Shalin, somewhere underground.
Ninth Institute.
A male wizard in a deep black robe was patrolling an all-metal corridor.
Every few dozen meters along the corridor stood a heavy gray metal door. Set into each door, a little over a meter above the ground, was a palm-sized piece of high-strength transparent glass.
Through the glass, one could see sturdy steel racks inside, lined with numerous shell-shaped constructs. They stood nearly as tall as a person, their cold-toned casings painted with alternating yellow-and-black markings. The markings resembled a gear, except the gear had only three teeth.
Below the marking was a line of small text—Blanco Le Shoulei.
It was not anyone's name, but an ancient language. Translated into the continent's common tongue, it meant... Black Sun. More simply, "Black Sun."
Black Sun Weapons was the collective name for these constructs. The place where they were stored was the Black Sun Armory. The people responsible for manufacturing, maintaining, improving, testing, and managing them were called Black Sun Members. All of it belonged to the Ninth Institute.
The Ninth Institute was also called Black Sun Castle, though only a very few people in Shalin knew that.
Black Sun Member John Fermi walked with steady steps past one metal door after another, occasionally stopping to carefully inspect the items on the racks inside.
The rooms did not contain only the nearly human-height, shell-like "little toys." There were also "big fellows" one meter in diameter and three to four meters long, and even giant constructs two meters in diameter and nearly ten meters long.
These were respectively small Black Sun Weapons, large Black Sun Weapons, and super-large Black Sun Weapons. In official records, they were called tactical-grade, strategic-grade, and destruction-grade. Further classifications included first-generation, second-generation, third-generation, and fourth-generation tactical-grade Black Sun Weapons.
Fermi narrowed his eyes