Chapter 239: Half The Answer

    December 31st, 625

    “Lady Luna, I didn’t expect to see you here.”

    Umara glanced over and saw John step outside of the room, closing the door behind him and blocking her view of Luna.

    They were outside for several minutes before the door opened again, the two walking in, John walking up to her and speaking in a low voice. Not loud enough to be annoying, not soft enough to feed into her depression.

    “I’m going to handle some business with Anderson. Luna will keep you company. Call me if you need anything.”

    “Mm.”

    She nodded, getting a kiss on the forehead from him before he walked out of the room.

    The door shut and she was left alone with Luna. Suddenly she was more aware of how dark it was. There wasn’t a single light on in the room, just the light seeping through the cracks in the curtains.

    Luna walked past her to the window and suddenly yanked the curtains open, Umara’s eyes squinting at the bright light that flashed through.

    Luna chuckled.

    “It’s a beautiful day, dear. You shouldn’t be cooped up in the darkness. It feeds bad thoughts.”

    Umara remained silent. When Luna walked over to her she felt a comforting Aura roll off her, so gentle and caressing. Umara felt like she could sink into it and fall asleep forever.

    But she soon realized that it didn’t let her. Then she realized how dangerous it was.

    Luna sat down, those silver eyes gazing through her.

    “So I’ve heard about the Crown. I expected to see you sad but I didn’t think you’d fallen into a pit. Have you told him your answer yet?”

    “...No.”

    Umara shook her head, glancing at Luna and feeling something different about her.

    She wasn’t so friendly, not like during their sparse visits to her in the Capital. She had come here with a purpose and Umara had a feeling that she wouldn’t like it.

    Her platinum hair draped over her shoulder as she crossed a leg and leaned forward.

    “Then it’s a good thing I’ve come. I’m here to tell you that I’ll be incredibly disappointed if you turn down this offer. So don’t.”

    Umara frowned, but she stamped down her immediate anger.

    “You know about what will happen to me?”

    “I know what could happen to you. But even if sterilization were an absolute certainty, I’d tell you to do it anyway. You’re lucky you even have a chance to save yourself but I don’t believe it should matter.”

    “How could you say that so easily? I may never be able to have children! I’ve seen maiden households fall because the wife couldn’t bear children, their husbands divorcing and other households refusing to do business with them. Having children is the one thing a wife should be able to do and doing this will more than likely take that away from me!”

    Umara almost yelled but Luna continued to smile. Umara took a breath and wiped her eyes as moisture accumulated, only making it worse and creating a tear streak. She almost couldn’t believe how sudden her emotions surged, how fast they flipped from depressed to angry.

    She knew Luna could see her stamping them down as best she could.

    Luna leaned back and spoke softly.

    “Umara, I don’t know if you’ve realized yet but women like us have different roles. It will always be a beautiful thing to bring children into the world but that is not what our husbands require of us. It is our job to be their unconditional support, another source of power that they can call on, a partner that will protect their backs when nobody else will. Did you know that I don’t have children?”

    Umara shook her head, and Luna chuckled.

    “You know, it’s quite remarkable how similar of a position we are in. After my husband attained the penultimate power my role in his life changed, but up until then I was his greatest partner. I broke my bones to keep up with him, shed a lake of blood to stay by his side even when my family threatened to disown me. Then he went and got his Crown, and it was him who became sterile.”

    Umara’s eyes widened, feeling a bit more uncomfortable as Luna’s sheer presence of will flared.

    “Then when I went to my family and said I’d never have children, they followed through on their words and properly disowned me. Of course, they were begging to reconcile when my husband became the behemoth he is now, but by that time he was starting to fall back into the dark and I made the decision to follow, disappearing from the world to become what I am now, a hidden blade with enough influence to aid him in the ways he requires.”

    Luna’s eyes bored into Umara’s soul. Her Aura suddenly wasn’t so soft and caressing. It was caring but firm, refusing to allow Umara to fall back into the comfort of pity, easily seeing through all the barriers she had put up.

    “We are not like normal women, Umara. Your man has afforded you the most important opportunity of your life, an opportunity to not just receive power, but to stay by his side, to be his most important ally. He’s willing to forsake children for his goal because he understands just how dire the fight against the Scourge is. But more importantly, he believes that you’re more important to him than any child could be. Children are the most precious thing in the world and yet he places you above that. He is willing to forsake passing down his legacy, forsake passing down the culmination of your talents, even when he knows that his fight may cost him his life. And here you are.”

    Luna motioned to her gently.

    “Your man wants to devote everything to his fight and yet he devotes his most valuable possessions and opportunities to you. Then you go and turn into a sobbing mess and make him feel bad for putting this burden on you. You know exactly what he needs. You knew the decision that you should’ve made as soon as you were told the consequences of the Crown. Yet you still wallow in denial. It makes me question how much you actually love him.”

    Umara finally snapped.

    “This has nothing to do with how much I love him! Questioning that should be the last thing you do!”

    “Honey, please. You should be so thankful that he’s being so accommodating with how selfish you’re being.”

    “Being concerned about sterilization isn’t being selfish!”

    Umara stood, her Aura radiating anarchy.

    “This is perhaps the biggest decision of my life and yet you’ve come here to insult my integrity?! I will make the decision I know is right and I won’t be slandered by someone I thought was my friend!”

    Umara turned to walk out.

    “Hm. Fine. I’ll take what I can get...”

    I sighed again and glanced at the Orbs.

    “Anyway, here’s the warning. The most important design on here is a recipe to construct what you know as Mana Bombs. So far what’s been fielded is small scale. I gave Sawn the requirement that he can’t field anything stronger than Authority 8, not because of the cost, but because it might tempt the Kingdom to build something much more powerful than that before I was able to hand off the designs to you.”

