Chapter Summaries

Ace returned to Medimoth City in the form of a black cat and visited his former teacher, Peter. After discovering that Peter lacked Magic Talent, Ace entered his dream and revealed himself, leaving Peter to ask about the source of his extraordinary power.

• Morton walked through the First District as Deputy Chief Administrator while an aide praised the success of the Wasteland Reclamation Decree, and Morton warned them not to presume the King's intentions.
• Ace followed Morton to Peter's villa and listened as Peter taught his disciples about logic, then reflected on how his old home had changed and how Morton had advanced.
• After Peter fell asleep, Ace checked for Magic Talent and discovered that Peter was incompatible with magic.
• Ace entered Peter's dream, calmed it, and revealed his identity; Peter recognized him and asked whether his power came from devils, demons, or the gods.
• Ace told Peter that his power came from studying the extraordinary objectively and neutrally, and that its source could be called the shamans' inspiration.

Ace explained the paths of Magic and the Warrior to Peter, then began restoring the elderly teacher’s vitality so he could awaken Blood-Energy. After disguising Peter’s rejuvenated appearance, Ace left his villa and came upon a crowd gathered at City Hall Plaza.

• Peter learned that Ace had founded the path of Magic and named its practitioners wizards, but he lacked the talent to follow it.
• Ace told Peter that the Warrior’s Path could reach Level 2 and offered to help him restore his vitality and awaken Blood-Energy.
• Ace gave Peter an excellent Lesser Youth Restoration Potion and examined the runes in Peter’s Health Belt.
• Peter drank the potion and regained some of his youth, while Ace used a spell to make him appear eighty again.
• Ace left Peter’s villa for a walk and arrived at City Hall Plaza, where a crowd had gathered.

Ace discovered that an oil painting exhibition displayed portraits he had painted for Athena, including one of the late princess, and set out to learn what had happened to her. In an older Divine Noble’s dream, he saw Athena make a covenant with Pontos and later lie in an ice coffin, while rumors of the Crown Prince’s death remained unexplained.

• Ace visited the Medimuss Public Library’s oil painting exhibition and recognized several paintings he had made for Athena.
• Ace learned that Athena was called the late Princess and decided to gather information by infiltrating the dreams of older Divine Nobles.
• Ace entered the dream of a sixty-year-old Divinely Inspired and watched Athena give Dickens the Treasure-like Artifact, "Praise of Frost," after the Northern Frontier fell.
• Ace saw Athena make a covenant with Pontos as the Sea Giant emerged, though the dream became unclear afterward.
• Ace fast-forwarded to the Triumphal Ceremony, where Dickens held "Praise of Frost" before an ice coffin containing Athena, while rumors said the Crown Prince had died.

Ace investigated the royal tombs after learning Athena had still been alive when she was sealed in an ice coffin. He found a disturbing ritual tied to a devil archon before locating Athena and examining her condition.

• Ace learned from Mishion's memories that King Tadeus had sealed the still-breathing Athena in an ice coffin and buried her.
• Ace infiltrated the tombs of Media's bloodline and discovered that the dead members' bloodline power fed a strange ritual beneath Damus Media's tomb.
• Ace read an inscription invoking the Lust Archon, nearly succumbed to its influence, and fled the burial chamber.
• Ace found Athena's ice coffin and used the Eye of Delusion Breaking to discover that her body and soul had been damaged, her Media bloodline had vanished, and the coffin was preserving her condition.

Ace entered Athena’s Mindscape, told her the truth about her long sleep, and used his life force to awaken and stabilize her body. Athena thanked him, then asked whether he had ever liked her.

• Ace partially undid the ice coffin’s seal and drew Athena’s consciousness into his Mindscape dream world.
• Athena learned that seventeen years had passed since she fell asleep and that King Tadeus had sealed her in the coffin.
• Ace admitted that he was a wizard and explained that he could use his life force to help Athena recover.
• Ace broke the frost seal and poured his blood energy into Athena, awakening her and beginning her recovery.
• Athena hugged Ace and asked whether he had liked her when they first met.

Athena left Saria after retrieving a pendant and a baby fishman from her palace, while Ace returned to the High Tower Territory. A week later, Ace helped apprentices harvest wheat and arrived at a presentation by Logan and Bayern about their research.

