Chapter 263: Chapter 263

"How to use your power properly." Alexanders finally addressed the thing that Ale had asked, or well, stated.

"That is something that can have as many answers as you can think of," Alexanders carried on, setting his fork atop the table in front of him, "Or can have only one answer."

"That... sounds counterintuitive to each other, how can something have many answers yet only have one?" Ale said confused, "That is not logical in the least."

Actually, it was stupid, nothing could be anathema to itself, or contradict itself this much, that was not how things worked. Logic did not work like that.

"Easy," Alexanders said raising his index finger, "How did I do this?"

And then, atop his finger a sphere of what looked to be electricity started hovering... Only... electricity didn't behave like that, so what was that?

"[Detected discharge of plasma, detected a magnetic containment field surrounding said sphere.]"

How... How was it behaving like that? It should disperse in all directions!

Actually, wasn't that really dangerous?!?!

"From your expression you did realize what this was, good." Alexanders said smiling and picking up the sphere with his other hand, he started playing with it, as if it was a normal ball... Each movement made Ale flinch.

"He is messing with you," Miriam Eversoul said from the side, "The more attention you give to his shenanigans the more he will bother you with them."

"Ignore the haters," Alexanders added from the side, "She is angry because she doesn't get why all the people flinch whenever I do this."

"But her assessment is correct." Vivian Kellet stated as she stood, she moved to take the dirty dishes that had been finished, passing by Ale who still had some of her pancakes, but taking Alexanders and Miriam Eversoul dirty dishes, "Even though your reaction is the correct, you can be assured, if that ever broke the building security and safety measures would isolate the issue... and the one that caused it."

Ale... hadn't noticed anything like that.

"[Starting search...Downloading schematics of building... Categorizing...]"

Main Core got into the task at once as soon as Ale thought about it.

"[Accessing local database... handshake protocol established...Confirmed sixty-nine protocols to ensure the safety and security of the inhabitants of this building.]"

....Really? Sixty-nine?

"What?" Alexanders said, confused at Ale, probably because Ale's expression had turned from one of worry to one of disappointment, the blonde man merely stared at Ale with a fork in his hand, "I will throw this at you, don't test me."

"...Nothing," Ale said sighing, what had she expected? This was, after all, Alexa's older brother. "So? What was the point again? You probably are using your Core Power to do that... somehow..."

"And that is the crux of the matter," Alexanders said letting the sphere of plasma float around him, orbiting as if it was a moon trapped in his gravity well... or something, "I hired a few B-List, C-List and one particular prickly D-List and paid all their debts if they managed to do this. None managed, well... the D-List got close, but lost concentration and ended frying his left arm, had to get him a new one."

"...Was that how the guy with the left arm that had all his nerve endings fried came to be?" Vivian Kellet asked from the kitchen, "The one that wanted a bionic arm that could tolerate Lightning discharges and that you ordered specifically that we did not fulfill his request?"

"That's the guy, he called me stupid. So he gets a training arm. So long as he manages to continue using his Core Power, he will probably rise to A-List." Alexanders said nodding at his own statement, it was funny seing how some of his mannerisms where this similar to those of Alexa, "So, you answered that I did this using my Core Power. Which, to be fair, was obvious. The question is... how?"

"You built... a containment field using electromagnetism then made the plasma...?" Ale said thinking about it, that was the obvious answer, well, second most obvious answer anyway, "But I assume that is not what you are asking?"

"It is," Alexanders answered, "But the crux of the matter is not what I did, but how I did it. Any takes? Feel free to showcase your above high school knowledge too Eversoul, Kellet."

Vivian Kellet didn't answer and instead continued washing the dirty dishes. While Miriam Eversoul just huffed.

"That's just some fancy lightning showcase, you are probably just controlling the lightning from escaping your area of control." Was the answer that Miriam Eversoul came in the end.

"That is an sphere of condensed plasma," Vivian Kellet finally answered, "Most people react with panic or fear as they know the effects of such condensed amount of raw plasma, the temperature would be enough to cause some damage to the nearby furniture and the electromagnetic interference would probably fry a few of the devices... if it was normal plasma that is."

"What do you mean?" Miriam Eversoul said, eyeing with suspicion at Alexanders, "It isn't normal lightning?"

"Nope," Alexanders smirked, "Funny thing, the phenomena we bring forth to the real world with Core Powers are more potent than those in a normal environment, in this example, my sphere of plasma has several orders of magnitude more dangerous."

"One of my subordinates said that they had measured the damage, that is comparable with a small explosive, the temperature would be capable of melting steel plates and the electromagnetic damage would be high enough to damage most of the electronic devices within this apartment." Vivian Kellet said still not turning to look at them, "That is when taking into consideration the output of most B-List Core Users."

