The last part that of the chapter that managed to break up into three parts instead of four! Without furtheradieu, I present to you the following chapter.
Please enjoy!
Having been the one who had snuck around the high plateau to catch Tanya off guard by popping out of the roof-top hatch too pull her small body through the hole, Goblin Slayer's ears were ringing from all the times the blond and fiesty commander had tried to blindly fire her rifle while the two of them wrestled inside the armored veichle's messy armory. With her orbal rifle's forcefield still up like an umbrella, Tanya was unable immediately pull it out from the opened hatch, due to its green translucent barrier preventing it from fitting through the rooftop manhole.
Deciding to use the suspended stock of the rifle to her advantage, Tanya was able to free herself by repeatedly slamming the butt of her rifle against Goblin Slayer's face. Once she had dazed the young man enough, Tanya headbutted Goblin Slayer with the back of her head, before elbowing his ribs and using her legs to kick the wall in front of her, knocking the wind out of him when her body slammed him against the opposite wall.
'This damn child is troublesome… I've seen goblins who are less feral than this,' Goblin Slayer thought frustratingly to himself, as he was trying his hardest to not hurt Tanya; focusing more so on restraining her than trying to physically harm her. Once Tanya kicked in his shins with the back of her combat boots, the blond girl spun around with her pistol drawn out; a demented wide-eyed grin across her face, as she took aim at Goblin Slayer's forehead.
Just then, the blast from Hero's "Sun Burst" spell had reached the armored vehicle; the powerful and reverberating shockwave alone was enough to get flip the humvee over, before the explosion itself sent Goblin Slayer and Tanya tumbling down the winding road that she took in the first place. Trying to save her shot by shifting her aim, Tanya was able to fire three rounds into Goblin Slayer's shoulder, before firing two shots in his chest; her bullets piercing through his cheap makeshift leather-armor with ease, and going straight through his body before ricocheting off the armored interior wall he had been in front of.
Unable to pat herself on the back for long, Tanya was immediately hit in the face with a laptop that she had taken out from the compartments of the armory that she never put back together. Immediately feeling her bottom lip getting busted, Tanya was seething in pain as she grabbed a hold of her orbal rifle that was still stuck in the gunner's hatch; curling herself into a ball while getting bombarded by the metal drawers and other pieces of expensive technology that was breaking the moment it slammed against her body.
'Damnit! I should have known that this was going to happen! Everything that could go wrong in a mission, usually does! If only-?!?' Interrupting Tanya's train of thought was the sight of none other than Mishy flying towards her; its cartoony face staring at her with a sense of smugness sewed in its plushie face.
Time seemed to slow down for Tanya, and instead of focusing on all the loose objects flying around in the back compartment of the humvee, and even the young man who was trying to keep steady within the tumbling vehicle himself, all the blond girl could do was watch as the cartoon cat's stuffed little arm got caught inside of her pistol's trigger ring; its little body slamming against her sidearm, and causing its barrel to lower down, straight into her petite inner thigh.
Going wide-eyed the moment the first of many gunshots went off, Tanya's entire body tensed up and her jaw clenched tightly as Mishy's fat-stubby arm pressed back-and-forth on the trigger; emptying the rest of the clip into her own upper leg. Pale as a ghost with her blue eyes twitching from shock, the moment the armored veichle came to a halting screech when it landed on its side is when Tanya screamed out "F-FUCK YOU MISHYYYYY", as her small body was flung out of the back of the humvee; it's opened back doors having been ripped off its hinges when it first started to roll violently down the dirt road.
With no time to focus on where the armored vehicle had gone off to, Tio's "Zero Field" that had protected her with its two-meter long radius bubble made up of a blue-translucent energy had finally been compromised the moment Hero plunged her light sword straight through it. 'What kind of weapon is that…? I can't even tell if there's an orb somewhere on her handle; must have been manufactured by "Reinford Group",' the technical side of Tio wondered, as she leapt backwards a foot above the grass; stepping out of the way from getting slashed by Hero's follow up attack.
Breaking through what remained of the "Zero Field" by shattering its barrier into a million dust-sized shards that faded into the air, Hero's sword once again became infused with her magicka; causing its silver blade to become molten-hot, and covered in fire that coated sharp metal in a blinding-white light. "Just GIVE UP already, will ya?!" Hero shouted with her daring and toothy grin still spread across her lips, before leaping forward with her sword cocked back and ready to slash through her orbal staff.
