The interior of Carleon Castle was completely different from its Gothic exterior.
Simply put, it was a mess. A revolting, rotting mass with writhing walls and fleshy floors. Sacs of meat were strewn about, grown organically from heaving surfaces. Were these where the chimera monsters were spawned from? Not only that, on what little stony surfaces that were untouched by organic material, sigils and symbols had been scribbled into them by chisel or blood, manifesting in…things that made my vision swim and my head hurt just from looking at them. A wave of nausea rose to my gorge, only to lessen when I looked away and focused on searching for the targets.
Even Lionel Johansson paused when he took in the horrific sight, but his expression tightened with fury. Or at least I assumed it did from his enraged aura, for his features were concealed by his helm. Around him, his knights heaved, a few hastily removing their helmets to throw up. A few staggered, almost blacking out and would have if their comrades hadn't supported them.
"What…what in the King's name is this?" Luther gasped, his voice shaken. He hadn't taken off his helmet, but from his quivering tone I bet he had paled considerably.
"The foul magics and demonic rituals of men who have fallen far from sanity and morality," Johansson replied briskly. "Do not look at them. Ignis, torch the place."
One of the knights stepped forward, and unlike the others, he wasn't armed with the standard miniature missile gun or pistol. Instead, he carried large tanks on his back that sloshed with chemical fuel, raising an extended nozzle whose barrel tip ignited from a blue flame. Squeezing the trigger, he sprayed the fleshy substance and walls with liquid fire, incinerating everything within sight.
"Let's move," Johansson ordered after everything had been reduced into smoldering, blackened soot. Nobody said anything, the knights straightening and obeying with renewed determination. It needn't be said that this would be the grisly fate of their world if they allowed the corruption to spread.
The Knights of Romulus had to be stopped at all costs.
And they were just as determined to stop us in turn. As we moved down the long, shadowy passages, their brown and red armored forms appeared, the crazed warriors howling oaths to their dark gods as they barreled toward our ranks. Ignis fired first, bathing them in flames. A few dropped, their armored silhouettes ablaze and their armor melting to fuse with seared flesh, but burning figures continued to rush toward us, heedless of their rapidly spent lives.
Johansson dispassionately shot the first among them, his bolt detonating within the blackened torso and causing the former human to jerk and fall. Following his example, the knights of the Order fired a volley of explosive bolts, filling the broad corridor with death. The hail of projectiles was accompanied by blinding streaks of lightning from Lin Xue's exotic weapon, the deadly electricity causing her targets to convulse and fall in spasms.
"Forward," Johansson growled. Like extensions of his will, the knights spread out fluidly across the wide passageway and checked the multiple corridors leading from it. Several squads peeled off to clear individual rooms, ensuring that there weren't any nasty ambushes waiting for us. The Knight-general himself strode through the center, scanning the area with his preternatural senses. He raised his pistol and shot another couple of Romulus Knights who were bursting through from the other end of the pathway he had chosen.
"Contact!" Another knight yelled. He was about to shout something else, but his words were interrupted by a thunderous crack and the crumpling of metal. His body was hurled across the corridor, the armor dented, and his spine snapped unnaturally. More shouts ensued and several more Knights were laid low, despite their frantic shots detonating ineffectively against something.
Even as I hurried forward, I caught sight of several hulking forms stepping out from beyond the passageway, their fists painted with blood and viscera. Another knight toppled over, the upper half of his body obliterated by sheer force.
"What are those?!"
They were unlike any beasts I had encountered before. Though they showed the same signs of corruption and hideous mutations as the monsters I fought previously, these were very visibly former humans. But their bodies were swollen to absurd masses, bloated with muscle and shreds of armor now fused to their bodies.
However, what stood out the most were their morphed limbs and contraptions jutting out of their shoulders. Hands ended in huge barrels, with gatling cannons protruding over their inset heads, comically tiny when compared to their distortedly huge bodies.
Searing beams and plasma spat out of their half-metal, half-flesh cannons, engulfing screaming knights and disintegrating men and armor with equally contemptuous ease. A shoulder-mounted gatling cannon rotated rapidly, shrieking as it delivered streams of rounds that punched through armor or buckled plates, turning knights into bloody mists or jerking corpses.
"What the hell are those?!"
"Enough."
With a single word, Lionel Johansson swept into the midst of the hulking trio, his sword sweeping through them. The first grunted and swung its arm cannon around, but Johansson severed it with a single stroke. He shot the behemoth pointblank, but the mutated knight simply groaned as its flesh and shards of metal splattered outward. Even so, it remained standing, twirling its shoulder gatling cannon around and its other arm shifted to fire back.
However, Johansson was a swift blur, staying out of its tracking barrels and thrusting his sword through the ridiculously small head. Despite its unnatural resilience and bulk, that appeared enough to kill the creature. It slumped over, its gatling cannon slowly spinning to a stop.
Using the dead monstrosity as a shield, Johansson pushed it toward the remaining two, whose esoteric fire was soaked up by their former comrade's thick and accursedly durable bulk. Pieces of metal and flesh boiled away in bloody steam, with whole sections of the mutant erased, but enough of it remained to shield Johansson. It was also impressive that he could even move the mutant with a single charge, given how massive and undoubtedly heavy it was. It had to be at least half a ton, maybe even a thousand kilograms in weight, and yet Johansson shoved it as if it weighed nothing more than a desk.
