Chapter 48 - Feasibility of the Hydrogen Bomb

"It should not be possible!"

Reed thought for a moment and shook his head in denial. 

"Didn't you hear what Elara said? The Angel Descent Formation can only be used once every few decades, and it also requires various rare materials. Even with modifications, these limitations should be unavoidable. Feliciana and the others only encountered one fallen angel, and it was only a six-winged one for such an important role in the demon army. This shows how rare they are - there may only be that one."

"That's right! The resources on the Dark Continent are very scarce. I stayed there for so long without seeing a single tree," I strongly agreed with her and continued. 

"And obtaining sufficient resources for the formation is even more difficult. Also, if this method was truly feasible, I reckon we'd be seeing fallen angels instead of demons fighting the angels outside right now."

"That's good then!" 

After hearing it, Cyra heaved a sigh of relief. 

"I was still worried that in the future, I might not be able to fight those cute fallen angel girls..."

"You shameless flirt! With your level of fighting skills, don't tell me you're fantasizing about those girls' figures?" 

Nicola was very disdainful, tidying up the scene while mocking her. She had no such concerns. Back then, when fighting Claudia, she did not hold back at all.

"Tsk! You're not much better yourself..." 

Having been seen through, Cyra's face flushed slightly. Although a little unwilling, she was too embarrassed to continue this topic with a "real girl" present. 

Speaking of which, the materials on the ground forming the array were similar to Cyra's playing cards - they were magic materials with an affinity for elements, extremely rare, and of course could not be wasted. Nicola didn't bother with words and directly stored everything in the storage ring on her finger.

"By the way, I heard you guys and Lady Elara say that this array absorbs light elements. What are the collected light elements used for afterwards?"

While helping tidy up with me, Cyra suddenly opened her mouth to ask puzzlingly.

"Of course, it's to provide energy for the compressed gas."

Reed glanced at her and answered. 

"Didn't Nicola just say so? And you should have been there when I first proposed this idea!"

"Then that's strange!" 

Since I also had many questions, I hurried to bring them up as well.

"Didn't the deuterium experiment already fail? Without deuterium and tritium, what are you compressing the gas for?" 

"Don't tell me you've made a breakthrough and can now control atoms?"

I turned to Nicola and looked at her incredulously.

"Of course not!" 

Nicola quickly clarified.

"That experiment was abandoned long ago. Reed is just continuing based on the original plan..."

"What original plan?"

I was completely confused. I vaguely recalled that Reed did mention some original plan before, but I had no memory of its specific details.

"What dau...What controlling atoms?"

Cyra was even more befuddled, not understanding what we were talking about at all.

"Deuterium - tritium..." 

I sighed and corrected her mistakes word for word. 

"You should at least know the raw materials for a hydrogen bomb, right?"

"Don't...don't tell me you guys are secretly making a hydrogen bomb here?"

Finally getting it, Cyra was so shocked she couldn't close her mouth. She asked unbelievingly.

"What do you think?" 

I neither confirmed nor denied it.

Sigh! As expected, I had frightened another youngster. Though anyone would probably have this kind of reaction. 

"Awesome! So cool!"

Unexpectedly, she yelled loudly and became extremely excited, contrary to her usual demeanour. It seems I had guessed wrong - she was very interested in this nuclear experimentation.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner? I want to join too. We have to make the biggest one to blow those bastards away!" 

"..."

I helplessly covered my forehead. Out of the four who crossed over, am I the only normal one? How is it that everyone is a dangerous terrorist!

"What kind of priest are you to be so militant? What about the gospel of benevolence and compassion?" 

I really couldn't stand it anymore and questioned her.

"What's wrong with being militant? There are so many demons in this world! Benevolence and compassion have nothing to do with them. We'll inevitably end up fighting sooner or later, so there's no problem making a bomb now."

Cyra argued righteously, completely unburdened. 

"I'm sure the Lord would also agree with me doing this. Those fallen angels are the best proof - they're all traitors recorded in the Bible. The hydrogen bomb may be the divine punishment meant for them."

"... "

These fallen angels probably have no relation to the biblical fallen angels. And didn't you just call them "cute fallen angel girls" earlier? How did you go from that to wanting to nuke them with a hydrogen bomb so quickly?

