As soon as the Mashers and the Nightshade sisters finished downing all the potions they burst into the door, going into the lab with weapons and spells ready. A tall and bulky dark grey machine in the shape of a person turns around, a magic screen showing a hologram of a human face on it. “I specifically requested not to be disturbed. Oh, you three returned, with help. I'm going to assume you're going to try the tired old kill thy creator shtick.”
Racknar points his weapon at the machine. “It's nothing personal, but usually when someone goes down the path you have it's because they are seeking power for power’s sake or looking to rule the world. I'm not going to stand by as thousands die as collateral damage. Even if you have good intentions it's difficult to wage a war without that, unfortunately. I know because I think about it everyday as I step forward in my plan to improve this imperfect world.”
The Machanicus puts its metal hand to its holographic face. “This is the part where as the so-called villain I monologue about my backstory, my motivation, my plan. Yes? Well it might be easier if I have props. Come with me and please don't break anything.” He starts walking. Racknar follows with his weapons with everyone else behind him. Bella complains. “He could be taking us to a room he plans to fill with gas or some other kind of trap. You're just going to follow him?”
Racknar sighs. “He's not going to try anything until after the monologue. It's like an unwritten rule. And because there's a chance he'll impart important information we're going to listen to the entire thing.” The Machanicus chuckled. “Here I thought you were being a gentleman, but in actuality, you are nearly as logical and practical as I.” Racknar sighed. “It's more out of experience. You'd be surprised how many times I've run or been in a similar situation. You could say this is just like the simulations.”
The Machanicus tilted his head and rubbed his chin. “Simulations? Interesting. Well then I suppose you'll allow me to provide my exposition now. You see, long long ago I was a humble archeologist for the Empire. A thankless job where we buried anything that didn't fit into the Empire's narrative. But I secretly kept these things, cataloging the true history the Empire would rather remain hidden. Of course I had no intention of exposing the Empire, I just wanted to know for myself. I was young and eager back then. But then I found something that changed the course of my life.”
The Machanicus walked over to a wall with a curtain covering it, and removed the curtain to reveal a mural that had likely been taken from the wall of some ancient temple. Racknar looked at the mural that depicted two large figures, one an Eldritch entity with tentacles and bat wings and the other a four armed crystal behemoth of equal size with smaller figures behind it. Racknar recognized a few of the smaller figures as gods of various pantheons and even some angels. The mural seemed to depict a fight between the two titanic figures with one getting backup from the gods of this world.
The pictures ended with the tentacle entity being sealed away and placed someplace far from the universe being protected by the crystal entity and the gods. Racknar practically lit up. “Oh hey I know this one! It's the story of Crystalus versus uhh… I think they just called him Azathoth after the Lovecraft god. He's basically the high god of the ancient Illithid and other beings of the Far Realms. After this Crystalus breaks apart into a sort of asteroid ring around the realms. A few fragments ended up in the realms and became the first Shatterkin Geodes.”
Krys'tal looked at the mural as their inner lights flickered strangely. “So this guy is what? Gaining power to prepare for the return of Azathoth?” Racknar put his hand to his chin. The Mechanicus then explains. “It took the power of all the gods together plus this entity that thanks to you I know no longer exists just to imprison this thing. Now the infighting among gods has only gotten worse. Even if they unified with the help of the demon lords it might not be enough. What the realms need is one entity with the power of all the gods and angels and even demons. I plan to gain enough power to challenge them and take their souls to add to my power so that none, not even Azathoth may challenge me. I'll become the one true God the Church worships that you and I both know doesn't exist.”
Racknar let out a long exasperated sigh. “Every freaking time. I swear. It's so frustrating. It genuinely pisses me off. “Oh ho, Azathoth will awaken, escape his prison, and destroy the realms, oh ho.” Fuckin horse shit, no one ever gets it right. Always assuming it's some malevolent force like a devil Lord that wants to burn the realms to ash. Look, I'm going to put this bluntly. The only reason he was causing problems is because the realms were in his way. Azathoth doesn't give a single fuck about the realms. He could be free of his prison and floating about the endless void of the Far Realms happy as a clam because there's little to nothing big enough to crash into that'll disturb his slumbers. Banishment was the best thing that ever happened to him.”
The Machanicus shifted back and forth. “You mean he doesn't even care about losing a fight to the gods? No desire for revenge?” Racknar started laughing. “All that power and logic here you are still thinking on the scale of an emotionally driven entity. Azathoth crashed into the realms while doing a cosmic level sleep walk. Then when that woke him up he thrashed about. Basically a cosmic scale natural disaster. He doesn't think or care about the realms because if he did we wouldn't even be here because this”
Racknar gestured to the mural. “This happened billions of billions of billions of years ago. We're talking about the infancy of the cosmos. Hell, this is what split the inner rim realms into parts to begin with. This world probably wouldn't exist without this event.” The Machanicus made a number of sounds. “Well… even without the threat of Azathoth the gods are cruel and callous beings. So I suppose my efforts won't go to waste.” Racknar puts his face on his hand and shakes his head. “So now you just want to be the one true God because the gods suck? Having one person with all the power is more likely to make things worse.”
