"I'll destroy you!" Amber shouted with fury as she watched Theon fight the golem through the display.

  She was incredibly worried about Theon and her Sisters who stayed in Avalon. But once Theon pushed Luna out of the office and effectively sealed himself inside, Amber took a relieved breath. Seeming intimidated, the murderous constructs took softer tones toward her as they reacted to her previous outburst. However, Amber quickly discovered her folly as she obeyed two of the golems’ request for her to place a hand on their chests to be 'registered'. They tricked her and pulled a little bit of her mana. Nothing much, but enough to fool Avalon's defences and allow them to teleport behind Theon. The treacherous machines cut off his arm but he managed to blink away from the butcher's blade. Now she watched him fighting for his life. She wasn't sure why he hadn't summoned one of his swords yet but she had to trust him.

  "You can save him if you accept your duty as a Balantican Princess." The golem said with a cold voice.

  The Half-Elf looked at the golem in silence and she barely contained the fury of a storm that started brewing inside her. The maelstrom of feelings nearly blinded her in consuming rage. She loved Theon so much that she couldn't imagine her life without him. The titles, wealth, or position were just meaningless additions to what really mattered - his love, affection, and feeling always protected. How could simple tools demand her to leave him? What could they offer her that she didn't already have, and more? Nothing. The remnants of a long-dead Empire and the shell of a long-past greatness were scattered around her, preserved by mindless and soulless constructs.

  She wasn't going to tolerate these golems any longer. She tapped on her frightening power and formed spells that forced all the basic elements to obey her and she fused them together. Before she realized it, she had already decided how the ancient Balantican city would meet its end. Her fire will burn everything in a furnace so hot that it would melt the very stones she was standing on. She would awaken the underground springs, sealed by the ancient builders of Vanushka, bringing back rivers and lakes that were once here and erode the crumbling city foundations. A wind would create a cyclone, sealing all escape routes so that not even a single golem could flee her wrath. In the end, the earth would open itself and swallow the cursed city. Her emerald green eyes shone with mana light as the First Empress of Arcadia subconsciously created a city-killer spell.

  However, as Amber was about to unleash her spell to erase the entire city, Sentinel entered Theon's office. Before her eyes, he threw his arm towards Theon which attached itself to his body. Now, with both hands, his survival chances grew significantly. Her husband summoned a large, two-handed sword she thought was just some tasteless decoration. He started beating the golem and she took a deep, calming breath. He was an experienced warrior with extensive knowledge so surely no golem could ever match him. Maybe he hadn't as much real fight experience as many Adventurers but he made up for that with, almost daily, gruelling sparring sessions with his most demanding denizens. Amber smiled as she recalled his words- 'As long as I have mana, I won’t die.’ That's why I will always put myself in harm's way to save any of you, my Beauties.' He always did just that - he put himself in harm's way only to protect her and her Sisters.

  "The Guardian of Succession can't be defeated." The golem, showing her the battle, announced with an adamant tone.

  "You have already lost, clay idiots," Tia said and crossed her arms with a huff. "Something like you can't kill him in a fair fight and you lost your only chance when you failed your ambush."

  As if to confirm her words, Theon smashed the golem hard enough that he sent it smashing against the wall. The picture shook violently as it showed them how much force was behind each of Theon's swing.

  "Your guardian is powerless against our husband." Amber grinned with satisfaction. "The Legends of Balantican power were exaggerated."

  The white clay golem was cracked and most of its armour was gone. Theon's enormous sword couldn't be blocked and was rarely dodged thanks to his perfect timing. At this point in the duel, Theon's sword was more dangerous to her husband than the golem assassin.

  "The Guardian of Succession can't be defeated." The golem in front of her stubbornly repeated.

  But the pictures it displayed for them were proving it wrong. The white golem was mercilessly beaten and was cracked so much that Amber wondered how it was still in one piece. The Empresses and nearby golems watched in silence as Theon clubbed the Ancient construct with his monstrous sword. Each swing sent the golem flying into the walls or tumbling into a twisted mass on the floor. While Theon seemed slow and sloppy with his unwieldy weapon, Amber was sure that he knew what he was doing. Any vulnerable moments between his swings, the golem spent on reorienting after the received blows. It was slow and methodical but, against a single opponent, her husband's tactic seemed flawless. The fight dragged on until Theon's enormous sword was, somehow, damaged enough to become useless. He replaced it with one of his newest, and favorite mithril alloy swords and activated Gram. She knew his skills very well and knew the devastation of the Blade of Doom. The sword of destruction cleanly cut at the golem's body and its flames were extinguished.

  "Error..." The golem that projected the fight whined in anger. "Error. Wrong data. Adjusting data. The Guardian of Succession can't be defeated."

  "But it seems it can be destroyed." Hestia chuckled.

