A Vow of Loyalty

KABOOM!

"Groar!"

FWISH!

Due to their combined attack having been destroyed by Platiknight, the rock troll and Bunsen burner robot were stunned due to the energetic backlash produced by such an event.

As such, they were positively helpless as the giant shield of Platiknight came crashing down on them, and it didn't help that this giant slab of metal was being accelerated by the shining knight's kick.

Now, this would've been the part where Platiknight's attack rendered the rock troll into a bloody pile of rubble and the Bunsen burner robot into a pile of burnt scrap metal, but that didn't really happen.

As familiars contracted to a magi and a mechanist, respectively, the two aforementioned monstrous beings were unable to truly die unless their contractors died.

That didn't stop them from feeling the pain of death though as they exploded into showers of energy that returned to their respective masters.

"Trobol! Ah!"

"BB-09, no!"

Not only that, but because of the nature of their contracts, Bjorn and Farran had to face the consequences of allowing their familiar to be defeated. And that consequence came in the form of a contract based feedback that shocked the two users down to their very core and forced them to feel the last moments of their respective familiars before being defeated.

"Guh..."

"Buh..."

Needless to say, the sheer shock of the pain they were feeling had battered them to the brink of unconsciousness. But before its sweet embrace could take them, their respective Systems had decided to deliver them some terrible news.

[Alert! Familiar: Trobol has been defeated. Applying appropriate penalties to Arcanis User: Bjorn. A recording of your defeat has been sent to your guild leader for appropriate judgement.]

[Alert! Familiar: BB-09 has been defeated. Applying appropriate penalties to Machina User: Farran. A recording of your defeat has been sent to your guild leader for appropriate judgement.]

"Shit..."

"Dammit..."

The shock of this announcement was enough to push the two of them over the edge, as they understood that the reaction to this news was going to be...less than pleasant.

Not that the instigator of this reaction was aware though. He was too busy being shocked that the System's advice had actually worked.

"Holy shit...you weren't kidding about that being his super move...," SK muttered in disbelief at the sight of Platiknight's victory.

[No duh,] the Superhero System replied with a smug sounding tone of voice. [Props to you though, user. I didn't expect your energy reserves to be this deep.]

"Really? I feel drained as a motherfucker though..."

SK didn't know if it was mana, spiritual energy, life energy, qi, aether or whatever, all he knew was that when Platiknight performed his Platinum Comet Crash, the power necessary to activate it came from his energy reserves.

He was fairly tempted to pass out right there and then, but he needed to be conscious for two reasons.

First, he had to drive that security guard over to a hospital.

Second, and more importantly, he wanted to properly introduce himself to Platiknight. After all, their first meeting was anything but proper.

"So...do I need to physically talk to him or..."

[Why don't you just ask him yourself?]

"Oh...right."

With this mind, SK opted to finally approach the shining knight as he stood in the aftermath of his victory.

Depending on one's point of view, they would've viewed Platiknight as the victorious hero who saved the day after defeating a pair of rampaging bastards who wielded their power indiscriminately, or an oppressor who wore shining armor as a means to blind others to their own sins.

Then again, the ones assuming the latter were probably related to those aforementioned bastards.

It only took a few seconds for SK to get into speaking distance with Platiknight, but once he did, he realized that speaking wasn't necessary.

He could feel that his soul was quite literally connected to this superhero, and that this bond was a two way street.

SK could feel and know what Platiknight was thinking at any given moment, and Platiknight could feel and know what SK was thinking at any given moment too.

But this didn't stop the literal knight in shining armor to make a display of loyalty appropriate for someone of his station.

"So, I guess we don't need to-"

Ka-clink

Before SK could even convey a thought or a word, Platiknight was already kneeling before him with his shield acting as his support instead of a proper sword.

"My liege,' Platiknight said with so much sincerity and loyalty that SK had the brief illusion he was actually a form of royalty for a hot second. "My thanks to you is twofold."

"Oh don't-wait, twofold?"

"I must first thank you for bringing me to life so that I might fight at your side in this world" Platiknight answered. "And I must also thank you for creating me in the first place."

"Ah..."

When SK used the [Miracle Grade Familiar Creation Ticket], he didn't just randomly come up with the idea of Platiknight.

Ages ago, back when he was a child, he had first drawn up Platiknight as a means to combine the tropes of the shining knight found in fairy tales, and the paragon of justice found in comic books.

He would spend hours, days, writing and drawing Platiknight's adventures in that messy drawing style that only a child could comprehend.

Later on though, during a phase of his life that he became rather cynical about the idea of "true justice and heroism", he shelved the idea of Platiknight into the back of his mind.

He eventually grew out of that cynical phase of his and began to realize that evil only triumphed if good people didn't do anything, with the impetus being that shooting he survived back in high school.

However, he never really explored the idea of bringing back Platiknight until this very evening.

After all, in face of the sheer madness he was witnessing just moments ago, it made sense for his first familiar/superhero to be a proper knight in shining armor.

"As a token of my appreciation for these gifts you had given into me, I hearby make this vow," Platiknight declared for the world to hear.

"For as long as this shield stays by my side, I will be your shied. For as long as I wear this armor, I will be your shining beacon of hope if you were to ever fall into despair. And if anyone dares to force me to harm you in anyways, I will end myself first. This vow of loyalty I swear to uphold until the end of time and space."

After making these words known, Platiknight stood up to his feet and banged his armored fist against his chest plate.

"I am Platiknight, the Precious Metal Paragon!," the hero announced before taking on a quieter tone of voice. "And I will be forever by your side."

As soon as he said this, Platiknight transformed into wisps of blueish energy that floated in the air a bit before surging towards SK's hands.

"Holy-!"

The next thing SK knew, he found himself holding a long, thin card that has a stylized image of Platiknight on it.

He was worried for a split second that the first superhero he ever created had disappeared into some dimension, until he saw the System status windows explaining that Platiknight was simply resting after exerting himself this evening.

After that, SK let out a massive sigh of relief.

"Holy hell, I seriously thought I was going to die this evening...didn't expect...all of this."

Looking pass the unconscious weirdos that were controlling those monsters from earlier, SK could see that the entire shipyard was more or less a mess.

A mess that SK was ill-equipped to handle.

That was, until he realized that he had yet to check the rewards he had received just moments ago after Platiknight's victory.

"Oh hey, this is also a good time to review what this System can actually do for me...aside from saving my life. Although, that is a major one."

With all of this in mind, SK focused his mind and summoned the System's windows so that he could review exactly what this system could do.

Of course, he still had to pass through all of the recent notification messages.

...

[Notice! User has defeated Farran of the Machina System. Abilities points and rewards has been sent to user's inbox. Please retrieve at your earliest convenience.]

[Notice! User has defeated Bjorn of the Arcanis System. Abilities points and rewards has been sent to user's inbox. Please retrieve at your earliest convenience.]

[Notice! User has managed to defeat two opponents that were above the user's current level. Additional rewards has been sent to in-box, alongside a title. Please retrieve both at your earliest convenience.]

[Notice! Due to the user and the familiar having extreme compatibility, new features and items have been unlocked. Please review these unlocks at your earliest convenience.]

...

"Oh...I should probably wait until I'm somewhere safer before looking over this stuff."