It seems like our little robberies have attracted the attention of an uppity princess. I'm not one for violence, but I warned her once, and she still seems determined to attack me.

I wonder how her fancy armor will react to my MH Shells. From my experience, it isn't going to be good for the paint.

A blast of pure energy removes the princess from the vicinity, I turn around and-

"H-How dare you!" an arrogant voice resounds, and I turn back to face the princess, who is somehow still alive. She is on one knee, and her armor took a beating, but she's still in one piece. I raise an eyebrow, that woman is exceptionally durable compared to what this planet seems capable of offering.

"Listen, we both know that you can't-" I'm interrupted when the princess swings her sword in the air. The strike creates a blade of energy that hits me in the torso, causing cheers to erupt from the crowd of guards who are evacuating the civilians.

An empty casing drops from my Glove. I look directly in the princess' eyes, causing her jaw to drop while the cheering dies down.

I sigh, "Are you happy now? I have a packed schedule, so will you keep doing this or-" another blade of energy gives me my answer. I don't have time for this, so I fire another MH Shell into the princess. The shock sends her flying, and she hits her head on a big protruding rock, it renders her unconscious almost immediately.

This wouldn't have happened if you wore a helmet.

Maybe our encounter will be enough to change that stupid law of theirs, but I highly doubt it. The group of guards eyes me with hatred as they crowd around the knocked out princess, I ignore their glare and enter the shop again.

I still have some shopping to do.

The rest of the shop is emptied, and I soon teleport to yet another target. With how fast we are going, I believe that we'll be done in a couple-

A massive explosion takes me out of my thoughts. I turn my head towards the source of the commotion, and it's apparently coming from an area that's not too far from here. A beam of burning plasma soon appear in the sky, and I understand what's happening. Mary must be in trouble if she's using her breath attacks, but who could push her into a corner like that? It can't be the princess since I knocked her out, and Hisako isn't a threat in the slightest.

I teleport to the location, and the scene that greets me takes my breath away for a moment. Large melted holes are littering the area, dead guards are everywhere, and two figures are standing in the middle of this massacre. I recognize the first one, and grit my teeth. Mary, who is covered in blood and soot, is holding her damaged flank while her breath is heavy, and flames are coursing over her body.

Her opponent is a large lion-headed man wearing a set of glowing silver armor along with a large circular shield and a long thin silver blade.

"Surrender now, you abomination!" the man bellows before moving his sword in the air, causing hundreds of small energy blades to cut Mary. Most of the strikes don't do anything, but the distraction is enough to allow the hybrid's opponent to charge straight towards her.

"PrOmEtHeUs WiLl nOt AcCePt ThIs!" I shout as loudly as I can when a primal hatred takes control of my body. I activate my robes and switch to my Field Pistol to avoid hitting Mary and fire at the man, who was stopped mid-charge by my outburst.

"Prometheus, finally!" Mary makes a weak smile, and I keep bombarding the lion-headed bastard with everything I've got. He parries a few of my bullets, but the barrage is too intense, so the other projectiles create large dents in his armor, and causes the man to take a few steps back.

"WhO dArEs To AtTaCk My FoLlOwEr?!" I fire another magazine into the torso of my target.

"I'm the king of this country! A creature like you has no place in this realm! Die!" the king roars and charges me. He knocks me down before I can even react and start to stab me with his sword.

Or at least he's trying to. My shield stop all his attacks. I sigh and Rewind a couple of times to avoid his charge. Despite his size, the king is pretty swift.

"AnD wHaT's A kInG tO a GoD?" I yell back before firing bullets into the same spot, causing his armor to break. A single bullet passes through, but it's enough to bring the bastard to his knees. I don't let him recover and fire another volley.

"Y-You? A god? Don't make me laugh!" the king forces a laugh and makes his armor shine with a blinding light. Pieces of metal are slowly pushed out of his body, but-

I don't stand idly and wait for him to recover, so I pepper him with even more bullets. It seems to do the trick since the king is lying on his side, clutching his stomach while writhing in pain.

