The facility was huge and Carnivac didn’t really know where he was headed, but he figured that the deeper into the mountain he went, the better the chances of finding out things that Jhaix wouldn’t want him to know. The large open area of the forging and smelting area gave way to a more traditional castle interior. The lack of air ducts to slink through was annoying but the lack of electrical light was a boon.

Carnivac carefully made his way through the corridors, ducking into side rooms or leaping up into the rafters when a guard patrol would come by. The layout of this area was labyrinthine as it twisted and turned, doubling back on itself at times. Not for the first time, I lamented the lack of a mapping function.

Eventually, Carnivac came upon a large, open area. The floor was packed earth and sand rather than stone and dim torch light came from somewhere overhead. Huge structures dominated the area, though they were difficult to make out in the poor lighting. Statues?

Carnivac risked getting closer and could see ten of the big things in two columns on either side of the room. The things were blocky and squat in shape. They gave the sense of a large bird that was squatting down in its nest. Carnivac could even make out what looked like large bird feet supporting them. Their bodies had the look of a carriage with a bench for a driver and what could only be control sticks in place of reigns. Large, crude arms were mounted to the sides of the carriage and hung down with comical fists pushing against the ground.

The whole thing was covered in magisteel and Carnivac realized what he was looking at. They may be steel carriages with the legs of an ostrich and the arms of a gorilla, but these were mechs. They had to be the “Titans” that he’d overheard Jhaix talking about. Were they alive? Were they Automata with some crazy amount of souls trapped inside to provide power?

They didn’t appear to be active or aware of anything. It was possible that their curse was strictly limiting all activity without the express control and orders from a driver. If Jaff and Meern were any indication with only two souls, things of this scale probably had at least 4 soul cores so the curse would need to be super strict.

Carnivac spotted movement from the direction he’d come and ducked behind one of the Titans. One of the valkyries walked past him to a door on the far side that he hadn’t noticed. This one had blue hair, I think she was named Sapphire. She would be the one running the dragon project they had talked about before. She touched an emblem on the door and Carnivac could see the faint light of a magic circle glow and dim around the design. It was likely a sort of access panel that recognized Sapphire as having permission to enter.

The door unlocked and opened on its own, this would be the best chance to learn more about that project. Carnivac dropped to all fours and ran after her to try and slip through the door before it closed but he wouldn’t make it. Once he was close enough, he pulled Shrapnel out of [Inventory] and threw him.

The little beetle Automata flung through the air and sailed through the opening as he came online. In flight, his wings made a lot of noise but he could at least glide with them to avoid smacking into the back of Sapphire. He managed to just barely avoid hitting her and dodged around until he could get to the wall and scrambled up into the shadows near the ceiling.

She stopped and looked back at the closing door, confused. Once it locked she shrugged and continued down the corridor with Shrapnel following behind. She passed through another set of doors and descended a winding staircase that opened up to another large open area. Where the Titan hangar was rough and dirty, this one was immaculately clean and well lit.

Automata workers moved like ants back and forth, ignoring Sapphire and focused on their tasks. A massive cage contained the cramped and bloodied body of an even more massive purple creature. The creature had been heavily wounded and was chained to the ground by shackles that glowed with magical power.

Shrapnel couldn’t get much closer than the stairwell without risking being seen and couldn’t get a good look at what was actually in the cage. Around the cage, large Automata body parts were being constructed and what could only be a person sized soul core was being positioned nearby.

The voice of Lord Jhaix could be heard barking orders so Shrapnel ventured further out into the open to try and get a peak at what was going on.

“Well, what do we have here?” a metallic female voice said from behind Shrapnel. He whipped around as he converted into beetle form, spreading his wings for flight.

Connection Error

Proxy “Shrapnel” has disconnected. Please check that proxy is in range and online.

Carnivac looked at the error screen for a moment. Lights started coming on in the hangar he was hiding in. If Shrapnel had been caught, and likely destroyed, then they knew they had a security breach. He needed to get out of there, fast.

With the lights on, Carnivac could see there was a second level to the area that went around the hangar for observation. He quickly leapt up on top of one of the Titans, using it as a step and vaulting onto the upper walkway. He raced for a doorway that looked to be in the direction he had come from and pushed through it, all thoughts of stealth abandoned.

An Automata guard ran towards him, with sword drawn, with a second close behind. Carnivac jumped into the air, vaulting from the rafter, leap-frogging over the first guard and crashing into the second one. He thrust a kunai up under the chin of the guard he’d landed on, piercing its brain module. Its lights faded and body went limp as he wrenched the blade free and flung it at the first guard. The kunai punctured the face of the guard and it collapsed in a heap but Carnivac didn’t wait around to see it hit the ground.

