They stood around the box in silence. Leo refused to speak, he didn’t want to look like the idiot in a room of fools. David and Marie both watched the box with an intensity that frightened him, eyes wide and fingers twitching like they were waiting for an explosion. Leo couldn’t understand.

  I want to go back to that swirling orb. He tapped his fingers impatiently. What are we even waiting for?

  The metal box really was just that, a box. It was about the size of a football and its only two interesting features were a sliding lever that went down one size and two slits on the top. Peering over the top of the slits Leo could see some metal mesh and a dull orange glow that radiated out a soft heat.

  The box made a crashing pop sound and the whole thing seemed to jump. Leo looked to David who looked at Marie who nodded. The box did nothing. Leo felt like he was missing something vitally important

  David ran across the room with urgency.

  This must be it, some extra component to revolutionize this invention. Leo’s mind was racing with possibilities. A bomb? How much destruction could it cause? A bomb that size could be hidden anywhere. The box had a cord that ran from its base into some type of generator. The generator was a mess of gears that was shaking at an uneven rhythm, matching the aura of all of Marie's other creations. That could complicate things if it needed a power source. Regardless, if it were a bomb, Leo would need to report it as soon as possible. This was exactly the type of thing that Father John warned me to watch for.

  David came running back and in his hand was a loaf of bread. It looked stale.

  David was an idiot, but surely he couldn’t be… Marie nodded, her mouth watering. He placed the loaf down and grabbed a wood-saw. He cut two even slices of bread and placed them into the slits. Marie pushed down the lever and the bread began to cook. Leo was now more confused. First of all, the bread was already cooked, why would they cook it again? Then the larger question, this is it? All that sneaking around and hiding his “inventions” from the Church for a bread cooker.

  Where is the grand weapon? The threat to the Church? The Blackmail? I need something that John can steal as his own after he throws David away. Then I can finally take his place as a Bishop – the youngest in history. Leo shivered at the thought, it was too tantalizing not to.

  A smell began to waft from the slits that Leo thought would be a carcinogenic burn, but it smelt good, like the bread was freshly baked again. This time when the box popped, the two bread slices poked out over the top, a golden crust on either side.

  David went to grab them.

  ‘Wait,’ Marie said, her face as fierce as when she had tried to kill David earlier, ‘butter first.’

  ‘Of course.’ He went running again. The way he acted was unfitting for that of a Bishop, one of the highest ranking members of the Church. It was unbefitting of a human.

  He is a dog.

  Coming back with a small tub he slathered both slices with a coat of butter using a wrench of all things. Marie took one slice and he took the other, then looking at Leo, David ripped his own slice into jagged halves and offered one to Leo. He was smiling like a dopey idiot. Leo hated it. This man was an incompetent pushover, a fool who should have been expelled years ago, yet somehow always managed to be rewarded; a fool who failed upwards. He took the easiest route, and Leo saw this time and time again during training. He was right to report David to a Bishop, Father John was responsible and understanding, but somehow yet again David was promoted. He often found he learnt more from David’s mistakes than the babble that came from his lips. He found it was often more accurate to do the opposite of whatever David instructed. It was John’s scheme to promote him as despite all his incompetence there was something valuable in him; not only was he manipulable, John believed David had constructed a super weapon of sorts. This weapon could be put to use in Kerioth’s army, but to take it Suraj would have to believe David was plotting against the Church, a surprisingly easy thing to prove no matter if it was true or not. Then when Leo finally tracked down the grand secret it was burnt bread.

  ‘Take it, it's good,’ David said, already stuffing his own face.

  Marie let out a moan of enjoyment.

  Leo took his half and after smelling it again, feeling its warmth in his hand, he took a bite. There was no denying: it was good. Not so great to warrant the expressiveness of those two, who were now holding back tears as they smiled at each other, but it was good.

  ‘How long did this one take?’ David asked. ‘Two months?’

  Marie raised her eyes. ‘Closer to three.’

  ‘Worth it.’

  ‘Do you remember the-’

  ‘The explosion. Yeah.’

  ‘Overcooked that one a bit.’

  Marie laughed, ‘The toast was still edible.’

  ‘It was black.’

  Marie finished off her slice, savoring it with a hum.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Leo said cutting in, ‘did you say three months? On a bread cooker?’

