In Loki's Honor

I needed to stop the mithril from creating the harmonics. That required two things. I couldn't make the surfaces perfectly parallel. I had to add some microscopic imperfections to the press mold so the mithril plate would look smooth and plain but in reality, it was all wavy. At random. I used a Penrose tiling, which was infinite and never repeated itself. The second thing was to put a layer of Living Silk fabric between the Mithril plates to dampen emissions below a certain amount.

The number of Mithril layers was also limited to three for simplicity. It would still grant 86% energy dissipation, which was different from damage reduction. The impact of any attack on a Mithril armor was reflected and applied equally from all directions. That meant the biggest advantage of weapons, which was focusing damage on a single point, vanished. Most weapons didn't carry much energy. Even a 9mm bullet carried only around 600 joules of kinetic energy. 84 joules were about the same energy as a strong hand slap, distributed over the entire torso of a person. At this point, it was basically massage.

Spoiler alert, people in Yznarian could punch with more force than a 9mm bullet. But they were tougher, though not as tough as they were strong.

Instead of personal armor, I wanted to see how it would fare as airship armor. Cladding an airship with Mithril was an extravagant luxury, even if compared to Adamantite armor. It was about 100 times more expensive but also 15% of the weight even after all the support structures we added. I took the latest model of personal cruising airship and turned it into a sleek sci-fi ship, without masts but also not vacuum-proof.

In my Kyuubitaur form (Kyuubi+centaur, the shape I used against the Broodmother), I tested the combination of Mithril and Living Silk armor with the [Unicorn King Spear], delivering a barrage of attacks as fast as I could. Despite the heinously loud sound (which even drew some elven Griffin riders to check), it didn't explode with harmonics this time. I doubt anything in this world can hit harder than a giant fox-woman wielding the legendary weapon with my full unlocked Proficiencies and Perks. It was a success.

[Mithril Airship Armor Plating] - level 0

Price: Priceless.

> Enchanted with [Absolute Silence].

> Dissipates 84% of the energy received back to the inside or outside, depending on where it came from.

> Distributes the remaining energy equally along the entire hull.

> Hardness: 2,000

> HP: 4.

> Weakens demons in a 100-meter range.

Mithril was nigh-impossible to damage as you needed to saturate it with energy to make any stick inside the metal. But when you reached this limit, it was weaker than paper. 2,000 base damage reduction was no joke. Unless you rolled that high on the dice, you would deal no damage and not all the multipliers in the world could help you.

The enchantment on the Mithril made the armor entirely silent. Not even the sound of air being cut by this silvery-white beauty would be heard. It was the perfect stealth vessel if the enemy was blind. It also had as much propulsion as a similar model would use with the Adamantite plating. It should go as fast as a fighter jet.

The bolts had to be made out of Mithril too. The tip of the bolts was flat on both ends, and the threading grooves were deep, creating a lot of surface to dissipate energy from without channeling too much to the inside. The armor was anchored on a Truesilver-tempered steel frame that was designed to soak the hits from the Mithril plate and keep the interior of the airship stable.

Perfect, right? A nigh-invincible airship, light as an angel's feather, an aerodynamic bullet.

What could possibly go wrong? Give it some thought.

Ready?

Here it goes.

The airship was complete and ready for its maiden flight. We were hoping the airship would be the flagship of our anti-Demon offensive. Barbara took the honors of taking it up in the air for the first time. We didn't use a Champagne bottle to baptize the ship because you don't want to throw a glass bottle at a Mithril plate. Trust me. Also, we had no Champagne.

Everyone was excited. Mithril was revealed to the eyes of the public for the first time. A lot of people gathered at the wharf, pointing, cheering, enjoying the unique occasion. Barbara was brimming with excitement to be the first one to pilot the Mithril Airship. She named it "Queen Lorna's Vengeance".

It started to lift as smoothly as an Elder fairy flying in her home. It cleared the dock, with all the people of Clovehaven and visitors gawking at the silver-white airship. I was on Barbara's side, excited as I could. Once we cleared the floating pier, the [Wharf Master] cleared us for cruise speed. The whole airship port worked like an airport for airplanes, which was reasonable considering that it was basically that.

The ground crew released balloons and fireworks. The crowd shouted as loud as they could. Queen Lorna's Vengeance pointed north, toward the main continent.

"Full speed ahead!" Barbara ordered out loud, which did nothing but sound cool, and mentally commanded the airship to do so.

The airship accelerated like an arrow for 0.2 seconds, then kept moving at a leisure pace even though all the levitation crystals were working at maximum potency. I felt the air pressure inside the bridge increase slightly. We were gaining speed but at a very slow acceleration.

She nodded and commanded the crystals to stop pushing so hard. The air pressure normalized.

