664 10/12 0:15 (Autumn, Sunrise, Midrar)
Mafel, celebrating as she was in her position atop Luna, was too distracted to notice the way the Lunarian's dress was trembling beneath her body.
The smug Elf soon found herself trapped in mid-air, her limbs held far apart by long chain-like extensions coming from Luna's Artifact, her own armour having been precisely stripped away from her in an instant.
"I give, I give. Mercy!" The grey-haired one immediately called out, decisively discarding any trace of her pride only to earn three dead gazes from her Mates.
Luna rolled her eyes, concentrating on the armour created by her Mate and soon covering it in a layer of her glowing Astral Ichor.
Soon transparent flames erupted, the sign of the activation of Luna's Creation by Annihilation, causing her blood and the armour to merge together into a new, more advanced Artifact.
And while Mafel blinked astonished at her new armour, Luna stole Sabel's remaining constructed greatsword, ignoring the Human's yelp and performing an identical procedure on the weapon.
"This should be much more effective for you two." Luna nodded satisfied, watching how her two Mates were now distractedly playing with their new toys, allowing the Lunarian to turn towards Amber.
"Don't even think about it. This one is the most I can accept without feeling like I am taking advantage of you." Amber immediately stopped her, holding her Unique Arma upwards, almost as if she wanted to shield herself behind it.
"Fine." Luna accepted calmly, laying back down on the ground and waiting for the other two to finish examining their gifts.
Mafel's own was the simpler to explain of the two, the only changes from before being the increased defensive ability of the armour, its ability to reform itself given enough time and Energy and finally the ability to freely shift into and out of her shadow as needed.
Well, that and a slight refinement to its outer layer's ability to exchange magical ability for physical prowess, now being a sliding scale that Mafel could freely alter as needed.
The most interesting Artifact, however, was Sabel's.
With hers, Luna had to work out how to compliment her fighting and reached a wonderful conclusion that could be seen from the sword alone.
Sabel's new greatsword, the same weapon Sabel was experimentally swinging around herself, was currently more similar to a blunt pane of transparent glass, barely visible and with absolutely zero sharpness.
"Sabel, try to overlay it with a Shape of your greatsword." Luna let out, her eyes focused on trying to memorize the upcoming result.
And the Human, hearing Luna's words and the interest filling her, obeyed despite her knowledge that such a thing would be impossible as objects, especially Artifacts, would naturally reject being overlapped completely by Energy.
It would be like teleporting physical matter into other solids, a real mess.
Even so, the black-haired one did not hesitate in obeying the Lunarian's suggestion, admiring a deep change in her hands.
The glass-like greatsword sharpened, its transparent surface soon becoming a shimmering spectacle identical to her previous Shaped weapons.
And not only that, but it was an exact match in both abilities and characteristics to her previous Shapes.
Curious, she pushed her Anti-Luna and Rebellion into the sword, happily seeing how the weapon drank them in before externalizing them exactly as she wanted.
From using the Anti-Luna Effect as a Filter to simply an Extra Effect for additional Damage, she could change it constantly, even mid-swing. "This is useful, sure, but..." Sabel stopped herself, not knowing how to proceed with her question.
"First of all, you can place it in your shadows at will, where it would slowly repair itself given time and Energy. It possesses a Mana Well identical in size to your own. But most importantly, it automatically Records and reproduces its own State and all Effects it enters in contact with, freely available as you need them."
Luna's words were followed by a demonstration, a clump of Luna's Bane-infused Condemnation-Attribute touching the blade and Sabel immediately felt it, the Effect now clear to her mind.
Hesitantly raising a hand and with barely any effort at all, her newest Effect was reproduced in her Aura before being added to her Artifact.
The Anti-Luna Effect and Luna's Bane, two things that should have annihilated each other, instead harmonized peacefully, falling under Sabel's complete control.
"As your ability to create Shapes advances, either because of the acquisition of new Skills or the increase in their Ranks, your Light-Attribute Affinity or your various magical ability, the sword will mirror your own growth. It will never be weaker than the Shapes you are able to create."
Luna smugly explained, her lips pulled upwards in a sharp smile despite the fact that she was currently laying down on the ground and covered only by a large jacket.
