664 10/12 2:07 (Autumn, Sunrise, Midrar)
Luna stretched slightly, examining her body now that her Spell had finally finished with fully restoring her Reserves of Astral Ichor, helped along by her using Virtual Energy from her Unique Arma to Cast it at no cost, rendering it even more efficient.
Satisfied, she immediately redirected her Astral Ichor inwardly, funnelling 100 Units immediately towards her Orichalcum Essence Conversion Skill, advancing it by another 0.1% towards completion before hesitating, her mind replaying Sabel's previous question, that about the multiple instances of the Spell.
And while her own answer was correct, she wondered if she couldn't work around it.
Waiting before Casting her [Rejuvenating Fount] on herself, she redirected her attention towards her Familiars, feeling out the conjoined together Soul Shards forming them and breathing in deeply once, pressing her Will against her newest Artifact to share her instructions.
For the second time, Sunless Mantle started shining, its newly recovered Charge being immediately spent to cause a new, incredibly complex Runic Array to be branded in glowing lines all over its surface.
Immediately after, a thin Domain enveloped Luna and her Attuned Artifacts.
And it wasn't her Law of the Cosmos the Domain that was created but her previous False Domain, completely replicated through her Records using her Sunless Mantle's Charge.
Loading in her Arcane Armageddon as the Skill of choice followed by her [Rejuvenating Fount] Spell, she was soon able to confirm her desired Effect, the simultaneous activation of the Spell across her and her six Familiar-holding Artifacts, being Targeted as different Beings.
This Domain would collapse after only 100 seconds, and so large a time was only possible thanks to maintaining it at the smallest possible size, otherwise its length would be even shorter, 40 seconds at six meters large and only 16 seconds at thirty-six.
In addition, it was limited to generating only one Unit of Astral Ichor every second for Target that, small as it was in its current manifestation, should have been only Luna herself.
A good proof of concept if she wanted certainly that she could still recreate her previous False Domain if she needed to, at the cost of just a Charge of her Artifact, sure, but little else.
Or at least that would be the case if her Domain didn't naturally envelop her Attuned Artifacts, Targeting this way her Familiars as different individuals.
And while they could barely hold ten Units of Astral Ichor at a time before the Artifact would start straining, Luna was more than able to redirect the Astral Ichor as it was created into her latest Growth Skill, assuring a profit of 700 Units of Astral Ichor in less than two minutes, breaching through the 1% Conversion threshold.
The only shame being that she could only do such once an hour at best.
Upon seeing that Luna was done setting up her Domain, Sabel continued immediately, trying to evade meeting back up with her parents in every way that she could. "But, you know, the seas are incredibly dangerous this time of the year, especially in the Nord with all the icebergs in the way!"
"Sabel, we are not using a boat." Amber corrected, entertained by the flustered Human's interference enough to pet her head a couple of times, flying slightly to be able to look down on her. "Luna and I will take turns flying over the sea as needed while you two will be our lookouts."
Mafel smiled, her tears having long since been forgotten in favour of more opportunities to tease any of her Mates. "Come on, gals, let's go meet with our parents-in-law." She couldn't help but tease the black-haired one, her lips twisting in a sharp smile.
Luna, knowing for a fact that Sabel would soon explode if no one intervened, simply picked her up in her arms, causing the Human to still, her face rapidly heating up as she sputtered in embarrassment, completely distracted.
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664 10/12 2:44 (Autumn, Sunrise, Near Midrar's Capital)
The four moved rapidly, going all out with their speed to rapidly cross the distance to their target, Luna flying in the sky with her Sabel held in her arms.
The pouting Human closed her eyes, turning away from the city and burrowing deeper into Luna's chest, a 'If I can't see it, it doesn't exist' clear even to someone that wouldn't be able to feel her emotions.
Luna instead examined the capital before her, carefully observing its walls, the constant movements of the guards and civilians coming in and out of the heavy gate, her eyes peering into every single Being and Artifact in her sight, carefully observing the very tense expressions on the guards' faces and the rigorous way that they used to examine both those that wanted to enter and leave.
"Something happened." Luna confirmed, her judgement helped along by the way that the citizens inside were being surprisingly anxious while those that she was able to guess were travellers possessed a confused alarm.
