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Mid Evening - Late Winter - Year 24 : Acardi Wreckage Island

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"If you wish for your soul to make it to reincarnation, you best answer these questions like the world's fate lies on it." Watching the color drain from her eyes as all sense of mercy drained from mine, my gaze turned cold. "Do you understand?"

Gently nodding, her entire body quivered as if my maw were already around her throat.

"Good, then let's not waste more time than we need to." *Woosh* Darting closer, my pupils thinned. "Who the hell are you?"

"I-I'm a smith!" She responded hastily, without the slightest waver.

It was the last thing I expected: a truthful answer.

However, I wasn't buying it. *FLASH* Switching to my fenririan form, I released all control over my aura, surrounding us in a dense, starry void. "You dare to deceive a god?!"

Watching her eyes dart around, succumbing to instincts as she backed her head away, I locked her in place with my aura. *VWOOM*

She was trapped. Even if she was as strong as Hera, in the water she wouldn't be able to move.

"I-I-I would never!" Quivering so violently that the items in her bags rattled, her gaze once again locked on mine.

It was another sign that she was telling the truth. -But...- Knowing everything I did, that was an impossibility. "What is your relation to this place? Who ordered you to come here?"

"T-The Spathi family!"

-What?- It was a name I was unfamiliar with, roughly translating to 'Sword'. -Are they a small martial family?-

"I'm a smith that has worked with them for a very long time!

T-Typically I would make them weapons, but as our relationship developed, we started doing favors for one another.

A number of years ago, it started with just studying some otherworldly materials.

" Catching her glance sideways toward the ship, she was quick to lock eyes with me again.

"But this time, they asked me to place some artifacts down here and fetch some ore!

I-I-I promise I'm not-" *CrAcKLE* "ACK-! "

Biting her tongue as I crushed her forearm with my aura, my gaze grew colder with annoyance. "I don't believe that shit."

Going wide-eyed, her panic compounded. "P-P-Please! I can answer anything! I'll explain everything I know!"

Tightening my grip on her, I spoke with a bloodlust that had remained dormant since my time as Nott. "Then you best start from the beginning."

Knowing I wasn't going to give her another chance, she immediately tensed, but somehow, as she started speaking, it eased.

"M-My name is Espera! I used to be a travelling smith on the Main Continent, forging bladed weapons for those who caught my eye in order to hone my work, but eventually, I had a desire for money and came to continue my practice in Bahamut.

Long story short, I wasn't great compared to other dragons, so I ran around seeking work for practice, and the Spathi family granted me that. "

Trying to pick at every aspect of her story, voice, and body language, I did everything I could to dig out the lie.

But I found nothing. "For a long time, I was one of their many smiths forging practice swords, but about a dozen years ago, they started commissioning me to focus on refining my metallurgy, providing samples of material they wanted me to replicate.

.. Having spoken around, I wasn't the only one either.

.. But regardless, our relationship seemed to develop rapidly after that.

They would provide me incredible samples of material, and in turn, I would do them favors as long as it was in my capability, like finding artifacts, searching for smiths, or simply refining materials; and that all led up to a few days ago when they asked me to come down here. "

Feeling her heart rate spike as she stared into my eyes, hoping and praying for some kind of reaction, I spoke bluntly. "Now explain what you, a smith, were doing posing as a researcher, hiding a bomb strong enough to flatten a city, and approaching this place knowing it’s dangers?"

"T-They explained everything to me in great detail!

" She blurted it out without any hesitation.

"I was given instructions on what to do and where to go for a number of days over the last week before coming down here and planting a couple artifacts!

They simply asked me to come place them, and r-retrieve a bunch of that silver ore! "

Trying to look past me at the uranium stockpile, I fell into thought...

At least until my mind caught something -Wait a minute...- "What do you mean a couple of artifacts? Do you mean the things you were attaching to one another?"

She immediately shook her head. "F-Farther in this place," she swiftly pointed her wing toward the ship. "They asked me to place another one of those.. bomb.. things..."

My senses instantly flared up. -There's.. a second..?-

But before I could even consider asking for more detail, a shockwave ripped past us. *WOOOOM* Being suddenly blinded by a cloud of silt and debris, I stared into the dark wreckage of the ship with wide eyes. "The place you planted that bomb at.. what was there..."

Shivering, knowing the shockwave was the bomb going off, she shriveled up. "I..I.. don't know..."

