"Hey, you gotta teach me those shockwave techniques. Those we're too cool."
"Maybe later but I don't think you really need much of it. You already mastered runic blade."
"Nah, that was actually my first time doing-Ow! What the hell Aisha!?" Elsword whined, looking at his passenger riding his back.
"You mean to tell me, you used an untested and unmastered magic sword technique against a powerful opponent." Aisha glowered down on him, expression promising pain and suffering if he answered wrong.
"Well..." Elsword trailed off, having no answer.
Aisha didn't hesitate, she attacked.
Rena, riding on Raven's back sighs as the two kids fight. It was more like Aisha pulling on his hair and berating him for being so reckless. Elsword meanwhile took it like a champ, trying not to drop his passenger.
"Are they always like this?" Raven asked.
"Everyday." Rena giggles, "They're still kids so that's normal."
"Can't believe he's still a kid with that kind of strength."
"Oh?" Rena looked at Raven curiously, wanting him to elaborate.
Seeing her expression, he explained.
"At his level right now, he would be shoe-in among the Red Knights. A prestigious position for someone so young and he would probably beat Elesis' record, the youngest Red knight to this day." Rena blinked.
"Is he really that strong now?" Rena asks.
"Definitely. His grasp on the techniques, despite using it for the first time by his accounts, are solid and perfectly executed. If he actually used those said techniques in our last fight, he would beat me in his lonesome." Raven said, shocking the elf.
"Oh wow." She never saw it. From Ruben to Altera, she had always saw the boy as the same boy stumbling in the forest, chasing after the El stone under sense of duty and adventure.
She forgot, humans grow faster than elves.
Now that she think about it, Aisha is already growing. The once cranky girl who lost her magic who always butts head with the redhead had become responsible and grew out of her dependency of magic.
Looking back, they really both grew.
The only one who didn't is her, the elf.
"Something in your mind." Raven asked, noticing her going quiet.
"Nothing. Just thinking about the future." She sighs.
"It's definitely not about the El stone by your tone of sigh." Raven inquired.
"Yup. Unlike you humans, elves age differently and no, your not allowed to ask my age." Rena said with warning tone.
"I wouldn't dream of it. I know my manners." Raven gave a low chuckle.
"...I will miss them when all of this is over." Rena whispered.
"I would too. Probably." He replied, agreeing with her.
"Oh really? Is the big bad guy really gonna miss the young heroes who defeated him?" Rena teases him.
"Definitely. You're all good company." Rena blushed at the compliment. It earned him a lighthearted smack.
"You're a sweet talker huh?"
Raven didn't argue to her words. He did get a lot of practice from Seris. He doesn't know why but with Rena's likeness to her, he felt calm and more open.
Rather strange. Was Seris related to the Elven race?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ack! My skirt!" Rena yelped, crying out as the green Nasod greeted them by trying to eat her skirt of all things. The elf is blushing red as she pulled and tried to keep her skirt where should it belong while the green ball tried it's hardest to slurp it all
"Haro, spit it out!" Raven of course the gentleman tried to help her, grabbing and trying the pull the small Nasod with Elsword's help. Except the redhead is far useless because his trying to cover his eyes with one hand and using the other to help Raven.
"Don't you dare look, Twerp!" Aisha blocked the view of underneath Rena's skirt of course with a red face. Her wand pointed dangerously at the boys.
Meanwhile, Adel watched the group with a sweatdrop.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Huhuhuhuhu, this is my last one." Rena cried, emerging from one of Adel's room with a new skirt.
Yes, Haro succeeded. Proof of it is the red handprints stuck on both cheeks of Raven and Elsword currently sitting on the table. They both got slapped by both girls at the accidental peek. Speaking of Haro, the Nasod is currently trapped inside a box on the table.
"Let Haro go! Haro will have his vengeance! Death to the xenos!" The little robot cried inside, channeling the will of the Emperor.
"Elsword." Rena called to the boy, jolting him in fear, "Shake the box for me." The boy eagerly followed her demand.
"Aaaah! Haro's getting dizzy! Haro's gonna barf!"
