82 Birth of the Vanishing Mech

At around 8 at night, Zrathno comes over to Astur's workshop.

"I'm mostly ready as far as equipment goes, but how do you expect me to go anywhere without it raising any alarms? My ship doesn't have any type of stealth system. And my mechs are both big and loud, the police, military, and whatever guards the Church has will see me coming far before I arrive."

"*Yawn* Not my problem," Astur says.

"Do you even want me to get this done?" Zrathno asks.

"Ain't a big deal. So what if you cause a scene? As far as I'm concerned, causing a scene is a good thing. The more chaos the better. As long as you get the items from the Church it's fine, the method doesn't really matter. You can even bombard them from the sky if you want."

"Are they truly so important to the enhancement?" Zrathno asks.

"Uh, yeah, definitely important," Astur insists.

Even with no one else around, Astur is still insisting that it's important. At this point, Zrathno doesn't think Astur is lying, but he also doesn't think she's telling the whole truth either. In his mind, Astur is being truthful about the importance of stealing Church treasures, as to what it is though, is unknown to him. But he also believes whatever is up with the Church treasures, it has nothing to do with his request. In his mind, Astur has some kind of scheme planned and he's merely a piece in it, something he isn't terribly fond of.

Unfortunately, Zrathno is overthinking the matter. On a purely technical basis, yes, Astur does have a scheme planned. Said scheme however is so simple that it can hardly be considered a scheme. She's merely trying to mess with Zrathno for bothering her and cause trouble for the Church at the same time. Mostly a matter of petty revenge and aimlessly cause trouble for a group she doesn't like. Unlike Zrathno who sees things in a rigid manner of gains and losses, Astur is more than willing to throw away good opportunities for gains to make a loss so long as she feels better about it. Astur doesn't even know if the Church has any treasures beyond there being a chance of them existing at large cathedrals in Capital cities and their headquarters, so she might not even get anything out of this whole ordeal.

Zrathno quickly gives up on trying to figure out what it is Astur is planning since he won't get what he wants if he doesn't comply. Moreover, he already had materials moved to Astur's workshop, he's already knee-deep so no point in turning back now. But he still doesn't want to blindly charge into a city.

"Give me some way to at least sneak my mech into a city. If I just go there in a giant war machine, I'll get shot down before I even arrive," Zrathno says.

"How tall are those robots of yours?" Astur asks.

"Not robots, mechs. There's a difference. One is manned, the other is unmanned. But both of my mechs are just under 15 metres."

"Think about it. You want to sneak in a walking chunk of metal that's taller than many buildings. Ok, just, think about that for a moment. Besides, is that machine of yours so flimsy that it would fall to being shot a few times. I can survive bullets and artillery with my fleshy body without any problems, I even did so before coming to this world. What uses is a piece of metal that falls so easily to a few soldiers."

Zrathno wants to scream that she's the literal definition of strange and abnormal, but manages to hold it in.

Zrathno takes a deep breath, "I understand your point in the pointlessness of trying to conceal an almost 15-metre tall machine. But it was designed to withstand kinetic and basic energy weaponry, who knows what kind of magical hocus-pocus shit they've got. I'm not taking a chance there."

"Then why not bombard the church and the city it's in from the sky with your ship. I know it has weapons," Astur says.

"I don't need the Aggrin's police force on my back right now," Zrathno counters.

"Aggrin's?" Astur asks.

"The civilisation that controls this Star System, the Aggrin Federation. They have an observation station in orbit above the planet. Before I landed, I had to stop there to explain my visit and sign a contract that I wouldn't cause any major damage to the primitives of the planet."

"Oh, so that's what they're called."

Astur had already known about the space station in orbit of Vopal, but she hadn't yet discovered their name.

"Those guys were a pain to deal with. Kept asking so many questions before they finally let me go," Zrathno sighs, "So many rules and regulations that I'm probably going to end up breaking in the future. But right now I'm not strong enough nor do I have the influence to keep pursuers away if I do break any laws."

"You're the one being a pain. If being sneaky is such a big deal to you then go in by yourself without your mech. Or is you're armour just for show?" Astur asks before chugging down some booze.

"No, fuck you, my mechs are like, my entire identity. And where did that bottle come from?"

"Spatial Ring. Shouldn't you have something similar?"

"I'm pretty sure this planet and Glacia's are the only ones with items that can manipulate space… wait, do you think I could…"

"I know what you want to say and no. You can't fit a mech inside. At least not the normal ones that come from this planet," Astur tosses the now empty alcohol bottle and takes out another one.

"So what your saying is no, but actually yes?"

"Yeah. It'll need to be a ring made by me. Well, it doesn't necessarily need to be a ring, but it's one of the more convenient designs," Astur says.

Zrathno knows that Astur won't just give him a ring with such a large capacity, but he suddenly had an idea pop into his head.

"Listen for a moment. Wouldn't it be really funny if out of nowhere, a giant mech appeared in the middle of the Church wrecking the build from the inside causing a bunch of chaos, only to disappear after a short time? Then the next day a similar case happens at another church in a completely different location. Wouldn't be silly if people thought that giant machines could appear out of nowhere and start destroying things only to disappear moments later, so quickly that no one could effectively do anything about it."

Astur knows that Zrathno is trying to con her into making him a Spatial Ring with enough capacity to hold his mechs. But after imagining the scenario of people freaking out over a giant machine that appears and disappears randomly, true to her nature, she can't help but be amused by it.

"Don't think I don't know what you trying to do," Astur sneers.

Zrathno shrugs, "Worth a shot. Words don't cost much."

"Just make sure to raid a few different cathedrals," Astur says as she walks over to her cauldron.

The initial surprise over Astur conceding is quickly wiped away as a smile forms beneath Zrathno's helmet, "Just know I won't cause too much damage or I'll attract the Aggrin's attention."