Chapter Summaries

Lynn considered whether the intelligent brain could help wizards develop godheads and planned a Magic Net–Mass-Production Wizard program. At a council meeting, the wizards learned of the forgotten Moon Goddess Diana and debated how her history had been erased, while Lynn prepared to present his plan.

• Lynn reasoned that the intelligent brain filtered out memories and thoughts while drawing on the Magic Net, and recorded human-brain quantum computer research as a possible path to creating godheads.
• Philip told Lynn that Harov had called an important council meeting, and Lynn agreed to attend.
• Aurora reported that the Kingdom’s army had advanced to the Empire’s capital, while Lynn rejected calls to ease his purge of the Empire’s nobles.
• Harov presented damaged murals from the Holy City’s library, and Vittorio identified the depicted deity as Moon Goddess Diana based on information from Gustav.
• Vittorio explained that Diana had arrived with the Space-Time Gate, ruled the continent, and later died before the Psionic Wizards overthrew her order; Harov suspected Ella had erased evidence of Diana.
• Lynn set aside speculation about Diana’s death and took out his proposal for the Magic Net–Mass-Production Wizard Plan.

Lynn presented his Magic Net system, which would let ordinary people become spellcasters by studying and sharing computing power, while also helping established wizards advance. The council approved preliminary implementation, leaving Lynn poised to harness the Empire’s wizards and eventually millions of users to strengthen his power against Ella.

• Lynn told the council that his experiment had enabled Lydia, a halfling without magical talent, to become a wizard through the Magic Net.
• Lynn explained that students who mastered foundational knowledge could use the Magic Net’s computing power to form Spell Slots and cast low-ring spells, while the system would regulate their access.
• Lynn revealed that the Magic Net could temporarily boost experienced wizards’ Mental Power, helping Three-Ring Wizards experience the Four-Ring realm and improve their chances of advancement.
• Gordon and other opponents reconsidered the plan after hearing of its benefits, and Harov, Aurora, and Vittorio supported trials before large-scale implementation.
• The council approved the Magic Net proposal with the support of nearly ninety-five percent of its members, and Lynn planned to connect the Empire’s wizards before expanding to millions of users.

Lynn announced plans for the Magic Net and proposed a merit-based system for access, spurring wizards across the empire to pursue research and recognition. Meanwhile, Jeffrey investigated light’s diffusion and prepared to test it with multiple slits and differently shaped openings.

• Lynn told the council that the Magic Net’s main spell model was nearly complete and proposed merit points for purchasing access to its computing power.
• News of the Magic Net and a major academic symposium energized wizards across the empire, while the Magic Kingdom’s army continued its rapid advance against the collapsing imperial forces.
• Jeffrey chose to study optics instead of electromagnetism, hoping to discover the nature of light and earn a Corona Medal nomination.
• Jeffrey observed light spreading through narrow openings and saw faint rings appear in the shadows, challenging the idea that light traveled only in straight parallel paths.
• Jeffrey accepted his apprentices’ suggestions to test multiple holes and openings of different shapes.

Jeffrey used a double-slit experiment to conclude that light was a wave, while Anthony's team found that electricity traveled at nearly the speed of light and built a device that converted light into electricity. The two groups each believed they had uncovered light's essence, and the chapter ended with Kagar bringing Anthony Jeffrey's claim in Magic Daily.

• Jeffrey's apprentices changed the screen to two slits, and the light formed alternating bright and dark patches on the wall.
• A short male wizard showed Jeffrey ripples passing through two openings, prompting Jeffrey to explain the pattern as interference and declare that light was a wave.
• Jeffrey ordered his team to publish their findings quickly, finished a paper before noon, and promised rewards to his assistants.
• Anthony's team measured electricity traveling through conductors at 299,000 kilometers per second, close to their measured speed of light.
• Anthony proposed that light and electricity were different forms of the same thing, and his team built a device that converted light into electricity.
• Kagar rushed into Anthony's laboratory with Magic Daily and reported that Jeffrey claimed to have unraveled the essence of light.

Jeffrey’s wave theory of light and Anthony’s photoelectron particle theory clashed as wizards tested their rival claims and published rebuttals. The debate descended into a month-long war of words, while newspaper sales soared.

• Anthony and the Thunder Wizards dismissed Jeffrey’s wave theory after reading his paper, then published their photoelectric experiments and argued that light consisted of particles called photoelectrons.
• Wizards reproduced Jeffrey’s double-slit experiment and Anthony’s silicon photoelectric experiment, leaving the kingdom divided over whether light behaved as a wave or particles.
• Jeffrey and several Great Wizards revised wave theory to suggest that space could carry light, and challenged Anthony’s particle theory by reporting that light produced no detectable magnetic field.
• Anthony and Sanchez suggested the magnetic effect might be too weak to detect, then proposed that dense clouds of light particles could explain diffraction and appear wave-like.
• Jeffrey angrily denounced Anthony’s particle explanation, and their arguments escalated into a month-long public dispute that drove newspaper sales higher.

