Several days later.
{Ding!
Cooldown: 1D 21H 11M
Host!}
'Yo.'
{You can almost use me again! ৻( •̀ ᗜ •́ ৻)}
'Pause.'
{Huh?}
'It's whatever.'
{Ok! ◝(ᵔᵕᵔ)◜}
Sitting, or rather, in his case lying down in the same spot can be quite boring.
Jin had observed the Legion troops moving back and forth countless times already, and while it was entertaining at first, the feeling of boredom soon overcame him.
But, hey, they did all the 'heavy lifting' for them at least.
Oh?
What about Nero?
Yeah, she-
*SNORE*
"Umu... Umu... Umu..."
-drifted off to sleep right beside him.
It hadn't even been several minutes before she began snoring in his eardrums several days ago.
'Besides, when the fuck did she snore?'
Jin could clearly remember the first time they slept together... wait.
The first time she slept with him, no.
The first time they shared... a space together?
'I give up.'
In a nutshell, it was something she never did.
"Umu... Umu... Umu..."
Now it's just a mix of snoring and random Umu's.
'God forbid me from having a normal nap.'
Gently prying himself off from Nero's embrace, he lazily rose to his feet and stretched.
*CRACK*
Bones popped all over, making him feel alive as he yawned.
"..."
'This guy.'
He didn't even have to glance to recognize that a certain someone was kneeling nearby.
"Say, you know Drax?"
"I don't follow, Sir Wulfric..."
Confusingly tilting his head, Reinhard couldn't help but weirdly glance at Jin.
"Whatever, you got news?"
"Indeed, I shall convey the details to Sir Wulfric, as the Empress seems to be resting."
"She sure is."
Their attention shifted to Nero, who was somewhat peacefully sleeping as her hands awkwardly tried to latch onto something.
Seeing the confused frown on her face, Jin decided to grab a sizeable rock, before carefully putting it in between her grabs.
"Now, come again?"
Reinhard mentally approved of his methods, relieved that the Empress could now fully rest peacefully.
"Then, I shall make it short for you."
From his golden eyes emerged a blue projector, displaying statistical logs, various routes, and an overview map of their newly harvested territory.
Jin curiously looked over them.
"Woah, that's..."
What caught his eye was the amount of things they took, which included various metals, minerals, and wood, as well as massive pieces of land masses for some odd reason.
Yet-
"As you can see... while we've made significant progress, the vast expanse of our newfound territory remains largely untouched.
In fact, it's worth noting that the majority of our resources came from the enemy you've killed, Sir Wulfric-,"
"Hmmm..."
"-with exceptions such as wood and the large land masses, of course."
Continuing to look over, his ears perked up at the sudden mention of that tall but skinny deceased mofo.
Jin looked at Reinhard and proposed an interesting idea.
"Say, how about we just, like, temporarily leave the territory to one of our Legion friends over there, and just focus on hauling this giant ass back to base?"
Pointing at the massive corpse a distance away, he continued.
"I mean, bro's loaded with enough stuff that we could kickstart some projects, like... I don't know, setting up some geothermal power plants, y'know the renewable energy type stuff?"
Reinhard pondered over what he had said, his metallic hand touching his chin.
"Hypothetically speaking, for the sake of long-term benefits and continuous and sustainable growth, it would be beneficial to leave the acquired territory largely untouched and just focus on the things that can be renewed over time.
So, your suggestion aligns well with this approach, Sir Wulfric. But how do we proceed-"
Suddenly stopping himself, he looked at Jin lazily scratching his head, those eyes seemingly carrying no thoughts whatsoever.
"I seem to have misspoken, my worries were unfounded."
Releasing a sigh, the war machine overlooked the space above the massive corpse, eyes observing how the entire Legion was diligently working.
"Sir Wulfric, carrying the whole body would be quite bothersome even for you, no?"
"Well, yesn't."
"?"
"I could carry it for sure, but it's the way the weight is distributed, that's what makes it an annoying task. I could drag it as well, but mother nature ain't gonna be happy with the fucker indirectly causing mass chaos because of its size, so-"
Jin pointed at Nero.
"I'm waiting for her to wake up so she can cut them into pieces, that way I'll have a much easier time balancing my sorry ass for what... a thousand kilometers?"
Again, Reinhard thought about it before shaking his head.
"Waking the Empress won't be necessary."
"Wasn't thinking about that in the first place, so what's the deal here?"
"Lothric will be able to accomplish said task you asked for."
Confusingly tilting his head, he was about to ask who the dude was before a click went off inside of him.
"Oh, that blue knight?"
"Yes, that blue knight."
"Aight, imma go ask him."
FWOOSH!
Several seconds later his afterimage disappeared from the spot, leaving nothing more than a spotless ground.
Reinhard who was left standing there, once again nodded in approval.
