Chapter 26 - Super Bell
Next morning, another meeting was held to discuss Haruhime's level up as well as Hephaestus' idea. First, the top priority was to figure out if the level up increased Haruhime's level boosting powers. To do that, experiments would be carried out after the meeting with similar fighting matchups.
Second, Hephaestus presented her idea to improve their attacks against Revis, who is really resistant to magic. She said it will involve Wiene, as she has noticed Wiene's fighting potential in the recent practices. Her plan is to build a special set of reactive armor for Wiene to protect her during battle and add magic-infused sharp edges to her talons. With these capabilities, Wiene would be able better able to assist Ais and Bell in the air, whether it is against Revis or the main army of the enemy. It would be easier to conceal Wiene if she only don her armor when the battle has started, so others will have to help so Wiene probably needs to travel with the defense perimeter group. Wiene was really happy to hear that, though she wished she would be more powerful in order to protect Bell and her other friends...
After the meeting, advanced uchide no kozuchi was used to boost up Bell and it was worth 2 levels! So this is now super advanced uchide no kozuchi. Furthermore, up to 12 additional combatants can be boosted for 1 level if the level-boost group had enough support. Finally, Haruhime was able to shift at will the double-boost among the 13 persons who were boosted. Thus the Haruhime boosting activity was declared a big success, while Loki, Freya, Hermes and Takemikazuchi went off to discuss their new situation.
At the same time, Wiene also went off with Hephaestus so measurements can be taken for her armor and the sharp edges. She is quite excited to work with Hephaestus.
With their duty in the level boosting group completed, Mikoto and Lili started to work on their own magic again. Practicing with Asfi, Mikoto started trying to use futsunomitama against fast flying targets. At the same time, Lili was trying to use cinder ella to turn herself into smaller monsters such as a snake. Also trying to take advantage of her horrible experience from the parasitic transformation, Lili has also been working on turning into a plant.
After the morning's various activities, there was a working lunch to discuss what to do next for Wiene and level boosting. Hephaestus suggested having Wiene practice against Ais and Bell while she worked on the armor and the sharp edges. Adding magic attacks from Riveria and Lefiya would be a possibility if Wiene does well. However, it is clear that they can see their war preparation efforts soon coming to a close.
Practice was again held far from the secret headquarters. Wiene was very maneuverable and that gave Ais and Bell a good battle. However, Ais and Bell were substantially stronger even though they did not use magic attacks. During the practice, Wiene needed a lot of healing which made Ais and Bell feel bad. They hugged Wiene to thank her for trying to help them, and Ais also apologized for attacking Wiene during the Xenos episode. Wiene was so happy that she cried a bit. This was so much better than a few months ago when Ais almost killed Wiene.
When the practice team returned to headquarters, Tsubaki and Hephaestus were resting from the tough work on Wiene's armor. The pieces were larger, heavier and required a lot more work, but they did fabricated a couple body plates for Wiene to try out. Welf was also tired after having charged up 3 sets of armor for the day - a record for him and he nearly went mind zero.
There was a cookout to celebrate Haruhime's level up and Weine's 'promotion'. After the cookout, there was another loud and exciting game of cards involving Tiona, Tione, Lefiya, Bete, Mikoto, Welf, Wiene and Lili. In the middle of their game, Loki, Hermes, Hephaestus, Freya, Asfi and Takemikazuchi also joined in. When Hermes later suggested raising the stakes a bit with a smirk, a really happy Takemikazuchi liked the idea. In response, Asfi and Mikoto hung both of them upside down for the rest of the game, and Mikoto further threatened them with futsunomitama...