Ester hurriedly ran through the marketplace with sweat beading on his forehead, his breaths came hurried and laborious as his eyes traced the stone laid Merchant's street.
Dodging and weaving past the numerous pedestrians going on their way, Ester hurriedly bypassed a group of women who had just turned the corner slamming into them.
*Bang!
"Sorry! Sorry! I'm running late!"
Tripping over his own words, Ester hurriedly gave his apologies and ran away as the red-haired woman he had just collided against shouted something that was lost to the hustle and bustle of the crowd.
Wildly unkempt silver black hair bouncing in the air as his footsteps swiftly slapped against the ground, numerous thoughts quickly went through his silvery white eyes.
'On the left the road is still under construction and at this time of day, the right is probably congested with foot traffic.'
Recalling the heavy industrial machines working on the road, clearing out the inhabitants living in the sewers, Ester immediately crossed that path out of his mind.
'Not running through the construction area after what happened last time.'
Tightening his grip on the heavy metal package in his hands, Ester quickly ran forwards and immediately drew itself to the abandoned plot of land that had been bought by some unknown figure but hadn't been developed like the rest of the city.
'That'll do.'
Since its purchase ten years ago, it had been undeveloped for ten years on end after the buyer disappeared and it probably wouldn't start any time soon as no one seemed willing to buy this piece of land that was far from ideal
And his gamble paid off.
Hurriedly vaulting the particularly useless walls that could be overcome by any determined individual with his left arm, the sound of gears sounded out from underneath the thin clothing, locking and pistoning as they dragged him upwards.
A particularly useful investment of his earnings as it hadn't failed him yet.
Eyes brightening as he vaulted the thick brick walls covered in vines and moss, his eyes scanned the untouched plot of land before swiftly dropping down and running across the plot of land.
Knee high blades of grass brushing past his shins as a particularly startled snake hissed loudly as Ester passed through its small hidey hole, Ester ignored it all as he reached the other end of the plot of land
Adjusting the important package under his right arm, Ester immediately jumped up, left arm outstretched as five metal spikes left the tip of his fingers, digging into the wall and allowing him to drag himself on the wall, Ester immediately began clambering the wall like a man possessed.
And honestly? If a passerby were to chance by, they would be absolutely terrified as a grey shadow clambered up the wall like some sort of undead demon.
Not that Ester cared as soon enough if he didn't get there on time, then when he returned, he would personally see a demon manifest.
And honestly speaking, Ester preferred to not visit the Architect of the dead when he hadn't even fulfilled
Sweat poring out of his head as the sound of gears ground against each other in an effort to drag him upwards, Ester hurriedly dropped into a roll, taking particular care to not harm the previous package that was way more important than his own health and safety.
'To the next obstacle!'
Swiftly getting up and sprinting forwards, his labored breaths made visible by the chilled morning air left his lungs as his eyes scanned his surroundings that were similarly suffused with foot traffic underneath the light of the dawning sun.
It was surprisingly lively, considering it was five in the morning, the time when everyone but nightshift workers and early birds were asleep, but then again, considering the event that was going soon in the coming week, then it honestly made sense.
Briefly thinking about said event and how many of the important figures of the city were going to make an appearance on that day, Ester quickly reminded himself of the fact that he had to be alive to appreciate the day and swiftly made the executive decision to avoid the foot traffic.
'To the alleyways!'
Energetically heading straight towards the high-risk high return pathway that usually did its job to get him towards his destination faster than taking the people saturated streets, especially during this lively time, his memory swiftly took action as the mental map of the city unfolded itself before Ester's very eyes.
Ephemeral arrows manifesting in front of his eyes as he took the many twists and turns of the cities poorly designed alleys hidden in between the buildings, more than once Ester had to suck in his gut and squeeze between the buildings and people.
If anything, he was actually pretty lucky that he could take advantage of the very large empty plot located in the industrial area as at the least he didn't have to navigate the ridiculous collection of buildings that were an Obsessive Compulsive persons nightmare.
Navigating past the randomly placed buildings that seemed to have no set plan following their creation, Ester clambered up the many bridges, walls and any other obstacles in his way, making sure to reference the mental map of the city that he had in his mind.
It was one of the things that led to his success albeit it led to a lot more attention from the demon.
Turning a corner, Ester accidentally bumped against a figure hurrying by, hood making way to reveal a brief flash of a unique purple hair.
"Ah! Sorry! I'm in a hur-!'
Eyes briefly widening as the glint of a knife swiftly entered his vision, Ester instinctively reacted, left arm bouncing upwards as the knife collided against it, creating a series of yellow sparks as the metal underneath the thin cloth revealed itself.
