[LitF] 50. Doomsday Device (Patreon)

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[A/N: Sorry for the delay. News at the end.

Also, this chapter's first paragraph will be turned into the previous chapter's last paragraph to add a little healthy cliffhanger to it.]

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"Run!" the voice of the old Elf Commander lady screamed from the handset as soon as Arthur took it from the housing. "Nuclear missiles! Terrell's trap! Run!"

Arthur immediately started pulling all nearby metal to him and flying sideways towards Sophie. He grabbed Tamara and Emily with an intent string and Graham and Sophie with his domain.

He hadn't even moved a yard when he felt four missiles enter his metal domain from above, coming way too quickly toward the Institute.

The prince felt hundreds of holes appearing on them, probably from the laser beam weapons on the fort, and the missiles were unmade. Light filled the skies as they exploded.

Yet, the Institute was far from safe. A fifth, bigger missile appeared in Arthur's senses, in the middle of the others. It was so fast that it would reach the ground before the other ones' explosive shockwaves could. Those four had been expendable shields to distract the Institute's defenses so the final missile could continue.

The prince still felt heat and pressure strike at the fifth missile, but these attacks were considerably weaker. Evidently, the Institute's laser beam defenses, which came in all sizes, also came in different power outputs. The most powerful had been spent already, and someone who knew about the design could exploit it. A former Human Commander would be aware of it.

That missile's extreme speed meant Arthur would be too slow to leave the blast range in time. He also couldn't redirect it; the outer layer was enchanted, followed by a material he couldn't feel, and then an inner layer of voidsteel that prevented Arthur from affecting the internal structure with his domain.

Terrell probably didn't know Arthur had a domain or its limits, but it wasn't difficult to learn the prince could use special magic that anti-intent-string enchantments couldn't block. The Commander could also easily find out that Arthur was a metalmancer and guess he had life skills. So, the material used as padding between enchanted metal and voidsteel was neither metal nor alive.

The prince kept pulling metal to him while pushing Sophie and Graham against each other, trusting the knight would add an extra layer of protection to her.

Tamara was extending her arm sideways to grab something from her spatial storage. A thin metal dome was forming above Arthur when the missile reached the top of the building they were at. The dome-to-be was still less than one yard wide.

The rocket was too fast. Tamara had just finished opening her spatial storage and had yet to pull anything from the inside.

Arthur threw an intent string toward Sophie and Graham, stopping at their armor, which protected them from it. The prince was just getting ready to prehend them as soon as their armor failed—

Sophie and Graham seemed to twist in place, then disappear.

Arthur guessed the grand knight had a life-saving spatial skill that he had kept secret. They had probably teleported away. That was both good and bad. Good because Sophie would be at least further away from the blast's hypocenter. Bad because Arthur wouldn't be around to ensure no follow-up circumstances endangered her.

He stopped trying to run towards where Sophie had been and pulled Tamara, Emily, and himself toward each other while still forming and strengthening the metal dome.

The missile went through the building like a hot knife on butter.

It reached the still-forming barrier, which Arthur filled with mana, willing it to resist any and all damage. The missile's case was enchanted for speed, extra penetration, and resistance. All enchantments failed when they met an insurmountable obstacle. The prince's metal mana lowered surprisingly fast, yet not even ten percent was spent before the external case's enchantments ceased functioning, and the underlying voidsteel touched the dome.

His intent string snapped, and the painful metal rebound put him out of sorts for a few instants—which reminded him to cut off his and the two women's pain receptors for what was to come. He also made them unconscious to avoid potential trauma. If his guesses about the incoming injuries were right...

Emily hadn't even started understanding she was being pulled, while Tamara's spatial storage blinked out of existence as soon as she passed out.

Arthur's daze was minor and brief; his mental attributes weren't for show. He continued to protect himself, using his metal domain to keep the dome in place while grabbing the larger chunks of now-unenchanted metal to add to the barrier. The pieces he didn't grab melted away; the unenchanted metal couldn't resist the heat from traveling so fast. Almost the entire thing instantly turned into a molten ball of fire.

Then, the nuclear charge exploded.

