Steel and Mana

Chapter 277 – Otto’s Final Victims

"Prime Minister!" Pion saluted, welcoming Merlin to the city of Hospet.

"Finally, we are here! My butt is hurting from the roads since leaving the Frontier!" He moaned while exiting his carriage, helping Elena down, who wasn't going to let him come alone.

"We will need to build proper roads, connecting Westland with the rest of the Frontier." Elena agreed, feeling the same way while looking around, squinting in the intense morning light.

Spring was finally here, but it also slowed down their caravan when they got stuck in the muddy roads and had to dig the carriage out. Merlin cursed a few times, lamenting why they didn't come with a tractor instead. However, the fresh air, the warmth of the sun, and the sensation of life resuming after being frozen for months were a welcomed change, even if it caused them some frustrations.

"Is there anything to report, Major?" Merlin asked, fixing his robes. He looked up at the tall figure before his eyes moved toward the city's walls, which were still under repairs and manned by Avalonian soldiers.

"We are handling most of it." Pion nodded, walking them into the city, a squad surrounding them from all sides. "The population is cooperating most of the time. We ran into some resistance, but the nobles we pardoned handled those, and where they failed, we used force, rooting out rebellious cells and executing them."

"I wonder if the people would resent you for that." Elena spoke, but Pion simply shrugged his shoulders.

"Then they will provoke death. For now, it doesn't seem to be the case, especially after Matilda officially took over Hospet and the Westland as a whole. She has already implemented multiple altered versions of our laws."

"Altered?" Elena hummed, nodding her head. "I was about to suggest that. I don't think people here are ready to embrace Avalon's ideas yet."

"Our land was built up from the ground." Merlin muttered, understanding that they couldn't just push their views and lifestyle onto other regions, expecting them to accept it and to work just like that. That was not how people acted. "Good work; we shall not change Westland drastically, just enough to align with our views and leave it to the Empress to integrate them into the changing world."

"The people are not a problem." Pion continued, "The land is. We had multiple floodings since the snow melted. Many of the fields within the region are like a swamp. Food production will be a concern."

"Surprisingly," Merlin spoke up, rubbing his chin, "Making those two rivers saved the Frontier. All the melting snow had somewhere to go. Although they do touch the bottom of our bridges right now, so that's that. We will work something out! For now, I am here to take a look at our enemy's last refuge. Tell me about it!"

"We have been guarding the block where the brothel is located since its discovery. We also emptied out the surrounding buildings and forbade anybody to approach it until you arrived."

"Good. Take me there now; everything else can wait."

Pion didn't ask questions; he simply acknowledged his orders and led them to the northern part of the city. Just to get to the street leading to the brothel, they passed three checkpoints, two of them equipped with CC detectors, which made Merlin nod his head, satisfied with their discipline.

"Oh my…"

"Prime Minister?" Pion stopped at once, shielding him with his body, but Merlin pushed by him, looking at the multi-story building waiting for them, abandoned and empty.

"You did good, Major. This facility is protected by a powerful magic formation. I can see it."

"See it?" Elena questioned, straining her eyes. To her senses, it was just an ordinary establishment. She could only see its stone walls and half-naked statues, inviting people in and not hiding what it was used for.

"Yes. I already noticed seven magic runes etched into the stone itself. I will need to walk around it and see the rest for myself before I can decipher a method to enter without blowing it up. Major, clear a way for me to proceed to the nearby rooftops, too."

"It will be done." Pion saluted, already at work, following his orders.

"Blowing it up, huh?" Elena groaned, biting her lips, "Can you do it? Without going boom?"

"Please! I beat that bastard once already; I will beat him again in death. Peace of cave!"

"Piece of cake."

"Ugh…" He flinched, trying to not show his embarrassment, but Elena saw his ears turn red. "Anyway, I could brute force it! I just don't want to. We never found out what happened to our spies, so they must be inside… Or what remained of them. As Avalonians, they deserve to be found and retrieved. They ought to get a proper burial."

"Even if they were not born there?"

"Of course!" Merlin scoffed, putting his arms on his waist, knowing Elena was just teasing him, "If you become part of Avalon and serve it, you are its citizen forever! Hmph! It does not matter where you grew up or who you were before. All who become the subject of our Sovereign are our brothers and sisters. That's all to it!"

…
….
……

It turned out to take Merlin three days to finally crack Otto's magical formation, enveloping his headquarters. It was not because of its complexity but because he was doing his best to dismantle it without triggering any reserve spells that may be hidden beneath it. When Elena asked why not just use a trojan spell, his answer was simple: practice and safety.

"It is not sophisticated enough to accomplish something like this." He muttered to Elena while standing on a rooftop. His left hand was stretched forth, a visible, complex formation rotating counter-clockwise, while his right hand drew up runes that slowly slotted into the spinning spell. "It could break this. But our enemy was not a simple mage and had layers of backups."

"Layers–?" She asked, trying to learn, wanting to understand magic even if she was unable to feel it... But she heard it. The moment she asked, there was a sharp chime as if a plate had broken somewhere. The next moment, there was a soft flash of orange light from the windows of the abandoned brothel before it settled back to normalcy.

