That Name Again

Several days earlier, just as Rainer was sending his latest paper to the Review Committee.

Like the hundreds of other papers submitted at the same time, this paper was backed up after a redundancy check, then assigned to three mages.

And one of them happened to be Garon again.

That day, he was enjoying a rich, fragrant coffee when the teleportation array on his desk gave a series of jingles, and a paper appeared within it. Garon picked up the stack of parchment, fixed his eyes on it, and nearly fell out of his chair.

The title of the paper was "Properties and Compound Analysis of Two New Elements, 'Oxyless' and 'Hydra,' Obtained Through Water Electrolysis, as Well as Several Conjectures Regarding Combustion Theory," and the author was, unbelievably, that Rainer Ian Gray again!

Garon's hand trembled as he held the paper. He looked at the title again, and this time he finally could no longer suppress the turmoil in his heart. The paper slipped from his hand and scattered across the floor, while Garon stared blankly as it happened. Only after a long while did he let out a long breath.

What had to come would always come.

He stood up, picked up the paper, and arranged it in order. Before he began reviewing it, he looked at the title again. He recognized every word in it, but when they were combined, they were like the most venomous curse, burrowing into and scratching at his mind.

Garon thought for a moment, then summoned a Crystal Bug.

"Record my words. If I die from mana backlash while reading this paper, then all my inheritance is to be donated to Mercury Plain."

He prepared his will in advance, because somewhere in his subconscious, he felt that this paper would deliver a tremendous shock to his soul.

The Crystal Bug recorded Garon's words before slowly drifting away. The room returned to silence, and Garon slowly opened the paper.

The format of the paper was as neat and pleasing to the eye as the previous one, but the words inside were like the sharpest blades, stabbing again and again into Garon's heart.

Garon had heard a little about electrolysis. It was a newly discovered method of separating substances by Sir Cornwall Penzance. He had published a paper on it and successfully separated caustic alkali, extracting a highly reactive metallic element called "Kaila."

In this paper of Rainer's, he likewise used electrolysis. Only, the object he electrolyzed was none other than water, one of the so-called "Four Basic Elements"!

As everyone knew, in the theoretical framework of modern Alchemy, the four elements of Wind, Water, Fire, and Earth were the smallest units that composed matter, the basic elements that could not be broken down any further.

If Rainer's previous paper had challenged Combustion Theory, then this paper was, without question, challenging the entire modern Alchemy system!

For three hundred years, countless Alchemy masters had tried various methods to decompose the basic elements, but almost all had ended in failure. The physical forms of Earth Element and Fire Element had yet to be found, Water Element remained unmoved under all manner of methods, and Wind Element was ever-changing. No one had ever been able to shake the existence of these four basic elements.

Yet Rainer had written clearly on the parchment that he had decomposed water through electrolysis.

Garon stared fixedly at the description of the experimental process. It was clear and organized. If not for the experiment's content being excessively blasphemous to magic, he would almost have been unable to stop himself from applauding.

He finished reading the experimental process of water electrolysis. The next section was the measurement of the various properties of the two new elements.

When Garon saw that "Oxyless" and "Hydra" burned completely at a volume ratio of one to two and produced water, he felt a wave of dizziness before his eyes. It was clearly afternoon, yet the surrounding world seemed to sink into night. Countless stars flickered in and out, and at the very center of the night sky, the star that belonged to Garon swayed on the verge of collapse, as if it would fall in the very next instant!

At that moment, a hand grabbed Garon, jolting him awake. Everything vanished in an instant. It was as if he had had a long dream. From the palm on his shoulder, a stream of mana continuously cycled through Garon's body, neutralizing his chaotic mana. Only then did Garon stabilize and pull free from mana backlash.

"Phew."

Garon let out a long breath, and only then did he look at the person who had helped him.

"Teacher Fleming, why are you...?"

That person was none other than his teacher, Fleming Ernst. The old man was dressed in a gray robe as always. He pointed to the Crystal Bug that had appeared at some unknown time off to the side, then said,

"This Crystal Bug found me and repeated those words of yours, so I came to see what exactly was going on."

Fleming explained, sizing Garon up from head to toe.

"Your foundation should be extremely solid. How could something like this happen?"

Just now, Garon had very clearly suffered mana backlash because his cognition had received an enormous shock. If Fleming had not arrived in time and suppressed the turbulent currents inside Garon's body, then Garon would probably already have been devoured by that berserk mana, perhaps even having had his head blown apart.

"Teacher, I..."

Garon's voice was weak. After the upheaval just now, his path to advancement would have to be delayed by at least another half year. He glanced at the paper on the desk, unsure how to explain.

"Is it because of this paper?"

Fleming looked at the paper on the desk that had been read halfway through and reached out to take it, but Garon immediately spoke up to stop him.

"Wait, Teacher. There's something wrong with this paper."

Perhaps even Garon himself was unwilling to admit that the reason he did not want Fleming to read this paper was that he was worried his own teacher would be like him, his cognition collapsing and his mana rebelling as he read it!

"Something wrong?"

Hearing Garon's words, Fleming grew even more puzzled. Ignoring Garon's attempt to stop him, he tried to look at the title of the paper.

At that very moment, every mage inside the tower felt a faint fluctuation of mana.

Such mana fluctuations were not common to young mages, but Fleming immediately sensed the source of this tremor.

In the early days of modern magic's flourishing development, many ancient mages who refused to accept new theories had experienced this after personally witnessing those theories that defied common sense being proven true.

Cognitive collapse, mana backlash, and finally the turbulent mana throughout the body would tear them apart, killing them in an explosion.

And in this building, almost everyone was a review member of the Review Committee. In other words, a review member had fallen because of cognitive collapse.

How many years had it been since something like this had happened!!?

The last person to cause review members to suffer cognitive collapse was named Isaris Alberton. He proposed the Three Laws of Law-based Mechanics, causing the three review members who examined his paper to die from cognitive collapse. As for the man himself, he was now the only legendary mage to have advanced by creating Law-based spells, one of the Seven Fools of the High Council, and the leader of the Spellweavers.

After so many years, such a situation had appeared once more. This time, who was it?