Chapter 165: Scorn To Awe
But in that chaos, as screams and pounding fists against the sealed doors echoed across the chamber—Anya's sharp gaze swept the room.
And then, to her surprise, she noticed something unusual. Amidst the sea of fleeing students and desperate professors, a small group hadn't budged an inch.
Charlotte's friends.
They stood huddled close together near the corner, nervous but unmoving. Their eyes darted between the glowing, unstable battery and Mika's calm back, yet not one of them made a move to flee.
This sight instantly softened Anya's expression, and she stepped toward them, her smile blooming bright as spring.
"Well, well." She said warmly, clasping her hands together as she approached. "What about you girls? Why aren't you running? Aren't you scared of what's about to happen?"
Her voice was sweet, almost playful, but it carried that same dangerous undertone that made even professors flinch. And true enough, Charlotte's friends stiffened immediately.
They had met Anya before, of course, they knew her reputation. She was dazzling, beautiful, commanding...but also terrifying. The aura she carried wasn't that of a student but of a person who she be in a mental asylum.
The girls exchanged glances nervously, their lips quivering as they tried to muster the courage to speak. Finally, one of them, a petite girl with trembling hands, gave a shaky smile.
"O-Of course we're scared." She admitted honestly, her voice trembling. "Our legs are shaking right now. Having...having a bomb like that right next to us, it's terrifying. We'd be lying if we said otherwise."
Anya's smile curved wider, amused by her honesty.
"But…" The girl's eyes flicked toward Mika—no, she didn't dare meet his gaze directly, but she stared in his direction with something close to awe. "But the is, we trust in Mika and whatever he does. After all, whenever there's been a problem, he's always been the one to give us solutions."
"He's helped us in ways no one else ever could. And we've seen just how smart he is. Smarter than anyone we've ever met...Honestly, it feels like his knowledge is unfathomable."
Her shaky voice grew steadier, firmer, as she went on.
"So, if he says he can control this bomb, then he can. We believe it. He's the kind of person who could run this entire research block by himself if he wanted to...So yes, it's scary, but we completely trust his abilities."
Anya's eyes glistened with delight at those words. She looked so happy that her smile brightened the entire corner of the room.
And without hesitation, she swooped down and embraced the girl tightly, her arms wrapping around her with surprising warmth.
"You're such a good girl." Anya cooed, her voice uncharacteristically soft and affectionate. "Such a sweet, cute, adorable girl."
The girl's face flushed at the sudden embrace, her hands frozen awkwardly at her sides until Anya finally pulled back, still smiling radiantly.
Then Anya turned her gaze on the rest of them, her tone slipping back into the composed elegance of an older sister. "I truly thank you for being good friends to Charlotte. It warms my heart as her elder sister. Please...stay by her side in the future as well."
The girls smiled nervously, touched despite their fear, until Anya leaned closer, her voice dropping.
"And if you ever have any problem in the future..." She said sweetly. "...literally anything, don't hesitate to come to me. If someone follows you, harasses you, or dares to bother you, tell me."
Her smile sharpened into something deadly.
"And I will take care of it. I'll break every single bone in their body until their last breath is them screaming my name and begging for forgiveness."
A collective shiver ran down the girls' spines. Their eyes widened in alarm, and they all nodded frantically like trembling rabbits.
"Anya, stop scaring them!" Charlotte rushed over, pulling her sister back by the arm. "They look like they're about to faint. They're shaking like bunnies."
Anya only chuckled, her smile softening again as she let herself be pulled away. "What? I was just showing them some older sister love. And I can't help it, I'm so happy they trust Mika so much."
But then, as her laughter faded, something else caught her eye.
Her gaze sharpened, narrowing on another figure standing apart from both the crowd and Charlotte's friends. Amidst the chaos and the panic, this girl hadn't moved either. She stood with her arms folded, calm as a statue, staring intently at the glowing, overheated cube as if daring it to explode.
