.
"On the contrary, the trial is not to establish guilt. The purpose of the trial is to establish what the abomination will be sentenced with." the skull said, while Mikheal someone approach the door. As a small window that Mikheal could just barely make out opened, he saw a silhouette look into the room.
"Aegila is not an abomination, she is my daughter. She is of my flesh and blood, and if you do not let me see her, you better pray not a single hair on her head has been harmed!" Mikheal cried in anger, his heart beating loudly in his ears. As he said the last line, he looked at whoever, or whatever was looking at him from behind the door. He began to mentally channel his power to break free, only to scream in pain as he felt an electric shock run down his body from both arm. When it stopped, he looked up and saw that whoever checked on him was gone.
"Your power is nothing to the Cage of Tempests. We have harnessed the power of the lighting and the thunder bolt, and the Cage of Tempests uses them to punish heathens, heretics and abominations that would otherwise be uncontainable, such as you and yours. And the beastly abomination you and your mate sired called 'Aegila' will not brought to you. This communications channel will be terminated." the skull said, then the lights in its eyes winked out. Mikheal then tried to scream, but the drugs which addled his senses made it come out more as a crackling croaking of pain then any form of savage yelling.
After around an hour of such noises echoing toff the walls of his room, he fell silent from his voice growing hoarse. He hung his head down, panic and fear and rage welling up inside of him as he was left with nothing but to be suspended in the air. When a hissing noise was heard, the Monster King looked up, and saw the door was being raised up. From the doorway, several of the Automaton soldiers entered the room, with various weaponry he did not recognize as they formed two lines. From the center of their ranks, a clearly higher ranking one, distinguishable by the slightly more ornate design it had on its chest plate walked in, and produced two nails engraved with strange runic symbols. The officer Automaton walked around Mikheal, and he let a pain-filled scream as he felt it stab into his arm with what he presumed was the nail in question as the pain went away as quickly at it came. After a moment, the tube was pulled out of his arm, replace by the nail, which was embedded in his arm. After a few moments passed, the same stabing wound was repeated on the other arm.
Suddenly, the rack released him, causing the man to fall and collapse as his legs were still numb. Mikheal tried to move his arms, but was unable to. The nails! They've cut my ability to move my arms! He realized, as he picked up by two of the soldier Automatons. As they dragged him up and out of the Cage of Tempests by the shoulders, the Automatons did not so much as speak to him.
"Who do you think you are?" Mikheal slurred, though his voice was more legible now that he was not constantly pumped of whatever that drug was back there, which was indication that was made to wear out quickly once the supply was cut off. As he was carried into the hallway, he saw another pair of Automatons carrying Aegila. Upon seeing the Orc-Lilith was also being dragged in the same manner as him with her armor stripped from her body, leaving her nude flesh to show a set of scars, which were fresh. Mikheals' eyes widened upon seeing the angular and almost surgical nature of the incisions cut into her.
"Aegila! What happened?! What do you do to her?!" he screamed, when the nails were suddenly crackling with energy. The Monster King began to overload their enchantments with his innate power, and caused a blast wave that launched the mechanical men away from him. The nails were then shot out and into the two Automatons carrying Aegila, who fell down grasping at the spikes of metal embedded into their bodies. Aegila herself fell over with a thump, as Mikheal proceeded to hit and break the head of one of the Mekhanites that ran at him with a jab. The Automaton backed up, and fell backwards when he kicked it in the stomach, making a static growling sound as it did so.
Another jumped unto his back, and Mikheal smashed it into a wall, threw the mechanical being into the one opposite, then grabbed its knife, and then stabbed it in the abdomen area. As it grabbed his wrist, it began to make similar sounds to the one that Mikheal kicked, and the Monster pulled it out and stabbed the machine man again. However, when he looked down, he saw the machine was bleeding a dark fluid, and that it was charged with the strange mana that they had. Upon contact with his skin, he felt that it was trying to turn him to their side.
