“I need actual armor, Achilles,” Jerome said, fighting off the puppets as they came at him. They were now aiming for the exposed parts of his body: his head, feet, and hands.

“Of course, Xerae. I made you that as something comfy for when you sleep. It was never meant to be armor.”

Jerome chuckled, thinking about the armor-like defenses of the robe. “Thank you for putting my safety and comfort into consideration. But I need armor — and boots.”

Achilles chuckled. “When you’re done, Xerae.”

Jerome cursed. He had been defending since the melee started. The puppets were like smarter versions of the Children. No matter how much he sped up, they forced him to slow down. They were in control of the battle and their control was getting tighter as they squeezed him into a corner.

The battle went on for another thirty minutes or so, with Jerome trying hard and failing to get out of the corner. He needed to find a weak link. The samurai came at him together with the armored warrior wielding the great sword forcing him to focus on them, but the puppet wielding the whip from a distance on his left side didn’t give him a chance to move towards her.

Jerome’s back touched the wall and he had to call back his blades to defend him. Spinning his spear around to deflect a series of attacks from his assailants, he gathered his essence ready to shoot a laser attack once his blades made it to him.

The army of spiders quickly formed a wall, stopping his blades from reaching him. That annoyed him, but also excited him — he had found the weak link. He took a deep breath sucking in essence from the air like a black hole would devour matter in space, and in one swift motion, he parried the great sword and stretched his hand.

Time seemed to slow down for him as he saw the warrior move to his other side — the puppets were going to make him work for it. A small ball of white-blue flame appeared in front of his outstretched hand, bathing the whole room in blue as the essence in the air spiked and sizzled.

A lance of blue laser blasted the wall of spiders apart, pushing everything in the way aside. Jerome took off out of the enclosure. A giant sword came at him from one side and a paw and a whip from another. The samurai didn’t recover as quickly as these, it seemed.

He shot forward still and flipped, spinning midair to squeeze himself horizontally through the tiny little opening. At the same time, he commanded his long blades to spin out in all directions as he hadn’t set his eyes on the assassin since the battle began. It had just vanished into thin air. If it was going to attack him, this was its best chance to do so.

The giant snake opened its mouth and clamped down on Jerome's shoulder. It followed Jerome’s counter-clockwise direction as it spun itself around him midair, constricting his movement as they both fell. The runes on the walls glowed red for a second and an alarm blared off.

“You lose, Xerae.”

“Yeah,” Jerome let out a long breath. “I forgot about the snake. Can you let me go now?” The snake uncoiled itself from him and its body fell apart. Jerome looked all around him and found the rest of the puppets falling apart. The formations around the training grounds lit up and whisked the nanites away.

“That was beautiful, Xerae. Intense.”

“You should have seen the battle with the Children of Dashani,” Jerome said with a smile. Since he now knew who the Mother was, there was no point calling her Mother. It was an insult to Mother Nature.

He looked at the spear in his hand and spun it around appreciatively. From his training with the puppets, he had been able to sense some of the things it was capable of doing. He didn’t activate them since he wasn’t fighting real opponents.

“I gotta ask, Achilles.” Jerome said, “Why does the spear feel so much like Suzie?”

“I watched you absorb a hook during your captivity, Xerae,” Achilles said. “I’d take it Suzie can absorb other metals?”

“Yes, she can.”

“Then you must have absorbed a mine of mithril when you were in the night of Terra Praeta. mithril is one of the toughest metals in Terra Praeta. Astonishingly, you absorbed no impurities with it.”

Jerome’s mind flashed to the ore he absorbed when he was in the night of Terra Praeta with team Itakar. “That was mithril?” Jerome said thoughtfully, “Interesting, coz I didn’t feel Suzie change — she did, don’t get me wrong. But I didn’t ‘sense’ it. And now I don’t need to focus a hundred percent on controlling her. And living steel is a metal that doesn’t contain impurities. So it helps me filter it out.”

“Interesting,” Achilles said, reading the memory. Jerome could sense the AI process his words and memories to confirm. Visha stirh’aun, which was widely known as living steel in his world, was a truly unique metal. It flowed like mercury at room temperature and was void of impurities; but deadly to living beings.

“This weapon you imitated to make my spear. Is it by any chance Gung—”

“Don’t complete that name, Xerae… else you wake up the weapon.”

“What?” Jerome was stomped.

The weapon… it slumbers. Waiting for when you’re strong enough to wield it. Ilyrrah was of the opinion that Odin searches for it as we speak. He had no idea what would happen if it woke up. Odin may sense it, even across the universe… and come for it.”

