Chapter 170: Chapter 167: Antimatter

Mila

“Alright, Aalam.” Mila, who was quite a bit closer to the blast site than anyone else, killed one of the enemy scouts she’d just found by telekinetically breaking his neck from about a kilometer away. “Diana’s done with the stick part of the negotiations. Now please elaborate on that bomb with more than just that it was an experiment.”

When Mila had retrieved her new armor from Aalam, he’d also given her an explosive and asked her to field test it by hiding it in the enemy castle and then running away. She hadn’t expected it to destroy the entire castle, however, so she and Diana had needed to rush to turn the situation to their advantage when entering into negotiations with the Forest Cauldron.

“Alashan’s Book of Runes contains a few runes for turning qi and mana into matter, but Alashan didn’t think very highly of them as he was never able to use them to create magical materials,” Aalam began, Alashan’s Book of Runes the main legacy he’d been studying over the last ten years. “But it wasn’t that difficult to modify the runes to make antimatter instead once my Laws of Matter and Antimatter both reached the Law Pupa stage. Then I just had to put those runes into an artifact with a spatially contained vacuum, a trigger device to break said container, and a way to pour massive amounts of qi and mana into the artifact.”

“Given the material is not magical, a really large amount can be stored in the contained vacuum, so the main limiting factor is the energy required to make the antimatter.”

There was silence for a few seconds. Then, slowly, Mila asked, “So you found a way of magically creating the theoretically most powerful non-magical explosive known to Earth?”

“Yeah. Pretty much.” Aalam sounded quite cheerful while Mila was pretty sure Irena and Diana at least felt like she did, a slowly building sense of dread. “Given what I’ve learned about B and A ranks, though, I doubt even a truly massive amount of antimatter could kill them unless they themselves were hit by it.”

“Um, Mila,” Diana began, “you’ve been studying the wider universe more than the rest of us. Any idea how common antimatter weapons are?”

“Not that common.” Mila took a deep breath to fully calm herself down and then moved out to hunt the rest of the enemy scouts even while one of her minds continued the conversation. “Creating antimatter like Aalam did is not an unknown thing. But the Law of Antimatter is pretty uncommon, and having it and the Law of Vacuum is a pretty rare combination, while I’m guessing several other Laws are also required to create an artifact capable of taking qi and mana from any source to create the antimatter while also keeping the antimatter fully contained.

“According to Nana Xara, and common sense, it’s also pretty common for anyone training in techniques to create antimatter to kill themselves in their first few attempts.”

“Also,” Nana Xara chimed in, “like Aalam said, it’s not that useful against B or A ranks, while generally E ranks don’t have Law Pupae.” Only Mila and Diana could hear her, and Mila didn’t see the need to add her comments to the discussion.

“Am I the only one who doesn’t know what antimatter is?” Isaiah asked, sounding somewhat worried. “It’s some sort of explosive.”

“You know how everything in the universe is made from matter?” Diana asked.

“Yeah.”

“Well, think of antimatter like the opposite of matter. In another universe everything could be made of antimatter and almost everything would work the same. Our universe just happens to be made of matter.” Diana continued the explanation and no one interrupted. “The important thing is that matter and antimatter do not mix. If antimatter meets matter, the mass of both annihilate each other and convert to pure energy, resulting in death and destruction.

“You know about nuclear bombs, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, nuclear bombs work by creating a chemical reaction which results in less than one percent of the bomb’s mass being converted into energy. For matter antimatter bombs, however, one hundred percent of the mass of both the matter and antimatter involved are converted, so an equivalent sized matter antimatter bomb is more than 100 times stronger than a nuke.”

“Got it.” Isaiah sounded more sure of himself but also now as terrified as everyone else. “And we’re all made of matter as well, even A ranks and gods, so, if antimatter touched us, the parts of our bodies touched would be annihilated as well?”

“That’s the scary part, yes.” Diana’s voice, even though she was using telepathy and not actually speaking, sounded a little high. “Do we all agree these types of bombs should be placed in the same category as Aalam’s plagues, i.e. not to be used unless in cases of last resort.”

