'I' woke up within the dedicated medbay for Custodes. 'My' vision was blurry, odd. The constant agony beyond 'my' eyes still continued, it was now much less severe than before. The deamon had done something, my soul and nerves had been burned. Though incorruptible and reinforced, ancient technology could only improve the soul to a certain degree.

The unfamiliar hall of the medbay certainly was an unwelcome sight. Near me a Magos Biologis stood, by mechanicus degree he had few visible implants. By mechanicus degree doesn't mean that he wasn't still covered in them. Realising 'I' was awake he turned towards me and started speaking in his staticy and almost alien language.

"Throne Guardian, You are awake 46.21354 hours earlier than expected. Impressive, I sometimes forget how well 'built' your kind are. What a fool I am to doubt the Omnissiah's work."

The religious ramblings will have to be ignored for now. More pressing concerns take the stage.

I rose up from the bed and started taking the many many tubes attached to my body off.

"How long have I been unconscious for?"

"65.53312 hours exactly. However, I can't recommend that you go back to combat ."

"Why exactly is that Magos?"

The reply was harsh, unexpectedly so. Odd, I should have been better at controlling my emotions.

"While I am no expert regarding that topic, thankfully so seeing as most of the Magos Anima have turned traitor, your soul seems to have been 'chaffed' for lack of a better word. It is still raw and unstable, I recommend that you wait until a psyker can take a look and tell you what exactly is wrong. You are a trove of knowledge regarding everything about humanity, but I doubt that even you know what the whip of a greater deamon does to a soul modified by the Omnissiah."

She was right, 'I' did not know. Humanity did not know… but there had to be some way to solve this. 'I' could not wait for my Master to fix this, the times are hard and He has little to spare. Everyone knows what they say about desperate times, they demand desperate measures.

'I' turned towards the Magos but as 'I' spoke no words came out and slowly everything faded into the familiar inky darkness.

Only I did not awake in another golden hall or room, nor the constantly swirling colours of the Webway. I was in a warm stone room on top of a steel bed with a soft mattress and matching pillow. This was the guest bedroom provided to me at the Augspurg estate, really a comfortable and modestly decorated room. The only problem I had with this setup was…

That I was bound in more than thirty thick chains and could not move at all. I strained and stretched but I had no leverage to bring my strength to bear. The chains and bed stretched and bent but did not break. I was thirsty and my body ached everywhere. Oh come onnnnn, where was I even? Was the siege over? Is everyone alright? I don't want to deal with any drama, please. If any more of the Augspurgs were corrupted it would be sooo annoying to deal with the fallout.

Thankfully I was rescued from the silence and thoughts of the annoyance that possibly awaited me by the sturdy and thick oak door to the room being opened by a Catarina sans her armour carrying a tray with soup and presumably water on said tray. She seemed surprised I was up and trying to take off my restraints.

"Eques! Finally you are awake. Oh, thank the Stars. It has been three days, I was getting worried."

Three days? Other than the odd dreams ,which were most likely memories of my Father, the last thing I remember is being captured by the demon. I checked my limbs and yep they looked normal alright. No paws, no blue skin, no pink fur. Thank fuck for that. I tried to ask what happened but my voice didn't escape my parched throat.

"Ah please wait a second!" In her hurry Catarina almost dropped her tray rushing to my side and sitting down on a chair near me and putting her tray on the bedside table. And helped me drink some water. Ahhhh, sweet nectar that is water, you are clearly the superior drink to all others.

I could already feel my strength coming back to me and started straining the chains. I broke through a few of them. Only to be stopped by Catarina.

"I'll unbind you, please stop forcing your chains!" She panicked slightly but started working on unbinding me immediately after. As the chains came off I stretched and enjoyed my new found freedom. I sat up on my bed and started asking the real important questions.

"So… I probably should ask this differently but… did I get violated?"

"What? No of course not! We got you out of there before anything like that happened. My lady, do you not remember anything after you were knocked out. Your ramblings, the hellhound helping us, killing the demon?" What happened after I passed out? I killed the demon after I was knocked out? The creep helped us out?

"Anyways, ignore that. Well what happened, the city held, seeing as we are still here and all."

After my question she quickly started her tale of me 'waking up' and our fight with the demon. The odd Hellhound was something to inform Father about. But the more important bit was that Katja and Elise together with her cohort were missing, Katja definitely corrupted and Elise also most likely gone. My Uncle was gone, abducted from his own bed and his guardians similarly the confusion one of his traitorous former reichsgarde had snuck in. All that work to kill the demon he sent me after and he still got kidnapped. What. A. Joke. These relatives formed loose ends that I would one day have to tie up. I can't let my relatives even if I had almost no connection to them to suffer the curse of corruption.