  Marie frowned, ‘I’d like to see you make a toaster from scratch in three months.’

  ‘Well you see,’ David said, ‘it all started when I was working introductions and this guy arrived with a toaster attached to his…’ he trailed off motioning towards his crotch, ‘you know what.’

  ‘His dick,’ Marie interjected.

  David looked annoyed being cut off but he continued. ‘I’ve seen a lot of strange deaths, but this was a first and I always tried to buy new technology from Earth when I see it, but this guy refused to part ways with his “Nickel lover” so I had to-’

  ‘Three months?’ Leo repeated.

  They shared a look.

  ‘We haven’t just been working on this,’ David said. ‘This was just a side project.’

  Thank the Cardinals, so there is still something of merit here.

  ‘Yeah. Oh that reminds me, did that water purifier work out while I was gone?’

  Water purifier? Who cares about a water purifier. Where is the weapon?

  Leo could feel himself cracking. The mask was easy to wear for short performances, a few hours of acting timid at a time, but when the hours turned to days and days to weeks the mask became suffocating. If he didn’t get what he needed soon, or just get away from David he was going to lose it.

  ‘Yeah,’ Marie said, moving to the other side of the room, ‘come check it out.’

  On top of a bench was a large water tank. At the top of the tank was a funnel that led down into several multi-colored layers. Leo could pick some out as charcoal, sand and fine gravel. Each layer seemed to be separated by mesh, then the bottom layer was suspended over a holding tank by a sheepskin.

  It doesn’t look like much of an invention.

  But Leo was wrong, both Marie and David moved past the tank to a jug, not much larger than the toaster. It had two distinct halves, separated vertically. The first half had an open top and then a tube connected from the bottom of the first half and then climbed up into the top of the second. The connecting tube looked like a miniature version of filter, but in reverse.

  ‘I had trouble finding the right pattern of rune, but by combining these two I think I've got it working. It will need more testing to find the lifecycle and the reliability.’

  Marie’s finger traced up the path of the filter and stopped at an oddly shaped, black box. She flipped the box open showing two blue gemstones radiating a soft light. A different pattern had been carved into their surfaces.

  ‘Amazing,’ David said, squinting at the symbols.

  Marie closed the box and poured water into the first section, pushed a button on the small box and in front of Leo's eyes the water was sucked up the tube at such a fast rate it spurted out the other side.

  David looked to Leo with a stupid face that said “See I told you.” Leo couldn’t care less for it. David poured a glass and took a sip, then frowned.

  ‘A bit metallic.’

  ‘Yeah, not sure if that's a by-product of the gem-hearts or if we need to reconfigure the filter sequence.’

  ‘Still the applications that a water pump could have-’

  Leo cut in again, ‘This is great and all, but I must ask; what is the point? We have clean water at the Church.’

  ‘My people don’t,’ Marie said. ‘Sure the Church gets their fancy river water shipped into the city, but have you ever tasted the city reservoir? Or tried magically produced water?’

  Leo didn’t respond, of course he hadn’t. He had joined the Church as soon as he arrived in this world, there was no need to drink the city water. If people wanted clean water they should work for it.

  Marie continued, ‘I’ll save you the trouble of trying it and recommend you drink your own piss, it’s probably safer.’

  Leo rolled his eyes. ‘That’s great, great. However, David, if this is what your inventions amount to, then why the hell have you been hiding this?’

  ‘Its Father David to-’

  ‘Save it. I don’t care if you are a Bishop, I’m done pretending you deserve to be treated like one.’

  David laughed. Leo was puffing with rage and here he was laughing.

  ‘I told you he was a spy,’ Marie said.

  David caught his breath. ‘I knew he was a spy before you told me.’

  ‘Oh yeah, well guess what, you-’

  ‘Can both of you shut up for five seconds,’ Leo said, pinching his brow, ‘Yeah I was sent to watch you, who cares, you aren’t doing anything worthwhile anyway.’

  David and Marie shared another look, then smiled.

  ‘To answer your question,’ David said, ‘I have not been hiding my inventions.’

  ‘Our inventions,’ Marie said.

  ‘I have brought many of these inventions to the Church. They didn’t care. In fact, John, back when he was still Father John to me, said “Stop wasting your time on the common folk.” The problem is that I do care, I want to change this world and I think you do too.’