Arthur had only read hints and shallow comments about "nuclear power." It was sold as the best substitute for energy if mana ceased to exist. However, theoretical research revealed that it could be used for mass destruction, and the League banned the technology. Any research on it was destroyed as soon as it was found, and perpetrators were executed—unless you had the backing of a corrupt Commander, of course.

Such shallow knowledge hadn't prepared Arthur for what came; his whole world became light and heat.

The three people were lucky that the heat melted the voidsteel in the missile and this was a high-mana region, or this would be the end. The voidsteel faded out of existence, and Arthur could keep trying to resist. Tamara was further lucky to have removed her battle maid armor to keep her clueless maid disguise because the prince immediately knew his domain wouldn't be enough to keep them alive.

Fate, his prehension magic might not be enough.

Everything around him evaporated. Air turned into plasma as concrete and steel were atomized. Nothing resisted. The entire building he was in disintegrated. The ground disappeared. All matter was replaced with a sphere of pure heat and light that grew from the explosion.

A tiny part of Arthur's mind analyzed the damage and determined that this wasn't the power of a pure nuclear blast. Not if the technology was relatively new. Magic was involved.

Magitech had birthed the most powerful weapon ever to exist.

His mana gave him a fighting chance. Life mana poured from his magic core, fighting the overwhelming death intent filling everything around them, trying to get inside their bodies.

Arthur's mind worked in overdrive, studying the damage and his mana reserves every nanosecond and making decisions. It quickly became evident that he might not be capable of protecting himself and the others entirely. Their bodies were too big, and the mana expenditure was too significant.

So, he gave up on the non-essential. Sixteen limbs disappeared, consumed by the heat. Arthur had to create a makeshift internal circulatory system for them, or their bodies would fail. He didn't have the surplus focus to keep them alive after their brains realized they should be dead because blood wasn't returning to their heart.

Yet it looked like the explosion's energy would never be spent. The bomb was still exploding somehow. Devious magic was at work.

Arthur was forced to decide between doing something more extreme or letting go of Emily. He chose the extreme. He would rather this world burn than die and leave Sophie to face it alone, but only because he hated the corrupt and immoral people in it. He wasn't perfect, but he wouldn't become one of them—not like this. He might kill Emily without a second thought if that was the only way to save Sophie, but killing her to save himself because his life ensured Sophie would be safer would be just an excuse. A poor one at that; after all, he hadn't been able to keep Sophie from being targeted by a nuclear device.

So he allowed half his and the women's remaining flesh to go.

Barely more than the heart and lungs remained at first, and then, not even the lungs. Or skin. Or bones. The resulting amorphous mass of flesh was barely brain and heart encased in a flimsy ball of living muscle. The mass was also "holding its breath," in a way. If the nuclear blast took too long to die out, they would die suffocated even if Arthur might still keep going.

The prince had to use everything he knew to keep them alive in that state, and even so, mana poured from his core—which part of him realized for the first time wasn't fully biological as he had previously thought...

No. He couldn't get distracted. He ignored the intrusive thought just as he ignored the hundreds of deaths around him.

Arthur focused on surviving. Mana poured as Fate helped him live through that. Even his knowledge of biology and the concepts taken directly from the supernatural, from his understanding of life, weren't enough to ensure the three things remained alive.

He also used mana on his recently re-prehended metal dome. It was thin and almost useless, but just the fact that it took the brunt of most of the blast directed their way already helped.

Arthur tried to encase the three in metal at first, but moving anything in there consumed too much mana. For the same reason, he couldn't escape, only keep fighting.

Suddenly, after what felt like an eternity, the explosion ended.

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Surprisingly, a third of Arthur's life mana remained. That showed how exceptional his understanding was despite how hopeless the situation had seemed. In fact, he could have kept everyone's bodies whole if he had known when the blast would end. Unfortunately, all that comprehension didn't give him precognition abilities, so he had started saving mana before it might be too late.

His comprehension also wasn't enough to create matter out of thin air. He needed biological mass to rebuild himself. He didn't dare waste time in that place. He needed lungs and other organs, and he needed them fast. Not to mention, who knew what other surprises Terrell had prepared for him? He quickly flew away with the two women and his piece of metal, headed toward the closest forest.

