Chapter 25: Guild Festival

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Overlord: Celestial Crusade

"...I see. I have the full picture now."

After Aethaion's great fight with the cloaked figured which ended with Shino's interference, he along with Themis, Nerida and Nike were sitting at the Sacred Garden while on the opposite was Shino, Ragni, and the cloaked figure, Beard.

"Themis here reported to me what happened and so, I must thank you for saving the Baefolk Village, Miss Ragni." said Aethaion in a thankful tone.

In truth, Ragni was the only one sitting at the table. The hooded figure stood behind her with his arms crossed, while Shino clutched one of the sashes around his waist. Though looking a little nervous, Ragni slowly bowed her head slightly. "You're welcome." She said, equally as politely.

"You wanna tell me what this was about?" The hooded man growled. "That queen you're all buddy-buddy with clearly didn't put you up to this, so what's your angle?"

"Actually, Lady Lili was suspicious of Hashigin's sudden independence and I decided to investigate. Then, I met Shino whom I felt was a Player and took her with me by force and for that, dear Shino, I apologize once again." ended up Aethaion apologizing while looking at Shino.

Likewise, Shino's ears drooped, and she took half a step behind the figure. However, despite this she tilted her head slightly. "I-I'm a what?"

The figured grimaced, clicking his tongue. "Can we talk alone?" He said, nodding towards the NCP's of the Elysium Fortress. "One Canadian to... What is that, a Greek accent? The auto translator is a little jank, but I promise ya it works." Many of the others gave him an odd glance, confused by his words, but he pressed on. "You've got a fair bit you gotta know, dude."

"Things I should know? Like what?" asked Aethaion curious while not liking the figure's tone much.

"Things that you'll want to know before they do. Don't care how you handle it later, but trust me you'll want to get ahead of this." He grumbled, nodding again to the NCP's. "Cause those three are going to be a massive headache trying to explain all this at once."

"I don't have secrets from my NPC." said Aethaion crossing his arms and without showing it, Nerida and the others were filled with intense respect and love for their master "However, Themis, keep company to Lady Ragni and Shino out of politeness." he ordered.

"With pleasure." said Themis standing up and bowing lightly and Aethaion walked outside the Garden along with Nerida and Nike who seemed alerted of the figure.

"So, tell me what you want me to know." said Aethaion crossing his hands.

"Your funeral." The figure said with half a shrug, relaxing slightly and resting his back against the wall next to the Garden's entrance. "First thing's first. How long has it been since..." He paused a moment, glancing at Nike and Nerida and obviously choosing his words carefully. "Since you came to this world?"

"Hmm," Aethaion then got in thought "I daresay that almost a month has passed."

For some reason, the figure looked surprised. It was hard to tell without seeing his eyes, or most of his face, for that matter. But his posture looked like someone trying to hold back a laugh. "Wow, a whole month." He chuckled. "Fresh as a newborn baby, aren't ya?"

Aethaion felt his patience being exhausted and felt the need to punch him "Sigh, just go straight to the point." he asked sighing.

The figure sighed, crossing her arms. "For you... It's been a month since the server shut down." He sighed, glancing down he hallway. At what, nobody could say. It seemed like a staling tactic, or he was searching for the right words. Either way he looked back at Aethaion again with another sigh. "For me its been six." He said curtly. "We're not all getting here at the same time."

"What?!" exclaimed a shocked Aethaion who then remembered something "Then again, I met Mimir who was in this world for centuries. You will meet him soon." said Aethaion "Why Players arrive at different time periods is something we too haven't figured out yet but anyway, what more you want to talk about?" asked Aethaion curious.

"World Items are a thing here too. And regular people can use em." Apparently deciding to speed things along, the figure spoke curtly again. "I dunno what kinda toll it'd take on someone from this world, or even if there is one. But I know it can be done."

"Yeah, we saw that too. Theocracy seems to have the most World Items existing in this world and from what I get, they have to train people to get used to them and the more capable gets to possess one." said Aethaion "Anything else?" he asked.

Grimacing, the hooded man's hands tightened on his arms. "Yeah..." He said through near gritted teeth. "That weapon you took off the kid; the quill. Give it back." He said, holding out his hand.

"I will return it to Lady Shino herself." replied Aethaion "Still, I'm impressed such a low level Player was able to find such a weapon, being able to use it at only level 40 nonetheless." said Aethaion with genuine amazement in his voice.

