Pasha saw it clearer than the others.
Original carriers didn’t rely on eyes. For her, Alethea and Celine, any one of their tentacles was enough to replace their eyes and they couldn’t wear anything to block the light.
Even though Roland had warned them that it was best to avoid looking directly at the explosion five to ten seconds following detonation, she didn’t avert her gaze until the very last second.
It was not only her, the other two did the same.
None of them wanted to miss this much-anticipated scene.
Can humans defeat demons?
Nobody dared to ask this question over the centuries while the Taquila survivors spent hiding underground. At the time, they gritted their teeth and persevered mostly out of a sense of responsibility, persevering on for their dear sisters who had been sacrificed. As for the final outcome, a sense of rejection would arise just from a mere thought regarding it. It was caused by a fear that if they thought too deeply it would destroy the tenacity and fighting will that had lasted them thus far. The pitch black roof of their underground burrow that they saw every time they raised their heads would remain forever etched in their memories.
And just then, the cage of blackness was broken apart by a streak of resplendent blue light.
It wasn’t a pure blue color; it was different from the color of dye, paint, crystals and lake water, Pasha couldn’t find the words to describe it—It was like the light had become so white that it was unable to become any whiter, causing an illusory blue hue.
Sticking close to the horizon, the light rapidly expanded and, in an instant, lit up the entire plain in front of them!
She couldn’t help but stand agape.
Apart from the sun and the moon, this was her first time seeing something that could light up the entire landscape—it was definitely not her imagination, she clearly witnessed the dark, nighttime snowy plain return to the state as if it was morning; the trees cast long, black shadows onto the fallen snow and the closer the distance to center of the white light, the clearer the silhouette of the terrain.
Almost simultaneously, Pahsa felt an intense, piercing pain caused by something in front of her, as if her skin had been burned. It felt exactly like how one would feel under the bright, midday sun.
However, she didn’t feel a single shred of fear; instead, she opened up all her tentacles and invited the darkness-breaking light.
If it could bring the humans brand new hope, what did this little pain matter?
It would only give her more pleasure!
The light lasted for not even a second. Afterwards, the blue turned into white and then into red. The ground began shaking violently as the rushing shockwave churned the snow and smashed into the outer wall of the bunker, producing cracking sounds. The ear splitting sound of the explosion came after everything else and dragged out for a long time, like the entire earth was roaring.
After the thunder of the explosion passed, the world regained its quietness.
A strange, fascinating cloud appeared over the distant horizon. It was large at the top and small at the bottom, like an upward blooming mushroom. Dark red flames could still be seen rolling and tumbling at the top of the mushroom.
Lighting up the skyline all by itself was certainly a feat that no other weapon could achieve!
If its power could be felt to such an extent fifteen kilometers away, then what would it be like if they were right next to it?
Pasha could already imagine the weapon detonating in the midst of a group of demons.
She had originally considered the onslaught of over a hundred cannons as the most shocking thing she had ever seen, but now that seemed insignificant compared to what she had just witnessed.
If the cannon exercise from two years ago transformed every single Taquila witch’s world view, then the experiment this time once more reshaped their hard-won ideas of the world.
Whoosh—!
An explosion of cheers and applause spread throughout the command post and observatory.
The three high-level witches wrapped their main tentacles tightly with each other.
“Is this really something we created?” For the first time, Alethea didn’t use the word ‘mortals’ or ‘ordinary humans’ to create a distinction between herself and them.
“Of course! I was responsible for processing a part of the outer shell.” Celine’s voice was full of excitement. “But truthfully I didn’t think that this thing would actually be exactly like what His Majesty described—”
“Why?”
“Uh… because leaders like to glorify results in order to encourage everyone to work, didn’t the Three Chiefs do that too before… Wait, I’m not saying it’s wrong to do so, don’t you guys tell His Majesty Roland!”
“Okay, okay,” Pasha interrupted. “How do you think the Battle of Divine Will will end now?”
“We can win, we can definitely win!” Celine replied without even giving it thought.
“It might not even last until the next Bloody Moon,” Alethea agreed.
One year ago, they would have considered themselves victorious if they managed to resist against the demons’ attack, persist on until the Battle of Divine Will ended, develop for another four hundred years, and then look for another opportunity.
Unknowingly, their standard for ‘victory’ had risen substantially.
“As expected…” Pasha finally laughed. “We share the same opinion.”
Humans can defeat demons.
And it might even happen faster than they thought.
Because the darkness is gone.
…
Among the crowd of ecstatic people, only Roland and Anna remained calm like usual.
“How was the result?” Anna took off her sunglasses and asked.
“We have at least made the first step.” Roland answered with his hands spread out. A fission reaction was undeniably triggered in the experimental device—the blazing light was proof. It would have been otherwise impossible to create such a huge impact with only over a thousand kilograms of dynamite inside the apparatus. Observing the aftershock and smoke column, the result was evidently significantly different to what he had predicted—it was theoretically supposed to be more powerful. “As for the specific result, we can only make a judgement after the people in the command post have gathered all the field data.”
Half an hour later, various small research teams brought back the ‘detectors’ that were placed around the site—floating paper. Because it was impossible for them to precisely measure the explosive yield with Neverwinter’s current technological means, Roland thought up a method of ‘using paper to measure power’.
When the air blowed at them, the paper would be lifted up due to the wind. When they were influenced by the blast of the explosion, the distance at which they landed would be farther. Through the difference in these distances, the approximate explosive yield was calculable. Roland didn’t need to calculate it himself, he had already copied a complete parameter table from the Dream Word and all he had to do was compare the data.
Although this method left some room for error, it was enough to guide the experiments.
After comparing the data, the results were indeed much like what he expected.
The explosive power of this time’s experimental bomb was equivalent to only around three thousand tonnes of TNT, yet the amount of Uranium-235 invested was forty kilograms. If only 6% of the original materials participated in the fission reaction in the first atomic bomb used in an actual war, “Little Boy,” and its explosive yield was 13 kilotons of TNT, then the nuclear material utilization rate of this test was not even 2%. It could be classified as a ‘dirty bomb.’
It wasn’t that Roland was disappointed of course. After all, there had never been a strict definition for a dirty bomb in the history of weapons. Compared with the dozens of small nuclear weapons that have since been deployed, these veteran bombs that had been used in real wars could all be classified as dirty bombs. A 152mm grenade with just a few kilograms of charge could do substantial damage, let alone three kilotons of TNT.
In terms of the experiment, the No. 1 experimental bomb couldn’t be described as terribly successful, but it was still a deadly weapon.
“It’s going to be a long road ahead.” Anna put down the form in her hands and exhaled deeply. Yet, there was not a shred of disheartenment in her eyes; instead, they were filled with fighting spirit.
“Indeed.” Roland nodded.
He had never hoped to reach his goal in one go anyway. Next, what he had to do was find the cause for this and continuously modify and improve accordingly until it could truly compete with the sun for glory.