The forest was less than a minute away, and other than the fear caused by the boom and tremors, nature was untouched. The magic nuke was not only more brutal than a purely physical one would be but also clean. The resulting radiation was almost nonexistent a mile away.

Reforming other species' flesh and blood into human and elven wasn't easy, but Arthur managed. The more he rebuilt, the more he could simply stimulate their bodies' natural healing to assist him. Five minutes later, two naked bodies rested on the ground, and a third one stood before them.

Arthur's eyesight returned to him a few seconds later, and he finally looked at more than the mana in his surroundings. There was no visible danger around.

He lacked all his equipment except the little metal he had bought. Everything else had been destroyed in the blast. He hadn't had the presence of mind to check but was confident his fire sword was also gone. What a shame.

But the worst part was losing his spatial storage ring. He would need a specialized Shaper to find and open the lost artifact's spatial fold back where it had been destroyed.

The prince doubted Graham would conveniently have a space-opening skill. The life-saving skill he displayed in the last moment made sense; the knight had been selected to protect Arthur. Keeping it secret was also understandable because if the enemy didn't know you could teleport, they couldn't plan for it. It had even worked this time, as Terrell hadn't thought of that in his trap. That should be the limit of Graham's surprises, though.

And what a pleasant surprise it had been! Arthur was grateful for Graham's choice. The prince didn't want to find out if he could prehend Sophie quickly enough after her armor disintegrated in the explosion. Even if he could, he would've been forced to give up on Emily to keep another two people alive.

A few minutes later, he used leaves and some of the metal he had brought—plus the metal from the animals he had killed but was unnecessary for the three people—to create rustic clothing for himself and the women. The metal was used as thread. It didn't look fancy, but it covered the most sensitive parts of their bodies.

Finally, he woke Tamara up.

The maid widened her eyes and jumped to stand up on high alert, extending her arm sideways, only to fail to produce an opening to any spatial storage. She took a few moments to understand where she was, then looked at Arthur with something akin to adoration.

"How are you feeling?" the prince asked.

"Was it true?" she asked instead of replying. "Was it a nuclear strike?"

"Yes."

His answer made her almost worship him. She had also read notes about nuclear power, it seemed, and being a biomancer, she understood how impressive it was to resist even a purely physical nuke.

"I need to find Sophie," the prince continued before Tamara could say anything else. He had asked how she felt out of basic manners but wouldn't let her waste his time. "Do you know how far Graham's teleportation can take him?"

She shook her head. "No, master." She was once more in enough control of her faculties to remember how to address him. "He should be in the meeting point."

Arthur nodded and prehended himself and the two women. He also kept five small metal spheres floating beside him and carried a metal knife on his waist, held in place by a metal wire.

He gave the forest a last look. His passage had been brutal to that place's creatures. The ecosystem was damaged beyond nature's ability to fix quickly. He would find a way to help later.

The prince flew at high speed towards the closest meeting place he and his people had decided in case something happened, ten miles away from the Institute, which he approached on the way.

Or rather, he approached the place the Institute used to be.

The fortress was gone. Entirely. It had occupied a vast area, but there was only a massive crater where it had once stood. As Arthur had guessed, the nuke's destruction was greatly heightened by magic.

Magic also kept the blast contained. Almost nothing beyond the crater was touched except by the ground tremors and shockwaves. The radiation was the worst of it, and it was barely above regular levels a couple hundred yards away from the crater's perimeter. Whatever Terrell planned didn't include killing everyone in Avaria.

Arthur's heart trembled while the purely rational part of his mind couldn't help but be awed at the terrifying yet incredible weapon.

The lack of people in the crater surprised him the most. Five minutes had already passed. Why was no awakener investigating? Where were the scouts that usually flew near the Institute?

Had the League fallen? Or was it just that slow to react? Maybe Terrell's plans also included creating internal chaos to keep the League from helping any potentially surviving victim?

Speaking of which, where were Terrell's people? Had he left no one here to report on what happened?

Arthur looked around with great care. He couldn't find anyone or any camera. Yet, he had to be being spied on somehow.

How stupid of him! He should've thought of that before! He had almost revealed Sophie's position to the enemy!