Glen and other wizards lost the ability to sense and control charges as doubts over photoelectricity spread, triggering a magical crisis and a backlash against Wave Theory. Anthony then publicly switched to Wave Theory and announced a new model of atomic structure, while Lynn suspected the crisis came from wizards’ shallow understanding of electricity.

• Glen discovered that he could no longer sense charges or cast Thunder Spells, and Rol helped him report the problem to the councilors.
• The Magic Council found that wizards who doubted the nature of photoelectricity were losing their ability to sense charges, and the impairment spread across the kingdom.
• More than ten Great Wizards of the particle school condemned Wave Theory, but Anthony stunned them by embracing Wave Theory and claiming he had discovered a new model of atomic structure.
• The particle school’s supporters wavered after Anthony’s announcement, and many more wizards lost the ability to sense charges.
• Philip and the others told Lynn about the crisis, but Lynn demonstrated that he could still cast [Electromagnetic Barrier] and suspected the debate had confused wizards who barely understood electricity.

Lynn rejected the Council's proposal to ban Wave Theory and supported Anthony's discovery that light was an electromagnetic wave, while cautioning that light also had particle-like properties. As the spellcasting disorder spread and the Council moved up the academic symposium, tens of thousands of wizards gathered in the Royal Capital for the coming debate.

• Lynn told Philip that Wave Theory should not be banned and urged the Council to calm public opinion to prevent violence.
• A messenger hawk delivered Anthony's letter explaining that he had derived light's electromagnetic-wave nature from Maxwell's Equations and had devised a new atomic model.
• Lynn praised Anthony's research and supported his new model, adding that light and electricity had both wave-like and particle-like properties.
• Philip failed to cast an electromagnetic communication spell and realized that he could no longer sense electric charges or Magnetic Fields.
• Anthony and Jeffrey received Lynn's reply, and an apprentice informed them that the Council had moved the academic symposium forward by half a month.
• The Council restricted newspaper commentary, and tens of thousands of wizards traveled to the Royal Capital for the September symposium.

Sean and his apprentice traveled by train to the Royal Capital for the magic symposium, where Lynn opened the event and judged new inventions. An elderly wizard’s gravity-powered perpetual motion machine failed to impress, while Glen’s camera earned high praise and a Morning Star Medal.

• Sean and his apprentice rode the Magic Train through a tunnel blasted through Despair Peak Dispeer by the Solar Flame Cannon and arrived in the Royal Capital.
• Theodore welcomed the arriving wizards and guided them through the brightly lit city to the Magic Research Institute.
• Lynn opened the symposium before tens of thousands of wizards and introduced the first inventor’s Vacuum Gravity Perpetual Motion Machine.
• Lynn and the other judges pointed out that the machine produced little power and was already slowing, leaving its inventor indignant.
• Glen demonstrated a camera that used pinhole imaging to produce a clear black-and-white photograph, and the judges awarded him a Morning Star Medal.

At the academic seminar, Sean presented a mechanical pendulum clock and received a Morning Star Medal for his widely usable, nonmagical timekeeping invention. Sanchez then demonstrated mimetic interference fringes to defend light particle theory, but Anthony ended the chapter by claiming he had discovered that light was an Electromagnetic Wave.

• Sean explained his mechanical pendulum clock, and Lynn suggested adding separate second, minute, and hour wheels.
• Lynn awarded Sean a Morning Star Medal, recognizing the clock’s potential for widespread use and precise timekeeping research.
• Sanchez defended light particle theory, dismissing a wizard’s objection about candles and electricity before demonstrating pinhole imaging.
• Sanchez simulated particles passing through two slits, producing interference fringes that excited the supporters of particle theory.
• Anthony acknowledged the ingenuity of Sanchez’s demonstration but declared that light was actually an Electromagnetic Wave.

At the symposium, Anthony demonstrated that visible light was an electromagnetic wave, but Arad revived the particle theory and Lynn argued that light and other microscopic particles behaved as both waves and particles. Lynn introduced his Quantum Theory and announced that he would present experiments the next day, leaving the wizards divided and wary of the waiver he prepared.

• Anthony explained that visible light was electromagnetic waves within a frequency range and produced a beam of light with alternating electric and magnetic fields.
• Arad challenged the wave theory, arguing that electromagnetic waves might be particles, and the councilors disagreed over how to judge the evidence.
• Lynn affirmed Anthony's findings but also praised Sanchez's particle argument, then proposed that light possessed both wave-like and particle-like properties.
• Lynn said electrons and protons showed similar wave phenomena, named these microscopic entities quantum, and described them as particles with wave-like properties.
• Lynn distributed waivers warning of possible consequences, announced experiments for the next day's symposium, and left to work on an apparatus for emitting individual photons or electrons.

