In the weapons research department, a banging sound rang again and again in one of their testing rooms. There was no rhythm or pattern. This had been going on every afternoon for a week now. The other staff had no idea what was causing this other than the fact that their vice-chief engineer was supposedly conducting a test in that room. “Amazing,” said Arnold Bruteswing. His gaze shifted between the readings on his monitor and the girl who now stood in front of him. “The perfromance and efficiency of the Armament had improved by a huge margin compared to earlier results. I don’t know if it’s the Armament calibrating itself to your usage, or if it’s all on you.” Morielle ignored the half-dwarf’s rambling as she took of the arm-shaped Armament. She had always wondered why there was a device attached around her shoulder and stump of an arm since she had been rescued and taken in by her now adoptive father, but now it seemed like it was for this Armament. Keifre Kraden had been planning on using her as a guinea pig for his strange designs. She carefully replaced the Armament into its case and pushed it toward the vice-chief engineer only for him to push it back. “I’ve successfully registered this Armament to your name as both its keeper and tester. You can bring it with you wherever and whenever you want. In fact, I insist you bring it with you all the time, or keep it equipped even, though it would be a burden when its out of juice.” Arnold attached a sling to the case and watched as Morielle placed it on her back and leave. “Keifre has an eye and mind for the uncanny. First his designs. Now, his adoptive daughter. When will that man stop giving me things to be surprised about?” When Morielle returned to her room, she was greeted by a curious beastkin. “Where have you been going every afternoon? You just suddenly disappear after classes,” asked Yuna. She had bother her hands on her hips and bending slightly forward like an inquisitive mother. Being taller than her, Morielle can’t help but literally look down on this annoying beastkin. Morielle did not answer and walked past her instead. She dumped the case on her bed and started changing her clothes. This was a sight that the two girls had grown familiar with during their stay here. Arovin despite his haughtiness and usual holier-than-thou attitude couldn’t help but feel awkward on the first few times he had seen this scene. As an excuse, he spent his after lesson hours either studying in the library or training. “What’s in the case?” asked Yuna as she approached Morielle’s bunk and inquisitively touched the locks. Seeing so many locks, she decided against it as it seemed like a complete hassle to open the thing just for a quick look. It was not because Morielle was giving her a glare that said she would die if she flicked even one lock. “Did you already choose an elective?” Vonandi courageously changed the subject to save her friend. The beastkin took the hint and fell back, sitting on the bed beside her savior. “They said that if you do not make a choice by tomorrow, you will be assigned randomly to one,” said Vonandi. “By the way, Vonandi and I picked the Support Arts Research, and if I remember correctly, Arovin chose Weapons and Armaments Research.” Yuna started on rambling on how she and the other girl made the choice, why they chose it, and other unnecessary information. Realizing that the beastkin would go on and on until she gave her a satisfactory answer, Morielle spoke. “No, I’ll join randomly.” She jumped on her bunk and closed the curtains, implying that she would not entertain any other questions. On her bed, she inspected her gunblade’s Armament. Since their return from the excursion, she had noticed that one of the smaller black orb-like jewels now contained a swirling glow inside. It was murky back then, but now it was distinctly visible. She had taken a peek at the others’ Armaments and noticed that theirs also had a murky fluid swirling inside, but not as much as hers. The only other one in their group that had the same thing happening to his Armament was Arovin. Morielle decided to gather more information about this from the vice-chief engineer of the weapons department tomorrow. There was no combat practice in the morning of the next day. Instead, the recruits were separated into six groups on the flight deck according to their chosen electives. There were five electives: Offensive Combat Arts Research, Defensive Combat Arts Research, Support Arts Research, Weapons and Armaments Research, and Ship Engineering Club. The sixth group was for those who had not chosen an elective yet. Time was given to the sixth group to choose an elective to join. Only Morielle had not made a choice. Chosen randomly, she ended up in the Ship Engineering Club. There