Selfish - 6
Blackraptor
Not too sore, are you?
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"...then the Queen put together our task force to investigate. We arrive and see the island looking like a warzone, the Elven village completely devoid of life, and the ruins nearby looking like someone took a spoon and scooped out a huge chunk of it." The Captain finished explaining the situation that we managed to stumble into. No one had been able to get in contact with the island for weeks and one of their contractors decided to see what was wrong. They found the current state of the island and immediately alerted the proper authorities.
"And no one knew that this was all happening?" I had to ask since the elves had to have mounted some sort of resistance to whoever attacked them. That kind of activity should have been noticed. At the very least, someone should have been able to escape the island and call for help.
"Like I said, the army's pretty spread thin. Monster outbreaks everywhere, even in places where they've never shown up before. A lot of independent knights have been called up to service too, which was why I thought that you were deployed here to help." That made sense. This was the first time I had actually heard how bad the recent monster attacks have been. The most we've encountered them was during the school trip.
"Alright, what do you need my help with then? It seems like you all have everything under control." I pointed out while leaning into the Captain's chair. Livia and the others had taken the available seats in the bridge and were listening intently to the conversation.
"The ruins, what's left anyway." The ruins? Why would they direct us to that instead of the actual settlement? "There's all sorts of things down there that look like they'd rather belong in a dungeon. Our people aren't really adventurers, so we wouldn't know what would be a clue or not. More importantly, we don't want to trigger anything that might make things worse."
Ah, that made more sense. A lot of the enlisted in the army were either from nobility too poor to afford going to send them to the Academy or just outright commoners. If any of them had the capability of becoming adventurers, then they wouldn't have been regular soldiers. "I see. Anything you can tell us about the ruins themselves?"
"Not much, really." The Captain made a frustrated sigh as he started talking about the other big mystery of the island. "We've secured the perimeter of the giant hole, but that's mainly because there's no one else here. Some of the soldiers did report that they saw some shadows moving deeper inside, so there'll probably be monsters there."
"Understood. Where can we dock?" The Captain directed us to a shipping harbor to the south of the island. It was the closest one to the ruins and there were already soldiers stationed there. We were told that the people on the ground had already been informed of our arrival and to give us any assistance we needed.
"Control, keep the Nagare around the airspace just in case once we disembark. If you can spare a drone, come along with us." I said before standing up and looking at my companions.
"You three best get changed into your dungeoneering gear." They all nodded and we met back up a few minutes later, fully kitted up. I was going with my pilot suit and tomahawks, so no changes there.
Livia was wearing a white adventuring coat that had red and yellow highlights. Her leather gloves and boots were pretty rugged and were ideal for the environment we would be going into. She had her now personal handgun strapped to her right thigh but she also had a magic rifle slung over her shoulder now too. Was she taking lessons from Jilk?
Clara had pretty typical adventuring gear, reminiscent of what Livia used to wear. In fact, it might be what she actually used in Adventuring classes. She had dark green light leather overalls that had armor plating covering her chest, forearms and shins. She had leather gloves and traveling boots to round it out. Her sword was strapped to her waist while her shield was on her back.
I blinked when I saw Deirdre's outfit. Why? She was just cosplaying as Richter Belmont from the Castlevania games. White blouse and trousers, blue pirate coat, brown gloves and boots. She even had a whip strapped to her waist! A whip!
"Why do you have a whip?" I had to ask as I pointed at the weapon. The second year girl just smirked and adjusted her coat's popped collar before responding.
"It's enchanted with my magic and cuts as well as any blade. It, however, is much more versatile to use." She said while pulling out a gem encrusted folding fan. I'd bet money that she was going to cast magic from that thing.
"Wow! That's amazing, Deirdre!" Livia said in amazement and her friend just ate it up.
"Of course! A Roseblade does not do things halfway!" Deirdre said with swelling pride. At the back of my mind, I could almost see her doing the typical haughty noblewoman laugh.
"We're ready to go anytime, my Lord." Clara informed me after one final inspection of her own gear.
The Nagare is now docked. Please proceed to disembark in an orderly fashion.
I blinked when I saw the drone that Control was going to bring along with us. "Are those guns on the sides of that drone?"
Of course. I would be remiss to be the only one incapable of combat should we encounter any hostilities.
