Chương 294: Chapter 293 - Change of Plans

"Ready to punch Alexander the moment we find him," Annie said. Augustus nodded.

"I suppose that counts." She glanced at the line of mercenaries.

"Why did you pull the mercs from the Beastworld for this?" Talia crossed over to them, shaking her head.

"You really should listen to the briefings, Annie."

"I did!" Talia raised an eyebrow.

"It's not my fault I got bored halfway into it. You need to make the meetings more interesting." Augustus crossed his arms and sighed.

"Meetings are not meant to be fun. They're meant to make sure everyone knows the plan—""I know the plan."

"—and what to do if everything goes wrong, which plans often do," Augustus finished. Annie glanced between him and Talia.

"I may have forgotten that part."

"I know you did," Talia said.

"Which is why I'm here to remind you that if Augustus or anyone else in the line of command gives the order to retreat, you fall back behind the Triple S defensive line. Augustus will open a portal up to the mansion for everyone to escape, before we collapse the sanctum." Annie nodded slowly. Augustus shook his head.

"That's why we pulled the mercenaries. In the event something went wrong, we didn't want to leave them trapped on the other side of the Beastworld gateway."

"Ohhh. That makes sense."

"Perhaps my mother hit her too hard, too often these past weeks," Julia said.

"Oh, no, it's definitely the opposite," Gabriel said immediately. Almost like he'd been waiting for it.

"The more she gets beaten, the smarter she grows." Annie leaned around Augustus to glare at Gabriel.

"Is that your expert precog opinion? And can you see what I'm about to do to you?" Gabriel tucked his hands into his pockets and grinned.

"Hm… I'm not seeing anything. You must lack the resolve necessary to actually commit to whatever it is you're imagining." Annie scoffed, but before she could move, Augustus's hand fell on her shoulder again.

"Alright, that's enough," he said.

"Let's focus all that energy on finding our wayward leader and bringing him home." Annie stuck her tongue out at Gabriel.

"I bet you just saw that Augustus was going to stop me."

"Maybe," Gabriel said, still smiling.

"Are Grimnir always like this?" Caroline said, glancing at Maximilian.

"They must drive you mad." Maximilian sighed.

"Yes. Unfortunately. But they're even worse when Rooke is around. They're actually… tolerable, when they're not all together." Caroline laughed, then she nudged Julia, standing next to her.

"The more I hear about him, the less I want to teach him a lesson. Maybe I'll even forgive him if there's an interesting fight on the other side of the gate. At least then this trip will have been worth it." A speaker crackled from the security office.

"One minute to gateway activation. All units, final positions." Annie's breathing slowed. All across the sanctum, everything came to a stop. Conversations died mid-sentence. After a few moments of silence, people began checking their weapons and adjusting armor. The casual grouping broke apart as people returned to their assigned positions, all of which had been laid out at the briefing Annie had mostly slept through. Only then did she realize her MetaMetal had stopped rippling.

Annie glanced at Augustus and gave him a grateful look. He'd known. The banter, the teasing, letting Gabriel wind her up. All of it had been deliberate. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Then she frowned at the floor.

"He's going to be there, right?" she asked quietly. Augustus gave her a gentle smile and patted her on the head.

"It's Alex. It will take more than a world full of wizards to stop him." Annie forced a smile.

"Right. Of course."

"The Machine God is fine," Maximilian said. She looked over. The Dragon Lord had opened his eyes. He stood with his usual composure, but something in his posture had shifted.

"I may not know him as well as you, but I know this: Rooke is alive. There are a dozen threads pointing toward him in this room alone." His gaze swept across Annie, then Augustus, then the others behind them.

"And I cannot imagine that man being anything other than free and a complete pain in some unfortunate's backside, or dead." Murmurs of agreement rippled through the sanctum. Someone near the back laughed, quickly stifled. Annie snorted.

"That's true." The speaker crackled again.

"Fifteen seconds." Augustus nudged her back into position between Titanic and Caroline Delvane. Then he stepped back, returning to his own spot in the formation. She heard his spellbook rustling behind her as pages turned. Then shields sprung into existence around everyone. All around the sanctum, people tensed.

