Regulus of Hogwarts: Lord of the Stars

Chapter 334 Chain Self-Sustaining, Magical Atomic Bomb

There should always be a limit to the total amount of magic a wizard can have; no matter how much it increases, there is always a ceiling.

Lemaître...

Nicolas Flamel, a super old wizard who is over 600 years old, needs no introduction regarding his magical abilities and alchemy, but it is unknown whether his total magical power also increases with age.

If so, perhaps, Regulus didn't know.

But when he thought of Lemaître, a sentence he had said during their last meeting suddenly came to mind.

"Magic can be turned into matter. When you pour magic into it, it becomes mass."

Magic converted into mass, the foundation of alchemy.

The Philosopher's Stone can turn lead into gold. The principle of magic can be summed up in one sentence: if the quality is insufficient, use magic to make up for it.

Regulus had never been exposed to alchemy and didn't understand it, but it was easy to understand from a physical point of view: it was about pouring magic into the metal and turning it into the protons, neutrons, and electrons needed by the gold atoms.

If that's the case, what about the reverse?

Can quality be turned back into magic?

If he could, he wouldn't need his own magic to fill that critical condition.

He can transform the mass of the target itself into magic, and then use that magic to drive oscillations.

The more powerful the target, the more quality can be converted, the more magic can be used, and the stronger the shock.

A target can provide itself with the energy to destroy itself.

The underlying logic of nuclear fission is this: the explosive energy of a uranium bomb does not need to be injected from the outside; the uranium nucleus can generate energy through its own mass deficit.

Even a small loss in quality can amount to astronomical amounts of energy.

If the conversion between magic and mass also follows a similar ratio, even if only one millionth of the target's mass is converted, the released magic would be enough to blast the rest into dust.

Following this conclusion, he needs to generate a conversion point at the innermost part of the target.

Let that point absorb the surrounding mass and release magic. The magic drives oscillation, which shatters the structure and releases more mass for the conversion point to absorb.

A self-feeding cycle.

Neutrons strike uranium nuclei, the uranium nuclei split open and release neutrons, and the neutrons strike even more uranium nuclei.

The conversion point absorbs quality and releases magic; the magic drives the oscillation that breaks the structure; and the broken structure releases more quality to the conversion point.

If this logic holds true, then the next steps are clear.

The detonation spell provides the first shockwave, creating the first bursts of fragmentation within the target.

Transformation occurs at the core of the shattered area, where a point of conversion between magic and mass is generated. The fragments and stress energy released from the shattering are absorbed by this point and transformed into magic.

The transformed magic directly drives a new round of oscillation within the target, without being drawn from the caster.

As the oscillations spread, new oscillations break up more structures, releasing more mass to the transformation points, which in turn release more power, driving even stronger oscillations.

Critical point: when the conversion efficiency multiplied by the amount of fragmentation and release exceeds the conduction loss, the cycle becomes self-sustaining.

Once the critical point is crossed, the caster can stop, and the goal will be achieved on its own.

Regulus stared at the flames in the fireplace, the light dancing in his pupils.

The ultimate form of the Disintegration Curse shouldn't be about smashing something bigger; it should be about making the target disintegrate itself.

The caster only provides the first shot and the conversion point.

The mass of the target is the fuel, the structure of the target is the medium of conduction, and the very existence of the target is the energy source for its own destruction.

His fingers moved lightly on his knees, and Baruch wiggled his eight legs, climbing down his arms to his wrists, the two front legs clinging to the back of his hands, his body rising and falling with the movement.

Regulus reached out his other hand and stroked its carapace, then thought of something further away.

This morning, he tried casting a Disintegration Spell on the air.

Cognitive convergence was achieved; the ray encountered that patch of air, and the oscillation was initiated, but it had no effect.

The air molecules are too far apart, and the vibrations cannot find a surface to bounce off, so the energy dissipates directly.

But that's just a regular Disintegration Spell. What if there's a Transformation Point?

The conversion point is not picky about the medium; it depends on mass, and air has mass.

There are about 1.3 kilograms of air per cubic meter, not much, but not zero.

If the conversion point is generated in the air, it consumes the mass of the surrounding air molecules, spews out magic, and the magic drives oscillation, which in turn compresses the surrounding air.

The compressed air density increases sharply, the intermolecular distance shortens, and it becomes a medium that can conduct oscillations.

The oscillations are transmitted through the high-density air, continuing to compress the outer layers of air, and the compression generates high temperatures.

High temperatures ionize the air, molecules are broken down into atoms, atoms lose electrons, and plasma is formed.

Plasma has extremely high density and temperature, making it a superior oscillation conduction medium than any solid.

The conversion point continues to consume the mass of the plasma, spitting out magic power. The magic power drives oscillations, which compress more air into plasma, which is then consumed by the conversion point again.

Self-sustaining cycle.

In the air, there is no need for solid targets, no need for a mountain, no need for an island, no need for any physical entity.

Cast a spell at an empty sky, and a conversion point will appear out of thin air, consuming air, exhaling magic, and exploding on its own.

A nuclear explosion out of thin air.

A picture appeared in his mind.

A vast plain, with nothing but air and sunlight.

A disintegration spell shot into the air, seemingly without any effect, and then the conversion point was activated.

The air in the core area was instantly compressed to several thousand times its normal density, and the temperature soared to tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of degrees.

The surface temperature of the sun is over 5,000 degrees Celsius, while the temperature at the center of a nuclear explosion exceeds 100 million degrees Celsius.

At that temperature, all forms of armor, spells, and protections—including those that supposedly eliminate all curses, carbon-based or silicon-based defenses, physical or magical defenses—are meaningless.

At that temperature, there is no distinction between solid, liquid, and gaseous states; it is all plasma, a mixture of atomic nuclei stripped of their electrons and free electrons.