On her own, it would have been questionable whether or not Tio would have been able to calculate the trajectory of where the extremely agile and fast adventurer was about to swing at her; the naked eye alone would have been fooled by the disorienting afterimages that Hero was leaving behind in her wake. However, with her senses enhanced by the Aeon System that was able to offset and process information alongside her already gifted brain, Tio was able to sidestep just in time to activate her orbal staff's "Beam Zander" craft; erecting a cyan-colored blade made up of concentrated energy at the tip of her staff, essentially transforming it into a halberd that she used to parry Hero's strike.
Being no slouch herself when it came to close-quarters-combat, Tio had practiced enough with fencing with her own orbal staff to give Hero's a run for her money; locking their blades each time their weapons made contact, and needing to pull away before attempting to swing their blades once more. Dueling Hero with both hands tightly wrapped around the metal handle of her orbal staff, the grace that Tio had in her movements was akin to the graceful steps that a ballerina would use to put on a performance of a lifetime.
Concentrating on matching Tio's swift and elaborate attempts at trying to catch her off guard, Hero was no longer in a position to be running around and bouncing off the massive stone structure that had only been saved from her "Sun Burst" spell by Kaguya's protective seals. Locking eyes with Tio while still flashing her iconic and cocky grin at the stone-faced teenager in front of her, Hero pushed past the pain of the hot sparks of energy that were flying out of their weapons and onto their skin, each time that their volatile blades collided with one another.
"Heh, hehe… You're pretty good, kid!" Hero complimented with a triumphant look in her intense glare that made Tio wary of whatever idea that the auburn-haired girl was conjuring inside of her head. That's when Hero hawked up a loogie, before blinding Tio with her spit. "But I'm even better!" Hero shouted with an exhilarated voice, as she parried Tio's "Beam Zander" by swinging her own sword down, forcing the pastel-haired girl to lower the top of her weapon toward the ground, while the end of her staff was raised up.
Just as Tio started to blink the spit out of her eyes, it was then that she looked up and saw the bottom of Hero's boot flying straight toward her face. Moving her head to the side by leaning toward her own petite shoulder, what Tio thought was Hero trying to kick her in the face ended up being a façade made up by the platinum-ranked adventurer. With her powerful leg raised up, Hero delivered a heel-kick down on Tio's dominant hand; crushing her fingers and forcing the pastel-haired teenager to drop her orbal staff.
Having disarmed her opponent, Hero's initial instinct was to swing her sword up, so as to decapitate the young girl before her. However, all it took was a split moment for Hero to see the terrified look behind Tio's stoic demeanor to know that ending her life would have been a mistake. So, instead of killing the other teenager, or even using her sword to deliver a follow up attack, Hero pushed her light sword deeper into the ground; using her curved hilt to lock her orbal staff in place.
With one hand shoved in her pocket and with her fingers wrapped around her ENIGMA, Tio had been anticipating for Hero to cut her head clean off. Having planned on using an orbal art to fire from the hip, fully intending on firing an icicle from her orbament that would have ripped Hero's head clean off her neck from how close they were, Tio held off on it the moment she saw the young auburn-haired girl let go off her sword, only after she had pinned her orbal staff to the ground.
Believing that there was a chance to open up a dialogue with the girl who had shown her mercy, Tio was immediately caught off guard the moment Hero decked her straight in the face; breaking her nose and loosening her front teeth, from how hard the platinum-ranked adventurer could throw a punch. Getting whiplash and momentarily blacking out the moment the back of her head hit the ground, the last thing Tio managed to do before getting knocked out was use her ENIGMA to incapacitate Hero by casting "Diamond Dust"; an orbal art that completely encapsulated the auburn-haired girl's body from the neck down in ice.
Frozen like a statue and immediately beginning to chatter her teeth together, Hero stood in front of where Tio was lying unconscious on the ground; her nose profusely bleeding, along with the front of her gums. Grunting while trying to move within her frozen prison, Hero had managed to tip herself over and land on the ground beside where Tio was. Unfortunately for her, the ice didn't shatter around her body, and instead all that it meant for Hero was that she was suspended in ice while laying flat on her back as well.
