Earth-666, the far side of the moon.
Floating City is suspended quietly in the dead space.
In a medical room in the city, Ian was sitting on a special chair. Countless tubes were connected to his spine and his damaged body was being repaired, but his face was still as pale as paper.
Not only him, but three other people in other rooms are also receiving treatment.
However, they have all fallen into a deep sleep, soaking in the huge culture tank filled with green repair fluid, enjoying deeper healing.
As for why Ian is still awake, it's because he still has unfinished business.
While that earth-shattering battle was still clearly visible in his mind, he wanted to conduct a thorough review; think about how to improve, find out his mistakes, and avoid making the same mistakes again.
"While outputting huge amounts of energy, many enchantments in the city malfunctioned or were unable to operate at full capacity; these all need to be repaired and upgraded."
"I was so confident in Void Shield that I didn't even have a spare Void Energy after it broke. This must change."
"Floating City's size is both an advantage and a disadvantage. Therefore, I should add some enchantments so that it can change its size according to the situation."
A huge Floating City is a frontally tough war fortress, and if it can be reduced to pocket size, it will have extremely high strategic value - such as escape, sneak attacks, and extremely high mobility.
Ian's fingers tapped lightly on the armrest, lost in thought.
"My understanding and application of [Authority] are far behind those of those gods. This must change. Reviewing Jehovah's fighting style should be of great help."
"I also need to strengthen my understanding of Law of Causality/karma magic. At least, I have to guard against those who play with cause and effect. Shani's mirror, Hitler's soul, and Dr. Jekyll's research on good and evil should all come in handy."
"Using Nick's body to create 'Anti-Divinity Weapon' has to be put on the agenda."
"In my world, some gods don't have as many [Authority] as Jehovah, but their physical power is definitely stronger than him. It would be exhausting for me to kill them all by myself."
"With this kind of weapon, other Arcanist can also participate in the battle, and I don't even need to do it myself."
Ian's plan has always been to make Floating City the standard weapon of Arcanist.
Although only the most powerful Arcanist can travel across the universe, ordinary Arcanist should at least be able to travel through different dimensions, including parallel universes.
In this way, Arcanists can trade or plunder resources and knowledge in Multiverse.
It is necessary to equip each Floating City with "Anti-Divinity Weapon".
Even when the time comes in the future, he plans to make "Omniversal Travel Technology" public so that Empire's Arcanist can explore other universes.
Of course, those who acquire this technology will be subject to strict scrutiny, and the resources they acquire in other universes or dimensions - especially knowledge - must be taxed to the Empire.
The sound of fingers tapping on the chair echoed in the empty treatment room.
"Floating City's strongest weapon is Void Cannon. Unfortunately, this cannon can only shoot in a straight line. If the opponent dodges, the attack will fail."
"Currently, solving this problem is beyond my ability. After all, our understanding of Void Energy is still very limited."
All other cannons on the Floating City can be considered "space weapons" because they can strike regardless of time and distance. The only exception is the Void Cannon.
His wife Rowena is a top expert in the field of Void Energy; in this regard, her attainments have long surpassed Ian.
Without her, Ian would never have been able to create Void Cannon so quickly.
However, even Rowena cannot currently solve the problem of being unable to lock; therefore, Ian can only wait.
"Although I can't fundamentally solve this problem, I can work around it."
"Most powerful beings possess some form of danger awareness, intuition, or even Divination abilities."
"So, what I have to do is to apply the enchantment of 'Anti-Divination' or 'Anti-Crisis Detection' on the cannon to interfere with their perception and make it difficult for them to dodge. Luna (Luna) should be able to design such a thing."
Ian's brain is running rapidly, and more and more inspirations are emerging.
His already damaged brain felt a twinge of pain, and more drugs were injected into his body to relieve the symptoms.
He gently massaged his temples and continued to think.
At this moment, he was bursting with inspiration and must seize this opportunity.
"Making Void Cannon invisible or undetectable should increase its lethality."
"Rowena should be able to make it invisible to the naked eye and at the soul level. However, people with keen perception can still detect energy fluctuations at the moment of firing."
"It requires extremely high skills to reduce energy fluctuations of that level, but I believe she can do it."
Ian reviewed every detail of the battle and constantly came up with new ideas.
"Floating City is a weapon that allows Arcanist to leapfrog and challenge powerful enemies. However, the difference in the essence of the soul is a big problem."
The most dangerous moment in that battle was when Jehovah directly attacked the essence of his soul.
An ordinary Arcanist doesn't have a Lily or Morgana by its side to help, so there must be a universal solution.
"Floating City itself can be considered a powerful living being: it has a body, Energy Core (Aether Core), and consciousness in the form of artificial intelligence."
"So, if Arcanist can connect his soul with the city like he did with Horcrux, this problem can be easily solved."
"Any attack against the soul can be diverted to the city itself to withstand. This also has the advantage of allowing them to more easily control the huge energy from Aether Core."
"The disadvantage is that once the link is established, if Floating City is destroyed, Arcanist will also be severely damaged or even die from backlash. So, is there a solution?"
"Maybe Arcanist can choose between a 'permanent link' or a 'temporary link'. The permanent link gives you more control, but also takes more risks."
"Or, use Gate of Truth instead of the soul to link."
"The door and the soul are connected, so there is no problem in establishing a connection. And the damage to the door is not as fatal as the damage to the soul. It can be rebuilt as long as there are resources."
"In addition, the function of Gate of Truth itself is to amplify perception and energy control; this means that with it, the Aether Core energy that Arcanist can call will increase exponentially."
Gate of Truth was created by the being of Eleventh Tier.
We learned from Merlin that "Truth" is on the verge of breaking through Twelfth Tier and breaking free from the constraints of the universe.
And Gate of Truth may be a key part of his promotion.
Merlin once told him that "Truth" was a true genius and that this door had great potential.
Although Ian knew how to make Gate of Truth, he did not exploit all of its secrets and potential.
"The last problem to solve is 'Divine Kingdom Projection'."
"The ability to create 'Magic Insulation Zone' or 'Magic-Unfriendly Zone' reminds me of the 'field' in some novels and anime."
"I have to figure out a way for me and other Arcanists to fight against this ability in the future."
While tapping his fingers, he fell into deeper thinking.
"Wait, domain? That's right! Arcanist also needs a domain of his own to compete with or even suppress the god's Divine Kingdom."
"So, how to create a field? Release the Cursed Energy in the body to build Innate Domain like in <Jujutsu Kaisen>? Or like Reality Marble in the <Fate> series? Or a combination of the two?"
"It seems I can only wait until I go to those worlds to study it."
After coming to this conclusion, Ian realized that he had to contact Akashic Records as soon as possible.
Only in this way can he actively choose the world he wants to travel to, instead of relying solely on blind luck like now.
Ian took a deep breath and calmed down his thoughts.
"Morgana, save all the ideas I just had into a folder, and use some of them to design the second generation Floating City."
"As you wish," House-elf said, creating a folder named "Floating City 2.0" in her server, "Do you have any other instructions?"
"I'm going into cryo-sleep. Repair the shield yourself and then go home. Wake me up when the time comes."
After saying that, Ian also walked into a huge glass tube, and the green repair fluid slowly rose up, submerging him.