  Theon was discussing something with another golem that observed his fight, but the sound wasn't transmitted. The nearby golems were standing in silence, seemingly rejecting the evidence their assassin lost. The second golem returned to Vanushka moments later and looked at everyone. "Error. Failure to terminate the target. Complete loss of the Guardian of Succession. Error. Hero of unknown God identified. Acceptable partner for the Princess found."

  "Assessment of new data. Guardian of Succession disabled. Guardian of Succession can't be defeated." The first golem announced.

  "Guardian of Succession can't be defeated." The second golem agreed.

  The golems started communicating with each other in dry statements accelerating until their words stopped being audible and turned into a hectic buzz. However, after just a moment they straightened and looked at her. Then they bowed which set off alarms in her head. Every time she believed they were going to listen to her, she was proven wrong by their ancient conditioning or as Theon called it, faulty programming.

  "The next stage of the trial begins." The one who showed them Theon's fight announced. "Trial of Power... Start."

  Amber had enough. She snapped her fingers with an echoing crack, summoning an enormous ball of ice that hung above the city centre. It was easily big enough to crush the Balantican city centre under it and finish everything else with an impact wave. Coincidentally, it was the only part of the city where there were no Arcadian forces. In theory, the Arcadian personal shields and barriers should tank the power she was about to unleash.

  "Warning. Enormous mana discharge detected. Workshop in danger. Trial of power completed." The golem announced and scanned Amber with white light. "Trials of will... passed. Trials of power... passed. Hidden trial of Guardian of Succession... Error... The Guardian can't be defeated. The Guardian was disabled by the target. Trial... passed. Trial of military acumen... Begins. Disclaimer: your failure during this trial does not mean failure of the test. Behold the glory and power of the Balantican Empire!"

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  The structure they previously identified as a warehouse opened, and hundreds of golems, similar to the white assassin, walked out. Amber raised her hand, clenched her fist and brought the iceball down to the warehouse. She had reduced the power behind the spell but the effect was destructive enough. Ice covered the area beside the Arcadian forces and flattened the warehouse and whatever was under its footprint.

  "Major Rhys, Admiral Janet! Destroy the attacking golems!" Amber ordered and her soldiers obeyed.

  Only a few dozen golems managed to survive the warehouse’s destruction but Janet relayed reports that golems were emerging from a few other points in the city. Dauntless and Valiant opened fire with their main guns and the city shook under the might of the Arcadian dreadnoughts. Janet reported that only two hundred golems were closing on Amber's position. The Praetorians, led by the Moonshadow company, entered the city centre to intercept the golems before they got near the Empresses. The first soldiers that clashed with the golems destroyed them almost effortlessly. Their glaives cut through the clay as if it were paper. Amber issued short orders while Tia and Aoi remained silent. There was no need to employ exquisite strategies and Amber was controlling the situation. The observing golem in front of her suddenly jerked back.

  "You are tools made to serve! Surrender to me!" Amber ordered angrily.

  "Warning. Anomaly detected. Warning, the Princess' army is superior to Balantican forces in the region. Victory impossible. Test... Failed. Logic Error! Balantican forces can't defeat the Princess. Test... Pass."

  "This is pointless... They won't listen no matter what I say." Amber clenched her fist and shook her head. "We are leaving."

  "No! The Princess can't leave the test area!" The golem objected.

  "Then stop me, stupid jerk," Amber said and swatted it with a Wind Blade spell.

  Its tumbling form, for a brief moment, looked similar to one of Theon’s full swing impacts as she sent it flying and bouncing across the ground. The other golems tried to attack the Half-Elf but Amber had enough. She unleashed a Firestorm spell upon golems and they were powerless to resist it. The intense heat, fueled by her annoyance, cracked and melted them as they were hit by the droplets of the liquid fire.

  "Retrieve all the golem's cores we find," Amber ordered and while Irene and Hestia looked as if they wanted to argue, they simply shrugged. "Destroy any golem that tries to stop you."

  "Stop my heir!" A male voice sounded through the city but was ignored by everyone.

  The Arcadian soldiers dutifully followed their Empress's order and destroyed the few golems that tried to stop them. Only Amber wasted a moment to look up at the arrogant wrinkled face that peered down at the city with its unseeing eyes. The man had been blind, which somehow fit the stubborn actions of his golems, making her lips part in silent smile. She appreciated the irony of the situation.

  "As you can see, your escape attempts are futile. I don't want to hurt you or your loyal companions but this is necessary." A ghost-like silhouette of an ancient Elf hung in the air. "I am Til Nala'ar the first Emperor of the Great Balantican Empire. If you are seeing this message, the unthinkable happened and my Empire has, somehow, fallen. However, I prepared for the situation and hid a city in the wilds of Aderon. A city you managed to find but don't let that fool you - it was waiting for you. You must prove yourself. You must pass the trials and follow the rules I have set. Only I can save the world... Sav... Wrllddd..."

