I inspect the suit of armor in front of me, letting [Inquisitive Perfection] look over it one last time. The adamantine bone of the Leviathan has been shaped by my [Beauty Blessing] to make the perfect fit for Borala. Inside the suit are inscriptions, to hide them so the Lunaleyans can't copy them; not that they would be able to make it work anyway, since they'd still need to figure out how to make the ink.
The armor is accentuated with adamantine essence steel and fitted with a mana battery to fuel the inscriptions. A belt made of space mana is used to store the armor so one can quickly summon and dismiss the whole thing, or even just pieces of it. The helmet is, as usual, fully covered, utilizing a light enchantment to provide visibility and an air enchantment to bring in and clean the air to breathe.
The whole thing is also made to regulate the wearer's temperature, allowing them to go into many different environments without issues. Enchantments are placed to increase its physical defenses, with a layer of water mana steel to disperse forces acting upon it. There are a few other enchantments as well, to either make the armor better at defending or to enhance the wearer.
The inscriptions I use are meant to make the armor more resistant; overall, it lacks the tradeoff of enchantments, but at the cost of using a lot more mana. I had to limit the inscriptions to no more than three; otherwise, the mana consumption will drain the battery too fast.
The battery itself is a solid piece of mana that will be drained to fuel the inscriptions. Being incredibly dense, it holds far more mana than a normal mana battery of its size, but it works more like a consumable cartridge and is gone once used.
Runalymo Leviathan Power Armor:
(Enchanted)
A suit of armor made to both defend and empower its wearer. Utilizing several enchantments and inscriptions and being made of the finest materials available, this armor is among the best for its duty. The replaceable battery of this armor allows for the fueling of both enchantments and inscriptions, allowing anyone capable of utilizing its basic function to also utilize its more esoteric abilities, regardless of their personal mana capacity.
Conjured, Speed 250%, Force dispersion, Enhance strength 300%, Resist fire inscription, Resist ice inscription, Regeneration inscription, Unstoppable Momentum.
The last ability came from the monster material and I'm not entirely sure what it does, but it's not like I can change it.
The armor itself looks like power armor; it is large and intimidating and made with just about as much mana steel as with Leviathan materials. Protecting the tail are segmented plates also made out of mana steel, although they are the weakest part of the suit simply because they need to be relatively light and thin.
They will want me to make more than one of these, so I make a backpack from space mana silk and enchant it so it's as large as it can be on the inside, then make a storage crystal from more space mana and enchant it to hold as much as it can. This way, I can have the largest storage space in the smallest possible actual space.
Since the belt is a storage item too, I can't put it in the backpack without destroying both, so I have a clone wear them and start flying off to the Lunaleyan lands to deliver the product.
Three days later, I arrive at what appears to be a state of emergency. Soldiers are everywhere roaming the streets, the slums are being turned upside-down, and unrest is clear by how everyone is behaving. People give the soldiers looks of distrust but try not to attract attention to themselves.
I arrive at the government building and tell the receptionist to inform Governor Orlan that I am here. I thought that maybe I'd wait for some time, but he almost immediately calls for me.
What happened to cause the panic? I wonder as I walk up the stairs to Orlan's office.
"Alysara, it's good to see you," Orlan says, glancing at my storage backpack.
"What's going on?" I ask.
Orlan’s face darkens before speaking.
"Borala's son, Kyrran, was kidnapped nine days ago while we were discussing the trade deal. A Forren noble wants a ransom: Leviathan materials for her son."
"How much?" I ask. They have a lot, so merely taking one or two sets won't change anything; they must want more to hurt them.
"Twenty percent of our materials, which is worth vastly more than the life of a child, even if it is a Governor's son," Orlan answers with a heavy sigh. "But we think that's the point; they don't want us to pay, or rather, they know we won't. They want us to instigate the war so they can claim they are being attacked, while simultaneously making a rift between House Kineto and House Vanu."
It's too much of a coincidence that her son was kidnapped in this city – a city that is far inside the territory of Vocana – during a time where all eyes would be on me; it's possible that they intended to frame me, or indicate that I was intentionally acting as a distraction.
[Inquisitive Perfection] is having a field day with this mystery, suggesting all kinds of possibilities, but without more information it can't reach a conclusive deduction. However, one thing bugs me: the strange shimmering that appeared during the ball and in the trade room. It completely avoided my perception, even with my perceptive pressure at full blast, which suggests it's neither mana nor magic, which can only leave one option… a Bond's divine authority.
There's only one Bond that should be able to remove all traces of something, a void Bond, and a very powerful user at that. The only person I know of that might be that strong is that scary tracker in the eastern Empire, the Luna Empire if Ruluna's lessons were right.
This doesn't mean that he is the culprit for sure, and I won't be looking for someone so dangerous, but maybe I should be more careful in case he or someone equally dangerous just happens to be around me.
