Chapter 1155: The World Accelerates

In this universe, civilizations rise and fall, and intelligent species emerge endlessly. Many of these species are fundamentally different from one another at their evolutionary roots, yet they coexist side by side. Take the continent of Loren alone—there are nearly ten distinct intelligent races, including humans, elves, dwarves, fae, and the spirit folk, along with even more numerous “subspecies.” Except for some elven subspecies that may have originated from a split in ancient times, the other intelligent races clearly evolved independently.

Looking out into the distant stars, the information Enya provided revealed a staggering truth: the number of civilizations scattered among the stars far exceeded what Gawain had imagined. Over a hundred signals didn’t represent an exact count; rather, they indicated that in the past million years, at least a hundred civilizations had developed the technology to broadcast signals across interstellar distances. And Gawain suspected there were many more civilizations that hadn’t yet reached such a level of advancement, quietly existing somewhere in the vastness of space.

These civilizations were born, thrived, and evolved on their home worlds. The immense scale of the cosmos concealed their faint lights; their eyes could not see far, their voices could not carry across the void. No one knew they existed. Some may have come and gone without leaving a single trace in the universe—just like the countless civilizations that had risen and fallen on Gawain’s own planet.

These faint “lights” were obviously excluded from Enya’s statistics.

Such a high density of civilizations must have a reason. Gawain had never seriously pondered this before. Even when doubts flickered in his mind, he hadn’t dwelled on them. But today, standing in Kamail’s laboratory, surrounded by surging arcane energy and observing the mage himself, a bold and possibly truthful idea suddenly took shape in his mind:

If the magical tide—the “Magestorm”—is everywhere in the universe, then magic itself must be omnipresent. And if magic is everywhere… then perhaps it is one of the key catalysts driving the evolution of most civilizations in this world.

Gawain fell into deep thought. Kamail, watching him closely, couldn’t help but ask, “Have you come to a conclusion?”

“I heard you mention the countless civilizations flickering in and out among the stars, and suddenly a question struck me,” Gawain said, snapping out of his reverie without hiding his thoughts. “Maybe it’s the presence of magic that has given rise to so many civilizations.”

Kamail looked puzzled by the leap in logic. “You mean…?”

“Have you ever heard the theory that the progress of a civilization is tied to its ability to harness and utilize energy?” Gawain patiently explained. “The more efficiently a civilization can use energy, the more advanced it becomes. Correspondingly, if a world’s energy is more active and easier to extract and convert, then civilizations there will develop faster, making technological leaps more likely.

“Magic is everywhere. Based on all the clues we have, the laws of this world are consistent on average, so magic should exist on other planets too. We know magic is a form of energy that’s easy to extract and convert. Even in primitive civilizations, gifted intelligent species can directly wield magic to create fire, move objects, shape materials, and so on. Of course, sometimes this convenience can actually slow technological progress, because easy production suppresses innovation. But when the timing is right, it can rapidly propel a species forward…”

“The level of civilization is closely linked to energy utilization, and the difficulty of harnessing energy determines the speed of development…” Kamail quickly grasped Gawain’s point and nodded thoughtfully. “It’s a compelling theory. But… is magic really that easy to extract and convert?”

The ancient arcanist’s tone carried a hint of confusion. If he still had eyebrows, they would surely be furrowed now. He raised his arm, manipulating the ambient magic to resonate, sparking crackles of energy between two nearby conduits. “For me, it’s not difficult. But for most people, controlling magic is still quite challenging.”

Gawain was momentarily taken aback, then realized: to him, magic was an unbelievably convenient energy source—ubiquitous and inexhaustible. But for the species living in this world, magic was so commonplace that they no longer appreciated how uniquely privileged their environment was. At least, from the perspective of civilization’s development, it was an extraordinary advantage.

Fortunately, this wasn’t a critical issue. He quickly moved past this “cognitive bias.” “At least from my perspective, magic is an extremely convenient form of energy, and its omnipresence clearly catalyzes civilization’s growth.”

Kamail lowered his gaze, pondering. After a moment, he said, “Perhaps magic doesn’t just catalyze civilization’s development—it might also accelerate the birth of intelligent life, even life itself.”

He spread his arms, glowing with arcane light, and between his hands appeared a pale blue projection showing various creatures and their anatomy. “The druids of the Gondor era had a theory that abundant magical energy in nature was a key factor in awakening intelligence. During the Starfire Age, the great druid Pryman conducted extensive cultivation and catalytic experiments, proving that although humans, elves, and spirit folk have different nervous system structures, all respond to magic. Even ordinary people who cannot consciously sense magic have nervous systems that passively receive and react to magical stimuli—this feedback is the basis for many mind-affecting spells.

“Earlier elven scholars speculated that ‘magic is the source of life.’ They believed that an active energy environment was a prerequisite for transforming natural matter into ‘life elements.’ Though unproven, this theory has had many supporters over the years…”

“Magic, this vibrant and abundant energy, is a catalytic force in the universe. It enables life to emerge on many worlds, greatly accelerates the evolution of intelligent species, and ultimately gives birth to countless civilizations,” Gawain said solemnly, his voice low as he summarized their shared hypothesis. “And considering that the Magestorm’s nature is to ‘destroy observers,’ it doesn’t reset entire ecosystems outside of those observers. So new civilizations can quickly rise and reach a certain level after each Magestorm… and this cycle repeats endlessly, generation after generation.”

“The Magestorm’s occurrence is also related to magic,” Kamail added. “At least, the ‘Deep Blue Well explosion suppressing minor Magestorms’ and some intelligence shared by the dragons support this.”

