Chapter 789: The Nuclear Deterrent
Chapter 789: The Nuclear Deterrent
“So, how’d it go over there?” Samuel asked with a smug grin, as he leaned back in Hari’s body. Eisen looked at the half-dragon knights around him and told them to move out of the way, so that he could properly look at the man sitting across from him.
The old man glared slightly, “It went well-enough. Figured out that I can use my royal authority there too,” he pointed out, and Samuel stayed silent for a few moments, “What… What did you just say?” he finally let out, before standing up from his seat.
“Did you just say that you used royal authority? You used mana, on earth?!” He asked, his face soon forming into an expression of ecstacy, as he understood, “So that’s what it is… your souls are really pulling over everything, huh? What about your bodies, have you experienced any changes to them?”
Eisen frowned deeply, “Just shut up, wait for the report from those fuckers that invaded my house and threatened my family with guns. You’ll learn about everything then anyway.”
Slowly, Samuel’s expression relaxed, as he tried to grab a tie that wasn’t there, as if he wanted to straighten it. He realized that he wasn’t in his own body right now, and slightly coughed as he regained his composure, “I apologize, I just got a little excited. But thank you for confirming it for me, we knew that it was theoretically possible to pull off, but now it’s a fact. We can bring mana to earth.”
Eisen looked around the room at everyone’s expression. Kiron already knew about earth, so he wasn’t affected by all this talk, but everyone else in the room was being affected by the rules that were set up in this world. They were quickly forgetting what had been spoken about, and their eyes were unfocused, as if they were in the middle of daydreaming, “Just get out of here already. You did what you wanted to; you gave us your warning. I get it, alright? If you want to, you can have all of us arrested, or killed, or whatever.”
“…You’re much less upset than I thought you’d be,” Samuel pointed out, but Eisen just shook his head and scoffed, “I’m more upset than you can even imagine, I’m just doing my best to hide it. All that anger would be directed at Hari, and that boy doesn’t deserve what comes with my anger.”
With a click of his tongue, Samuel shrugged, “How boring. This is a lot more anticlimactic than I thought it would be, but well… yeah, you’re right. I can get rid of you whenever I want, so just back down. Whatever you’re doing here… just stop it, alright? Do you even know what you’re doing, ruining thousands over thousands of years of work you’ve done?”
“I’m not ruining anything. All I’m doing is stopping this war between the giants and central continent. I know that’s what you were planning on turning into your next big arc after the war between dragons, but I’m sorry to say, you won’t be able to do that anymore. These are people, actual, living people, that you are doing all of this to. Do you even realize how fucked up your methods are? What, just so that you can become a god on earth?”
Samuel seemed taken aback, “Do you think I’m doing all of this to become… yeah, sure, I’ll end up becoming one, but that’s just so that I can make sure things work out as they’re supposed to. Benjamin, I’m doing this to save our world!”
Eisen frowned, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Can you not see how much we would benefit from mana? Using magic, we can immediately solve world hunger! Not to mention, I’ll become the greatest nuclear deterrent! Who the hell would dare start a war, when a god tells them not to?! Not just that, but with mana, and magic engineering, the strides we’ll take into a better future… How can you not understand how important what I’m doing is?”
“Not even mentioning that you’ll become a dictator ruling over the whole world, but do you really think that it’s going to work out that way? When mana is introduced to earth, you’re also introducing so, so much more. People will become stronger, more powerful. We already have maniacs running around killing others on a powertrip just because they got their hand on a gun, but what do you think they’ll do when they can suddenly summon a meteor from the sky? What about all the monsters that you’ll be creating, the chaos that comes with them? How many pets will turn into horrific creatures and kill their owners?”
Samuel looked back at Eisen with a shrug, as if he didn’t even care about that part of it, “That’s just part of the process. Yeah, things will be chaotic for a bit, but after a decade or two… hell, maybe even a century, things will settle down. People will get used to it, that’s how humanity is.”
“We’re talking about the long run here, Benjamin. You’ve lived a hundred thousand years, do you think another hundred will be a big deal if you’re waiting for a paradise? Benjamin, a Utopia is not just a dream anymore… it’s real, it’s definitely, absolutely real! We can do this, so please, just stop acting like a child and see that what I’m doing is good! For everyone!”
“…Better get out of here before you make me kill an innocent boy,” Eisen was barely able to look at Samuel, who did nothing but scoff, “I knew you wouldn’t end up seeing things the righteous way. Hahh… I really hope we can turn this around without me having to kill you. I’ll leave you be for now, but heed my words… if you don’t stop all of this, I’m not going to hold back anymore.”
With that, Hari fell to his knees, as everyone else in the room also started to become fully conscious again. Eisen quickly helped Hari up, and looked into his eyes, “Are you okay?”
“That… how did I get here? I was just outside, when-” Hari muttered confused, looking at the old man in front of him with a puzzled expression, “Who are you?”
Tari quickly came up from behind Eisen, “What do you mean, Hari… That… He’s Eisen, we greeted him together earlier…”
“Huh..? Right, I do… I do remember you pointing something out in the distance, but since then… I don’t remember anything, what happened?”
Madr looked at her nephews with deep worry, “Eisen, what just happened… what was going on with Hari? He suddenly spoke nonsense, and then you… your body turned to metal, and…”
Eisen looked at the Nomad Giant chieftain with a bitter expression, “That was Samuel… he had been controlling Hari since before I met him. For now, don’t concern yourself with what he said. Just make sure to take care of Hari,” the old man explained, as Tari guided his brother out of the tent. Madr was clearly fearful and worried, despite Eisen’s words not to be, for which he couldn’t blame her, of course.
Madr closed her eyes, trying to concentrate and stop her shaking, but she was barely able to. She let out a deep breath, “We will head toward the capital immediately. We were going to take our time, but I think it would be best if we hurried after all…” Madr muttered, “We will stay here this night, but then tomorrow we will pack up and start moving on. It will take a few days for us to reach the capital, however…”
“Right, that’s fine. We’ll make it in time for the council meeting. We’re going to stay with you until then, I hope you don’t mind. You were our last stop before heading to the capital ourselves…” Eisen explained, and Madr slowly nodded, “Of course, of course..! You are welcome to accompany us, though we might need you to help us out here and there…”
Eisen nodded with a light smile, “We will pull our weight, don’t worry. I’ll tell everyone to prepare to continue our trip tomorrow,” the old man explained, and slowly turned around, “Please rest for now, Madr. I’m sure that this was a… rather exciting moment, in the worst way possible.”
Without saying a word, Madr nodded, as Eisen and the half-dragon knights left the tent. Immediately, Kiron looked at the other half-dragon knights, “Could you please leave us alone for a moment? Inform the others of our decisions already, and introduce yourselves to the guardsmen around town,” Kiron told them, and soon, him and Eisen were left alone. Concerned, he looked at his grandfather.
“What-”
“Don’t worry, everything’s okay. Samuel tried to use some people to hurt our other bodies in the other world… or maybe he just wanted to scare us, it’s not really important. Nothing happened, it was resolved well,” Eisen explained, placing his hand onto Kiron’s shoulder, before he let out a deep sigh of concern.
“I see. Then what was all that, that Samuel just said? About… turning your world into a utopia? That is his goal?”
Quickly, Eisen shook his head, “Samuel is nothing but a megalomaniac. Maybe he thinks the world he would ‘create’ would be a utopia, but it would just be hell for everyone else. Don’t worry, I won’t let him do what he wants, not there, and not here either.”
“Just be careful, Grandfather,” Kiron pleaded, “I finally found my family, after searching my whole life… I do not want to lose you all again.”