Novia said flatly.
This time, the mage behind him did not answer Novia. They merely slowly inserted an Aether Line into Novia's brain, seemingly about to learn everything about him—
"Wait! How can you not have brain nerves?! You're an illu—"
By the time the mage realized what was happening, it was already too late. In the next instant, intense pain from their face shot through their entire body, and they lost consciousness at once.
"You're quite considerate for a guest. You even ran to the lighthouse to eat, huh?"
Novia emerged from behind them, withdrew the fist he had planted in the mage's face, and gathered up the Aether Lines from the ground. By this mage's account, they were valuable things, practically capable of controlling others.
The reason he had noticed someone was following him was simple. There was only Novia in the lighthouse, and the only stored food was apples. Although the number never changed, the stems of the stored apples had long wilted from evaporation. Yet some apples inexplicably had green stems, which meant they had just been picked... It seemed this mage did not understand common sense very well.
"The Submarine Alexandria Library has four levels, and it's somewhat dangerous. I'll have to trouble you to scout the way for me."
Novia stared at the micron-scale Aether Lines in his hand, considered for a moment, then inserted them directly into the unconscious Atlas Institute mage's brain. That made things much safer.
Then Novia removed the mage's mask and looked at their face with a puzzled expression.
Hmm, a hat without a brim, three long braids hanging down to the waist, purple hair matching purple eyes. So far, so good.
But the more he looked, the more familiar she seemed. He felt like he had seen her somewhere before... Aether Lines seemed to belong to the Aertanum family, and that family...
Suddenly, Novia's mind cleared—
Damn, wasn't this the famous Type-Moon spiritron hacker, Shion...'s face?!
Corruption, ignorance, backwardness, and those who grovel before ordinary people
"Shiyali, open this door yourself."
The plaza beneath the sea resembled a starry sky, filled with faint light. It was as though some invisible field supported it, for not a single drop of the surging seawater opposite them spilled down.
The upper levels of the Submarine Alexandria Library had been concealed beneath an artificial seabed created by the alchemists of the old Atlas Institute. In other words, they had to pass through what they had believed to be the seafloor and continue downward without hesitation to find it.
After remembering this, Novia placed the Atlas Institute alchemist—who should apparently be called Shion of the Age of Gods, Shiyali—at the front to scout. Controlled in reverse by her own Aether Lines, Shiyali could only obey Novia's demands.
Novia had not used the Aether Lines to steal her knowledge, interfere with her soul, or read the laws of her thoughts. He had only roughly learned some information about her. As expected, she was a candidate for the next director of the Atlas Institute, having obtained the status of Atlas Institute instructor and the authority of a special envoy at only six years old.
Novia guessed that the spiritron hacker from two thousand years later was either her descendant or the same person at a different stage of life—a reincarnation.
Because he vaguely remembered that in Type-Moon, after each life ended, the information of a person's soul would be recorded by the Astral World. It would then become a new node that recorded a new life, with the entire structure resembling a constellation.
They entered the Alexandria Library, forgotten for hundreds of years. The place was strange. It felt as though it should have been made of marble, yet there was no echo whatsoever. It was as though every reverberation had been absorbed into the stone.
"...May I ask what this place is?"
After walking straight down the corridor for some time, Shiyali suddenly asked Novia.
"Do I need to answer you? Go scout ahead, or pick a way you like to kill yourself."
Novia answered mercilessly, wearing the face of a villain.
Shiyali clenched her fists. An intense sense of humiliation scorched her body. She simply could not get used to this feeling.
The positions of controlling others and being controlled had been reversed in an instant. Mages were people who defied common sense and ethics, but what was this if not humiliation? Still, in the end, she could only accept it.
This Alexandria Library had four levels, each with a guardian. The monster on the first level had a scorpion's body and a human face. There were also creatures with leopard bodies and snake heads, crocodile bodies and dog heads, and griffin bodies with lion heads.
Novia barely acted at all throughout the first three levels. Shiyali, controlled by the Aether Lines, handled everything.
Though Novia did have the intention of being lazy, he was even more cautious.
After all, the library had been established mainly through the efforts of an Atlas Institute branch, three mages, and Pharaoh Ptolemy. Yet by nature, that Atlas Institute branch probably was not skilled at schemes. It might not even have known what those four were doing.
Before the Common Era, when the Age of Gods still remained, Kourudris of the Atlas Institute, Kiz of the Lostbelt Sea, and Wu Zhiqi of the Mountain Court.
These three mages came to Ptolemy and used the human world and mythology itself in a grand ritual to transform Alexander IV, whom Ptolemy protected, into one who devoured gods.
