Giliath demands your power stones!
*
A few moments later after Professor Schmidt retreated from the private quarters of Their Highnesses, he had talked about an hour or so with that group before he made his way back down to where the first floor was in the castle, slowly making his way to one of the empty workshops further away from the several drawing rooms which the military frequently used for meetings.
Tio remained behind in Naoto's room. She hadn't seen Ennea since how she looked back down in the caves. Back then Ennea was pretty small and petite, much more like how Tio was. She couldn't believe how much Ennea had changed, going from that into a rather busty elder sister figure.
While Tio knew she was a child, she became expectant, and even glanced down at her own chest, wondering if she will grow up in a similar fashion to Ennea. It really was hard to believe such two people used to be one and the same.
Apart from having inward expectations of how the future would hold for Tio, she was quick to get acquainted with the three of them again. Despite having a couple years pass, Naoto saw that Tio was happy, even going so far as to chat up a storm with the three of them during the rest of the afternoon, which caused the time to pass rather quickly.
Yet as the time continued to pass, Professor Schmidt could still be seen in one of the workshops still inside the castle. A couple of guards now stood outside of the workshop room to ensure his safety. With the completed Enigma II model and a few tools now before him, he proceeded along, wanting to see if it was built right.
"Hmm, at least from a first glance that Russell was able to follow the blueprints I had drafted...", Professor Schmidt uttered to himself, observing the case of the Enigma II.
[Insert picture of your favorite Enigma II here]
Professor Schmidt observed the casing for a bit. It was very similar to a flip phone now. It would flip vertically after it gets opened, allowing one to see the intricate design of a more advanced combat orbment inside. The case had golden ridges with the center of it being mostly purple. Instead of an organizational logo to which one would typically belong to like the SSS, Professor Erika embedded the Liberl emblem on its center.
Aside from observing the outside, Professor Schmidt's eyes were quick to wander to a specific area on the Enigma II, closer toward the bottom to where one could open it. He only frowned, as he saw a small sphere embedded at the lower half of the Enigma II, almost acting as a small mirror of sorts.
"But this part, I clearly remember that this wasn't included in those blueprints. Did that Russell really tamper with it after all?", Professor Schmidt uttered to himself, not knowing what this embedded sphere could do. Whether it was solely part of design or if it had some function, he didn't know.
Either way, Professor Schmidt concluded from his initial observation that everything the Enigma II had outside of that embedded sphere, it matched the blueprints he had created for this project. With that in mind, Professor Schmidt quickly moved his hands to try and open the Enigma II.
To his surprise, however, Professor Schmidt found the Enigma II tightly locked, unable to budge.
"Interesting. Perhaps an added security feature was installed?", Professor Schmidt wondered, fiddling with it. Yet before he could reach for a tool to try and dig into the device before him more, he suddenly saw a flash of light emanate from the sphere toward the bottom of the device the moment he tried to open it up. At the same time, Professor Schmidt heard a small voice reach out to him, which caused him to stare back down at the Enigma II before him.
"Initiating retina scan..." The small voice said, which seemed to have come from the Enigma II device itself. It sounded mechanical. The moment the voice said that, Professor Schmidt just let it do its thing, wondering if an added security feature was installed after all. He didn't draft any blueprints for this feature, so it was likely Professor Erika didn't tamper with it either. The Russells were reputable, so she likely followed the design to a tee. He could only muse to himself wondering how this feature got on here.
Yet as he was in his own thoughts for a moment, Professor Schmidt heard the voice speak again.
"Iris recognition scan complete. Iris signature not found. Access denied.", The voice said, which brought Professor Schmidt out of his thoughts. Only interest appeared in his eyes as the Enigma II apparently denied him access, despite being the one who developed the blueprints for this device.
"An advanced facial recognition system...I doubt even the Russells can create such a feature, considering its not widely used in the foundation either...", Professor Schmidt mused to himself.
"Either way, it looks like it matches the model, aside from that. I could try to tear it apart, but that would cause even a further delay by not having His Highness use it. I guess the best route to take from here is to simply bring him over. It is a facial recognition feature so if it can't register mine, there is a good possibility it will recognize him..", Professor Schmidt continued to say to himself, only to place the tool he now had in his hand back down on the table he was working at.
As much as he wanted to deconstruct this device, that would basically cause him more effort to rebuild it again. Doing that would likely require another day or two, considering Professor Erika took the full night to create the first one. That was time he did not have, as he already had a set flight later tonight to bring him and Tio back to Crossbell.
So the next best thing was to use the guards to bring the prince back here. It was probably designed with a purpose in mind, to which Professor Schmidt did not know. Just knowing that alone interested him, and he wanted to find out if anything had changed on the inside since it was likely tampered with. At least to him, he did not care who messed with it.
