Speed Is King

Very quickly, he pulled Gilgamar out and allowed the blood on it to drip down onto the breastplate.

Elliot's decisive actions took Lady Balastiera slightly by surprise. but her cold and hard look mellowed somewhat.

Whoosshh!

The breastplate seemed to come slightly alive as it absorbed Elliot's blood hungrily.

The few drops of blood quickly disappeared, but the breastplate seemed like it still hadn't had enough!

A mournful aura suffused slightly out of the breastplate. It mixed with the noble aura in a very unique blend, as though a Royal Toddler Prince was throwing a rather regal but childish tantrum.

"Sentient armor?" Elliot's eyes widened in shock. Only sentient armor could react in such a way!!

He looked at Lady Balastiera incredulously, but she merely ignored him and focused on the breastplate with a complicated look on her face.

"More! More!!" The breastplate's aura demanded loudly. It fluctuated between a royal command, to a royal tantrum, to a royal pleading.

Elliot's mind whirred at high speed.

A sentient weapon or equipment was usually created when a powerful warrior split his or her soul to infuse it into the weapon or equipment.

In that situation, the weapon or equipment would be very similar to the warrior in terms of character and maturity.

However, it wasn't so in the case of the Teardrop of the Gods armor set which Lady Balastiera just made.

It felt like the Sentient armor wasn't made alive through the infusion of a soul split, but was… born instead!

It gave out a very newborn aura that was unmistakably innocent and pure.

Elliot looked at his rapidly healing wound on his chest, and decided to finish the job properly.

Whatever it was, he would make it his first, before finding out all the details about it.

He gave his chest a firm, solid punch and caused no small amount of blood to spurt out of his heart and splash onto the breastplate!

Elliot's face paled slightly, but his eyes were glowing in determination and reverence.

Crackle! Crackle!

The breastplate and the rest of his armor pieces seemed to rejoice as the breastplate resumed its meal.

All twelve pieces started to glow slightly.

After a few seconds, their aura started to rise in strength and a very comfortable sense of comradeship suddenly sparked into life between Elliot and his armor set.

"Hey." Elliot tried to communicate with the armor with his mind.

[Hmmmm.]

But try as he might, that hmmmm was the only thing Elliot managed to elicit from it. It seemed to be very busy gorging itself on his blood.

Elliot chuckled lightly and let the armor set do its thing.

As the seconds ticked by, its aura continued to rise higher and higher, and the sense of comradeship grew stronger and stronger until finally, Elliot felt like the armor set was like a brother to him!

It was the strangest feeling.

He stared at the breastplate which was still absorbing his blood, and then at the others. They were just pieces of armor, but… they all felt dear to him!

Elliot frowned lightly.

He disliked the idea of having something suddenly become so precious to him. But it was an irresistible feeling.

He may dislike the idea, but it was too late to do anything about the armor which was already burrowing itself deep into his heart.

Not one to dwell over spilt milk, and understanding that the armor set could very well be the most precious thing he would ever own in his lifetime, Elliot quickly accepted the fact that he had one more supremely precious member in his family and shook his head ruefully.

At that moment, to his pleasant surprise, the armor's aura started to rise explosively and took on a completely draconic nature!

It was so reptilian and so vividly draconic that Elliot could almost hear the deep rumbling roars of powerful dragons coming out of the armor set!

A deeply sacred feeling washed over him as he beheld the paper thin breastplate in his hands.

Strands of near invisible energy lines connected the breastplate with the 11 other pieces and evenly spread out the strange energy that the breastplate was churning out.

It was as though he was watching the birth of something wondrous and completely unique in the universe.

He could feel the gathering glory that could very well be his, just out of reach, at the edge of his fingertips.

Finally after a full minute, with such a generous amount of blood, the breastplate finally seemed to be satisfied.

At that moment, the off-white armor set suddenly glowed very brightly and then turned completely red!

"Baptism of Blood." Lady Balastiera nodded in approval and said softly. "You've given it your highest form of respect by binding it with the blood essence taken directly from your heart. The armor has responded to your respect. And… Chairman El'Taras was right."

Lady Balastiera sighed deeply and took out a thirteenth and final piece of armor from her pocket.

It was round, like a plate.

It was small too, also like a plate.

Like the rest of the twelve pieces, it had turned bright red, the colour of Elliot's blood.

But unlike the other twelve, it was completely devoid of runes.

And unlike the other twelve, an utterly irrepressible sense of might emanated from it!

Although the value of the twelve-pieces of armor was beyond priceless, Elliot instantly knew that the small round plate was worth much, much more!

"If you had responded with anything less than an all out Baptism of Blood which you had just completed earlier, I wouldn't have given you this final and most precious piece." Lady Balastiera sighed deeply.

"This is the Heart Guard. The core of the armor set." Lady Balastiera stretched out her hand, and immediately, her soul power started to imprint countless tiny runes on it.

The runes were much more complex than the ones that covered the armor set, and were much, much smaller and many, many more in number.