• Athena flew toward Medimoth City, and Ace convinced her to wait until its defenders left before sneaking in.
• Ace and Athena entered her secluded palace, where she collected an ordinary pendant and an ugly baby fishman.
• Athena asked whether Ace had wanted her to stay; Ace gave her a Dream Emblem, and she flew westward.
• The royal city was sealed and searched the next morning, but Peter's situation went unnoticed; three months later, Ace helped Peter awaken his blood energy and left Medimous City-State.
• A week later, Ace diverted rain away from the wheat fields near Nightglow City and urged the apprentices to finish harvesting within three hours.
• Ace returned to the Magic Castle, where Logan and Bayern presented their joint research to the wizards and advanced apprentices.

Logan and Bayern presented a theory that matter consisted of indivisible elements, challenging the Four Elements Hypothesis. The new idea destabilized Elemental School apprentices’ foundational Spell models, killing more than twenty of them as Betty began to lose control.

• Logan and Bayern argued that gold and mercury were mixtures and that the world was built from distinct, indivisible elements.
• Logan rejected the Four Elements Hypothesis, and the Great Source’s response strengthened him as the theory shook the wizards in the hall.
• Ace saw the Golden Element Ring in his Mindscape destabilize as he questioned whether accepting the new theory could destroy his Spell model.
• Jack’s Fire Element model collapsed, killing him, and more than twenty Advanced Wizard Apprentices died as the audience fell into chaos.
• Ahmed recorded the speeches and witnessed the deaths, while Betty’s Fire Element Spell model began fluctuating violently.

Ace stabilized Betty and the other apprentices after their Spell models began collapsing, then addressed the survivors about the dangers and significance of Bayern and Logan's research. The accident spread through the High Tower, and Allen warned Bru and Eva that their elemental Spell models might put them at risk.

• Ace used Dream Mist and Suggestion to stabilize Betty's fire-element Spell model and temporarily steady the other apprentices' faith in their paths.
• Ace's Elemental Ring Spell model vanished, but his dream-based foundation remained intact, and he brought the crisis in the Magic Castle hall under control.
• Ace explained that Bayern and Logan's findings overturned the Four Elements Hypothesis, urged continued critical study, and made the attendees sign confidentiality contracts.
• Ace sealed the twenty-three corpses and returned them to the West Tower for study, while news of the accident spread through the High Tower.
• Allen told Bru and Eva that the research threatened elemental Spell models and advised them to prepare, possibly by dispersing their models before they collapsed.

Ace announced that revolutionary theories could endanger wizards whose Soul Secret Treasury Spaces relied on overturned foundations, and advised them to protect themselves before reading the new research. Bru dismantled his fire-based spell model, witnessed a fellow apprentice die after reading the new theory, and cautiously read the published papers, leaving his Soul Secret Treasury Space shaken but intact.

• Eva questioned whether the Four Elements Hypothesis was false, and Allen warned her and Bru to prepare for the possibility that their beliefs about the world were wrong.
• Ace shared his research on the dangers of revolutionary theories and advised wizards to cast Mechanical Mind or dismantle vulnerable spell models in advance.
• Bru dismantled his Fire-Element Meditation Spell Model, destabilizing his partially fire-aspected Soul Secret Treasury Space.
• Bru saw Tautis’s headless corpse outside his home after Tautis read the new issue of Magic, and returned inside to meditate and recover.
• Bru read Bayern’s Atomic Hypothesis and Bayern and Logan’s paper, and his Soul Secret Treasury Space trembled but suffered no serious damage.

After the new matter theory caused the deaths and ruin of many Advanced Wizard Apprentices, Betty investigated how air affected combustion. She sent her experimental findings to the high platform, proposing that air contained a substance involved in burning.

• Bru reflected that following Lord Ace and Allen's advice had saved his life and resolved to reconsider his foundation.
• Allen read the High Tower Weekly Supplement's new theory that matter's properties arose from the arrangement of minute components.
• Leon reported that the theory had killed fifty-one Advanced Wizard Apprentices and damaged the Soul Secret Treasury Spaces of another one hundred and twenty; Betty's condition had stabilized.
• Betty found that sulfur would not ignite in a vacuum and that gunpowder burned slowly there but did not explode until air entered.
• Betty tested newly prepared saltpeter crystals and concluded that saltpeter contained a substance similar to one in air that enabled combustion.
• Betty wrote up her experiments and sent the paper, titled "New Experiments on the Relationship Between Flame and Air," to the high platform by Shadow Crow.

