Kyle just shrugged. "I just didn't want to fight."
Sebastian's brows furrowed. "They forced me to fight. Well, not forced. They gave me empty promises."
"Speaking of. What's even our plan?" Kyle asked.
"What do you mean?" Sebastian asked.
"I mean, we met, we hit it off, we killed a Transcendent, and now we're here," Kyle said. "What do we actually do?"
"Good question," Sebastian said. "Actually, I just realized that I don't even know your name."
"Kyle Freeman," he said.
"Sebastian Wendler," Sebastian said, offering a handshake.
The two of them shook hands.
"Alright, so, what now?" Sebastian asked.
"Eh, I don't know," Kyle said. "I mean, we were allies of circumstance. Do we continue doing stuff together?"
"Why not?" Sebastian asked with a shrug. "We're both from Earth. We both have the same enemies. Seems like we're in the same boat."
"Sounds about right," Kyle answered. "Sure, let's stick together for a while. What are you currently working on?"
"Nothing, really," Sebastian said. "I've got all the Lightning Fragments already and made an overarching Law with all of them. Pretty sure I will immediately reach the power of Emperor Winterfire as soon as I break through. I've kind of just been idling for the past decade."
"So, you just want an Ether Essence?" Kyle asked.
"Yep," Sebastian answered.
Kyle nodded. "I still have a lot to learn."
"How come?" Sebastian asked. "Don't you already have a powerful Law? I mean, you're as strong as me."
"Nah, I don't have a Law yet," Kyle said.
"Wait, what?!" Sebastian asked. "You're fucking with me."
"No, I'm not," Kyle said. "I could make one, which would be the Law of Metal, but I want to comprehend all the Metal Fragments first before I do it."
"But then, how are you as powerful as me without a Law?!" Sebastian asked in shock.
"I use three Elements," Kyle said. "You have speed. I also have speed thanks to my Wind Element. You have explosiveness. I also have explosiveness with my Fire Element."
Kyle smirked. "But you don't have equipment, while my Metal Element gives me equipment."
Sebastian just looked at Kyle in shock.
Yes, at this moment, the two of them had about the same level of power.
Yet, if he gave Kyle another couple of years, he would become stronger without advancing.
Meanwhile, Sebastian was essentially already at the end.
He specialized in lightning, and he had already finished the most powerful version of the Law of Lightning.
"Okay, change of plans," Sebastian said as he pointed at the Anti-Wind flowing beneath them. "I'm using that!"
"How?" Kyle asked. "Pretty sure you don't have a Wind Affinity."
Sebastian grinned.
BANG!
A bolt of lightning came out of his hand and entered the Deepwind.
A moment later, the bolt of lightning was broken down by the Deepwind and turned into many different kinds of Ether.
The Ether materialized into a red bolt of lightning, which hit the Anti-Ice.
The Anti-Ice cooled down a bit as a result.
"Oh! I get it!" Kyle said. "You want to comprehend Anti-Lightning?"
"Yep," Sebastian said.
Then, Kyle furrowed his brows. "But is there even a natural occurrence of Anti-Lightning anywhere?"
"Don't need it," Sebastian said.
Kyle raised a brow.
"Kyle, we're humans," Sebastian said smugly. "Our ancestors might have needed to adapt to the environment, but modern humans are no longer like that. We don't adapt to the environment."
"We force the environment to adapt to us."
"I don't need a natural display of Anti-Lightning when I can just make my own."
"A battery here, a coil there, some resistors, a water wheel for power generation, and bang, I got myself a stream of electricity that enters the Deepwind!" Sebastian said. "Don't even need to use my own Ether."
"Having an engineering degree sure is useful," he said with a smile.
Kyle remembered the time he had shown Theodor some of Earth's inventions.
Back then, he had said that a Lightning Affinity would've been the way to go.
And now, there was someone from Earth with a Lightning Affinity in front of him, and to top it all off, this guy had an engineering degree.
For a moment, Kyle was envious.
But then, he realized something.
"Alright, sounds great," Kyle said. "So, you don't need me. I can leave right now, right?"
Sebastian wanted to say yes, but then, his face changed.
He realized that he had overlooked something crucial.
"Could you wait a bit?" Sebastian asked.
Kyle smirked.
"Yeees?" he asked.
Sebastian noticed that Kyle had noticed.
"You know what I want," Sebastian said.
"No? What?" Kyle asked with the fakest expression of incredulity. "You can just build your fancy machines, right?"
Sebastian looked at Kyle unwillingly. "Yes, but I need materials."
"Oh!" Kyle said. "Of course, wait."
The next moment, Kyle summoned a gigantic pile of Rank A Materials and dropped them in front of Sebastian.
Sebastian looked at the materials with a frown. "Come on," Kyle said. "Build your fancy machines."
Sebastian just sighed.
"And how am I supposed to make the parts for the machine?" he asked flatly.
Kyle laughed loudly.
Yeah, Sebastian had some great ideas. The blueprints of the machines he had created were probably terrifyingly advanced and complex.
But they were just that, blueprints.
He didn't know which metals had the perfect properties for the different parts of the machines.
Sure, he knew normal metals from Earth, but he didn't know these metals.
Copper and iron would just collapse into spheres under this much pressure, assuming they didn't turn liquid under the immense heat.
"I was just fucking with you," Kyle said. "Yes, I'm going to build your machine for you."
Sebastian sighed. "Thank you."
"We're friends," Kyle said. "No need for thanks."
Sebastian just smiled back.
"So? What should I do first?" Kyle asked.
"I need…" Sebastian said, trailing off. "Eh, I don't know what material I need."
"I know what its properties should be, but I don't know which metal has these properties."
"Just tell me what you want," Kyle said. "I will find the appropriate material."
"Okay," Sebastian said. "First I need…"
Sebastian kept naming different properties and dimensions, and Kyle searched for the appropriate materials.
Then, he changed them into the forms Sebastian wanted.
Creating such a complex machine took a while, and they kept constructing it for several days.
Eventually, the three days were up, and the Winterfire Empire was invited by Silvester to search for the fugitives.
tg://resolv?domain=StrongestHammerGod
The author's patreon. If he gets more than 1000€ per month, he will increase the number of words in the chapter.