Serum

Dirk spent an hour or so running away from the capital. He didn’t worry about his trail, merely crossing as much distance as he could. 

Then, he encountered a road where he took out Pandora’s truck, which she had given him beforehand. Jumping in, he slammed the gas pedal before shooting off into the distance. 

Like that, he drove for 6 more hours before diverting into the forest and going back on foot. 

Soon enough, he encountered a clearing. Within it was the Sky King, the spoils of their heist. 

He didn’t say anything as he approached. Instead, he directly jumped onto the deck of the ship. With his strength now, jumping over 70 meters in the air was no issue. 

Despite the jump though, he landed without a single sound. By now, his Stealth and Domain were retracted, exposing his existence. 

“Up here!”

Dirk turned his head to the voice, finding Pandora waving at him from one of the staircases leading into the command center. 

He bounded over, entering the room and finding Exos and Nova inside. 

By now, Exos and Nova had become a part of their team. Pandora trusted Nova, whether that was because she truly believed in Nova’s loyalty or because she had control over her life or death. And Exos had the Key Artifact, forcing Pandora to keep him close and maintain his trust. 

What had initially been a partnership between just them was now a team effort. From Pandora’s plans, Nova was going to become what was basically an officer under their command. After all, someone had to fly the ship and take care of menial matters. Pandora surely wouldn’t do it. 

And Exos now had real power. His Processors would become an exceptional weapon once they were applied to destructive tools. And that was only the surface of his utility. His enchanting abilities were capable of revolutionizing the world, let alone bringing them greater power. 

Thinking about that, Dirk looked around the command center. 

The main table currently had a huge map displayed over it, one that had data on seemingly the entire world. Dirk was able to get a clear view of this planet’s landscape. Of course, the data around the Empire was clearer than the data on other places. Regardless, it was all valuable. 

And around that table were all kinds of control panels. Currently, Exos’ Processor was in control of the entire ship, compiling all the systems into one centralized control module. 

It made it much simpler to operate. With enough work, they would simply be able to select a destination and fly to it with minimal operation. While it wasn’t completely automatic, it at least wouldn’t require an entire logistical support team. 

After he took a good look around, Dirk heard Pandora speak. 

“I plan to pull some forces, a small team of people under my command from the Dark Kingdom. They’ll be in charge of operating the Sky King as well as acting as a small support force. It’s too much to expect that we can do everything ourselves, especially when there will no doubt be tons of lesser work to do. So we need some manpower.”

“As long as you trust them.”

“I trust that they won’t betray me and do their jobs with reliability. That’s all that matters.”

She smiled with hidden meaning, causing Dirk to shrug. He knew how Pandora operated. There was no need to ask about the obvious. 

“Then we’re going to pick them up?”

“Yes. They’re already on standby. All we’re doing right now is ensuring that this thing can be operated without error. Exos?”

“It’s coming together.”

Exos responded as Pandora turned to him. He was currently tampering with the Command Processor which operated the entire ship, rapidly altering its programming. 

“Just give me a few hours.”

“Fine. Let me know when you’re done. In the meantime, you can follow me for a tour.”

Pandora grabbed Dirk’s hand, pulling him out of the command center. 

Like that, they descended into the main body of the ship. All the hallways were wide and built as if they were within a home, not an airship. Dirk half expected it to be built like a boat with metal interiors and airtight doors. But instead, there were wooden floors and walls, lightning in every corner, and the occasional decoration. 

The only odd thing Dirk noticed was how there were many paintings, most of them being portraits of the Emperor and some other notable figures of Horizon. But that wasn’t the odd part. Instead, he saw that every painting they passed was tilted, all in the same way. 

“Why are the paintings tilted?”

“Why not? I think it looks funny.”

“...”

Dirk looked at Pandora weirdly. Was that really necessary?

Shaking his head, he walked with her until they reached what seemed like a residential area. 

“There are many rooms inside this airship, most of them being no less luxurious than what you would find in a mansion. And there’s a master bedroom that I reserved just for us. Come look.”

Saying that, she stopped at a large set of doors at the end of a large hallway. Pushing them open, they entered. 

