Chapter 405
Chapter 405
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 405
Chapter Title: Final Decision (5)
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[405] Final Decision (5)
“Move aside. You're still as hopeless with machines as ever.”
Thane pushed Gauld’s chest away and examined the instrument panel himself.
To Shirone, the sight of the former head of the Magic Association being shoved aside was utterly foreign.
But his eyes soon filled with a distant look.
‘Ah, right.’
Nade and Iruki.
If he were ever in Miro's situation, would this be what Nade and Iruki looked like decades from now?
Gauld, Miro, and Thane—the founding members of the Paranormal Research Society, who had been caught in the center of the world's most horrific incident.
Twenty years had passed, and though their paths had completely diverged, their time together remained frozen.
Gauld flipped his middle finger at the back of Thane's head.
It seemed even a world-renowned archmage couldn't help but act childish when meeting an old classmate.
Unable to let it go, he kept glancing at the instrument panel over Thane's shoulder.
But to him, machines were just mysterious objects made of random pieces of metal that worked when you chanted a spell at them.
Then, as if a wicked idea had struck him, he let out a sinister laugh.
“Heh heh, did you know? Using mental magic on a national intelligence agent is a capital offense. If you want to live a long life, you'd better pray I get my job back.”
Thane spoke as he quickly manipulated the panel.
“Who gives a damn about the Red Line's laws, you idiot? Once they're under mind control, they won't remember a thing that happened here. You seem pretty anxious. Should I just bury you alive instead?”
Etella frowned.
As a bishop of the Karsis Order, it was only natural that she couldn't tolerate a Black Line mage who tainted the world.
But she took no action. She trusted Alpheas.
He wasn't the type to ask her to undertake a mission that violated the Karsis Order's beliefs, not even at the earnest request of his cherished disciple.
‘He must have his reasons.’
When she’d first heard about Heaven, her immediate thought had been that she must not pass judgment.
This was not a matter light enough to be assessed by personal conviction.
The only thing driving her now was a sense of duty—the need to witness the full story of this grand current that had begun twenty years ago, or perhaps even much earlier.
Thane entered Istas's master mode.
When green text flashed on the panel, he combined a few symbols and quickly entered the information.
Shina, who had been waiting patiently, couldn't suppress her curiosity and asked.
“But does the upper level of Istas even exist? I heard that even the national intelligence agents couldn't find anything and had to leave.”
“The upper level exists. There's just no way to enter it. It was designed that way from the start. I made it so that even I, who have analyzed every pattern of Istas, cannot access it.”
Shirone looked around at the warehouses scattered in every direction.
He wondered how an inaccessible room could exist when all the warehouses had already been individually dismantled.
“How is that possible? We can physically enter every warehouse right now. That's why you created the master key for Istas in the first place, isn't it, Mr. Thane?”
For the first time since arriving, Thane observed Shirone closely.
He'd known the boy was part of the project since Gauld had made a point of introducing him, but no matter how he looked at him, Shirone just seemed like a soft-hearted greenhorn.
“How do you know about the master key?”
“I'm a member of the Paranormal Research Society. A friend of mine is a savant, and he said that no matter who tried, no one could make the master equation for Istas more beautiful than it already is.”
Thane didn't smile. But his explanation became more detailed.
“That's probably true. It's an equation that equates a complex four-dimensional schema to three dimensions.”
Mathematically eliminating a dimension is comparable in difficulty to making an ant understand human language. That's why anyone with the master equation can find the Society.
It was a map that, while appearing three-dimensional, actually led to four-dimensional coordinates.
“So the upper level isn't just confined to space.”
Thane nodded.
Shirone's insight was impressive, but if he couldn't even manage this much, he wouldn't have been qualified to join Gauld's project in the first place.
“Right. Viewed in three dimensions, Istas is just a collection of 89 warehouses. But the upper level exists in a higher dimension. That's why the agents couldn't find it.”
“So, in addition to a specific space, a specific time must also align?”
“Exactly. Take a 3x3x3 cube, for example. When you move the cube from coordinates (1, 1, 1) to (3, 1, 3), what changes is not just space, but also time. No matter how fast you turn it, it takes at least, say, 0.1 seconds. This is what we call spacetime. I used this concept to devise a way for no one to ever reach Miro. I hid Miro's spacetime at the cube's origin.”
Before they knew it, everyone was listening intently to Thane's words.
Even Alpheas, who had once been Thane's teacher, was now in the position of a student after twenty years.
“No matter how you turn the cube—in other words, no matter how you change the pattern of Istas—the origin point of the cube in spacetime never moves. Therefore, the upper level can remain perfectly concealed. The master equation you're currently using was created to calculate this.”
Shirone swallowed hard.
He'd never imagined that the master equation, which he had thought was just a playful creation of a shady research society, had such a serious purpose behind it.
Shina said.
“But aren't we all gathered here today to go to the upper level? If no one can get in, what are we waiting for?”
“Another master key.”
As if those words were a cue, the sound of crackling electricity echoed across the open lot. It was the distinct noise of Flicker magic, now familiar to Shirone.
Appearing via the trademark spell of a Scale Mage was a man and a woman.
