Chapter 149

The machine gun above my head began its conversation with the enemies we met on the drive to the house where Regina's base was born. And though I am not a fan of unnecessary violence, I was glad to hear that voice, the voice that brought death to the enemies who had come to this world to conquer it.

Though after learning a little about the elves, I began to doubt that their ultimate goal was conquest. It was possible that they were just going to distract my attention and try to attack Caer Morhen themselves. But they would fail, even if I took some of the Aldecaldo Order with me, there were still enough of them in the fortress to repel an attack five to seven times more powerful than the ones we'd repelled even in our most dangerous days.

And all because some of our defensive weapons have not yet been used, which means that no one knows about these capabilities but us.

Our convoy flew through the city, and I continued to ponder and monitor the weapons systems until the cars stopped in front of the house where Regina was located.

"Okay, I'm going into the building, you guys take the defense, the Hunt wants something here, specifically they want Regina as one of Knight City's fixers. I think they're gonna use it as a springboard to take over the city. So don't let them get in... at least from now on, and I'll take care of the ones in the building."

I got out of the car and walked calmly to the building, from which a couple of creatures immediately rushed at me, followed by an elf with a sword. And a little farther away stood two elves with automatic weapons... However...

I turned on the sandi for only a split second to assess the situation, then turned it off and moved to the side, so that the elf who was coming at me would block the line of fire of his comrades. Unfortunately for them, they had little, too little experience in using weapons like assault rifles. So the elf running at me didn't understand anything.

I managed to get the tonfa in two blows and simply cut the energy blades of the creatures running at me and took a blow with my sword, which began to melt from such barbaric treatment from its owner. The elf didn't have time to react, because I literally cut his blade with a scissor-like motion.

"What a nuisance..."

I shook my head and tore forward.

The elf tried to draw his dagger and stab me with a melted piece of sword to gain a few extra seconds, but his sword hand was cut off, as was his hand that reached for the dagger. And the next moment I crashed into him with my shoulder, literally shoving him into the building, while he was still being shot at, but the armor he was wearing, though it couldn't stop the bullets, but the bullets stuck in his body.

Five more steps, and I shove the mangled elf away from me and with two blows I first silenced their automatons and then cut their lives short.

"Ha..."

I didn't understand what the elf who was shot by his own comrades was saying, and it didn't matter, just by getting close to him I cut off his life with one blow.

"You should have stayed in the middle of nowhere the way you were before... you would have lived longer. Now, for many of you, death is all that awaits you."

I said the words very quietly and headed straight for the elevator. Of course Regina had warned me that the elevator wasn't working, but I didn't need to.

One hit and the tonfa calmly entered the elevator doors cutting through them, and then I pull it out, and taking a small grenade off my belt I quickly dismantled it. It was a grenade that would freeze everything in the area, but I didn't need it, instead I used the refrigerant it contained to cool the elevator doors.

Of course, if this were a normal civilian elevator, it would be possible to open it without such tricks, but this was a building Regina had changed a lot. The doors couldn't be opened easily, so once I was sure the hole I'd made was cooled, I simply grasped the melted edges of the doors and slowly opened the elevator shaft.

The elevator wasn't on the first floor, so I looked inside and pulled out my harpoon and shot it to maximum height, then activated the coil and began to climb up very quickly.

The call from Regina distracted me for only a fraction of a moment.

"YOU'RE AN IDIOT!!!!"

Regina's scream echoed inside my skull at how expressively she expressed her emotions.

"Regina?"

"You think I don't have defenses in the elevator shaft?! I almost went gray when I saw you breaking into the elevator shaft."

She was literally yelling at me, trying to convey to me that I was very wrong to choose this way of invading her home.

"What an expression..."

"You idiot..."

This she said tiredly and somehow doomed.

"Regina, it's not like anything happened..."

"Yeah, yeah. My elevator shaft is booby-trapped, and if I didn't enter the code in time, you'd be dead before you could say, "Oops."

"Ahem..."

I tried to look embarrassed.

"Regina, did you happen to forget that while I was on my way to your place, you gave my roner access to your house's system?"

"But not the codes!"

"Not codes..."

I nodded, and when I reached the spot where the harpoon had been stuck, I quickly unhooked it and attached a new tip to the cable. This time I aimed for the bottom of the elevator, which prevented me from going around the side of it.

"But Kiwi had plenty of time to hack into the system, so as soon as I chose to go through the elevator shaft, she immediately disabled all the security systems in the shaft. Except she couldn't open the doors, because you've just de-energized them.

There was a question in my tone that Regina couldn't help but hear, though I didn't use a questioning tone.

"Well, that's kind of the surest way to lock the doors, so I just pulled a couple of fuses and that was it... The doors were locked."

"I see..."

I heard an approving chuckle in my voice.

"...the right decision..."

Harpoon pulled me to the elevator, and I hung from one arm while I used the other to pull out a tonfa, which I used to cut a hole in the floor. I swung myself inside the elevator, and then bounced calmly to open the hatch at the top of the elevator.

