The Skeletons that emerged from the openings in the chamber walls were not made of bone, but of dark metal.
Each one stood at nearly 7 feet tall, and moved slowly with mechanical precision. On a second look, they appeared more like robots than like skeletons.
Strangest of all was their skulls: each one bore an uncanny resemblance to the Iron Mind, with the only difference being an angry orange glow in each of their eye sockets. One of them wore strange armor, which seemed to have once been made from shiny steel, but was discolored horribly as if someone had sprayed it with a flamethrower.
The other two each bore a weapon, with the one on the left near Pandarus holding a curved single-edged sword, and the one on the right near Mathew and Era Belle holding what looked like an oversized wrench.
They also had exposed rib cages, and within each one sat a large crystal, glowing with the same orange light as their eyes.
"Are these perhaps relatives of yours, Dread?" Ophelia asked as she set the oil lamp on the ground behind her.
"Oh, shut up. I've never seen them before in my life." He replied. That elicited a rare smirk from her.
She held out her hand and summoned her mirror sword, and he pulled his spear out of the divine realm. Pandarus already held his knife, pointing at the skeleton before him.
"Dokkebi!" He called, and the Nightspawn growled like a feral dog, flying straight at the enemy. Its talons slashed at the skeleton's metal face, but didn't leave so much as a scratch.
Mathew stabbed his spear at his own enemy, hitting it with a quick flurry of thrusts. Each time the tip struck his enemy, a burst of golden flame was created. However, the spear glanced harmlessly off its collarbone each time, and the flames didn't seem to do much either.
"I thought numens could cut through normal materials!" He yelled, taking a few steps backward.
"These are not normal materials," Pandarus said, his words terse. He moved to try to get a strike against his own opponent, but as he did so, his opponent's sword ignited with a deep red and black flame. "The Hell…" He yelped.
His dagger glowed white, and some invisible force moved him two meters to the left, helping him avoid a potentially lethal strike.
"Dokkebi, Back!" He shouted the order, then called over his shoulder to the others: "These things are armed with Numens! What are they?"
Ophelia had also realized that she couldn't seem to damage her own skeleton, and the one she was facing was armored on top of that. At the very least, it wasn't armed with weapons, so she was merely avoiding getting grappled by it.
"These creatures… If their composition is similar to that of your skull Dread, then they themselves might be numens of some kind… perhaps the creations of some alchemist." Ophelia said
"How are we going to fight them then?" Mathew said, trying to keep out of reach from the strange wrench numen.
"That shall not be much trouble." She replied, and dropped her sword. It disappeared before it hit the ground, and in her hands it was replaced by the weapon she had stolen from the bounty hunter: The Chakram of Avarice.
She ignited it with black-crimson flames, and then turned away from the armored skeleton, instead rushing toward Pandarus. She threw the chakram without slowing her pace, and it flew toward the skeleton facing him, crashing into its blade and forcing its arm to swing outward.
By the time the chakram returned to her hands, she was within striking range. She struck its arm once, twice, then a third time until it severed completely, crashing to the ground.
"The flames of Avarice destroy Numens with ease." She said, and then kicked the fallen sword to Pandarus. "With that we should be able to dispatch them easily."
As soon as Pandarus picked up the weapon, however, a loud creaking sound came from the armored skeleton. Mathew looked in its direction and noticed the discolored armor on the skeleton glowing a faint pink color. A wave of energy shot from the armor, slamming into everyone in the room. Only Era Belle, who was directly behind Mathew, was shielded.
A compulsion similar to the contract overcame him, forcing him to start walking toward the armored foe against his will. Pandarus and Ophelia, Dokkebi, were also caught in the strange charm and flew directly towards the skeleton. The skeleton caught the Nightspawn in its hands and began to squeeze him.
Dokkebi squealed, but could not break free of its grip.
"I… will not… obey." Ophelia managed to say, and she thrust her hands toward her feet. Mathew saw the twisting of air around her, and Ophelia's body stopped moving.
