The ballistics crew gathered outside city walls two hours later. The facets had dimmed completely as the clock approached midnight. Bright ethereal lamps lit the ballista as test runes were performed with dun non-runic missiles.

The desert of the Shivell mountains was eerie at night. Dark outlines of sandy hills made out the landscape. The area felt much more closed-in and dungeon-like. A few auras of white wisps wandered aimlessly in the distance, where the landscape was pitch black. Just the usual weak monsters of the desert. Scorpions, lone golems. The monsters were essentially just free ether, nothing to be afraid of, but the sight of monsters in the dark was still oddly uncomfortable.

Vivi was clad in her dress, standing to the side to watch how the missile worked. Somehow, a swordmaiden’s dress just felt right to wear in hostile environments. Her opinion was reinforced after feeling the moonweaver’s silk in combat. The dress not only made her look way more competent than she actually was, it also worked as armor without hindering her movements.

A light coating of ether in the silk also added light around her. Not much, considering that the dress was black and purple, but it was enough for her to see Patryn clearly to her right and Freyven to her left, and the dress made her shine for those that glanced in her direction.

“The demons look nervous,” Lucius said. “I think it’s because of you. They don’t know how to act around you.”

Vivi had the urge to sigh. Maybe the raincoat would have been better, after all. “Are we ready to test it?” she asked Patryn.

“Yes, the calibration looks good, and they’re hitting their targets.” Patryn held the new missile upright like a spear. He stepped forward and said, “Alright, everyone listen up!”

Attention shifted to him. There were thirty or so demons from the ballistics team as well as five maxed-out bodyguards with runeswords, one with a two-runed inside-carved sword.

“We are testing a new missile today, as you have been informed,” Patryn explained, “using a new invention. Weight manipulation. I believe you’ve all read about the concept. With two runes, mass and swiftness, the exact weight of this missile can be adjusted. In theory, at least. Our goal today, or tonight, I should say, is to get this thing properly launched, and hopefully with consistency and accuracy.”

He turned to Vivi and said, “Admittedly, I’m far too tired to understand the missile beyond what you just heard. It is created with inside-carving and designed by Vivian Runeblessed. I’ll, uh, leave the rest of the explanation to you?” He handed over the missile.

Vivi took it, her heart suddenly beating. Lortel’s words appeared in her head. The lecture about Vivi’s public image. Her presence in the city, her ability to command people. The demons in front of her didn’t see her as a bumbling runesmith failing in the low split of the runesmithing competition. They saw her as someone to respect and follow.

“Just speak arrogantly and loudly,” Lucius said. “Doesn’t matter if what you say is correct. As long as you say it like you mean it, they’ll listen. That’s how most leaders gain their respect.”

Shut up, Lucius, Vivi thought.

She held the missile like Patryn had. Proudly, as despite her nervousness about the missile’s effectiveness, she was hopeful to see it fly. “We’re testing a prototype today,” she said, facing the demons. “The world’s first inside-carved missile. It’s built of much heavier and stronger materials, asmite and adamantite, the weight of which we will adjust using the runes. The tip itself is also inside-carved with crush and strength runes. In theory, the missile should be much stronger, maybe even strong enough to pierce a golem’s skin.

“The weight manipulation runes are found at the bottom. The amount of ether in each rune will decide the weight. The crush and strength runes are behind the tip. I don’t recommend initiating them for initial test runs, as a failed launch could cause severe damage.”

What else… Vivi thought. “And, um, admittedly, I am not an expert at ballistics nor missiles. This missile was created with heavy assistance from Freyven and Patryn. All of you will know how to use and launch it better than I.” He held out her arms and the missile and bowed, offering it to the ballistics team. “Please give it a try!”

Lucius sighed in her head. “Vivi, you’re not supposed to bow… Humbleness is not what you’re supposed to use to command people.

”

So I’m just supposed to shout at them? Vivi asked.

“Well, yes,” Lucius said.

Vivi bit her lip at that. That didn’t sound very productive.

Regardless of whether Lucius was right or not, the ballistics team accepted the missile and got to work. Vivi and Freyven watched, while Patryn worked as an operator like he usually did.

Freyven had come up with a good method of getting the weight right. A scale. He placed one of their older missiles, which was confirmed to shoot perfectly, on one side of the large metallic scale, and the inside-carved missile to the other. Without ether, Vivi’s missile was, of course, much heavier, considering its materials.

The demons added ether into the swiftness rune. Instantly, the balance of the scale tipped, and the old missile nearly hit the ground. Vivi had to remind the demons of the potency of inside-carving. The balance of ether running through each rune needed to be accurate within fractions of wisps.

