Thousands of kiloters away in London, within the Underground City hidden beneath the British Museum, the lights of the Fourth Equipnt Laboratory had been burning continuously for seventy-two hours.
The pungent sll of engine oil, tallic ozone, and an alchemical agent similar to pine resin mixed together, forming an aroma that only craftsn and madn would find intoxicating.
Arthur Conan, the genius Armant Blacksmith hailed as I.A.R.C.'s "Rising Star," was hunched over a massive design blueprint that covered the entire workbench.
His ssy black hair resembled a bird's nest, sared with grease.
The craftsman's goggles around his neck were pushed up to his forehead, revealing a pair of bloodshot yet fanatically gleaming eyes.
Arthur gripped a charcoal pencil tightly, making final modifications and refinents on the parchnt filled with complex lines and precise data annotations.
The object depicted on that blueprint didn't resemble any known weapon conforming to 19th-century engineering aesthetics.
It looked more like a section of arm bone from so unknown giant beast, possessing a biochanical quality.
Or perhaps like a war spear constructed from nurous precise linkage joints and micro-difference engine gear sets, with a steampunk style.
Its overall structure displayed contradiction and conflict, yet achieved a strange harmony on a higher dinsion.
Arthur's breathing was rapid. With every stroke he made, he muttered incomprehensible gibberish mixed with advanced mathematics, spiritual physics, and applied theology.
"No... not right... the transmission efficiency is too low. If a series-type energy amplification circuit is used, under extre conditions, the seventh node will inevitably suffer structural disintegration due to energy overload..."
"Must change the approach. Can't use the 'blocking' thod... must use 'channeling'..."
"Just like that Easterner..."
His murmuring finally settled on the three words, "Easterner."
The root of his current fanatical research state stemd from a battle defeat report forwarded from the I.A.R.C. Paris Branch three days prior.
It was a detailed post-mortem of the Osiris Temple battle, personally written by Julian.
The report's contents were presented to the heads of every relevant departnt within the Underground City via the Association's most efficient Hers Ether Communication Array, in a manner resembling a "live broadcast."
When the report described the bizarre Mass Judgnt of the obsidian Anubis, the old scholars in the Academic Research Departnt collectively plunged into fervent discussion.
And when the report ntioned how Lin Jie ultimately broke the rules using the mythological logic of "feather and heart," Intelligence Analyst Phillips silently raised Lin Jie's strategic value rating by another notch.
Within the London Branch's Field Operations Departnt office, Lin Jie's guide, Top Hat Barton, frowned deeply as he read and re-read the copy of the battle report that had just arrived from the telegraph room.
Sitting opposite him was the burly man, Marcus.
Marcus wasn't reading the report. He was cleaning his massive M1887 lever-action shotgun.
"William really took a nasty fall this ti."
Though they belonged to different squads and had once fought bloody battles over a bottle of rum on the boxing ring at the Old Captain bar, Marcus understood better than anyone just how formidable that extrely stubborn British veteran truly was.
And now, he had been shattered in a single blow.
Barton put down the report in his hands and looked up at his partner.
"Marcus, if it were you standing there facing that Easterner nad 'Yan Xilou,' what would your chances of victory be?"
Marcus stopped wiping the barrel.
He fell silent.
He seed to be conducting a silent simulation battle within his mind.
He placed himself in William's position.
He imagined that bizarre three-sectioned staff that could flow and ignore blocks as his enemy.
After a long while, he finally spoke in a very uncertain tone.
"His weapon and techniques are... sinister."
"If it were just a simple contest of blocking skill and defensive solidity, my outco probably wouldn't be any better than William's."
Hearing this conclusion, Barton's gaze grew even more grave.
If even Marcus said sothing like that, the threat level of that Easterner was likely one tier higher than the report's assessnt!
"...But."
Marcus's tone suddenly shifted.
He tapped the floor with his boot, a trace of ferocity appearing in his expression.
