The OP Lich is a Returnee, Chapter 165

Chapter 165 – Mageblade

“Ah, your Majesty! How wonderful to see you again!” Doctor Oesau said as I entered the Phantomline R&D labs. “I hope you’ve had time to test out the devices we sent you?”

“Yes, Doctor, and I must say I am quite impressed. You managed to keep the mana draw to a minimum, while still making it extremely functional. And with it being an elementally-neutral state, it should be equally effective against all mana types.”

“But you have not had time to do live practices with the weapon, correct?”

“Unfortunately, no. The threats I faced while dealing with the seals were either too powerful for me to leave to chance, or not worth the effort of drawing a blade on. But I understand you have prepared some testing facilities?”

“Yes, we have some state of the art hard-light holographic projectors here, to create live-fire test ranges without actually damaging or destroying equipment. Nothing that would stand up to your power, obviously, but for this?” He shrugged, but the smile was impossible to wipe from his face. “It should suffice. Unfortunately, scientists, even those studying magic, tend to be a bit prone to certain behaviors, so the facility has been permanently named a ‘holodeck’. Despite the best efforts of its designer to have a name that wouldn’t look ridiculous on a patent application.”

“Ah, the bane of scientific discovery everywhere. They wish for people to acknowledge their discoveries and the knowledge that it took to achieve them, but their own colleagues, to say nothing of the masses, will always call it something simple, and easy.” I smiled back at him. “Well, let’s see if I can’t put this device through its paces.”

By the time we got to the holodeck, Oesau had caught me up on the testing the device had undergone so far. “So, we’ve tested the stability of the device, and its power, but those were in laboratory conditions, and not an actual combat scenario, even a simulated one. We tried doing that, but, unfortunately, none of our workers were trained fighters to begin with, and we had issues when bringing in kendo practitioners to test it.”

“The mass and balance issue, I assume?”

“Yes. The hilt is relatively heavy, at 1.25 kilograms in mass, which is roughly the weight of a full katana. The blade itself is pure energy, and so has no weight, or mass. While this means the blade’s tip can be moved incredibly quickly, since the balance is wholly in the hilt, striking, parrying, and blocking with the blade becomes more difficult. The same principle as a lever at work.”

I nodded. “It is a common problem with melee weapons, especially when you’re getting into mystic metals or certain types of enchantments. For instance, the enchantment that allows an incorporeal being to wield a weapon has to have an additional enchantment on it to keep the weapon’s weight, or you suffer all of these problems. And a swordsman who has used steel swords through all their training will have to relearn his reflexes when picking up a sword of mithril, or adamantine, though not to the same degree as picking up a weightless blade.”

“Mithril and adamantine,” Oesau said, whistfully. “I know what their properties are in games like Dungeons and Dragons, but what of the real thing?”

I chuckled. “Much the same, in fact. Mithril is lighter than steel, but stronger, and channels mana incredibly well. On the other hand, adamantine weapons are heavier, but can cleave through steel far easier than they have any right to. Then there is cold-iron, which is like normal iron, but possesses antimagic properties, and is poisonous to some creatures. And then you get even stranger materials.”

“Any examples you could show me?” Oesau asked, hopefully.

“Certainly, but I’ll only show one, before we get to the testing of the mageblade.” I reached into my storage dimension, and pulled out a curved blade, in the approximate shape of a pirate cutlass. “This cheldrath is made of blue ice. Strong as steel, half the weight, and will only melt in a forge’s heat or better. The blade deals a bit of cold damage to anything it cuts, and retains an edge far better than steel does. This blade is enchanted beyond that, of course, making it especially effective against creatures of Fire, and capable of snuffing even magical flames in its area. I captured it from a pirate captain, who used it to great effect on his wooden sailing ship, as you might expect.”

Oesau examined the blade closely. “Cheldrath, hmm? Well, I would have been surprised if the other world actually called their weapons the same as we did here. So, it uses the natural properties of a magical material as a basis, and is then further enchanted? Fascinating. And yes, I can see how this would be of use to any captain at sea. Even on ships made of steel, fire is a deadly danger, after all. For a wooden vessel from the age of sail? Yes, practical and powerful, while still being aesthetically pleasing at the same time.”

“Indeed,” I said, before slipping the weapon back into my storage, and taking out the prototype mageblade I’d been sent. It was a simple thing, a cylinder 25 centimeters long and 4 centimeters wide, with a button near one end, near a focusing lens. “Of course, simply having a heavier or lighter weapon does not a big change in how it is swung, so long as it is balanced properly. However, the materials are rare enough, and hard enough to work with that only master craftsmen get the opportunity to learn, so they already know how to balance a blade by that point. The issue, as we said before, is with mass, and how you transfer energy through the weapon.”

“Which is why the kendo users had trouble performing their moves with the mageblade, since even when they struck a target, the blade threatened to come out of their hands.”

“Indeed. From my own brief tests, the blade has incredible cutting and piercing power. Normal flesh and bone would be no obstacle to it. However, the moment it hits any true resistance, such as armor, magic shields, or another weapon, the lack of mass becomes a hindrance. Fortunately, this is easy enough to remedy.”

“With that secondary enchantment for ghost weapons you mentioned before?”

“Precisely. It will give the illusion of mass to the massless light, balancing the hilt’s weight properly, instead of it all being in the hands. Also, while I know full well that the inspiration for this weapon was those movies, you should consider other perhaps adding a cross-guard or some form of hand protection. As it stands, any weapon parried by this weapon could slide down the blade and into your hands. If it survived the strike, of course.”

“I see,” Oesau said, as he started taking notes on his tablet. “Do you have any suggestions for that? You’re more of an expert on these types of weapons than any of our designers.”