He used his Demonic Energy to flush it out, causing the Automaton to groan as he slashed its neck, when he paused and looked at the knife. When he saw the fluid was a red color that stood out more against the steel of the knife then it did the bronze armor he punched it through, the Automaton struck him one final time, and fell over. Mikheal stared in shock, and another Mekhanite came at him with a sword with many teeth whirring down its blade. Mikheal saw it and dodged punching the attacker hard enough that the helmet cracked.
As the light of its eyes flickered, the Mekhanite pulled it of, revealing an angry Human man staring at him with hate, though his face was considerably replaced with a number of technological devices, and had pale, dead skin with the hair fallen from his scalp. Mikheal in shock, when the Human pulled out another knife, this one a smaller version of the sword he carried. His neck still bleeding, the Mekhanite assumed a stance, attempting to stab the Monster King who dodged the attack, the blades whirring with a shrill tone that made him flinch as the intensity of the noise of the small device. As the Mekhanite soldier suddenly turned it off, and raised his fist, the ringing did not stop in Mikheals' head, and he made a groaning sound as he was punched in the head.
As Mikheal looked over at the Mekhanite, his vision began to blur, as Aegila tackled the Human, and he could hear muffled banging and thumping as the two struggled. The Lilium then kneed the Mekhanite in the stomach, before bringing her two fists into a ball, and slamming them down on the warrior, who fell as a cracking sound could be heard upon impact. Mikheal then felt someone pick him up, and realized it was his daughter.
"Father, are you alright?" she asked, though Mikheal barely heard her. He pointed down the hallway, and moaned out in reply.
"Go." as Aegila moved down the hallway with her father leaning on her shoulder, she opened a portal as one of the Mekhanites on the ground pulled out a pistol, which had an oversized barrel. The Lilith turned and made a shield, and the barrier was struck with a burst of leaden projectiles as they shot out in a cloud of ballistic death that she narrowly avoided. As she turn to go back in however, a prayer of some kind was said from somewhere in the facility, and the walls suddenly emitted a cold neon glow, then pulsed an energy wave down the hallway. The two nobles then fell over in pain and started to scream, as they felt a throbbing pain in their skulls somewhere.
"You will not escape. This is my prison, thus you are my prisoners." a voice said, as the portal destabilized and vanished as Aegila looked up to a pair of legs walking towards her. When she saw a glowing ax head of some kind, the Orc-Lilth looked up to see a heavily armored Mekhanite staring down at her, holding the steel handle of the ax in one hand, and the other had a gauntlet that was made into some kind of device built into it which appeared to somehow suppress her magic just enough to prevent the making of a portal. It was the source of the voice, deep and unmerciful as it continued, raising the ax it was holding. "You will die where you stand, Abomination."
"Like hell I will." Aegila snarled, creating a demon blade of shadows in her hands as she glared at the Human, and took a stance. She knew there was no way this group of Humans could be saved, not with what they were willing to do to themselves. They mutilated their bodies, turning themselves into horrific machines and destroying their own emotions to serve deity that was either dead or abandoned them. Demonic Energy can not, as a result, settle into their hearts and bring out their emotions and desires to be loved, for there was none left in a dead and cold heart like the kind they have, while the Cultists of Nalka were immune for the exact opposite reason of having embraced their own darkest desires out already in a twisted form. Mikheal groaned, getting up as he armed himself.
"What are you doing?" he asked his daughter.
"We need to get out of here father." The Lilith said calmly despite the rapidly beating heart in her head. "These Humans, they are dead in heart and soul, and will not negotiate. I have seen into their hearts." the Mekhanite warrior began to step forwards, his footsteps resounded as his comrades rallied behind him. As Mikheal turned and saw Aegilas' hands were trembling, she said "We must fight them to get out the others, and if need be, kill..."
