"Tower 4. One Hundred percent complete. Requesting retrieval!"

"Tower 1 full. Send in the retrieval units."

"Tower 8 at seventy-nine percent. Estimating completion at thirty minutes."

"Tower 2 complete!"

"Tower 6 at eighty-four percent. Standby on retrievers."

The swirling mass of colors that screened the night sky above Luminberg was gradually dissolving into a translucent light blue dome. It was only then that the true form of the Wizards' Wall was shown when the harmful machinery that shut down the city was turned off. The vibrant terror wreaked by the Gray Fox's mechanisms was dissipating; those on the ground were greeted by the raw whiteness from the moon above.

Several transport disks were deployed from the syndicate's center of operations. Batches of twelve to fifteen mechanisms zipped their way to the ancient towers, where the Gray Fox's men awaited them. Pillars of the dissolving light were shone down on the carts that contained the fully-charged mana stones. The men and machines that guarded the towers were slowly moved out of the site.

This movement did not escape the Imperial Army's attention.

Kriemreich's soldiers fanned towards Towers 6 and 8. The facilities' collection of magical energies were hampered when the unknown interlopers of Tower 7 disabled the facilities. Now that most of the machinery accomplished the task of collecting the needed mana, the opening left by the untimely destruction of Tower 7's devices was being exploited by a more determined force of imperial soldiers. Constructs took up the first line of defense; their multiple-barreled guns unleashing crossfire zones that stopped the army unit's advance.

†

"What in the nether..."

"We got off a monster trying to kill us outside the city, and now this!?"

"Our bullets are bouncing off these freaks!"

"Take them out by hitting the 'eyes', or whatever these things are using to see."

"Stay put, men! The rocket troops will break through their lines."

It was a rough realization for many of the De Melvich Army members. Their units forced to hide behind walls when a group of unknown metal entities opened up streams of bullets to stop the advance. Immune to rifles and machine guns, their hope of removing these automatons from battle took the form of the main guns installed on Blaurosen's armored gun platforms. Getting the humanoid machines to the cannons' lines of sight proved to be a challenge. Many of them stayed in their positions, guarding the approaches to the Wizards' Wall's remaining functioning towers.

The arrival of one of the few remaining cannon tractors was a welcome sight to the pinned and embattled soldiers trying to take Western Tower. A direct hit from the main gun struck one of the defending mechanical warriors, reducing it to a scattered mess of charred metal. It was about to line up to destroy another machine when a replacement automaton arrived and got into position. It did not wield the multiple-barreled automatic gun that the Imperial Army had the displeasure of going against, but a long, three-pronged implement installed on the gun-firing arm. It took aim at the positioned gun carrier, whose turret was being directed at the new threat.

A current of searing-white energy formed on the unfamiliar weapon's barrel, which was coursed into a beam that went through the aft area of the Imperial Army's war machine. Smoke piped out of the vehicle's uppermost areas; the side door burst open to let a group of men abandon the vehicle right before it exploded into a burning hulk. The mechanism with the strange weapon withdrew from the fighting and was replaced by a conventional, bullet-showering equivalent.

The ongoing chaos allowed a small group of flying machines almost unnoticed. Some entered the tower, while others stopped right at the tower entrance. Several flashes were seen by the advancing Imperial forces. Slowly but surely, those defending the tower thinned in number, whisked away from the site of battle by the disk-shaped contraptions. The aerial devices made a straight, upward flight; Kriemreich's soldiers tried to shoot the machines down, but none of them scored a hit.

As fighting on the streets died down, men wielding telescopes and maps watched the flying contraptions. They made no attempt to shoot down the unknown machines unlike the soldiers below, and instead began sketching on blank sheets and drawing lines on their maps. This group exited from the site the moment the aerial disks were no longer seen in the sky.

†

Rinvar was able to trace the steps taken by the two foreign men on their way out of the battlefield. If memory served him right, the path he was tracing was supposed to lead to the Southwest Tower. Gunfire and the periodic crackling and hissing flames penetrated the thick stone walls. It should not be that loud, Rinvar thought; the doors guarding these antiquated tunnels were sealed in ways that made sound impossible to enter. He looked at the stairs that led upward to the tower's emergency escape. The door was shut, but it opened without effort. A slight and shrill rasping sound traveled on the floor.

A wooden splinter. The rest of the door hung in pieces by the hinges.