"As you can see." Merlin nodded and continued his work, slotting newer runes into his spell. "It broke the first layer, which activated the second, which would have led to an explosion. Our magic wouldn't be able to adapt quickly enough to stop it from triggering. We will need to take this into consideration as we fight against Ishillia. Their fortifications will be similar to this, protected by intersecting spells that are built upon each other. Leon did mention something like this, and Lady Sasha used it while developing the core of our airships."

"Backup systems." Elena hummed because she was also privy to the blueprints, having seen and studied them.

"Yeah. I am also working on improving what we have to create a truly independent and autonomous jamming spell that could adapt quick enough and stop even hexes like this!" He said with a proud grin as the last rune slotted into place. What they could hear was the chime of a tiny bell, and Merlin clapped his hands with a satisfied expression. "It is open!"

"Are you sure?"

"95%. There could be something inside, but we will see."

Pion wanted to protest at first, offering himself to go in as a vanguard or just send in prisoners, but Merlin flatly refused. If there was magic within, it had to be him, as nobody else would be able to react quick enough. Still, he was flanked by Avalonian soldiers, volunteering to protect their Prime Minister with their bodies as they headed in.

"Stay outside." Merlin said in a calm but authoritative voice, looking at Elena, who nodded after a brief thought, holding her nose. She knew this smell… something was rotting inside.

The air within was stagnant, filled with nauseating stench, thick with decay, that made even the soldiers shudder. Merlin only wrinkled his nose as he entered, thinking about creating something for his men that could filter such smell out. The sun behind them shone across the entry hall, its dusty chandeliers, the previously elegant red carpet, and its wood-covered walls. The first floor, where a restaurant and bar once was, was empty, the tables standing still, the chairs covered in thick layers of dust.

As they moved deeper inside, the floorboards creaked under the carpet, the aged wood groaning as the soldiers' boots put their weight onto it. Heading up one floor, the rooms were silent, save for what they were making, opening the creaking doors. Along the corridor, mirrors lined the walls; some were cracked, others shattered, casting warped reflections that seemed to watch them with empty, lifeless eyes.

"Don't look into the mirrors!" Merlin warned the soldiers, as he could feel a residue of magic within them, being sure they were part of the formation he had undone just minutes ago.

Opening the doors to the last room before heading to the second floor, they found the first body.

He was slumped against a bed, a hollow-faced man, laying with his eyes wide open, fixed in a glassy, vacant stare. His skin had a sickly, bluish hue, tinged green in places where decay had already set in. His mouth hung open as if frozen in a final gasp. Thanks to their isolation, flies were nowhere to be seen, but the smell told them enough. He was dead for a long time. Merlin looked away quickly, ordering the soldiers to not touch it yet, not until they walked every step of the building and he confirmed no more magic was waiting to be triggered. Steeling themselves, they pushed forward. In each room further up, they found the same thing—bodies of Otto's servants and guards, all lying where they had stood when he died as if death had taken them in a single, brutal sweep, dragging them along after their master's demise.

By the time they reached the third floor, Merlin also had to cover his nose with his sleeve. The air was thickest with rot here, and dozens of bodies lay sprawled in the hallways, piled in corners, or collapsed in the middle of half-finished tasks. Their faces were twisted in expressions of terror or agony, as if Otto's death had ripped away their souls, leaving only their husks behind. Some of them had clearly been under his control for so long that they seemed to have wasted away to skin and bones, their uniforms sagging loosely over gaunt limbs.

"Prime Minister…." one of the soldiers whispered, his voice strained. "We found the entrance to the basement on the first floor; my second team just radioed in." Merlin nodded solemnly, giving his order after surveying the room before them.

"Don't go in yet. Finish sweeping this floor, and we will head back down!"

They moved quickly, eventually reaching the basement. Scanning the door hidden behind a shelf, they found it devoid of any kind of magic, allowing them to simply push it open. By now, Merlin was sure Otto had never expected anyone to break his defensive formation. No more surprises were waiting for them. Heading down, igniting their lamps, the air grew colder and damper, and oppressive darkness filled the cramped stairway. Maybe it was because of what they had experienced a moment before, but they felt as if ghosts of the dead were still present, watching them. Merlin walked before the group and illuminated the path ahead with his own Edmund Lamp.

In the bright glow, they finally found the bodies of the missing agents they were looking for—the loyal Avalonian girls slumped against the cold stone wall, their wrists bound and faces eerily serene in death. They hadn't decayed like the others, preserved by the chill in the basement, retaining winter's coldness. Still, the signs of torture were clear. Bruises, cuts, and the dark marks of burned flesh marred their skin, remnants of Otto's relentless cruelty.

"You served Avalon bravely…" Merlin knelt, placing his hand over each fallen agent in silent respect. "You will be brought home."

The soldiers behind him bowed their heads, a sober silence filling the dank basement as they prepared to carry their fallen comrades out of the depths of Otto's lair and back into the light of Avalon. They will be brought home and laid to rest, where their graves will be protected by future Avalonian soldiers. Where they will bask in the light of their Sovereign… forever.