Looking back at the reactor, still purring as the uranium stuffed in it sizzled, I fell into thought.

-The people on the surface should believe this place is destroyed by now, so.

..- *Vwoom* Grabbing the uranium inside the reactor with my aura, I rapidly accelerated its decay, ripping apart atoms until the widespread fission ceased, and the temperature started to settle. -That should be good...-

-Now...- Turning back to the panicked woman, I tightened my grip on her.

"You're coming with me." *WOOSH* Darting into the ship without a second thought, I cut a series of holes through the hollow metal walls before closing them up and weaving through the massive, air-filled halls of the wreckage. -It’s air-tight despite all that damage…

Looks like this thing really was meant for space. ..-

Trying not to get distracted by the hulking masses of machinery in the rooms I was passing, I kept my aura loose and occupied my mind with the architecture itself.

But after closing myself into the wreckage, the pressure of my aura naturally pushed through the walls.

By the looks of things, the area of the ship we were in was dedicated entirely to heavy industry research, with the main, volumous hallways being layered with sterile white tiles, the floor and ceiling having massive exposed electromagnetic rails, and the rooms being dedicated to identically sized towers of machinery surrounded by instruments and computers.

However, I didn't have the time nor interest to look at them in more detail at that moment.

*WOOSH* Finally turning onto another hallway, looking at a serious mess through my aura, I used some light magic to reveal the glisten of flowing water on the floor before looking up to see an extremely bulged hangar-style door leaking water and sand. -That must be it...-

*SP-SP-SPLASH* Eventually reaching the door, I immediately shoved my aura inside to see the extent of the damage, but it was both better and worse than I had imagined.

Spanning into dozens of colossal rooms, the walls and floors were ruptured without discrimination, and in the process, sand and salt water had begun filling everything through a huge hole that was melted in the top, outermost shell of the ship. -That must have been where the bomb was placed...-

However, by the looks of things, there wasn't anything in any of the rooms. -All the damage looks like its from the pressure of the blast...-

Likely meaning they weren't trying to destroy evidence here.. but rather bury witnesses…

*Crackle-Blub* Melting thick sections of sand to form a glass bowl that’d keep the water from spreading throughout the rest of the ship, I turned my attention to the numerous buildings and researchers trapped in the thick, cement-like mix of sand and water, only to fall into thought questioning how the hell I was going to get them all out.

Looking up above the hole, I quickly noticed Hera and Krystallo standing in the bottom of a massive sinkhole, using magnets made from the iron in the sand to find where people were buried, before pumping air into the sand and giving Hera's aura a chance to reach them and help pull them out.

However, while able to help those who were above the hole in the roof of the ship, the unlucky few who fell through were simply out of reach, squirming under the immense pressure, praying that they were digging the right way as they slowly suffocated. -How truly troublesome...-

Pushing my space mana up to Hera, I was quick to vibrate the air as if I were using wind magic.

"There are a number of people trapped inside the ship itself, so I'm gonna break all the sand and water down into gas so they can all get out.

It'll cause the sand you and Krystallo are on to cave in though so be careful. "

Suddenly stiffening her expression, her eyes snapped in my direction. "Should I continue to hold back what I can?"

"Yeah, let the entrance to the ship be exposed."

"Do you want me to keep the researchers quiet about what they see?"

"Just keep them under the blanket of the Cabinet for now.

We need to start accelerating our technological developments with Acardi tech anyway, so I think we should push forward the creation of the Science Branch and have them study this place down here.

" -I'll never be able to explore it all on my own anyway. ..-

"Alright... I do have an issue though..." Turning a bit awkward, she looked up toward the top of the incredibly deep pit. "A spy tried to drop a bomb into the sinkhole from up here, and he's injured, but I can't deal with him while I'm holding everything up here."

"Just turn the sand into glass, and make it so thick it won't break and collapse."

"Hm... And the water?"

"Freeze it. It only needs to last until I finish up down here.

.." Lowering my gaze to one of the many hallways that were flooded with water and sand, outside of the glass bowl I made, I found a younger, feathered dragon gasping for air.

"I might be a minute though so make sure it's nice and sturdy. "

Nodding, Hera immediately grabbed Krystallo before the light around her bent. "Got it."

-Now then, since we're on the same page... It's my turn to begin cleanup...-