Chapter 58: Mind of Metal

Que the Intro

(Song This is War) A warning to the people (Show the people of the Empire) the Good (Tatsumi stands with Night Raid, his generals and his new army in his new attire and flag of Night raid and Golden Dragon on shared pole held aloft by its standard bearer) and the Evil (Volgoth in front over a demonic host with the Six Arch-Devil Generals in front with Valtor's shadowing form and Mark in the background and Argardon towering over the rest of the Generals along with Boreth and his inner circle scheming) This is War. (Tatsumi and Esdeath protecting Makoto and his sisters) To the soldier (Bulat wearing Incursio without the helmet and Air siting in his lap) the civilian (Angela holding Ieyasu's hand as she rallies the people in the shield) the Martyr (Budo's dead body) the Victim (Kyoko being held and comforted by Tatsumi) This is war. (Armies clashing) It's the moment of truth (Isshin's Ghost without his face mask looking at Tatsumi) and the moment to lie (Volgoth grinning at his servants) , the moment to live (Tatsumi finding resolve in a fight) and the moment to die (Soldiers dead on the ground), the moment to fight, the moment to fight, to fight, to fight, to FIGHT! (Que battle montage) To the Right! (Spear destroying a Dwarven Automaton) To the Left! (Esdeath killing a Revolutionary Army soldier with her new sword) We will Fight to death! (Sheele taking down a target yet to be revealed) to the End of the Earth! (Eden from space) It is a Brave new World! (Tatsumi kneeling before Supreme Matriarch Maltise) From Last to the First! (Emperors showing Tatsumi's Grandfather, Father, Uncle and Makoto) To the Right! (Bulat killing a Revolutionary Army General) To the Left! (Mine Firing away) We will Fight to Death! (Tatsumi slicing an enemy in half) To the Edge of the Earth! (Eastern Lands) It is a Brave new World (Strongholds of the Giants) a Brave new world! (Dwarven capital of Karak Hammerdeep) (End battle Montague and show Melitine under shadow of Volgoth with Red sky above) A warning to the Prophet (Syura clutching a Staff of Asha) the Liar (Volgoth sitting on the Imperial Throne with Graal and Lorhish to either side of him) the Honest (Aria with her new long hair and new outfit clutching her new sword) This is War. To the Leader (Najenda in her new get up and with her new ponytail with her Desert Eagles in hand and Susanoo at her side in a battle pose) The Pariah (Esdeath in her new outfit with her hair cut short levitating ice shards) The Victor (Spear in her new Teigu Armor Valkyrie with her new Teigu Greatsword Yadviga held aloft atop a mass of dead enemies) The Messiah (Tatsumi in the Golden Emperor's Armor with wings fully aloft and his sword Michael in one Hand and his shield Enoch in the other facing off against a Argardon) THIS IS WAR! (Mangled bodies of Volgoth's victims and of enemies killed by Tatsumi, add also Koro devouring baddies as Seryu grins maniacally) It the moment of Truth (Tatsumi with Akame his mother hugging him) the moment to lie (Boreth Falkland scheming) the moment to live (Tatsumi in bed with Merraid and Akame) The moment to die (Tatsumi killing the Skaven King) the moment to Fight! (Battles) the Moment to fight! (Tatsumi and Spear side by side) The Moment to Fight! TO FIGHT! (Night Raid vs the Arch-Devil Generals) To the right (Najenda firing her desert eagles) to the Left (Susanoo destroying a blob of Revolutionary Army soldiers) We will Fight to the Death! (Falkland's two generals killed by Sayo's arrows) To the Edge of the Earth (Map of Eden showing Tatsumi's journey so far) It's a Brave new World (Tatsumi overlooking the cities of the Lizardmen) From the Last to the First (Line of the Emperors of the Empire) To the Right (Spear driving her new Teigu Greatsword thru an enemy) To the Left (Akame slicing down several Skavan at once) We will fight to the death (Tatsumi fighting Volgoth) To the Edge of the Earth (Tatsumi overlooking a city not Melitine) It's a Brave new World from the Last to the First (Line of Emperors again with Tatsumi included) It's a Brave new world! (Empire's End logo appears) (Song End)

Outskirts of Karak Uzgor, 5 days after the battle of Karak Galmakvus…

Tatsumi sighed as he woke from slumber looking at a particular stress but still sleeping Gin who seemed to be in a deal of pain. "Gin" Tatsumi nudged and she shivered. "Gin!" Tatsumi near shouted and she woke up, she then hugged him and kissed him passionately.

"Thank heavens you are alive, and I was only having a nightmare; oh, you wouldn't believe the horrid nightmare I was having!" Gin shouted, waking Kurome and Tsukushi who were asleep alongside him and now were fully awake.

"Tell me everything Gin, the best way to deal with nightmares is to tell others about them" Tatsumi replied.

"Well it- I was back in the past, that monster Jamo was there and he had every one of my teammates captive, he- did horrible things to them and me, then the dream shifted and I found myself in the midst of battle fighting alongside- Natula- he was hewed down in front of me then in a dark twist his face turned to yours and Volgoth- Volgoth showed up and- he did horrible things to me- ate you in front of me; it was awful!" Gin explained, Tatsumi frowned and held her tight.

