Published at 15th of March 2026 6:18 am

Chapter 7419 Starting With Two

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Ves continued to feel ambivalent as he initiated the extraction process.

The Elegant Cut was already a weak tier 10 Destroyer weapon. Though it still contained enough Destroyer particles that the removal of just one of them should not make much of a difference, he still felt he was about to desecrate a relic.

The weapon was already weak in its current state. His intended action would only weaken it further. He would be doing a disservice to the object as well as its creator by tampering with it in this manner.

Nonetheless, Ves did not stray from his plan.

He carefully controlled the precision instruments and created a temporary fault in the blade of the weapon.

This carefully calculated gap destabilized the weapon, causing it to spontaneously eject destructive energies at irregular intervals.

Ves sighed in relief. "No accidents so far. Good."

If he tried to perform a similar move on the tier 3 Destroyer spear, it would definitely produce an explosive response!

Fortunately, the Elegant Cut was nowhere near as volatile. The concentration of Destroyer particles was so much lower that a small hole did not instantly cause all of the Destroyer particles to spill out and release all of their suppressed power.

Ves had not actually known for certain whether the blade of the tier 10 Destroyer sword would hold on like this. He only had access to so much theory, and the data he gathered during the previous examination only allowed him to make vague estimates when he drafted his extraction plan.

So far, it appeared that the best-case scenario applied. Though the Elegant Cut had already shown signs of destabilization, it did not look like the problem had become acute enough to demand an emergency response.

This was not only due to the low concentration of Destroyer particles. The overall design of the dress sword also contained many active and passive safety measures that all worked to contain potential outbursts.

If the slender sword ever broke or got damaged in battle, it should at least spare its wielder from its wrath!

Ves had already observed these design elements in his previous examination, but it was only now that he had begun to appreciate the significance of this design choice.

Destroyer weapons may be popular among the Terrans, but not everyone desired to wield them into battle.

Unlike conventional weapons, Destroyer weapons could never be tamed. The special particles that granted them their unique properties were very difficult to influence by relying on ordinary means.

Even a weapon as 'safe' as the Elegant Cut would provoke a heap of mistrust among a broad group of people.

Nobody could do anything about that. Destroyer weapons would always remain stuck with the stigma of posing a threat to their own users.

What Ves could do was to preserve and comprehend all of the individual measures to enrich his knowledge.

That way, he would not only be able to preserve all of the useful safety features when he next upgraded the Destroyer sword, but also implement similar solutions into future projects.

"All of these solutions have a certain… flavor to them." Ves said with a curious expression. "It feels as if… they have all been developed by a single individual."

As a mech designer, he could faintly discern that Destroyer weapons had more in common with each other than he thought.

This particular observation did not stand out when he only had the tier 3 Destroyer spear on hand.

It was only after he obtained a second Destroyer weapon and managed to study it up close for several hours that he formed his latest guess.

This issue only further strengthened his curiosity.

He became increasingly more obsessed with answering a single question.

"What is the origin of Destroyer particles? How did the Terrans come up with the idea of creating Destroyer weapons in the first place?"

Official sources only provided bland and vague descriptions. Knowledgeable people could easily deduce that the Terrans deliberately hid their proud high technology behind a veil of mystery.

However, knowing was the extent of what they could do. Ordinary people had no chance of getting in touch with the heart of Destroyer weapons.

Ves was different. His gaze practically turned into stars as he successfully managed to extract a sigle isolated Destroyer particle!

"Yes!"

The process unfolded so smoothly and without complications that Ves spontaneously decided to extract a second Destroyer particle!

Having two of them on hand was better than holding just a single Destroyer particle.

Not only would he be able to make direct comparisons between the two particles, he could also engage in more risky and destructive experiments on one of them while keeping the other noodles safe.

"That can wait."

Though Ves grew impatient by the minute, he still forced himself to maintain a controlled composure.

After confirming that he safely managed to contain the Destroyer particles in question, he slowly used the instruments to apply a pre-planned repair process to the damaged blade.

The high-tech measures worked carefully to restore the weapon without turning it into a different product.

Ves completed the repairs with less effort than expected.

The weapon was already conducive to repairs due to its cautious design. It was as if Senior Smith Jeisera Dostoevskaya had anticipated that its owner would mishandle the blade badly enough to require targeted repairs.

It ultimately did not take too much effort and ingenuity to repair the exterior damage.

Ves held much greater concern for the more delicate parts of the Elegant Cut. He had tried his best to disable or circumvent as many alarms and tripwires as possible, but he may have overlooked a few measures.

Of course, Ves did not rate the anti-tampering measures too highly. The Elegant Cut was only a tier 10 Destroyer weapon. The budget and scope did not allow for more extravagant measures.

He became increasingly more convinced that the true anti-tampering measure employed by the Terrans was based on the particles themselves.

