King's Rule: Creating the Strongest Kingdom With My Broken Talent-Chapter 20: Sprout-rank, The Scary Whirlpool

As Vesh was focusing on the stuff happening after learning everything, something happened.

’This...’ Vesh looked at his broken Seed in surprise.

It just sprouted!

[Congratulations. You have broken through to Sprout-rank Lifeform. You may now absorb C-rank or higher resources to increase your Sprout Force.]

’Heh, who needs resources?’ Vesh grinned.

’Now, I need to focus on the whirlpool and make it mine before the enemy comes.’

He had learned the functions of the whirlpool, but not how to create and control it himself.

This thing was good. It was like SSS-rank version of D-rank Arcane Cultivation.

But right now, it was still his King’s Rule version controlling it.

However, just as Vesh was about to start focusing on that, he felt something and looked in the northeast, at the sky.

A strong, unmasked aura was rapidly approaching.

Just as he blinked, the owner of that aura floated there, two hundred meters in the sky, sitting on a cloud and looking at Vesh with a frown.

"This whirlpool..." Forguin’s eyes shook. "Eight fundamental elements in perfect synergic formation are breaking down all mixed magic energy from the atmosphere and refining it into pure magic force?"

Forguin had seen people stronger than him and talked with many about the elements and theories of Mana, but what he was seeing was far more advanced than what he knew.

"Impossible. How is it woven to create such a synergic refinement of atmospheric magic energy, and that too using eight elements?

He figured out what the whirlpool was doing and then proceeded to deny it as he looked at Vesh. The kind of mana control and knowledge of magic requiring for this was not something a young chap like him could do.

Because it was absurd! Not to mention that a phenomenon like this required at least S-rank Mastery in all eight fundamental elements, as far as he could tell from how complicated the process and the required control of elements were to weave something like this.

’Could it be he acquired a talent that can manifest this phenomenon?’ Forguin looked at Vesh, a cunning glint passing through his eyes.

Opening his mouth, he began speaking, his voice traveling towards Vesh with utter clarity.

"Boy, what did you do to the girl?"

Vesh looked at him, half nervous, half excited.

The reason for excitement was that he could use that stored magic force in the whirlpool to enhance his techniques like Death Trick Slash and Honey Diamond Barrier, making him confident of dealing with this man looking in his forties, that Quenila had boasted about.

And the reason for nervousness was that he had yet to control and learn the whirlpool fully. Right now, it was like a nuke with an abundance of pure magic force within it. If it blasted, not just him but likely half a kilometre of area would be blasted to smithereens, not to mention that it was getting stronger and stronger every second.

"She died," Vesh answered the question. "I killed her."

Even if it was an accident, he wasn’t going to deny the kill.

Not to mention he believed that she deserved to die for what she and that fatty were about to do to his people.

"Killed her?" Forguin nodded. "In that case, things are simple. Let’s forget everything and start anew. I don’t want to fight with you. In fact, it would be beneficial to both of us if we cooperate."

Vesh was stunned. "Really? So you will not come after Viana?"

Forguin nodded. "She is not worth antagonising you. I can find another virgin meeting the criteria and sacrifice her."

Vesh raised his eyebrows. ’Well, the best and safest way to kill him without exploding this whirlpool is to play along and stab him in the back.’

"Ok, but one condition." Vesh showed an index finger.

"Speak."

"Show me your Storm Lord form," Vesh asked.

Forguin blinked. "It seems Quenila told you about me. Very well. If you want your curiosity satiated, I’ll show it to you. In fact, this makes it easier. If you cooperate and join the cult, the next Tenebrous Rune we acquire will be given to you."

Vesh smiled in response. "I want to see its power first."

Forguin’s aura surged as lightning and wind visibly flickered around him, coursing through his body and reforming it.

On the other hand, the Wheel of Elements reflected deep in Vesh’s eyes as he created something himself using science and physics of what he knew from Earth and applying it to magic.

It was an extremely simple concept, and he had already named the technique.

Thunderclap Detonation.

Hurling a metal object, heavy and dense, at hypersonic speed. The projectile would hit with devastating kinetic energy. But that’s not all. The projectile would strike a specific material wall filled with explosive energy, right above or nearby the actual target.

And how would he do that?

Simple.

Using the most dangerous force at the particle and atomic level, he had learned about on Earth.

Electromagnetic force. It was a fundamental force that governs all interactions involving electric charge.

The most common visible expressions of this force were Lightning and Light, and going deeper, all living beings’ nervous systems.

He had both Lightning and Light in his arsenal, so with his control and knowledge paired with the SSS-rank wonder known as Wheel of Elements, which held the eight elements in a synergic formation, Vesh could control the forces born out of reactions of his elements at the atomic level.

