Chapter 110: An Unexpected Question
Early Evening - Late Spring : Home
"Well how about we head up the mountain. I don't want to miss the sunset afterall." Mother gave me a warm smile and started flying up the mountain.
Getting ready to follow after her, I leaned down and had Ilios jump up on my back.
-Alrighty.- “Hold on Ilios.”
*Fwoosh*
With a strong flap of my wings, I caught up to Mother and landed on the peak with her.
The sun was just about to hit the horizon and the sky had already changed to a light orange so I didnt want to waste any more time.
Once Mother landed, she walked up to the edge and sat down, tapping the ground next to her for me to sit.
As I sat down and started getting situated with Ilios, she looked over and asked, "So how did you like Kaelallan?"
"It was alright. The library was the best part." Truthfully it was those glorious cushions in the shelter but I couldn't say that.
"Oh really? What made you like it so much?"
"Well.." Finally getting situated, I looked out over the ocean that was steadily turning more and more golden. "I just found some information that will help me going forward."
"What was the book about?"
"It was some in depth history about things that happened just before and after the great war related to a goddess called the 'The Goddess of Harvest'."
As soon as I mentioned the great war, Mothers demeanor changed.
"What is it?"
"Once Krystallo wakes up, I need to talk to you two about something that has to do with the great war. When you mentioned the great war, it just reminded me of that, is all."
"Ah.." Noticing it'd be untimely to dig any more, I turned back to look over the ocean and changed the subject. "It's beautiful isn't it.."
"Yeah.. it sure is.."
It was a beautiful sight, -its even more beautiful than normal..- I looked over at mother sitting next to me. -Maybe its because I'm with Mother..- My cheeks slowly warmed up as I turned back to the sunset with a grateful smile.
-Wait what was that?- I quickly turned back to mother, noticing something out of the corner of my eye.
-A.. ship?-
On the horizon was a giant galleon waving an unfamiliar flag.
"Mother?"
"What is it sweetie?"
"Ships aren't normal around here right?"
"No, where we live is extremely isolated so there aren't any trade routes that pass by. Why do you ask?" She looked over and saw me looking over towards the horizon and looked where I did. "A ship?"
"Yeah.."
"Can you see the flag by chance?"
"Kind of.." I strained my eyes a bit to try and see the design but it was useless. -Its too far..- "It's blue with white and green details by the looks of it."
Mother took a second to think. "Maybe Toria? But they were forbidden from coming here.. Can you tell what direction the ship is going?"
"It's coming straight for the mountain."
"How troublesome.."
Seeing the troubled look on Mothers face, I decided to present a possible solution. "Can I try to sink it from here?"
Mothers eyes widened.
"I don't want it to cause us trouble in the future so if we just sink it over deep water.."
Mothers mouth slowly turned to a smile. "How about this, if you can hit it from here in 3 shots, when we go to Bahamut I'll get you something extremely~ tasty."
My eyes immediately lit up as I turned and looked at her with a childish smile. "Really?"
"Do you think I won't stick to my word?" She gave off an air of confidence.
"Hehe, that's a promise!"
With a happy trot, I moved over to the side of the mountain and laid down, perching my jaw on a rock. -Alright.. how am I going to do this..-
In my breath gland, I readied a long metal dart with fins and a ton of electricity.
-For the first shot I'll aim right at it, and I'll adjust for drop on the second one..-
Slowly opening my mouth just enough to let the dart out, I took a deep breath and fired.
*CRACK*
The shockwave kicked up a bunch of dust but it didn't impede my sight too much.
After around two seconds passed, the dart blew through the main mast of the galleon.
-What ridiculous speed..- Since I didn't account for the ship moving, the dart only dropped a few meters even though I fired it to the horizon. -That ship is also moving really quickly too..-
"Is that your breath that uses that magnetism magic?"
"Haha, it's science, not magic mother. But yeah, this is my improved version of that."
"How ridiculous.."
"It's pretty wild isn't it?" I quickly started lining up my next shot when I decided to make a bet. "If I sink it on this shot, how about you get me 2 tasty things."
"Haha, alright. I think you might hit it but I doubt just a dart will sink it."
"You're right, if I just used a dart the damage would be fairly minimal, that's why I'm going to be using something a little special." I looked towards mother with a smug smile.
She looked at me quizzically as I lined up my next shot.
-Alright, lets see if my hypothesis will work.-
This time, instead of making a simple tungsten carbide layered iron dart, I made it of a special material and gave it a special twist.
I made it of depleted Uranium and made it much bigger, creating a hollow space that I filled with water inside of it as well.
-Hehe..- After taking the time to make the dart, I finished lining up the shot. -The ballistics won't be the same as the iron dart, but if I launch it with a little more juice it should still fly flat..-
I quickly readied more electricity this time and fired.
*CRACK*
After around a second passed, there was an orange firework-like explosion in front of the ship.
