After Evelyn left, I headed deep into the Central Library.
While rummaging through books on tiered magic, I pondered the word **Ascension**.
The ultimate realm pursued by the mages of this world.
*What if I applied my physics knowledge to high-tier magic?*
Right now, my mana was so lacking that I'd only barely been able to twist a Tier 0 fireball into plasma.
But what if I physically optimized massive Tier 4 or Tier 5 spells?
What if I mixed the principles of nuclear fission into Tier 5 summoning magic, which ignores the law of conservation of mass?
Ugh, just imagining it gave me chills.
That would be closer to a strategic nuclear weapon than magic.
Maybe the reason science never developed in this world was because someone had already done something like that and destroyed it once before.
"...No, let's drop it. That's something to save for when I want to quit."
Even if this world was inside a romance fantasy novel I'd read, I had no intention of suddenly changing the genre to post-apocalyptic.
I was about to close the book when I stopped.
The word *space* suddenly flashed through my mind.
The relationship between time and space that Einstein had revealed.
The **Theory of Relativity**.
What if I applied that elegant formula—that gravity determines the curvature of space—to magic?
Couldn't I obtain something beyond modern physics?
*This could be pretty fun?*
Curiosity is the chronic illness and fatal poison of a graduate student.
Before I knew it, I began writing down the **Field Equations** in my notebook.
"The left side is the geometric structure of space, the right side is the energy density distribution of mana...."
With my tiny, rat-tail amount of mana, I couldn't create a massive object.
But if I compressed mana's density to approach infinity?
If I created a singularity at the particle level and folded space, that was a different story entirely.
The so-called creation of a **wormhole**.
The fictitious technology of teleportation might be realized at my fingertips.
I gathered mana at my fingertips.
The mana circuits throughout my body creaked and screamed.
A precise formula that allowed not even a 1% margin of error.
I poured in mana and twisted a single point in space.
Chzzzzzt—!
In an instant, the air in the library converged on one point, as if being sucked into a vacuum cleaner.
"Huh...?"
Space crumpled like paper.
The feeling was strange.
Why was pitch-black nothingness rushing into my field of vision?
The coordinates I'd set were definitely on top of the fluffy sofa in my lab...
It seemed the constants in my formula had deviated ever so slightly from this world's mana constants.
"Shit, I haven't even quit yet—!"
My scream vanished into the darkness before it could even finish.
***
When I came to my senses, I was standing in a bizarre space filled entirely with ashen gray.
A void dimension where the laws of physics seemed missing, with no clear boundary between sky and ground.
A chilling cold pierced my bones.
*Ah, shit. I need to get back right now.*
The eerie, frigid atmosphere felt like a ghost might jump out any second and tear up my thesis.
Especially occult stuff—I hated it to death.
The moment I tried to reverse-calculate my coordinates to return.
From beyond the darkness came the sound of metal clashing.
Clank, clank.
*Shit! What the hell, did one actually show up?*
I'd decided never to believe in unscientific horror in my life!
My heart pounded as if it would leap out of my mouth.
Thinking I'd slam a plasma ball into whatever it was, I gathered a small amount of mana in my hand.
Instinctively, I slowly turned my head toward the sound.
"...?"
There, a woman sat collapsed on the floor, bound by massive chains.
Long black hair covered half her face, but between the strands, her red pupils were deeper and darker than the void itself.
She stared at me without moving, as if she had been a part of this place since time immemorial.
****
There, a woman sat collapsed on the floor, bound by massive chains.
Her long black hair, reaching down to her waist, was tangled and unkempt, covering half her face.
The clothes draped over her were so tattered they could be called rags.
"...Who is it? To set foot in this gap of the void with a human body. And with such crude coordinate fixation, no less."
That was what I wanted to ask.
No, logically speaking, how did it make any sense for a person to be in this space of absolute nothingness?
I swallowed dryly and stepped back.
*I'd never heard of such a being in the novel.*
A person chained up and imprisoned in a place like this couldn't be normal.
An escaped convict, a madwoman, or if not that, perhaps a witch who'd tried to destroy the world and been sealed away?
My instincts were screaming a warning.
That woman was dangerous.
Extremely so.
Getting involved with her wouldn't yield a single ounce of benefit.
Running away right now was the best course of action.
"Ah, I'm sorry. I took a wrong turn. I won't disturb you, so please keep resting. I'll be on my way now."
A curt bow—
I politely bent at the waist, and without a hint of attachment, turned to leave.
"Wait!"
The woman cried out urgently.
As she moved, the chains screamed loudly.
She composed her voice again, trying to set the mood.