"It was only a nightmare but I'm betting it was Volgoth's doing, you know full well he attacks the dreams of everyone around me with his Teigu; he was doing the same to you, but that- its straight up mind rape, he's playing on past trauma and trying to break you in the hopes of hurting both me and you in the process, he will try everything but that won't work we WILL stop him and we will wipe his evil from the face of Eden for good; if you have more nightmares Gin don't forget to confide in me now Kurome did you or Tsukushi have any nightmares?" Tatsumi asked.

"Nope unless you call be trapped inside room filled with candy and cookies a nightmare" Kurome replied.

"Nope my dream was quite pleasant I dreamt I was being pleasured by four of you at the same time Tatsumi it was such a pleasant dream to have four Tatsumi's all taking care of me" Tsukushi replied, Tatsumi blushed.

"That's good which means Volgoth can only influence the dreams of one person at a time and that means we can defend against it. Now let's get ready we have a busy and dangerous day ahead of us" Tatsumi replied and all three looked at him with looks of not yet; Tatsumi knew what that meant and tended to the needs of all three of them and his own, it was a good way to wake himself up; though he did end up more sweat than usual. Fortunately, he had his force pitch camp by a collection of hot springs these were in the shelves of a depressed valley below the flats leading to the Mountain hold. Tatsumi noted after putting on a bathrobe the large number of ice constructs had gone up larger than they had been before which was good and bad, the good meant that phase 1 of his strategy for defeating the rogue AI Kaine was near completion that requiring a decoy force made of ice constructs. The bad part came from the fact he found Esdeath passed out asleep fortunately someone had seen the sense to move her to her tent; Esdeath had been spending the days as they journeyed building up a large army of her ice constructs. Tatsumi, Najenda, and Esdeath had devised a rather ingenious plan to deal with the army of the rogue Dwarven Wardroids. The plan was to use a massive army to distract the wardroids while Tatsumi lead an elite team inside the mountain once inside they would find the master computer and have Dorothea and Umber hack it to reprogram the entire army along with the factory; the only stumbling block had been that Tatsumi wasn't willing to sacrifice his living and breathing troops on a gamble when he needed them for his fight against the demons; with that in mind Esdeath had come up with the rather brilliant strategy to building an army entirely out her ice constructs while having the real army hide in their current position it was something that a fair few dwarves and a number of imperials were sour about but Tatsumi's orders were orders. The trouble was it took Esdeath a good amount of time and energy to construct an army large enough to fulfill the roles there wasn't a defined limit to the amount of these warriors she could command and control there was however a limit to the number she could create in a day as it did cost her in fatigue there wasn't power limit to her Teigu but there was a limit to how long Esdeath could use its abilities before becoming exhausted and passing out, add to that they were doing so while marching a good distance each day and it meant that more than often or not Tatsumi would find Esdeath passed out from exhaustion somewhere.

That in mind he let her sleep for the moment and went to the springs, having brought a towel and a change of clothes. He was soon joined by Najenda who had gotten the same idea as him. "So Tatsumi are you ready for what is ahead of us?" Najenda asked.

"About as ready as I can be; there is no shortage of ways this plan of ours could go wrong, we are up against a machine that according to Umber can calculate entire plans in picosecond which according to her and Dorothea is really fast, other than that I'm concerned for Esdeath she used a lot of energy making this army of ice warriors I'm just worried for her health" Tatsumi replied.

"I'd not worry too much about it, I've known her since I joined the army, compared to some of the shit we've been thru this is calming and easy by comparison" Najenda replied.

"Yeah, you are right on that, anyway I came here to relax and think, Gin had her dreams violated by Volgoth last night, that Teigu of his is huge problem that I've yet to figure out a solution to; it could be worse though he at least can't target multiple people at once with it; I suspect it has to do with the fact he needs to focus to exert the effect on the dreams otherwise they won't be as detailed as he wants them to be. Anyway, compared to the other things Volgoth has done messing with people's dreams as fucked up as that can be and is, is well the least of his crimes at least that I know of" Tatsumi replied.

"I had a dream last night" Najenda commented.

"About what?" Tatsumi asked, Najenda kissed him on the cheek and leaned against him.

"Oh just the joys of family you and me, and our wonderful children that we are going to have; we were nice and happy it was great and we went on all manner of fun adventures; there was a talking donkey with the face of a man that kept babbling on about something or other he was so full of hot air that we tied him to a basket and used him as hot air balloon; then we flew over Melitine, over the Empire, of the seas to lands unknown and full all sorts of wonders; also there were mermaids that you were eager to bang and did bang a good deal of, there were dancing dogs, jugglers; all manner of wonderful things, then when I woke up this morning I- well wished that dream could go on forever" Najenda explained leaning against him, Tatsumi placed hand on her belly and another on her swollen breasts.

"Our wonderful child will live in a world of peace and we'll make sure that when she and all the others we'll have are old enough to travel will come with us on all manner of trips I hope one day to have traveled the whole of Eden but that's a bit ambitious of me our world is so huge and well I'll be ruling the Empire and-" Tatsumi replied she kissed him on the lips.

"You won't have to worry; I'll be there for you every step of the way, concentrate on the now, how are you feeling right now?" Najenda comforted.

"Thirsty; I only woke up some time ago and thirst is well intense" Tatsumi replied.

