Chapter 864 – Love and Statecraft Finale – Light: Historical Gifts

Chapter 864 – Love and Statecraft Finale – Light: Historical Gifts

Blue light swelled, reached a zenith and then quickly waned to ultimately disappear, all over the course of a couple of seconds. The doors in front of John and Lydia began to slide open. “Try to not slip into my pants on this floor,” he quietly joked while they stepped out.

“I will see whether or not it fits my goals,” Lydia responded.

“You saying your little horny attack was on purpose?” John wondered. If that was true, it had been well-acted enough to convince him.

“The greatest lies are cemented in truth and I do so wish today to end and for your cock to be inside my throat, my love.” Lydia cleared her throat to keep her composure. “I attempted to make Suel think my weaknesses are more pronounced than they actually are. He might overplay a future advantage, in such a case. A good benefit and excuse to touch your sex.”

“You are getting hornier by the day.”

“And whose fault would that be?”

“Mine. I’m not apologizing.”

“Keep satisfying me and I will not ask for it.” Lydia smiled lightly in his direction for a second, then put on a diligent mask as they stepped out of the teleport pad.

The highest level of the tower was a room dominated by faceted light. Stained, round windows, worthy of the greatest cathedrals, made up most of the walls, separated only by bits of stone in-between. Unlike the windows on the dancing floor, these were of the regular thickness and let the light of the sun fall in. Because the day was nearing its end, all of it was red-tinted and primarily came from the west.

The fractured, coloured windows guided that light into several prisms scattered across the room. Some were large pillars, others just small pieces that dangled by thread from the ceiling. Speckled light of red and gold was thrown onto the black and white dome of the ceiling.

“Follow me,” Romulus declared, once he had stepped out of the other teleporter. With firm steps, the young form of the Apex walked towards the centre of the room. There, a contraption John would have expected to see in video games stood on a circular elevation. It was a black, metal pillar with a large lever jutting out of one side.

Looking down, John saw a number of roman numerals etched in gold into the black marble of the floor. The realization that they were now standing on a large clock, with the lever serving as a comparatively undersized hour hand, followed soon thereafter. Romulus waited with his explanation until the entirety of the remaining guests had arrived.

“In this hall of illumination, each of the twelve windows paints a different image upon the ceiling,” Romulus began. “The sun would be light source enough for all of them. However, as much as I can get my beloved Sol to agree to my whims, the celestial body itself is beyond even my control. An earthly solution had to be created.”

Putting his hands onto the lever, Romulus caused some kind magical apparatus to spring to life. A bright, golden light cascaded through one of the windows as what likely was some kind of artificial sun formed on the outside. Albeit so much colder than the original a comparison could hardly be made, it was still warm enough that the broken rays that reached the inside quickly heated up the room.

Everyone looked up to the ceiling. As Romulus had said, the many prisms across the room now directed and reshaped the light to make up an image. Hundreds and thousands of dots overlapped to create different colours and forms.

Above them was a man with a red beard and golden crown, projected into the curve of the dome. His eyes were of such vibrant detail that John truly felt as if an ancestor was looking down on him from the heavens. As impressive as that bit of craftsmanship was on its own, what truly humbled the Gamer was that Romulus had designed this room to project twelve different images like that by merely moving the light source.

“Barbarossa – the founder of Rex Germaniae,” Romulus continued his monologue. “He was my foe at first. He led a rebellion against the rule of my empire, 800 years ago. Battle after battle, he won against my forces, until I myself decided that I had to face at least this danger to my people. On the day he was crowned by the pope in your mundane world, we duelled and I won. Accepting strength, he swore fealty to me, but only on certain concessions. Thus, the kingdom of Germany was born – even if some still cling onto the empire title he originally aspired to.”

Without much in terms of visible strain, Romulus pushed the lever and the machination of the outside moved with the smooth sound of lubricated gears turning. The specks of light on the ceiling drifted along in a chaotic display, until they coalesced into a new shape. Once the lever pointed at the roman two on the floor, the new image was as sharp as it could be.

The ceiling now held an image of the double-headed eagle, Reika as the goddess was currently called and gendered, in a fashion between stylized for a coat of arms and realistic. Her feathers were bright red in that form, a colour similar to the beard of the man that had been shown previously.

“The god of emperorship had been on my court for a short time preceding Barbarossa’s rise. Perhaps that deity becoming the patron god of the newly formed Rex Germaniae only reinforced the visions of their own empire some clung onto. Be that as it may, they both appeared before me in short time and found one another. A contract was made and peace was in my realm.”

