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 fall dormant."

The majestic Wang continued to command.

Though the Dragon Attendant didn't understand why, as a "subject," it had to obey the order. It looked directly at the river surface and hypnotized itself. The next second, its entire dragon body ceased activity, leaning against the bank and falling asleep.

Norton observed the Dragon Attendant's massive head and the low brainwave activity within its brain.

After the Dragon Attendant fell asleep, its brain neurons were no longer active.

Hmm, much easier to work with.

Norton intended to have the Dragon Attendant, who had been guarding his old home for him, cooperate with his experiment right away. This wasn't purely out of cruelty or heartlessness, but rather because he had developed a strong curiosity about the Alchemy system he had never heard of before – "Atlas Institute Alchemy."

The reason Norton held the title of King of Bronze and Fire was his mastery of unparalleled flames and his ability to extract bronze from deep within the earth's veins – Regenerated Metal bronze reborn after being killed by perfect flames, and his creation of countless bronze alchemical works through superb Alchemy.

This included his old home beneath the Yangtze River Three Gorges, the Bronze City.

How could such a top-tier Alchemy Master remain indifferent to a new form of Alchemy?

'Shirou Emiya... I've truly met a remarkable human this time.' Norton mused over the wonders of this Alchemy while sighing in his heart.

As an immortal Dragon King, Norton had seen countless humans throughout his long life. There were noble ones, despicable ones, many mediocre and incompetent, and no small number of ambitious or exceptionally talented individuals.

Even so, the only one who could pique his curiosity and even anticipation to this extent was this "Old Tang's good brother," Shirou Emiya.

—One must know that he wasn't that foolish idiot Fenrir. Before this, he had never trusted any human. Even when he used the alias Li Xiong during the Eastern and Western Han dynasties and assisted Gongsun Shu in declaring himself emperor, it was merely for exploitation.

It was during that war-torn era that Norton seized the opportunity to rebuild his home, his Nibelungen – "Baidi City" – with bronze in the Yangtze River basin, and live peacefully with his 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 army. Norton had no choice but to unleash his ultimate Word of Power, Zhulong, to kill and protect himself. Thus, a cataclysmic torrent of fire elements engulfed everything, Baidi City sank to the bottom of the water, and he and his brother formed cocoons and fell into slumber.

Waking up alone in the modern era this time had some unexpected factors.

He hadn't awakened his true self before, but had been in a state of amnesia for a long time, mistakenly believing himself to be human. After wandering for a long time, he gradually developed the personality of "Old Tang."

However, even if Old Tang believed himself to be human, his essence as a Dragon King remained unchanged. He couldn't integrate into human society and had been alone for decades of wandering until he met Shirou Emiya.

"Magic Circuit... Thought Partition..."

Norton had initially thought that pioneering a new system was a naive and childish joke. Hadn't countless brilliant humans throughout history tried to break free from constraints? Yes, but for various reasons, they couldn't be popularized and remained empty talk.

Including Cassell College's current Nibelungen Project, which was an example of something close to being aborted.

But Emiya's system was completely different. From Norton's insightful and sharp perspective, the Magic Circuit was clearly not a mere Alchemical Matrix based on simple concepts.

Those people from the Zhou Family thought the Magic Circuit was a Living Spirit, similar to a living creature.

But Norton saw it more clearly: this circuit was essentially a pathway connecting the soul and the body—

This Alchemical Matrix, the Magic Circuit, was very similar to the nervous system. It extended to every part of the body with the blood circulation, using soul interference as an engine, drawing elements from life or the outside world and converting them into an elemental flow called "Mana."

...From Norton's Dragon King level perspective, everything in the world was composed of elements. Compared to the common and stable material-state elements in the world, Mana was a more active, easily manipulated energy-state element.

"And with a sufficiently powerful soul, the fluctuating Mana volume is like a mighty river!"

Norton's pure golden eyes suddenly lit up, and a terrifying aura soared into the sky. The dense Mana within his body overflowed, forming a thrust that interfered with the external elements, stirring up visible gusts of wind on the flat ground. The sleeping Dragon Attendant also seemed to sense its master's abyssal Mana, instinctively contracting its dragon body and trembling.

Norton snapped his fingers again, and the overflowing Mana instantly transformed into scorching flames filled with fire elements. He himself turned into a dazzling, burning, hot fireball, a small sun rising out of nowhere from the ground. High temperatures stirred up chaotic heat convection, spreading outwards, scorching the vegetation and rapidly turning it into ash, causing the river water near the bank to rapidly heat up, boil, and evaporate.

And this was not a Word of Power, nor was it a burning domain created by his Dragon King authority, but merely a tiny bit of overflowing Mana.

Indeed, without his brother Constantine – the "Power" wielded by the other twin of the King of Bronze and Fire – he, who only possessed "Authority," could still advance further.

Mana Burst (Flame).

Norton was quite satisfied with the skill name he had chosen. Then he looked at the Dragon Attendant's head illuminated by the firelight. He extended his hands, which had transformed into fiery hot claws.

He had actually carefully considered the Thought Partition technique described by Emiya and the existing Magic Circuit system.

In his view, the two had similarities. Thought Partition should require the use of multiple "thinking circuits" formed by some kind of Alchemical Matrix to accommodate the separated new personalities.

It was nothing more than mental modification of the brain. This was a huge challenge for humans; at most, humans could refine their spirit into a Philosopher's Stone. But for a Dragon King known for Alchemy, who could process Living Spirits at will, it was as easy as waving a hand.

With the assistance of unparalleled flames, a delicate Alchemical domain covered the Dragon Attendant's brain. In just a moment, the circuits connected by the Alchemical Matrix were smoothly linked, causing the brain's neurons to become rapidly active.

The Dragon Attendant woke up in confusion. It felt its thoughts becoming incredibly agile, and strange, multiple voices appeared in its head. Hmm... they all seemed to be itself?

Norton's face showed joy. He had verified the correctness of his conjecture!

The next moment, he pointed at himself.

The Dragon Attendant looked at its king's actions blankly. It had never seen such Alchemy technology, but this Wang's level had long since entered a realm it could not fathom, so it didn't find it strange for him to produce new techniques.

Rumble!

The light flames on Norton's body suddenly extinguished, and the world plunged into darkness, but his spiritual might surged dramatically instead. The Dragon Attendant was so startled it nearly fell into the surging Yangtze River.

Good! Norton looked at the vast, invisible domain he had released from his human body and almost wanted to roar with excitement towards the sky.

His brain was now operating at high speed with multiple superimposed thinking circuits. The trajectories of all things inevitably fell into his eyes. The fluttering of every green leaf, the slight movement of every speck of dust, were all predictable. When he looked further into the "distance," he could witness increasingly distant future scenarios branching out like a tree diagram along the river of time.

This powerful computational thinking brought by Thought Partition exponentially increased his thinking ability. Simply by "seeing" normally, he could clearly see the future. He could even know how to reach a higher level in the path of Alchemy!

Wasn't this much more powerful than the Word of Power, Heavenly Evolution?

Norton then looked at his past works, the Conceptual Armaments "Seven Deadly Sins," created with the goal of killing other Dragon Kings and using seven concepts.

His Golden Eye flickered slightly, showing dissatisfaction.

This purity... it's completely inadequate.

With his current ability to calculate the future using Thought Partition, the efficiency of creating and improving Alchemy products was incomparable. His creations should be worthy of a greater goal—killing the Dragon Clan's strongest supreme, the Black King!

To achieve this, he needed to forge seven weapons capable of destroying the world!

Thank you @King of the Primordial Star, White Night for the monthly pass!