"Drink from me then, you know how much you love to, besides I've got so much milk in my breasts right now what with my pregnancy there isn't a sense letting it go to waste" Najenda replied, Tatsumi grinned rested his head at her left breast and drank Najenda wrapped her arms around him and looked at him. "Tatsumi you take too much on your back you are an example to the human race of being a good person, granted you've done some questionable things but so have I and honestly every human being makes mistakes we aren't perfect though we try; Tatsumi you are hope and love, you are what we need to win and I will be by your side until the day either of us dies I'll never leave you" Najenda thought she moaned audibly as to her surprise Tatsumi hadn't been idly drinking she felt him penetrate her rear, at this he stopped and grinned lustfully at her, she turned around and let him take her rosebud, it was an enjoyable experience and importantly safe for the baby she smiled as she felt his hands one on her breast the other on belly has he pulled her against his chest kissing her shoulder and the small of her back while fondling her right breast. "Tatsumi- my Gold Dragon- my Emperor- my love- care for me" Najenda moaned and the two let the bliss of intimacy consume them for an hour.

When Tatsumi and Najenda returned from the springs they did so with annoyance of the Four Rakshasas who felt left out, it was common practice by Tatsumi when in the bath to have his bodyguards stay outside lest he be caught without defenses. "Did you enjoy yourself?" Akame asked bluntly.

"Yes, I needed that especially if the rest of the day is going to be full of life threatening danger and full of the risk of being mangled, dismembered, eviscerated, disemboweled, quartered or any other number of horrible ways of dying, which it will of course be full of so it's best to start off the day in a good way; now Akame I'm willing to be you are up to having breakfast as much as I am and as such we will be having it promptly then we'll be off into the maw of death once more" Tatsumi replied, at this there was much nodding and Tatsumi soon went off to the dinning tent, he had a table set out specifically for him and the cooks made sure to bring him a balanced and delicious morning breakfast. Tatsumi was glad that there was no shortage of decent and good food in supply in the Western lands for cheap prices and in vast enough quantities as to feed a force of 50,000 of the Golden Dragon Empire's finest along with 20,000 Dwarves on a quest to reclaim their lost homes; that they would be forced to sit out the coming battle was something that was of mixed reactions as many of these soldiers would gladly fight alongside him at a moment's notice and regardless of the enemies against them but his reasoning that he wanted them to be ready for the far more numerous and more dangerous tides of demons was sound enough to get those spoiling for a fight to stay in camp, especially when there was an army specifically made for this mission.

Speaking of armies of Ice constructs Esdeath was already at the table when Tatsumi arrived and had according to the chef had three servings already, which Tatsumi suspected came from hunger induced by both pregnancy and using a lot of her stamina to create a massive army of Ice centaurs and Ice warriors. "Good morning Tatsu-bunny" Esdeath greeted in between bites.

"Good morning my lovely Ice Queen, I'm a bit disappointed you started eating without me" Tatsumi replied and took his set.

"Could not help it, making an army of exactly 400,000 Ice Warriors and 100,000 Ice Centaurs is tiring work and even then there are probably more than that" Esdeath replied and immediately devoured a piece of bacon, Tatsumi had the same idea and started to eat himself. "Before you ask I did lose count at about 200,000 so there are probably more of them then you asked for which is a good thing because that means we have a bigger army; numbers may not win a battle but they do help" Esdeath replied she then took a drink of orange juice. "I swear I've had three servings already and I'm still hungry, I guess being pregnant with twins along with creating an army of Ice warriors will do that to me" Esdeath remarked.

"Hey at least you have the easy part of the plan you're the diversion I'm the guy in charge of the group that either succeeds or dooms Eden with his failure; that's a lot of pressure" Tatsumi replied.

"That you're awfully relaxed about" Mez commented from next to him. "Yummy bacon" Mez replied and soon cleared her plate of the delicious cuts of pork, when she went to plate more up she noted it was gone and unfortunately all remaining bacon was now split between the masters of devouring Kurome and Akame who had bottomless stomachs; Mez dejected turned to her hash browns.

"I need to keep calm; panicking does NOT help anything" Tatsumi replied.

"I'm just glad to see you relaxed" a familiar voice remarked and Tatsumi turned to see Aria; Mez scooted over to allow the Capital Angel to take her seat at Tatsumi's right hand.

"Personally, I'm enjoying the relaxed parts of the day while they last because soon I'll be at risk of being horribly maimed, mangled or- "Tatsumi replied and Aria put a finger to his lips.

"Now don't start thinking about it, we aren't going to talk about the stuff we are in the business of over breakfast you'll make me lose my appetite and our little angel needs as much of this food as I can eat to grow nice and healthy; now refrain from discussing that until after breakfast doctor's orders" Aria responded, at that Tatsumi shut up and kept eating. About half an hour later they had finished eating and had gathered in the briefing tent around the planning table on which rested a map of the local surroundings and models of troops.

"Alright the plan is rather simple in the grand scheme of things but complex in the moment; step one I take the Ice soldiers and create a diversion to attract attention; step two Dilgol guides our infiltration team to the secret entryway into the mountain; you remember where it is?" Esdeath explained.

"Right here, four times the height of a dwarf and nigh unto the east atop a slope under the statue of the Great Engraver Grombor Gunnison my grand sire, a passageway known only by the Gunnison clan and told to none save the King of Karak Uzgor who was of Clan Gunnison" Dilgol explained the dwarf pointed at a high ridge that was a distance away from the mountain.

