Chapter : 1973
"I try to be the Earth," she said softly. "I try to be the ground you stand on. I try to be steady. But even the earth gets cold when the sun goes down."
She leaned forward, her eyes shining with excitement.
"But Airin..." Mina said the name like it was the answer to a riddle. "You told me she has a Solar Core. You told me she creates light."
"She does," Lloyd confirmed. "She turned herself into a mirror to reflect a plasma beam. She is... brilliant."
"Exactly," Mina said. "She is the Light of the Sun. She is the missing piece, Lloyd. Don't you see it?"
She used her hands to draw a picture in the air.
"A house made of Steel and Ice and Earth is strong," she said. "But it is dark. It is a tomb. But if you bring the Sun inside... suddenly, the Steel shines. The Ice sparkles and melts just enough to be water. The Earth grows flowers."
She laughed, delighted by her own metaphor.
"She balances us," Mina declared. "She balances you. You need someone who is warm but not burning. You need someone who brings light without judgment. If she is truly the woman from your memories... then she is the only one who can sit in a room with you and Rosa and make it feel like a home instead of a war room."
Lloyd sat back, stunned by her wisdom. He had been looking at this as a problem to be solved—how to keep everyone from killing each other. But Mina saw it as a recipe. She saw it as chemistry.
"You are amazing," Lloyd said.
"I know," Mina replied with a wink. "That's why you married me."
She took a sip of her milk and sighed contentedly.
"This is good," she said. "This means we are stable. The domestic front is secure."
"The Council of Queens," Lloyd muttered, half-joking.
"Yes," Mina agreed seriously. "The Council of Queens. We will manage the house. We will manage the politics. We will manage you."
She reached out and patted his knee.
"You have a war to fight, Lloyd," she said. Her voice turned serious again. "The Fire Fly Corporation. The Seventh Circle. Those monsters aren't going to wait for us to settle our marriage disputes. They are coming."
Lloyd’s face hardened. The softness of the moment faded, replaced by the cold focus of the commander.
"They are," he agreed. "And they are stronger than anything we have faced before."
"Then you need to focus," Mina said. "You cannot be worried about whether I am jealous or whether Faria is angry. You need to have a clear head. You need to know that when you turn your back to go fight, your home is solid."
She looked at him with absolute confidence.
"Bring Airin here," she commanded. "Let us form the full circle. Let us build this fortress of hearts so that you can go out and be the monster you need to be to save the world."
Lloyd stood up. He walked to the window and looked out at the darkening grounds of the estate. He could see the lights of the manufactory in the distance, where his alchemists were building weapons. He could see the walls where his guards patrolled.
For the first time since he arrived in this world, he didn't feel like a man juggling spinning plates. He didn't feel like he was one mistake away from everything crashing down.
He felt anchored.
He had the Steel of his own will. He had the Earth of Mina’s love. He had the Fire of Faria and the Wind of Amina. And soon, he would have the Sun of Airin. Even the memory of Rosa, the Ice, felt less like a wound and more like a part of the foundation that was waiting to be repaired.
He turned back to Mina.
"I will," he said. "I will bring her here tomorrow."
"Good," Mina said. She yawned, tiredness finally catching up with her. "Now, help me up. I need to sleep. And you... you need to go write a letter to the Sultan. If we are adding another wife, we need to make sure your political alliances don't explode."
Lloyd chuckled. He walked over and helped her stand. He walked her to the bed and tucked the blankets around her.
"Sleep well," he whispered.
"You too," she mumbled, her eyes already closing. "Don't stay up too late inventing doomsday devices."
"No promises," Lloyd said.
He kissed her forehead and walked quietly out of the room.
He stood in the hallway for a moment. The house was quiet. But it wasn't the lonely quiet of the past. It was a peaceful quiet. It was the quiet of a house that was full.
Lloyd rolled his shoulders, feeling the tension leave his muscles. The domestic war was won. The peace treaty was signed in his own living room.
He turned and walked toward his study. His step was light. His mind was clear.
Now, he could turn his attention to the real enemy. He could think about the black ships in the sky and the demons in the shadows. He could plan his strategy for the Fire Fly Corporation. He could design the next version of the Aegis suit.
He was Lloyd Ferrum. He was the Lord of the North. And for the first time, he wasn't fighting alone.
