Amelia and Ophelia: The Former Grand Duchess and Saintess.

Ophelia kept her gaze on the nine heads of the False Hydra currently attacking the barrier she had placed, their breaths of fire and ice doing nothing which engaged the hydra to no end. The heads then stopped as they pulled back and returned to the body, she could see them enraged by the subtle heavy breathing coming from their mouths. 

'Hmm, it's going to try something new' She thought as she kept her eyes on the thing 

{!} 

True enough, she saw the hydra rumble forward, its deformed legs making it waddle forward. The screaming from the tenth head was still going at it as the waddling monster was picking up speed. It then charged forward and nine of the heads slammed into the barrier, once again failing to bring it down and causing the monster to stagger back, its heads hissing and growling from the resounding impact. 

"WhO aRe YoU?" One of the heads asked as it tried to reorient itself 

"It can speak?!" Mckall asked with a shocked expression 

"Yes it can. It can make crude copies of voices and its intelligent enough to know and understand words, but it only uses speaking as a means of a last resort" Ophelia answered him as she stepped forward, moving the barrier as she walked, sending it forward and slamming into the Hydra

"wHo ArE yOU?!" Another head roared as it felt the barrier pushing it back

"I am the ruler of this land you are on, and I do not take it kindly that you are killing my people" Ophelia replied via telepathy as she kept walking forward, 

The False Hydra kept reeling as whenever it was able to stabilize, the barrier would slam into it again and again and again, sending the massive thing crashing to the floor repeatedly. Its heads were hissing at Ophelia every time she made the barrier strike it, it continued to back away until it realized it was now pinned to the wall, the barrier pressing it harder and harder.

"SSTTOOPP!" The Hydra called out as it was writhing in pain, 

"And why should I? You killed my people. If anything, you deserve to die" Ophelia replied as she made the barrier push harder and harder

The Hydra screamed in pain as it felt the barrier pushing down ever harder, cracking skin and scales while its back was against the wall, unable to move or even escape its impending doom. It kept screaming and trying to beg for mercy, its uncoordinated choir of voices howling in pain as it could feel pain shoot up all over the body. In a last-ditch attempt to free itself from the barrier's crushing effects, it stopped all of its heads from screaming and fired out a desperate barrage of ice and fire from each head while using its deformed legs to try and scratch or claw itself out, desperation filled its voice as it hissed and growled between each barrage but it was to no avail as the barrier quickly pulled back and then slammed into it in full force, causing it to buckle and slam into the wall behind it before being pinned to the wall again. 

{!}

But as it thought it was about to meet its end, the barrier had pulled back and allowed it to crash onto the floor, its cries had ceased but it was weak. The pain all over its body trumped any attempt to try and move, with purple blood trickling from the jaws of the monster. Only one of its ten heads were able to be lifted and it's glossed over eyes locked with Ophelia, a growl and a hiss came from its mouth, and it tried to lunge for one last attack of defiance but crashed into the barrier once again, the head recoiling from the impact and then falling to the ground. 

"Pitiful really. But I suppose it is fitting for a monster like you. Die" 

At her last word, Ophelia raised her hand and a hundred black tendrils shot forth, the tendrils turned into giant individual maws that latched onto the dying body of the hydra and began chomping away, with each bite taking a huge chunk of flesh. The Hydra could only let out a slight scream as it was being devoured. 

"Monster" Was the last word it uttered before dying. 

After a few minutes, Ophelia then turned her gaze back to Mckall and the rest of the Forge Retainers waiting for her, all of them speechless at the display of power before them, a monster that had claimed the lives of many of their own had been felled without much of a fight, the disparity of power was clear the moment it failed to punch through the barrier she had set up. The dwarves had heard from Rummok about her power and all of them had seen the Divine Beast Spithe call her master, but seeing her power up close and for the first time, truly showed them that the woman they revered as Empress was more than strong enough to have earned that title. 

"Right. Mckall, let's bury the dead and then tour the forges" Ophelia stated as she walked back to them 

"Understood Your Majesty, at once" Mckall said as he walked over to the elevator panel and activated a magic crystal underneath the call button 

"Mountaineers! I need a recovery team down here at once!" Mckall ordered 

"Understood Forge Master" The crystal replied 

.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

About ten minutes later, a recovery team comprising of ten people of different races arrived to 13B, all of them carrying tools and equipment but also medical stretchers and other medical equipment such as magic crystals imbued with healing magic. When the team stepped off the elevator, they saw the corpses covered in ash already lined up for them to take away, with Ophelia and the Forge Master standing over them and gently bowing their heads as they gave them a small prayer to send their souls to heaven peacefully. 

