Chapter 1298: A Transcendental Payload
"It’s more than both of you."
Abigail looked at Zaos and added, "I’m not sure about Evan, but I’m sure the amount of cosmic energy inside that thing is more than the amount of magic power you possess, Dad."
In other words, it was a Transcendental amount of cosmic energy. If that, together with the magic power and universal law energy swirling within that sphere, detonated, the Beta Continent would be finished.
"No, not just the continent, the entire planet’s surface would be finished," Zaos muttered, his expression darkening.
Zaos wasn’t exaggerating. Cosmic energy produced a far greater output than magic power, even when the same amount was used.
If magic power’s damage output was 1, then cosmic energy’s output was at least 3.
If a Transcendental amount of cosmic energy detonated in this part of the Beta Continent, the blast would affect the entire continent and destroy the land. The shockwaves alone would generate massive waves across the oceans, devastating islands across the Divider and Dread Oceans.
Those waves would also reach the Dark and Alpha Continents, where coastal nations would be wiped out.
Zaos’ mind hadn’t even finished running that analysis when he and Evan moved.
"Pseudo-Authority of Water." "Harbinger of Ice."
Laurene quickly put distance between herself and the device as Zaos wrapped the bomb in his magic power, forming a bubble of water which Evan’s magic power instantly froze, layering additional ice over it.
Their actions turned that section of the room into a massive block of ice, and before their eyes, the rate of change on the percentage and countdown display began to slow.
[00:15:58 | 45%]
Laurene understood the logic behind what Evan and Zaos had done, but she still shook her head as she muttered, "It’s no use. This is only a temporary solution."
"What do you mean it’s a temporary solution?" Evan asked.
Laurene bit her lip in silence, and seeing this, Evan asked again, "Laurene, what do you mean by temporary solution?"
Only then did she finally speak, revealing the grim reality.
"That bomb can’t be defused."
"What?!"
"I saw part of its internal structure through that display on the body when I got close earlier, and I’ve been analysing it while we were talking.
Major parts of the bomb’s internals are missing, and if my analysis is correct, then the missing part is what’s needed for the bomb to do the opposite of what it’s currently doing.
A bomb that detonates when it reaches a certain temperature would logically come with a means to purge its heat if its activation is cancelled, but I can’t find anything that can purge heat from this bomb, no matter how much I’ve turned its internal systems over in my head."
Exhaling softly, Laurene concluded,
"No matter what we do, unless we find a way to keep it frozen for eternity, that bomb is eventually going to explode."
There was a deafening silence in the area after her words, and a moment later, that silence broke with a loud cracking sound.
Evan immediately turned his gaze toward the source and saw the ice he and Zaos had formed around the bomb beginning to fracture.
Fine cracks spread across the frozen surface in rapid lines, branching outward as ice reinforced by a Series Skill and a Pseudo-Authority started to melt under the sheer temperature produced by the bomb.
What they were dealing with wasn’t ordinary heat, but something on the level of magma chamber conditions. It was thermal output comparable to the deeper mantle zones of the planet, with temperatures in the thousands of degrees Celsius.
What leaked out from the metallic outer plating wasn’t the full heat accumulating within the bomb, but only the residual heat escaping through imperfect containment.
Even that alone was enough for Evan, whose body was highly resistant to temperature changes due to his elemental affinity, to feel it.
It was only natural that Eliza and the others had to constantly expend energy to protect themselves from the heat.
Evan and Zaos quickly poured more power into their Skill and Pseudo-Authority respectively, reinforcing the ice around the bomb.
However, it didn’t change much. The ice continued to crack, and the timer kept decreasing, and although the pace slowed slightly, it was still counting down toward zero.
For a bomb continuously generating and recycling magma-tier thermal energy within a sealed system, the temperature climbing by the second was enough to melt their ice faster than it could stabilise the bomb’s heat, much less reduce it.
Laurene shook her head as she saw the bomb’s heat continue to rise.
"This is only temporary. We need a way to detonate that thing safely."
"But where in the world can we detonate it?" Eliza asked. "The ocean?"
"That’s insane!" Abigail immediately objected. "There’s no ocean we can detonate that thing in without causing massive damage to the land.
Even if we took it to the centre of the Billowy Depths, the shockwaves from the explosion would still devastate the Alpha and Dark Continents, and possibly even the northern region of the Beta Continent as well. Don’t forget our planet’s surface is almost 80% water."
Zaos agreed with his daughter’s analysis, summoning a phone into his hand as he spoke.
"I’ll call Altrishia and Vulwin. We should be able to take it to the ocean and put up a barrier to contain the blast with our combined power," he said, already using the emergency line the Transcendents had with one another.
He didn’t think they couldn’t contain the bomb’s blast with the power of three Transcendents.
Looking at Evan, he added, "You join in as well."
However, Evan didn’t respond. He simply stared at the bomb in silence, Time Difference active, and after weighing several things, he shook his head.
"No, there won’t be enough time."
"What?" Zaos asked in confusion.
Laurene immediately spoke up, agreeing with Evan. "He’s right. How long will it take for the Dragon Lord to get here from wherever she is? How long will it take for the Smith King to arrive? How long will it take for the three of you to form a barrier strong enough to contain this blast without affecting any of the islands in the Billowy Depths and the nearby continents?
We only have minutes left on that timer, and it’s still reduc—"
"Laurene, Liz, listen," Evan said, cutting her off.
He turned to the group and spoke quickly, laying out his reasoning in a way that removed every remaining option.
"I was thinking of having Altrishia teleport that thing somewhere else," he began, "The problem is, where can she teleport it to? There’s no dimensional realm or pocket space we can simply sacrifice for this bomb.
And even if there were any we could afford to sacrifice, I don’t think there’s any dimensional realm on this planet strong enough to withstand a cosmic energy blast of that level.
What’s more, that thing having cosmic energy inside it is only one problem. There’s the issue of some other mechanism or law energy being used to amplify the blast output."
Turning back to look at the bomb, he added, "Teleporting it is also risky. That dense concentration of energy would break the spatial channels created by anyone in this world right now. If it destabilises a teleportation mid transit, it could rupture the channel and reappear somewhere completely unknown. That’s not a risk we can afford."
He exhaled softly before finishing the logic chain.
"We also don’t have anyone here with temporal manipulation strong enough to stop it in place or reverse its activation cycle."
His voice lowered slightly as he concluded, "So the best solution right now is containment by removal. We take it somewhere where it can’t affect anything."
A short silence followed before Eliza asked, "And where exactly is this somewhere?"
Evan didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he raised his right hand, clenched his fist, then threw a punch upwards.
The force released from his fist shattered through the ceiling in an instant, the impact tearing a clean path through reinforced material as a shockwave of power followed through, carving a vertical line through the structure.
Layer after layer of the building opened above them, until the darkness of the upper floors broke into open sky.
From the underground level, the hole Evan had created aligned perfectly with every shattered floor above them, letting them see straight through the 30+ levels of the structure until the night sky was visible overhead.
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