We made our way to the doors and waited for them to open up. As that happened, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I could hate myself and be depressed about Angie and Clarice on my own time.
Don't think about them for now. I had to deal with what was in front of me.
I winced when I remembered that this kind of thinking was what caused the problems in the first place. God, there was just no winning was there?
I opened my eyes with a growl as the doors opened to reveal a pretty utilitarian looking harbor. The Captain did say that this one was primarily for shipping. We were quickly met by three soldiers, all of them looking older than the four of us.
"I thought that the Captain was joking when they said that the Doom Knight himself showed up, but here we are. The name's Gabriel, Sir Bartfort. These are Marshall and Ortega, we'll escort you to the ruins." The lead soldier began the introduction. We also introduced ourselves and they seemed surprised that a commoner was traveling with me. They didn't really make a big deal out of it other than that and we started making our way to the ruins.
"This is all wrong." Clara pointed out while looking up at the trees. "Where are all the wildlife?"
"You noticed that too, huh? The complete silence was what our scouts reported about first. This whole thing has been spooky from the start." One of the other soldiers, Ortega, agreed with a nod. Well that boded well for us.
We made it to the ruins without any opposition at all. There were a number of soldiers present as well as one standard military model Armor. Just one? Were there others stationed somewhere else?
The Nagare has lifted off. I can have it stay on standby anywhere on the island.
"Keep it near us and have Black Getter warmed up in case we need it." I suggested and looked up to the clear skies. There was plenty of open air in case I had to fight anything in my Getter Robo. We walked up to the edge of the ruin and saw that it really was just a giant hole. The Captain wasn't kidding when he said that it looked like someone just scooped everything out.
Gabriel noticed my expression and scratched his head. "Yeah, it's just a pretty deep drop. We can get a few rope ladders for you if you–"
"I'll take care of it." Livia suddenly said, stepping forward. Some whispered words and a few hand gestures later, she created a levitating platform made of stone from the surroundings that was large enough for ten people.
The soldiers, Clara, and I just gaped at the casual use of obviously high-end magic. Deirdre had no such issues as she started clapping. "Most impressive, Livia! That spell isn't even taught until the Third Year and you cast it with such speed and ease!"
"Ah, well. I'm just really passionate about learning magic." Livia shyly said and was taken by surprise when her friend took both of her hands in her own.
"And I recognize your passion, Livia. Well done!" Deirdre's enthusiasm made Livia blush and I was reminded once again of the charisma of an Otome Protagonist.
The four of us took the magic lift down, with Control's combat drone floating down at its own pace. As we went down, I noticed some pretty modern looking hallways and rooms that were carved out. This place must have been a pretty big underground complex. We reached the bottom and saw that there were a lot of places we could start looking.
"Control, can you give the place a scan? See if you can point us somewhere good." I asked. The place still looked pretty big, with plenty of hallways that could go to who knows where.
I am already currently scanning the ruin complex from this drone as well as the Nagare. It seems that there are traces of medical and laboratory equipment throughout what remains. There also seems to still be biological signatures moving throughout the hallways and rooms.
"Are they elves?" As I asked that, we all turned to the sounds of footsteps and saw a figure shambling towards us. It was an elf, at least, I thought that it was. It had the long ears of an elf but there were three malformed horns that had blinking lights growing out of its head. Its body was misshapen with its left arm being comically large and having a metal claw at the end. Its legs were replaced with four mechanical spider legs that barely looked like they were supporting its weight.
I'm afraid that they do not seem to be the elves that we were hoping for.
The creature ambled towards us while reaching out with its claw. It suddenly found itself impaled by a stone spike coming out of the ground. I turned and saw that it was Livia's doing. She put her left hand down after finishing the spell and quickly pulled out her handgun and shot the creature in the head, blowing off half of it.
"Nice shot, Livia." I absently muttered at how casually she just did all that. Just how strong had she already become?
"Thanks! I've been working on ways to keep things from moving around too much when I shoot them." The girl happily explained with a big smile. We all walked closer to the creature in order to get a better look.
"Are those machines grafted into their body?" Clara asked in clear disgust when she noticed that a lot of the metal seemed to go under the skin.
