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Mid Evening - Mid Winter : Six Hundred Kilometers East of the Cabinet

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*rrrruuuuMMMBBLLEEE-WOOSH* Watching Father zip past me at close to Mach 4, this time without his scales glowing red-hot or tumbling through the air, I nodded with a satisfied look.

Mach 4 was most definitely his limit, but because he was limited by how thick the air was, as we rose in altitude, his speed limit would inevitably rise as well.

*Vwoom* -He might have trouble managing his oxygen when we're at altitude though.

..- Checking the space around his head with my aura as he disappeared over the horizon, I motioned him back, and used some of my mana to grow the rapidly-melting iceberg I was floating on.

After all, I wasn't sure a square kilometer of ice would survive.

*Crackle-z-z-z-Z-Z-Z-ZIP-BAAAAANG* Slamming into the iceberg at full speed, cracks ripped through it like lightning before the whole thing was plunged beneath the water. *WOOOSH-SPLASSHH*

-Oh, it survived this time...- Using the water that rushed across the surface to repair the huge cracks that appeared, I buried our claws in ice.

But a bit of ice was far from enough to hold Father in place.

"HAHA!" *CRACK* Jumping out of the ice, he happily hopped around like an overjoyed child for a moment before turning to me.

"Did you see that?! WOOOO, that felt good!

" His happy roar quickly echoed off the massive waves surrounding us before I quelled them as well.

"I told you going fast is euphoric." Smiling as I broke the ice around my claws and stepped out, I spread my wings and dried myself off. *Vwoom-Woosh* "How are your legs feeling though?"

"Much better!" Holding up his paw, he gently moved it around before firmly stomping a few times. "The work you did on it last time was flawless."

"Phew..." Letting out a silent breath of relief, I spoke more softly.

"Thank goodness." The last time we came out to fly, a few days prior, he did the same thing he just did, but went much faster and slammed straight into the water, consequently crushing the joints in his wrists and breaking a few bones in his legs.

When I went to fix it, I did a bit of a procedure on him to not just repair everything, but strengthen it as well, and it seemed to work out. "You said it was just mana strengthening, but I'm not sure I believe you."

"Well, that's cause you're comparing my mana strengthening to normal people.

" With my recent time in the void, I found a much more time-consuming, but stronger method of mana strengthening using lattices interwoven with space mana.

The downside was that it made whatever I strengthened a dark matte black, whether it was supposed to be a shiny metal or white bone, and greatly stunted organic activity.

-But before that really becomes a problem, it'll get replaced with his own mana. -

"I guess that's true." Looking me in the eye as he started walking over, he spoke with excitement written all over his face. "In any case, do you think I'm finally ready for our excursion?"

Somewhat hesitantly nodding, I tried to quell his excitement a bit. "I do, but we can't leave just yet."

"Hm?"

"We have someone else coming with us," Without realizing, a smile spread across my face. "Someone I still need to reintroduce you to."

As we flew back to the Cabinet, I tried to ease him into things, especially since I wasn't sure how much Mother had explained to him already.

"So, how much has Mother explained the governmental changes in Bahamut?"

Shrugging as we flew, he spoke with a bit of uncertainty. "I thought a lot, at least about it's function and origin. She didn't mention much about what caused it."

-Okay, then...- "Has Mother told you who the Monarch is?"

He quickly shook his head. "I heard it was Myles Kalfas since he survived his dragon sleep. Is it not?"

Shaking my head, I wanted to laugh. "Not quite. He's the head of the military branch." -Looks like some of his memories are still jumbled...-

Father, giving me an uncomfortable look, quickly squinted with skepticism. "Then.. who..?" Falling into thought, his gaze quickly wandered. "Is it you? Are you pulling my leg?"

"Haha, nope." Continuing to let him guess while we flew, we eventually found a place to land in the central courtyard and sat down.

"Huh? Why are we sitting." Obediently sitting down as discomfort and concern rushed across his face, he spoke with haste. "We aren't waiting for the Monarch to come to us, are we?!"

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Quickly waving my wing to calm him down, I used a bit of aura to check on Hera and make sure she wasn't too busy.

But she was already headed our way.

*Click-FWOOSH* Throwing open the door ahead of us, Hera walked through while holding her head high with a prideful smile.

It was a sight that made Father clam up and instinctually throw himself into a bow. "What are you doing, Vasilias?!" Looking up at me, his gaze was washed with panic. "Why aren't you bowing?"