The city had taken massive casualties and the first wall would have to be repaired but the defence was successful. What would Father call it… ah ha! A 'Pyrrhus' victory. Now sufficiently informed of the general condition more specific questions could be answered.

"My lady, I forgot to inform you but I do have somewhat good news."

"Ohh? Do tell." While the information I had received wasn't exactly bad it wasn't necessarily good either. I still feel quite sluggish and my muscles still ache. Not the bad kind of ache but the good kind. Now that I think about it this is the first time I was ever forced to really exercise, would I get even stronger if I continued to train? I have to admit it was something of an oversight to only focus on my technique and generally more academic pursuits during my tutelage under Father. Maybe a bit of physical exertion would help me condition my body further. Lost in my thought I almost lost the most delightful news I have heard all day.

"The 'Comet' wasn't a comet at all. It turned out to have been an oddly behaving meteor my lady. I believe you won't have to be bothered by the priesthood as much as you had previously expected."

THANK YOU UNIVERSE! THANK WHATEVER COSMIC HORRORS THAT HAVE TAKEN AN INTEREST IN MY LIFE! Now I can continue being aloof and unreachable to the priests and I don't have to deal with religious fanatics chasing me! Of course, being the paragon of virtue and nobility that I am, I kept my cool and only hugged Catarina for a very short amount of time.

"Oh my dear captain, you don't know how happy you have made me."

"Ye-Yes my Mistress!" Mistress? That's odd, maybe I hugged a bit too hard. She's quite red now.

"Well we should move onto more important topics, though we may have won a major battle, duty waits for no one." I really wanted to relax a bit but Father insisted that a healthy work ethic demanden relaxation in moderation.

"Duchess von Augspurg has scoured through the documents that the rescued heroes brought back. As far as I know they are requests to certain cults within the monster hierarchy and what appear to be recruitment posters for an assault against Lescatie."

"Lescatie, the 'greatest' stronghold of the Order, the birthplace of 'Legends'. They must be overestimating themselves." No matter how stupid and incompetent the Order had massive numbers and ,even though I admit this begrudgingly, religious fanatacisim on their side. Surely they could easily shatter the monstrous advance.

"Sadly they aren't being too ambitious my lady. The scandalous propaganda posters state that the fourth born abomination will be leading their so-called 'liberation'.

"Oh… That's quite the problem." The spawns of the Enemy were opponents even my Father struggled against. I had no hope of killing one by myself, not as I was anyways. Perhaps a concentrated artillery barrage could wound or kill one but I highly doubt one of the Demon Lords spawn would stay still for us to kill her. "What has my Aunt decided to do?"

"An armed expedition will be organised and sent together with the remaining heroes in order to enforce the 3rd decree." The 3rd decree, one of the rules set by Father together with the first senate.

'If any nation with a primarily human population is beset by the forces allied with or belonging to Royal Makai or any other Demon Realm the Republic and all of its subjects will take up arms disregarding any previous hostility between the human realm and the Republic in order to ensure human dominance.' One of the decrees Father set in order to prevent the superiority complex he knew would form within the Republic from hindering his goals.

"A call to arms has been sounded in Stahlstadt and copies of said documents and an appeal to the Senate have been sent by railway. However due to the urgent nature of current developments Duchess Augspurg has been gathering legionaries, priests and temple knights from the Temple of Stars in order to form a diplomatic party which will also form as a quick response expedition in case the invasion comes earlier than expected."

"As expected my aunt continues being competent even now. Well I can't lay here all day. Come, let's go get dressed up and I am technically a Senate approved diplomat so I should be able to get us a place on that warband."

"A Place?" Catarina asked with a voice filled with exhaustion, I guess she hadn't recovered from the last battle yet.

"Don't worry, I hear Lescatie treats guests quite well. We should be able to relax over there quite easily. I doubt the attack will come early as expected, after all we did kill quite a lot of their forces on these very walls. Now that I think about it, what happened to all those corpses?"

"They were burned, my lady."

"Huh… well anyways, let's go speak to my aunt."

Catarina got up and we headed towards the armoury to get outfitted.

Knocking on the door I left Catarina behind the door and entered. My aunt was in her study going over requisition forms and whatever else was required to repair the city.

"Aunt,have you been sleeping?" I admit it may have been a bit blunt to say to a woman who had lost both of her daughters three days ago but her eyes were sunken and her skin was pale like a ghost. In short she looked half dead already.

"Nao… I have twelve different cities asking me what the hell happened. I had to deal with the priesthood going insane because you have been unconscious for three days" Yikes, thanks aunt! I'll pay you back some day, I promise. " And I have to find a suitable diplomat guaranteed by the Senate within four days."

