The bridge of Camelot was surprisingly calm and quiet after the explosion died down, and we were further away, still watching. On the Imaginary, we kept looking at the mushroom cloud, which slowly began dissipating, and all the tiny bits and parts of that monster finally fell back on the ground. In the end, I slowly stood up, looking at Kustov, who flinched, nodded, and waited for my next order.

"Keep the distance up, but try to see what remains down below before we actually leave. There may be secondary explosions... So don't deactivate the shields yet!"

While speaking, Merlin walked in behind me. His clothes had soot marks, and he smelled faintly of copper. Looking at him, I couldn't see injuries anywhere, so they were most likely the result of some of the ship's systems going haywire and not from blood. His face was slightly pale, but probably only because of exhaustion. On the other hand, his eyes were already scanning the image, studying the situation with great interest.

"Anything to add?" I asked, not turning.

"The ship is fine. I activated some of the secondary systems just in case, but we suffered no major damage." He stopped a pace behind me. "But the magical reaction was way out of proportion..." he added quietly. "The moment the beam hit, there was something... I think that the cores of these beasts are... more dangerous than we thought."

"So, are you saying if something similar hits one of our mechs or ships," I turned towards him, "It will go nuclear just like this?"

"Nuclear?" He muttered, then shook his head, ignoring the word, "Yeah, I think so. The possibility is there... Like here, there was something that made its core react in a way that, well... couldn't be contained. That explosion was easily counted as a Master-level spell going haywire..." he explained as he stepped forward, standing shoulder to shoulder with me. "When the beam struck, it passed through layers of tissue, interacting with monster flesh and blood that was already saturated with its magic. It probably excited or activated it at once, and then it reached the core... which had to be full of raw magic..."

"I did not think about that..." I mused

"Until I see the core, I can't decide on what actually happened." Merlin's voice took on a sharper, more focused edge as his brows furrowed, watching the now smudge-looking cloud. "But I have the gut feeling that it started some kind of magical loop inside of it. Inside the whole body of that creature."

"Which then went critical," I mumbled, glancing back and forth between him and the cloud. "Could it have destroyed the core?"

"There is a possibility," He raised his hand and drew a slow circle in the air, his fingers moving in a way that sketched out a calculation and a formation while thinking. "CC, as we know, is indestructible. But is it really? We only tried physical destruction... As far as our knowledge goes, CC itself is crystallized magic. Pure energy, taking physical form. But if a feedback loop is created, say, from an external trigger like our gamma-pulse beam aimed straight at its heart... It is still magic; it is still magically created waves. CC can cut CC... Magic can destroy magic..."

"Kustov, make sure we keep a distance from that cloud!" I finished, catching on and barking a strict order. "Better yet, just keep leaving; we can return later to study!"

"Yes, Sovereign!"

"I may be wrong," Merlin said, finally looking up at me.

"I'm not risking it," I sighed, patting his shoulder. "If its core was blown up, that cloud has to have CC dust in it. I am not going to put you in danger just for curiosity's sake. I already said we would leave, so we are leaving."

Then, I turned my gaze back to the Imaginary. From what I could tell, the remains of the crater shimmered with heat and the faintly glowing embers of... Well, it could be molten metals from the earth, or it could also be CC dust that is charged with mana. Whatever it was, the blast had wiped out everything above the surface and probably within a few dozen meters below, too.

"We will have to be careful next time," I murmured. "We only tested the weapon on inanimate surfaces... If this is the reaction it brings out of monsters, I can't go and use it willy-nilly. One such shot and I could create a space that would be poisonous maybe for all eternity..."

"That’s my guess, too," Merlin agreed. "But, it would be mostly dangerous for the likes of me. And probably the monsters, which could be a forever stop for their invasion into this part of the world."

"Maybe, but it would also endanger my children," I scoffed, "And Sasha. And Mikan. And who knows? Our soldiers are using monster blood. What if it has an effect on them too? Give it a strong wind, and it can be blown away, too! Tsk... No. This needs to be studied. For now, we will head back and get the damages repaired, and we will return after. I will return, to be exact, and examine the place. You won't."

"But," he wanted to complain, but seeing my expression, he just shrugged, "Okay, I understand."

After that, we stood in silence, watching the crater slowly disappear from view.

"With our current speed, we should be back in Markoth sometime after midnight." I spoke after a long silence, "I will head back to my chambers. Kustov, if anything comes up, alert me."

"Yes, Sovereign." He saluted while I left the bridge, along with Merlin, who was about to do the same.

The trip back home gave me enough time to process everything, examining the effects of the spell and the following reactions to the best of my ability.

While doing so, I also noticed that my brain, in this case, recorded some new feelings. I mean, they were more akin to... sensations that felt natural back at the moment, but reviewing them showed me they were something new. I wouldn't say it was the sense of magic, but I remembered where I felt similar things. In that dream, when Sasha and I were connected... Was this the feeling of magic? I couldn't tell, but before the beam hit, I did sense... something.

