Chapter 1005 Prototype
Arriving at the healers guild, Shiro could see clerics running all over the place as some had panicked expressions asking for Silvia's whereabouts.
"Seems like this isn't an average wound if clerics are worried." Shiro frowned.
"I've found Silvia. Seems like she's in her office talking with a guy right now. It's the same guy that caused the explosion."
"Oh? Well why don't we go have a look then." Shiro smiled.
Just as they were about to walk away, they saw a nurse pushing a patient towards the backrooms.
Giving the patient a casual glance, Shiro halted her steps in surprise at the wound.
There was a faint silver wire of sorts nibbling away at his flesh, trying to integrate itself with the man so that it could survive.
Gesturing for Nan Tian to stop for a moment, Shiro drank a potion and activated analysis before scanning the man's body.
"Well I'll be damned." Shiro muttered with a small frown.
"Is there something wrong?"
"Yeah. The person who caused this explosion created a very early prototype of nanotech. That wire is eating away at the mana and has already linked itself to the heart and mana realm." Shiro narrowed her eyes in displeasure.
Currently, they were camouflaged so no one could see them.
"Let Silvia talk with the culprit for now. Let's deal with this before it gets annoying." Shiro said as Nan Tian nodded his head.
Dropping the camouflage, the people in the room were surprised to see Shiro suddenly appear beside the cleric as she stepped forward.
"Let me deal with this." Shiro said as she snapped her finger and placed her hand above the man's chest.
Before the cleric could even say anything, silver wires started to appear through the wound before wrapping around Shiro's hand.
Seeing that it was trying to invade her body, Shiro scoffed in displeasure before destroying them with her nanobots.
Tracing a rune on his chest, his wounds started to close as a faint green flame flickered on his body.
Seeing this, Nan Tian raised his eyebrows in surprise as her casting of Life Fire was different compared to before but he didn't say anything for now.
"Show me to where the rest of your patients are. I'll go heal them since the wound is a little unique." Shiro said as the cleric nodded her head in a panic. She didn't expect the goddess of this city to suddenly appear besides her but a quick look at the man told her that he's been healed.
Not wanting to waste Shiro's time, the cleric quickly led her to the emergency room while other clerics tended to the man who had just been healed. They were going to make sure that there's nothing else that's wrong with his body.
Arriving at the emergency room, Shiro couldn't help but feel pity for those laying on the beds. Some of them had their face disfigured and metal wiring wriggled beneath the skin while others were missing entire limbs. The prototype nanotech hasn't linked itself to their heart or mana realm just yet so the removal process was simple.
Checking her mana pool, Shiro figured that it should be enough for what she wanted to do.
Flexing her finger, a silver orb of metal appeared above each of the patients as she snapped her finger. The moment she did, the wires were magnetised to the orbs as some tried to fight back but were unable to separate themselves. With the wires removed from the patients' body, she drew a small rune in the air as all of them started to heal with Life Fire.
"Are there any more patients or is this the only batch?" Shiro asked.
"This is the only batch we have your highness. The other victims were able to protect themselves with barriers in time so light healing did the job." The cleric replied respectfully as Shiro was able to deal with the patients quickly.
They had a hard time trying to heal because the wires would drain them of mana, preventing the use of healing spells. The moment they tried to remove the wire, they would dig deeper into the victim's body hence why they wanted Silvia to have a look at them.
The man that Shiro first healed was the most critical patient as the wire could have killed the man at any moment.
"Is that so? Alright that's fine then. I doubt there will be anymore injuries like this but just in case, I want you to remember this. When dealing with these wires that drain you of mana, it fights back and prevents healing on the victim, the best way to deal with them is to offer a greater source of mana than the one they're attached to. One that is easy to get. These wires aren't that smart so you can deal with them like that. If that doesn't work then you can look for me or Silvia." Shiro said as she turned to leave with Nan Tian.
Flexing her fingers, all of the orbs with the wires disintegrated, erasing all signs of the prototype nanotech.
Walking towards Silvia's office with a neutral expression, Shiro wanted to see the man that began research on such a dangerous subject.
Glancing down at Shiro's expression, Nan Tian could tell that she was thinking about her past. Seeing the prototype version of her nanobots must've reminded her of her time in the labs.
Remembering the sight of the wire eating through the victims, Nan Tian couldn't imagine how much pain it must have been. It was no wonder she was so tolerant against pain to the point that she could break her arm or pierce her own torso without so much as flinching.
Arriving at Silvia's office, Shiro knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" Silvia's voice rang out.
"It's me, Shiro."
"Hn???? Shiro!? Ah right come in." Silvia replied as she was surprised to see Shiro wandering around.
Opening the door, Shiro could see the man responsible for this sitting on a chair while Silvia was questioning him.
"Let me move this man elsewhere." Silvia smiled but Shiro shook her head.
"No it's fine. I'm here for him anyways. We can talk later but my main question is how he made such a dangerous weapon." Shiro said as she narrowed her eyes at the man.
Feeling her gaze, the man couldn't help but become pale as he knows how powerful she is. If she wanted him dead, he wouldn't be able to do anything and no one would say anything either.
"I-I'm sorry! It wasn't my intention to harm people I just wanted to research! I didn't think it'll explode!" He quickly apologised as Shiro sat on the sofa in front of him.
"Mn, do you understand what you have created?" Shiro asked as Silvia wanted to say something but Nan Tian gestured for her to listen for now.
"Yes I do. It was something inspired by the weapons that you have created." The man nodded his head.
"And you understand that the things I used to create my weapons are highly volatile, no?"
".. .I do. But I didn't think it would break down that quickly! I've ran through the experiment a few times before and I should have had another hour before it collapses!" The man explained but the moment he looked up, he saw Shiro's cold eyes staring at him which caused his entire body to tense up in fear.
"Think of it like an animal. If you feed it a tiny tiny bowl of food, it's only natural that it'll become hungry. But the moment it is presented a giant storage house of food, it's no wonder it'll go berserk. What you created was starved from just feeding off your mana. The moment it saw other's, all it saw were meals that it could feast upon." Shiro explained as she snapped her finger.
Feeling pain run through his body, the man writhed on the chair in agony as he wasn't able to scream.
Suddenly, his back ripped open as thousands upon thousands of wires linked to his body started to break apart and fall to the ground.
Seeing this, Silvia gasped in shock since she didn't sense anything like that on his body.
"I'm doing you a favour before you're turned into a monster by the prototype. It's already smart enough to evade detection and you don't even have a proper collar around it. If I didn't intervene, I'd say you have another month at max before you're consumed." Shiro scoffed as she clenched her fist, destroying the wires along with a majority of the man's body that had been taken over by the nanotech.
Healing him with her life fire, she could see that he had blacked out from the pain.
"Place him in a solo containment just in case there are anymore fragments left over." Shiro ordered before glancing at the silver blood staining the floor. Cleaning it instantly with a swipe of her finger, she sat on the sofa silently while Silvia moved the man to a different room so that he could be observed.
Leaning back, Shiro sighed. Nanotech was powerful but behind one success was millions upon millions of deaths. This was when technology was at its peak during her world too. If the humans here tried to attempt this, there's no telling how many sacrifices will be needed. Billions? The mere thought caused her to sigh heavily.