The massive underground doors of the secret hangar groaned as they slid open, revealing the colossus hidden within.

  Alaric stood at the base of the gangplank. Behind him stood a small, hand-picked group: ten members of his Knight Order that he trusted with his life, his old roommates from the academy, Kellan, Commander Orban, Lex, Hans, and the lead blacksmiths who had forged the plating.

  Silence reigned in the room. Everyone stared up, mouths slightly agape, amazed and shocked by the sheer size and scale of the machine. It wasn't just a ship but a fortress suspended in a cradle of steel.

  Jarik, his left arm now fully functional but still feeling phantom pains, looked up at the metallic hull.

  "And this is going to fly as well?" Jarik asked, skepticism battling with awe.

  "Yes," Alaric replied simply. "It will fly."

  This is SKYHAMMER - Superheated Kinetic Yield Heavy Aerial Mana-Engine, Alaric announced!

  "Board the ship," Alaric ordered.

  They walked up the ramp. Deep inside the hull, unseen by the others, Alaric had already installed the Sky Dragon’s Core. The pulsating S-Rank magic stone sat in the heart of the engine room was a limitless source of mana ready to power the iron giant.

  Alaric led the tour through the central corridor.

  "The ship is designed for endurance," Alaric explained as they walked down a large hallway. "There are ten rooms on both sides. Each contains four bunk beds. With rotating day and night shifts for sleeping, eighty soldiers can live here at once."

  He opened a few doors, showing the not so comfortable but functional living quarters.

  They moved deeper. "Dining hall. Kitchen. Storage and supply rooms," Alaric listed, pointing them out. "Here is the meeting room for strategy, and a recreation room for the soldiers to keep morale high."

  He stopped at a heavy oak door near the front. "My personal office."

  Finally, they climbed a short flight of metal stairs to the bridge, the Control Room.

  Gasps echoed through the group.

  The floor beneath their feet was made of reinforced, enchanted glass. The walls on three sides—front, left, and right—were also glass. It felt as if they were standing on air, with maximum visibility of the battlefield below.

  "And the teeth?" Orban asked, his eyes scanning the horizon through the glass.

  "Five cannons," Alaric answered. "One main cannon mounted on the nose. Two on the left flank, two on the right. All cannons are pre-loaded. We have fifty artillery shells in each cannon."

  Alaric stood at the helm. He looked at the pilot, a young mage he had personally trained in aerodynamics.

  "Start the engines."

  The pilot pulled the primary lever.

  Deep inside the armored shell, the heating magic circle activated. The squeezed balloons, containing air, began to heat up. The gas expanded rapidly, filling the eight massive lift cells hidden beneath the metal container of the hull.

  The ship groaned as the balloons strained against the frame, generating upward force. But the heavy iron plating was too heavy for gas alone.

  "It’s not enough," Hans muttered, looking at the gauges.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  "Activate the Weight Engine," Alaric ordered.

  The pilot flipped a row of switches.

  Along the main frame of the ship, almost twenty intricate magic circles flared with a dull brown light.

  "Creo Terra: Lightweight."

  The spell washed over the metal. Instantly, the ship’s mass plummeted. The magic reduced the vessel's weight by almost 82.5%.

  Alaric explained to the stunned audience, "We can control the buoyancy by activating a specific number of circles at once. If we want to drop fast, we turn them off. If we want to climb, we activate all twenty."

  With a lurch that felt surprisingly gentle, the landing gears left the ground. The SKYHAMMER was airborne.

  The airship hovered in the center of the hangar, rising steadily toward the open roof doors. But it was only moving up.

  Silan, looking at the controls, asked the question on everyone’s mind. "How do you plan to move forward? Or backward, left, and right?"

  Alaric smiled. "I have thought of that."

  He pointed to a diagram on the console. "Have you seen that the back has a tail? That tail is a rudder. It moves left and right via wires connected directly here to the control room."

  "And the thrust?"

  "Through the middle of the balloon array goes a central pathway," Alaric explained, tracing the line with his finger. "It is open on both the front and the back of the airship. Air enters the front intake. Inside, it is superheated with Flame Magic circles. The expanded gas is forced to exhaust through the back at high velocity."

  "Thrust," Silan realized. "Pushing it forward."

  "Exactly. The tail controls the maneuvering, the jet controls the speed."

  Silan thought for a moment, looking at the simple elegance of the design. "It... it is a simple design, in principle. Don't you fear it getting leaked outside? If a spy sees this..."

  Alaric shook his head confidently. "I thought of the risk. Even if they get the blueprints, they wouldn't understand the science behind it ....aerodynamics, thermal expansion, drag coefficients."

  He tapped the floor, indicating the Dragon Heart below. "And even if they could somehow build a working replica, the energy source needed is no joke. I have a Dragon Core, and even I have enough personal mana to power it if necessary. But do the others have similar mana sources to make tonnes of iron fly?"

  Silan smiled, shaking his head in disbelief. "You have thought this through, didn't you?"

  The airship cleared the hangar doors.

  "Altitude 100 meters," the pilot called out.

  "200 meters."

  "300 meters."

  They climbed until they reached a kilometer in height. The City of Haven looked like a toy set below them. The mangroves were just patches of green moss.

  "Engage thrusters," Alaric commanded.

  The flame magic circles activated. A low roar vibrated through the deck. The ship lurched forward, gaining speed.

  All of the knights, smiths, and friends pressed their faces against the glass walls of the command center. This was the first time any of them had truly flown. To see the world from the perspective of a bird... it was a religious experience.

  "The first flight is complete," Alaric announced, though his heart was pounding.

  For the next few days, the AirShip became a shadow over the sea. They conducted rigorous tests, firing the cannons at uninhabited islands and running maneuvering drills.

  On the ground, Alaric ordered mass conscription. Every able-bodied man in Haven was called to arms.

  In the past, this might have caused a riot. But now? The people didn't protest. They realized that if Alaric the Lord who gave them homes, food, and dignity was ordering this, then it was the last straw. They trusted him. They sharpened their spears and waited.

  A week after the war games began, the silence broke.

  A message came from the secure communication room, the receiver humming with the mana pulse from the device Alaric had given to Thorne.

  A soldier ran from the comms room, bursting into Alaric’s office in the Town Hall. He was breathless, holding a sealed letter transcribed from the code.

  Alaric took it. He broke the seal and started reading.

  His eyes grew wide.

  The King is dead.

  Prince Lucian has declared martial law. A massive gathering of Royalist soldiers is assembling in the outskirts of the Royal Capital.

  The letter continued. The Silver Serpent has informed me from inside the Capital. I suggest we strike first, before Prince Lucian and Duke Larethin can consolidate their forces.

  Alaric read the final line. Thorne was asking him to keep Larethin’s army occupied in the East, to split the Royalist forces so Thorne could smash the Capital.

  Alaric understood.

  He crumpled the paper in his hand. A small flame ignited in his palm, burning the message to ash.

  "So it begins."