Jerome took in a deep shaky breath, as he paced the floor. “Oh, boy. Okay, so don’t call its name. Got it.” What the fuck have I just gotten himself into. Will I have a god breathing down my neck now? 

“Hedon must be closer now, right?” he asked. 

Achilles gave him a mental shrug.

“What’s the spear called, my spear that is?”

“Your veritable self would have to do the naming, Xerae.”

Jerome snorted. “I called my last weapon Suzie. Still want me to name this one?”

Achilles chuckled at that. “I’d wait to see just what the spear can do, Xerae. It has a very complex binding for your world’s level of knowledge.”

“Why am I not surprised,” Jerome said, caressing the spear like a lover. He noticed the skin on his hands was starting to peel off. Though, he was still a long way from becoming whole. “And how about that armor?” he asked.

The portal lit up beneath his feet and Achilles whisked him away to the 3d printing chamber.

“I worked on this when you were in a coma.”

A suit of armor glided towards him in the air and stopped next to him. Jerome eyed the boiled leather appreciatively. There were many other robes hovering in the air with the armor, even trench coats and suits for various weather and occasions. Jerome chuckled at that. Whatever would he need an English suit for? This wasn’t Earth and people would just look at him like an alien…or crazy.

“Oh, it’s a coating,” Jerome said as he touched the armor still hovering in the air. The boiled leather was actually a coating.

“Yes, Xerae. The metal underneath is mithril, which would work seamlessly with Suzie. Your spear is made from the same metal. As were the puppets.”

“The puppet felt heavy to my senses, but they weren’t that heavy when I blocked attacks or pushed back,” Jerome said thoughtfully.

“Oh, they are heavy, Xerae. Mithril is very heavy metal. You’re just more powerful than you used to be. Just so you know, you have to bond with the spear and the armor.”

“I thought I already bonded with the spear, though,” he picked the cuirass out of the air and weighed it in his hand. The rest of the armor followed the cuirass, though, making him smile. He could sense that the armor was quite heavy, yet it was light in his hands.

“You communed with it so it could accept you,” Achilles said. “Now you have to accept it.”

With a small poking of his skin — which took more effort than before — he touched his bloodied finger to his new armor. The armor imploded into gas and rushed into Jerome’s body. The same thing happened with the spear.

“Amazing!” Achilles exclaimed. “You know, Xerae. As your guardian, I’d be honored if you grant me one wish.”

Jerome snorted. “Why do I sense trouble coming all of a sudden?” He absorbed the other garments into his void space save the ones he chose to wear. There were also boots, socks, and underwear hovering in the air. The latter made Jerome blush as he put on one, and a pair of socks. He hadn’t worn decent underwear since he was reborn. 

“At least you don’t have to use the loo all the time. Imagine not being a sacred artist but a mere mortal.”

Jerome scrunched his brows. He was grateful for that. “Nobody says loo in my world, Achilles.” The idea of running water in an outhouse to the Royals was preposterous — he had asked…and got something equivalent to the middle finger from Rihal. 

Okay, maybe I pushed too hard in my asking, he thought. 

Jerome went through the motions of changing his robes as he listened to Achilles’ rant. He also took out every valuable item inside his storage ring, cataloged them, and transferred them into his void space. Lastly, he came to the weapons Achilles had designed. Calling them Earth-styled guns would’ve been a long stretch. Though he could see some similarities in function, but not aesthetics.

Most of them looked like gauntlets — sleek and black in color, besides the missing finger portion. Putting on one, the gauntlet kind of, ‘shrunk’ — in a very futuristic way that could only be attributed to nanites — to fit his forearm, wrist and fist. He aimed and a barrel rose over the fist of the gauntlet, pointing outward. The barrel extended two inches beyond his closed fist with a hole the size of his middle finger.

“The extension is actually a suppressor, Xerae.”

“Very sci-fi if you asked me,” he said and Achilles snorted. He didn’t know much about guns in his old world but he knew a suppressor this small would be cause for confusion among gun enthusiasts.

“The guns from your previous world cannot compare, Xerae. This frees up your hands so you can hold your spear simultaneously. I can understand why a long-range weapon would be created with such simple techniques due to the technological limitations at the time. But one would easily lose such a weapon in the heat of battle?”

Achilles had a point there. He wasn’t in Kansas anymore and sacred artists were sturdier than humans. Faster too, so he definitely could easily lose such a weapon.

“Of course, I do.”

“I’ll be testing—” a myriad of information flooded his mind in an instant. “Did you just teach me about these weapons?”

