Chapter 724: A Higher Level of Power
She had composed herself before she arrived at the office.
The composure was deliberate — she had needed a few minutes after the exercise to reorder her internal taxonomy, to place what she had witnessed into a framework that could hold it. The framework was not entirely adequate for the task, but it was the best she could construct in the available time, and it would serve for a conversation.
Roland Wimbledon was at his desk when she entered with Agatha. His expression, as she had noted the first time she’d met him, was not the expression she would have associated with a man who had just demonstrated the ability to reshape ground at a kilometer’s distance. It had the particular quality of someone for whom this was one item on a list rather than the list’s entirety.
She had revised upward her estimate of what he represented. She revised it again now, looking at his face.
“Your Majesty. Before I contact the other survivors, I have some questions.”
“Of course.”
“The weapons from the exercise — can they be mass-produced?”
She watched his face as he worked through how to answer this, and found it genuinely difficult to read. The smile that appeared was brief and specific — the smile of someone who has a better answer than expected.
“First — the Longsong Cannon isn’t only a defensive weapon. It appears stationary, and the current versions are heavy, but the principle of the thing is portable. Large vehicles can carry it. On water, a three-masted ship is essentially a floating artillery platform. On land—” He paused. “We’re developing something that moves freely and can carry significant weight. It’s not ready yet, but the application you’re imagining is correct.”
A land vehicle capable of carrying a cannon. Moving freely. She tried to picture what that meant in practical terms and found she lacked the reference points.
“As for production scale,” he continued, “with the next generation of processing tools in common use, I expect the cannons to cover all border walls within a year or two.”
She heard this. She let it sit.
All border walls. One to two years.
In Taquila’s final period — when every remaining human being had concentrated in one city, when the Union was directing every available resource toward simple survival — they had produced what they could produce. The siege engines, the ballistas, the structures that required the most skilled craftspeople and the most time-intensive manufacturing processes. They had produced enough to survive for a while. Not enough to win.
The arithmetic Roland was describing was a different order of magnitude.
“My second question,” she said. “The final explosion — it wasn’t from the Longsong Cannons.”
“No.”
“Is that your most powerful weapon?”
The smile came back. “Judged against everything we’ve currently mastered — that would be the simplest one.”
She waited to be sure she’d heard correctly. “You have weapons that could create a larger explosion than that?”
“The development of explosive force doesn’t have an upper ceiling in the way you might expect.” He set down his cup. “The weapons at the exercise — call them the second level. The third level could burn a city to the ground in a single strike.”
The statement was so far outside her category of possible claims that her first instinct was to dismiss it. She looked at his eyes and found she couldn’t. There was no performance in them. He was simply describing something he believed to be true.
“What kind of weapon does that?” she asked quietly.
“What did the final explosion look like to you?”
She closed her eyes. The image was immediate and complete — the orange fireball rising through the dispersing smoke, the clouds above catching its light, the column climbing toward the sky.
“A sunrise,” she said.
“Yes. The third-level weapon is the actual sun. Not an imitation.” He leaned back slightly. “Too bright to look at directly — it burns the eyes. Too close to approach — the light itself causes injury at distance. Its core temperature turns stone to gas. The pressure wave it generates destroys structures at a range measured in kilometers.” He said this with the calm particularity of someone describing a calculation they’ve worked through. “We’d need to accomplish two things first. One is called resplendent radiance—”
“Your Majesty,” Agatha said. She had not moved from her position near the wall, but her tone was the tone of someone applying a brake.
“—and the other is called the distance to the sun,” he continued, and then appeared to register the expression on Agatha’s face and stopped.
Nightingale’s voice came from empty air, somewhere to Phyllis’s left: “This is not the moment.”
Phyllis looked from the empty air to Agatha, who was shrugging with the exact expression of someone who has been through this before, and then to Roland, who had assumed an expression of mild contrition.
“In summary,” he said, “it is very complicated, requires significant development, and depends on the kind of accelerated progress that comes from more witches contributing to research. Which is one reason I want to begin the deeper negotiation with your survivors as soon as possible.” He reached for his cup again. “What they found in the ruins may move some of this forward considerably.”
Phyllis absorbed this.
The question of whether she believed him — truly believed that the force she had witnessed today was the simpler version — was a question she chose not to resolve immediately. She could hold it as conditional and proceed from there.
She reached for the ring.
“As I promised — I’ll contact Pasha. When I crush the Five-Colors Stone, she and the others will sense my location. But preparing a magic core takes time; you may not be able to speak with them directly for a day or two.”
“Can you conduct the conversation anywhere?”
“Yes. Though a larger space makes things easier.”
“The hall, then.” He turned to Agatha. “Take her there. It should feel appropriately formal.”
Agatha inclined her head. “Your Majesty.”
They left the office together. In the corridor, Phyllis permitted herself a single slow breath.
She had done what she could. The rest waited on the other side of the stone she was about to break.
Whatever came next, she was no longer certain that she had an accurate sense of its scale.
Chapter 724: A Higher Level of Power
After the exercise, Phyllis once again came to Roland’s castle accompanied by Agatha.
When they entered the office, she noticed that Roland Wimbledon wore the same expression as he had last time. He did not show any self-satisfaction, as if the exercise was nothing but an insignificant matter in his eyes.
However, Phyllis felt that the importance of this common person sitting behind the mahogany table had apparently grown a lot. She unconsciously addressed him with honorifics. “Your Majesty, please allow me to ask you a few questions before contacting the Taquila witches.”