"The core of my Unshakable Bedrock isn't blocking."
"It's... gravity!"
"That staff of his can indeed flow past my weapon, bypass my body, but it absolutely cannot flow past the earth beneath my feet!"
"As long as my feet remain within the domain, no matter how bizarre his attacks are, they can at most cause superficial wounds."
This confident analysis caused Barton's tightly furrowed brow to relax slightly.
"So, you're confident you can defeat him?"
Marcus, however, shook his head, a bitter smile appearing on his face.
"No, I can only guarantee not losing. But to defeat him... I don't know."
"The report said that his strike also carried so kind of alien spiritual energy that could erode internal organs from within."
"I'm not certain if my domain can isolate that formless contamination."
"And,"
Marcus added finally.
"A man who can toy with an opponent of William's caliber... his trump cards definitely can't be as simple as just one weapon."
...
anwhile, in the deepest part of the Underground City, within the Fourth Equipnt Laboratory.
Arthur had zero interest in these complex considerations regarding human nature and strategy.
His entire attention was locked onto the detailed descriptions of that "one-move defeat" battle in the report.
"...The weapon used by Yan Xilou is a three-sectioned staff of traditional Chinese design. Its material is unknown, nad Nine-Bend Yellow River. Its core attack thod possesses an extrely bizarre 'fluidity.'"
"According to the recollection of survivor Sergeant William Keane, when he used the solid barrel of the Church Holy Cannon to perform a frontal block, the opponent's staff did not engage in any 'rigid collision' with it. Instead, it flowed past the barrel like a living liquid, attacking his body from an angle that defies physical laws..."
"...Conclusion: This weapon ignores all forms of frontal blocking based on physical entities, and its attacks carry unknown spiritual power."
When these words, written by Julian with the most objective, coldest pen, were typed character by character onto Arthur's receiving terminal by the telegraph machine, this genius craftsman felt anger and humiliation originating from the depths of his soul.
This wasn't just a battle between ordinary hunters in the distant Egyptian desert.
This was a "war"!
This was an open challenge from the mysterious Eastern forging philosophy to the entire Western world.
William's Church Holy Cannon was a work personally crafted by Arthur.
The barrel fused special alloy steel supplied by the Krupp Armants Factory. The stock used strategic-grade core wood from Sanctified Oak.
Whether judged by "physical hardness" or "spiritual resilience," that lever-action rifle was an outstanding work of late 19th-century firearms.
Yet, such a work failed to block even a fraction against Yan Xilou's peculiar three-sectioned staff.
"Like a living liquid, flowing past the barrel."
Arthur pondered this sentence from the report repeatedly. He had dealt with "force" his entire life.
His work was about making armor more solid, weapons sharper, and energy transmission more efficient.
All of Arthur's designs and theories were built within the frawork of classical physics concepts like "collision," "blocking," and "penetration."
And now, an Easterner with a single weapon easily told him:
All your theories are ineffective against .
A surge of pride and competitive spirit from a top-tier craftsman erupted in Arthur's chest.
He punched the steam forging press beside him.
"'Fluidity,' is it?"
He stared at that passage in the telegraph draft, squeezing out a low voice through gritted teeth.
"Fine! Very good!"
"Since a shield can't block a river."
"Then I'll forge a dam that can solidify the river!"
Thus, for the next three days, Arthur locked himself in the laboratory.
He forgot to eat and sleep, working tirelessly.
Arthur read the combat descriptions of the Nine-Bend Yellow River from Julian's report over and over, attempting to reverse-engineer the operational chanism of that Eastern divine weapon from those few lines of text.
"Fluidity... penetration... ignoring blocks..."
"This violates the law of conservation of energy. Unless its essence isn't the transmission of force, but a... transformation of state..."
Arthur's mind entered an overclocked state of high-speed operation.
He discarded all traditional design approaches based on physical concepts like hardness, toughness, and armor-piercing.