Dirk saw a royal bedroom fit for a king, and perhaps this really was built for the Emperor himself. 

It was equipped with everything they could ask for. There was an entire bathroom along with all manner of supplies that they might want to make them comfortable. Dirk really thought he was in a mansion and not a flying fortress. 

Pandora smiled. 

“I set all this up during my time at the facility. The inside of this ship was all barren when I first inspected it. So over time I convinced the overseer to start fitting the ship with the intention of giving it to the Emperor. This was supposed to be his flagship, but little did they know that the hundreds of thousands of gold that they sunk into it over just half a year was all merely preparing it for us. No wonder he was so mad.”

“Well, he has trauma from being robbed.”

Dirk muttered, thinking about how frequently Garel stole from Master Sheng during his time at the academy. Thinking back, it was rather hilarious, but Dirk still felt a tinge of pity for the rich alchemist. 

Especially now that they had stolen what was perhaps his greatest project. He would no doubt be in serious trouble, not that there was much anybody could do about it. 

From start to finish, Dirk and Pandora had been too ahead of the game. Half a year of planning and preparation allowed them to steal the Sky King in less than a minute from the time they alarmed the overseer to the time they left. It wasn’t enough time to react, because not only was the Sky King itself impossible to chase over long distances, but who could guess that the Sky King could actually be stolen?

The Sky King, under normal circumstances, had to be operated by entire teams of mages and engineers. Like a warship, there were tons of moving parts and mechanisms that needed to be operated. So if someone wanted to steal it, they would need many people, and so many people would never be able to evade a Tier 7. They would have to fight a head on battle, which would never succeed in the the Capital city. 

But only one person had been aboard the Sky King when it was taken, and it was someone who had the clearance to be there in the first place. 

Simply put, Pandora had too much time to prepare. And with Exos’ breakthrough, there was no way they could fail. Master Sheng was just unlucky to be the one in that position. 

Of course, without Dirk who could freely sneak in and out, it would have been much more troublesome. It was a two person job, and whoever was inside the facility needed to evade the senses of a Tier 7. Currently, only Dirk could do that. Anybody else would have been caught and sacrificed to the furious clutches of Master Sheng. 

Dirk thought about these things as Pandora continued to show him around. 

Besides the luxurious room, there were also many other empty facilities throughout the ship. Not everything had yet been given a purpose, resulting in many rooms that simply had nothing in them. 

These rooms would be turned into whatever they needed. For example, Dirk would need a smithy while Exos would need his own enchanting grounds. 

There was a storage room where they could hold tons of supplies, along with a cafeteria that was outfitted with a massive kitchen. There were also recreation rooms and medical facilities. 

The Sky King was a mobile military installation. It had everything they needed and more. But there was one place that Dirk found especially amazing. 

The internal hangar. 

Pandora brought Dirk toward the top of the ship, just underneath the deck itself. 

After going through a door, Dirk entered an entirely new deck of the ship. It was the hangar deck, and he immediately noticed several things. 

First were the vehicles stationed within. Not only were there multiple lands vehicles of different types, but there were also small aircraft that looked like jets. 

None of it was made by Pandora, so Dirk was amazed that the Horizon Empire was developing this kind of tech. Not only that, but they obviously weren’t prototype models. They were clearly refined and streamlined, which meant this technology wasn’t anything new. 

It made Dirk realize that Horizon was deeply prepared for war, and the technology they showed on the surface was generations behind what they were hiding away. 

Dirk noticed this clearly when he received more information about the airship facility. When he had ridden an airship to the Dark Kingdom around a year prior, the airship was supposedly one of a kind and extremely advanced magical technology. Now, they had dozens of them operating around the clock, transporting cargo in place of the teleporters. 

Emperor Horizon had hidden his cards deep, which made it look as though the Horizon Empire suddenly exploded with technological might when the War broke out. 

Dirk wondered what else was hidden, and why it was necessary to hide it. 

After taking long looks at the vehicles and aircraft, Dirk observed the hangar deck a bit more. 

Its ceiling had a very clear segmentation, which meant that it could open up and release the aircraft inside. There were also platforms that could lift them up and a massive gate on the side that could lower down, creating a ramp for the ground vehicles to exit. It was almost identical to an aircraft carrier from Earth. 