"The Infiltration unit of three squads of Teigu users and twenty Gunnison Gunners, one Master Engineer and one respected scientist under Emperor Tatsumi alongside Generals Najenda and Cassandra will infiltrate the via this passage and navigate the inside of the mountain after the battle between my diversionary force and the Automatons commences; the infiltration unit will then locate the central computer and let Princess Umber and Empress Dorothea work their magic and reprogram or shut down the Rogue army, also if said unit encounters the main command unit Kaine they are either disable or if necessary destroy it by any means available; all other troops under Empress Spear will hold in reserve as needed in case of a worst case scenario" Esdeath explained.

"You know this plan sounds great on paper, but I've got a strong suspicion it won't work as intended" Mez commented.

"We'll work with what we are able do, everyone knows the first rule of warfare that no plan survives first contact with the enemy but there is another rule, know your enemy as you do yourself and you'll never know defeat" Esdeath replied.

"Alright everyone knows your orders; any questions?" Tatsumi asked.

"Why am I in charge of the reserve?" Spear asked.

"Because with Najenda with me you're the next best commander besides you and Esdeath work best together you've told me that yourself" Tatsumi replied.

"Also Spear I requested it; any other questions?" Esdeath asked, there were not any others. Tatsumi then left to gather his team; thirty Teigu users with himself and his fifteen protectors being foremost among them, after them came Najenda, Tsukushi, Poney, Cornelia, Gin, Cassandra, Clementine, Sayo, Seryu and Najenda's four protectors those being Kaola, Melissa, Gurk, Jace, with Sheele, Pais and Roxanna rounding out the team; with them went Dilgol and his twenty dwarven gunners, proud Dwarves of Clan Gunnison which once called Karak Uzgor their home, these dwarves were equipped in some of the finest but lighter armor possible which was worn along with green and gold kilts with green and gold sashes being worn over the chest, each of the ten males had fine breaded beards that were either white, gold, brown or red in color while the ten females sported no braids but had their long hair in braids, each warrior sported war-paint and carried with them the most top of the line rifles their clan could make with each carrying either an axe or hammer in reserve along with shield and a great axe, they had bandoleers with bullets ready on too and their helmets were all crested with plumes of green flax held by the miniature figures of boars, Dilgol however did not sport a crest on his helm out of a personal oath that he had sworn when Karak Uzgor had fallen, he had lost his helmet in the battle and that helmet had been made by his father for him; the crest on that helmet had been made of Red Gold and he had been forced to throw it at a war droid to save the life of one of his comrades as he had been out of rounds, since then he swore no crest would grace a helm until he found that helmet and retook his home Karak Uzgor. The last two members of the group who did come kitted out for battle were Dorothea and Umber both of whom had dawned their full war kit and but also carried with them a pack full of cubes of the kind used to store data, the main computer required lexicon cubes to access and fortunately before the fall of Karak Uzgor long before in fact an important law and tradition had made sure backups of the access cubes had been made and were sent to the Engineer's Guild Hall of Records in Hammerdeep, Umber had used her clot and her father his influence to acquire these important keys as without them they'd not be able to access the mainframe.

With Tatsumi's company ready Esdeath then gave orders to her ice army to march out; Tatsumi and the strike team would move via another exit from the valley towards the defile where the secret entrance to the hold was while the droid army was distracted.

Shortly… "Ah here it is" Dilgol remarked as they arrived at the hidden gate, a lonely Dwarven statue loomed above a crag.

"It's not much is it?" Tatsumi remarked.

"Nope it's a humble entrance to passerby it looks to be a monument to a Dwarf warrior of the past, not even considering that there is more there then it appears" Dilgol replied then looked at the rock way tapping it with the stock of his rifle.

"How big is the passage I- don't like tight places?" Cornellia asked

"Wide enough young empress for a cart of goods to pass thru without the guards butting up against the walls; don't worry this way is safe" Dilgol explained then tapped and heard an unusual sound to Tatsumi it sounded like he had rubbed metal on glass gently. "Ah here we are now for the words of opening" Dilgol exclaimed then stood back. "Step back now don't want anyone getting hit by the door when it opens, the door opens outward" Dilgol barked and everyone took a decent few steps back. "Now: Nar Adjet Imgul Gimlis Avon!" Dilgol proclaimed and the sounds of tumblers were heard glyphs appeared in the Rockwall and a door opened.

"What did you say to it?" Akame asked.

"The motto of our clan: When the Sunsets the Stars Rise" Dilgol replied. "Vrogar you and the lads and lasses make sure your weapons are ready don't fire unless we've got no other options; other than that young Emperor its best I lead, I've taken this passage before and lived here for a long time before the machines rebelled oh and keep your voices down we want to maintain the element of surprise for as long as we can; I know some paths that those machines don't as they were never recorded outside the clan maps which took with us" Dilgol explained and ordered, at this Tatsumi let Dilgol take point and they entered the dark foreboding passageway as soon as they were inside a dwarf pressed a button to shut the door behind them in case of any potential tails.

Meanwhile as Tatsumi entered the hold Esdeath was making full use of the diversionary army, the threat had caused the main gates to open the Dwarven war-droids marched and rolled forth Esdeath smirked as they did so and had her troops brace for the enemy's advance; the icy warriors had been made to look as much like Imperial soldiers as possible with even the icy depictions of armor and shields being made for the part, Esdeath had also increased the ice thickness of each of her creations to the maximum possible; with the machines coming towards them Esdeath made a motion to have the Icy warrior skirmishers let out a barrage of ice arrows towards the machines this did a decent amount of damage but few of the droids were put out of action. "The battle has begun, now let's see how long I can hold their attention" Esdeath said to herself, she took a hard look at the large amount of enemies and smirked. "This is where I thrive" Esdeath thought and readied her weapon as the lines clashed.

