A tenebrous shadow ford in the open waters, and a second later, a vertical black box appeared in its place.
Princess Octavia was clueless as to what she was looking at, but Princess Serena was a little bit more familiar with the contraption. Its chanical nature reminded her of the giant buzzing buildings in the outskirts of the Nation of Reborn, which produced all the electricity in the Parched Lands.
"This is your solution?" Octavia said, skepticism leaking in her voice.
"It is, but it’s going to need a little bit of a set up."
Without waiting for her response, Michael raised his hand and summoned four magic circles in the water, surprising the octopus princess.
"Simultaneous casting?!"
She would have never thought that the nerdy history protege would turn out to be so talented in the Mystic Arts.
Michael ignored her surprise and summoned an enclosure similar to that of a giant aquarium. It was lined with tal on its sides, and a very sturdy glass that allowed anyone to look inside.
This aquarium was sothing that would only be seen in a zoo, since it was large enough to enclose large marine animals like dolphins, sharks, and the like.
Octavia and Serena looked on as Michael manifested this enclosure using only magic, barely even lifting his finger as he did so. The ease in which he completed this task betrayed his true talent as a master of the Mystic Arts.
One could see in Octavia’s eyes that she was starting to look at Michael in a different way. Now, he wasn’t just a history student, but a capable magician.
Once the giant aquarium was finished, Michael installed the 6-feet tall ’filter’ on the side of the glass pane.
Then, he reached down into his pockets and revealed a simple spherical object the size of a nail. Its prismatic luster emanated a kind of power that was innately destructive and overpowering in nature, sothing that Octavia had never seen before.
"... a bomb," she muttered under her breath.
The octopus princes rightly deduced the Unity Bomb’s true nature. Her eyebrows raised, now becoming more interested in that object than the solution Michael had prepared.
Michael opened a latch on the top of the filter and installed the Unity Bomb in an indentation in the stainless steel interior that perfectly fit its size.
Once securely in place, he closed the latch, making sure it had no gaps. If there were, the internal explosion within could leak out and destroy the whole aquarium entirely.
Then, pressed the ’on’ button on the top and waited until the machine buzzed to life.
Princess Octavia reeled back, her tentacles moving defensively as it stared at the weird object making such grating noises.
"What is that?!"
Michael knocked on the filter’s fra. "Don’t worry. I’ve ensured its safety," he said nonchalantly as the Unity Bomb inside started to emit explosions that rippled out into the water.
He closed the aquarium by manifesting a glass lid on top, only letting the intake pipe jut out near the edge.
Water began rushing inside the filter from the tal intake tube on top, and began shooting them inside the aquarium at an even faster speed.
Michael looked at his own creation and nodded, satisfied with his work.
After the initial shock was over, Princess Octavia slowly swam up to the giant aquarium and studied it carefully—particularly the strange black box that seed to contain a tal monster inside.
"Is this... is this it?" Princess Octavia said, a little bit disappointed. With such a large contraption, she was hoping to see a much more fantastical change in the waters.
However, despite this failure, it did successfully change her mind.
Seeing his Mystical talents as well as that strange prismatic bomb, Princess Octavia now wanted to ally herself with Keo even more than before. He might not solve their lake’s problem, but he could offer a different kind of help in her campaign against her brother.
"Instead of this, how about we talk about a different kind of cooperation—"
Michael raised his hand, an excited smile growing on his face. "Wait..."
His gaze was pointed towards a quaint group of small fishes swimming aimlessly in the gloomy dark waters of the lake. Their scales were grey and lifeless, with just a hint of color glistening in the tiniest bit of light coming from the surface.
Octavia knew this species of minnows. They grew to large numbers back in the great sea, so they imported a lot of them here in the lake in the hopes of that they would reproduce and beco a source of nutrition for all life and rn alike.
However, the lack of sustenance in the water quickly dwindled down their numbers.
And since they were easy prey, they beca the first few fishes to beco hunted during this great shortage of food.
Forced into hiding, these friendly, beautiful fishes now beca morose. They avoided all contact from fishes and rn alike, and would swim away at the smallest hint of soone else swimming in the waters.
Octavia’s eyes widened once she realized that these minnows weren’t swimming away. They were instead slowly creeping up towards them!
This was a complete shock to her! The strange chanical churning of the filters should have scared these fishes off before they could even get close enough to see it with their own eyes!
Yet it continued to swim towards the giant glass containnt, their movents careful but curious.
Michael quickly twisted his hands, conjuring a magic circle that allowed him to create a small opening in the aquarium’s glass pane.
All three of them were silent as the first minnow slowly entered through the gap.
Octavia especially held her breath, afraid that the water coming out of her gills would scare these fishes away.
Her worries were proven moot as the second minnow entered the aquarium, then the third, then the fourth, until all of them swam inside the containnt with no signs of fear at all.
These apprehensive minnows were gliding through the waters with vitality, darting around like a kid on a playground. It was as if they didn’t care if they depleted all of their energy while they swam!
"How is this possible?! These fishes... they’re getting fed!" Octavia realized.
Slowly but surely, the grey scales on these minnows were starting to regain their luster as they moved around in these ’normal’ streams of water.
Michael knew what was happening. Inside this aquarium, phytoplanktons were multiplying at a comnsurate rate. They were attracted by the mana-rich waters circulating inside, which in turn, attracted the minnows that now began to feast on these phytoplanktons, thus starting the abundant cycle of marine life.
"It works," he declared.
"It works," Serena echoed back, nodding in pride and satisfaction. She looked back at her sister, pleasantly taking in the shock and awe at her expense.
"It works...," Octavia muttered, still in disbelief.
They waited for a few more minutes, before more and more fishes began to waddle inside the aquarium. It wasn’t just minnows now, it was also starfishes, sea urchins, crabs, you na it. The gathering crowd of motley marine animals further exacerbated the cycle of life inside, attracting more and more until a few hours later, the aquarium was filled to the brim with fishes.
Even seeing it form in her own eyes, Octavia still couldn’t believe what was happening.
"How..."
"You may not know this, but the waters in this lake are completely devoid of mana."
rn and Beastfolks in general only had Dao Hearts at their disposal. They did not have mana cores, aning they couldn’t sense the mana in the waters.
"And without mana, microscopical life like phytoplanktons cannot reproduce. And without them, these fishes cannot sustain themselves.
But thanks to this filter I made, the water gets saturated with mana. That’s the water you see flowing out of that black box."
He pointed towards the tal pipe on the bottom of the filter. That’s where most of the fishes gathered around, despite getting thrown asunder by the fast stream.
Princess Octavia, despite not knowing the terms Michael threw out, was quickly able to follow the logic behind his reasoning.
"I see... in short, this ’filter’ of yours brings sustenance to the water, and in turn, brings food to the fishes."
"Yep. exactly."
"Can you build more?"
He nodded. "This is just a prototype for now. But I can build an even bigger one later. That can probably saturate the waters around the Sunken Ship easily."
"And what if you build more?"
"It’s possible to saturate the entire lake if need be."
It would be a huge undertaking since they’d be placing almost a hundred of giant filters around the lake—especially around the trench. But it was possible.
"Keo..."
"Yes?"
"Take my Sand Dollars."
Michael inwardly celebrated. He cleansed his expression of avarice before turning towards Octavia. "Does that an you’ll work together with the Reborn company?"
One million Sand Dollars!
"Yes. I can promise you a hundred million Sand Dollars upon completion of the project."
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