Chapter 541 - 541: What Exactly Have You Been Researching?!

"Of course, breaking the sound barrier and sustaining supersonic speeds requires activating a massive, interconnected network of aerodynamic and slipstream enchantments. It drains a substantial amount of magic from the core," Noah continued smoothly. "Under normal circumstances, we have no reason to fly that fast. Our standard cruising speed of two hundred kilometers per hour is perfectly sufficient for daily operations."

Noah only mentioned the top speed so the guild members fully understood what the ship was capable of in an emergency.

Pausing for a moment to let the information sink in, he moved on to the next set of specs.

"Now, regarding offensive capabilities. Originally, this ship was equipped with a massive Magical Convergence Cannon known as 'Jupiter.' I heavily modified and completely overhauled its runic structure. Its current destructive output is roughly twenty times greater than its original configuration."

"TWENTY TIMES?!" Several members gasped in sheer shock. They remembered the devastating power of the Phantom Lord guild's Jupiter cannon; twenty times that output was a continent-shattering nightmare.

"Blue Pegasus's Christina possesses a devastating air-to-ground bombardment system. Naturally, we have one as well. A secondary, modified Jupiter Cannon is mounted on the ship's ventral hull, specifically calibrated for orbital bombardment.

"Furthermore, the ship's exterior is lined with several dozen automated, 360-degree rotating magical artillery turrets. At maximum output, each turret can fire blasts equivalent to half the power of the original Jupiter Cannon. If we lower the output, the rate of fire increases drastically. The turrets provide absolute, omnidirectional defensive coverage; there are zero blind spots. If an enemy attempts to board us, the automated systems will simply blast them out of the sky."

The guild members stared at Noah, absolutely speechless.

Half the power of a Jupiter Cannon... per turret? And there were dozens of them?!

With an automated defense grid that absurdly powerful, any dark guild foolish enough to attack them would be instantly vaporized.

"Additionally, the First Master and I completely redesigned the ship's stealth systems. The new cloaking arrays are exponentially more efficient. Under normal cruising speeds, the ship is functionally invisible to both optical and magical radar. Of course, the faster we fly, the harder it is to maintain absolute stealth, but it's still highly effective."

Everyone nodded in understanding. A massive, flying fortress moving at two hundred kilometers an hour was naturally difficult to hide.

"As for defense, does everyone remember the localized barriers protecting the guildhall and Tenrou Island?" Noah asked.

The entire guild nodded vigorously. Those who had witnessed the barrier briefly stall Acnologia's apocalyptic Roar knew exactly how terrifyingly robust Noah's defensive arrays were. Those who hadn't seen it firsthand had heard the legends.

"The airship is equipped with the exact same defensive matrix. It utilizes a three-layered, high-density Ethernano shield. Therefore, you do not need to worry about our defensive capabilities," Noah smiled warmly.

Hearing that, any lingering anxiety regarding the ship's safety completely evaporated. If the shields could tank a hit from the Dragon King, they could tank anything.

"Lastly, the ship is stocked with hundreds of high-explosive, self-tracking magical artillery shells for the primary cannons. A standard shell will vaporize anything within a hundred-meter radius, and they can be programmed to prioritize airborne or ground targets.

"I've also stored a few specialized, high-yield tactical warheads in the ship's armory. Each warhead has an explosive yield sufficient to completely level an area of several dozen square kilometers. So, our overall offensive firepower should be more than adequate."

The lounge descended into absolute, horrified silence.

Several members literally fell out of their chairs. The rest stared at Noah with wide, utterly terrified eyes.

"I'm sorry... what was the explosive yield on those warheads again?" Makarov asked, his voice trembling slightly.

"Oh, just a few dozen square kilometers," Noah repeated casually, though he sighed and shook his head in disappointment. "It's a shame they're functionally useless against Acnologia."

Ever since arriving in Earthland and realizing he was destined to fight apocalyptic monsters, Noah had naturally sought ways to increase his combat effectiveness. While he spent years rigorously training his physical body and mastering arcane theory, his background knowledge from his previous life had occasionally bled into his magical research. Almost inadvertently, he had engineered several terrifyingly powerful weapons of mass destruction.

Unfortunately, he quickly realized that conventional WMDs were utterly useless against top-tier mages.

When a mage's power reached a certain threshold, their hyper-attuned senses acted as an absolute early-warning system. The moment a massive, lethal threat approached, their instincts would scream at them to move.

High-tier mages wouldn't just stand there and take a direct hit. They would immediately use high-speed movement techniques or Spatial Magic to instantly evacuate the blast radius. By the time the warhead detonated, the target would already be several kilometers away, easily capable of shielding themselves against the residual shockwave.

As for Acnologia? The Black Dragon's absolute magical immunity meant it could take a point-blank detonation from a tactical warhead without suffering a single scratch.

Meanwhile, the collateral damage to the surrounding environment and innocent civilians would be apocalyptic. Deploying weapons of mass destruction was tactically useless and morally catastrophic; using them would instantly turn Noah into a globally hunted terrorist.

Realizing their absolute uselessness in his personal arsenal, Noah had immediately sealed the weapons away.

However, while retrofitting the airship, he remembered the stockpiled warheads. Equipping a massive, flying warship with a few tactical nukes seemed entirely appropriate, so he had casually moved them aboard.

