Chapter 129: Bio-mechanical symbiosis
Iron stood knee-deep in the disassembled parts of the "Boar." On the workbenches lay pistons, bent rods, and sheets of old armor blackened with soot.
He wiped his oily palm on his pants and pressed his left hand to the massive steel spar. Lumon immediately responded.
"You'll grow into it up to your elbow soon," a quiet voice came from a dark corner of the workshop.
Noah was sitting on a tool box, tossing a short curved dagger in his hand.
"Why did you come?" Iron asked.
Noah jumped down to the floor and came closer. He placed three blades of the College "Cleansers" on the workbench, which he had intercepted during the night at the northern outpost.
"I thought you might need this junk. So I came," he said.
Iron took one of the daggers. Lumon issued an instant analysis: an alloy with a high content of absorbing isotopes. An ideal insulator.
"It will be useful. I'll add this to the cabin plating."
"Master Iron! It... won't obey me!" Darwin's cry came from the adjacent compartment.
Iron sighed and headed toward the apprentice. Darwin stood before a new automatic hammer that Iron had connected directly to the Heart line. The hammer descended onto the workpiece at the exact moment Darwin brought the tongs, and froze a fraction of a millimeter from his fingers the moment the boy hesitated.
"It's as if it's mocking me," Darwin panted, wiping sweat from his forehead. "I just think about needing to strike harder, and it slows down. I'm getting confused!"
Iron approached the control panel, which only recognized his biometrics. "The hammer is tuned to the rhythm of the Heart. You don't need to adapt to it, you need to catch this rhythm. Just do your job and don't be afraid."
"Easy for you to say," Darwin muttered, but picked up the tongs again.
By noon, Elyria came to the workshop. She looked tired. Her green cloak was stained with tree resin, and dry leaves were tangled in her hair.
"Your 'beast' is hot, Iron," she said, pointing to the disassembled chassis of the machine. "The energy of the Heart is too... sharp for it."
"I know," Iron frowned, looking at the heat exchanger. "Ordinary oil boils in five minutes. Water cooling can't keep up. I need a different heat conductor."
Elyria walked over to the frame of the "Boar" and placed her hand on the cold steel.
"Let me."
She formed several living sprouts and began to carefully weave the roots into the system of copper cooling tubes. The roots, feeling the proximity of the energy source, began to wrap around the metal on their own, creating a living braid.
"Now it will breathe through the earth," Elyria whispered. "When the machine begins to heat up, the sap in the roots will take away the heat and distribute it across the entire plating. It's like... skin. The metal will become warm, but it won't melt anymore."
Lumon confirmed: heat exchange efficiency had increased threefold. Bio-mechanical symbiosis.
The clatter of hooves and the squeak of expensive springs forced Iron to look up from his work. A carriage procession pulled up to the workshop gates.
Count Wayland, dressed in his strictest coat, walked in front, and next to him strode... Baron von Stein, Imperial Inspector. He was accompanied by four guardsmen in mirror-polished cuirasses.
"...and I assure you, Baron, that all rumors of 'illegal research' are merely the fabrications of envious people," Wayland was saying. "We are simply carrying out a planned modernization of the city lighting."
Stein did not listen. He stopped at the threshold of the workshop and raised his monocle, examining the glowing blue cables running underground.
"Modernization, you say?" The baron's voice was grating. "Count, I have not seen such 'lighting' even in the capital university. And I doubt that your... municipal budget allows for the purchase of such technologies."
He shifted his gaze to Iron, who stood by the disassembled "Boar", wiping his hands with a dirty rag.
"And this, I presume, is that very 'master alchemist'?" Stein cast a contemptuous glance over Iron. "Looks more like a stoker."
"First, I am an engineer. And second, stop wasting my time. If you have no complaints about the durability of the pavements, I would ask you not to interfere."
Walter, who was walking beside him, turned pale and began frantically gesturing behind the inspector's back, desperately urging Iron to be prudent. Wayland, however, merely smirked.
"My complaints are with your taxes and compliance with imperial standards," Stein took a step further into the workshop, but stopped immediately.
"It's very dusty here, Baron," Noah said quietly. "Expensive clothes are easily ruined. Be careful."
Stein hesitated. He looked once more at the frame of the "Boar", Elyria's glowing roots, and at Iron.
"I will return tomorrow, Count," the inspector snapped. "By then, I will prepare a list of documents. And I highly recommend your... personnel behave in a more appropriate manner."
Once the procession was out of sight, Wayland sighed heavily.
"Why can't we just eliminate him," the Count uttered. "And also, Master Iron, I understand your exhaustion, but could you please be more polite. After all, our future depends on this."
"Yes, you are right, Your Excellency, I will be careful from now on," Iron said, returning to the workshop.
Work continued all through the night. Darwin fell asleep right on a pile of rags, Elyria dozed, leaning against the roots of the Oak, and Noah disappeared—simply disappeared. Lumon transmitted data to Iron about the completion of the assembly.
[RESONANCE COLOSSUS INSTALLATION: Complete]
[STATUS: Standby mode. Energy consumption: 0.02%]
[SYSTEM READINESS: 100%]
He sat in the driver's seat. Instead of levers and pressure gauges, there were now touch panels and a projection output directly into his brain through Lumon.
He pressed "start."
The "Boar" shuddered, and the blue veins on its sides flared with a steady azure light. The living roots woven into the plating turned green, pumping the coolant.
Iron turned on the stealth mode, utilizing those very melted-down Cleanser daggers. The machine began to shimmer, its contours becoming blurred. In the darkness of the workshop, the huge five-meter tank became almost invisible.
In the morning, Baron von Stein, accompanied by Wayland, arrived at the workshop again.
"So, Master Iron," he began, entering the courtyard. "Show me your..."
He cut himself off. The workshop was empty. The gates were wide open, and in the center of the yard there was nothing but an empty space where the frame of the machine had stood yesterday.
"Where is it? Iron. Where did the hauler go?"
The baron sneered.
"Apparently, your praised engineer fled, taking..."
At that moment, the air right behind Stein's back vibrated. A quiet click was heard, and out of thin air, the "Boar 2.0" noiselessly emerged.
A huge black hull of matte metal and pulsing blue veins loomed over the inspector. The gun turret turned smoothly, locking onto a button of his coat. In the cabin, behind the armored glass, the baron saw Iron.
Baron Stein backed away, tripped over a stone, and collapsed into the mud, dropping his notebook.
"Modernization is complete," Iron's voice came from the machine's speakers. "I am ready for field trials."