Kaito’s Room — Imdiately After the Summoning
Kaito felt his knees weaken.
The ritual had taken more than the previous tis.
Much more.
He staggered, steadying himself on the desk.
Adelheid caught him imdiately.
"Kaito? Are you alright?"
"I... yes. Just... dizzy."
But it was more than dizziness.
Sothing had changed.
Subtly.
As if certain colors were now slightly duller.
Certain emotions... distant.
But also...
He looked at Aurelia, who was studying the battlefield with a strange device.
And he felt sothing new.
Fascination.
Not the normal fascination of curiosity.
But a chanical fascination.
As if a part of his brain now processed the world in terms of systems, efficiencies, optimizations.
He saw Aurelia tracing calculations in the air with a glowing finger.
And he understood.
Not completely. But more than he should.
"She’s... calculating ballistic trajectories. Structural stress points. The chemical composition of the terrain."
Adelheid stared at him.
"How do you know that?"
Kaito blinked.
"I... I don’t know. I can just... see it."
Aurelia turned, noticing him.
"OH! Interesting! The summoning created a cognitive link!"
She ran to Kaito, looking at him with manic intensity.
"You can see my calculations? Understand my processes?"
"Partially. Like... shadows of understanding."
"PERFECT! That makes communication EASIER!"
Aurelia touched his forehead with a finger.
A spark of energy.
Kaito saw... everything.
Blueprints exploding in his mind. Designs of machines that had never existed. Chemical formulas that defied logic.
It was...
Beautiful.
Terrifying.
Addictive.
"Kaito."
Lilith’s voice, concerned.
"Your eyes. They’re... different."
Kaito looked at himself in the nearby mirror.
His eyes — normally brown — now had a hint of green in the iris.
The sa green as Aurelia’s eyes.
"It’s... temporary. I think."
Aurelia laughed.
"Or permanent! Who knows! Summoning is an INEXACT SCIENCE!"
"But it doesn’t matter now. WE HAVE A BATTLE TO WIN!"
She pointed toward the window.
"I need materials! Iron! Wood! Gunpowder, if you have any!"
"And oil! LOTS of oil!"
"And... chemicals! Sulfur! Saltpeter! Charcoal!"
Kaito, processing with a new clarity, responded.
"The western warehouse. It has everything, except gunpowder. We don’t have that."
"Doesn’t matter! I’ll MAKE MY OWN GUNPOWDER!"
Aurelia ran toward the door.
"Thirty minutes! I’ll give you a SHOW!"
And she disappeared.
Leaving a stunned silence.
Naporia spoke first.
"She’s... intense."
"That’s putting it mildly," Lilith murmured.
Valeria tilted her head.
"But effective. Probably. Her calculations seed solid."
Adelheid looked at Kaito with concern.
"How do you feel? Really."
Kaito considered it.
"Different. As if... a part of now thinks like her. In equations. Efficiencies."
He touched his chest.
"And other things... feel more distant. Less... important."
"What things?"
Kaito tried to articulate it.
"I’m not sure yet. But... it’s as if specific emotions are... dampened."
Adelheid squeezed his hand.
"We’ll face it. Together."
Kaito nodded.
But then a wave of dizziness hit him.
The cost of the fifth summoning finally catching up.
"I need to... sit down..."
He collapsed.
Adelheid caught him, lowering him carefully.
"Kaito!"
"I’m... fine... just..."
His eyes closed.
Unconsciousness took him.
The last thing he saw:
The four queens looking at him with concern.
And in his mind, still processing with a strange clarity:
Aurelia will build the victory.
I paid the price.
It’s worth it.
...Isn’t it?
---
Main Warehouse — Aurelia in Action
Aurelia arrived at the warehouse like a whirlwind.
The guards tried to stop her.
"Halt! Who are you?"
"A newly summoned one! Here to SAVE THE DAY!"
"Now MOVE!"
She pushed them aside (surprisingly strong for her small size).
She started grabbing materials.
Iron. Wood. Oil. Everything into a large cart.
Drake arrived, gasping.
"What are you doing?"
"BUILDING! What else?"
Aurelia pointed at the battlefield, visible in the distance.
"Twelve hundred enemies! We need a FORCE MULTIPLIER!"
"Fortunately, I’m an EXPERT at that!"
Drake, confused but seeing the urgency, helped.
"What exactly do you need?"
"ALL of this, to the field! On the west side! NOW!"
"And look for chemicals. Sulfur, saltpeter, charcoal."
"If you don’t have any, look for wood ash and... never mind! I’LL MAKE IT!"
She ran off again.
Drake looked at the guards.
"Help her. I think."
---
Battlefield — Twenty Minutes Later
Aurelia arrived at the field like a gale-force wind.
A cart full of materials. Unlimited energy.
Naporia, bleeding but still fighting, saw her.
"Who the hell...?"
"The new queen! Here to CHANGE EVERYTHING!"
Aurelia assessed the situation in three seconds.
The second line was collapsing. Valeria was holding alone. The enemies were pressing.
"Perfect! The IDEAL scenario for a demonstration!"
She began to work.
Her hands moved with a speed that seed impossible.
She took iron. Bent it — with her bare hands — shaping it specifically.
The Synergist power activated.
tal fused without heat. Woods joined without nails.
She was creating... sothing.
Nearby soldiers watched with fascination and confusion.
"What’s she building?"
"I have no idea."
But Aurelia knew.
In ten minutes, she had created three devices.
tal tubes. Mounted on wooden supports. At a perfectly calculated angle.
Primitive catapults.
But they weren’t normal.
These used compressed air pressure — a chanism she had invented on the spot.
