Chapter 95: Nuclear Spirit New Generation (Patreon)

Night had fallen.

After everyone finished dinner, Rudeus got straight to weaving a new Elemental Sprites magic array.

Since he was only adding a teleportation function, very little needed changing. The real problem was that the Elemental Sprites had to fly to the right positions, and that took time. They'd have to go over group by group, slowly.

So was there a faster way to deploy them?

What if he used the discarded Elemental Sprites as points and connected them into a magic array? Would that work?

Come to think of it, he'd never tried it that way.

No sooner thought than done…

Using photon signals, he directed the Elemental Sprites over the capital of the Milis Holy Kingdom. High in the sky, they linked hand to hand, foot to foot. Each Elemental Sprite became a single point. Countless points joined into lines, and the lines closed into a circle. Then he filled the circle with the runes of a summoning array!

Every Elemental Sprite carried mana within its body, and every one could absorb mana from the air.

So… the array and the mana…

He had both now!!!!

Rudeus looked at the millions of Elemental Sprites, all in position, and set the array in motion!!!

The next instant!!!

The sky above the Milis Holy Kingdom's capital, black with night, burst into fierce, dazzling light.

The senior officials who had just gathered for a meeting flinched in unison.

What on earth was going on!?

Bewildered, they rushed out of the vast hall and stared at the blazing white light as it faded from the sky. Then they looked at one another, speechless.

Then, one by one, every gaze settled on Carlyle Latreia.

The Pope asked him directly, "Captain Carlyle… didn't you just say that Rudeus's family… that Paul and the others… had been very well accommodated in your home?"

At the Pope's question, Carlyle hurried forward and bowed. "Your Holiness, I did arrange for them with the utmost courtesy. Paul and the others are treated very well in my home."

The Pope's gaze…

He fixed Carlyle with a stare for a long moment, long enough that Carlyle began to feel uneasy, wondering whether he'd said something wrong.

Then the Pope smiled. "Good, I understand. From here on, you must…"

Before the Pope could finish—

Right above their heads!!!!

Another blast of dazzling light erupted.

The Pope looked up, and the corner of his brow twitched. He turned to Carlyle at once. "Get home, quickly… Explain everything properly to Paul and the others, and ask for their forgiveness. Paint the Milis Church in the best possible light. But do not release them for now. Whatever reason you give, whatever method you use, I have only one requirement: you must not anger them."

"Yes, I understand, Your Holiness!!"

Carlyle bowed to the Pope again, turned, and strode off toward home.

Watching him go, some of the other senior officials asked in confusion, "Your Holiness, isn't this being far too cautious? Is he really God-rank?"

The Pope glanced at the man and asked with a smile, "What, you think he isn't God-rank? Or that he isn't to be feared? Then I'll lay all the responsibility on you. Are you willing to take it?"

"!!??"

The man, who had meant to say more, shut his mouth at once.

As the Pope slowly swept his gaze over the rest, no one was willing to be the test subject either. And the crux of it was, why should anyone be!?

If Rudeus's status as a God-rank mage was proven, whoever had been pushed forward would surely die without a grave!!!

And if it was proven that Rudeus wasn't a God-rank mage? What great reward would there be then??

Besides…

By Carlyle's account, at five years old he had already been a Saint-rank mage on the verge of King. Seven or eight years had passed since. Even if he hadn't grown to God, reaching Emperor was entirely possible.

And against a sneak attack from an Emperor-rank mage…

Nobody present could claim they'd be sure to withstand it.

[Author's Note: Requesting flowers…]

And no one wanted to face the consequences of failing to withstand it!!!

So!!

Whether or not Rudeus was a God-rank mage, for now everyone had to treat him as one!!!

As for the common people, they were fools anyway. A simple explanation would settle them.

Seeing the senior officials fall meekly silent, the Pope said slowly, "I will contact the King of the Asura Kingdom. I trust that someone over there will be glad… or unwilling… to see such a restless new factor appear."

Hearing this, everyone present broke into a warm smile.

…

Kill with a borrowed knife!!!

Even if it failed to kill him, letting the Asura Kingdom step forward first to test Rudeus's mettle would be a fine result.

When the time came… if Rudeus couldn't withstand the judgment of the Asura Kingdom's royal family, they would handle the aftermath accordingly on their side.

Seeing everyone smile, the Pope smiled warmly too.

*

The Central Continent…

The Asura Kingdom.

They had traveled south the whole way, toward East Port in the southeastern corner of the Central Continent.

Milbotts Territory.

The place where Rudeus and the others were resting.

Everyone was busy with their own affairs, and Rudeus, naturally, was studying the teleportation array.

He had just run a test…

In theory it had sounded wonderful: trillions of Elemental Sprites meant trillions of teleportation arrays, able to send his attacks anywhere at will.

But the test showed otherwise. The Elemental Sprites were small, and so was their mana. On top of that, this world ran on the principle of equivalent exchange, so whatever got teleported couldn't be very big. To send something large, he'd have to go back to his original method of joining many Elemental Sprites into a teleportation array.

So all his earlier daydreaming had been for nothing.

Beyond-visual-range strikes, attacks with no time lag… reality was a good distance from the fantasy!!

So…

Maybe he could turn each Elemental Sprite into a nuclear sprite!?

That would let him make the observation granularity much finer!! And with more energy available, he could add more functions…

For example, waveband detection, which could penetrate cover directly!! It could even scan for things inside shelters, or underground!!

There was also anti-magic detection…

And anti-thermal detection…

Combined with the light-refraction magic he already had, that would make Nuclear Sprites truly invisible in every sense.