Ah Ha! "Well I do have a solution to one of your problems. You see, before I left Carthage Father appealed to the Senate so that if I did ever enter the Order I would be protected by diplomatic immunity."

"I don't know how to tell you this but… I don't think you are the best person to work as a forein diplomat." What? But whhhyyyy? I know my social aptitude is limited but I should be able to work through a surely advantageous situation.

"Even I should be able to get us inside and convince their leadership of the incoming army's existence."

"The fact that you genuinely believe that shows how inexperienced you are. The Order leadership, especially Lescatie's leadership, aren't exactly symbols of reason."

"I know, Father complains about them constantly but even they must see reason eventually. Right?" My aunt definitely didn't believe me but she also made a resigned kind of face.

"You know how I told you you looked just like your mother? I remember trying to convince your mother to stay here, our screaming matches took four days. I doubt this conversation will go that far but I recognise that look on your face."

She sighed, if not for her eyes and that sigh one could have forgotten this was the woman who had lost both of her daughters three days ago. "I'll draft you and your guardians into the diplomatic party, but you absolutely Will not cause problems with the nobility of Lescatie. You Will keep your opinions to yourself and you Will not try to seed rebellion into the commoners."

"The last one seems odd?"

"I'm assuming you are your fathers daughter." Oh… well I can't dispute that so I'll let that go.

"Then I'll head out and inform my guard of their new assignment." I was stopped by my aunt right as I was turning around.

"Wait a second, I have something belonging to you mother to give you. It might be a little short but It should still have the intended effect." Something belonging to my mother? Most of her belongings were sent to this estate so it could be anything really.

Aunt Nathalie sat up from her padded chair and moved towards one of the many cabinets lining the walls, this one had wooden doors instead of the glass ones displaying various bottles of alcohol. She rummaged around inside said cabinet and after a few seconds of searching she found what she was looking for. I would have called it a scarf made out of some kind of silk were it not for the gold weave and the small attaching clamp often meant for capes. Relatively long, maybe a metre and a half of elegant red silk decorated with gold was attached to my armour by my aunt. She had to stand on her toes and reach up a bit to properly attach the clamp to the small hook Father had prepared. He probably knew this would happen.

"This cape is an odd one called The Red River, simply its unique shape should point that out to you; however what really is special about it is its weaver. This cape was woven by the first ever queen of Stahlstadt for her husband Leopold the Unrelenting after his defeat of the thirty fourth demon lord." How the hell did this thing survive more than a thousand years? What is it fucking woven out of, adamantium? Despite my shock, aunt Nathalie was still telling its tale.

"Ever since then it has been passed down throughout those with outstanding achievements in the family. Our blood can be traced down to that very King. Your mother won this cape after an expedition into the old dwarven territories for recovery of lost technology and valuable metals. A quest issued by our father to her for a chance at attending the academy in Carthage and for his permission to court and marry your father. Now it belongs to you."

I stayed silent and simply ran my hands over the ancient trophy. A symbol of the age of heroes, its surface smooth to the touch and unnaturally hot as if the golden runes embroidered onto it contained some sort of barely contained power.

I could only say one thing in reply.

"I won't disappoint you Aunt, I won't let neither you nor my Father down."

"Oh dear, that was never on the table to begin with. I believe simply being your mother's daughter was already enough for both of us"

Druella the Fourth Born of the Overlord

I have to be honest even sitting on the balcony of my estate on a comfortable loveseat sipping finely made demon realm grape wine while the wild and ecstatic moans of my servants and their husbands filling the air couldn't quite improve my mood.

Maybe I should start looking for a hubby? My cheeks flushed and my heart started hammering in my chest. No, maybe another fifty years… Let's say until mother catches on that I'm still a virgin. God I'm what four hundred something and still a virgin. Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh… one day, one day I'll find someone.

My mood was now even worse. Great… Ugh Iza why did you go on and let those heroes escape to the republic and Mount Unbesiegbar too. If I want to keep up the whole mysterious, powerful and seductive villain act I can't ever go back there. My face heats up and I start sputtering like a maiden when I think of that man! That man… the one who took my eye ugh… I want him so bad but he'll definitely try to kill me and my magic isn't effective against him. What am I supposed to do?

My thoughts were interrupted by the screaming meteor coming down and passing by just a few hundred metres above my head. Wait, that's not a meteor, it was something like a small fort with flames coming from its bottom? Huh…

I picked up the magic mirror next to me and called Kuroferuru.

"Kuro , can you hear me?"

"Yep, I'm hearing you." My dear friend and companion answered back.

"I'm going to head out and check what that odd meteor was, okay? Don't burn the manor down while I'm gone."

