“Leona…”

From the depths of her mind, the tactician heard a voice calling out her name. The darkness that gently embraced her was now writhing violently as if she was about to be torn away from her rightful place.

“Leona Crossford, in the name of the light I beseech thee!”

Upon opening her eyes, Leona noticed she was now on a cliff overseeing the Londrian kingdom. The previous storm filled skies were given place to a gentle blue hue free from any clouds.

“Wha… where am I?”

“I must apologize for this terrible timing, but with each passing moon it becomes more challenging to evoke thee to this place.” Once Leona turned around she noticed a beautifully dressed woman standing, almost twice her size, with a silver greatsword supporting both of her hands on each side of the guard as she looked upon the tactician, her long silvery hair fluttering around her like it had life of its own. “For thou bravery, I thank thee, Leona.”

Her polite bow caught the tactician by surprise.

“Goddess Eleonora please, raise your head.” She was nervous, given how less common it was for her to be forcibly dragged from her peaceful slumber and the strange behavior of a goddess. It made her feel on edge. “I only did what I thought was right for my comrades. Nothing more.”

“Even so, thy selfless sacrifices won’t be for naught my child.” She left the greatsword affixed to the ground and gently kneeled in front of the tactician, upon extending both hands she opened them to reveal an orb of light. It emitted a powerful golden glow that seemed to be in a constant state of flux. “I bless thee with holy light, it shall protect thou from the corrupting influence of the void. Call upon my name and I shall lend you strength.” Leona slowly stepped forward and extended her left hand towards it. Upon touching it, a gentle warmth began to spread throughout arm to the rest of her body as the golden strings of mana began to coil around her left arm towards the center of her chest where it disappeared shortly thereafter. It left her feeling a familiar warm feeling inside her breast “I leave thee for a well earned respite, seek the light in the darkness and thy path shall not stray.”

Before the tactician could say another word, the goddess’ blade began to emit a light so bright that she was forced to close her eyes and once she opened them again, all she saw was the familiar wooden ceiling.

“Ah.”

She muttered before blinking a few times. Her body was feeling lighter than usual, when she sat on the edge of her bed she noticed a faint vestige of golden mana dissipating from her left hand. She closed said hand and focused on the mana that was coursing through her body, it was faint, but she could clearly feel something was different about it.

Suddenly, she heard a few knocks on the door to her right.

“Princess? Are you awake?”

Krieg’s voice came from outside.

“Yes, you may enter.”

The door opened and the knight walked in, he was wearing the Londrian combat uniform with the usual sheathed steel greatsword hanging from his left shoulder as he knelt before her.

“I’m sorry to disturb you while you were resting but sir Lawrence asked for your presence back in the warehouse.”

Any drowsiness she was feeling was almost instantly dispelled away.

“Is this about Phoebe?”

He shook his head.

“I don’t know, he simply said to come seek you.”

“Very well, I’ll get changed.” She quickly grabbed the clothing she was wearing yesterday and simply wore them over her sleepwear that consisted of a plain shirt and trousers. “Let’s go.”

They quickly made their way to the warehouse, each step filled Leona’s mind with more and more anxiety until they reached the entrance of the building.

“Oh you are here.” The receptionist greeted the two of them. “Come inside, master Lawrence is waiting for you.”

After hearing her words cold beads of sweat started to drip from Leona’s forehead, it was the cold sensation in her stomach that kept a terrible reminder in her mind of someone close to her dying. It was a feeling she vowed to never go through it again, but alas, there she was almost grasping her own heart.

Once she walked through the familiar long hallway, she opened the double doors that lead to the warehouse.

“Ah you’re here!” Lawrence was the first to greet them, he wore the same blacksmith apron with two thick mitts covering his hands and cracked glass goggles. “I must apologize, I had Krieg to bring you here-”

“What about Phoebe? Where is she?”

Leona was about to approach him when she heard the familiar female voice.

“Don’t worry princess Leona, I’m none the worse for wear, well… saving for the legs.” Following where it came from, the tactician looked to her right and Phoebe was sitting against a comfortable looking armchair. Despite missing both legs from the thighs down, she was looking quite healthy. Once she saw her, all that dreadful sensation she was feeling went away. “What?”