Frowning as he stared at the small scratch donning the brass exterior, Ester spoke while now observing the other people around him.
"Hey, that was very rude."
In total, there were three people in this small alleyway standing between him and the Heaven away from the devil.
A duo holding a… rusty pipe and what could be likened to a glass shank, drunkards Ester concluded and a figure tightly bound in a cloak as they hurriedly hid the purple hair underneath their hood.
And knowing what the purple hair meant, Ester didn't blame her although it seemed that the two drunkards certainly did as the one who had initially tried to stab the figure until he got in the way shouted.
"Gyet out of de way kiiid! Dis isn't prObLem your… Huh?"
Staring at the two figures, Ester couldn't help but mentally nickname them with the horrible habit of his that seemed to always backfire on him the moment the demon heard of it.
But with how the Demon beat his ass until it was turned inside out, the demon was an apt name, especially the time they had broken a few laws in their attempt to beat up Ester.
Terrifying times.
Turning his head to the one that was being assaulted, a tall figure with a pair of slitted eyes stared at him causing him to flinch at the eyes which glowed in the relative darkness in the alleyways.
But nevertheless, to the crux of the matter, the duo of drunken drunks.
Raising his hand in hopes of placating the drunken drunks fatty short and skinny tall, he hoped to deescalate the situation.
"Look guys, you're drunk and definitely not in your right minds, even if you try to kill this person who has absolutely no connection to the Twilight Disaster, all that it's going to do is just get blood on your hands, and you seem like the decent sorts."
"Fuck you kid."
'Ah, degrading, not a good start.'
Raising his hand, the left one, Ester spoke slowly while keeping in mind the suspiciously cloaked figure behind him.
Who knows? They could stab him in the back if the stereotypes of purple hair was correct.
Well that and the fact that Ester realized the drunken duo he was facing didn't seem to be carrying the dagger which had left a mark on his left arm which already said a lot since Ester personally made it out of a personally smelted alloy.
Meant to specifically not get scratched in high pressure situations like this one.
"Look kind fellows, I'm in a hurry, so if you could just let me and my friend go, that would mean the world to me."
"Hah!" The man on the right, fatty short with two friends on his chin laughed loudly as they brandished the large shank that was definitely illegal in today's law. "Hoo saysss thaT yu 'r yer friend could leeve?"
"Yeh!" The other man, skinny tall and all bones, mirrored Fatty short with multiple folds began brandishing their rusty pipe that was definitely wasn't up to code, so another broken law. "Unlesssssss… yu give yus all of y'r valyubles den yu can leave!"
"And hoo knows! We might still styab yu and sell your organs if you don't have anything valuable!"
Fatty short with drinking problems greedy eyes landed on the tightly bound package in Ester's right hand "But today's yr luky day kid, if ye juust hand over that thing in yer hands, we c'n let yu go"
"Yah! Then we wen't sel yer or… gans!" Mimicking Fatty Short sausage fingers, Skinny Tall little brain hit the crust covered stone walls "In the Butcher shop!"
Ester frowned as his hands tightened against the package that stood as the key between Heaven and Hell
Honestly speaking, he would've just let the two drunks go on the principle of not wanting to waste time, but now that negotiations had broken down well…
'I guess the guards won't mind if I say this is in self-defense right? I doubt they would mind that I'm cleaning up the trash'
Left hand splayed wide open, his arm began to glow with an ethereal blue glow in the darkness causing the duo to flinch as the same five spikes he had used to clamber up the wall also simultaneously appeared.
"Fuck! HEEees a Splicer! Ya didn't tell us y 'r a splicer!" Skinny tall unstable fool, who was obviously the more unstable drunk of the duo shivered as his pale face dotted with sweat tightly held their cheap knock off sword that had several noticeable flaws in its creation.
"Shut up Ham!"
'Ironic'
"There's two of us and only one of him! We can take him!"
Fatty shorts with chronic diabetes eyes shined with greed as he stared at Ester's left arm which had now had moved from energy saving mode to the much more dangerous standby mode. "And if we succeed, we can take that arm and sell it!"
"Yeah!" Skinny tall with a punchable face's eyes lit up with realization and sudden sobriety as they held the pipe loosely, now pointing towards at Ester. "Then we won't have to worry for a day in our life Jam!"
'What in Helio's name were their parents thinking to name Jelly belly Jam?'
Thinking that as the duo slowly advanced, threateningly brandishing their weapons. "Kid, Give us your arm or leave a corpse."
"Corpses can't walk Jam."
"Shyut up Ham."
'Thank god the Empire is forcing mandatory education for children aged below ten.'