"What exactly have you been researching in your spare time?!" Makarov groaned, burying his face in his hands in absolute misery. Noah's 'surprises' were going to give him a heart attack.

"Based on the specs you just listed... we could literally conquer an entire country with this ship," Laxus muttered, his eye twitching violently.

He honestly couldn't think of a single nation in Ishgar capable of defending against an orbital bombardment of that magnitude. Noah's tactical warheads alone were an apocalyptic threat, to say nothing of the dozens of Jupiter-tier automated turrets.

"Hold on... does that mean we are currently sitting directly on top of magical bombs capable of leveling a city?" Lucy asked, her voice squeaking in terror. A massive bead of cold sweat rolled down her forehead.

"Lucy, you're leaking juice," Happy pointed out, hovering nearby.

"THAT'S SWEAT!" Lucy shrieked indignantly.

However, Happy's interruption successfully broke her mounting panic.

"Wait a minute!" Sorano suddenly gasped, clutching Yukino in sheer terror. She stared at Noah with wide, horrified eyes. "If you just moved those bombs onto the ship... where were they before?!"

Ultear, Erza, and the other girls instantly froze, their heads snapping toward Noah.

They all knew Noah conducted his advanced magical research in the massive, fortified subterranean laboratory beneath his house in Magnolia.

The realization hit them like a freight train.

Had they been sleeping directly on top of an arsenal of tactical nukes this entire time?!

The girls' hearts began pounding violently against their ribs. It wasn't the pounding of romantic excitement; it was sheer, unadulterated terror.

The rest of the guild members turned pale. Noah's house was located on the outskirts of Magnolia. If an explosion capable of leveling several dozen square kilometers detonated there, the entire city—and everyone in it—would be instantly vaporized.

"No, no, no! Of course not!" Noah immediately waved his hands, trying to calm the suddenly terrified crowd.

"I'm not an idiot! Do you honestly think I would store high-yield tactical warheads underneath my own house? The moment I finished engineering them, I immediately transferred them to a highly classified, heavily warded subterranean vault I excavated deep beneath the ocean floor. Even if they accidentally detonated down there, the ocean pressure and my containment wards would absorb the blast. Magnolia was never in any danger."

Noah fully understood the catastrophic yield of those weapons. He would never risk storing them anywhere near his family or innocent civilians. The slightest miscalculation could result in tragedy, and he wasn't going to gamble with millions of lives. He used his home laboratory strictly for theoretical research, minor alchemy, and non-destructive magical experimentation.

"Oh, thank god... you practically gave me a heart attack," Sorano sighed, sagging against Yukino in profound relief.

The rest of the guild visibly relaxed, the color slowly returning to their faces.

However, Lucy's voice suddenly chimed in again, cutting through the relief.

"That's great and all... but the bombs aren't at the bottom of the ocean anymore, are they? They're on this ship. And we are currently sitting directly on top of them."

The entire lounge froze.

Lucy was absolutely right. The bombs were no longer safely buried beneath the ocean; they were sitting in the armory directly beneath their feet.

Every single pair of eyes in the room slowly turned to lock onto Noah, waiting for an explanation.

"I am fully aware of the destructive yield of those weapons, which is why I've implemented absurdly paranoid safety protocols," Noah explained calmly, addressing the terrified crowd.

"The tactical warheads are stored in completely isolated, heavily warded individual containment cells within the armory. The standard artillery shells are also stored in compartmentalized magazines. The armory is equipped with absolute kinetic dampeners, meaning no amount of external physical trauma or turbulence can accidentally trigger a detonation.

"But most importantly, I've linked the armory directly to an emergency spatial displacement array. If the internal sensors detect even a microscopic fluctuation in a warhead's magical core—indicating an imminent, unavoidable detonation—the array will instantaneously teleport the entire armory several dozen kilometers into the stratosphere. The bomb will detonate harmlessly in the upper atmosphere, leaving the ship completely unaffected."

Hearing the exhaustive, paranoid safety measures Noah had implemented, the guild members finally calmed down for good.

They implicitly trusted Noah's magical competence and his absolute dedication to their safety. Their initial panic was simply a natural reaction to suddenly learning they were sitting on a mountain of high-yield explosives. Now that they knew the bombs were practically impossible to accidentally detonate—and would be instantly ejected if they did—they felt completely safe.

"Who possesses the authorization to launch those tactical warheads?" Makarov asked, his voice stern.

This was his primary concern. Those weapons were capable of erasing entire cities. He needed to know exactly who controlled the trigger.

"To authorize the launch of a tactical warhead, a strict consensus is required," Noah replied instantly, having already formulated the command structure.

"A launch sequence can only be initiated if two of the three highest-ranking members—myself, you, or the First Master—provide simultaneous authorization.

"If that is impossible, a launch can be authorized if over two-thirds of the active S-Class mages agree.

"Finally, if all command elements are incapacitated, a launch can be authorized by a direct, democratic vote requiring a 75% supermajority of all active guild members.

"The ship's mainframe has securely logged everyone's magical signature. If a launch vote is ever initiated, a holographic prompt will appear on your guild mark. You simply channel a trace of your magic into the prompt to cast your vote."

~~~

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