For Railgun Thunderclap, he only needed three elements.

Lightning. Metal. Wind.

In the sky, Forguin had transformed into a demonic white-grey solid-plated skinned humanoid, and two miniature storms floated behind him as if extending like his wings.

Yellow lightning crackled in the storms and through his whole body, creating an exotic pattern in the shape of full body armour.

"Here it is." Forguin spread his arms. "You want to test this power, right? Go on and release your attack. From what I can see, your Sprout Force is very low. You can’t hurt me unless you use the magic force from that whirlpool, but I doubt a Sprout-rank can control that force."

"But afterward, you will tell me how you created this whirlpool."

Vesh chuckled. "Well, this whirlpool is the result of my talent, so I don’t know how to tell you that."

"As expected. Must be a high-ranking talent. S-rank at least." Forguin nodded, a glint in his eyes. "Alright, go on. Make your move and see what happens."

Vesh smiled brightly. "Yes, sir."

He stretched his hand as a gauntlet began to manifest.

Vesh smiled brightly. "Yes, sir."

He stretched his hand forward.

Mana surged.

Around his forearm, layers of shimmering structure began assembling themselves into existence. Bands of dark metal formed first, sliding and locking together with mechanical precision as if forged by invisible hands.

Then lightning crawled across them.

Thin blue filaments crackled along the metal frame, forming two parallel rails running the length of the gauntlet.

Wind spiraled around the construct, tightening and stabilizing the structure so the violent energies inside it would not tear it apart.

In Vesh’s palm, a small object appeared.

A dense metal spike.

No longer than a finger. But it was so heavy that he had to use his full strength to lift it in his hand. And his current strength was enough to lift 10 tons easily, so this metal spike had 25 tons of mass condensed into it.

’Crap, maybe I used a bit too much of the whirlpool’s magic force to increase the object’s qualitative property.’ Vesh socketed it into the gauntlet.

Naturally, Forguin couldn’t detect Vesh’s use of Mana because Vesh outclassed him in terms of Mana mastery.

"Is that it? Are you just going to hurl that object at me?" Forguin raised his eyebrows.

"No, no." Vesh shook his head. He stretched his hand and pointed it at Forguin, or rather, right next to Forguin. "I’ll hit it at that wall."

Vesh’s eyes flickered as he created the wall.

Forguin turned his head and saw a small one-meter-square wall, but it couldn’t be called a wall.

It was like a thin sheet of distorted air hanging in the sky. Only the faint shimmer of compressed energy revealed its presence.

Lightning crawled across its surface in restless veins, flashing and vanishing in an instant. The air around it trembled, bending slightly as if under immense pressure.

It looked fragile. Yet the surface pulsed with contained force, as a thunderstorm flattened into a single plane, waiting for the slightest touch to erupt.

"Why would you do that?" Forguin frowned. "I can’t understand your trick, but very well. Let’s see it."

Vesh smiled. "Yes. Here it comes."

KRAAAAAACK!

The metal spike vanished.

Not flew.

Vanished.

A sonic boom detonated a split second later as the projectile broke the sound barrier instantly, accelerating to hypersonic speed.

Forguin’s instincts screamed. His eyes were in the process of widening, with shock and terror surging within them.

It was only after Vesh unleashed the technique that he measured its aura. Wrong. He didn’t measure it; his instincts did, and they told him he was facing death.

He didn’t know a 25-ton object was about to be hurled at hypersonic speed to crash into a trigger bomb next to him.

His storms surged instantly, lightning bursting outward as he raised his arms.

Alas... the projectile was already there.

There, right in front of the plasma wall that harboured crazily compressed energy.

For a moment, Forguin saw the world pause. In that moment, his thoughts accelerated. Maybe it was also due to the Storm Lord’s lightning haywiring in his body and mind, but he saw the spike touching the wall and the slowly blooming reaction of this collision.

If only time could pause, and he could escape from this.

Alas...

BOOOOM!

A colossal thunderclap exploded across the sky.

The plasma wall erupted outward, specifically towards Forguin, as the kinetic energy of the hypersonic spike ignited the compressed energy within it.

The explosion expanded like a blooming sun.

Lightning erupted in every direction.

Wind shockwaves blasted outward for hundreds of meters.

It was absolute chaos in the sky within a hundred meters of the explosion as Vesh watched with his mouth agape at the result of his own action.

’Holy crap. I knew I used too much magic force. But better to be sure than sorry.’

The powerful Elder Forguin, who had taken on five Sprout-rank powerhouses with higher Sprout Force than him and won?

Not even his ashes remained.