  What is he even saying?

  ‘You don’t know me.’

  ‘I saw your face when the children were taken in the introduction.’

  ‘That’s a necessity, you explained it to me.’

  ‘It doesn't have to be. The Church means well, but it does terrible things. The cardinals at the top have gone insane and it takes someone to change things, slowly. A big movement starts with small changes. Little inventions to help the wider community which in turn will benefit the Church and everyone inside the city.

  Leo didn’t know what to say next. At the end of the day, he just wanted to keep his job in the Church, earn some repentance and a little money.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  ‘I think I can trust you,’ David said, putting a hand on Leo’s shoulder, ‘so I am going to show you what you came to see.’

  Leo pushed the hand away. ‘No matter what you think of me, if I see something worth reporting I will.’

  He smiled. ‘I’m counting on it. Now that I am a Bishop I am planning to go public with something the Church will definitely accept. An invention to increase their strength. I didn’t want to use this, but it’s a way to get a foot in the door, to increase production lines, to start making that change. Something they would never refuse.’

  ‘So the big project?’ Marie asked.

  ‘Aye, let’s get working on the weapon,’ David said.

  * * * *

  ‘An oil-wolf?’ Leo asked, his face skeptical.

  David held in his hand the dark orb he brought into Marie’s garage. Now that Leo looked at it, the swirls of chrome did look similar to oil shining in the light.

  ‘Yes, I paid an adventuring party to go out and capture them. Apparently there are dozens of packs a few days out from Kerioth. These gem-hearts are also from oil-wolves,’ David said gesturing to the dozen or so blue gem-hearts in the satchel with the other two swirling orbs.

  ‘Out of all the monsters, you bring the one that has a shifting shape?’ Marie asked.

  David shrugged. ‘It has a strong coating.’

  ‘How strong?’

  ‘Equivalent to a proficient ash-knight or roughly bishop class.’

  ‘Bishop class?’ Leo asked.

  ‘Yeah it's what the adventurers are calling it. A way to measure strength in different noctra skills. If my memory serves correctly it goes: Follower, Priest, Bishop, Arch, Cardinal, Saint, Apostle, Messiah.’

  ‘That’s a lot of classes,’ Leo said.

  ‘I am yet to meet someone in the top two classes for any skill.’

  Marie was uninterested in the tangent; she was transfixed on the orb, poking it. ‘When we release the wolf, is there any way to get it to stop moving, for testing?’

  ‘Throw it some meat, I guess.’

  ‘Do you have some meat?’

  David’s stupid face resurfaced. ‘Not at the moment, but we can figure that out later. Do you still have the cage?’

  They have a cage?

  ‘Which one?’

  They have multiple cages?

  David raised his eyes in thought. ‘The one with the lifespan absorber attached.’

  A few moments later Marie finished assembling the cage, it was about three feet cubed. The bars were an inch thick, two inches apart and made of copper, tinged with oxidization. Opening the top, David placed the swirling orb down in the center then ensured the lock was tight.

  ‘How do we get the wolf out?’ Marie asked.

  ‘I don’t know, smash it maybe.’

  ‘You don’t know?’ Leo asked, ‘You carry three monsters around inside the city walls and you don’t know how it works? What if it is time based? What if they all just-’

  Marie whipped out a rifle, from God knows where, and shot the orb.

  Leo’s ears were ringing, it felt like they were bleeding. The orb shattered. Tendrils of black and purple smoked whirled and whisked into the air. They fought to sift through the bars in the cage, but were expelled by bursts of pink lightning that arced between the bars. The smoke condensed above the orb. Out of the dusk emerged a snarling beast of shifting shape, twisted claws and protruding fangs. Its eyes were wild and it was caged.

  It bounced against the copper bars, but was repelled back by that pink lightning. Leo looked to the top of the cage and a large gem-heart was pulsing with a pink glow. It grew brighter each time the wolf attacked, whilst the beast grew lethargic quickly.

  ‘The cage works,’ David said.

  ‘Yeah I’m a little surprised.’

  ‘Surprised?!’ Leo asked, ‘You release a monster without knowing if the cage would hold?’

  Marie wiped her forehead, ‘Do you have to ask all your questions in that annoying squeaky voice of yours? SuPrIsEd?’ Marie mimicked in a higher pitched voice.

