Isaac's body froze in place.
It felt as if his entire skeleton was locked down. One could imagine the pain of an entire body's weight pressing against a fixed skeletal anatomy. Some of his muscles ripped immediately as blood vessels and nerves were pressed against Calcium.
Topological Anchor V2 dispersed, returning him to the waking world.
He howled in distress.
Not to mention the blast of heat that narrowly cut past Isaac's cheek, searing away at his hair and Zone.
"Argh!"
Shit?! What the fuck happened?!
Stamina: 78% |
For an instant, all he heard was the distortion of air being ripped apart by energy. The Clause-Construct disintegrated on contact with the limit of Zadial's Zone behind him, leaving only a scorched atmosphere and lingering pressure gradients in its wake; it temporarily left a vacuum next to his ear where surrounding air rushed back in.
Pop.
There was a low ringing that slowly rose. Isaac slammed his now free hand to the soundless ear.
And as he pulled back, he saw blood.
It was not a gush of red running down his sideburns, but most definitely permanent injuries for the remainder of the duel. He even got on one knee, unwillingly, of course. His perilymph fistula shook hard enough to disturb the vestibular organs.
The mock Build…
It immediately deactivated, leaving more sensory overload. Cortical Thaumiton coherence fell from fifty percent to zero, and Isaac's mind scattered across quantum phase states like a disrupted interference pattern.
Ideas and thoughts one would never dream of thinking about during a battle all flooded in. No stability meant that he was running on an open loop, allowing all the external influences in.
His head was throbbing in melting pain, no different from his eyes rupturing, yet felt more innerly. A deserved result from his attempt to scale a height he could not possibly comprehend.
Around him, the battlefield spun in chaos; probability was going wild. Wind vectors fluctuating across local pockets, Thaumiton currents crossing and recrossing in destructive interference. Zadial's Spirits saturated the terrain with overlapping fields calibrated to disrupt internal Thaumiton locking while maintaining aggressive pressure on the now rolling and crawling Isaac.
In the center of it all was Zadial Ysarim, majestically walking through the chaos with his hand finally outstretched, as if something in his palm was being crushed.
The tactic was destructively beautiful.
Isaac quickly deduced that the object being crushed, or in this case, suspended, was his entire skeletal frame, at least his legs only; upon crouching to a knee, he felt the gap left where his muscles should have pushed the fibula forward, causing more muscle tearing. Even in bone itself, Calcium merely makes up 40% of the total mineral content.
One must imagine Isaac's brittleness.
I don't have time to breathe…
He keeps… Hah… Pebbling me with his Spirits…
No wonder this fucker has only 3 losses… He systematically breaks down the opponents without intervening himself, and at the crucible of their prime, he crushes them like earth… Shit, how tho?! How the hell can Magic affect bodily autonomy…
I don't remember that happening in the gam—
"Ah…"
His 'quantified' mind rekindles.
| 'Grow up. It's over, Isaac. Stop being a child.' |
…
It was over the moment it started.
The suppressed id had constantly been giving way to the expressed ego, and with no superego to regulate Isaac, his mind was constantly defying his will. A rejection of body and mind. He noticed he was already counting the Zadial's steps towards him, the percentage in cracks of his tibia, and that the counting was working.
The math arrives through his body, a choice already half made.
He knew himself that this body was different from those 'Exobiotic Humans' of Agerea, and he took some pride in that. This regressed body from a pre-evolutionary Human world was the imperfect yet perfect vessel for a Human like him.
Every Exobiotic Human is a ship with all its planks replaced, while Isaac is the one with the first set.
Old magic, a previous body, a childhood.
They have the same attachment.
Yet even the bones, the calcium that was constantly nagged to nourish his childhood body, had been turned against him, the same atoms that made up his childhood self, drinking away at a mug laid in front of him by his mother and father. One could say: reduction to a mere parts list, everything he stands against.
.
.
.
| 'Welcome back, bastard…' |
Isaac was prostrate in front of his younger self; whether it was tears of blood, he couldn't tell.