Lynn demonstrated a double-slit experiment using electrons fired one at a time, leaving the wizards baffled when the interference pattern changed after they observed the electrons through the Magic Net. The chapter ended with the wizards staring at the altered screen as Lynn insisted that no one had touched the apparatus.

• Anthony signed the disclaimer and sent Fula to deliver it to Lynn, while Lynn refused visitors as he prepared an electron-emitting device.
• Lynn introduced a thermal field emission electron gun and used it to fire electrons one at a time through a double slit.
• The electrons gradually formed nine bands on the fluorescent screen, shocking Anthony and the other wizards with an interference pattern.
• Lynn connected the wizards to the Magic Net so they could sense electromagnetic disturbances and confirm that each electron traveled through a slit individually.
• As the wizards watched the electron trajectories, the screen's pattern changed from nine bands into two, and Lynn said the apparatus had not been touched.

Lynn demonstrated that observing electrons changed their behavior, introducing wave-particle duality and probability waves to a skeptical gathering of wizards. As the debate turned to how particles detected observation, the wizards were left with a new fear: elemental ghosts might be involved.

• Lynn withdrew his domain and let Harov, Vittorio, Aurora, and the other wizards repeat the electron experiment, which changed between particle-like paths and interference fringes depending on observation.
• Lynn explained wave-particle duality and probability waves, but Jeffrey and the other wizards rejected his claim that microscopic events relied on probability.
• Lynn tossed a coin and revealed that it had landed upright in a crack, using the unlikely outcome to illustrate possibility and how an observer could set an outcome in motion.
• Sanchez and the other wizards challenged Lynn over how uncertain microscopic matter could form stable macroscopic objects, and Lynn promised further explanations in his forthcoming work.
• Harov ended the probability debate and asked how electrons knew they were being observed; an Elemental Wizard shouted that elemental ghosts were responsible.

Lynn presented the Double-Slit Experiment, prompting the wizards to debate whether observation changed electrons and whether elemental ghosts existed. After the symposium, Aurora asked about the Secret Magic Society, and she arranged a midnight meeting with its Legendary Wizards.

• Lynn rejected the claim that electrons had consciousness and proposed that observation affected them, while Harov, Vittorio, and Aurora considered possible explanations and further experiments.
• Harov ended the symposium, and the departing wizards debated the experiment as Anthony and other Great Wizards resolved to seek more evidence.
• Lynn reflected that Magic Studies had to confront the microscopic realm to challenge the gods, then Aurora asked him about the Secret Magic Society.
• Aurora agreed to use the Ring of Secret Magic to convene a legendary meeting at midnight, and Lynn asked her to invite Harov and Vittorio.

Aurora, Harov, and Vittorio learned that the Secret Magic Society’s leaders were conscious remnants trapped in a miniature universe, and that they had created their society to discover a way to become Legendary Wizards without faith or soul-plundering. The chapter left them understanding that Lynn had fulfilled the society’s hopes and brought new advances to the Land of Wizards.

• Aurora, Harov, Vittorio, and Lynn met the Secret Magic Society’s leaders in their miniature universe and discussed the battle against Ella.
• Vittorio questioned why the leaders had not helped fight Ella, and Albert Einstein revealed that they could not leave the miniature universe.
• Isaac Newton explained that the leaders had witnessed the War of Faith and formed the society to seek a new path to Legendary advancement.
• Bohr revealed that their early advancement method lacked a reliable energy source, while Lynn’s Nuclear Fusion Reactor had helped solve the problem.
• Bohr explained that the leaders had entered the other side of the Space-Time Gate and left their miniature universe as a repository of knowledge for future wizards.
• Isaac Newton said he had directed Lynn toward the Land of Wizards, and Harov, Aurora, and Vittorio realized Lynn’s knowledge had advanced its Magic Studies.

Lynn used the Secret Magic Society’s meeting to explain the godhead and suggest that civilizations—and potential threats—might exist across the universe, while concealing the truth about the War of Faith. After the meeting ended, he turned to developing a magical base station and quantum computers as the kingdom debated his theories.

• Harov apologized to Bohr, and Aurora asked why the godhead had survived a nuclear explosion; Lynn and Einstein explained its connection to the microscopic realm and quantum theory.
• Harov and Vittorio questioned who had killed Moon Goddess Diana, and Bohr and Newton said the killer might have come from elsewhere in the universe.
• Newton described the possibility of hundreds of billions of civilizations, stunning Harov, Vittorio, and Aurora with the scale of the cosmos.
• Lynn cut off the Magic Domain’s power, ending the meeting before the others could ask more about the War of Faith.
• Lynn removed his Ring of Secret Magic, reviewed the risks of his cover story, and studied a signal-tower design for a magical base station.
• The kingdom argued over quantum wave-particle duality and probability waves as Lynn considered how to develop quantum computers.