He opened the door to his study, sat down at his desk, and pulled a fresh sheet of paper from the stack. He dipped his pen in the ink.
The smile on his face was cold, sharp, and terrifyingly focused.
"Alright," he whispered to the empty room. "Let's go kill some gods."
Chapter : 1974
The sky above the Northern Territory didn’t look like a sky anymore. It looked like a broken television screen.
Instead of the usual deep blue or the gray of storm clouds, the air itself seemed to be flickering. Weird, square grids of light would pop into existence and then vanish, like the world was having a computer glitch. Below this broken sky, the wasteland was silent, except for the heavy, rhythmic thud of metal footsteps.
Lloyd Ferrum stood inside the cockpit of the Aegis Mark I. To anyone looking from the outside, the Aegis was a terrifying monster of matte-black metal, standing twelve feet tall. It didn’t shine in the sunlight; it seemed to eat the light, a dark shadow in the middle of the bright desert.
Inside the suit, Lloyd looked at his screens. His face was lit up by the red glow of his Heads-Up Display (HUD). He wasn't panicking. He wasn't scared. He was bored.
"Target confirmed," Lloyd said. His voice was flat and dry, the same sarcastic monotone he had used for eighty years on Earth and twenty years on this planet. "You’re ugly, you’re loud, and you’re in my way."
Standing about a hundred yards away was his opponent. It was the spearhead of the Fire Fly Corporation’s Alpha Team: Anthony.
If Lloyd’s Aegis suit looked like a tank built for a gritty war, Anthony’s suit looked like a sports car built for a parade. It was called the "Sirius." It was sleek, polished to a mirror finish, and covered in gold and chrome plating. It hovered a few feet off the ground, humming with a sound that made Lloyd’s teeth ache. It didn’t look like it belonged in a fantasy world of swords and magic. It looked like it had flown straight out of a high-budget sci-fi movie.
A voice cracked over Lloyd’s radio. It was amplified by digital filters, sounding crisp and arrogant.
"So, this is the best the locals can do?" Anthony asked. He sounded like a rich kid looking at a cheap toy. "I read your file, Ferrum. You’re playing with sticks and stones. Primitive magic. Do you really think your little achievements matter? In the cosmic market, you’re just a glitch. A rounding error."
Lloyd didn’t bother to respond immediately. He just adjusted a switch on his control panel. He knew exactly what he was looking at. He wasn't looking at a monster or a demon. He was looking at a machine. And Lloyd knew machines better than he knew people.
"Major General," Lloyd whispered to himself, letting his old Earth persona take the wheel. "Let's show the tourist how we do things downtown."
He flipped the switch. The Aegis suit let out a low growl as its systems engaged. The HUD flashed a single word in big, red letters: RETRIBUTION.
Anthony didn't wait. The air around the gold Sirius suit began to warp and twist like heat rising off hot pavement. A massive, twin-linked energy cannon on the suit’s shoulder began to spin. It whined as it charged up.
Boom.
A volley of blue plasma bolts screamed across the canyon. They moved faster than arrows, faster than sound. They were hot enough to melt rock instantly.
Lloyd didn't try to block them with magic. He simply stepped to the side. The Aegis suit moved with surprising grace, its heavy hydraulic legs shifting the tons of metal just enough to let the plasma bolts sail past. They struck the canyon wall behind him, exploding into molten slag.
"You missed," Lloyd said over the radio.
"I wasn't aiming," Anthony replied. "I was calibrating."
Suddenly, the Sirius suit pulsed. A sphere of gray energy expanded outward from Anthony, moving at the speed of light. It washed over the canyon, hitting Lloyd and the Aegis suit instantly.
The effect was immediate and violent.
Lloyd gasped. It felt like someone had wrapped a plastic bag around his soul. The connection to his Spirit Core—the deep, warm well of energy inside him—was suddenly cut off. It was like trying to breathe underwater. He tried to summon his [Steel Blood] to create wires, but nothing happened. He tried to push energy into his [Blue Ring Eyes], but his vision remained normal.
It was the "Anti-Mana Field."
In the world of Riverio, this was a death sentence. A mage without mana is just a person in a robe. A warrior without spirit energy is just meat. Anthony laughed over the comms, a cruel, metallic sound.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Chapter : 1975
"How does it feel, wizard?" Anthony taunted. "Your magic is gone. Your gods can't hear you. You are nothing but a man in a metal box."
