In the middle of the mid cla.s.s part of the capital city Kingsted stood a ma.s.sive church in a pure marble construction, complete with mosaic windows and a giant spire. At the main entrance, a 5 meter high 3 meter wide reinforced double door were a picnic table square in the center or it. In the single chair at the table sat a qiton, currently a valued guest of the church, sipping tea in a relaxed manner while surrounded by church guards and a single highly ranked nun."They must have seen me by now, let"s head back inside and prepare for a visit."
"Understood."
Finis.h.i.+ng up his tea Dax stood up and went into the church, followed by the nun while the guards removed the chair and picnic table.
"That was some really good tea miss, where did you get it?"
"From my home village, to the north in the mountain range there"s these herbs that only grow there. That tea is a mix of them I brought with me when I was a.s.signed here."
Inside the church was slightly out of the ordinary, even though it was mid day only Dax and the church personal were inside, and a large area in front of the central altar had been cleared for benches and a large conference table with countless chairs surrounding it had been placed there instead.
"Sounds like that"s quite a distance away, sorry I drank your valuable tea."
"Please don"t mind that, you"re our honored guest. We have all been told by our superiors how important of a guest you are, being invited personally to the angel sanctuary by arcangel Solaris."
"Ah yeah Solaris, I hope she has time to play again sometime soon.. By the way did you injure your leg recently?"
"How do you?-"
"Want me to fix it while we wait for the Kingdom?"
"Is it true? He"s at the church?"
Inside a backroom at the bottom level of the central castle a highly ranked n.o.ble talked with an ominous shadow like substance.
"yes, we"ve also confirmed hunter guild surveillance in the area."
The shadow spoke in a eerie mechanical and distorted voice, making it age, gender and everything else unknown.
"Why would they do that?"
"We have confirmed he is a contracted hunter."
"That is slightly problematic.. How the h.e.l.l did he manage to ally himself with both the angels and the hunters guild at the same time?"
"About th"
"I was thinking out loud.. Dismissed."
As the shadow disappeared the n.o.ble mumbled to himself a final time before going on with his day
"I need to inform the remaining council…"
The kingdom council is a gathering of powerful n.o.bles and merchants that advise the king and propose law changes, the king can veto all proposals of course, but but that rarely ever happens as no one man rules alone. Even as the council holds no power directly, they have a certain amount of influence and are trusted experts in various areas from national security to economics and are without exception integrated in some sort of governing role, be that administrative or enforcing. The council is made up of 3 main factions and a single special faction that each support different law proposals. The merchants and hunters alliance is made up of high ranked merchants and former skilled monster hunters who became n.o.bles, they are the largest force behind economic initiatives but have the slightly problematic trait of being more loyal to the hunters guild and profit than the king while still being essential for kingdom. The crown prince faction is a group of highly ranked n.o.bles that supports the crown prince"s principles of human superiority and a strong military, but are generally loyal to the king and support any proposals linked to the betterment of the kingdom. Last of the main factions is the princess faction founded by the first princess herself they are firm believers that the wellbeing of the kingdom is directly linked to the people of the kingdom and therefore supports the eradication of criminal elements within the kingdom and the betterment of the people trough aid such as education and other social initiatives. Then there"s the church, while only holding a single seat at the council and while their proposals are rare they are never ignored, as they represent a higher race that can directly affect the flow of mana. The council gathers once every four days to propose new legislation and discuss it with the king, and properly by design that"s when Dax chose to open a dialogue.
"We can"t let this provocation go unpunished! I don"t care if he hides in the church, that demonkin must face justice!"
Olga Maximilla, leader of the crown prince faction quickly spoke out and demanded that the demonkin should be punished after hearing the report of the earlier incident, and she was immediately followed by her supporters
"That"s right!"
"How does he think he is!?"
"No one"s above the law, especially not a mere demonkin!"
"Lord Grayson I find that statement problematic as a considerable part of the royal guard are demonkin."
