The Magic Academy's Physicist-Chapter 222: Now This Is What You Call A Nuclear Bomb (3)

The ground shook.

Asbestos pieces fell from the ceiling, and window panes swayed from side to side.

It was an earthquake strong enough to shake the solid guard post built with reinforced concrete. With the exception of Aether who had expected the seismic intensity, everyone else lost their balance and stumbled.

“Ahh...!”

Rosemary, who had been out of it, was knocked onto her bottom. She ended up biting her tongue since her mouth had been hanging open.

The other Great Mechas were also knocked over.

The one with the weakest legs after Rosemary, ‘Entero Colitica’, barely caught himself with his hands against the wall. Even ‘Wilhelm von Schudelgeiger’ who had expected this to happen fell onto his knees and stumbled.

The other Heavens were the only ones to regain their balance.

Spring, Summer, and Autumn Heaven recovered quickly and threw their gazes where the incident occurred.

Soon after, an exclamation of ‘ah’ fell from someone’s lips.

A burst of light. The light flash instantly passed through the UV-protection film and penetrated the window.

“Ugh...!”

The light’s intensity might have dulled from being filtered once, but its radiant shine still paralyzed their visions.

“What in the world.......”

Klais was no exception. She immediately turned her head away with her face scrunching.

It hurt, it felt like her eyes were on fire.

Her eyes stung like lemon juice had splashed into them, and Klais closed her eyes and waited a few seconds. Thankfully, the pain started to subside as she took deep breaths. She had been able to avoid blindness thanks to the UV-protection coating.

The intense light gradually lessened. It was only after some minutes that she was able to look through the window.

Klais cautiously glanced where the light had come through.

And then–

Ba-ba-boooom─!!

Black clouds rose and the sky surged.

Literally. The sky was surging. The ashy smoke rising like dragon’s breath had lifted the whole upper part of the horizon.

“W-what the hell is.......”

The column maintained an overall mushroom shape.

Flames sparked from the top of the pillar of fire like lava erupting, and above it, a cumulus cloud-like darkness was spreading at a rapid pace.

“Wh, what, wha.......”

An impossible landscape that broke her speech.

Klais’ mouth dropped open.

Smoke.

Destruction.

And death.

The sight that covered the sky and cast shadows over the entire wasteland was like a painting of the end times.

She felt like she was witnessing the apocalypse–a terrible scene that couldn’t be grasped with the average human mind was playing out before her eyes. Klais’ thoughts flowed at a snail’s pace along with the slowly expanding pillar of fire.

“Yes.... this is the kind of explosion I’m talking about.”

Watching the explosion from the front, Aether’s gold eyes burned softly.

She pulled out a stick of mana grass from her pocket and lit it, then drew her vernier calipers and measured the radius of the photosphere and height of the fire column.

Trigonometry and dimensional analysis–after getting an approximate of the force of the explosion using these two mathematical tools, Aether licked her lips and smiled.

“Truly a masterpiece.”

The approximate force was more than 500 000 tons of TNT.

It was more than enough explosive power to wipe out a large city.

“That should not only be able to blow up the World Tree but the capital city of those elf bastards altogether.”

Klais, who had already been feeling thrown from seeing the mushroom cloud, looked stunned as if she was in a secondary shock at Aether’s remark.

That thing... was more powerful than Flare.

A magic powerful enough that rendered all the studying she did for Flare useless had appeared in the enemy camp.

Had humanity’s downfall been decided since the beginning?

No.

That wasn’t so.

There had been plenty of opportunities to win.

Just that Klais had blown it over and over again.

“The thought of wiping out the country of those elf bastards makes me feel better.”

Aether licked her lips as she said that.

“No, please.......”

Fwump.

Klais, who had barely recovered from the earthquake, collapsed again.

The world was going to end all because of her.

The thought took the strength out of her legs.

“Anyway, this is how powerful the first one is. We can expect the made after this to be even better.”

And was on the weaker side, even. Klais’ mind went blank, as if her brain had been dipped in bleach.

After watching the nuclear explosion for a while, Aether turned around and gave orders.

“However, we need to cover all the bases with big tasks like this. Wilhelm, we will need to make more than five pieces with more power than that.”

“What would you like to do with the hundred you mentioned last time?”

“They’re the same thing, whether we make ten TNTs of 10 000 tons, or one 100 000 tons.”

“Yes, understood.”

Still feeling shocked at witnessing the explosion, Wilhelm nodded stiffly.