At her words filled with interest, Sabel reacted at once, uncovering her eyes and looking at the city, squinting with a slight pout at being unable to see the faces of the People due to the distance between them. "Can't you move any closer, I can't see." Her worried voice merely caused the Lunarian to poke her with a finger on her cheek.
"I remind you that we are flying high in the sky as the walls would otherwise block our sight completely. We cannot fly too close to the city above the walls or the guards, as tense as they are now, will take it as a threat. Especially considering how I am a Vampiric Entity." Luna calmly explained.
"Right. You are right. Thanks for thinking about me." Sabel let out, forcing herself to calm down after taking a pair of deep breaths. "Let's go."
The white-haired one nodded, falling back down to the ground and rejoining her two Mates below.
"So? Everything okay?" Amber immediately asked, her attention mostly turned towards the still distracted Human and her currently unstable emotions.
"We don't know. Something is wrong but Luna couldn't see anything specific from the sky." Sabel commented, escaping from Luna's arms, her worry overpowering her shyness, causing Mafel and Amber to frown.
"Are they preparing for the Blood Moon? There are less than two years until then." The Elf proposed, causing Amber to tilt slightly her head.
"Makes sense. Midrar is soon to reach their trial." Amber indifferently offered.
"What do you mean with trial? It's a natural phenomenon, not... I don't know, a test." The black-eyed one asked, stopping entirely and shifting her sight between her two more experienced Mates before turning back to Luna, earning only a casual shrug.
"Long-lived Species, as a whole, tend to evade nations and organizations that didn't survive at least one Blood Moon." Amber explained uncaringly. "The only reason the Guild itself is not looked down upon is because their founder and current Grandmaster is the Number Ten and their central site is in an absolutely protected Continent, Yggrar, assuring that they would last at least this Blood Moon."
"S-so, when you speak about "lasting" through a Blood Moon, you mean...?" Sabel hesitantly asked, her eyes darting worriedly from the Phoenix to the city she was born and raised in.
"It's the reason that permanent villages are so rare." Mafel explained, trying to be as gentle as possible. "Sure, sometimes they are made, but they need enough protections to deal with the yearly Red Moon and, more importantly, a path for the next Blood Moon. You can expect that all fixed villages by this time in two years will be filled only by looters or Monsters making them their new nests."
"The real problem will be the nations themselves. It's not rare for them to crumble into pieces faced with them. Hell, Losrar is a whole continent that even now is populated entirely by Monsters, the only trace of civilization left being the remains of various suicide missions to kill as many of them as possible." Amber expanded casually, too distracted to see the pallor in their swordswoman.
"In addition, Higrar, Midrar and Lowrar, the three that form Dirrar, are new nations, established long after such an event and by short-lived Species at that. From what my mother told me, such nations rarely understood what exactly facing a Blood Moon meant." Amber continued, remembering the countless lectures from both of her mothers to be careful and not underestimate such an event.
"Ah, S-Sabel, there is no need worry that much. The Guild has plenty of long-lived ones in its midst and records that did survive such events, freely sharing as much as they could with various governing bodies. In fact, even I received some questions at Nealet about measures to answer a Blood Moon." Mafel tried to reassure their Human, launching various cutting gazes at the suddenly sheepish Phoenix.
Luna, meanwhile, was deep in thought, working out what exactly she should do about those specific events in the first place.
In the first place, such phenomena were only the release of the collective hatred of all the deceased Lunarians towards Gaea and its civilizations in the form of an Energy-filled radiation that affected only Monsters, both strengthening them and exponentially increasing their aggression towards People, excluding Vampiric Entities entirely.
And so, while she and her Mates would be absolutely safe during it, that was only if they wouldn't interfere, thing that her own instinct as a Lunarian were greatly in favour of.
Yet none of her Mates were the types to just ignore such an event, one that would mean the loss of countless People, without even trying to help.
Sighing, she left this matter to be dealt with later. "Don't worry too much about Blood Moons right now. There are plenty of nations that were able to last through their firsts. Sure, most of them had outside assistance in one way or another, either through purging all Monsters in the area repeatedly, but I am sure the Guild was made also for helping deal with them. Your Title can be considered proof of these efforts. In the meantime, we still have more than a year and a half to prepare and grow stronger."
At Luna's reassurance, Sabel finally started breathing in deeply a couple of times, trying and mostly succeeding in forcing her body to relax.
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