A simple shove forwards and the specks of light were once more reordered. The third image was one of a long table, with seven men with royal robes covering their medieval clothing.

“Barbarossa, for all of his ambition, was not to be a long-lived man. The sting of a manticore he wished to slay in single combat robbed him of his vitality. Age claimed him at young years, by the standards of powerful Abyssals. Before his death, he created the system of electing a new ruler. An elective monarchy, rather than one tied to a bloodline. My lordship was honoured through my presence in the votes and the tithes they pay me to this day.”

A new image followed, depicting a king with black hair on one knee before a woman so gorgeous the image failed to catch her true essence. Her hair was white, represented through gaps in the picture, and impossibly long. John recognized her to be Fade.

“Love, first and foremost,” John returned with a grin, putting his hands into his pockets. “Gratitude, that would be another contender. A wish to see you safe, now and forever, is another great explanation.”

“Come on, let me see what that is,” Suel chimed in.

“I am rather intrigued myself,” Romulus hummed. Although he wasn’t a metal mage by nature, it was safe to assume that the Apex of the Abyss had learned the craft. Both him and Lydia would have felt the oddity of the metal under the sheath in the second it had been exposed.

Giving John a long stare, she properly drew the weapon once his unwillingness to take the weapon back was absolutely established. The prismatic metal sang several clear notes as the motion made it vibrate. Fundamentally see-through, its insides were separated into an endless number of triangles, each of a different shade of red, green, purple, brown, blue, silver and gold. Green and purple were the most present in the blade, while blue, gold, silver and brown seemed underrepresented. Red was somewhere in between. The surface of the weapon reflected the light as an equally divided spectrum. Even without any of that, the raw power of the item made it glow softly at all times.

“...What is that material?” Romulus asked.

“An alloy of Terrium, Oblivium, Poseidury, Tempi, Schattengarn and Solunian,” John admitted without any issue, since he had already told Sol what was necessary to stitch this together. “Not an equal-parts one by any description. We used a considerably higher amount of Schattengarn and Tempi and less Poseidury, Solunian and Terrium. A specific name for this alloy wasn’t chosen, but we call the overarching category of them Fusion Metals – or Fusionals for short. As for the components, we have come to call them Collision Metals or Collimets. Rolls of the tongue a bit better than elemental extreme metals.”

“This self-aggrandizement of your organizations will make it easier for me to stomach keeping this,” Lydia analysed. She was considerably less surprised. Likely, she had known that something like this was coming for months, allowing her to come to terms with the reality in a matter of moments. Interested, she tried to exert her ability on the weapon and the blade stretched in response. Dropping the hand through which she channelled the magic, she saw it resume its original dimensions.

Since Fusion (and Collide in particular) was the only organization in the world that could guarantee a steady supply of these metals to teach future smiths with, John essentially had free reign on what he wanted to name them. Sure, the actual elemental extreme metals had been named aeons ago, but everything else was up for grabs. When it came to establishing his guild as a prestigious entity, eternalizing its name in naming conventions was quite high up there.

“The smith named it Strimata,” John said, not having any interest in even trying to refute Lydia’s claim.





“How was it created?” Romulus wanted to know.

The Gamer bowed his head in an apologetic fashion. “You will have to understand that I stand nothing to gain from telling you so. Fusion will guard this secret for as long as we can. Forging weapons like this will be an insurance towards the rest of the world.”

Romulus begrudgingly backed off, while Suel stepped closer. “Mind if I hold that for a second?” he asked, showing greed and curiosity.

“I wouldn’t recommend it,” John said.

“Come now, there is no way I could steal it in this environment,” the vampire-like man responded jokingly.

“You can try, but it will slice open your hand if it thinks you’re unworthy,” the Gamer detailed further, and Suel quickly went back three steps. “Glad that we agree."

Lydia sighed one more time and carefully sheathed the weapon again. “I will keep this weapon hidden for this night. In accordance to your designs, John, the first usage shall leave an impact.”

“Just be careful to not kill anyone with it. I couldn’t test it, it won’t let me use it, but I could read the Attributes,” John reminded her.

“I will be as diligent to my obligations as I always am,” the queen stated and put the weapon away in her pocket dimension. With it removed from sight, the mood in the room became less tense.

Romulus took control of the situation before anyone else could. “That then ends what I had planned, Lydia,” he announced, his form swelling again to that of the imposing giant. “Shall we return to the festivities at large?”

“We shall,” the queen agreed.



For a couple more hours, they attended.