And whenever a Nuclear Sprite became visible, that would be the moment the real attack began!!!

So…

The remaining difficulty was how to fit a nuclear fusion reaction into such a tiny Elemental Sprite.

Time passed slowly.

On the way to the Milis Holy Kingdom, after confirming that Paul's side was completely fine, Rudeus devoted himself to researching Nuclear Sprites with Nanahoshi Shizuka.

Ghislaine, meanwhile, trained with Eris on the roof of the carriage, under the guidance of Dragon God Orsted, using the bodies Rudeus had strengthened.

And Dragon God Orsted, naturally, was everyone's coachman.

His daily job was to pick up a little whip and urge the ox pulling the carriage onward.

Day after day went by.

At last, just as they reached East Port, at the far southeastern edge of the Central Continent, Rudeus finally got the Nuclear Sprites working.

Before, he had used five types of Elemental Sprites: light, dark, water, wind, and fire.

Now, through constant discussion with Nanahoshi Shizuka, he had greatly simplified the Elemental Sprite programming. To make better use of the limited function space, he had also merged the functions he wanted.

The result was a single-attribute Elemental Sprite…

The Electric Sprite!!!

For stealth, he merged the earlier light-refraction function with anti-mana, giving the sprite resistance to both light and mana detection.

For detection, he replaced the earlier visualization function, something like a camera, with waveband detection that came with an alarm.

For offense, besides the earlier laser attack, he added a radiation death ray and chain detonation.

For support, he cut each sprite's own computation drastically and added coordination across the whole swarm, strengthening the computing effect.

Then he folded the old mana-absorption function into the newly added nuclear reaction function.

And he added a summoning function!!!

That was everything the Electric Sprite could do.

It looked complicated, but the real complexity lay in the programming. In actual operation, it was several orders of magnitude simpler than before, and the response speed was much faster.

As for computation…

Each sprite's individual computing function had been cut by eighty percent. But if he placed a central hub above his head, dedicated to computing, to integrate the information sent from everywhere else before passing it on to Rudeus, the efficiency of the entire swarm would triple!!!

All in all, they processed information faster!!

And then… once the trillions of Nuclear Sprites were deployed through teleportation arrays to every corner of the world…

Rudeus and the others had already left East Port, in the southeastern corner of the Central Continent, and arrived at West Port, on the western side of the Milis Continent.

It had been a long time. Standing here again, Rudeus felt a rush of emotion.

He remembered the first time he'd arrived here. Back then he'd been wary of Hitogami (Human God) prying out useful information, while wondering how he could ever defeat the Dragon God!!

Now Dragon God Orsted had become his good teammate and coachman. And the thoroughly loathsome Hitogami (Human God) was running out of ways to deal with him. If things kept developing steadily, Hitogami (Human God)'s schemes would gradually lose all effect, and all that remained would be quietly waiting for the day he was killed!!

It was fair to say that the Rudeus standing in West Port on the Milis Continent today was a completely different man from the one who had stood here before. Whether it was his own strength or the situation around him, everything had changed utterly. Everything was getting better and better!!!

So…

It was really wonderful!!!

When Rudeus stopped beside the gangway and just stood there, Eris asked curiously, "What good thing are you thinking about, to look so happy?"

At Eris's question, the others turned to look at him as well.

Rudeus smiled. "I was thinking about what it was like the first time we came here."

Nanahoshi Shizuka asked, curious, "Has this port changed much since your first visit?"

Shaking his head…

Rudeus said with a smile, "The port's the same port, and the surroundings haven't changed. But my own situation has changed completely.

"The first time we came here, Hitogami (Human God) was dragging us around by the nose. This time…

"Eris and Ghislaine have grown a lot stronger. I've grown stronger too, with Shizuka's help!! And we have Dragon God Orsted, a seriously reliable teammate!! We've completely broken free of Hitogami (Human God)'s controlling hand!!!"

Hearing this, Eris, who had traveled with him the whole way, nodded with deep feeling.

Dragon God Orsted even showed a rare smile.

Nanahoshi Shizuka also laughed, moved. "Honestly, all I did was discuss a few ideas with you.

"The one who actually makes them real is that superhuman brain of yours!!

"Sometimes I can't help marveling that your brain is practically inhuman!! Your comprehension and logical thinking are frighteningly strong!!

"Give you an idea and you grasp it right away and put it into practice. It's terrifying. If I were your enemy… I'd be on my knees right now, begging you to let me off."

Rudeus laughed at her words. "Well said. So I'll accept that compliment shamelessly. Haha!!"

Nanahoshi Shizuka gave Rudeus a beautiful eye-roll. "It's the truth…"

As her voice trailed off, everyone burst into happy laughter.

Despite all this, none of the people around them dared to come over and complain that Rudeus's group was blocking the way.

Ever since Rudeus had made his declaration over the capital of the Milis Holy Kingdom through the Elemental Sprites, the Alliance of the Righteous and the name of the God-rank mage, Evil King Rudeus, had spread across the entire Milis Continent.

And whatever business people had come out for, the most important thing was to know how to watch, listen, and learn!!

As the legendary Rudeus, he was naturally known to many. And knowing who he was, they certainly wouldn't dare get in his way.

Just then, the administrator of West Port, who had received word, hurried over with his men at top speed.

He carried orders from His Holiness the Pope of the Millis Holy Kingdom.

He had come to welcome…

The God-rank mage, Evil King Rudeus, who had traveled a great distance from the Central Continent!!