3 red cloaked figures stood and talked, unfaced by the destruction surrounding them. In the middle of the compound was the strange sphere, a bit darker on one side, but still completely intact, that could not be said about the surrounding area, however. A large crater had formed, no people had been hurt a result of blind luck more than anything.
The culprit (name withheld) was currently explaining herself to the royal guard captain, leaving the newly assigned guards to roam freely around, taking in the sights.
"She really went all out huh?"
The first one to speak was a royal knight like the rest, but she looked the most knight like of them all, save for her two handed sword that was about a half a meter taller than herself. Her name was Marie, a beastkin standing at just under 2 meters high, her bright orange and short hair and fierce red eyes combined with her fluffy orange ears on top of her head gave her an overall animalistic impression. Even though her body was almost entirely covered by red adamantite armour she exuded an aura of absolute strength worthy of her status of a royal knight.
"Sure looks like it judging by the surroundings"
The second knight looked more like a mage, with his adamantite armour only being a sleeveless chest piece a white robe was visible below it. He was Marcus, a genius mage know throughout the kingdom for his achievements in advancing magic and applying it in combat, unlike a normal mage. His weapon of choice was a glove he wielded on his right hand that was covered in complicated runes and custom handmade inscribed monster cores. Marcus had short brown hair and untanned skin, with sharp brown eyes hiding intense intellect and tactical powers.
"But that thing really is sturdy huh?.."
The last one to speak was a strange one, she was undoubtedly a royal knight like the rest, but that's where the similarities ended. Her only armament was a ridiculously heavy looking tower shield that she seemed to have no issue hauling around. She had full plate armour like Marie but unlike her, she also wore a great helmet like a crusader and only a tiny red hint of her eyes was visible through the small slits. She was Sophia, a rare knight born outside the Kingdom and part of an elusive nomadic tribe from the far south.
"I wonder what drove Tia to attack it like that?"
"Well wonder no more, there she comes Marie."
Marcus answered Marie's question by pointing to a small red figure above them that quickly landed outside the compound and after a minute Tia arrived inside to see her companions to her own surprise.
"Why are you all?"
"To keep a watch on you, and the surroundings, his majesty and the council don't wish to reveal….. whatever that thing is before we know what it is precisely. So what have you learned about it?"
"It's tough. And impossible to get close to for some reason…"
"What do you mean impossible?..."
"Don't know, it's strange"
"Are you sure it's not just because you're weak?"
"If you think that why don't you try yourself Marie? If you manage to touch it I'll give you one of my mother's weapons."
"OOOOoohh!!! Then excuse me while I go collect my price."
Impaling her sword in the ground Marie cracked her knuckles and walked towards the sphere.
"Is there anything in this for us too?"
"I'll convince my mom to go on a date with you Marcus, and Sophia can have half my pay for a year."
Succeeding in convincing her companions to try and reach the sphere, Tia stood back and watched them try and reach it for about half an hour before a chill went up her spine.
(!!!)
Feeling like she was being observed by some cold and unfeeling creature Tia looked towards the source while circulating magic, but only saw the blue sky.
"What the hell is this feeling.."
Watching the sky for a bit Tia got used to the strange feeling before it seemingly disappeared. At the end of the day, no one of the royal guards ever got within 5 meters, worn out for the day they all decided to find somewhere to get some food and drink.
"Are you sure there's something good around here Sophia?"
"Nnn, there it is."
"Really?"
Pointing to a worn down looking inn, Marcus looked questioning at it, being from the upper part of society.
"Ah this is the Red Boar right? I know the place, they make great food and have severe cheap beer all over the Kingdom."
Marie being a beastkin was used travelling all around the country before becoming a royal knight and therefore was quite known in that regard, and served to ease Marcus into the idea.
"Welcome to the- R-royal guards! I-is there anything I can do?"
"Yo Martha! I'll have the usual, and the same for my friends too"
"M-Marie! Wow look at you~! I was wondering what happened to you when didn't show up for almost half a year, did you really become a royal guard!?"
"Long time no see Martha~"
After greeting the hostess like a old friend Marie sat down at a corner table, prompting the other knights to do the same. Sitting down all their eyes turned to Sophia, with her helmet preventing her from eating or drinking.
"Ummm?"
"Come on Sophia, we're all friends here~"
"O-okay…"
Nervously removing her helmet, Sophia revealed her bright red eyes and almost obsidian skin.
"Wow, I didn't know you were a demonkin.."
"I-I'm a half, just like Tia"
"Oooh! Then is that why your skin looks so soothe? Do you do anything special to it?"
"T-there's this oil we use in the tribe-"
As Sophia and Marie started girl talk over beer's, Marcus fell into silence while sipping his beer, having nothing to add to that conversation. Tia on the other side did know a lot about that growing up as her mother's praised only daughter (guinea pig) she had been made to try a whole slew of different oils, perfumes and shampoos. She just had no idea how to put it into words, her mind was busy with just trying to figure out what their facial expressions meant and what kind of face she herself should make when forming a sentence, so she found herself stopping just before she was about to say something multiple times and ended up just sipping her own beer quietly. The knights continued to revel until it was quite late, something they would do quite often the following that day, unknowingly serving to humanize the royal knights in the minds of the lower class citizens.