Blinking a few times while staring at the side of Tio's bloodied face, Hero immediately started to call out for Goblin Slayer or Kaguya to come and help her; the thought of needing to wait for the ice to melt beneath the setting sun filled the young platinum-ranked with dread. 'Well... This sucks,' Hero thought to herself while counting to shout out for her two companions to come to her aid.
Winded and feeling disoriented from how hard she hit the ground, Tanya laid on her side along the dirt road; the grassy fields on both sides of the path covered in the scattered remains of all the armory's loose items. Awakening to the warm feeling of liquid pouring out of her bullet wound, Tanya was whimpering while cursing beneath her breath as she stirred from her daze.
'How could everything have gone to shit that fast? Oh… I think one of the bullets severed an artery,' Tanya thought to herself with a weary gaze on her bloodied face, as she stared down at all the blood that was squirting out of her thigh. Trying to lift her left hand up to search her leather pouch for any healing balms, Tanya winced as she felt pain shooting up her shoulder. 'Damnit! My arm's broken… Let me just use my other arm, and… There we go,' Tanya thought to herself with a relieved look in her blue eyes, as she pulled out a small metal tin from her leather satchel.
Popping off the tip and smearing her fingers inside the container, Tanya scooped up most of the healing salve before smearing it inside both the entry point of her bullet wound, and beneath her thigh where the exit point was. Although the healing balm made the difference between her living and her succumbing to blood loss, Tanya's thigh was still extremely tender and almost gave out immediately when she tried to pick herself up from the ground.
Falling backwards and landing on her bottom, Tanya was writhing in pain as she immediately reached up to nurse her broken left arm. Frustrated and determined to get back to fighting condition, Tanya leaned forward down toward her toes to pull back her pant leg; unsheathing her combat knife that she kept strapped around her sock, before proceeding to use the knife to cut her left sleeve off of her bruised and bloodied arm. 'Damnit, I don't have time for this! Plato might be in trouble, if not dead already; I have to get my rifle back and… What the hell?' Tanya thought to herself with a wave of disbelief washing over her, as she gazed up with her cold-blue eyes to see none other than Goblin Slayer stepping out of the turned-over vehicle.
'… Shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT,' Tanya cursed repeatedly in her panicked mind, as she quickly used the remaining healing balm to rub its regenerative properties all over her left arm; healing it enough for her to pull out her ENIGMA while still holding the combat knife out in front of her. Tanya put on a brave face as she watched the Goblin Slayer making his way towards her with his broken-in-half ebony spear held tightly in his grip.
"Tch… I could have sworn I shot you twice in the heart; know damn well for certain that I got your shoulder… So how the hell are you walking?!" Tanya asked out loud with an outraged look on her face, while subtly tightening her grip on her orbament that she was keeping out of his field of vision.
Responding to her question by using his lightning-fast reflexes to lift his spear up like a javelin, Goblin Slayer's left eye was glowing bright as he watched Tanya immediately whip out her ENIGMA infront of her like a talisman. Knowing that Tanya was too immobile to dodge his spear, Goblin Slayer threw his poled weapon directly at the young girl's knife; shocking her wrist and knocking her body off balance from how hard his spear clashed with her blade.
Swearing with a wide-eyed look, Tanya tumbled backwards as her knife was flung out of her hand; the side of her face getting smacked with the end of Goblin Slayer's ebony spear. Blindly using the ENIGMA in her hand as a last resort, seeing how she was thinking that Goblin Slayer was about to kill her, Tanya casted a five-meter long blade made out of air called "Aero Sickle" towards where she last saw Goblin Slayer.
With almost no time left to spare, Goblin Slayer bent his knees and dropped backwards toward the grass, narrowly getting bisected by the translucent blade of air that flew past the tip of his nose. Rising back up to his feet, Goblin Slayer was caught off guard by the sight of Tanya glaring at him with a victorious sneer on her face. 'Should have never taken your eyes off me,' Tanya thought triumphantly to herself, as she watched her second "Aero Sickle" slice clean through Goblin Slayer's knees; forcing the young man to fall forward, as his severed legs collapsed beneath him like falling dominos.
Before Tanya could finish him off by casting another orbal art from her ENIGMA, the orbament in her hand was flung out of her hand the moment the other half of Goblin Slayer's spear smacked into her small hand. Wincing in pain as she heard her fingers break with how hard Goblin Slayer had chucked it at her, Tanya tried grabbing at the airborne orbament with her good hand; just barely failing to hook her fingertips into the silver chain that was attached to the ENIGMA, as it slipped out of her grasp and flew far out of her reach.
