Chapter 10: The Ark Angel Blueprint
I helped Aria back inside the carriage to get her off her feet. With the adrenaline finally out of my system, I took a real look around the magically expanded interior. It was completely jarring. The outside of the wagon was just rough-hewn timber and iron—basic, unassuming, and frankly, a little ugly. But the inside was a masterpiece of runic arrays, floating lights, and polished oak. I couldn't make heads or tails of the magical theory keeping the space expanded, but I could appreciate the craftsmanship.
Aria stood near the velvet seating, smoothing down her soot-stained dress. She took a deep breath, visibly composing herself, and offered a deep, incredibly formal bow.
"I am Aria Veil," she said, her voice steadying into a practiced, aristocratic cadence. "I apologize for my earlier state. As the last daughter of my house, I owe you a life debt."
I blinked, suddenly feeling very underdressed in my dirty modern clothes. I stood up a little straighter, mirroring her formality as best I could.
"Nero Argentum," I replied, giving a slight bow of my own. I gestured toward the doorway where my golems were waiting. I pulled up my mental interface, checking their status after the massive fight—Levels 6 and 5, respectively. "And these are my partners, Bee and Fenris."
She seemed momentarily surprised by the name Argentum, her eyes lingering on me as if trying to place the lineage, but she didn't press the issue. Instead, her gaze shifted to the two constructs, her brow furrowing.
"A golemancer? Out here?" Aria asked, her aristocratic mask cracking to reveal pure, appalled shock. "Nero, if you don't mind me asking... where exactly are your retainers? Or your guild? It is practically a death sentence to be wandering the wilds alone!"
I let out a harsh, humorless laugh. "I don't have a guild. Actually, because of some jerk's massive screw-up, I was dropped into this forest a few days ago. Lost, alone, without a single clue where I was. I've literally just been surviving on spite and whatever magic I could figure out on the fly."
Aria's hands flew to her mouth. "Dropped into the wilds? That's... that's impossible! How are you even standing?"
"Yeah, tell me about it," I muttered.
She looked past me, her eyes lingering on Bee. Her shock slowly morphed into something else—intense, calculating curiosity. She stepped closer to the heavy golem, her fingers hovering inches from the dark, sapphire-blue Soul-Steel plating on his arm.
"I've never seen this type of golem frame," she murmured, her noble demeanor completely vanishing. She sounded less like a lady and more like a mechanic looking under a car's hood. "The structural density... the mana conductivity. It's not standard stone, and it's certainly not traditional iron. And this weapon configuration—is that a localized kinetic synthesizer?"
I grinned. "You know your stuff."
"My family are arcane engineers," she said, her eyes lighting up with genuine passion. "We designed the infrastructure for the northern cities. This carriage was our latest prototype—the Veil Sanctuary. It was meant to be the ultimate mobile refuge... but the city fell to the Outsiders before we could finish the exterior hull. The attack destroyed the manor, the workshop, everything we built."
She took a deep breath, her voice trembling slightly. "Anyway, we never got a chance to finish anything but the internal frame. My retainers and the guard retrofitted the exterior with whatever they could find just so we could flee."
"Well, that explains the rough timber," I said. "If it's unfinished, do you mind if I reinforce the frame? I don't want to risk those grey things coming back and tearing through basic wood."
"You can reinforce it? Without an alchemy forge or a runic chisel?"
"Watch this."
I stepped outside, placing my hands on the rough exterior. I channeled my Imagination Manifestation, weaving a thin layer of Soul-Steel directly into the timber. I marbled the wood with dense metallic veins, reinforcing the axles, wheels, and hull without compromising the delicate magical arrays inside.
For the next hour, we didn't talk about dead guards or lost cities. We talked about design. Aria dropped the stiff noble act entirely, geeking out over mana-efficiency ratios. She explained how her family's spatial magic worked, and I broke down the concepts of railguns and bipedal weapons platforms.
If my Golemancy could build sentient robots and her engineering could bend the laws of space-time... I didn't just want to build a better golem. I wanted to build something amazing. If we used the carriage as the base, the possibilities were endless.
"Alright," I said, clapping my hands together. "If we're going to survive a multi-day road trip, we need a few more modifications."
I used Bee to haul massive logs back to the clearing. I reshaped the carriage top, transforming the rounded wagon profile into a solid, reinforced flat wooden roof with a stabilized overwatch perch. Bee climbed to the roof and locked his bipedal legs into the grooves, his heavy cannons at the ready. I used my Imagination Manifestation to forge a sleek, lightweight, and highly conductive harness for Fenris. It distributed the weight perfectly while allowing his electrical mane to flow freely.
I hooked him up to the reinforced yoke. He gave me a look that clearly said he wasn't a fan of being a pack animal, but I promised him it was temporary. Through our tether, I felt a spark of smug satisfaction when I told him he was the only one fast enough to handle the job.
Aria emerged from the cabin with parchment maps. "If we maintain a steady pace, we should intersect with the King's Highway by midday. From there, it is roughly a three-day journey to the gates of Oak Haven."
"Three days," I nodded, climbing onto the driver's bench. "We can do that."
Within the hour, we were moving. Fenris was an absolute machine, moving with a smooth, effortless lope that barely vibrated the carriage. Up on the roof, Bee sat like a metallic gargoyle, scanning the horizon.
I sat on the bench, reins slack, already dreaming up blueprints for the Ark Angel. I was alive, I was heavily armed, and we finally had a destination.