Chapter Summaries

Bohr explained how wizards could use the gravitational constant and spacetime distortion to measure the mass of atoms, offering a new method for studying elements. Vittorio and the others were impressed by the proposal, while the author noted that the next chapter would be delayed.

• Vittorio and Aurora described the wizards’ current understanding of elements and their magical applications.
• Bohr criticized their research as superficial and proposed studying properties such as density, weight, and molecular weight.
• Vittorio questioned how tiny elements could be weighed or measured without suitably precise instruments.
• Bohr invoked the gravitational constant as a fixed ruler and explained how amplified spacetime distortions could reveal an element’s mass.
• Vittorio was convinced by Bohr’s method, and the author announced that the next chapter would arrive late.

Bohr presented a method for calculating atomic mass and proposed ranking atoms in a table, but said understanding their internal structure was still an open problem. After the wizards discussed atomic models, Aurora brought up the recent war between the Church and the Kingdom, and Harov rejected the idea that they had won.

• Bohr explained his method for calculating atomic mass, impressing Vittorio, Aurora, and Harov.
• Bohr revealed an unfinished table for ranking atoms and said he believed atoms could be divided.
• Bohr and the other wizards discussed possible internal structures of atoms, while Vittorio and Aurora struggled to follow.
• The wizards discussed how an elemental ranking table could advance magic, and Vittorio recalled Altoc's abandoned research into microscopic realms.
• Aurora raised the recent war between the Church and the Kingdom, and Harov said they had barely escaped with their lives rather than won.

Aurora and Vittorio tried to persuade the Secret Magic Society’s Legends to oppose the Church, but Bohr and the others said they could not act and revealed that they were not on the continent. Lynn then warned that Ella and the Church’s Legends surpassed the Council in power, prompting Harov and the others to question whether the Society had broken the Sixth-ring Great Wizard limit.

• Aurora and Vittorio argued that the Church threatened all wizards and that the Secret Magic Society should take responsibility for the Magic Kingdom plan.
• Madame Curie said the Society did not control its members’ actions, and Newton explained that the Legends could not act because they were not currently on the continent.
• Lynn controlled Bohr and offered intelligence about Ella, warning that she and the Church’s Legends had higher Mental Power and life levels than the Council.
• Vittorio asked whether the Secret Magic Society had found a way past the limit of the Sixth-ring Great Wizard.
• Harov recalled how the Council had made Faiz a Legend by placing his soul in a black dragon’s body, while Einstein said the path of magic remained uncertain.

Lynn used Bohr to explain that Ella’s power might be overcome by studying matter at an even more microscopic level, hinting that the path to becoming Legendary lay there. After the seminar ended, Harov, Aurora, and Vittorio resolved to investigate atoms, elemental rankings, and Altoc’s research.

• Lynn rejected Vittorio’s idea that Ella was merely a soul and suggested capturing a Legendary clergy member for study.
• Speaking through Bohr, Lynn said Ella controlled the atomic level and urged the wizards to search for a way to defeat her at a more microscopic level.
• Einstein ended the seminar, and the Magic Domain expelled Harov, Aurora, and Vittorio.
• Vittorio admitted the Secret Magic Society was formidable, and Harov asked the others what they thought of atoms.
• Aurora proposed retrieving Altoc’s notes, while Harov, Aurora, and Vittorio agreed to research the microscopic field and take the elemental ranking table seriously.

After gathering intelligence on Legendary advancement and the Holy See’s divine power, Lynn decided to pursue atomic research as a way to deter Ella. Harov urged the council to investigate the microscopic realm despite the danger of elemental specters, as the Crusading Army could soon attack the Land of Wizards.

• Lynn concluded that the council chairmen and most Holy See leaders were pseudo-Legendaries, while Ella might be the only true god, and he recorded the advancement levels as ending in demigodhood.
• Lynn planned to investigate atomic structure and mass-energy equivalence, hoping uranium could enable a Great Nuclear Blast Technique powerful enough to deter Ella.
• Harov convened the council and shared the theory that atoms could be divided, while keeping the Magic Domain’s intelligence about Legendary advancement secret.
• Council members recalled that elemental specters had driven Wizards mad during earlier attempts to explore the microscopic realm, but Vittorio said they had to overcome the danger before the Crusading Army returned.
• Harov declared that atomic research could reveal the truths of magic and the world, offering a Silver Moon Medal for completing the periodic table and a Corona Medal nomination for splitting the atom and building an atomic model.

