The capital of the Ruytsian kingdom is one most people would associate with grandness and majesty, at least to those not living inside it. Beyond the facade was nothing more than a rotting city, where the laws is disregarded by anyone with power, worse the influence of the useless king was decreasing by the year, his ministers doing whatever they pleased while getting a hand slap for offenses their predecessors would have been beheaded for.

One of the many luxurious villas in the wealthy district directly west of the castle was where one of the monthly parties was happening. Nobles and wealthy merchants coming to play and relax in their hedonistic ways were seen prancing about, cooing, and shouting at the maids that were dressed sensually.

In a secret basement, covered with darkness and shadows sat seven figures around a circular table, elaborate and expensive clothes adorning them, their faces covered with masks. Except for one person, a woman that could only be called the epitome of sexual attraction, wearing revealing clothes that could be mistaken as pieces of rags.

"Mistress, I can't stress enough the importance of attacking as soon as possible, the old bastard hasn't been seen for six months, and from what little I gathered about his experimental project, it has a high chance of succeeding. And knowing his personality he will readily give the weapon to the royal family without question, so before that happens we must stea- take it from his hands and into ours where we can use it to its fullest."

One of the figures dressed in scholarly robes was creepily smiling in his half-covering mask, revealing his unnatural pearly white teeth, staring with a heated gaze at the mistress, the woman that had sex appeal on a whole another level. Though he was saying some questionable and devious things no one pats an eye, since all of them were collaborators, or more like the followers of the mistress.

"You raise a valid point, but why would I bother directly attacking him, I could just take it from the king or those useless ministers directly." The mistress was sitting cross-legged, her left hand on her chin, while giving her viewers a peak at her thick yet elegant bare thighs. 

"When I said the royal family, I meant those still fighting to regain their influence, and the prime candidate is the third princess who is fighting us the hardest as of late, interfering with our less acceptable businesses."

The Scholar-looking man was breathing ruggedly now, barely able to contain his lust, yet a second later his body instantly chilled when the mistress's gaze landed on him. Lowering his eyes he sweated heavily. This scholar-looking man was the most lustful among the people present, and he is always the first one to experience the chilling gaze of the mistress every time his lust overflows.

"Be that as it may, I don't think this weapon you keep talking about is worth the trouble of acquiring forcefully from him." The mistress didn't have total control of her subordinates, sometimes they would twist the truth and information to their advantage, and she was sure that he was hiding something important about the info he gathered on the experimental project the old man was doing.

"Mistress, I too have heard of it, they say the old man was getting insane, believing he could give life to inanimate objects, he is been heard saying it to himself and the High Grand Maester, but no one paid attention to it until news from the old man was completely hidden and not allowed to be openly talked about." Another one of the figures said, this one wearing bureaucratic clothing, with a full covering mask. The only reason he talked was to score a point with the mistress once he sensed she was suspicious of the scholar-looking man.

"So you mean to say that he succeeded and the old fogeys don't want anyone to know about it?" This figure was dressed in military uniform, his sitting form rigid, his mask conveying savagery and discipline at the same time.

"Yes, that's the only reason he is not been seen for months now, I'm afraid we can't delay acquiring whatever weapon he has created. You all know that the old man is the genius that contributed the greatest effort to the development of magi tech, and I suspect this new weapon would be even more powerful and precious, so before the royal family gets its hands on it, we must acquire it as soon as possible, otherwise all the work we have done would be for nothing if they utilized this weapon against us." The scholar-looking man said with a worried tone.

They stayed silent, all looking at the mistress they served,

"Does anyone even know what this weapon you keep talking about is? How would we even recognize it, to begin with?" No matter how calm she looked, the Mistress was interested as well, how could she, a power-hungry woman not be tempted to own such a seemingly powerful weapon? 

"Well we aren't sure what exactly it is, but there is a keyword that's connected to it with a hundred percent certainty." The scholar replied, it wasn't always he gets the spotlight as he is getting it today, he was at the bottom of the power of these seven figures, mainly because he didn't contribute anything worthy to the mistress compared to the others.

"Stop wasting time and say the keyword." The mistress impatiently replied she hated this guy since he was annoying and useless compared to the others, but he was good at getting information from the highly secured mage association.

"Mana crystals, that's what I have heard directly from the High Grand Maester." He looked smug as if what he just said explained what the weapon was or looked like.

"What? mana crystals? what does that have to do with the weapon?" One of the figures asked bewildered, this one was a woman dressed in a flamboyant dress, with a mask adorned with gold and silver.

"The weapon I believe is a mana crystal or something closely related to a mana crystal, I'm not sure which it's, but I can say with certainty that what we are looking for is something that's associated with mana crystals." The scholar was still smiling creepily, thinking that his chances of sleeping with the mistress has gotten higher thanks to this important information, if only he knew she wanted him dead every second he talked.

The mistress remained silent, her business empire was flourishing, while she had more control of the country and the capital than even the royals, but would she risk everything to acquire this supposed powerful weapon? 

"I don't think we should hurry, nothing is pressing us to acquire it yet, and I can't allow an operation of this magnitude and importance to be ordered with the little information we have."

"But mistress! We might be ris-" The scholar instantly shut up, the chilling gaze stronger than he ever felt, and pressure even began to build in his heart, his mind and body screaming with danger warnings.

"We will wait for a month, if at that time we hear any information of the old man's activities increasing, that's when we will strike, before that I want you all to find anything you can about this, dismissed." Her words are final, they all stood up and bowed, retreating from the dark room into the upper floor, where they joined the party as high guests since each one of them were an influential figure in the kingdom.

The mistress sighed, standing up and stretching her sensual figure, and went to her luxurious bedroom, right next to the meeting room she just had a meeting on. Laying on it, she contemplated alternate possible plans of acquiring the weapon directly without the use of force.

--- --- ---

Even though the old man said it would take at most three weeks, it has already been almost two months since he started creating the body. The body was fine and completed, looking like an artwork of a statue of a conceptual and fantasy animal. The problem was the core, it seems it was more difficult than expected, and the old man complained that interlaying two mana crystals without them overwhelming each other was more difficult than he ever anticipated, but that was 1 month ago, and now the problem came in the form of unstable cores that would explode with the slightest agitation of mana. 

Thankfully the work was almost over now, it was solved after storming ideas on how to solve the problem of the unstable cores. By chipping a smaller section of the mana crystal that's going to be used as the core, the old man will make it so that the bigger core and the smaller core will be of the same source, thus eliminating the unstable factor. This method allowed him to easily finish inscribing all the necessary spells on the sub-core which was reconnected with the main core once fit was finished without any more accidents, this way the core of the spell will directly be powered by the mana crystals -or the batteries as I like to call them through the main core they are connected to.

It was all technical for me, having only understood the bare minimum of the old man's rumbling, he was truly absorbed in the making process, giving his all to perfect it just like he did for the body.