Chapter 58 She's finished!
"Who is that girl in that cave?" Asked Eclair as she continued to eat her breakfast.
"I guess you found her 'sigh' okay, listen up"
"Remember when I told you about the dream I had after the ritual? about the woman and her supposed grave?" Asked issei.
Eclair thought about that moment and connected the dots.
"You mean she's that woman? but how did she get here?" Asked Eclair with a stunned expression.
"I don't know, that day when I came to the beach to calm down, I found the same wrecked ship I saw in my dream with the woman.
I got excited and decided to repair it but then...I found her body in the office inside the ship so..... I thought I'll be able to find a way to bring her back somehow after I finish with the ship" Explained issei.
"I see.... the second question was actually about the project Musashi, but I guess you answered it.... so.... how long will it take you to finish rebuilding the ship?" Asked Eclair.
"I don't know maybe from three to six days I guess if we are lucky enough, wanna see it?" Answered Issei.
"Sure I would love to" Replied Eclair.
'Claire, bring out the ship' Ordered Issei mentally.
*Sure thing master*
Suddenly the big gates slowly opened and rails suddenly extended out of the inside.
Down the rails, a platform slowly rolled out with the project issei was working on.
"Wow that looks marvelous, but I must ask tho, this is one unique ship, I have never seen an iron ship like this and it is so large, how did you even manage to build something like this in this short amount of time?" Asked Eclair.
"When you know enough magic you can build ships like these faster than one thousand regular humans, plus I had help" Said Issei.
"I see...umm about that kiss that night...I ugh ... I" Stuttered Eclair slightly fidgeting in place as she couldn't come up with a good way of explaining her feelings.
"Don't worry about it, that was just in the heat of the moment nothing more so don't worry" Said Issei with a reassuring smile.
"Y-yeah, a-alright" Replied Eclair even tho that was not what she wanted to say but was too embarrassed so she just went with it.
From afar Ddraig saw her failure.
"In battle, she may fearless and cold but talking about her feelings..... she becomes a completely different person, well I guess even if she is a brave warrior she is still a young girl" Said Ddraig to himself.
"Well, I better go now" Said Ddraig.
Back with issei and Eclair.
"Where are you going?" Asked issei.
"While you are building this beast I am training my sword skills and Ddraig helps me from time to time, I'm really grateful" Said Eclair, and just in time they saw Ddraig walk towards them from a small forest near the beach.
"Morning Ddraig" Greeted both issei and Eclair.
"Morning, Eclair let's hurry for your training so I can join Issei later" Said Ddraig.
"Alright let's go" Said Eclair.
Issei just waved goodbye before going back inside the workshop.
After the rest he was full of energy again and could work on his project more efficiently, he was thankful for that and planned on thanking Eclair for her care later.
With Eclair and Ddraig.
They were walking to their training spot in silence until Ddraig spoke up.
"You chinked out" Said Ddraig without batting an eye.
Eclair froze up.
"Wh-what do you mean?" Asked Eclair even though she knew exactly what he was talking about.
"You know what I'm talking about....you wanted to say that you like him but.....you chickened out" Said Ddraig.
Eclair lowered her head in defeat.
"Yes I did, it's just that it's hard for me to express my feelings with words as I have never been in a relationship my whole life so it's a little hard for me..... what if he rejects me? I don't want things to get awkward between us" Explained Eclair.
"I understand what you are saying but why do you think he'd reject you?" Asked Ddraig with a raised brow.
"Well I mean..... he has already so many women, he had told me about them all he knows.... plus I can't even compare to them..... I'm just a simple girl who can swing her sword around" Explained Eclair.
"He won't reject you that's for sure but you know what?" Asked Ddraig.
"What?" Replied Eclair.
"Issei probably hasn't told you this but he wasn't always like this... I mean powerful and mighty.... he started as a pervert and the weakest Red Dragon Emperor in history but.... he somehow managed to become even stronger than me by far but because of those seals his powers are limited, for now at least" Explained Ddraig.
"He was a pervert?" Asked Eclair quite stunned.
"Yes and an enormously big one, I had to live with him In his sacred gear and he managed to ruin my reputation with his perversion" Said Ddraig as he even shuddered from the memory.
Eclair giggled hearing this about Issei.
"So you see, even if he was a pervert no one rejected him and gave him a chance to prove himself which he did.
He was loved by his previous mates but..." Ddraig trailed off at the end.
"But what?" Asked Eclair.