"Have you thought they might be framed?" I tell Orlan about my encounter with the tracker void Bond, and the strange shimmering.
Orlan adopts a thinking pose with a hand on his chin and thinks about it for several minutes, bobbing his head occasionally as if arguing with himself.
"Wait here," he finally says. "I need to get something." Orlan gets up and leaves the room, walking to the library and looking for a book. He peruses the selves for almost fifteen minutes before finding what he is looking for and returning.
"I never liked learning about world history, but now I am thankful my mother drilled it into me," Orlan remarks, sitting back down and flipping through the book. "Ah! Here it is. The Luna Empire was founded by the first Emperor, Luna Rora Loryn, who won countless wars and nearly conquered all the lands before dying of old age. However, the source of his incredible success was not his military genius – in fact, he lost many battles – but was recorded to begin after a world message: 'Sentaro Klaman, the Eyeblight Assassin, has achieved the legendary action: Saving the Lunaleyan islands from an Island Eater.' After this world message, there were reports of a single man slaying armies and taking cities for the Luna Empire." Orlan finishes summarizing the contents of the chapter in the book and looks up at me.
"That was four hundred years ago; he should be dead by now... unless you suspect he somehow found immortality?"
"A Legendary being is immortal, Orlan. Unless you have records of a world message saying he is dead, then it has to be assumed he is alive." [Inquisitive Perfection] is fairly sure that the man who tried to track me is this 'Eyeblight Assassin'.
His title fits; if he can track and possibly teleport to scryers, I can't think of any better title, and someone who has reached Legendary tier should be powerful enough to hide even from me. That still leaves the question of why he would kidnap Borala's son. To frame the Forren Kingdom? Why? Vocana is already preparing for war. To weaken the countries? They are going to war anyway, right?
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
"It still doesn't make sense," I say, shaking my head. "There's no motive for the Luna Empire to do this."
"I agree," Orlan says. "This revelation shows that there might possibly be a Legendary being loyal to the Luna Empire, but that still doesn't explain his lack of presence; why let the Empire grow weak as it has done? Are you one hundred percent positive that Legendary beings are immortal?"
I nod. "As long as your Race tier is Legendary, then you are immortal. I won't say who my source of that information is, but I have no reason to doubt them."
Orlan looks back at the book.
"It would explain why our spies quickly go quiet in the Empire. It still doesn't explain his lack of proactivity, but enough of that. We want to ask you to find Kyrran in the Forren Kingdom; that's all we want, to simply know where he is, we can do the rest."
It's not my problem... but I probably should help for several reasons. One, it will help relieve any suspicions that I was involved in this. Two, they'd be indebted to me, and that will help with future diplomacy, and three, there's a child in danger, that should be enough of an excuse to help.
However, this isn't entirely without risks. Someone like that tracker might be there, which can put me in direct danger, and more importantly, it can put my home and family in danger too. I still have scapegoats, though, and now a proxy if I plant the Dryad's Grace seed.
"You are asking me to take a lot of risks," I say, crossing my arms. "I may be able to avoid normal retaliation, but I have encountered abilities that I can't just avoid. There's no way to know if they have a perceptive trap; I already know of one person that can track my perception, and there can be more."
"I know, we will be in your debt if you can do this for us." Orlan bows his head.
"I will need some time," I say, to the thankful expression of Orlan. "I need to prepare scapegoats and proxies."
Just then, Borala enters the building and dashes past the receptionist, ignoring her. Borala runs up the stairs and down the hall with thunderous footsteps. She bursts through the door with heavy breathing.
"P-Please, Alysara, you have to find him!" Borala pants.
"She's already agreed to help, Borala," Orlan says, motioning her to sit next to him. "Relax, she just needs some more time to prepare."
"More time?! It's already been nine days!" Borala says, "What if he's hurt, or worse?!"
"Borala!" Orlan's tone shifts to a stern one. "She is risking herself to get us information; we are already asking too much! She needs to make sure she is safe too."
"But..." Borala trails off, looking down in resignation and falling silent.
"We need to make preparations too; everything will be alright," Orlan reassures Borala.
"I'll be preparing as we talk," I say, and with my real body I fly over to Temple island to plant the Star Tree.
I take off the belt and hand it over to Borala. "Perhaps with this, you might be able to get your son back."
We've already discussed how the armor will be stored in the belt the last time I was here. Borala takes the belt and puts it on before summoning the power armor.
"If you use all the inscriptions and enchantments at the same time, it will quickly drain the battery; it will only be able to last as long as thirty minutes under such heavy use," I inform her and take out a spare battery from my storage backpack. "You can change it out with this if you need to, but be warned; these batteries are quite volatile if damaged excessively. The armor should protect you, and the batteries themselves are durable, but it's best to not take any risks."
