Mori and Fara worked through the night, working for so long that VII eventually returned to them still working on the necromech. When she arrived, the core room was in disarray. Scrap parts were scattered about around Fara and ATHENA while Mori had a pile of discarded papers strewn around her, even as she wrote on another one. VII looked between them, then to the half-completed model in the center of the room, and sighed, “Have you two been working like this all night?” she asked.
Mori barely glanced VII’s way as she continued to write, “Yeah. What’s the matter?” she asked, “Is there something wrong?”
“No, but I did meet Fara’s dad.” Upon VII’s declaration, Fara whipped her head around with a baffled expression, “Yes, I did meet him. He’s been worried sick about you, Fara. Did you at least ask one of the undead to tell him you were alive?” Fara shook her head and VII sighed, “Alright, that’s fine, but you’re coming with me. He collapsed from exhaustion working on a tank to go get you.”
Fara showed her confusion while Mori’s writhing soul strands paused in interest, “Hold on, a tank? Huh, now that I think about it, no one has really thought about something like that before on Granulous? That’s kind of weird. Anyway, what do you think of our newest idea?” Mori asked VII.
VII turned to the model of the necromech with a critical eye, looking at the entire structure for a long minute. She then nodded, “The design of the armor’s good, as expected from you two, but I can see a few minor problems. Actually, you’ve got the same problems your father has,” she said to Fara, “Minor things that have very small effects, but since we’re feilding so many of them they become important. I can spruce it up a bit with you, but I want to see what Mori did…” She made her way over to Mori’s desk, looking at the current iteration of the necromech reanimation spell. She looked for a moment, then a moment longer, then sighed, “Mori, you’re thinking too much about this,” she said, much to Mori’s surprise, “You’re putting too much emphasis on the way the undead will be able to control the shields, and not enough on the strength of the shield. You could easily make a chain like ‘Fuel,’ ‘Thought,’ ‘Shield.’ That would let the undead control the shield with their thoughts, which is exactly what you want. Doing that, you can remove a bunch of this stuff,” she said gesturing to the complex system Mori created for the undead to control the shield, “And use it to make the shield itself stronger. Or have different effects. Or anything like that. But do you see what I’m getting at here?”
Mori nodded, taking yet another piece of paper and quickly implementing VII’s advice. She had to admit, it was a lot less complicated without all of the convoluted control systems, “Yeah… so, I can add some more effects to the shield… I’ve got an idea…” she said, her mask grinning like the reaper in a plague, “Shields aren’t exactly, you know, only used defensively. What if the necromechs can make it into a sword? Or some extra armor? In fact, what if they can enchant it?” Mori’s mind raced as more and more possibilities popped up and were either modified or completely disregarded.
She was getting an idea of what she wanted to do, but she was given a rude awakening by VII, “Mori, do you even know how to let your undead cast spells?” she asked, “I can help you with that, since it’s pretty easy, but you have to plan things you are able to do on your own. Okay?”
Mori huffed, but appreciated the help anyway, “Yeah, alright. So, how’d your visit go? Actually, why did you visit Fanrik?” Mori asked, “I thought you would bring Fara along if you were going to do that.”
VII chuckled awkwardly, “Well, I ran into someone who was not having the best of nights, I stopped him from being murdered, and I didn’t really have anyone or anywhere to bring him to apart from Fanrik and here. So, since I doubt he would have been very kind if I brought him to a necropolis on treads-”
“Mother, I am not a necropolis,” ATHENA interrupted, quirking her one eye-like lens.
“I know that, sweety, but I’m just saying what it looks like. To other people who don’t know the arrangement we have here, it looks like a necropolis. Most mortals don’t notice the fact that the undead around here are as much mechanical engineering as they are expressions of magical might and creativity.” She turned back to Mori and Fara, “So, yeah, I was helping a young man and I could only really bring him to your dad’s house, Fara. He was and still probably is worried about you, and he built a tank to prove it,” she sighed.
Fara showed her confused expression once more, “Uh, what’s a tank?” she asked, “You say it like I should know what it is.”
Mori snapped her fingers, “Oh, yeah, you don’t know what a tank is, do you? Remember the armored clockworks we salvaged?” Mori asked. Fara nodded, “Basically that, but people control it from the inside.” Fara thought for a moment, then nodded. Mori could tell that it made sense to her, and so turned back to VII, “Alright, so Fanrik collapsed after building a tank to find Fara. Alright, so are we going to pay him a visit or something?”
VII nodded, “I think Fara at least needs to. He looked very, very tired.”
Fara nodded, “Alright, in that case, I’ll go see him. It’ll also be a chance to ask him if he wants to leave with us,” She said, smiling, “Hopefully he and mom want to come along; I think it’d be really lonely without them.”
“Aww, what about us?” Mori asked, a grin on her face. Fara chuckled, walking over and giving Mori a hug. Mori hugged back, trying not to let any of the strands of her body grab onto Fara, “If you’re going, I might as well go too, since I’m the one who was invited by the gods anyway, and if you want to invite your parents I should explain it all to them.”
Fara nodded, standing up straight and looking at ATHENA. The AI seemed to already know what Fara was about to ask, “No thank you. I would prefer not to be dragged through that dense fortress, thank you very much.”
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Fara nodded, “In that case, we’ll get going. Are you going to keep working on the necromech, Athy?” ATHENA bobbed her head, “Okay, let’s go, then.” Neither Mori nor VII objected, Mori only staying behind to tell ATHENA that she wanted the death knights to practice their skills with the new Talonecs within ATHENA’s body.
