Steel and Mana

Weirdly, the snow had stopped falling a week ago, and somehow, it hadn't started again. It was the longest pause... Yes, there were days before where it was calm and clear, but for a week straight? Something felt off. For the first time in what felt like years, the Pride wasn't under a gray shroud of storm clouds or anything, making it… quiet. Unnaturally quiet. And I didn't like it. Grimacing, I sat by the panoramic window aboard the Camelot, looking out towards the snow-covered land from my room, trying to see or get a feel for an approaching danger... but nothing.

"You know what's strange?" Sasha's voice came from behind me, putting her hands on my shoulders, starting to massage them, "I miss the noise."

"Say that again when we are back home," I chuckled, leaning back and sighing with relief.

"It's unnerving, isn't it?" Mikan agreed as she lounged on one of the couches, her golden hair let loose, a cup of tea in her hands.

Across from her, Luna was curled up with a book, because of course she was. Funny thing is, it was hers, with her notes sticking out from behind dozens of pages as it was her latest work, or her alter ego's, Madam Lu's creation... Which meant it was four hundred pages of hardcore erotica... I just couldn't imagine why she was scrunching her brows so hard. Was there an issue? Did I misfire in bed? Usually, I can give her some good ideas for a book like this... Hmm... Am I getting old? Stale? Shaking my thoughts away, I glanced at Yuri, who had taken a seat opposite them, yawning from boredom.

"If you all want," Yuri spoke up after smacking her lips, "we can all bet on when the monsters come. Then you will get your noise back in the form of constant artillery fire."

"Maybe that Ignis demon is hibernating like a bear," Mikan offered, putting down her cup, "Most powerful creatures do that, right? Isn't that what Sa'Ith has told us?"

"The scaly girl?" Luna rolled onto her back, looking at her above the rim of her book, "That woman has been in heat for the past few weeks... Even I can smell it."

"Hmph!" Sasha snorted, and I winced as her fingers dug a bit deeper into my shoulder blades, "She can dream. She is unreasonable!"

"In what way?" I asked, trying to relax again, which was hard when my stupid mouth began spouting such questions.

"She came to us," Sasha said after a momentary pause, making me tilt my head backwards, looking up at her face.

"With what?" I asked, "What happened?"

"Yeah," Yuri nodded, "We just didn't tell you about it."

"What did she want?" I asked again, now extra curious.

"Sperm," Mikan said flatly, making me even more befuddled.

"What?"

"She asked us for your milkies." Luna giggled, flipping some pages and scribbling down something.

"That bitch... Khm... That woman," Sasha groaned, making me hiss from her nails, "she asked us to let you impregnate her."

"What... the fuck?"

"Yeah," Yuri looked at me, "She wants to fuck. I understand; she probably wants a good time, an exotic fling with a human or something. Honestly, I would be interested to see if she has hair down there or scales, but..." She trailed off, avoiding Sasha's fire-spewing gaze, telling me that Yuri almost agreed to the request, "But who knows if you catch something?"

"Or make a bastard." Luna interjected, "We don't need a weird half-sibling who shows up who knows when to claim Avalon's throne. Plus, what if they lay eggs? Or something? Weirdoes."

"Aaaand," I tried, "I don't get a say in this... transaction?"

"What transaction?" Sasha snorted, walking over and sitting down in my lap, poking at my chest, "You already have your hands full with us!"

"True." I agreed at once, "I'm just saying, I feel left out by these... weird news. Especially because they are about, well, me."

"Could be interesting, though..."

"Yuri!" Sasha looked at her, hearing her comment, making me twitch the edge of my lips.

"What?" She threw her hands in the air, "I'm curious, okay?! She has nice hips, and I can't help but wonder how her scales look on her body! What do they cover? Are her tits symmetrical or not? Does she have a navel? Do they poop? I haven't seen them eat! I mean, the warrior types, their civilians do eat..."

"They do look symmetrical to me," Luna murmured, thinking about it.

"I'm more worried about," Mikan chimed in, before the topic would cascade into something uncontrollable, "what she would do with Arthur."

"I'll rip her nipples off!" Sasha growled at once, "That old hag of a bitch will not touch my baby boy! She could be the grandmother of all of us and some!"

"Well, there goes the firestorm." Yuri grinned, winking at Mikan, who just blushed, realizing she just made it worse, so I had to step in, changing topics so Sasha would be placated.

"Speaking of storms," I began, clearing my throat, "Arthur's decision finally made it through the Union's meeting. I spoke with him yesterday, and the others have already begun their constructions. Plus, he said that some of the smaller countries began pooling their resources to create their own, cross-nation production line. I did not expect that."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Oh?" Sasha raised an eyebrow. "That's... Interesting."

"Quite the understatement," I smiled. "They're all competing to prove who can build the proper mech first. Aaand Ishillia had already begun working on a prototype... Mirian wasn't joking, she will be ready with a machine before the end of the winter."

"So she was studying it." Yuri smiled, pursing her lips.

"We knew." I shrugged, "She was just polite about it. With the permission given in the open, she can replicate it."

"With our embassies," Yuri added, pouting, "We will have proper networks everywhere. They won't just work on things, surprising us..."

"Maybe," I smiled, "Anyway, I'm quite curious myself, seeing one built from the ground up. I wonder what will change? New chassis, redesigned joints? Maybe they will prod at the magic systems we implemented onto them."

"Then it won't work," Mikan shrugged, "I don't think they could replace your works or Merlin's additions. As for the advanced systems... You didn't give them that, too, did you?"

