Steel and Mana

Chapter 151 – Resounding Steps

Inside Duke Kustov's home, the head of the family was sitting in his leather armchair, leaning back, looking out the massive window, gazing at the starry sky, and trying to organize his reeling thoughts from the shocking revelation of his son. The news that he had brought back was... not something he would have dreamed about. Still, it presented an opportunity that was greater than anything he or his Sovereign ever thought about. Two firm knocks on his door pulled him out of his daydreaming only a moment later while Barnabas entered the room, bowing towards him.

"My Lord, our guests have left the city with your message."

"Thank you, Barnabas. It will take time to get a response, but I will take the initiative and instruct my son on what to do..."

"My Lord... This could be... Dangerous. To not just his life but to everyone else within the family."

"It is already too late! The Empress has chosen my son for whatever reason; there is no backing out of this!" He moaned, rubbing his head, "Not that I would want to miss such an opportunity. Every other noble family would kill for something like this..."

"That is what I meant, My Lord."

"Haaah... It won't become public for now, but it will take only a little while for others to put things together. We will weather the storm; we are not a weak family! If my son can get the imperial family behind us and marry into it, we will have protection and will be able to do whatever we want. Call together the family and all our subordinate and allied partners. We need to talk..."

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"For the Gods... that is a massive machine!" Elliot gawked as he visited me, and I let him witness the moment when the head was finally installed onto the torso of the machine. Currently it stood within the industrial district, towering around nine meters tall, and was only missing its arms to be considered finished.

"It came out bigger than I originally planned, but it worked out. Even without any active magic, it can fully support its weight, and after installing the hydraulics, it would be able to move using a natural power source."

"Is there a big water tank in it like with the tractors?"

"No. It has dynamos within its body that could create emergency power if an anti-magic spell hits it, but it would only be capable to fight for a little while before it goes immobile. Their function is more so to give a chance for the pilot to escape and initiate the self-destruct sequences."

"The what now?" He asked, raising his eyebrows.

"We are adding a separate function that can be activated with CC. When the pilot leaves and slots it into place within the cockpit, it will initiate a self-destruct. I don't want to leave any of these machines behind and let our enemies study it."

"I see... hm. I don't know if there would be anything that could bring it down, though."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that! Warfare is such that today's greatest inventions are tomorrow's obsolete technology."

"When will it be ready?"

"I don't really know, but it is close. When the arms are finished and installed with every system in place, we will start doing real tests and move it around. If you want to see it, you are invited, of course!"

"I wouldn't want to miss it, so count on me! This also reminds me of why I came. The tractors proved to be a great success! With their use, we managed to break the earth after the harsh winter. Doing it by hand would have been much more challenging! Anyway, our projection is that we should be fine, although the harvest will happen a bit later than usual; hopefully, the weather will stay normal this time around."

"Any problems with the machines?"

"Only a few, but the technicians you sent helped teach the people how to fix it themselves. It is, no matter how weird it looks, a pretty easy-to-understand design. We can fix it if something goes wrong and would only need to send a unit back to you if there is a critical failure with the engine. The rest, we can deal with it."

"Glad to hear because I can't produce new ones for now. We are focusing wholly on the mech."

"Yeah, I get that. The main reason for my visit is that I want to invite Mr Arbuckle over to my territory. If he is available, that is."

"Hmmm? Really?" I asked, surprised because that was a request I did not see coming.

"My dear nephew~! You said yourself you want an army, and I would provide the ground troops, yes?"

"Ah. Are you already in a phase to start thinking about arming them?"

"No, but I like to think ahead of time. With how busy you are, I can't and won't bother you with everything. I want to borrow your man because I want him to come over and train my people and help me establish a similar factory. I will do the rest from there."

"That can be arranged."

"No strings attached?" He asked, looking at me, trying to see what game I was playing.

"No, nothing. It is an advantage for me to have a strong ally as a neighbor. What do you think I am? A greedy Ishillian?"

"Well, we are both Ishillians." He joked, making me chuckle.

"Semantics. Come! Let's go and visit my little ones; I bet they would be happy to see you and check out the gifts you brought over!"

"Woah, woah! What gifts? You just said that you are not a greedy Ishillian!"

"I'm not! But my kids are still little babies~! Of course, they are greedy and needy!" I grinned, watching him twitch his eyelids while following me.

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Elliot didn't need to wait long to be invited to the first test of our completed mech. About a month later, everything was finally finished, and right now, the bulky, 9-meter-tall machine stood proudly on our testing ground. The gallery where the spectators sat was limited to my ministers and important figures within Avalon while the army secured the perimeters, keeping everyone else out. My father had been nagging me since he first saw the completed unit, wanting to have his own and trying to use the fact that he was my father to claim this one. Well... he may really be the one who will get it in the end, as this machine would be stationed in the Pass anyway. That is the place where we could constantly test it and see how it works. I didn't tell him that, being the first model, it would have the most issues and probably be constantly retrofitted with new, experimental tech. This beast will be the testbed to streamline the future mechs, so it will be the one that becomes obsolete the fastest. Oh well... It was he who was impatient!

