-Callen-

  I watched Sir Torulf unsteadily rise onto his new feet as he got a feel for the new prosthetics. The stubborn old man had insisted I make everyone else’s prosthetics first, leaving me juggling the responsibilities of one of two active knights in the town, handling leadership, and of course making the aforementioned prosthetics. The dark shadows under my eyes attested to the long hours I had put into every day. In addition to that a report from Philip exposed a key flaw in my previous design. Turns out sap that was used as fuel is sticky and hard to clean out, meaning the sap-powered prosthetics I had made in my first wave needed consistent and regular cleaning. It was a serious flaw.

  It was in the comparison to the human body and how blood flows easily that I found my solution. Instead of linking to an external input, I just needed to make blood vessels in the prosthetic and link those to the recipient. Blood was one of the best carriers of magic, which is why various inks use the blood of high-level monsters. I just needed to give a gradual drain from the flowing blood that would sufficiently power the limb without ruining the blood. Ironically the slave boxes that I had discovered in the capital and hated were the best reference I had for the new adjustments.

  Despite the setbacks and restart, I eventually managed to make limbs for everyone. For most guards a more standard wooden/metal mix was sufficient, but for Torulf and myself I needed high-quality materials. The now nearly expended stock of eagle bones was enough for me, but the lighter-weight hollow bones lacked the durability to keep up with Torulf's fighting style. Making legs that could keep up with him, I used fishscale steel as a temporary reinforcing structure. Regular maintenance would be a must for him, but he seemed happy enough with his new legs regardless.

  Of course I wasn’t the only one working hard in this time frame. Reesia had recovered shortly after me and was in peak condition as well. While I did have to fill in when she needed to sleep, she had worked long 16 to 18 hour days. It was the only reason I had time to balance protecting the town and making the new limbs. Crescent also stood up in the meantime, but running the town was something she had become very familiar with.

  I had listened in on Callia’s trial through her and was relieved when everything on her end wrapped up relatively peacefully. While I would like her here to help out, I suspect she might actually be more trouble as she was. Not because of anything she did, but because the fact her trait that drew monsters was significantly stronger than mine. It’s hard to say if her subjugating an endless tide of hungry monsters would outweigh that tide.

  I felt I shouldn’t be a problem since I already had a relatively high-level mana suppression skill, and now that I knew about the issue, I was adjusting to keeping the skill active at all times. With my extensive practice and skills involving splitting my focus to maintain multiple spells or skills, keeping mana suppression active while awake was easy. Doing so while asleep would take practice, but I felt confident even limiting the skill to my waking hours was enough to limit the impact.

  I was looking forward to finally having the time to catch up with the family, but Callia just had to dump more work on me. A full set of exquisitely prepped top-of-the-line weapons crafted with the best material available. While I tried to convince myself to take it slow, the fact that Callia was still traveling urged me to grind just a couple more days so that the new gear would keep her safe on her way to the citadel.

  I started with her skin-tight wyvern-scale under armor. Instead of a combat enchant, I integrated a small wooden runic monitor that would detect if Callia’s regeneration skill was active. If it was, the monitor would draw mana from Callia and activate the enchantment of the armor near the wound, making a rudimentary patch to heal cut skin. It required my healing skill, familiarity with Callia, and enchanting to make the function. I limited the healing to surface level; if I went any deeper, in effect, the usual side effects of a bad heal were almost certain. Thus, automated healing tools were an extreme rarity. Limiting the effect to surface healing would let Callia’s body and skills handle the heavy work while preventing serious blood loss.

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  Then there was the new bow. My previous enchantment that let Callia manually adjust the draw weight was convenient, but with this bow it wouldn’t be necessary until much later. Instead, I focused on Callia’s other big hold-up, ammunition. She had boxes of filled quivers ready to go in the void, but the changing between shooting and summoning was something I thought I could address. The thing with enchanting void shifting was that it targeted a specific spot in the void, so I built a rack designed to feed arrows into that specific spot. Then I enchanted the bow with voidshift, making it summon arrows onto the string with just a twitch of mana. Considering how fast Sis tends to shoot, I’ll probably need to expand the existing autoloader.

