Chapter 1074: Last of the Last Days
“When you called this a ‘city ark’, this wasn’t what I was expecting,” Anastasios stated good-naturedly as he stared at the enormous ark in front of him.
Beside him stood Leon, Eva—the Grand Druid—and the small number of attendants from their respective Empires who had agreed to follow them into the Nexus. In total, their entourages together were less than fifty people.
“The ark is designed to build a city,” Leon explained, “not be a city. That would be a bit beyond us, even now.”
From the cliffs, they watched as the city ark ran through several engine tests. It was an enormous machine, larger even than two of the new carriers put together. It compared favorably in size to many Thunderbird arks, if not in power—due to its role as a support ark, it was lightly armed and armored.
Nearly all arks designed to be flown on a plane were roughly arrowhead-shaped, with some longer and narrower and others shorter and wider. The city ark almost broke that trend, trending so long and narrow that it almost appeared more like a cylinder than an arrowhead. It had been built in multiple distinct sections, each one lined up behind the others and fitted together, with the majority of the crew quarters at the fore of the ark and the cargo and magical machinery located toward the rear.
Leon understood why the term ‘city ark’ made it seem like it was a city that flew, but in reality, the city ark was simply a massive cargo and transport ark. The vast majority of what was being brought to the Nexus would be carried within the ark. In fact, Anastasios, Eva, the Director, and many of the other more important people that Leon was bringing along on the expedition would be housed within the city ark.
After all, as much as he may trust Anastasios and Eva, war arks weren’t their place in his fleet. They weren’t in his army and would probably get in the way more than help if they were located elsewhere in the fleet. At least this way, Leon figured, they could protect the city ark, the expedition’s most important asset.
Further down the cliffs, Leon spied the Director standing with Penelope, watching the same tests. In a large public ceremony three weeks prior to this test, the Director had formally handed his title and position over to Narses the White. The Director was, in short, no longer ‘the Director’, though Leon was still having some trouble thinking of him by his name more than his former title.
“Given what’s been built so far,” Eva whispered, “I wouldn’t have been that surprised if you had built an ark into a city…”