Disarmed and defenseless, Tanya looked away from where her ENIGMA had landed nearly ten meters away from where she was sitting, and turned her attention over to where Goblin Slayer was; her heart skipping a beat and her skin going ice-cold as she watched the unholy sight before her. Extending out of the stumps of his severed legs and from his bloodied knees were several crimson-black tendrils that whipped and lashed at the air, as they began to build a bridge between his wound where the gorey tops of his dismembered legs laid; intertwining with one another, as the tendrils hastily pulled his bleeding limbs back into place.
Tanya would have been horrified at the sight of Goblin Slayer's body pulling itself back together, had her mind not been so filled with exhilarating ideas that were causing her to feel manic. 'He's strong, durable, fast, and has the dexterity to disarm me… If he wanted to kill me, he would have already done so,' Tanya realized to herself, as a wide and eerie grin formed across her curled lips. 'He's sneaky, smart, and clearly has a mind for strategy…! And his body has regenerative properties?! He's, he's…!'
"… Perfect." Tanya uttered out with an awestruck voice, as she lifted her small chin up to gaze up at the menacing glowing eye on Goblin Slayer's left side. Even as he reached down to wrap his fingers around her slender-small neck to pick her up from the ground, Tanya was bubbly and giddy with excitement as Goblin Slayer stared at her with a serious and stoic demeanor on his face.
"… Because of your youth, I figured you were simply misguided; I assumed someone like you was in need of mercy, and that hurting you would be wrong… I see now that assumption was a mistake on my part," Goblin Slayer said in a cold voice; his crimson eye illuminated Tanya's bloodied and battered face in its glow, with how close their faces were from one another. "You little brat… Give me one reason why I shouldn't snap your neck right now," Goblin Slayer demanded with a voice that was vindictive, as he loosened his fingers just enough from Tanya's neck to allow her to take in a breath to fill her lungs.
Dry coughing while the bruises Goblin Slayer made into her neck radiated with pain, Tanya was still grinning from ear-to-ear as raised her hand up toward the left side Goblin Slayer's face; carefully brushing her fingertips over the small black veins which were visible beneath his glowing eye, before curiously waving her palm over it. "T… Tanya… Tanya Degurechaff," she introduced herself while sounding raspy and air-deprived; her weak voice unintentionally tugging on Goblin Slayer's heartstrings, and causing him to loosen his grip even more.
With clarity returning to his clouded mind, the twang of guilt and disgust for what he was about to do to Tanya caused Goblin Slayer to immediately lower her down to feet, kneeling down and grabbing a hold of her sides to stabilize her. 'She can't even stand on her own… I… I can't believe that I… That I said that to her, I… I thought I wasn't like that anymore…' Goblin Slayer thought to himself, with his stomach beginning to feel queasy; his heart sinking in his chest, as the crimson light in his left eye faded away.
Letting out a sigh of relief the moment she realized that Goblin Slayer wasn't going to kill her, Tanya tilted her head toward her small shoulder, staring at the look of regret written all over his melancholy face. "… Anyway, now that you and I are no longer fighting, might I propose a truce? We can discuss more about the details on our way back up to the Sun Fort; hopefully the girl I was supposed to keep safe isn't dead from that explosion," Tanya said with a half-joking attitude, as the dread of Tio possibly being dead on her watch sank in.
Trying to stay focused and grounded on what he needed to take care of, Goblin Slayer thought about Hero; almost panicking the moment he realized that there was an eerie absence of sound coming from the Sun Fort. Worrying about his auburn-haired companion, as well as for Kaguya's safety, Goblin Slayer immediately picked Tanya back up by her waist, setting her small body over his shoulder with her small legs dangling down his chest.
Fearing that she had misread the unspoken truce between them, Tanya reached down and grabbed a hold of what was left of Goblin Slayer's torn turtleneck shirt. "Wait! What is this?! What do you think you're doing?!" Tanya demanded, as she instinctively began to kick her legs up-and-down; letting out a shocked shout the moment she felt Goblin Slayer's hand accidentally grabbed a hold of her asscheeks, while he was trying to grab onto her belt. "UWAH~?!? HEY!!! W-WATCH IT!!!" Tanya screamed out in retaliation; her pale cheeks crimson-red as tightened his fingers into the fabric of his shirt.
