The Sky

Rebecca's chirpy, cheerful voice still rang nonstop beside her, while Maggie merely smiled and lowered her head to inspect the various control levers, the somewhat crude gauges, and the rune panels.

Over the past few days, she had committed those levers and instrument panels firmly to memory. She was so familiar with them that even with her eyes closed, she could accurately find any button or pull rod in front of the pilot's seat.

Tir, who had been battling sleepiness beside them for quite a while, wriggled her way over as well. Seeing that they were finally preparing to take off, the sea siren seemed a little more alert. She raised her head to look at Maggie in the cockpit, her tail tip poking the ground beside her again and again. "Don't forget to take pictures once you're up there—though if you crash right away, protect yourself first..."

Before she could finish, several Technical Personnel rushed over and dragged the talkative sea siren away.

Maggie watched it all with a smile.

She could feel the rune modules and mechanical devices beneath her body giving off faint tremors. She could sense this enormous, complex machine gradually awakening.

Steel, crystal, Magic Industrial Material, leather, wood, cloth... these lifeless materials had been assembled by human hands into a complicated shell. A dragon that could not fly sat inside that shell, preparing to use it to soar into the blue sky.

A shell was supposed to make people feel safe, but all this "shell" had demonstrated in testing so far was danger. Like most new technologies during the experimental stage, it was unstable, riddled with flaws, and full of problems even the Technical Personnel could not foresee. It was not safe at all.

Back when it had still been a small prototype, the anti-gravity