"Hey, you are finally here." Dr. Mac, who was walking back and forth in anxiousness, smiled big as soon as she saw Azzy entering her lab. "I was waiting for hours, wondering when you'll wake up and come here."
She added, "You seemed like you slept peacefully."
"Is there something, Dr. Mac?" Azzy asked her. Since she was the creator of Aria, Azzy was patient and polite. Unfortunately, for the other party, it didn't appear that way.
"What!" Dr. Mac was taken aback a bit. Strangely, his tone was plain and the way he looked at her without a shred of emotion, sounded a bit rude for her.
She wondered what happened to the kid from the previous night. However, she was smart enough to read the situation quickly. "I guess that state is only temporary."
In the meantime, Azzy found a little bit strange in his voice. It felt like the same, nearly five years ago when he first awakened Arcana.
That's right. Azzy's facial expressions were once again sealed by the Reaper.
Now that Azzy knew of his future destiny with Claire, the Reaper didn't feel any use of facial expressions for his host. So, along with the dangerous memories, the facial expression was also taken away.
Azzy felt an inkling of it but he put it aside for the moment and concentrated on the lady before him who brought a pair of black leather gloves with a symbol of Hexagram on top of it.
"Now, this is interesting. I didn't expect this lady managed to find the material and even modified it to such an extent." The Reaper commented.
Upon hearing the Reaper's comment, Azzy became intrigued with the gloves.
"Try these… I pulled an all-nighter to make them." The Lady handed them to Azzy.
As soon as Azzy took them into his hands, he almost went on his knees. Thankfully, he trained in 44 times the gravity where his own weight will be nearly 2500 kg (5500 pounds).
So, he could manage to lift the two of them up with a little bit of difficulty. "These collectively weight 1500 pounds at the very least."
"Try them on and pour soul energy." Dr. Mac urged him to wear the gloves.
Azzy remembered the previous day where he destroyed the gauntlets. He looked at her meaningfully.
Despite there's no expression on him, the lady understood the reason behind his gaze and replied with a smile, "I won't ask you for compensation, anyway. You have nothing to lose. Go on…"
Azzy wore them and felt his hands are heavier, despite how soft it was inside. As he poured soul energy into the gloves, the Hexagram suddenly glowed in blue.
"huh!" Azzy's eyes are widened in surprise as it wasn't destroyed like he thought it would.
He suddenly felt too light right away while at the same time, feel the energy around him, which is being absorbed by the gloves.
Around the gloves, there was a protective armor made of his usual dark energy. But, Azzy felt there's another type of energy within the gloves, which isn't natural energy. It was something he was familiar with. The same energy he sensed in the Sparring Robots.
"Yes, I knew this would work." The lady seemed like she was on high clouds with her experiment being successful.
Shaking both of his hands in excitement, she thanked him. Returning the gloves to her, Azzy asked about it. He was genuinely surprised that there's something that resisted his Protos and Death energy mixture.
"Adamantium, the rarest and the strongest metal in the world." However, the lady didn't take them from his hands and started to explain. "So far, the metal alloy is only being found in the meteorites crashed on our planet, millions of years ago that wiped out the glorious human civilization of the past.
How I wished to be reborn into those days when humans build space vehicles to travel to different galaxies. On the other hand, sigh… we were only able to get to the moon and barely Ishtar, so far…"
For a while, it seemed like she was talking to herself until she remembered Azzy's presence and came back to reality.
"Oh, Sorry. My mind was drifted a bit." She then continued to explain the features of the gloves. "As you experienced now, they are usually heavy and can be used training weights during normal times. When you pour soul energy, the seals inscribed on top of them will be activated and they became incredibly light.
Meanwhile, the energy cores inside the gloves will absorb the natural energy and refined them into nuclear energy, where you can emit it from the gloves to attack. According to my calculations, the full nuclear blast released by both of the gloves can kill a mid-seven-star Arcana master if he was taken by surprise… that is…
Its usefulness will reduce as you grow stronger but then again, as the surroundings are abundant in natural energy, with the help of these gloves, in theory, even a 1-star Arcana Master can harm a seven-star realm expert.
Anyway, think of it as one of the presents from me for winning the tournament and bringing honor to our country. But, it's better if you keep it as a secret."
Azzy wondered why. While it sounds awesome, considering its power was limited to rank-7, Azzy knew he wouldn't be able to use it for many years. But then, as the lady continued with telling him the reason, Azzy was stunned for a moment.
"According to the market price for Adamantium alloys and rank-7 items, this one costs at least a billion credits, probably even more… I wasn't authorized to give you such an expensive personal gift. The government will reduce the funds if they knew about it.
But, Aegis wanted me to give you another present on behalf of the Government and I made those 40 million worth of gauntlets but too bad they ended up as a failure. As a formality, General Oliver decided to give this assistant to you as a present."
Azzy glanced in the direction she was pointing at. It was the same robot that showed his sleeping chamber and brought him to this lab. "No wonder it introduced itself as a personal assistant, yesterday."
Dr. Mac added, "It isn't bad. It can do all the chores without any issue, help you with your studies, and analyze the battles. However, it wasn't a sparring bot and can be destroyed easily. So, have to come here to repair it or discard it if such a case occurs."
***
Aclein Academy;
As the feast is only for the top 3 Champions from each category, except for seven top academies, the others left at dawn.
Some didn't even rest for the night and hurriedly left for their lives as soon as the academy invaded.
So, by the time the Police Commissioner called for a press conference and Barton apologized to everyone who attended the Closing ceremony for endangering their lives, only the representatives of the Dragon Academy, Phoenix Academy, Moon Academy, Freyles Academy, Central Academy, Heavenly Academy, and Maple Academy stayed, although not all of them will be able to attend the feast.
Upon receiving the orders, Syllia also said goodbye to Claire and left for the Arcana world along with her students.
Azzy's friends were also informed about his safety. So, they too slept without worries and get ready for the following day's feast.