So they began adding ether to the mass runes one fraction at a time. Even that made significant change to the balance of the scale each time a wisp was added. Getting the missiles anywhere close to even in weight took over five minutes.

At that point, Vivi said, “I should mention that it’s best to push at least fifty wisps into both runes. Mass and swiftness runes don’t only manipulate weight. The mass runes also make the metal’s structure stronger, kind of like a strength rune. If the mass rune is filled with ether, the missile will carry much more force. In turn, the swiftness rune needs to be filled to balance the weight back.”

She should have probably mentioned that earlier. But the demons didn’t complain. They bowed and got back to work, fiddling with the runes.

As Vivi watched, an odd thought came to her regarding ether itself. They’re not transferring permanent wisps into the sword. They’re only shaping the ether, just like you do when pushing ether to my body. So will the missile still work once it’s shot?

“Yes, the wisps will continue burning inside even after the missile shoots,” Lucius said.

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But the wisps themselves also don’t leave their cores, Vivi thought. They only get dimmed out. How can the wisps be at two places at once?

“Ah… uh… how do I explain this…” Lucius pondered on it. The thoughts in his head seemed to get twisted. “Shaping wisps is not like transferring them. When shaping ether, the wisp itself never actually leaves the core. The thing that leaves is, uh… The wisp’s powers? The wisp itself stays and repairs itself.”

A convoluted answer, as Vivi could have expected from Lucius. But it somewhat made sense. So in terms of ether’s branches, Vivi thought, when ether is shaped, the branches that contain power are cut off, but the core of the wisp stays, and the branches slowly repair themselves?

“Uh,” Lucius said. “Yes, I think that makes sense?”

Lucius didn’t seem to understand at all. But Vivi could imagine her answer being correct. She’d need to ask the ether scientist, Civar, about it.

After ten more minutes, the demons managed to get the missile to the correct weight, both ether roots now close to full with active wisps. Before shooting, however, Freyven wanted to test the integrity of inside-carving. He let the missile sit for a minute to see whether the weight changed.

Afterward, he nodded. “Your promise seems to be correct. It holds ether remarkably well. Hopefully that stays true during flight.”

He picked up the missile, shook it, swung it around like a spear, and overall played with it like a lunatic. Then he placed it back down on the scale. He appeared surprised to see the results be exactly the same.

“Impressive,” he said with a satisfied look. “I’ll be honest, I doubted your idea, Vivian, but this is quite phenomenal.”

“We still need to test it,” Vivi said. “My biggest concern is that the shaft will snap from contact. Cast metal is more brittle than forged.”

“Regardless, the missile should be effective for at least one good hit,” Freyven said. “Let’s try it out.”

The demons moved to the ballista and loaded it up. The missile fit into the trough, not perfectly, but more than well enough.

“Aim for sand and low, please,” Freyven said. “For the first test, we want to see whether it flies at all.”

Patryn was the first to aim. The demons pointed to an ethereal light ahead—bright enough to cast a large globe of white light in the desert ahead of them. Patryn focused, and the missile was ready. For the first launch, the tip itself was without ether.

“Shoot,” he said calmly.

A loud twang came from the release of the torsion springs, and the missile flew into the distance. It left no trail like outside-carved variants, but its flight looked smooth, until it crashed into the sand some hundred feet away.

Patryn squinted into the distance. A wide grin appeared on his face. “Wow. It works.”

“You aimed it there?” Freyven asked.

“Yep, pretty much exactly spot on,” Patryn said. “It’s at least as accurate as our old missiles.”

“Very good,” Freyven said. “Someone fetch it!”

A few demons ran after it.

“We will test the maximum operating range tomorrow when the risk of losing it into the night isn’t as large,” Freyven said. “This confirms that the design works. We can make more. Good job.”

Vivi bowed, then caught herself during the action. She wasn’t supposed to bow. But she was already halfway bowed, so she decided to go for it anyway. “Thanks for your help,” she said. “I had fun working on this.”

Freyven smiled. Behind him, Patryn got off of the ballista and asked, “We’re not ending testing here, are we? Half of the missile’s functions are still off.”

“If Vivian’s words are right, the runes of the tip will only add destructive power. The flight will be much the same. I would prefer to test the missile against real enemies, in case it does break.”

“If we aim at normal targets,” Vivi said, “like rocks, it shouldn’t break. If it does break from a simple impact, I’d consider it a big enough design error that needs fixing. It would be good to test the missile on a simple target. Just try to find a target so that it doesn’t hit levelstone.”

