"Everyone on alert, everyone... bzzzt, all Wizard Dimensions prepare for Level-One Combat Readiness, all Wizard Dimensions prepare for Level-One Combat Readiness."
The orders from the Floating Fortress entered every Wizard Dimension's ears through the mana network.
Gawain put on his helmet. Icy neural connection needles pierced his spine and brain, and after a brief burst of pain, the complex information detected by the War Airship's sensors surged into Gawain's mind like a tide.
If he had been an ordinary Wizard Dimension, even a Third-Ring Wizard, he would have been left dizzy and disoriented for quite a while.
But Gawain was already used to it.
His brain processed the information at incredible speed. In only a few dozen seconds, his consciousness had merged with the War Airship.
The entire War Airship seemed to be a part of his body.
Surging power poured from the reactor, flowing through energy conduits to every component of the War Airship.
The sensation was intoxicating. Even though Gawain was a Third-Ring Wizard, neither his energy nor his body could compare to this War Airship.
That sense of power was enough to give any Third-Ring Wizard an unreal sense of security.
However, Gawain quickly broke free from that intoxication.
That intoxicating feeling was poison—the greatest cause of Phantom Body Syndrome.
Phantom Body Syndrome was a common mental illness among Alchemist Wizards of the new era.
Its primary symptom was an extreme unwillingness to leave one's mechanical body. Wizards with severe symptoms would even attack any creature that tried to separate them from their machinery.
According to a joint investigation by the Soul School and the Alchemy School, the main cause of the illness was prolonged neural connection, which caused the soul and brain to develop the illusion that Alchemy Machinery was their true body, while an Alchemist