A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Chapter 286: Chapter 286 - Home stretch

Erik walked over to where Elora had been working before, and found a metal puppet in his likeness, covered in blue leather.

Clearly, Elora had used a sigil to shape the simple iron into a puppet that Erik could use to fit the armor on. Naturally, this only worked because the metal she used couldn't even really be considered rank one.

She also used the same sigil to cover the puppet in leather, in the same way as was done to the projection that showed the final product and detailed design of Erik's armor.

He took the many pieces of the skeleton framework he had been working on earlier to the puppet, and began assembling them together by using the puppet to make sure everything was in the right place.

To keep them in place, he used the frostvolt technique of thermal shock bonding by first heating the fittings with traditional lightning, causing them to contract, and than rapidly cooling them with ice to make them expand and create a mechanical lock.

He worked another few hours on this, sometimes going back and forth to the forge to slightly adjust the various pieces he was working with until, finally, the entire skeleton was in place.

Next he used another Frostvolt technique to melt the blue leather securely to the various pieces of the skeleton.

When that was done as well, he finally decided he was done for the day. He sighed, and mumbled, "Alright, that should do for today…"

As soon as he mentioned that, he looked around suspiciously, 'I wonder if Emma is hiding anywhere…'

Yet, despite being unreasonable, he couldn't but feel slightly disappointed when he couldn't find her anywhere. Her bright smiles and prepared snacks were the perfect ending to any long day of work.

He sighed, 'I guess I should be happy she's focusing on her advancement.'

Just as he thought that, a happily smiling Emma strolled into the hall waring her maid dress and carrying a plate of food and tea in her hands.

"Hello, Master!" she chirped and, seeing his expression, quickly explained with a sly grin how she was here at the exact right time. "Since you don't want me to interrupt my training for my maid duties, I asked Eira to let me know when you were about to finish! It's a compromise!"

Erik watched her approach, and could only grin stupidly. "You really are amazing, Emma."

"I simply want to be the best maid-wife I can be for you!" she giggled happily.

"Hence my earlier statement," Erik chuckled. "Just remember that this is not why I married you, alright?"

"Do I not seem happy, Master?" Emma smiled softly as she handed him a cup of tea.

Erik sighed and sipped the tea, "Never mind…" Even if some might suspect her happiness to be faked in an effort to please him, Erik could clearly feel her emotions through their bond and knew her feelings to be genuine.

Still, he couldn't help but wonder if her happiness in this role was permanent, or temporary. After all, to someone who had been tormented as much as Emma had, even just a few months ago, anything else would seem like heaven.

He understood how she had grasped his hand in desperation, and settled herself in a role of servitude because it brought a level of certainty, safety, and protection that she had been denied for seven years. Yet, in time, she might decide that this is not how she wanted to live the rest of her life.

He wasn't exactly worried, however. Elora's test had proven her love for him to be real and lasting, and if Emma ever wanted a different role in life, he would gladly support her.

"Come on," Erik beckoned while munching on some of the food she brought him and putting aside his thoughts about Emma's future. "I'll let Astrid know she can take a rest if she likes, and than I need some sleep. Will you join me?"

"Is that even a question, Master?" Emma giggled as she followed after him.

"It would have been rude to assume…" Erik smiled softly, as he walked towards Astrid.

He gently whispered in Astrid's ear that he would take a break for a while, as he didn't want to wake her in case she was just in the middle of something important, and this way, she would still get the message without being interrupted.

Seeing her remain seated and with her eyes closed, however, Erik realized she was in the middle of something and quickly left together with Emma to get some rest and have a little fun with his submissive and lustful maid-wife.

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After a good night's rest, and leaving Emma in a state of pleasured exhaustion, Erik went right back at it. Astrid, too, was ready to go back to being fuel, after taking a break a little while ago as well.

The next step was to use the stormcrystal alloy he had created the day before, and start making the armor pieces that he would fit onto the skeletal framework.

He charged his hammer with electromagnetic energy, tossed the alloy ingots into the fire, and started on the last stretch of this exhaustive effort.

First he made the easier pieces, like the gauntlets, the graves, the shoulder pads… it took another two days, but finally, the only thing left to do was the chest piece. This part of the armor would hold the most runes and sigils, while also housing Eira's core.

It would be the linchpin of the whole thing.

Thus, he woke up Elora to help him with the fitting for the core, and start applying all the necessary sigils to both the armor and the framework.

Another day later, he finally put the chest piece in place, and sighed… before starting to take the whole thing apart again.

The form changing runes had saved this configuration of the armor, and now he needed to reshape the armor to fit his werewolf form, before he was truly finished.

Luckily, slightly reshaping everything was far less work than creating everything from scratch. Thus, after the metal puppet was changed to resemble his werewolf form, it took him another day or so before the armor had taken a new shape, and the runes had saved the second configuration.

This time, Erik truly slaked a deep sigh when it was done and he looked at the finished product. "Man…" he groaned. "I love forging, but that… that was a lot of effort."

Before he could truly consider himself finished, however, he raised a hand, causing a small cloud of electrified grains of snow to twirl in his hand.

"Now for the final Frostvolt technique…"