Chapter 541 — Aftermath in the Shadows

Pi Yun's words brought Gao Yang to a halt once more.

"And the other half you mentioned—?"

Pi Yun stroked his somewhat unkempt beard, and on the face of this old fellow who never took anything seriously there was, for once, a rare trace of gravity. "As things stand, all magical devices can only realize spells of the 'instant release' type. Spells that require mental guidance, like Arcane Hand—those are beyond them, are they not?"

In an instant Gao Yang understood what he meant, and his eyes widened slightly at the prospects the nerve-cord technology might hold.

Magical technology has its flaws—or rather, its limits. Those limits have existed from the very beginning.

The "spells" of this world can be broadly divided into two kinds. One belongs to instant release: so long as the caster has completed the spell model, or has pre-arranged a rune array, all that is needed is an infusion of energy, and the spell can be released at once, with no further human involvement—Fireball, Ice Arrow, Repulsion Trick and other spells that take effect instantly all fall into this category. The other kind is "mentally guided"; as the name suggests, its operation requires a human mind to sustain and control it continuously. Arcane Hand and the various mind-affecting spells all belong to this category.

Clearly, magical technology at its present stage can realize only the first kind: by arranging a specific rune array, the spell model is stored in the machine in advance, and then one presses a button and releases a spell—that is the essence of the vast majority of magical devices.

And it was also the only method Gao Yang, drawing on his "Earth way of thinking," could conceive for making magic universally usable.

Yet this world's spells are not of one kind only. For those requiring mental guidance, magical technology is left helpless—ordinary people without mental power have no way to control a complex, ever-shifting spell in real time by pressing a button. Though Jennie's side had all along been trying to use rune arrays to control Arcane Hand through every manner of operation, and in the process searching for a breakthrough into "mentally guided" spells, that clumsy, sluggish, error-ridden prototype system still showed no practical value whatsoever, nor any hope of a breakthrough in the foreseeable future.

Moreover, because of this same limitation, some of the magical devices currently in development have run into severe constraints—take the immersion-type neural pod just completed. The "suggestive scenarios" stored within it, used to let the user distinguish the real world from illusion, must be edited by a mage; technicians of common birth could not touch the work at all. This plainly did not accord with Gao Song's line of thinking.

"The original purpose of the Sleepers in commissioning the Order of All Things' End to develop nerve-cord technology was to expand the cult—to let those who are not priests of the Sleeping God, converted merchants, minor nobles, even clerics of alien faiths, connect to their dreams and be remade by the dark doctrine. Dark as their motives are, the goal they seek is very close to our own: to let those without a certain transcendent gift wield transcendent power by means of tools."

Pi Yun spoke unhurriedly. After so many years parted from the dark sect, the knowledge deeply seared into his memory was gradually surfacing again; this obscure lore blended slowly with the wonders of the magical city before his eyes, and his thoughts were growing clearer and clearer.

"The nerve cord joins the human brain to the runes; in this process it takes the place of a person's 'mental sensing.' So let us broaden the thought: if ordinary people who cannot sense magic are connected to nerve cords, might they then control magic indirectly? And if we further equip this apparatus with auxiliary energy devices, spell-casting mechanisms, supporting machinery—then... would an ordinary person hooked up to a nerve cord and a full set of external gear still be any different from a true mage?"

The breakthrough into mentally guided spells had been found.

And it had come from outside magical technology—from the cultists' tree of science.

"There is a difference..." Looking at the old druid before him, Gao Yang suddenly smiled. "A true mage who wants to advance a rank must train for years, and needs sufficient luck, talent, and money. But an 'artificial mage' hooked to a nerve cord, to advance a rank... would probably only need a bigger mana capacitor."

Pi Yun spread his hands. "Developing a new model of mana capacitor also takes time."

"True enough—but once it is developed, it can be put to use on hundreds of thousands, even millions of people at once..."

Behind the two of them, Amber looked at Gao Yang, then at Pi Yun. The half-elf had begun nodding off the moment the two started discussing technical matters, yet she had still grasped what these two old men were talking about—and at the last few sentences, the young half-elf lady could hold back no longer: "Good gods... you two are serious about this?"

"Any technology that challenges the norm feels like a tall tale before it is realized," Gao Rong said. "But 'the norm'... isn't that what it exists to be broken?"

Then he turned to Pi Yun and said gravely, "I think this line of thought is entirely feasible, and you can give it a try—in the druidic field, you are the expert. But mind one thing: we are not the Sleepers, nor the Order of All Things' End."

"I understand what you mean," Pi Yun bowed his head deeply. "Rest assured—I am not now, and will not be in the future."

...

Everything seemed to have returned to its proper course. The continent still developed along its original trajectory: the nobles still wallowed in wine and song, the nations still schemed against one another, civil wars went on and development went on. The anomalies of the Giant Sun and the Great Wall had briefly stirred some panic, but that panic subsided as the barrier was restored. On the surface, all in this world was as it had always been.

But for those who kept constant watch over the wasteland, the aftershocks of the Great Wall's anomaly were still running on.

In the eastern reaches of Ans, deep within an underground palace.

The rustle of roots scraping against stone slabs echoed through the deep, dark catacombs. Magic-crystal lamps set into the ancient stone walls cast patches of interlocking light and shadow across the dim palace. Bei Yila passed through this corridor, now so familiar to her, and came to the place where the high priests held their council.

In the broad hall of the catacombs stood a long table and chairs; the glow of the magic-crystal lamps poured down from the ceiling, lighting the faces of those attending the meeting. Some of those faces turned toward the entrance, and one high priest, catching sight of Bei Yila, could not help frowning: "You are late again, High Priest Bei Yila."

"So long as you have not discussed anything useful, my arriving at any hour does not count as late," Bei Yila replied with veiled sarcasm, taking her seat at her place along the long table. "Or... have you already discussed something useful?"

Such was this woman's manner of speaking, and the high priests present were long since inured to it. The elf twins Ferna and Lerna, seated across the table, even laughed in unison: "Ha, not a thing, truly—if you had not come, we might well have started discussing dinner."

"We may discuss it shortly, but for now let us keep our eyes on that wasteland," Bei Yila said, shaking her head. "The Great High Priest has seen a revelation in the Book of Ultimates. Our sun... has indeed gone wrong. The power it releases is churning the magical environment of the entire world, and this will greatly hasten the collapse of that barrier."