Nikola Tesla and the Celestial System

The Spark Research Base had a secret elevator that led straight to the Celestial Research Base.

It descended beneath the Spark Research Institute into a vast, open space.

All kinds of facilities filled the area, but the first thing that caught the eye was a silver train.

Its tracks ran underground from the Kingdom to Little Cang Mountain beyond the Royal Capital.

Kronos Kingdom's Research Base lay inside and beneath Little Cang Mountain.

To build the Celestial Research Base, Kronos Kingdom had hollowed out the entire mountain. It was an undertaking on a staggering scale.

The train's main purpose was to transport people and supplies.

Now Hades was taking it to the Celestial Research Institute.

He boarded, and an operator started the train. It sped away with barely a jolt.

The underground cavern was immense and brightly lit.

The Celestial Research Base was a colossal complex shaped like a pyramid, staffed by eight thousand scientists and other researchers.

For a base of its size, that number was relatively small.

It was common for a researcher to have an entire laboratory to himself.

Kronos Kingdom had designed the base to accommodate a hundred thousand people.

Construction had cost an astronomical sum, and the funds consumed by its ongoing experiments flowed away like water.

Like a pyramid, the higher a laboratory stood, the more important its research project was.

Many projects were closely connected, such as the Nutrient Solution and body-enhancement drugs.

The medical pod used with the Nutrient Solution relied on a special magnetic field as one of its core technologies. It increased the body's vitality and helped it absorb the solution fully.

It could even have other beneficial effects on the body.

Research into electronic communications was tied to radar, missiles, and related technologies.

The Celestial Research Base, however, handled only projects with limited destructive potential.

Highly dangerous projects were moved to another facility for research and testing.

That facility stood in a barren stretch of mountains near the Fuyao Mountains.

Otherwise, a single loss of control could destroy the entire base and kill its many researchers. That was a loss they could not accept.

Some unusual projects even had small research bases built specifically for them.

Research on the Oxygen Bomb and Sea King's Wrath took place by the sea.

Submarine research took place at one of the Kingdom's secret military ports.

Hades did not stop. He glanced around the base as he went, heading straight for the highest level of the Celestial Research Institute.

The researchers had no reason to care who he was.

Hades had worked behind the scenes to establish the Royal Academy of Sciences and put forward his ideas. Few people knew of his involvement.

He had personally met and spoken with only a handful of scientists he truly valued.

An enormous research institute stood at the very top of the Celestial Research Base.

The letters "TSL" were displayed prominently. They marked the institute's master, the most brilliant mind in the entire base.

Hades had praised him as "the man closest to God."

Nikola Tesla.

The title referred not to his strength, but to his terrifying knowledge and talent. He seemed capable of anything.

His research into electromagnetism was far ahead of the rest of the world. He was a genius scientist without question.

With a hiss, the door opened.

"Your Highness, it's been a long time."

A figure emerged and greeted Hades warmly.

Anyone else in the institute who saw it would have been astonished.

Tesla was an eccentric. For all his talent, his personality did not make him easy to like.

More importantly, even those who considered themselves geniuses felt dull-witted in his presence. Still, they could not deny his abilities.

Many had been won over by Tesla.

Within the Celestial Research Base, he was known as "the man whose wisdom is three hundred years ahead of the world."

"I'll be leaving Kronos Kingdom soon. It may be ten years before I return, so I came to see you."

Hades did not hide it. He thought highly of Tesla, and with Observation Haki that let him sense emotions, he knew how to get along with a talent like him.

Becoming friends was undoubtedly the best way.

To Tesla, Hades was the man who had recognized his talent and understood him best.

His electromagnetic research had the power to change the world, and he had been able to pursue it all thanks to Hades's wholehearted support.

Every project Tesla worked on was of vital importance to Kronos Kingdom.

There was an electromagnetic field that could generate lightning. Its intensity could be adjusted to temper the body with electricity.

Control over magnetic fields could create an area with altered gravitational pull.

A devastating electromagnetic ring could unleash terrifying arcs of lightning, useful for both trapping enemies and defending against them.

The electromagnetic cannon spoke for itself.

The medical pod's electromagnetic field produced waves that benefited the human body.

The Tower of Death could deliver an extremely powerful electric shock to a precise target.

The Magnetic Storm Bomb was a bomb of extraordinary destructive power, packed with the force of a magnetic storm.

Beyond those, Tesla was researching advanced projects such as missile systems, artificial intelligence, and robots.

Most important of all was a classified project within the Celestial Research Base, codenamed "X."

Named after the base itself, it was the Celestial System.

The Celestial System was designed to briefly control magnetic fields through a special method. Its development drew on research into the magnetic fields associated with extreme weather around the world.

By altering an area's magnetic field, it could control the weather, cause natural disasters, or even trigger a magnetic storm outright.

The project was Kronos Kingdom's most closely guarded secret. Only three people knew about it: Hades, Tesla, and King Bane.

Though it had not been formally approved, research had already begun.

The projects and technologies currently under development were all laying the groundwork for the Celestial System.

Some projects were even directly connected to it, though the researchers working on them had no idea.