"Ignite!"
Following Attilicia's command, the 'Magic Ship' component plates on his body began to flicker with circles of magic runes.
However, rather than calling it a Magic Ship, it seemed more like a magic suit of armor draped over his body, nearly doubling his size.
If David were here right now, he would probably exclaim on the spot, "Holy shit, a dragon-shaped mech."
This was the result of Attilicia and his group of Neisser 'students' spending all of his amassed treasure of eighty thousand pounds from the past dozen years on raw materials: The Prototype Magic Armor for Dragons.
Since the orbit was too close to the sun, most of the materials had been sourced from Dis, the second layer of Barto Hell. This included Barto green copper, similar to that produced in Phlegyas—the fourth hell, which resembles a world of fire elements. The outermost layer was even wrapped in the flame-immune leather of an Abyssal Balor, with Magic Engravings personally inscribed by the old Devil Dalonas.
His students began their arcane chanting. As the incantation progressed, a soft blue glow emanated from beneath the metallic construct's feet and from its engine ports. This glow gradually spread until the entire machine was enveloped in it.
Suddenly, a powerful burst of energy erupted from its energy vents. The dragon-shaped mech slowly lifted off the ground, its body swaying in the air a few times before stabilizing and beginning to ascend. As it rose, the magic runes gradually faded, and the chanting of the students at the Ghost Soul City launch site also diminished until it completely stopped.
Only when they saw their creation, with its six booster rockets detaching and falling away, disappear into the starry sky under the watchful eyes of the citizens and the old Devil Dalonas, did their observation cease.
「Ten years later.」
When David arrived at the edge of Toriel's sixth terrestrial planet and awoke, he once again received Telepathy from Toriel.
Only this time, instead of the lengthy and sentimental ramblings from ten years ago, this message from Dragon Dad Attilicia contained only one sentence: "I'm coming, wait for me."
David suddenly felt as if he was still muddled from sleep.
He still remembered Attilicia saying before his last slumber that he would catch up to his itinerary. David had thought Attilicia planned to secure the 'target object' before he reached The Slaying King Star and then send him the technical documents via Magic Messaging for him to build it himself.
But by his words, it seemed he intended to deliver it in person!
But was this near-theoretical method truly feasible?
David glanced at the planet below, its crust entirely charred by endless infernos. He could already imagine a certain abstract outcome.
If Carpei was a work of art, then Goss before him was undoubtedly a tragic world. Most of its surface was perpetually ablaze, its air thick and murky. Only its vast planetary ring and three orbiting moons could be considered beautiful.
CLICK.
David, as was his habit as a traveler, recorded it and sent the information to Toriel.
Then he fell into slumber again, heading toward the next star.
However, over the next eighteen years, as David traversed the Garden region and passed the Hekas system at the galaxy's extreme edge, he received no further Magic Messaging from Dragon Dad Attilicia, perhaps due to the immense distance.
This caught David somewhat off guard.
But as he was rapidly approaching the galaxy's edge, the nearly thirty-year investment made it impossible to abandon the plan.
At the very least, he had to complete the observational mission assigned by the Dragon Queen.
Marking The Slaying King Star would have to wait until Attilicia drew closer to Toriel, perhaps twelve years from now. By then, the Dragon Queen's other arrangements in Ferren would likely be activated, and he could try to snatch an opportunity from the chaos.
But the thought of completing this near-impossible task under the watchful eyes of two conscious gods gave David a headache.
Moreover, with his location already nearing the orbit of The Slaying King Star, he didn't dare sleep too soundly, fearing he might awaken only to collide with the Crystal System Wall...
Yet, during one of his countless brief awakenings, he suddenly sensed a strange palpitation.
Something was calling out to him incessantly.