The figure grimaced, lowing his arm and glancing at the ground. "Right... Guess you don't know about those either..." Kissing his teeth, the figure glancing back into the garden, watching as many of them had joined Ragni sitting at the table. "She... That kid is... Not one of us." He said finally looking back At Aethaion. "Shino is from this world."

"What?!" exclaimed Aethaion shocked "But she has a level of 40, something no one else in this world has!" he said and took a step back "I've yet to see anyone in this world with that level that wasn't related to us in some way!" he said shocked in disbelief.

Off all reactions he could have expected, Beard laughing out loud was not one of them. "Well.. See, your not wrong."

"Oh!" Nike and Nerida exclaimed in amazement "As expected of Lord Aethaion, you are truly clever and insightful!" exclaimed Nerida in a tone of amazement while Nike smirked.

"I would expect nothing less." said Nike in a calmer and more restrained manner, but Aethaion was focused on the hooded man.

Ignoring the fawning of the NCP, the figure huffed slightly and looked back into the room. "Her... Mom was one of us though. A player..." He said solemnly. "She was a guildmate of mine. Showed up here 'bout four-hundred years ago not too far from where I landed."

"I see..." replied Aethaion in a lower tone "That's why you are so protective of her." exclaimed Aethaion in an understanding tone and opened a small portal and put his left hand inside, pulling out from the now closing portal a vibrant reddish-purple quill and presented it to the figure "While normally I should be the one returning a family memento, letting her foster parent do that is ethically the most correct course of action." he said while trying to give the quill to the figure.

He hesitated a moment. He half lifted his arm to take the item back, but something Aethaion had said seemed to give him pause. He finally took the quill with a short nod, and it vanished in a wisp of smoke. "Foster parent... huh?" He muttered, his mouth slowly curling up into a smile as he leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms once more. "Wonder what Birdy would say about that..." He muttered to himself, but quickly realized an explanation was in order. "Her... Name, was Voice of Tankian. But... Most of the time we called her Birdy." He said with a small chuckle. "She was somethin'. Nothin' ever seemed to get her down, even with how shit things back home where..." He seemed to be growing somber as he talked. So much so that he didn't seem to be speaking to any one of them in particular. "She started up this demi human settlement, made a lot of people's lives better." He smirked, lowering his head to glance at the floor. "She was good at that."

"Seems like a wonderful comrade." said Aethaion.

At this, Beard's grimace returned. "She... was..." He huffed. "She died... Only ten years after the kid was born. Went off to some big fuckin' war, more Players and... Came back with wounds that couldn't be healed." The way he spoke was... off. Before, when reminiscing, he sounded almost... Human. Now, speaking of his companion, this Birdy, he had a chillingly matter-of-fact tone to him.

"Too bad." said Aethaion who looked at him "However, you spoke now of her not as a comrade being even a little sad about her death, but as someone who simply treats death as something natural." he commented and a flash of their fight appeared in his mind "You," said Aethaion "did you realize upon coming in this world that we...don't completely think and act as we should?" he asked and the hooded man was unresponsive "Upon coming here, my feelings are restrained, I have the compulsive need to help those in need and I feel contempt against evil people and kill them without remorse and hours before, I had the need to exterminate you, a Shade, but now I can barely tolerate you." he explained troubled.

Beard lifted his head, his mouth parting slightly in surprise. "You... Get that too... Huh?" He uncrossed his arms and deflaited slightly. Somehow it looked like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. "I don't remember exactly when I first noticed it. But like... Things that used to annoy me... Nitpicks... Habits... Or stuff that'd make ya sad, or angry... Just... don't anymore." His head rested back against the wall, but even at this angle, his eyes where still hidden under his hood. "I remember when I found Birdy's tomb... It was half a second I felt... something. Then there was this... I dunno, wave or something. Then whatever I felt was just... gone." He let out a huff and crossed his arms again, the day having clearly taken its tole on them all. "I was the same back during that fight... Couldn't tell ya when, but at some point I forgot about the kid. Astra and her friends... It was just... Burn down everything around me."

A small laugh from the garden grabbed all their attention once more. Ragni had woven a picture of something in the middle of telling a story, and both she and Themis where chuckling at something. Even Shino, though she still hid partly behind Ragni's chair, had begun to crack a smile.