They made their way to the sands of the field beyond the fortress, morning sun bathing the area in light. Walking up to the gate was an annoying experience for Mori, since the guards were far more scared of the trio than was really necessary. Walking though the streets was similarly annoying, with men and women shying away from them as they walked. Mori knew it was because of her appearance as what was essentially an armored lich. The walk was, otherwise, nice. There were no artillery barrages, which Mori found nice, no distant gunfire, and no streams of shattered steel and broken men and women. She found it nice, but the occupants of the fortress were obviously of a different mind. They showed extreme fear, looking around nervously even when they did not notice Mori and her posse.
The walk was nice. That was, however, until an unfamiliar man in very familiar armor stepped out into the middle of the street with a group of similarly armored men. VII, who had been leading them, stopped with Mori and Fara doing the same. There was a moment of silence that passed through them like a breeze, and Mori simply watched the men stare at their group. A moment later, the leading man stepped forward, “You’ve got a lot to answer for, woman,” he said to VII, “Do you know who I am? Do you know who you’re defending?”
Mori almost immediately did not like him. Just once, she wished she could find an actually gallant knight, but perhaps that was too much to ask for from a city-state that clung to feudal hierarchies despite there being better, more effective ruling systems just a city over. VII, similarly, was not impressed, “Yes, I know who you are, I knew who you were when I strangled you, and I never cared in either case. So, what’s your plan here? You have, what? Twelve guys? Facing off against a lich whose army is literally all around here.”
The man sneered at them, “She’s just a can of bones right now,” he laughed, “Even if her little freakish toys are all around, they can’t stop us from killing you three, can they?”
Mori suddenly felt offended. And pity for the man. She hadn’t a clue as to why they were antagonizing someone whose undead controlled the army in all but name. Despite her pity, though, she still felt offended, “You know, that ‘can of bones’ you’re talking about is right here. And a damn good mage. You attack me, and while I may not kill you, I’ll leave you wishing you were…” She hated make threats. She hated having to put stupid people in their places. In spite of that, she was willing to use her psychic influence to put them in their places. They threatened her and her friends, as well as calling her children freaks. She was ready to make the man eat his words.
The man glowered at her, drawing his blade, “I’d like to see you try,” he taunted. Mori instantly sent a flash of fire at his legs. A blue barrier blocked the flames, the fire being driven into the ground while the knight sneered, “Is that the best you got?” he asked.
Mori was certainly not impressed. She decided to try something new to defeat the man, something she had been neglecting for a while. She drew on her psychic powers, manifesting them into standard reality. There was a deafening moment of silence as the red strands wove around each other and melded, turning into a blood red short sword. While she was not trained in the blade, she could at least use it in her offhand, “You want my best, then?” she asked as the knights stared at her sword, “Then let’s get started.”
She wrote a quick rune on her blade, igniting her blade’s edge into a burning inferno. She grinned as the knights all withdrew their blades, rushing towards them. She fired off a pair of burning beams with her right hand while she slashed as the leading knight with her left, the former being blocked by shields while the latter was parried by the knight. The man tried to slash at her, but she threw her shoulder into his chest, sending him stumbling back while she lashed out with her sword once more.
He was able to block it, but he was thrown to the ground a few feet away as a result. She would have celebrated her victory if she were not surrounded by knights. They all surrounded her, blades facing her while they closed in. She was perfectly capable of simply leaping from their encirclement, but she had a better way.
With a stomp of her foot, the ground trembled, making the knights stumble. Seeing her chance, Mori rushed the closest one, a scale-covered chimeric with three eyes, and slashed the man’s chest. No blood was drawn, thanks to her fiery blade, but the man was thrown and tumbled to the ground and, with a kick from Mori, he was left unconscious.
Mori whirled to meet the next knight, who had managed to raise his greatsword high and was bringing it down. Mori grinned and met the blade with her hand. There was a horrendous screeching of metal on metal as the blade clashed with Mori’s hand. She looked at her hand, noticing the lack of steely sensations coming from it, and saw that the shield from the armband was there, cloaking her hand in golden mana. She laughed, ripping the sword from the knight’s hand and using the pommel to pummel the man. A few swings later, he was also unconscious.
Mori turned to the rest of the battlefield, only to see the knights backing away. They were all scared of her, she knew it, but there was a single exception. The man who VII had strangled stood tall with a furious scowl on his face, “You…” He paused, staring at her. His eyes flickered over to the side where Fara and VII stood, not having moved. A grin split his face and Mori knew what he was about to do. She rushed to meet him as he took is first bound towards them.
He did not even land his other foot on the ground during his sprint when a wrench slammed into his forehead, thrown from behind Mori. The man stumbled, fell, and rolled a dozen feet, sliding to a stop before Fara and VII. Fara gave the man a half-hearted kick as he lay there, unconscious.
Mori turned around, seeing a pair of somewhat familiar faces. One had bags beneath his eyes, glaring with anger that, if there was such a thing, could only belong to the god of rage. Beside Fanrik was a thoroughly annoyed Juka, standing with her arms crossed as she stared at the knights. There was an awkward moment of silence before the knights made an orderly retreat, leaving their comrades behind.
Mori turned to them and smiled, “Hey there! We were just coming to visit!” she said cheerily, dispelling her blade and runes, “How are you doing?”
Fanrik stared at her for a long moment, rubbing his eyes, then staring once more. He then nodded, “Better. New armor?”
“It’s complicated,” Mori replied.
Fanrik nodded, then turned to Fara. There was a moment of silence before He dashed up to her, pulling the woman into a hug that looked painful to even Mori. With her enhanced hearing, she could hear Fanrik whisper to Fara, “I’m so glad you’re safe…” Mori smiled, and let them embrace.