When he emerged from the sewers once again, he found three men waiting for him. “Is it done?” Kyle scrubbed down his armor as best he could.

  “Yes. I trust you’ll treat the noncombatants well?” “Yes, they’ll be given enough money to get settled. Those who can’t adjust… you win some, you lose some.” “Give whatever you were going to pay me to those people. Good day to you, sirs.”

  With that, Kyle walked uninterrupted back to the teleportation hall, walking through a small river to clean the armor off on the way.

  Recalling the reconnaissance drone, he finally reached the first portal hall. The return portal chain was uneventful—no robberies, battles, or any other kind of action to speak of.

  Before he knew it, he was walking out of the portal room at Altrai. A snowstorm had rolled in, and the streets were empty.

  Strolling down the lane, he turned on the external heat radiators to keep the armor free of snow. Technologies like quantum heat dumps and kinetic energy transfer have made it possible to recycle heat exhaust nearly perfectly into usable energy. Heat could still be used for other purposes, however.

  Marching down the road to Altrai, he got a ping on his HUD. He had an array of Thunderhead drones over the settlement at all times. However, the lack of a satellite network made it so that he could only receive updates within a few miles of the drones.

  They had detected a mass of heat signatures to the northeast of the manor. Combined with long-range cameras, the drones had revealed an army to him.

  An army of small green creatures. They gathered around campfires, roasted a few caught woodland animals, and slept all over the ground.

  The camp was incredibly disorganized, and only a few actual tents could be seen. Kyle immediately picked up his sprint and ran to town.

  ————

  Kyle and the mercenaries stood around a projection on the wall in the manor. From one of Kyle’s armor-mounted projectors, an image of the goblin army was displayed.

  Directly routed from one of the TARDs, the wall now held an image of the goblin camp in all its glory. Carkh and his men looked on in disbelief. Kyle explained to them, “They’re slowly moving towards the settlement. Is this… a normal occurrence in these parts?”

  “No, Milord, there must be a goblin king leading them. Ooh, those tents! He must be there! Goblin kings can gather huge numbers of goblins and form armies like this one. If we can kill the king, the goblins will turn feral again. I don’t understand the magic, but this has happened once before in my lifetime.”

  “Was it particularly devastating?” “Yes, the region was destroyed and a few thousand people died.” “Hmm.”

  “We need to train conscripts to use firearms. How have things been going on that front?”

  Barislav spoke up. “Quite well. Nearly 500 have been trained to proficiency in the weapons.” “That’ll have to do.”

  Kyle dismissed the men and walked over to his Spartan and dust-covered dining room. On the huge hardwood table, a single object sat. A black skull covered in faintly glowing green runes.

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  It was surrounded by a 2-foot circle that was free of dust. Kyle walked up, and rapped on the skull with his knuckles. The armor made a dull thunking noise on the bone.

  “Hmm? Oh, laddie, you're back! How was the capital?” The sockets of the skull filled with green flame. “Pretty boring. I’ll build something bigger and better here, I’m sure. However, we have a problem.”

  “Wait. Before I help you for nothing in return once more, I want you to get me a new body. Even though I can sleep to skip time, this is getting boring.”

  Kyle only considered it for a moment. “Sure. I think you’ve proven your trustworthiness. Does it have to be bone? Or can I get you something a bit less… basic?” “I suppose it doesn’t have to be bone. It has to be able to conduct mana, however. Adamantine, orichalcum, something like that.”

  “I think I have just the perfect material in mind.”

  —————

  Kyle and his skull stood before a pile of the rarer weapons from the hoard. Adamantine, Serpent’s Brass, Proemethium, Mythril, Starmetal, and more were laid out on a table before them. “I think the obvious option is Adamantine. I assume your nanothingy can make more?”

  “Yes. My people actually knew Adamantine by a different name. Star Forge Alloy 112, it was called. My Nanofactory can make only a tiny amount in a reasonable time, so breaking a few of these weapons down would be best. If I were to give you a Vulframite combat frame with Adamantine for the mana stuff, could you pilot it?

  “Sure. Just let me do the runework.”

  While the mercenaries and volunteers built palisades and dug trenches around the town, he got to work on making a combat frame for Bariyon.

  League combat frames were incredibly advanced. Thick humanoid robots covered in weapons and armor, with advanced nanofield shielding and a temporally enhanced processor. One could wipe out battalions of standard human militants before even slowing down.

  Although it had to be assembled in parts due to the size of the nanofactory, the result would not be diminished. Over the course of a day, the frame and internal systems were complete. The Reality Sheathe in the nanofactory allowed for incredibly precise and fast production.

  Infilling the control systems with Adamantine was as simple as well. A breastplate of the stuff held enough metal for the entire suit. Vulframite alloying also proceeded quickly inside the factory.

  Eventually, late into the night, Kyle fit Bariyon's skull into the head of the combat frame. The runework to allow the lich to control the armor had taken most of the time. The AI had done most of the heavy lifting, with Bariyon providing overarching instructions.

  Finally, installing the fusion reactor. The best reactors needed a Reality Sheathe to function well, but Bariyon’s didn’t need to be perfect.

  After some basic tests, the frame seemed to integrate with the rune-based controls well enough. “This is easily as good as any homunculi I’ve ever crafted. That nanofaktoree or whatever it’s called is truly a wonder.”

  Outside the manor, Kyle had set up a few bits of metal and some targets so Bariyon could test the frame. “Keep in mind that the frame is expendable. Expensive, yes, but ultimately your skull and soul matrix are the most important things.”

  Bariyon easily bent a few bits of steel into loops or bows. The frame was incredibly strong, with nano-actuators backed up by a Civilian Personal-Class fusion reactor. Turning to the wooden targets, he cycled through the array of weapons the frame had available.

  Single-use missiles, guided and unguided, a heavy rotary cannon on one arm, a hydrogen flamethrower on the other. The entire frame was rather intimidating, with a built-out look and the League's signature “glowing red eyes” aesthetic.

  One by one, the targets were turned into piles of kindling. Target making was actually one of the cottage industries that had taken root among some of the families in the manor. The recruits had a constant need for them.

  “Keep in mind, those explosives are single-use. You’ll have to come back to me for every resupply; be conservative with those.” “Got it, hoss.”

  “Come with me. I want to inspect the troops and those fortifications.”