The Valley of Tears lay at the lowest point of the Deadwood Forest a gargantuan basin that looked as if it had been struck by a meteor thousands of years ago. The name didn't stem from a poetic legend about weeping fairies, but from a horrific biological phenomenon: anyone entering the valley without protection suffered violent irritation of the lacrimal glands and mucous membranes. Eyes would produce tears until they swelled shut, and lungs would feel as if they were being scorched by the ionizing particles suspended in the stagnant air.
To the Royal Mages, this was the "Curse of the Demon's Sob," an area sealed by the gods for ancient sins. But to Arkan, as he stood on the precipice of the valley, he saw only one thing: Ionizing Radiation.
Arkan stepped forward, looking like a metallic monster from a distant future. He wore a cloak he had modified overnight, lining the interior with thin lead (Pb) fibers extracted from galena ore found in the cave depths. On his back, a prototype steam-powered mechanical exoskeleton which he dubbed the Power Frame Mark I, hissed with a terrifying rhythm. Copper pipes coiled around his arms and legs, connected by simple hydraulic pistons that provided a mechanical advantage to his every movement.
"Are you truly going down into that death pit with that noisy iron?" Elara asked. The High Elf stood on a blackened tree branch arching over Arkan. She stared at the plumes of steam venting from his back with a sharp scowl. "That thing reeks, and the sound pains the ears. The forest hates it."
"The forest has no feelings, Elara. It only reacts to environmental stimuli," Arkan replied while adjusting a pressure valve on his arm piston. Cshhhhh! Hot steam sprayed out. "The mineral load I'm about to carry exceeds the tensile strength of human muscle. According to Newton's Second Law, the force my muscles can generate is limited. Without this mechanical assist, I cannot provide acceleration to such a large mass. I would be crushed under the weight of my own ambition."
Elara merely blinked, her emerald eyes blank. "Newton's... Law? Was he some god of craftsmanship from your world who gave you a revelation in a dream?"
Arkan paused, looking at Elara with an exhausted, flat stare. "Not a god. Just a man who saw an apple fall and realized the universe has rules that can be calculated. Forget it; this explanation won't fit into your current cognitive structure."
Part 1: Calculated Spite
They began their descent into the steep valley. Elara moved with the grace of a predator, leaping from rock to rock soundlessly, as if gravity were merely a suggestion. Meanwhile, Arkan moved like a bulldozer; every iron-shod step crushed the sedimentary rock beneath him, creating a consistent mechanical echo.
"Elara," Arkan spoke over the hiss of his steam. "Tell me, how much mana does the Kingdom usually expend to open a dimensional gate when they summon... 'Heroes' like us?"
Elara went silent for a moment, considering. "A vast amount. They drain thousands of pure mana crystals and require a dozen high-tier mages to maintain the stability of the summoning circle for three days. It is a very expensive and sacred ritual."
"Sacred? No, it's an inefficient interdimensional kidnapping," Arkan's voice cut through the air like a blade. His eyes glinted behind his protective goggles. "They dragged us from a structured world, forcing us to be pawns in a war that isn't ours. And the moment I was deemed 'useless' because I lacked mana, they discarded me like trash. Do they really think they can gamble with the probability of my life?"
Elara looked confused. "But... weren't you called to save humanity?"
"Which humanity? The one that throws children into a forest of monsters because they can't hold a sword?" Arkan snorted. "Listen well, Elara. I have zero intention of defeating the Demon King for that Kingdom. My goal is simple: I will dismantle their royal system down to its foundations. I will reclaim the resources they stole from me, my time and my life. To do that, I need enough energy to force that gate open and go back to Earth."
Elara stopped atop a large boulder, staring at Arkan in horror. "You want to destroy the entire order of the human world just to... go home? Isn't that too selfish? Too excessive?"
"In physics, there is no such thing as 'excessive,' only Action and Reaction," Arkan replied coldly. "They provided the 'Action' of betrayal and exile; therefore, my 'Reaction' is systemic destruction. It is a balanced equation. Fair, isn't it?"
Elara shook her head, her silver hair swaying. "You are terrifying, Arkan. You speak of annihilation as if you're calculating a pile of firewood."
Part 2: Photon Manipulation and Elara's Confusion
Their journey was interrupted by a pack of Ghouls creatures whose skin had peeled away due to acute radiation poisoning emerging from the fog. Elara swiftly drew her longbow. Violet light gathered at her fingertips, but the energy flickered, dispersing erratically in all directions.
"Wait," Arkan approached, ignoring the monsters' growls. He pulled a small device from his cloak; a metal frame housing a crystal lens he had polished to a perfect curvature. "Your energy string emits high-density photons, but the energy is suffering from massive dispersion due to the ionized atmospheric resistance in this valley."
Arkan clamped the lens onto the front of Elara's bow. "This is the principle of Geometric Optics. This convex lens will refract your mana-light toward a single focal point. According to the laws of light, energy concentrated on a minimal surface area (A) results in much higher pressure (P) and heat (P = F / A)."
Elara stared at the device with a completely blank face. "Photons? Dispersion? Arkan, you use words that sound like ancient curses. How can a piece of clear glass help the power of my soul?"
"Just pull the string, aim at the target, and stop asking about terminology you won't grasp in a decade," Arkan interrupted.