"Your a machine. You don't barf." Aisha comments as she appeared behind Rena with a new skirt of her own.
Yes, she became a victim too.
"That's racists! Aah, stop it!" Said machine rebuked back at her.
"Who are you calling racist, you bucket of bolts!" Aisha took the box out of Elsword's hands and began shaking it more wildly.
"Waaaaah!!!"
"Fascinating! It's range of vocabulary are far more creative and wider compared ordinary Nasods. I even dare say it, it completely mimicked human language." Adel said in awe as he listened to the Nasod and mage bicker, with the latter shaking the box at every insult thrown.
"More human? Never realized it when he's on my ship but looking back, Haro does mimicked human speech very closely." Raven muttered.
"Is that really important? Aren't Nasods capable of mimicking human speech or any other speech altogether?" Rena asks. Remembering her old lessons, Nasods are the only species who are capable of mimicking and speaking all languages in Elrios.
"Well Miss elf, mimicry and understanding are far different things compared to truly grasping a language. Mimicry and understanding is akin to memorizing sounds and understanding what it meant." Adel began explaining.
"What our little guest is displaying right now is deep understanding and grasp of the language, using tones, euphemisms and more! Compared to other Nasods, our friend here is far beyond them!" The Pongo excitedly said.
"It could be even an advent of new generation of Nasods!"
That gained the attention of everyone on the table.
"New generation of Nasods?" Elsword frowned, "How many generations does the Nasod's have?"
Adel blinked before thinking.
"By accounts of history, the Nasod's in Altera are all first generation Nasods. The newer models currently being manufactured by the rebuilding of the Nasod King's Army are the second generation models." The Pongo muttered.
"Then does that mean Haro is part of the third generation models, a new line of far intelligent Nasods?" Raven asks.
But before Adel could speak, said Nasod interrupted them.
"Haro is not Nasod! Haro is Haro!"
"Huh?" Elsword tilted his head.
"How aren't you a Nasod? Aren't you a Nasod?" Elsword asks, pulling the box out of Aisha's hands.
"Haro is Haro, not Nasod!"
"You already said that! How can you be not a Nasod? You look like one!" Aisha comments.
"That's right but that's strange." Rena muttered before turning to Adel, "Do Nasods normally deny being a Nasod?"
"No, they don't." The pongo shook it's head just as confused as the party.
"Give me that." Raven finally had enough, taking the box from Elsword's hands.
"Haro. Who created you?" He asked.
Everyone went except Adel went quiet, the Pongo's eyes widening in shock as he realized the significance of the question.
"Raven! Haro is Haro. Haro is made by the stars! Haro is made by the World System!"
They didn't expect that kind of answer, it only warrants more question.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Late night came soon afterwards in the Pongo village.
Hours of grilling the little robot, the party gained somewhat of an understanding from the robots rather vague descriptions.
One, Haro is not native to Elrios. It's an alien. An honest to God alien made by another alien.
When Raven asked who is it's creator, that alone is proof that it wasn't a Nasod. The only creature capable of creating another Nasod is the Nasod King and all Nasods are subservient to the powerful machine. The fact Haro is far more independent and confessed about it's foreign creator is more than enough proof it wasn't a Nasod.
Two, it crashed in Elrios and has been trying to find a way to get off the planet.
Third, it likes to eat skirts.
"If you eat my skirt, I'll fry you to a crisps!" Aisha warned the little robot, pointing her wand at it as she found it creeping behind her.
"Haro away!" Said robot ran away after being found, rolling across the floor to escape the girl's wrath.
"Hey watch it!" Elsword yelped, dodging the rolling robot and keeping the stacks of plates from flying out of his hands.
Currently, the party is helping Adel in making dinner for the Pongo's hospitality and to lighten the load of feeding four people. Adel's rather thankful for it, the Pongo's rather advance age made him thankful for the help. Rena is currently in the kitchen with Adel and Raven, cooking and preparing dinner while Aisha and Elsword handle the dinner table.
