Auren spends the next few days training. His guests aren't really social at first, but after a few days, they warm up to Auren and his group.
The best opportunity to get to know each other is at the gym.
Everyone, excluding Jolt and Marsha, spends at least a few hours there, deciding to use the flight to at least work on their physical condition. Even Leira, energised by Auren's plans, spends a lot of time training herself, pushing past her usual limits.
The Hollow Blade agents share a few light, fun stories from their missions, leaving out details of their actual tasks, but still offering plenty of amusing anecdotes and close-call moments.
After five days, their airship arrives at the northern bay of Eastern Yorknew.
Standing on the deck, next to Vanessa, Eren, and Leira, Auren can't help but be amazed.
As the bay comes into view, Auren sees a huge part of the forest being torn apart by an endless sea of machinery. The part that is already cleared and evened out is filled with tens of thousands of provisional tents, orderly lined up in rows.
The edge of the forest comes into view, with thousands of people logging trees, and several sawmills already constructed, running like they've been there for weeks.
Almost a thousand excavators, with mulchers and grinders attached to them, are at work destroying any trees in their way and shaping the land to make it suitable for colonisation. Auren also sees a hastily constructed port with a few dozen ships—most of them gigantic in size, almost comically so.
These... are the last generation ships from the Empire... the ships used before the Black Whales were planned. Auren's eyes track the massive hulls near the port, taking in their shape and sheer size. The Empire must've sold them since they'll focus on the Black Whales and don't need them anymore.
They're quite impressive... old, but they look to be in good condition.
"Auren!" Vanessa says, tugging on his arm with sharp urgency.
"This is insane. This is not a damn exploration... this is an invasion!" she remarks, eyes wide as she gestures at the tents, the machines, the endless movement.
Auren shakes his head and replies with faint amusement, "We're not invading anyone... except maybe nature," he quickly adds.
"Jolt," Auren says, raising his voice over the wind. "Prepare to land. I see a bunch of open spots. Land near the harbor. I'll go on ahead."
"What do you mean, you will go ahead?" Vanessa asks, obviously confused.
"You coming along, Neffi?" Auren asks as he heads back inside the airship.
"Hehe, of course!" she replies cheerfully, practically skipping after him.
"What are you doing?!" Vanessa asks, puffing her cheeks after being ignored.
Auren and Neffi quickly enter the airship and return outside, both wearing their brand-new black divesuits, the new wings even sturdier and larger than the ones of the first design.
The design has been significantly enhanced, and the wings can now be fully retracted and hidden in a small compartment near the back. They're thinner too, yet more durable and stable.
Auren and Neffi activate their Aura, both of them using Ren, and a pair of large wings appear on their backs, looking like they turned into ones of pure metal, the Aura enhancing them. Their new suits draw stares from everyone, including the Hollow Blade cell members. Their Aura perfectly integrates into the wings with the use of Shu, allowing them some control over them.
Without hesitation, the two of them nod at each other and jump overboard.
Descending at the same time, they rapidly pick up speed, the ground coming nearer and nearer as their descent grows faster and faster.
Finally, with sufficient speed, they adjust their bodies—and their new divesuits—to stop dropping so sharply, instead gliding forward.
Maintaining that speed, Auren and Neffi shoot ahead, their pace incomparable to the relatively slow airship behind them.
The large settlement comes closer and closer.
Briefly focusing his Aura onto his eyes for enhanced vision, Auren can vaguely make out people pointing towards their airship, thousands of Auras coming into view below them.
Spotting some sort of wide outlook that offers a great view over the entire settlement—including the harbor, the woodcutters and sawmills, and the huge zone currently being torn apart by excavators—Auren immediately decides to fly there.
In just a few minutes, Auren, followed by a smiling Neffi, rapidly approaches the outlook.
As they're about to arrive and crash into it, Auren adjusts his body, turning upright as if standing in the air, causing his speed to rapidly decline, his empowered wings holding on.
Despite the immense speed and force impacting Auren and his divesuit, he manages to remain stable. After absorbing the brunt of the impact, he swirls in a tight circle, using the last bit of speed to manoeuvre onto the outlook, landing softly in the middle of it.