He had knowledge of urban warfare, but his experience was exclusively fighting dungeon monsters. That gap between theory and practice was unacceptable. He would revisit everything he had been taught and invest in mental exercises as soon as he had the time. Graham and Tamara could help with that. Especially the former; the grand knight had ample experience with wars.

"Tamara, hide us," he ordered.

She used a skill to twist the air in a sphere around them. The globe took in the light coming in from one edge and swapped it with the light going out of the opposite edge, camouflaging them. For instance, someone looking from above would see the ground instead of the three people.

The skill wasn't perfect. In the aforementioned example, the ground would be very blurry. It made sense; Tamara's skill element was air, not light. The ability was most suited for nocturnal infiltration or when the observer was afar and unsuspecting. Any observer would already have seen them, but it was all they had now.

Arthur attempted to lose any trail he might already have by moving erratically. He returned to the forest as if he had left exclusively to check on the Institute. He made circles around the area. He wasted another five minutes going everywhere except where he was supposed to go.

Then, he finally reached the meeting point.

Sophie and Graham had dug a spherical cave in the desert near the road and were inside, but the knight wasn't faring well. The prince could only see mana through the earth, and the life mana that made the knight's body was frail and flickering like a flame in a tempest.

When he felt the man with his life domain, his frown deepened. He couldn't detect any injuries, but Graham's body felt weak. Arthur tried to stimulate it with his domain, but having Graham's body work more efficiently changed nothing. There was nothing for it to heal.

The prince then prehended the knight's body—who had removed his helmet for some reason—and used mana to let Fate heal Graham. He didn't know what needed to be done, but Fate would know.

He bottomed his mana reserves before cutting the connection, yet Graham didn't get even slightly better.

Arthur's frown deepened further. What he had just experienced only happened when trying to use magic on something that didn't pertain to one's element. For instance, if he tried to use mana to make his metal open a spatial portal, Fate would take his mana because, theoretically, he could open a portal with metal in some way he was ignorant about. Fate knew how and would try to take the mana required, but the less he knew about the subject, the more mana was needed. So, Fate would take all his mana, which would fall far short of opening the portal.

He reached the ground and tapped it with his foot at the proper rhythm. Sophie looked up and identified him by his blood. She then touched a yard-wide metal plate floating in the middle of the spherical cave.

The enchanted plate kept pushing all the earth around it away, maintaining the cave. When Sophie touched it and pushed some mana, the plate decreased the strength it used against the soil directly above it, effectively creating an access hole. Arthur entered first, bringing Emily with him, and Tamara was last. The maid only let go of her skill after Sophie touched the plate again, and the artifact closed the hole.

Then Sophie and Arthur threw themselves in each other arms.

"I was so worried," he admitted.

He let tears roll for the first time. They would've been useless before. They still wore. But now, emotion overwhelmed him.

Seeing his loved one after all the death he felt... All those people simply ceasing to exist without even leaving a corpse for their families to bury... The cruelty of using such a weapon on unsuspecting victims...

Only physically feeling Sophie reassured him that she wasn't gone.

Sophie desperately took her helmet off and kissed him needily for a few seconds. She grabbed his head and touched his face as if confirming he was real.

"Fate, you're alive," she whispered, tears also rolling from her eyes. "I went back to look for you. I saw... Fate, what was that?!"

"A magically enhanced nuclear explosion," he explained, his emotions coming back to control. He kissed her again and hesitantly pulled back. "How are you? How did Graham get injured? What happened?"

Sophie bit her lower lip and looked at the knight. "He teleported us an entire mile away, then passed out. I... How did he do it, Archie? Magic has a range limit. One mile... And then..." She started trembling. "I didn't know what to do. I was so afraid that you'd die, and the explosion took so long to stop. It was almost half a minute. The white ball of fire... The mushroom that took to the skies... Everyone ran away, Archie. Everyone. The League seemed terrified of it. Someone screamed 'radiation' at me and tried to grab me, but I resisted. They looked at me like I was an idiot and kept going. It scared me. I..." Guilty ate her away as tears streamed more quickly. "I ran, too, Archie. I wanted to help you, but I didn't know how. I didn't want to make things harder for you. I ran, Archie. I ran and left you behind. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Sorry. Sorry." She hid her face in his chest.

