A forest was choked to the brim with plant life. Trees grew so tall and spread their leaves so far that their trunks cracked under the weight of their branches. Bushes filled the undergrowth, forming a solid wall of branches and thorns. Vines covered every inch of every surface, creeping along the ground, up stems and branches, and wrapping around the trees.

And in the center of this sea of green was one small patch of brown. A squad of elite knights walked in the middle of this clearing, reinforced by a Legion assault team. Mages led by a high level mage knight continuously chanted and formed magic circles, creating walls of fire to push back the greenery. The elite knights cut down the plants that tried to grow even through the flames, the thorns and vines that struck at them proving entirely ineffective against their enchanted armor, high defense, and powerful defensive skills. The clearing slowly inched through the forest as the strongest of the knights cleared a path, his sword glowing and launching arcs of light that each cut down several trees at a time.

At that moment, one of the mages fumbled, and their magic circle flickered. The mage knight called out and the lead knight raised his hand into a fist.

“Break!”

The mage knight thrust his staff into the ground and a barrier appeared over the entire group. The mages and knights walked into the center and plopped onto the ground, then supply carriers moved to distribute food, drink, and potions. The Legion troops formed a perimeter of Bulwarks and Slayers as some Exploratores spread potions in a circle around them, then the mage knight dropped his spell. A mage from the Imperial Necrotorum began to chant, and the ring of potion began to glow with black and purple light. Plants wilted and decayed as they tried to grow over the perimeter, allowing the Slayers to cut down the remainder from behind the Bulwark’s shields.

It was not perfect. A thorn passed a shield and lodged into a Bulwark’s shoulder. A vine wrapped around a Slayer’s halberd and pulled him forward. There were injuries, and even a death as the vines pulled a soldier into the decay field. But the Legion held, and neither monster nor corrupted plant made it past the perimeter.

After a short while, the mage knight once again formed a ring of fire around the perimeter. He nodded at the lead knight as the knights and mages rose to their feet. The lead knight gave the command and the Legion dropped the defense as the knights took their place. After a quick moment to assess and treat their casualties, the group continued on their way.

And so the assault on a new Overgrowth dungeon continued…

Emperor Lucius and Aedile Hortensus sat in the war room. All around them, Legion staff rushed about. Magister Peditum Ausonius was receiving their reports and issuing commands.

“Reporting: Velus’s Pass and the Gap of Vindex have cleared their dungeons! They say they can start deploying legions in three hours!”

Magister Peditum Ausonius nodded.

“Tell them they have one, Durocobrivis can’t hold out much longer than that. What’s the situation in Mestayanga?”

“The Black Hawk Order has arrived and is beginning their assault!”

The Magister nodded.

“Good. And the Imperial Academy?”

“The Imperial Guard is on site and an assault is already underway. Reports indicate the dungeon should be cleared shortly.”

Magister Peditum Ausonius sighed in relief.

“Good, once we can, let’s get some senior mages over to Dhor Thoram. Then, it will just be up to Magister Verrucosis to handle Elteno and we’ll be in the clear.”

Emperor Lucius took a deep breath, resisting the urge to sigh as well. It appeared they would make it through the night, even without the Queen of the Dobhar. He then frowned and turned to an assistant of his.

“Any word from Consul Noxisius or Magister Appius? I trust their business was important enough but it has been a while, has it not?”

The assistant frowned and shook his head.

“No word as of yet, Your Majesty.”Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Emperor Lucius furrowed his brow. He felt deeply uneasy on that course of events. What could be so important as to draw away the Consul and the Magister Exploratores on this night of all nights?

Just then a soldier burst into the room, dripping sweat and breathing heavily.

“Magister Peditum, urgent report from the Corvanus Limitanei!”

Magister Ausonius groaned and held his head. Emperor Lucius sucked in his breath.

And there it was. Magister Ausonius then nodded at the soldier.

“Report.”

“Consul Noxisius’s villa has been attacked, and the whole thing went up in flames! Reports are saying the Queen of the Dobhar was involved! Magister Exploratores Appius is on the scene now.”

Emperor Lucius blinked at this news. He stood completely still for a second. And then he gave in to his feelings, and held his face with both hands.

Just what was going on?!

