The Devil's Evolution Catalog

In the blink of an eye, three months of research and development were over and done with. The magitek armor was complete, and ready for testing tomorrow.

During these three months, our uninvited researcher, the ever talkative Redleaf, wasn’t entirely a nuisance as she first seemed. While she might have griped about the armor at first, the moment she realized this was to be my personal suit, she promptly changed her tune, even going so far as to improve the suit.

Although, if we were being perfectly honest here, she was more focused on making it beautiful. And thanks to that, our development was lengthened by half a month…

In her own words, a lumbering hunk of metal like that is an affront to our Nana’s beauty. But what would you expect from Stubby? His sense of beauty is even more non-existent than his height. Now, step aside and let a master work!

Just like that, the lab created a three meter tall suit of armor, covered from head to toe in red dragon scales, forged to slender elegance, sporting a resplendent set of 72 red metallic rhombohedrons arranged like wings.

It was a work of art, undoubtedly. Even those red metallic rhombohedrons were covered in red dragon scales, giving the entire armor a draconic warrior-esque look.

The main reactor of this armor was the crystalline core of a red dragon overlord. Thanks to dragons being innately replete with mana, the capacity of this dragon crystal was five to ten times that of an equivalent magical beast crystal. The internal structure itself was forged from the bones of a red dragon, and if one were to count in the red dragon scales painstakingly arranged by Redleaf, this was truly a red dragon in all but name… a moment of silence for our brave comrade’s sacrifice…

No wonder dragons have always hated humans… eating their meat and drinking blood probably didn’t help either…

Aesthetics aside, the main weapon was a pure-red dragonslayer greatsword measuring 350 cm in length, 290 cm for its blade, and 30 cm wide. In exchange for this weapon, and in no small part due to Redleaf nudging the dwarven meister, I was to screen ten movies for the master blacksmith.

Naturally, the weapon was steeped in dragon blood, an epic-grade weapon, through and through.

This massive weapon was actually forged by Meister Belud when he still wasn’t a meister. In order to earn that prestigious title, he wanted to forge a great weapon, thus he came up with this dragonslayer greatsword. Back then, he was hailed as a genius blacksmith amongst the dwarves, and that pushed him to seek to create a great weapon as proof of his worthiness to the title.

Unfortunately, the resulting weapon wasn’t an epic-grade. Even with all the precious materials and effort he poured into the weapon, he failed. The shock struck him like lightning.

But the genius that he was soon thought of a solution for this problem: steeping the weapon in the blood of a powerful magical beast to enhance it.

As ambitious as ever, he wanted only the best for his weapon. Thus did he decide to use a pureblood red dragon’s blood.

However, a pureblooded dragon’s blood was exceedingly rare. Most such dragons live on the Dragon Isles, only a scant few ever roam outside of those islands. Even then, they tended to be discreet. Such dragons weren’t allowed to be hunted, so to speak, lest one incurred the wrath of the Dragon Isles. There was once a kingdom that dared flout this rule, and it was now history.

The only dragons that could be hunted were those that had been exiled to the human realms, perhaps for their evil deeds, or whatnot. These dragons did not enjoy the protection of the Dragon Isles, not unless they somehow managed to prove their worth once more.

A dragon may prove their worth by successfully becoming a Demigod. The elders and Dragon King were all Demigods. An alternative would be to survive 100 years of being hunted in the human realms… an option that was in no way less difficult than becoming a Demigod, but it was an alternative.

However, the fact that dragons had such an alternative would imply they had prior arrangements with the various major races of the world to help them punish said dragons.

Yet such an arrangement was also a testament to how their race did not wish to execute one of their own, not without the most egregious of reasons. The birth rates amongst the dragons had always been chronically low. Thanks to that, their population number was always a precarious balancing game.

Bringing all that back to the present, the whole reason why Meister Belud was serving in the kingdom of Andasssis was all because of our brave comrade, the Red Dragon…

In fact, the dragonslayer greatsword in question was the very weapon used to slay our dear comrade. The boiling fresh blood washed over the massive weapon by a tidal wave, enhancing it to an epic-grade weapon in one fell swoop!

Even so, the Meister had to serve as the kingdom’s head blacksmith for twenty as part of his deal.