Racknar did some stretches. “Alright, is the exposition monologue all finished? Then we can get to ending your story here Because I bet you can't win without stopping time..” The Machanicus laughed. “I don't need that spell. I’ve spent nearly a thousand years traveling through Purgatory and the Endless Abyss. Gaining knowledge, perfecting my craft, gathering rare and magical materials. You really expect to beat me?! You and what army?!” Racknar's fangs curled into a smile. “I'm so glad you asked.” He took out the badge of Arachne and lifted it. He then rapidly started clicking his mandibles together and adult black iron spiders started spawning in and surrounded the Mechanicus.
The robotic figure laughed. “Am I a joke to you!?!” As the spiders leaped at the big bad he put out his hand and did a swirling gesture causing a whirlwind of fire to go around him burning the small army of spiders leaving charred corpses that still flew to him. He then saw red hot glass jars strapped to the spiders with a mix of black powder and glowing red crystals in it making a hissing sound. “Oh fu-” There's a massive explosion as the spiders all detonate, shaking the entire building with the shockwave. The Machanicus stood there with his body looking slightly scuffed and covered in soot. “What the, how?!?” Racknar roared. “You can resummon a specific entity if you know their name. I named every one of those spiders myself just for this.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
The Machanicus laughed. “You sacrificed dozens just for a few scratches?!!? And here I thought I was heartless.” Racknar roared again. “No, they sacrificed themselves so I could do this!” Racknar took a step and more spiders jumped at the Mechanicus with him using an ice spell this time to freeze them in a circular wall of ice around him. This blocked his vision of Racknar so he couldn't see that he was coming in from behind. “Reckless Infernal Strike!” Racknar swung down with his weapon and arms giving off lightning sparks. But he wasn't aiming for the Machanicus, he was aiming for the ice wall.
The Machanicus turned to see the magical lightning coursing through the ice wall and hitting the frozen spiders and activating the jars filled with powdered magic crystals filled with lightning magic that exploded into balls of lightning that were all drawn to the metal body of the Machanicus. Marionette and Anna tossed knives at the robotic figure, Krys'tal and Bella hit him with cold spells, Donna cast Entangle to keep him from moving, and finally Ariagoria went in with her mace light with holy fire. “Divine Strike!”
Despite her slamming the white flaming boarded mace right into the Machanicus’ face it didn't seem to do much damage, only slightly denting the head. She then slapped the metal with her open hand. “Quicken cast, Heat Metal.” The holographic face showed widened eyes after she said that, a loud cracking is heard as the cold metal is rapidly headed before Racknar slams into it with six lightning boosted strikes taking a chunk out of his armor.
The Machanicus roared in anger and frustration. “None of you are alchemists or artificers, so how the hell do you know about that reaction and the fact it works on Adamantine!?!” Racknar chuckled. “How in the Nine Hells did you think we got past Gallows so easily? I'm a reborn from a world without magic, everything is done the hard way with skill mechanics, electricians, and scientists far beyond any alchemist of this world. Sudden temp change fracture was taught to children.”
The Machanicus let a mighty roar. “Fine then, I'm done playing games with you maggots, it's time to crush your pathetic squishy flesh into mush! Stop time!” The world became discolored as everyone and everything besides the Mechanicus stopped moving completely. He took a step backwards, away from Racknar and the other melee fighters. He pointed a finger at Racknar ready to cast a spell. “Oddly enough, it seems the Barbarian is the mastermind here. I'll end this quickly. Power Word: K-” He hesitated when he saw Racknar's arms jerk.
“T-there’s no way-” The Machanicus stopped before casting the spell, still pointing. “No, you knew I had Time Stop and baited me into not using it out of pride because you were too foolish, poor, or in a hurry to manage a counter. There's no way you did that if you had a counter set! But then again, this Barbarian is deceptively clever…” He took a step to the side and Racknar's sword arm twitched again. “Fuck it, Power Word: Kill!” He shot a black beam into Racknar doing heavy damage. “Hah, that's what I thought. I'm not sure how but you arranged a trick to fake me out.” He charged up the spell again, this time point blank pointing at Racknar's head. “Power Word: K-”
The discoloration ended as the time stop duration ended, and Racknar swung his enchanted weapon at the Mechanicus hard mid-cast, pushing him back with a shield bash and breaking his concentration. He stumbled but stood upright. “How?! I should have had enough time to cast two full high tier spells!” Racknar started laughing. “You hesitated to talk shit didn't you. On top of that you also hesitated when you saw my arm move. Stop Time has a limited duration and doesn't literally stop time. Because if it did then the air itself would act like a solid and the caster wouldn't be able to move. In addition, forced movement spells still function even if the person is in a sort of stasis and is unaffected by gravity until the spell ends.”