"You did good, Soph," he said gently. "I'm glad you came to safety. I'm more upset... No, not upset. Relieved. I'm relieved that nothing happened when you went back to look at the crater. I had guessed you teleported away, and knowing you should be safer than me gave me strength. Thanks for coming to hide here."

She nodded weakly, took a few moments to recover, then continued, "Grand Knight Graham woke up a little after we arrived here. I bet on another skill that marked this place. He used a spatial skill to dig down, took the big magic plate from his spatial storage, and told me to use it. Then he took his helmet off, puked, and fainted again." The vomit of pure blood on the corner of the cave attested to the story. "I can feel nothing wrong in his blood, but he also didn't wake up when I tried to use blood magic on him."

"Can you check on him, Tamara?" Arthur requested, looking for a second opinion.

The maid approached and touched the grand knight's face. Her life mana also bottomed out before she took her hand away and shook her head. "I don't know what's wrong either, master. My best guess would be... unscientific."

Arthur smiled sadly. "His soul."

Souls existed, but they were mysterious and impossible to study. Academically, blaming what you didn't understand on the soul was considered lazy.

Yet, the prince could understand the temptation. His life comprehension was at 60%, but he could find nothing wrong with the knight. Even his supernatural knowledge of life didn't explain that. Something like a soul injury would explain what he was seeing.

In fact, the temptation was irresistible to Arthur.

Souls should be related to life. At least most of the great scholars agreed that only living beings had souls. Therefore, if he researched souls, he should be able to touch them. He could heal Graham. Eventually. Probably.

The grand knight only had to survive until then.

Arthur's smile turned self-deprecating. If only there was a place with accelerated time he could place Graham in while the prince researched a solution for the knight's troubles...

But he was getting ahead of himself. For all he knew, Graham was just temporarily weakened. He had to ask the man himself before deciding anything.

He used his domain to wake the knight up. Unlike Sophie's blood magic, his life magic worked. Graham's mind was dazed, though, and no matter how much Arthur exerted his magic, the knight's brain refused to work properly.

"Sir?" the man asked, his speech slurred, his head not even leaving the ground.

"What happened to you?" Arthur asked at once.

"Shamanism," he replied, forcing his voice to come. "Forced temporary portal. Special skill. I should—" he started coughing. "I should be dead." His brain was already shutting down again.

The prince asked quickly, "How can we help you?"

Graham only shook his head and fainted again. Arthur could try to wake him up once more but decided against it. Getting conscious had made his body even weaker.

"Tamara, we need information. I think the enemy knows we're alive, but just in case, don't let anyone see you. We'll also leave the declaration of war for later."

"War, master? Are you sure?" she was asking more as a formality than anything.

He sighed. "If there's an alternative, you never told me about it."

The League had attacked High House Boria. Arthur might care about their circumstances as an individual but not as the House Head. He had been on League soil, and a former Human Commander had used technology theoretically forbidden by the League to try to kill him as soon as he returned from the dungeon. Also, the target was obviously the Red Line, which he was expected to approach once he was back.

Maybe Terrell had used Joint Command's good intentions against them. Perhaps he was still in control behind the curtains. Whatever the case, the League was responsible for the attack.

The League of Fated Races and High House Boria were already at war; the only missing part was the formal declaration, which would come later.

Of course, they might talk it over. After the declaration. After he made his stance clear. And only if they agreed to give up on oh-so-much restitution to make up for almost killing Sophie.

Fate—

Arthur closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Now wasn't the time to be ruled by emotions. He had to remain in control.

Tamara nodded, then turned to Emily. "Can I question her, master?"

"No. She would also have died if not for me. She's a victim, and I'll keep her unconscious for now. But you can search for tracking devices on her. Speaking of devices, our rings are gone. See if you can find anything about artifacts or professionals to reopen spatial folds when you're out there. Just keep in mind that the priority is information on the League."

"Yes, master."

The maid quickly ran her hands through Emily's body like a butcher with some peace of meat. She also used a few spells and skills to double-check that there was nothing. Then, she turned to Sophie.

"High Lady Brimstone, would you mind sharing garments with me?"

"Oh!" Sophie said. "Of course! Here." She took a black robe from her spatial storage. "Do you need anything else?"