Dirk sighed, thinking they had really hit it big this time. He also made a note to test out the aircraft at some point in time. 

“What do you think?”

“...Let’s just be smart with everything. Having a mobile base of operations is great, but it’s also a  target. We can’t just bring it everywhere.”

“Obviously. Don’t worry about that stuff. Just enjoy the billion dollar equipment that someone of your skill level rightfully deserves. Also, throw one of those aircraft into your pocket ring. You should take one just in case.”

“Hm.”

Dirk hummed with a small smile, walking over and touching one of the aircraft. It was called a Wasp, and it reminded Dirk of some futuristic drone designs from Earth. With a touch, the entire thing, which was about 25 feet long with a wingspan of 15 feet, disappeared into his pocket ring. He had monsters almost as big inside, so this aircraft could fit just fine. 

At that moment, both of them felt a small quake. 

*Vrrr*

The Sky King vibrated before lifting off the ground, causing Pandora to nod. 

“Look like Exos is ready. Come. We have one more stop before we can finally this land.”

With those words, they made their way back to the command center. There, Exos was operating the Command Processor, making the ship fly. 

He spoke while smiling toward Pandora. 

“It’s ready!”

“Mm. Good work. Now, let’s plot a course.”

“Just enter the coordinates into the map. Since this thing flies, it’s easy to just chart a straight line. As for landing, I should have it programmed before we arrive.”

“Sure.”

Pandora shot him a satisfied smile before going to the map and entering some coordinates. Soon enough, the destination appeared along with the path to get there. 

Their destination was near a frontier city in the Dark Kingdom. By car, it would take them two weeks to get there. But now, it would take no more than a day. Not only was the Sky King faster, but it could fly constantly without rest. 

The Magic Reactor was composed primarily of a Tier 8 air mana crystal. And this crystal wasn’t simply a consumable fuel source. 

Because the crystals came from a being at the height of individual power, the mana crystals that came from them were logic defying. Basically, it had nigh-inexhaustible power. It would passively regenerate its reserves endlessly while being able to expel massive amounts of power at any given time. 

However, it was augmented by some Tier 7 mana crystals as well. With these and the feedback system they were placed in, the Sky King never had to refuel. The only thing to worry about was maintenance on the containment systems, but that was an issue they couldn’t nor needed to worry about right now. 

Before long, the ship lifted off and rose into the sky. Its enchantments also activated, creating a barrier of air mana that enveloped the entire ship. 

After that, the sides of the ship trembled, revealing a massive pair of wings that unfolded. The wings were formed of huge layered metal plates and covered in dense enchantment formations that glowed with power, making it glow a vibrant gold like the sun. Their shape was similar to dragon wings. 

When the ship was well above the forest around them, the thrusters on the back of the ship lit up with power. Dirk’s body jolted for a moment before being secured by the spatial magic of the ship, preventing him from falling. 

And just like that, they shot off in an arc higher toward the sky. 

From the Command Center, Dirk could see everything above and below.  He watched as the ground and trees became smaller in his vision. Soon enough, they rose above the clouds and continued on before settling at an altitude of about 40 thousand feet. 

Normally, planes that could fly this high would be armed with hundreds of instruments and mechanisms that allowed them to survive the hostile environment that high in the atmosphere. But with the overwhelming power of magic, they could just brute force their way through everything. 

Who needed to worry about the freezing temperatures of atmospheric flight when your entire aircraft was surrounded by an isolated air bubble? And air resistance? What was that?

Dirk marveled once again about how amazing magic was. When compared to science, it made things almost too easy. 

Then again, applying science to magic seemed to create an even bigger monster. Exos had already proven that with his Processors, which combined both scientific and magic principles that could overwhelm even the toughest security enchantments with a far inferior power level. 

“Alright, help me prepare. My troops have already gathered any and all supplies necessary for the next couple years. Once we land, they will load, and we’ll be off.”

Pandora suddenly dragged Dirk off with those words. Nova followed as well while Exos continued to work tirelessly on his Processors. 

All the while, the ship shuttled through the sky with imposition, clearly showing off its title as the King of the Sky.