Chapter 522 - Ardenyx

The other day the system probably judged we had slacked enough.

Warning! The 1st wave is now in progress.

Just that single message and then nothing. Lifting my eyes from the Fracture in my lap and the Logic Core I’m working on, I look at Min-Jae sitting opposite me in the living room.

“You too?” he asks.

“Me too!” Izzy says from nearby.

We join the telepathic link the twins upkeep and exchange a few warnings. After that, I check the Ley Lines connected to every member of the group.

(You might want to see this shit, guys,) Dennis sends at the end.

Locating where he is, I sigh and start putting on these warm clothes. Izzy and Min-Jae do the same. Noodle is coiling somewhere deep inside these clothes. They are better than nothing, but it’s insane that I’m capable of feeling cold even with the thermal energy I have. So the option is either to use more of it or be more efficient and put some clothes on.

I’m not the type who would care about not wasting mana or efficiency. Hell, I could probably walk outside naked with golden flames sizzling around me, heating the area around me, and upkeep it for days. But there is something immersive about heading out in thick warm clothes with these terribly inefficient inscriptions made of threads.

Does it make sense that I feel a bit warmer in the clothes even though I should feel warmer if I used only thermal? It’s weird and amusing at the same time.

Outside, I join some of the members of group 4 who stand there as well, cold wind blowing and snow floating in the air. Seeing the piles, I know they will ask us in an hour or two to clean it out for sure.

Someone like Serabeth or the Champion’s disciples can probably blow it away with a single thought, but I guess things like these are often beneath them. That and they are avoiding using too much mana outside of the tents.

“So, what…” I start, looking at Dennis. Then I follow his gaze and shut up.

One of the three tallest tents in the middle of the camp opens, the canvas flaps of the tent moving to the side pulled by ropes. It reveals a bit of the inside of the tent, heat and light radiating from it as well as sounds of forging.

Then the ground shakes. And again. A step of something massive sends vibrations, and from inside that tall tent, a war armor steps out.

“Ardenyx,” Sophie breathes out. “It fits the description.”

The war armor is enormous, its towering frame comparable to a multi-story building—perhaps five or six floors high. Its sleek, dark plating is inscribed with glowing mana patterns, intricate lines, and symbols etched deeply into the metal, pulsing faintly like a heartbeat. The armor’s surface gleams with a polished metallic sheen, built for both speed and durability. The plates overlap seamlessly, designed to redirect impacts and channel mana efficiently through the entire structure.

Its head is angular and sharp. The cockpit itself is positioned deep within the chest, protected by reinforced layers of plating and surrounded by conduits of mana. From there, the pilot interfaces directly with the armor’s systems, controlling it through a blend of mental commands and physical inputs, all powered by the pilot and the mana batteries placed at multiple locations within the armor.

Ardenyx’s back is fitted with streamlined, wing-like appendages—sleek constructs with sharp edges, humming faintly with energy. The arms and legs are long and proportional, covered in segmented armor designed for flexibility and precision, each joint reinforced and marked with faint mana channels to enhance movement.

Even standing still, it radiates quiet, deadly energy, the glow of its mana inscriptions casting faint light on the snow around it. Surrounded by a handful of level 8 technicians, they begin running checks. The hands open and close, joints twist, and the appendages on its back flex and retract. Brief bursts of mana are sent through, while fields and shields are activated and deactivated. It's a process lasting several minutes, one they appear to take very seriously.

My eyes activate and I observe it more, pushing through some of the defensive layers and observing the movement of its mana. A material replacing muscles and mixed with mana that sends signals to shrink or expand.

Multiple places with mana batteries all over the war armor, humming with immense energy stored. Inscription nodes that must be something similar to a Logic Core, allowing it to turn simple signals like “walk” into a set of orders that shrink and expand these fake muscles, balance the armor, and move the joints.

The sheer complexity of this thing is insane. The amount of mana it likely requires is insane. The inscriptions covering its surface are insane.

It’s bigger than I thought it would be and damn, it’s only the Champion’s disciple’s war armor.

Back on the 4th floor, there was The Fallen Hero Calamity. A man who used to be a Champion and died in his Valorplate that used his half-broken heart to power itself. I know it was likely weakened by the system, yet how would a full power Valorplate compare to Exoria or Ardenyx, and Praxion?

Full power Valorplate should likely be equal to Exoria, and even though one of them is normal armor-sized and the other one is likely bigger than the war armor in front of me, it would be fun to watch. There's also a big question: what advantages does armor that large actually provide? Isn't it more trouble than it's worth? That question has been bothering me from the beginning. There must be a reason for it—someone at the level of a Champion wouldn't be dumb.

Ardenyx takes another step and these things on its back expand, and the air around them vibrates, making it look hazy. Mana flows through it and all the sounds disappear. Some of the inscriptions activate and Ardenyx gets this effect similar to the tents in the camp that makes it feel transparent or chameleon-like.

Then it lifts off as easily as if it weighs no more than a normal human and accelerates, flying somewhere into the blizzard in the distance.

A part of me really wants armor like that. A big part that is easily excited by new interesting things. I mean, I don’t need it, it is likely expensive and after a few weeks, I won’t even use it. But I WANT IT.