"Oh?" Anya tilted her head curiously, a sly grin tugging at her lips. "Well, look at that. Another one who hasn't run. I don't know if she's suicidal, or if she just doesn't understand what's happening right now."
Curious about who it was, Mika turned his head toward the lone figure, and the moment his eyes landed on her, recognition flashed instantly across his face.
Maria.
She stood firm, not a trace of fear in her expression. Just like Charlotte's friends, she was choosing to stay, her trust in Mika plain in her unflinching posture. And when she noticed his stare, she turned her head and offered him a faint, smirk.
At the same time, Anya's eyes flicked between them, realization dawning, and her smile faltered into something more cautious. Slowly, she looked at Mika with a doubtful gaze.
"Hey, Mika." She said, her voice low and edged with suspicion. "Isn't that girl the same one that—"
But before she could finish, a piercing noise cut through the air.
Whroooom!
The battery, already glowing with red-hot heat, suddenly emitted an even louder screeching hum. The runes etched into its surface flared with dangerous light, and the tubes rattled violently. The entire device shook, releasing waves of scorching heat that distorted the very air.
Everyone realized at once,
It was about to explode.
But amid the chaos, Mika's calm voice rang out.
"Everyone, close your eyes! Cover them up immediately!" His command thundered through the room, his tone so firm and commanding that even the panicked mob froze. "My precautions will handle the bomb, but the brightness of the blast will still blind you."
"...Turn away right now, or you'll go blind!"
The professors, still pounding desperately on the doors, faltered. They knew there was no escaping, and in the end, they had no choice.
Groaning in terror, they turned away and squeezed their eyes shut, shielding their faces with trembling arms. The students who had been slamming their fists against the walls did the same, muttering prayers under their breath.
Charlotte's friends obeyed immediately as well. Even Maria, calm as she had appeared before, finally turned and closed her eyes, though her face showed no fear, only quiet trust.
But to Mika's surprise, two people had no intention of following his instructions.
In an instant, Anya and Charlotte both moved to his side, wrapping their arms around him and pressing their faces into his chest. He blinked, startled, as they buried themselves against him with almost childlike determination.
"You are right, Charlotte." Anya murmured against him, her voice unusually soft and mischievous at once. "This really is the best eye shield. With this, I can't see a thing."
"See? I told you, Anya." Charlotte gave a triumphant little hum. "Didn't I say so? This is exactly why you should listen to me from time to time."
Mika's lips parted in disbelief, but before he could even form a reply, the inevitable happened.
The cube's structure failed.
Booooooooom!
With a roar like the heavens themselves cracking apart, the battery overloaded, the supercharger ruptured, and the entire world went white.
A blinding flash swallowed the chamber whole, so bright it seemed the walls themselves had disintegrated. A sound like thunder magnified a thousandfold tore through their skulls, rattling bones, making every ear throb as though it would burst.
The sensation was unbearable, it felt like death itself.
For those endless seconds, every student, every professor, every trembling soul was certain they had died. They thought they had been hurled straight into heaven, for there was nothing left but a sea of white and silence.
But then—
Slowly, gradually, the light began to dim. Shades returned. Shadows crept back into the edges of vision. Colors re-emerged.
And then the realization struck: they were still alive.
One by one, eyes cracked open, tentative and fearful. And to their astonishment, the laboratory still stood. The walls were untouched, the floors unscathed, not a single student harmed. They were breathing, they had survived.
Where the cube once sat, now floated something astonishing.
A shimmering, transparent sphere hovered in the air, glowing faintly as though made of liquid crystal.
And inside it raged the inferno of the explosion, fire and energy tearing violently in every direction, yet bound, contained, trapped within the sphere's impenetrable walls. The light danced, flared, and sparked within the globe, yet outside of it, the air was utterly still.
The professors who had mocked Mika only moments earlier stared in utter disbelief. Their eyes widened like children seeing miracles.