He didn't even need me to deploy Aegis to protect him. He was too fast and far away for Aegis to swoop in, but before I could order her, the fight was over. I wasn't even sure what had just happened.
Shrugging off the obliterated meat shield, Johansson swung his sword and decapitated the second mutant. Getting in close so that the third and sole surviving mutant couldn't bring its guns to bear, he cleaved the barrels off, causing the cannons to choke and splutter uselessly.
With a growl, the mutant attempted to clobber him with its massive weapon-fists. Johansson dropped to a crouch, taking the blows on his right shoulder pauldron. The reinforced metal cracked and caved in from the heavy punch, but the knight didn't appear to be impeded or hurt. He spun his sword about with a flick of his wrists and stabbed the creature in the chest, penetrating armor plating, circuitry and augmented ribs to destroy its heart. It gurgled and tried to seize him in a bear hug, but he dragged his sword up and through its head, cleaving its skull and brain in half.
The mutant shuddered and fell limp.
"Holy f…"
That entire engagement lasted less than ten seconds. That was how fast and overwhelming Lionel Johansson was. Those mutants, despite annihilating an entire squad of knights, were dispatched by the Knight-general of the Order in the amount of time I spent to breathe.
"Spread out," Johansson snapped, spurring his stunned subordinates back into action. He flicked the blood out of his sword and contemptuously stomped on his fallen opponent, more so that he could move past its corpse and into the passageway beyond. "Do not falter. These monsters are not immortal. They can be slain by a blade."
"Move!" Luther urged, finally catching up to his liege. He wasn't as unreasonable as the lord of the Order, though. "I know the foe is formidable and we have suffered colossal casualties in the taking of this castle, but the existence of such monsters is further evidence that we cannot allow the Knights of Romulus to proceed with their foul rituals and insidious plans! We must wipe out every trace of these heretics!"
The knights regained their fighting spirit and roared their resolve, moving out. I followed, Lin Xue by my side, but instead of tagging along with Lionel Johansson and Rex Luther, I took a turn down an alternate corridor, almost in the opposite direction.
"Where are you going?" Lin Xue asked, furrowing her brow. "Shouldn't we stick with those knight commanders?"
"There's something in that direction," I replied, adjusting my glasses and staring into the gloom. Aegis had been transmitting information directly to my mind, and I could feel what she sensed. A beacon, like she said. A beacon of something pure, clear and compelling. It was calling out to me, asking to be retrieved. A bright oasis in the creepy, corrupted hell that was the Carleon Castle.
The relic. It had to be the relic.
"Correct," Aegis confirmed.
A squad of knights followed behind closely, their pistols pointing forward and their swords drawn. Their lord had commanded that this place be purged, each room swept and cleared, and they were determined to obey. I had no reason to shoo them away. If anything, I appreciated the reinforcements. Also, I had nothing to hide.
Lin Xue had no idea about my motivations. Perhaps I should fill her in on this, but now wasn't the time for that. Even if I trusted her (and for some reason, the readers didn't), I would have to wait until we return to Earth before I explained everything.
"Ugh…"
As we went deeper, we found more of those fleshy organics melded to the walls, floors and ceilings, as well as the sickening runes and sigils. I tried not to look at them, instead trusting Aegis to inform me of the enemy's presence.
And the enemy was waiting for us.
With guttural roars and incoherent chants, they lurched from the shadows, firing and swinging their bladed weapons. Aegis swooped in to intercept the hail of bullets, the projectiles detonating uselessly against her protective field. Lin Xue didn't even have to use her special ability, instead hunkering down beside me and taking potshots from behind Aegis. The enemy screamed as they were fried within their armor, the metallic shells evidently not insulated from electric attacks.
I mirrored her, taking the other side of Aegis and shooting one Romulus knight. He went down, but the knight behind him trampled upon his corpse, hurtling forward from sheer momentum. I stabbed him with my sword when he got close, and shoved him off before he could swing his sword. He gurgled and fell, but managed to clasp onto Aegis and pull himself close, despite me smashing my pistol into his hand and breaking his wrist, his blade slipping from his slackened grip.
"Entropy awaits," he gasped with a bloodied grin. "All shall fall before the rule of the dark gods. By the eightfold path, we shall deliver…"
"Oh, shut the fuck up," I snapped and caved his face in with my pistol. Pulling my sword out of his gut, I ducked behind Aegis when another knight fired at me before shooting back and hearing the satisfying dull thump of the shell detonating within a target's body.
"What the hell was he talking about?" Lin Xue demanded, electrocuting another two Romulus knights. I shrugged, not wanting to know.
"Cultist nonsense. I think it's better if we stay ignorant, or we'll end up with addled minds like these lunatics."
"Agreed." Lin Xue nodded and went back to firing. With the knights backing up, we were able to slowly advance toward the chamber at the end of the hallway. A room set deep within the Carleon Castle, where the relic awaited.
And of course, the foul guardians that the Romulus knights assigned to it.