Lloyd took a deep breath. He checked his physical vitals. His heart was beating. His lungs were working. Then he checked the suit’s diagnostics.
Fuel levels: 98%.
Hydraulic pressure: 100%.
Physical ammunition: Loaded.
A slow, cold smile spread across Lloyd’s face inside the helmet.
Anthony had made a critical mistake. He assumed Lloyd was a mage. He assumed Lloyd relied on the "primitive magic" of this world. But Lloyd was KM Evan. He had built the Aegis suit for exactly this moment. He had built it to be an atheist in a world of gods.
The Aegis didn't run on mana. It ran on oil, gears, pistons, and physics.
"You're right, Anthony," Lloyd said, his voice calm and deadly. "I am just a man in a metal box. But this box hits really, really hard."
Lloyd slammed the throttles forward. The Aegis suit didn't need magic to move. Massive engines roared to life, dumping raw power into the legs. The black suit launched forward, tearing up the ground beneath it.
Anthony was surprised. He tried to bring his cannons around, but Lloyd was already inside his guard.
CLANG.
The sound was deafening. Lloyd drove a metal fist the size of a beer keg into the gold chest of the Sirius suit. Metal screamed against metal. The impact didn't use magic; it used simple, brutal momentum. The Sirius suit was knocked backward, skidding through the dirt.
Lloyd didn't stop. He followed up with a hydraulic-assisted elbow strike, smashing into the enemy’s shoulder. Sparks flew like fireworks.
"Physics," Lloyd grunted as he landed another punch, "doesn't care about your anti-magic field."
________________________________________
Location: Northern Territory Wasteland – Sky Canyon
Time: Babylon Calendar Year: 2512, Month: Rain (May), Day: 27th
Characters: Lloyd (Aegis Mark I), Anthony (Fire Fly Alpha Team), Spirit Jasmin
The canyon had turned into a boxing ring for giants.
Dust and smoke filled the air. The ground shook with every step the two machines took. On one side was the Sirius—gold, sleek, and high-tech. On the other was the Aegis—black, bulky, and brutal.
Anthony was losing his cool. He had expected the fight to end the moment he turned on the Anti-Mana Field. He expected Lloyd to collapse, helpless without his magic. Instead, he was getting beaten up by a giant piece of construction equipment.
"Get off me!" Anthony screamed.
The Sirius suit fired its thrusters, blasting backward to create some distance. The gold armor was dented and scratched. The beautiful chrome finish was ruined.
Lloyd stood his ground, the Aegis suit venting steam from its joints. He felt good. He felt alive. For the first time in a long time, he wasn't worrying about spells or curses or ancient prophecies. He was just fighting. It was simple. It was pure.
"What's the matter?" Lloyd asked, checking his fuel gauges. "I thought you corporate guys liked efficiency. I'm being very efficient."
"You're a pest," Anthony growled. "A primitive, annoying pest. I’m done playing with you."
The Sirius suit stopped hovering. It planted its feet firmly on the ground. Panels on its shoulders and chest slid open, revealing cooling vents that glowed white-hot. The massive cannon on its arm began to shift and transform. The barrel extended, locking into place with heavy, mechanical clicks. The air around the weapon began to distort, creating a vacuum.
Lloyd’s warning sensors went crazy. The interior of his cockpit flashed red.
WARNING: HIGH-ENERGY SIGNATURE DETECTED.
WARNING: RAILGUN CHARGE DETECTED.
IMPACT IN 3... 2...
"This is the Plasma-Railgun," Anthony announced, his voice regaining its arrogance. "It draws power directly from my reactor. It fires a bolt of ionized gas at Mach 5. That’s five times the speed of sound, Ferrum. Your metal box can’t stop it. Your armor will vaporize. You are obsolete."
Lloyd’s mind raced. He knew the tech. He recognized the buildup. Anthony was right. The Aegis suit was tough, but it was built to withstand physical hits, not a point-blank shot from a starship-grade weapon. If that beam hit him, he would be turned into a cloud of hot gas.
He couldn't dodge. The suit was heavy, and the railgun locked onto him instantly. He couldn't use his [Steel Blood] to make a shield because the Anti-Mana Field was still active.