"Sorry for that. Just… Keep talking; I'm taking us back to the fortress," Goblin Slayer explained after apologizing for accidentally groping the commander's bottom, before proceeding to sprint back up the winding road toward the Sun Fort; focusing on reaching his destination, while Tanya's jaw dropped the moment she noticed what she had accidentally done to her armored vehicle.
Pushing her upper body up with her small hands on his back, Tanya felt her heart skip a beat upon seeing the humvee sliced up in three horizontal cuts in the aftermath of when she used her ENIGMA to cast two "Aero Sickles" at Goblin Slayer. 'Oh… That's not good,' Tanya thought to herself, wincing as she watched the engine catch fire from underneath its dented hood. "Oh God… Uh… Y-Yes, umm, about our peace treaty… You're here for the Ancient Wyvern too, yes?" Tanya asked with a defeated look on her face, as she rested one elbow against Goblin Slayer's upper back, so she could rest her chin in the palm of her upright hand; trying to keep optimistic about potentially being able to recruit Goblin Slayer and Hero, all while knowing that she was going to have to file a mountain of incident reports when she got back to the police station.
According to what Tanya had told Goblin Slayer, she was a commander who was stationed at Crossbell: the largest metropolitan nation on the island of Eden, which was the largest mass of land in the Eastern Seas Archipelago. Assigned to escort Tio Plato, who was a gifted researcher from a renowned technological institute stationed in Crossbell known as the "Epstein Foundation", the two of them had been sent to the Sun Fort to investigate the area, after reports of the Ancient Wyvern "phasing" through the top of the old fortress had been sent to the police station.
Interested in recruiting Goblin Slayer to assist her with traveling down the deep-shaft within the five-hundred year old fortress, Tanya explained how frustrated she was with her chain-of-command and talked to him about all the rewards that would come their way if they were able to kill the Ancient Wyvern, instead of just researching it like how her orders had wanted her to do. With the entire point of him sailing across the ocean being to slay the Ancient Wyvern, Goblin Slayer considered taking Tanya's offer to join forces with her to finally complete his nearly ten-day long mission.
Even though he was already impressed with Tanya's showmanship of how capable she was at combat, which would have been far more impressive had Hero's "Sun Burst" spell not caused for the veichle to go tumbling down the winding road, Goblin Slayer was reluctant to bring someone else onboard for what was already a borderline suicidal quest. However, it rather allowing for his own personal feelings to get in the way of an equally benefiting opportunity, Goblin Slayer thought about the benefits of taking Tanya and Tio as part of his party. He thought not only about how greater their chances would be, if there were four capable fighters instead of just himself and Hero.
Trying to look at their partnership from a strategic standpoint, Goblin Slayer opened up and decided to agree to teaming up with Tanya and Tio, so long as Hero was still alive and if there wasn't going to be any issues amongst them, to which the commander reassured him that there wouldn't be. Now that they were more-or-less allies for the time being, Goblin Slayer felt less threatened when the blond girl told him to go back for her orbal rifle; the very weapon that she had planned on using to kill him with initially. Climbing into what was left of the destroyed remains of the sliced-up vehicle, Goblin Slayer held Tanya out in front of him so she could deactivate the front-barrier that had caused her rifle to get stuck in the gunner's hatch in the first place.
The moment Goblin Slayer stepped out of the wreckage with Tanya sitting down on top of the severed roof of the humvee with her intact orbal rifle resting on her lap, he was immediately ambushed by Hero, who leapt up and wrapped her arms tightly around him; catching him pleasantly off guard. Surprised to see that both Hero and Tio looked completely unharmed, in spite of the specks of blood that had dried into the dark fabric of the pastel-haired girl's dress, Goblin Slayer asked whether or not the two teenagers had fought at all.
Explaining to Goblin Slayer about how Tio woke up first to heal herself before the two of them came to a truce as well, Hero's apricot-colored eyes were filled with enthrallment as she explained how similar the pastel-haired teenager's orbal staff was to staff that she had seen Sage use during their adventures. Telling Goblin Slayer about Tio had used an "orbal art" from her ENIGMA, a device that was capable of casting spells from the synthesized crystals that they had been collecting, Hero mentioned how vaulable of a resource their "septium" shards were. In the midst of fanatically regurgitating some of the information Tio had briefly mentioned to her while on their way to find them, it was then that Hero asked about Goblin Slayer's situation with Tanya, and why only she looked roughed up compared to him; emphasizing on his lack of visible wounds.