Elara sighed and followed his instructions. She pulled the energy string. As the violet mana hit Arkan's lens, the usually wide beam suddenly narrowed, condensing into a razor-thin, blinding laser.
The beam tore through the air with a sizzling hiss. When it struck the lead Ghoul, the monster didn't just fall; its head instantly vaporized, leaving a small, charred hole with terrifying precision. The beam continued, piercing through three black trees behind it before finally dissipating.
Elara gasped, her hands trembling. "My power... it didn't spread. It pierced everything. How did you do that without an amplification circle?"
"It's just light-focus manipulation, Elara. No magic, just geometry," Arkan resumed walking, ignoring the Elf's awe. "Science doesn't add to your energy; it just ensures your energy isn't wasted due to systemic inefficiency."
Part 3: Extraction of the Death Stone
They finally reached the valley floor. There, pitch-black rocks with neon-blue veins were scattered everywhere. The ground beneath their feet felt warm a clear sign of active radioactive decay.
Arkan knelt before a large chunk of Pitchblende. The sensor on his wrist began to beep with a frantic frequency: tit-tit-tit-tit!
"This is it. The fuel for my ticket home." Arkan activated the pneumatic drill on his exoskeleton. Drat-drat-drat! The hard rock shattered into pieces.
"Arkan, this place... the energy feels evil," Elara whispered, looking pale and clutching her chest. "There is an invisible pain crawling beneath my skin. Why do you want this poison stone?"
"It's not evil energy, Elara. These are unstable isotopes," Arkan explained without looking up. He placed the blackened stones into a heavy container lined with lead. "Inside this rock, atomic nuclei are splitting themselves apart. They release massive energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation. I need this to build a Nuclear Reactor. With the energy of nuclear fission, I can generate enough power to reopen the dimensional gate the Kingdom used."
Elara stepped back, her face filled with doubt and fear. "Isotopes? Atoms? Splitting the nucleus? Arkan, you sound like a madman trying to dissect a god. You claim this little stone can destroy a kingdom? That's impossible! Even an ancient dragon doesn't possess such power!"
Arkan stood up, his exoskeleton creaking as he shouldered the 50-kilogram lead container with one hand. "I am talking about the fundamental laws of the universe. If I can trigger a chain reaction in this material, I can create a small 'sun' right above their King's castle. They wanted a hero to stop the apocalypse? I will become the apocalypse itself for them."
Part 4: Newton vs. Plasma Mutation
Suddenly, the ground beneath them shifted. A Radiated Behemoth, ten meters tall, rose from the mineral piles. Its body was bizarre; it lacked solid flesh, consisting instead of a mass of glowing green plasma the result of millennia of mutation under radiation exposure.
"Arkan! The valley guardian has awakened!" Elara drew her laser-bow.
"Don't attack the exterior!" Arkan shouted. "He is living plasma. According to the laws of conduction, he will absorb your pure energy and grow larger. Elara, this monster has a massive mass (m). Per Newton's Second Law, to move that mass, he needs incredible force, but he has massive Inertia (Newton's First Law). He cannot change his direction quickly!"
Arkan fired a chemical grenade filled with magnesium powder into the air. A blinding white light neutralized the monster's infrared sensors.
"Now! Shoot the dark purple area under his belly! That's his organelle cooling tank! If that ruptures, his internal temperature will rise exponentially. Newton's Third Law every action of heat trapped inside will provide an explosive reaction outward!"
Elara fired her focused laser with pinpoint accuracy.
The monster's organelle tank burst. Within seconds, the plasma body began to boil. The heat, unable to be dissipated, caused internal steam to pressure the monster's cell walls.
"Run! Thermal reaction incoming!" Arkan grabbed Elara's hand, forcing his exoskeleton to its maximum limit to retreat.
The explosion of steam and radiation disintegrated the behemoth, sending a shockwave that leveled the surrounding rocks. Arkan stood firm, using the weight of his exoskeleton to withstand the blast's wind.
Part 5: Conclusion and the Next Phase
The smoke slowly cleared. Arkan stood in the center of the blast crater, checking his intact Uranium container on his back. He looked satisfied.
Elara stared at the remains of the monster, then back at Arkan. She felt as though the man before her was far more terrifying than any monster in the Deadwood Forest.
"Arkan... you said you wanted to go home," Elara whispered, her voice trembling. "But if you use that 'nuclear' power and destroy the human kingdom... what if your original world no longer recognizes you? What if you bring this destruction there?"
Arkan paused, the engine on his back humming low, sounding like the growl of an iron tiger.
"My home world is run by science, Elara. There, my actions will be studied as a phenomenon of cause and effect. I don't need recognition or love from this world. I just want to return to a place where everything can be calculated with a formula, not with 'miracles' or 'destiny' manufactured by a cowardly King."
He turned to Elara, his eyes cold and devoid of emotion. "And if you want to stay alive to see your forest recover, stop trying to understand what 'photons' or 'atoms' are. Just help me gather materials. I have a reactor to build and a kingdom to erase from history."
That night, as they returned to the cave, Elara sat in a corner far from Arkan's machines. She gazed at her modified bow. She still didn't understand "inertia" or a "chain reaction," but she knew one thing for certain: This discarded Hero wasn't looking for a way to be a savior. He was building a doomsday machine, and he would pull the trigger without a second thought, all for the sake of a journey home.