Chapter 573: Interference

Summer was drawing to a close.

At night, the blazing constellation began to shift toward the western sky. The oppressive heat started to recede across the kingdom, and the morning and evening breezes grew cooler and more pleasant. After a few heavy rains, the scent of autumn crept closer with each passing day.

Intricate, arcane runes floated in midair like stars. Crystal devices displaying the rune structures were fixed atop alloy bases, their surfaces shimmering with magical radiance. A low, steady hum echoed through the laboratory. Kamail hovered silently among the ethereal runes, his arcane eyes glowing as brightly as ever.

This was the largest analysis chamber in the Rune Research Institute. Today’s task was to decipher the technical data brought by the elves.

Several senior runemasters stood nearby, meticulously copying down the key nodes of the rune structures. Beside Kamail stood a tall, slender male elf with radiant golden hair. His gaze occasionally flickered toward Kamail—clearly, the powerful arcane being fascinated this elven mage.

But Kamail paid no mind to the elf’s attention. His focus was entirely on the freshly translated and analyzed runes. After carefully examining their core structure, he couldn’t help but say, “Master Banner—this purification array’s core mechanism… is it some kind of tuning and resonance?”

“You’re absolutely right, Master Kamail,” the elf mage named Banner nodded. “Through long-term study of chaotic mana, we’ve discovered that at its essence, it’s still a form of magical energy—not the highly polluting waste energy we once thought. Since it is magical energy, it can potentially be ordered through retuning and resonance. That’s the principle behind ‘purification.’”

Kamail’s gaze lingered on the rune projections, his voice growing excited. “So, you treat mana as a kind of ‘wave’—and you succeeded?!”

“‘Wave’…” Banner suddenly paused, surprised. “You’ve introduced this concept as well?!”

“…We only recently adopted the concept, and it remains a hypothesis,” Kamail buzzed. “In reconstructing communication spells, we applied the wave properties of mana. Mathematically and experimentally, its wave nature is confirmed, but we lack the crucial—observable—evidence.”

“We introduced the concept forty years ago. Archmage Verania proposed that mana is a wave and derived theoretical wavelength ranges for pure arcane energy through several spell models. Her theory underpins the purification array. Unfortunately, we too have failed to obtain observable evidence…”

Kamail suddenly turned, his eyes burning as he fixed Banner with a sharp look. “You’ve encountered interference as well?”

“You too?!” Banner’s voice brimmed with surprise. His attention was no longer on Kamail’s arcane form. This elf from the Silver Empire had never imagined that on the distant continent, in a foreign land where human society was in decline, human mages were grappling with the very same fundamental questions—and had reached the same bottlenecks!

“Interference is everywhere. The entire world is saturated with powerful ambient mana, making observation impossible,” Kamail said, equally astonished that the elves were conducting research parallel to humanity’s. It was like a lone traveler in the desert suddenly finding a companion with the same destination. His long-stilled—indeed, nonexistent—“heart” seemed to beat anew. “What kind of experiments have you designed?”

After a brief moment of surprise, Banner quickly regained his composure and spoke candidly. “Archmage Verania designed an interference experiment. We prepared a pure arcane energy source with minimal ‘impurities,’ then focused the energy into a beam aimed at a lattice made of anti-magic crystal sheets. The sheets had two very narrow slits close together. Theoretically, pure arcane energy passing through the slits should exhibit wave behavior: the mana waves from the two slits would interfere and form interference fringes on a projection plate coated with developer dust…”

“But all you got was white noise, right?” Kamail interjected. “Any pattern projected onto the observation surface was overwhelmed by the stronger natural mana field—like trying to see a faint glow in broad daylight. In fact, the weak pure arcane energy probably never even reached the projection plate, neutralized mid-flight by the ambient mana…”

Banner sighed regretfully. “As you said, the experiment failed. It seems you’ve encountered the same problem…”

“We designed a similar experiment, based on Duke Cecil’s proposal,” Kamail’s voice was low. “We also failed to observe interference fringes, but mathematically, they should exist.”

Banner was surprised. “Duke Gawain Cecil has such expertise in magic?”

“He’s well-educated and, during his seven centuries of soul detachment, accessed extraordinary knowledge and wisdom,” Kamail said with genuine respect. “But even he couldn’t solve the problem of natural mana interference. By the way, have you tried anti-magic fields?”

