Chapter 1272: The Truth Behind the Truth

Kamail quietly stared at the interference fringes displayed on the silver-white alloy thin plate. At the other end of the communication device, the Great Archmage Verania also gazed silently at the image on the plate.

This was the “truth” she had pursued for half a century.

In this world, every corner was saturated with “magical background interference.” The omnipresent noise made it impossible for scholars to directly observe the interference phenomena of magic under specific conditions. The static would cause observation devices to overexpose. To solve this, scholars had to create an “ideal dark chamber” that could completely isolate magical background interference. But in the real world, Verania and her team had spent fifty years trying—and failing—to achieve this goal. Until today.

The entire God of War Kingdom was a colossal “dark chamber.” Its “darkness” wasn’t optical but a state of magical vacuum. Within this chamber, free from the interference of underlying magic, the seekers of truth finally caught a glimpse of the world’s most fundamental secret.

After a moment of silence, Kamail finally whispered, “It really does have wave properties…”

He hadn’t expected his tone to be so calm when the moment arrived. Then, suddenly, he seemed to hear a roaring cheer rising from all directions—layer upon layer of applause like a crashing tidal wave. The ancient mage instinctively looked up and around, but the vast arena was empty, rows of vacant seats stretching out before him. The illusory projection of the God of War sat solemnly on the high throne. It was as if invisible spectators were celebrating a miracle, even the gods casting approving glances. But in the next instant, the illusion vanished—the arena remained silent and empty, the throne’s projection nothing but a ghost.

Kamail seemed to awaken from a dream and turned to those beside him, asking if they had seen the strange phenomena. They only responded with confused, nervous expressions—“It was just an illusion.”

Yet even if it was an illusion, the ancient mage felt something stir within him. He looked toward the silent undead apparition nearby—Malm Dunith stood quietly, the War God’s Pontiff wearing a faint smile. Noticing Kamail’s gaze, he nodded gently.

“I don’t fully understand what you’re doing, but I’m sure it’s important. If the Lord were still here, I believe He would smile at the courage and success of mortals.”

Far away, in the Starry Sanctuary, Verania finally tore her eyes away from the holographic projection. The elven archmage stood silently on the platform for a long time. Only when the apprentices beside her grew anxious and confused did she finally exhale deeply, her face breaking into a radiant smile the apprentices hadn’t seen in a thousand years.

One young apprentice, only 650 years old, couldn’t help but think: if she ever smiled like that at some gentleman, the archmage would have been married off long ago…

“Go get my best vintage!” Verania suddenly turned, her excited tone startling the apprentice. “I want to celebrate! I want to celebrate properly!”

“Y-yes, Mistress…” the apprentice stammered, about to leave when Verania called out again, “And tell Sodalim—didn’t he want to see me the day before yesterday? Tell him to wait for me on the upper platform. This time, I’m going to have a proper talk with him!”

The apprentice froze, unable to believe what she’d just heard. She stared at the famous archmage of the Empire’s academic and social circles, forgetting how rude it was to stare so openly. “You mean… Mr. Sodalim? So you’ve finally chosen him? That’s really… Ah, right, I’ll notify him immediately! Is there anything else you want me to tell him?”

“Nothing else. He’s already my defeated opponent—we’ve argued over this issue for thirty years. It’s time that fool faced reality,” Verania said with a bright smile, brighter than ever before. “I’ll slap the fact of magic’s wave nature right in his face. And just like the bet we made thirty years ago when we first argued—he has to jump off the highest tower of the Starry Sanctuary!”

The apprentice’s eyes widened in shock. “…Ah?”

“Still standing there? Go!” the archmage snapped.

The small incident in the Silver Empire didn’t affect Kamail’s experiment. The trial that unveiled the veil of truth had ended. The hum inside the arcane energy source gradually faded, but the light and dark stripes left on the alloy plate remained as a permanent testament, etched into the metal’s surface. Kamail stepped forward and brushed his hand over the plate. A faint blue glow spread across it, altering the microscopic structure from active to inert.

This meant that even when returned to a normal magical environment, the pattern on the surface would remain stable.

“We’ve finally uncovered a crucial truth… Many phenomena related to the propagation and transformation of magic now have solid theoretical support,” a low hum resonated within Kamail. He turned toward Mylmina. “Lady, if it’s confirmed that magic has wave properties, then my calculations on the magic field… Lady?”

Mylmina seemed not to hear him. The “Goddess of Magic” stood motionless beside the experimental apparatus, staring down at the light and dark stripes on the alloy plate. Her eyes, visible beneath her veil, flickered with a faint purple flame—so faint it seemed ready to extinguish. This unusual state finally drew attention. Windsor Mapel, who had been quiet all along, nervously stepped forward.

“Lady of the Tower, are you alright…?”

Before she could finish, Mylmina’s eyes suddenly flashed. The “Master of Magic” seemed to awaken from a long, unknown journey. She raised her hand, examining her fingertips, and whispered dreamily beneath her veil, “Wave nature… confirmed. So my essence is… ripples.”

In the next instant, Mylmina’s form shifted from solid to ethereal. Starting from her fingertips, a ripple-like light spread rapidly over her entire body, dispersing in all directions. Kamail barely had time to reach out before the former goddess vanished before their eyes.

