"I think I finished with a detailed breakdown of how we will pay Elena. Do you want to review it?" Sasha asked me, holding her back as she walked into my study. Watching her made me beam with happiness as her belly had already grown to a considerable size.

"No, I trust your judgment!" I answered, putting down Garbank Kustov's letters, and helped my wife sit on our couch. "How are you feeling?"

"Good, don't worry about me! I also feel they may come out earlier than expected. They have been either fighting in there or—I don't know—it feels like a brawl is going on in my tummy."

"Feisty ones, eh?" I giggled, touching her belly, and I could feel them moving around. It gave me a feeling I never knew existed. I can't describe it, but it was a mix of endless happiness, pride, and excitement. Is this what it means to become a parent? I felt like I had to do everything so that when my children were born, they would arrive in a world where they wouldn't miss anything.

"Hehe, they are! I will send the directive to Louise, and she can begin preparing the caravans to head to Greyback. I will also write a letter to Elliot detailing everything so he can prepare the food part of the deal. Will it be enough?"

"Should be. Thanks to our farms being operational by now, we can take a little hit on our food income. We have been building up a surplus for the past two years anyway. According to my blueprints, we can start producing the first tractors when the industry complex is finished. If they work out as I expect them, it will greatly increase the food output in Elliot's budding kingdom."

"When we break off from Ishillia, will he survive the ordeal?" she asked, concerned about the idea. She was worried not because we would become a target but because Elliot lacked the same cohesion amongst his people that we had here.

"We will ensure it. I am not looking to expand our Empire into something like Ishillia. Grow too big, and you will invite trouble from left and right. Instead, I will focus my full attention on this place—on our little country! If I can ensure that we are ahead of everybody and strong enough to defend our borders, we will be able to protect ourselves. For that to work, we will also need friends and allies. The first one will be Elliot; he will be a very close partner, someone we support, and the prime example for anyone around us. It will show everyone what it means to work with us. Or keep ignoring us... whatever fits their agenda. Of course, our allies will have advantages; that is natural, and I don't expect anyone to rush to us for cooperation."

"And what about our enemies?"

"In my world, there was a military doctrine technically called rapid dominance, but it had a more well-known synonym: shock and awe. It was about paralyzing the enemy's perception of the battlefield and destroying their will to fight. That is my goal! I want them to feel that attacking us would bring more harm than benefits. Fear us, not because we are despots or evil, but because messing with us means death."

"Shock and awe... it does sound... dangerous, ehehe!"

"It works. Speaking of shock, the last letters of Kustov were startling."

"Did something happen?" she asked, her face becoming more serious, while I nodded, stood up, and brought them over.

"They were given orders to collect materials." I began explaining while handing them over, "Right now, all the dukes are being given a specific task that they must complete before the end of the year. By covertly asking around, he is sure the Empress has begun building some kind of weapon. One of the old dukes dropped a complaint that he had to deliver thousands of his own people to a mine to keep up with the increased demands."

"A CC mine?"

"Most likely. We think so because Kustov could not find out what type of mine we were talking about or where it was. If it is this secretive and well-guarded, it has to be a prime CC mine, unlike Greyback, which is already on the verge of depleting."

"Troubling... Not that we can do anything about it."

"True, but we can monitor it. I will send back a letter telling him to keep a low profile and try to learn about the materials they are gathering. It is more than nothing. More importantly, we will send him one caravan over, and he will employ us officially. Through him, we could acquire rare materials like copper much more quickly and for a better price. Under his banner, we won't be shooed away so readily!"

"Hmm, that does sound helpful. What about Merlin and Mikan? I listened to the recording again, and it is creepy. I can't ignore it..."

"It is... For now, we are a bit stuck. Merlin says he may have an idea, but before that, he wants to finish something else."

"Something else? It was a good idea to send him out on a little trip, huh?"

"Well, he has been a bit grumpy though, didn't you notice?"

"I wouldn't worry about it!" She giggled, waving it away, "He has been complaining about Elena, which is a good sign. Before this, he never whined about a woman!"

"Huh, I never thought about it like that. Oh well, as long as his brain is working, it should all be fine."

...
....
......

It was already midsummer when Merlin approached me, telling me that he had finally had a breakthrough. I first thought it was about our Trojan formation, but it was something else. I was not complaining; I was also occupied by something else as I designed and helped Kraus create the required machinery for building the tractors. It was a nice change of pace, and it took my mind off formations and magic runes.

"I finally managed to get a reaction!" He explained happily, rapidly detailing all his previous attempts before I managed to stop him.

"Slow down a little; I barely follow you! You made a spell that makes CC react to its activation?"

"Through thick walls! I've already finished setting up the test range. Come, and I'll show it to you!"

"Sure," I answered with a chuckle. I stood up and followed him to the test site, where five different boxes were prepared for me.

The first one was made of leather, the thinnest among the five, while the second was made of wood. Checking the thickness, it was at least 10 centimeters, while the third box, made out of stone, was 15 centimeters thick. Then came the bigger ones, as the fourth was just as thick but made out of iron, while the last one was gigantic as it was a meter-thick block, mixing all the previous four types into one.