Speaking out against one of the more problematic statements was the second princess Teresa Vi Gruffydd XI, immediately getting a apology in return and gathering the attention on herself.
"While the demonkin did trespa.s.s, I believe that his intentions were purely diplomatic. Him being at the church may be a call to open diplomatic channels between us and the Empire he claims to represent."
"Why should we believe anything a aggressor has to say, there"s absolutely no evidence!? He attacked the royal guard, that alone should be reason enough for his execution!"
"I don"t believe that statement is entirely correct."
Intervening in the crown prince"s faction was the Kingsted hunter guilds master, leader of the hunter guild part of the the merchants and hunters alliance.
"What do you know guild master, isn"t he your p.a.w.n to begin with!?"
"While we do employ a demonkin named Dax that might or might not be behind the incursion earlier today I don"t believe it was a attack but a attempt to open diplomatic channels between us and the Empire he claims to represent-"
"Control your dog-"
Getting increasingly red in the face the crown prince faction representative was also cut off as he stood up theatently.
"Silence!"
"Y-yes your majesty"
In a single second the king commanded the authority of the entire room with his absolute presence of a natural born and trained leader, making heated minds calm down before he spoke again.
"What were you saying guild master?"
"Dax, as the demonkin is called claims to represent a foreign Empire, therefore we can not respond to his attempt of outreach with aggression before knowing the extent of their power."
"That is logical yes, best not accidentally step on the tail of a griffon. But why do you keep claiming his aggression as a diplomatic outreach?"
"There are several pointers. First he appeared alone, the guild have intelligence that indicates that he is a skilled golem user, in that case why not bring them along if his intent really were aggression? And then there"s my second point: he were entirely unarmed, even after disabling the royal guards he never picked up a weapon or used deadly force even when able to."
"And the third reasoning?"
"Yes, the royal knight Marcus managed to cleave his arm in half and he never retaliated."
"Explain."
"Your majesty, don"t you find that strange? If someone took your arm and you managed to knock them out wouldn"t you kill them?"
"Hmm.."
Leaning back in the chair the king stroked his beard while evaluating everything said so far before coming to a conclusion.
"We cannot outright judge this demonkin hostile.. What about his claim of representing a far off Empire?"
"About that the guild also have information."
"Go ahead."
"Dax killed a green skinned dragon at Black Hollow a few weeks back, and the weaponry he used was alien."
"Alien?"
"Entirely so your majesty, it was some sort of handheld cannon, two shots were fired from it according to reports, the first one buried itself over 50 meters into the ground. The second that followed even a minute after completely obliterated the dragons head, turning it into red paste as even the scales were obliterated, and strangest of all no traces of magic were discovered."
The guild masters comment stirred up a great uproar, the idea that a weapon - without magic, could annihilate a dragon without the use of magic were simply unheard of.
"Silence!.. This demonkin and his Empire might prove to be a valuable ally or a powerful foe. We must ascertain his intentions, does the church care to elaborate on that."
As the king made his judgement all eyes turned to a until silent councilmember, the bishop sent by the church.
"Dax Alpha 4 is an honored guest of the church and have been invited to the angel sanctuary by arcangel Solaris directly. I"m not at liberty to say anything further."
"By Solaris herself?... We must ascertain what kind of person this "Dax" is. Teresa, from a council delegation together with the royal guards that were attacked and head to the church immediately."
"Yes father."
"With that the council is convened."
Rising from his seat everybody bowed deeply until the king had left the room.
"Guild master and Olga please accompany me to the church"
""Yes, my princess""
A hour later the second princess Teresa Vi Gruffydd XI accompanied by Olga Maximilla and the Kingsted guild master arrived by carriage horse escorted by the royal knights Tia, Marie, Sophia and Marcus, to find the main door shut and guarded by church guards. As the diplomatic delegation exited the horse carriage about 20 cloaked figures with red glowing eyes suddenly appeared all around them.
"Wha!-"
"Protect the princess!"
As Marcus quickly organized his subordinates around Teresa they prepared for a bitter fight.