Everyone was exhausted after the end of the day, and so separated to their own rooms. NSLICE-00P spent the night monitoring Ateia’s condition. Her condition was…anomalous. Ateia’s cybernetic components reported an organic body that was healthy, if displaying signs of significant fatigue, but that was also giving off non-standard readings. NSLICE-00P could not as of yet interpret those readings, though she did detect Holy mana among them. Ateia’s own cybernetic components was receiving data they could not fully interpret, NSLICE-00P’s analysis revealed it was somewhat similar to the effects of the Divination spell. Still, with Ateia’s state as it was and given NSLICE-00P’s own failed attempts to modify the Divination spell, she predicted it was risky to attempt any sort of interference. So she simply allowed whatever was happening to Ateia to happen while monitoring her vital signs…

Fortunately, no further physical damage occurred, and the night passed without incident. NSLICE-00P joined the others for a morning organic refueling, then Lafrenia led them to a private room where they could talk. Agedia and Taog both turned to NSLICE-00P with serious looks on their faces.

“Ok shiny girl. I let it go last night given the circumstances, but now that we have a moment let’s hear it. I want to know where Ateia went, and to head there myself. I won’t be able to calm down until I see her alive.”

Taog nodded his agreement. NSLICE-00P’s robotic eye flickered as she checked over Ateia’s state. Ateia had not fully recovered, but had stabilized at this point.

“Acknowledged.”

NSLICE-00P subsequently deployed Ateia from the hangar into the room. Agedia, Taog, and Estrith jumped at her sudden appearance.

“That was…um…”

Agedia shook her head and tried to focus on the important parts. She walked over to Ateia and poked her arm, activating every skill that would see through an illusion. By every measure she had, it appeared the girl was real. She put aside the question of where in the world Ateia had been, and how exactly NSLICE-00P recovered her without a magic circle or anything similar for now, because she had other questions.

“You gave her new armor, huh, shiny girl?”

“Affirmative.”

Taog furrowed his brow.

“Wait…Seero…didn’t you say you couldn’t remove your armor for some reason?”

“Affirmative.”

Taog’s frown deepened.

“And…this is the same kind of armor?”

“Affirmative.”

“That’s…”

But NSLICE-00P cut Taog off.

“Statement: Diagnostics on NSLICE Ateia complete. Disengaging standby-sentry mode.”

Ateia’s organic eye slowly opened. She blinked and then glanced around.

“Taog…Seero…?”

Her robotic eye then started flickering.

“Confused Query: What’s…happening? Last this unit remembers, she was some dark place with…with…”

Ateia furrowed her brow, then her organic eye widened.

“I…I was…gah!”

Suddenly Ateia clutched her head. Her robotic eye began to glow bright and she reverted to an expressionless face.

“Warning: High levels of stress detected among organic components. Initiating emergency intelligence-leashing measures, reinforcing emotional controls.”

Then Ateia blinked and she frowned. She then started to scream and clutch at her head.

“IT HURTS!”

Taog and Agedia’s eyes widened as Ateia rolled on the floor, swapping between screaming and an emotionless face. Her robotic eye was spinning and flickering rapidly while the skin of her organic half was starting to glow with an inner light.

“Ateia! What’s going on?!”

Agedia whirled on NSLICE-00P.

“Shiny girl! Do you know what’s happening? Can you help her?!”

“Analyzing…”

NSLICE-00P’s robotic eye flickered as her own emotional controls started to waver. From what she could tell, Ateia’s cybernetic components were attempting to apply emotional controls…only the process was not going well, and was obviously causing Ateia’s organic components some distress. Neither NSLICE-00P nor Ateia’s cybernetic components understood how that was occurring, and so did not have a solution for this particular problem…but as Ateia was stating that damage was occurring, NSLICE-00P leapt to respond in any way she could.

And technical support protocols indicated that when in doubt, reboot.

NSLICE-00P issued an emergency shutdown order to Ateia’s cybernetic half, immediately disabling all Ateia’s protocols save for the most basic ones required for the techno-organic interface to function. Ateia’s robotic eye dimmed and stopped flickering, and Ateia stopped screaming. Instead she curled up on the floor, holding her head and making quiet sobs. As Ateia seemed to have stopped receiving damage, NSLICE-00P deferred rebooting the disabled protocols, deciding to analyze what had happened first. Taog hesitantly reached for Ateia's shoulder.

“Ateia…are you alright?”

Ateia flinched. She suddenly leapt to her feet and ran from the room, covering her face and looking away from everyone.

“Wait, Ateia!”

Taog immediately ran after her. Agedia moved to follow at first, then frowned, crossed her arms, and turned to NSLICE-00P.

“…NSLICE-00P, what just happened?”

NSLICE-00P’s robotic flickered rapidly. Her own heart began to beat faster as her emotional controls dropped in efficiency.

“Uncertain Response: This unit…lacks data to give a suitable answer.”