Minor Prison Riot (2/2)
In the end, the Wills only manage to take over one other Floor before the all the lower floors are vacated of survivors. With no other lives to sacrifice to their master, the army of Wills now have to find a way to climb even higher and claim more lives… but how?
They can't bring their weapons with them, now that the teleport gates to the other floors are disabled. It would also take a really long time to burrow up to the top.
It turns out, the Wills don't have to wait long before the enemy commander takes the fight back to them.
Seemingly out of nowhere, huge, lumbering stone and metal golems are teleported onto the uppermost part of the Wills' territory, and they start smashing apart everything with a spiritual pulse.
"Where are they coming from!?" Kaalhyme yells over to Kalastros.
"They've probably adjusted their stone laying tools to teleport golems down a floor instead of moving magical stones…" the archmage replies solemnly. "I think the prison here must have a lot of those constructs here. We're in for a tough fight."
Kaalhyme grimly looks up towards the upper floors as he feels the Wills up there being picked apart and smashed to pieces. These golems are not only a lot tougher than a person, they also won't give any Aura off when they're defeated.
Not only are they annoying to fight, there's also no reward for killing them; this just makes the Wills even more frustrated fighting them.
The on Floor B24 doesn't take very long before the golems overwhelm Kaalhyme's forces there. With the Wills all spread out among the floors, the golems' surprise attack was very effective.
"Fall back towards Floor B26!" Kaalhyme orders. "Everyone else, gather there! We'll stand a better chance if we attack as one!"
Kaalhyme would've liked to have a battalion of Wills go up and wreak havoc among the upper floors while the others keep the golems busy, but they don't have enough Aura available to stretch themselves so thinly.
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Warden Prella watches from the surveillance enchantments put on the golems, and she curses inside. Since the flying weapons had destroyed her surveillance tiles almost immediately, she was blind for most of the attack.
Now… she can see with her own eyes the carnage and destruction Haalfrin's powers have caused. Glaring now, she orders the golems, "Don't stop until everything is destroyed! I don't care if it's not moving; if it can house his Wills, then it needs to go!"
Gripping her desk with white knuckles, she watches as thousands of floating weapons and junk pour through the hallways, shredding her golems apart. Her golems each manage to destroy a large chunk of the enemy weapons, but the damage seems negligible.
She picks up another far speak medallion and orders, "I need you to up your golem production. I don't care if they're high quality. I just need as many as you can. I want a constant stream of war golems."
With huge resource reserves on her side, she knows she'll win a battle of attrition.
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There comes a point when Kaalhyme knows he and his forces are going to lose. Instead of despairing, he starts calculating in his head the pros and cons of continuing the fight vs a tactical retreat.
What's the use of bleeding the enemy commander dry of golems? Kalastros told him that those things are simple to make, so long as you have the materials. Fighting the golems only risks losing more Wills, yet at the same time, he might be able to drain the enemy of resources if he makes victory painful enough for them.
In the end, Kaalhyme decides against fighting any longer; he knows deep down that the enemy commander has the richest empire in the world to back her up; resources aren't going to be a problem for her.
Plus, with no way to replenish their Wills when fighting soulless constructs, Kaalhyme knows that fighting is more costly to him than it is for the enemy.
As for the merit of holding onto the territory they've captured, he can't think of it. Their purpose is to capture Death Aura, and collecting Aura is easier the closer they are to Floor B33.
But, if they stubbornly hold onto these few floors, then they'd keep the cattle from roaming into the lower floors, where it's easier to harvest from them.
So, fighting with the army of golems head on is objectively foolish. If he wants to squeeze this place dry of any more Aura, he's going to have to be a bit more creative…
Resolutely, Kaalhyme orders out to all his subordinates, "Retreat! They've won this day!"
All the Wills have learned to trust Kaalhyme's commanding abilities by now, so they all drop their metal bodies to the ground as one, then they all fly back underground as fast as possible.