My attention then focuses on Mary, "Are you all right?" I ask.

She nods with a weak smile, "I'm fine, I just need to rest for a bit."

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"If you say so... Go home to the Shard, the Order will take care of you. I'll finish things here, and I'll be back soon." I order.

"Will you be back? I don't want you to go off somewhere and- I said nothing, goodbye." Mary shuffles with the Portal Attachment in her pocket and teleports away, much to the dismay of the crowd.

"Oh well, the show is over, please go home!" I say to the people before teleporting to the location where we stored all the equipment we stole. There were a few shops left, but I didn't feel like taking even more, and the pile of materials waiting for me shows that I was right.

I teleport my pressure washer and take a deep breath; this is going to take a while.

Two hours later and I teleport the last pile of metals to the Shard. In total, we stole eight Infusion Altars and their associated Distilleries, countless jars of essences, many ingots, and a large variety of tools.

The list is pretty extensive, and I'm sure that the Fabricators are going to have a field day with all the stuff I brought back.

I materialize in the Shard and sit down before writing everything I learned about the spatial bags. It takes me another hour to type everything and to send it to Alan. Now it's going to take a couple of days before the Fabricators can produce the prototypes, so-

A message from Alan takes me out of my thoughts. Apparently, they are testing the first model of the teleporting artillery I requested, and they are asking if I want to see. I reply by the affirmative and teleport to Alan's position.

"Ah, Prometheus! Good to see you again!" , and he makes a bright smile. "I heard that you brought us a ton of new Altars and materials. You also sent me a bunch of notes, but I didn't have the time to read them yet."

I wave my hand in the air, "Don't worry about it, it's nothing much. The notes only contain the detailed procedure to make spatial bags."

A heavy silence falls, Philip and Alan's jaw look like they are about to touch the ground. I barely hide my smirk and turn towards the screen, "So, are we doing this test?"

The Chief Fabricator shakes his head and nods, "O-Of course, let's begin. If you look at the top of the screen, you can see a modified M777 howitzer; it's an artillery piece that fires 155mm projectiles."

So it packs quite a punch. I wonder how Beelzebub would fare against something like this.

"Right now, we have two prototype shells. The first one is designed for maximum explosions, and it's basically an upgraded Carter Bomb. The second one is a bit more complex, but it should be effective against the tough opponents we are bound to face in the future. The second shell is a penetrator; it works in two stages. The first stage begins when the projectile touches its target. This activates a reaction similar to MH Shells that propels a long rod of very dense material directly into the target. Once the penetrator is in the target, it'll act as an EGB and destroy the target from the inside. There are also plans to replace the EGB with explosive in case we are dealing with non-living targets, but this will require the spatial bags that you brought back. " Alan declares.

I stop my jaw from dropping, this is beyond what I imagined. If those weapons function, then we'll be able to mass produce them. It wouldn't be far-fetched to say that these artillery shells could wipe entire Families off the surface of the planet.

"Now, let's begin the first test!" Alan shouts, and machinery comes to life. "Load the explosive shell!" The mechanical system around the artillery piece move on their own and load the shell in a fraction of a second. "It's still a bit slow, we'll have to modify that..." the Fabricator rambles before pressing a key, "Good, the shell is loaded! Prepare the second phase!"

A portal appears in front of the weapon, and above the position displayed on another screen. "All right, everything seems to be in order... Fire!" A muffled detonation shakes the workshop as the massive projectile is propelled out of the muzzle. It drops at a tremendous velocity and causes a large crater to appear, and that's before the charge explodes. The explosives it carries detonate the next instant, and it creates another, a much larger cavity that's almost the size of a football field.

"Holy shit..." I can't help but whisper in awe. The destruction caused by one of these is beyond anything I could have imagined.

"Good results! A bit lacking compared to what was initially planned, but we can fix it later." Alan declares. I almost fall on my back. This is not the full power of the shell?

I almost feel bad for our enemies now.