Inside the mountain… the dark was not something Tatsumi was comfortable with, but light would not be an ally and as such their source of light in the dark came from the crystal lamps that sparingly dotted the halls. After cutting thru the entry passage at a jog the passage exited inside an old workshop; the place had not seen use in at least 300 years but the tattered banners of the Gunnison clan with the image of a bow under seven stars was visible. The conversations were kept low in volume but were rich with facts as the moved thru the mountain hold. During these travels Dilgol explained the history of Clan Gunnison which was a sub-branch clan of the Silverbloods and Fireheart clans: within Dwarven society lesser clans had branched off from lines of the Seven Great clans and as such each had their own storied history; Clan Gunnison was one of the older clans about 20,000 years old in terms of age. The specialty in Clan Gunnison was in the creation of tools that brought death from a distance; they had crafted initially bows made out of horn and invented the crossbow about 14,000 years prior to the present day and when gunpowder was discovered about 6,000 years later the Gunnisons had invented the first guns and had refined the art of making firearms to the enth degree in fact they set the standard on making guns. In addition to making fine arms the Gunnisons were also masters of carpentry, tinkering, jewelry and raising of animals, Karak Uzgor had been colonized and founded by their clan some 10,000 years prior and had been home to great marvels and works, during this time Clan Gunnison became fascinated with engineering and architecture eventually turning Karak Uzgor in a place of great knowledge and learning in addition to being a splendidly wealth hold with no shortage of mineral wealth.

Alas for Clan Gunnison it would be one of their own to seal the downfall of their home a few centuries prior; Dilgol explained that his uncle Grori Gunnison had been the cause of their downfall, a master engineer and one of the most respected engineers in the Dwarven Empire Grori Gunnison had been a great inventor and innovator in the fields of robotics and computer design, he had been the brains behind the plan to build a droid army to take back the holds that had been lost to the growing Skaven Kingdom and had been placed by the Guildmaster of Engineers Guild in charge of the project. Grori optimized war production converting a portion of the third and fifth deeps into a large network of factories that were fully automated; eventually however Grori fell into a state of desire to prevent the deaths of as many dwarves as possible eventually deciding that even the loss of one Dwarven live because of a mistake he made would be tantamount to failure and would make him take the slayer oath. As a result Grori decided to develop a robotic commander to lead the grand army of droids against the Skaven, developing a rather crucial circuit that allowed droids to think and develop personalities and on top of it applied logic and decision-making which caused his units to become adaptable, he then developed the command unit itself the K-Series Tactical Droid and used an experimental brain along with a complete knowledge of military tactics up to that point in time; furthermore the unit's AI or artificial intelligence as Umber explained was as close to being actually alive as possible; perhaps more so.

The unit then took the name Kaine after asking its creator if it could have a name; with that out of the way the unit developed further intelligence and came to a judgement in the logic circuits; that organic life was inferior to machines and thus should rule over the hold; Kaine then took over the central control mainframe and turned the robots both military and civilian against their Dwarven creators. The fall of Karak Uzgor took five stubborn years as despite the numbers and advantages the droids had in terms of equipment the Dwarves held out but gradually their numbers had been whittled down and a few valiant souls made a last stand to allow what remained of Clan Gunnison's civilian population to escape via secret networks, since then many an attempt to reclaim or conquer the hold had been made by every faction in the region in hopes of claiming the wealth of the Mountain and the army for themselves, numerous attempts had been made and none succeeded thus leading to Karak Uzgor being renamed Karak Harnath the Hold of Death.

As they went further in Tatsumi found remnants of the last stands made by those valiant defenders their bodies now naught but bones with their faces locked in whatever expression they had made as death claimed them; only the armor and weapons remained unspoiled by the passage of time and even then the armor of these fallen dwarves was hardly serviceable having been punctured and damaged by war machines in their final moments; speaking of war machines there weren't any remnants to be found most likely due to being rebuilt and refurbished by the automated factory. Dilgol ran over to one of the bodies and found an amulet. "No- I'm sorry" Dilgol replied and teared up.

"What's wrong?" Tatsumi asked.

"This amulet it belonged to my older brother Svarni, he chose to stay behind amongst the last father and mother tried to convince him to come, but to see his bones and body in such a state of disrespect- it's both saddening and outrageous at the same time" Dilgol explained he then looked over the skeletal body further once proud plate armor was rent with brutal holes and stained with old blood, an axe lay nearby and Dilgol picked it up with solemnity. "His axe; he had two of them he gave one to me and told me to go with father and mother I still have it" Dilgol commented.

"We need to make sure they are honored but now isn't the time Dilgol; we must avenge your brother's death along with that of every Dwarf that died here" Tatsumi reminded, Dilgol grinned.

"Aye; the reckoning has come, and I'll turn Kaine and his cadre of clankers to scrap" Dilgol remarked and put his brother's axe at his side alongside a dagger that he had kept strapped to his hip. "Let's get that mechanized bastard and split his head open: he won't take anyone else's brother away again" Dilgol remarked Tatsumi smirked and they left that room behind.