"Control, please tell me this isn't Dinosaur Empire tech." I quickly asked because I didn't want to have to deal with those guys if the simulators were anything to go by.
This is not Dinosaur Empire technology. However, the methodology of these modifications are reminiscent of those of another Enemy of Humanity.
"Which one?" I asked helplessly.
The Hundred Demons Empire. The modifications are rudimentary enough that whoever did this may only be working with incomplete data.
"Then is this place one of theirs?" I looked around, not liking the name of that group one bit. The elves were messing with technology from the enemies of Getter Robos? How had no one ever noticed this before?
Of the original Hundred Demons Empire? Impossible, as they were driven off the planet long ago. However, I cannot discount the possibility of any remnants returning after the conflicts of old had ended.
"It seems that there are more of these creatures." Deirdre got our attention as several other franken-elves started crawling out of the woodwork, some literally. They were all varied, some had extra limbs, some had tentacles for legs, some were just torsos on wheels. The only thing that was common about all of them was that they had some variation of horns coming out of their heads.
"Clara! With me up front! Livia, Deirdre, Control, give us some ranged support!" I called out, charging forward and pulling out my tomahawks.
"Yes, my Lord!" I heard Clara call out from behind me as I hacked into the shoulder of one of the creatures. Clara did work with her own swordsmanship, making sure not to get in the way of my own movement. From behind us, wind spells from Deirdre, and gunfire from Livia and Control made short work of the first wave of monsters.
After a while, I started noticing something strange about the things we have been killing. They weren't even putting up a fight. At all. Like instead of attacking, they were trying to get our attention. Oh god. When it finally hit me, I suddenly recoiled from the one I was about to chop the head off of.
"Stop! Stop! STOP! Everyone stop attacking!" I yelled out to everyone, even getting in front of Clara as she was about to stab another of the creatures.
"What are you doing, Leon?!" Deirdre asked in a panic. I shook my head and pointed at the mo–elves that were still approaching us.
"They're not trying to attack us." I said and, as if to prove my statement, one of them finally reached me and caressed my face with their normal hand. A tear fell from their non-mechanical eye as they continued to stroke my cheek. I swallowed the lump in my throat and continued. "I think they're asking us for help."
"Oh no, and we've all been…" Clara trailed off and looked at the blood on her sword in shock.
I shall return to the surface and inform the soldiers of this development.
"What happened to all of you?" I asked even as Livia desperately started healing the elves that we had been attacking, most of which were already dead. The one that I was with then took my head and started pulling me away. I just ended up following them, not wanting to end up hurting them.
"Where are you taking me?" I asked but didn't get an answer.
"Leon?!" Deirdre called out as she and the others made to follow. However the other elves blocked them from being able to. They were also unwilling to harm them now that they knew that they weren't trying to hurt us. So they wanted me alone then?
"It's fine! Wait there for Control to come back!" I called out as I was led into a hallway. The surroundings initially looked like they would fit in a sci-fi laboratory like the one from the Saotome Lab. However, as we went in deeper, the theme of the place started changing.
There were carvings on the wall that looked like they depicted various events. Battles, mostly. The commonality among them was that most of the combatants had the same horns that were on the elves. There were also other constants as well.
A red armored figure that looked like it had a big red mustache and a crown. The most striking thing about it was that it fought with two axes and seemed to fire some sort of light from its forehead. Other carvings depicted a thin blue armored figure that had some sort of pointed lance instead of a fight hand that opened up like a flower. Even more carvings depicted a large yellow armored figure in the middle of what seemed like a hurricane. In all the carvings, the ones that had horns on their heads seemed to be on the losing end of the respective battles.
It didn't take long for me to realize what those carvings were representing. The thought made me sweat and regret following these guys by myself.
I was eventually led to a set of open double doors. Inside looked like a dilapidated chapel of some kind. There were destroyed pews and candle holders everywhere. In the far end of the room was some kind of rudimentary statue depicting some kind of serpent. There was also someone kneeling in front of the statue, a woman with long green hair from the looks of it. She rose to her feet and turned around.
She was wearing a thin white dress that did nothing to hide her body. I grimaced as I made sure to keep my eyes off her absurdly large breasts. When I looked at her face she had empty looking amber eyes and long elven ears. More notably, there was a crooked glowing gold horn coming out the right side of her forehead.
