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He didn’t necessarily blame them, either. Over the years, he’d heard it mentioned a few times: the idea that reapers might one day be rendered obsolete by the advancement of technology. Clearly, that day was still quite far away, assuming it ever arrived at all, but the ramata did look like a rather significant step in that direction.

It was certainly an interesting notion, though. He remembered discussing it with Yangéra before, but unlike most other reapers, she actually seemed somewhat receptive to the possibility.

‘Honestly, it might even be for the best,’ she’d told him. ‘Us reapers can be real troublemakers, even when we mean well. And especially when we don’t. But if we were ever cast aside by the most powerful figures on the planet, then maybe we would have less ability to meddle in the affairs of the living world. If nothing else, it would definitely give fewer reapers an excuse to neglect the job of reaping souls.’

He didn’t know if he believed all that, but maybe she had a point.

Either way, even if the ramata became advanced enough to perfectly replicate all servant abilities with little-to-no resource cost, Diego still doubted that any technology would ever be able to replace the reaper’s ability to regrow servants from scratch. That seemed flatly impossible, no matter how many years passed.

The presence of the ramata also added one more wrinkle to this battle, however. Under no circumstances could they allow one of them to fall into the enemy’s hands. The Artisan himself had made that abundantly clear. He did not want just any old soldier to be carrying one. He’d only distributed them to those of sufficient rank, and he’d even gone out of his way to discuss the matter with the Rainlords, petitioning them for their aid in ensuring that no ramatas survived the battle outside of the RPMP’s custody.

For their help, he’d offered the Rainlords various means of payment: two ramatas to keep as their own, cold hard cash, and the chance to request a custom creation from him at some point in the future, once the war was over.

It was a hell of a deal, all things considered. When he’d heard the terms, Diego could hardly believe the man was being so generous, but then he’d heard that the Lord Santos Zabat had served as their primary negotiator, and then Diego was no longer surprised.