Racknar reached into his bracers of defense and pulls out dark metal rods. “I slipped powerful magnets into my bracers knowing they would be drawn to that body of yours if you got too close. I'm normally plenty strong enough to resist the pull but if I can't move outside forced movement suddenly I can't resist the pull. You were so afraid I had a counter you hesitated and wasted your time and your spells. Now there's nothing in your arsenal you have access to that's enough to end this. You are outnumbered, outgunned, and surrounded because you wasted precious time and resources second guessing yourself.” Davy pointed at Racknar and enthusiastically declared: “That's a mother fucking JoJo’s reference!”
The Mechanicus let out a growl. “I'm not done yet, this is now a war of attrition and my body is basically unbreakable.” He then cast a dark spell that caused the bodies of the party and the dolls to decay a bit. Racknar jumped in to attack but before he could the Machanicus backed off at high speed. He pointed at Racknar and declared: “Dual cast, destroy greater item.” Causing Racknar's swords to dissolve. He then moved in a blur again before pointing at Racknar a second time. “Dual cast, destroy greater item.” This caused Racknar's shields to dissolve. “Now I've tipped the odds farther in my favor by crippling a huge percent of the damage your group can deal to me.”
Racknar sighed. “You seemed more pissed about the damage to you then the damage to Gallows who saw you as a father. What's up with that?” The Machanicus looked over at the spider in the distance with Gallows on its back. “That thing is nothing but a tool, a sentient weapon that follows orders like an obedient lap dog.” Little did the Machanicus know however, is that Ariagoria had used silent cast and maximize magic on mass cure wounds followed by a minor healing spell to recover a lot of health for five people. Since any healing spell she casts results in her also being healed even if not a target she forgoes healing herself to instead heal Gallows and the second spell to wake him up.
Racknar's fangs curled as Davy, Bella, and Donna all fired spells at the Mechanicus. Since everyone on the allied team was under the effect of a potion of haste they all cast their spells twice. Davy used firebolt followed by Eldritch Hunger. Bella hit him with the ray of fire spell twice. Then Donna used two uses of thunderwave. This caused another section of the Mechanicus’ body to break off. Krys'tal then fired six ice enhanced arrows with Marionette and Anna smacking his head with their swords doing little damage. Racknar then came in and started punching at the machine with his bare fist, sending eight punches rapidly into the robotic man.
Racknar’s fists were ignited in flames with the first and fifth punch being further enhanced by Racknar using his reckless and infernal strikes on them. During the second use he actually managed to significantly dent the metal without any gimmick. The Mechanicus started foul casting Fireball while under the effects of haste himself, allowing him to rapidly cast it four times in just six seconds.
Ariagoria quickly goes to work on recovery for the group. “Twin cast maximize magic, mass cure wounds.” She felt herself draining on mana, and wasn't sure how long she could keep this up. Since she was under haste she was running through mana twice as fast even without twin casting. She did one last round of healing and felt shaky. Hopefully it would be enough.
The Mechanicus started charging another spell. “I'm done playing games!” Then a voice comes from right behind him. “So am I.” Gallows swings his ax hard aimed right for the head of his creator. “Reckless Abyssal Strike!” The attack landed, cutting the head off the mechanical menace. It flipped to the floor and rolled as the body dropped. Racknar chuckled. “You made that guillotine blade out of Adamantine, didn't you?”
The distorted and robotic voice came from the separated head piece. “You were healing him instead of one of your own the entire time near the end there. I'm more powerful, smarter, better in every conceivable metric. But here I am, I'm the one with his head on the floor. You've been playing me from the beginning, haven't you? You could have played stupid to get me to underestimate you, I'd hazard it's something you do often. But you let me know how clever you could be so I'd overthink and second guess.”
Racknar laughed. “I knew exactly how to play someone like you. I should be dead, and I'm definitely close despite resistance to damage while raging and other factors. By all means we should have lost. But here we are, half dead while you have my ugly mug as the last thing you see because I won via psychological warfare before the fight even started.” The Mechanicus let out a sigh. “Damn. I guess I'll have no choice but to leave this world in your hands.” The hologram closed its eyes before the screen went dark.
Racknar then opened up the Dimension Door and with the help of the remaining spider dragged the body into it. “Giving this to Lisa because adamantine. She can rebuild my weapons and maybe more. You know the drill Mashers, take anything that isn't nailed down.” The dolls looked at one another, then shrugged. “So I guess us four siblings just… do our own thing?” Bella asked. Racknar chuckled. “I have a town in Bramble that's a safe place for even someone like you to rest. It could be your new home.” Donna leaned over and looked at her sister. “Please say yes.”
The party, beaten, brushed, low on health and magic, all finish collecting things from the building including broken dolls and animated armors before limping out of the building and walking back to the cart to take the trip home with three new allies in tow.