… Where is the other?
| 'Don't bother, 'I' has more plans for you; it's just you and me now.' |
Hah… I see…
…
| '...' |
'E' took the initiative, lifting his latter self's head high up, and embracing the failure he had become. So formal is the logic, so mathematical the voice that conveys physics.
Alas, still but a child.
They limp step by step, passing the frozen Zadial and his Concordees, towards a light so infinitely distant, staying the same size no matter the stride. Acceptance need not be arrival, but the heading to somewhere, for better or for worse.
Keep Moving Forward.
.
.
.
Does he not think I am deserving of his Shielding or what?
Isaac Mun… What an interesting peer.
Is he a masochist? Maybe he has developed a technique that amplifies his senses upon injury.
Still, that much of an Override would surely cause him too much damage to even sta—
This time a blade of air passed Zadial's face. The Water-Module Concordee ignored it, seeing as it was in no immediate threat of injury, not even hitting its master. In all fairness, it was as if a piece of cardboard were thrown outwards, expecting to cut a rock.
Wow…
Something's off.
The speed of the thrown cardboard was terrifyingly fast, something Zadial could not have reacted to in his relaxed state. He raised his guard. He watched as the Isaac who was slowly getting up held the same imaginary crushed object in his palm, before closing it and pulling it towards him.
The cardboard was but a distraction for what slipped through. The distance between the two made the incantation uttered by Isaac inaudible. However, from lip reading, Zadial found out that the word Isaac said was:
"A.M.V.P."
It was too late for Zadial to react.
In 2 milliseconds:
The air was ripped out of Zadial's lungs, imploding them.
.
.
.
That was what Isaac hoped.
The initial In-Threading of A.M.A was done with killing intent. However, the conflict within his heart prevented the maximum efficacy of the Clause-Construct from being unleashed.
Topological Anchor V2 ignited at a whim's call, eidetic memory flashing back to the moment he read about the mathematical spells of Agerea during Caelum and Darius' duel.
Recall it…
What was Wi— A.M.A.'s combined equation, and how do I use it to ca— In-Thread?
Dynamic Pressure of Compressed Shearing Sheet: ½ pₛv²
Cutting Criterion: q > σ꜀
Viscous Shear Stress: 𝜏 = μ 𝜕ᵥ/𝜕ᵧ
Kelvin–Helmholtz Growth Rate: σₖₕ = kΔU/2
Making it so the Combined Equation… And the Sp— Clause-Construct of A.M.A being:
𝛬 = pₛΔU²/2σ꜀ e⁻⁽¹⁻𝜂⁾ᵏ𝔁/², where cutting occurs when 𝛬 ≥ 1
Wow… Do Mag— Wave Binders do this every time they In-Thread?
…
Hah…
Ρₛ = 6 kg/m³ (About 5× ambient air, a novice-level compression)
ΔU = 250 m/s(try for Mach 0.73, near-sonic without reaching it)
δ = 2 mm
η = 0.998 (should suppress nearly all of the sheet's instability)
x = 2.5 m (about the distance from me to Zadial)
σ꜀ (of the Earth in case he In-Threads any Earth Clause Constructs) = 150 MPa
σ꜀ (his fucking face) = 5 MPa
Dynamic pressure: q = ½(6)(250)² = 187,500 Pa (about 188 kPa)
Decay factor: e^(−0.002 × 200 × 2.5 / 2) = e^(−0.5) ≈ 0.607
Λ against Earth: (187,500 / 150,000,000) × 0.607 ≈ 7.6 × 10⁻⁴
Λ against his face: (187,500 / 5,000,000) × 0.607 ≈ 0.023
The first instance of magic.
The first instance of Noësis.
Isaac outstretched his begging hands, lifting his index and middle finger.
He flicked.
Localized Thaumitons compress along Isaac's fingers, channeled forward through a narrow, collapsing vector field. The surrounding air stretches thin, then rips into motion. Nitrogen, Oxygen, Argon, Carbon Dioxide, and the molecules of other small trace atmospheric particles accelerate by the decoherence of a higher-dimensional particle. Their spatial wave functions collapse into a single high-velocity plane as a shear front forms a literal, molecular guillotine, razor-thin.
