The Knights of the so-called Order lent us horses to ride back to an encampment at the edge of the forest. It wasn't too far from where Lionel Johansson and his knights found us, probably several kilometers away and located right next to the stream that Aegis detected when we first teleported into the world of Carmarthen.
"You were very fortunate that we happened to be in the area when you were attacked." The man named Rex Luther, who we found out was Lionel Johansson's second-in-command, spoke to us. Unlike the aloof and taciturn Knight-General, Luther was more charismatic and friendly.
Once again, alarm bells rang in my head, but not for the reasons edgelord readers thought.
"Luther? Seriously? Aren't we going to get sued for copyright at this rate?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about since earlier, Commander." Aegis remained as cold and dismissive as ever.
"We were on a campaign against the Knights of Romulus," Luther explained, not hearing Aegis's telepathic voice in my head. "That's the only reason why we ventured this deep into the forest. Actually, how did the two of you get this far inside the forest without any proper equipment and supplies?"
"We don't actually know either," Lin Xue replied, glancing at me. "We passed through a portal, and apparently, we somehow ended up here by accident."
"Portal?" Luther's brow furrowed, but he didn't press. "I see. Seems like you've been through quite the ordeal."
"You said something about a campaign against the Knights of Romulus?" I asked. Luther nodded.
"That's correct. The Knights of Romulus have been raiding the territories on the outskirts of this forest for months, and the people of the outlying provinces have requested for our aid. Our great Knight-General has decreed that we protect our fair citizens from the predations of such ruthless and despicable bandits."
"It's not just that," Johansson suddenly said, breaking his silence. We turned to stare at his back, the leader of the Order not deigning to turn back to look at us. "There is also intelligence gathered about their foul rituals and pacts with…what we can only describe as demonic powers."
"Demonic powers?" I repeated, raising an eyebrow. Despite their archaic techno-armor, it appeared that they were still stuck in the medieval ages. Riding horses and wielding swords alongside obsolete loud, crude weapons…it was almost as if we had been transported back a few centuries if I hadn't seen the bolts that those guns fired. They were like miniature missiles. Oh, and the fiber-muscles and servos that lined the archaic techno-armor.
"Interdimensional entities, perhaps." Lionel Johansson shrugged. "I care not what their true nature is, except that we must stop them from infiltrating our material dimension. You have seen the corruption they sow on living beings in this universe."
"Huh?" I blinked in bewilderment before I suddenly realized what he was referring to. "Those dire wolves and that Leoric from earlier?"
"Correct. The native life didn't use to look like that. The seed of the Abyss has taken root in their forms and twisted them into monsters. If we do nothing, the taint will spread beyond the forest and entangle the whole of Carmarthen. The Knights of Romulus seek to deliver us all to their dark patrons."
"Well…we've all sworn an oath to prevent that from happening!" Luther tried to inject some levity into the dark subject. "That's why we have brought the full might of the Order to assault the fortress of the Romulan Knights located deep within the forest. We will break down the walls of Carleon and lay their corrupted fortress low!"
"Carleon?" Lin Xue repeated incredulously.
"Commander," Aegis interrupted into my thoughts. "I have been running scans and I have calculated a 99.978% probability that the relic is located within the densest source of this…corruption. It is highly likely that this Carleon, the fortress of these Knights of Romoulus, is situated atop the resting place of the relic."
"That doesn't bode well," I transmitted a thought back. "Wouldn't the relic be corrupted by this, uh, demonic energies as well?"
"No, it is precisely because the relic is the sole signal of untainted purity that I am able to confidently situate it within that location. It is shining like a beacon, similar to that of the X-ray flashes emitted by a neutron star."
"I see."
As an aside information, neutron stars were often detected as pulsars because they emitted very distinct pulses of radiation, which was what allowed astronomers to detect the existence of neutron stars in the first place. They were among the most "visible" phenomenon in cosmology, hence Aegis's analogy.
"The name of the fortress of the Knights of Romulus," I explained to Lin Xue when I returned to the present. On the surface, all of that telepathic exchange with Aegis lasted less than a second. Luther nodded.
"That's right. You two are not from around here, are you?"
"No. As Lin Xue says, we come from somewhere very far away and only ended up here by chance because of a portal."
Luther nodded understandingly. "Perhaps you've been summoned here inadvertently by one of those mystical rituals conducted by those warlocks. Uh, the warlocks of the Knights of Romulus. They are known for practicing witchcraft and other malicious magic."
More of this superstition nonsense. Or perhaps I had been indoctrinated by the government into not believing in the supernatural and religions.
"Here we are," Luther said cheerfully as we pulled up at the camp. I was reminded of the enormous encampment that the Department of Sprue set up next to the ruins in the Gobi Desert, but this was a lot less modern and technologically advanced. Instead of container buildings, generators and water tanks, we had canvas tents, anchored to the ground through picks and wires. Wooden pickets had been hammered into the ground to create a temporary fence for the horses to be held in, or others were tied to trees beside specific tents.