"What the h.e.l.l are those!? Tia!"
"No mana detected!"
"f.u.c.k! Sophia protect the princess, rest of you open up a path!"
Sophia quickly got in front of the princess with her ma.s.sive s.h.i.+eld, but Teresa stopped her as she walked out to face the cloaked figures.
"Wait!"
"Princess, that is dangerous!"
"My name is Teresa Vi Gruffydd XI! Second princess of the Kingdom, I"ve come here to talk with a man called Dax!"
[DIPLOMATIC ELEMENT CONFIRMED. STANDBY FOR IDENTIFICATION.]
As a response the cloaked figures all took a step back as a cold and machine like voice suddenly sounded from all around the diplomatic delegation.
"What is this now!? Marie get us out!"
"Stop this second! They just want to confirm our ident.i.ties."
"But princess-"
"That is a royal declaration, stand down!"
After pa.s.sifying her guards Teresa looked closer at the cloaked figures. They all looked to have the exact same height (about 2 meters), and even an amature like herself could see they left no openings in their net.
[UNIT 4 ARRIVING.]
Just after the strange voice spoke again something landed between the diplomatic delegation and the church inside the net cast by the cloaked figures.
It was a golem, no doubt about that, but that was when the similarities ended. It was copiously mechanical in nature, metal legs and arms too thin for organic muscles, and a armored torso with a strange alien insignia and a strange completely smooth black head with a dull s.h.i.+ne. Walking closer in an extremely fluent motion the golem stopped 5 meters from the diplomatic delegation.
[UNIT 4 SCANNING FOR RENTAL MATCHES, STANDBY]
As the voice sounded once more all around them the golem"s face split in two, revealing a single large eye like a cyclops and quickly looked over the flashbags in front of it.
[TERESA VI GRUFFYDD, SECOND PRINCESS OF THE KINGDOM AND SECOND IN LINE OF SUCCESSION CONFIRMED. OLGA MAXIMILLA, d.u.c.h.eSS OF THE KINGDOM AND LEADER OF THE CROWN PRINCE FACTION CONFIRMED. MAX DEFAULT, LEADER OF THE HUNTERS GUILD KINGDOM DIVISION CONFIRMED. MARCUS MAXIMILLA, ROYAL GUARD CONFIRMED. TIA GREENWOOD, ROYAL GUARD AND DAUGHTER OF EVE GREENWOOD CONFIRMED. MARIE OF THE GOLD CLAW CLAN, ROYAL KNIGHT CONFIRMED. SOPHIA OF THE NOMADIC SA"LI, ROYAL KNIGHT CONFIRMED.]
"It f.u.c.king knows who we are.."
As someone in the group mumbled that the golems face returned to normal as the voice sounded it"s next command.
[ALL RENTAL ID"S CONFIRMED. THE SECOND PRINCES, OLGA MAXIMILLA AND MAX DEFAULT ARE EXPECTED AND CLEARED FOR ENTRANCE, REAPER"S STAND DOWN. ONLY DIPLOMATIC ELEMENTS ARE TO PROCEED.]
"Well, let"s go."
"Princess I can not approve of that!"
[HOSTILITY CONFIRMED, TASKING REAPERS FOR SUPPRESSION]
Responding poorly to Marcus" attempt at protecting the princess, serval of the cloaked figures pointed strange wands at him, revealing their metal arms and their inorganic nature.
"More golems!"
"For the last time stand down! This is a royal decree!"
"Ku! Very well.. All royal guards stand down."
"Bu-"
"That"s a direct order!"
After standing down the cloaked golems disappeared into the surrounding streets, leaving only the smaller golem.
[THE SECOND PRINCES, OLGA MAXIMILLA AND MAX DEFAULT ARE EXPECTED AND CLEARED FOR ENTRANCE. PLEASE PROCEED.]
"Into the griffons nest we go.."
Mumbling to herself Terasa prepared to meet the mysterious demonkin.