Betty’s paper on the relationship between flame and air reached Logan and Bayern, who replicated her experiments and investigated how combustion and respiration used air. Their findings led them to propose that both processes consumed the same heat-releasing substance, while Betty named a combustible component of matter Phlogiston.

• A six-pointed star apprentice sorted submissions for review, and Betty’s paper was assigned to Bayern and Logan.
• Logan received Betty’s paper and began testing her claim that combustion involved the release of heat.
• Logan’s experiments showed that combustion consumed only part of the air, that the remaining air could not sustain certain fires, and that mice and blood also revealed a connection between air and respiration.
• Bayern and Betty joined Logan, and their replicated experiments supported the idea that combustion and respiration consumed the same substance found in air and saltpeter.
• Betty proposed that combustible earth was Phlogiston, a fiery substance that consumed material aiding combustion and produced burning.

Betty, Logan, and Bayern developed phlogiston theory and received new runes and spell models from the Great Source, allowing Betty to become a Level 2 life. After their theory appeared in the journal Magic, Ace recognized its experimental value despite believing it was wrong and worried that correcting it too abruptly could destabilize the High Tower.

• Betty, Logan, and Bayern completed their papers on combustion and phlogiston theory, prompting the Great Source to grant them new runes and spell models.
• Betty absorbed much of the Great Source's aura, broke through to Level 2 life, and became the fourth Level 2 life in the High Platform Territory.
• Ace arrived at the gathering magic power, congratulated Betty, and praised Logan and Bayern for reaching the peak of Level 1 life.
• A month later, Betty, Logan, and Bayern published their phlogiston theory and new runes in Magic, sharing them with the High Tower wizards.
• Ace read the article, recognized that phlogiston theory was erroneous but useful for guiding experiments, and decided that any correction would need to be gradual.

Ace watched the Elemental School’s reform take shape as the new phlogiston theory spread through the High Tower. Bru found hope for rebuilding his flame Spell Model, while Eva used a supervised Soul School imprint to study the new theories without abandoning her old beliefs.

• Ace let the Elemental School’s theoretical reform develop without interference and formed a new phlogiston-based Spell Model in his Dream World.
• Allen explained to Ahmed that wizards valued knowledge above safety, prompting Ahmed to consider reforming or merging the Fire Thief Alliance with the High Tower.
• Bru read the new issue of "Magic," replicated a phlogiston experiment, and decided to reconstruct his flame Spell Model using Lord Betty’s "Dawn's Sigh."
• Eva activated the Soul School’s Directional Suggestion imprint and read the new theory while believing that the Four Elements Hypothesis remained firm.

Eva survived a dangerous encounter with the new theory, dismantled her Earth Element spell model, and later discussed the Phlogiston Theory’s spread through the High Tower Territory. Bayern and Logan sought Ace’s advice after reaching the peak of Level 1, and Ace identified what was obstructing their advancement.

• Eva’s Spell Mark distorted the information in “Magic,” causing her Earth Element spell model to collapse before the safety-valve spell knocked her unconscious.
• Eva woke with her memories of the day erased, then dismantled her Earth Element spell model through the night.
• A week later, Eva, Bru, and Eddy discussed the Phlogiston Theory and praised Betty for giving the Elemental School a path forward.
• Bayern and Logan arrived at the West Tower and asked Ace for guidance on breaking through the limits of Level 1 life.
• Ace projected his Eye of Delusion Breaking into Bayern and Logan’s Soul Secret Treasury Spaces, examined them, and said he understood what was obstructing their advancement.

Ace explained that advancing to Level 2 required spatial solute, high-quality magic power, and excess life force, then provided Bayern and Logan with spatial solute and promised advancement rituals. A week later, he began Bayern’s ritual, and Bayern’s Soul Secret Treasury Space transformed into an empty-shell Mindscape.

• Ace explained the requirements for Level 2 advancement and told Bayern and Logan they could exchange academic points for spatial solute in the High Tower’s secret vault.
• Ace promised to conduct one advancement ritual each for Bayern, Logan, and Betty, with Betty able to reserve her opportunity for someone she designated.
• A week later, Bayern and Logan arrived at the West Tower ritual chamber after absorbing spatial solute and preparing Level 2 life essence.
• Ace started Bayern’s ritual, using the magic array to channel purified magic power and excess life force into him.
• Bayern’s soul broke through its limits, and his Soul Secret Treasury Space transformed into an empty-shell Mindscape.