"You really are shameless." Amber, having come over to the Lunarian, proceeded to poke her in the right shoulder once with her foot before sitting down at her side. "I am almost jealous of that toy." She amusedly continued, earning a deep gaze from a pair of eyes of the purest red.
The Phoenix playfully rose her arms in surrender at the gaze, she couldn't help but giggle, especially upon feeling Sabel's energetic glee at swinging around a new weapon and the amusement blaring from the suspended Mafel at seeing how the Human was behaving.
Luna, naturally detached from emotions in general, merely opened herself up to her Mates completely, just experiencing them.
Considering the fight before and the creation of the two Artifacts, she still had 400 Motes of Astral Ichor remaining, she simply directed 200 of them to her Orichalcum Essence Conversion before utilizing the resulting Virtual Energy generated by her Unique Arma to recover a small part of the loss, ending up at just 227 Units.
A small amount compared to her current maximum of 680, but still more than enough for her use, especially considering how her Mates would support her if needed.
"Where are we doing after meeting our Sabel's parents? The Guild has a tournament in Terrar this year, you two interested in it?" Mafel casually asked the Lunarian and Phoenix, curious.
"I don't mind observing it, but otherwise I don't really care to partake. I doubt there will be any interesting participants." Luna immediately responded, doubting that any truly strong individual would bother join in, especially considering how the prize money for the victor was worth only the equivalent of a single D-Rank Magicule Crystal.
"I instead am quite interested in participating. Differently from someone else-" And here Amber launched a gaze towards both Luna at her side and Sabel a little distance away.
"- I cannot just evolve on my own, I need at least some inspiration every now and then. Who knows, maybe we will find something interesting." Amber affirmed her own assent, finalizing the four's destinations. "When do the registrations ends? And when exactly does the tournament start?"
"Well, we can register through any Guild Master, but we need to be at the capital of Terrar for a whole ten days before the first match officially begins. So, at the latest, we need to be there by the seventh day of the first month. And we need enough money to both rent a place for that whole time and a small sum to officially take part in the tournament itself."
At Mafel's explanation, Luna could only express her own surrender. "You have access to my storage. Feel free to take what you need."
"You are bad with money, aren't you?" Mafel teased immediately, earning only a disgruntled gaze from the Vampiric one. "For example, the price of the third place alone, equivalent to a E-Rank Magicule Crystal is more than enough to buy seventy years' worth of food for the average Human. The second is one hundred years' worth and first place is one hundred and sixty. More or less."
Mafel's expansion on the topic barely phased her two interlocutors, causing her to roll her eyes. "Just because one of you does not eat at all and the other already lived hundreds of years-" Her frustration born of having to carefully ration all her expenditures during the early days of her rebirth soon encountered an even greater obstacle.
"I can fuel myself entirely with my flames alone. I have no actual use for food beyond the taste." Amber corrected softly, soon followed by Sabel.
"And I was able to roughly copy the way Luna converts Vital Energy into sustenance, especially now that I have my Status Alteration Immunity. I would need to eat like a third of what a normal Human does in spite of my active state."
"Are- Are you serious!?" Mafel couldn't help but exclaim, jumping on her feet, remembering the nights spent awake, calculating prices, cutting off pricier but tastier options entirely despite her desire to actually taste them now that she possessed tastebuds, all the time wasted haggling for the provisions for their travel.
"Why did none of you ever tell me this!" It was less a question and more of a release of frustration, causing the nearing Sabel to jump back in alarm, her transparent blade falling into her shadow.
"Why didn't you simply offer the Guild the location of the Dungeon? I am sure that informations on a new one would have granted you a significant monetary reward." Luna casually asked, blinking slowly.
"W-well, I just arrived at the city, and it would be suspicious if I just offered informations on a new Dungeon, especially considering how weak I was at the time." Mafel defended herself only to be immediately after struck.
"But aren't you a Medium? Even if you couldn't say everything you knew, you could have just shared that it was heavy in the Undead and Curse-Attributes. It wouldn't have been that strange. It could also have been good publicity for your shop once it would be verified as true informations." Sabel innocently twisted the knife, causing the Spectral Elf to fall on her knees after a brief silence.
The following hour was spent trying to bring comfort to the despairing silver-haired one.
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