Steel and Mana

Chapter 548 – Subjugators

By the time the rebuilt Stormbringer arrived and connected to the platform beside the Pride’s main tower, I was already there waiting for the arrival of Lucca and Kiva. I watched as the Prydwen was dangling from its bottom, while a long freight train was coming to a halt, bringing along the rest of the new mechs and their equipment. The first to walk down was Lucca, wearing his uniform, looking prim and proper, giving me a salute the moment he stepped onto the wall, and then a slight nod to Seltana, standing beside me. As for the second person who walked down, it was Kiva; his steps were a bit heavier, his face a bit tighter, saluting me just the same, but besides that, not much.

As for the machines they were unloading, they looked like any of our regular mechs, not much difference between them, only the blood cannisters attached to their backs, their platings being a bit thicker to protect the flowing blood, and their tanks.

“Sovereign,” Lucca spoke up first, “We have them ready, although the live testing will be the final part of knowing if we chose well or not.”

“I know,” I replied, watching the machines being taken off the train while the Knights began coming down from the Stormbringer, standing visibly nervously behind the returning general.

"Seltana." He then turned towards her as she gently bowed her head.

"I am ready to return the command to you, General." She said, saluting, and after returning the gesture, Lucca, once again, became the commander of the Pride.

"Keep at it." He smiled a little while lowering his hand, "When I have to pilot the Prydwen," He added, "I need capable people at my back."

"You are going... out to fight?" Seltana asked, surprised, looking at me, and I just shrugged, since I didn't know either but was guessing it might be the case.

"If I'm allowed to." He nodded, looking at me, "We have fewer Knights for these machines than I expected. We need everybody who can use them."

“I see no issues with it,” I answered, “You do have the experience, so you can guide the others even in an actual battle. Speaking of...”

I smiled, looking at the pilots behind the two, standing in uniforms, stiff as boards. Despite all the training, they just can't help it, huh? When our eyes met, they saluted in sync, and I returned the salute by walking forward to stand in front of them, smiling at each and patting their shoulders.

"Your Knighting ceremony is a bit weird in these times, but... congratulations. I am proud of you all for being selected to the rarest and most difficult position. Make me proud."

"Yes, Sovereign!" They answered, fired up, standing to attention.

“They passed the tests." Lucca said after we sent them to go to their machines and check on them, to make sure everything was working and ready, "Barely. But they passed.”

“Was the mental trial that challenging?” I asked. “Or were you overzealous?”

“Both. But these ones... They did great,” Kiva answered for Lucca. “One threw up, one cried, one passed out, but they all stabilized their minds in the end. Still, we don't know if they will also hold when it is the real deal... Even I don't know if I will hold.”

“Well,” I said, looking towards the bustling forward camp, “We’ll see how they do in the real thing. We had a long time since Ignis had sent anything towards us, so...”

Me and my mouth... and probably because the world hates my sense of timing, the Pride’s alarm sirens erupted in a single, booming wail. Great. Thanks! Really! Making me into some kind of prophet or whatever.

“Sovereign!" Kustov's voice came in from my comms, "Incoming beasts from which three are large signatures. Dozens of small, airborne variants.”

"Flying ones, huh?" I blinked slowly, squinting, trying to see them in the distance, but there were only tiny specks. “…She really had to choose to throw them at us now, didn’t she?”

"We can deal with that," Lucca exhaled, "Even without our airplans."

“The floor is yours,” I said, clapping his shoulder. “Let’s go. We got your final exam prepared!”

We moved fast, and by the time I was aboard the Camelot, Kiva and Lucca were getting into their own machines while Seltana ran to the commanding tower. By then, dozens of black shapes had appeared, closing in on us, with leathery wings flapping, keeping them afloat, but they were not as fast as I expected. They flew like how manta rays swim, waving through the air as if it were water. But unlike rays, these ones had beaks with tentacles covering an oval-shaped mouth, filled with rows of teeth. Brr. As for below them, there came the usual, lumbering shapes of four-legged creatures. Nothing that I would be worried about anymore.

Thinking about that, it was only showing our advancement. Creatures that previously, if one came through, plunged multiple countries into ruins, causing millions to die after nothing remained to hold them back from coming over and multiplying... Yet here we are now, looking at them like others would look at wild animals. Am I on some extreme safari? Will this become some sort of sport? Was this how the Vasas felt at their prime, capturing them, enslaving them, and using them for their experiments?

What stopped my brain from overthinking was when the Subjugators moved out from the Pride with the Vasas flanking them. Looking at the group, Ur’Tokh was at the front, standing on a massive, red-scaled beast he was controlling, this time, not from the inside. Apparently, he was curious about what we were going to do, and I guess Sa'Ith had informed their own people about it and ordered them to protect ours.

"Let's get to work," I said as the Camelot began to move, along with all our Airships, present at the Pride. If Ignis is watching, she will be surprised to see how many we have. "We will fly out and focus on the flying bastards! Get into formation, and make sure that there is always a ship whose broadsides are firing!"

