Chapter 1273 — The Truth Behind the Truth

The technical assistants nearby were instantly on edge, and several well-trained technicians had already instinctively activated the detection instruments around them to gather data. Windsor Mapel, eyes wide as she sensed the magic in the air, spoke with caution: "Lady 'High Tower'? Are you still here? What exactly has happened?"

"I am here." A voice came abruptly from beside Kamael, and he at once looked toward the sound—yet there was nothing in his field of vision.

Nor did he sense any effect of concealment magic, such as a light-bending field.

"I am not invisible," Milmina's voice came again, as though guessing Kamael's thought, though this time it came from beside Windsor Mapel. "Nor have I done anything to your perception... I am right here, walking among you, in the same space as you. I... find it hard to explain what I now see. All things have changed, everything is... different."

"Everything has changed?" Windsor Mapel's face was thick with confusion; she could make no sense at all of what the former deity was saying, yet could not help asking, "What do you see? What have you done? Has something happened to you?"

"I am not yet certain how it all came about. I only see... ripples," Milmina's voice came again—this time simultaneously from behind Kamael and to Windsor Mapel's left: two entirely different locations, two distinct sources. "Ripples of all things: magic seeping from these arcane devices, the residual echoes of thought rising from every corner of the Divine Kingdom, and... you."

"Us?" Kamael and Windsor Mapel said in unison.

"Yes, you—and everyone here. I can still distinguish you, but... I can no longer define your boundaries precisely; they blur so, tangled with the omnipresent ripples, as though..."

Milmina's voice suddenly stopped, and she paused for a full half minute, until Kamael and Windsor Mapel both were on the verge of speaking up to press her, when her voice abruptly resumed:

"As though... you too are part of the ripples."

Kamael and Lady Windsor exchanged glances.

They too were part of the ripples? How was one to understand a statement that felt so uncanny even in its logic?

And just then, a pale-violet arc of light burst forth before them, and amid the leaping glow a figure swiftly took shape from the intangible and condensed once more into that three-meter-tall "High Counselor," Milmina.

All eyes fell upon the "High Counselor" in an instant, and yet the person herself seemed not yet to have awakened from some strange "observer" state. She stared in perplexity at some nonexistent focal point for a long while, and only gradually did her gaze converge once more; then the "Sovereign of Magic" gave a slight shake of her head, swept her eyes around with a look most unfamiliar, and said in a low voice, "It is over... I have returned."

"Are you all right?" Kamael could not help asking with some concern—he had never imagined that one day he would worry about a god. "What exactly happened just now?"

"I do not know, but I suspect... what we glimpsed today was perhaps not merely the truth behind magic," Milmina said, her eyes fixed on Kamael for a long while, as though striving to perceive, in that figure before her with its tangible outline, some other "mode of existence." "Kamael, we know far too little of this world."

"It is hard to imagine such words coming from the mouth of a former deity," Kamael said, countless doubts swirling within him, yet at this moment he could not help but first give voice to his wonder. "You now look... truly like a mortal."

"Do I?" Milmina blinked, as though only now truly coming to her senses. "Perhaps that is not a bad thing..."

Then she shook her head slightly, dispelling with that thoroughly human gesture the chaotic sense of dislocation lodged in her mind: "I think... I need some time to slowly sort through that peculiar 'vision' I saw... to understand that scene in which all things lost their clear boundaries and blended together like a mass of noise—ordered within disorder. Forgive me, I may need to withdraw early from the operation here—I must return and steady myself."

"Has it become that serious?" Kamael glanced at her in some surprise, but after a brief moment's thought he nodded. "No matter. Our forward base here has stabilized, and we have a fair grasp of conditions within the Divine Kingdom. You may go back and rest easy."

When Milmina had first joined this project, beyond serving as a "consultant" to offer guidance, her greatest function had been to serve as a layer of "insurance"—if any residual divine contamination remained in the Divine Kingdom of the God of War, she could help the expedition team avoid the risk. But now the basic conditions of the Divine Kingdom had been ascertained; the contamination here had indeed vanished as far as mortals were concerned, and so Milmina's layer of "insurance" could be withdrawn.

Everyone present understood that.

Her decision made, Mirmyna wasted no time. She gave only a slight nod to the explorers who were staying behind, and then a swirling veil of luminous mist wrapped around her. A moment later the mist surged toward the mana net terminal nearby—just as she had descended into this space in the first place, her avatar now followed the net lines back to the Court of Defiance.

"She really just up and left..." Windsor Mabel watched Mirmyna go, and only once that immense surge of magical power had fully departed from this space did she allow herself to mutter under her breath. Then she lifted her head and looked toward Camiel. "Master Camiel, do you think this matter..."

"As for the mysteries of the deep mana... it seems we still have a great deal of work ahead of us, but at least today we have peeled back a corner of its most important veil," Camiel said, his tone steady. Perhaps because, as an energy being, he was no longer burdened by a frail and mutable flesh, he quickly regained control of his thoughts and emotions. "The bizarre and fantastical scenes Lady 'High Tower' described have stirred a great many associations in my mind, and I am sure the same is true for you and Master Verania—once we return, we should all continue to delve deeper into this question, and keep in constant contact and share our thinking. But... that is for later."

The arcane master shook his head gently and turned his gaze to the distance.

That was the direction of the "Boundary."

"As for what we should do now, it remains the same: keep digging into the secrets of this space, and wait for His Majesty Gaoyang Cecil to come and deal with that mysterious 'Iron Land' himself."