Speaking with a solemn voice it seemed that the Emperor already had some idea of what was going on, but still, it seemed like he wanted to hear the specifics from the messenger that had arrived.

"... The outer defences have completely shattered and are overrun on all flanks. While there have been some attempts to slow down the advances into the city by our honourable imperial guard, they have not accomplished anything other than sustaining sizeable losses… It seems our current enemy is extremely knowledgeable about fighting within packed city s.p.a.ces."

"So it would seem. How far have they reached into the city?"

As if the Emperor had predicted a large part of what the messenger had to say already he didn't really appear that phased by it, to his close subordinates it appeared like the Emperor was already contemplating other issues, for example, what he needed to do to repel the current invasion.

"I'm afraid to report that they will start laying siege to the castle within the hour, with the resources we have remaining there's nothing we can do to stop them."

Normally a hostile force of the current strength wouldn't be an issue, but due to a preemptive strike which had surgically eliminated key organizational a.s.sets within the empire's forces, only a fifth of their army and imperial knights had made it to the capital in time to defend it, the rest were either unable to communicate with command, combat ineffective, dealing with civil uprisings or outright missing and presumed dead. With the messenger having accomplished his task, he quickly excused himself as the Emperor and his closest followers started discussing what to do.

"Is it possible to hold on until backup arrives?"

"What backup? Our forces are completely shattered, even the sanctuaries have suffered heavy casualties, with the exception of the 22nd that is… It must be nice to be able to pick and chose allegiances."

With heavy scorn in his voice, one of the imperial guard captains glanced over towards the only angel present.

"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?"

Raising from her chair, the minister of magic glared with unrestrained bloodl.u.s.t at the captain as he continued his ridicule.

"You know exactly what I mean, o' all powerful eternal protector of the empire. It must be nice to take everything you need from us over aeons, then, when it's finally time for your side of the bargain you turn your back on us and leave us to die."

"Enough!"

With the Emperor raising his voice as he slammed his fist into the table, he managed to avoid the minister of magic killing the rest of his subordinates, but still, the situation looked dire.

(I guess there's nothing else left to do…)

Resigned to his fate, the Emperor rose from his seat as he addressed his subordinates.

"There's no time to argue about such petty things! The minister of magic chose to go directly against the words of her sanctuary to stay here with us. There is still a way for us to win this war, we just need a bit more time."

Speaking with absolute confidence, the Emperor managed to raise the morale of his subordinates.

"What we need is time, stall them as much as possible! Victory is within our grasp!"

With renewed vigour, the Emperor's subordinates suddenly found their situation not quite so hopeless and left the Emperor's side to prepare the castle's defences, with the sole exception being the minister of magic.

"... Are you sure about this?"

"I am, you said it would be safe, right?"

"I did-"

"Then this is what we will do, I trust you Limos."

Faced with absolute trust and a slight smile from the Emperor, Limos couldn't really say anything against it.

"F-fine, then this is what we will do."

Having settled on a plan, the Emperor called out into the seemingly empty room.

"Shadow."

"Yes, sire.��

When a shadowy figure descended on the corner of the room, the Emperor continued speaking as he started with an apology.

"I'm sorry, but I need you to keep any enemies away from the throne room at all cost."

With the added 'even if all of you need to throw away your lives' added as a subtext to the end of that sentence, the shadow deeply bowed while becoming overwhelmed with emotion.

"Yes sire, at your will."

"I am sorry."

"No, don't be sire. We all owe you our lives. The shadows of the Emperor wishes you good fortune."

---

"s.h.i.+t! They really like to use our own weaponry against us, huh? Alice!"

Finding himself pinned down in a crater squarely in the middle of a kill zone, Dax's helmet hid a full blown slime as he called for a.s.sistance.

"Got it! On the way!"

Understanding Dax's request perfectly, Alice stepped out of cover as she aimed the heavy machinegun she was carrying with the help of her exoskeleton. Bringing the weapon to bear before she could be hit by any heavy weaponry, Alice wiped out the defenders while her exoskeleton protected her from grazing hits and lighter weaponry.

"Good job!"

With the way cleared for him, Dax dashed out from his fox hole and made his way up the wall before anyone could react, from that point on it was nothing but a pointless ma.s.sacre.

(Why can't they just surrender so we can get this s.h.i.+tshow over with…)

(Well, of course~✿ They wouldn't just outright surrender against an invader without at least trying to fight~✿)

(Oh right, you're here too…)

Hearing an overly sweet, honey laced and eager voice sounding out in his head in response to his own rhetoric question, Dax instantly switched to an entirely deadpan tone and expression.

(What do you mean 'you're here too'!? Don't treat me like such a bother when you insisted on bringing me with you!)

Flaring in anger, Dax's demon sword which was attached to the outside of his XMRA armour started complaining so loudly that it interfered with his concentration.

(Oh shut up, will you? I was just a bit surprised since ICI is programmed to not respond to my sarcastic remarks so it's a bit strange to just have someone respond to your inner thoughts like that.)

Ripping an entire arm out of a poor guards shoulder socket and flinging it at another unfortunate victim, Dax continued his obviously more important conversation and tried to calm down his 'partner'.

(I'm sorry, I can't help it okay! If you had spent just a quarter of the time sealed away as I have you would be the same way!)

With a slight flinch, Dax slowed down his rampage for a just a fraction of a second in response to the way-too-honest response from the sword. In response to that one of the imperial guards who was mixed in with the normal guards sized on the opportunity to strike and switched his rifle from semi to fully automatic fire, then he squeezed the trigger as a teasing smile formed beneath Dax's helmet.

(So you're saying the reason why you keep responding to me is that you're lonely? Okay, I'll keep that in mind. Still, I didn't know that cursed weapons could feel those kinds of emotions, I will do my best and keep that in mind.)

(Is that so?~ Yay~✿)

(Yeah, I'll treat you as a needy highschooler from now on.)

(Eh?)

(Don't worry, I have plenty of experience dealing with that kind of stuff since I was on leave while Lux went through p.u.b.erty~✿)

(Wha!?-)

Using the active protection system installed in his XMRA armour not to protect him against the sudden hail of fire hurling towards him, Dax instead blasted the imperial knight in the face with air launched explosives as he stepped into range and hit the knight in his chest, cracking most of his ribs as he was sent flying out over the wall.

"We've cleared our section of the wall! Alice get the f.u.c.k up here and help me secure it!"

"Y-yes, right away!"

As Dax had cleared his part of the wall surrounding the imperial castle seemed to collapse while his demon sword fell silent once more.

"This place sure is ma.s.sive."

Having completely shattered the imperial castle's defences, Dax and the other teams forced their way into a seemingly abandoned castle with the help of a HAWOC and it's primary high calibre railgun. 

"... It's too empty."

Looking around the abandoned defensive positions which seemed to have been hastily formed at the entrance, Terra started having a bad premonition, something Dax shared.

"s.h.i.+t! Lux, take Lilly and Terra, I'll go ahead with Solaris and Alice!"

Figuring out what was going on Dax started genuinely panicking as he realized what was going on.

(ICI fire mission! Case delta!)

(CASE DELTA CONFIRMED, TASKING ALL UNITS… COMPLETE, PAYLOAD INBOUND, ETA: 14 MINUTES.)

Flaring with mana, Dax created a spell which smashed through the ceiling of the grand reception hall before jumping up into the hole as he started rus.h.i.+ng towards the top of the castle.