were only three people among the first years in the Ship Engineering Club. Initially, there were two who had already made the choice. Seeing that there were only two of them, the other recruits were discouraged to join. Morielle adding up to their numbers put a question on whether the elective was really chosen randomly for her, or if she was intentionally put there to increase their pitiful amount. Nevertheless, it did not seem to matter to the student in charge of this elective. She still had that usual cheery grin on her face as she introduced herself. The other groups had left the flight deck and proceeded to their respective facilities. As for Morielle and her group, they occupied one of the hangars where they were introduced to the other members from the higher years. “Welcome to the Ship Engineering Club!” greeted Nina. “Your objective for this elective is very simple: you just need to make an air vessel that the three of you can ride and pilot, and it needs to be finished before the end of the month!” Every year, the same objective is given to the first year recruits. During Nina’s time as a first year, she was the only sole member in her batch. She proceeded to design the airship she named as Monica but it was not feasible as she was alone. Instead, she developed a smaller version dubbed Baby Moni. Her antics impressed the higher years back then, and she was immediately slated as president of the elective class as soon as she reached her second year. Now as a third year, Nina was on her second annual term as the president of the Ship Engineering Club. The other two new members were both dwarfs from Skymount. They were brothers one year apart. The elder brother, Yohan Windcutter, had waited for his younger brother, Zeke, to turn fifteen before taking the exams to enter Goeden, which they both passed. The two gave their companion a strange look. Although they were in a different class, they had seen this one-armed girl pummel her classmates during morning combat classes. She was given a moniker by the other classes as the one-armed demon. After a short discussion of the objectives of the elective class, they were dismissed for lunch. The afternoon lesson coincided with Morielle’s objective for the afternoon. The instructor explained another intricacy of their Jewel Armaments. Jewel Armaments continuously absorb an invisible energy in the atmosphere called Aether. Usage of the Armament meant that this energy was being absorbed, refined, and released again and again. This would allow the Armament to increase its efficiency and compatibility with the user. At some point in time, it would unlock a special pathway from the Central Jewel in the Armament toward its outer Jewels. That was the case that had happened with Morielle’s Armament. In their class, three people had already achieved this feat, and the instructor told them to proceed to the Weapons Department to complete the enhancement of their Armament. Morielle, Arovin, and a male beastkin, Daichi, arrived in the Weapons Department. The staff had been expecting them and they were each brought to a different room. “We call this enhancement procedure as Rank Up, although this term was coined by Fleet General Kraden himself,” a female staff said as she took Morielle’s Jewel Armament and placed it on a device. “Please put this on your head,” the staff said. She handed a ring-like object to Morielle. It had orbs similar to Jewels lining its circumference. Morielle did as told and was made to sit comfortable. “We will be asking you questions and all you need to do is think clearly of the answer. You don’t need to speak it out loud.” The staff took Morielle’s silence as an answer and began with the procedure. “Are you satisfied with your weapon and its accompanying Armament?” “Is your Armament’s element suited to you? If not, what element would you like to have?” “If granted any power you would like to have, no matter how outlandish it would seem, what would it be?” The staff asked more questions, and Morielle silently answered in her thoughts. Every time she did, she felt the Jewels in her headpiece warm up. They did not do so all at once, but in an irregular pattern instead. Soon, the process finished and her Jewel Armament was returned to her. The small outer Jewel that had been swirling with energy earlier now was a silvery gray color. “According to the results of the scan, your outer Jewel had obtained an unknown element which seemed like a variance of the lightning and space elements. It seems like it’s an ability related to lightning element’s flash step and space element’s blink. Both are used for short distance near-instantaneous movement.” Morielle nodded and took her equipment back. She then left the facility without waiting for the other two.

