Chapter 92: Back to the Heavens

"...And so... what the hell do I do?" Nio murmurs from inside the bathtub. After everything that happened, she decided to take a bath, which ended up consuming a few hours because she needed to clean all the Dragon Gel off her body.

But at the same time, her instincts refused to "abandon" the egg when she decided to bathe, so she brought it to the bathroom and washed it along with her body, which was extremely strange for her.

Not just because she’s doing this for an egg, but because the entire time she kept imagining how something like that actually fit inside her. It wouldn’t leave her mind.

"[What do you mean?]"

"If I can’t even take a bath without this thing making me want to bring it with me, how am I supposed to use it as material?!" Nio raises this question to Nioh, since she can’t even begin to imagine how she’ll make the battery for the palace.

"[That will calm down. Just wait a bit. Using the egg as material won’t make you try to save it — maybe if it had been fertilized, but the instincts will cool off soon. Not completely, but it won’t matter that much. Do you think every dragon goes crazy defending an egg with no child in it? That would be stupid.]" Nioh speaks with disinterest.

"...How do I craft the Battery? This isn’t a game anymore..."

"Just gather everything. You can do it with magic to bring all the materials together. Don’t worry." Nio sets the egg on the floor as she pulls all the materials from her inventory — an extensive list of over a hundred different things piled up on the ground.

’I’d forgotten how much stuff I stored in my inventory since it was so massive in the game... so much stuff... how is anyone supposed to naturally learn to create a battery like this? It sounds impossible...’ The game didn’t make the inventory available from the start. Actually, it gave you a backpack with forty slots.

The inventory was only unlocked after obtaining it by doing many different things in a Quest. By comparison, the inventory holds thousands of items at once.

"Done... I think that’s everything... I even pulled out some extras to make sure I didn’t forget anything." Nio squeezes her hands until her palms turn white, realizing she carefully placed the egg on top of the pile so it wouldn’t break. Even though she can’t let it break, it was a reflex of her body rather than a deliberate choice.

"[...]" Nioh thinks about saying something to Nio, who seems deeply frustrated, but stays quiet, letting Nio deal on her own with what she feels about all of this, since none of it is Nioh’s problem.

"What do I do now..."

"[The system, even rudimentary compared to what I knew, should help. Just imagine what you want, and since you have all the materials, the system should start merging everything using your magic. And close your eyes because of the flash — it’s not exactly the best experience to look directly at that glow.]"

"..." Nio feels the magic starting to form. It’s not an instantaneous process while all the materials begin to fuse. She bites her lips because of the urge to grab the egg. She lets the battery’s creation happen and wonders if this will work.

"[It’s done. Looks like everything worked out. Even this more limited system compared to what I knew still seems to perform the usual basic functions.]" Nio opens her eyes when she hears Nioh’s voice. In front of her is the [Lunar Jewel] — the battery she needs to move the island and make it float.

"It’s really it... I can’t believe it worked... although I feel like it drained a lot of my magic." The Lunar Jewel has the appearance of a large dark purple cube with an intense red glow inside it. The cube measures one meter in height and one meter in width, and it emits a faint black aura around it, followed by a silver aura on the outer edge of the black aura.

"Hmm..." Nio doesn’t admit that she feels a little better now that the target of all her problems from the last few hours has vanished from her field of vision, though she feels a twinge of discomfort deep in her body.

"Satisfied? Now we have the Lunar Jewel..." Nio murmurs as she steps out of the water with a sarcastic tone. Nio looks at her own belly and touches it, unable to believe her body has completely returned to normal.

’Even so... I still need to keep pursuing my goals... it’s better not to think about it too much, and I don’t need to do that embarrassing thing again...’

"[Yes, I’m very satisfied with what we’ve achieved here. This Battery is an important milestone. It will shift the dynamics of our plans toward something far more advantageous. You should go install the battery on the island immediately.]"

"We? I did everything myself after being tricked by you while I was sleepy — you took advantage of a moment of vulnerability." Nio speaks with a certain scorn toward Nioh, who genuinely doesn’t understand why Nio is angry when the gains are already visible between her fingers.

"[And?]"

"...Your consideration for me is terrible..." Nio stores the battery in her inventory, feeling frustrated that Nioh barely cares about what she feels. Nio had started to see her as someone she was becoming friends with.

But now she understands that no, Nioh isn’t her "friend." She just wants to survive and not lose to Typhon, not be captured or let that happen to her body. It’s purely personal to her.

"For someone who’s literally me, you’re also very frustrating." She starts getting dressed, pulling clothes from her inventory, deciding not to think about the strange thing that happened.

"Since some time has passed since I slept and all of this happened, the apostles must have already gone out and started spreading the Raid portals, so I need to do everything I can as soon as possible..."

"If they spread them all and activate them at the same time, it won’t be possible to help every place under attack — which is perfect for showing the threat level. And if I use Stelaria, I’ll be able to pin all the blame on Typhon."

"With a common enemy, all the major powers will be forced to ally with me. That’ll give me full room to maneuver to prepare the location for the fight against Typhon."

"And... now that we have the battery... the ’NPCs’ will have more confidence in my strength, while the Palace will have its defenses at maximum and... it’ll be very hard for anyone to invade..." For Nio, talking about the advantages of having the battery is very difficult after what happened.