It was part of the second door that hid the heavier metal counterpart the Constabulary captain entered through. Those foreigners were strong enough to smash through it without the aid of implements. The main entrance to the tower stood in pieces as well, but the burnt areas of where its portal formerly stood told a different tale of its destruction. Rinvar looked up the sky; no longer was the prismatic layer that threw Luminberg into disaster present. The semitransparent blue the books of long ago told stood in its place; the benevolent shield of magical power that kept the first Luminbergers from harm came to view.

The disguise that he sported would prove to be a liability should any of the Imperial Army regulars come across him. Son of Lord Erik be damned, he thought. None of his father's troops were aware that he would return to the city sporting enemy livery. It was better off if Rinvar would stay out of their sights for now.

He continued to survey the surroundings. At the corner was a man in undergarments, brought to unconsciousness probably by the earlier accursed phenomenon. He was bound and gagged, but still breathing. This person might have been one of the sources of the uniforms of the escaped non-Imperials, and he would come in handy for a later interrogation. Rinvar grabbed him from under the shoulders, and the knocked-out man was deposited in an empty waste bin nearby. The container was sealed with a broken metal rod.

Rinvar continued with his surveying. On the ground were small bits of burnt black. A closer inspection showed that these were the same charred objects retrieved from the Antikwald. He remembered that the monster the Imperial Army engaged outside the gates breathed fire that burned through metal in short order. He would have heard the same dreadful roar by now; a creature the height of three men standing atop each other would not be difficult to spot. He took a few grains and stored it on his suit's left breast pocket. There were other remains of the battle that proved interesting. Partly-melted metal heaps that used to be guns were found on the ground. None of them were usable; a force seemed to have heated and fused the weapons' bodies with their internals.

"Some badly-made wall hanger this is going to be..."

Behind the investigator was the smoking remains of a wheeled vehicle; red-hot embers were found on some parts of its frame. The tall structure mounted on it suggested that it housed a kind of machinery – one that Rinvar wouldn't know due to how the flames consumed most of what was inside. Most of his father's soldiers were pushing the assailants out of the city at this time. None of the Imperial Army was left behind to stand guard, and there seemed to be no bullet holes left apart from the tattered tower doorway.

"How could three people inflict so much damage to them?"

Rinvar's thoughts hovered around the idea that three people were able to break through the invaders guarding the Southwest Tower, defeat everyone who tried to stop them, and seize the large glowing stone inside the building. He would certainly have a word with them later - better if their female companion has recovered.

There was no time to stay in the place for long; De Melvich troops would revisit this place, and them having encountered the Luminberg invaders meant bad for his sake.

Rinvar returned to the tunnels, having sealed the doorway with a collapsed wooden beam he found outside. Gunfire and explosions reached his ears in their muted forms – a sign that above the captain was an ongoing firefight between his father's soldiers and the remaining invaders. He was walking in absolute darkness; only the small funnel of light coming from the captain's torch guided his footsteps in navigating through the labyrinth.

"Brillanz should be this door..."

A door without a staircase was highlighted by his torch. Rinvar approached it before pulling out a cone-shaped object from one of his pockets. He inserted it onto one of the grooves. Three circles of light glowed at the upper section of the doorway before a series of clicks echoed in the empty tunnels. He opened the door and entered the space beyond.

"This one's supposed to close after I get in. Seemed that only the energy from my key managed to open it."

The chamber was empty; only silence stalked the interior. Rinvar took a flight of stairs that led to the ground floor. Bodies lay everywhere; others groaned from the earlier effects of the Wizards' Wall. While the effects of whatever struck them were hard and fast, someone still managed to sound the city alarm. Rinvar ran to the control room. More bodies were on the halls; the emblem of the City Guard was revealed to him by the glow of his crystal torch. He opened the room that housed the central panels. His light scanned the place; one of the occupants caught his attention faster than the rest.

Elena was there; her form slumped against the levers and buttons. Rinvar leapt and picked her up.

"Elena!" Rinvar gave his wife a slight shake. "Can you hear me?"

"R.. var?"

"Yes! Yes." The captain hugged the half-conscious woman. "You'll be fine! I'm so glad."

"Yo... here. I'm... rel... eved."

Brillanz, made from materials of legend known to resist fireballs and enchanted lightning, was not spared by whatever was unleashed in Luminberg. The control room was too crowded to properly lay his spouse. Rinvar had to bring Elena somewhere. He hoped the infirmary did not suffer the same fate.