Waves flow, yet they watch the world and adjust their course.
The temporary research facility built beneath the sea, where the fortress of the Aqua Empire stood, was quite literally submerged in darkness.
The farther one moved from the surface, the more the light vanished, leaving only faintly flickering blue-green luminous fish and cores to illuminate the laboratory.
This was a secret experimental zone whose existence was known to only a very small few even within the Aqua Empire.
On the experiment table, Wave Cores and Life Cores were arranged with precision. Each contained only the energy of water and the energy of wood respectively, yet the reaction the two cores were now creating toward one another was still subtle, but it was a strange tremor that went beyond a simple bond.
One researcher spoke cautiously.
“It seems we’re gradually seeing progress. Even without any change in temperature or water pressure, autonomous resonance is occurring between them.”
The chief researcher, Virelen, nodded.
She had been recording the faint wavelengths detected since several days ago, and she was paying particular attention to the fact that those waves had suddenly amplified to nearly twice their strength at dawn today.
Perhaps it seemed like a hint that a new existence was about to awaken.
She murmured.
“This must be a reaction of life. This isn’t simple fusion. It’s birth.”
While the researchers were absorbed in the experiment, the laboratory’s water curtain rippled faintly.
“What was that just now?”
As two or three researchers looked around, one of them whispered quietly.
“I think it’s finally appeared. That nameless light born from the union of fire and iron.”
At those words, the researchers stopped and fell silent.
Virelen broke the silence.
“We must work harder as well. There isn’t much time left. Whatever that energy truly is, we must create something that can break it.”
Following Ignis’s Golden Core, beneath Aqua’s waves as well, the balance of this world was beginning to change.
But they had to accelerate their research.
Nereia and Drian met at their border.
At the border between their lands, there was a temporarily built conference room.
The walls of the conference room were formed from tree trunks that had grown out from the Silva Empire, but the floor was a deep pond.
“We can no longer remain as we are. We must hurry even more.”
Nereia spoke firmly.
Levian, a retainer on Aqua’s side, had also sensed the golden energy extending from Ignis, and so Nereia’s side had urgently contacted Drian of Silva.
Drian replied.
“Our Silva Empire does not confine energy. But now that the flow of life is growing stronger, there is certainly a need for us to watch together where that flow is heading.”
“Beyond watching it, we must determine that direction ourselves.”
Drian nodded silently.
After finishing her words, Nereia looked down at the map upon the water’s surface.
Her gaze followed the boundary between Aqua and Silva.
A moment later, she pointed to a place on the map.
It was near the border of the two empires, where an undersea canyon lay in which both attributes were in balance.
That undersea canyon was an optimal region for both water and wood, a place that could become a neutral research site without leaning toward either side.
“I want a fusion research facility to be built here. Our buildings move along the currents, so it would be best for your side to prepare it. If we can control the flow of fusion there, our Aqua and Silva Empires will open the door to a new era with even greater strength.”
Drian answered simply.
“Understood. We will prepare the fusion research facility as a priority and inform you as soon as its growth is complete. Let us meet there again.”
As soon as the meeting ended, both empires immediately began preparations to move.
Aqua’s deep-sea researchers quietly cut through the currents together with the cores they possessed, while the researchers active in Silva’s laboratories also prepared to depart for the designated undersea canyon.
This migration of knowledge, undertaken by the two empires together, was a movement greater than war.
Not only in Nereis, where Aqua’s fortress stood, but throughout all of Aqua, a strange tension lingered because of the rumors that had recently been circulating.
Rumors in Aqua spread even faster through the ocean currents.
“Did you hear? They say some golden energy erupted in the south.”
“Right. The thing about fire and iron fusing, isn’t it? Isn’t that strange? How did the two become one? Is that even possible?”
“From what I heard, Ignis invaded Metallum and stole their resources.”
“Huh. Well, that’s something.”
Rumors spreading like waves became the topic of conversation among the citizens.
Whether intended or not, stories arising everywhere were quickly carried to the people.
A quiet unease also rippled through the central waterways of Nereis.
Citizens who once would have leisurely enjoyed swimming along the waves now frequently looked up toward the sky or reacted more sensitively to the currents around them.
“Is a war about to break out?”
“Even if it isn’t war, something in the world is changing. There have always been all kinds of flows before, but lately, things have been especially strange.”
On the other hand, some citizens were instead watching the new era with curiosity.
The younger citizens in particular placed their hopes on the birth of new troop types and technologies, and often lingered near the barracks.
“Current Infantry, Deep-Sea Spearmen, Tidal Warriors. What kind of soldiers will appear next?”
“Won’t we have to wait a long time again? For a new troop type to appear, the barracks have to be advanced, but they say the fortress has to be advanced first before that.”