After seeing all his comrades safe and sound in Haalfrin's soul again, Kaalhyme calls out the 100 strongest Wills – all of them 3rd gate mages, and a few even having their 4th gates. "I've got a special assignment for all of you. I'll even lead you personally…"
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The Warden watches from her office, and her heart finally starts to calm down once she sees the army of weapons clatter to the ground lifelessly. It appears that Haalfrin has given up this battle.
Just when she's about to order the golems to start cleaning up the lower floors, she hears another alarm – this time from Floor B20 – several floors above what she thought the demon could reach.
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Kaalhyme takes his 100 elites, and they ascend up on a single strand of Aura now. When the Wills split up, the strand of Aura splits up… and when the Aura splits up, they can't go as high.
Now that Kaalhyme and his men are all together, and factoring in the massive supply of Aura they've harvested during this battle, the 100 elites can go a lot higher than before.
Knowing that the higher up they are, the less freedom of movement they could have, Kaalhyme orders his men to stay together and not go on slaughtering rampages like before. He has a more specific purpose in mind for them.
Silently, they pass up Floor after floor full of maximum security cells, like the ones below. The Wills' captain doesn't want to waste time there, since those cells are spread out – making their future killing less efficient. He wants to find a place with a concentration of people before he starts making chaos.
…And as soon as he crosses Floor B20, he knows he's found the right place.
They creep up from the floor, and they all take in the crude sight before them.
Instead of long, cramped hallways lined with single prisoner cells, this floor looks a lot more like a giant warehouse. Lining all sides are huge buildings with long lines of open barred cells. Inside these massive cells are dozens of people each, all cramped together like livestock.
None of these mage Wills can sense mana from these prisoners. That, coupled with the more lax security measures makes Kaalhyme think this is a floor dedicated to non-mage prisoners.
…Whatever. A non-mage gives just as much Aura upon death as a mage. A life is a life, after all, and before the universe, all lives of the same species are just as heavy.
"Spread out a little!" Kaalhyme orders. "Don't bother killing the prisoners; that would take too long. Instead, focus on busting open their prison cells. I want a riot to happen!"
Causing a riot among the prisoners isn't very hard, given the circumstances. Once keys are ripped from the guards' waists and used to throw open their cell doors, the prisoners mostly think they can escape.
… More than that, the ambient Aura spreading in the room instills fear in them. Fearing for their lives, the prisoners all act irrationally and lash out at their captors.
Once Kaalhyme sees that this floor has begun to riot, he takes his men and attempts to find an even higher floor to do the same thing in.
… However, what the fallen Alsa'Ree general didn't anticipate were the sleep enchantments placed in the minimum security cells.
These sleep spells aren't powerful enough to knock out a mage, but they don't have to be. Plus, with these cells being the place where riots and murders are most likely to happen, the wardens of the past thought installing these enchantments was a good investment.
So, Kaalhyme watches sadly as all his hard work crumbles to the floor and doesn't get up. Both the guards and prisoners alike are all unconscious now.
"Tch," Kaalhyme clicks in annoyance. "The guards here don't have any weapons, so we can't just kill the unconscious people ourselves. Plus, it's not a good idea to linger here. If the platoon of golems can get up here, then we'll have a very bad time…"
"I'll hand it to you," Kaalhyme mutters while looking up, "You've won this round."
He and his men all turn around and retract the black tendril all the way back to its source. They did get some Aura from that last attempt, and they didn't lose any Wills. That last escapade up top wasn't as successful as he'd have hoped, but it was still a net positive.
Kaalhyme smiles in his heart. Despite having to flee, he wouldn't consider this a defeat. They grew their commander's Death Aura 2x over… which is significant progress on the path to freedom!
Still… Even though they slaughtered the mages trying to wall them off with spirit stone, Kaalhyme knows they're going to have to keep a very close eye on the unfinished wall and the equipment set up to install it…