"Such immaculate control of power, as expected of Sir Wulfric."
...
...
...
"Commander Lothric, we've got news from Commander Valkyra from the main base."
"Is that so?"
The blue armored war machine glanced back.
The soldier, ignoring the massive chunk of compressed metal rods above Lothric's head, respectfully continued speaking.
"Commander Valkyra and her brigade have completed road construction, as well as having finished the drainage system. Although they're awaiting new orders, Commander Valkyra has made some suggestions that Commander Lothric and Commander Reinhard-"
"Ah, I see. It seems like little Val has a proposal that she wants both of us to weigh in on before bringing it to the Empress's attention."
Understanding the underlying message behind her intentions, Lothric nodded.
Noticing that it was his cue to continue, the soldier began spilling out the main content of the news.
"Amidst the construction phase, Commander Valkyra and her brigade have installed the necessary mechanisms that lay the groundwork for electromagnetic levitation technology-"
*DING*
The stacked steel rods fell from Lothric's hand as he dumbfoundedly looked at the soldier.
"A-already? She's ambitious for sure, but I'm sure that none of us have any installed data when it comes to more advanced technologies."
After all, fundamentally, they were built for warfare, designed to kill, strategize, and lead. If it were one of the other units or maybe even the maintenance crew, they might have more tech data installed than them.
"Commander Lothric, it may be because Commander Valkyra is of the 3rd generation of the CCW Frames..."
"...Right, it seems that I have forgotten due to being 'locked' up in that place."
After releasing a weary sigh, he gestured for the soldier to continue.
"As previously mentioned, laying the groundwork with maglev technology, Commander Valkyra has proposed plans for renewable energy sources. Her suggestions include harnessing solar energy, as well as exploring tidal and wave energy."
"As sufficient as ever, to think you'd already aim for a T1 civilization...
Alright, if that is all, you are dismissed."
"Yes, Commander Lothric!"
FWOOSH!
Looking at how the soldier flew away, the blue armored knight was about to pick up the massive steel rods again before a sudden voice came from beside him.
"Solid ass plan, bro."
"Respected Advisor?"
Jin had arrived just a few moments prior, so even though he didn't get the whole gist of the conversation, he had enough clues to piece the puzzle.
"She's prob gonna be happy, but before that-"
Lothric glanced at the way he was pointing and saw the giant corpse in the distance.
"-imma need your help."
...
"Respected A-"
"No need for that. Jin's fine."
"Jin it is then... your request for me is to slice this in half?"
In contrast to their tiny stature, they stood before a colossal hand adorned with three massive talon-like claws.
"Yeah, Reinhard told me you were the man for this kind of job."
"Did he tell you that?"
"Uh- something along the lines."
"Oh..."
Seeing Lothric hesitate, Jin shrugged his shoulders.
"I mean, you could just give me, y'know, one of those fancy plasma blades... I don't mind having them, not sayin' like I want them, just to be clear..."
The Legion Commander blankly looked at the human fidgeting his hands around like an anime girl.
With a metallic exhale, a mechanism clicked into place, unveiling a sword-shaped recess behind his back.
Nestled within, a grand blue and black blade rested within a customized metallic sheath.
Afterward, Lothric smoothly extracted the colossal sword with his right hand, its imposing form resembling a grand odachi.
"Damn!"
The blade vibrated as a violent energy surged within.
Suddenly, the war machine raised the blade with both hands high up into the air, the violent energy pulsating harder than ever.
Glancing at Jin fanboying over the sword, Lothric spoke uncertainly.
"I will try.
Though it seems to me that Reinhard has forgotten that even the best of the best can rust, so I'm not entirely sure I will be able to do your assigned task."
As if waiting to be released, the energy was about to leak out, but it soon came to a halt-
FWOOSH!
-not even a second later, the sound of something being sliced could be heard.
Before one could even realize it, Lothric had already assumed a downward strike pose.
*SIZZLE*
Jin looked at the massive line that ran across the entirety of the Ancient Sky Shrieker's hand right up to its wrist.
Akin to a cleanly cut sirloin, the colossal hand that was connected to the rest of the arm slowly fell right in front of him.
He subtly glanced at the Legion Commander behind him.
"..."
Seeing that it worked, Lothric released his umpteenth sigh today.
"Ha... it seems like I still got it."
...
...
...
{Host! You can do it!}
'I hate this.'
{ദ്ദി ˉ͈̀꒳ˉ͈́ )✧}
Jin had been running back and forth for what seemed like hours.
And right now, he had someone's head on his shoulders.
'If it weren't for the laws governing this universe, I would've fought my way to the underworld just to kill this bitch again.'
As he was running at high speeds across the landscapes in seconds, he noticed one of the Ancient Sky Shrieker's eyeballs soullessly gazing at him, as if it was mocking his efforts.
'I'll fucking do it again.'
...