He had less than a second to come up with a plan.
Physics, Lloyd thought. Think like an engineer. What beats a laser?
Chapter : 1976
You can’t block a laser with metal. It melts. You can’t block it with rock. It explodes. You need something that doesn't absorb the heat. You need something that moves the light.
He needed a mirror. But not just any mirror. He needed the hardest, clearest mirror in the universe.
"Gambling time," Lloyd whispered.
He reached deep into his soul, bypassing his own blocked mana channels and pulling on a specific bond. The Anti-Mana Field stopped him from projecting energy outward, but it couldn't stop him from summoning a contract that was already signed. It could be different for everyone, but not for Lloyd, because he has multiple powers and spirits.
"Jasmin," Lloyd commanded. "Front and center."
In a flash of light, Spirit Jasmin appeared in front of the Aegis suit.
She didn't look like a ghost or a cloud of smoke. Because she was a Spirit Reconstruction based on physical diamond geometry, she was solid. She looked like a statue carved from the clearest, hardest glass imaginable. Her body was a complex lattice of crystal facets.
The Anti-Mana Field washed over her, but it did nothing. She wasn't made of flowing mana; she was made of hard, cold structure.
Anthony pulled the trigger.
CRACK-BOOM.
The sound was like a thunderclap right next to Lloyd’s ear. A blinding beam of purple and white plasma erupted from the Sirius suit. It tore through the air, burning the oxygen and leaving a vacuum trail behind it. It slammed directly into Jasmin’s chest.
Lloyd braced himself, squeezing his eyes shut behind his helmet visor.
But the explosion didn't happen.
Instead, there was a sound like a thousand church bells ringing at once. A pure, high-pitched ping that vibrated through the canyon.
Jasmin had activated her ultimate defensive art: "Prismatic Mirror."
Her diamond skin didn't melt. It didn't crack. It caught the beam. The light entered her crystalline body and hit the internal angles of her diamond structure. Instead of going straight through, the light bounced. It refracted.
The massive beam hit her chest and split apart. It shattered into a dozen smaller, super-intense lasers that shot out from her body in a starburst pattern.
"What?!" Anthony shouted, blinded by the sudden light show.
The reflected lasers screamed outward in every direction. They didn't hit Lloyd. They hit everything else.
Above the battlefield, Anthony had deployed a dozen small surveillance and tactical drones—little flying robots that were helping him aim. The refracted beams sliced through the air like scissors. They cut through the drones instantly.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
The drones exploded in tiny fireballs, raining burning metal down onto the desert floor. The "Geometric Laser Grid" created by Jasmin cleared the sky in an instant.
The main beam faded. Jasmin stood there, her diamond body glowing with residual heat, but completely unbroken. She was the perfect prism.
Lloyd opened his eyes. He saw the smoking wreckage of the drones. He saw the shocked stillness of the Sirius suit. And he saw his little handmaiden, standing like a wall between him and death.
"Good job, Little Squirrel," Lloyd whispered, a genuine note of pride breaking through his monotone. "Now, it's my turn."
________________________________________
The smoke from the explosion slowly drifted away in the desert wind. The air still smelled like burning ozone and hot metal.
Lloyd Ferrum sat inside the cockpit of his black Aegis suit, watching his gauges settle down. The warning lights that had been flashing red a moment ago were now blinking a steady yellow. His heat levels were high, but manageable.
In front of him, Spirit Jasmin—his diamond shield—gave a small, silent nod. She didn't say anything. She didn't need to. She had done her job perfectly. With a soft shimmer of light, she faded away, returning to the safety of Lloyd’s inner spirit world to recover her energy.
Now, it was just Lloyd and Anthony again.
Across the cratered battlefield, the golden Sirius suit was hovering a few feet off the ground. The machine looked angry. The sleek, shiny gold armor was scorched in places, and small arcs of electricity were jumping across its shoulders. Anthony, the pilot inside, was clearly furious. He had fired his best shot—a weapon meant to destroy fortresses—and a maid made of glass had just brushed it aside.
"Impossible," Anthony’s voice crackled over the radio speakers. He sounded confused, like a man who had just seen a dog fly. "That was a high-density plasma beam. That should have melted anything on this primitive planet. How? How did you stop it?"