Professor Schmidt concluded his business for now and approached the guards again, which startled them a bit. Yet after understanding the situation, one of the guards quickly departed the first floor, making their way back toward the terrace. These guards are used to moving frequently about the castle but they could see today was especially active, considering there were important guests here today.
Still, the guard didn't mingle around, and quickly arrived in front of the private quarters to where Naoto, Kloe, Ennea and Tio still were, who could now be seen at a table further away from the bed, happily drinking some midday tea. It was closer to the end of the afternoon now with evening soon approaching, but before the four of them could continue talking, they heard a sound of shuffling feet approaching the entrance, only to see a single guard with a serious look on his face.
"Your Highness, the chief is expecting you again.", The guard said, giving a bow to the prince and princess, which drew our interest.
"He wouldn't call us for no reason. He probably figured something out.", I said with interest.
"Do you think something is wrong with the prototype, Naoto?", Tio asked as her eyes contained a hint of worry.
"I am not sure. Professor Schmidt probably found something with it, at the very least. You guys want to come?", I decided to ask the three.
"I'll go.", Tio immediately replied.
"I'll continue chatting with Ennea here.", Kloe said with a smile as she enjoyed another sip of her tea.
"Likewise.", Ennea said, nodding her head at Kloe. Hearing that, I got off from my chair, as did Tio.
"Guess it'll just be us two then.", I said to Tio.
"Mmm.", Tio responded happily as she approached my side, only to have the two of us wander back to where the guard was.
"This way, Your Highness.", The guard said in a respectful tone, signaling me to follow him. We bid farewell and made our way back to where the terrace was. The sun was already starting to go down in the mountains beyond, letting the sunset slowly settle. I could see anticipation appear in Tio's eyes as we walked behind the guard. It wasn't every day where someone like Professor Schmidt would potentially find something with a new type of combat orbment, so it was no wonder that interest got the better of us.
Still, thankfully it didn't take long to arrive where Professor Schmidt's temporary workshop was. The guard returned to his post after bringing us here.
"Did you end up finding something after all, Professor?", I asked, seeing Professor Schmidt again.
"Yes. It'd probably be best to tell you outright.", Professor Schmidt said as he nodded his head, which caused me to blink my eyes at him. "Someone tampered with it. I could only think of a single crazy bastard who would do such a thing too...", Professor Schmidt said as he softened his voice as he did, uttering to himself.
"Someone tampered with the Enigma II?", I said, raising my eyes as Tio blinked at him.
"Enough to where it now includes an advanced facial recognition system. I doubt even that Russell could build such a system. It wouldn't even recognize me either.", Professor Schmidt said.
"Seriously? I can kind of see why you called me back down here.", I said in a more serious tone seeing the result of his investigation on the device.
We then turned back toward the table to where it was resting at.
"I guess there's only one thing to do then.", I said, looking my way at the device. With me approaching it, I reached for it, and tried to open it up.
Sure enough, the same voice that Professor Schmidt heard previously began to speak to us, which caused me to stare at the Enigma II.
"Initiating retina scan...", A voice called out to us. As it did, a holographic-like light began to shine over my head specifically, going up to down as it did.
"Iris scan complete. Bio signature match has been found. Access granted.", The voice said as it finished scanning me, or my eyes specifically. The three of us then heard a click of the Enigma II.
"Guess my assumption wasn't far off.", Professor Schmidt said. "It seems this device is now fully recognized as yours. I do not know the method of how this system was installed though.", Professor Schmidt continued to say.
"That does seem to be the case.", I said. An Enigma II that only belongs to me, eh? I do like the sound of that. Yet as my thoughts began to swirl, it wouldn't make sense to stop just there, so with my hand, I slowly opened it up, allowing Professor Schmidt and Tio to see what the inside of the Enigma II looked like to see if there were any problems there as well.
Yet we could only blink our eyes after the case opened all the way. We could see the master quartz slot was occupied by a sphere, but that wasn't the only thing inside of it.
On top of the orbment structure stood a small figure, spanning about five to seven inches long, only to have their appearance phase in and out of existence, almost appearing to be a holographic image. This small figure could currently be seen laying sideways, sleeping.
"Mmm...Is naptime over already?", The same voice that we had just heard a moment prior began to speak again, which seemed to have come from this small figure. they stretched their tiny arms, only to start sitting upright after getting up from the sleeping position they just had. This small figure couldn't help but blink their eyes a bit as the green hair wafted around their shoulders, seemingly to be a little girl. If it wasn't for the fact that she had long pointy ears, it wouldn't be hard to see that she appeared very similar to that of a human.
This tiny green-haired girl only blinked her eyes seeing three large figures currently staring at her in shock, which only caused the tiny green-haired girl to tilt her head sideways a bit in confusion.
"Who are...you guys?", The holographic-like tiny green haired girl asked as she stared at the three people looking back at her, just having unlocked the combat orbment device.