Authors note : okay next chapter. Not a long as I wanted and I'm cutting it close if I'm trying to keep up with a once a month update. I need to get my act together. On the upside the next chapter will be mostly action. Hope you enjoy it!
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The Ardennes forest was old, and like many old forests it had its share of rumours and stories. Some claimed that monsters roamed the depths of the wood. Others claimed that faerie's inhabited the forest, preying upon travelers who wandered to deep. Others still claimed that an old mage lived in solitude, their golems killing any who dared wander in.
As a result the nearby village of the Ardennes was a village that did not particularly like travelers, and due to its closeness to the western mountains and the Germanian border, had a sizable militia of guards who had all been once part of the army. It was a village of hunters and gatherers who prided themselves on self-sufficiency, and paid their taxes through the sale of high quality animal's furs.
Deer and Fox however were not foes which were good for training one's ability against superior numbers or strength. So when the Elves came, demanding information about the forest and someone who they claimed lived within it, the act of instant defiance and the attempt to protect their homes with their own power was met only with loss.
Fourteen local hunters, three guards who were once soldiers, an old knight who had served the local lord in years past, a young man who tried to help, and a child who in a fit of fear threw a stone at the one leading the elven forces that invade their town. All dead, their families left grieving in fear as they were held corralled in the village heads home, under watch while being tormented by the elves mere presence and their strange questions.
"I will not keep asking the same question fruitlessly, human," the elf leading them said as he stood before the humans of the village, his body covered in a sand collared cloak, and his face hooded away from sight. "Answer my question, and you shall no longer need deal with us in your pitiful lives. Where is the one who lives in the forest?"
"We, we already told you, there's no one in the forest; we do not know what you are talking about!" The village head responded, fear filling his voice as he avoided looking at any of the elves who stood around the corners of his home, lest he be punished by the founder more than he already had been.
"We know she is in the forest, do not lie to us human! Do you think we cannot see through your lies? Do you think us fools?" A Female elf in simple but elegant leather armour said as he took a step away from the wall, grabbing the handle of her sheathed sword.
All the humans shied away, visibly afraid. Their fear getting worse as she took another step forward.
"Answer me you-"
"Enough!" the elven leader said, making the woman falter and turn to him, rage visible on her face.
"But sir, we know she is here and they continue to lie to our faces!"
"These ones do not lie. They do not know her location," the leader said with a shake of their head.
"Their children do! They said as much! Let us ask them again and-"
"No, you will not touch our children you monsters! There is nothing for you here!" a younger man, yelled, holding his children and wife close.
The elven leader let out a sigh and turned to his female comrade. "Your orders were to find her location peaceably, but you instead you goaded these humans when they did not say what you wanted. These deaths, and this resulting situation, are your fault," He stated only so loudly she could hear him.
"B-but they would not speak, and why should their deaths matter!? They are just humans, hateful and foolish, with no idea how history truly is, or how vile their lives are!"
The leader swung his arm out and smacked his subordinate across the face, making both the other elves, and all the humans wince and stare in shock. "Deaths with meaning are not an issue, but no death you caused here had meaning. None of these people were mages; they are simply men and women living their lives off the land. The plan was only to hold the village if the worst situation transpired, and because of your actions and killing, now it has!"
"No, this is not my fault! If killing does not matter, then why did you bring that demon with us?"
"That demons purpose is none of your concern. They shall be the main target while we find the one we look for. Or they would have been, had you followed your orders and-"
"Sir, we have a situation," an elf said from outside the building, standing by the nearby window.
"We will finish this later," the leader said as he turned and walked to the door, opening it before turning to look back. "Your mission is to keep this village under control, without killing its denizens. Keep them under your thumb, so the humans cannot act against us."
"Yes sir!" The woman said seriously.
"Good. Do not disappoint me again," the leader said as he left the building, and then turned to one of his scouts, who was covered with a dark green cloak that would blend in with the woods. "What is the situation?" he asked calmly.
"The one human that escaped days ago before you arrived, it seems their wounds did not hamper them as much as expected. There is a force of humans; Knights, mages and soldiers, approaching the village and the forest. I expect them to arrive within hours."
"I see. How are they split? I take it most are heading towards out little demon friend and their metal beast?"
"I do not think so. From the way they looked at a distance, it seemed the largest amount of their forces were heading to this village, with only a handful of people heading towards where the thing that demon summoned is."
"Truly? How strange. They must be strong mages or knights then, yes?"
"They . . . appear to be a number of young girls, as well as a captain of knights, and one who I believe may be this local nations regent, actually," the scout said awkwardly.