After that, the weeks quickly passed, whatever observed them only Tia seemed to notice and it started appearing two times daily like clockwork. Tia and the other royal knights with the help of countless researchers arrived very little. Whatever the interference around the sphere seemed to be getting more intense, with the overall size of the field seemed to slowly increase, and sometimes to would lash out randomly in any direction making people float up in the air or smash them into the ground without warning. Attempts to reach or damage the sphere were entirely useless, with the king himself throwing countless assets into intelligence, finding out only extremely limited information, along with a stream of outrageous rumours from some bordertown were some demonkin seemingly had emerged out of a similar sphere.
Those rumours were, of course, dismissed outright, but rumours of about 15 more strange sphere's were confirmed, proving that the event was not isolated to the Kingdom. Then after a while, the rumours of the strange demonkin resurfaced. Being appointed a contracted hunter at recruitment he seemed to be an immensely powerful mage, using strange spells that produced destruction on an awesome level. After defeating a dragon with his strange magic he threw himself into hunting monsters around the area, increasing his rank to mithril just below the highest rank of adamantium in a single month of hunting. After that, he disappeared, according to the rumours he had found a disciple and left to train her since that rumour a week had passed and Tia felt she was increasingly unable to get closer to the sphere, and the other royal knights had given up after a week of trying. Tia was in the middle of her daily attempt at melting the surface of the sphere when it happened. Suddenly she sensed something right behind her, a presence that seemed to disappear outright if she didn't do her utmost to focus on it.
"Fascinating.. The field seems to be getting increasingly unstable, I'm guessing total meltdown is about a month away?"
All of a sudden a tall demonkin man stood beside her, he wore a black t shirt with matching knee length shorts, revealing a plethora of scars littering his body. What looked to be his entire right arm was obviously a prosthesis, but unlike any Tia had seen before. The strangest part of him was his face, it was covered in some kind of strange mask, completely smooth and without features, painted dark like the night sky, or a deep abyss.
[AFFIRMATIVE. GRAVITATIONAL WAVE DISTABABILLETY SEEMS TO ACCELERATE OUTSIDE ORIGINAL CALCULATIONS.]
"The sisters would have a field day with this.. Oh well I'll open it up now is we can regain control, deploy ranged induction heater and step up reactor accordingly"
Watching the demonkin seemingly talk with himself Tia got curious as he seemed to know a lot about the sphere.
"Meltdown?"
"A rapid or disastrous decline or collapse, in this case an explosion that would completely destroy this city. And the surroundings, and a part of the mantle of this planet"
"Who are-"
"Hello, my name is Dax Alpha-4. As for what I'm doing is recovering my property."
"Property? This is a restricted area-"
"According to who, the Kingdom? Galactic Empire law states that any combat able type anti gravity float and/or propulsion system falls under Empire law along with anything within a hundred meters. As long as the Kingdom refuses to meet me and establish a first contact agreement I am under no obligation to follow any rules and restrictions imposed by the Kingdom, in fact as I see it you're the ones that are trespassing."
[DEPLOYING HEATING COILS, SYSTEMS NOMINAL. READY TO EXECUTE.]
Extending his artificial arm towards the sphere as it split open and 3 chrome like metal rods extended from it Dax prepared to crack open the orb.
"Execute."
With a single word, Dax achieved what Tia had spent weeks on as a small part of the orb slowly started melting.
"A-amazing!"
Watching what would take her months being achieved in a matter of seconds Tia completely forgot that the strange demonkin right in front of her was trespassing.
"Hey, Tia who is that!?"
just as Dax was starting to get through the second layer of reinforced armour plating on the orb Marie called out to Tia, having noticed the strange demonkin beside her.
"HEY! What are you doing in here, this area is restricted!"
"I'm doing your job, protecting the Kingdom. As I see it you're the one trespassing kid"
"Wha!- Say that again and I'll kill you!"
"For fuck's sake…"
Seeing he couldn't pacify the angry woman in red armour with an oversized sword, Dax disabled the ranged induction heater and turned to her.
"Can I help you?"
With open hands and a large smile, Dax turned to Marie as he slowly walked towards her.
"Get out before I make you!"
"Hey kid I have single advice for you: Realize when you're beaten. Now shut your mouth and stay back before I split you in half with that oversized sword and choke the life out of you with your own intestines, little kitten~"
With a big smile completely lacking bloodlust Dax talked in chilling detail of what he would do to Marie if she interfered, sending a chill down Tia's spine. Instead of answering back Marie ripped of her red cape as the back of her plate armour started to light up, the mana released alerting the other royal knights.
"What is going on here!?"
"Oh nothing Marcus, I'm just gonna rip this one apart!"
Watching from the wall above them was Marcus and Sophia, both reading their weapons while releasing mana.
"Go ahead then, we'll act as backup. Tia, get out of the way."
"Bu- Okay.."
Backing off Tia made space for Marie that responded by powering up her own sword as it started glowing.
"Matching red armour and clokes, Magical weaponry and mostly non humans… Don't tell me you're the so called royal enforcers? You're currently committing an act of war against the Galactic Empire, last chance to back off and settle this diplomatically"
"Go fuck yourself!"
"That would be a no then…"