The shockwave spread outward from the epicenter at a speed far exceeding the speed of sound, leveling everything within a radius of several kilometers.

The Hiroshima bomb, with a yield of 20,000 tons of TNT, had a destructive radius of approximately 1.6 kilometers.

If the conversion efficiency between magic and mass is high enough, there is no upper limit to the equivalent of the ultimate form of the Disintegration Curse.

The amount of energy a conversion point absorbs depends on the duration of its operation as set by the caster; the energy released in one second differs by several orders of magnitude from that released in ten seconds.

Can Voldemort withstand this?

He twitched the corner of his mouth.

Voldemort's magical skills were unparalleled; he was probably the best in the world when it came to the dark arts.

But even the most powerful magic requires the prerequisite of casting, and even the most powerful wizard must survive before casting a spell. In that environment, none of these exist.

Maybe we can run?

Regulus thought for a moment and shook his head slightly in his heart.

Within the epicenter, space itself is distorted by extreme energy density.

Apparition requires spatial stability to be completed. When the surrounding spatial structure is torn and deformed by temperatures of millions or tens of millions of degrees and terrifying energy density, can the space still remain stable?

The same applies to spatial warping. Folding space requires that the space between two points be continuous. If that space is filled with energy and becomes a mess, the premise of folding no longer exists.

There's no way to run away; if you can't run away, you have to bear it.

But can it withstand it?

Any protection a wizard needs requires the direct involvement of magic, but what happens to magic itself at that temperature?

he does not know.

In fact, nobody knows, because no one in the magical world has ever created an energy release of this level, let alone been exposed to one.

Can Dumbledore hold out?

Maybe.

Dumbledore has the Elder Wand, the Phoenix, and an understanding of the nature of magic; even the world is on his side.

But that's just a possibility; in the face of a nuclear explosion, all possibilities seem untenable.

The laws of physics are unreasonable at that scale, and perhaps the laws of magic are equally ineffective.

He slowly pulled these images from his mind and took a breath.

The fire burned in the fireplace, warming the stone walls outside. Heat seeped from the stones, driving away the last trace of coolness brought back from outside.

He looked down at his hand, which had just held the wand and sunk an island.

But compared to what's in his head, an island is nothing.

The Disintegration Curse and the Rupture Curse have completely different directions.

The Disintegration Spell goes towards concepts, decomposing themselves, returning order to chaos, and returning existence to its state before it was defined. Its ultimate goal is to cancel the definition.

The Disintegration Curse pushes towards the physical limits, with the endpoint being a self-sustaining chain reaction.

One cancels the qualification to exist, and the other cancels the structure to exist.

Not only are their paths different, but their destinations are also different.

He looked away from his palms and at the fire in the fireplace.

There are several obstacles on this road.

The first step is to verify the chain-like transmission mechanism.

Whether cognitive coverage can allow oscillations to pass through already separated fragments is currently only an unconfirmed hypothesis, and experiments need to be designed to verify it.

This hurdle isn't difficult; just put two stones on a table and try it out, and you'll see.

The second step is the critical condition.

The initial oscillation must be strong enough to trigger the release of structural stress, allowing the released energy to outweigh the conduction losses. His current magic output cannot meet that threshold.

Star Trail Meditation continuously increases the total amount of magic power, but the amount required to reach the critical condition may exceed the theoretical upper limit of a single wizard.

Alchemy might have a way; the magic power processed by the Philosopher's Stone far surpasses that of anyone else.

The third step is the transformation of magic into quality.

This is the core of alchemy, and he hasn't even scratched the surface. Le Maire can do it, but he can't.

But Le May gave him a metal ball and said, "Next time you come, don't wait for Albus to bring it, come by yourself."

The fourth aspect is the precision of magic control.

A conversion point is generated and maintained within the target, absorbing mass and releasing magic in real time, while controlling the direction and intensity of the oscillation transmission.

This level of precision required was higher than all the magic he knew and had ever seen combined.

But this hurdle is actually what he's least worried about; that's what Star Trail Meditation has always been about.

Of the seven main stars in Orion, five and a half are currently shining, while Rigel is still flickering in a state of semi-dusk.

With each additional ignited coin, the precision of magic manipulation and the ability to process parallel data increase by a level.

When Betelgeuse is lit, he can control three Fiery Birds at the same time.

When Orion's constellation lit up at five o'clock, the Constant Iron Armor Spell became instinctive.

If Betelgeuse were fully illuminated, the accuracy could be improved by another level.

What about Rigel?

With all seven stars of Orion illuminated, the Star Trail Meditation has reached the end of its current phase.

By then, will his magical manipulation be precise enough to maintain a conversion point within the target?

Maybe it's enough, maybe it's not enough.

If it's not going well, it will continue upwards. There are other constellations after Orion, and the star trail won't stop at Orion.

He didn't know where the end was, but the direction was under his feet.

He mentally ranked the four hurdles.

The first problem can be solved quickly; just go back and find two stones.

The second and third lines are tied together; the answer lies with Lemaître.

The fourth step is to follow the star trail meditation; it can't be rushed.

The firewood in the fireplace crackled, and a spark flew out, landing on the stone slab and extinguishing the fire.

He stood up.

There are still a few days left in the holiday, and the two forms of the Disintegration Curse are enough.

The next thing to do is to modify Baruch's magical form and to modify its magical structure using the reverse application of the Disintegration Spell. This has been dragging on for far too long.

He walked to the door and pushed it open.

The sea breeze blows in, salty and cold; a breath leaves a cool sensation in your lungs.

The distant sea was shrouded in a hazy gray, and nothing could be seen.

The sea area eight kilometers away is no different from the surrounding area.

He glanced at it a few times and then closed the door.