"I didn't know what to expect," Orlan remarks, inspecting the armor. "But this exceeds what I imagined."
Borala doesn't say anything, probably too overwhelmed with emotions to know what to say.
"You might consider this a prototype; I haven't really made anything like it before, so you should try it out and see what can be improved. There are a few issues that I haven't been able to fix yet; once you start fueling an inscription, it will continually drain mana from the battery and won't stop until there is no more mana left."
There are other issues with inscriptions, like they can only be placed on the chest plate because the inscribed 'power lines' – lines etched and filled with inscription ink to act as a road for mana to travel through – can't jump from one piece to the next. I'm still working things out, like how to make armored joints without segmented pieces while still allowing an arm to fit through and not be too bulky.
As I continue explaining my product to the Governors through my clone, I finally reach Temple Island with my staff, Dryad’s Grace. Now I just need to think of a place to plant it. Hmm, when making this staff, I did incorporate plenty of beauty essence and judging by the name, beauty has influenced it. So maybe I should listen to my Bond for the best place to put it.
I look around the island, listening to the whispers of my Bond, finding a suitable place next to a hill where a spring feeds a small waterfall basin. I wander the area, following beauty's whispers in search for the exact spot to plant the seed.
I circle the basin until finally my Bond is happy, and, with a thrust of my staff, I bury the shining star-like seed into the ground and wait. I wait and wait until I realize that things like this take time; the seed still needs to germinate, which is going to take a few days.
Can I speed this process up? Maybe Safyr can help? I don't know if it's healthy for it, but I do know nature essence can make plants grow faster… but if I use too much, I won't be able to maintain my clone at the Lunaleyan Islands.
I settle on using half of my mana to grow the seed and cast a growth spell... only for nothing to happen. Maybe it did, and the seed needs a lot more mana? How do plants grow from nature essence anyway? Maybe it's a Racial skill they all have? Does the star seed have the same skill? Can plants grow from other elements?
There are lots of things to consider. In the Lunaleyan lands, there is a forest wherein the trees grow large and tall but produce a lot of winter essence. Do they grow from winter essence instead? Then there's the Living Ice in the dungeon, with almost nothing in the snowlands. They have to live on something, and I don't know how fertile the ground is, so maybe they are living off a type of mana, like how we Runalymo can sustain ourselves with mana? They do seem to consume heat, but I didn’t think that was all they needed.
Perhaps the Star Tree needs beauty mana instead? I trickle beauty essence to the seed until I am at one quarter mana. There's still no change, so maybe it just needs a lot of mana? I notice that the star seed ate both the nature essence and beauty essence, so maybe both work…
I sigh, giving up on the seed for now. I still have the other Treant Eye for a proxy, but I feel the Star Tree would be a safer alternative. Still, there’s no time right now, so I fly back home and fill my mana up from one of my batteries, then take the Eye and channel my perception through it.
How does this work? I can make scapegoats because they draw the retaliatory spells to them rather than me, but I can't figure out the mechanism of proxies; maybe I need a breakthrough to properly study it. For that matter, how does one track my perception anyway? I know it's based on a 'touch', but how does someone trace it back to me?
I think back on how it felt when the tracker was tracing me, like something was crawling up my perception. There's definitely something more to it, I just need to work it out, but for now I have a quest to do.
A few hours later, I find Borala's son held up in a fort near Vocana's border, but it has Forren Kingdom troops garrisoned in it. The boy is in a room guarded by two soldiers, and there is a man inside talking to the boy. He is well-dressed and holds himself as if he is above everyone around him.
I can't hear what he says, but he kicks the boy before leaving, not even acknowledging the existence of the guards as he passes them. The whole thing leaves a sour taste in my mouth, but hopefully, the kid will soon be reunited with his mother.
I relay the boy's location to Borala and Orlan through my clone. Relief overtakes Borala as she learns that her son is still alive.
"Thank you! Thank you for finding my son!" she says sincerely.
"We'll organize an extraction team to retrieve him," Orlan says, comforting her.
I can't help but think it's a little odd. Yes, the boy needs to be near the border if they want to exchange him for Leviathan resources, but they never expected the materials in the first place, right? It's almost as if they want the fort to be attacked, but the fort is not nearly ready, and there's no hidden army nearby.
It doesn't make sense, but who else would have the motive to ransom a Governor's son? Perhaps Forren has another enemy, or maybe someone wants Vocana and Forren to attack and weaken each other?
But it shouldn't matter to me; maybe there's a good reason. From what I understand, Leviathan materials will embolden a country to expand through conquest, and with two countries, maybe both weakening each other will prevent other, smaller countries from being conquered for now.
It's not the Runalymo's problem, and I should let things play out naturally. We'll trade, and that's the most we'll do.