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The orb of light led Karna to another testing site. This seemed to be one of the array arenas she’d been to before during the magic test. To her surprise, the instructor in charge of this test simply activated the array and entered it with her without even a word. “Recruit Wrath, reporting for testing.” She declared firmly as the instructor looked her way.
“At ease recruit.” The female instructor with a naga-like lower half replied. “I can sense you are an Aura user. This test is to determine the usefulness of your Aura abilities to transform into a magical beast. While this array has been arranged mostly for testing purposes and secrecy, you should know that you won’t likely be able to hide any other form for very long so you might as well take this chance to reveal what you have so we might best utilize your abilities. You can transform now.”
“I have more than one form.” She reported without moving.
"The most powerful one will suffice." The instructor clarified.
“Most powerful in what sense? I’m not being difficult on purpose ma’am; the different forms are simply more powerful in different situations.” She had to point out again. “I would prefer more specific instructions.”
“Let’s say a generalist situation against a large number of varied enemies. Our Aura users are most often used as shock troops to disrupt enemy formations, so one that isn’t strictly for speed or magical support.” The instructor had become curious instead of impatient, which showed she was well suited for her position.
“I think I have just the thing in mind.” Karna smiled a bit inside her helmet before transforming.
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“Good timing General. The Princess just entered the Aura test.” One of the officers stationed in the observatory that showed feeds from all the testing sites reported as Augustine entered.
"What's the fuss? We all know she's going to turn into either a phoenix or a titan." The general downplayed it a bit. He was just as curious as the others, but it would've been unbecoming to act so excitedly. He'd just come out from a meeting with some higher-ups wanting to influence things at his training center. He'd shot them all down of course. Unsurprisingly, most of it revolved around Princess Ynnead.
“Maybe. But we haven’t seen a real high-purity version of either show up during the tests for a while. Even the last prince just showed us a deviating bloodline.” The same officer grinned in excitement. “Besides, she’s been acing all her other tests and absolutely crushed the magic ones, so I’m sure I’ll be forgiven for having my expectations quite high.”
“Well, let’s see what she’ll show us.” Augustus looked at the screen showing what they were all here for. “I’m still saying it’ll just be your standard phoen--…” An enormous being covered in white metallic scales suddenly seemed to fill the entire array space which hastily expanded to compensate. They could see the creature had three pairs of long curved horns that looked just like a crown, while a glowing orb that looked like a small star nestled in the middle between the horns shined a bright light that almost blinded everyone. “—what the bloody fuck is that?”
“I believe that’s a dragon.” The officer replied dumbly and earned a smack at the back of his head.
“I can bloody see that you ass. That’s not just a white dragon, is it? I’m pretty bloody sure that’s a metallic dragon of sorts. But I’m also pretty sure there are no Celestium Dragons!” The general stated annoyed at his subordinate.
“And yet…” The officer gestured at the screen that had trouble displaying the enormous size of the beast.
“Sir, I believe that’s a Stellar Dragon. See the stardust being scattered into its surroundings?” One of the other officers stationed in the observatory suggested. The officer was one of the few devils present in the facility. As one of the few truly neutral forces, the devils often held positions in supposedly neutral organizations like the Host’s training center.
"No, I don't see, because the screen can't even show her full image!" The general responded angrily. "I thought her father was supposed to be from House Titannica?" The general himself was a member of one of the minor houses, which was why he was considered a relatively neutral force and given control over the training of their young. Even though he wasn’t personally mixed up in the upcoming shitstorm, he was the one who would have to deal with it. “Divines damn it, the House of Dragons will be going apeshit over this.”
The House that represented the dragons was a bit of an oddity in that they'd never settled on a single name. The Dragons were proud of their nature and didn't want to give in to the suggestions of other dragons. That’s why it was called by many names, like House Draconis, House Pendragon, House of Dragons, and many more. Some names were less flattering than others, such as the Pit of Snakes, or the Hoard of the Greedy Lizards.
“Sir, she suggested that she had multiple forms to turn into when instructed to transform. You might have not heard that part when you were talking earlier.” The same devil supplied.
“Have her turn into any others she might possess quickly." The general ordered, and they heard on the screen as the instructor ordered Karna to assume her other possible forms. They were all treated to a real cavalcade of wonders as she cycled through all her forms in turns. The good news was that the expected titan and phoenix were among the list, and at very high purity of the bloodlines, which would reduce the severity of the shitstorms somewhat.
"Divines. She has the form of multiple beasts of the Apocalypse." The general covered his face, before a spark suddenly entered his eyes. "We can use this. She'll make a perfect member of our shock troops. They're called beasts of Apocalypse for a bloody reason. Well, let her apocalypse some of our enemies.”
“With respect sir, her results in the magic tests might be even better. She literally broke the array used for testing.” The original officer pointed out.