"It's better if Issei tells you about that himself as it is not my place, sorry" Said Ddraig.
Eclair just nodded in understanding but she could already guess what he meant by 'previous mates'
"Plus he is a dragon and dragons prefer a unique type of mate compared to other races" Said Ddraig.
"What type?" Asked Eclair curiously.
"Unlike other races, dragons mate mostly with strong females, the stronger the better, so what I'm trying to say is if you grow powerful you'll have higher chances of joining his harem" Explained Ddraig.
Eclair thought about it for a while until they reached their training area.
"Alright! then I'll give it my all and become powerful enough to be by his side forever!" Said Eclair with determination burning in her eyes as she drew out her sword and pointed it at Ddraig.
"That's the spirit!" Roared Ddraig with a burst of happy laughter.
'Soon brother, soon you'll suffer the wrath of angry mates, this is MY perfect revenge!' Thought Ddraig mentally even a sweet grin appeared on his face.
Half a week has already passed and Issei was already finishing with the cannons on the ship.
What was left was to just paint it?
He decided to paint it the next day.
By training with Ddraig Issei found out that he can get experience points just by doing that.
It's not that good compared to killing monsters but there were none in the mountain.
Eclair was training hard with Ddraig every time she got the chance to and improved herself on a large scale.
Ddraig saw great potential in her so he started to give her more time than helping Issei with his project but Issei didn't cry about it, Claire was enough already.
After all, Ddraig gave enough of his help already and he still trains Issei intensely like always if not more lately.
Late evening Issei was sitting in the cave after a busy day.
There was no fire but it was hot as always in the mountain and he wasn't that hungry so he decided to just head to sleep.
He glanced at Musashi.
"Soon I'll figure it out" Said Issei before he laid down and fell asleep.
The next day Issei stood in front of the ship and thought of what kind of paint design he could give the ship.
The color of the ship already looked good so he used just a tat more of his blood to paint some of the ship.
What a weirdo, maybe that's because of the heat that he can't think properly and keeps using his blood? no probably not It's pretty cool in the workshop.
Ddraig feared that Issei would come for his blood eventually too, like some kind of dragon-vampire.
After a day and a half inside the workshop, the ship was done.
He made the ship countless times more powerful than it was in its original state.
The two triple cannons on the front and the two quadruple cannons on the ship's back weren't much changed.
He made shells for the cannons and left them in the storage room.
He made three types of shells, the first were regular, the second were for piercing armor, and the third were high-explosive.
Instead of a simple engine, boiler, or something like that to power it Issei created his own kind of powering system inside the engine room using his skill, magic, and knowledge.
If not for Azazel Issei probably wouldn't be able to make such an engine.
On both sides of the shop, he painted red dragon crests, and next to them the name of the ship, DDE Musashi.
Issei wanted to start the engine that he created right after finishing the painting but..... he used up way too much of his blood and everything seemed blurry in his vision, he couldn't even walk straight.
Only two minutes passed and he passed out and fell to the ground.
Ddraig and Eclair came to check up on Issei and his project just to find him sleeping on the sand and the ship finished on the rails again.
"This idiot 'Sigh' I'll carry him to his cave" Said Ddraig as he picked his brother up and brought him to his cave.
Eclair stayed and watched in awe at the project that Issei just finished.
She hasn't seen anything like this in her life!
Those large cannons showed the ship's might.
As she turned her head to look at Ddraig she was met with Ddraig's proud smirk.
"He did a really good job" Said Ddraig.
"I agree I haven't seen anything like this in my life, it's made out of iron, not wood so I'm worried if it will float" Said Eclair with a worried look on her face.
"It will float, he was fascinated by this ship in particular from a very young age so he knows what he is doing plus he knew a wise and insane crow" Said Ddraig.
"If you say so, can't wait to see it sail" Said Eclair.
"Yeah" Replied Ddraig.
"Let's go to sleep, tomorrow Issei will demonstrate the ship" Said Ddraig as he started to walk away.
"Alright!" Replied Eclair as she followed Ddraig to the cave.
...Line break...
Issei opened his eyes.
He sat up and put his hand on his head as it was throbbing.
Losing so much blood wasn't funny really.
"Guess I passed out yesterday, better not use this much blood again" Groaned Issei as he looked around the cave with a big and long yawn.
"So you brought me" Said issei as he locked his eyes with a pair of emerald eyes.
