A whole week passed in Asgard as winter slowly advanced across the northern continent. The city's monstrous growth didn't slow down for even a single day during that time. Locomotives continued to crisscross the newly built tracks without rest, factories kept their furnaces burning night and day, new refugees constantly arrived from the regions devastated by the chaos left after the fall of the monarchs, and the industrial districts continued to expand at a speed that was beginning to frighten even the city's own administrators.
Even without Strax present, Asgard continued to function.
Perhaps even too well.
The girls began to return gradually over those days. Some arrived wounded. Others tired. Others simply carrying the weight of weeks of battles, expeditions, and accumulated problems.