He was back on the run, on all fours, tearing down the hallways, trying to navigate the maze of corridors. More Automata guards poured from a side room, but he ran up the wall, dodging around them. Up ahead, he could see the corridor open out into a courtyard. He was nearly there when Gree stepped out, blocking the way.

Carnivac tried to dodge around him but was caught in the air. Gree spun around with a grunt of effort and hurled Carnivac through a thick glass window. Beyond the window, Carnivac fell several stories down into some narrow catwalks overlooking a section of the foundry. He drew his swords as Gree jumped down after him. Above, at the window, Carnivac could see the other members of Gree’s party looking down.

“Carnivac,” Gree said in a low growl. “I can’t say that I’m surprised, but I am disappointed.”

“Hey Gree, there might be others. You got this?” Sarissa called down.

“Yeah, no problem,” he called back, without taking his eyes off of Carnivac.

He threw himself at Carnivac, pounding him with heavy forearm strikes. Carnivac deflected with his blades, but noticed that Gree had steel ridges that ran along the length of his gauntlets. He brought a knee up into Gree’s gut, followed by a kick to the chest that sent Gree toppling back and tangling in the catwalk’s support wires.

Carnivac lunged forward to press the attack but was thrown back as a thick bolt of purple lightning crackled through him. The force of the elemental attack lifted him up and over the catwalk, sending him out into open air. He dropped down several more stories and hit the stone ground near a smelting pool.

“I’ll help,” the gnome Traluna said as she climbed through the window and carefully stood on the ledge. “There’s something off about this guy that I don’t trust.”

“Come on, he’s gotta be fried after that hit,” Gree grumbled as he jumped down to Carnivac’s level.

Carnivac’s HUD was distorting badly as the effect from the lighting dissipated. He pushed himself up and looked around, both of his swords had gone flying somewhere and his reflexes were still a little glitchy.

“You’re alive?” Gree laughed, “you’re a lot tougher than I thought. Guess I can’t keep playing around.”

Carnivac looked up at the shattered window and a sliver of night sky beyond it. There was his chance. He cast [ShadowCloak] followed by [HotSwap(CloudBurst)]. The thick fog of darkness enveloped him but instead of returning Carnivac to [Inventory] to swap with the CloudBurst armor, an error screen popped up.

Error Warning

Living souls can not be put into Inventory space

He hadn’t been fast enough and Gree had a meaty grip around Carnivac’s throat. Crap. The system probably tried to put Gree into [Inventory] along with Carnivac since he was touching.

Gree yanked on Carnivac and pulled him out of the shadow fog, slamming him into the stone floor before hurling him into the side of a machine that was busy crunching up old Automata limbs before dropping the metal further below and into the smelting pool.

Carnivac bounced off of the side of the machine but was thrown back into it as another bolt of purple lighting hit him from above. His HUD was a mess of static and distorted inputs. He seemed to be magnetized to the side of this machine and glitching error messages were filling up his vision.

Gree punched the ground and started changing size. His black fur receded as thick green scales sprouted and overlapped on his exposed skin. His wolf snout pushed in as if it was playdough being crushed and reshaped into the ape-like face of an ogre with large tusks protruding from his lower jaw. He grabbed Carnivac with a single hand around his head and pulled him off of the machine, lifting him up.

“Just what are you?” Carnivac wondered, his speech distorting and glitching with a mix of static and modem sounds.

“I could ask the same,” Gree replied, “how are you not dead yet?”

Carnivac fumbled for a kunai and stabbed it into Gree’s arm. Blood poured from the wound but on an ogre arm, the small kunai blade didn’t push deep enough to do much more than a thorn or a toothpick. Gree grunted from the pain of being stabbed in the arm but didn’t let go. If anything, he tightened his grip and with his free arm, he grabbed the hand holding the kunai and ripped hard pulling Carnivac’s arm off at the shoulder.

“Huh,” Gree said, looking curiously at the destroyed joint and oozing mana fluid. “How about that, he’s an Auto.”

“[ShadowCloak],” Carnivac managed.

He grabbed Gree’s arm, digging his fingers into the kunai wound as the fog wrapped around him. He got a foot planted against Gree’s body and tried getting the other up to his face. If he could get away he might be able to get [HotSwap] to work.

Gree spun on the spot, whipping Carnivac around by the head in order to dodge the attack.

Connection Error

Proxy “Carnivac” has disconnected. Please check that proxy is in range and online.

Everything was dark and a jumble of thuds and impacts. I felt like I was trapped inside a barrel that had gone over a waterfall. I could hear Gree speaking though the sound was muffled and distant. He was saying something about how Jhaix would be really interested to see this new, weird kind of Automata. Then he cursed, something about the body falling into the smelting pool.