Chapter 379 - Deal With The Devil

Note :

Sorry for the late upload, I was handling some edits for Manaforged Robotics and forgot the time.

I hope you'll enjoy this chapter ! It has some...interesting stuff at the end.

Also, I will be doing a post later today about adjusting the schedule. Due to a lot of my TTRPG stuff moving around, I will no longer be posting chapters on thursdays and saturdays, but be posting chapters on fridays and sundays !

Chapter 379

Red Sand Deserts, Archduchy of Rebirth

City of Rebirth, Docking Tower

Allya stared at the letters, then back up to Elkaryos.

She saw him recoil slightly. There was no surprise on her face, or in her eyes.

There was carefully controlled paranoia.

"Interesting." She said. "Given what is happening here, I'm sure you realize this will arouse a great deal of suspicion." She raised her hand as Elkaryos opened his mouth. "No. Don't answer. My office, now." She nodded at the magistrate. "If you will excuse us? My staff will show you to your room."

"Of course." Said the royal magistrate.

"Excellent." The archduchess made a sharp gesture, and departed. Elkaryos followed a split second later.

She put her hand in one of her pockets, and pushed a button on her communicator.

With any luck, Pyn would be close enough to meet her in the office before the discussion started.

*****

Allya sat down behind her desk as Pyn leaned against it, and stared at Elkaryos as he stood uneasily before it.

She could understand his hesitation. Intellectually, he had to know she had to have changed a fair bit, but even in Darthar he hadn't seen all of it, and seeing was different than knowing.

Especially after going through the manor and Alexandra's newly deployed golem complement.

He'd no doubt fondly imagined that the force she'd sent North, was now entering Darthar, had been all she had been able to manufacture while she focused on the Mackies.

It wasn't the case. Now that Alexandra's fabricators were running, making golems, upgrading her infrastructure and spitting out more fabricators, her production was just exploding.

She had another division of golems, over twelve thousand combat units, ready to deploy, and many, many more on the way.

By the end of the month, she'd have more troops ready than she had left in the northern army and sent in reinforcements combined.

A long time ago, she'd mused that Alexandra having forges making her golems' armor and weapons reminded her of a technological singularity. Machines making machines, growing exponentially in numbers, power and intelligence.

Well, Alexandra was one now. And the process had started to go into its exponential curve.

In six months, she would have the power to conquer the entire continent by force.

A couple of years, and she would be able to take on the Eris Empire.

Five, and she could probably destroy the Church.

The Gods alone knew what she could do in ten.

Because at this point, she might as well be one.

The problem was that Allya was grimly certain they weren't going to get that time.

For any of those fights. Including the Church's. Because at this point, there was no way Alexandra wasn't violating the edicts with what was going on down in that 'core fortress' of hers.

And even if by some miracle she wasn't, there was no way the Custodians would ignore a threat like that.

In fact...why had they for so long? They seemed almost complacent about what she was doing. Was it because she was a dungeon core? It almost was like they didn't consider her a threat.

That had been the final, fatal mistake of many in the Republic and Sunrise's rebellion.

Elkaryos cleared his throat.

"So, as I had said-" Started the dark elf, and Allya raised her hand.

"We are invited to join the merchants' guild. Yes. I'm sure you also have a whole spiel on how cumulating guild membership and a title of nobility is by no means exceptional, though it is not usually advertised." Elkaryos looked like he'd swallowed something sour, and the archduchess smiled. "Yes, I am aware of that particular tidbit. I'm curious to know why though."

"I recommended you for recruitment back when you..." He shrugged. "Well, when you basically swindled me."

"Took a while."

"I sent the recommendation to the Grand Merchant, and he is a busy man."

Allya tilted her head. She wasn't sure the...being that governed the merchants guild qualified as human anymore.

He was so old that his true age was the subject of wild rumors and superstition. Some said he'd even lived to see the Dawn of the Flames!

"And I'm sure it arriving now has nothing to do with the summit and the fact that I'm about to unify Arkhan or just guaranteed my control of its greatest trade route."

"Everything is connected, your grace. But in this case, yes, there may have been some elements of waiting until the dust settled. Can you blame Sseth?"

"Can you blame me for being pissed off at him refusing to throw his hat into the ring until the winner was decided?" Hissed the archduchess.

"No I can't."

There was a tense silence, until Pyn cleared her throat.

"So...what, do you want to start us off at apprentice? I think we're a bit beyond that."

"No, of course not. Our rankings are...complicated, as is any guild's. But you have more than proven your acumen in matters of trade. A merchant's worth is measured by their connections, money and influence. You have accumulated truly obscene amount of all three. Sseth proposes that you be inducted at the rank of Master Merchant. Which is our highest, behind only his own."

Allya's eyebrow rose. Okay that was...

Well, it made sense. Master Merchants were effectively rogue operatives, free to do as they pleased. And they definitely had the achievements and wealth to back it up.

But still, it was surprising. That was the equivalent of joining the adventurers guild and being named guildmaster.

"Interesting." She tapped her fingers on the desktop. "And why should I accept?"

"Because we can bring you what you need."

"Which is?"

Elkaryos smiled crookedly.

"The means to spend your money. You have too much mana, and not enough avenues to spend it."

"I'm going to be rebuilding two devastated duchies. I'm willing to prove you that I have, in fact, plenty to spend my money on."

