Episode 161: Asahi On Stage (1)
“What is magic!”
Asahi shouted with the force of a visible onomatopoeia, “Baaam!”
“Asahi, turn down the volume.”
“Asahi, you’re too loud.”
On the stage, Asahi nodded vigorously, waving her hand to display a slide.
“First, let’s introduce the magical phenomena we’ve observed so far!”
Completely ignoring the heckling from the audience, and of course, without lowering the volume, Asahi continued.
“Asahi is energetic as ever.”
“Yes, I am, Onee-sama!!”
The slide displayed the first Threat Creature, ＜Rain Croin＞.
“Now! As you all know, though I didn’t see it directly, we received our baptism in this world through the battle with that giant Threat Creature!”
Combat footage from that time played on the slide.
＜Rain Croin＞, clad in a mysterious light, deflecting Cannon Shells.
“Ugh, I wanted to be there! I wanted to see it live!”
“Asahi, try not to digress too much and continue.”
At ＜Ringo＞’s admonition, Asahi regretfully displayed the next slide.
“＜Rain Croin＞ was a formidable enemy! This Defense Membrane that blocks all attacks unconditionally!”
Footage played of an Armor-Piercing Shell hitting the Defense Membrane, flowing like liquid, and shattering into pieces.
“And this mobility despite its massive size! Naturally, it ignores the laws of physics that bind us! No matter the material properties, if you swing this heavy object at this speed, the joints will break!”
＜Rain Croin＞ thrashed about, splashing seawater. The load on its joints, estimated from its speed and presumed weight, was enough to easily destroy even structures made with ＜The Tree＞’s finest construction techniques.
However, ＜Rain Croin＞ moved around energetically.
“Furthermore, we found that its output is far greater than the muscle strength calculated from the cross-sectional area of its biological muscles! In other words, it is presumed that ＜Rain Croin＞ is strengthening its biological structure and improving its muscle strength by some means!”
And the next slide showed that long Worm.
“This is the nameless giant Worm! It also exhibited a strange hardness! In the first place, we couldn’t get much information even after examining its digestive organs, and it’s unclear how it was able to grow so fat in such a barren land!”
Footage played of the Worm leaping out of the ground, drawing an arc in the air, and plunging back into the ground.
“In the first place, I don’t understand how it enters the ground so cleanly! Certainly, its head was hard, but even if it hit the ground at this speed, it would be impossible to dig through it! It should just be crushed by its own weight!”
Well, that was true. The site was in the middle of a wasteland, with dry, hardened soil continuing for meters underground. In the first place, most of its composition was Lava Rock, and no matter how hard it was struck, there was no way a living creature could win. Usually, the living creature would lose.
“Furthermore, there were the Monsters (Hyenas) that attacked! Their assumed muscle strength and actual motor performance were also inconsistent!”
The Monsters (Hyenas) that lived around the East Gate city were also classified as Threat Creatures by ＜The Tree＞. The reason was as Asahi explained.
Their motor performance was clearly high, and they could not be contained within the framework of ordinary creatures.
“We didn’t collide directly with ＜Serket＞, so the details are unknown, but at least we couldn’t inflict a single wound with a Fuel-Air Explosive! Besides, for a crustacean to sustain that size on land, its Legs are too thin!”
Crustaceans are a species of organism that is not suited for large size because they need to store their muscles inside their shells. Since muscle strength is proportional to the cross-sectional area of the muscles, it is necessary to thicken the limbs to increase in size, but at the same time, the weight also increases, resulting in very poor fuel efficiency. Moreover, in order to cover the thickened muscles, it is necessary to wear a heavier shell.
Therefore, it is assumed that ＜Serket＞ is also embodying an absurd (fantasy) phenomenon.
“Finally, there’s this Silver Dragon (Wyvern)! In addition to the known Defense Membrane and physical enhancement, it accelerated its flight with a mysterious force, and even managed to convert the impact into acceleration! It’s a technology that our forces won’t be able to achieve for another 20 years!”
The technology called vector conversion, or inertial neutralization, was stored in the library, but only as information. However, in order to realize it, a large device and rare compounds that cannot be obtained on the ground are required, so ＜The Tree＞ cannot manufacture it at present.