Now belatedly realizing what a gift to the world the Third Princess was doing by giving free education to children aged ten and below, Ester's eyes flashed with hope.
'Now there won't be any idiots in the world!'
Suddenly hearing the sound of air splitting as the pipe flew through the air with a reckless throw Ester instinctively reacted, left hand clasping around the rusted over pipe aimed at his shoulder, several gears suddenly sprung to life as they easily broke through the not up to code pipe as blue flowed through his inhuman veins.
Pulling his left arm back with a grunt, the sound of cloth tearing sounded in the air as Aether visibly flowed underneath his shirt, turning quickly in the alleyway as Ester immediately returned the favor by planting a leather coated foot into the face of Skinny who was stupid enough to try and hold onto the weapon that was clearly less important than their skull.
"Now then! Come over here you Slung-goid?"
Awkwardly brandishing his left hand that had held what little remained of the rusty piping, they were held in a brown colored carapace of metal alloys fused together seamlessly as the innards built out of gears, pipes, pistons and many other things revealed itself without the covering of the thin cloth membrane that had tore itself apart upon collision with the pipe.
Staring at the empty alleyway, the unconsciously groaning skinny stared wide eyed at the sky as they opened their mouth filled to the brim with broken teeth and blood.
'Ugly before, even uglier after.'
Scanning the rest of the alleyway that was still empty, Ester rubbed the back of his head and felt the cool metal touch his neck
'It seemed that the famed honor among thieves only amounts up to this huh?'
Making that snap conclusion as he realized Fatty no honor had left Skinny broken face to his doom, he quickly turned around to face… nothing.
It seemed the purple haired figure had already left while he quickly kicked Skinny ugly face in the face.
"Well not like I wanted thanks or anything." Grumbling to himself, Ester raised his left hand and unconsciously glanced at the clock embedded into his forearm, reading its face as he did so.
'5:57 in the morning and I need to get there by 6:00…' feeling the blood drain out from his face as if a vampire had started feasting on him he had a belated realization.
"Oh God, they're going to kill me."
Swiftly leaving the vicinity of the alleyways and running towards his destination, unbeknownst to Ester, a pair of slitted and glowing eyes hidden in the darkness traced his path as they quickly swept their purple hair back into their hood.
Twisting and turning his body as he navigated the various poorly planned Alleyways of the city, he turned his head to the side towards the site of his destination.
And deserving of one of the many meant to shuttle in people from all walks of life towards Aetheric mines located in void zones or in this case Celestial Nodes, even in the wee light of the morning, people continued to shuttle in and out of the tower connected to two others.
Not that it mattered to Ester as he may not even see the next morning if he didn't hurry up with this stupid delivery. 'What even is this thing that I have to retrieve it and not one of the runners?'
Grumbling to himself, in favor of not dying he hurriedly weaved through the crowd towards the quaint little tower nestled between the commercial tower and the industrial tower.
'Well there's nothing quain- Shut up and do your job that isn't actually your job.' Slapping himself and hurriedly entering the tower's doors, the hands on the watch's face continued to tick down.
And within seconds to spare as the dawning sun's rays slowly entered the small windows on the store front, he shouted to the filled lobby attracting more than a few gazes "I'm here!"
But in favor of not dying early, Ester immediately locked onto the person whom he was supposed to meet, weaving through the bustling crowd hurriedly trying to put food on their plates.
Slamming the package on the front desk, a feminine face adjusted their glasses with tired eyes and glared at Ester just as a series of bells rang out in the city.
Six times to mark the sixth hour of the morning day, just in time to not die and allow him to tend to his pet project before doing the sacred duty of putting food on the plate.
"Ack!"
"You were nearly late." Bland voice admonishing him, Ester rubbed his forehead where a small rubber ball had struck it with unnerving accuracy, a blue glow suffusing the rubber.
"I made it though didn't I Emelia?"
Emilia only gave Ester an unamused look as he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck with his left arm, the cool metal touching the back of his neck as he watched her retrieve the rubber ball that had rolled onto the ground with a basic telekinetic weave.
"Yes you did" Emelia drawled "But if you know the old man, unless you're five minutes early, you're late."
"Kid! Where are you!? Come out here you Blithering child!"
"Like that."
An angry and gruff voice exited from the darkness within the miners tower as a burly figure covered in layers upon layers of thick leather skins of voided swiftly appeared, large skull sized hammer in hand.
White hair drawn into a thick braid that hung loosely behind the man, a large face plate of carved metal with only a small slit covered in black glass to see through stared at Ester as he hurriedly bowed to the aging man past his sixties.