Focusing more on it and trying to capture the feeling, I could tell it was related to the beast. And to the flying ones... A connection...

"Could it be some kind of communication... that I picked up? Like how they try to communicate with my son?" I asked myself, suddenly thinking of Arthur and his case. "Was the big one directing the others? Or were they autonomous?"

As if hearing my questions, a knock jolted me out of my thoughts, and after opening the doors, I wasn't surprised to see Merlin there.

"I finished examining everything we recorded," he began after I invited him in. "I also analyzed the magical fluctuations between the nest-like creature and its smaller spawns. I am sure that it had a centralized energy source," he said eventually. It made me flinch as I was just thinking of that, but I didn't say anything to interrupt his thoughts, and I let him continue explaining. He had a better understanding of it anyway, as he could discern it more precisely than I could. "Everything I sensed in those moments... it was like the big one was the heart. Not brain!" He reinforced his conclusion twice more, looking at me, "From what I could gather, it had very low intelligence, if we can even call it that... More like instinct. All that I gleaned from trying to recall how it was... was that it was hungry. It wanted food and energy to grow, and we smelled like a very delicious burger. He wanted to eat the Camelot."

"I see," I took a slow breath and let it out through my teeth. "So they do eat CC... and they do communicate via magic."

"Yes. And the smaller ones seemed to understand that communication. They do have a much higher intelligence level, just as we guessed. Yes, it was more animalistic, but their hunger wasn't solely focused on CC, so much so to turn them into simpletons. I think they do eat like any other animal, at least until one point in their growth cycle. It also explains where everybody is..."

"Which means," I leaned back, crossing my arms, "That there is a certain point where their core takes shape, and they can only grow if eating magic. Is it evolution? Or devolution?"

"Probably both," Merlin said, looking at me with a smile. "I think this is a field that was studied by the Vasas. Well, my previous incarnation believes so."

"Did you talk to him?"

"I did," he shrugged, rubbing his temple, "but he had not much to say about it..."

...

....

......

"That weapon is dangerous."

The voice echoed loudly in Merlin's mind as he meditated on everything that had happened. When he opened his eyes, took a deep breath, and smelled the rich fragrance of books and unrolled parchments, he was there again. Back in the library of his mind, now surrounded by countless shelves, all filled to the brim, containing not only his experiences, ideas, and thoughts but also a lot of understanding coming directly from the Book of Magic. Knowledge he had not yet been able to access, only realized they were there... hidden. And now part of him.

It was also a vexing realization, as those nuggets of information refused to budge and would only come to him after he actually understood them. They didn't let him skip the steps...

"Well, it was bombastic, as Leon would say." He giggled, turning towards his previous incarnation, who was sitting at a table, reading a book, resting his head on one palm.

"I wouldn't use it again, only when necessary. It could create a chain reaction that could be catastrophic."

"If you know something, just say it!" He scoffed, walking over and sitting down opposite him, "What's that? Vasas?" He asked, leaning over, trying to look at the book he was flipping through.

"Yeah. Although I wouldn't trust this book." He shrugged, flipping it over and pushing it before Merlin. "These are my understanding of the Vasas. But this knowledge comes from handed-down notes and information—things that were already more than a thousand years old by the time I studied them."

"It is still much more than what we have now, you know... It took you long enough to share it with me!"

"Every life is its own experience." He waved a hand while Merlin began flipping through the pages and reading them, but in fact, it was simply like remembering information from a different life: "But you can't live if the world is destroyed."

"Are the monsters this dangerous?" he asked, looking up from the book and its pages while his hand stopped for a moment and began playing with the rough-feeling paper.

"If they are not dealt with, yes. In ancient times, they came through multiple times. The records do have legends about times when they were endangering this part of the continent. But those are still just that, legends."

"They do have to have some truth in them."

"True." Old Merlin nodded, leaning back in his chair, stretching like a tired scholar, "It did say that the Vasas came to power back in those days. They hunted beasts, unlocked their strength, and rose to power. They not only exterminated them, chasing them back behind the mountains, but they also began taming them."

"Taming...? Those?"

"As I said. Legends."

"No, not necessarily..." Merlin mused, pursing his lips. "We saw them ride on their backs..."

"That could be a change that came later. Anyway, they did study them more than anybody else. Mainly because after they became the dominant force, right before their fall, there were no more beasts remaining here to study. It was their power, and they guarded it well. So, when studying it... Make sure to remember that. Whatever you learn is full of half-truths."

"Unlike you, I do have an advantage in determining which knowledge is real and which isn't!"

"Oh?" Merlin's old emperor form asked, tilting his head.

"We do have monsters roaming around... and I have my Sovereign to help me out!"