The weapon itself was fashioned with brute force in mind. Other than its unparalleled sharpness quality, the blade would be wreathed in flames when swung, causing severe burns on any target struck. Naturally, this greatsword was extra lethal to dragonkind, though it was also effective against other larger magical beasts, albeit at a lower rate. And to top it all off, this greatsword had the ability to summon a dragon soul to its wielder’s aid, though it required an inordinate amount of mana.contemporary romance

Other than the dragonslayer greatsword, the magitek armor came equipped with magical arrays hidden beneath shoulder flaps that functioned as mana cannons.

Essentially, these mana cannons fired off projectiles of pure mana –Arcane Bolts

As an offensive spell, Arcane Bolt wasn’t particularly exceptional. But thanks to Ferti’nier’s adjustments to the arrays, and the fact that the armor’s mana reactor was an overlord dragon’s crystal, the improved mana cannons were able to fire out Arcane Bolts the size of a football -more than enough to kill off a fully armed two-star warrior. More importantly, these projectiles had an additive effect on subsequent hits. As long as the projectiles kept peppering this same target, the projectiles would grow more powerful with each hit. Theoretically, one could fire off these projectiles in a fully-automatic manner and defeat any foe.

Next were the 72 rhombohedrons metallic plates that functioned as wings. Naturally, these were modelled after an angel’s wings, with each rhombohedron being 35 cm long. These were known as the Wings of Heavensbreak, a very imposing name… one that Belud and Redleaf argued over for three whole days. In fact, Meister Belud only won the naming rights after offering up his masterpiece greatsword for what was essentially free. He just felt the name suited the armor better.

That was definitely a scam… it did not matter that Belud was grinning from ear to ear when he heard he was going to watch ten movies…

And honestly, this obsession with heavens was bordering on unhealthy. The market nowadays was either “Blazing Heavens” this or “Defying the Heavens” that…

But back to more important matters, the Heavensbreak system of 72 metallic rhombohedrons were the most unique weapon system equipped on this magitek armor. They could split up into 72 individual blades that could be fired at enemies. They could form up into a floating shield or even to slice. Truly, a perfect marriage of form and function… which was only to be expected, given it was designed by Redleaf. I bet in her elven eyes, the former was the most important factor.

As a whole, my personal magitek armor had other idiosyncrasies, but that was for another day. It was just strong, and that was what mattered. Defensively, it had the scales of an overlord dragon, enhanced by a hardening array Ferti’nier gave to me, which I handed to Redleaf.

Speaking of this array, Redleaf was beside herself when she learnt of it. Not only did she engrave every single scale with that array, she did so happily. Thanks to her hard work, I merely had to expand some mana to resist the Territory of an overlord.

This unique ability was named the pseudo-Territory resistance by Ferti’nier. But despite her assurances, there was no telling how true this ability was to its namesake till we actually tested it. And tomorrow was the date of that test -kind of exciting, actually.

“How about a christening? Even without a test, I’m sure this magitek armor would perform admirably!”

As I gazed at the towering red suit of armor before me, my eyes glistened with excitement. If I could, I would ride it into battle right now!

“How about the Adamantite King?” The dwarven meister immediately perked up when he heard we were naming it. “That’s an impressive-sounding name!”

“As if!” Redleaf objected. “How about the Draconic Hero? It’s an armor made of a red dragon, it only stands to reason that the name fits this!”

“Maybe not… The name just doesn’t sit well with me.”

Hero… aren’t they supposed to kill devils?

“Hah! Lady Mo Na doesn’t like your names either.”

“Shut up, Stubby.”

“Like my short legs ever blocked you from watching a movie!”

“Like I ever cared. I just don’t like Stubbies like you!”

“You looking for a fight?”

“Bring it on!”

“All right, that’s enough! Otherwise no one is watching a movie tonight.”

The two of them immediately fell silent… Geez, why do I always get stuck with people who can’t seem to think of a good name…

It was then that I noticed the smiling elderly man watching us from the sidelines.

That’s right… There's still one more person here. I can ask him for his opinion. No matter how you cut it, Meister Amori seems like a cultured man.

“Meister Amori, would you happen to have any suggestion for the name?

As if he was waiting for this very moment, Amori broke into a wider grin and nodded. “Since Lady Mo Na has requested of me as such, then may I first start by asking what is the purpose of this armor?”

done.co