  Then there was the dagger. I had various ideas, like making it a wand or suppressing mana, but thinking about the living sword of Baron Mecca wanted me to try something similar. That project wasn’t the kind of thing I could get done anytime soon, so I let Sis know about my plans, but I didn’t start it immediately. There was a ruined castle that we had started cleaning up. Considering how useful it had been in this disaster the townsfolk were eager to restore it. Personally I was also very invested in the project. Just imagining what it could become once I spent time enchanting reminded me why I wanted to set it up in the first place.

  Even more convenient was that having the town work together to restore the castle meant the limited guards keeping order were able to watch more people without spreading out. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it was good enough to keep the peace other than a few drunkards fighting in bars. In the meantime new guards from among the refugees and townsfolk filled the training grounds, slowly but surely replacing the lost.

  When I had free time for the first time since the chaos had begun, I took Crescent to a small hill in the farming zone for a picnic. We simply sat together at peace. The exhaustion from the month must’ve hit us because we fell asleep leaning against each other and the tree that we had set up under. I just smiled faintly, not moving so I wouldn’t disturb her. An apple fell, nearly hitting me, but I caught it with a void shift. It was inconsequential but a reminder that there were still other issues we needed to address.

  Dark Alliance

  Lilia and her forces finished clearing the portion of the road that had been designated with what could only be described as astounding success, but upon her return there was no word from the duke regarding her success. However, the moment she entered the city, Shadow began incessantly giggling. It filled her gut with dread. The army waited in the city restocking and preparing for the next leg of their plan while Lilia made her way up to the castle.

  Dark thunderous clouds lingered over it ominously, but what Lilia noticed even more was the stench. Like rotten eggs but invasive and offensive to her very being. She arrived at the gate, but no one answered. Cautiously she knocked, but that made the door swing open completely unlocked. Somehow the stench inside was even thicker. The chandeliers and torches that normally lit the entryway had all burned out, and one chandelier had fallen from the ceiling. The fact it was swept to the side suggested that someone had been present to clear the way but hadn’t bothered cleaning it later.

  Slowly she entered the audience chambers and was greeted by a macabrely displayed butler hanging from chains on the wall with his stomach disemboweled. An expression of disbelief and horror was etched on his face even in death. A nail pinned his head upright against the pillar. A quick glance around the chamber revealed that the butler wasn’t alone. Maids, servants, and even knights all chained or nailed to the wall.

  Lilia turned, intending to run, but an eerily familiar shadow blocked the entry.

  “Lilith, what a pitiful sight. Trapped sharing a body with some poor human girl.” Shadow seized Lilia’s mouth.

  “It’s Lilia for now, Ares. I see you’ve found your host acceptable? Perhaps you should thank this girl since she delivered him the vial. Though I find it pitiful that all you needed to manifest was a mere couple drops of blood.” Lilia sneered at the shadow-cloaked form that now stepped forward into the light.

  “HA! You’re jealous. I found a host as corrupted as mine. While the offering was pitiful, you get that we’re all starved for fun. Ever since he stole the system we designed, possessing mortals has been such a hassle. I got a bit carried away on my arrival, but I’ll clean the place up before any unwanted visitors make trouble.” He bent over, looking into Lilia’s eyes, making eye contact with Lilia’s inner soul. His voice shifted from the demon back to Harlanou. “The plan continues. I expect absolute obedience while I master my newly acquired power.”

  “He’s actually cooperating with you?!” Lilith exclaimed, her voice laced with envy and hurt pride.

  “HA, I told you, I reviewed his plans on my advent and found them most delightful. Begone, I needed to find myself new staff, and the duke is touchy about sharing details.” Lilia didn’t have the will to seize back control as the shadow now known as Lilith swaggered from the castle.

  “Thank you for your efforts, my dear. This run will be most entertaining.”