Catching on quickly from the way Goblin Slayer was withholding the fact that his body was capable of self-regeneration, Tanya lied for him the moment Tio asked why he looked fine on the outside; telling her curious companion that she had used what was left of her "Tear Balm" to patch him up the best she could. Winking reassuringly at Goblin Slayer when he turned to look at her, Tanya flashed him a genuine smile before the two of them were instructed by Tio to stand next to one another. Using her own ENIGMA to cast an orbal art to fully restore Tanya's and Goblin Slayer's health, Tio made sure conduct and quick physical on the two of them; checking for any wounds or ailments that her "Tearal" orbal art might have missed.
Had she'd not been impressed with Hero's display of skill in combat, and for that fact that Tanya, someone who was almost impossible to impress, was advocating so hard for Goblin Slayer to be taken to Crossbell after they slayed the Ancient Wyvern, Tio would have shot down the idea of even going inside the Sun Fort to investigate in the first place. But seeing how the odds were now more stacked in their favor, and the fact that most of the equipment that had been destroyed in the humvee belonged to her and needed to be replaced with money she didn't have on her, Tio reluctantly agreed to the idea of the four of them delving into the bowels of the fortress; making it clear to the other three that she intended on looting the Sun Fort for valuables to help finance her losses.
Clapping her hands together the moment that it was unanimously agreed that they would be teaming up into a four person party, Tanya immediately took charge of the group by making her first order of business that Tio was to hand over the ENIGMA Mk II to Goblin Slayer. Feeling like she was being taken advantage of, Tio protested against the idea, claiming that Goblin Slayer more than likely lacked the aptitude to even use it right, and that the Mk II wasn't hers to give away in the first place.
Dismissing Tio's claims by telling her how the only difficult part of working an orbament was knowing how what septium-quartz to install inside of it beforehand, Tanya made the executive decision that for the next hour Goblin Slayer would learn from the pastel-haired girl about the basics of how to operate the ENIGMA Mk II; reassuring her that if anything were to happen to the prototype, then Tanya would fully accept the blame for it.
Although she wasn't happy about having to hand over the Epstein Foundation's latest prototype over to him, Tio at least felt comforted knowing that she would be the one to tutor Goblin Slayer on how to cast "orbal arts" with the device; the silver lining being that the Mark II needed battle data, and having someone who wasn't used to orbaments would help Tio greatly with her research.
And so, while Tio took Goblin Slayer off to the side and into a wide-spacious grassy field beneath the peak of the high plateau to train him on how to use the ENIGMA Mk II, Tanya decided to make of most out her hour of free time by tutoring Hero about the orbal armaments; giving her run down of how ENIGMAs worked, before deciding to focus on showing Hero her orbal rifle. With Kaguya resting on top of Hero's bare shoulder, Tanya stood behind the auburn-haired girl while carefully showing how "orbament armaments" operated; comparing her orbal rifle to that of a magically enchanted crossbow, something that the commander knew that the native Vesterian would be more familiar with.
And while her champion was essentially cross-training with Tio on how to become a spell-sword, while Hero was being shown the basics of how orbal technology in the form Tanya letting her get familiar with using her orbal rifle, Kaguya couldn't help but find herself feeling accepting of Goblin Slayer's two new companions; feeling proud in the way that a mother would be of her son.
Feeling calm with the peaceful outcome of Goblin Slayer's encounter with Tanya and Tio, the only thing that was weighing down on Kaguya's heart and stressing her out was the knowledge that they were just five-hundred meters away from where the Ancient Wyvern was resting within the bowels of the Sun Fort's lowest level.
Vividly remembering how powerful the fifty-meter tall monster was when she and Goblin Slayer battled it for the first time, Kaguya couldn't help but to feel worried with the new knowledge that the Ancient Wyvern was capable of phasing through matter; making the celestial being wonder just what other feats of power that the legendary monster had yet to reveal to them.
There's going to be more information given on what an orbament is, how orbal weapons work, and more history and geographic information given on Eden, and the rest of the Eastern Sea Archipelago. Originally, I crammed it all into the end of the chapter through dialogue, but it felt too overwhelming and forced, and droning, so I summed it up so we can have the four of them better interact as they're dungeon crawling through the Sun Fort.
Until next time, stay frosty.