In a seventh-floor office of the Central Tower in Morning Star City, Anick Splinter sat at his desk.
The Alchemist lifted a cup of hot water steeped with the roots of an unknown plant. Savoring its distinctive bitterness and hint of sweetness, he sketched something on a sheet of paper.
As a current member of the Floating City's Supreme Council, Anick had never undergone full mechanical conversion. He had kept his nose, mouth, esophagus, and the organs needed for digestion and excretion, so he could still enjoy the pleasures of food.
Of course, he still had to spend energy points on anything he ate.
But Anick had not kept those organs merely to satisfy his appetite. He was responsible for one of Morning Star City's Grade 1 Sealed Artifacts, Garon's Stomach.
Goron had been one of the four popes of the True Creator's Church who rebelled, and the only Demigod among them. The members of Morning Star City's council had joined forces to kill him.
Even fighting him together, the Supreme Council had lost two Alchemists before finally killing him. Later, the Masters fashioned his remains into this artifact. Its negative effects were relatively mild, but sealing it was troublesome.
Among its many strict requirements, it needed a real stomach of flesh and blood to be properly sealed, and it had to be fed flesh and blood at regular intervals. That was hardly convenient for Morning Star City, where most people had completed their mechanical conversion.
That was why Anick, the youngest of them at the time and the one with the least need to worry about aging or lifespan, had kept his eating, digestive, and excretory systems.
As the Mechanical Emperor's student, he had a duty to make sacrifices.
Fortunately, though the artifact was difficult to seal, its powers