“The highest-level anti-magic fields only suppress magical reactions to some extent and disrupt the caster’s mental focus to block spellcasting. They can’t eliminate mana itself,” Banner shook his head with a bitter smile. “We also tried creating a ‘dark chamber’ with expensive anti-magic crystals to block ambient mana, but due to technical limitations, we can’t guarantee complete isolation. Even the slightest leak… interference appears like a demon.”

Kamail could imagine the immense effort elves invested in building such a “dark chamber.”

Because natural mana permeates everything, the interference experiment requires the observer to be inside the dark chamber as well. A chamber large enough to hold an observer—even a cramped one—is a massive “box.” The cost of anti-magic crystals is one thing, but crafting such a huge crystal structure without any “leak points” clearly exceeds elven craftsmanship.

If even the elves can’t manage it, humans are even less likely.

“Our next step is to seek help from the Ogre tribe’s fae,” Banner sighed. “They’re small enough to fit into tiny dark chambers. Smaller chambers might be feasible to craft. But it’s hard to say if we can find fae willing to be confined—they really hate being trapped.”

…

Gawain sat behind his desk, quietly listening to Kamail’s report.

“…Lord, in summary, the elves face the same problem as us—ambient mana interference.”

“A devilish kind of interference…”

Gawain murmured, his thoughts churning.

What is the true nature of mana?

This question had haunted him since his resurrection. That omnipresent natural force, that seemingly infinite energy source—it brought convenience but also deep doubts. He had long sought to understand mana’s essence and origin, yet so far, his research team’s results were scant.

They could only confirm that mana’s source was tied to the “sun” in the sky, and its nature… was “perhaps” some kind of wave.

Yes, despite some practical applications—like the magic network communication technology—and some computational conclusions, as long as no observable phenomenon could be found, the definition remained uncertain. For now, Gawain and Kamail could only say: mana “might” be a wave.

It was a frustrating situation.

Mana was there. Its nature, its possible essence, was on the verge of revelation. Yet the crucial observations were blocked by the greatest obstacle: the omnipresent natural mana field.

This saturation enabled rapid magical development but also posed huge challenges for certain research projects.

The classic experiment to verify wave behavior was the double-slit interference test. Gawain knew how it was done on Earth—but in this world, the experiment was nearly impossible. The natural mana field overwhelmed all observations.

The ambient mana’s intensity far exceeded the two arcane beams passing through the slits. It created a white noise on the projection plate, erasing any trace of the pure, directional arcane flow. For the same reason, attempts to observe the mana equivalent of Poisson’s spot also failed.

The elves’ approach—building a dark chamber to shield ambient mana—might be the best solution.

But it was no easy task.

On Earth, blocking strong natural light to observe interference fringes only required light-blocking materials. Here, materials capable of blocking mana were extremely rare and difficult to process. Expensive anti-magic crystals were the best available, and they could truly block mana—the slits in the double-slit experiment were made from them. But crafting an entire dark chamber from anti-magic crystal—even in the days of Gondor—was no simple feat.

“I actually have another idea,” Kamail said. “Use a more powerful arcane source so that the energy passing through the slits exceeds the natural mana baseline. That way, maybe we can observe interference fringes outside the dark chamber—or at least see two scorch marks, which would confirm whether mana is a wave. According to my calculations, the current Rainbow Cannon meets this requirement.”

“I considered that too, but it depends on finding a material more stable and resilient than anti-magic crystal,” Gawain frowned. “Anti-magic crystal can block mana, but it has limits. Something like the Rainbow Cannon would burn through any barrier.”

Kamail fell silent.

After a moment’s thought, Gawain asked, “The elven star mage who proposed the mana wave concept—Verania, right?”

“Yes.”

“Only forty years ago… She should still be serving the elven court today.”

“Yes. According to Banner Whitefeather, Star Mage Verania continues her research on mana wave theory and is one of the developers of the purification array.”

“The elves are ahead of us… It would be great if we could deepen our cooperation with them,” Gawain sighed softly. “Kamail, do you think—using the residual mana connections in the Grant Wall, combined with our magic network communication terminals and a translation device—we could establish long-distance communication with the Silver Empire?”

“That’s a challenging idea, but I can try.”

Gawain nodded. “Then let’s give it a shot.”

(End of chapter)