HOT NOVEL UPDATES

Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? (LN) - Volume 14 - Chapter 5.2




Hint: To Play after pausing the player, use this button

B5 Ruminate: MA Energy

The same vampire incident that affected Foduey also landed Potimas’s name at the top of wanted lists all over the world.

Cautious though he was, his actions were on far too large a scale.

In the end, even he couldn’t hide all of his many activities.

But of course, he was never the sort of person to simply go on the run.

What an obstinate man.

Around the time Potimas became a wanted criminal, he unveiled a certain research breakthrough.

Namely: the theory of MA energy.

If one’s Taboo skill reaches level 10, details revolving around the term MA energy become clear.

Even without that, it is likely that some have heard the phrase before.

After all, it is the gravest sin the people of this world ever committed.

Much time has passed since then, and most have forgotten what occurred in those days, but I suspect there are still some who continue to speak of it.

Dustin, the very pontiff of the Word of God religion, is one individual who knows the truth.

It would not surprise me if he secretly distributed some fragmentary form of that information within the creed of his church.

Hrmm? That phrasing makes it sound as if I am not overly familiar with the creed of the Word of God, you say?

Indeed, I am not.

I do not know the details of the Word of God religion.

Is that really so surprising?

To be perfectly frank, I have no interest in such a thing.

…You think that a cruel reason?

Perhaps so.

But give it some thought.

Dustin invented the Word of God religion in order to save humanity.

If you look past the details of the creed on the surface, its true nature is a tool of human supremacy.

It seeks to save humanity no matter the sacrifice, be it demons or even gods such as myself.

That is all.

Why in the world would I have any interest in the very creed that chose to save humanity by sacrificing Sariel?

I understand why Dustin chose to steer things in that direction.

It is essentially a reflection of his personal resolve.

So I do not blame him.

But I am free to have my own personal opinion of it, am I not?

Perhaps it is petty of me, but I could never bring myself to compromise on that matter.

Although I like to think I have remained neutral as an administrator.

In fact, as far as their opposition to Potimas goes, I have always been in full support of that.

But speaking of Potimas, let us return to the matter at hand.

The MA energy theory he developed shook the entire world.

Incidentally, from what I am told, the methods of accumulating energy in the reincarnations’ world were largely physical.

Instead of using magic or conjurings, they used natural materials such as oil and sunlight.

Our world was similar back then; the energy needed for everyday human activities was acquired through physical means.

Even with the existence of beings like dragons and Sariel, that aspect was no different from the world of the reincarnations.

But MA energy changed that forever.

At this point, perhaps you have gathered some inkling of the nature of this so-called MA energy.

Indeed, MA energy is a form of energy gathered through magical means, by way of conjuring.

For humans, who had always gotten their energy from physical sources, the MA energy construction theory that Potimas developed must have seemed like a way to create something out of nothing.

Indeed, MA energy was described as such: a miraculous energy that comes from nothing.

Unlimited energy that could be used indefinitely, without causing any harm to the environment.

…How very foolish.

As if such a thing could possibly exist.

Every resource has a limit.

That truth applies to everything physical, magical, and otherwise.

But humans did not understand that.

No, that is not entirely true. Some of them did.

Dustin was one such person.

However, the majority of humans will only believe things that are convenient for them.

All the more so when they are desperate.

The quickest to jump to MA energy were the most desperate of humans…

…especially the humans—or rather, nations—who were most impoverished.

The wealth disparity between the human nations was staggering.

The poorest of them saw hope in the form of MA energy.

The MA energy theory Potimas made public only described the method of acquiring MA energy.

Most people were skeptical when it was first announced, but the nations most in need used it nonetheless.

I believe it was what the reincarnations would call “grasping at straws”?

But indeed, these “straws” allowed those nations to successfully recover, at least at first.

MA energy certainly is an effective energy source, at least by all appearances.

The nations that used it to solve their energy crises quickly made advancements.

There were objections from the nations that relied on exports of resources like oil, but I shall omit such details, as they are no longer relevant.

And as the impoverished nations began growing rapidly with MA energy, the more developed countries began to use it as well.

No doubt they were loath to be left behind by what they viewed as lesser nations.

Thus, slowly but surely, more nations began to deal in MA energy.

Not all of them, however.

There were some nations that refused to use MA energy. Their reasons varied: MA energy was developed by a wanted criminal like Potimas, the nature of MA energy was still unknown, oil-producing countries still objected to the rise of MA energy, and so on.

The place where Dustin was president was one such nation.

His nation was large and influential. If they took a strong stance against MA energy, other nations were bound to hesitate as well.

However, it is a difficult thing to halt the flow of progress.

Before long, more and more humans began approving of the use of MA energy, seeing that it had the visible effect of solving the energy crisis.

On top of that, there was another breakthrough theory that Potimas released along with the MA energy theory.

Namely, the theory of evolution by way of MA energy.

Essentially, it suggested that MA energy could be used to make humans evolve.

It was like a progress report of the results of Potimas’s research on evolutions like vampirism.

But even if it was incomplete by his standards, humanity could not ignore those results.

By consuming huge amounts of MA energy for a surgical treatment, humans could advance to a new stage.

There were two major changes:

Improved physical capabilities and a longer lifespan.

The latter especially attracted attention.