“Trained as a part of the magic corps, while being used as the occasional secret weapon? Sir.” The devil suggested.
There was a reason Aura users like Karna were used as shock troops and secret weapons. Even if two beings were both at the same rank, that didn’t mean they were equally powerful. A dragon immortal was naturally much stronger and more dangerous than a human immortal. This gap could be bridged with skills, equipment, and various other factors, but the body of a dragon that had reached immortality was simply stronger than that of a human, even if both were reinforced with magic or Qi. Magic and the other powers were in the end force multipliers, and the baseline being multiplied would always matter. One also had to consider the difference in size. Someone larger wasn’t automatically stronger than someone smaller, and being large came with its disadvantages as well, but in general, if a big object and a small object collided, the bigger would win just due to sheer mass.
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You also couldn't argue the fact that each of Karna's scales when in dragon form were larger than entire suits of armor worn by humans, and each scale was made of pure Celestium. The protection that provided would invalidate nearly all attacks, even without considering the natural magic resistance of dragons. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that a dragon immortal was fully capable of facing dozens of human immortals unless the humans specialized in fighting dragons. That was also one of the reasons the House of Dragons and House Titannica were so powerful, as their forms were so well suited to battle.
“What about the other recruits? I’ve already heard something about several promising candidates.” Augustine moved on while still mulling over the implications and the possible applications of the kind of power Karna’s forms suggested. It wasn't common for a fresh immortal to be able to turn around a battle similar to a rank 12 or 13 beings, but it happened on occasion.
“That’s the great news.” The first officer replied with a happy face. “We expected some of it, but the quality of the new recruits exceeded even our most hopeful expectations.” He instructed the devil. “Pull up the list.”
A row of illusory images floated above the round central table of the observatory. A series of what were essentially mugshots were accompanied by the known information of each recruit presented, along with their results. "We seem to be getting especially good results from the magic tests. The holy knights and warriors are also doing well, but not to the same extent."
Four images separated from the crowd. “Keeping in mind that the average results are already exceptionally high, these are the biggest magical standouts. Two of them were expected. Marius already told us to be wary of them, as they’re the companions of the Princess. These two go under the Names Envy and Hope.” The emphasis on the word Name was clear. “Both scored extremely high on the magic tests, to the point where I think they would’ve scored even better if the arrays had managed to keep up.”
“Why is the appearance of this one obscured?” General pointed at Hope, whose image was distorted. Most of the images were captured during the waiting period or during enlistment.
"We don't actually know what she looks like sir." The devil reported. "She is always under heavy illusions, and we aren't even sure what race she is from. Even our true-sight spells seem to be ineffective.”
“We could use her as an infiltrator. Assuming she isn’t one already.” The general immediately realized the possibilities. If the being could hide from them, then she could hide from the enemy as well. And perhaps more importantly, she could work for the part of the Host that maintained order internally.
“We can still train her as an infiltrator even if her motives are questionable for now. She also seems to be a bit of a generalist mage. Unlike Envy, who’s more of a battle magician, she’s more well-rounded. Since we’re a bit short on support magicians, I suggest using her in that capacity unless we’re sending her on clandestine missions. An odd skillset for one whose Name is Hope, I must say.” The officer suggested.
“The other two are not related to the princess as far as we know, although one of them reported their Name as Wisdom, which suggests there might be some connection.” The Devil moved on after making a note. “He’s also a well-rounded mage, and as his Name implies, his grasp on theory is spectacular. Countering magic seems to be his forte as you might expect.”
“Always a use for more of his kind.” The general nodded. “We can keep an eye on him to figure out his associations.”
“The last one didn’t register under a True Name. They’re an angel actually.” The officer said carefully. They were unsure why one of their kind would be here. “Anyway, there are plenty more skilled mages, but these simply stood out the most. The rest may have been sandbagging though. I noticed members from many of the bigger houses among the recruits.”
“We’ll see how long they can keep it up. Sooner or later they will be shamed into showing their true colors. What about the other areas?” The general moved on, memorizing the biggest standouts for now.
“Well, the biggest other outlier was among the warriors. We have a young Kensei among us. An Oni at that. She’s a powerful one too. Her scores were the closest with the Princess, even beating her in a few of the tests. We certainly haven’t seen the full extent of her abilities yet.” The officer pulled out another image, soon joined by five others. “Then there were the three brothers from the Golden Order, and the Royal House sent a scion of one of their branch families. They all showed off their skills to a reasonable extent. We also have a Leonin that goes by Ashanti Goldmane who couldn’t quite hide his skill despite trying to keep a low profile. Really, we have a glut of powerful warriors in this batch, even if their skills aren’t obvious yet in all cases.”
"As for the holy side of things, the Princess' last companion, Valor seems to have powers tailor-made for leading armies, capable of buffing everyone under him. We had what appears to be a Valkyrie by the Name of Saint with similar qualities. Both Ascended only recently, so they have a lot of room to grow. The temples have also sent their usual share of clerics and Holy Knights, as have the clans and houses focused on divine powers.” The devil added.
