C50: Panic, Downtime, Preparation
Word count = 2089 on 3/12/2024
"Im pregnant" Syr Flova says to Axel and her smile becomes stiff as Axel has a different expression than she expected. He seemingly seems to be frozen like a statue. His eye empty even though he has a gentle smile on his face. She pokes him and pulls his cheek but his expression doesnt change.
In truth Axel is overwhelmed with glee upon hearing this but at that moment, tons of tiny soul fragments awoke at the same time. Coupled with a few other major and one minor fragments, memories of children. Axel is mentally overwhelmed and has to wad through the emotional swamp he is stuck in.
The first amongst the major fragments is the memories of Talion, the gravewalker, the guard captain of the black gate who died defending it unto his last breath. Watching as his family is also killed before him. The agony of his daughter dying sent him into a rage that leds into the second fragment. The divine, the asura, who made his rage known when his wife was killed and his daughter kidnapped for thousands of years, used as a medium for channeling energy for the very people who killed her mother and sealed her father. While not abused, she was mistreated as a prisoner. Emotional torture at the thought of the agony her mother went through before she was killed and then much later, seeing her father suffer so much to rescue her.
The final more major fragment is the memory of a berserker, a human, who sought to slay gods and demons. He who lived a whole life of struggle, almost being raped as a child, having to constantly kill all his life to survive. He had a child but it was unborn, becoming one of the many shades that haunted him. The agony of knowing that the one he loved bore his child but it was later killed only creates more agonizing thoughts. That agony only fueled his rage for revenge against the one who used to be his best friend.
Then there is the new tiny fragments, various children and adults who suffered various abuses or early agonizing deaths as their blooming dreams were snuffed out. Their agony was the worst to venture through due to the abundance of it as well as the diversity and differing spectrum of agony they went through.
Axel retains his consciousness due to the mental prowess of his new soul fragment. He could have barely maintained his mind without it due to 2 of his major fragments which are arguably the most diverse in the skill set of fragments. Axel is like a warship within a raging storm that could very well grow into a tsunami or cyclone. Unfortunately, Axel has no idea of how to break out of this due to the single soul fragment that is most related to souls being on the offense against him.
He thought that perhaps sealing away these memories would work through some sort of barrier, yet his experiences in the realm of the mind are still lacking. He is finally given a rest when a sun seems to appear on the horizon. Gradually rising up, outside the mental area, Syr had Axel lie down on her lap as she strokes his hair. Freya had already noticed the abnormality in the soul where a few tiny fragments on the outer-edges of his soul were constantly vibrating.
She can only channel her charm through horn's body (aka syr) to lull the fragments. As gluttony is already the main defense against the negative effects of Axels soul breaking apart, it has it's 'hands' full which prevents it from absorbing the charm energy that quickly bundles up the fragments into a metaphorical rope which it then gives to gluttony which helps it stabilize the situation.
The charm then willingly leaves his body and Axel soon wakes up to Syr still stroking his hair with a smile on her face. "Sorry, did I fall asleep?" Axel asks
"A little bit, but it's fine. I don't get to hold you like this very much so it's a novel experience" Syr responds. "You must have been very tired, but it's alright. If the child is a worry then you also don't have to worry about it. I'm willing to put the whole power of my familia to care for this child. Though you may have to prove your worth and win my main body for yourself before they would obey." She bends down to kiss his lips.
"I'd be happy to kick their asses as I don't think they can match me as I am now but if we start a war game now. I worry that Antares might try something funny. I'd like to handle it before we start any funny business."
"Very well. I shall prepare in the meantime. What will you be doing?"
"Well, first i'd like to eat a bit before I do anything else" He changes positions and locks lips with Syr. The intensity of the kiss surprises her and the longer it goes, the weaker she becomes as she is far more oxygen dependent than Axel but he stops every once in a while to let her breathe. They spend almost 10 minutes like this as Syr grows red faced due to Axel rapidly improving in his kissing technique in this time. She is so red that even Freya has fallen under her own urges as she envisions what he could do to her own body.
Axel heads out to find Daisy and the rest of his team to inform them that he will be resting for a while. Partially to focus on the magic items store and the other is to learn magic as it is quite lacking now even though his stats would say otherwise. Naturally the guild was already informed of him reaching level 4. An emergency Denatus is set to happen tomorrow to address the problem with Antares. Many 'saints' were also invited as they could very well be part of the defense force too if adventurers get overwhelmed. Not that this has much to do with Axel, he is unlikely to get a new title or anything.
