In the capital of the Briana Kingdom—Famacaria—inside a tower of Arcane Magic.
The rousing, solemn melody from the closing of the Allente Weekly News Review still echoed through the room when the tall, lean Great Mage Roland, his thin mustache bristling, switched off the radio and sneered with cold mockery: "The 'Lark' certainly has a clear bias, doesn't she? Such a fine student Nelsica has trained."
For mages of their standing, discovering the true identity of the "Lark" Samantha was no difficult matter.
It was a study adorned with soft crystal lamps and dark crimson curtains. Roland stood before his desk, regarding his students.
An elderly man with completely white hair spoke with equal resentment: "'Truth of the World,' 'Voice of Mysteries'—they're all things Lucian set up single-handedly. No matter how well the Lark and her kind disguise it, they're sitting squarely in the chair of particle theory, no question about it. How can a program that demands objectivity allow the Lark to deliberately steer the narrative and undermine the confidence of wave theory supporters!"
He looked much older than Roland.
"Crystal, what does undermining confidence matter?" Roland replied, having already dismissed his earlier jab at the Lark. He did not dwell on it—magnanimity was something a Great Mage with his dazzling honors certainly possessed. "The arcane world is the fairest place there is. No matter how many tricks they pull or schemes they devise, in the end they'll still have to back it up with solid experimental results or objective phenomena." He merely needed to complete his experiment, and he would use his results and imagery to deliver a righteous slap to Lucian and his associates.
Beside Crystal sat a young man with flaxen hair. Young though he was, his amber eyes carried a trace of world-weariness, as though weathered by the passage of long ages. He hesitated slightly before speaking: "Professor, the experiment…"
"Manuel?" Roland furrowed his brow and looked at him.
Manuel's lips quivered before he finally spoke: "Professor, you should prepare yourself for the experimental results. They may not necessarily disprove the light quantum hypothesis."
The middle-aged woman with light-purple hair seized the opportunity to add: "Professor, many things over the past few years suggest that the light quantum hypothesis may genuinely be able to perfectly explain the photoelectric effect."
"You two!" Roland glared at them furiously. Even his own students had lost their conviction?
"If that really is the explanation, then I'd rather the photoelectric effect remain unexplained!" he barked, and stormed out of the study.
Outside the window, spring rain fell ceaselessly through the darkness, as if heralding a season's harvest.
…………
At the Atomic Research Institute, Lucian adjusted the Magic Circle while peering intently through an alchemical observer at the flickering phosphorescent dots, trying to discern what he was looking for from their varying positions and intensities, the recorded data, and the tangled, complex trajectories. Meanwhile, the improved Magic Circle crackled with the buzz of strong electrical current passing through it, and the surrounding space showed faint signs of magnetic field distortion.
Thanks to the Storm Lord's successful experiment bombarding metal foil with a helium atom stream, Lucian had naturally submitted a request to the Magic Research Committee to modify the laboratory's Magic Circle and alchemical apparatus, and thus obtained the necessary conditions to carry out this experiment. The Atomic Research Institute proclaimed its mission as studying the microscopic world and the internal structure of atoms—since the Storm Lord had verified the existence of the atomic nucleus through particle collision and proposed a structural model for celestial motion, it was entirely justified for the Institute to make similar requests, and naturally, they were quickly granted.
Suddenly, Lucian spotted the trajectory he had anticipated!
A cascade of data—charge-to-mass ratio, charge, mass—surged through his mind in an instant, and he sprang to his feet, reconfigured the Magic Circle, and began measuring the particle that the trajectory represented.
Time flew past. The measurements gradually approached their conclusion.
The charge-to-mass ratio was identical!
The charge was identical!
The mass was identical!
The data points overlapped one by one, and then—boom. Lucian's Cognitive World materialized before him, hovering between the real and the illusory. The elements filling its starry sky and its environment of wind, fire, and water shifted once again: the cores orbited by electrons transformed into a union of two types of particles, with hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and the other elements differing only in the number of particles they contained.
This was the hydrogen nucleus! This was the "proton"! This was the very essence of the elements!
The transformation of his Cognitive World completed in a mere instant. Lucian found his perception of the elements growing ever sharper. At the same time, seizing this rare opportunity, he plunged fully into Meditation, rendering his spiritual power ethereal and intangible—as if it possessed both the properties of a wave and the characteristics of a particle. This was no mere simple combination of particle and wave; even a single "spiritual quantum" demonstrated its own wave-like aspect!
…………
Within his electromagnetic kingdom, Brooke stepped into his laboratory—a domain that seemed drawn from a fever dream.
Cold silver-gray metal, bizarre and inexplicable patterns, crackling jumping arcs of light, warped and blackened magnetic fields, the vast and profound vacuum…
He stood before an elaborate alchemical platform, the safe zone for experiment notes and data records at his right hand.
He glanced at the experimental results he had casually jotted down while improving the Magic Circle earlier, and an inscrutable expression crossed his gaunt, aging face. Then he quelled all emotion, focused his attention on manipulating the Magic Circle, and commenced the experiment.
…………
By the time Roland reached the door of the arcane laboratory, his emotions had settled, and he turned to Manuel and Diana, who had followed behind in trepidation: "Go attend to your own affairs. I'm about to begin the experiment."
Manuel seemed about to say something more, but Roland had already entered the laboratory, and the door—rippling with silver-white serpents of electricity—swiftly sealed shut, cutting off the space within from the space without.
"It should be fine, right?" Manuel asked involuntarily.
Crystal watched coldly. "It'll certainly be fine. There are still diffraction images and other phenomena the light quantum hypothesis can't explain."
"Mm." Diana considered for a moment. If she were the one conducting the experiment, any result probably wouldn't be too serious—the worst case would be damage to her Cognitive World, requiring several years to repair. After all, three years had given her ample psychological preparation for any outcome. Her Cognitive World had slowly shifted, even leaning further toward the other side. So the Professor should be fine too…
The evening-gown-style arcane robe unfurled, its pale gray enveloping Roland from head to toe. After carefully verifying the integrity of the Magic Circle and alchemical apparatus, he conducted the experiment with the meticulous precision of every time before.
…………
Within his partially substantiated Cognitive World, the spiritual power filling every corner was oscillating in a strange, peculiar manner. Each "spiritual quantum" had unfurled into a bizarre, incomprehensible diffuse cloud—yet when he focused on feeling them carefully, they reverted to the form of individual particles or the shape of waves.
Once everything had settled, the Cognitive World faded and Lucian opened his eyes, knowing that his three-year exploration of a unique Meditation technique had finally reached its last step and could now be called the "Evans Dual-Nature Meditation Method"—though this was merely the first-stage result for now, with room for improvement in the future.
"With this Meditation method, the hidden dangers from my forced advancement can be remedied." After a brief session using the Dual-Nature Meditation method, Lucian arrived at his conclusion: the efficiency exceeded that of the current best high-level Meditation method by at least threefold, and within a year or two, he should be able to advance to the seventh circle.
Over these three years, due to the soul's hidden danger, Lucian's spiritual power had not grown quickly, so he had focused his efforts on exploring a unique Meditation method, studying sixth-circle spells, and creating new spells. He had currently constructed twenty-one sixth-circle spells within his soul. Among the newly created spells, besides the curse-type "Professor's Concern," there was also one each from the electromagnetic and astromancy schools.
Drawing a deep breath, Lucian repeated the experiment he had just conducted, then took out the specially prepared parchment and Feather Pen, and began writing his paper at the experiment table.