“No, it’s nothing.” Leona rubbed her eyes. “I’m just glad that you’re well.”

The high elf shook her hand.

“Nevermind me, the smarts over there had good news to share with you.”

“It’s Lawrence, Lady Phoebe.” He looked at her over his reading glasses while he held a piece of paper with schematics. “In any case, now that you are here Princess Leona, I’m happy to inform you that the construction of the flying vessel is proceeding apace, though I still have a few issues regarding the manafication engine, mainly its calibration, so I would like to ask for your assistance, if possible.”

She blankly blinked a few times before asking.

“That’s it?”

“Yes, that’s the only vital part that remains, the rest you can leave to our esteemed workshop workers.”

“Very well, what will you have me do?”

“This way if you please.”

He began walking towards the back room, at that point Leona glanced briefly at Krieg and after the knight nodded she turned around to follow Lawrence. To the back of the workshop where the tables with machinery were, instead of an empty place she noticed quite a few workers carrying equipment around, some of them even hoisted crates through a system of pulleys attached to the ceiling as they lifted the heavy cargo and moved above the people.

On a reinforced table on the far corner of the room, there was a sizable engine resting on top of it. It was so heavy it needed its own work table with metal legs in order to support the entire thing.

“This is probably the biggest project we ever got.” Lawrence proudly said so. “Aside from a few problems in the construction itself, I believe we reached an acceptable solution, by coating the internal firing chamber with frostburnt silver it should be capable of withstanding the spells required to move it.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but wouldn’t that require a large amount of mana from my part?”

“That is right, but only in the startup process, once it starts running it should be able to use atmospheric mana in order to move its parts, well… at least for the most part, you’d still need to toss in an occasional spell or two.” He reached for a wooden crate near the table and pulled out a glass container similar to what he used to bottle warm drinks filled with a silvery liquid. “This liquid is made with frostburnt silver powder, if my assumptions are right you can power it up with mana and use it instead of using your spells.”

“Oh this can save me a lot of trouble.” She grabbed the vial and noticed it had a strange looking latch on top of it. “How am I supposed to use this?”

“Just charge it with your mana and then insert the side with the latch on the back of the engine, over here.”

He pointed to an opening in the rear of the massive contraption.

“Well then, let me start.”

She closed her eyes and began to concentrate on the fingertips of her hands holding the vial and not before long faint strings of mana started to circulate around her wrist before eventually finding themselves inside the vial, the liquid that was previously only silver with a pale light blue glow started to shine brightly and at that point Lawrence interrupted her.

“Oh that’s good enough, thank you.” He took the vial from her hand and put it back in the crate before offering the tactician to take a seat on top of a wooden box across him as he sat down as well. “Something else I wanted to talk about is what I found in Jakob’s notes. I went through it all with the help of a few fellow workers that I can trust.”

That made Leona’s eyes light up with hope.

“And what did you find?”

“There is a way to help Miss Phoebe get her legs back, the most glaring issue however is how to prepare the stimulant he used. The process related to it was not written anywhere, he must have discovered it and quickly made it instead of noting it down.”

“Do you think you’d be able to make one that can safely be used? You know how he transformed into a death angel himself.”

“Hmmm…” He crossed his arms and his head lowered for a bit. “I think the transformation has to do with the death angel sample I found in his lab. Maybe he mixed your knight’s blood along with it, though that would be too simple…”

At that point Athena had entered the room holding a stack of papers .

“Lawrence I brought you the notes you- oh hello Leo, fancy meeting you here early in the morning.”

The tactician smiled before replying.

“Good morning, I could say the same to you.”

“Thank you Athena, can you bring it here? I think it would make sense for Miss Leona to read it as well.” After the inventor handed him some of the papers she headed towards her room. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, don’t get too fixated on those.”

She closed the door behind her, leaving the two alone in the corner of the workshop again.

“What is this?”

Leona asked while holding a few pieces of what at a glance seemed to be part of the mad scientist’s notes.

