Knowledge is Power, Power Corrupts, Corruption is a Crime, and Crime does not pay. Therefore the longer you study the poorer you will be.

From this we can see that while logic is invaluable, it is far from perfect.

-Scholar Facetious Wimbley on the fallacy of logic

While both Guppy and Friedrich were lost in silent contemplation, a small black creature sauntered into the room, behaving for all the world as if it owned it. It arrived before them, before devouring a few meaty scraps that had fallen from Friedrich’s sandwich. Satisfied with it’s pickings it began to clean its front paws with its tongue.

The animal was far smaller than a suk but similarly had four limbs on which it walked, a slender black tail and a small head with pointed ears. Finishing with its paws it began to lick its already glossy black fur before stopping and solemnly looking at the pair with its golden eyes.

"A Mako!" Friedrich exclaimed in delight.

"Today we are truly blessed, even the god's messenger has come to watch us! Guppy today we make history! After 40 years of wandering, planning, and building, I am ready! Today we unveil a new rich source of energy for the benefit of all civilization! No more will civilization have to oppress the poor and weak to survive! No more will we enslave an entire race out of fear of what may be! Today we bring a new dawn to this world."

Guppy felt her heart speed up in excitement as she listened to the energised dwarf.

'So this is what the old bas.. I mean dwarf was doing. Fudgeknucles he's awesome.'

Her thoughts raced and teamed with the possibilities and import of their goal as she quickly pulled on her leather gear. While finely made the protective clothes were unenchanted, a measure to prevent any possible disruption magical resonance could cause with the extremely sensitive and delicate parts she had been piecing together for Friedrich.

Guppy raced down the stairs to the basement, feeling an extra thrill at entering a zone Friedrich had previously never allowed her access to.

Freezing in awe she saw it. Gleaming metal lit by the large crystal source igniters that connected to it in a symmetrical fashion, all twelve varieties of mana Guppy noted.

The thing was an excessively large sphere, the basement having been dug down not one or two but three entire levels in order to accommodate it like an egg in its nest.

The staircase she was on wound its way in a spiral as it descended before stopping at a platform near the bottom. There an array of shiny brass levers and buttons sat patiently waiting for them.

“Keep moving lass, and close your mouth, I don’t pay you to catch flies now do I”

Friedrich chuckled at her awestruck posture and prodded Guppy to wake her up. Having succeeded they both descended to the control platform.

Once they reached it Guppy took her time to further examine it while Fridrich bustled over the control panel.

The Machine sat quietly, its many metallic hues spoke not only of its brass construction, but also orichalcum and even, 12 divines! was that adamantite she saw suspended on a crane?!

Guppy narrowed her eyes at Friedrich’s back.

'If I knew how stinking rich he was I would have pushed for a higher salary' she mentally complained.

Friedrich feeling her stare, guessed its meaning and coughed awkwardly.

"All my savings and earnings for 40 years went straight into this project Guppy, it is indeed my life's work" Friedrich said as he walked over and lovingly caressed the surface of The Machine.

"I call her TiLuNaPoHwSeChNoLuThPrZa."

Guppy tripped and grabbed the railing. "Boss that's an awful name."

She swiftly cut off the possibility of a soon to be world famous magitech machine being named so horrendously.

Guppy looked at the twelve elemental crystals and made a mental connection.

"Boss, did you just use the first two letters of each of the twelve divines names and smash them together?"

Friedrich flinched, which was all the answer Guppy needed.

"Yeah, that name is definitely rejected."

Friedrich made a sour face at her rejection. "Well what do you suggest then madam?".

'Oh boy' Guppy thought

'He only calls me madam when he’s quite annoyed, he must have spent a long time thinking that name up.'

Guppy put aside Friedrich's obvious displeasure and thought for a bit. After a minute she looked up and opened her mouth.

"What about that mythical white dragon from the old Dlorian folk song, Arkkarnissius?"

Friedrich thought about Guppy’s proposition,

"True, it does roll off the tongue a tad bit easier, we'll go with that name then Guppy, now while I paint its new name on would you kindly get up there and insert the adamantite focusing array."

Guppy saluted and thought 'crisis averted'.

