With the arrival of morning, a large piece of floating land appeared in the sky a short distance away from Fort Bender. Already, several sharp eyes had spotted the floating city. And a good number of them were normal people. After all, who wouldn't be able to see a gigantic mass of floating earth with a white walled city sitting atop it.
Gustavo stood atop the tall walls that protected Fort Bender with his arms folded across his chest and his face scrunched up. He could detect powerful aura coming from the approaching landmass and he could faintly recognize one of them. He could not pin it to an identity, though.
Mana charged up in the air as the various defense mechanisms that Gustavo had spent decades installing into the city came to life. Magical cannons and mages all propped themselves up at the top of the wall. Warriors also prepared to charge forward if there was a need for it.
"What's with the tense atmosphere? Can't remember my promise?" Before Gustavo could give any orders, he heard a rather familiar voice. His eyes narrowed and he spotted a dark skinned man standing at the peak of the tallest building in the city atop the floating piece of land.
"You're pulling my leg. Leon Cromwell?" Gustavo's eyes opened wide and his mouth fell open. He had heard of what had happened and how Leon had flipped the situation on its head. He also recalled Leon's promise of allying with Fort Bender one day. But he never really took it to heart. At that time, Leon's strength was not sufficient to back up his claims, and the thing with people was that when they gained power, they tended to disregard former promises and oaths. Unless they were binding, that is.
Whoosh!
Leon leaped from the top of the temple and arc through the air before landing on the ground a short distance away from the city wall. Meanwhile, his floating city came to a stop where it was.
Gustavo also leaped down as the excess defenses were deactivated on his order. He did not have a reason to fear Leon. They could be said to be friendly acquaintances with no enmities between them.
"What brings you here, Leon?" Gustavo asked.
"Well, as you can see, I have finally completed my floating city project. It was something I had my mind set on for a long time." Leon started. "But it is rather vulnerable like this. I came here to ask you if I can purchase any good defensive artifacts from you." He stated his goal for coming here.
"Oh, I see. That makes a lot of sense." Gustavo hummed and rubbed his chin. His eyes focused on the flying city in the sky and he sighed internally in awe.
"How about this, if you can make Fort Bender fly, I can give you the best service that will turn your city into an impregnable fortress." Gustavo offered.
Leon raised a doubtful eyebrow. "I don't think that is entirely fair, though. You get a flying city and you only help me with defensive artifacts? I can look for some other defensive mages and buy what I need from them."
"Haha, I figured you would say that. But can you trust them? I have a very good reputation, I'm sure you're aware of that. Many people commission me for custom projects on their mansions, territories, and cities. I am one of the best on this continent. After all, you don't see many defensive mages reaching my level." Gustavo grinned.
Leon remained silent for a time. The older man was correct. He could find very few mages that specialized on defense so much like Gustavo, and managed to reach Mid A rank.
"Fine, but I won't be working on Fort Bender immediately, and I want the very best you can do." Leon eventually agreed.
"That's great! As a matter of fact, you came at the right time. I just finished working on some of my latest creations that can block a few Peak A rank attacks before needing to be recharged. I'm sure you will love it!" The man chuckled and turned around to walk into the city. The large gates had been opened once again as the city returned to usual. The floating city had given everyone quite a scare.
Leon stepped into Fort Bender with a deep breath. It had been a few months since the end of Divinity's Bout, and he had not been here since then. Even now, this was just a short stop before they would head straight to Rivera.
"I heard all about your feats in the war. Who would have guessed that the B rank that left this city only months ago would return as a Peak A rank. It's unthinkable. I think you have made many people change the way they think." Gustavo started up a bit of conversation as they walked.
"Well, what can I say? I'm overflowing with talent." Leon shrugged with a chuckle. Truly, it was quite strange. He had initially come here as a Low-Mid C rank. When he left, he was Peak B rank, and now that he had return, he was Peak A rank and was forging his way to godhood.
"Talent that's seen only once in thousands of years, I'm afraid Never have I ever heard of someone with such outrageous talent. Not even in those stories that old people tell to children." Gustavo laughed.
Leon shrugged and followed after him. The two of them walked through the city and soon arrived at the central and most guarded part of Fort Bender, the City Lord's Castle!
Leon stared at the prestigious castle that outclassed his own mansion by many levels and felt envious. He had already been cooking up plans to upgrade his living residence for a while now, but other things had come up on his list of priorities lately that did not give him the spare time.
Together, they walked past the gate and Gustavo began to give him a short rundown.
"Now, look. When you follow me in there, I want you to show respect to the city lord. I am related to him, and even though you are stronger than myself and him, I won't be happy about any disrespect." The man warned seriously.
"Sure, sure. That's fine." Leon waved his hand. He did not plan to be snobbish or dismissive to the city lord. A lot of A ranks were dismissive of most people below them. After all, not just anyone could reach their level. But Leon's mindset was very much different.
A lot of those A ranks had spent decades and maybe even centuries to reach where they were. Meanwhile, Leon had not even spent up to a year in Datar, and yet he was above or on the same level with them. Because of the short amount of time he had spent, he did not have that same snobbishness that most of these people had.
They had spent a lot of time growing their powers and their minds were not like his. They were much more mature and saw things from a different point of view than himself.
.
.
Meanwhile, as Leon was busy finalizing his preparations to journey to Rivera, the person that had invited him was going through a different thing.
"Fire!"
The captain of the Blood Breaker gave the order and the main magical cannon of the magical airship glowed brightly with magical formations.
Boom!
With a brief flash of magical light, a pillar of golden-white light shot out of the cannon and struck the earth in the distance at the edge of the dimension where the massive ship had been built.
Bang!
BOOM!
An explosion of white flames rose in the distance, spreading until it had consumed a radius of seventy meters. The explosion lingered for a few more moments before fading and revealing reddened and scorched land. A crater around the depth of fifty or so meters was left in the ground.
"That was amazing! That was what? Thirty percent of the cannon's full power?" Vera was amazed by the power of the Blood Breaker.
"Yes, Vera." Mirabel walked up to her side with a smug smile on her face. "And get this, this is only the first iteration with little to no testing. The cannons were tested before being mounted on the ship and being connected to a vast array of circuits that can boost its power. Just imagine what we could to when we improve further on this and build more airships!" The woman was excited, her bright eyes doing nothing to hide it.
Vera sighed as she stared at the deck around her. She too, was excited. But there was no doubt that the first move from their side would cause a lot of devastation to the Elven Empire.
'They might hate me when I take over, but whoever carries the mantle after me will have it easier.' She sighed and accepted her fate as it was.
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