When the ancient arcanist finished speaking, Gawain remained silent for a long moment. His face was as calm as still water, but inside, all the answers and clues swirled into a vortex. A certain “truth” about the universe became clearer in his mind:

Magic accelerates everything—civilizations’ birth and their destruction alike. It is a driving force, pushing all intelligent species born in this universe to proliferate and develop at breakneck speed, only to perish again and again in rapid succession. Once, Gawain had imagined the universe as cold and slow, shaped by his homeland’s perspective. On cosmic scales, changes are measured in millions or billions of years. Civilizations born by chance in the cold void flicker weakly and move sluggishly, their lights barely visible among the stars.

But now he realized the world he lived in was entirely different—a boiling cauldron of heat, where everything is accelerated by magic’s relentless blaze. Here, it’s easy for an intelligent species to develop. Once a technological breakthrough occurs, mortals can leap from ignorant earthbound existence to mastering machines and touching the sky in a single bound. Yet at the same time… civilization’s end comes just as easily.

Many intelligent races suffer because of this: they can’t keep up with the fast pace, nor avoid the countless traps along the way. They run blindly down a path with no clear goal, where a single misstep or hesitation means eternal ruin.

Thus, the stars are dotted with flickering glimmers of civilization, but almost none become bright beacons. Among the dense, rapidly changing lights lie countless tombstones marking fallen civilizations.

“What are you thinking?” Kamail finally broke the silence after seeing Gawain remain quiet for so long.

Gawain shook his head gently, his voice soft and low. “I’m just wondering if we’re all being swept along, racing forward driven by magic…”

“…The philosopher Gramos of the Starfire Age once said that all beings are inevitably carried by the environment in which they were born. We didn’t choose this world; this world gave birth to us,” Kamail said after a pause. He raised an arm, bright arcane sparks dancing across his rune-etched armor. “Magic… you know it’s everywhere. We can’t develop apart from it.”

Fish live in water; without it, they die. Maybe one day they’ll evolve lungs, but that’s not something mortals can consider now.

“You make a good point,” Gawain nodded slightly, his gaze drifting to the energy conduits and elemental pools behind Kamail. “Which is why I’m especially curious now… what exactly is the nature of magic?”

Kamail turned toward the conduits, where pure streams of flame rose, glowing bright yet cold. “Master Verania and I believe magic is a wave—a ripple permeating the entire universe, passing through stars and spanning time and space. All the indirect phenomena we’ve observed support this, including our communication technology and the ‘magic field’ of the Arcane Obelisk. But so far, we haven’t found the crucial evidence…

“I’ve been testing higher purity arcane energy sources to minimize their interaction with spatial noise. Scholars of the Silver Empire are trying to create a kind of ‘dark chamber’ effect, using anti-magic materials and energy fields to shield environmental magical noise. Our efforts have had some effect, but we’re still far from a breakthrough.”

“Is magical noise in the environment still an unsolved problem?” Gawain frowned. He’d known about this difficulty years ago, and that the Silver Elves had been trying to solve it for nearly half a century. “Is there really no ‘natural environment’ free of magical noise in this world?”

“Unfortunately, we haven’t found any evidence of that,” Kamail said with undisguised disappointment. “Magic is everywhere, and so is the noise. We once wondered if space beyond this planet might be a ‘pure’ magical vacuum, but now we know that even the void between stars is filled with magic… I think it’s like the ‘background color’ of our world, or a macroscopic reflection of some fundamental structure of this world. As long as we live here, we can’t escape it.”

What is the macroscopic reflection of the world’s most fundamental structure?

It was a thought laden with deep meaning. Gawain furrowed his brow, pondering for a moment but gaining no insight. He shook his head. “Do you think the Dragonkind might have the answer? Their technology was once far more advanced than ours, and they’ve accumulated knowledge over millions of years—much of which has now been ‘unsealed.’”

“In fact, I’ve already asked,” Kamail said, shaking his head. “When the Dragon emissaries last visited Cecil City, I met with one of their members. Surprisingly, their progress on this front is about the same as ours… They believe that the essence of magic is indeed a kind of wave, and they’ve confirmed this hypothesis through various indirect pieces of evidence. They have far more proof than we do, but they’re still missing that final crucial link to reach a definitive conclusion.”

To ordinary people, the question of whether magic is truly a wave might seem trivial. They might even think that since the Dragonkind have so much indirect evidence and many of their technological achievements support this idea, the matter is “close enough” and doesn’t need to be scrutinized so harshly or repeatedly tested. But Kamail knew better—he and Master Vilania could not afford such complacency.

Scholarship demands rigor—especially when it concerns the deepest secrets of this world.

“Even the Dragonkind haven’t found a way to complete the experiment?” Gawain was stunned by Kamail’s words. “This… means the problem of magical noise waves is far more complicated than we imagined…”

…

At the same moment, in the northern skies above Cecil City, a small group of dragons beat their mighty wings, slicing through the clouds in formation.

Leading the group were the white dragon Noretta and the blue dragon Melita.

“This is the first time I’ve left Tal’Ranth since that battle,” Noretta said as they passed through a break in the clouds. Her gaze swept over the distant land below, where broad, straight roads and magic transmission facilities lining them came into view. “So much has changed… The human world never seems to pause for even a moment.”

“Tal’Ranth is the same now,” Melita replied, weaving magic through the air, her voice directly reaching Noretta’s mind. “And in the future, we will never again fall into the kind of stagnation we once endured.”

“That’s a hopeful wish,” Noretta said, bowing her neck to gently touch with her chin an egg-shaped container fastened securely to her chest. Inside, a dragon egg bathed in a magical field shimmered faintly. “I believe that after this child is born, they will live in a better world.”

(End of chapter)