According to Novia's memories, there was a sarcophagus on the library's final level. Inside lay the remains of Osiris, the God of the Underworld, who had once received the solar sovereignty of Ra and long occupied the position of chief god in Egyptian mythology—a fragment of his Authority.
But Novia also knew that this would undoubtedly disrupt the arrangements of the Lostbelt Sea and the Mountain Court. Those two old monsters could live for another two thousand years. His foundation was still shallow, Christianity had yet to sweep across Europe, and he could not summon the Burial Agency. Dealing with the two of them would be troublesome.
Shiyali, as a candidate for the next director of the Atlas Institute, was different. By every measure, this belonged to the Atlas Institute. The Lostbelt Sea and the Mountain Court would have no grounds to refute it.
Novia's current concern was how to deal with Shiyali. Though he appeared safe after controlling her with the Aether Lines, Atlas Institute alchemists were exceptionally skilled at Thought Partition—the ability to divide their thinking into multiple parts and have them deliberate separately.
If nothing unexpected happened, Shiyali had already been considering how to free herself from her own Aether Lines. After all, they belonged to her family. She certainly understood them better than Novia did.
Order her to kill herself directly? That would be the best method, but he feared that Trismegistus Hermes within the Atlas Institute might be able to uncover the truth. Her suicide had been commanded. The other Atlas Institute families might not care, but the Aertanum family might not feel the same.
The Aether Lines these people used were extremely troublesome. They probably could not pierce brain nerves during a moving battle, but if they struck while someone was off guard, they would be fatal.
"Shiyali."
White specks of light illuminated the library's interior like stars in the night sky. Novia stepped closer.
Given their respective heights, the purple-haired girl's head only reached Novia's chest.
The girl looked up at him expressionlessly.
"Before we enter the final level, how about we cooperate? I need you right now."
Thought Partition No. 4, reporting normal.
Listen, Shiyali confirmed the results of the Thought Partition diagnostic scan. There were no issues.
There was not a trace of falsehood in his attitude. That was enough.
"You loosened the Aether Lines?" Shiyali's lips parted slightly. "If you want to cooperate, let me recalculate your magecraft."
"Of course."
Novia drew the longsword hanging at his side, while new threads once again adorned Shiyali's hands.
The alchemist had her parallel thoughts handle evasion guidance. Her Aether Lines flowed toward both the ceiling and floor, attacking simultaneously from above and below. Novia leaped as though slipping, spinning once through the air.
Using the Blessing of Wind, Novia rapidly closed the distance. With only a single thought, those Aether Lines could turn into peerless blades and slice a body apart.
Thought Partition No. 3, no time to evade. No. 2, hand the composition data to the thread puppet.
With weapons this close, once pierced, it would take three to five years to heal.
Yet what Shiyali had not expected was that the final blow was not from the longsword, but from a fist formed by his other hand striking her chest.
"Oh?"
The punch blasted her apart. As she exploded, Shiyali turned into countless threads and vanished.
"You can do that? Then I really was lucky just now."
"This is a child's trick. Please do not think you can understand the wisdom of the Atlas Institute, the secret art my family takes pride in, so easily."
"In the beginning, God said, let there be light."
As Novia's improved Church magecraft descended, a prototype of a mighty current was born beneath the sea, one that no land could insulate against. As more people believed in the doctrine Novia spread, the magecraft foundation it created would grow more terrifying with time.
Invisible light swiftly filled the entire space and bound Shiyali, leaving her unable to move.
"Now."
Novia's tone was exceedingly calm, yet brooked no doubt.
"I did not manipulate you. In the world of magecraft, requiring those weaker than yourself to obey, while offering them benefits in return, is normal. What is wrong with that?"
Faced with that slow, deliberate question, Shiyali nodded somewhat unnaturally.
"Anyway, I would like to cooperate with Miss Shiyali. What do you say?"
Shiyali looked at Novia, then suddenly muttered.
"You're different from the data."
"Data?"
"Though the information I obtained was fragmented, confirming information about the other party beforehand is the most basic of basics, isn't it?"
She raised her gaze and continued.
"Selfish, willful, corrupt, ignorant, backward, groveling before ordinary people... That is what my observations and the intelligence gathered in Alexandria said."
"I'm actually like that? Then you must be someone who is easily deceived."
"Evaluating a person requires long-term observation. As a mage, do you not even possess that common sense?"
Shiyali answered indignantly.
Novia merely smiled as usual and shook his head. He said nothing more.
Then they prepared to head for the final level of the Alexandria Library.
