The volcano erupts.
The continent’s axis, its crust, the scorching heat in its deepest depths all writhe as if alive and breathing, and ash-laden gusts swallow the entire world. Gas and mana exposed to the atmosphere trigger a chain of colossal explosions.
Boom—! Boom—! Boom—!
If the end of the world existed, would it look like this?
If fireworks were set off to celebrate that end, would they look like this?
The “Magic Crystal Core” wrapped around the entire volcano has long since come into direct contact with the mana in the magma, warping, breaking, shattering, and losing its function. Her own magic, meant to support the “Magic Crystal Core,” was so pitifully insignificant that it had been of no help at all.
────!
A roar seeps into her dazed ears. A raging torrent of magma pours down. The heat of mana whirls violently. A disaster that will go down in history, one that will destroy Yuren and the Ashes alike.
To Epherene, these moments unfold as if time itself has slowed. Every process of the explosions is vivid, spreading like a spiderweb, and the volcanic ash settles with the majesty of a giant’s hand.
Within it, Epherene looks at Deculein again.
Perhaps even then, she had been hoping for his help.
“Help……”
But the moment she turns to him, Epherene loses hope.
Clear, blue eyes. His eyes, meeting hers, speak in silence.
This is what you did.
This is the calamity you must resolve.
This is a massacre born of your greed, your immature good intentions.
He said,
“Do you understand now?”
Kwaaaaaaaa───!
The magma swallowed Deculein. He was swept away in that instant torrent, and Al Los, the puppet, had already been half destroyed.
“……Ah.”
Watching them vanish far too emptily, Epherene sinks to the ground in a daze. Even the ground is so hot it seems it will burn her hips, but she does not care. She cannot even feel that kind of searing pain.
……Ddddddddddk
A tremor rises behind her. A rumbling like the road itself being scraped away.
Epherene turns to look with vacant eyes and lets out a hollow laugh. A single tear falls.
Kugugugugu……!
A wave of magma. A massive, burning tidal wave of tremendous heat is surging toward her.
It rises as if to touch the sky, shimmering brilliantly as it tries to devour her.
“Fuck……”
Within it, Epherene grits her teeth. A rage she herself does not understand boils up in her heart.
She is furious at this mad nature. Furious at her ignorant, reckless, immature self for being such an idiot.
She merely stretches out her hand.
───!
At the moment the roaring magma thrusts its maw toward her.
Epherene pours in all her mana and concentration. In an instant, she calculates the formula, forms the circuit, and manifests the magic circle. She pours every bit of mana in her body into it.
……And as a result.
Wiiiiiiiing───!
A certain aura blooms clearly. Epherene’s eyes widen as well.
“It worked.”
This is a fragment of the “Deculein-Luna Thesis,” brought forth entirely by her own power. A magic that uses “allotropes,” the most basic and infinite property of carbon.
After synthesizing her mana into a macromolecule, she connects it together like a tiny hexagonal honeycomb to form a kind of membrane—literally, “the result of countless covalent bonds sharing mana at units below the nano scale.”
The definition Deculein calls a “nanotube.”
There is no way this invincible shield could be pierced by something like damned magma……
“Wait, no?!”
It was not.
A stream of magma flowed in through a gap in the magic.
“Ah, hot!”
At first, it was only hot, but the next instant, it burned Epherene’s heart.
* * *
“Aaaaargh——!”
On the sofa in the head professor’s office of the Imperial University Magic Tower.
“Ah, hot! It’s hot—!”
Epherene suddenly screamed.
And not only screamed.
“Kraaagh. Save me. Oh, no, I can’t see either. My heart.”
Had she suddenly lost her mind? Or had she once again had a prophetic dream?
It was an abrupt fit, but because it was Epherene, it was understandable.
Deculein, who had been recovering his mana in his office chair, looked back at her calmly and asked,
“What is it?”
“Krrrgh…… Huh?”
Epherene, who had been flailing about, finally opened her eyes. She sprang upright, looked at Deculein, then looked down at her own chest, which she had been clawing at indiscriminately.
“……Wow. Wow……”
Then, with an expression of utter relief, she lay back down on the sofa.
Deculein said,
“Get up. It is time to return to Yuren.”
“……Professor. You made the Magic Crystal Core yesterday, right?”
“Yes.”
The Magic Crystal Core lay on Deculein’s desk. Only then did Epherene realize that what she had seen was tomorrow’s future.