"Yes, we found you passed out yesterday on the beach, I gotta say the ship looks magnificent" Said Ddraig.
"Yeah, I like how it turned out" Said Issei.
"I bet you can't wait to test it, huh?"
"Yeah, I'll do that when she wakes up" Said Issei with a chuckle as he looked at his lap and saw a sleeping Eclair with a drool.
Ddraig just smirked and Issei saw that.
"Just shut up for once and take care of your relationship first you old virgin" Said Issei.
"Wha-what did you say!?" Roared Ddraig out of pure anger.
The whole cave and beach started to shake.
"Shut up!" Shouted Eclair as she was woken up rudely.
She found a rock and threw it at Ddraig.
It hit him in the head and he was left silent as he stared at Eclair speechless.
Issei barely managed to hold his laughter.
" 'pfft' O-oh I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to do that" Apologized Eclair but she barely managed to hold her laughter too.
"Are you sorry? because it seems to be very funny to you" Snarled Ddraig as he rubbed the spot where the rock hit.
"Well you did wake me up rather rudely" Said Eclair.
"Alright, I think we should go now" Said issei before a fight could break out.
He was excited to see his project fulfill its purpose, plus the ship was speed-built so when he returns to his real home he will be able to do it properly.
"But first, can you get off of me?" Asked Issei as he looked at her with a smile.
It looked like Eclair teleported to the other side of the cave with her insane speed.
Issei noticed she was blushing and couldn't look him in the eyes.
He knew what was happening as it was not the first time.
He just let out a tired sigh as he stood up and walked towards the cave exit.
"Let's go" Said issei before leaving.
As they reached the ship they saw Issei staring at it.
"She's beautiful" Murmured issei.
"What?" Asked Eclair as she didn't hear him.
"I said the ship is beautiful, I wasn't able to admire it yesterday" Said issei as he looked at her.
"Issei, what does DDE Musashi mean?" Asked Eclair.
"Musashi is the name of the ship as you already know and DDE means Divine Dragon Empire, I decided to rename the Dragon Faction as it sounds boorish" Explained Issei.
"I like the sound of that" Said Ddraig.
"Now then, the last thing left is a small tour for you" Said Issei.
For three hours Issei was a guide on the ship.
Eclair was amazed, Issei managed to build this in such a short amount of time and still had time for training.
They entered the storage room where all of the shells were located.
There were a lot of them and they weren't small.
"Um... Issei how does the ship reload the cannons?" Asked Eclair.
"Good question, you see some of the red painting on the ground?" Asked issei.
"Yeah.... don't tell me that is your blood too" Deadpanned Eclair.
"...yes that is my blood but that is not the point right now.
That painting is called a magic circle and it was created by me to access my pocket dimension and my inventory to refill the storage if all of these shells are used up, similar magic circles are located inside the cannons so they reload automatically but they have a six-second cool down because we don't want it to malfunction and overheat, normally I would do a twenty-second cool down but this metal is strong enough to withstand the heat, plus the cannons rotate way faster than they originally did with the hell of magic" Explained Issei.
"That's amazing, your world has such incredible things"
"Okay now let's go to our next tour destination" Said Issei.
After a couple of minutes, they reached another room that was their next destination.
"Where are we Issei?" Asked Eclair.
"This is where the ship's engine is supposed to be but I made something better that won't need anything to power it except for my flame" Explained Issei as he walked over to some kind of machine that had a lot of pipes and ignited some kind of golden and black flame that even Ddraig hasn't seen before.
Issei closed off the flame with a small window door so that the flame was visible.
"As you can see this flame is the power source for this ship.
I created this flame with the characteristics of Ddraig's flames which means it'll never go out until the target is burned but I mixed in some holy fire that I unlocked during my training and ice flame and with a few Ddraig's scales it won't burn the ship and it'll never go out unless... I die" Explained issei.
"What do you mean brother?" Asked Ddraig.
"What I mean is that it is linked with my soul so I wouldn't have to worry about it going out of control it's like sharing your life force with someone but in this case, I'm sharing a small portion of my soul" Explained Issei.
"Isn't this too dangerous?" Asked Eclair.
"It's fine don't worry" Replied Issei as he patted her head making her blush.
After that Issei led them to a big room that had a bunch of seats around a large circular table.
The room itself was pretty empty.
"This is the meeting room, here we can gather meetings with the other important people like Faction leaders and be perfectly safe, the ship already has a great defense but I used some magic to make this room extra safe" Examined Issei proudly.
