Published at 12th of March 2026 7:21 am

Chapter 7416 The Need for another Destroyer Weapon

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Ves was careful not to put too much stock into Arnold's judgment.

Though he felt that the latest theory sounded so compelling that it had to be true, Ves reminded himself that the biased perception of a beast-turned-design spirit could still be flawed.

He had to maintain an open mind and prevent himself from committing to a narrative just because it sounded the most interesting.

Ves suddenly adopted a sardonic smile. "I am far too prone to falling for a good story. Not everything can be as neat in reality."

That said, he did not discount Arnold's contribution. His perception was special in his own way. His strange abilities granted him a certain degree of authority over parallel existences and such. If he claimed that he felt a sense of kinship towards the mysterious Destroyer particles, then there was a decent chance that his judgment had merit.

Though Ves grew impatient and wanted to test this hypothesis right away, he held in his curiosity and made sure to finish his current activity.

Only after he had gathered the opinions of all of the design spirits who responded to his call did he proceed to test the information that he received.

Almost half a day went by as Ves conducted repetitive but necessary tests. These small experiments mostly returned data that did not add much new to the table.

Though the conclusions did not sound exciting, Ves at least ruled out a large number of strange and outlandish possibilities.

Ves took much greater care when he tested the Destroyer particles directly.

The Terrans had given him plenty of warnings about messing around with these volatile particles. He needed to exercise the same kind of care and attention as scientists did when they played around with other dangerous materials such as pure phasewater or antimatter particles.

He repeatedly repressed his urge to speed up his actions. He paced himself as he proceeded to perform relatively small and controlled experiments.

All the while, he did his best to minimize the risk factors. This was not always possible unless he wanted to stretch his investigation by several weeks.

Due to the need for expediency, Ves had no choice but to take shortcuts and introduce certain dangers.

Fortunately, everything remained under control.

His slight bout of recklessness did not produce any catastrophic errors. He believed in his own skills and experience. He also put a lot of faith in the high-quality lab and workshop equipment of the Tarrasque.

In the end, Ves managed to gather a range of sensor data that produced somewhat inconclusive results.

"If I am reading this correctly, the Destroyer particles are truly identical to each other, though they still behave slightly differently from each other depending on their coordinates and the amount of other particles in their vicinity."

While this conclusion alone could not completely prove that Destroyer particles were all projections of the same origin particle, it did not discount this possibility either.

Ves needed to combine it with a second observation in order to prove his hypothesis.

The question was how.

The lab equipment at hand was certainly powerful and excellent in quality, but they could only measure phenomena that their developers already knew about.

It was much harder if not impossible for them to record phenomena that they had never been designed to measure.

Did he have to create a brand-new measuring device just to ascertain whether the Destroyer particles were projections?

"This is too unreasonable." Ves shook his head.

He did not excel in this kind of development. In addition, ordinary measures simply wouldn't work. If he wanted to create a ground-breaking lab device, then he would have to reach deep into advanced and esoteric fields.

Only a powerful enough device should be able to overcome the difficult and harmful properties of Destroyer particles and see through the essence of their existence!

While he could certainly choose to go down this rabbit hole, he possessed enough common sense to know that this was not an efficient way to spend his time.

He needed to secure his objective in a much more convenient fashion. If Ves could not come up with anything, then he had little choice but to abandon his current effort.

He felt unwilling to give up when he was on the cusp of discovering a fundamental side to Destroyer particles.

He thought about utilizing Blinky or a design spirit to investigate the Destroyer particles, but quickly ruled out this suggestion.

This was too dangerous.

Touching the particles or simply getting too close to them could inflict significant harm!

Destroyer particles could inflict great harm on both corporeal and incorporeal subjects. They were quite 'fair' in that way.

Furthermore, their lethality skyrocketed when they were all stuffed in a single high-tier Destroyer weapon!

"Wait a second."

Thinking about the threat posed by concentrated Destroyer particles prompted Ves to envision a different scenario.

Studying a large amount of Destroyer particles stuffed inside a single speartip was extremely dangerous, but what about studying a single Destroyer particle in isolation?

Though a lone Destroyer particle was nowhere near as active, it shouldn't matter too much for his current investigation!

The question now was how he could grab and safely contain a single Destroyer particle.

It did not take a genius to know that attempting to remove a single Destroyer particle from the tier 3 Destroyer spear was fraught with danger.

If he created any gap, almost all of the Destroyer particles would definitely attempt to escape all at once!

A huge explosion would ensue!

There wouldn't be enough time for Ves to snatch a single Destroyer particle and close the gap before the entire Destroyer weapon blew up with the force of a small-to-medium-scale weapon of mass destruction!

The destructive potential locked inside a high-tier Destroyer weapon was no joke. Though these armaments were designed to reduce the probability of this catastrophic consequence, it could never be removed entirely.

The higher the tier, the greater the explosion risk!