"Five seconds." Weapons slid free of holsters, sheaths, belt loops.

"Three seconds." Annie closed her eyes and exhaled. MetaMetal rippled from her shoulders, up her neck, before swallowing her head. At the same time, it rushed down her torso and finally her legs.

"Gateway opening." She opened her eyes. The overlapping metal plates forming the aperture began to rotate. They pulled back from the center, vanishing from the outer edge inward as the gateway opened. The courtyard on the other side appeared through the gap, the view quickly growing bigger. It was longer than it was wide. Metal walls on three sides, a heavy door at the far end. Two watchtowers had been built into the far corners, each manned by a pair of wizards in dark robes.

Rows of waist-high metal barricades were spaced in staggered lines, positioned to provide overlapping fields of fire. Walls bore burn marks and dents that appeared to have been hastily restored, while the floor had a fresh layer of concrete. Whoever had repaired the courtyard hadn't been worried about appearances. Caroline stepped forward.

"Change of plans. Give me a moment." Mid-step, she floated off the ground. Her arms tucked behind her back, one ankle crossing behind the other. She drifted through the gateway without urgency, rising gently as she crossed the threshold. On the other side, the wizards froze. For two seconds, maybe three, nothing happened. Then the shouting started.

There were dozens of wizards guarding the gateway, but they'd been positioned facing the wrong direction, more prepared to defend against something trying to escape their world than anything coming from the other side. They scrambled to reposition themselves, tripping over each other in their haste, and diving behind the metal barricades, grabbing what cover they could. Some wizards pulled wands from holsters, while others materialized staves. Spellbooks snapped into existence, pages turning with urgency.

Annie glanced back at Augustus, who had a hand in the air.

"Hold," he said. Flashes of light from the other side of the gateway pulled her eyes back to the action. The wizards were firing spell after spell. Bolts of energy, arcs of lightning, liquid fire, all streaking across the courtyard. All of it converged on the woman who floated casually in the air above them. And Caroline didn't dodge. Didn't block. Didn't even react as the attacks splashed harmlessly against her fitted white suit, energy dissipating into the air around her.

She drifted to a stop a few meters beyond the gateway.

"I'm just here to find my future son-in-law, but that is quite the welcome." She swept her gaze across the courtyard.

"And I do so love the acoustics in here." Maximilian tensed. His hand shot up. A transparent barrier snapped into existence across the gateway. Annie flinched at the sudden alarm on the Dragon Lord's face. She didn't understand why until she saw Caroline move. One instant, the Matriarch's arms were tucked behind her back. The next moment, they were pressed together in front of her. It happened so fast that Annie's eyes were unable to track, only witnessing the start and the end of the attack.

But she heard the clap. Even through Maximilian's barrier, the sound struck like a physical blow. The air inside the courtyard rippled outward, the shockwave tearing through the enclosed space, ricocheting across the walls. The closest wizards were launched off their feet. They tumbled through the air, mouths open in screams that Annie couldn't hear through the barrier. The wizards behind stumbled backward, hands grabbing at their ears as their faces twisted in agony.

The barricades slid backward across the ground and dust erupted from every surface. Even the distant watchtower wizards fell, slumping against the railings as the shockwave hit the far wall, only to rebound and ripple across the courtyard a second time. Caroline rotated slowly in the air, studying the concrete beneath her feet with a frown. Then she moved, blurring once more. She struck downward, landing on one knee, and buried her fist up to her elbow into the concrete.

The courtyard cratered around her, and the floor rippled outward from the impact, sending barricades and bodies launching into the air as the concrete cracked and split in every direction. Caroline tore her arm free, sending even more shattered concrete spraying into the air. Rising back into the air, she swept her gaze across the courtyard once more, then nodded to herself. She glanced back at the gateway and gestured for them to follow, then headed for the far door.

Maximilian's barrier broke apart, fragments of energy dissipating into the air. Augustus brought his hand down.

"Go." Annie launched toward the gateway. Julia beat her to the other side by a fraction of a second.