"I am Yumeria, the last priestess of the Great Dragon God. Are you here to kill me or maybe take me like the others, inheritor of the green light?" She said in a placid tone. Oh great, another one who can see Getter Rays?
"And no one knew that this was all happening?" I had to ask since the elves had to have mounted some sort of resistance to whoever attacked them. That kind of activity should have been noticed. At the very least, someone should have been able to escape the island and call for help.
"Like I said, the army's pretty spread thin. Monster outbreaks everywhere, even in places where they've never shown up before. A lot of independent knights have been called up to service too, which was why I thought that you were deployed here to help." That made sense. This was the first time I had actually heard how bad the recent monster attacks have been. The most we've encountered them was during the school trip.
"Alright, what do you need my help with then? It seems like you all have everything under control." I pointed out while leaning into the Captain's chair. Livia and the others had taken the available seats in the bridge and were listening intently to the conversation.
"The ruins, what's left anyway." The ruins? Why would they direct us to that instead of the actual settlement? "There's all sorts of things down there that look like they'd rather belong in a dungeon. Our people aren't really adventurers, so we wouldn't know what would be a clue or not. More importantly, we don't want to trigger anything that might make things worse."
Ah, that made more sense. A lot of the enlisted in the army were either from nobility too poor to afford going to send them to the Academy or just outright commoners. If any of them had the capability of becoming adventurers, then they wouldn't have been regular soldiers. "I see. Anything you can tell us about the ruins themselves?"
"Not much, really." The Captain made a frustrated sigh as he started talking about the other big mystery of the island. "We've secured the perimeter of the giant hole, but that's mainly because there's no one else here. Some of the soldiers did report that they saw some shadows moving deeper inside, so there'll probably be monsters there."
"Understood. Where can we dock?" The Captain directed us to a shipping harbor to the south of the island. It was the closest one to the ruins and there were already soldiers stationed there. We were told that the people on the ground had already been informed of our arrival and to give us any assistance we needed.
"Control, keep the Nagare around the airspace just in case once we disembark. If you can spare a drone, come along with us." I said before standing up and looking at my companions.
"You three best get changed into your dungeoneering gear." They all nodded and we met back up a few minutes later, fully kitted up. I was going with my pilot suit and tomahawks, so no changes there.
Livia was wearing a white adventuring coat that had red and yellow highlights. Her leather gloves and boots were pretty rugged and were ideal for the environment we would be going into. She had her now personal handgun strapped to her right thigh but she also had a magic rifle slung over her shoulder now too. Was she taking lessons from Jilk?
Clara had pretty typical adventuring gear, reminiscent of what Livia used to wear. In fact, it might be what she actually used in Adventuring classes. She had dark green light leather overalls that had armor plating covering her chest, forearms and shins. She had leather gloves and traveling boots to round it out. Her sword was strapped to her waist while her shield was on her back.
I blinked when I saw Deirdre's outfit. Why? She was just cosplaying as Richter Belmont from the Castlevania games. White blouse and trousers, blue pirate coat, brown gloves and boots. She even had a whip strapped to her waist! A whip!
"Why do you have a whip?" I had to ask as I pointed at the weapon. The second year girl just smirked and adjusted her coat's popped collar before responding.
"It's enchanted with my magic and cuts as well as any blade. It, however, is much more versatile to use." She said while pulling out a gem encrusted folding fan. I'd bet money that she was going to cast magic from that thing.
"Wow! That's amazing, Deirdre!" Livia said in amazement and her friend just ate it up.
"Of course! A Roseblade does not do things halfway!" Deirdre said with swelling pride. At the back of my mind, I could almost see her doing the typical haughty noblewoman laugh.
"We're ready to go anytime, my Lord." Clara informed me after one final inspection of her own gear.
The Nagare is now docked. Please proceed to disembark in an orderly fashion.
I blinked when I saw the drone that Control was going to bring along with us. "Are those guns on the sides of that drone?"
Of course. I would be remiss to be the only one incapable of combat should we encounter any hostilities.
We made our way to the doors and waited for them to open up. As that happened, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I could hate myself and be depressed about Angie and Clarice on my own time.
Don't think about them for now. I had to deal with what was in front of me.