"I would suggest you clothe the other half-naked woman in the room," the maid said with joviality unfitting for the situation. "Your suitor is still quite the catch."

Sophie nodded almost absentmindedly and took a white dress, which she dressed Emily in. She was thinking of something else. Arthur could guess what it was and didn't like it one bit.

Tamara looked at Arthur. "Master, I recommend seizing Graham's spatial storage artifact."

"Denied," the prince replied at once.

When knights were injured, unfit for duty, and deemed incapable of making rational decisions, their superiors could seize their equipment in an emergency. However, Arthur's team could remain functional and relatively safe regardless of Graham's items. Stealing his items would be just theft.

Also, although Graham had been a little lost when he woke up, his brain had been working well enough. Arthur would ask permission to take the ring the next time he woke up. Until then, he would respect the man's private property.

Tamara nodded in acceptance and touched the floating enchanted plate. The "lid" on the top started lowering down.

"I want to help her gather information, Archie," Sophie said.

As Arthur had feared.

"I would rather you didn't," he replied as kindly as he could. He didn't have authority over her. But, Fate, did he wish he had.

"I know. I'm sorry. I'll be safe, I promise."

It felt like someone was squelching his heart as he nodded. This place wasn't much safer than anywhere else, and she had been trained as a battle maid. In fact, she would probably be safer in a place with people where she could disappear in the crowd or the darkness of night than in the middle of nowhere, especially considering he might've led the enemy to this place.

Still, he wished she would remain by his side. Unfortunately for him, he also wished her to be happy, which meant pursuing her own goals. Even more unfortunately, he knew that being too clingy—or obsessive—would be very unhealthy.

It was just...

Did it have to happen now, after he almost lost her?

Honestly, Arthur didn't understand why she didn't feel the same way about staying nearby. She had been so happy at seeing him after thinking she had lost him. But as any person had to learn to accept in life, people were just different.

The prince himself couldn't leave. They had an injured person and an unconscious one and needed a base of operations. He still hoped the enemy believed him dead, so it was more logical for him to stay there instead of risking getting discovered.

Lastly, and he hated to admit it, he was the worst of them regarding infiltration and spying. Tamara had extensively trained Sophie on it, while Arthur only knew the basics and had almost no experience.

"Promise me you'll come back," Arthur pleaded.

She smiled, pecked her lips, and said, "I promised," as she put her helmet back on.

"Twenty southeast," he said, meaning he would move this hiding spot twenty miles to the southeast, digging underground. "I'll know if you approach. If I don't open the door for you, consider the hideout compromised and head to the previous meeting point."

"Standard time limits for short operations, master?" Tamara asked.

Arthur nodded. "Three-six."

The women had three hours to return. If they didn't, he would wait another three hours. Their continued absence would mean they had been captured or killed. Likewise, they should consider him captured or killed if they didn't find him in this place and he didn't appear at the previous meeting point within six hours from now.

"Be right back, master," Tamara said, activated her camouflage skill, and stepped out of the cave.

"I love you, Archie," Sophie said and followed.

"Me too, Soph," Arthur whispered back.

He knew he shouldn't, but he stared at their forms going away with his Mana Sight for a few moments before finally touching the enchanted plate and pushing some mana into it. The cave closed.

Arthur found himself alive but, considering his company, utterly alone.

He was filled with worry. There were too many unknowns. But instead of stressing over it, he turned his metal pieces into a drill and started moving the cave to the southeast. Meanwhile, he looked at everything above him through his Mana Sight and felt what he could with his domains.

Most of his mind, however, revisited his memories of the horrifying moments he had fought for his life, analyzing everything he had felt and done and trying to gain something from it.

He had no doubt at least his death comprehension would increase after the experience, which filled him with bittersweetness.

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| Death: +3% → 45%

| +300 free stat points → 300 total

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| Life: +1% → 61%

| +100 free stat points → 400 total

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| Metal: +1% → 52%

| +100 free stat points → 500 total

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Almost three hours later, Arthur reached the limits of what he could gain from almost dying.

Feeling the potential of death so abundant in the nuke and the death of so many people had given him terrible insights on how to better kill anyone. The instants in which he felt his own body disintegrate helped even more. Even the way the metal within range had been atomized assisted that endeavor.