"Wait."
Before pushing open the door, Shiyali turned around and stared straight at the silver-haired youth with her sharp eyes.
"I have determined that the aura of the Age of Gods is gathering rapidly inside."
Divine Body: Osiris
All magecraft after the end of the Age of Gods was, in essence, deception directed at the planet.
The principle of magecraft from the Age of Gods was borrowing the Authority of gods, while the essence of gods was "Star Touch." In other words, the essence of Age of Gods magecraft was actually "borrowing the power of the stars," and "contracting with a god" was naturally "a shortcut to communicating with—or deceiving—the planet."
By the first century Common Era, the gods had returned to the Inner Sea of Stars, and mages lost their shortcut to communicating with the planet. Magecraft thus became difficult to perform. Coupled with the development of science, which further degraded Mystery, their lives became increasingly difficult.
Mystery would eventually vanish, but it should remain as the learning that knew the past. That was inevitable.
However—because the Fifth Imaginary Element Aether was proven in the year 20 Common Era, magecraft and Mystery were able to continue by changing form.
Though the Age of Gods and the first century Common Era were separated by only a few decades in terms of time, all things living through the transition between those two eras had already become vastly different.
Of course Novia knew what Shiyali meant by the aura of a god. Osiris's functional remains were preparing to activate and deal with an unplanned intruder.
This was definitely a contingency Kourudris of the Atlas Institute had left behind, to prevent others from disrupting his plan.
The reason Pharaoh Ptolemy had joined with the Atlas Institute to build this place was not merely to resurrect the dead Alexander IV. He also hoped to provide Alexander IV with a library that could never be finished, no matter how much he read.
A simple and foolish reason.
The other three mages, however, each harbored their own schemes. Kourudris hoped Alexander IV would devour the Divine Body and become the ultimate calculation engine to "verify how to avoid the destruction of the world."
This plan had been devised for two thousand years, eventually leading to the events of the Second Great Adventure.
To prevent the world from "ending," the Atlas Institute was an organization that endlessly repeated the bleak process of turning tools meant to save the world into tools that destroyed the planet.
"Miss Shiyali, I believe you understand what this place is now."
Novia spoke calmly.
"A research result originally registered only in Trismegistus Hermes has appeared here. This must be a forgotten site built by the old Atlas Institute." After revealing a momentary look of contemplation, Shiyali continued, "Thank you deeply, Lord Novia, for finding this place for our Institute. Our Institute will surely be immensely grateful."
"A contract."
Novia shook one finger and spoke with narrowed eyes.
"This..."
The purple-haired girl murmured, looking at the smiling Novia before her.
She did not know whether he still remembered that not long ago, she had seriously observed his every action and mannerism. He showed no traits of a mage at all. Unlike the mages living in Alexandria—or rather, unlike most people in the Institute—his attitude toward ordinary people was so kind it could be called groveling. That was why a mage had used magecraft that morning to try to make him embarrass himself.
However, Shiyali had almost never interacted with outsiders, so she could not even determine whether Novia's behavior was normal.
Even in the Atlas Institute, she had always been alone. Though she possessed the inherited traits of the Aertanum family, the reason she could shape the difficult-to-control Aether Lines into such a supernatural ability was precisely because she possessed rare talent.
She had obtained the status of Atlas Institute instructor and the authority of a special envoy at only six years old because of her tremendous intelligence-gathering ability. Any knowledge could be stolen—interfering with souls and reading the laws of thought.
Because of this, the Aether Lines had made her lonely. Even in the Atlas Institute, where everyone pursued the protection of the world in their own loneliness, she was feared, guarded against, and avoided.
Naturally. No one wanted their soul interfered with, nor did they want the wisdom they had spent time researching and refining to be stolen.
Even so, Shiyali believed her ability was justified. There was no need to doubt it.
There could absolutely be no problem with her future. There could not be. She could find no reason for one.
The alchemist closed her eyes and thought for a moment before answering, "The possibility is close to zero."
Though he had not obtained a promise for the contract, Novia was not too discouraged. His priority was to use the Atlas Institute's abilities to refine the remains of the Dragon of Albion. Yet he had already learned through the Aether Lines that Shiyali was extremely skilled in necromantic refinement, so he had long planned to seek her help if this failed. In every respect, this alchemist was incredibly pure.
Thus, Novia said seriously, "Join forces with me to break through this place. Once it is done, you only need to help me with one thing within your capabilities. How about it?"
Shiyali listened in silence for several seconds, took out a contract, signed her name first, and then handed it to Novia.
Before you continue