A figure dressed completely in black was walking through a desert in the Overland. It ignored the hot wind lashing it with whips of sand. It climbed over dunes and traveled in a straight line. To others, the desert may be a confusing place easy to get lost in. They would end up wandering in circles until they die of thirst and starvation. This did not seem to affect the black figure. After some time, it stopped walking and stood before an inconspicuous sand dune. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary until a layer of sand fell from one area of the dune revealing a hatch. It swung open and a man in his early thirties appeared. “Damn, it’s really hot out here,” he complained as he signaled the figure in black to enter. He then closed the hatch tightly. A layer of sand fell over the hatch and covered it from plain sight. They were inside of a vessel not bigger than a four-passenger airship like the Baby Moni that Morielle’s group had ridden in a week before. Unlike the hot weather outside, the inside was cool and comfortable. The passenger cabin had been completely remodeled. The seats were replaced with two long benches lining the walls and in between them was a table. The figure started taking of its outer wear and dropped them on the table to which the man complained. He went to the back of the cabin and opened a small door of a container and took out a bottle and two glasses. He placed the glasses on the table and filled them with a reddish liquid from the bottle. The figure was now replaced by a young woman with fiendish red hair. She had piercing green eyes and small lips. What was left of her clothes were a pair of form fitting shirt and pants, accentuating her slender figure with the right curves at the right places. If it were any man, they would be drooling at her sight, but the man with her in this small cabin only took a moment of appreciation with a look before taking a seat. “Did you find anything?” Keifre Kraden asked after taking a sip from his glass. “None,” the woman sighed. She took the other glass and swirled the liquid inside. She gazed at it intently before taking a sip. “Not bad,” she commented. “You’ve scoured the entire area and not a single clue popped up?” “I told you, if there was anything here the scavengers from your island would have found them already.” The fleet general grunted as he downed the rest of his drink and grimaced. “I saw your girl a week ago.” “How did she do?” “Okay, I guess.” There was silence as they ran out of things to talk about. In the end, the man sighed and filled another glass. “We need to search in the next region. We need to find others like us.” “How about your girl?” “I’m not sure about her. She sometimes react to some of my words, but when I ask her if she knew what they meant, she says no.” “A dud, then.” “Maybe.” “So which region AM I searching.” “North.” “You don’t mean—” “Yes.” “You gotta be kidding me.” “Sorry. I’m not.” The woman picked up the bottle and took a hug swig before slamming it back down on the table. “Damn it,” she cursed. “You owe me big time.” “I know.”

The end of the month quickly arrived and it was now the deadline for the Ship Engineering Club’s newest members’ project. Fortunately, Yohan and Zeke were very much into it and spent the rest of their waking hours outside of classes working on the airship. They were in the hangar almost every day, and Morielle would drop by every other day for a few hours to help. She had no say in the designing process, but she helped a lot in the construction. The entire time, she was confused at all the seemingly extraneous mechanisms added in, but the two told her that they were all necessary. The end of the month excursion was currently on-going and the groupings this time was based on their selected elective. Each elective class was divided into smaller groups and sent out to the Overland to fulfill new objectives designated by their class seniors. The Ship Engineering Club only had three people so it was one group. The Zym, a three-man fighter-type airship was currently cruising towards their objective. Right behind them, a smaller two-man fighter-type airship was following and keeping pace. The Zym was named after the initials of their creators and current pilots, Zeke, Yohan, and Morielle. Although the Zym was considered as a fighter-type airship, it was about three times bigger than the general measurements of a regular fighter-type airship, not considering the fact that it was the only one with three pilots. It was fast despite its size, but the lack of any visible weaponries made its classification doubtful. Inside and sitting in the first pilot seat was Zeke. Despite being the younger brother, he was given the position of main pilot as Yohan himself lauds his younger brother as a better pilot than him. The two had always enjoyed designing ships since young and had also tried their hands on test piloting the other vessels created in Skymount. This was the main reason why they immediately chose to join the Ship Engineering Club as soon as the opportunity arose. In the middle seat was Yohan, providing support to his younger brother. In the last seat was Morielle, uncomfortably touching the tight straps attached to her seat and her lags. The other two also had the same things strapped to them but she was the only one quite unsure of what they were for. It didn’t take long for her to figure them out, though. “Attempting maneuvers,” said Zeke. “Safety protocols activated. Proceed with maneuvurs,” said Yohan. Their belts, crossed over their chest, tightened as well as the straps on their legs. What followed was a faint-inducing and blood-draining movements of the Zym that made Morielle regret her decision of randomly choosing an elective to join. She knew that others thought she were a freak, but to