"No." I shook my head, "Just what was necessary to pilot it. They will be the one who needs to arm it and come up with a method for how and with what. But Ishillia has experience with their ships, the Imaginary, so... I am expecting something nice. And Atuvia's right behind hers, changing multiple manufacturing plants from producing trains to making mechs. We also received about two to three hundred applicants, soon coming to Avalon, taking the machining courses we offered, training their future engineers."

"From Atuvia?" Luna asked, confused, making me shake my head.

"No, no," I chuckled, "From all around the Union."

"Anything else from the kids?" Mikan asked, refilling her cup.

"Not much, besides being busy." I mused, thinking back on the letter, "At least this put their minds at ease and took it off from the Vasa thing for a brief moment, having to organize it all. Heh, all I can say is that Arthur is doing better and better, making me proud."

"He's doing what you would've done," Luna nodded, "Maybe he will do it even better."

"I hope so," I grinned, "that would be the ideal conclusion."

"Hmm," Yuri walked over, sitting on my chair's armrest, watching me hold Sasha, who by now was nestled against my chest, "Have you ever regretted stepping down?"

"Not once," I shook my head. "Not for a second. I was getting tired of pretending I liked conferences, coming up with day-to-day bureaucracy solutions, and whatnot... I hated that part. I always thought we could do without bureaucracy, yet it's the necessary evil that keeps everything running... Bah."

"I wonder why you even became a leader, then," Mikan laughed from behind her cup of tea. "Especially if you never liked meetings."

"Exactly," I said, grinning. "Even I don't know! Hah! But now Arthur can suffer instead of me, I mean, navigate through those character-shaping issues, and I get to sit in a flying fortress drinking tea with four beautiful women. I call that retirement well-earned."

"Retirement, huh?" Sasha leaned forward, pecking my lips. "You say that, but you've been on active watch every morning since we came here. You need some... rest." She continued, her hand sliding into my pants.

"I'm just making sure everything works and there are no nasty surprises," I said defensively, fixing my sitting position.

"Sure," Yuri smirked. "That's what all workaholics say. See? Sacchy has the perfect idea of what we should do!"

"Count me in!" Luna appeared from the other side all of a sudden, already there to join Sasha in kissing my neck.

"I can be persuaded..." I moaned as I felt a heavy set of breasts land on the top of my head as Mikan walked behind my chair, resting them on me, her hands sliding under my shirt and continuing my massage.

Yet, just as we were about to have some relaxing fun... Even though I was blanketed by my wives, I caught a flash of bright red rising into the clouds in the far distance. I thought I was imagining things, but... the blaring sirens outside and the crackle of the wall-mounted comms in my room told me otherwise.

"Kustov to the Sovereign," a familiar voice called out to me, slightly distorted by static. "You may want to see this... The Prime Minister is already on his way..."

"Yeah..." I frowned as they also climbed off me, and we watched the crimson pillar of light in the distance. "That's never good."

"Damn it..." Luna cursed, "It was just getting good!

"Yes," I agreed with a nod, slowly fixing my clothes, trying to order myself to... calm down. "We should head down..."

"I would say, let me handle you first," Yuri clicked her tongue, looking down at the tent in my pants, "But I guess you can't focus now... Especially when someone shot his load first," she added, pointing towards the lightshow in the distance.

"She should go visit a doctor..." Mikan muttered, also sounding disappointed, "That color is unhealthy..."

In the end, we made our way to the bridge, and when the doors slid open, most of the crew were pretty frantic, some standing at their stations, either looking at the faraway column or at their instruments, including Merlin.

"Report," I said, stepping forward, making them quickly reorganize.

"That's not just a visual phenomenon," Merlin shrugged, "That's pure energy, and honestly, going by the readings, that's the same thing that we saw happening to the Guardian. It's just... way stronger."

"Do we know what made it happen?" I asked, my eyes narrowing.

"No." Merlin answered after looking at the others, "I already asked the Vasas... They currently have no concrete idea."

"But they have theories?" Sasha caught on quickly.

"I don't really know," Merlin shrugged, looking at us, "But I won't be surprised if they have."

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

"Ugh... bastardly... things!" Ignis groaned and grunted, sticking her head out from the lava, slowly emerging from her volcano, watching the column of crimson light, shooting towards the sky, not that far from her. "I will need to be more careful about this..."

Looking at her body, her scales were singed, and although she was not really injured, she did look as if an experiment had blown up right in her face, which was the actual reality. Experimenting with her powers, trying to understand how to control the other beasts in a better way, being able to even raise their powers... she accidentally managed to induce the same reaction in their cores like Leon did when shooting down into the belly of the Guardian.

The only difference being that Ignis managed to explode a dozen creatures, at the same time, initiating a chain reaction, igniting not only the poor monsters but all the thrown-away cores she had lying there... If not for her own strength, sturdiness, and reflexes, the resulting explosion could have actually hurt her.

"Mhmm..." She blinked her eyes slowly, watching the column curiously, looking towards the sky it was reaching for, and trying to see through it... something new had caught her senses. The more she looked, the clearer it became, and after a brief moment, she suddenly saw a pair of violet eyes looking down at her. "?!"

In that brief moment, she felt as if the weight of the entire world was pressing down on her, causing her to sink deep into the lava and hide by instinct. When she caught herself at the last moment, realizing she was afraid, the sudden flush of anger, remembering what Zah'Ratil told her before he disappeared, made her resurface with a roar, aimed directly at the sky, but she could see nothing anymore. Only the crimson column...

"This damned spell..." She grunted, shaking her body and looking at the 'accident' she caused, "I need better control over my powers... Or I will make myself see things... Hmph! I'm no longer that stupid creature! Yes... I am Ignis! I am the mother of all beasts! Hmph!"