I winced when I remembered that this kind of thinking was what caused the problems in the first place. God, there was just no winning was there?
I opened my eyes with a growl as the doors opened to reveal a pretty utilitarian looking harbor. The Captain did say that this one was primarily for shipping. We were quickly met by three soldiers, all of them looking older than the four of us.
"I thought that the Captain was joking when they said that the Doom Knight himself showed up, but here we are. The name's Gabriel, Sir Bartfort. These are Marshall and Ortega, we'll escort you to the ruins." The lead soldier began the introduction. We also introduced ourselves and they seemed surprised that a commoner was traveling with me. They didn't really make a big deal out of it other than that and we started making our way to the ruins.
"This is all wrong." Clara pointed out while looking up at the trees. "Where are all the wildlife?"
"You noticed that too, huh? The complete silence was what our scouts reported about first. This whole thing has been spooky from the start." One of the other soldiers, Ortega, agreed with a nod. Well that boded well for us.
We made it to the ruins without any opposition at all. There were a number of soldiers present as well as one standard military model Armor. Just one? Were there others stationed somewhere else?
The Nagare has lifted off. I can have it stay on standby anywhere on the island.
"Keep it near us and have Black Getter warmed up in case we need it." I suggested and looked up to the clear skies. There was plenty of open air in case I had to fight anything in my Getter Robo. We walked up to the edge of the ruin and saw that it really was just a giant hole. The Captain wasn't kidding when he said that it looked like someone just scooped everything out.
Gabriel noticed my expression and scratched his head. "Yeah, it's just a pretty deep drop. We can get a few rope ladders for you if you–"
"I'll take care of it." Livia suddenly said, stepping forward. Some whispered words and a few hand gestures later, she created a levitating platform made of stone from the surroundings that was large enough for ten people.
The soldiers, Clara, and I just gaped at the casual use of obviously high-end magic. Deirdre had no such issues as she started clapping. "Most impressive, Livia! That spell isn't even taught until the Third Year and you cast it with such speed and ease!"
"Ah, well. I'm just really passionate about learning magic." Livia shyly said and was taken by surprise when her friend took both of her hands in her own.
"And I recognize your passion, Livia. Well done!" Deirdre's enthusiasm made Livia blush and I was reminded once again of the charisma of an Otome Protagonist.
The four of us took the magic lift down, with Control's combat drone floating down at its own pace. As we went down, I noticed some pretty modern looking hallways and rooms that were carved out. This place must have been a pretty big underground complex. We reached the bottom and saw that there were a lot of places we could start looking.
"Control, can you give the place a scan? See if you can point us somewhere good." I asked. The place still looked pretty big, with plenty of hallways that could go to who knows where.
I am already currently scanning the ruin complex from this drone as well as the Nagare. It seems that there are traces of medical and laboratory equipment throughout what remains. There also seems to still be biological signatures moving throughout the hallways and rooms.
"Are they elves?" As I asked that, we all turned to the sounds of footsteps and saw a figure shambling towards us. It was an elf, at least, I thought that it was. It had the long ears of an elf but there were three malformed horns that had blinking lights growing out of its head. Its body was misshapen with its left arm being comically large and having a metal claw at the end. Its legs were replaced with four mechanical spider legs that barely looked like they were supporting its weight.
I'm afraid that they do not seem to be the elves that we were hoping for.
The creature ambled towards us while reaching out with its claw. It suddenly found itself impaled by a stone spike coming out of the ground. I turned and saw that it was Livia's doing. She put her left hand down after finishing the spell and quickly pulled out her handgun and shot the creature in the head, blowing off half of it.
"Nice shot, Livia." I absently muttered at how casually she just did all that. Just how strong had she already become?
"Thanks! I've been working on ways to keep things from moving around too much when I shoot them." The girl happily explained with a big smile. We all walked closer to the creature in order to get a better look.
"Are those machines grafted into their body?" Clara asked in clear disgust when she noticed that a lot of the metal seemed to go under the skin.
"Control, please tell me this isn't Dinosaur Empire tech." I quickly asked because I didn't want to have to deal with those guys if the simulators were anything to go by.
This is not Dinosaur Empire technology. However, the methodology of these modifications are reminiscent of those of another Enemy of Humanity.