The surrounding space trembled as if responding to her mana.
"Wait, boy! I sense extraordinary talent in you. Do you desire power? Absolute authority to place the world beneath your feet! This one can open that path for you!"
At a glance, it was a textbook opportunity straight out of a mass-produced martial arts novel.
A typical protagonist would kneel here and beg to be taken as a disciple.
Unfortunately, I had been a graduate student in my previous life.
*There's no such thing as a free lunch. And with great power comes great responsibility.*
Hadn't I seen with my own two eyes how much our neighbor Peter Parker had suffered?
I was resolute.
I didn't want to get dragged into anything strange for no reason.
"No, not at all. If I gain power, I'll just have more work. I simply want to live lightly with a four-day workweek. I'll pass on absolute strength—it's too exhausting."
"...What?"
The woman's eyes went wide.
While she stood blankly, I mercilessly turned and began calculating my return coordinates.
"Hey! Hey! Don't go! Wait!"
The woman who had been speaking of absolute power just moments ago clattered her chains and crawled across the floor.
"Please! Just once! I've been alone here for over a thousand years!"
A desperate wail devoid of even a speck of dignity.
"I was just so happy that I tried to set the mood! Don't go, please! I was wrong! This noona was wrong!"
She looked ready to grab my pant legs, her eyes welling with tears.
"I am so bored I could truly die! No one comes here, mana overflows yet there's no one to talk to! I'll grant whatever you wish, no, just let me speak! Please, just stay by my side!"
"...Excuse me. Please calm down first."
"Oh! You answered me! You answered!"
Overcome with emotion, the woman struck the floor.
The chains rattled loudly.
Afraid I would leave, she hurriedly continued.
"You. Are you truly human? Ah, I am truly delighted! I won't force any power upon you, let us simply converse! Hm? I beg of you thus!"
I stopped with an awkward expression.
I'd expected a legendary sage or witch, but she was just a terribly lonely, solitary hikikomori noona.
If she'd spent a thousand years talking to the walls, it was a miracle she hadn't gone insane.
Since she didn't seem particularly dangerous, I sighed and stopped.
"...Um, your name?"
"This one's name is **Elenore Eterna**! Once, this name resounded throughout the Empire. You must have heard of it!"
Elenore Eterna.
I frantically searched my memory.
From the setting book of the romance fantasy novel I'd read in my previous life, to the tiered magic books I'd skimmed in the library.
*...Who the hell is Elenore?*
But that name didn't exist anywhere.
I held my head.
"No. First time hearing it. What do you do?"
"...Am I truly forgotten?"
The woman's face instantly sulked.
"Me, Elenore, who surpassed the threshold of the 10th Tier and transcended the world?! You rascal, how dare you be so calm before this one!"
At the words "10th-tier mage," I furrowed my brow.
If it was the 10th Tier, wasn't that the realm of **Ascension** that mages so desperately craved?
"Hey, you. If you're 10th-tier, that means you've ascended. So are you enjoying a vacation here as a god or something?"
"I did ascend! Damn it! That's precisely why this one is stuck here in this miserable state!"
My mind reeled at the sudden stream of profanity.
The way she shifted from maintaining a dignified historical drama tone to bursting with grievance was no ordinary sight.
I'd heard that ascension was the ultimate goal of all mages.
Yet the person who had actually ascended was chained in the void, unable to go anywhere.
"So what you're saying is."
"Yes. Are you catching on now?"
"Bondage and humiliation play was the ultimate goal of mages? I didn't know the mages of the Empire had such hardcore tastes. Truly, truth is profound."
At my earnest question, Elenore trembled until her chains threatened to break and shouted.
"What absurd drivel are you spouting! How could that be! I was scammed! I was deceived! I got thoroughly backstabbed by that damned 'Truth'!"
Overcome with rage, she pounded the floor.
One look and it was clear.
She'd definitely been scammed big time.
I'd once been fooled by a professor saying, "Everyone in our lab gets a full scholarship."
The utterly screwed feeling I'd had when I first set foot in grad school seemed similar, giving me a strange sense of kinship.
"What kind of scam? Isn't ascension what you all wanted? Throwing off your mortality?"
At my question, Elenore let out a bitter smile and stared at me through her tangled hair.
"Yes, ascension. The realm where one escapes human limits and becomes one with the truth of the world."
Her voice lowered.
"But the truth is, boy. To maintain this comfortable greenhouse called the world, someone must block the dimensional storms raging outside with their whole body."
"...No way."
"Grand in name only; in truth, it means nothing more than becoming a human breakwater."