"No, nonono-"

(I'm late I'm late I'm late I'm late I'm late I'm late I'm late I'm late I'm late I'm late I'm late I'm late-)

Waking up as the sun had already raised way above the time when she should have woken up, Tia's mind slowly shut down as she panicked.

"I'll ready your armor so hurry up and get some food~"

"Mom I love you!"

Rus.h.i.+ng out of her bed she hurriedly put on some light clothing and ran downstairs in a most graceful fas.h.i.+on to stuff her face with as much food in as short a time possible. Reaching the kitchen the half elf looked more like a squirrel as she stuffed her face with leftover stew and ran out into the armory, stopping to complete her almost daily ritual of getting completely lost admiring her mother's arms collection. Spears, battleaxes, bows, shortsworts, longsword, two handed swords and daggers densely lined the walls of the largest room of their home, and all of them were high cla.s.s magic weapons covered in runic inscriptions and fitted with monster cores. Seeing her daughter once more admiring her collection Eva couldn't help but smile. Eva was a elver about a meter and 90 centimeters high, which is considered average for her species. She had long golden hair that reached below her hips and long ears were both also a trademark of her race. Her body however was far from normal, as her slender figure was covered in densely packed muscles. She didn't look a day over 30 but with her extremely long lifespan typical of her race she had dedicated her to monster slaying and reached the highest rank at adamantium, being able to kill a mid tier dragon barehanded, therefore it was quite hard to pinpoint her exact age. She had temporarily retired while raising her daughter Tia, a half elver born from a human farther, that looked the spitting image of her, except a bit shorter in hight and with slightly smaller ears.

"Come on Tia."

"What did you use this one for mom?"

Tia had stopped to look at a 2 meter long spear made of blue metal alloy.

"That one?.... Ah yeah I remember now it's for killing black dragons the magic circuit makes it great for penetrating dragon scales with ease, now come on it's your big day~"

"That's right!"

Remembering her reason for hurrying, Tia stopped admiring her mother's countless out of this world expensive weapons and moved to her own corner of the armory were a set of very special plate armor stod.

"Did you insert new monster cores?"

"Um, last evening. Help me put it on"

The plate armor was bright red, not a over the top fas.h.i.+on statement but a result of the metal it was made of. Adamant.i.te is perhaps the rarest metal known to the kingdom, a ultra rare natural occurring wolfram t.i.tanium pure mana alloy with extreme heat tolerance, yield strength and mana capacity, making it a contender for the ultimate weapon material, if it wasn't for the difficulties in refinement and manufacture. It is unknown how the material is even processed, as that fact is guarded more closely than the king, but it is known to be an extremely slow and gureling affair. Adamant.i.te is therefore a tactical resource completely monopolised by the government and is only really used for 2 specific things. The first is research in alloying it with other rare metals to create a possible alternative to the pure metal, and the second is to arm the royal guard. Having a suit and weaponry of pure adamant.i.te is already expensive out of this world but that is not all there is to it, strengthening runes and other augments are caved into the armor, as well as mana circuits that allow the wearer to cast tactical level magic without expending their own mana utilizing a mana circuit in the back of the armor that not only absorbs mana from the air, but also directly from inserted and replaceable monster cores.

"You good?"

"Yeah the system is working you can let go now mom."

Helping her daughter put on the 70 kilo chestplate, she made sure to confirm that the strengthening runes worked as they should before letting go as the weight would likely break Tia's back if that wasn't the case. After getting the boots, greaves, skirt and chest piece on Tia put on a bright red cape and walked out into the garden

"I'm off"

"See you later~"

Tia concentrated for a moment, then she jumped. Landing on the innermost wall of Kingssted some 500 meters away, before jumping again out of Eva's line of sight.

"Good luck."

Kingssted or the capital city as others would call it is the largest city in the kingdom and home of the current ruler of the kingdom. The city is home to about a million and separated by 3 layers of 200 meter high walls with the giant royal castle in the center. To feed such a large population the surrounding square kilometers are filled to the brim with farms and dairies. Finally sporting those green fields as she gently landed on the outermost wall, Tia took a quick breather as she could finally see her destination.

"What are you doing here!? This wall is restricted area!"

Her break was short lived however, as a wall guard spotted her sitting on the edge of the wall and taking in the scenery.

"Hey! Are you ignoring me!? Get down her-"

As the guard seemingly had an aneurysm over Tia ignoring him, what appeared to be his superior ran up behind him and smashed his head into the floor.

"I sincerely apologize miss royal guard! Please don't mind us and stay as long as want!"

"Royal!-"

Realising his mistake all the color drained from the younger guards face as his head once more hit the stone floor by the hand of his superior.

"Please don't mind us, I'll make sure to personally discipline this idiot."

"I don't really mind.."

"Thank you for your mercy!"

Bowing so deeply he almost hit the floor himself the senior guard dragged his pa.s.sed out subordinate away.

(This place is loud…)

While there are countless elite military organizations in the kingdom that demand respect, The royal guard stands at the very top. Each of them hand picked from other elite organizations and are each one put through hard and year long training before they are pitted against each other in a series of compet.i.tions and duals being honed down to the elite of elites. The reason for the additional selections has to do with their armeremt, each of them being equipped in the extremely limited and hand crafted full adamant.i.te plate armor.

"Time for work."