"Pft-" It made me want to laugh. "You think I'd invite her if we had that kind of relationship?

Relax, Dad." Using my aura to force him to stand up straight, I tried to start the reintroduction.

"Dad, this is Hera. I believe you two met not long before you were sent into your dragon sleep, but since your memories seemed to still be a bit jumbled, I thought I'd reintroduce you. "

Instantly tensing up, he went wide-eyed before Hera bowed with a warm smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you again, sir."

"Ah-! Y-You don't need to bow to someone like me!" Trying to force himself into a bow through my aura, he glared at me and used a bit of wind magic to speak just to me, not knowing Hera could very easily hear it. "Let me bow, RIGHT NOW! Do you not know what it means to not bow to the Monarch?!"

"Pfffft-hahaha!" Finally breaking character, Hera let out a hardy laugh, causing Father's expression to wash with a mix of uneasiness and confusion. "It'd be a bit awkward for him to bow to me, you know."

Quickly nearing me, this time with a joyful curl in her tail, she pressed the top of her head into my cheek and leaned into me.

"~Please let me introduce myself this time.

~" Whispering to me with her divinity, I gently nodded and backed off as she turned back to Father.

"Sir, my name is Hera Monachalkos. It seems you don't remember but we spoke quite extensively about science in Valtivar throughout the month prior to the accident leading to your dragon sleep. "

Completely shellshocked, Father just stood there with his gaze bouncing between me and Hera before suddenly his eyes went wide.

"A-Ah! I'm so sorry!" Finally forcing himself through my aura, he bowed and wiped the dumbfounded expression off his face.

"It seems my dragon sleep jumbled my memories more than I thought. .. I sincerely apologize."

Hera quickly nodded with a warm smile. "Please don't be sorry, Vasilias had already told me all about it. We will get the chance to know each other again on this trip, so don't worry."

Warming up to her as his memories slowly returned to him, he started speaking more comfortably. "R-Right, I apologize if this trip was something you wanted to be just between you and Vasilias."

"Haha, don't be. It'll be good for us all to spend some time with each other. Plus, sometimes I can get lost in Vasilias's explanations so it'll be nice to have a head to butt against.. especially considering what he'll be showing us..."

Looking up into the sky, Father was quick to nod in understanding. "No kidding..."

But I, unfortunately, had to get the ball moving.

"In any case, shall we get going?" With only a month till the festival, we had to get moving.

-Considering there are at least a few thousand satellites, I'm not sure what will be repairable and what won't...- But with there being at least a few thousand satellites, I was sure it was going to take us some time.

However, when we finally got up into the air, and I pulled out the freshly updated OOM, jumped through a few tabs to search for a nearby satellite, and eventually found one, catching up to it in its orbit.. I felt a bead of sweat form on my forehead.

"Uh..." Hera and Father had the same reaction as me. "What are we looking at..?"

Hesitating as I looked at the large purple cube floating before us, I wasn't sure what to really think.

-It looks like it runs mostly off mana..

.- But inside it was an incredible mix of technology and runes, intertwined so perfectly that it was a little hard to follow.

-Besides cleaning up the runes and circuits a bit, this shouldn't need much repairs. ..-

However, I quickly found myself with another problem.

"What.. is this thing supposed to do?" Tilting her head, Hera stared at it with an unbelievably confused expression.

"That.. is a great question..." Pulling out the OOM again, I quickly connected to the satellite, did a few scans to make sure it was working properly, and then went into the 'in-depth diagnosis' tab, telling me exactly what it checked, only to find that it was an outdated communications relay that was likely replaced by the tower in the middle of the Death's Gape.

-Maybe.. I need to change how I go about doing this...-

With a little more research, I quickly came to realize just how few of the fifteen thousand satellites the OOM found needed to be repaired.

But.. that didn't mean repairing them would be any easier...

With every satellite we found, I felt more and more lost. "W..What..." -How does this shit even work?!-

Honestly, I was intending for the trip to be something where I could help deepen Hera and Father’s knowledge of science, but.. before long, I found myself deepening my own.

It just went to show how much more advanced the Acardi were than I had always envisioned.. to a point that it was truly a bit horrifying, not just to me, but Hera. “How.. did the Acardi not conquer Delphi…”

Looking over at her staring at a computation module that used runes, mana, and quantum electronics, simultaneously, completely dumbfounded, I couldn’t help but ask myself the same question. “How.. did Delphi even survive…”

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