**POV SHIFT**
As Sentinel Galio Serta marched towards the Abomination who held a magical blade she summoned, the Heretic King got up carrying a Reaper Sword, the chain-bladed teeth attached to it whirring to life as soon as he grabbed the handle on it. Seeing one of the servants of the Abominable Flesh grabbing a hold of it made his synthetic heart pulse with hate for a few beats before the emotion was channeled away, but then it resurfaced when he remembered what the information on Demonic Energy and its corruptive capabilities were. There were reports in the siege on that damned city of a number of Human men attacking with armor and weapons that were able turn into a horrific and disgusting fusion of their holy forms and that of a woman, which mated with these 'Incubi' as they called their mates.
"You dare to defy the Broken Gods' gifts to Mankind by laying your hands on them, Heretic?" he asked, his voice modulator projecting his words electronically. When the Abomination rushed at Galio, he stepped back and let the thrust swing over his head, parrying it away with his gauntlet, which made a energy shield as it touched the Demonic Energy, disrupting the form of the blade it made while swinging his ax at the Mamamos' head. She ducked, and the ax struck the wall, and Galio watched as the kinetic blast he sent into it smashed a hole in it. The Mekhanite was not worried about the damage to the Colossus however, as the beast jumped back on his return stroke as the bronze wall began to repair itself, only this time Galio stopped himself from over swinging into the other wall.
"You just damaged a part of this place. I assume to your people, it is sacred?" the beast asked, clearly trying to invoke guilt in his response.
"Be that as it may, it has taken far worse then my Gravity Ax to its holy frame, which was made for this." Galio said, pointing a finger at her with his gauntlet. Without warning, a needle thin beam of light fired from a crystal in the tip, and struck her in the shoulder, making the Abomination cry out as a small crater was blown out of the beasts' skin and muscle tissue. The Heretic King then pushed her behind him, taking a second and third blast to his breastplate, which took the energy blasts with naught but scorch marks where they hit. He then swung the screaming Reaper Sword, and it made a roaring sound as Galio blocked it with his gauntlet. As the man proceeded to put all his weight to hold it onto the limb and grind through the metal and sending sparks flying into the Centurions' face, Galio stepped to the side and angled his arm so that the Reaper Sword slid off with a screech. The Mekhanite then swung his ax upwards, hitting the Heretic King in the jaw with the back of the head, and he managed to block the downward follow up by making a barrier of some kind while raising the Reaper Sword with both hands, only to scream as the ax came down with a force amplification triple that of Earths gravity, allowing the ax to smash the Reaper Sword, barrier and crush his ribs on the left side in one strike. As the Heretic King screamed, the Abomination had a look of horror and
The way a Gravity Ax worked was that it carried a small power generator in the handle, which powered a hidden core of bronze enchanted to enhance the influence of kinetic force by increasing the effort gravity has on the ax while it was swung, typically activated mid-swing to ensure the strike moves along its predicted path. Combined with the ax already being an armor rending weapon alone, this allows the Mekhanite wielding it the power to practically split boulder sized enemies in twain. The main drawback of course, is that it requires the user to be large and bulky like Galio Serta was in his armor, as well as more strength then a normal ax, lest it pull him around each time it is swung like when he hit the wall, the result of not turning it off when he missed. As a result, when he saw the opportunity to swing down, it meant that it was amplified to deliver a blow that should have cleaved the Heretic King in two.
Since he only got away with at least five broken ribs, it was a testament to the power these abominations wielded, as several Hoplites imposed themselves between the Abomination, who was now screaming in rage as she tore through them. Taking the opportunity to ensure their sacrifice was not in vain, he raised his gauntlet, and blast the Heretic King in the wound after removing the ax, blasting it into a bigger hole that destroyed his left lung entirely. However, as he began to aim to shoot at the still beating heart to finish the Heretic off, he saw a blur of motion accompanying a grunt, and turned to see a spearhead flying towards his head.
**POV SHIFT**
Aegila stared at the dead Mekhanite, the spear she broke and threw at him impaling the mans' corpse as it hung there, dripping black oil-like blood into her fathers' wound. Being the husband of one of the Monster Lord herself, he was able to survive even this kind of mauling, albeit barely. As the suppression field the warrior was emitting died out, she ran over to her father and pulled him away from it, making a portal through which she escaped with him in tow to Wonderland, along with the ax he was using. As the two left, the Mekhanite warriors hand twitched, before being put on the wall as it freed itself. As the helmet came off, the fully Automaton-like Mekhanite stared where the portal was formerly, and snarled.