They moved on deeper into the dark via secret paths, there were a number of patrols that they avoided; even though these were older models of war droids they weren't to be taken lightly also there was the fact that despite the hatred for what they had found surprise was important. With that in mind they went further beneath the mountain descending to the third deep; there they heard the noises of machinery which was at work putting together war-droids; this was a level they gave a wide berth to as the sixth deep according to Dilgol and a few other Dwarves was where the central core was housed but also that would be the most dangerous location as the largest of automatons were housed there; Dwarven War Collusi and bigger still the War Titans were there and in the hundreds on standby.

Arriving on the sixth deep proved to be a harrowing sight as they could see from the entry area dormant giant war machines on standby but also a number of smaller but still large Centurion patrols. It was this point that surprise became difficult to maintain; they had to navigate thru areas without being detected towards a large structure that was brightly golden from plates of gold that had been attached long ago and was topped by a large spire tower topped by a transmitter; the structure was twice the size of the Imperial Palace and Tatsumi had a feeling it could take hours to find the place where the core was. Getting inside proved to be the easy part well as easy as getting inside a place guarded by an army can be navigating it though was a pain in the ass and the brain.

"You Dwarves build too many passageways" Poney replied.

"You never mind that; I know the way thru here; I visited my uncle on occasion and he gave me a tour of the place; now the main core should be here" Dilgol replied pulling out a map of the building the structure had about 20 levels between them and the area were the mainframe was stored and it was now clear that the risks of being discovered had gone up significantly especially since they were now in the den of the beast so to speak. "Here; the mainframe core should be here; any access points should be there; I'd note however there is the fact that the moment that we access that core if we haven't been discovered already there will be an alarm that alerts all droids to our position so we'll need to be smart and tactical about this" Dilgol explained, a look over of the map gave Tatsumi a good indicator for the threat levels and noted the potential places for checkpoints. "We'll take the stairs, using any of the elevators will attract attention; mind yourself we'll be at close quarters there so all my lads will have to use our axes better for stealth anyway" Dilgol explained.

They then sought out the nearest stairwell and began the long ascent; they had however lucked out in the stairs they chose as there were not any patrols scheduled for that area for another hour which gave them much needed cover for the more dangerous part of the operation. It took about 20 minutes to get to the 20th floor it didn't help that they had to walk single file up a long stairwell and arriving on the 20th floor they immediately lost surprise because as soon as the last of the group exited the stairwell a centurion droid that was due to make its rounds in this given area rounded the corner.

Before the machine could sound a general alarm Umber fired a shot from her rifle at the head of the Centurion to the shock of most present the machine's head was leveled by a blast of energy. "Come on we can't stand around they know we're here let's go!" Tatsumi barked and they then moved at a run; above Esdeath noted that the droid army she was fighting above started to give way and from her vantage could see them retreating back into the mountain.

With renewed vigor and adrenaline the strike team rapidly advanced towards their destination dismantling and destroying patrols that had been diverted in their direction with ease thanks to the large number of Teigu users and the fact that the models were largely obsolete so the Dwarves knew where to take their shots. Eventually about several destroyed patrols later they arrived at their destination and Tatsumi as per the norm barged into the room.

Surprisingly the area looked less like a control room and more like a throne room which wasn't a surprise when he saw the occupants, if he'd been in Melitine he'd have sworn he interrupted a masquerade ball but instead of being humans droids stood in the garb usually worn at such events with one unit watching over the scene a feminine robot at his side and near them two towering masked centurions. The droid overlooking it all wore the garb of a monarch over his metal frame; to Tatsumi's surprise the body appeared to have been plated with Red Gold the face looked surprisingly human in fact the unit as a whole was about the same height as Tatsumi himself. "Welcome to my court uninvited guests; I'm not surprised that an infiltration unit would try and enter my domain but what is a surprise is that you managed to get as far as my court. Also, my sensors and data indicate the vast majority of your group is equipped with Imperial Arms I can tell from your manner of walk that you are Imperials; also, that General Esdeath is leading the army assailing my fortress was another giveaway. My circuits also indicate that you are indeed an Emperor what brings you here to the domain of myself Kaine lord of all free droids I trust it's not treasure as many have tried to take it" Kaine greeted.

"Settling the score, your responsible for the deaths of many people and you must face justice for your crimes also I need your droid army to fight against the demon tide consuming our world" Tatsumi explained with Valruost and Smaug in hand.

"My logic circuits and tactical analytics have been calculating a means of defeating the demon threat which I'm aware of and put the chances of the survival of organic life on Eden as 17,342,243 to 1; simply put you stand a 10% chance of success at defeating that threat: even if you weren't organics I would not aid you against this enemy it doesn't suit my goals of the destruction of organic life on Eden, use of the demons to do the job for us is a means to the end we have not the resources to follow thru on" Kaine explained, at this Tatsumi felt a degree of anger.

"If you know about Volgoth you'll know that he'll destroy the planet before letting you continue existing also how the hell do you know all this?" Tatsumi asked.

"As to how I know about this information I have access to the Dwarven computer network, try as they might the Dwarves never managed to bar my access to said network; as to Volgoth's ambitions I trust no one and that is why I'm intensifying production to deal with the demons after they have purged all organic life on Eden" Kaine replied.

"You'll be overrun this isn't an enemy that can be defeated thru force of arms alone, they don't stay dead if you beat them they just keep coming and even then they have limitless numbers and I don't think you could ever out produce them, fact is though you aren't excused from the murder of goodness knows how many people" Tatsumi responded.

"I do know; at exact count, my robotic army has terminated exactly 15,243,783 sentient lifeforms" Kaine replied.