As it played out, the first In-Threading of Noësis was flawed to no end.
It's the first time something was not perfect on his first attempt.
𝛬 values against rock and human skin were well below 1, making it so the Clause-Construct cuts neither the rock nor Zadial. The rock would be nearly 1,300 times too strong for the sheet. Even if A.M.A were to hit Zadial, the shearing front had already dispersed, leaving just a fast mere puff, with no broken skin.
Even the timing of the movement gave Zadial well enough time to move out of the way subconsciously. The mental calculation of the Clause-Construct alongside the activation sequencing timing for Isaac's Tau-9 bound Thaumitons to kick in was so slow, the average Agerean snail could escape the path.
Total time: 4.2 seconds of preparation…
And I couldn't even meet the bare minimum 𝛬 value… Fuck can I not even push it higher???
Ah shibal… These humans are crazy… Doing all of this in milliseconds and flawlessly.
Humans… humans…
Ah… I see… If Zadial could affect my bodily autonomy… Why can't I do the sa—
Isaac immediately withdrew his hand. He slowly got up, creaking bones as he raised a functional arm and copied the same grasping position and motion of Zadial.
To affect bodily autonomy:
Calcium and iron are controllable by Earth Noësis… Blood should be controllable by Water Noësis… Heat-gated ion channels and thermoregulation can be affected by Fire Noësis… As such, the air in a person's ears and lungs SHOULD be controllable by Wind Noësis.
Therefore:
Topological Anchor V2 overclocked itself.
Inspiration lowers pressure in all the alveoli, where the diaphragm and intercostals expand the thorax, which lowers intrapleural pressure, which expands the lungs and drops alveolar pressure, letting atmospheric pressure force air into the lungs.
In that sense, I need to create a pocket of low pressure outside Zadial's orifices.
Focus:
Glottal area A₉ = 1.5 cm², orifice coefficient Cₔ = 0.6, compliance C = 0.15 L/cmH₂O, volume to remove Vₜ = 1.2 L, air density ρ = 1.2 kg/m³.
Poiseuille airway resistance: R = 8ηL / (πr⁴) = 885 Pa·s/m³
Series: Total R= R of Trachea + R at Rest= 885 + 146,215 = 147,100 Pa·s/m³ (1.5 cmH₂O·s/L). The trachea is 0.6% of the total. Parallel branching (1/R = 1/R₁ + 1/R₂) only matters below the carina, because the glottis sets the flow here.
Reynolds number: Re = 4ρQ / (πdη) = 4(1.2)(6.1×10⁻³) / (π × 0.018 × 1.9×10⁻⁵) ≈ 27,000. Turbulence, so Poiseuille no longer applies, and Q = ΔP/R is replaced by orifice flow.
Low ball emptying time: τ = RC = 0.225 s, so 3τ ≈ 0.7 s.
Elastic back-pressure at full extraction: Vₜ / C = 8 cmH₂O ≈ 785 Pa
Orifice flow: Q = Cₔ· A₉ · √(2ΔPₑբբ / ρ), with ΔPₑբբ = ΔPₛ − V/C. At ΔPₛ = 3,200 Pa, Q starts at 6.6 L/s and ends at 5.7 L/s.
Bernoulli suction: v = √(2ΔPₛ / ρ) = √(2 × 3,200 / 1.2) = 73 m/s
Ideal-gas pocket: ΔP/P = Δm/m = 3,200 / 101,325 ≈ 3.2% of the pocket's air mass removed.
Pocket refill: ṁ = Cₔ · A · √(2ρΔP) = 0.6 × 0.018 × √(2 × 1.2 × 3,200) ≈ 0.95 kg/s (Q ≈ 790 L/s), so P = ΔP · Q ≈ 2.5 kW.
Airway thrust (T.A.K.T body force): ∫f dx ≈ ΔPₛ. Over 0.3 m of airway, that is about 10.7 kPa/m, giving F = ΔPₛ × A of Trachea = 3,200 × 2.54×10⁻⁴ ≈ 0.81 N on the air column.
