Zalroth stared up at the waning moon as the moonlight shined down on him; while Lola, Scarlett, Snow and Kusana were lazing about inside of his tails.
"Given the rotation and mana emanating off the moon, the next azure moon will occur in three months," Zalroth remarked to himself mentally from atop the wagon. Lola grabbed onto Zalroth's shoulder, lifted herself and rested on Zalroth's shoulder as she continued to tinker with the puzzle box.
"Papa, what do you think the ability of the azure gem inside the box is?" Lola asked as she slowly inched the box in front of Zalroth's face.
"I don't know, but it must be something pretty strong.". Lola nodded as she fixated all her efforts on trying to solve the puzzle on the box. The continuous clicking noises of the puzzle box made Kusana open one of her eyes. She glanced down at the corner of the book sticking out of one of Lola's tails. Kusana grabbed the book and pulled it out. Lola turned her head and looked at the book Kusana had pulled out; she realised that the book she had pulled out was the one with the bird, fox and wolf on the cover. Lola smacked her head against the puzzle box making Zalroth quickly take it out of her hands.
"Careful, you might cut yourself and you shouldn't get violent when you ca-". Zalroth paused when he heard a loud click eminent from the puzzle box. Zalroth and Lola glanced over at the puzzle box and were both surprised that the lid was open while the sound of Kusana, Scarlett and Snow were muttering to each other.
"Talk about using your head," Scarlett remarked, with her entire body excluding her face being completely submerged in one of Zalroth's tails. Zalroth handed the box back to Lola and she excitedly lifted the lid only for her excitement to quickly fade. Lola turned the box upside down and shook the box until a smaller version of the puzzle box fell into her palm. Lola let out a defeated sigh before attempting to try and headbutt the new puzzle box but Zalroth placed his hand over Lola's forehead.
"I think that's enough puzzles for today.". Zalroth took the puzzle boxes and placed them in one of Lola's tails. Zalroth rubbed his eyes as Kusana lowered the open book with the animal cover in front of his face. Zalroth grabbed the book and all the girls quickly huddled around Zalroth as he inspected the page's contents.
"Read..." Kusana demanded while pointing at the excerpt underneath the picture of an illustration of six figures each having a phrase scribbled next to them but it was too dark to make what was written down. Zalroth squinted his eyes as he read the words.
"The... six... heav... en-" Zalroth methodically said before his head was rapidly shaken by Lola and Kusana, with the two of them whining at him to read it properly. Zalroth coughed as Lola and Kusana calmed down.
"The six Heavenly Heros, fabled beings of a bygone era. Legends state that these six heroes appeared on the night of the first azure moon, later referred to as The Catastrophe of The Blue Night, along with a legion of blue crystalline monsters. The heroes effortlessly repelled the forces of the relentless crystal monsters and sealed them away at... hashtag-hashtag-hashtag-". Zalroth continued to say hashtag twenty more times until Lola waved her hand in front of his face.
"Papa you're not supposed to say it multiple times," Lola explained with an annoyed tone while Zalroth scratched his head.
"If that's the case wouldn't it make more sense to write redacted instead?" Snow asked. Scarlett glanced at Zalroth then back at the book.
"Why are they called the Heavenly Heros anyway?" Scarlett asked. Zalroth ran his finger across the page until he found what he was looking for.
"It says here that, scholars theorize that the origin for the use of heavenly is because it is believed that the heroes are the reincarnation slash physical incarnation of the Devine Lords, dash Prof C Calloukus.". The girls huddled even closer to Zalroth as they looked intently at the quote.
"Can you read this?" Scarlett pleaded. Zalroth looked at the paragraph Scarlett was pointing at, titled Azure Gems. Zalroth awkwardly averted his eyes and blinked a few times.
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"How about I give you a practical presentation tomorrow instead?" Zalroth offered. Scarlett and the others became excited and energetic at Zalroth's offer. Zalroth yawned as he turned to the next page.