"A Regent? Tristain's is not known for combat prowess. Strange. But it does not matter so long as we find the girl. How close are your people?" the leader asked as the two of them walked toward the villages edge by the forest.
"Closing in. there are layers upon layers of magic in this forest, both the demon magic, as well as earth and wind magic. It makes it difficult to not get turned around."
"I see, this magic does smell, odd. It affects the mind subtly, makes it lose its way. Combine with wind magic that gently pushes and mixes scents, and the golems you encountered before, I can understand how these woods would gain the reputation they have."
"We will find her sir."
"Yes we will. The question is whether or not our objective is discovered by the humans when we do," The elven leader said with a sigh as he looked into the forest. "I shall assist you, come, and let us go."
"Are you sure sir? Does that blue demon woman not need oversight to control her?"
"I imprinted orders into the collar that controls her. A week after she has no one left to kill, she will return to us on her own. She cannot do anything but."
"I . . . I see."
"You have concerns."
"Sir, I do. They do not matter though."
"They do. Tell me of them."
"I, I do not mean to question the elders, but controlling a creature such as that does not feel right. A criminal I would have no issue with. A human mage I would have no issue with. But from what was said, that woman thinks of herself some form of heathen goddess, yet acts and looks like a demon from the absolute darkest of stories. Yet in contrast to that, she spoke only of her ill fortune and past mistakes as we traveled, sounding like a simple broken woman. I am conflicted."
"I know how you feel. I feel for that creature in some ways, yet also feel as if it tricks us with its words. I also feel that the elders have decided to go about this the wrong way. Yet here we are, so we must do our jobs. Even if we do not like them. You understand of course, yes?"
"Yes."
"Good. Then let us go. I will help you find her, and then we can leave this spirits forsaken land."
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"Captian Milan, We have the village surrounded on three sides, and our scouts have reportedly seen almost two dozen elves on rooftops of the village. They are armed with bows and swords, and seem to be gathered around the village heads home primarily."
Agnes turned to her subordinate and gave a curt nod. "How many bodies?"
"We . . . . . . There are a number of bodies, but most were difficult to tell if they were parts, or whole bodies, due to being behind buildings or sticking out of alleyways."
"How many are dead?" Agnes asked again, not looking at her subordinate as she spoke.
"We. . . believe the number may be over fourteen."
"I see. The elves will pay for it. Are all of our people around the village prepared?" Agnes asked.
"Our best shooters have rifles ready, and all of our people are ready as well. We can begin the operation at your word."
"No, we cannot. Not yet," Agnes said with a shake of her head. "Pass along to all of our forces that no one is to fight alone at any cost. Fight in groups of two or three against each single elf when we start the operation. That way we have the best chance of success, and survival for our troops."
"Yes ma'am!" the musketeer said with a salute before tuning and walking away. Only to stop a couple feet and turn back to Agnes. " Ma'am, when will the operation begin? The longer the remaining villagers are held hostage-"
"I will tell you when, but not sooner. Dismissed," Agnes said coolly, making her subordinate salute and head off without another word.
It angered Agnes greatly because her subordinates question had merit. They had arrived near the village and then immediately split up with Captain Valliere and the queen going with the heathens to what was reported to be the most dangerous enemy while she was ordered t surround the village and not attack. To not attack until the queen and Captain Valliere came to support them. But when would that be if they would be fighting first?
"We're just keeping the elves here, all so those heathens can show off to the queen," Agnes muttered in disgust. They needed to be saving people from the elves, not showing off!
Her eyes narrowed as movement showed out the corner of her eyes. Some of her people, or the forces under her people, were trying to head into the village.
"Damn, this is not good."
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"What is that monster?!" Henrietta asked as she, Captain Valliere, Louise, 5PB, Brave, Nepgear and Uni came up a hill and could see their quarry floating atop another hill at the forests edge, surrounded in corpses both chopped up and bludgeoned into a pulp. Not just human either, but animals, plants and even some tree's. It looked as if the thing was rampaging around a central area, killing or destroying anything in it.
"We told you. That's a Killachine," Uni said seriously as her rifle appeared in hand.
"But what exactly is it? Some form of armoured dragon? Or perhaps an ogre that floats somehow?" Karin asked professionally, wand in hand.
"No, it's a machine. It's made of metal, Data, and electricity. And hate. Lots of hate," Louise said grimly as she recalled how annoyingly tenacious they could sometimes be. And how much it hurt to get hit by its mace and sent flying. Granted it only happened once.
"So it is golem then. I assume it floats by magic?" Karin asked, not looking at Louise as she spoke.
"It's believed the inner rings on its spine produce antigravity," Nepgear explained as she summoned her sword in hand. "That report said the demon that was with it was blue, right?"
