The Devil's Evolution Catalog

“Lady Mo Na, when can our first batch of magitek knights be deployed onto the battlefield?”

That was the first question His Majesty asked me after entering the room with Misseger, Baku, Belud and Amori.

“The first 100 armors are ready, and the pilots have already been picked, but they don’t have any training yet, so it might take a while more before they are usable…” I said to the disappointment of the king who probably wanted an army sooner rather than later.

Furthermore, while the Messianic series of magitek armors were modeled after the ones on Gaia, they weren’t as feature complete, resulting in a higher bar for their pilots. The reduction of Meditation Stones had resulted in a greater time lag compared to my Wyrm, and while that single second might not seem like much, it was a fatal weakness in a battle between experts.

To pilot these new armors, one needed a degree of talent in psychic magicks -basically they had to have magic aptitude. Not much; even an apprentice’s aptitude was fine. In some cases, a strong-willed person was theoretically able to pilot these machines.

A degree of fitness was needed to sustain the mind during the entire synchronization as well. On top of that, the movements of the armor, while not as demanding as it otherwise would have been, still created stress on the physical body of the pilot.

Combining all these requirements together, it wasn’t just your average mage apprentice who could pilot these weapons of war. The latter requirement was easily remedied with physical conditioning, but our enemy’s fierce attacks clearly weren’t going to give us much time. The fact that they were able to make such rapid progress showed they knew a great deal about us. Perhaps these magitek armors were the reason why they even launched the war in the first place. A pre-emptive strike, so to speak…

Amori had leaned in to explain the full situation to the king, but that wasn’t enough to allay his anxieties.

He breathed in deeply and thought for a moment. “Lady Mo Na, how long will the training take?”

“A month.”

Most of the pilots had been chosen even before the suits were complete, each of them handpicked from the king’s personal guard. While all of them were worthy fighters in their own right, coming in at four-stars or above, they weren’t mages… meaning they had to be trained on that front.

“A month?!” Andasiss frowned. “That’s too long.”

“But Your Majesty, these armors require a trained mind to pilot them, and the troops you gave us were all fighters, not mages…”

“So even my elite forces aren’t able to pilot the suits on short notice?”

“I’m afraid so. Their innate deficiencies require immense training to overcome. I know your concerns, but the pilot has to have some degree of magical aptitude, else the armor might even hinder him.”

“So magisters…” Andasiss impatiently tapped on the table with his fingers, each blow louder than the next. But no amount of force was going to wipe away his worries now.

The string of recent bad news had left the king grasping at straws. No one expected the war would go so badly so quickly. Not even their intelligence agents. Which actually spoke volumes about them, seeing as they were the ones who failed to detect preparations for a massive invasion force…

A deathly silence fell over the room. Everyone had their heads down, and no one dared to look the king in his face.

Finally, after a decade of silence, Misseger opened up with a suggestion. “Your Majesty, perhaps I might have a better choice than your personal guards.”

Hearing that, Andassis the Seventh looked up at her. Thanks to his state of mind, he couldn’t figure out who she was referring to right away. “Continue.”

“While those who have magical aptitude and are unquestionably loyal are hard to find within a day, do we not have some candidates already? They are just a little young… Has Your Majesty thought of who they are?”

“You mean… the students in our royal knight academy?”

“The very same.”

The academy they were talking about was the “Royal Andassean Academy”, the highest academy in the kingdom. Since its founding, it had produced countless talents in the field of war.