It was an easy massacre. The poor things didn't even have a chance before they were blasted out of the sky with our superior firepower. I almost said something, even pitying them, more and more looking at them as poor animals... but I gulped it back; it's better to keep it to myself before something gets thrown my way because of my passion for jinxing things. Maybe it is my soul that's manifesting it. Who knows? Anyway, if Ignis wants to scare us with flying monsters, that bastard will have to send more. Hundreds at least.

"The air is being cleaned," I spoke up, throwing my thoughts into the back of my mind, watching it unfold, "The ground ones are yours to conquer."

"We are on it." Lucca's voice rang out over the channel, guiding the pilots.

"If you feel overwhelmed, break contact," Kiva added, yet he was the one furthest away from the starting point, first to reach them, and from my point of view, he was the first to also initiate the attack.

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......

It was still an incredible sensation to pilot a machine like this, something that felt like wearing a suit of armor yet still being himself... only bigger, better, stronger. It was almost addictive, but Kiva held back, refocusing his thoughts, directly aimed at the closest, marching creature of immense weight... It was time to either die or experience what Lucca had told him... the chance to finally be done with his own demons.

The spell activated the moment he thought about it. Just like that, in a snap, a second heartbeat ignited inside his skull, not a foreign feeling at all, yet also inhuman, even more than Pascal's mind was. Just by remembering that feeling, he couldn't help but exhale through his nose, telling himself that this indeed felt familiar and not in a good way.

And the moment he acknowledged it, the world disappeared around him, and he felt like he was falling, down through darkness, through a mind made of hunger and instinct. But... something was different... The creature's feelings were already subjugated by a very distant, faint presence. Just like how he and his brothers were under the control of someone he thought was like his... father.

Just then, he saw Pascal’s face, but not as he remembered him. Not as the master, the mentor he once believed in... But as the Mad Emperor, his eyes hungry, a filthy predator disguised as a respectable visionary... What a fool he was to believe in him.

“Kiva,” Pascal’s voice echoed in his mind, "Do as I order you, and do not think about anything else. You just need to follow my commands..."

He had heard these words many times, always returning when there was a lesson to be learned... He was always told, again and again, to have no hesitations, no questions, and no doubt about what he must do. He only had to be obedient. And when he was obedient... That was when the worst memories of his life were created, now crawling back from his subconsciousness. He saw a city burning under his own banners, people screaming and begging, rebels upon rebels, or people who were just branded as one, executed without question. Under his orders...

"I did that..." He told himself, knowing it was right. It was his doing, not Pascal's, not anyone else's... his. “But,” he hissed through gritted teeth, “Not this time. Not again... Not ever again...”

Being lost in his experience was actually nothing but a second, really, and as he thought of that, the Subjugator’s magic, along with the monster blood circulating inside it, flared up at once. He felt Lucca, faintly, recognizing his brother’s presence like a distant light beyond the fog that was descending on his mind, a reminder of what they had become, not what Pascal made them to be. The moment that thought took root, Kiva's feelings calmed at once. Yes... He was no longer that creature... that pig he once was. He was now just a teacher who was doing his best to protect the kids back home.

Yet, as his mind sharpened, knowing that he was invading the creature's already broken mind, another thought clashed into his. Their minds collided like two planets slamming together, making his skull ring out like a bell that was struck, almost making him lose focus and pass out, but he pulled through. Whoever or whatever that was, it wasn't actually there, but... away, crudely controlling the creature, not even paying attention to it.

It was... different. Really. If Kiva had to compare it, it was the same as the difference between those students he had back home... the ones who memorized the text and the ones who understood it. This control was the former. A brute-force method that was born of following a strict pattern, like one that was ingrained into the student. She... used it... without understanding it.

And thus, Kiva's mind won the brief tug of war over the creatures, infiltrating the subjugated, broken beast, taking control over it and shutting out the distant strand, just like that...

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"What?!" Ignis suddenly looked up, his form emerging from her volcano, as she was twitching her eyelids, sticking her tongue out, hissing, "What happened?! They... did not die... This felt... different! What?!"

She tried to search for the creatures she sent over, doing so on a whim, testing how far she could stretch her control without constant supervision... she had almost fallen asleep, realizing she didn't even need to pay attention and could simply give them orders and they would follow them. Yet, just like that, something snatched them. How?

"You... you nasty children!" She scoffed, "It seems I have to keep a close eye on you before you take my toys away... Hmph! Okay, that was my fault." She snorted again, visibly angry but holding it back, "Next time, I will be there personally... let's see if you can grab them from me then!"

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"How?!" Sa'Ith gasped as she stormed into my room, slamming the door open, almost making me jump.

"How what?" I asked, not understanding, still listening to the reports from the battle, letting my new Knights test the control over their freshly conquered creatures.

"Those things were dominated by Ignis! How did you take control of them?! You are... just... people! How?! We can't do that!"

"Oh..." I realized the main issue, looking out towards the fresh new monsters my Knights were bringing back, on their feet. Huh... I did not... think about that. "Sa'Ith," I nodded to myself, pursing my lips, "That is indeed a good question. It seems that... Ignis is more of a trouble for you, because of your connections..." I mused, making her flinch and stiffen, "Maybe... we are indeed not at the verge of an apocalypse..."