"Yes. Why?" Karin asked simply as she took a step forward.
"Because I might know who it is that brought it here," Nepgear said in a tone that was both sad, and worried at once. "We need to defeat the killachine first though; otherwise she'll probably use it to protect herself. Maybe."
"Then I'll do that so we can deal with the elves, Wind blade!" Karin stated as she swung her wand, too quick for anyone to stop her.
"No wait!" Uni tried calling out, but the wind blade was already formed and flew through the air, colliding with the killachine's chest and pushing it back a bit, but doing no visible damage.
"Impossible!" Karin called in shock before sending another wind blade at the killachine, this time at its arm, only for it to simply scuff a plate.
The Killachine slowly turned toward them, its head a visage of pain and destruction as it began floating forward, axe and mace dragging against the ground ominously. As it floated forward, its axe caught on a deer's carcass, and as soon as it felt thee tug, swung its axe up and let out an ungodly screech of steel on steel, the carcass flying into the air and landing right in front of the girls with a wet thump.
"There is no way such a weak attack will wound a killachine but," Brave stopped as she turned to Nepgear. "How strong do you believe the one who summoned it is?"
"Very strong. It took me, my sister and a number of other CPU's to make her yield before she disappeared," Nepgear said strongly as the Killachine began flying toward them faster.
"Then we'll just have to deal with it quickly," Brave stated as she took out her sword and hefted it in her hands.
"No, I will," Karin said as she stepped in front of everyone and held her wand to the side. "This is a Problem for Tristain, not something outsiders, or heathens, should deal with."
"Are you serious?" Louise asked in disbelief. "You just saw your magic bounce off of it. You cannot hurt it with Halkeginian magic!"
"Of course I can," Karin said as she pointed her wand at the killachine. "Wind spear!" She called, sending a blast of wind that, again, struck it and did no visible damage to it. It did stagger it a bit though.
"Look, we said we would take on the killachine, so let us do that already," Uni said as he hefted her rifle and pulled the trigger, a light blue beam of energy bursting out and colliding into the killachines shoulder and melting a hole in it clean through. "Huh that was easy. This thing is probably a lower level than the last one we fought."
"Yes, it's a . . ." Nepgear paused as she tapped on the terminal in her hands. "Level thirty five."
"Not too strong, but too much for a person to solo considering Kilashine's," Louise said as she summoned a spear in hand. "Shall we all head in, or tag team it?"
"Two pronged tag team; we take it quick and don't give it a chance to fight back." Uni suggested as the Killachine was nearing close while Karin kept throwing wing blades and spears at it, doing no damage, but slowing its approach toward them.
"That should wok let's do it!" Nepgear said.
In that same instant, against Karin's yelled, and ignored, demands, all five girls rushed forward at the killachine. As soon as they were in range it swung both its axe and mace into the ground, but the girls had already dispersed, 5PB backwards, Brave and Uni to the left, and Nepgear and Louise to the right. It began swinging at them, frantically and chaotically, but each strike was either dodged or blocked by Nepgear, Louise or brave. Whoever was not blocking a strike was taking the chance to strike the killachine, their weapons cutting chunks out of its armour, the pieces falling to the ground and disintegrating into data. Similarly both Uni and 5Pb were fighting as well, sending out blasts of energy and sound, ruining its armour from range. Though 5Pb was more actively applying buffs to everyone than attacking.
While massive and with attacks that sundered the ground wherever it struck, the Killachine was unable to hit the girls, and those few attacks that did were blocked so perfectly they did not even flinch and in a bare minute after engaging it one of the Killachines arms, the one holding its mace, Broke off and crashed to the ground, blowing apart into data as it hit.
"They are impressive. That monster is being defeated so easily," Henrietta said as she watched from just to the side of Karin.
"They are simply showing off," Karin said with a scowl, gripping her wand even more tightly in anger.
"I am sure they simply wish to protect people, and as it is something they are familiar with, they are best suited to fight it," Henrietta reasoned with a soft smile.
"That is no reason for them to intrude upon our business and-" Karin stopped s the sound of a gunshot came from the village to the east. "What? Their orders were to wait until that monster was destroyed before engaging the elves!"
"Go and support them Captain. Against elves, they will need your skills and prowess," Henrietta said.
"As much as I would love to make good on every nobles promise to do what they would do to the elves, I refuse to leave you with these heathens, your majesty."
"One of those heathens may be your daughter and my best friend, if only in soul, if not in body," Henrietta said, causing Karin to visibly twitch and turn to her, eyes full of anger. Before she could speak however, Henrietta continued. "I will be safe here in their care. Go and deal with the elves holding our people hostage; however you feel is safest for our people. That is an order, Captain."