So long as they were actually projections, then the Terrans who ostensibly controlled these connections could cut them off at any time.

In fact, Ves half-expected for the isolated Destroyer particles to wink out of existence as soon as they left the boundary of their former vessel.

That did not happen.

Either the Terrans did not monitor the conditions of their Destroyer weapons and Destroyer particles too closely, or they found out what Ves was doing and silently tolerated his actions.

He deeply hoped that the former was the case.

If not, then he would definitely have a very awkward conversation with the Terrans during their next meeting.

After patching up the Elegant Cut as best as possible, Ves did not quite become satisfied with the result.

He distinctly felt that the weapon had lost a tiny amount of its original charm.

Whether it was due to damaging it, or because he extracted two Destroyer particles from its blade, the Elegant Cut no longer felt as pristine as before.

This was a very subtle feeling. Ves only noticed it because he specifically paid attention to this in the first place. He doubted that anyone else who was not as familiar with the Destroyer weapon would be able to detect the tampering.

"Just bear with it." He told the weapon despite the fact that it was not really alive. "Under our hands, you will be reborn. We shall transform you into a weapon that is worthy to be wielded by one of my precious children."

The Elegant Cut in its current incarnation was not yet worthy to serve as a satisfying gift for Andraste's 10th birthday.

It needed a lot more power or functionality in order to serve as a practical weapon that could grow alongside its wielder over many years.

After Ves carefully put the restored Destroyer sword away, he finally turned his attention to the isolated Destroyer particles.

He made sure to place them a fair distance from each other.

This made it so that no other Destroyer particle existed within dozens of meters.

The isolation did them a lot of good. Ves had become accustomed to perceiving Destroyer particles that were in a constant state of elevated agitation.

The ones that had been crammed into the tip of the tier 3 Destroyer spear behaved so frenetically that they exerted a huge amount of pressure onto the vessel as well as the immediate environment.

Yet when the Destroyer particles left their cages and obtained ample room to breathe by themselves, they turned completely docile.

Ves sensed practically no threat or danger from the isolated particles. They had lost almost all of the energy and other activity that made them so deadly when pressed together.

All of these were expected results. Ves did not encounter any surprises, but he continued with his methodical examination anyway. He needed to be as thorough as possible. He did not want to overlook a crucial variable.

Once he was done with recording basic data on both particles, he briefly paused in order to question on how to proceed further.

His current goal was to ascertain whether the particles truly existed in a material sense.

To do so, Ves decided to subject the particles to a whole laundry list of phenomena.

From electromagnetic radiation to rapid and extreme fluctuations in gravity, Ves carefully but systematically exposed the particles to a large variety of external stimuli in the hopes of gathering interesting data.

Though the Destroyer particles were deceptively miniscule, they actually exhibited a lot of resilience and resistance when affected by many external phenomena.

The results mostly aligned with the data that he already knew in theory.

"Interesting. These Destroyer particles don't behave like any normal matter. They behave as if they are storing a disproportionate amount of energy."

Matter and energy were fundamentally interconnected to each other.

Ves knew quite well that special forms of matter tended to hide a disproportionately large amount of energy!

Many materials scientists obsessed over this fact and tried their best to draw out this enormous potential through reactions.

Though Ves did not understand many ways on how to make this happen, he did happen to have at least one method at his disposal.

He decided to conduct a small experiment by bringing the two isolated Destroyer particles increasingly closer together.

Nothing serious happened at first. Since Ves was not bringing thousands or millions of identical particles together, the activity levels remained very low.

It was only when the distance shrunk to centimeters that the sensors started to pick up elevated activity.

Ves carefully moved the particles closer and away from each other. He gained a better feel for how they grew more restless and agitated as they got closer.

"Why is this the case? Why do they repel each other?"

He had never obtained a clear answer to these questions. He instinctively felt that he was on cusp of realizing a profound insight if he was able to deduce the answers himself.

He furrowed his brows. "That is easier said than done."

Since he was still lacking a clear direction, he continued to press the two particles closer and closer to each other.

That was where things got interesting. Though Ves had observed the Destroyer particles in great stress many times, this was a different experience.

By precisely controlling the distance and quantity of particles, he was able to observe the rise in activity in a much more granular manner.

What mattered even more to Ves was that he could observe the changes in extraordinary factors with a lot more clarity.

Destroyer weapons were like insanely hot pressure cookers. They tried to contain so much activity that all of the emissions interfered with each other. That made it difficult to gather clean and accurate data that could be used to figure out new insights and patterns.

This time was different. Though the ongoing process was overly simplistic, it still did the job.

"Interesting."

The closer the particles got to each other, the more Ves and Blinky were able to capture the nuance behind the rise in activity.

It was through this simple process that Ves gradually obtained a few clues.

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