Chapter 441: Elisa Is Walking!

-----

Elisa couldn’t believe it.

She was standing.

"..."

Her eyes widened as she looked down at her legs.

For a moment, she simply stared, almost as though her mind refused to accept what she was seeing. Her feet were firmly placed against the floor, and the mechanical armor surrounding her legs was supporting her entire body.

She wasn’t sitting anymore.

She wasn’t relying on someone else to move her around.

She was standing on her own two feet.

Her hands slowly moved toward her legs, touching the metallic components that now covered them. She could feel the structure supporting her, but there was something else as well. Something that went beyond simple mechanical assistance.

She looked back at Riven.

He smiled back with a gentle smile, and a light chuckle escaped his mouth.

"What’s up?" he asked. "Do you like my surprise, Elisa?"

"..."

Elisa couldn’t answer immediately.

Her lips trembled as she looked at him, then back at her legs. She had spent so much time imagining what it would be like to stand again that she had almost forgotten what the experience actually felt like.

Even though she wasn’t truly moving her legs through her own muscles, the sensation was surprisingly convincing.

She could feel the ground beneath her feet.

She could feel the pressure of her body being supported.

And, most importantly, she could move.

Elisa felt her heart racing as she looked at her hands. The armor had also wrapped nicely around her arms and shoulders, giving her an incredibly light, flexible, and tough mechanical exoskeleton in the key areas where she had the most paralysis.

It wasn’t bulky or restrictive like some of the armor she had seen before. Instead, it was designed to follow the natural movements of her body, providing support wherever it was needed without making her feel as though she was trapped inside a metal shell.

And what was more, as it connected further with the upper area of her spine, reaching behind the back of her head, she was able to temporarily reconnect her nerves with her thoughts, or rather, emulate that.

The system was using a combination of neural connections and Mana-based signals to interpret the intentions of her brain and translate them into movements. It wasn’t actually restoring the damaged nerves, but it was creating an artificial connection that allowed her to control the mechanical components as if they were an extension of her own body.

In other words, her thoughts... reached her legs.

"A-Ah...! R-Riven...! T-This is...!"

She tried moving one of her feet.

It moved.

Not perfectly, and certainly not as naturally as she would have liked, but it moved exactly as she had intended.

Her eyes widened even further.

She tried moving her other leg, and the mechanical components responded immediately, adjusting their positions to maintain her balance.

Then, she attempted to take a step forward.

She gave one small, sloppy step, almost falling.

"Careful, it will take some time."

Riven immediately approached her and held her hands, making sure she wouldn’t fall. He had expected her to struggle at first, and that was precisely why he had designed the machine to automatically stabilize her body whenever it detected that she was losing her balance.

Elisa looked back into his eyes, her mouth almost hanging open in disbelief.

"R-Riven!"

"I know."

"Riven!!!"

"I know."

"RIVEN!!!"

She cried happily, hugging Riven while taking several steps and almost falling. Riven received her with another warm hug, as Elisa was now a little taller than him thanks to the mechanical boots.

He chuckled as she wrapped her arms around his neck, almost squeezing him with all the strength she could muster.

"Ahaha...! Careful, Elisa! You’re going to make us both fall!"

"I DON’T CARE!" she exclaimed, laughing as she continued hugging him.

Riven couldn’t help smiling.

Seeing her like this was more than enough to make him happy. He had spent a considerable amount of time working on the project, and although he had been confident that the machine would work, there was always a possibility that something could go wrong. The last thing he wanted was to give Elisa false hope or make her uncomfortable with something that was supposed to help her.

But seeing her reaction now...

It had been worth it.

"Until we find the elixir to cure your paralysis, this is the next best thing I can offer to you," he said. "It’ll take some time to get used to. We need to practice... Also... maybe I don’t know if you’d like to go? They aren’t the most pleasing to the eyes. Some are giant cockroaches, but... Chief Solder of the Mutants said that if you can go there and show him how you move, he can tinker with the machine and help you calibrate it to complete synchronization..."

"!!!"

Elisa couldn’t believe it.

Just how many miracles had Riven been making since the day he awakened?

It felt like every time she thought she had finally seen the limits of his abilities, he would come up with something even more surprising. He had already created countless things, established his own world, gathered all sorts of people and creatures, and developed technologies that she couldn’t even begin to understand.

And now he had given her the ability to walk again.

It wasn’t a complete cure, and she knew that. Her paralysis hadn’t disappeared, and the mechanical armor was still necessary for her to move. But that didn’t make this any less incredible.

For someone who had spent so much time confined to a wheelchair, being able to stand and take a few steps was already an enormous achievement.

And it was all for her!

Was he really worried she’d refuse to meet these amazing people that made this possible?

She couldn’t help laughing at the thought.

"Of course I’d love to meet them!" she said with a bright smile. "They seem like incredible people! And... Riven?"

"Y-yeah? Are you happy?" Riven asked.

He seemed a little nervous despite everything. Perhaps he was still waiting for her to tell him whether she liked the invention or not, even though her reaction should have already made that perfectly clear.

"Very! Happier than I’ve ever been before, Hahahah!" Elisa laughed, running forward and then stumbling down. "Aack!"

"Elisa!" he ran to see her, but she only chuckled. "A-Are you okay?"

"I’m fine, the armor protects me well!" she chuckled.

She was sitting on the ground, looking at him with an amused expression. The mechanical components had automatically adjusted themselves during the fall, preventing her from hitting herself too hard.

Riven was still worried, though.

He immediately approached her, extending his hands to help her stand, but Elisa shook her head.

"Wait, let me try!"

"Eh?"

-----