“Still, isn’t it something that we’re allied with Silva? Since we’re joining forces, progress seems fast. They even say we’re doing core fusion research with them. That means we’ll get a new core too.”
“Oh, then we can train new soldiers with that as well?”
Expectation, anxiety, and curiosity coexisted in Aqua.
The waterways within the empire were quietly, yet surely, changing course.
Upon the quietly rippling currents near Aqua’s eastern border stood a transparent dome installed so inconspicuously that it was hard to notice.
It was a temporary research facility hastily built by Aqua’s researchers.
This structure, floating above the water as it followed the flow of the currents, swayed and moved gently like a swimming jellyfish, but the atmosphere inside was tenser than ever.
“When do you think the researchers from Silva will arrive?”
A researcher asked cautiously.
He was standing before the Wave Core storage device.
The core within emitted blue ripples, hiding a potential energy that no one yet understood.
“Who knows. Like Silva, they’ll probably come slowly along the route.”
The head researcher, Mirelle, replied.
She was adjusting the positions of the Wave Core and the Life Core with a faint smile, but her eyes were trembling sharply.
“I’m nervous. Working together with researchers from Silva, I mean.”
“They’re probably thinking the same thing on their side. Still, it would be nice if our side succeeded in the experiment first.”
“Now I understand why they’re making us research together. They’re subtly trying to stir up a sense of competition.”
The other researchers laughed cautiously.
Their manner of speaking flowed gently like the movement of the tides, but wariness was buried within it as well.
“How do you think the Silva researchers have set their research direction so far? Planting seeds in cores, something like that?”
“Oh? Planting seeds in waves? That’s an idea I’ve never heard of before.”
“Hm, hm… Huh? Isn’t it not completely impossible? We sometimes see things like seaweed in our ocean too.”
“Ah, is that the energy of wood? When did it enter our territory?”
Soon, Virelen quietly brought things to order.
“Now, everyone, let’s focus on the research again. We are gathering to find a path together, not to depend on others. Let us not be swayed by the other side.”
Outside the research facility, the currents were whispering softly.
The temporary structure continued to sway as it awaited Silva’s arrival.
The central hall inside the fortress.
Within the transparent dome, the lights swayed softly, and Nereia quietly watched the flow of that light.
The sound of waves whispered low outside the conference room.
“A Golden Core…”
Nereia murmured in a gentle voice.
“A union of fire and iron. Fusion within mutual opposition.”
Sian rested his chin on his hand and murmured as though lost in thought.
“No matter how I think about it, I’m concerned that energies so ill-suited to each other have fused. The research we are conducting is fusion within mutual generation, but over there…? Its name may be golden, but within it, there seems to be a force without balance. Energy forced together could run rampant at any time.”
“But what kind of substance is gold?”
When Levian asked, Nereia answered.
“Gold is a kind of ultimate metallic substance that Metallum obtains only after endlessly tempering and refining metal. Even they must repeat countless failures and purifications before finally reaching that metal. And yet Ignis…”
Her voice flowed low like a wave.
“…Are they saying they accomplished that so easily? I doubt whether what they obtained is truly gold. We will need to continue watching.”
Then Naus spoke.
“If such a dangerous power is deployed on the battlefield, it could shake not merely military forces, but the entire world. If we were to face it, how should we endure it?”
“Iron is in a mutually generative relationship with us, so it is fine, but the problem is fire. We cannot know the extent of the fire energy emitted by the Golden Core, but if it overwhelms our water energy, it will be dangerous. Until we successfully create our own fusion core, we must avoid clashing with them as much as possible.”
Her words were calm, but firm.
“Instead, we will respond in the way we are best at. Condensation, cohesion, flow. Our core is different from that of Ignis.”
Sian nodded and said,
“We will only know how our Wave Core and Silva’s Life Core will mix after seeing the experimental results. But one thing is certain: it will not be a product that seems unstable in some way, like Ignis’s Golden Core.”
Levian slowly turned his head and looked at Nereia.
“Your Majesty, if our core succeeds in fusion, how will you use it?”
Nereia was silent for a while.
The sound of a great ocean current passing beneath the surface could be heard.
She spoke softly.
“Before it is a weapon, it must become a shield. We are not researching cores in order to invade. However, when we must repel an external attack, if that power is necessary, it will be used.”
After Nereia finished speaking, the conference room became quiet once more.
“Then in preparation for that day, the research must be accelerated.”
Sian bowed his head and concluded.
And at that time, deep within the forests of Silva.
Drian was moving quickly along a passage woven from wood.
Her gaze was sharper than usual, and in the footsteps of the retainers following her, there was an urgency unlike any they normally showed.
“We cannot waste time. We must move before it is too late.”
Silva, too, knew that a new flow had already begun.