“Go ahead.” Roland nodded.
“Can the weapons you demonstrated be mass-produced?”
In Phyllis’ view, if the plan of seeking the Chosen One did not work out well, the war against demons would undoubtedly last many years. If the production of this weapon really required nearly 10,000 common people and the output could not meet their needs, Neverwinter would still be faced with a hard war.
By that time, she would be able to strive for more positions for the Taquila survivors.
After all, a force of about 100 God’s Punishment Warriors controlled by witches was definitely formidable. When the Longsong Cannons could not stop the Siege Beasts that came from all directions, Roland would have to rely on them to break through the tight encirclement.
Roland smiled and gave the answer. “The first thing I must point out is that the Longsong Cannon isn’t merely a defensive weapon. It may look too heavy
to be carried by manpower or livestock, but for some vehicles, carrying them is no longer a problem. In fact, with a little improvement, it can turn into a weapon that can be used for both offense and defense.”
“Ve… Vehicles?” Phyllis repeated. She had heard from Agatha earlier that His Majesty often said some awkward-sounding new words, most of which were straightforward, and that if she did not understand, she could ask directly. Generally, the king would be very happy to answer the questions.
As expected, Roland rubbed his hands and said, “It would be anything that can carry the cannons, such as, the simplest… three-masted big sailing ship, which can be regarded as a vehicle.”
“But suchlike big ships can only sail in the Swirling Sea.”
“I’m just giving you an example. There will be a free-wheeling vehicle on land in the future. Neverwinter has already embarked on developing such a vehicle, though it can do much more than simply carrying a cannon.”
“An equipment that is capable of carrying such a heavy weapon as well as moving freely on the ground? But from the king’s statement, it seems not to be prepared for cannons specifically.” Just as Phyllis wanted to ask some more, Roland went on, “As for the output, after a new generation of processing tools is commonly used, I believe the cannons will cover all the walls of the border in a year or two.”
Phyllis secretly gasped at the answer. “Covering all the walls of the border in a year or two? Even Mangonel and Ballista cannot be produced in such a large number in such a short period of time.”
“If so, it will be hard for the Taquila survivors to play a role here.”
To Phyllis, it was an answer that disappointed and satisfied her at the same time. Perhaps their positions would be lower than other witch organizations, but, it was always good to have less casualties in war.
However, in light of her previous experiences, she decided not to question him but rather to change the subject.
“I understand, Your Majesty. My second question is, I noticed during the artillery exercise that the last explosion was not caused by the Longsong Cannon, I’m wondering if it’s your most lethal weapon?”
When she asked, Phyllis noticed a strange smile appear on Roland’s face before he answered. “Judging from the technology we’ve mastered, it can only be counted as the simplest one.”
“The simplest… one?” she said in astonishment. “You can make a weapon that could create a more violent explosion?”
“There’s no end in the development of explosion.” Roland shook his head. “The current level of weaponry Neverwinter possesses can be viewed as the second level, the third level will be better. At that level, it won’t be impossible to burn a city into the ground in one go.”
Phyllis was completely startled. She instinctively wanted to consider this statement as nonsense. “Crush a city in one go? No common people or witches can have this kind of power. Only deities can do it.” But when she saw Roland’s peculiarly shining eyes, she found it hard to deny what he had said.
In the end, she had no choice but to ask in a low voice, “What kind of weapon is that?”
Roland did not give a direct answer. He drank some tea before saying slowly, “What does the scene of the last round of explosion look like in your eyes?”
“Is this about my doubts?” She closed her eyes and a moment later said, “Like a sunrise.”
If the smoke and dust were taken as clouds, the rising orange fireball would undoubtedly be the sunrise at dawn.
“Yes, it’s just like the red light of the early morning sun. But the third level of weapon is the real sun.” Roland raised the corner of his lip, as if he was narrating a thing made by God, “You can’t look straight at it because it’ll
burn your eyes, neither can you come too close to it, for the glittering light will burn you all over. Its core temperature can turn stones into gases, and the air billow it generates is strong enough to smash houses.”
The description made Phyllis shudder. She was unable to distinguish whether what he was saying was an overestimation or the truth. “How can we make it?” she asked.
“We have to accomplish two epic tasks. One is called resplendent radiance, while the other is called the distance to the sun, and…”
“Your Majesty!” Agatha interrupted him, frowning.
“Please don’t talk nonsense at this time.” Nightingale’s voice also came to Phyllis’ ears.
“Epic tasks? Resplendent radiation?” Phyllis found herself unable to understand even one word and Agatha was shrugging helplessly.
“Ahem, in short, it’s very complicated, so I need more witches to push forward the research and speed up the technological development in Neverwinter.” Roland coughed a little. “Of course, the things you found in the ruin may be helpful, so I hope we can start a deeper negotiation as soon as possible.”
With a complicated feeling, Phyllis looked at the king, who was a common person, before taking off the ring on her finger. “As promised, I’ll contact Pasha and other survivors for you. When I crush this Five-Colored Stone, they’ll sense my location, but if you want to talk directly, I’m afraid it’ll take one or two more days… I don’t know when Pasha can get a magic core ready.”
“Can we have a conversation anywhere?”
“Yes, but if the condition permits, a spacious place will be much better.”
“Well then, you can crush the Magic Stone in the hall, that will make it a little formal.” Roland said before he turned to Agatha and said, “You take her
there for me.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
After leaving the office, Phyllis took a deep breath.
She had done all she could do, next was to wait for the response from the rest of the survivors.