"Pretty sure that's an effect of us being... well... you're an angel that's compelled to help people, and I'm a spirit of corrosion. Dont think its that complicated." Beard said with a smirk, looking back at Aethaion. "Can grantee ya it didn't effect Birdy the way it effects us. She loved that kid like nothing else."

"Since we are immune to mental interference, emotions of any kind suddenly bursting can be treated as such." deduced Aethaion and then looked at the figure. "By the way, I have an amazing idea." said Aethaion eager.

Beard tilted his head slightly, and they could practically hear him straining to contain himself. "Such as?" He asked tiredly and Aethaion chuckled.

"Oh! You are so amazing, Sir Synth!"

Sophrosyne was in her lab, with her being along with a robot-like being wearing a green cloak while holding a metallic scythe with a black orb on its middle "You are so great! And that scythe is excellent!" she said amazed while examining each part of her guest's body and weapon while her eyes were glowing.

The metallic figure largely ignored her. At least, that's what it seemed until it began to speak. "It is in fact a magic staff, not a scythe. But with its shape I understand your confusion. I do not fault the failure of your biological eyes." His mouth, a tiny slit resembling a set of square teeth, didn't move when he spoke, his voice emanating from somewhere in his chest. He slowly moved past a shelf, his eyes emanating a bright line of light that would run up and down each specimen in the span of a second, before moving to the next and repeating the process. "But I must thank you for your praise, myself and my belongings where all crafted by my Master, Hetfeild. I am humbled to be described as her Magnum Opus." Despite his words, his tone and body language remained, fittingly, robotic. "I must say..." He muttered, cupping the jaw of his faceplate. "This is quite the collection, Lady Sophrosyne."

"Oh? Do you like them? I'm currently working on mass-producing potions containing spell effects like Bless so my Lord can gain some of this world's currency. However, I also take pride in my weapons and armors." she explained proudly and an idea came to her mind "Hey, Sir Synth, would you like to create a weapon with me?" she asked excited on the prospect.

Synth turned with a metallic whine, taking a step closer. His enormous, six and a half foot frame towering over the relatively short Sophrosyne. "I'd take much more interest in this mass-production proposition of yours." He said, his head slowly swiveling around the room as if looking for something. "Tell me, what does your production method entail?"

Upon hearing his question, Sophrosyne looked around for a moment and found an empty vial "**Alchemical Savant!**" she said and the vial glowed, with it possessing now a small, colorless liquid "While this skill of mine allows me to create healing potions up to the maximum level, it also allows me to create a potion with no effects like this." she explained and then brought it closer to him "Now, use on it a spell that can have an effect on someone." she urged him with a smile.

"Hmm, I see..." The android watched Sophrosyne work, his eyes lighting up with every action she took. as she slid the vile closer, her regarded it and lifted a finger over the top. "*Haste*." A small clock face jumped over the vial, the hands rapidly picking up speed. All at once both the ethereal clock face began to glow, before flowing into the vial and changing the liquid a bright silver color.

"Excellent, and now, **Multiply**!" she said and the silver liquid began to overflow from the vial by her simply tapping her finger and she manifested an empty cauldron where the liquid was going into and she snapped her fingers which made the overflow to stop once the cauldron got full "This way, potions with spell effects can be sold en masse." she said excited.

"Fascinating..." Synth hummed, cupping his metallic faceplate around what would be his jaw. "However, dreadfully inefficient for mass-production. Your personal oversite of the process will also monopolize near all of your time. A terrible fate for a fellow creator to suffer..." He spoke in a matter of fact tone, devoid of any emotion that may have softened his words. "I do wonder... Yes, I believe we could automate the proses. **Triple: Summon Lesser Construct**." The end of his staff began to glow, and a trio of magic circles appeared on the floor. An instant later, a trio of small, crab like automatons appeared. Right away, Synth crouched down and began to disassemble one of the machines. His mechanical hands moved like a flash, his eyes blinking different colors by the second. In just a few short moments, Synth stood up and placed a new contraption on the table between them, a trio of components, each adorned with filters, armatures, and other things Sophrosyne couldn't name. "If we may try again?" Synth asked, inviting her closer to a beaker waiting on one side of the contraption.

"O-OK." she said bewildered and she created a vial with a colorless liquid inside once again "Here." she said giving it to him.