Bayern and Logan advanced to Level 2 life, and Ace proposed separating foundational spell models from real Mindscapes with a virtual layer to protect wizards from theories that later became false. The group searched for a way to create that safety valve without requiring everyone to study dream magic, and Bayern began to grasp Ace’s hint about Betty’s mechanical disc.

• Ace used Level 2 life essence to stop Bayern’s body from withering and helped him advance to Level 2 life.
• Logan accepted a Level 2 life essence from Ace and advanced to Level 2 life half an hour later.
• Ace gathered Betty, Bayern, and Logan and warned that new theories could invalidate foundational spell models and make them dangerously unstable.
• Ace proposed that wizards overlay their real Mindscapes with virtual Mindscapes and root their foundational spell models in the virtual layer.
• Ace explained that dream magic was not a practical solution for everyone, then prompted Betty to consider how her mechanical disc enhanced her power.
• Bayern connected Betty’s mechanical disc to the idea of a Mindscape safety valve and began to see Ace’s answer.

Ace proposed Natal Magic Tools, which would combine a wizard’s path with a Dream Base and the Power of Thought, and published a book explaining how to make them. As wizards sought the base described in the book, Ace continued an experiment to create a material with both dream and spatial attributes.

• Ace explained to Betty and Bayern that Natal Magic Tools could condense a wizard’s path onto a Dream Base and summoned a book detailing the theory.
• The High Tower’s apprentices quickly bought the first thousand copies of Ace’s monograph, and Eddy read about Path Magic Tools and their need for a base and the Power of Thought.
• Eddy went searching for the base but found that other wizards were discussing it without knowing what it was.
• Ace used a dream creature to capture dream and void creatures, then refined them into Dream Crystals and Spatial Solute.
• Ace began combining a Level Two Dream Crystal and Spatial Solute into a material with dream and spatial attributes.

Ace created Dream Void Fluid, a dream-and-space magical base, and Betty and Logan used it to build their natal magic tools. Bayern hesitated over which spell model to adopt, leaving Ace and Betty to consider the risks of making precognition his foundation.

• Ace used Glazed Heart Flame to fuse space solute and Dream Crystal into Dream Void Fluid.
• Ace gave Betty, Logan, and Bayern Dream Void Fluid, and Betty stored her spell models in it before shaping it into a fire-core mech.
• Logan discovered that buying the fluid on credit had left him with negative academic points, and Ace directed him toward tasks in the Secret Vault.
• Bayern revealed that he had not chosen a path spell model because he was torn between the water model and an Astral Language model based on his precognitive die.
• Ace acknowledged Bayern's concerns about errors in a model copied from a marvel, while Betty cautioned him against making precognition his foundation.

Valen published three laws that corrected the geocentric theory, causing many Astral School wizards’ Spell Models to collapse or suffer damage. The chapter ended with Sulu narrowly escaping Valen’s new defensive mechanism as Valen continued observing the stars.

• Bayern argued that precognition must follow discoverable laws, while Ace urged him to delay constructing a bonded magic tool until Ace had organized his Astronomy Magic research.
• Ace spent a month producing Dream Void Fluid for Advanced Wizard Apprentices, and Valen published a paper correcting the geocentric theory with the Law of Ellipses, the Law of Areas, and the Harmonic Law.
• Bayern’s celestial-body Spell Model partly collapsed as he read Valen’s paper, and he began reshaping it according to the three laws.
• Valen’s theories damaged the Spell Models of many Astral School apprentices and wizards, though most escaped serious harm.
• Sulu visited Valen while he observed the stars, triggered Valen’s automatic defense mechanism, and narrowly avoided its scorching flames.

Ace sent a paper on the Theory of Magic Tools to the Magic Council, and the Review Board approved it for publication as a special supplement. The supplement introduced calculus to the wizards, leaving readers across the territory engrossed in its ideas.

• Ace sent his scroll to the High Tower, where the Review Board received it and Lou Xilu urged the others to examine it together.
• Bayern praised Ace's paper and proposed publishing it as a special supplement to the Magic journal.
• The Magic journal published the supplement the next day, stirring discussion about its mathematical demands and whether life-bound magic tools could prevent wizards' heads from exploding.
• Luther opened the supplement and encountered the unfamiliar term “Calculus” as he hoped to advance and search for his family.
• Betty studied calculus and recognized how limits could help with calculations.
• Daina read about differential and integral calculus, then instinctively used differentiation to improve a Meditation Spell Model.