Then, his improved understanding of death pushed his life one step ahead. The more he learned how to kill something, the better he understood how life worked.

Finally, to his great surprise, what he felt when metal ceased to exist, plus some related estimations and connected knowledge from death, also improved his metal comprehension.

Arthur hesitated before placing the 500 free stats points in intelligence. Unlike his three companions, he could still improve his mana stats through Fate. Five hundred extra points in magnitude was almost a 25% increase in the mana available to him. That would've been the difference between Emily's life and death if Graham hadn't teleported away with Sophie.

Yet, in the end, he had to go with intelligence. His greatest advantage over his enemies was his elemental comprehension. He couldn't risk his mind ever being too full of information that he couldn't learn anything new. Also, Knowledge is Power, the trait that let him instantly analyze his past knowledge, would help him improve faster the higher level it was. Not to mention that he would be able to use everything he had learned in his ascension when it reached the next level, at 7,000 points!

The 500 extra points pushed his intelligence to 6,670, and the extra life comprehension let him strengthen his and Graham's vitality to 1,725 points. That was a lot more than he expected from a mere 1% of life understanding, but analyzing his body getting destroyed gave him many insights related to stats.

The grand knight was unconscious, and Arthur hoped the extra vitality would help. Therefore, he had the right to do it without Graham's explicit approval, despite the earlier issues the unsolicited enhancement had caused.

The extra vitality did nothing for the knight.

Arthur thought a little, then also improved Graham's mana stats to 1,725. Souls were so mysterious... And wasn't mana mysterious, too? In fact, he had just learned his mana core wasn't entirely biological. He had just kept all his mana and been able to use it long after most of his body was gone.

What if one's mana stats and soul were connected somehow?

The prince was pushing the boundaries there because the flimsy connection wasn't even enough to be considered an experimental procedure. Still, he would rather Graham hate him forever than die an early death because he was a coward who feared a little resentment.

Graham's mana stats increased...

...and, Fate, the gambit worked!

Arthur had no idea how or why, but Graham became around twenty percent stronger after his mana stats increased by about half, each rising from 1,116 points. His complexion improved, and his breathing became less labored. His entire body relaxed a little.

Even his mana seemed to flow better through his body. Had it something to do with everything?

Soon after, the three-hour period came to an end, and Arthur finally felt Sophie and Tamara in his life domain.

Sophie was fine, but Tamara was almost dead.

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[A/N: In the next chapter, we'll get our first interlude, with someone else's point of view. It has been requested relatively a lot in the past. I hope you enjoy it.

Now, the reason for the delay:

This chapter got delayed because I was... Well, publishing a book!

I have another pen name, Edward Castle. I previously published three books in a series called Unbound Deathlord. Years ago, I started writing another series, Immortal Conqueror, which is LitRPG/cultivation, which used to be available on RoyalRoad. I also started preparing to publish it.

But then my life became a roller coaster, and I never ended up releasing the novel in a book format.

The Immortal Conqueror novel is no longer available for reading on RoyalRoad, but I'll release the written material as books and then write more until the series is finished.

I'm planning to publish about 5 to 7 books in that series. Relatively short books, too; the first one is 90k words. According to Amazon, that's 434 pages. For perspective, Harry Potter 1 has 77k words, and Harry Potter 2 has 85k.

Anyway, the first book in the Immortal Conqueror series, New World, will come out on the 12th and is available for pre-order at Amazon if you're interested. It'll also be available on Kindle Unlimited.

The link: https://mybook.to/ImmortalConqueror

The blurb is too long to copy-paste here (check it on Amazon!), but the gist of it is that the strongest cultivator in the universe is called to help another. Traveling to a new dimension means losing his power and starting over. He's bored and wants a challenge, so he does it.

The other universe is a LitRPG/GameLit, so stat screens and stuff. Also classes, magic beasts, gods, conspiracies, and a medieval society.

At first, Aaron (that's his name) tries to blend in, but as the story progresses, it becomes evident that the only path forward is to do things the way he knows best: killing his enemies and conquering everything they have.

Expect an OP MC with a martial mentality who is very sure of himself. Adventure and action.

Immortal Conqueror is very different from Lost in the Future, but who knows, you might like it! =)

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