Douglas's customary evening dress had been replaced by a voluminous, flowing gray Arcane Magic robe, upon which countless dots and lines formed mysterious, profound patterns. Upon his head sat a matching tall hat reminiscent of the Ancient Magical Empire, surrounded by orbiting gemstones of various colors that sparkled like a miniature celestial system.
This attire suddenly brought a realization: Douglas was not merely the founder of the Magic Council—he was also one of the last survivors of the Ancient Magical Empire, and the aesthetic sensibilities he had cultivated in his youth were etched deeply into his mind.
"Lucian, thank you for your proposal. Through meticulous calculation and a complex alchemical process, I have already crafted an artificial planet. The next task is to send it into its designated orbit." Douglas greeted Lucian warmly, and as he spoke, his right hand pressed against a storage pouch. A silvery-gray sphere instantly floated into the air before him.
As a product of a first experiment, this "artificial planet" was not particularly large—roughly half the size of a person. Its entire surface shimmered with a silvery metallic luster, embedded with all manner of gemstones and etched with intricate, elegant Magic Circle patterns. The whole sphere appeared to be wrapped layer upon layer in magic arrays, radiating an aura of profound mystery.
"Isn't this overly complex?" In Lucian's mind, a first attempt only needed to verify that a satellite could orbit the world—that alone would be enough. There was no need for any other functions; applications like communication, reconnaissance, positioning, and striking power could be considered later. After all, if the world's gravitational force truly had problems and the satellite couldn't orbit properly, wouldn't all this effort be wasted?
Douglas chuckled. "Not complex, not complex at all. Space is filled with dangers—this Magic Circle is for resisting extreme cold…" He patiently explained to Lucian the purpose of each magic array on the surface of the silvery metal sphere.
Lucian quietly shook his head in disagreement while listening with great fascination, soaking up the knowledge of Magic Circle configurations. He occasionally posed questions, and at last, with a deliberately inspired air, said: "Your Excellency the Council Chairman, why not add signal receiving and transmission Magic Circles? That way we could use electromagnetic signals back on the ground to determine its status and observe it, providing multi-faceted proof of the experiment's authenticity and reliability."
"I already instilled a similar array inside during the alchemical process. Moreover, the primary Magic Circle's function exceeds your imagination—it's nearly comparable to a Legendary spell." Douglas was not irritated by Lucian's many questions and answered his doubts with great amiability.
Lusiana, who had been listening nearby, asked curiously: "What function?"
"Heh, that's a secret for now. Once the experiment succeeds, you'll see." Douglas looked at his three students with a broad smile.
Altair's narrowed eyes burned with a hint of fanatical excitement as he gazed at the "artificial planet." "I can hardly wait to find out, hardly wait to announce to those fools that the Master's theory is correct, to puncture their absurd dream of an 'ethereal medium.'"
"Hmph—declaring victory before the experiment has even begun. You're the biggest idiot I've ever seen." Fernando did not hold back in his mockery of Altair, paying no mind to the fact that the man's own teacher was standing right there. Even if it had been Douglas, he would have said the same.
Altair didn't dare shout back at Fernando. He lowered his head in embarrassment and silently accepted the rebuke.
The Tower's "Prophet," Begna, also looked at Douglas with a measure of concern. "The reasons planets remain undiscovered are complex. Perhaps an artificial planet would also prove impossible to observe. Your Excellency the Council Chairman, you should prepare yourself for failure—this would not fundamentally disprove the correctness of your theory."
He wore the Tower's distinctive gray-crowned pointed hat, his brows and beard entirely white. Apart from his deep, starlit eyes, he looked much the same as any other elderly man.
Since this was a warning from the Prophet, Altair, Lusiana, and Norman all showed flickers of concern on their faces. Could it be that His Excellency the Prophet had already foreseen a failed outcome through astrology? If so, then surely…
Their thoughts were cut short by Douglas, who laughed with easy grace. "In the matter of planets, I have already failed many times. Adding one more failure to my record is nothing shameful or despairing—it simply shows that my theory still has imperfections, factors that have not yet been accounted for, and that more failures are needed to discover the reasons. The throne of success has always been forged through failure. Don't let my current strength, reputation, and status, which may seem so brilliant, make you forget that I too have endured countless trials of failure."
He looked up at the illusory starry sky of the demiplane and spoke with feeling: "The world is so vast, so profound. The deeper you explore, the more keenly you feel our own insignificance. What the world's original state truly was, what the ultimate destination of all things may be—these are questions we still cannot even imagine. All that is unknown is worthy of reverence. We must not, simply because we do not yet understand, because we cannot yet explore, blindly reject and resist, fleeing from it rather than studying it."
"If our experiment today succeeds, it will prove that we humans can also create planets, create worlds—we will have merely taken the very first step!"
As he said this, Douglas's smiling gaze turned to Lucian. "And all of this is thanks to Lucian. His uninhibited thinking, his ability to reason in reverse, freed me from the constraints of my past experience."
Uh—His Excellency the Council Chairman's small step, humanity's great leap? Lucian had no sense of being praised and silently grumbled about Douglas's remark.
Fernando noticed his student's absent-mindedness and shot him a fierce glare, then said to Douglas: "Enough talk. Save your victory speech for after you've actually succeeded, or this whole thing will turn into a joke."
The Prophet Begna also smiled as he explained to Altair and the others: "What I said just now was not a prophecy—it was concern from an old friend. To prophesy anything about Douglas's affairs, I'd need to prepare for at least a month just to hope of being wrong by a smaller margin."
The dejection and tension on Altair's, Lusiana's, and Norman's faces gradually faded. Douglas said nothing more; he simply nodded lightly and placed the artificial planet into his spatial storage pouch before activating the magic tower.
Inside the demiplane's illusory night sky, star after star abruptly winked out in succession. The mountains, forests, lakes, grasslands, and the magic tower itself were completely swallowed by a pitch-black darkness so thick one could not see a hand before one's face.
Then, line after line of white light blazed to life along the magic tower, weaving together into an enormously complex Magic Circle.
The moment the array was complete, the magic tower suddenly hummed with a deep vibration, trembling violently. Countless streams of energy converged in the space before Douglas like a surging ocean, coalescing into a dazzling, profound gate adorned with countless constellation symbols.
"Return to Allence and keep your eyes on the night sky," Douglas instructed. At the same time, his formidable aura erupted outward like a blazing sun, making it impossible for Lucian and the others to open their eyes or extend their spiritual sense.
With that, he used his own spiritual force to shove the celestial gate open, creating a crack, then stepped through and vanished into the infinite blackness beyond.
"So this is what a satellite launch looks like…" Lucian stared silently at the vanished gate. This was truly nothing like Earth! No expensive fuel, no massive rockets, no ignition systems—just carrying the satellite along and completing the journey with a single spatial jump.
This drove home for Lucian just how many aspects of the Arcane Magic world surpassed Earth. In many fields, there were far more convenient means available—one simply didn't understand the underlying principles.
Here, a Grand Archanist was the rocket, the satellite, and the intercontinental missile all in one. Power and glory resided within oneself!
"To explore distant planets, a spatial jump requires two to three years of preparation—sometimes even decades. But for a jump to near orbit, you only need a few days of preparation." Fernando did not waste the opportunity and began explaining the relevant knowledge of spatial jumps to Lucian.