  Leo pursed his lip, trying to think of a response. How old is Marie anyway? She looked the same age as Leo, a young teen, but if David was supplying her lifespan she could be decades older. Leo thought it was pretty immature for someone her age to be acting that way.

  ‘We never had a chance to test it,’ David said with a laugh, ‘but now that we are safe let's move onto the main problem.’

  ‘A way to break its defensive coating,’ Marie said.

  ‘Isn’t that easy?’ Leo asked, ‘just get some adventurer or knight to chop it up.’

  The wolf growled, spinning in its cage.

  ‘Yeah, fantastic,’ Marie said sarcastically, ‘What an invention. The whole purpose of what we are doing is to find a way to kill motherfuckers with a coating. There’s no point if we rely on someone else with a coating.’

  ‘Learning noctra skills take immense amounts of time and lifespan,’ David said. ‘The culmination of these skills are held by near-immortal warriors. That's a problem when a single one of those freaks go on a rampage, no one can stop them.’

  ‘Are you talking about the holy-knights?’ Leo asked.

  ‘Among others.’

  ‘Holy-knights would never go on a rampage; they work for the Church.’

  ‘They would if they go mad, and they will go mad. It is inevitable. Once they reach a few centuries and their iris fades to white, it is only a matter of time. They can slow the madness by staying in younger and younger forms, but what happens when they get into a fight? A holy knight can use decades of lifespan in a single battle.’

  ‘We common folk have no way to stop them, should they become mad or decide that they don’t like taking orders anymore. We shoot them with a rifle and the bullet bounces off their skin.’

  Leo staggered backwards. 'No wonder you were hiding this, you're trying to destroy the core strength of the Church.’

  ‘Not true, I plan to gift this weapon to the Church. A weapon capable of killing high ranking noctra warriors that can be put into the hand of any soldier. No need to waste years of lifespan and training. The Church would become stronger.’

  ‘But it wouldn’t take long for this weapon to slip into other hands, in opposition to the Church.’

  ‘I suppose that could happen,’ David said, not seeming to care.

  ‘Are we going to do this or what?’ Marie asked.

  ‘First we have to decide on a method,’ David said, ‘I am still in favor of finding a way to maintain a coating on the bullets.’

  ‘Let’s just build a big fuck-off gun,’ Marie said, ‘the coating will have its limit eventually.’

  ‘You can add a coating to bullets?’ Leo asked.

  ‘Yeah, it's no more difficult than coating a sword,’ David said, ‘the problem is that the coating fades as soon as it leaves the user's hand, so it's just a regular bullet by the time it hits the target. My thinking is that if we can overload the coating on the bullet using gem-hearts then it might last a second longer.’

  ‘Even if we got that to work, it still uses lifespan,’ Marie said, pulling her goggles over her eyes. ‘Kind of defeats the whole purpose.’

  ‘It at least solves the main problem of being able to kill those ageless freaks.’

  Marie reloaded her rifle, placing a bullet through a slit in the top; it seemed to only be able to carry one round at a time. ‘Let’s see how this wolf responds.’

  Leo quickly plugged his ears with his fingers just as Marie shot. He smelt the gunpowder in the back of his throat. The bullet moved too quickly to see, but the wolf nipped at where the bullet struck and it fell out of its shifting black coat.

  ‘It felt it,’ David said.

  ‘But no damage.’

  Leo realized something that he should have seen long ago. These two idiots have nothing. Leo finally found out about this weapon they had, but they hadn’t even begun to build it. What was he going to report back to Father John, “They are planning to build a weapon.” Yeah fantastic observation.

  Leo was no engineer, but he was sure as shit smarter than these two. If he could help them along, then they might actually be able to build this weapon. If they did that then he could report it to Father John. He didn’t like the idea of working with David, but he liked the idea of leaving empty handed much less.

  ‘Maybe I can assist,’ Leo said.

  Marie didn’t look impressed, but David smiled.

  Doesn’t he get it? I hate him.

  ‘What are you thinking?’ David asked.

  ‘Well, first can you explain how the coating works?’

  Marie laughed, ‘You think you can help and you don’t even know how-’

  David cut her off. ‘Think of it like a layer of lifespan that circulates around the body. It costs lifespan to repel threats and can be draining on the user if overused.’

