Despite dispatching the crazed Knights of Romulus in our way, I remained cautious. As we drew closer to the chamber, I held a hand up and requested that the knights of the Order stay back.
"You don't have any authority over us," the lead knight – a sergeant – retorted. I shook my head.
"I know. I'm not ordering you. I'm making a request."
"Even so, you are not in armor. We are. We should take the lead."
"I have a shield," I replied, pointing at Aegis. "And so far, she's more effective at withstanding the enemy's fire than your armor."
The knights exchanged glances, and though I couldn't see their expressions behind their helms, I could tell that they were conceding my point. They had seen Aegis deflect bolts and blades with her energy barrier or tough material, while many of their comrades lay in a trail behind us, their armor cracked open.
"We'll be relying on you then," the knight-sergeant said, a lot less hostile than before. I nodded and moved back toward the door. Taking a deep breath, I kicked it open and withdrew, Aegis surging forward to take my place.
Her actions were vindicated when a stream of plasma surged from a cyborg cannon and slammed into her energy barrier with such force that even she shuddered from the impact. Even so, she held firm, the esoteric field dispelling the superheated matter harmlessly. As the plasma died down, a volley of shells detonated against the forcefield, splintering uselessly.
I narrowed my eyes, and though Aegis blocked most of my view, she was sending me visuals telepathically. Barring my way to the relic were a pair of hulking behemoths, the brethren of the cyborg trio who Lionel Johansson slew in ten seconds earlier.
But I was not Lionel Johansson. I possessed neither his skill nor his transhuman physique. I wasn't a demigod leading an order of knights. Having witnessed his battles firsthand, I understood why the ancient geneticists had coined the Ares Program. Lionel Johansson was truly a god of war made manifest, with nothing able to stand in his way.
I was just an ordinary high school student who had a dream one day and was suddenly bestowed the rank of commander by an ancient intergalactic empire…all because Aegis claimed I was the reincarnation of one from times past.
Once the immense bombardment died down, I moved. Aegis responded to my will silently, streaking forward and covering my advance. I laid down suppressing fire from behind her, my bolts vanishing into the meaty bulk of the cyborg mutants, but other than sending sprays of blood, lubricants, flesh and metallic fragments across the chamber, it appeared that my onslaught was ineffective.
With low, mechanized growls, the two mutants lumbered forward. There were only two of them, which evened the odds somewhat, but their unnatural resilience made them difficult foes. And despite Johansson's demonstration, I doubted I could simply rush toward them and cut them down with a sword.
Lin Xue joined me, trying to electrocute them, but unlike their more human compatriots, the hulking monstrosities shrugged off the normally lethal lightning. Whatever mutations plagued them, it had endowed them with superhuman vitality.
Enduring the torrent of bolts and lightning we poured their way, the mutants closed in, their firepower also negated by Aegis. Holstering my pistol, I drew my sword and prepared for hand-to-hand combat.
The first mutant barreled into Aegis, roaring as he pummeled the shield with his cannon-fists. I tried to stab at him, but to my horror, my blade snapped off when he lashed out reflexively, taking the longer half of my sword with his torso. The jagged metal gleamed, but it didn't appear to do anything more than irritate the cyborg.
He bore down on me, shoving past Aegis and reaching around her to punch me with a massive fist. If that hit me, it would simply obliterate my entire body in a single blow. Never mind broken bones, I would probably cease to exist.
"Ugh!"
I jumped back, just barely staying out of range. Drawing my pistol, I fired pointblank into the snarling mutant, but it simply shuddered and continued to claw at me. Its barrels glowed as it charged up its weapons to similarly fire at close range. However, before it could unleash those destructive energies, Aegis tackled it and sent it sprawling.
Unfortunately, its increased resilience meant Aegis's significant weight only bruised it.
Even so, she saved my life. I aimed at its head and squeezed the trigger, remembering that it was the weak point. Johansson had killed them by stabbing their heads with his sword. If I could just get a single headshot, perhaps…
However, the mutant simply crouched and took the bolt in its thick shoulder, the muscle rippling and tearing from the blow. Aside from blood, though, it didn't seem like an incapacitating blow. Instead, the shoulder-mounted gatling cannon swung about to point toward me.
Lightning blasted the spinning barrels, wreathing it in energy and causing their lengths to warp from the heat. There was a metallic choking sound as the firing mechanisms jammed, the bullets unable to travel through the bent chambers.
"Thanks, senior!" I nodded to Lin Xue. She wasn't alone. By now, the other knights were pouring into the chamber, pounding the two mutants with a barrage of shells. Despite their ineffectiveness, my allies had succeeded in drawing fire away from me. Unfortunately, Aegis was so preoccupied with protecting me that she wasn't able to react in time to save a couple of knights at the front from being disintegrated by thermal beams.
Not wanting to let their sacrifices go to waste, I tried to draw a bead on the mutant's head, but I wasn't some master gunner. The primitive weapon was unfamiliar and heavier than what I was used to, not to mention their absurdly small heads were difficult to make out and aim at from a distance. As expected, my shots went wide.
