They did not have to wait long, as the mistress emerged from the tower with a corpse in her arms, in a bridal carry. Jel approached first, but barely uttered a sound before the mistress dropped the corpse and, with a massive smile on her odd armor-face, grabbed her into a crushing hug. “Ah, look at you!” she cried, crushing tighter and forcing Jel’s simulated spine to revert to slime. The mistress paused for a moment before letting go and holding her at arm’s length, “Oh, I’m so sorry! I should have thought more about my strength! Are you alright?”

Jel nodded, remaking her spine, “Yes I am, mistress,” she said, “Watch,” she said as she morphed her body into a replica of the mistress’, though she was much weaker in every way, “I chose to become a slime that can mimic things,” she explained, “Pride just became a hot guy.”

“As did Idle, Desire, and you, with the form you have taken,” Pride countered, shaking his head.

The mistress chuckled, “Stop fighting, you two, and tell me how your evolutions went! Come on, I’m sure you both did fine!” she encouraged with a smile. Jel got a nice warm feeling in her chest at that, with how accepting the mistress was to them. She accepted them as a mother, something they could never repay her for. Jel explained her evolution, with how she traded power in her bigger two forms for power in her smallest form. It was not to the point that her dragon form was weaker than either of her other two forms, but it was not an indomitable and unstoppable force like most dragons without smaller forms were. What made up for her dragon form’s relative weakness, however, was that her mind, the thing that did not change between forms, was extremely strong. She explained it all to the mistress, making sure to leave nothing out. At the end of her explanation, the mistress was smiling widely and pulled her into another, less spine-breaking hug, “Ah, you did well, Jel. Are you happy with your evolution?”

Jel only needed a moment to answer, “I am,” she replied, returning the hug, “Thank you, mistress.”

“Your welcome,” the mistress replied, “Now then, what about you, Pride?”

Pride stepped forward, “I made sure to strengthen my largest and original forms, while leaving this form to be what I use for comfort during research and the like,” he explained, “I chose to make a core, but I do not think that it is as standard as the rest of my siblings,” he admitted.

The mistress chuckled, “Pride, don’t worry. Idle over there gets power from just staying still, as well as defending others. Desire gets hers from fulfilling the desires of others. Fury has a rage core from the system. Crave turned his memory into a core, becoming more powerful with every thing learned. Whatever you choose to do, I won’t judge,” she said, smiling and approaching Pride for a hug. If it were anyone else, then Pride would have stepped away, but the mistress could not be denied any acts of affection. He stood there awkwardly as the mistress gave him a tight, restrained hug.

Once the mistress stepped away, Pride gave a small smile, “If that is the case, then my core empowers the things that I put time and pride into. A spell could be strengthened if I am proud of it, or an attack, or an amulet. Anything, really,” he explained, showing a rare sign of nervousness in his eyes looking around.

The mistress, as expected, grinned widely at Pride’s core, “That’s great! Just make sure that you take your time and be proud of what you do, alright?” she asked.

“I will, mistress,” he replied.

The mistress smiled, nodding as she stepped back towards the corpse on the ground. It was only then that Jel noticed the clock lady, VII standing there with a warm smile on her face. “Now then,” the mistress said, “I’m guessing you four have a reason to be here together?”

They all nodded, “We do,” Jel said, “Can we fight the Cyst?” she asked.

The mistress paused as she bent down to pick the corpse up. The hesitation was gone in an instant, however, and she turned to them when the body, one of an armored dwarf, was in her arms, “Do you four think you can win?” she asked, “Because I’m not letting you leave unless I know for a fact that you can win without getting too hurt.”

Before they could reply, VII put a hand on the mistress’ shoulder, “I think they are enough,” she said, “Like I said before, Cysts are meant to be stealthy, and being armed to the teeth is not only useless when being stealthy, but is also actively detrimental. That Cyst may be much more heavily armed than a normal Cyst, but it is a Cyst at the end of the day. I think they can do it,” she explained, smiling a bit with her off-blue skin.

The mistress gave VII a glance, then nodded, “Alright, fine. I trust you, VII. But please help them. If you do, you can have most of the wreckage; you haven’t been able to have fun like I have been, so it’s only fair.”