As for the pilot for today's test? It would be me, of course. The only thing our machine was missing right now was its armor plating, so it looked more skeletal than how it would by the time winter came. Stepping between its massive elephant-like legs, I pulled a lever down that would later be hidden away and watched as the installed dynamos whirled to life. A moment later, the cockpit's 'mouth' high in the air opened up, and a rope rolled down with a simple handle and stirrup to stick my foot into. 

When I was ready, I kicked the lever back up into place, and the rope was quickly pulled back up by the simple system we installed, which was attached to the motors inside, lifting me into the cockpit and closing the door below me. With the faint, red hue of the magic formations within it, it wasn't hard to see, even if every power would go out. I was grinning from start to finish while I sat down in the pilot's chair, which is greatly enhanced now. It was comfortable, covered by leather, and big enough for even Oleg to fit into it. Pressing down on the activation button, I could hear the whirling of the gears and hundreds of smaller hydraulic systems working their magic, slotting the CCs in place to finally connect it with the primary one. The mech's core was hidden within the bottom of the torso unit, at the most shielded portion of the whole construct. It was from our very first behemoth's kill; although we did cut it down, it was still something that would place it between a Human-sized and a God's tear CC. Maybe I will call it Leon's Tear? Or would that be an innuendo for my sperm?

Well, I didn't have much time to think about silly jokes because as the formation came to life, I was immersed in its feeling, letting it meld with my consciousness. The cockpit disappeared, and even though I knew I was holding the controls, it no longer felt like it. It was as if I became a 10-meter-tall colossus, looking down at the observing crowd from above.

Of course, this was not the first time I did it, as we had tests after the arms got attached, so I was somewhat used to the feeling. Moving around was different than usual, and if I had to make a comparison, it was like when you tried walking in water, submerged to neck level. I became slow, and it was cumbersome, but I could feel the power behind every move I made. I knew if I stepped on something, that was as good as dead, turning it into a pancake.

"I'm connected. All good?" I spoke, and my voice echoed in the outside world, coming from the loudspeakers Merlin installed onto its chest. To improve on its moral-breaking effect, we modified the recording process and used a new method to distort the magical waves, turning my voice more deep and robotic, as if the giant, skull-faced machine was speaking and not me. The only drawback was that, at the moment, the loudspeakers had around two to three seconds delay between me speaking and them repeating my words.

"For the Gods' sake... what a frightening machine!" Elliot whispered, holding onto the arm of my mother. Even from this far up in the air and at least 30 meters from them, I could pick up on it and hear it just as clearly as if I stood next to them.

Focusing my senses, I could 'zoom' onto Sasha and Mikan, holding my children. They were looking back up at me with shining eyes, waving their little arms, and probably having a wild conversation about what they were seeing. Still, inside the machine, my thoughts were shielded thanks to Merlin's improvements, and I couldn't hear them anymore.

"Oookay, I am going to test the top speed first!" My voice boomed and I made the machine's torso swivel, as it was much faster than turning around like a human would. Accompanied by the loud noise of spinning components within it, the heavy upper body of it rotated around in only three to five seconds. If not for the 360 vision, it may have been disorienting, but with it active, I didn't even feel a change, I just instinctively knew I could now move again.

I knew the earth was shaking under it when its leg was raised, and I began walking. It was... such an incredible feeling! I have always dreamed about experiencing something like this, and maybe the formation picked up on it. I don't know, but I felt even more connected with the machine when I was excited or happy, and in the end, our basic measurements showed that the top speed was somewhere between five to ten kilometers per hour. What it had slight problems with was the turning radius, needing ample space to circle around while moving. My other choice was to stop and initiate a turn that way, realigning the way I was facing before moving again.

Driving around that big hunk of metal, even with the feeling of being heavy and restricted, did not exhaust me either physically or mentally. As for knowing how much energy the mech would have left in it, we couldn't really determine it. It was impossible to measure the power of a monster's core and how quickly it would deplete. What we knew by testing by using different CCs for a core is that the way it depletes shows up as the pilot getting exhausted, weakened, and disoriented. I felt neither of those when I stopped at my original starting spot, making the mech kneel down for ease of access while Merlin directed the workers standing by, bringing along two pretty massive new cannons.

"Here comes the fun part." Yuri grinned, elbowing Elliot. "It is time they install the improved firecrackers! Be prepared; you will see some dope shit go down in a moment!"

"Hopefully, the little ones won't be scared..." Mikan whispered, holding Arthur while Leyla wiggled her legs in Sasha's hold. Then again, the little family could already sense the twins' thoughts the moment they focused on them.

"Big daddy... go bam-bam... so cool!"