There were many individual tents spread across the woods, their darker shades of green somehow distinguishing themselves from the verdant emerald of the leaves hanging down from trees. There were a few hammocks lined up between trees, though they were rarely used because of the myriad of bugs and other insects buzzing around. I had to swat away a few that went straight for my face, hoping they weren't bloodsucking ticks or something.
"We do have a spare tent that you can use," Luther said, and I noticed a shadow falling over his face. "A few of our comrades had fallen in combat earlier, before we found you. The monsters that the Knights of Romulus raised have been growing increasingly dangerous and stronger, if more bizarre and unstable. If the two of you hadn't already taken down the Leoric and a good number of the pack of dire wolves, we might have suffered a few more casualties."
"I am sure they will be honored to lend you their tent and equipment." Lionel Johansson's tone remained detached, but he glanced at us with cool approval.
"We would like to return the favor," I said carefully. "If you are not against it, I would like to offer assistance to your campaign against the Knights of Romulus."
"What? Are you sure?" Luther blurted out. Then he calmed down. "I mean, we could certainly use your aid, and we have seen what you are capable of, so your presence will be assuring. But you are faraway visitors, are you not? You are not obligated to risk yourself in battle for a cause that you are not involved in."
I couldn't exactly tell them that I was mostly motivated by my hopes of recovering a Holy Terran Empire relic from Carleon. Instead, I smiled.
"You can think of me as a mercenary. I will be asking for appropriate payment, of course. But I also wish to repay the favor for your hospitality. We are strangers with unknown origins, yet you do not hesitate in lending us a hand and even providing us food and shelter. Surely, it would be remiss of us to not return the favor." I glanced at Lin Xue. "Senior, you don't mind if I help out, right?"
"Of course." If I was worried about having to justify poking my nose into the Order's affairs, I needn't have done so. Lin Xue's sense of justice was bursting at the seams. "And don't you mean, 'we'? I'm coming with you, obviously."
"Surely the lady shouldn't…" Luther protested, but Lin Xue scowled.
"I can fight. I can take care of myself. I appreciate the concern, but I will fight alongside you."
"We can't allow a lady to put herself in danger…"
"Fine." Luther was silenced by Lionel Johansson's word. The Knight-General nodded without any hesitation. "She may be a lady, but she fights better than most of the Knights in our Order. Rex, go ahead and name any one among us who is capable of wielding a weapon with enough power to incinerate a Leoric. Never mind that, let us try to name those within the Order with the courage to stand before a Leoric and face it in combat without a full squadron of knights at their backs, and still be able to defeat it. I wager it numbers no more than a handful."
"That is true," Luther conceded, chastened.
"We will humbly accept your help," Johansson said to me and Lin Xue. "In fact, we are honored that you choose to fight by our side."
His forested gaze flickered to Aegis that hovered by my side. "I notice you only have a shield, and the both of you do not have armor. The armory is that way, and you may borrow whatever spare armaments we have. I am sure McCosker will be more than willing to dig something up for you."
"Thank you."
Under Johansson's direction, we stopped by a large tent when an elderly knight by the name of Anthony McCosker was handling armaments, supplies, ammunition and other logistics. Much like the armskote or quartermaster of modern military. A man with a head full of gray hair, he smiled when he caught sight of us.
"My lord. How can I help you today?"
"I was hoping you have a couple of spare equipment and weapons to lend two newcomers."
"Oh, but I do." There was a strain in McCosker's expression as he said that. I understood his sudden reticence. The spare weapons and equipment he had from is disposal were those salvaged from fallen comrades, damaged equipment that were pulled off the dead bodies of former friends and hastily repaired and restored on the field. It was one thing to hand them out to other comrades, but two newcomers who he had seen for the first time?
However, he was not one to deny a request from the Knight-General himself, and so he nodded without question.
"If you don't mind looking around…" He stepped back and gestured toward the interior of the tent, with several weapons laid out on a fabricated bench, still in the midst of repair. I stepped forward and peered closely at one of those huge guns, their barrels thick, long and large. Their front grip was replaced with a massive magazine, filled with racks of high caliber explosive ammunition.
"Those are primitive propellant-powered weapons," Aegis noted, and if she was a living being, her tone would probably be full of scorn. "Obsolete, heavy and difficult in terms of maintaining a consistent supply of ammunition on the field, they lack the more ergonomic and portable designs of energy weapons."
"Perhaps," Lionel Johansson said, staring straight at the hovering shield. "I'm afraid we do not have any weapons as technologically advanced and state-of-the-art as you, but this is all we have, and as such, we will make do as needs must."
I almost jumped at that. Aegis also paused, and I could almost feel her processors whirring as she struggled to analyze what had just transpired.
"Oh, but I can hear you," Johansson said with a half-smirk. "I've been overhearing your conversations with your owner this entire time, ever since I found you in the forest earlier."
"What are you talking about?" Lin Xue asked, utterly confused. She wasn't the only one. Luther and McCosker were also staring blankly at their commander.
"Telepathic dialogue," Johansson replied. "It is nothing to be concerned about."
"How…?" I began, but Aegis finally understood.
"You are no ordinary human," she said. "You are a genetically engineered posthuman soldier, a relic from the Holy Terran Empire in your own right."