Arknights' Lock of Heaven

It's already quite late tonight, and tomorrow is the first day of my vacation, so naturally I'm looking forward to it.

The result is that everyone has something to do, and I can't get away either...

Eyjafjalla still needs protection.

It's not that I absolutely have to be there, it's just that the first group of people to come, apart from my own team, consisted of scholars like Skyfire Provence and messengers of natural disasters.

My own team... I can't just go off and do whatever I want, leaving everything to Mudrock Skadi and the others, can I?

Not suitable.

So I had to leave on my own.

However, Xia Yu also had her own motives.

That volcano... looks quite appetizing... cough cough cough, I'm getting off topic.

In short, he planned to recover some of his losses, since he had been using magical weapons and suppressants recently, which had reduced the Holy Grail's magic power by a small amount.

Natural disasters... To be honest, Xia Yu has never actually tried to draw Originium from natural disasters to restore her magic power.

The first time he encountered a natural disaster was in Chernobog. At that time, in order to lure the old black snake into a trap and prevent him from being scared and retreating, he didn't dare to do anything too outrageous.

The second time was in Letania, the time in Wolumond, but that was after the natural disaster, and it didn't mean much except for restoring magic power.

He was busy at other times, and he also made a fortune from Letania, so he didn't go around looking for natural disasters.

What he wanted to try was to see if he could prevent the formation of a natural disaster by squeezing out the Originium particles that existed before the disaster took place.

After all, natural disasters are caused by Originium. If we unplug the power source of Originium... could we crash this mechanism?

Back in Rhodes Island, Xia Yu asked Kal'tsit about this issue.

The response I received was an indescribable expression.

Finally, she decided to give it a try.

Because natural disasters are not only caused by Originium, the natural environment is also a factor.

For example, if you take away the Originium that catalyzes the eruption of a volcano, will it stop erupting?

Not necessarily. After all, the process has already begun. At most, the lack of Originium as a catalyst will only delay the eruption.

After all, volcanic eruptions are natural disasters, and Originium only plays a role as a trigger and catalyst.

For this reason, Kal'tsit even sent out Eyjafjalla.

They also managed to get involved with a disaster messenger from Provence who has studied natural disasters, and an expert in Originium geology from Tianhuo.

Actually, this issue is also very important to Kal'tsit.

So-called natural disasters are mostly natural calamities, such as typhoons, thunderstorms, earthquakes, volcanoes, and so on...

These things existed in previous lives, but why are they so destructive in Terra?

It's because these natural disasters come too often, are too large in scale, and take shape too quickly.

Often, natural disasters are predictable, but with the addition of Originium as a variable, a volcano that would normally erupt only once every few centuries might erupt in just a few weeks, and on a larger scale with greater destructive power.

If we can eliminate the effects of Originium before the natural disaster takes shape, can we minimize the losses to the greatest extent possible?

Kal'tsit was also eager to know the answer to this question.

Therefore, she offered support for Xia Yu's idea.

Since this is his own business, it's quite disgraceful of him to hand over the task of protecting Eyjafjalla and other experts to his team members while he goes on vacation.

Xia Yu wouldn't do something like that.

However, it's not actually that bad. Volcano research won't take that long. After all, they only need to figure out when the volcano will erupt and how long the eruption will be delayed after Xia Yu extracts the Originium particles.

It's just an experiment; it won't take too much effort. I can't possibly spend all my vacation time on it.

However, everyone else went out to have fun on the first day, but I still had to work... I couldn't even skip work, since I was the one in charge.

“What about you, Eyjafjalla?” Xia Yu sighed and looked at Eyjafjalla. “And Miss Skyfire and Provence, you shouldn’t spend all your time on research either.”

"We finally get to go out and have some fun, so we need to relax a bit."

“Advisor, rather than saying this… Tianhuo looked at Xia Yu, “How about… you really have a way… to eliminate the interference of Originium on the volcano?”