Meanwhile, Callie wearing black yoga pants, a pink sports bra and her large fluffy pink hoodie carried the sheathed sun sword, the sword Zulcrestus used against the army of soul reapers, and a rucksack on her back through the halls of the airship. She stopped before a door labelled training facility and rested the sheathed sword on the ground before opening the door. Callie picked up the sword and hurried into the training facility. Callie hurried through the training facility reception and stop in front of the receptionist's desk.
"Good evening Lady Calloukus can I assume you're looking for Lord Zulcrestus?".
"You betcha.".
"Of course, well he's currently in the gym.". Callie thanked the receptionist before hurrying off. The gym's sliding door opened and Callie attempted to walk through but was halted in her tracks by the sun sword colliding with the door frame. She staggered backwards before turning sideways and shuffled through the door. Callie hurried through the gym and made a b-line for a tall tanned man, with dark pink hair, in white spandex, that goes up from his ankles to his wrists, as he was lifting a large black metalic cube over his head.
"Hey, Zuzu!" Callie yelled out. Zulcrestus flinched and banged the tip of his right white horn against the metal cube. Callie rested the sun sword and placed her rucksack on the bench closest to Zulcrestus. Zulcrestus sighed and the dark steel cube dispersed into a cloud that quickly faded away. Zulcrestus turned around and looked down at Callie with his agitated maroon eyes.
"What is it, Callie?" Zulcrestus asked as he itched the tip of his right horn. Callie opened her rucksack and started to rummage through it.
"Before I answer, you've got to try these new, casual, clothes I made you," Callie stated as she pulled multiple articles of clothing, including black gi trousers, Zulcrestus' pale golden knight gauntlets and a pair of pale golden fur winter style boots. Callie vehemently nodded her head, Zulcrestus sighed and picked up the gi. Zulcrestus put the gi, boots and gauntlets on and inspected them.
"What do you think?" Callie asked as she frantically ran around Zulcrestus.
"Well the gi is a little baggy but that was probably intentional, wasn't it?". Callie smugly grinned.
"Obviously, since the last time I gave you a gi you said and I quote; it tight-fitting gi is impractical, aka you don't like it." Callie disappointedly explained. Zulcrestus rolled his eyes and tightened the straps of his gauntlets with his telekinesis.
"Whether I like it or not the point stands that tight-fitting clothing is not only impractical but also deadly in some cases". Zulcrestus and Callie's bodies slightly shivered at the same time as they thought about the woman who nearly died from wearing jeans.
"Ok you got me there but who would've thought jeans could cut off your blood circulation," Callie remarked as she calmed her shivering.
"I assume you found some issues with the... what did you call it... templar armour?" Zulcrestus asked while he was micro-adjusting his gauntlets.
"Duh! I thought it would be cool on you, which it was, but I don't like not being able to see your face; so I'm giving you a redesign.". Callie quickly reached into her ruck and rummaged through it. She quickly pulled out an azure gem and a shorter version of the cloak from Zulcrestus' templar armour without the shoulder guards. She nervously handed the two items to Zulcrestus. Zulcrestus inspected the cloak while sweat was running down Callie's face.
"Shrunk in the wash?" Zulcrestus monotonously asked.
"It shrunk in the wash." Callie disappointedly replied while slowly nodding her head.
"I see...". Zulcrestus looked at the azure gem and gestured to Callie for an explanation.
"Oh, I managed to infuse the ability from the float magi-chip into the empty azure gem your students recovered, pretty cool huh.". Callie proudly crossed her arms and a beaming grin adorned her face, but her grin shrank as the lack of response from Zulcrestus made her nervously sweat. She slowly looked up at Zulcrestus as he stared at the azure gem.
"Hey!" Callie embarrassingly exclaimed while waving her arms.
"Huh? Yeah very cool." Zulcrestus absorbed the azure gem before he folded the cape, wrapping it and tying it around his waist. Callie intentionally coughed multiple times and Zulcrestus glanced upwards at Callie as she was holding the sheathed sun sword above her head.
"Behold the new and improved Novathane~" Callie cheered musically. Callie started to rant about the improvements and recalibrations she did to Novathane. Zulcrestus sighed and a chair made from dark steel formed behind him.
"So much for getting you to do some cardio," Zulcrestus remarked as he sat on the dark steel chair and rested his chin on his fist as Callie continued to rant.