To counter that rule-like attack, one must oppose it with another, even stronger rule!
A crazy idea gradually took shape in his mind.
At that mont, a cooperative gift sent as part of the truce agreent from the Root Guardians organization arrived at his laboratory.
It was a peculiar ore the size of a human head, its pitch-black surface covered with nurous honeycomb-like micropores.
According to the attached note from the Root Guardians, this ore, only found in the deepest mineral vein nodes of the Alpine mountains, was called "stasis ore" by them.
It possessed no energy itself, but its honeycomb-like microporous structure could passively absorb and store large amounts of ambient free spiritual energy, like a sponge.
The mont Arthur saw this ore, his bloodshot eyes suddenly lit up.
Inspiration!
An idea flashed through his mind.
Absorption... storage... stasis!
What if this passive absorption characteristic could be transford into an active, directional energy drain through amplification by so alchemical matrix?
What if the drained energy wasn't simply stored, but instantly converted into a domain that could plunge all energy within a designated area into absolute stasis?
When the Nine-Bend Yellow River's fluid-like attack ca, just envelop it with this "stasis domain."
Wouldn't the so-called "fluidity" then beco a ridiculous specin frozen in amber?!
Having grasped this point, Arthur let out a fanatical laugh.
He rushed to his design table, tore up all his previous drafts, and spread out a fresh piece of parchnt.
His inspiration poured forth.
He used stasis ore ground into powder mixed with rcury and mithril solution as the "energy absorption coating" for the entire armant's core.
Then, using Lin Jie's "spiritual conduction circuits" theory, he designed a structurally complex "brass rail skeleton" capable of rapidly conducting the absorbed energy to various nodes.
As for the armant's outer shell, he abandoned traditional alloys that pursued hardness, opting instead for a "composite shock absorption structure" composed of multiple layers of quenched steel plates and vulcanized rubber stacked alternately.
This structure was common in new train suspension systems, possessing significant force-dispersion and buffering effects.
The core of the entire armant, the launcher responsible for processing and releasing the stasis power, was designed by him as a precise "spiritual synchronization trono" composed of nurous micro-escapent wheels, balance wheels, and jewel bearings.
The inspiration for this design ca from his reverse engineering of Lin Jie's ntal Staircase module.
It couldn't perform complex calculations, but it could pulsate at a very stable fixed frequency.
When external spiritual energy was absorbed by the stasis ore coating and channeled into this trono through the brass rails, its originally stable pulsation frequency would be disrupted, generating a strong resonance detuning.
When amplified, this detuning could form a force field capable of plunging the surrounding spiritual flow into chaos and stagnation.
A blueprint for a weapon born for revenge, specifically designed to counter "fluidity" and "variability" weapons, gradually took shape under his pen.
After an unknown amount of ti, when the wall-mounted, Association Logistics Departnt-issued chiming clock sounded its seventh chi, marking the start of a new work cycle, Arthur Conan finally made the final stroke on his design diagram.
Exhausted, he straightened up and examined his masterpiece with a proud gaze.
Then, he picked up the charcoal pencil and solemnly wrote the na of this future divine weapon at the very bottom of the design.
Lockriver.
However, to turn this fantastical work from blueprint into reality, he still needed one final, most crucial core material.
He needed a tough and powerful object as the weapon's container, to bear and harness that power capable of plunging energy into stasis.
Conventional spiritual materials from Town-class or even Kingdom-class UMAs appeared far too fragile in the face of this level of confrontation.
Arthur's gaze slowly turned toward the deepest corner of the laboratory.
There stood a massive constant-temperature storage cabinet made of lead and brass, its surface engraved with multiple layers of sanctification runes and warning symbols.
That was the Fourth Equipnt Laboratory's restricted area.
Sealed inside was the only remnant from a Calamity-class UMA that Arthur had ever processed since joining I.A.R.C.!
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