"Yes, but not in the way you want." Elkaryos leaned forward. "We can open doors. That is all we are. A key to the many gates of our world. Crystal cannot solve all of your problems. You don't just need weapons and golems. You need trains, railways, power plants, sandships. You need the guild to open these doors."

Allya stared at him in the eyes.

He knew so much.

And yet he knew nothing.

He didn't have the slightest idea what Alexandra was capable of. He didn't know of her plans to drag Gorromar into helping build Rebirth and reconstruct the duchies.

But...he was right.

For Alexandra's plan to work, they needed as many people working with them as possible, and as much cover as they could get for her own technological innovations.

The merchants guild would offer one hell of a cover. She didn't need to consult Alexandra, the dungeon core would be a hundred percent for this.

There was only one problem.

The guild would take the fall for Alexandra's tech. They thought they were the devil in this contract.

They were so, so wrong.

"I do." She said softly. "But are you truly ready to let me in?" She held up her hand as Elkaryos opened his mouth, forestalling him. "Think carefully of what has happened. What is still happening. Are you absolutely certain you wish to invite me into the merchants guild? Not Sseth. Not your colleagues. You, Elkaryos."

He looked at her.

"That...it's not my decision to make. Sseth-"

"Yes. Yes it is. Ultimately, when everything is said and done, you will bear the responsibility."

She shouldn't be warning him like that. But he had helped them so much...

They would have never gotten this far without him. Alex would have continued on, but with different people on the surface.

She owed him that much. A last chance to step back from the brink.

Because once you got into Alexandra's terrible embrace, there were only two ways forward.

Either become part of her raging fire, or be reduced to ashes by it.

"...Yes. I am certain."

"Then so be it." Allya looked at Pyn, and they spoke in unison. "We accept, Elkaryos Rapier."

"Then I welcome you to the merchants guild, Master Merchants." He got up and bowed. "May your journey lead you to great profits."

Allya got up, and bowed back, hiding a smile.

There was one consolation in this.

The UDC and the adventurers guild were going to be shitting bricks. Entire warehouses worth of them.

She would pay good money to see their faces when they learned.

*****

Ghost jumped back with unnatural grace, redirecting gravity to aid her leap.

The Jaskarl pressed its advantage. Despite its large build and status as de facto heavy infantry, the UDC abomination was surprisingly nimble.

Ghost obliterated it with a spell, but she lost sight of the wider battlefield for a second.

The next she was on the ground, staring up at Alexandra's face.

"Urgh...how did I do?" Said the apparition, and Alexandra smiled.

"Well, you took out two full platoons before going down. And you were in a basic golem. So I'd say 'very well' indeed."

"Great." Ghost slumped her head down, and realized that the ground didn't oppose much resistance. Right, she'd been kicked out of the golem as it was destroyed.

She manifested her 'real' body from her hologram, and sat up, taking Alexandra's hand, boosting herself up.

"So." Said the dungeon core. "I think we've got a pretty good idea of your limits now."

"I wish it didn't involve me repeatedly getting my ass kicked."

"To be fair, you did a lot of ass kicking yourself."

Ghost looked upon the testing room, and had to admit her new self was right.

The battlefield was littered with bodies.

Two full platoons didn't seem like that big of an amount for alone mage, especially one as powerful as her.

But those were Jaskarls. Each was effectively a small tank in its own right. Eighty or so kills was one hell of a feat against that.

"Fair enough." Ghost smiled as CQ walked over, and the golem at her feet began to stand back up. "How's your own testing going?"

"Pretty good!" The boss hopped up and down excitedly. "I can resurrect spider tanks!"

"Really? That's amazing!"

It wasn't just for effect either.

How the boss powers worked had been something they'd always wanted to figure out, but lacked the times or resources to do.

With all three bosses home, it had been time to do something about that.

They'd so far found a fair few limitations. She couldn't possess anything larger than a praetorian guard in heavy power armor. Strangely enough, the armor counted as part of the 'size' she could handle. But anything under that was fair game.

CQ, originally, had only been able to bring back her own royal guard. Now it affected every golem in the vicinity, though only Alex's own. Golems no longer under her control, like those salvaged by the town, weren't counted. interestingly enough, neither were those made by fabricators, until they were jacked into the dungeon's network.

And if she could resurrect spider tanks now too...

Maybe she could eventually do Mackies. Or even airships.

"Thanks auntie!"

Alexandra and Ghost both smiled, melting in unison.

"Alright." The dungeon core clapped her hands. "Let's go check on Jared. I want to see if his ability affected the field guns."

Ghost's eyebrow rose. Jared's gunslinger ability was a bit more complicated than it first seemed. He effectively extended his essence to...not quite fuse, but embrace the weapon he was use it. Allowing it to take far more punishment than could normally happen.

"You don't seriously expect him to go around with a cannon, do you?"

"Nope! But if he can affect one, I can have him get a tank to carry him around." She smiled. "Also, if it can affect a field gun...it might affect a railgun, or a particle cannon. And if it can affect those...what happens if we give him a surface to void weapon?"

Ghost stopped, her eyes going wide.

"Oh shit. Oh fuck."

"What?"

"Do you remember the spear? The one Sunrise tried to kill you with?"

"Yeah?"

"It was like, a part of its user. Linked to them."

"I remember your report, yes."

"What if the entire damned Citadel was like that? What if the Custodians barely left it because it was an extension of them? Or they were an extension of it? What if...What if the Citadel of the Flames was a spaceborn dungeon, and the Custodians its bosses?"

Horrified silence answered her.