Watching the training for a short while, Shiro was happy to see that Shiina has everything covered. Even if one of the recruits fell behind in the training, she would take extra care to make sure that they do what they’re capable of rather than forcing them to do something outside of their capabilities.
“It seems like we don’t need to do anything. Shiina, Oran and Akhess have things sorted here.” Shiro whispered over with a smile as Nan Tian nodded.
“Mn, it also seems like she’s keeping an eye on you.” Nan Tian smiled.
“Oh let her. I’m just here to make sure everything is in working order. It’s fine if she realises who I am.” Shiro shrugged with a smile.
Walking towards Shiina, Shiro tapped her tablet a few times and drank a bottle of her mana potion so that she could start the production of parts for the specialised units. That way, they can see some use after a few months of inactivity.
*CLANG!!!
Suddenly, the sound of moving machinery could be heard as everyone in the hanger quickly looked up to see the cranes moving by themselves. Little by little, spare parts for the mechs were being made as Shiina immediately recognised them to be the parts needed for the specialised units.
‘What? But the only who can do th-!!!”
Quickly turning around to the girl, Shiina saw that Shiro was tapping on her tablet screen before storing it away.
Before she could even call out to her, Shiro smiled and put a finger over her mouth.
“No need to surprise everyone here. I’ve made some extra parts for your specialised units. Feel free to use them since the more you practise, the better it is for us. We might be needing all of you specialised pilots soon since there’s going to be a small event.” Shiro smiled as Shiina nodded her head.
“Understood!”
“Good. I’ll need to head back now but I’ll make a few extra trips down here in this form.” Shiro chuckled as Shiina nodded her head.
Watching both Shiro and Nan Tian leave, Shiina wondered why Shiro had to disguise herself but guessed that it was probably something to do with her lack of aura.
“Oran! Akhess!” Shiina called out as the two spirits glanced over.
“What is it?”
“We’re going to practice with the specialised units in an hour once a few spare parts have been created. Bring the other specialised pilots and we’ll go out for a small expedition along with a few short sparring sessions in the mechs.” Shiina ordered as Akhess nodded his head.
“Alright. But what’s happening? There hasn’t been any more spare parts being made so why are the cranes moving now?” Akhess asked with a frown as Shiina rolled her eyes.
“Are you not able to put two and two together? It’s her highness. She was just here a moment ago and said that we should train more with the specialised mechs since there’s an event soon. She might need our strength for that.” Shiina explained as Akhess widened his eyes.
“Wait her highness was here a moment ago?”
“Yup. She was in disguise. I’ll tell you next time but for now let’s finish the training on the recruits. We’ll go for another hour before we need some training ourselves.”
Both Oran and Akhess nodded their heads as they made their way to the other specialised pilots to inform them of what’s happening.
Looking up at her specialised unit, Shiina couldn’t help but smile thinking about how she’ll be able to pilot it again after so long.
###
Drinking her potions on her way towards Helion’s workshop, Shiro made sure she had enough mana to make a few extra parts so that they could go a little crazy with their practise.
“Hm…. Who do you think we should bring to the next event? Madi and Lyrica are away training, so is mum, Keomi, Keiko and teach. We probably want to keep a few people here to make sure the city runs smoothly.” Shiro asked as Nan Tian thought about it for a moment.
“We probably want to keep Aarim here since she’s keeping the second city running. Helion can join us, so can Chen Yu. We definitely want Lisandra since she’s tier 6 along with Estrella. Yin can probably continue her search for the fragments and Silvia might want to stay behind just in case since she’s our best healer. Of course, having her next to us during battle is good too.” Nan Tian replied as Shiro thought about it for a moment.
“Hm… having Silvia’s buffs would be helpful. Alright, I think Aarim, Yin and my father can protect the city even with our absence. For the fight, we’ll take everyone else with us including Shiina and the other specialised mech pilots. Of course, if it turns out that the event is something else then we’ll adjust accordingly.” Shiro smiled.
“Sure.”
“After this visit to Helion, let’s go talk to Estrella. I haven’t met her in a while so I need to catch up with her.” Shiro sighed as she had been neglecting her duties. Thankfully, everyone around her was capable so things could run smoothly but she didn’t even want to think about the consequences should things go south.
The thought of Asharia crashed down to Earth and killing everyone on board was not exactly the most pleasant thought to have during a walk to the blacksmiths.
Hearing the rhythmic hammering coming from the workshop, Shiro figured that Helion was probably in the middle of creating a piece.
Knocking on the door, Shiro glanced past the window and saw his flickering shadow.
“Come in.” Helion called out.
Entering the room, Shiro’s first reaction was to blink her eyes since Helion was a little different than what she last remembered. Compared to before, his height seemed to have increased a little and his muscles were toned. His skin seemed tanned with a soft orange glow to them due to the fire.
Neon markings could be seen on his arms as they would pulse with each slam of the hammer.
Putting down his tools, the markings faded away as he wiped away his sweat.
“Oh Shiro! Are you feeling better now?” Helion asked, surprised to see that it was Shiro visiting him.
“Yes I am. How are you?” Shiro smiled.
“I’m good. So what brings you here today?” He asked while pulling over a table and a set of chairs. Since Madi would come often, he would keep a table and some chairs around so that she would be comfortable rather than sitting on a table or leaning on the side.
“Thanks. I’m here to see if you can do a job for me. I’ve been trying a little something and it’s pretty difficult to accomplish.” Shiro smiled.
“Even for you? Well that’s a surprise.” Helion raised his eyebrow.
“Mn, even for me. I’m trying to construct a magic circle that will allow me to pause time or rather, spread one moment on indefinitely so it gives the illusion of stopped time. But to do so, I need to construct a tier 8 magic circle. I’ve already figured out a decent chunk of the runic language so I can see the runes that never change. I want you to carve it on this blade so that I can use it as a scaffolding when I try to craft this magic circle.” Shiro smiled, summoning Silvanis while drinking another mana potion to make sure the production of mech parts wasn’t halted.
“So… you’re trying to construct a tier 8 magic circle.”
“Yup.”
“Even though you’re a demi god and your limit is tier 6. I remember you saying that this world couldn’t handle the stress of tier 8 and yet you still want to do it?”
“Yep. I want to do it mainly so that it’s a good weapon against powerful enemies or if I need to help a friend.” Shiro glanced down at her hands and smiled sadly.
“. . . I’ll see what I can do. Once you’re able to kick the watchman’s ass, make sure you get in a good punch for me too.” Helion smiled as Shiro nodded.
“Mn don’t worry I will.”
Passing over the sword to Helion, she brought out her tablet and showed him her research on the carvings that she needed for the tier 8 magic circle.
However, the moment Helion saw this, his lips twitched since each stroke of a rune was constructed of tiny scratching of smaller runes.
Looking at how many runes he needed to carve for it to form a ‘large rune’ on the spell circle, Helion felt a headache coming along around.
“You know that these smaller runes are like the size of a bee’s d*ck right? Look at my hands and hammer. Do I look like I can do it?” Helion asked with a forced smile.
“But you never mentioned you can’t do it.” Shiro grinned as Helion shrugged his shoulders.
“That is true. It’s going to be very and I mean, very f*cking hard. You’re lucky that your blade is indestructible. If we fail the carving I’ll need you to resummon your blade so that I can start again.”
“That’s fine. Send me a text if you need it to be resummoned and I’ll teleport it next to you. I need to go meet Estrella.” Shiro smiled as Helion nodded.
Leaving the workshop, Shiro could see Helion closing the store so that he could focus on her sword.