The wizards began experimenting with ways to split atoms and searching for elements beyond the known forty-nine. Their research took an unexpected turn when Yoland received an exceptionally heavy, indestructible stone called a Demon Stone.

• Adela proposed using extreme heat to destroy atoms, while Anthony suggested lightning and the wizards discussed other methods.
• Lynn said experiments would be needed to test their ideas and urged the wizards to search for new elements.
• Harov, Vittorio, and Anthony began separate research efforts as the wizards published papers and offered rewards for unusual discoveries.
• Yoland received a strange metallic stone that was far heavier than iron and resisted magic.
• The miner who submitted the stone told Yoland that the Priests called it a Demon Stone.

Yoland received a Demon Stone from an elderly miner and reported it after learning that the ore had caused a deadly illness. Meanwhile, Lynn read Anthony’s new theory about electricity inside elements, then learned that Yoland’s discovery appeared to be an unrecorded element.

• An elderly miner told Yoland how Demon Stone had been mined, linked to a mysterious illness, and blamed for the mine owner’s execution.
• Yoland paid the miner fifty Empire Gold Coins for the stone and used Mage Hand to handle it cautiously.
• Yoland left Asos in charge and hurried to report the possible new element.
• Lynn read Anthony’s paper proposing that elements contained positive and negative charges arranged like the seeds of a purple fruit.
• Elock told Lynn that Yoland had found a Demon Stone that appeared to be a previously unknown element.

Lynn identified a highly concentrated sample of uranium ore and prepared to test it for his Great Nuclear Blast Technique. In the Secas Empire, a battered expeditionary fleet returned as Saintess Lucia began the Harvest Day celebration, while devastating news about the church’s defeat remained secret.

• Elock showed Lynn a stone fragment delivered to the council, and Lynn confirmed it was highly concentrated uranium ore called Demon Stone.
• Elock said the ore had been found in a mine near the Royal Capital and that the council had sent investigators; Lynn ordered Orlando and the others to join him in the laboratory.
• The Imperial expeditionary fleet docked in the Holy City with fewer than half its ships intact, and its Chief Judge demanded to see the Pope and Lady Lucia.
• Cardinal Bishop Jacob knew Edwell and nearly all the Crusading Army had been lost, but the church had kept the news secret ahead of Harvest Day.
• Saintess Lucia appeared at the Sky Dome Tower and recited the Divine Word, while falling Divine Light healed ailments and regrew a believer’s severed finger.

At the Harvest Festival, Lucia’s divine display drew thousands of new believers, and Nand’s fervent faith brought him close to receiving a Divine Revelation. Back in Sky Dome Tower, Lucia dismissed Cardinal Bishop Raven’s devotion as insufficient as the Pope and Chief Judge Joshua arrived.

• Lucia’s divine kingdom domain transformed the Holy City with grass, vines, and fruit trees as the believers prayed.
• Lucia announced the Harvest Festival, and the attendants served abundant food to the gathered believers.
• Nand, a freed commoner who had traveled for a year to reach the Holy City, was healed by Divine Light and nearly received a Divine Revelation.
• Lucia ate a Dragon Fruit offered to the Goddess, and Raven rebuked her and threatened to report her to the Pope.
• The Pope and Chief Judge Joshua entered Sky Dome Tower, and Lucia told Raven he was devout but unqualified.

Saintess Lucia learned that the Church’s First Fleet had suffered a crushing defeat against the wizards’ fast Iron Warships in the Sea of Mists. She decided to use giants in the next assault and declared that she would lead the fight herself.

• Joshua reported that the First Fleet had lost 143 warships without achieving any substantive results.
• Joshua explained how the wizards’ swift Iron Warships used the Sea of Mists and long-range artillery to keep the Imperial fleet under constant attack.
• Lucia and the Pope recognized that they had underestimated the wizards and discussed how to answer their new weapons.
• Lucia rejected recalling the Divine Punishment Army and proposed using the Empire’s discovered Giant Tribe as expendable fighters.
• Lucia announced that she would personally act against the wizards, despite Joshua’s objection.