He didn't need to use his true sight to know what had happened: Ophelia had used the Chains of Order on herself, rooting her feet in place.
Pandarus wasn't so lucky, and he had been forced to turn his back to his enemy. The now one-armed skeleton began to slowly follow behind him, and all Pandarus could do was let himself walk even faster toward the armored one.
Mathew tried to resist the pull, but he couldn't. Why was he always forced to act for someone else? Was this all he would be for the rest of his life? A slave?
He heard a soft yelp behind him, and he craned his neck to see Era Belle stumbling away from the Skeleton with the wrench. It was no longer swinging it at her, but was instead holding it toward her like some magic wand.
The smell of sulfur filled the room as a bronze colored flame started to form between the teeth of the large wrench, growing with every second. Era Belle was backing away, holding her arms in front of her face as if to shield herself.
A second compulsion hit Mathew, that of his contract. He had been ordered to protect the girl
In that moment he realized that he was caught between two conflicting orders, and for the first time since Ophelia had enslaved him, he had a real choice.
He rushed toward Era Belle, letting his body follow the compulsion to save her, and threw himself in front of her. In the same moment, he swung the butt of his spear at her.
The shaft connected with her abdomen, throwing her to the side and sending her onto her back.
At that same moment, the flames that had been building up shot out of the wrench numen and crashed into Mathew.
He screamed as he was burned alive by the bronze-colored flames, his self-healing kicking into overdrive to keep him in one piece. The smell of sulfur mixed with the smell of burnt flesh.
When the flames stopped, Mathew fell to his knees, his body smoking. But once the pain began to fade, and clarity came to his mind, he looked up to face his opponent again.
"What exactly are you made of?" He said, his voice hoarse from screaming, "How can I even kill you?"
He activated his True-sight, hoping to see a clear weakness. In the divine realm, strange Grey mist was coming off of the skeleton's entire body, like water evaporating. The wrench glowed with a bronze light, and two large matching lights existed in the skeleton's skull and in its ribcage as well.
A bronze string that looked almost like wire was connecting the light in its skull to the light in its ribcage. Mathew wondered if that was the strange orange crystal..
Was it some kind of power source maybe? A battery? Mathew was still thinking of the creatures as robots.
"Then, let's try this," Mathew said, using his spear to prop himself back up. The skeleton held out the wrench and began charging up another flame. Mathew wouldn't give it the opportunity.
He thrust his spear between its ribs, impaling the crystal in its chest. Golden flames exploded outward from the tip, the crystal shattered like glass, and the illusory wire in the divine realm was severed. The two lights in it's eye-sockets were extinguished along with the glowing bronze lights in the divine realm.
The skeleton stopped moving completely, now lifeless, and the wrench's flame went out as it clattered to the floor.
As soon as Era Belle was safe, the compulsion to walk toward the armored one hit him once again in full force.
"Guys!" Mathew yelled. "Its life force comes from the connection between its skull and the crystal in its chest. Break the connection!"
Pandarus responded immediately to the warning. Right before the skeleton behind him reached him, He activated the bone knife in his left hand, and it glowed white.
He was lifted a few centimeters off the ground and sent hurtling through the air towards the armored skeleton. Right before his collision with it, the curved blade in his right hand ignited with crimson-black flames, and he decapitated it.
The eyes in its severed skull died, and it released Dokkebi from its grasp. The charm on everyone in the room faded, allowing them to move of their own free will again.
Ophelia released the chains of order on herself and turned to face the final opponent. She flung the flaming chakram in a deadly arc. It passed by the slowly approaching skeleton, cutting a deep gash in its neck as it did so.
Then the Chakram hit the far wall of the chamber, bouncing off of it and sailing directly backwards towards its owner. It connected with the other side of the skeleton's neck on its return, severing its head completely this time, before returning to Ophelia's awaiting hand.
A bead of sweat fell from her forehead and splattered on the ground.
The fight was over.