Neffi, however, doesn't need to violently stop the force out of her wingsuit at all. She spins around the outlook with smooth confidence, her control far superior—almost as if she's sprouted wings of her own.
Both of them land on the outlook, the people surrounding them staring in shock.
"Who... what is happening?!"
"Who are you?! How did you find this place?"
"They can fly!"
The people murmur, looking confused.
"Shut up!" a grumpy, extremely tall and muscular man in his forties yells. "Don't you know who that is? Greet your vice-leader right now!"
Auren immediately looks at the man's face, slightly intrigued by the obvious tattoo.
That guy has an incomplete rose mark on his face, just some vines on thorns.
"Vice-leader? This is Auren?" a weak-looking, thin man wearing a helmet, standing before a large map, asks.
This guy has one on his left hand.
"What did I just say?" the muscular man growls, knocking the other one on his helmet.
"I am so sorry!" the weak-looking man says, realising his mistake. "Vice-Leader Auren, please forgive me!"
"Calm down," Auren states, his voice loud. "You should've been informed about my arrival. This seems to be the place where you coordinate some tasks about the expedition, right?"
"We're focusing on heavy machinery; there are numerous outlooks constructed, but we are just in charge of coordinating the workers," the man replies, relieved about Auren's reaction.
"I see," Auren states, "can you point me to the leadership? Where are the Elders in charge?"
"Near the port, Vice-Leader!" the muscular man replies, pointing towards a large number of shipping containers stacked on top of each other, forming a makeshift house. Next to it are more containers, with even more currently being offloaded and worked on, all transported from the colossal ships. All in all, Auren already counts thousands of them on land.
A huge container city is being set up. Better than the tents, I guess. They can't use the boats for long because they need them to gather more supplies and people. It looks like they've made some progress already, when they're ready to leave the ships. It looks like they're finding a good use for the containers. Since they can be purchased everywhere, are not that expensive, and Hollow Blade has almost unlimited resources, they're a smart way to invest.
"Good... inform everyone and let that airship land without any issues. Is that clear?" Auren asks, addressing the two men, his voice stern.
"Understood," they reply.
"Let's move on already," Neffi says, jumping into the air, her wingsuit's wings actually flapping like they're real, allowing her to remain hovering.
"Now I see," Auren says, staring at her for a moment, before flying over to the port.
I can't do that... but she can, with her Hatsu. I guess that's the difference. Still, I am perfectly happy with my abilities, since I only depend on my Aura and Limitless Waters.
Using the elevated position from the outlook, Auren focuses all of his aura into his feet and jumps into the air as high as he can, then uses emission to expel Aura, created with Limitless Waters from the various openings of his divesuit to gain even more height and follow after Neffi.
As he glides over the settlement—the tents, the construction sites, the people building—he takes a good look at their faces.
I see some of them openly displaying their marks. It seems they were allowed to choose the positions of their marks. Anyway, let's disregard that. Most are wearing work clothes, but they don't look too exhausted. I can see people smiling and joking. I smell food. It looks like my worries were completely wrong. In the back of my mind, I feared the people who were recruited and then marked were used as servants, without much freedom.
Most importantly... I see people genuinely satisfied. It looks like this is indeed a new beginning for them, for everyone.
Finally, with people staring at them in awe, they arrive inside the container city near the port.
As if they've stepped into a different world, towering containers are stacked high above each other, with metal ramps allowing easy access. Auren and Neffi walk ahead, weaving through the structures. Welders are everywhere, working to expand and grow the city, attaching various parts to the outside of the constructs.
"Welcome, Vice-Leader!" one of Rakshala's aides who has travelled here yells.
"Hi Neffi," a few teenage girls say, waving at her.
"I guess some of Hollow Blade's old members are here as well, not just people recruited from the outside," Neffi says, waving back.
Finally, they arrive in the centre—the largest building, made out of a huge number of containers.
"This is more fun than I thought," Neffi says, jumping forward.
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