Chapter 184: Why Don't We Just Bypass Them and Do It on Our Own?
Noah was well aware that there were two... no, three items in Manaka Sajyou's offering.
Excluding the officials who had already been sent to the execution grounds, there were also the Excalibur and Holy Grail that Manaka Sajyou had just presented to him.
Noah had long held some thoughts about these two items.
First was this Excalibur from the world of Mary and Manaka Sajyou. Unlike the Excalibur in Noah's own world, which could only unleash its Anti-Star Noble Phantasm power when facing enemies of the stars and remained in an Anti-Fortress Noble Phantasm state at other times, this Excalibur was different.
As long as all thirteen restraints on this Excalibur were released, it could directly unleash Anti-Star Noble Phantasm power—regardless of who your enemy was.
These thirteen restraints also represented thirteen knights, so each release came with a special effect resembling a round table conference.
The thirteen restraints were: fighting for survival, fighting against those stronger than oneself, not fighting battles that betray humanity, fighting in pursuit of truth, not fighting against spirits, fighting evil in fair combat, not fighting for personal gain, fighting to save the world, fighting for glory, fighting alongside the brave, and not initiating battles against the virtuous.
It indeed sounded quite stringent, even containing some contradictory clauses unless one became flexible with moral boundaries.
And this was different from the Excalibur in Noah's hand, which had only one constraint—so absolute that even the Left Hand of God—Gandálfr, evaluated as legendary by the system, couldn't touch its true power.
Dividing the constraints into thirteen meant each individual constraint wasn't overwhelmingly powerful.
Just as when Noah first obtained the Holy Lance and could forcibly release its thirteen constraints using the Left Hand of God to directly wield its power—this Excalibur could also be fully released through a dictatorial conference where Noah could veto all other votes.
Moreover, unlike the first Excalibur that couldn't be used against enemies other than star enemies without the Crown of the Gods, this Excalibur from a parallel world had no such target restrictions.
Although possibly because of this, it lacked special bonuses against star enemies and had slightly lower overall output, it excelled in flexibility.
Once you could dictate, this sword could be fully released against any enemy without needing to use the Crown of the Gods.
Noah was quite satisfied with this.
After all, the Crown of the Gods was too versatile—it could enhance any attack like a strike that abandoned the crown. So having a flexibly usable Excalibur was clearly more comfortable than trading the crown for flexibility.
As for the Holy Grail besides Excalibur, there wasn't much to say.
Although essentially called a wish-granting device, this power wasn't actually omnipotent. Some wishes could be fulfilled, but many couldn't.
In such circumstances, the greatest use of this item for Noah was still as the Seed of the Third Magic.
So he merely examined the Excalibur, understood its essence, and then stored it away.
As for the Holy Grail, he took it and meticulously examined its internal conditions using his own expertise in Alchemy.
Then he discovered why, in the final simulation of the second volume, he had spent so many years yet failed to complete his vision.
It wasn't that he hadn't achieved the Third Magic.
In fact, he estimated he would soon accomplish the Third Magic.
The main difficulty lay in constructing Infinite Divinity after completing the Third Magic.
Because this differed from Infinite Magical Energy, achieving it required different conditions fulfilled through the Third Magic.
With Infinite Magical Energy, once you completed the Third Magic, its inherent characteristics—like immortality—would naturally allow you to attain it.
Although that was also an application of the Third Magic, Noah felt it was more like a passive ability you started with.
But the Infinite Divinity Noah needed was a further developed application.
First, the Third Magic had to touch upon Divinity; second, Divinity had to achieve a cycle; third, the characteristics of the first, second, and third types of perpetual motion machines had to be materialized.
Finally, he had to conquer the entire Earth, unify all myths, and then use humanity's infinite possibilities after unifying myths to expand the scale of his Divinity without limits.
After that, he would endlessly fill it with the effects brought by the perpetual motion machines.
That was the complete form of Infinite Divinity.
It didn't sound too difficult.
But in reality, there was a problem.
Although completing the Third Magic wasn't hard, and touching Divinity wasn't hard either, making Divinity cycle and then materializing perpetual motion machines—that's where the difficulty skyrocketed.
The Third Magic indeed solved the problems that originally prevented perpetual motion machines from being achieved.
But solving problems and actually completing perpetual motion machines, then utilizing and adjusting them—these were entirely different concepts.
Grinding time was almost inevitable.
Just like the Mage of the Second Magic, the Jeweled King, who initially transferred between parallel worlds using his own body. But after finding it too slow, he relied on moving through jewels, creating things like jewel golems to operate in each parallel world—that was his development of the Second Magic.
The Infinite Ether Cannon, which could draw power from parallel worlds to fire, was likely one of the byproducts of such development.
As Solomon's disciple, he had been perfecting the Magecraft foundation and his Second Magic even before confronting Crimson Moon.
If he was like this, let alone other Magic users.
Magic also needed development.
And it might just grind time.
If Noah didn't know about the Golden-Furred White-Faced One, he might not have cared about time at all.
Because centuries, millennia, tens of thousands of years—these lengths of time were no issue for him, not even hundreds of millions of years.
Perhaps during this time, he himself would become unrecognizable to his current self.
But completion was definitely achievable.
But now, with the matter of the Golden Fox holding things up... and that guy, who knows what madness drove him, after completing the Nine-Tails, he actually thought of directly triggering a supernova!
This made Noah temporarily set aside the task of completing the Infinite Divinity.
The priority was still to resolve the matter of the Golden Fox first.
So, after putting away both Excalibur and the Holy Grail, Noah turned his gaze to Manaka Sajyou.
He was waiting for the fourth token of allegiance she had mentioned.
Seeing Noah remain calm and composed even in the face of such treasures as Excalibur and the Holy Grail, Manaka Sajyou's estimation of him rose even higher. At the same time, she revealed her final token of allegiance.
"What I'm about to say might surprise you, but I am not from this era... no, I shouldn't even be from this world in the first place.
"I was dragged into this world by a Distortion.
"However, I wasn't the only one brought here."
Hearing Manaka Sajyou say this, Noah nodded.
He already knew all this—it was just about Mary, wasn't it? It seemed she was about to talk about Mary's affairs.
Noah didn't think there was anything to look forward to.
But Fou, who had been nestled in Noah's arms all along, suddenly opened her eyes!
She didn't want Noah to find out what she was like before being sent here by the Distortion!
However, before she could stop her, Manaka Sajyou directly uttered something Mary absolutely did not want to hear.
"Besides me, there was another one dragged here—a cunning, sinister monster who lives only for amusement and isn't even human!"