"That's a lot of death and you won't claim anymore; everyone you know the plan attack!" Tatsumi replied.

"All units converge on the section; activate Imperator class Battle Titan Absalom; also if you are intending on reprograming my units to fight against me my court is fully autonomous also direct access to the central core has been removed and relocated to Imperator-class Battle Titan Absalom; now since you have chosen attack all units purge the intruders" Kaine ordered and his court sudden converted from being in courtly garb to combat armor. "Rooke-Units protect me and Queen all other units attack" Kaine barked.

(Song Begin: Indestructible, Disturbed) As if to add to the chaos loud boom was heard and a glance out the window revealing a looming threat; Tatsumi grimaced as he saw the large looming threat; but immediately rushed towards the machines with the dragon armor on, this sudden charge was joined in by the other Teigu users who along with Tatsumi crashed into the courtiers carving a path of destruction thru those armored machines but not easily as they put up an unholy sabot of a fight. Tatsumi and his four champions broke thru the crowd of machines first followed by Najenda and Susanoo; the Teigu grinned at Kaine.

"Rooks terminate the enemy leadership" Kaine ordered and two large war machines about twice the size of a human moved forward toward them.

"Speed of Lightning: Susanoo; commence Wolf Fang mace rampage!" Najenda barked and Susanoo charged the two machines and with a series of brutal strikes destroyed both of them in rapid succession; Tatsumi then lunged at Kaine who drew a sword while his queen attempted to go for Tatsumi, bad move as five rounds fired by Najenda tore the machines side, these rounds did minimal damage but they thru the Queen off balance and unprepared for the next rounds fired by Tsukushi from Prometheus and these rounds shredded the Queen to scrap metal.

Tatsumi then found himself locked in a brutal melee with a machine that was built for war despite being the superior combatant in terms of weapons and skills Kaine was not a slouch having been designed for these melees and Tatsumi found himself having to alter his technique every ten seconds to avoid any breakthroughs; Kaine however seemed to treat this fight as if it were an inconvenience. This fight however ended in an unusual fashion as the rest of the Teigu users converged around Kaine the droid said a rather bizarre thing "Upload completed; terminating this unit" before it collapsed.

"What the hell!?" Mez yelled, then the loud crash was heard as a wall was torn open and revealed the looming Imperator Titan now that it was closer Tatsumi noted just how formidable it was. The Imperator class War Titan was a goliath of a machine it looked human like in appearance but similarities stopped at build and the machine looked more dwarven visually with layers of metal formed into a face crimson photoreceptors loomed and this thing was easily twice the size of the machine Tatsumi had faced in the tomb of the Dragon Emperor it loomed large and in charge. "Purge all Organics!" the Imperator boomed in Kaine's voice.

"Oh Shit" was the only thing Tatsumi could say in the moment as he realized by upload completed meant. "Ok new plan we need to stop that thing and reprogram the army!" Tatsumi remarked.

"I've got a strategy but it will need some help; if you can get me and Dorothea to the right shoulder of the machine Tatsumi there will be an access hatch that will allow us inside: I've got a means thru but we'll need a distraction!" Umber replied.

The Imperator advanced slowly towards the building Tatsumi turned to Sayo. "Ok Sayo we need to take to the sky; I'm going to do something crazy: Dorothea grab on my back Umber your with Sayo; we'll go for it now!" Tatsumi shouted Dorothea was picked up by Tatsumi while Sayo did the same both readied their wings. "Susanoo you and Amaterasu lay down suppressive fire!" Tatsumi ordered both the Teigus complied and summoned their mirrors. "Everyone else bar the door and hold off any droids coming our way if I don't come back then take as many of these mechanized monsters with you as possible" Tatsumi ordered.

The Imperator advanced slowly then both Susanoo and Amaterasu unleashed two simultaneous blasts of energy that tore into the frame of Imperator Kaine at the same time Sayo and Tatsumi took off with Dorothea and Umber holding on for dear life as they approached Tatsumi and Sayo took evasive action as turrets that had been kept concealed beneath the armor came up and unleashed a salvo of fire in their direction. "Smaug: Inferno lances!" Tatsumi declared, several large lances of fire manifested and with a wave of the rest moved rapidly like cruise missiles into the turrets destroying them , Sayo did a similar thing with Icarus firing a salvo of light arrows that melted any leftover turrets as they flew towards the hatch which was noticeable; the looming machine veered and took another blast from Susanoo and Amaterasu both lances of energy tore hard and shredded the outer armor boring a hole inside the Imperator which caused it to divert power to repair systems instead of the weapons; then to add to the craziness Koro leaped out the gaping hole in the structure which the Imperator was close to and in Berserker mode began to punch and tear holes into the Imperators hull; at the same time Shastavi flew up to join Tatsumi and Sayo who had reached the hatch which Umber was now fiddling to open; she had a grenade courtesy of one of the dwarves.

"You may want to fly back" Shastavi remarked and planted the bomb Tatsumi and Sayo picked up their respective passengers and flew back alongside Shastavi as an explosion tore open the hatch, which all five of them rapidly entered.