Instead after explaining the situation to the group they have themselves decided to assist the Rivira defense force until the projected time of the war. Of course they would take some rest to recover and fix their gear. This includes Axel's own gear which had been melted down in multiple fights. First is Antares who had cracked most of his gear and minor repairs were done on it but during the amphisbaena-Berserker-hydra fight the rest of his gear was ruined. While his body might have resisted the corrosive acid and other effects but that same could not be said for his armor even if he reinforced it. Berserker alone crushed his gauntlets in their initial exchange.
As such, Axel needs entirely new gear, luckily they have tons of material from both Amphisbaena and the scales of the hydra. Everyone is getting a new makeover which will take some time. On the other hand, Axel informs Mikoto that he could try teaching her more about gravity as he has seen her use her Futsuno-mitama spell. Perhaps more knowledge of how gravity works would allow her to stop the self-harm aspect. Perhaps a new skill might awaken to compliment the gravity magic even if the spell itself can't change.
The proposal does intrigue Mikoto that she is willing to listen to his lessons in the evenings before she joins the rest of the group to help defend. With a plan set, Axel heads out to the jewelry store to join Adelaide and Mash in forging new magic items as their supply almost runs out. While Axel was in the dungeon, the guild had approached them in regards to mass buying the items to help the cities defense. They had Ganesha representatives to help mediate the transaction. Adelaide couldn't really refuse but she knew to at least upcharge the guild for the deal as it was outside the standard supply.
Axel has no problem with this transaction and approves future such transactions but only with the guild or reputable merchants they are acquainted with. Afterall, there are no negatives to selling more than the originally proclaimed weekly serving. That was simply done as a safeguard so that they had enough to sell in the first place. They don't want to overstep their own boundaries.
With the minor details out the way, the trio get down to work once more. They spend all day like this as Axel has already introduced the money supply to upgrade their materials a while ago. Their current setup is silver for it's higher magic conductivity which turns out to be true though Axel would like to create the special alloy that Elves had discovered long ago called Tilkal. A mixture of copper, iron, tin, silver, gold, and lead.
This mixture should theoretically contain the better properties of all of them and even enhance it. Through his memories, he can tell that this unique alloy was the best conductor for magic items like Celebrimbor's rings. He would definitely like to try to make that and see how well it matches up against other metals like mithril and adamantium. Cost effectiveness also needs to be considered but they first worked on their current silver batch.
Many hours pass and finally it is around early evening and Axel has his own magic lessons with Kaoruko. He does review the gravity knowledge he has with her for preparation in teaching Mikoto but she was not an expert in this magic and thus could only offer trifling knowledge. He was recommended to find Medusa but he doesnt know who that is so he sets that name aside.
Finally in the evening, Axel puts on his teaching hat and begins to explain the basics of gravity to Mikoto before explaining the more indepth nature of gravity magic and how he uses it. Astel had gravity magic as part of it's inborn nature while Radahn had to manually learn it; So axel has the best of both worlds since falna magic is slightly more inborn even if it is learned later due to the spell limit it has.
This is the schedule that Axel followed for the next 3 weeks. Not one day did he dungeoneer. He spent the early morning with the ladies that love him, even paying a secret visit to Freya herself. He showcased his improvement in kissing with her and she almost pulled him down to his knees so he could apply that more 'specifically'. Of course this caused a commotion so he had to escape as he isn't planning to fight the freya familia for their goddess yet. In the afternoons to early evening he would forge magic items and had even introduced Welf to the Tilkal alloy he knew about. He found this to be a fun challenge and invited Senji to it as well while he himself went to the dungeon. He would still ponder the formula and crafting method while in Rivira at the very least.
Then from the early evening to mid-late evening Axel would have magic lessons with Kaoruko and he learned a few new spells which amongst them is a bit of illusion creation. During this time he had also comprehended the notion of mental spells but doesnt know how to cast one yet but he is learning.
Then in the late evening he would teach Mikoto about gravity and while she doesnt mention any new skills in her falna. Perhaps the lessons will resonate with her while she is in the evening. Once the group had left on their own, Axel extended the magic lesson from early evening to the end of the day. As such he was stuck forging magic items, experimenting with them to see how new materials work with his magic sigils. Then the 2nd half of the day he would have magic lessons with Kaoruko. The gaps in between he would simply spend time with his lovely ladies.
The emergency Denatus had passed by during this time and the Ganesha members/Orario guards reported more scorpion-like monsters occasionally wandering near the walls. Axel got a laugh out of hearing what happened in the Denatus. It took him a while to calm down as he was nearly brought to tears by the news.