"I'm here!"
Showcasing the package with both arms, a small pair of silver metal arms attached to the mans back lifting up the metal face plate revealing a proper beard and irritated eyes beneath.
"And not a moment sooner, get over here now."
"Yes sir!"
Leaping over the desk much to Emelia's distaste but reluctant acceptance, he hurriedly made his way to the old man.
Until he suddenly threw the hammer at Ester's feet that is, causing him to yelp and hop up in place as the heavy headed piece of metal narrowly missed the fragile foot that had already been subject to several attempts of violence albeit none as damaging as the heavy hammer now heading towards it.
Thankfully, aim that held true aside, Ester had made it a daily occurrence to always put on steel capped shoes after hurting it during his first meeting with the senile old man.
"Boy, if you don't hurry the hell up, Void Architect below you will wish you were in the void."
Audibly gulping as the old man began lifting up one of the heftier items set to the side behind Emelia, the large package glinted dangerously underneath the lamp light, somehow.
Ignoring the fact that a package wrapped in wrapping paper was somehow glowing dangerously, Ester made quick work of the distance, immediately setting himself besides the old man who just as quickly threw the box down.
Only to be caught by a distraught Emelia who hurriedly wove a weave. "Hey! Don't damage our clients items!"
But ignoring it all like the senile old man he was, his footsteps hurriedly dragged his burly old body into the depths of the more official parts of the building unavailable to the general public.
And following him like a distraught little duckling was Ester carrying a package that may be much more important than he had initially thought.
"Old man! What did I tell you! Don't harass Ester!"
A storm of brown hair immediately entered his vision holding a large Warhammer over their shoulder as the figure revealed themselves before Ester and the Old Senile man with an anger management problem.
Frowning with a mixture of mirth and annoyance, the old man forcefully suppressed his agitation and spoke softly to the silver eyed woman.
"Eva, my lovely granddaughter, I need you to move out of the way, grandpa has important work that he needs to get to."
"And what does Ester have to do with this important work of yours?"
Frowning the old man opened his mouth only to instantly close it, falling into thought.
"Give the thingie to gramps Ester and follow me."
Black goggles shining underneath the lamp light, a bright grin was pasted onto her face as they donned a vest filled with several pockets filled to the brim with various trinkets, large cargo pants filled similarly to the brim.
That was Eva, oh Chaotic angel Eva.
"Oh thank God you're here Ev-AA!!!"
Being hit on the head with a wooden stick pulled out from somewhere, Ester glared at Eva who mimicked her grandfather.
"You're late"
"Oh" Ester rubbed his forehead "It's been…" He sent a glance towards the clock embedded into his left arm.
"1 Minute! It was just 1 minute Eva!"
Raising his finger, Eva ignored his rant as she grabbed Ester by the scruff of his shirt. "Yeah, one minute where we could've begun by now!"
And now Ester wasn't exactly the tallest person out there, Eva lost the competition in height as she forced Ester to slightly bend when she grabbed his shirt as she dragged him off to a different part of the building.
"Give me the box!"
Trying and failing to escape Eva's grip, Ester tossed the box to the old man who in turn caught them with the aid of the two metal arms built into his back as Ester was dragged towards the steps heading upwards
"Pay attention you fool" Pulling him away from the set of stairs heading downwards to the mines, Eva griped angrily. "Today, we aren't going to the deep mines for Aetherium Crystals."
"What?" Tilting his head in confusion, Esters eyes abruptly widened in realization "Wait, don't tell me."
"Yeah." Gritting her teeth, Eva continued to drag Ester towards the small elevator and punched in a complicated code into the wall, making sure to place her key at the end. "We've got cleaning duty."
"Damnit"
"You're telling me."
Doors closing with a screech of unoiled metal, Eva griped "Just why did our predecessors have to retire and die so soon?"
Small elevator immediately thrumming with life, the myriad gears visible from within the elevators confines instantly begun turning, several pulley mechanisms and counterweights instantly acting to pull up the elevator as they were powered by the many Aetheric generators.
"Cause they were complacent." Shaking his head, Ester tried to remove the hand still held tight on his shirt. "And because they were complacent, they made a rookie mistake."
"Why oh why are we the only ones stupid enough to try their hand in the field of Magineering" Letting go of her grip on his shirt which had crumpled the collar, Ester slowly smoothed it out as silence fell in the elevator, only interrupted by the periodic grinding of the gears.
Placing her hand on the crosswire mesh which was the only thing separating the duo from being turned into a meat mush like a few others unlucky enough to experience a world without safety regulations, Eva pondered on her words before speaking.
"So… about that day."
