FGO Specter of Glass

Egypt Ch5

Thanks to Nitocris' help, the weapons were placed in a chamber that melted them down and reformed them into a cannon. Nitocris scanned the new apparatus to determine if it was ready for battle and compared its abilities with that of the Silver Fortress' cannon. It was a close match, with only a few differences. She tried to hold it, but it dropped from her hands, rejecting her as its master. Cleopatra also tried, only to get the same result. The machine sighed, they were idiots if they thought a caster or assassin could hold an archer's weapon. The group looked at Abhimanyu, it was him they needed.

He picked it up, feeling how heavy it was, and had a hard time keeping it upright. From how it seemed, the handle was inside. He stuck his arm in, and it locked on his shoulder, he panicked, unsure of what to do with it sticking itself on him. He waved his arm to jostle it off, unintentionally activating its defense system and blasting him in the face. Nitocris lifted it to point at a target, she told him that all he had to do was think of the command and it would follow. He closed his eyes, thinking "attack" as it began to charge a beam of energy. Blue lines appeared on his body, revealing his mana circuits, and after a few minutes, the energy released into a powerful blast that destroyed the target.

He collapsed; his mana was drained. He had no idea how taxing it was on his body to fire it, he couldn't imagine how the Silver Fortress did it multiple times a day. The machine calculated that the amount of mana in his body was about a third of what the Silver Fortress had, and that was considering that he was the grandson of a god. Abhimanyu sat down and had to take a break before he tried to use the cannon again.

Drona approached him and went with him to a training room. The cannon wasn't like a bow, it was heavy, filled with gears that needed to be maintained, and drained more power than a hundred arrows could in one strike. The teacher showed Abhimanyu how to hold it, he had to keep his arm slightly above where his shoulder was to balance the weight of the cannon. Before firing it, he had to keep his breath steady, his heart rate down, and focus on the target. Those were the tips the White Bishop gave him about how to use the weapon without instantly getting knocked out. He fired again and felt less strained than he did when he first tried.

Cleopatra noticed Nitocris going to another room and followed the caster, she was interested in how the master would react to the news. She used her skill as an assassin to listen in, hearing that the master was pleased with the development of a god-killing cannon, and ordered her to have the archer of Chaldea use it to kill the king. Nitocris finally spoke up, her tone indicating that it was the last favor she'd do for him. There was a minute of silence, then a heavy sigh, the master agreed. He knew it was a matter of time before her debt to him was repaid and she'd return to being independent, that was just how it was between them.

She turned off the communication board and walked by Cleopatra, not noticing the assassin who snuck in before the door was closed. Cleopatra turned on the computer, careful to avoid pressing the call button, as she searched through the database. It looked like Nitocris knew more about the god's weapons than they thought. There was history about their creation, how they were made as a counter to the other gods if a group went rogue, and all had special abilities to them. Comparisons to the Silver Fortress' cannon were the most analyzed, the Crypters wrote about how it was lost at sea and all replicas failed to match the original's strength. It was created by an elder goddess during the time of the demon war, meaning humans were incapable of recreating it.

Cleopatra printed a document about King Tutankhamun, he was a heavy topic, being described as a man who changed overnight when he got the throne. And while that wasn't too uncommon with the kings, he was different. His behaviors, ideals, and personality weren't just warped, it was like he became a different person. Upon further inspection, he acted more like the god Ra, the goddess Isis, and the god Horus at different times. The document stopped there as if it was halfway done. Cleopatra searched for the other half but had to quit when she heard the door was unlocked. Nitocris returned and was confused as to why the console was on when she was sure she turned it off. She powered it down and left a flash drive on the table before leaving again.