Chapter 40: Self-Destruct Armor
Year 833 of the Falling Stars Era, May 28th, Moldavia Main City, Lord's Mansion, Afternoon.
In the backyard of the Lord's Mansion, the Lightfeather Trees, emitting a gentle silver-white glow, trembled slowly, causing quite a few leaves to fall. They drifted away with the wind, like the feathers of a true angel.
Of course, magical plants like the Lightfeather Tree wouldn't shed leaves during a season like summer. This situation was caused by some massive object moving within this not-so-spacious backyard.
"Boom!"
A heavy stomping sound rang out, the earth shook again, and the nearby magical plants shed a few more leaves. At this moment, one could see, in the center of the backyard, a behemoth in operation, and it was precisely because of it that such a commotion was caused.
"Crack."
Under the afternoon sunlight, the true form of this behemoth could be seen. It was a massive, full-body black armor. Its outer shell was composed of layers of runic plates shimmering with magical light, while the main structure was formed by several hard, smooth steel plates. Mana circuits connected the plates and steel, converging at the chest of this armor.
And on the chest, there was an additional triangular protruding armor piece, flashing with a dangerous orange-red magical light, protecting the energy core behind it.
"Not bad."
A low voice came from behind the thick helmet of this armor. The helmet was a human-style piece of equipment, but after the voice, the armor's chest piece suddenly split open, and a black-haired young man stepped out from within.
This person was Joshua.
After stepping out of the armor, the warrior stretched his body, his joints cracking like fried beans. He took a deep breath, then looked at the massive armor behind him, nodding with satisfaction.
This was the result of several days of hard work by the Divine Mechanism siblings. It was a set of Magitek Armor specifically designed for Joshua. Although it was only a prototype, its performance had already reached the Gold High-rank level. If the core were fully activated, it could even unleash power at the Gold Peak level for a short time.
"Uncle Joshua!"
A crisp voice came from not far away. A little girl with long golden hair, wearing a gorgeous blue dress, ran over from the direction of the mansion. Her eyes were sparkling, staring fixedly at the massive black armor in the backyard.
This was the first time she had seen such a cool thing! Although her father, Brandon, had a lot of armor, none of it was as massive and imposing as this one, nor did it have that dangerous, aggressive aura.
And when she saw that behind this armor, which looked more like a demonic creation than human equipment, there was a cute little girl, she was immediately captivated. While touching the armor's knee—she could only reach the knee—she asked excitedly, "Uncle Joshua, is this your new armor?!"
"Yeah, little Flandre, what do you need me for?"
Standing beside the armor, Joshua watched the little girl's excited actions with some amusement. He asked, "I thought you'd be in your room, listening to Ying tell stories with your sister."
This little girl was Brandon and Verdani's daughter, Flandre Scarlet. In the past few days, she and her sister, Remilia Scarlet, had been sent to the Lord's Mansion of Moldavia by their parents.
This wasn't because the couple needed some private time after a long separation. Actually, Brandon's rush back to the Northern Lands wasn't just for a family reunion, but to deal with the increasingly severe cult incidents within the Moldova Territory.
The cults within Moldavia's main city had all been captured by Number 3, but many small villages had been infiltrated. If not for Atanis dispatching Church Knights to cooperate with Joshua's soldiers and knights in a sweep, there would probably have been reports of several sacrificial incidents by now.
Although the situation in Moldova wasn't as severe as Joshua's, Verdani's methods weren't as aggressive as a warrior's, so some problems remained. Not long ago, a village in the forest had been completely blood-sacrificed by cultists. The scene was exceptionally bloody, and it seemed the sacrifice was quite successful; something might have been summoned.
Brandon and his wife needed to handle these incidents and track down the cultists responsible and any demons that might have been summoned, so they couldn't take care of their two children for the time being. After thinking it over, they decided Moldova wasn't safe, so they temporarily sent the sisters to Moldavia, entrusting them to Joshua's care.
Of course, entrusting such a task to a warrior was definitely a mistake. Someone like Joshua taking care of little girls would probably choose heavy, bloody themes for his stories. Fortunately, Ying and Rin could help him look after them a bit; otherwise, when Brandon and his wife returned, they might join forces to fight the warrior to the death.
On another note, this little girl named Flandre actually surprisingly didn't like pretty dolls or cute little animals. Instead, she preferred fierce, ferocious weapons and armor, as well as imposing magical beasts and dragons. While Joshua found this strange, he was also very happy, because he happened to have all these things. After the warrior took Flandre to meet Black and let her try diving with Black (with proper protection), the little girl unsurprisingly came to admire Joshua.
"Alright, stop staring. This thing will stay here; you'll have plenty of time to look at it later."
Kneeling down, he patted her small shoulder. Joshua lowered his voice as much as possible to avoid startling Flandre. He asked seriously, "What exactly do you need me for?"
"Hmm... Uncle Loranda wants to see you."
Touching the uneven runic plates, the golden-haired little girl, who had been a bit afraid of the warrior at first but now wasn't at all, had her eyes sparkling. She answered Joshua's question absentmindedly: "He should be waiting in the hall? He looked a bit anxious."
"Got it."
Nodding, Joshua stood up. He looked at the gradually setting sun, then instructed, "You can watch the Magitek Armor here, but you must come back after the sun goes down, understand, little Flandre?"
"Understood!"
Receiving a crisp and clear reply, the warrior shook his head. He knew he would probably have to send Rin to drag her back later. As for why not Ying... with Ying's personality, she might just stay with Flandre, watching the stars and chatting, and then he'd have to send Rin out to call them again. Why make things so troublesome?
Thinking this, Joshua walked back into the Lord's Mansion and headed for the hall.
He was curious to know what Loranda wanted to see him about at this hour.