her, these two siblings were even worse. Every now and then, she thought the airship would break from all the forces it was being subjected to but it fortunately did not happen. They landed at the edge of a desert bordering a strange and gloomy forest. Morielle felt queasy but didn’t show it. No one would have realized that she was not feeling well after that ride if not for her slightly paler complexion. The second airship landed behind them. Jay and a fourth year beastkin member of the elective appeared from the airship. “Wild moves,” said Jay. His tone was hard to read if he was complimenting or censuring them. “You have already been briefed what your objectives are. Can you state what those are?” “Meet with the contact and confirm the information’s accuracy. Proceed to the site, secure and investigate,” Yohan answered. He had established himself as the leader of the three person group as he was the oldest. “Good. There’s no actual deadline for this, but it would be best if you could return within the day. If not, there’s no need to worry. Your safety is your utmost priority, so proceed as cautiously as you need to and complete your objectives,” Jay sent them off. The three entered the forest. The trees’ trunks were old and twisted covered with cracked almost black bark with leaves dark purple in color. Some of the roots had grown over the ground and seemed as if they were trying to reach for the sky. The atmosphere was incredibly eerie. The soft ground which would sometimes squelch when stepped on did not help. “This place suprisingly supports life,” Yohan said as he observed the trees and wet ground. “Normally, we would associate the Overland with death and decay, but that just shows that most people who in the sky islands were ignorant of the truth.” “Isn’t this the reason why we are being sent to the Overland. Despite our ancestors fleeing the Overland, we still turn to it and are actually salvaging resources,” said Zeke. “It’s good to see that Goeden continues to educate their students to become less ignorant,” a voice intruded in their conversation. The three turned to the source and found a figure dressed completely in black. The only other color visible was the two red lenses from the mask that completely covered its face. Morielle reacted to the figure and aimed her weapon at it. Yohan and Zeke copied her movement and also readied their weapons, a warhammer and a shotgun respectively. “Woah!” the figure exclaimed as it hurriedly stepped back and raised an open hand at them. “You guys are too fidgety.” Morielle and the other two found themselves completely unable to move. They could still move their eyes, mouth, and breathe. Shadows on the ground had darkened and crawled up their bodies, forming an immaterial entanglement. The source of the shadow had come from under the figure’s feet. The figure approached them calmly. The figure was shapely and obviously a woman. For a while, Morielle felt like it had been looking at her all this time. It stopped in front of Yohan and said, “If I were your instructor, I’d fail you immediately for being hostile toward your contact.” “But I’m not,” she continued and lowered the raised hand. The three fell unsteadily. Morielle managed to keep her balance and stayed on her feet. “The name’s Eve, and that’s all you need to know about me,” the figure said. “You’re supposed to be my backup. The next time you act hostile toward me, I won’t show any mercy.” Eve’s tone was cold and filled with killing intent. “Now, let’s get this over with and go home,” she said as she turned her back to the three. “I’m gonna squeeze everything I can from him once I’m done with this,” she grumbled under her breath. Eve led the three through the forest like the back of her hand. They had encountered a few hostile creatures which she let the three dispatch themselves, not lending a finger in their efforts. Sometimes, she would criticize their actions and lack of teamwork during the fights. She berated Morielle the most, as if intentionally targeting her. Morielle didn’t complain and tried ignoring her ridicule for the first few fights. After a while, she realized that some of what Eve said were in fact true. Her combat techniques were mostly self-taught, attributing it to the fact that she was disabled and traditional combat arts were unsuited to her. Furthermore, some of her combat maneuvers were things that just popped up in her mind during training, as if these things were something she knew from long ago. Eve had pointed out the inefficiencies of her moves and had also suggested ways to optimize them. In her mind she agreed with her words, but she wouldn’t let the woman know. She had seen the same figure back in their last excursion. She was unsure if they were the same person and did not want to bring it up herself. Even if she were, it wouldn’t really matter. They had an objective to do, and that was what she would focus on. After almost an hour of walking and fighting, they arrived at their destination. It was a building overgrown vegetation. As if it were her home, Eve led them inside and seemed to disappear within the dark unlit hallways. Yohan did his best to follow her using the torch on his uniform to light the way. They entered a room with a circular hole in the center. Eve was standing on its edge and looking down. It was completely dark, but she seemed to be able to see clearly. “We’re jumping down,” she said. Yohan tried to look down with his torch but couldn’t see the bottom. The sides were smooth and there were nothing to use as a foothold to climb down with. “Jump?” Zeke asked. Without answering, Eve raised her hand. The three once again felt their bodies stiffen and unable to move. Eve jumped down, and the three, unable to escape her shadowy grasp, were brought along to the seemingly bottomless abyss.