“What a relief……”
“Did the volcano explode?”
Deculein’s question.
Though she flinched in surprise, Epherene answered honestly.
“Yes.”
“The ‘Magic Crystal Core’ did not stop it?”
“……No.”
At that, Deculein nodded. Though he did not ask directly, he seemed to have roughly understood the situation.
He spoke again.
“Did you realize it?”
“…….”
Epherene covered her face with her hands.
It had been far too vivid an experience.
So much so that she could not tell whether it had been a prophetic dream, or whether she had regressed.
“……Yes.”
Thanks to that, she realized.
That powerless good intentions could sometimes bring about results more wrong than malice.
That the greed of wanting to save everyone could make her kill everyone.
And also……
“Professor, how do you know everything?”
That was what Epherene wanted to know.
“What do you mean?”
“You concluded that both places couldn’t be protected from the volcano. Even before you made the Magic Crystal Core.”
“It was calculation.”
He answered as he rose from his chair.
“The concentration of sulfur and mana in the atmosphere, the heat of the magma, and the cycle of previous volcanic eruption cases. In addition, the performance of the ‘Magic Crystal Core’ I would create. If one predicts and calculates all of it.”
Indeed, it was a clever thought. However, Epherene found it difficult to keep up with every thought continuing in his head. He was not kind enough to explain it all either.
Was this why he was her supervising professor?
“The conclusion is that the Ashes could not be saved from the beginning.”
“…….”
Epherene pressed her lips shut.
That great calamity, that scene of explosion, still flickered before her eyes. No wonder, since it had happened barely ten minutes before she woke up.
Tap—
Deculein’s shoes approached the sofa.
“So, do you intend to give up?”
Epherene looked up at him. Her heart was still pounding, yet this professor was always composed. His unshakable calm was almost wondrous.
Even just before being swept away by magma, even knowing he would be caught in the eruption, he had not shown the slightest sign of fear……
“I understand what you mean, Professor.”
Epherene spoke, and Deculein looked down at her in silence.
“I’ll make that choice too. If I have to give up either Yuren or the Ashes.”
The Duchy of Yuren. A nation where Princess Maho and innocent subjects lived.
On the other hand, the Ashes, occupied by unorthodox mages bound by neither law nor ethics.
It was obvious what she would choose.
“Of course, I’ll abandon the Ashes. There are more bad people among them.”
Even at those words, Deculein showed no reaction.
“But. That’s only when I absolutely have to choose.”
Epherene looked up at the professor with unwavering eyes.
“If there’s a way I don’t have to choose—”
“Do you think such a way exists?”
Deculein asked back. Epherene glanced at the “Magic Crystal Core.”
The thing on the office desk, billowing like a blue planet.
“The ‘Magic Crystal Core’ is still insufficient.”
“I know that too. But if I help, it’ll be different.”
“…….”
To Deculein, whose brow furrowed slightly, she added one more thing.
“I realized it. Part of your thesis and my dad’s.”
Epherene showed him a passage from the thesis.
[……I define this form, in which the atoms of a macromolecule are woven into honeycomb-like hexagons, as a “nanotube.” This form can be found particularly in “carbon,” and can also be synthesized artificially. The rough ratio of length to diameter of a nanotube is as follows.]
“This, nanotube thing. At first, honestly, I thought it was total bullshit, and I still don’t really understand it, you know? ‘Length-to-diameter ratio’ or whatever, it’s just packed with numbers.”
“…….”
Deculein shook his head.
“But.”
Epherene closed her eyes. Then she activated the mana within her body.
Wiiiiing──
As if a beam of light were surging upward, a membrane rose in the air. It was a nanotube of mana, joined without gaps.
However, Deculein examined it with serious eyes and shook his head.
“It is incomplete.”
“……I know that too. Magma pierced it. So.”
Epherene rose as she spoke.
“Teach me.”
“…….”
“What I’m lacking. I really can’t figure it out just by reading the thesis.”
At that, Deculein tilted his head slightly for a moment, let out a small sigh as if she were hopeless, and then……
“You first need to understand the ‘definition’ properly.”
Snap—! He flicked his fingers and began writing on the blackboard he used for organizing his schedule.
“An ‘allotrope’ is fundamentally one type of element. However, despite being the same element, if the atomic arrangement or bonding method differs, it comes to appear as though they are substances with completely different properties. The most representative examples are graphite and diamond.”
