“The smoke they breathe maintains that illusion! There isn’t a single sane person in the Bellum Empire anymore outside of us! But you –! You were able to kill a Knightmare! With your help, we can –!”

“Firstly, while they are our enemies, it is not our goal to fix what is happening in the Bellum Empire.” Frost crossed her legs and erected her posture, appearing higher than the woman as she looked down at her. “It is not in our best interests either. We’ll be drawing too much attention to ourselves. The moment they catch wind of my existence is the moment everything fails.”

That gaze judged Gerina.

The woman could not even bring herself to conceive of a word to convince Frost to help her. This was the truth. Frost wasn’t here to fix the Bellum Empire from top to bottom. That was Gerina’s goal. There were many more dire problems at hand.

Northern Grandis was ultimately her biggest concern.

However, she could not in good conscience do nothing. After all, one of the biggest problems was the Bellum Empire itself.

If she left it alone as it was, then it would only benefit the Impuritas. Furthermore, the talk of elevation brought her mind back to the Sins, Uriel and the Seeds. The Moons were strong, but if the Impuritas had an ace that let them bring forth multiple Monsoon or Eternal Night entities to fight for them then they were at a severe disadvantage.

They had less than 20 Moons at their disposal. 30 if one included the Black Moons. It would be like casting them straight to their deaths. Frost was glad that she let Galia take the commander role in this upcoming conflict.

“Cer. What did Galia say about it?”

“She’s already taken it into consideration.”

“Good.” Relieved, Frost deeply inhaled and masked her sigh with a thoughtful hum. “Gerina. Northern Grandis is our destination. But before that there are a few things I seek in your Empire.”

She placed a hand onto the table, levelling herself with Gerina to ease the tension. A spark of hope emerged in her heart as she held her breath.

“I want to stop what the Corpse Snatchers are trying to achieve. There is a means to the madness beyond just ‘Elevation’. Your people are being used as a material for something catastrophic.”

And if it has anything to do with the Piece of the Fallen Star, then it’d revolve around desires. The Nex Megalopolis was the perfect breeding ground for it. If the Bellum Empire is a utopia, then it’d make sense for it to be the next one.

“We don’t know if that is the case. To begin with, the Seeds were what charged the Piece of the Fallen Star. Their desires were made realized through false Corruptions en masse.”

We’ll know soon enough. The goal is to stop whatever they have planned and take them out in one fell swoop… A symphony of elevation. Consolidation of power…

They were missing something.

Though they knew the end goal, they didn’t know what it entailed. It caused Frost to lower her gaze, allowing Gerina to finally gush her heart out.

“I know! I also know what they want!” She proclaimed. “I know at least that they’ve been trying to kill me because I have royal blood! So long as I’m alive, then they can’t keep everything under control!”

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“Oh? Finally, you’re starting to make some sense.”

“Silence, Cer. Explain.”

“The Grand Arcana Sentry Towers! All five of them are split perfectly across the Bellum Empire! If they’re planning to make my people subservient to them at a large scale – then those towers are their means to it! I’m the key!”

The Arcane Sentry Towers and the Grand Arcana Sentry Towers were installations that defended the Bellum Empire from the Anids, Insectids and all manners of creatures at their borders with the Grand Wetlands.

Additionally, several smaller Arcane Sentry Towers were sprinkled between each city.

“Any mage worth their title will tell they shouldn’t be there! The towers aren’t even connected to a road or a city to defend! No routes or mana to draw from in sight! They’re spaced in the middle of nowhere! Our Arcane Towers uses our Gift! All five of us – me, my sisters and my parents – are intertwined with it! But I –!”

She threw her seat back and removed her garbs, turning her back to reveal the tattoo of the Rising Sun

“– Am a Greatmage endorsed by the Grandmasters of the Golden Dawn! As long as I’m alive then I have control over those towers! I’m your key! So please…!”

Her hands fell back onto the table, her bare breasts obscured by her lowered head.

“Please help me. If you’re a Goddess or a Deity. A Color. A machination of light… Abraxas. Anything. You can stop them from achieving what they want! That’s all I need! So please, we can work together! If I die then we both fail!”

Frost’s feathers didn’t fully rustle.

“It would be convincing if more than just one Knightmare was sent after you.” Frost saw said, causing the woman to wince as she lowered her head further. “It makes no sense that they’d let you slip by so easily. Either their arrogant, or you’re not the only one with the keys.”

“… My family as well, but so long as one tower doesn’t comply… then the Aztra Res cannot be activated.”

The Aztra Res was her Kingdom’s Gift that originated from the Timeless Ruins. Gifts found outside of the Eternal Library were incomparable to what the Beholders possessed. However, there were two things to consider.

The first was that these lesser Gifts were still incredibly powerful. They were the remnants of the Old World, including technology created or obtained before and after the Captured Star.

The second was that the deeper one went into the Timeless Ruins, the more powerful the Gift they could plunder. Gifts from the Depths were still incomparable to what the Beholders possessed.

But was the same for what was buried within Deep Time?

“Amplification?” Cer recognized the Aztra Res. “The noisy thing we kept hearing? The bells?”

“You heard… it?” Gerina slowly looked up at Cer. Her words were tangled with confusion, and she nearly slipped from the table due it. “I don’t understand what you’re talking about. We’ve never had it active for as long as I can remember.”

“Not around your time. I heard it all the time during their calls for war.”

“How… old are you?” Gerina knew that the Aztra Res existed as their Empire’s treasure, but she had never witnessed it in its active state in the past 32 years. At least not in the same vein as Cer described it as.

“Old enough to remember them.” Cer sighed, suddenly showing interest in the princess as she pulled herself from the wall. “It’s a magical amplification tech. But it can mess with sound too. You can project your voice from kilometers away. That’s how the towers are able to fend off Anids with weak magic.”

It empowered magic and sound. At first it sounded like a Gift worthy of belonging to a Beholder, but Cer mentioned that it must have its limits as well.

“Justica Arms tried to get their hands on it. I have no fucking doubt that’s why that snake installed her 1st Branch in the North. I bet she wanted to steal it. Augurists could warn an entire country of a Corrupted in the blink of an eye. But that’s about as good as it gets. That’s why it’s not comparable to Beholder tech. I shouldn’t even be saying this out loud to this human, but…”

Cer crouched before the woman, taking a good look at her assets with hungry eyes. The woman was prepared to do anything for their help. If Cer demanded it, then so be it. Her pride was not going to let her lose this chance.

However, Cer reached into her Dimensional Storage and threw something at her.

“Wear it. You’re our key. It’ll at least keep you from accidentally dying.”

“… Appreciated…” Gerina gulped in shock.

“This was common knowledge, and no one said anything?” Frost scathingly spoke.

“You’re not getting it. Frost. Tch. It was unlikely for it to be involved. At all. Last I heard it was gone or swallowed by some giant Anid. There wasn’t any activity from it for over 30 years. You’d also believe it disappeared.”