She ran up the stairs, then latched onto a series of bars located on the underside of the crane, swinging herself from one to another until she reached the zenith and let go, dropping a short distance onto Arkkarnissius.

Arriving at the open top hatch she guided the crane and lowered the adamantite dodecahedron into the belly of the beast. That done she slipped through the hatch herself.

Inside she was met with a technomancer's paradise, surrounded by highly advanced and intricate magitech devices on all sides. The multitude of contraptions glimmered in the faint light coming through the hatch. Once her eyes adjusted Guppy quickly found the central node and carefully inserted, then secured the focusing array.

"Clever old boy" Guppy muttered.

Who else but her crazy master would use adamantite, a near legendary metal which reflected magic, to build a focusing array instead of an antimagic armor.

"If people ever find out what we used to build this thing I reckon the army will be kicking down our door to tear it apart for scrap" She murmured.

Guppy realised that she knew what to do, several of the puzzles Friedrich had previously given her and made her repetitively solve giving her the experience she needed.

She carefully hooked in the 12 igniter cables around the core, making sure they were sealed and secured tightly, then opened the primary output valve. This done she retreated the way she came and quickly exited Arkkarnissius. Following that she closed the access hatch and swiveled the clamping wheel to secure the entrance shaft.

"All done Master" Guppy reported.

"Come over to the control station Guppy. I have set up a tier six mana shield array here for our protection." Friedrich called.

Guppy made her way back down to the control platform and arrived to see Friedrich positively vibrating with excitement as he muttered incessantly to himself.

When he saw that Guppy had arrived he flipped a lever and a transparent blue membrane shimmered and hummed into existence around the platform.

Guppy stood to the left and a little behind Friedrich as the Dwarf started an elaborate startup sequence, running through the checks on the igniters and pressure testing. Once everything checked out he stopped, hovering his finger over the large red button labeled IGNITE.

"Master?" Guppy asked quietly.

"It's nothing Guppy." replied Friedrich as he firmly depressed the button.

For a second nothing happened, then slowly the mana circuitry on Arkkarnissius lit up, the twelve colors bathing the chamber in their multi hued glow.

"What does it use as fuel Master?" Guppy enquired.

Friedrich puffed out his chest as he proudly explained

"Well I started out with iron but that was far too heavy, just sucked the igniter energy dry before the reaction could get started properly. I tried a bunch of different metals before finding that gases work best, you know the stuff they fill those giant blimps up with? It works wonders as fuel, just a little ignition and boom, it fuses right up and releases all the primordial mana you would ever need.

Of course, my test rigs overloaded themselves, the power output was far too much for them to handle. They shorted right out and the lack of regulation made the reaction unstable. But this beauty can take it. I know she can."

Guppy coughed.

“Master, according to legend Arkkarnissius was a male”

Friedrich snorted, “Don’t bother me with trivialities now girl, I have science to perform!”

Arkkarnissius hummed as it fully lit up, the very air visibly oscillating.

"IGNITERS ARE ENGAGED!" Friedrich shouted, trying to make himself heard over the increasingly loud thrumming Arkkarnissius was emitting.

"ANY SECOND NOW SHE'S GOING TO LIGHT UP LIKE SELENA HERSELF."

And then it did, an intensely bright light assaulted Guppy's eyes, blinding her before she pulled down her welding goggles.

Blinking to regain her vision Guppy cast her eyes to the output readings. One thousand, two thousand, three and a half thousand mega mana's.

"Merciful Chrolia" Guppy implored, her voice silent, the thrumming now completely drowning out her words.

"That's enough power output in one second to run the needs of the entire empire for a week! He did it. F-Fudgeknukles the old geezer really did it."

Guppy grasped Friedrich's shoulder and squeezed it. This was the dawn of a new age, the world would never, could never be the same after today. She felt an overwhelming pride in her master gush over her.

Even the usually stoic dwarf could not hold back his emotions, it looked like he was trying to create a river over there, so great were the tears streaming down his cheeks.

Guppy could not hear a word he spoke, but she understood him nonetheless as he mouthed over and over "It works. It works. It works"

Guppy looked back at the control panel, and in the very corner saw a lovely little, perfectly innocent, and quite obviously forgotten orichalcum bolt.

"There's no way," she said as a tremor warped the air and everything went white.