Chapter 1154 — The Extending Trajectory

Daniel nodded in understanding—of course he knew of this matter. As one of Cecil's de facto technical personnel, he had learned of it from the internal network not long after the mysterious signal was received at the Sorin Hub; it was only that Mary's clearance in the neural network was not high, so she did not know. The only thing that surprised the old mage was that the Master, when deciding to publish these mysterious "symbols," had done so without the slightest hesitation... How long had it been, and the relevant materials had already been shared through official channels between Typhon and Cecil?

But this was a good thing—since the materials had come through official channels, it meant that from now on he could openly study these "mysterious characters" that looked like scribbles. Frankly, these mysterious symbols of unknown origin held considerable appeal for a scholar, even for one like Daniel who was not especially versed in cryptography or philology.

Several thoughts flashed through his mind, and the old mage's gaze fell once more on Mary's notebook. Seeing the dense marks his apprentice had left, he could not help frowning again: "You've written down so many marks... Have you worked something out?"

Mary immediately scratched her hair in embarrassment, and her already somewhat disheveled black hair became even more of a mess: "I'm sorry, Mentor, I... I don't know enough about writing or ciphers. What I call research is just me scribbling whatever comes to mind. I've made no progress at all."

"That's only natural. If an amateur like you could produce results in a single morning's study, then all those experts and scholars the higher-ups have invested in training might as well jump off the city walls together." Daniel tossed off the remark, and his gaze happened to sweep over his apprentice's present appearance—wearing a robe she had not changed in a very long time, and an old-style robe at that, not particularly handsome; her hair tied back carelessly with a plain cord, with perhaps more strands escaped than bound; no makeup, and no idea how to use it; and because she often stayed up late reading, faint bloodshot veins showed in her eyes.

This was his most gifted apprentice, and the one who had followed him longest... Yet it seemed that only at this moment did he truly take note of how this young woman looked in daily life.

"Mentor?" Mary noticed the old mage's gaze and tensed at once. "Is... is something wrong with me?"

"Rather than spending so much energy on a field you have no talent for at all, you might do better to pay some attention to your appearance, like any normal woman," Daniel said offhandedly—and then wondered whether these were really words he could utter. A certain remark the Master often made to others surfaced naturally in his mind: "You're not young anymore..."

Mary was startled: "Men... Mentor?"

"Nothing. I spoke offhandedly," Daniel waved his hand at once, yet could not help adding one more sentence. "I was only thinking of Windsor... Don't end up like her."

The president of the Royal Mage Association, Lady Windsor Mapel?

Mary was stunned for a moment, then suddenly recalled that this remarkable personage was in fact one of her mentor's apprentices, and that as so young a legendary transcendent, her talent far surpassed her own. Though her mentor no longer openly acknowledged the other's status as an apprentice, in the eyes of outsiders this master-apprentice relationship could not be denied.

Such an outstanding person... Why would her mentor suddenly say she should not end up like her?

The young female mage was baffled once more, and dimly she seemed to hear her mentor muttering to himself: "Forty already, and still not married..."

...

In the clean, bright, and exceedingly spacious magical testing ground, Windsor Mapel, who was directing operations on site, suddenly sneezed hard.

Waving a hand to let the assistants beside her continue their work, she casually cast upon herself a dozen or so instant spells—disease-curing, fortifying, blessing, curse-breaking, resistance—and after confirming there was nothing wrong with her body, her attention returned once more to the round platform at the center of the indoor testing ground.

Under the focused lights, the surface of the platform, carved all over with arcane runes, gave off a faint glow. Within an energy shield possessed of powerful protective force, irregular iron-gray metal fragments floated in midair. The iron-gray fragments were clearly part of some larger metallic structure; their edges bore the marks of having been violently torn and shattered, and on several of the main fracture surfaces, dim glimmers still drifted spontaneously out from within the fragments, wandering and flickering near those breaks as if alive.

This striking feature pointed to one thing: these seemingly unremarkable metal fragments were no ordinary matter.

In fact, it was anything but ordinary—this thing was one of the armor fragments scattered across the land after the God of War's fall, and considering that the God of War's true form was nothing more than a hollow suit of armor, this fragment could essentially be regarded as the "corpse" of a deity.

At this moment, a dozen royal mages in ceremonial robes were bustling around the fragment. Intricate magic circles hovered in the air about the platform, and numerous altar-like devices inlaid with crystal, magic stone, and precious mana-conducting metals surrounded it, each monitoring and suppressing the various forces radiating from the fragment.

"Chairman Windsor," a mage in a deep blue robe with gold tracery flew over from beside the platform and landed before Windsor Mabel. "It's been confirmed. This fragment should come from the God of War's helmet, and the energy fluctuations it releases are stable—it can indeed serve as a kind of guiding medium."

Windsor Mabel nodded, her expression grave. "Guiding... What about its directional resonance?"

"Directional resonance has indeed been observed—after placing it within an arcane circulation of extremely high purity, the fragment attempts to constrain and transmit energy into a dimension we cannot yet observe. In theory, if the arcane circulation is strong enough, we could use this process to open a rift... or even a stable door."

(End of Chapter)