"What day?" Ester turned to Eva causing her to fidget. "You know… that day? It really isn't forgettable."
Noticing the red tint on her ears, Ester wasn't stupid enough to not get the hint as the memory of… that day instantly manifested within his skull in stupidly high clarity.
"Oh yeah… um…"
It really was difficult to forget that day since it had just been yesterday and was the source of his forced retrieval of the package when any old runner with tight enough hands was good.
An awkward tension rose in the air as Eva began admiring how the floor was made of floor and Ester admired how the walls were walls, slowly growing as the silence prolonged between them.
But before the strange tension in the air could progress even more, the doors opened to reveal the large metal contraption set in the tower as the source of the thing they needed to clean revealed itself with a loud screech of metal on metal.
Immediately walking away, Eva began barking out orders as she made her way to the glass wall separating her and the things outside, pressing several things on a console and making the machines around them hum with renewed life.
"Unclothe yourself."
"You're the boss."
Immediately understanding what Eva meant by that and thankful for the change in topic, Ester swiftly moved to the table where several things were placed.
Ordinarily this job was supposed to be done with three people, one at the station making sure that all the complicated machinery would perform as expected and wouldn't suddenly implode on itself like many other untested prototypes trying to take in raw Aether.
Another was to go into the vacuum sealed space wearing a specially made suit meant for such environmental situations albeit it needed some much needed repairs so that they could fulfil the sacred duty of manually replacing and adjusting the parts.
And finally, the final person was to manipulate the gigantic piece of machinery around so that they could manufacture the missing pieces and adjust the Celestial Engine when they were finished.
And since these duties required rigourous knowledge in Magineering, Aethernomics, Astrology and Glyph tech, all things that couldn't be learnt in a small time frame, they were so short on manpower as to hire precocious teenagers with less than ideal self control.
'I still wonder to this day of the legality of my situation'
Not that Ester would go out of his way to antagonize the Celestial Tower as they were the only ones to provide knowledge relatively freely without trying to bind him to a slave contract.
Ester still found it insane that the store he initially tried to find a job in was a face group for a murder happy cult dedicated to the Void.
Recalling that strange coincidence with the murder happy cult, Ester put on the final touches of various clamps on his vacuum proof suit, meant to withstand literally nothing but the raw unfiltered Aether around him.
Flexing his joints and adjusting the suit so that it wasn't snug around a few areas, he gave a pair of thumbs up to Eva who in turn replied with an opening of the decompression chamber.
A voice crackled to life as the prototype communication device attempted to transmit a voice through the natural Aether waves
"Get -n, the fa—er we do --is, the fast-- we can -eave an- -e done --th this -lace"
But as the natural Aether waves were changing constantly in line with the Celestial bodies, the voice came choppy at best.
This however was much better than their initial prototype that could only transmit short beeping sounds forcing them to adopt a brand new form of communication specifically made with dots and sashes.
And sadly, for lack of space to stuff a gigantic piece of equipment onto the suit for no lack of trying, the communication would remain one way.
It was inefficient but it did the job as no sound could travel through the vacuum for reasons unknown.
Adjusting his helmet and listening to the hiss of the decompression chamber as it sucked out all of the life gas out of his surroundings, Ester had a calm look on his face as he pressed a few buttons and adjusted a few dials so that the atmosphere in the chamber matched that of the Astro station.
Wouldn't want to introduce contaminants to the Natural Aether and cause the predictions of the Celestial engine to be drastically different
Doors of the chamber opening up, Ester stepped into the bowels of the Astro Chamber and took in a deep breath of the life gas stuffed into the gas tank and admired the Celestial engine in all of its bastardly glory, because for better or for worse, the thing was breathtakingly beautiful.
Literally
Crafted out of several pieces of gold, mithril, silver, pale ore and basically any type of Aetherically conductive metal that money could buy, to top it all off, the large metal engine constantly moved, powered by none other than Aetherium crystals.
"1, Ae--er –vels –w -epeat- 1, ------…"
'And the joy of listening to Eva repeat herself three times begins'
Listening to the much choppier words spoken by Eva patiently, Ester made his way to the Aetherium batteries exposing themselves underneath the still moving Celestial engine.
'Its going to be a looooong day'
Taking a chamber of Aetherium crystals from a sealed locker in the ground and dodging a gold ring before slotting it into the machine, it thrummed to life glowing with a supernatural silver blue light.
And as the recipient of this blue glow, Eva's voice crackled to life in his ears once again.
'Just like clockwork Ester' he glanced at the behemoth of a machine 'Very large and space bound clockwork'
---
"-And now we shall begin the 911th Leap years meeting"
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