After the small prayer, the recovery team went to work immediately, gently placing corpses on the stretchers and shuttling the bodies up to the main office where they would place them on the side with another recovery tea and prepare them for transport to a morgue somewhere in the city. After another twenty minutes of moving the bodies, 13B was cleared, and everything was silent. 

"Right, let's go inspect the forges" Ophelia said as she turned to the Forge Master 

"Understood Your Majesty" Mckall nodded as he and the rest of the Forge Retainers entered the lift, instead of going to the Floor of 12B, they started by going to the 2B, the first of the forges. 

Arriving at floor 2B, the sounds of hammers striking metal were heard immediately the moment they stepped off the lift. The sight before Ophelia was a similarly large chamber but unlike the one before, this was was full of life, sounds and a working conveyor belt that snaked around working stations. Ophelia turned her gaze to the Forge Retainers and one dwarven woman with ginger hair stepped forward with a nervous look. 

"I am Forge Retainer Alyssa, Your Majesty. I am in charge of the entire floor and we are tasked with making weapons for our soldiers" Alyssa stated with a bow 

"Hmmm. Can you give me a rundown on the process?" Ophelia asked with a small smile 

"Of course! Follow me" Alyssa replied with a determined expression but with a still noticeable nervousness in her voice 

The Forge Retainer began walking down one of the paths off to the right and leading up into a gangway, with Ophelia following behind and the rest of the group trailing behind her. They walked past the conveyor belt in the chamber they were in that passed through the chamber wall and saw it continuing on past the wall, it snaked around the other chamber they were in and continued on past another wall that led into another chamber. Walking through seven of these chambers, each one filled with dwarves, lizardmen, elves, and other races busy hammering away at metal heated by forges or through magical fire and then using water magic to quickly cool them and then place them onto the conveyor belt to head to the next step. 

Entering the final chamber, Ophelia saw before her a sight of crates filled with unprocessed iron and large forges with forge workers smelting and making the first draft of the process. They poured molten iron into molds and made to set for a moment before they were then quickly cooled with magic, once the mold was removed, the rough shape of what the object was, either a sword, a halberd, a shield or even simple daggers and iron bows and arrowheads. 

"Ahem, so...this is the main smelting chamber where the rough molds are made and then placed on the conveyor belt leading to the other eight chambers. Each chamber further refines the weapon more and more until it had reached satisfactory refinement" Alyssa stated as she gestured to the workers 

"Hmmm, interesting system, a good use of the knowledge we had granted you" Ophelia replied with a nod before following Alyssa again 

"How about all the smoke and heat you must produce, I barely feel anything here" Ophelia asked

"Oh! We have pipes along the ceiling of each chamber that house cooling magic crystals to keep the heat of the room down and then we have the forges linked to exhaust pipes that lead out into the world but before they exit, we have air purifier crystals to turn the smoke back into breathable air" Alyssa answered as she gestured to the array of pipes above them

"Continuing on. Each chamber has a team of twenty forge workers that take a pair of weapons and refine them by heating them up again and hammering away the impurities, while also imbuing the weapon with magical energy with each refinement by placing a monster magic crystal into a slot they made after refining"Alyssa added, with Ophelia giving a nod 

The group stopped to watch one forge team do just that, with a purely metal spear finishing its first refinement, and as it was being cooled down, one of the forge workers took a magic crystal from a satchel on the side and placed it within the shaft of the weapon before sealing it with another piece of metal and then placing it on the conveyor belt to continue on to the next chamber. 

Making their way back to the main chamber they had come from, Ophelia saw that this was the final chamber of refinement with the nearly finished product and a final magic crystal being placed into the weapon and then placed on the conveyor belt one more time. Alyssa then led the group to the last chamber just past the room they were in, standing on a gangway, Ophelia saw the last chamber filled with boxes of finished products of weapons, but before they were placed inside boxes, there were mages that would chant into the weapons and activate the magic crystals. The chamber also had a large trio of iron doors.  

"This is the final chamber of the floor, where our mages who are talented in elemental magic chant into the magic crystals to activate them and give them a standby chant to ensure that these weapons are ready the moment they are given out to our soldiers who will then pour magic into them. Once the weapon's magic crystals have been activated, they are placed in a crate and then we either cart them off or use the wyverns to fly them off to our forts, military bases and storage depots" 

At the end of Alyssa's words, the trio of iron doors opened and in walked in a group of forge workers moving wheelbarrows, placing crates upon crates into these wheelbarrows and then carting them out to the exit and then unloading them onto large carts awaiting them on the surface and wyverns with their riders waiting on the sides. 