"What spot does he have in that list?" Ale asked unsure if she really wanted to know.

"That list is measured by the degree of damage one can cause to their environment. Just by existing this man is near the top of the list, so that metric is pointless when judging him." Miriam Eversoul answered before Alexanders could.

"If it was only the type of power, mine is near the D-List. If we take the amount of influence it gives me, it rises to C-List." Alexanders answered nontheless, "To rise above one needs smarts, knowledge and luck."

Ale assumed Alexanders had the first two, she would need to gauge how he moved and behaved to see the third, so at least B-List.

By using that metric Alexa was probably near the top, if the fear to the Nanites was to go by, and the fact that she could create new Core users could by itself send her to the very top.

"So, what am I doing then?" Alexanders asked yet again, "Vivian and Eversoul already answered. Expand upon your previous answers, give me the methodology you would use if you were in my place."

The method she would use?

Ale couldn't help but raise her hand and look at her own Index finger, all it would take would be for her to create the needed machinery within her body to generate the containment field...

"I would first create a Faraday cage," Ale said imagining the process, the blueprints she would need to develop or source, "Feed the energy to kickstart the plasma and start feeding inside the Faraday cage, then keep the stability and check the status of the containment field as I decide what to do next."

Alexanders smiled at that answer while Vivian Kellet nodded from the other side of the kitchen, Miriam Eversoul... Just shrugged at Ale's stare.

"Good," Alexanders ended up saying when no one else spoke, "That is, indeed what I do."

"Kinda obvious to be honest," Ale said as answer to that statement.

"You would think so," Alexanders laughed at the retort from Ale, "But turns out, the guy I said before? The one that got the closest? He merely 'willed the sphere of plasma into being' or so he said, he had no formula or thought what his actions would generate. Merely thought very hard 'I want a sphere like that' and his Core Power did the rest."

...That... sounded highly irresponsible.

"Most Core Users do that, they don't understand what their Core Powers do. It's why we have such a weird subset of Core powers categorized as 'Beast Core' when they all are just shifters too dumb to understand that a 'Power that lets me turn into a bear' is in reality 'A power that lets me change into another form'." Alexanders shook his head in disappointment, "Just because the first time they became a bear does not mean they can't change into other forms... But it's like talking to a wall."

"We don't understand Core Powers yet, perhaps their Core power works like that, while yours doesn't." Miriam Eversoul chimed from the side.

But Ale shared that same sentiment with Alexanders.

"I can turn into animals too," So Ale chimed from the side, "And I am not a beast core user."

"See!" Alexanders jumped into the statement, throwing the sphere of Plasma behind him where it fizzled out into nothing, "I told you they worked like I said!"

"I do need a working blueprint, and the biomass to compensate in case my new form ends up bigger." Ale said adding the needed requirements in case they asked her to shift into said bear, "But it can be done."

"And they don't have that limitation," Miriam Eversoul said turning to Alexanders, "So that would mean the power of Ale and the power of those beast core users isn't the same."

"That could be explained by the fact that she is just more efficient, most beast core users have to ingest a great amount of food to be healthy, while she doesn't need to." Alexanders pointed that as his defense, "So that just means she is good at using her power and they aren't."

"That is just your point of view," Miriam Eversoul said shrugging, "If you had gotten a beast core then we could test it, but you didn't. So unless you find a way to reroll your Core Power..."

"Hah!" Alexanders barked a laugh, "You wish, I ain't dropping this one even if we could find a way to do it."

"What's so good about that one?" Ale asked not wanting to be forgotten. "I would imagine you would want... you know..."

"What a Dragon Core?" Alexanders smirked, "Nah, I just think this one is cool. Don't get me wrong, I have seen what you can do, and have a few theories about what you could do. But shooting Lightning from your hands and feeling the whole EM environment... If you all could see the world as I can... You wouldn't want anything else, besides..."

Alexanders then turned to look around, and Ale noticed how his eyes had stopped for a few extra seconds on the purple woman who was once again floating behind them.

"This one serves my needs just nicely." Alexanders ended up adding, "But that is really besides the point, what matters now is that we have found out that your methodology is just like mine, so that solves how to help you."

"What do you mean?" Ale asked confused, there was no way that Alexanders didn't know how their power worked, their actual power. He had the original blueprints of P4 after all. "Didn't you already know how our power worked?"

"That?" Alexanders said pointing behind him, behind him was the kitchen, "That doesn't matter, what you did before, or how you did it is meaningless, unless you want to return to that?"