All of this made an operation to remove a single Destroyer particle exceedingly risky.

"Should I look for other sources of Destroyer particles?"

The easiest and most convenient way for Ves to resume his studies was to obtain a low-tier Destroyer weapon and extract a few Destroyer particles from the object in question.

The much lower pressure not only made it easier and less stressful to conduct this operation, but also minimized the damage in the event of an accident.

"Can I ask the Terrans or other parties to exchange for a low-tier Destroyer weapon?"

Ves did not think it would be easy. They were all tracked by default. The ones that had been bestowed to third parties could not be exchanged to others without the express permission of the Terrans.

The latter had ways of disabling Destroyer weapons that ended up in the wrong hands, most notably the mechers, fleeters and the Rubarthans.

He never fully understood how the Terrans managed to maintain such excellent control over their signature tech, but the projection hypothesis offered a very compelling explanation.

The most direct way to obtain a low-tier Destroyer weapon was to request one from the Terrans, but would they oblige?

Perhaps they might do so during normal times. A low-tier Destroyer weapon was not that precious to be honest.

However, he doubted the Terrans would be as generous if they found out that he sought to crack one of their core secrets related to Destroyer technology.

It would not be polite for him to snoop around. The Terrans might even warn him to suspend his current investigation!

This was a disaster for Ves because it meant that he could not persist in his research unless he wanted to fall out with an important trading partner.

Ves could not afford to piss off the group that had been integral to the development of the Arboreal Project!

If he had to choose between prioritizing the successful completion of the Arboreal Project and his desire to prove a single theory, then he would not hesitate to discard the latter!

He scratched the side of his head in frustration.

"Do I really have to stop at this junction?"

His unwillingness grew. He simply did not want to quit. Even though it was not entirely wise or rational for him to continue down this risky research direction, his nature as a mech designer compelled him to continue.

He just needed to make sure to prevent the Terrans from finding out. This was why he held himself back from approaching the other Larkinson mech designers for help.

"So how can I solve this stupid problem?!"

He tried to consider various different plans to 'safely' siphon a single Destroyer particle from the high-tier Destroyer weapon.

None of them sounded safe or reliable. Each of them possessed so many dubious points that no sane scientist or engineer would engage in this madness!

This was why Ves diverted his thoughts to acquiring a low-tier Destroyer weapon from the Terrans.

Now that the Bluejay Fleet had arrived at a fairly busy fortified star system on the frontlines of the Terran Alliance, he should be able to find at least one cheap Destroyer weapon.

Given his high status and reputation, Ves was confident in his ability to persuade the Terrans to trade it to him at a fairly low price.

The challenge was to prevent them from learning about his true purpose.

This was a lot more difficult. The Terrans were anything but stupid.

He had worked alongside Alexa Streon enough times to gain a lot of respect for how the Terrans educated their elites.

Their upbringing was so expansive and well-rounded that they could often make disturbingly accurate deductions based on the smallest clues!

If he wanted to scam the Terrans, then he needed to be smart about it. How could he frame his request in the most reasonable manner?

He was just about to give up on this effort until he finally came up with a good idea.

It might actually work.

As his eyes lit up, Ves tried his best to compose himself.

He did his best to suppress his current mania and present a more normal facade.

Once he did so, he finally chose to initiate contact with Master Laila Rebecca Devos.

"Ves. You have finally deigned to contact us." The Master Mech Designer did not look particularly pleased. "Your office informed us that you would remain indisposed for a longer period. Have you completed your latest research in advance?"

"Not exactly. I encountered a setback that is so difficult to overcome that it has stalled my momentum." Ves half-lied to her. He needed to convey enough honesty to avoid drawing suspicion. "I know it was rude on my part to postpone our meetings and so on, so I am trying to make amends."

They talked for a few minutes about the changes in schedule and the obligations that Ves had to meet.

This was a relatively awkward dialogue for Ves as he used the current subjects as a smokescreen for his true objective.

Ves agreed to meet with a cadre of important Terran politicians, mech designers and other assorted personnel.

He truly did not look forward to meeting most of them, but they all played an important role in supporting the Arboreal Project, so it would be bad on his part to disregard their contributions.

After showing enough contrition, Ves finally saw an opening to make a request.

"By the way, Andraste will celebrate her 10th birthday soon." He said with a deliberate amount of casualness in his voice. "I have been thinking about preparing an unforgettable birthday gift for her. I bestowed a high-level artifact for my eldest daughter Aurelia, so I can't be too stingy with my second daughter. In that light, I would like to ask if you have any spare Destroyer weapons for sale. I know that they are in limited supply these days, but I am already happy if I can get my hands on a low-tier infantry-grade Destroyer sword. Can you help me acquire one? The shape and other properties don't matter too much. I plan to work together with Ketis to overhaul the weapon so that it perfectly suits my daughter's fighting style."

This was such a random-sounding request that Master Laila did not have an immediate response.

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