“Yeah.” Irena was the first to chime in.

“Definitely.” Isaiah agreed.

“Damn it.” Aalam sounded disappointed.

“You created another last resort technique, Aalam. What is wrong with that?” Mila asked, definitely agreeing with everyone else but not having to voice it due to a quorum already having been reached.

“It’s still cool, though, right?”

“It’s awesome.” Isaiah was the first to answer.

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“Very impressive.” Irena added.

“You made a mass-producible weapon of mass destruction, Aalam. Of course that’s cool.” Diana made a mental sigh. “It is also rather terrifying, though, and if other forces knew how easy it was for you to make they might get scared and annihilate us.”

“What Diana said,” Mila agreed. “I’m now regretting using the technique to threaten Krysta.

“Diana, make sure no one in our army approaches the blast site. And I’ll kill off all the remaining members of the enemy force so they can’t do any tests as well.”

“Got it.”

“Everyone else, here is what your tasks will be for the rest of the stage.” Still talking to everyone with only one of her minds, Mila killed another enemy cultivator, this time entering into close combat so she could charm him first and learn the number of scouts she’d have to find. “Isaiah, you should spar with Brom and the other coran warriors like usual, with no changes. We want to impress the princesses, but we don’t need to do anything special to do so. Irena, tell Nitya everything and then I want the two of you to keep all the army members away from Aalam, especially the princesses. Say it’s Diana’s orders. Aalam, just search for treasures and craft like normal. Finally, Diana, try not to talk to Krysta any more. We’ve already said everything we need to say and anything else would likely lower our value.

“If possible, we’d really like to ally with the Forest Cauldron, but at this point what will be will be.”

After looking more into Joma La’Vordi, the Alchemist of the Deep Woods, Mila had determined the Forest Cauldron to be seventeenth on the list of A rank forces it would be beneficial for them to ally with. Unlike most forces in the universe, the Forest Cauldron was a true crafting and merchant organization. But it wasn’t a particularly strong one, as the Alchemist of the Deep Woods was the only A rank in the force.

What it did have, however, was something incredibly rare, true neutrality.

There were other A rank alchemists in the universe, and even three known alchemy gods, but almost all these alchemists had been raised up by already powerful organizations. Joma La’Vordi, on the other hand, had risen to A rank working as a contractor for various smaller forces before starting her own business as a C rank, the nascent form of the Forest Cauldron, and rising through the subsequent ranks on her own power.

As a result, she could make pills for anyone, and would, protected by the powerful contracts formed from one of her main skills. She also didn’t overcharge. And this meant every force without a truly powerful alchemist of their own could rely on her, and so they all protected the Forest Cauldron.

This then allowed the Forest Cauldron to be one of the few forces in the universe that didn’t pay tribute to any more powerful forces.

As for Krysta’s father and the forces of the Divine Child, while they were one of the most powerful organizations in the universe, they didn’t have a powerful alchemist among their ranks, so they were just one of the Forest Cauldron’s many clients.

About a thousand years ago, Joma La’Vordi had started expressing the desire to have a child. And, given how difficult it was for an A rank to conceive, but wanting a child talented enough to not die well before she did, the Alchemist of the Deep Woods had apparently slept with several dozen A ranks and gods. Krysta’s father, Kilvorax the Heavenly Scarab of Space, was just the one who happened to get her pregnant.

He generally visited Krysta once or twice every few years, but he and the Alchemist of the Deep Woods could barely even be counted as friends.

The status of the Forest Cauldron made it a good choice for them to ally with and, most important, they already had a connection through Krysta. There were sixteen forces which, from an outside perspective, would be better. Some had been allies with Nana Xara in the past, making joining them as an organization with two of her apprentices less risky. Some were like the Forest Cauldron but with leaders who would value the chance at advancement raising Aalam could bring more highly, as they were much older than the relatively young Alchemist of the Deep Woods. And some controlled natural training grounds which couldn’t be found anywhere else.

Attempting to join any of these forces, however, would be a risky undertaking, while they had a direct line to the Forest Cauldron’s leader.

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