He presented the pencil and the Yukline tie pin on his desk respectively.
The pencil was graphite, and the tie pin was diamond.
Epherene also fixed her posture and sat up.
“Graphite and diamond are both of the same nature. Yet no one thinks so. Graphite is cheap, while diamond is expensive. These are called allotropes. Think of it roughly as different ‘forms’ of the ‘same’ ‘element.’”
“Yes.”
She answered while taking notes.
“Here, a ‘nanotube’ is a ‘macromolecular’ allotrope found in this carbon. To put it simply, a ‘macromolecule’ is a form in which countless very small molecules are connected.”
[Countless very small molecules connected = macromolecule]
[There are countless of them, so that’s why “macro” is attached. Since lots of very small things are connected, it’s sturdy]
“Carbon nanotubes are extremely sturdy because virtually infinite carbon atoms are bonded in hexagons.”
“Aha.”
“However, in truth, you may forget about carbon.”
“……What?”
Epherene frowned. He continued explaining calmly.
“I am merely explaining all these properties through the element called ‘carbon.’ On this continent, there exists an element that can possess even more infinite allotropes than carbon.”
“……What is that?”
“Carbon can become graphite, diamond, or fiber. But ‘this’ can become fire, wind, water, or occasionally steel and the sun. Of course, it depends on the caster’s attribute and ability.”
Deculein paused for a moment and looked at Epherene.
Feeling goosebumps rise all over her body, she spoke the identity of “this” that surpassed carbon.
“……Mana.”
“Yes. I call that element ‘mana.’ When humans accept mana, it becomes ‘magic power.’”
In the Imperial Magic Tower, magic power is not considered an element.
To begin with, the traditional Magic Towers’ classification of elements, excluding Yuren, was quite primitive.
“Mages do not think of magic power as an element, but as part of their own ‘strength.’ However, that is precisely why it can be limited.”
Epherene opened her eyes wide and nodded.
“Think of magic power as particles independent from you, and handle it as such. Magic power is literally ‘a force that can become anything.’”
Having finished the brief lecture, Deculein approached Epherene, who sat on the sofa, and spoke. He bent one knee for a moment and placed his hand on Epherene’s shoulder. He gazed steadily into her eyes.
“Epherene. For you, distinctions of attribute have no meaning.”
“……Yes.”
Epherene clenched her fist.
“I think I can do it.”
“…….”
Deculein looked down at her, half in doubt.
“There are at most twenty-four hours left until the explosion.”
“I can do it.”
“Do you trust yourself?”
“Yes. I’ve done it once. It’s something I already did, so I just have to revise it while looking at these notes.”
Epherene spoke while comparing her notes with the thesis. Deculein pointed at the thesis.
“There was still much left.”
“Then teach me! Just for the time we have left.”
The answer came back as though she had been waiting for it.
Deculein furrowed his brow slightly, but Epherene added confidently,
“I’ll work hard. If it still doesn’t work, I’ll give up on the Ashes then.”
“…….”
She did not think of failure. She believed it was absolutely possible.
She would put in that much effort.
The professor, who had been gazing steadily at her, spoke as if he had no choice.
“Do not even think of sleeping.”
“Of course. But!”
Ahem— Epherene cleared her throat, then suddenly wagged her eyebrows slyly.
“Before that, let me congratulate you in advance.”
“Congratulate?”
“Yes. To become an Elder of the Round Table, you have to create your own school, and there also has to be at least one person who has ‘practically utilized’ the magic you created, right?”
An Elder of the Round Table was, simply put, the official head of a “school.”
However, even now, when Deculein had created magical theories so tremendous that it was only natural for him to become an Elder, there was still a reason he had not become one.
Because Deculein himself could not implement or demonstrate the Deculein-Luna theory.
Since the thesis was as complex and difficult as it was, it was magic that could only be realized by someone who truly possessed all kinds of talent.
“But now you have me. The magic you can’t handle, I can handle now.”
“……And?”
Deculein asked back as if dumbfounded, and Epherene pointed at herself with her thumb.
“Congratulations on becoming an Eld— Agh!”
A tremendous forehead flick cut her words off.
Aaaaagh— Aaaaaaagh—
As Epherene screamed at the shock that seemed to batter her skull, Deculein added only one sentence.
“Do not count your chickens before they hatch. During the time remaining, you have far too much to learn. It is worse than cramming.”