The woman was short and petite with a cute perm in her bobbed hair, while the man was rather tall with blond hair that flowed down to his waist.
The important thing was that Shirone had met them both before. Probably.
After all, if two identical people couldn't exist in the world, then the blond man with the bandaged eyes couldn't possibly be anyone else.
The Eternal Observer, Armin of the Luminous Eyes, was walking toward them.
“A-Armin?”
Shina couldn't believe what she was seeing.
Why was Armin, who should have been wandering the world capturing landscapes on his canvas, here at the center of humanity's worst crisis?
“I-Is that really you, Armin?”
Shina approached him, but Armin coldly turned away and kept walking.
His wife, Keira, also walked toward Istas without so much as a glance.
Shina stopped in her tracks, stunned. Her mind was a tangled mess, unable to form a single thought.
“You've arrived at the precise time. Then again, was that a rude thing to say to the world's greatest time mage?”
The world's greatest time mage.
As he was a mage who had conquered the speed of light, Shirone didn't find the title the least bit strange. But for Shina, who knew nothing, it only deepened her bewilderment.
“A time mage? What on earth are you talking about, Armin?”
Armin remained silent.
Thane, deciding that confusion was not good before such a momentous event, introduced Armin. It was ironic for Shina, who thought she knew Armin best.
“To get to the upper level of Istas, the help of a powerful time mage is essential. And there is no one more suitable than Armin of the Luminous Eyes.”
Shina shook her head.
The more she heard, the more confused she became.
“Keira, what is going on! Is this some kind of joke?”
Keira, who was always cheerful and occasionally threw out a snide remark, wasn't smiling this time.
She lowered her gaze, her voice so chillingly haughty it was hard to believe she was the same person.
“Watch your tone, Ms. Olifer Shina. We are Armin and Keira, mages from the Ivory Tower's Department of Human Safety, affiliated with the White Line.”
“The White Line…”
Even Shirone, who had known Armin's identity, couldn't help but be surprised this time.
If the Red Line had the Association and the Black Line had its factions, the White Line was a completely independent organization that answered only to the Ivory Tower.
Magic that is not misused for worldly affairs. Purity that is not swayed by the beliefs of rulers. Mages of the Ivory Tower, whose motto was these two principles, pursued only the pure extremes of magic.
Their power was such that even their rank-and-file members were said to be on par with a nation's archmage; they were far beyond the reach of any single kingdom.
They were the absolute monarchs of the magical world; even royalty trembled when presented with credentials from the Ivory Tower.
And yet, Armin was here as a member of the Ivory Tower. Not just that, but as a mage from the Department of Human Safety.
While Ivory Tower mages made no distinctions between departments, it was true that from the Red Line's perspective, they were most wary of the Department of Human Safety, the division with the most ties to society.
Indeed, it was a famous story that 32 years ago, when the dictator Igor of the Kon Kingdom dabbled in necromancy, a single mage from the Department of Human Safety had entered his domain, forced him to his knees, and made him crawl on the floor.
Keira approached Gauld and got right in his face.
She had been forced to come because Armin was being stubborn, but if they were going to get involved, she might as well get something out of it, right?
Armin was a man far removed from practical gains.
“I brought Armin, so you'd better keep your promise. First, the Ivory Tower will have the right to record and disseminate any information obtained from Miro's spacetime. Second, you will prohibit Olifer Shina from going to Heaven. You know Armin only came here because of that second condition, right?”
“Of course. But let's be clear on one thing. That's only if Shina agrees. I really hate trying to persuade people. Especially women.”
“Well, that's fine. Armin knows that too. But later, you have to tell Armin that I made the second point perfectly clear to you.”
“Hehehe, you really live a complicated life.”
Keira scowled as if to say, ‘What's the use in talking about it?’
Stubborn Armin.
In truth, the Ivory Tower had yet to make any official judgment on Heaven. They still viewed it as a problem that could be adequately handled within human society.
But Armin had fallen for Gauld's scheme.
Opening the upper level of Istas required a time mage of the highest caliber, and it was impossible that Gauld, who intended to retrieve Miro, wouldn't know of his existence.
The leverage Gauld found after investigating Armin's whereabouts was the same one the Ivory Tower used to hold onto him.
Olifer Shina. The woman who was so precious to Armin that he would trade his own life for hers.
For that very reason, Keira disliked Shina even more.
‘Tch, what does he see in her? A charmless woman with not an ounce of appeal.’
When Thane released his mind control, the ten agents collapsed to the ground like puppets with their strings cut. This was to ensure there were no variables that could interfere with their thoughts before the grand event.
“We'll finish before the agents come to their senses. I'm starting now.”
As he spoke, Thane pressed a button on the instrument panel.
The 89 warehouses began to interlock into a specific formation.
For this moment, even Shirone set aside his thoughts about Armin and watched Istas.
A time mage from the White Line's Ivory Tower, a Class 1 Archmage from the Red Line, and the greatest mental mage from the Black Line.
Here, where three great mages who had reached the pinnacle of their respective fields had gathered, the upper level of Istas was about to be opened for the first time in twenty years.