Without ceremony, Synth pored the liquid into the beaker and pushed a button on top. Slowly, the machine whirred to life. The beaker vanished into the first machine, and after a second, the liquid could be seen flowing through a clear tube into the second. A faint glow emanated from this one, before a vial with the new bright silver liquid was passed into the last. A gate closed, another light agminated form inside, and at last, a tray with a dozen vials popped out of the other side wo the sound of a light chime.

"The method was rather simple. think of it like a series of traps." Synth explained, walking around the table. "Once the first machine detects a change in weight, it begins the process. the second machine casts Haste when an object passes in front of the sensor, and passes the vial along. Then the third machine detects an item, it casts multiply and dispenses the items." He picked one of the vials up to inspect, swirling it gently in the glass before setting it down again. "We of course will have to account for sorting, and variety of potion, and your production of the initial potion... But I believe this is a Satisfactory start."

Sophrosyne's eyes then sparkled "You are amazing, Sir Synth! Your creator must be clearly proud of you!" she cried out excited.

"As I said, my master had described me as her Magnum Opus. I can only hope to live up to their great expectations. I know Master Beard has found no complaints with my work" He said flatly, continuing to pour over his new contraption and make adjustments as he saw fit. Suddenly he perked up, his head swiveling to study Sophrosyne curiously. "Although. With this unique opportunity for collaboration: a question occurs." He trailed off, leaving his contraption alone to stand upright once more. "Enlighten me. What sort of person was your creator, Lady Sophrosyne?"

"Lord Aethaion is super kind!" replied Sophrosyne excited "He has poured all his love and passion in creating me, Emmef and Nerida. While he can't openly show his feelings due to his personality, race and position, I'm sure he would openly show immense pride in how he created us." she further explained in a warm voice "Also, the others remember hearing their creators say only good things about him." she said with a little pride in her voice.

Synth bent down, bringing his metallic face within inches of Sophrosyne. "Yes... I can see it." He mused, stroking his unmoving chin. "It's not just your skills or equipment... There is a, how do you say... Love, in your creation." He stood back up, placing a hand on his chest. "I believe I am the same. A being of pure efficiency and Logic, attuned to serve the master of the Church of Metal. Just as my Master Hetfeild intended."

"Then, Sir Synth, let's continue our work as beings made of mmense love from their creators." suggested Sophrosyne who then grinned.

Nodding his head slightly, Synth turned back to their machine. "Yes, let us continue."

Elsewhere in the fortress, Themis led Ragni though the long, great halls of the Elysium Fortress. "So, where are we going?" Ragni asked, glancing around the enormous hallways curiously. At some point she glanced back down the hallway, covering her mouth with her sleeve and tilting her head worryingly. "I... Think we left a bit of a mess behind. Are you sure this is a good time to wander off?"

Themis' wing-like adornments flapped from what she heard and looked at Ragni with a smile "It's OK, things will go well, but if something were to happen, Lady Nike and Lady Nerida are capable to both protect Lord Aethaion and diffuse any situation skillfully." she assured her.

"I'm not sure that's what he needs right now." Ragni giggled into her sleeve. None the less, she continued to follow along with a gentle smile. "So what is it you wished to show me? You sounded excited about it."

"Well, I thought it would be great if I could show you around and introduce you to the other Virtue Lords in their domains." explained Themis looking at her.

Ragni stopped for just a moment, skipping to catch up with her. "Is... That a good idea?" She asked, tilting her head with a bit more concern in her expression. "I'd hate to be a bother. And it wasn't so long ago that our masters where in a battle to the death."

Themis listened to her with a confused face, only for her smile to appear again on her face "It will be OK, all the Virtue Lords are very friendly while they will be thrilled in meeting a NPC not belonging in the guild." Themis assured her with complete confidence in her voice.

Though she didn't look convinced, Ragni followed along none the less. As Thamis led her down the halls, she again took in the surroundings. "Well... To be honest, its been a very fun day. Apart from our masters trying to destroy one another." She said with a giggle. "Those Balefolk people are very friendly though. They seemed to take my weavings."

"Well, not all the tribes were into war and it's them we happened to recruit first." explained Themis "If you weren't there to help them, who knows what would have happened? Maybe our lady dragon would have went there and have slaughtered all the bandits." she ended up saying with a chuckle.

At this, Ragni hid her face behind her sleeve, blushing slightly. "W-well... I admit at first I thought I went a little overboard." She chuckled sheepishly. "I'm not exactly a straightforward combatant, but I feared the little avalanche I started may have been a little... I believe Master Beard would call it... Extra?"