"Now let's test the penetrator, bring up the target!" a massive and thick square plate made of various alloys is teleported to the test site. "The shield seems to be working properly... Load the penetrator!" The machinery pulls out the empty casing from the M777 and loads another shell. This one looks to be slightly longer, and it's made with a dark material.

"Fire!" the workshop shakes at Alan's order, and the shell appears in front of the plate. A flash of light appears when the tip of the penetrator touches the plate, the added energy pierces the shield and propels the projectile into the target like a hot knife through butter. And, as if to add insult to injury, the penetrator touches a piece of meat with Magicite shoved into it, to simulate a real enemy, and it tears the meat into tiny chunks in an instant.

"Still not good enough." Philip clicks his tongue, and I feel light-headed.

These people praised me constantly for my creations, but they are nothing compared to what I just witnessed. The EGBs could hardly sow as much destruction as even half a shell. I wouldn't be joking if I said that the battle against Beelzebub would have been very different if I had access to such firepower.

A mix of dread and excitement rises in my body when I think what these people will do when they master the creation of spatial bags.

"So, what do you think?" Alan takes me out of my thoughts.

"It was even better than I expected, I'm impressed by what you managed to accomplish here," I say honestly.

"You praise us too much. We merely adapted your words," Alan says while lowering his head.

"It doesn't change the fact that you did something incredible. The Fabricators are a critical asset, so don't overwork yourself, I need you at full capacity when the war starts." I say before leaving the workshop, my next destination is the med bay where Mary should be resting.

My brief journey brings me near a training area. Dozens of portals are appearing and disappearing as the Legionaries are taught new tactics to take advantage of the Portal Attachment. I recognize certain movements; it looks like they are basing some of their teachings on recordings of my previous battles.

I can't blame them for that. I'm the only source of information they have on the subject. The rest will have to be based on common sense and battle experience.

The med bay is finally in my view, so I enter the building. It's empty save for one person who looks to be bored out of her mind.

"So, how are you doing?" I ask as I sit near Mary.

The hybrid turns her head, "Finally, someone to talk to! Do you have any idea how boring this place is?"

I chuckle, "I can imagine. But why didn't you turn on the TV?"

Mary blushes, "Don't laugh, okay?". I nod, so she continues, "...I can't find the remote."

I did not laugh, not at all. And, as a totally unrelated event, I also did not Rewind a couple of times to calm down.

"I'll see what I can do," I say while looking around. It doesn't take me long to find the remote. It was wedged behind Mary's bed and the wall.

The draconic hybrid is beet red as I hand her the remote, and I can't help but smile.

A small piece of plastic has defeated Mary, the all-power dragon-like existence capable of destroying entire city blocks with a flick of the wrist.

"Do you need anything else?" I ask with a smile. She stares at me while clutching the remote and shakes her head.

"N-No, thank you. I should be out later in the day. What happened while I was out? I felt some vibrations coming from the workshop."

I explain what happened to Mary. She seemed to be excited when I mentioned the artillery tests that I witnessed earlier.

"Hearing your description kind of makes me want to take a look at the next round of tests," Mary says while turning on the TV.

"I can arrange for that, you might not realize, but I am quite influential around these parts," I say while suppressing a chuckle.

"Oh, really?" Mary smirks as she plays along, "I would have never guessed!" she declares before laughing.

We laugh for a few moments, and I take a deep breath. "Well, I have things to do, and you need to recover so I won't bother you for too long."

"Wait! Before you go, can you promise to take me with you if you visit another planet? It gets boring very quickly here." She begs.

"All right, but never surprise me like last time again, got it?" I ask, and she answers with a determined nod.

I leave the Med Bay and head towards the workshops again. I don't have a lot of things to do so I might as well make myself useful and help the Fabricators with their research projects. I'm certain that they need all the help they can get, especially when taking the current situation into account.

At least we are on a good path for our weapon development. We can only hope that nobody attacks us now or we'll be caught with our pants down.