"Sure…" The moan of a very fortunate man was heard and my friend's eyes rolled up until only the whites could be seen. After a few seconds to recover she started talking again.

"Ahh… Ahhhhhhh… I'm… I'm a bit busy here." She definitely was enjoying herself.

"Good good. See you." Saying that I unfurled my wings and started flying towards the fallen meteor as I passed by a mountain the incredible crater it's landing created was apparent. I'm fairly sure there used to be a mountain here…

Whatever the fort was, it surely used to be glorious. Massive walls made out of an odd gleaming metal now scarred and burned by the atmosphere and whatever had attacked it up above. There were many holes in the once glorious walls and the standards once proud were burned and torn. There was some kind of fight going on inside the fort, I could already hear the explosions and the screeches of metal on metal.

I rushed towards the already bent and torn gates of the fort and ripped them off the walls only to be met by a second set of gates, these ones looked sturdier so I gathered my energy and started cutting a hole. The sight I came across was horrifying. A massive red skinned beast with horns and goat like legs as tall as fifteen metres covered in wounds with only a singular arm was trying to claw at a massive hunched over armoured giant who was holding said beast with a single clawed hand writhing with lightning.

Said armoured giant was a work of marvel, its armour decorated with golden eagles with a prominent one right in the middle of its 'chest plate' and two eagle like pauldrons. The giant looked like a knight due to the visor and helmet that formed its 'head' it's proud blue eyes shone brighter every second. On its second arm there was a massive cannon with a bronze tip, said gun glowed with furious red energy.

The massive beast was also being shot by what looked like a bulkier version of the automata of old spewing flame from its hands along with a pencil thin beam of some kind of black laser from its shoulder. Along with a trio of bipedal but almost canine automata carrying six barreled guns under their short arms carrying blades. There was one last machine along with the rest, well one last intact one at least. There were quite a lot of machines in many pieces along with four more knights entirely destroyed. Anyways the last automata was only armed with a single gun on its shoulder instead having hands tipped with blunt claws that glowed with a weird power.

The beast's neck was broken by the massive knight flicking his hand. The red skinned giant slowly faded away. Their main enemy now dead, the machines turned towards me. They looked like they were going to attack until the knight powered down and fell on its knees, the rest froze and turned to look at each other, lowering their weapons. One of the doglike ones came up to me and tried shaking its upper body and arms around, then it started pointing towards the fallen knight and started walking towards it.

Was it motioning me to follow it? Huh very well then, after all what's the worst that could happen? Ooohhhh, maybe metallic tentacles would grab me and force me into an unspeakable position and ram me constantly filling me up with suspicious white stuff? My body trembled in anticipation but no! Down girl, this is not the time!

Lost in my fantasies I flinched back when a hatch on the back of the knight was blown open and sounds of groaning came through. With a bit of prodding from the worried dog-bot –that name seems fitting- I cautiously approached and climbed through the hatch into the metallic umm… throne room (?) of the knight. I say throne room because of the massive golden plated throne with skull and cog decorations upon it. Now the majestic throne inside the cramped room would have been a beautiful sight… had it not been for the handsome young noble - for what else could he be with all those medals, the fancy uniform and the mother damned crown!- with an admittedly sexy beard who was bleeding all over it!

Two steps were all it took for me to appear next to him and start mending his wounds with a modicum of skill but an immense amount of power. The constant groaning and almost screaming coming from all around inside the throne room were definitely not good for my concentration but I managed to somehow patch him up. This of course did nothing for his low amount of spirit energy and all the blood he had already lost and I wasn't going to be able to uhhh… 'infuse' any energy into him with the wrathful screams of the knight around us.

Now how to solve this situation? Oh… oh I have a wonderful Idea. I am an absolute and utter genius. Now how to convince the massive metal knight…

"Now, I'm sure we both want to save this man. And from what I gather you don't want me to 'take' him, so how about we make a deal? I give you the capability to heal him, but in exchange you and your other buddies help me with a little problem I have. Of course after you get used to your new 'situations. And new living arrangements…" The last part was muttered but I'm sure she heard me.

A garbled mess of voices and screams answered me but the core of the knight started thrumming with power. Guess that's it's version of an agreement… Well, it'll be a whole lot more expressive soon enough.

I'm sure this arrangement will benefit both of us greatly. Well mostly them since you know... They'll have bodies meant for pleasure and joy instead of needles carnage and slaughter.

An: Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Sorry for the delay, this was posted a bit earlier on Spacebattles because the only internet I had access to for four days had forbidden Fanfiction for some reason. Anyways the contents of the meteor have been revealed and it's a bunch of old 30k legio cybernetica along with a singular knight! Dealing with them won't be easy…