Lucia selected a candidate for the next Saintess while the Church prepared to reclaim the kingdom. In Hadratta, Lynn discovered that he could not magically deconstruct uranium and began using an electromagnetic array to harness the Demon Stone’s power.

• Lucia reviewed five candidates for the next Saintess and chose the one she found most pleasing.
• The Pope told Lucia that Evina Pedrol, a Divine Punishment Army member from Harbor Town, had been recommended despite her weak psionic talent.
• Joshua and the Pope discussed the kingdom’s rebellion and how Lucia’s planned strike against the Wizard Council might help the Church regain believers.
• Lynn found that the Demon Stone contained more than ninety-five percent uranium but could not use Advanced Material Deconstruction to analyze it, abandoning his plan to replicate uranium-235 with Magic Mimicry.
• Elock and the other wizards completed Lynn’s electromagnetic array, and Lynn placed the Demon Stone at its center and activated the formation.

Lynn separated uranium-238, uranium-235, and radium from Demon Stone using lightning and began planning how to turn nuclear-blast principles into a spell. After days of intense research and laboratory accidents, he arrived last at a council meeting where wizards were set to share their findings.

• Lynn used a lightning-powered alchemical array to separate uranium isotopes and radium from Demon Stone, while Elock watched nervously.
• Lynn contained the radioactive elements, assigned tests to the wizards, and considered how to build a Nuclear Blast Technique spell model.
• Lynn weighed methods for gathering uranium-235, creating a neutron source, and launching the weapon safely, but found many problems to solve.
• The wizards conducted intense element research over the following days, causing more than thirty laboratory accidents, including one wizard losing an arm.
• The council summoned the wizards to exchange findings, and Lynn arrived last at the crowded meeting room.

Lynn attended a wizards’ research gathering, where he hoped to find help overcoming the last obstacle in developing magic based on a new element. Harov opened the discussion by inviting theories on elemental structures and new elements, as an approaching war with the Holy See made research urgent.

• Lynn arrived and greeted Master Raphael, who praised his separation of uranium and radium from the Demon Stone and admitted he had made a new discovery of his own.
• Harov welcomed the wizards and encouraged them to share even unverified theories, privately worried that the Holy See was preparing for another war.
• Harov invited an Official Wizard to present her research on uranium’s properties.
• The witch demonstrated that uranium reacted with boiling water and steam to produce a toxic dark brown crystal that could spontaneously combust when powdered.
• The wizards applauded the witch’s findings, which she had made using a small Demon Stone sample distributed among researchers.

At the late-night seminar, Raphael presented radium’s spontaneous glow and its possible uses, while Anthony introduced his atomic structure theory. Lynn then began his presentation by distinguishing uranium and radium as a new category of elements, leaving the wizards to consider why these substances behaved unlike any they had studied before.

• Raphael showed that radium mixed with certain substances emitted a steady yellow-green glow without magic, and he speculated that it could illuminate the Royal Capital and aid nighttime battles.
• Raphael displayed a glass cup coated in fluorescent paint, received praise from the wizards, and returned to his seat pleased with his discovery.
• Anthony presented his purple-fruit-shaped atomic structure theory and argued that elements contained electrical charge.
• After the other Great Wizards finished their presentations, Lynn declared that uranium and radium belonged to a distinct category he called Radioactive Elements.
• Vittorio carefully considered Lynn’s classification, recognizing that it might explain why the two elements could not be freely controlled or analyzed.

Lynn demonstrated that Radium Element released radiation by making its invisible particles visible in a cloud chamber, earning a Silver Moon Medal for his research. He then announced that the demonstration was only preparation for another experiment using alpha particles.

• Lynn explained that unstable elements released energy from within and demonstrated Radium Element's radiation in a cloud chamber.
• Lynn explained how radiation particles created visible mist trails, and the wizards praised his discovery.
• Vittorio, Harov, and Aurora agreed to award Lynn a Silver Moon Medal for his research.
• Raphael reflected that his own discovery of Radium Element's glow seemed minor beside Lynn's work.
• Lynn said his demonstration was only preparation and announced that he would conduct another experiment using alpha particles.

Lynn demonstrated an experiment using alpha particles to investigate the structure of atoms, challenging the wizards’ belief that atoms had protective outer shells. The particles passed straight through the gold foil without deviation, leaving the experiment’s full implications unresolved.