I wanted to retort, but she probably wouldn't listen right now. I could only let it go for the time being.

"How far along are you guys now? Is there anything I can help with?"

Eager to give it a try, Cyra asked if she could help make the hydrogen bomb happen tomorrow.

"We're probably about 30% done." 

Reed's answer truly shocked me. I didn't expect progress to be so fast.

"How did you get to this point without deuterium and tritium? What exactly are you compressing with the light elements?"

"It's of course the most primitive hydrogen gas! Not a hydrogen isotope, which is protium. Two protium atoms make up a hydrogen molecule, remember?"

As she explained, Reed took out the gas collection sphere and tossed it to me. 

"This heavy?"

When I caught the sphere, my palm immediately sank. I was in a state of revealed wings, so my strength was considerable. Based on experience, the mass of this small sphere was at least several dozen kilograms.

"Is it all hydrogen...protium inside?"

"Of course. You should know that under conditions of extremely high temperatures and pressures, even ordinary hydrogen gas can undergo nuclear fusion. It's just much more demanding than deuterium and tritium."

Nicola explained proudly to me, then pointed at Reed. 

"This was her original plan. But later we found out I could control gaseous substances, so we tried the easier deuterium and tritium instead. What a pity that still failed."

"So you're using light elements to enhance the pressure? What about the high temperatures - how are you achieving that condition?"

Finally understanding, Cyra took the gas collection sphere from me and weighed it in her hands a few times. She also went "so heavy".

"I planned to solve the pressure issue first before considering other conditions..." 

After thinking for a bit, Reed supplemented a little more.

"Temperature is much easier to solve than pressure. I already have preliminary solutions. The main issue now is still pressure."

"But I still feel it's a bit far-fetched."

I shook my head, still not very optimistic about the chances of success.

"The conditions hydrogen needs to achieve fusion are truly too demanding. I guess only celestial bodies like the Sun would meet the criteria."

"You're underestimating the light elements contained in this Edenmere. That is the result of thousands of years of continuous accumulation..."

Reed did not seem affected by me, appearing very confident the whole time.

"Anyway, starting tomorrow, we'll be moving outside the city to do experiments per Elara's request. To be honest, having fewer concerns may be good. Perhaps the experiments will progress much faster."

Based on our usual trust, since she was so adamant, I didn't feel right to say anything more. 

But just thinking about the weight I felt from the gas collection sphere, I still felt somewhat uneasy. The explosive power of all this hydrogen undergoing fusion...

Please, anything but another accident! Even if it doesn't explode in the city, other parts of Edenmere probably couldn't withstand it either.

When we finished tidying up the library training grounds and returned to the Tivi Palace, we were greeted with very good news. 

Noma came to our room to tell us that the nightmare which had plagued all of Edenmere for days had just been found and eliminated less than ten minutes ago.

"What! Where was it found?"

Cyra immediately stood up from her seat, not even bothering with the playing cards in her hand.

After so many days without even seeing the shadow of a nightmare, being directly told the target was already gone was a bit hard to accept.

"You can forget about your 'Extermination' plan. With your level, how could you fantasize about beating a 5th-order demon?"

Nicola mercilessly mocked. Having just lost n rounds of cards in a row, she was in a bad mood and Cyra, the big winner, naturally became her target.

"Even if I can't beat it, there's no harm in seeing what these so-called demons look like, right?" 

Not willing to take it lying down, Cyra retorted a few times before hearing Noma continue.

"It was in the east city district near the shopping street. A passing four-winged little angel accidentally discovered it. Just a few cleansing spells thrown over and the nightmare was annihilated without a trace in two strikes, not even leaving the slightest residue."

"Are you sure it was that nightmare?"

The eastern shopping district could be considered one of the most densely populated areas of the city. It was suspicious that the nightmare could hide there for so many days without being discovered.

"The angel guards have already sent someone to investigate the scene. Traces of lingering dark elements were indeed discovered, barely preserved thanks to the scarcity of light elements in the environment recently. It's speculated the nightmare wanted to take advantage of angels falling asleep to cause chaos. Unfortunately for it, a weak little angel just happened to bump into it..."

From Noma's account, it could be seen that she looked down on the nightmare that was destroyed so quickly. 

"It truly was too weak! For Lady Elara to make such a big fuss over this kind of trash."