At least the one he had seen last time had been weaker in power. Even though he had prepared himself for this one, he still felt his engine drop.

Wilhelm wasn’t the only one feeling that way.

“You’re going to....”

“...make something beyond this?”

“Bluffing has a limit, you know. Hu, huhu, huhuhu.......”

The remaining Spring, Summer, and Autumn Heaven each expressed their disapproval.

The only one smiling was Winter Heaven.

Lips twisting into a smirk, Aether took the cigarette in her mouth with her left hand, holding it at an angle between her middle and ring fingers.

It wasn’t the typical way of gripping, but she had developed this habit of holding it strangely from the way she wrote with both hands.

“So, who is the weakest Heaven now?”

While everyone remained stunned with their jaws hanging open–

Aether posed the question.

The first one to snap out of it was Gilach. He wiped at the heat on his face with his sleeve and made a disgruntled face.

“Th-that would be you.”

It was an automatic response.

He didn’t want to admit it, actually.

This foolish bitch who couldn’t even fight against a few Greater Elementals, let alone Elites, made that monstrous weapon?

And was now attempting to stand at his level?

Absolutely not.

“That is purely the force of that bomb, nothing to do with your own strength.”

So in the end, the one thing Gilach chose to do was spout flawed reasoning.

“I get that you designed that weapon, I’ll admit it. But it isn’t magic casted directly by you, no? If I’ve made an acknowledgment, then you should also acknowledge this fact. Isn’t that right? Huhahaha!”

Thinking about it, it did seem to make sense logically.

As impressive was the weapon that Aether made, it was still a weapon. Aether wasn’t directly casting a spell, was she.

Good, he got something.

Gilach kept going with an excited smile.

“And something like that can be made anytime with a blueprint, even if it isn’t you, huhu! So what about the technique? It shouldn’t be that difficult to manufacture.”

“Oh, is that so?”

Aether snorted.

So that was how he wanted to play.

“So that’s how it is! If you were trying to reestablish the ranks by showing that to us, I can only say I’m sorry! Also it seems you think yourself the best because you have that....”

Seeing how his words were all over the place, he must have been shocked after all.

Of course he’d be pressured, as it was Gilach who had been looking down on Aether for being of a different blood. If the two of them hadn’t been joined through the Demon Army, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them clash at any time.

“How ridiculous. A power like that couldn’t even defeat Autumn Heaven, let alone the King......!”

While Gilach was blabbing away–

Aether didn’t even think twice about her next words.

“Then I just need to make something stronger.”

“......Excuse me?”

Gilach’s brows furrowed.

Did I hear that correctly just now?

“As I already said....... Right, I will kindly explain again since you seem to have the brain of a goldfish. The purpose of this experiment isn’t to reestablish the hierarchy.”

“But didn’t you just ask who’s the strongest now?”

“Which was a response to your taunt before the experiment even took place. That isn’t the main purpose, but to remove the World Tree and get the Lodestone of Air. Hence, it could be said that releasing the Demon King from his seal is a sub-goal of my plan.”

“.......”

“And if you still say that I am the weakest even after a display like that, well.”

A look colder than ice was shot at Gilach.

Gilach unconsciously shut his mouth.

Because he realized that if he blabbed any more than this, this bitch was going to do something even crazier.

“Rank isn’t what’s important.”

Correction: she might do it even if he stayed quiet.

Aether turned around and looked out the window. Even now, the mushroom cloud was expanding in size.

It was an immense power. Klais brushed down her heated face in defeat, and Rosemary was on the verge of passing out.

“The key is to not settle with such achievements but to move forward.”

Even after seeing an explosion like that, she didn’t look moved at all except for a slight smile.

“Exactly what more are you planning to do from here?”

Unable to stand it anymore, Pasmo asked through gritted yellow teeth.

Aether put her staff away at that, then began strolling in front of the other Heavens with hands in the pockets of her trench coat. Her steps were that of a great scholar standing at the podium.

“What more am I going to do?”

Aether smirked.

“That’s right. This much should be enough for the King’s resurrection as well as invading the Elemental Realm.”

“Enough? Says who?”

She still wasn’t satisfied.

She meant that that was the least an explosion should be, not that it was jaw-droppingly satisfying.

“......So your goal is beyond the Elementals, then.”

“Good, you get it.”

Should she say this?

After brief contemplation, cold air spilled from the girl’s mouth.

“I─”