“And, Sound Wave attacks, and Breath Attacks using Charged Particles! Yes, as expected, Dragons are all about the Breath! This one is definitely the real deal!!”
“Asahi, you’re too loud.”
“This Breath is probably shot out by super-pressurizing and turning the air into plasma in the oral cavity, and adding acceleration! Since there is no organ equivalent to a particle accelerator, it is truly unscientific (fantasy)!”
Asahi swayed her body as if bouncing, advancing the slides.
The complaints from her sisters fell on deaf ears. She didn’t care at all.
“Now, next are the people who live in this land! Samples from the Afrasia United Kingdom, and then the Repuytari Kingdom, but they don’t seem to be very good at magic!”
The slide showed a blazing ball of Fire flying from the tip of a right hand extended forward.
It was training footage of a type of soldier called Magic Warrior, of which several existed in the Telek Port City of the Afrasia United Kingdom.
“Like this, an individual, by their own will, makes Fire appear in a place where only air is observed, and even projects it forward! Furthermore, when this ball of Fire comes into contact with a substance other than air, presumably a substance with a certain mass or more, it explodes with a certain amount of power and scatters flames!”
The ball of Fire, flying almost in a straight line, hits the target set up ahead and scatters flames with an explosive sound.
The wooden target was scorched by the Fire, and the scattered flames burst when they fell on the surrounding ground, scorching it.
It didn’t seem to have enough heat to set the target on Fire, but it seemed to have enough firepower to cause severe burns over a wide area if it hit a person directly.
“Furthermore, there are these Message Birds used in the Repuytari Kingdom! Regardless of the type of bird, they fly straight to their destination, just like the carrier pigeons of old! They fly tirelessly, almost without resting! It seems to be classified as a type of enhancement magic, and they can fly for several days!”
A record of a Message Bird being chased by a Drone was displayed on the slide.
＜The Tree＞ hadn’t actually conducted the experiment, but it seemed that quite a bit of data had been collected from interviews and observations of its operation.
“Any bird is fine, but the bird’s innate flying ability takes precedence, so the faster the species, the more suitable it is for this Message Bird! The logic is completely beyond me! It’s really absurd (fantasy), which is great!!”
Next was an armored man slashing towards the viewer.
“This is the knight who cut up our Multi-legged Tank! The sword he’s holding is well-made, but it’s just bronze! The sharpness is okay, but the strength is not enough at all! If you hit it against the composite armor of the Multi-legged Tank, even if the blade is aligned, it will only scratch the surface! There’s no way it could be cut in two like this!”
The Multi-legged Tank, which was far longer than the sword’s blade, was neatly cut in two. Clearly, the sword’s function was being enhanced by some kind of assistance.
Asahi’s view was that it was an energy blade with freely adjustable blade length.
“However, it doesn’t seem to be melting it with heat, but rather cutting it cleanly, physically! It’s as if a properly pressurized monomolecular cutter was pressed against it! But with a monomolecular cutter, the strength wouldn’t be enough and it would lose, so I still think it’s fantasy!!”
Asahi displayed an enlarged cross-sectional view with a happy smile, explaining it.
She was full of life.
Onee-sama (Eve) was also smiling.
“After that, there are the tools used by the local residents! What we secured were a flamethrower and a Stove, but when you set a mysterious substance called a Magic Stone, Fire comes out of the tip!”
“Come to think of it, there was something like that.”
“Yes, Onee-sama!! Also, Burnstone is also a mysterious substance! It generates heat when pressurized, but it’s not burning, and the residue disappears cleanly without leaving any ash! Please preserve mass!!”
The size of the Burnstone, and the amount of heat that can be extracted from it.
As a result of strict measurement, the amount of heat that can be extracted seems to be proportional to the square of its weight.
“This heat extraction is also incomprehensible! When you cut a large mass in half, the amount of heat also decreases! Where did the energy go! Where is the energy even coming from! This is truly, truly fascinating!”
Asahi-san, now heated up, advanced the slides further, breathing heavily.