  ‘How does it repel bullets?’

  ‘The coating is normally very thin, but when a foreign object tries to penetrate it, the lifespan condenses around that point.’

  ‘A bullet has a lot of force behind it, wouldn’t it take significant energy to deflect?’

  ‘Sure, but lifespan is energy.’

  Leo made a humming sound.

  ‘While you to lovers talk it out,’ Marie said walking away, ‘I will be busy making my big fuck-off gun.’

  ‘Wait, we should work…’ David started, but Marie had already placed earmuffs on and had her back turned.

  ‘I am thinking that when the coating repels a bullet,’ Leo said, ‘it should be weakened for a period of time. The energy must be used, expended to create that opposing force.’

  ‘I’m not sure about the exact physics of it, but I think that if that is true, the time it takes for the coating to be replenished would be very short, perhaps less than a second.’ David put a hand to his chin. ‘Well I suppose it would depend on how strong a blow the coating received, and therefore how much of the coating was depleted.’

  ‘So what if a second bullet hit the coating, right after energy was expelled reflecting the first couldn’t that penetrate the barrier?’ Leo asked.

  ‘Only one way to find out,’ David said, throwing Leo a rifle.

  Leo caught it with fumbling hands as David grabbed another for himself. Where did they even get these guns from?

  ‘So I will count us in,’ David said, ‘and then we fire simultaneously.’

  The wolf prowled around its small cage, sniffing and barring its fangs towards the humans just outside its reach. Its teeth seemed to be screaming with desire to mangle flesh, it didn’t seem scared at all. Leo felt a pang of guilt for the animal, being experimented on like this, but not enough guilt to set it free.

  ‘Three.’

  Leo took aim.

  ‘Two.’

  His finger took the slack out of the trigger.

  ‘One.’

  His heartbeat was racing, it had been so long since he last shot, hunting with his father on Earth. What would father think if he saw me n-

  ‘Fire!’

  Both rifles shot with a bang and a puff of gunpowder. Leo’s ears rang again, he forgot he couldn’t block them if he was holding a rifle. He should have grabbed some earmuffs.

  Both bullets hit true and as far as Leo could tell, they were in sync. The wolf gave a small yelp, but again, seemed unharmed.

  ‘It's a shame,’ David said, ‘but I wasn’t too hopeful. Coating is the most important noctra skill for knights. A warrior without a coating is a turtle without its shell and a man with a strong coating is invincible.’

  Leo sighed, but then a drip sound came from inside the cage.

  A drop of blood fell beneath the wolf. Tiny and insignificant, but Leo didn’t miss the importance.

  David noticed too and slapped Leo on the back, ‘Good going kid, look at that. It was probably weakened by the cage, but for a concept…’ David trailed off and ran over to grab Marie, showing her the blood.

  ‘So what?’ She asked. ‘I am going to build a gun that shoots a fucking bomb. I got some schematics for several weapons emerging on Earth from that military scientist you brought in the other week. Show me your little blood dribble after I turn the entire wolf into dust.’

  However, Marie was pretty easily persuaded after David mentioned something about lifespan and supplies. It didn’t take long until all three of them were standing next to the cage, firing volleys of bullets.

  The results varied, if they all fired in perfect sync the wolf would bleed, but even then the bullet would not completely pass through the coating. If they were even half a second apart, there would be no visible damage. They tried, each holding two revolvers next and - when David didn’t miss - the damage was even greater. It seemed the power of a single blow was not as important as the quantity. Finally, all six bullets shot in the best timing they had all day, each bullet landing within that half second. The wolf whimpered and dropped dead. When its shifting black mass stopped changing, it looked like an almost regular wolf and Leo a bit guiltier. He also felt exalted, proud.

  ‘It works,’ David said and looked at Marie.

  She pouted in response. It didn’t last long, ‘Fine,’ she said, ‘I also got some schematics for a gun that could provide this effect. Big spinning thing, looks dumb, but could probably fire off a couple hundred rounds per minute. It some prototype that hasn’t even hit the battlefields in earth yet. Oh and I still want to make my bomb-gun as well.’

  ‘Go crazy,’ David said, ‘I think we will have a short deadline this time.’

  Leo looked back to the cage where a dead monster lay. This was certainly worth reporting back.