Haro? The little robot is currently rolling around the house and poking it's head wherever it wants to. The little guy has been curious of the place since waking up from it's hibernation and has been running around before the party's arrival and subsequent attack on the girl's skirts.
As to why it attacked? Payback it said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile with Haro.
Haro monitored the group, a rather strange ensemble of people.
The redhead, a very blunt and kinda dumb kid who's body is emitting low levels of radiation. What kind of radiation? Haro doesn't know.
The purple haired girl and Haro's archenemy from now on is also weird. Her body is like sponge, constantly absorbing low levels of energy or mana by the locals passively and dispersing it immediately. Some kind of condition or else?
Then there's the elf, her biology is weirder than the rest. By all accounts, her biology is far too similar to human biology except for the ears. So why does her cells are so static? Cells constantly reproduce and die yet her cells are in a static state, literally frozen in time. Is that why elves are long-lived race?
Then finally, Raven.
Raven is no longer human. Haro made a mistake in programming the DG cells. In Haro's haste, Haro forgot to code one key element to cells.
To keep Raven's humanity.
Right now, the DG cells have completely replaced all of Raven's cells. His entire body is practically replaced by it. The cells have propagated and replaced his entirely. The damage and fatality rate of Raven's condition from last time must be so severe for the cells to integrate to his body at this rate. It's rather concerning for Haro.
How will Haro tell this Raven?
Then there's also another problem.
The Phoenix Gundam has been destroyed, it's AI retuning to Haro's system. Now, Haro's last tool is out. Haro's now in his lonesome to deal with Haro's problems.
Haro is in a fickle.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later gathered around the dinner table and eating...
"So your hitting the Nasod foundry next?" Adel said, as the party discussed the party's next move.
Now that the Black Crows have been eliminated, the Nasod's and their growing army is the only threat to the Pongo village. Not to mention, they have the El stone that the party is trying to retrieve.
"That's right. The Nasod foundry is only accessable by airship but now it's gone, we're wondering if your village knows another path." Raven asks.
Sadly, the Pongo shook his head.
"Unfortunately, we don't know. The Nasods are far to dangerous for us to tangle. As such, we tend to avoid areas where they are sighted and block tunnels leading to them. I can't help you in finding a path to this foundry." Adel replied with a disappointed tone.
"That's fine, Chief. You already helped us enough." Elsword comments, reassuring the Pongo.
"Elsword's right. You have done a lot to us, Chief Adel." Rena agreed to the boy's words.
"Still that meant we have no way of finding a way into that Foundry." Aisha said, returning back to the topic.
"Scaling the cliffs are impossible too. Far too steep and mostly likely defended by turrets. We're lucky if we don't get shot climbing down." Raven muttered, thinking of other paths to enter the Foundry.
"Maybe we can dig out way in?" Elsword suggested between bites of his meal.
"That's stupid, twerp." Aisha pointed her fork at him, "Not to mention, well alert the Nasods before we could dig our way in."
"We also don't have digging tools." Rena added.
"Also, none of us knows how to dig underground! We're not miners!" Aisha ended with sarcasm.
"How hard can it be?" Elsword wondered, earning three smacks from the table courtesy of the two adults and Aisha.
"Ignoring that, we don't have anything." Raven summarized.
"This sucks." Elsword agreed, nursing his three new bumps.
"Is there no other way you can find the El stone you're looking for?" Adel asked.
Everybody shook their head.
"The El stone was dropped on that Foundry. If there's any data regarding to the location of the stone, it would be there. If I can get access to it's data, I can probably find where they took the stone." Raven explains.
"But at our current situation, theirs no way we can get in." Rena sighs.
"Haro knows a way!"
Everyone jolted at the sudden interruption. The voice came under the table. Aisha immediately look underneath and saw the blinking eyes of the robot.
"Why are you under the table?" Aisha narrowed her eyes.
"Pink." Haro replied before rolling away.
"Get back here, you little rascal!" Yes, she is wearing pink today and no she will never admit it to anyone.
Poor Elsword, when he tried to ask what does pink means, Aisha electrocuted him.
Haro will remember his sacrifice in Haro's escape. A true brother.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~