"No." Ale refused to be like that again, "But that is what is at our foundation."

Their foundation was of a BioWeapon.

"You are thinking about it wrong," Alexanders said smirking once again, "Your foundation may be that, but how you go about it is very different, look at where you are and how you are right now. Are you like you were before?"

She was not a ten-tonne mechanical crab. Right now, she was a teenager who had several modifications to her skeletal system and a few mechanical upgrades to her body. So she shook her head.

"And the way you use your power is different, yeah sure, you can do a few of the things that you did before. You did learn many interesting tricks did you not?" Alexanders said shrugging as he walked behind Ale, placing both his hands atop her shoulders, "But you can do many things you couldn't do before can't you? Or could you have made a 20mm anti-material rifle inside your body? Could you create the custom-made ammunition? You brought all those changes from thin air did you not?"

... Ale hadn't thought about that.

"Besides you can do other things you couldn't before, don't think I haven't noticed your weight..." This last bit was more of a whisper than anything, was it a warning? Or a reminder?

Ale had for a second forgotten the kind of person that this man was, even if he was showing favor to her... and even if he indeed felt guilty about her for some reason, he was still the person who had made the original program from... whatever reason.

"Yes..." Ale nodded for now, "My Core Power has other aspects to it that I haven't understood that well."

"Yeah," Alexanders latched on that and didn't mention anything about his previous statement, "Guessed as much, when you translated the design like that instead of materializing the weapon itself, was it because you wouldn't be able to shoot it normally? Or something that your Core power decided for you?"

"The first," Ale answered, "I would not be able to wield that kind of weapon even if I have the strength to hold it, my center of gravity would change too much, and the gun would be too unstable. So I adapted it and used my whole body as a stand for it."

That had been the answer she had come to naturally anyway, she wasn't sure if Core had chimed in on her decision or not, but she was guessing Core was not part of the equation.

"So, for now we know that you can make anything you have a blueprint for." Alexanders said as he walked in front of her once again. "So that means you are more of a builder than someone who just asks and gets things out of thin air. Meaning your only limiter is the amount of 'Blueprints' that is to say, knowledge you have."

That was kind of obvious to Ale from the beginning.

"So she needs to study." Miriam Eversoul said from the table, "We don't have schools here yet to we?"

"Those are set up for the last phase," Alexanders answered, "We need to finish all the infrastructure first and set up the hospitals and daycare centers first, besides hiring the teachers first."

"Don't forget of the administrative side again," Miriam Eversoul sighed from behind, "It was hell the first time."

What were they speaking about? School? Alexa went to school already, but they couldn't expect her to learn how to use her core power there right?

Alexa cared not for those things.

"ALBIREO and CRADDLE can deal with that, if needed Cardinal can help too." Alexanders said shaking his head, "We will get some administrative personnel of course, but not as much as you suggested, I don't mind giving works that amounts to nothing and are only to keep the populace fed, but I will not leave such crucial work in the hands of people. This is too important for that."

"What are you two speaking about?" Ale raised her hand to get some attention.

"Oh right, you don't know." Alexanders said facepalming, "Right... should probably start from there, do you know where we are right now?"

"Aquila right?" Ale said, "A super secret installation or something, I wasn't paying too much attention when coming here, just in case you didn't want me to see too much."

"What?" Alexanders seemed surprised at that, "Such a waste... but then again, it may be for the better, but no. That is not what I mean, do you know what this is, what this is really, out in the open."

"...A lab to create... something?" Ale had almost said 'To create bioweapons'.

"I mean, that is on the side, and what I will tell the old geezers, but no. The actual end goal is..." Alexanders smiled, this time it seemed actually genuine. "Something that will become a beacon of knowledge and move our civilization forward."

"... You will light the beacon of civilization...?" Ale said almost automatically, the words that she had seen a few times at the end of Core's messages.

"Yes!" Alexanders said with his eyes shining, almost like how Alexa looked whenever she was excited about something, "That's it! We will light the beacon of civilization! That's perfect!"

...Was... wasn't that their motto? Granted, Ale hadn't seen it anywhere besides Core's messages.

"You have earned the right to ask me for anything, and I will get it for you. ANYTHING!" Alexanders was busy writing something on his phone that he had brought at some point, "I need to save it and send it to marketing, we need to ensure no one is using it yet."

...Was... wasn't Ale supposed to say it? Turning to look at Sapphire she found the woman smiling mysteriously, an almost imperceptible nod was sent her way.

The woman knew the saying too, Ale was sure. But... if Sapphire knew it, if Core knew it... Why didn't Alexanders?