Calina and Iyuna reach the top of the stairs and open the metal gate, exiting the cellar below; A man in silver armor rushed over to meet them.

"General Calina! We have orders from HQ that want you to continue your advance to a town a few kilometers from here. Would you like us to accompany you?"

The silver-haired general shook her head and placed a hand on the paladin's shoulder. "You've done enough. Please go back home and get some rest."

The knight raised his arm to salute. "Thank you, General!"

Calina and her subordinate watch the knight as he trots to meet with the rest of his comrades.

"We're going to continue our recon mission to the city of Kulaskein. There's apparently intel that they have a processing plant stationed there."

Iyuna looks up as large gusts of wind protrude from the sky.

"GAAARHH!" A large blue dragon starts to set down on the ground in front of them.

"I'm quite interested in what types of weapon need mass processing—But I have a pretty solid idea."

. . .

—Fwoosh Fwoosh Fwoosh

The dragon's wing flaps with intensity as they come into the view of a small town with stone and wooden ceilings. In the middle of the buildings is a large and long structure with smoke coming from multiple chimneys.

Yanami sets herself on a nearby hill as Iyuna, and Calina get off to look at the city from afar.

Calina draws a runic circle in the sky, and an apple drops from the space into her left hand. She bites into the fruit while Iyuna stands beside her, looking at the large infrastructure.

"Could be metal… But it's hard to say."

Calina points to the chimneys and takes another bite of her apple. "Metal fumes are soft and almost invisible as they contain large amounts of cadmium plating…."

Yanami peers from behind them while still morphing from her dragon form.

Calina takes another bite from her apple and throws it into the air as the half-dragon leaps and devours it whole.

"Yanami, you think you can cause a distraction for us to infiltrate that factory?"

She gulps the last of the fruit and nods while sliding down the slope of the mountain.

"Despite this world's Castle Age, nations like Phoenia with magic at their side advanced in other things such as human augmentation and alchemy, no need to create greater weapons since they were already quite powerful."

—BOOM

A large blue flame starts to devour several houses at the edge of town.

Iyuna and Calina start to slide down the incline as dirt and rubble break in their wake.

"However, there's one last step towards the Imperial Age that we haven't seen yet."

They hide behind a nearby straw building as a group of villagers run with buckets of water towards the inflamed houses. Calina leads as she detours down an alleyway and is met with the back entrance to the large workshop.

—CLINK CLINK CLINK

The sounds of metal-working along with soft-rustling can be heard from the inside. The two infiltrators run across the paved path and open the metal doors with discretion. Large metal bodies turning and spinning fill the inside of the building with deafening noise. On the ground lays multiple boxes, canisters, and barrels with labels for caution.

Calina walks over to a barrel and takes off the top. Her eyes widen as she lowers her hand grasping the content.

"Just as I expected."

Iyuna walks over to her and peers inside the box.

"What is this?"

A large number of black sand sprinkles from Calina's armored hand.

"Gun powder."

. . .

Iyuna gives a vague expression while looking towards the powder.

"Whats… Gun Powder?"

—BOOM

Another fiery explosion goes off in the distance as Calina places the top back onto the barrel.

"An explosive chemical, in fact, one of the first to have been made."

"Has been?… It's been created before?"

Calina looks toward her then starts walking towards the door.

"We should get going… It seems the explosions have stopped."

Calina and Iyuna run outside the factory as a large shadow of a dragon loom over them.

Iyuna creates a large ice pillar that raises her and Calina towards the sky as they hop onto the dragon's back.

"RAAAAGH!" The dragoness starts to fly off above the cloudline.

"That powder isn't necessarily lethal. It's more dependent on what they're using it for. It acts as a subsonic combustion… Kind of like when you apply friction on wood to create a fire."

Iyuna looks back at the city as a multitude of houses burning with blue flames.

"What could they possibly need a powder like that for?"

Calina puts a hand over her chin while looking toward the ground. "It could be for explosions… But there's probably a magical equivalent to powerful blasts already in this world…."

"You said it yourself that some nations aren't as well-off as Phoenia. Their way of creating bombs and weaponry could be totally different from ours."

"That's true… It could also be used for automatic weapons. However, this is a double-edged sword as it's not usually used as a detonator. Moreover, it's quite interesting how they've not only gotten information on magic, but they're also getting into these makeshift powders. It's almost as if someone's relaying this information to the—"

Calina shifts her head towards Iyuna, who gives her a brief stare.

"… What?"

"Remember when you were a child, how your father bought that scroll off from another nation?"

"The Bostax Empire… Yes, I recall."

Calina lifts her head into the air looking at the beaming sun, then stands to her feet. "I'll be back. Tell the Brigadier about the mage situation, but…."

She looks over toward Iyuna with piercing gray eyes. "Don't say a word about the powder. I need to do some digging before we relay any information to the military core. If they hear about this, they'll just send in an advance before we're able to figure out what they're using it for."

Iyuna nods while turning her head towards the side.

"GRAAAAGH!" The dragoness looks back at Calina.

"You've done enough, Yanami, fly Iyuna back home and get some rest. Thank you for your hard work."

Calina jumps from the dragon and dives below the clouds.

"Someone's trying to shift the power dynamic in this world… And I'm going to find out who."