Overlooking the fields outside Kingssted a large area had been severely burned by the recent incident. About a month ago something big had crashed outside right outside the city. While a starfall were not out of the ordinary, as it had happened a few times within the last 2000 years. This time was not a normal event however, as not only multiple large impacts had been confirmed and the things that fell had been… Odd. The thing that landed right outside Kingssted was almost a perfect sphere, and the anomalies didn't end there. Deciding that the sphere had to be understood, and before any other countries the king decided to have it hidden away and studied. But studying it proved difficult and in the end a part of the royal guard was tasked for it, along them were Tia, a new member of the royal guard having been chosen for the task due to her absurd magic proficiency. Landing gently outside the enclosure constructed around the sphere as her red cape fluttered in the wind, she was quickly let in and for the first time got to look at her first a.s.signment. It was strange, clearly alien, but also highly ominus and seemed to absorb the surrounding light and gave Tia a indescribable feeling of dread as it seemingly drew her nearer when she looked at it.

"It's all wrong, like a abyss… Or a portal."

"We have been awaiting your arrival miss Tia."

"You are?"

"The head researcher. Until today at least, I hope you'll lead us to glory."

Before she knew it multiple robe clad people stood next to her, the were from the royal academy of magic, and as the head researcher filled Tia in on details she became more and more confused.

"So it's not magic that's making it fly?"

"Yes, that is the only thing we have been able to confirm with certainty so far."

"What's it made of?"

"We have no idea."

"Why?"

"From looking at the side we believe hit the ground it seems completely intact-"

"Why are you only looking at it?"

"Because we have been unable to touch it"

"How?"

"I'm sorry miss Tia, we have been unable to figure out why."

"Please stop with the 'miss'"

Moving closer to the sphere Tia started to feel strange, it started with a slight headache, but when she got to within 20 meters really strange things started to happen.

"What is this?"

"Please be careful mis-"

"Stop with the miss already."

"Sorry.."

Something started to gently push against her, and as Tia tried to move closer it got increasingly intense before she was forced back.

"Mu!"

Tia was a brilliant mage, but as a person she could considered flawed, she was stubborn to an extreme degree.

"But miss Tia it's danger-"

"Shut up."

handing over her red cape to a nearby researcher, Tia activated the strengthening in her armor as the monster cores on her back started to glow fiant red, prompting people near her to back away.

"your just a some ball from s.p.a.ce..."

This time she was surrounded by runic light as her armor slowly powered up, coursing the nearby researchers to back away.

"Round 2."

Disappearing from sight and leaving behind a crater, Tia's second attempt to get close to the sphere and regain her lost pride had an unknown result for the observers as she had completely disappeared from their sight.

"MMmmmmuuuuu!!"

Making a sound akin to a unhappy toddler, Tia had been unsuccessful in running at the sphere and now found her about 50 meters up in the air, haven been launched into the air by some unseen force. Slowing her descend with magic she had jumped from a nearby field and scared the s.h.i.+t out of a couple farmers.

"Round!.. 3!"

This time Tia had figured she would try and reach the sphere from the from the top. The result were Tia ungratefully face planting in the dirt and finding that the field did indeed extend to above it, her life only being saved by her fast reaction time and her overengineered armor.

"It seems the field or whatever it is extends above and presumably below it too"

Standing once more in from of the strange sphere (This time covered in dirt) Tia seemed a bit annoyed as she discussed its effects with the head researcher.

"It would seem so mis-"

"Call me Tia."

"T-Tia."

"Good.. It would also seem that whatever the effect is it increases in power the higher speed you approach it at."

"It would seem so mis- I mean T-Tia."

"Have you tried to shot it with magic yet?"

"N-no not yet.."

"Let's try that then."

"Please limit it from tactical cla.s.s magic miss Tia."

"Get behind me or I can't guarantee your safety."

"Pleas-"

"Stand back or there a possibility you won't survive"

Realizing she couldn't make Tia change her mind the head researcher face paled.

"TACTICAL MAGIC! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!"

Shouting at the top of her lungs the head researcher ran away from Tia and jumped to the ground, as did everyone else in the area.

"Anything above this might be a bit much…"

Deciding to limit her power just a tiny bit, Tia's armor lit up as she poured her mana into her adamant.i.te mana circuit producing a quiet humm, as if it was responding with glee from its master demanding the highest magnitude of destruction. The effective use of magic to combat hostiles has a clear rankings in the kingdom armed forces, and tactical magic is at the very top. Staving the mana of the entire surrounding area Tia seemed to have no problem with a concentration that would make a normal mage pa.s.s out. After about a second of channeling mana it seemed to disappear form the area as if it was consumed and refined with brutal efficiency by Tia's ability as a mage.

"Round 4."

Having completed her spell Tia held out her hand, making the surrounding researchers cover their ears as they prayed to whatever G.o.d they believed in to survive. The effect of the magic formation was a tiny clear crystal forming at the tip of her extended hand.

"A p-pure mana crystal!"

Monster cores could be considered crystals made from mana but they are impure, about 20 to 50% purity, for a reason that seemed decided by the G.o.ds. Crystals made from pure mana are highly unstable, and had a highly unpleasant tendency to blow up in a awesome manner when disturbed, a tendency Tia was exploiting. Launching the crystal at the sphere Tia immediately casted a defensive ward as she was within range of the blast.

That day the town of Kingssted shock. A high powered magic spell had been confirmed, the shockwave alone sent pregnant women all over the capital into early labor and martial law had to be invoked to quell the following panic. A statement from the country had to be issued, but it only proved to be a poorly veiled excuse for something the king and his counsel wanted to keep hidden.