Seeing the fist-sized CCs placed into each of them, I already knew what he meant by a breakthrough. Sure enough, he produced a circular, golden disk with a new formation carved into it and a pebble-sized CC embedded into its middle. Pointing it at the first box and activating it, the CC began blinking rapidly, acting like a stroboscope.

According to Merlin's description, the spell was generating magic waves that passed through different materials and excited the CC on the other side. Because of this, the CC sends back the same type of wave it picked up, resulting in the effect I was witnessing. The CC's blinking on our end slowed down by the second box, but it persisted throughout all five, including the thickest and biggest one. However, the blinking was slowed considerably by then, resulting in a sluggish blink every two seconds.

"Right now, the core of the spell is ready!" Merlin explained, wiggling his body excitedly, waiting for my praise, "What we need to do now is to add something that extends its range and amplifies its strength. That way, we can send the waves through the thickest of materials and get a response."

"What are your estimations?" I asked, tilting my head, "How deep could this go?"

"Hm... Good question. Well, by design, there is a point where it becomes inefficient. We can use larger and charged CCs for that, but they will degrade with every use. What happens if we use up, hypothetically, a skull-sized one? Or two? Yet we find nothing? So... it is still not perfect-"

"It's good enough!" I interrupted him, patting his head, "It is more than enough. I assume this can be used by regular people?"

"Of course. I can try to make one strong enough to penetrate the mountain walls. As for how deep it would go, that needs live testing..."

"Do it. When my next caravan leaves to deliver the first payment to Elena and bring home a batch of CC, you can visit her and also test it."

"I thought of the same thing!" He nodded, smiling from ear to ear, "I assume it will be next month?"

"Something like that. What, you want to go earlier?" I joked a little, watching his reaction.

"Why would I? Hmph... that woman is aggravating!"

"Try to look at it from her perspective. The poor girl was sent away from the capital city and thrown into a grey town that was like an overgrown slum. She is doing her best to revitalize it and make it livable; I can admire that. She at least understands that for her to be able to live there without issues and deal with the dwindling population or prevent possible riots, she has to enact changes as soon as possible. Of course, she is suspicious of you and wants to keep an eye on a mage who arrived from nowhere!"

"Still... hmph!" Watching him cross his arms and pout, I wanted to laugh, but instead, I thoroughly ruffled his hair, making a mess out of it.

"Make this invention into a bait."

"Huh? A bait?" He asked, tilting his head while looking up at me.

"Yes. Make it work and demonstrate it to her. Show her that we have things she doesn't understand, that we are not just some lunatics wanting to oppose the Empire and that we have a base we can stand on. Make her want to know more."

"Hm... okay! If you think it's a good idea."

"I don't know for sure, but I do know that we have to make allies. Her father may be under our control, but what if he is gone? We must plan for the future."

...
....
.....

"..."

Inside, or more precisely, under the palace of the Ishillian Empire, Pascal was walking up and down between hundreds of shelves and cabinets, hidden from prying eyes. This was the personal vault of the Ishillian bloodline, something that only the mages of the imperial bloodline could visit. For a good month or so, he had been feeling that something was wrong with the world and was looking for a reason why. It originated from his guts and intuition, something he always took seriously as a mage's instincts were intertwined with the changes of the Cosmos. That was one of the primary tenets of the Gods' Teachings.

"Where is it? I know; it is coming from somewhere here... fuck... It is making me uneasy..."

He has been looking over ancient artifacts and relics in the vault, all of which were important to their Empire's two-thousand-year history. At first, he thought it was because of the war and the Emperor of Magic's translated plans. But that was a one-time-use, devastating weapon, not something that could endanger their rule or their lives. What he was feeling made him feel as if a dangerous enemy was approaching, ready to kill them all.

"No... that can't be." He stopped, putting down a deep-blue crystal ball, the someone that belonged to Merlin VIII. Nobody knew what it was ever since his death, but everyone thought it was the source of his knowledge. It was just that. A crystal ball, no matter what they tried doing with it.

He hastened his steps, leaning onto his staff, which he was now carrying everywhere, cautious of Kathrien's possible plans to kill him. After walking for more than half an hour, he finally arrived at a sealed room that required him to dispel six formations before he could touch the steel doors and push them in.

"Impossible!" he screamed, almost faltering. The room was hot, the walls and floor glowing in orange light, and a human skull floated above it on a pedestal carved from CC. It was placed in the middle of it all as part of another ethereal formation that was partially becoming visible. "That can't be..."

Watching the skull, in its eye sockets, two little flames burned as if it were looking directly at him, mocking Pascal and the Ishillians. Murmuring and waving his staff, a black, all-consuming formation manifested above it, subduing the phenomenon, sealing the skull within a black sphere, extinguishing the flames, and quickly lowering the temperature.

"This can't be... no, it can't be!" He rambled on and on, wiping his sweaty forehead. "The boy? No... I looked at him; he was not part of the bloodline. Yes, this must be a mistake. That bloodline has died out."

Yet, even he didn't believe his own words. After walking out and resealing the door, he was hurrying to look for ancient scrolls thousands of years old, to read about the diaries of old Emperors and Empresses. He had to learn if this had ever happened before.

"The skull of the last Vasa... No... they can't return... We killed them all!"

No matter how many times Pascal has repeated it, what he saw was real... and it terrified him more than his own mortality.