Recognizing what I was trying to do, the cyborg turned to me and bellowed, his weapons glowing with heat. Aegis, prioritizing my safety over that of the other knights, soared toward the space between us, blocking the molten beams that seared out of the mutant's arm cannons. Meanwhile, a few more knights vanished, vaporized by the other cyborg's hi-tech weapons.
"No!" I gritted my teeth. While I failed to bring down the creatures, more knights were dying in front of my eyes, selling their lives in futile attempts to slay the beasts. The hulking behemoths turned about, pulverizing another pair of knights and forcing the drastically dwindling squad to retreat under whatever scant cover they could find.
Only Lin Xue provided much of a fight, her lightning seeming to paralyze the two mutants or at the very least slow them down. I recalled that she had that three-minute charge that could pretty much destroy anything, but she was busily trying to keep the other knights alive. Her sense of justice meant that she wouldn't abandon them. Not that I would ask her to.
If there was a way to save everyone, then we would take it. we weren't arrogant enough to think we had the right to decide who got to live and who died, nor were we narcissistic enough to consider other people expendable and ourselves indispensable. The only reason why we got to where we were today was because of other people. Maybe not these knights specifically, but even if we thought about it, the Order provided us food, shelter and water when we were lost in an alien forest filled with dangerous mutated monsters. If they hadn't helped us out, we might not be alive and thus fighting in Carleon Castle this very moment.
"There has to be a way…"
"Commander, tactical suggestion. The relic in this chamber will have the strength to terminate these enemy units."
"Huh? What relic is it?"
"A weapon. Of that I am certain."
Even though Aegis was busily blocking shots from the mutants, she was still able to conduct a scan and analyze the relic. I could see part of it wedged into a stone altar in the middle of the chamber. Was it a gun? A cannon? From what I could see, it was too small to be the latter, resembling a handle.
Given how quickly the mutants were decimating the squad of knights, and how pressed Lin Xue was to protect the dwindling survivors, I doubted we had a choice. I had to gamble on this.
"Cover me!"
"Huh? What do you mean?" Lin Xue snapped, firing off another burst of lightning at the cyborgs charging toward her and the knights.
"Just distract them for a few seconds!"
Without waiting for her reply, I dove toward the center of the chamber and rolled toward the altar. There was a searing beam that scorched the air overhead, but most of the blast was mitigated by Aegis, who intercepted it. Reaching the altar, I grabbed hold of the handle and yanked it out of the stone.
"Huh?"
It was…a sword.
"How am I supposed to fight those cyborgs with a sword?" I frowned, still remembering how my blade snapped earlier when I tried to stab them. To be fair, this relic didn't resemble the swords used by the Order or the rusty blades wielded by the Knights of Romulus. It was sleeker in design, more ornamental, and also had an ergonomic grip. Additionally, it appeared to have a couple of knobs that were probably controls, as well as what looked like an emitter on the guard. The blade itself was a shining silver, polished to a pristine sheen and having circuitry woven along its length.
In other words, it was a hi-tech sword. The kind that looked like it came out from a science fiction fantasy game, like that famous franchise whose creators were remaking one of its flagship games into three different parts for some reason. An elegant weapon for a more civilized age, as a certain galactic knight would put it.
"This isn't an ordinary sword. It won't break from just a stab."
Aegis assured me telepathically. As if on cue, the relic glowed in my hand, responding to my touch, and I heard a cool male voice speak.
"Biometric scan…Soul Imprint confirmed. Welcome, Commander. I am Arondight, at your service."
This time, information from Arondight flowed into me mentally, transmitting the specifications and functions of himself.
"Huh, I was half-expecting you to be Excalibur," I joked. "I mean, what with pulling you out of a stone and all."
"You…you pulled that sword out?!"
"How did he do that?!"
"Isn't that the famed rock of Rowlan?! That's the sword that nobody succeeded in pulling out?!"
The knights were distracted by my sudden feat, temporarily forgetting their enemies. But it wasn't just them. The two mutants were clambering about to confront me, their demonic visages twisted into furious snarls. Probably at their failure to prevent anyone from claiming Arondight. The Order knights' remarks interested me, but I didn't have time to question them.
Instead, I faced the two opponents in front of me. As usual, Aegis deflected the beams and blasts from their weapons, but they continued to charge, clearly intending to overwhelm me in close quarters.
Just as I wanted.
Thumbing a control set into Arondight's hi-tech grip, I activated him. A disruptive power field crackled to life, wreathing the entire length in a glowing azure light. Dashing from behind Aegis, I thrust Arondight forward and met the massive fist of the closest cyborg.
The glowing blade sheared through the flesh-metallic cannon, cleaving the barrel into two. Not just the weapon – Arondight continued to slice through the entire arm, leaving the limb hanging uselessly in two grotesque flaps, the blood cauterized by the extreme heat generated by the power field.
Roaring in agony, the behemoth staggered and tried to swing its other fist at my head. I ducked under the clumsy blow and leaped forward, closing in on the desperately retreating hulk and rammed the flaring blade into its chin, obliterating its head in a bloody steam.
As my opponent shuddered and toppled backward, I turned to face the remaining mutant. Flicking Arondight, I readjusted my stance and beckoned the growling monstrosity forward.
"Come at me if you dare," I said with a smirk. "Let's see if your fists are stronger, or if my sword is sharper."