Then, with frantic eagerness, they rushed forward, practically falling over one another to crowd around the orb.
"Incredible...impossible!" One gasped, his glasses slipping down his nose. "How is this possible?!"
Another trembled as he reached a hand near the sphere, feeling its strange warmth. "It's an energy shield...a genuine shield strong enough to contain this! It didn't just trap the explosion, it absorbed it!"
A third professor, veins bulging with excitement, shouted hoarsely. "We didn't even feel the shockwaves! No heat, no destruction, the impact was completely nullified!"
Another leaned in close, eyes feverish with obsession. "How...how did one even create such a thing? This...This is beyond anything we've ever seen!"
And then, as if struck by the same thought, all of their gazes shifted. Slowly, inevitably, every eye turned to Mika.
Still holding both Anya and Charlotte, who reluctantly pulled back now, Mika sighed with a wry smile. He could read the desperation in their eyes, the hunger of scholars who had seen something too extraordinary to ignore.
"I suppose I should explain." Mika said casually, his voice floating through their stunned silence. "If you look up at the ceiling, you'll notice an apparatus I installed beforehand."
The professors craned their necks at once. And indeed, embedded subtly into the rafters was a small, gleaming device that hummed faintly with residual energy.
"The moment it senses an intense reflux of energy." Mika continued. "It triggers an override system. It sends out a containment sphere, essentially, a ball of compressed energy, that functions as a barrier shield. It doesn't just trap the explosion, it stabilizes it, holding the force in stasis and converting most of the destructive output into inert energy."
His explanation grew more technical, layered with scientific jargon—ion flux absorption, compressed etheric diffusion, layered resonance stabilization. The professors too scrambled to keep up, nodding wildly even as their minds reeled at the implications.
Mika then softened his tone, his smile returning.
"These are the precautions I mentioned earlier. This is why I said no one here would be harmed. So tell me...do you still doubt that I took the necessary measures to contain such a blast?"
"N-No! Of course not! How could I doubt you now?"
The head professor, his face drenched with sweat, shook his head frantically, his words tumbling over each other in desperation.
"At first I thought you were bluffing, a reckless liar, but this…"
He gestured wildly at the still-raging sphere.
"This is beyond magnificent! An invention like this, it could change history, it could be sold for hundreds of millions! Every research body, every organization across the world would kill to get their hands on it."
"...So, why—why aren't you publicizing this? Why aren't you already selling it?"
Confusion and greed gleamed in his eyes as he stumbled closer, nearly begging for an answer.
But Mika only chuckled softly, shaking his head, his smile edged with something sharper. "Of course many parties would be interested in this. But tell me, Professor, who exactly are those parties? And why do you think they'd use it?"
The man froze, blinking in confusion. "W-Who…?" He trailed off, mind struggling to follow Mika's line of thought.
But then his face paled as realization dawned.
The organizations interested wouldn't be harmless researchers. They'd be the top factions, the most dangerous powers in the world, who were against the Battle angels.
And what would they see in this device?
Not a safety precaution.
A weapon.
They'd use it to contain Battle Angels themselves.
To trap them, neutralize them, strip them of their overwhelming might.
This invention, in the wrong hands, would be a cage, not a shield.
The professor's face went pale in realisation. He had essentially asked Mika to sell a weapon to the enemy.
"I…" He stammered. "I...didn't think…"
"No." Mika said softly, his voice steady but edged. "You didn't. That's why I'm not selling it. That's why it stays here, under my control."
The professors, still gawking at the contained explosion, slowly nodded their heads. And then it hit them all at once—the boy they had mocked as useless, dismissed as a liar, had just accomplished something none of them could.
He wasn't reckless, he wasn't bluffing, he was a genius. Smarter than any of them.
Their scorn dissolved into awe, and one by one, they looked at Mika with newfound respect, the weight of their earlier arrogance crushing them now that he had proved them utterly wrong.