“Hmm. Ideally, you would want the guard to be something that could stand up to the mageblade itself, if another one were used against it. I assume you’ve done destructive analysis on different materials?”

“Yes, but the mana type caused things to change. Not terribly, but noticeably. When using the default, nonelemental version, it cut hardened steel up to 3 millimeters in thickness in a single slash. Unenchanted, steel, obviously. Thicker than that, and there was deep scoring, but you could press through it, with effort. We considered adding something like the Armor enchantment, like we’re doing with the VIP protection, but wanted your input on whether it would interfere with the rest of the device, and how it would impact maintenance.”

I waved my hand at that thought. “The impact on maintenance would be minimal. If anything, the hardware would probably need less maintenance than others of its type, since impacts and use wouldn’t affect it as much. The armor enchantment increases the material strength and durability of the object as a whole, not lock the screws into place, or anything like that.”

“Sounds good. And it will also mean that people who want custom guards could get them added on easily enough. Or get replacements, if they are damaged in use.”

“Precisely my thoughts. So, for the material, I would suggest some mix of tool steel. That would make it strong enough that adding the Armor spell will give it serious protection, even with the limited thickness, and it won’t add too much to the blade’s weight.”

A press of the button ignited the blade. There was a soft hum that was more felt than heard, as mana was forged into a pale silver blade roughly the size and shape of a katana, roughly 60 centimeters in length. Of course, the blade’s length and shape was determined by the hardware, but there was nothing preventing other weapons to be made in any number of forms, including some that would be wholly impractical without magic.

This was the nonelemental version of the blade, and was as good a place as any to start our testing. Oesau pressed a few buttons on his tablet, and a stand with five tatami mats appeared in front of me. I took a stance, and slashed, cutting through all five mats in a clean strike.

“Initial thoughts?” Oesau asked.

“It feels good in the hand, and cut through the tatami easily enough. However, mats are not armor, or other blades. I’ve already given this weapon the balance enchantment we talked about, so it will handle better than the other tests you’ve done. What about the different elements? What have your tests shown when you added in elemental effects?”

Oesau chuckled, “Well, that’s where things started getting, in the words of my subordinates, ‘weird as hell’. Mageblades could stop another mageblade of any element, even the nonelemental version. No type discrepancies there. However, each element reacted differently to materials testing.”

He pressed a button, and nine displays appeared in the air around me, showing mageblades cutting into different items. Air cut with a vacuum edge, ripping the mats apart once it bit into them. Fire set things on fire, naturally. Water looked as though a water jet was carving through things. Earth shattered materials as the blade cut.

That much was to be expected of the ‘natural’ elements. The ‘ephemeral’ elements, of course, were different, but still fairly predictable. Light burned like a laser, with obvious consequences to anything it hit. Shadow phased through unliving targets completely, dealing no damage to even a piece of paper, but bit deeply into any living target it hit. Death caused necrosis along the wound in any living creature, and rot or decay in unliving things. And Life? Well, Life cut the living and unliving alike, but the living’s wounds healed and their abilities were enhanced immediately after. Only, it healed and enhanced everything, including bacteria and viruses, even turning a vaccine into a live infection that resisted the normal medicine!

“How easily were the testers able to change between elements?” I asked. I had noticed that each image showed a different person wielding the blade, after all, and figured there was a reason for it.

“Changing between nonelemental and their own element or back again took a moment of focus, but nothing more, and once they learned the trick, they were able to do it at will. The testers were all able to get to that point relatively quickly, with a standard variance based on their experience with non-thaumaturgical magic. Unfortunately, turning the blade to an element they didn’t test in proved more difficult. Only about five percent were able to do it in less than ten minutes.”

“Not entirely unexpected, I guess,” I said with some disappointment. “But those who are more practiced with their mana should be able to do it more quickly. On the other hand, instead of a generalized weapon, you might consider ‘elemental swords’. Each sword having a defined element, as well as the defined size and shape. Though perhaps only selling those for the ’natural’ elements would be best. It would still give people a potent weapon outside their element, without giving rise to spontaneous cancers, or unblockable blades, or things of that nature.”

“Of course. And the ‘elemental swords’ would be locked to a single element, without even the nonelemental form, which would give means to control their power, as well.”

“Good idea,” I nodded, absently, as I flicked the silver blade, and it became a ruby red for Fire, then pure white for Air, cyan for Water, green for Life, black for Shadow, gold for Light, rusty brown for Earth, and then finally a deep velvet for Death, each change happening as I swung the sword from one position to the next. I looked up, and saw Oesau staring in bitter envy, and smiled. “I am an exceptional mage, Doctor, even by the standards of the other world, and my experiences with the seals have raised me to a creature of all elements. I wouldn’t judge your own accomplishments by my results.”

I cut power to the blade, and placed one hand on his shoulder. “Indeed, I would not have been able to come up with either the hardware or software for a device like this, which could be mass produced. I know my sister came up with some of the initial coding, but the hardware to run it effectively was all you and your team. I could make a focus that would replicate this weapon’s functions, but it would be a specialty item, not something that could be mass produced. Be proud of creating something that the Lich Queen could not, and yet would be proud to carry at my side.”

Oesau nodded once, trying to forcibly change his mood, and mostly succeeding. “Sorry, sorry. I know it is like being a schoolchild looking on in envy at Olympic athletes setting records, but as one who uses magic, it is hard not to compare myself to other magic users. But if I were to think of it as a carpenter comparing oneself to a doctor, I guess it would not sting so much.”

“Good man,” I nodded. “Now, let us see about getting a few devices adjusted with the new requirements, and then conduct a few combat trials.”