In Morning Star City, within an office on the seventh floor of the central tower.
The "Alchemist" Annick Splinter lifted a cup of hot water steeped with some unknown plant root. As he savored the unique bitterness laced with sweetness, he sketched something on a sheet of paper.
As one of the current members of the Floating City's Supreme Council, Annick had not undergone full mechanical transformation. He had preserved his nose, mouth, esophagus, digestive organs, and excretory system, which allowed him to still enjoy the pleasures of food.
Of course, his food also had to be purchased with energy points.
But Annick had not kept these organs purely for indulgence. The real reason was that he was the one entrusted with one of Morning Star City's Grade 1 Sealed Artifacts: "Goron's Stomach."
—Goron had once been one of the four Pontiffs of the Church of the True Creator, and the only one to reach demi-godhood. He was ultimately slain by the joint efforts of the Supreme Councilors of Morning Star City.
Even though it had been many against one, two Alchemists still fell in that battle before Goron was destroyed completely. Only after further processing by the grandmasters was the Sealed Artifact made—one with relatively minor negative effects, but troublesome conditions for sealing.
Leaving aside other harsh requirements, the artifact demanded a genuine flesh-and-blood stomach to serve as its seal, and required regular feedings of blood and meat. This was far from convenient for Morning Star City, where most people had long undergone complete mechanical modification.
Thus, the youngest councilor at the time, Annick—who had the least need to worry about aging or lifespan—retained his digestive and excretory systems for this purpose.
As a student of the Mechanical Emperor, it was his duty to make such a sacrifice.
Fortunately, although the sealing conditions were troublesome, the artifact's power also slowed the aging of his unmodified flesh. Even after more than two centuries, his biological organs still functioned well enough.
Moreover, together with another Supreme Councilor—the nearly unmodified Lady Elinor—Annick had made outstanding contributions to Morning Star City's luxury food industry.
It could be said that the two of them alone supported an industrial chain that kept nearly 500 residents fed.
—In order to stimulate domestic demand, to keep the economy alive despite scarce resources, and to prevent the citizens from sinking into apathy or turning to evil gods for solace, the Supreme Councilors had wracked their brains. Thankfully, while still alive, the Mechanical Emperor had taught Annick some rudimentary economics and sociology.
Lady Elinor, for her part, had lived more than two centuries without full mechanical modification because, during that same battle against Goron, she had overused another Grade 1 Sealed Artifact: the "Hive of Honey." In the end, she had been forced to merge with it.
The Hive of Honey was forged from the characteristic of a Sequence 4 Ancient Alchemist on the Planter Pathway. Its original function was unimportant now. After merging with Lady Elinor, however, it allowed for increased crop yields, selective breeding of special species, production of an energy-like honey, and—when combat was required—the expenditure of honey to create clones with ten to fifty percent of her strength, all under her control.
So long as honey was stockpiled, theoretically the number of clones she could produce was limitless.
The price of such power was that Lady Elinor had become half-plant, rooted near the Reproduction Hall and Greenhouse, unable to move freely, and forced to endure the pain of "birthing" at intervals…
Yes. For since the entry into the strange Afternoon Town, even those unmodified could no longer conceive naturally. For over two hundred years, every "newborn" of the Reproduction Hall had in fact been carried by Lady Elinor.
Back to the present. Just as the "Alchemist" Annick Splinter was about to draw his pen across a certain point on the paper, his inspiration stirred. Through his detection modules, he sensed that the Solar Furnace—one of Morning Star City's four systems—had suddenly begun operating at full capacity. Within mere seconds, three energy tanks had been filled, and still the output showed no sign of slowing.
Though Annick had once known the Solar Furnace intimately, after two centuries of neglect he found himself at a loss.
As the reserve tanks neared overflow, he gritted his teeth and used his emergency authority to activate all of Morning Star City's high-consumption projects.
That included every light in every district.
In an instant, Morning Star City shone as bright as day.
Half a minute later, two figures burst into the seventh-floor office. One was clad head-to-toe in black metal, four thrusters jutting from his back, with six insect-like arms at his sides.
The polished surface of his frame gleamed like a multi-purpose mech from a science fiction world.
The other figure appeared to be a little girl of three or four, with transparent bee-like wings on her back. She was clearly one of Lady Elinor's clones.
"What happened?" the man in black armor asked in a stiff electronic voice.
"I don't know… The Solar Furnace suddenly restarted, energy surged far beyond limits. I had no choice but to use emergency authority to activate all high-consumption projects." Red light flickered back and forth in Annick's narrow eyes, betraying his unease.
"How could the Solar Furnace suddenly start running?" The black-armored man quickly remote-controlled part of his systems into the furnace chamber. After a brief inspection, he found nothing. His electronic voice carried a hint of confusion. "There's no problem at all… the energy just suddenly appeared from nowhere…"
At that moment, Lady Elinor's clone, who had remained silent until now, suddenly spoke: "When He returns, the Morning Star will shine, and calamity will be driven away…"
At her words, the red light in Annick's eyes flared brighter. He swiftly manipulated the console before him, and the scene at the connection point between Morning Star City and the mid-level staircase of Afternoon Town was projected onto the wall.
The three councilors stared without blinking. After a full minute passed with no change, the black-armored man vented gas from his thrusters, his electronic voice sounding again: "That 'prophecy' may have come from the Emperor's own lips… but it should have been no more than a comfort—"
He broke off mid-sentence.
For in the projection, a young man holding the Gear Book had just stepped lightly across the stairs of Afternoon Town, entering Morning Star City with a single stride…
Completely ignoring the Night Barrier—the Floating City's greatest defense!
(End of Chapter)