  The shape in the air twisted strangely and lost focus. It started repeating the message but no one was going to listen to it any longer.

  "Even the message is damaged, my Lady," Rhys said with a Sentinel's voice. "It's glitching and can't assess the situation correctly."

  "The old, crumbling technology of a long-dead empire." Amber shook her head. "We wasted our time..."

  "Since we are already here, we should search the entire city. It looks like their golems are not as troublesome as the legends described them." Mia said. "Let's retrieve everything valuable and then return home."

  "I guess you are right..." Amber reluctantly nodded. "I'm just angry that I involved so many people and resources for... this."

  She raised her hand and pointed at nowhere in particular but everyone knew she meant the city. Only then did they realise that Irene and Tia were standing next to the iceball Amber threw at the warehouse. They looked at each other and joined their sisters.

  "There is a staircase." Tia pointed at a darker spot behind the quickly melting, almost transparent ice.

  "Something is underground." Irene added. "And it's huge."

  Amber put her hand on the surface of the ice and vaporised it without a word. When the steam disappeared they, indeed, found stairs. Down below, something was moving but they were uncertain it was golems. She took a deep breath, feeling everyone staring at her. The entirety of that journey was, so far, a huge failure and disappointment. She hadn't known what to expect when they set off and, despite her low expectations, it seemed that the city had managed to disappoint her anyway. The assassination attempt on Theon, attempts to, basically, enslave her, and the gloating of tools that rejected reality weren't exactly the treasure that she expected to find in the city of the Legendary Kingdom. What she had seen, so far, made her believe that women in the Balantican Empire had a particularly hard life. It was similarly bad as it was in Berna. If Bernans had, somehow, descended from the Balanticans, it would have explained cultural similarities and the amount of various Balantican artefacts found in the Holy Kingdom. Most of them were portable barrier generators or pieces of art. Many of the ancient weapons had been destroyed by Bernans before they could be studied by Arcadians. The weapons that damaged HMS Fairy during the battle of Lake Puella must have been such a relic.

  However, Mia was right. If she wanted to salvage anything useful and possibly save face, they needed to search the entire city. Her Arcadians were in constant danger of being ambushed by the golems like the one that managed to wound Theon. The Avalon's Wrath's warhorn reminded her that she even had to involve the Titan in her quest. She raised her head and saw him obliterate another Balantican Siege Golem as it rose from underground. She gave up on... Wait.

  "The sceptre and crown of the Balantican Empire is hidden somewhere in the city." She said with a thoughtful expression. "Maybe, if we manage to find them and I claim them, the golems will obey."

  "That's possible." Hestia slowly nodded. "What do you suggest?"

  "For sure, we are not going to personally run through the sewers or whatever it is." Amber decided and looked at Wolfkin Major with a smile. "So far, I’ve tried to appease the long-gone kingdom by playing by their rules but I now realise my folly. It is time to do it the Arcadian way. I think that Janet and Rhys will be grateful for us sitting in the tent and drinking tea while making their lives easier."

  "Certainly, my Lady." He bowed. "I'm sure that my boys will gladly play fetch instead of checking every corner and shadow four times before letting you go anywhere, my Empress."

  The entire company laughed and the previous tension left them.

  "I'll leave it to you then. Leading from the front sounds brave and romantic in the stories but, in reality, it shows how a ruler disregards their advisors."

  Amber, followed by the remaining Empresses, moved to the spacious command tent a few soldiers set up nearby. The First Empress of Arcadia sat at the central table and looked at her Sisters.

  "Irene, could you oversee the setting up of the field hospital? I'm sure we can't avoid injuries forever."

  "Of course. I was going to do it anyway." The Saintess smiled warmly but she got serious as she looked towards Avalon. "I think Theon can wait..."

  "I almost wanted you to go back and heal him but he would be disappointed if we got distracted so easily..." Amber sighed heavily.

  "I can't argue with you." Irene sighed grimly and slowly left towards the large, camouflaged tents that were erected a few dozen metres away.

  "Mia? Tia? Can you take care of setting up our field camp?" She looked at the Nekomi twins.

  "No problem." They smiled and left the tent to issue orders.

  "Hestia and Aoi, I want you to help me send the expedition teams down there. I doubt there is anything worth our time on the surface of this cursed city." Amber took out a large blank sheet of map paper and furrowed her brows. "We have to map the entire underground..."

  Thank you all for reading.

  I wish you all a great day and as always I wait for your comments.

  A big thanks to who edited the chapter!

  The map of Aderon is on the Discord :)

  https://discord.gg/G6SVrBeDdG