She loaded the projectiles.
Iron spheres wrapped in oil-soaked cloth.
She lit one.
"FIRE!"
The device launched the sphere with a force rivaling a traditional catapult.
But much faster.
The sphere struck the Kalthor formation.
Exploded in flas — the oil spreading.
Twenty soldiers scread and retreated.
"NEXT!"
Second sphere. Third.
Each sowed chaos.
The Kalthor soldiers, who had never seen anything like it, began to retreat.
Panic spread.
Naporia, seeing the opportunity, shouted.
"CHARGE! WHILE THEY’RE CONFUSED!"
The second line — inspired by these impossible weapons — charged with renewed energy.
But Aurelia wasn’t finished.
"That’s the APPETIZER! Now, the MAIN COURSE!"
She ran to where Valeria was holding.
Fifty soldiers were pressing her.
"VALERIA! RETREAT FIVE TERS! NOW!"
Valeria, instinctively trusting, obeyed.
Aurelia threw sothing on the ground.
A jar of liquid.
It shattered.
DENSE smoke exploded.
It wasn’t normal smoke.
It was a chemical she had synthesized in ten minutes.
The fifty soldiers were blinded instantly.
Coughing. Crying. Disoriented.
"NOW! COUNTERATTACK!"
Valeria charged from within the smoke.
The axe cut through soldiers who couldn’t see.
In thirty seconds, thirty of the fifty had fallen.
The rest fled.
---
Fifteen Minutes More — An Impossible Victory
The combination of Aurelia’s impossible weapons and Neudämrung’s renewed morale completely changed the battle.
The air-pressure catapults continued bombarding.
Aurelia created more — six in total — in record ti.
Chemical smoke deployed at strategic points.
And then, her pièce de résistance.
A flammable oil barrier.
She poured entire barrels forming a line in front of the Kalthor troops.
She lit it.
WHOOOOSH.
A fifty-ter wall of fire.
It split the battlefield.
Trapped three hundred Kalthor soldiers on the wrong side.
The Kalthor commander, seeing the situation, made a decision.
Retreat.
He raised the flag.
His troops — those that could — fled.
Leaving behind two hundred dead.
Three hundred captured.
And a battlefield transford into a sci-fi landscape.
Adelheid, who had returned after making sure Kaito was stable, watched with a stunned expression.
"She... won the battle. In twenty minutes."
Naporia, covered in blood (mostly not her own), laughed incredulously.
"With devices she built from SCRAP."
Lilith looked at Aurelia — who was inspecting her catapults with evident satisfaction.
"She’s... terrifying."
Valeria nodded.
"But effective."
Aurelia noticed them watching.
She ran over, smiling widely.
"IT WORKED! I KNEW IT!"
"Basic principles of applied physics! Combustion chemistry! Panic psychology!"
"ALL TOGETHER create VICTORY!"
She spun in a circle, arms outstretched.
"And this is just the BEGINNING!"
"With more ti! More materials! I can build WONDERS!"
"OR HORRORS. Depends on what you need!"
Adelheid approached cautiously.
"Aurelia. Thank you. You saved... everything."
Aurelia looked at her with bright eyes.
"You’re welco! It’s what I do!"
Then, more seriously (relatively).
"How’s Kaito? The summoner?"
"Unconscious. But stable."
"Mmm. The fifth summoning is HEAVY."
Aurelia touched her chest.
"It took sothing from him. It always does."
"What did it take?"
Aurelia tilted her head, thinking.
"I’m not sure exactly. But... based on the cognitive link I felt..."
"Probably, emotional capacity. Specifically... emotional attachnt to outcos."
She saw the confusion on their faces.
"Let explain. Before, Kaito would feel DISTRESS seeing soldiers die."
"Now... he’ll feel that it’s a PROBLEM that needs a SOLUTION."
"Less emotion. More... calculation."
Adelheid felt a chill.
"So he becos more like... a machine?"
"Not exactly! He still feels. Just... differently."
Aurelia smiled — but this ti, there was a hint of sadness.
"It’s the cost. Each summoning rips away a piece of humanity."
"Over ti... well. Let’s hope it doesn’t reach that point."
She walked away, going back to inspect her devices.
The four queens exchanged glances.
All thinking the sa thing.
What have we created?
What has it cost?
And was it worth it?
The answers would co.
But not today.
Today, they had won.
Against impossible odds.
With a fifth queen who was brilliant, chaotic, and slightly terrifying.
And Kaito...
Kaito had paid the price.
Again.
---
Kaito’s Room — Hours Later
Kaito woke slowly.
Vision blurry. Head aching.
Adelheid was by the bed, holding his hand.
"You’re awake."
"What... happened?"
"We won. Aurelia... did impossible things."
Adelheid explained briefly.
Kaito listened, processing.
And he noticed sothing.
He should feel relief. Joy. Deep gratitude.
Instead, he felt... satisfaction.
As if he’d solved a problem.
Completed an equation.
He didn’t feel the emotion of victory.
Only... the recognition of a favorable outco.
"Kaito? Are you alright?"
He looked at Adelheid.
He felt affection. That was clear.
But it was... different.
Calr. Less intense.
"Yes. Just... processing."
Adelheid touched his cheek.
"Do you still love ?"
It was a question that needed an answer.
Kaito considered it honestly.
"Yes. But... it feels different. As if..."
He searched for the words.
"...as if love is observed from a slight distance. Still real. Just... less urgent."
Adelheid felt tears threaten, but held them back.
"I understand."
She leaned in and kissed him.
Kaito returned the kiss.
And he felt sothing.
Not as much as before.
But sothing.
Enough.
Let’s hope it’s enough.
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