Because the procedure required a massive amount of MA energy, it was primarily only the richest humans who could undergo it.

Until then, a longer life was the one thing their money could not buy, no matter how much they wanted it.

It unfortunately did not grant perpetual youth and immortality, but it was still an exchange of money for more time to live.

Small wonder that humans would jump at the chance.

Many advanced countries lifted their ban on MA energy because their richest citizens demanded it for this procedure.

Compared to all of humanity, there were very few who actually got the procedure.

Based on the population at the time, at least.

At any rate, their consumption of MA energy was far too high.

The humans seemed to think that it was an endless source of energy, but it could not be collected all at once.

Though most of the nations in the world were able to get enough of it to completely cover their operations.

But the amount of MA energy required for evolution was so unthinkably high that eventually there was not enough to go around.

I imagine that is why Dustin loathed those who underwent the procedure.

Though they were human themselves, he considers them separate beings, the enemies of humankind.

Which is why he calls the descendants of those who chose to evolve “demons.”

By expending huge amounts of MA energy for their own personal gain, they ultimately hastened the destruction of the world.

They were once the wealthy, privileged class of humanity.

When I think of how demonkind, who descended from them, is now teetering on the brink of extinction, it is hard to describe my feelings.

I suppose that was their punishment in a way.

But putting aside the origin of demons, the use of MA energy that started with the poorer nations eventually spread to developing and advanced nations as well.

There were few nations that objected.

At that point, it may have only been Dustin.

But there were some who were not from these nations who continued to object.

Namely, we dragons, and Sariel.

MA energy was collected by way of magical conjuring.

So those of us who were well versed in magic immediately recognized its true nature.

That is why we tried to warn them.

“Do not use MA energy.”

I suppose the current state of this world proves whether they heeded those warnings.

Indeed, the humans refused to listen.

They were not sufficiently fearful of dragons, I believe, in spite of the fact that we had destroyed a whole nation of theirs overnight in the past.

At that time, that particular nation somehow became possessed with the insane notion to drop a new kind of bomb on the home of dragons.

Of course, such things could never destroy us.

But we still wiped out that nation as our revenge.

Yet, that major event was only recorded in textbooks by the era of MA energy; there were few living humans who actually remembered it.

As generations passed, the fear we instilled in them naturally weakened.

Though the event still seemed recent from a dragon point of view, to humans it was already far in the past.

But since that was the only time we had majorly interfered with humanity, out of deference to Sariel, perhaps we sowed the seeds of ruin.

It allowed humans the wishful thinking that dragons were not actually so frightening, that they could ignore our warning.

In essence, they weighed the threat of dragons against the boon of MA energy and ruled in favor of the latter.

Our warnings were thus ignored, but Sariel was put in a difficult position as well.

For she was being pressured by her own employees in the Sariella Foundation.

The energy crisis was a problem of utmost import for those who worked in medical care, for the latest medical equipment could not operate without energy.

On top of that, the theory of MA energy evolution proved invaluable for research into treating previously incurable diseases.

Indeed, to the medical community, MA energy was a beacon of hope.

And of course, as I described before, the lower classes were helped immensely by MA energy.

Since the Sariella Foundation existed to support the less fortunate, they could not condone dropping the use of MA energy entirely.

Had Foduey been in good health, perhaps he could have handled this internal strife of sorts, but he had been quarantined because of his vampiric transformation.

Frankly, the Sariella Foundation had also become too large thanks to Foduey’s support.

So large, in fact, that the word of Sariel alone could not determine their direction, even though she was the founder and president.

Because her own organization was turning against her, Sariel ended up withdrawing from the public eye.

Since they had also just recently taken in the children who were victims of Potimas’s human experiments, she devoted her energy to managing the orphanage instead.

I still cannot say whether that was for the best or not…

The children from that orphanage, including Ariel, would go on to have a major effect on the future.

That likely would not have been the case were they not so closely involved with Sariel, which makes me wonder whether things would have gone differently otherwise.

Thus, Sariel’s influence was forced out of the Sariella Foundation.

But neither she nor I and the other dragons could tolerate the humans’ actions just because they refused to heed our warnings.

We knew all too well that things would go disastrously wrong before too long if they continued down this path.

Why? Because MA energy is an exploitation of the life force of the planet.

Planets have a life force, just like living things.

We gods absorb the excess energy given off by the planet in order to live.

Perhaps it is akin to how plants produce oxygen and animals produce carbon dioxide.

But that was not so for the MA energy humans were taking.

They were not using surplus that was naturally released, but forcibly extracting the energy the planet required to live.

If they kept this up, the planet was bound to weaken and eventually fall apart.

The dragons and Sariel alike told them to stop in order to prevent that.

We explained the reason too, of course.

…But as I said before, humans only believe things that are convenient for them.

And they will always find an excuse not to believe something that isn’t.

Foolish.

Truly foolish.

I am sure the cost of that foolishness was higher than the humans could have imagined.

When did humanity forget their fear of dragons…?

And why did they optimistically assume the dragons would not act on their fury…?

I still remember it clearly.

The elders summoned all dragons for a gathering.

There, they made the announcement.

“We will cull the humans.”

That day, the dragons bared their fangs against humanity.



Share This :


COMMENTS

No Comments Yet

Post a new comment

Register or Login