Karin looked like she was about to scream, before her expression instantly turned neutral and unemotional. "Very well, as your majesty wishes. I shall make short work of the elves that endanger our people," she said as she turned and began walking toward the village, only to stop a few meters away. "Do not do anything to endanger yourself your majesty. Those from other nations cannot be trusted."
Henrietta watched Karin run off toward the village as the sound of more gunshots came from it and sighed. "I know that, but nothing is wrong with hoping we could trust others. Nothing is wrong with hoping for peace." When no one retorted to her words she let out another sigh and looked back to the battle against the metal monster, only to witness Louise impale the things head with one of her now two spears, and yank it out with a spark. The monsters body then began dissolving into particles of light just like how its arm had done previously. "It is gone for good then, correct?" She asked as she walked down the hill toward the girls.
"The killachine is, yes," Nepgear said with a happy and content sigh. "We should find the one who summoned it though.
"Such a monster can be summoned?" Henrietta asked, clearly worried.
"Well kind of. Killachines are very old and sealed away in discs, so I doubt you'll see one again with how many us and our sisters have destroyed already," Uni said proudly before turning to Nepgear. "I think we've taken out like six or seven now?"
"That sounds about right. Are you okay Louise?" Nepgear asked, noting that Louise was staring straight at the nearby forest.
"I'm fine . . . . . you said that you figured you knew who was the blue demon right?" Louise asked calmly.
"Y-yes. Rei Ryghts. The CPU of the fallen nation of Tari, from the Megadimension. She disappeared during our time there."
"Okay, but doesn't, wait, is she nearby?" Uni suddenly asked.
"No, I just realized something. One of our quests mentioned a legacy that lived within the Arden forest. This forest.
"That's pretty useful then. Hopefully they're easy to find," 5PB said.
"Well," Louise began as she took a few steps forward till she was between two trees, and then began fiddling with something that couldn't be seen. "My map is updating, so it shouldn't be hard to . . . .oh, dammit."
"What is it?" Brave asked.
"My map is showing two objectives. They're in two different directions. The legacy looks like it's in the forests depths. And there's a second objective closer to us."
"Wait, a second? What objective is it?"" Uni asked, not noticing that Henrietta looked very, very confused by their conversation.
"Well, it's connected to the proving good intentions one," Louise admitted as Nepgear and Uni came over and just entered the edge of the forest, followed by Brave and 5PB.
"So it could be Rei then," Nepgear said nervously.
"Is she strong?" Louis asked next.
"She is, but she is also. . . .Um well, she's a bit odd. Both normally and in HDD.
"Like me different, or like your sister different?" Louise asked, making 5PB snicker a bit at the comparison.
"Well . . . normally she can be nice, but has a really bad self-resect problem. I think it's because she thinks she failed in the past even though it wasn't exclusively her fault. When she goes HDD though, she basically becomes a berserker. I think that's the term," Nepgear explained.
"Great," Uni said with a sigh.
"Um, what is this H-deedee you're speaking of?" Henreitta asked, feeling a bit left of the conversation.
"It's a way for the CPU's and Candidates to enhance their power. When Nepgear changed to fight that noble was her HDD," Brave explained in simple terms.
"Oh, I see," Henrietta said as she realized that, from the way they were talking, Louise and Uni could do the same. As could the blue demon that had been reported. The thought of it made her pale, though no one noticed.
"Okay, so should we all go after her then, or split up for the objectives?" 5Pb asked.
"Well, I think we could maybe deal with Rei, but I'm not sure how strong she is here. She was badly hurt when she disappeared, and she can't be getting to much share energy here." Nepger said as she tuned to Louise. "What do you think?"
"I think the situation is strange. As I recall the elves have never done something like this. And the fact it's near where a legacy is supposed to be seems a bit to coincidental. Combined with a lost CPU . . . . I think we should split up. Deal with Rei, and find the legacy at the same time. Might even figure out what the elves are doing here too if one group is lucky."
"Then I shall accompany you," Henrietta spoke up, making Louise groan.
"No, you are not. It will be dangerous."
"No, I am coming with you so that your action may have some lenience, and so I can see myself just how strong you have become. It may help in defending your claims to the rest of the nobility!" Henrietta pressed.
"Heh, looks like your old friend is as pushy as you can be!" Uni said with a grin, making Louise groan in annoyance.
"Fine, whatever. I'll go get the legacy."
"Then Nepgear, brave and I will go and deal with that old CPU!" Uni said with a grin a she looked at 5PB. "You're going with Louise, right?"
"Yes!"
"Alright then, let's go!" Nepgear said, prompting the groups to head in to the forest and split.