Patryn grinned at Freyven, who now nodded. “Very well. We will perform another test.”

The missile was fetched back to the ballistas. There, the demons tested the weight again. It was ever so slightly heavier now. Freyven asked Vivi about it.

“Yes, that makes sense,” Vivi said. “The white obsidian root conducts ether faster, meaning that ether also runs out faster. The impact and the flight most likely spent some of the wisps to strengthen the metal.”

“I see,” Freyven said. “That is good to know.” He turned to the demons and said, “Calibrate it again.”

They performed the task faster this time, requiring only two minutes to get the missile back to its optimal weight. Most of the demons were just watching, waiting for their turn to practice with the one missile they had.

The ballistas were being prepared for another launch, when a monster in the distance seemed to be stepping closer. “That’ll work as a target, right?” Patryn asked.

“Go for it,” Vivi said.

Patryn took aim. The demons pointed the light at the monster, though it was too far for even the strong ethereal lamp to reach. Vivi added ether to her eyes, enough to vaguely identify the monster as a miniature sand golem.

The demons filled the tip with ether. The adamantite glowed like Vivi’s runeswords. Patryn squinted at the scope, aimed a little higher than the monster to account for gravity’s pull. This time, his words carried more enthusiasm. “Fire!”

The missile released, its tip glowing like a torch flying across the air. It flew five hundred feet with stability and precision, before it disappeared from the lamp’s light, colliding against the monster. Everyone squinted to see the impact. Even with ether in the eyes, it was hard to see.

A loud crash came from the distant night. The ground vaguely shook.

Demons paused. “The hell was that?” one of them asked.

“The monster… looks dead?” another said. “Did it collide?”

Patryn was grinning. Freyven wore a concerned, but perhaps optimistic frown. Lucius’s tail slowly wagged in Vivi’s core. Everyone, including Vivi, headed closer to check the results.

Many small flames of collectible ether rose from the point of impact. The golem was blown to bits, expectedly destroyed by the crush runes. Larger pebbles were scattered across the area. A lot of pebbles, covering the ground almost entirely. Most were small ones, but a few were as large as Vivi’s head.

The pebbles didn’t seem to have come from the golem. Something else had exploded along with it.

The demons brought in more light, shining it on the point of collision.

There was a ditch on the ground. Sand had been blown off, revealing a gaping hole in the sandstone below. The ground was cracked, shattered, the pebbles having flown everywhere. The cracks spread wide, as if a small meteor had collided against the ground.

Deep within the hole, the black asmite shaft of Vivi’s missile poked out. Mouths hung wide open around her as demons spotted the missile.

“Vivian…” Freyven said, voice quiet and uncertain. “Was this hole here before?”

Vivi didn’t respond, and instead stepped into the hole. It was slanted; the missile hadn’t hit directly from above, but from the side. Vivi pulled it out of the sandstone, causing more cracks to form.

The missile itself was in one piece. At least to the eye, everything still appeared solid. Something could have broken inside, of course. They’d have to perform more durability tests later.

By now, gushes of amazement came from above. The demons laughed in disbelief. “It pierced the fucking ground!?” one of them said.

Vivi examined the hole once again. The damages were about on par with what she had expected, though she wasn’t nearly as overjoyed as the others. The sandstone had a light amount of ether inside it, but it wasn’t nearly as resistant as the golems they were faced with. A stronger missile would have eaten the sandstone like butter, hitting the levelstone below.

Someone patted Vivi in the back. Patryn. “This is amazing. We’ve created something truly grand.”

Vivi gave him a light smile. “It’s good. But I don’t know if it’s good enough.”

“What do you mean?” Patryn asked.

“This wouldn’t defeat a colossus,” Vivi said.

He tilted his head, batting an eye. “You’re looking to defeat a… colossus?”

“Hopefully we won’t have to,” Vivi said. “But if we do, this missile definitely isn’t enough. I could still see it fly across the air. Much more force can theoretically be carried.”

Patryn blinked at her, unsure what to say. “I suppose… That is correct.”

“We might need to improve the ballistas themselves. Even with the moonweaver’s ropes releasing the missile”

“That might end up being a longer project, though I don’t disagree.”

“For now, let’s continue crafting missiles,” Vivi said. “And let’s test them on real monsters. The ballistics crew should keep practicing launches. Let me know if there are any problems.”

“And you?” Patryn asked.

“I have a lot of work to do,” Vivi said. “The next storms are hitting soon. Go get some sleep, and in two days, let’s test the missiles for real.”

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