The other part forces me not to forget to never rely on things like these. No, my intention was always simple and very much so.

I will learn everything I can about them. Then I will prepare a very very fancy structure that I will [Focus], keep stored in the back of my mind. A structure that will be very similar to that war armor. The only difference being that when I deploy it, I will weave my mana into armor that I will expand. I will have parts of my mind work similarly to a Logic Core and take care of movement. And I will use mana and kinetic energy to power it.

And I still plan to name it Regalia. An armor woven from my mana and maybe [Ley Line] that I can deploy at any time.

Until then, likely years and years into the future, I wouldn’t mind riding one of these things.

***

We sit on the ground of Lily’s room she shares with Sophie and Izzy. Sophie is doing some training with the twins, and Izzy has decided to stay and observe our tests. Noodle and Biscuit are both here.

Even though in his super cute pup form Biscuit gets a lot of respect from Noodle—damn, probably even more than before. But the corgi pup is merciful and doesn’t mind when Noodle comes begging for my mana. It seems like he does it even more now after my trait evolution and Primary class upgrade. He does it even now, shrunk to be barely as long as my forearm and as thick as my finger, he is coiled around my neck nomming on my mana.

Meanwhile, Biscuit sleeps in Isabella’s arms. Even now he sometimes goes into a shorter version of a food coma. Tess theorizes it might be that he is a pup now and needs to sleep more, but I don’t agree with that. He is also wearing clothes made from the ones we got from the lumorans, modified with help from Izzy and Sophie. They are of higher quality than anything we are wearing, no matter if it comes to looks or functionality.

“So, I have compared your arm from before and after trait evolution,” Lily starts.

“And?”

“No idea. Sophie could tell you more as she is better with mana. But I can tell there are a lot of changes that go very deep. Bones, flesh, even tendons and skin. It’s very very mana-conductive and the boost I get when I [Sacrifice] it is crazy.”

“That’s good to know. By the way, your [Disintegration Mantle] training?”

“I don’t like it.”

“Give it to me if you don’t like it.”

“I would if I could! I prefer using just [Disintegration] or purely my body more. It has an amazing defense. I mean really crazy. And it doesn’t use that much mana while damaging anyone who touches it. I also think I will be able to shape it into slightly changed shapes. Additional arms? Wings? Longer mantle? Not too much though, the skill doesn’t allow it to such an extent.”

“Are you trying to annoy me?”

“I’m not! It’s just that I usually kill anything before I’m forced to use it.”

“You aren’t helping.”

“Look, as I promised you, I train it every day, but it’s not as fun as the testing we do together, my ax, or doing stuff with my bones.”

“She likes to spend time with you!” Izzy nods seriously and hugs Biscuit closer.

“So what else did you try?” I ask, ignoring that sentence.

Before turning to me, Lily hisses at Izzy and when she turns to me she has a slight blush on her cheeks, “I improved my ax and it will soon be able to send [Disintegration] through without damaging it too much. I also experimented with armor made of my bones…”

“Skele-suit.”

“It’s not Skele-suit, Nat.”

“Calcium cage.”

“Screw off,” she sighs, the blush gone entirely, “I don’t know how much I need it with mantle, but you guys talking about war armors so much made me excited to try something as well.”

“Do you know how horrifying it would be if you made an Ardenyx-size mecha of your bones and maybe flesh instead of whatever that war armor was using to move?”

“Plus a similarly big ax! Maybe I could apply mantle to it too and have it have self-healing too.”

“Lily.”

“Yes?”

“Let’s try that in the future. It sounds too creepy and scary not to try it.”

“Yes! And by the way, I have examined Jean’s finger bone you gave me. I think he has a similar trait to your Mana Physiology. Maybe he got it at the time you got your eyes? His trait also changes his body a lot but it seems to ‘reject’ external mana and use powerful bursts of it for faster healing, as you said. I think there might be more Physiology-type traits.”

“That makes a lot of sense,” I note, “Can you get anything out of it? Taking the increased regeneration when hit with mana and applying it to me could be nice.”

“Maybe? But not anytime soon, that Physique is very difficult to grasp even a bit, and with you having a similar Physique and then taking his and improving yours while working around the effect of yours. Sorry, but it would take likely years if ever.”

I breathe out, disappointed, and lean back. When Noodle’s tongue tickles my cheek, I send a bit more of my mana to him while I think and curse whoever caused me to be stuck with epic healing passive only and weird-ass [Bone Knitting].

Well, at least I will get that heart of that champion from the cockroach. Just that should boost my thermal energy by shitloads, and there should be ways to use it for healing too. Until then, there are a few things I want to do, one of them being turning my heart into a kinetic mana heart only, removing the thermal part.

With Lily, we already started experimenting and thinking and included Sophie as well. And now, even though it’s still likely a few months off, I do wonder how it will feel to have two hearts?

Refocusing my attention back to the room, I reach to the side and put Fracture in between us while starting to deploy the protective arrays I have been preparing in the past few days.

“Maintenance?” Lily asks, used to it from a few previous runs.

“Yes,” I confirm, “The degradation of the materials and protective sheath is getting worse, but this time we should be able to do it without twins.”

***

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