• Lynn told the wizards that experiments would determine which atomic model matched reality and explained that alpha particles traveled about twenty thousand kilometers per second.
• Lynn rejected the idea that atoms had outer shells, arguing that forces could bind their internal matter together.
• Elock and the others set up a gold-foil experiment with a radium source, a lead box, and a fluorescent detection device.
• Lynn opened the lead box, and alpha particles struck the gold foil while the wizards observed their paths.
• Harov and Anthony saw that the alpha particles passed straight through the foil without deviating, contrary to Anthony’s expectations.

Lynn explained the alpha-particle scattering results by presenting an atomic model with a positively charged nucleus and electrons orbiting it. He connected electron energy levels to Laser Magic and the Plasma State, leaving the wizards impressed by the orderly structure of elements.

• Anthony and the council members observed that most alpha particles passed through gold, while a few scattered and some rebounded toward their source.
• Vittorio inferred that each atom contained a tiny, powerful central core, and Lynn named it the atomic nucleus.
• Lynn demonstrated a planetary-orbit model of the atom, with electrons revolving around the nucleus.
• Lynn explained that electrons could absorb energy to jump between orbits, linking the energy levels to Laser Magic.
• Lynn said electrons that gained enough energy to escape the nucleus became free electrons, forming the Plasma State.
• Harov and the other wizards praised Lynn’s model for explaining atomic scattering and the behavior of elements.

Lynn explained the orbital model of atoms and identified the nucleus as the source of their powerful effects, then announced that he had devised a spell that could help defeat the Church. He asked the Council and the gathered wizards to help solve the remaining problem: finding a controllable neutron source for his plan.

• Lynn’s model impressed the wizards, and Harov concluded that an element’s core was its most important component.
• Vittorio guessed that alpha particles came from atomic nuclei, and Lynn explained that they were helium nuclei produced by Radium Element decay.
• Lynn said the wizards needed to split the atomic nucleus and announced that he had developed a powerful spell based on the elements’ true power.
• The gathered wizards pressed Lynn for details, but he kept the spell secret and asked them to help resolve an important obstacle.
• Lynn explained that he needed a controllable neutron source to trigger a nuclear reaction, but the beryllium required for one had not yet been found.

Lynn organized the Council’s wizards to develop a neutron source and other components for a nuclear weapon, while warning them that the newly extracted elements emitted dangerous radiation. He showed them the damage caused to irradiated rats and revealed that Radium was hundreds of times more radioactive than Uranium.

• Lynn assigned Aurora to produce protons, Vittorio and other Great Wizards to study particle accelerators, and himself and Harov to develop a neutron source, while Official Wizards searched for deuterium.
• Harov postponed decisions on research awards until the wizards achieved tangible results, and Vittorio ended the meeting so the councilors could begin their research.
• Lynn explained that lead boxes shielded radiation and warned the remaining wizards that the new elements were dangerous.
• Lynn showed Raphael and the others rats that had developed severe deformities, rot, and cancerous growths after days of irradiation.
• Lynn said Radium was likely responsible for the miners’ illnesses and deaths, and its radiation was several hundred times stronger than Uranium’s; a Witch threw away her fluorescent glass cup in alarm.

Lynn explained the dangers of radioactive elements and helped the council begin pursuing nuclear research while keeping its discoveries secret. Five days later, he tested the Great Nuclear Blast Technique in a mine, triggering a collapse and an earthquake felt in the Royal Capital.

• Lynn reassured the councilors that brief contact with the divided Demon Stone was unlikely to harm them, warned Raphael to remove his radium-coated robe, and recommended lead for radiation protection.
• The magic symposium ended after nearly ten hours, and the councilors spread news of Lynn’s new magic and stellar-orbit elemental model among Official Wizards.
• Wizards launched new experiments, while the council transported seawater and bought lead ore, leaving imperial spies puzzled about its plans.
• After the council resolved three problems troubling Lynn, he completed the Great Nuclear Blast Technique model and took several council chairmen to test it in a hollowed-out mine.
• Lynn’s test explosion collapsed the mine and shook the Royal Capital, where frightened citizens spread rumors that the gods had sent divine punishment.