Emptying time (the orifice equation integrated, with k = C_d · A_g · √(2/ρ) = 1.16×10⁻⁴):
t = (2C / k) · (√ΔPₛ − √(ΔPₛ − Vₜ/C)) = 0.0263 × (56.6 − 49.1) ≈ 0.195 s
That's the max I can perform with my current abilities… It's not an outright kill; that's gonna take minutes… But at the very least, in about 20-40 seconds of it, Zadial WILL suffer spasms and loss of consciousness.
Not to mention, I need to save on Man— Thaumitons as well… So the likely most efficient candidate for this…
Is a reversal of A.V.M.P.
Dynamic pressure of the moving air mass: q = ½ρv² = ½(1.2)(73)² = 3,197 Pa
Force on the target, with the pocket across Zadial's face (A = 0.018 m², C_d ≈ 1.0 for a flat face): F = q·C_d·A = 3,197 × 1.0 × 0.018 ≈ 58 N
Impulse of the pulse: J = F·Δt = 58 × 0.2 ≈ 11.5 N·s
73 m/s is above the 50 m/s knockdown figure, so A.M.V.P. is at the top of its range for this cast.
Combined casting equation
Substituting A.M.V.P's q for the suction pressure:
Emptying Time = (2C / (Cₔ · A₉ · √(2/ρ))) · [ √(½ρv²) − √(½ρv² − Vₜ/C) ] ≤ 0.2 s
At v = 70 m/s, it is 0.205 s, which is too slow. At v = 73 m/s, it gives 0.195 s, which works.
Right… I should be able to push myself to this degree.
What is my existence to theirs if I cannot?
Come.
Zadial raised his guard and breathed in, Isaac seeing it in the shoulders first, then the chest, and the mouth stayed a little open.
In a quarter of a second.
Dodge this last leaf… Out-Thread my Zone in Mold 1 once more… In-Thread A.M.V.P backwards, the actuator disk with the inlet side sitting over his mouth.
Take 1.2 litres and leave the residual. 1.2 over 0.15 is eight centimetres of water → 785 Pascals. The pull has to beat that and finish inside 0.2 seconds, before his throat can react.
Flow goes through the glottis. Reynolds is up around 27,000, so the airway formula is useless at this rate. Orifice flow: 0.6 times 1.5 times ten to the minus four, times root two over rho, times whatever pressure is left after the recoil.
Try 3,200. 0.195. That works.
3,200 Pascals is half rho v squared, so v is 73 metres per second. Past the knockdown speed, top of the range for this Clause Construct.
Hold it for two-tenths of a second and no longer.
0.018 square metres, about a plate's width, is the pocket. 58 newtons on his face, 11.5 newton-seconds over the whole cast. That tugs his head forward. Refill at 0.95 kilograms a second, 2.5 kilowatts.
A pocket alone would collapse his throat from the outside. Thread the airway too. T.A.K.T body forces down the lumen, ten kilopascals per metre over thirty centimetres. 0.8 newtons on the column of air in his trachea.
Okay… Okay… Ready… 0.195.
Hah… Hah…
"A.V.M.P."
Isaac pulled his fist.
A semicircular plate-sized vacuum opened a few centimeters in front of Zadial's face, alongside the greater draw of air towards him. Dust slid across the floor toward Isaac's hand, and the loose end of Zadial's body snapped forward.
The sound was an unhissing kettle.
Isaac opened his fingers; he dropped back to one knee, taking a rest as the Concordees stopped attacking.
Zadial's stomach dropped; his chest tried to brace. The reflex kicked in after the air had already left. He hurled over with both hands on his chest and his mouth. Although his lungs still held their 1.2 litres, enough to keep him conscious, the sound he let out was a vile regurgitation; with that, a partial collapse of his lungs was bound to occur, immediately knocking him out of the fight.
0.195 for five milliseconds of margin.
The air was ripped out of Zadial's lungs, imploding th—
"Phew…"
.
.
.
… You're kidding… How?