Inside the machine robotic defense units came towards them; Legionnaire and sphere units moved in and these did not have melee weapons like the ones they had fought in the ruins no they had replaced the hands with guns. Again, however they were not designed with Teigu users in mind and the three warriors attacked and dismantled these with easy their Teigu Armor shrugging of the hits while their Teigu blades cut thru them like a knife thru butter. This was added to by Dorothea now using her lightsaber with rapid speed and Umber using her axe to brutal effect as they powered thru to the head were the operating controls were. Meanwhile the battles had become worse outside as the ice constructs of Esdeath were being beaten back while at the same time the rest of the strike team were now having to scrap rank after rank of war droids as they advanced in turn; Tatsumi and his lovers pressed on powering past any defenses as they reached the central interface where Kaine's face could be seen on a computer screen.

"I calculated the odds of you reaching this at 100,240,043,031 to 1, you had less the 0.5 % chance and yet you somehow manage this- "Kaine began.

"Don't tell me the odds! I have an inordinate amount of luck: Umber shut this bastard up!" Tatsumi ordered then man handled the last of the defensive units while Shastavi barred the door shut and Sayo destroyed the remaining turrets leaving Kaine's computer system defenseless.

"This does not compute!" Kaine replied.

"Fuck you mechanized mind of murder; for all you've done you need to pay!" Tatsumi remarked and noted Dorothea dart for a chair; she then hooked up to a central computer and was inside in moments, Umber did the same.

"You will be termin- "Kaine replied and Dorothea smirked as she placed the right Lexicon into the computer.

"Compute this" Dorothea replied. "Override autopilot and activate manual controls" Dorothea remarked.

"Manual- manual controls unlocked- my programing no- 4040404040!" Kaine screamed out as Dorothea then took control of weapon system noted the optics of numerous droids advancing and diverted turrets to fire on the units; granted this was semi-pointless as Umber was now breaking thru the security measures and getting to central operations but it would buy valuable seconds for the team inside as a wave that was attacking them would momentarily halt to process the attack on their rear.

(Song End)

"Barzak Murz Kaine Vamul!" Umber exclaimed in Dwarvish then enacted full override. "Reset all units: HA" Umber yelled and shoved a final cube that then sent out a transmission overriding every droid in the hold, all units momentarily powered down, the fighting outside and inside stopped. "Enacting new primary algorithms and directives" Umber stated. "Purging previous directives and codes and- done" Umber remarked. "Zarka! Now we are in the clear: Unit Absalom damage assessment" Umber replied.

A new voice spoke and in a calm relaxed manner. "Damage sustained, numerous systems are being shut down and power is being diverted to repair systems" Unit Absalom replied.

"Recite prime directive" Umber ordered.

"Prime directive: Protect the Dwarven Empire an destroy any enemies of the Dwarven Empire, follow orders as given" Unit Absalom replied.

"Identify trace elements of K-Series Unit 001" Umber ordered.

"Trace memory and programing detected orders?" Unit Absalom asked.

"Tatsumi you want the honors?" Umber asked.

"Yeah: Purge all trace elements of K-Series Unit 001" Tatsumi replied.

"Purge all elements of K-Series Unit 001's programing and code, also divert command of all units in Karak Uzgor to Unit Absalom" Umber ordered.

"Complying with orders" Unit Absalom replied and after a minute it finished. "All trace elements of K-Series Unit 001 have been deleted; all units are under control from this units command core" Unit Absalom continued.

"Excellent well that means mission success; reorder new unit production with the following agathism; recall all damaged units for repairs once unit production is done divert new units to Karak Vrain to assist the Throng of King Durin III in retaking the hold" Umber ordered; she turned to Tatsumi.

"That's two out of three of these Grudges set right Tatsumi" Sayo remarked.

"Aye that; indeed, well lets regroup with the others" Umber replied.

A day later… Tatsumi once again found himself before High King Durin who had arrived at Karak Uzgor to find the banners of the Gunnison clan flying proud; the old Dwarf smiled to see him carrying the head of Kaine to him along with having received the new war droids. "I'm glad to see another of the great wrongs has been set right; you Emperor Tatsumi VII are more than living up to the legacy of ancestors and your chosen title, now but one grudge remains and I hope and pray you can right this the greatest of all wrongs still in the book" Durin greeted.

"I will set it write, so now what will you do with the army I've provided for you" Tatsumi asked.

"First we'll overhaul the units and get them up to shape Karak Vrain is now nearly secure the last remnants of the kingdom that has been a pastured thorn in side of Dwarves for nearly 300 years is now all but wiped out; our halls are nearly all ours once more; now let us rejoice and celebrate your victory" Durin replied and with that they entered the halls of Karak Uzgor by the front gates with horns been sounded and rejoicing as songs were sung in the honor of the heroes that had taken back their home, there was much feasting and merry making but Tatsumi still had the gnawing fear in the back of his head, the fear of the Dragon that lay ahead for him to face in the Golden Mountain and even that paled before his fear of failure; fortunately Tsukushi and Poney tended to him and he found himself taken aside by the two after the banquet to underground warm water springs hassle.

"All you need Tatsumi is to not worry about the journey ahead and focus on the now; relax and let us take care of you" Poney replied as the three found themselves naked and let the water war, him and his wives tend to him; the warmth of Tsukushi's breasts wrapped around his length as she sucked the tip; Poney kissed Tatsumi who tended to her modest breasts taking a drink Poney hugged him; Tatsumi placed a hand on her left butt cheek and placed the other on Tsukushi's head. Tatsumi lost himself in the embrace and tender care from both loving wives and felt like he could take on anything. Back in Melitine however Volgoth was grinning at news from his favorite son: the Primus Imperator's weapons were nearing completion and he had made some modifications adding a new feature that Volgoth loved the name of: Purge Mode.