VII’s face lit up with a brilliant smile, “Thank you so much, Mori!” she said, giving the mistress a hug and turning to the four assembled death knights, “Alright, come on then! I haven’t been able to have fun for weeks!” She herded them towards the skiff in the wall as the mistress told them to not hurt themselves. They eventually reached the wall and, after flying up to the top deck of the Kharon, VII gathered them around her, “Alright, here’s the thing about Cysts,” she began, “They are meant to be a seed for a Hive to be put in far-off places. They are not meant to ever be found, and if they are they are supposed to rely on the other clockwork units to deal with enemies.”

“But that one was shooting massive cannons at the Kharon,” Idle countered.

VII sighed, “While they were not supposed to need to rely on their own weaponry, my sibling was not naive enough to believe that it would never happen. They are armed with three cannons, normally, but that one has thrice that, along with a growing retinue of flying long-ear units. This means that, while you four are dodging constant cannon fire, you will also be harried by flying fire spitting clockwork units.”

They fell into silence of thought for a few moments before Jel had an idea, “So, we need to stop them from attacking us, then?” she asked, VII shrugging to her suggestion, “Alright, how about this: we storm the Cyst first, destroying as many weapons as possible before the Long Ears appear. Two of us fight off the Long Ears while the other two disable the Cyst. How’s that?”

“I think it’s fine,” Fury replied, “But who does what?”

“I should be one of the ones to fight off the horde,” Idle remarked, “I can handle a long, protracted battle easily if I am defending.”

“I should mention,” VII remarked from the side, “That it would be in all of our best interests to take the Cyst out with a surgical strike. The dynamos within them were not designed to withstand being torn in twain. The Cyst dynamo especially. There may be a dangerous magical explosion if you destroy it.”

They thought that over for a moment, “Then that means that Fury and I would do best,” Jel concluded, “We both have powerful human-ish forms, so we can dive into its guts and take the dynamo out without causing an explosion. However we do that.”

VII smiled, “Cut off the mana pipes from the mana dynamo. That will starve everything in the Cyst, from propulsion to weapons. After that, I would also destroy the core of the Cyst, a unit similar to a forgeheart but without as much processing power. You can probably find the core in the very center-top of the Cyst, while the power source is right below that,” she explained, “I can actually help you four, if you would like. Cast a temporary invisibility spell on all of you and let you ambush the Cyst. It is still barraging the shield, though, so it will be ready to fight.”

“Wait, it is?” Idle asked, a scowl suddenly on her face, “I can’t hear it at all,” she growled.

VII chuckled at Idle’s annoyance, “You shouldn’t. The dwarves modified the shield generator to block out sound and dim the constant light. Look up there,” she said, pointing at the hole in the roof. They did so and it was nothing but a cloud of smoke rolling around, “It’s clever-- something I plan on using myself, but that’s beside the point. Are there any other preparations you four need? In fact, what spells do you want?”

Jel thought about the question for a moment. She and Fury could use an invisibility spell, but giving one to Idle and Pride would not really need invisibility, as they were meant to be bait for the horde of flying fire spitters. “How’s this: invisibility for us,” she began, pointing towards herself and Fury, “And some other enhancer for you two,” she said to Pride and Idle. “Can you do something like that?” she asked.

“I can indeed,” VII remarked, holding out her hands. In an instant, sigils filled her hands and clustered into four clusters of mana. Two were similar while the other two were different from each other. She pressed her hands forward after a moment, turning herself and Fury invisible. Pride and Idle, on the other hand, both became more… present, somehow, “Alright, basic rundown is this: Fury and Jel are invisible while Pride and Idle are more distinct and noticeable, while also being a bit more durable. Go and get them now, since the spells won’t last long, even with the amount of mana I put in there,” she said, shooing them all upwards. Jel did not waste time, launching herself upwards and through the smokey shield. Luckily, the smoke was just that, and there were no shells raining down behind it. She did not waste time and sped upwards into the moonlight.

She easily caught sight of the Cyst, a fortress-sized metal island with walls as big as the island atop it. Cannons, interspersed between the four towers of the outer walls, aimed towards the hole next to the mountains and fired their payloads all at once. They soared above the ground, above her, and fell towards the hole. A pair of roars raged out from the hole, but Jel did not linger, shooting towards the Cyst without looking back. As she approached, a bay in the island under the fortress opened and a swarm of bat-like Clockworks flew outwards.

That bay was her target. She flew into it just as it was closing and landed onto the ground with a quiet thud as it sealed shut. She had no way of finding Fury without exposing herself, so she simply found her way into the halls of the Cyst and forged on.