"To be honest, I think it's a bit of a fantasy, after all..."

She was still pondering her words.

After all, this fact is too astonishing. What is Originium?

Terra is full of things, how could it possibly eliminate interference before a cataclysmic event occurs?

It's completely impossible with current technology.

If this wasn't a task assigned by Kal'tsit, and if Skyfire hadn't known that Rhodes Island wasn't some trivial shell company, she would have jumped out to refute it long ago and cried out that it was academic fraud.

Although this mysterious advisor is quite famous on Rhodes Island, that doesn't explain this inexplicable situation at all.

Most of what Xia Yu did is still kept in the minds of Rhodes Island's higher-ups; it's absolutely impossible for them to make it public.

Most operators' impression of him is that he's good at fighting, full of gossip, and that magical weapon that I don't understand but is incredibly useful.

To be honest, Skyfire also had a magical weapon specifically for diffusion warlocks, which she found incomprehensible but deeply impressive.

How can such a small card exert such power?

Therefore, she maintained a certain level of politeness towards the creator of the magical weapon and did not refute him on the spot.

But in her opinion, this was too outrageous and completely contrary to scientific principles.

Xia Yu's comment on this was: What science? I'm into metaphysics.

“Mr. Xia Yu, I’ll go with you,” Amiya said understandingly, coming to Xia Yu’s side. “The mission at Rhodes Island is also very important…”

"No, no, no," Xia Yu said, pushing her towards the professor.

"Amiya, you're different from us. You're here to have fun, so have a good time, okay?"

"Relax a bit, you don't need to act all sensible anymore. You can go to the beach or a concert if you want."

Xia Yu gently patted her head. "I don't think any Rhodes Island operator would refuse your invitation."

“Except for missions, you’re still so young. I can’t say anything to you on Rhodes Island, since you’re carrying a lot on your shoulders.”

"But now, you're here on vacation, so just have fun, understand?"

“Exactly,” the Doctor chimed in from the side, “Amiya, forget about him, let’s go have some fun.”

She stood in front of Xia Yu, pointed at his face, and declared confidently, "You'd be better off worrying about me than about him being alone!"

"Look at that face. Let alone Rhodes Island operators, even if you just went out on the street and struck up a conversation with someone, how many people could refuse?"

"Operator Skadi, just looking at that face, how could you resist?"

Skadi nodded decisively.

"Getting close to me... will lead to unhappiness."

"Uh," the Doctor paused for a moment upon hearing this, then looked at Surtr, "Alright, then Operator Surtr, can you refuse?"

Surtr nodded decisively. "He's not in my memories."

"..."

These two... I must say, they're really pure-hearted.

"And you, mudstone?"

“Um…” Niyan looked at Xia Yu, then hesitated, “I… I can’t imagine someone hitting on me.”

Hmm, I really can't imagine it, considering her usual image and past experiences...

Such happiness was not present in the first half of her life.

Well, none of these people are normal.

Finally, the doctor looked at Skyfire.

"Miss Skyfire, putting aside your identity as a member of Rhodes Island, just looking at this face, if he came up to you and tried to chat you up, would you refuse him immediately?"

Upon hearing this, Tianhuo looked at Xia Yu and then decisively shook his head.

"Well, of course not immediately... but I'm not that shallow. If we don't have much in common after talking for a while..."

There's no need to elaborate on the common language spoken by someone as academically gifted as her.

If we're talking about academic issues related to Originium... Xia Yu really doesn't have much to say.

After all, he was already exhausted from studying all the information he had gathered from Chaldea, so he didn't have time to research Originium.

Xia Yu has a clear understanding of her own position; these materials and knowledge are the foundation of her livelihood.

Academic questions like Originium can wait until later, since we can't even see the end of our own lives.

There's plenty of time, no rush.

280 The lively Siesta Music Festival

"Welcome to the annual Siesta Obsidian Festival!"