“That one is unrelated to the experiments but more of a personal records written by him at the time he became minister. I wanted you to read it so I asked Olivia if I could have a copy.”

“I see.” Leona then cleared her throat before turning to read it. “Death is, by all means, a natural part of life that much is a given, however why must we and our loved ones be shackled by such merciless fate? No, man must achieve the heavens and bring down the firmament of the gods so that we may live on without fear of death, disease or war, we must go beyond flesh and bones, to become something greater, to become true to our indomitable nature. To become gods ourselves.”

She finished a paragraph and there was a lump stuck in her throat, something felt wrong. Reading that note out loud made her remember things, things to which she felt strangely attached to yet she couldn’t quite find words to describe those dreadful feelings.

“I bid you, finish it. Please.”

His words made her look once again at the paper, continuing on from where she had stopped.

“From the moment I understood what it meant to be human, so small compared to the world around us, I knew there had to be a way, a way to grasp the foundation of our world so that we could go beyond this fleeting flesh. Despite the best of my attempts, failure, failure, failure, failure, failure, failure, I failed her. Failed to save her from death’s grasp. Yet, I know, somewhere, out there somewhere, she is there watching. Watching despite my failures, watching despite all those attempts, watching even though I am the one who killed her.” Leona stopped and took a deep breath, the note on her hand felt like steel, one could mistake this for a letter of a madman, someone who had no one else to turn to and she knew full well how that feeling was. However, she kept going. “I will draw the strength of the one true god of death so that I can overcome it, I will bring you back.”

The note ends there and Leona is left staring blankly at the paper, cold sweat dripping from her brow the feeling of despair assaulting her senses as she could feel the heat being drained out from her body until Lawrence reached and touched her on the shoulder.

“Miss Leona? Are you alright?”

“Ah, I- I’m sorry. This was… a bit too much to take in.” She handed him back the paper. “You said you found this with his belongings?”

“Yes, it may be my own impression but it felt like he was being influenced by something, or someone.”

“I fear I know who this someone may be.”

She muttered to herself.

“Pardon?”

“No, nothing, I think it may be best to avoid thinking too hard about it. Nothing good comes out of mulling over a crazed man’s rubbish.”

“Indeed. I just found peculiar the way he chose his words, Jakob was, if anything, very calculating yet there was an unusual amount of passion in his personal notes.”

‘Nothing that comes from the void can be considered as normal.’

She thought for herself as she stood up.

“Well then, aside from the ominous note and update on the engine, do you need anything else?”

She asked.

“No, not really.” He stood up as well before offering her a handshake. “Thank you for your time Miss Leona.”

“The pleasure is all mine, Lawrence.”

After the exchange she walked to the previous room where she saw Krieg and Phoebe chatting.

“How do you plan to go to Nara?” The knight seemed worried about the high elf’s condition. “Even if we did carry you back, is there anyone there that can help you with it?”

“My master probably can, he is an adept mage renowned for his extensive knowledge.” She adjusted her body against the armchair. “Besides, I can’t just let you two go alone, there is no way either of you can find where he lives.”

Krieg scratched the side of his head.

“But then how do you intend to walk?”

“Not on my own, no.” She gave him a mischievous smile. “That is exactly why I asked a recent acquaintance of mine to fetch me a few good meters of quality fabric.”

“What in the goddess’ name is that?” When she unfolded a harness made entirely out of tied cloth Krieg’s jaw dropped, it was too big for Leona which only meant it was for the knight. His eyes straightened at her. “You’re not thinking-”

“Yes quite so, Sir Krieg. With you carrying me I could even wield my bow in battle.”

“Bah, how am I supposed to wield a blade if I’m carrying you?”

“Simple, just use a smaller weapon. You never know if an arming sword will suit you unless you try it.”

Seeing the two arguing filled Leona with a warm feeling inside her chest, the relief of having both of them hale and whole was an incredible weight off her shoulders, but even if that moment offered respite she knew it was only for a brief moment. The tactician took a deep breath and approached them to join the conversation with a smile on her face.