"Which one?" I asked helplessly.
The Hundred Demons Empire. The modifications are rudimentary enough that whoever did this may only be working with incomplete data.
"Then is this place one of theirs?" I looked around, not liking the name of that group one bit. The elves were messing with technology from the enemies of Getter Robos? How had no one ever noticed this before?
Of the original Hundred Demons Empire? Impossible, as they were driven off the planet long ago. However, I cannot discount the possibility of any remnants returning after the conflicts of old had ended.
"It seems that there are more of these creatures." Deirdre got our attention as several other franken-elves started crawling out of the woodwork, some literally. They were all varied, some had extra limbs, some had tentacles for legs, some were just torsos on wheels. The only thing that was common about all of them was that they had some variation of horns coming out of their heads.
"Clara! With me up front! Livia, Deirdre, Control, give us some ranged support!" I called out, charging forward and pulling out my tomahawks.
"Yes, my Lord!" I heard Clara call out from behind me as I hacked into the shoulder of one of the creatures. Clara did work with her own swordsmanship, making sure not to get in the way of my own movement. From behind us, wind spells from Deirdre, and gunfire from Livia and Control made short work of the first wave of monsters.
After a while, I started noticing something strange about the things we have been killing. They weren't even putting up a fight. At all. Like instead of attacking, they were trying to get our attention. Oh god. When it finally hit me, I suddenly recoiled from the one I was about to chop the head off of.
"Stop! Stop! STOP! Everyone stop attacking!" I yelled out to everyone, even getting in front of Clara as she was about to stab another of the creatures.
"What are you doing, Leon?!" Deirdre asked in a panic. I shook my head and pointed at the mo–elves that were still approaching us.
"They're not trying to attack us." I said and, as if to prove my statement, one of them finally reached me and caressed my face with their normal hand. A tear fell from their non-mechanical eye as they continued to stroke my cheek. I swallowed the lump in my throat and continued. "I think they're asking us for help."
"Oh no, and we've all been…" Clara trailed off and looked at the blood on her sword in shock.
I shall return to the surface and inform the soldiers of this development.
"What happened to all of you?" I asked even as Livia desperately started healing the elves that we had been attacking, most of which were already dead. The one that I was with then took my head and started pulling me away. I just ended up following them, not wanting to end up hurting them.
"Where are you taking me?" I asked but didn't get an answer.
"Leon?!" Deirdre called out as she and the others made to follow. However the other elves blocked them from being able to. They were also unwilling to harm them now that they knew that they weren't trying to hurt us. So they wanted me alone then?
"It's fine! Wait there for Control to come back!" I called out as I was led into a hallway. The surroundings initially looked like they would fit in a sci-fi laboratory like the one from the Saotome Lab. However, as we went in deeper, the theme of the place started changing.
There were carvings on the wall that looked like they depicted various events. Battles, mostly. The commonality among them was that most of the combatants had the same horns that were on the elves. There were also other constants as well.
A red armored figure that looked like it had a big red mustache and a crown. The most striking thing about it was that it fought with two axes and seemed to fire some sort of light from its forehead. Other carvings depicted a thin blue armored figure that had some sort of pointed lance instead of a fight hand that opened up like a flower. Even more carvings depicted a large yellow armored figure in the middle of what seemed like a hurricane. In all the carvings, the ones that had horns on their heads seemed to be on the losing end of the respective battles.
It didn't take long for me to realize what those carvings were representing. The thought made me sweat and regret following these guys by myself.
I was eventually led to a set of open double doors. Inside looked like a dilapidated chapel of some kind. There were destroyed pews and candle holders everywhere. In the far end of the room was some kind of rudimentary statue depicting some kind of serpent. There was also someone kneeling in front of the statue, a woman with long green hair from the looks of it. She rose to her feet and turned around.
She was wearing a thin white dress that did nothing to hide her body. I grimaced as I made sure to keep my eyes off her absurdly large breasts. When I looked at her face she had empty looking amber eyes and long elven ears. More notably, there was a crooked glowing gold horn coming out the right side of her forehead.
"I am Yumeria, the last priestess of the Great Dragon God. Are you here to kill me or maybe take me like the others, inheritor of the green light?" She said in a placid tone. Oh great, another one who can see Getter Rays?