-It worked!- Millions of red hot balls and shards of the dart continued flying after the explosion, blasting the ship like a ridiculously upsized shotgun.
As the projectiles hit, they kicked up tons of water and pulverized everyone and everything on board, leaving an eerie, bloody mist hovering around where the ship was.
By the time the mist cleared, the ship was nowhere to be seen with only wood and bloody cloth scraps remaining on the surface of the water.
I sat there, stunned at how well it worked.
Mother watched the scene in awe as well, she was just staring at the area as if in a trance. "What.. did you do?"
"I just utilized the power of science!" I held my head up high as I was proud of my experimental success.
Mother looked towards me with a look of fascination. "Can you explain what you did.. in detail?"
"Well, like you said, just a dart likely wouldn't have sunk the ship, so I came up with a crazy idea."
I quickly created a depleted uranium dart on the ground to give her a better example.
"So to start, I changed the material of the dart. The original dart would stay intact and stay strong until it hit, but this one I made, would melt from the air resistance."
Although she was struggling to follow because of my use of some unusual vocabulary, she managed to get the gist of it. "But why did it explode?"
I reached down and cut the dart down the middle. "Well you see this small empty area in the middle?" I pointed to the sliced dart on the ground. "I filled this with water. When water changes temperature too quickly, it can cause a small explosion. That explosion was more than enough to make the now brittle and red hot dart blow into millions of pieces."
Mother looked up at me in shock, speechless.
Seeing her reaction, I started to get a little nervous. -Was it too much..-
Mother looked back and forth between me and the dart on the ground, a childish and joyful smile that I had never seen on her creeping onto her face. "So you said this is what you call science?"
"Kind of, yeah.."
Mother looked at me like a curious child. "Could you teach me?"
-...what?-
Bonus POV:
- Unknown Captain ~
"So what are your plans for the city here, Mister city lord?" I perched my feet up on my desk as I eyed up the well dressed, chubby noble man.
He grimaced as he looked up at me. "I plan to keep my word.. once we get the town going, I will build you a trafficking hub."
"You know, I've been thinking.. I'm taking you on this journey too. I've given you and your knights comfortable beds and supplied them with food for this trip so how about a tip?" I looked at the noble with a greedy smile.
"What kind of tip.."
"Hmm, I wonder.. How about a night with that young maid girl you brought with you.."
"Tch.. disgusting bastard.."
"If that's a no, I'll just turn the ship around. Thanks to a shiny new artifact, we are far quicker than traditional ships so I have no qualms about turning around."
"You know you can't do that, the royal family would execute you on the spot."
"But they'd get you first." Giving a devious smile, I slammed my glass of alcohol on the desk. "So?"
"Fine.. she's yours for the night.."
"Good, good. I hope you dont mind me giving her to my crew after I finish right?"
The noble looked at me with an indescribable disgust.
-Yeah yeah, act like you haven't already laid your fat hands on her..-
*BANG*
My thoughts came to an abrupt stop as the entire ship shook like we slammed into a rock.
The fatty was to first to run out. "What is going o-"
"My lord!" A knight in full armor tackled him before he got out of the door though.
*Bang*
The top half of the mast fell right over where they were, if the fatty wasn't moved he would have been crushed.
The noble man laid there in shock but I didn't waste any time and started to move. "The hell happened?!"
"We aren't sure, captain!"
"Well f*cking figure it out!" I ran up to the front of the ship and looked in the water. -Theres.. nothing..-
Looking up at where the main mast was broken, the wood wasn't just blown away, but it was burnt.
-Just what..- I quickly shook my head. "Well, we aren't far away. We will repair it once we land." I looked back towards the fatty who was still laying on the ground. "Get your 'oh so powerful' knight to come up here and guard from whatever that was."
"R..right! Jeff, protect the ship with your life! If we sink, we will all die!"
"..sure.." Coming up from the lower deck was a muscular, sleepy looking man in loose armor.
-Haah.. I shouldn't depend on that idiot..- "Everyone else, help move the mast so it won't slip into the water and check for other damages."
The crew and knights quickly started moving to my orders as I walked up to the helm. -I cant believe those royal bastards decided to send me out after those sh*tty mercenaries came back empty handed... If they didn't offer me a hell of a lot of money and give me that water artifact to make this trip faster I would’ve just left to a different country..-
Finally at the helm, I looked up over the sea something caught my eye.
A red dot appeared between us and the mountain peak that was just above the horizon.
-What.. is tha..-
Before my eyes, I watched as millions of red balls and shards of light silently ripped my ship and crew to shreds.
I watched the scene as if time had slowed, I even watched as my own body was blown to shreds along with my ship in total silence and without pain.
The scene made my mind go blank with the exception of one thought.
-This must be.. Gods.. wrath..-
*B-b-b-b-b-b-bang*