Seven Deadly Sins × Seven Great Weapons of Destruction

Chapter 27: Seven Deadly Sins × Seven Great Weapons of Destruction √

"Close your eyes and let your consciousness enter dormancy."

The majestic king issued another command.

Though the Dragon Attendant did not understand why, as a "subject," it had to obey. It stared directly at the river and hypnotized itself. The next second, its entire draconic body ceased moving, collapsed against the shore, and fell asleep.

Norton observed the Dragon Attendant's massive head and the sluggish brainwave activity within.

Once the Dragon Attendant fell asleep, its brain neurons were no longer active.

Mm, much easier to work on now.

Norton wanted the Dragon Attendant, which had always guarded his old home for him, to cooperate with his experiment. It was not simply because he was cruel and heartless, but because he had developed a powerful urge to investigate a system of alchemy he had never heard of before—"Atlas Institute alchemy."

The reason Norton bore the title King of Bronze and Fire was that he commanded unparalleled flames and had refined bronze from the depths of the Earth Vein—Regenerated Metal bronze that gained new life after being killed by perfect fire. With his superb alchemy, he had created countless bronze alchemical works.

Including his old home beneath the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, Bronze City.

How could a top-tier Alchemy Master like him remain unmoved when faced with a new form of alchemy?

Shirou Emiya... This time, I really did encounter a remarkable human. As Norton pondered the wonders of this alchemy, he sighed inwardly.

As an immortal Dragon King, Norton had seen countless humans over the long years. There had been noble ones and despicable ones, countless mediocre and incapable ones, and no shortage of ambitious or extraordinarily gifted ones.

Even so, the only one who had made him feel such curiosity and even anticipation was Shirou Emiya, "Old Tang's good brother."

—After all, he was not that stupid idiot Fenrir. He had never trusted any human before. Even when he had once taken the name Li Xiong and assisted Gongsun Shu in declaring himself emperor during the transition between the Western and Eastern Han, it had merely been exploitation.

It was during that war-torn era that Norton took the opportunity to build his home once again in the Yangtze River basin with bronze—his Nibelungen, "Baidi City"—where he lived peacefully with his younger brother Constantine.

However, after Gongsun Shu was defeated and killed in battle, Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu entered Sichuan, and those Shenzhou Hybrid Families arrived with their armies. Norton had no choice but to unleash the ultimate Word Spirit, Zhulong, to kill his enemies and protect himself. The world-destroying tide of fire elements swallowed everything. From then on, Baidi City sank beneath the water, while he and his brother formed cocoons and fell into slumber.

This time, his awakening alone in the modern era had involved a few unexpected factors.

Previously, he had not awakened his true self. Instead, he had remained amnesiac for a long time and mistakenly believed himself to be human. After wandering for many years, he gradually formed the personality of "Old Tang."

Yet even if Old Tang believed himself human, his essence as a Dragon King had not changed. He could not integrate into human society. During decades of wandering, he had always been alone—until he met Shirou Emiya.

"Magic Circuits... Thought Partition..."

Norton had initially thought that opening up a new system was childish fantasy. Throughout history, had all those brilliant humans never tried to break free of their shackles? They had, but for various reasons, none had been able to spread widely, becoming nothing more than empty talk.

Even Cassell College's current Nibelungen Project was an example that had nearly miscarried.

But Emiya's system was completely different. With Norton's lofty and keen insight, Magic Circuits were clearly not merely Alchemical Arrays in concept.

The Zhou Family people believed Magic Circuits were living things akin to life itself.

But Norton saw more clearly. At their core, these circuits were pathways linking the soul and body—

This Alchemical Matrix known as Magic Circuits closely resembled the nervous system. It extended with the blood circulation throughout every corner of the body, using interference from the soul as its engine to draw elements from life or the outside world and transform them into an elemental flow called "mana."

...From Norton's Dragon King-level perspective, all things in the world were composed of elements. Compared with the common, stable material-state elements of the world, mana was a more active, more easily manipulated energy-state element.