    I tapped the terminal screen and brought up the data for the Magnitude Frequency.

    “This right here is where the magic happens. These bombs work by transforming White Crystals into Elemental Crystals. According to the data that I just saw looking through new designs from our designers at Sawn Industries, our enchanters have successfully managed to create Vigor and Psyka Crystals as well, Crystals imbued perfectly with the three magical energies. Right now it''s safe to say that the possibilities are endless. This is perhaps the greatest discovery made in the history of magic secondary to the ability to purify White Crystals at all. I mean that objectively because the level of devastation these Crystals are capable of is much more vast than you currently understand.”

    I switched the picture to a graphic of the estimated diameter of an Elemental Crystal explosion, scaling with Authority.

    “The most important detail of these Elemental Crystals is their ability to release all of their power extremely fast. Near instantly, obviously far faster than any Warlock can with their pool of power. The second most important detail is that these Elemental Crystals can be made with Crystals of any level, including Authority 12, though we haven’t tested that. So, if you took a Fire Elemental Crystal, armed it with an explosion spell, and dropped it in the middle of a city like the Holy See...”

    “You would annihilate the entire city with one explosion.”

    The Pope muttered, seemingly unalarmed. Still, he frowned, properly conveying just how serious he had gotten.

    I nodded.

    “So you get how dangerous this technology is. Extremely easy to make, and tiny enough to be simply walked into a city full of people. The only obvious marker is its signature and its only obvious weakness is its lifespan. These Elemental Crystals radiate their given power, a sign of their heightened degeneration. Not fast enough to make them evaporate in a day but they also won’t be sitting around in a warehouse for years either. Also, they don’t regenerate their power like White Crystals. You use it, you lose it. They are consumable and so the bombs are one off.”

    “That’s slightly comforting. But by creating an Elemental crystal, you are also losing not just a White Crystal, but all the power it could’ve regenerated over its lifetime.”

    “Indeed. You trade off long-term drawn-out power for short-term explosive force. But if you want to cripple or annihilate your rival, the loss is merely a price, and bombs are a good way to pay it.”

    The three were silent, Anderson smiling widely like he’d just found a new toy to play with.

    Eventually, the Pope asked.

    “What about the other designs?”

    “Weapons and vehicles, like my planes. And yes, I’ve included the designs and enchantments for my signature invention, the Mana Engine. You’re welcome.”

    “Haha, we are certainly thankful for that. And we will not let you leave unrewarded for such an amazing technology. The Church takes care of its allies, and as far as I’m concerned you are one of those.”

    “Well, you know a couple of the things I want. Just don’t tell the Kingdom I’m cheating on them with you. Most of these enchantments include guides that detail how the technologies are supposed to be used, which naturally involves plentiful amounts of military tactics and strategies revolving around them. I’ll also be updating the data here as we develop more. I have a lot of input that I’ll be integrating when I get back to the Kingdom, and many more designs to draw up. You’ll get it all, so long as you don’t go closing down this channel.”

    “Our best enchanters will be handling this, and they would sooner sacrifice themselves than let this treasure trove stop printing gold.”

    “Good. There’s a lot of powerful tech here and normally I’d be concerned with giving it to those who have no idea what they’re handling. But the Scourge poses a slightly greater threat than the stupidity of bored soldiers, so I’m taking the risk.”

    “Hahaha!”

    General Virimus started cackling, the data transfer completing.

    I went through the terminal a bit more and gave myself another backdoor and seed program before hiding it all behind encryptions and compressions, shutting down the device.

    “There you go. These Orbs now contain half the answer to the war.”

    The Pope asked, “Which half is that?”

    “The numbers. My weapons will make numbers obsolete by multiplying the amount of damage a single soldier can do in their effective lifetime. So long as you make enough, killing millions of Scourge will be the easy part. As for the Kings, the other half, for now that’s still on you guys.”

    “Which we will have an easier time handling thanks to your technology. Thank you, Sir Cooper. Your help will be invaluable to our war efforts.”

    I shook Eracle’s hand, his large grip making it difficult for me to get a good squeeze.

    With just a little bit of force he held my hand a moment longer and smiled.

    “Are you sure you wouldn’t like to join us? I’m sure I needn’t explain the kind of support you would receive for your work. I might even offer you a Peerage, in time.”

    Our eyes locked and I started to feel some of the differences between this world’s catholicism and Earth’s. The Pope wasn’t an icon of purity and goodness. He was a warrior and his greatest purpose was leading the fight against the Scourge of this world. After all, just outside the building was a statue well over a thousand meters tall depicting Christ wielding a blade.

    Their priorities were obvious, not that I was opposed to them in the slightest.

    “Sorry sir, I can’t go anywhere right now. There are a lot of people that need my protection. Abandoning the Kingdom’s military would leave them exposed.”

    “Cooper, we do not forsake those who cannot protect themselves. Should you join us you would give them even greater protection than if you stayed where you were. The Kingdom cannot stop us.”

    “Hm, good to know, but I’ll maintain for now. I have my plans.”

    “Heh, very well. But don’t wait too long. We have our plans too.”

    I didn’t respond to that, our conversation wrapping up before I left the room.

    My business was finished with them so now my only concern was the Crown. But of course I couldn’t worry about that unless Umara made her decision. I knew what Luna intended to say when she showed up, but I trusted her to convey it properly

    I trusted that both of them would make the right decisions.

    Before going back to the room though, I had to make a stop.

    I left the Tower and recalled a message I had received from Willow, a message that contained an answer to one of my questions.

    I followed the directions in the message and arrived at a nice shop called Rupert’s Gems.