A god disappearing before mortals was not extraordinary in itself. But witnessing this and sensing the unusual magical fluctuations around her, Kamail realized this was no mere “invisibility” or “teleportation.” It was something far beyond imagination—something perhaps only Mylmina herself could comprehend.

The nearby technicians tensed immediately. Several trained staff instinctively activated nearby detectors to collect data. Windsor Mapel widened her eyes, sensing the magic around her, and cautiously asked, “Lady of the Tower? Are you still here? What exactly happened?”

“I’m here.” A voice suddenly came from beside Kamail. He turned to look but saw nothing.

He detected no cloaking spells or spatial distortions.

“I’m not invisible,” Mylmina’s voice came again, this time beside Windsor. “Nor have I tampered with your senses. I’m right here, walking among you, sharing the same space. It’s hard to explain what I’m seeing now. Everything has changed. Everything… is different.”

“Everything has changed?” Windsor’s face was full of confusion. She couldn’t understand what the former goddess meant but still asked, “What did you see? What did you do? Has something happened to you?”

“I’m not sure how it all happened. I only see… ripples,” Mylmina’s voice sounded again—this time from two different places simultaneously: behind Kamail and to Windsor’s left. Two distinct sources. “Ripples of all things, magic leaking from these devices, echoes of thoughts rising from every corner of the God Kingdom, and… you.”

“We?” Kamail and Windsor said in unison.

“Yes, you, and everyone here. I can still distinguish you, but… I can no longer define your boundaries. They blur, entangled with the omnipresent ripples, as if…”

Mylmina’s voice suddenly stopped. After a long pause—half a minute—just as Kamail and Windsor were about to ask, her voice returned:

“As if… you are part of the wave.”

Kamail and Windsor exchanged glances.

They were part of the wave? That statement, strange even logically, how were they to understand it?

At that moment, a faint purple arc of light suddenly burst forth before them. Within its flickering glow, a figure rapidly took shape—the towering three-meter-tall “High Advisor” Mylmina reformed.

All eyes instantly focused on her. Yet she seemed still trapped in some strange “observer” state, staring confusedly at an invisible point for a long time. Finally, her gaze refocused, and the “Master of Magic” shook her head gently, looking around with unfamiliar eyes.

“It’s over… I’m back.”

“Are you alright?” Kamail couldn’t help but ask, worried—never had he imagined he’d worry about a god. “What exactly happened just now?”

“I don’t know. But I suspect… what we glimpsed today is more than just the truth behind magic,” Mylmina said, staring at Kamail for a long time, as if trying to see some other “form of existence” within his tangible figure. “Kamail, we know far too little about this world.”

“It’s hard to imagine those words coming from a former god,” Kamail thought, filled with countless questions, but still couldn’t help but remark, “You really look… like a mortal now.”

“Do I?” Mylmina blinked, as if only now truly waking. “Maybe that’s not such a bad thing…”

Then she gently shook her head, dispelling the chaotic, disorienting fog clouding her mind with a deeply human gesture. “I think… I need some time to slowly sort through that unusual ‘vision’ I saw… to understand that scene where everything—every single thing—lost its clear boundaries, blending together like a chaotic yet strangely ordered static. Sorry, but I might have to step back from the operation here early—I need to go and recalibrate my state of mind.”

“Has it really gotten that bad?” Kamail glanced at her with some surprise, but after a brief moment of thought, he nodded. “It’s alright. Our forward base here has stabilized, and we have a pretty good grasp of the situation inside the God of War’s realm. You can rest easy and head back.”

When Mylmina first joined this project, besides offering guidance as a “consultant,” her main role was to act as a safeguard. If any residual divine contamination lingered in the God of War’s domain, she could help the exploration team avoid risks. But now that the basic situation has been clarified—confirming that the contamination affecting mortals has indeed vanished—Mylmina’s protective layer is no longer necessary.

Everyone on site understood this clearly.

Having made her decision, Mylmina wasted no time. She gave a slight nod to the remaining explorers, then was enveloped in a swirling mist of light. Moments later, the luminous fog flowed toward the nearby arcane network terminal—just as she had first appeared in this space, her avatar now returned along the network lines to the Rebellious Courtyard.

“She really just left without a word…” Windsor Mapel muttered softly, watching Mylmina’s departure. Only after the massive surge of magical energy had completely faded from the area did she lift her head and look toward Kamail. “Master Kamail, what do you think about all this…”

“As for the deeper mysteries of magic… it seems we still have a long way to go. But at least today, we’ve unveiled a crucial part of the veil,” Kamail said steadily. Perhaps freed from the frailty and volatility of a physical body as an energy being, he quickly regained control over his thoughts and emotions. “The bizarre, surreal scene described by ‘Lady Tower’ sparked many associations in my mind. I’m sure you and Master Verania felt the same. Once we return, we should continue to delve into this matter, maintaining constant communication and sharing our insights. But… that’s a task for later.”

The archmage shook his head gently, his gaze drifting toward the distance.

Toward the place where the “boundary” lay.

“For now, what we must do is keep uncovering the secrets of this space, and wait for His Majesty, King Gawain Cecil, to personally handle that mysterious ‘Iron Land.’”

(End of chapter)