"Hmmm, is this the same for the rest of the floors?" Ophelia asked as she turned to the group 

"Yes, Your Majesty. Each of the floors have a chamber like this that leads to the surface, although the deeper floors such as floors 10B to 13B, require an elevator shaft that they use to send up the finished products to the surface for delivery" Mckall answered with a nod 

"And how are the tasks split amongst the thirteen floors?" 

"First six floors are dedicated to weapons and armor, the next four are for construction iron tools and building supplies while the last three are for agriculture equipment" 

"Then let's go check the rest of the them then" 

"At once Your Majesty"

A few moments later, Mckall and the rest of the Forge Retainers gave their empress a full tour of the complex. Showing her the different forge chambers and the numerous workers diligently fulfilling their duty in ensuring the best of quality to the items they were making. Such as when she was inspecting the way they had forged the plate armor for the Black Guard, although she knew how it worked and was the key designer in making the armor piece as it was based off on Erhet's armor, seeing the process of making the uniform plates and then placing harvested magic crystals into the plates before reforging them was a different thing all together, with nods of understanding and nods of approval given left and right as she inspected everything and enjoyed the detailed reports given to her by the Forge Retainer in charge. 

The system of the blacksmiths of the mountain complex was very simple by the way Ophelia had seen it so far since all of them shared the same premise of creating them in multiple stages with people specialized in that area and then just letting go ham and do what they are trained to do and then watch as they produce a lot of the item they had been assigned to, with quick and safe travels for the items via conveyor belt to ensure easy pick-up and ship out. 

After touring the last forge system, Ophelia and the group found themselves back in the office from earlier in the day, sitting around the table and enjoying some moments of peace. 

"I see. An interesting system overall. and to think this is the same system shared across each of these underground factories. I must say Mckall, the system you made with the information we had provided is truly something else. The streamlined production process allows you all to switch production on the fly and by the looks of it via the stacks of crates awaiting to be shipped, you are all very good at mass-producing what is needed. I am impressed, good work all of you" Ophelia stated with a smile, 

"Thank you for the praise Your Majesty. We are honored to be of service" Mckall said as he bowed his head, with everyone else doing the same 

"You do the empire well, remember that. Now, I shall be heading back to the capital, if there is any problem in the future that you mountaineers can not handle, ask the local Black Guard garrison for assistance. Or send a letter to me personally to handle" Ophelia added with a satisfied expression 

"Of course Your Majesty. It shall be kept in our heads moving forward" Mckall replied with a nod 

Ophelia then stood up, quickly followed by everyone else in the room who quickly bowed to her first before she returned it with a nod and then exited to the room. On her way out, she bid farewell to everyone in the building and then made her way back into her carriage, her eyes turned to the sky and saw several wyverns carrying crates flying away towards their destination, a smile on her lips as she could see the empire working like a well-kept clock. 

"Take us back to the capital driver" Ophelia ordered as she kept her gaze up towards the sky 

"At once Your Majesty" The carriage driver replied before the carriage began moving 

.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

When she arrived back at the Raven's Rock, she saw Ophelia standing outside waiting for her, a smile on her beloved's face when she saw her carriage come into view. The carriage had stopped when Ophelia opened the door and walked out, embracing her beloved Amelia who ran towards her and leaped for her, with Ophelia catching her in her arms and then the two of them sharing a kiss. 

"How was your trip?" Amelia asked with a smile 

"Good, and your plan?" Ophelia answered as she looked down at her beloved 

"It went perfectly" Amelia replied as she planted another kiss 

"Hmm, good. Good" 

After sharing another kiss, the dual monarchs entered the beloved palace and began walking towards their bedroom for some personal time. 

{!} 

But as they were making their way, an elven maid was sprinting and then stopped before the dual monarchs before bowing her head and handing them a letter signed and sealed by a unique-looking crest upon the candle wax. It had a demon skull flanked by two swords that were directed below it and there was a small message in black ink that read 

"The Bait has been taken" - Fulcrum  

The two monarchs shared a glance and smiled, it was about to expand their empire. 

A/N: And here we go! After this, we finally have the banquet chapter in the Demon Kingdom of Amma and I must say, I am really happy with how this and the next arc turned out. I hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it and if you got comments or reactions, leave em below for me to read and its a question, for me to answer. As always, Stay Safe and Enjoy Your Day!