“I put some nanites in your brain, Xerae. This way you can access the library at any time you want, and from anywhere.”

Jerome smiled. “Thank you, Achilles. Though I wonder. I wasn’t ready for the influx of data, yet I don’t feel overwhelmed. Why is that?” He already knew the answer though. He just wanted confirmation.

“Your body is stronger now, Xerae. Very little can overwhelm you — at least in your realm of capabilities.”

Jerome nodded and stashed the guns away. There were dozens of them, made from mithril. He took a little time to examine the guns that closely resembled what he knew. Some were sleek and long, just like the gun used by the avatar of the Dragon’s Wrath — and beautiful. Some of them looked like hand guns but were bigger than what he’d seen in movies. The hand guns had very good grip. But no magazines for bullets. 

“There’s no need for bullets, Xerae. These guns are designed to pull in essence to create the bullets inside their magazines. Best of all, you can create bullets of many different elements. Even mutated essence like yours.”

“Hmm,” he responded, nodding. “And how that’s possible is a marvel on its own. Sprouts can mold the essence of an element into the physical form of said element. My brain is just tryna play catch up with the fact that we can use, well I can use artifacts like these to do the same.”

“Weeeelll, there’s more you can do with essence. But that’s a lesson for another day.”

Jerome raised an eyebrow at the cryptic info. He knew he’d learn it later though. He looked back at the weapon, examining it. Activating a rune in his eyes, the gauntlet’s internal structure was laid bare before his eyes. Jerome chuckled. “So now I’ve got x-ray vision.”

The structure of the gauntlet could only be described as absolute brilliance. It was a series of micro-chambers and nodes so tiny, you couldn’t fit a bullet in any of them. But the complexity of it was a marvel. Jerome knew that space wasn’t a limiting factor for Achilles to create something like this.  Bullets would go in specific cartridges that were wrapped around the insides of the gauntlets in the forearm. This gauntlet held forty cartridges while each cartridge would hold two hundred bullets. That was eight thousand bullets.

Jerome whistled in appreciation. He materialized a matching left gauntlet and sent a drop of his blood to both. “It feels like Pilgrims’ Keep all over again.”

Achilles chuckled, reading the memory as it welled up in his mind. The cave where he found the living steel was still fresh in his mind. The carcass of the sunfire wolf and Adama’s skeletal hands from which he ripped the gauntlets.

“Well, at least you aren’t taking these from a corpse’s body.”

“Thank the universe for that.” He sat down for a bit to draw in essence into both gauntlets, which took him about two hours. Jerome was not expecting it to take that much time. He noted to himself to discuss it with Achilles in the future.

Activating the portal, he portaled himself to Csala. “Have you made up your mind?” he said, causing the succubus to jump in fright. “I’m guessing you’ve never had someone sneak up on you before.”

Csala rose up from her mat and cleared her throat, her face burning from embarrassment. He had hit the nail on the head with those words. No one had truly ever been able to sneak up on her, and twice this bastard had done it.

“What do you want in return?” she asked.

Jerome was a little surprised at that. He had expected her to refuse him, he quickly schooled his features though. “You’ll teach me everything you know about wielding psychic energy…everything,” he emphasized.

“Huh? The voice of the mountain said it’ll teach you,” Csala said, a little surprised.

“Oh, would he now?” Jerome smiled at her. “Well, that would mean I wouldn’t be needing you anymore, would I? Why should I take you with me then?”

“I’m not falling for that, Jerome,” Csala said. “I’m a lot older than I look so don’t think you can fool me.”

“Well then, good luck,” Jerome said, ready to fly out of the mountain.

“Wait!”

Jerome couldn’t help the smile that blossomed on his face, making him look like an undead villain straight out of a horror movie.

“I’ll teach you,” Csala said, her voice tight from anger. She was ready to punch his face in, seeing the smile on it. She pulled out robes from her storage ring and after she was decent, she looked him in the eyes with her face red from anger. “Lead the way, and you better deliver on your promise,” she said through gritted teeth.

Jerome inspected her dress shaking his head. She had prepared well. She had on a red silk robe and red boots lined with fur, topping it with a winter coat — which was also red — and had a hood big enough to cover her face, also lined with fur at the edge. The winter coat was lined with enough fur to keep three people warm. The outfit was decent but would draw the attention of others like bees to honey. And everything matched her hair color.

“What’s with all the red anyway?”

Putting his arm around her waist, Jerome shot into the air. The moment his feet left the mountain he disappeared.