"But there aren't many dangers in the water so the ship will rarely be used in our world" Said Ddraig.
"True that's why I already have a plan to convert it into an all-purpose war ship" Explained Issei.
"What do you mean by that?" Asked Ddraig.
"I will evolve the ship making it into a truly fearful war machine that many won't stand a chance against, y it'll be a new era for these ships, you'll see once we return Ddraig " Explained Issei with a prideful grin.
"Now let's go back" Said Issei.
The trio returned to the captain's lodge where they originally started the tour.
Issei grabbed the ship from the rails with the help of the chains and released it to the sea.
Not slowly tho he just let it go mid-air and it slammed into the water sending big eaves to the shore.
"I floats...It floats!" Shouted Eclair as she barely managed not to jump out of excitement while she held onto Issei.
Issei just watched with an enormous smile happy for his successful launch but now the ship had to go through the real test.
"Okay first test is to see how good the defense is" Said Issei as he flew out of the lodge and aimed a small ball at the ship.
Eclair started to worry but she believed in issei's skills.
He released a strong with no boosts dragon shot at the ship but..... not even a scratch was left.
Issei was even happier than he was before.
A shot like that would've destroyed a sma forest.
He returned to the ship and Ddraig fist-bumped Issei for the first test's success.
"Now the second test " Said issei as he grabbed the wheel and turned on the engine of the ship.
It barely made any sound but it started moving as Issei slowly pushed a lever.
The ship was moving pretty fast and they made a circle around the large mountain.
"This ship is really fast compared to the regular ones" Said Eclair amazed.
"The second test is passed now the last one" Said Issei as he looked at Ddraig.
Ddraig nodded as he understood what to do and flew out of the ship.
"What is he doing?" Asked Eclair.
"Just watch" Replied Issei.
Ddraig then landed on the beach and Eclair saw what looked like boulders lined up.
Ddraig proceeded to transform into his dragon form and swung his tail with the three first boulders.
The ship did stop and turned its cannons as they aimed at the boulders and with a loud bang, one of the triple cannons shot at the boulders and destroyed them effortlessly.
Ddraig then sent flying three last boulders and one of the quad cannons on the back of the ship aimed at the last flying boulder and shot like the first time but this time the boulders exploded and a huge flame cloud lit up for a moment.
"Why did the boulders explode this time?" Asked Eclair stunned by the power of the ship.
"That's because I used two different types of shells, I told you earlier that there were regular, piercing, and explosive ones and this last test is a success, automatic aiming works perfectly" Said issei.
He used detection magic to let the ship help aim at selected targets and hit a bull's eye but once he will return to his world he'll make the ship even better.
"Well that's enough for today" Said Issei as he stopped the ship released the anchor and they returned to the beach by flying.
"Today I'm gonna rest so if you need me I'll be in the cave" Said issei.
Ddraig and Eclair nodded before leaving him alone.
Issei walked into the cave and sat down.
In front of him was a box that he just took out of his inventory.
That was the same box as the blue cube.
"What am I supposed to do with you?" Asked issei as he stood back up again and started to walk around with the cube in his hand.
Claire analyzed it a bunch of times but nothing, she says that it's an unknown artifact.
Issei circled around and was about to put the cube back and take the other box that remained unopen until he tripped on a rock and the cube flew out of his hand.
It landed on Musashi's chest.
Issei walked over to grab it but the moment he touched the cube it disintegrated into hundreds of smaller cubes half of those entered the woman's body and the rest flew out of the cave.
Issei ran out of the cave and saw the cubes merge into his ship and... much to his horror the ship disintegrated into thousands of cubes.
"NO! NOOOOOO STOP!"
It started to fly like a visible gust of wind back to the cave.
As it flew right past him again he had to cover his eyes because of the blinding light that came from the inside.
As the light disappeared Issei was left speechless.
"Wha... wha?" Those were the only sounds he managed to utter as he re-entered the cave and what he saw shocked him to his very core.
He saw.....Musashi was looking at him wide-eyed with his battleship parts constructed into something completely new and weird right behind her back.
It seemed that two large metallic arms with all of the cannons on them.
The arms were twice her own size and next to her a large black with red stripes katana lay on the ground.
They were silent as both of them were too shocked to even move until she spoke up, but this time her voice wasn't sad but.... surprised.
"It-Its you!" She said as she pointed at Issei.
"What the hell just happened?" Asked issei.
[To be continued]....