“For other Aura users, we have two more dragons, five wyrms, a phoenix, three titans, a chimera, a behemoth, a thunderbird, several canine and avian types, and a few dozen holders of bloodlines that can’t transform. As for how many hidden magical beasts we have among us, we can’t say for sure, but we estimate at least hundreds.” A third officer pulled out another list of images. Every year they had a large number of magical beasts enlist, but most decided to hide their nature for various reasons. Being used as shock troops was dangerous, among other reasons.
"Well then. Looks like we have a lot of material to work with. Now we need to manage them so that politics won't end up causing problems." General Augustine ordered in a firm voice. Every incoming group of recruits harbored ideas about the nature of politics in the Host, and every time the Host had to beat those ideas out of the newbies. "Let's start sorting these bastards into the training regimes that best suit them."
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“…and this is the manufactory of the training center. It’s not the largest the Host has of course, as there’s no point in putting all the eggs in a single basket, but it’s enough for the standards of the recruits and trainees.” The older trainee leading their group around explained.
Karna had gathered her companions after the tests finished. The older recruits were instructing them on the facilities and the practices they would need to know about. “All the gear used by those trained here is made here, and the place also supplies the Host with weapons and armor when the main artificers are too busy.”
The manufactory was a rather large collection of workstations, all the way from smithies and rather futuristic looking tooling stations to alchemical stations and delicate looking devices similar to the one Karna had seen in Arjuna’s tower. Hundreds of artificers were constantly working on equipment, casually using materials that would've been considered priceless treasures on the other planes. "Now here's the question: any of you have any skill when it comes to the crafting side of things?" The older trainee asked.
Valor, Hope, and Envy all at once pointed at Karna. As reincarnators, they certainly knew their way around a smithy, with the exception of Hope who avoided it on purpose, but they were quite happy to leave such things to much more skilled hands. “Princess? You have crafting skills?” The trainee confirmed, a little surprised.
“I made our armors.” She replied simply.
"Well, then you might be interested in the rules of this place. Simply put, you're allowed to work your craft here, but everything you make must be for either personal use or the use of those in the Host. That means active use, and not just some nebulous future use. Materials are made available, but you’re expected to compensate for the materials by working on communal projects, such as making armor and weapons for the new recruits. That’s actually the main project most help with. Any work done will be checked by the Forgemaster. If you do particularly good work, you might get special orders from the Host and even gain access to materials only available in the primary forge of the Host.”
As the Host was the primary defensive force against any threats, as well as the force in charge of keeping order, they got a certain percentage of all materials produced by the various worlds of the planes. The Great Houses also had certain materials only they could produce or procure, which they traded to the Host for various reasons. Only certain rare materials that even True Gods would desire were unavailable for the Host, as only the most powerful individuals possessed those.
“I’ll be sure to take advantage of the opportunity.” Now that they had reached the Divine Planes, it was time for her to focus on creating her primary weapon and various other items of importance. Access to materials was one of the reasons they’d chosen to enlist, even if it wasn’t very high on their list of priorities.
“See that you do.” The gruff voice of a Saaurian smith interjected. “I can see that you’ve done good work with those armors. You’ve managed to hide most of the things that make them unique, but you can’t hide the fine craftsmanship.”
“Assistant-Forgemaster!” The trainee leading them around hastily made a salute, prompting the rest of them to copy him.
"None of that hogwash in my forge. Tell me, Princess, do your skills at crafting go outside just forging? Are you skilled in other forms of crafting?" The Saaurian questioned.
“I’m well-versed in all forms of crafting.” She responded confidently.
“Good.” The Saaurian grunted. “We have enough people that can swing a hammer, although we’ll never turn away another talent, but we’re sorely lacking in the more artful fields. Hard to find a proper enchanter, jewelcrafter, or a tailor. I have no idea why everyone thinks proper artifice is just about hammering pieces of metal together or cackling over a cauldron like a witch making pills.”
"Well, if it's skill with a needle you desire, Envy here is even better than me." Karna grinned inside her helmet as she threw Envy under the bus, and then proceeded to do the same to Hope. "And while Hope here isn't much of a crafter otherwise, she can make for a mean cackling witch. If you need another that is."
While she distracted the Saaurian with her friends, she was already looking over the place. It wasn’t quite optimal for what she had planned, but if she could borrow materials from here, she could use her tower as a forge. They probably wouldn’t mind. After all, she was about to create certain things that even the most powerful Divines would drool over. Even if she had the level of skill required to make miracles out of lesser materials, when she did have access to good materials, she could do even more. Perhaps it was time to add to the number of sacred artifacts of this universe. Her old ones likely were already in use by others, if they still existed.