"Calm yourself Sentinel, the Ichor carried within your body has permeated within the Mamomo King." a voice in his head said, belonging to Magos Serina. "While it would be preferable to have him tried and executed, or terminated as you tried to, this can give us some political leverage of our own."
"They have stolen one of our weapons. We can not just sit here and-"
"All will be taken care of in time. For now, you will report to Magos Zaudes for disciplinary action until further notice. Now that we know that the Mamono are aware that we are going to be near their city of Lescatie, we are also no doubt drawing the attentions of the various Gods of this world, both loyal to the Monster Lord, and to the Great Abomination." with that Serina cut herself off from Galio before he could respond, and turned to the various Militant-Litigants operating Judgement. "Prepare the two ad-hock Thrall formations we formulated after they were sent from Bernia, and re-form them in a 3:1 ratio. The bigger of the two will be sent to the nearby Sarkic Temples to harass them and keep them occupied, the smaller will proceed on ahead of us to finding and purify the Mamono in the nearby area. They along with the Sarkics need to be kept off-balance and guessing of our true motives now that we have discovered what we now know of this world and the Desert Kingdoms, so every time we gather enough to form a battalion of 500 Thralls, send them into random locations to attack both Sarkics and Mamono alike." Serina said, the Magos stretching her neck and placing a hand on it. "And send a task force to the Desert Kingdoms to prepare the path ahead for us."
"As you command, Magos." one of the Tech-Priests operating the Colossus said. "Do you have any commands for the forces in Bernia? Currently, the Mamono Abominations have been driven back by the Thralls, and it has been observed that they could make for a great psychological weapon against these creatures." Magos Serina placed a hand under her chin, contemplating their response.
"Have them send a formation of Thralls to harass the Bernia convoy. If they can, focus on the production of aircraft and defensive works for the forward base. We may need to send our brothers and sisters to our objective without Colossi support, but we'll need something to extricate them if things get out of hand."
**POV SHIFT**
Wonder Land, Palace of the Queen of Hearts
As the Queen of Hearts entered the throne room of her castle, a portal opened up, and she and several members of the Sabbath looked over, and were shocked to see Aegila carrying her father the Monster King by the shoulders, and an axe was also in her hands. as a crowd gathered around
"By the Lilium! What happened?" one of the medical witches cried out upon seeing the hole in Mikheals' body. As they gathered around, more wounds could be seen. The two Lilith then walked away, as the medical team were going to need space to attend to the Monster King as they created a magically summoned operating room on the spot. As they worked in the background, Aegila explained what happened.
"The Mekhanites happened!" she exclaimed. "When we found them, the Mekhanites attacked us without warning or provocation, called father a heretic, and kept referring to us as abominations of the flesh. One of them almost managed to kill him with this." Aegila said, showing the ax to the Queen of Hearts. As the small Mamono examined the ax which was at least a third of her body in height, she noticed a button on the haft, backing away to press it without anyone near. Suddenly she screamed, as the ax suddenly fell forward, smashing into the marble floor and rug, exploding a chunk of the rock upon impact. Then, just as fast as when the ax grew heavier, it lighten back to its normal weight, and the Queen of Hearts fall on her back from reflexively lifting it up and hitting herself with it.
"What just happened?" Aegila asked.
"The blasted thing became at least three times heavier then it should be when I pressed the button!" the Queen said after getting up. That at least explained somewhat how Mikheal took the amount of damage he did. When someone cried out and dropped somethinf, the two Lilium looked back to their father, and saw something which made their hearts stop. One of the medical Sabbath members had already made a regenerated lung and ribs to graft into his body on the spot with their healing magic using a sample of his body tissue to prevent organ rejection. The problem however, was that said lungs and ribs were mechanical in design. "...oh crap, I read a report on this happening to a number of survivors our people found in Bernia. We need to call mother, now."
