“Holy crap, these numbers.” Ijuin’s eyes went wide. “That Prayer Wheel puts out insane energy. Three gigajoules per second... Wow. And this ‘prana’ thing is the unit for magic, I’m guessing. Seventy thousand per second. They weren’t kidding when they said he blew the last Devicer out of the water.”
He was in the autonomous droid lab on Central Tower’s twenty-fifth floor. During the coup, he’d hidden himself in a secret room and used his nanomachines to hack everything he could for information. But when the situation changed and the Anomalies became the primary threat, he rushed to the testing room he and Shiba often used. The empty space made it perfect for keeping up a multitude of three-dimensional holograms.
“Let’s see, I need the Mark III’s specs, a map of the settlement, air surveillance, ally positions...” Ijuin waved his hands, his eyes darting from one place to the next. “Screw it, just show me everything!” Images and stereoscopic projections appeared at his command. His nanomachines served the same purpose as the sages’ wrist computers. “Now how do we allocate this energy... But there’s so many options! Which ones do I go with?”
“Ijuin. Shiba has something to tell you. I’ll patch him in now.”
“Lady Ein?!”
“Ijuin.” Shiba’s voice followed. “I just sent a list to you via Ein. It contains my own recommended selections. I hope it helps!”
“Thanks!” Another window manifested before him, and he proceeded to send its contents to the Mark III via commlink with his good pal, Devicer Three. More specifically, however, the data was transmitted to the ashen stone in the Frame’s chest. “The Ars Magna Unit,” he muttered. “If that’s the key to droid cultivation, then I’m counting on you!”
The ring of light glowed in his palm as he sent the order.
“Um, appreciate the assist, Ein.”
“It was nothing. I only synchronized my nanomachines with your...laptop, I believe it was called?” Ein was unfazed by the older man’s awkward politeness. Earlier, she had been using her right palm to connect herself with the computer on Shiba’s lap, who then promptly and very hastily put together the file for upload. “We’re all playing our part. It’s time I play mine.”
The elf girl closed her eyes and took a deep breath, focusing her mind. The world fell away. There was no war. There was no fear.
Militia volunteers and former Defense Force soldiers were fighting for their lives alongside the MUV Crow Gauntlets that continued to enact Yu’s orders. Much of the hulking fae had been culled by their talons, and now they were seeing to the destruction of the goblins and merfolk. And the arm droids did so with gruesome efficiency, making use of a multitude of hidden armaments, from air guns in their fingertips to electromagnetic heat radiators in their palms.
And now it was time for the queen to take up her own sword.
Ein stood tall, and with a resounding voice ringing straight from the core of her gut, she sang a heaven-bound verse to the King of the Storm.
—Oh, Traveler. Heed me, oh Traveler,
—Wanderer of the realm and distances vast,
—Rejoice, oh Siddha. The awakening has begun.
“Ein’s Gospel!” Yu cried.
The Prayer Wheel picked up speed, until the whirring became chanting. A chorus of souls, of the priests and priestesses residing within the Wheel of Orison.
“Gate Gate Paragate! Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha! Gate Gate Paragate! Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha!”
And then, the nanofactors gushed out in more abundance than ever before. Even the somber and meager tints of sunlight that absconded through both the amber aurora and the rolling clouds were blotted by the trillions of particles. As the Mark III sped over the settlement, the golden sheet blanketed the city below, droids beginning to emerge from the shimmering, primordial sea in the sky.
Ten thousand MUV Chakrams, the very first Yu had used. With their tapered, serrated edges, the bladed rings set out in search of prey to lacerate, be they on land, in water, or airborne.
There was much use to be found in the MUV Clay-Dolls as well, despite their deceptive appearance. The dolls were barely a meter tall and had stubby, immobile limbs, coupled with an oversized head and pair of eyes, and they normally served reconnaissance purposes, but now their mission was to seek out and aid allies in need. Of these, there were five thousand.
Aiding these droids were twenty thousand MUV Hippocrates—paper-esque droids about the shape and thickness of a poker card. They would fly about in search of those needing medical attention, then attach themselves to afflicted areas, stopping bleeding, acting as an antitoxin, and administering emergency medications directly in the field.
But these were on the smaller end of soldiers in the battalion.
“I’m sending these to the tower!” Ijuin said. “The dragons are really—Whoa! I swear I just saw something white fly by the window just now!”
“I trust you, Ijuin,” said Yu. “Protect the elves!”
One of the largest among Rudra’s army was the MUV Puppeteer—the massive forearm and fist of a giant robot turned loyal familiar that was at least the size of a fighter jet. Six of these rocketed towards the middle of the city.
And with them were six fighter jets of a much more literal variety—MUV Silent Raptor. At the front of their sharp, angular forms, though, were two arms with perfectly opposable thumbs. The right of which was holding a hand axe. This variety of droid could engage in dogfights on both land and in the air.
Among the machines in the thick of it was a more subtle division.
A window appeared in Yu’s visor. “Someone needs help.”
One thousand MUV Bumblebees were monitoring the situation from above, all over the city. Yu confirmed the coordinates of the report one had just sent him and descended at once.
At the edge of the outer block, in one of the more urban areas, a lone, middle-aged man was screaming and firing his Type 89 wildly. Whether he had been separated from the main force on the front lines or simply decided he would fight alone, it mattered little to the goblins who were closing in on their target. The gremlins were taking their time to enjoy this one.
The man had taken out at least half of them in his frenzy, but his luck had just run out.
“God damn it!”
He was fresh out of bullets. The goblins heard the clack of his trigger but no gunshot, and they nocked their poison arrows with nasty grins.
And that was when Yu arrived. He held out his hand and fired a volley of superhardened calcium bullets, instantly decimating the enemy.
“I may not be there to save you again,” he said in Devicer Three’s androgynous voice. “But I’m glad I was this time.”
“Th-Three!” the man blubbered, stopping Yu moments before he started to take off again. Yu looked back and realized that he recognized him. It was the drunk who had vilified Devicer Three after the merfolk attack a few days ago. He prepared himself for another round of insults, but the man was silent for a while, until finally, he said, “You’re back.”
“So it would seem.” Yu might have had more words to say had the man said he was “alive,” but the fact that he hadn’t was likely meaningless.
The man reeked of booze and his uniform was a mess, his beard unkempt, both born out of a lack of desire to rectify either. He was a pitiful sight. But in his eyes, as they gazed up at Devicer Three, was a glint of lucidity.
“You don’t remember me?” he asked. “You saved me before too. Remember? It was raining.”
His face was bright with adoration for his hero. The anger he had felt had likely not come from malice, but betrayal. Disillusionment from being abandoned by the one he looked up to more than anyone.
“And I’ll do it again if I can, but I can’t promise you anything,” Yu said through the voice changer. “If you’re out of bullets or too tired to fight, find somewhere to hide.”
“No,” the man said firmly. His words suddenly had weight, now that they weren’t slurred. “I’ll get reloaded and keep up the fight. That’s what you’re doing, isn’t it?”