"And with a sufficiently powerful soul, the amount of mana transformed would be like vast rivers!"

Norton's pure golden eyes abruptly lit up. A terrifying aura soared into the heavens as dense mana overflowed from his body, generating thrust that interfered with the external elements and whipped up visible gusts of wind across the ground. The sleeping Dragon Attendant seemed to sense its master's abyssal mana and instinctively curled its draconic body, trembling without end.

Norton snapped his fingers again, and the overflowing mana instantly turned into blazing flames alive with fire elements. His entire body became a dazzling, burning ball of searing fire, a small sun rising from the ground out of nowhere. The high temperature stirred violent thermal currents in all directions, scorching plants into flying ash and rapidly heating, boiling, and evaporating the river water near the shore.

And this was neither a Word Spirit nor a burning domain created through his Dragon King authority. It was merely a tiny amount of overflowing mana.

Sure enough, even without the "power" wielded by his younger brother Constantine—the other twin of the King of Bronze and Fire—he, possessing only "authority," could still advance further.

Mana Burst (Flame).

Norton gave the skill a name with considerable satisfaction, then turned his gaze toward the Dragon Attendant's head illuminated by the firelight. He extended both hands, which had become claws of scorching flame.

He had actually already given careful thought to the Thought Partition technique Shirou had described and the existing Magic Circuit system.

In his eyes, the two shared similarities. Thought Partition likely required multiple "thought circuits" formed from some kind of Alchemical Array to house the newly divided personalities.

It was nothing more than a spiritual alteration of the brain. For humans, that was an immense challenge. At most, humans could refine their spirits into Philosopher's Stones. But for a Dragon King renowned for alchemy, who could freely process living spirits, it was as easy as waving a hand.

With the assistance of unparalleled flames, a delicate Alchemy Domain covered the Dragon Attendant's brain. In only a moment, the circuits formed by the Alchemical Arrays connected successfully, causing the brain's neurons to become rapidly active.

The Dragon Attendant woke in confusion. It felt its thoughts becoming incomparably nimble, while several strange voices appeared inside its mind. Mm... they all seemed to be itself?

Joy appeared on Norton's face. He had verified that his conjecture was correct!

The next instant, he pointed at himself.

The Dragon Attendant watched its king's action in bewilderment. It had never seen such an alchemical technique, but this king's skill had long entered a realm beyond its comprehension. It did not find it strange for him to produce a new technique.

Boom!

The radiant flames around Norton suddenly went out, plunging the world into darkness. Yet the pressure of his spirit surged even more sharply, frightening the Dragon Attendant so badly that it nearly fell into the roaring Yangtze River.

Good! Norton looked at the enormous invisible domain he had released in his humanoid form and nearly threw back his head in an ecstatic howl.

At that moment, multiple thought circuits overlapped in his brain and operated at high speed. The trajectories of all things inevitably fell into his sight. The drift of every green leaf and the slightest movement of every mote of dust were all foreseeable. When he turned his gaze farther into the "distance," he could witness increasingly remote future visions branching like a tree diagram along the river of time.

The formidable computational thought brought by Thought Partition had exponentially enhanced his thinking ability. By merely "looking" normally, he could clearly see the future. He could even learn how to ascend to a higher level in alchemy!

Wasn't this far more powerful than the Word Spirit Heavenly Evolution?

Norton looked again at one of his past works: the Conceptual Armament "Seven Deadly Sins," forged with seven concepts for the purpose of killing other Dragon Kings.

His Golden Eyes flickered faintly with dissatisfaction.

This level of purity was completely unacceptable.

With his current ability to calculate the future, the efficiency with which he could create and improve alchemical products was no longer comparable to before. His creations should be worthy of a greater goal—killing the strongest supreme being of dragonkind, the Black King!

For that, he would forge seven weapons capable of destroying the world!

Thanks to @King of the Primordial Star, White Night for the monthly ticket!