After the magic symposium, Lynn’s probability theory provoked widespread outrage, while Rol prepared to publish Lynn’s detailed paper on quantum mechanics. Beyond the Space-Time Gate, Ella fed the surviving Moco People and began devising a way to survive the far stronger Lord of Undead, Darnatus.

• Magic Daily received tens of thousands of letters condemning Lynn’s quantum theory, and Rol ordered his assistant to store them rather than deliver them to Lynn.
• Rol reviewed Lynn’s paper, which explained probability clouds and the uncertainty principle, and ordered it prepared for the next edition.
• Ella watched the Moco People pray to her for food and warmth, while the unfaithful were magically immobilized and left without bread.
• Ella considered the danger posed by Darnatus, whose divine power threatened to expose the survivors once it contaminated the whole plane.
• Ella realized she might exploit a god’s desire for a new plane and began considering how to set Darnatus against another enemy.

At the Royal Capital’s magical-medal symposium, Lynn faced wizards challenging his Quantum Theory after dangerous experiments drove several Great Wizards mad and the council halted quantum research. He explained that macroscopic objects also had wave properties and prepared to show how their wavelengths could be calculated.

• Quantum experiments left eight Great Wizards insane, caused another to lose his ability to cast spells, and ended with Morey fainting after his supposedly captured electron vanished.
• The council halted quantum experiments, and Lynn warned in the Magic Daily against studying quantum mechanics alone without proper guidance.
• At the symposium, Great Wizard Jeffrey challenged Lynn on whether macroscopic objects shared microscopic particles’ quantum properties.
• Lynn confirmed that macroscopic matter had wave properties, though they were difficult to observe because of their tiny scale.
• Arad suggested that interference among particles made large objects more stable, and Lynn said one formula could calculate their wavelengths.

Lynn presented the de Broglie wavelength formula and explained how it applied to both objects and microscopic particles, then introduced a probability cloud model for predicting particle locations. Arad recognized that the ideas could open new paths for quantum research, before remembering that the wizards had come to oppose probability theory.

• Lynn wrote the de Broglie wavelength formula and explained that an object's wavelength equaled the quantum constant divided by its momentum.
• Jeffrey challenged the formula because the quantum constant was only a hypothesis, and Elock said Lynn's research had already confirmed it through experiments with individual light quanta.
• Arad asked whether Lynn could predict where microscopic particles would land, and Lynn described a probability cloud distribution that became highly accurate across many observations.
• Jeffrey questioned whether particles constantly rolling dice would require energy, and Lynn suggested that energy might only be consumed when probability collapsed.
• Arad realized that the wavelength formula and probability cloud model could help researchers study the Quantum Domain, then remembered they had come to oppose probability theory.

Lynn answered Bold’s challenge to quantum theory by explaining that an unobserved system could be described through probabilities, then introduced a sealed-box cat thought experiment. He left the wizards considering how observation fixes the cat’s state and how the example supported his probability cloud theory.

• Arad prompted Bold to challenge Lynn’s theories, and Bold presented a caged Camel Beast that might be dead or alive after exposure to delayed poison.
• Lynn praised Bold’s example but explained that the Camel Beast could only be in one state, then proposed a more suitable thought experiment.
• Lynn described a sealed box containing a cat, poison, and a device whose switch might be struck by a decaying particle, giving the cat a chance of death.
• A wizard argued that the cat had a one-in-four chance of being killed, and Lynn connected that probability to his probability cloud theory.
• Lynn explained that the cat’s state would remain uncertain to an outside observer until the box was opened, when the outcome would become fixed.

Lynn defeated the wizards who challenged Quantum Theory, then received three Corona Medals for his scientific and wartime contributions. As the ceremony ended, the chairmen sensed that someone had disturbed the sealed Space-Time Gate.

• Lynn answered the Great Wizards’ objections to Quantum Theory until they could no longer refute him.
• Harov began the investiture ceremony and awarded medals to more than a hundred wizards, including Jeffrey, Anthony, and Sanchez.
• Harov announced that Lynn would receive three Corona Medals for his work on elemental theory and Legend breakthroughs, his service in the war, and Quantum Theory.
• Lynn accepted the medals and told the gathered wizards that the Council would recognize those who worked for their dreams.
• Aurora, Harov, Vittorio, and Lynn abruptly stood when they sensed someone disturbing the sealed Space-Time Gate.