"What is wrong? Why won't it go faster?" Barbara bemoaned.

I ran some calculations and the answer was disappointing, though it should be obvious.

I couldn't stop laughing. My plans to make personal armor just went down the drain. Mithril armor would actually hinder agility warriors, those which would benefit the most of a lightweight plate armor if they tried to move too fast. Also, most weapon attacks. Perhaps that's what we experienced when we tried the Mithril spear and sword. The weapons probably had a maximum speed too.

"But what about Queen Lorna?"

I suggested.

That gave me an idea. Small floating pods armored in Mithril, with cramped living quarters for one or two mages or ranged attackers, that could be deployed as defensive structures from storage rings. If we employed Halflings, gnomes, or even dwarves, it wouldn't even be cramped. They could be used as floating bunkers to defend the combat lines.

"Let's go back home, then," a deflated Barbara decided.

*

*

The silver lining (pun intended) was that, differently from Adamantite that once hardened would stay in that shape forever, Mithril could be reclaimed and reforged. We didn't scuttle Queen Lorna's Vengeance, though it was retrofit to become a defensive gunship. It was rechristened as "Queen Lorna's Bastion".

Our focus shifted because Barbara's research on crystal golems reached a point, she was confident she could create one. With my help, of course. Once more I engraved the Goddess' Tear with the runes and glyphs to turn it into an enchanted intelligent Core that would make the crystal attached to it self-healing.

Barbara inserted the engraved Core into a giant chunk of jadeite, bigger than she was. She chose this crystal because it had the better tenacity among the crystals she tested and it was gorgeous. Its hardness was a seven in the Mohs scale, nothing to scoff at. For comparison, anyone who tried to use a steel file to grind this jadeite would end up with a smooth steel slab, lots of steel shavings and dust, and a slightly scratched gemstone. It wasn't as brittle as other crystals and those were the properties of the base gemstone. After being enchanted and getting the bonuses from our Proficiencies, it would become tougher than diamond (but not harder, an important definition).

I had my Living Silk burrow into the Jadeite and form a mesh like the one found in the Crystal Fairy's circulatory system. It would enhance the golem and provide it with a better Mana circulation and collection while also granting it the power to gain Perks as the living silk earned Experience and levels. We put a Subordinate Tabard inside its chest to give it a moral compass.

We engraved the enchantment runes on the inside of the jadeite, connecting it to the matching runes on the [Goddess Tear] and granting it the power of flight, self-healing, and, of course, the same growth-over-time power Miriel had. This golem would use Barbara's signature laser crystals spell as its main attack form but I decided to mount some Adamantite blades on its arms for close-quarters combat. Those needed to be isolated to not drain the magic out of the golem and would count as equipment rather than part of the golem.

The golem floated so it needed no legs. We gave it six arms, two with Adamantite scimitars, two with mounted crystal wands to cast the main attack spell, and two with hands for fine manipulation. I imbued it with a version of my Perk that granted sight from any of its body’s surfaces. This golem would have no blind spots.

Finally, we added Mithril armor around its "torso" to protect the [Goddess Tear] Core. With the golem's physical form finished, we activated the enchantment. It was soul-bonded to Barbara and me. This golem would obey only our commands but had enough intelligence to act on its own and understand commands.

The jadeite golem floated in the air, the glow from the [Goddess Tear] infusing the Jadeite and making it glow with a leaf green light. Its headless top floated taller than a human. The two Adamantite blades mounted in its arms made it look like a fearsome guardian.

It wasn't designed to be fast. It could attack with its scimitars with calamitous speed and skill but if the enemy wanted to run, it wouldn't be able to chase. But the damn thing could shoot crystals that shot lasers, so... good luck running away from light.

I remarked as I thought about its only ranged attack.

Barbara shot me a smug grin. "Oh, really. Do tell."

"Didn't you take a close look at the wands?" She chuckled like a mad scientist. A proud mad scientist.

I looked at them. The wands both had the Light Crystal enchantment but that wasn't all. Barbara used the design of her staff on these wands and they each had six ruby sheets with magical diagrams. One on each wand was for the main attack spell but it also had Force Barrier, Force Javelin, Lightning Bolt, Fireball, Shadow Bolt, Dust Devil, Force Sphere, Blizzard Orb, Water Jet, and Plant Growth.

I gasped. Mentally.

"It needs something to do in times of peace. Growing food and gardening sounded like good choices. So, what do you think of its ranged options now, huh?"

And the wands were part of its template. Even if an enemy cut the arms holding them, they would grow back. Even the Mithril armor encasing its torso was part of the golem.

We let the golem idle to let its Core charge. It had a massive MP storage unit for protracted combat endurance.

"Okay. We can go in two weeks."