Climb out onto the roof of the elevator and use the harpoon again, now heading for the door, which far above was already open.

"I see you've already opened the door for me?"

"What can I do?"

There was sadness in Regina's voice. I used dumb male strength and a crowbar. Just have your ranger activate the security system when you get upstairs.

"Sure..."

A couple minutes later, under the watchful eye of Regina, who was holding a gun, and a couple of her assistants, I climbed up to the floor.

"Well, hey..."

"Hi..."

Regina snorted and took a step forward, wrapping me in a tight hug.

"Thank you for coming. it means a lot to me."

"Regina, you're not only the fixer I work with, you're my friend. So leaving you in the lurch wasn't an option. You better tell me, are you all packed? I think we're going to the afterlife."

"Uh, no."

Regina interrupted me.

"What? I thought you and Bestia were more or less friends."

"We're friends, but that doesn't change the fact that it's too hot in there right now, and if it's just the two of us in there, it's creepy what's going to happen."

"And still..."

I shook my head.

"...It would be easier to defend yourself there, though really I'd like to just take both her and you to safety."

"There's no such thing in this world right now..."

Regina looked at me carefully.

"You just answered a question yourself that you didn't ask."

"Not in this world, then?"

"Yeah..."

I looked at her.

"You'll stay with me at my new base, and then you can come back here if things get better here or I'll help you get settled there. It'll be harder for you to get settled there, though. It's a medieval and chromatic world."

I shook my head.

"I understand, but I have to think, uh."

"No problem..."

I shrugged.

"...we still have to get out of the building and get your databases. Where are they, by the way?"

Regina grinned and slapped herself on the hip where a small belt bag hung.

"Hmm... I thought it would be worse..."

I shook my head with a chuckle.

"...I thought now I'd have to haul the servers, think about how to get past the enemies so that they wouldn't damage them... At the very least, I was counting on having to haul a bunch of hard disks..."

"Well. six months ago, that would have been the case."

Regina shrugged.

"But recently I realized that with portals, giant servers don't provide the necessary security for the information stored on them, so I was concerned about upgrading some hardware."

"I see..."

"Well, let's get outta here, shall we?"

"Yeah..."

The girl nodded at me and pointed toward the exit of the apartments, which she had combined into one. I went to the exit, and when I was in front of the door, I simply kicked it open.

"Actually, I could have opened the door..."

Regina's voice held judgment and a slight sneer.

"Uh-huh?

I gave her a feigned surprised look and shrugged.

"I should have told you sooner, and now I think we should go down to the floor below after all..."

"Yeah... It's times like this that I regret remodeling and breaking up the stairwells so they're not in the same place."

I turned around a little and managed to notice Regina grinning sadly.

"Well, there's actually a way to get down extremely fast, but I doubt you'd appreciate it..."

"What, the elevator shaft?"

"Yeah..."

I nodded a couple times at that assumption, which made Regina squirm like she'd eaten a lemon.

"I wouldn't really want to resort to that method."

"I'm not forcing it, I'm just saying it's an option."

"I get it. Let's go downstairs."

I decided to go for an internal channel of communication with Kiwi for starters.

"How's it going in there?"

"The five floors nearest you are clear, so you can come down safely. I'll let you know."

"Thank you..."

Thanking Kiwi, I relayed her words to Regina, and we began to descend extremely quickly. Though I had to admit, the obstacle course Regina had turned the building into was a little annoying. Even so, I continued to walk stubbornly through the corridors and rooms, heading for the next flight of stairs, then another and another...

"Careful, the enemy is close..."

Kiwi's warning was a bit late, as I had already heard machine gun shots for several minutes, which were just approaching us. More accurately, we were getting closer to them and periodically heard someone snapping back with another small arms weapon

If Becca had been here, she would have been able to tell from the sounds of the gunfire what kind of weapon our opponents were using. But she wasn't here, so all I had to do was raise my hand to stop the procession.

"Stay out of the way..."

"We understand."

Regina answered for both herself and her aides, after which they hid around the corner, while I kicked the door sharply and activated the sandi.

A quick inspection revealed that the enemies were huddled behind small obstacles, partly composed of the bodies of their own comrades and partly of massive, pothole-covered shields.

I didn't turn off the sandi this time, but it would be foolish of me to use it to its maximum. These are not the kind of opponents for whom it would be worth accelerating to my maximum...

However, this acceleration allowed my opponents to notice me and to open fire at me from behind cover, which hit me where I was a second before. Still let now the bullet flies faster than me, but it is still necessary to direct the weapon. And the elves just didn't have time to redirect their weapons.

I, on the other hand, didn't give them a chance either, getting to them and killing them with my tonfa.

"Hey! Clear!"

That shout from my side made Regina and the others come out of their hiding place and follow me. I nodded to the camera mounted on the machine gun, through which Kiwi must have been able to monitor the situation. And the machine gun made a nod with its muzzle.

"Come on... we have a lot of work to do..."