Alingna, the Magic Tower of the Council headquarters.
Rachel, who was always brimming with vitality, had turned her mage's robe dark in color to express her mood—heavy, oppressive, anxious waiting. Yesterday, she still hadn't heard whether Lord Brook's and Mr. Roland's papers had been submitted. Would they pass review before the next issue of Arcane was published? What were the actual results of the experiments? Had they refuted Lucian's light quantum hypothesis?
Even under the influence of her close friend Samantha, Rachel's cognitive world had changed considerably over the past three years. She could no longer be called a firm supporter of wave theory—in fact, she was inclined toward the light quantum hypothesis, which had accurately predicted the various photoelectric effect phenomena. Yet the conditioning she had received since her apprenticeship—the classic double-slit interference pattern and the Brook bright spots—kept reminding her that light possessed obvious wave-like properties!
"Could it really be as Lucian said—that we should look at the wave and particle question from a higher level and perspective?" Confused, Rachel pulled her right foot back before stepping onto the escalator and turned toward the exchange area instead. Although she could have waited half an hour at her teacher Isabella's office to see the latest issue of Arcane, she was desperate to know the final result.
Picking up her pace slightly, Rachel found the exchange area packed with people as she drew near. She couldn't help but sigh inwardly: "The wave-particle debate really has attracted widespread attention. Usually when Arcane is released, there are never this many mages scrambling to buy it. How many archanists below the high-level can even fully understand every paper in Arcane?"
Thinking this didn't stop her from squeezing toward the exchange counter where there were slightly fewer people, but the layered crowd was utterly silent at that moment, radiating an indescribable sense of oppression and despair.
"What happened?" Rachel was filled with curiosity, so she changed direction and, aided by several non-offensive fourth and fifth-ring spells, squeezed to the front of the surrounded exchange counter.
Ah... A short, sharp scream was cut off midway. A shattered skull, brain matter and blood scattered across the floor, a corpse clutching an open issue of Arcane—all of these imprinted themselves upon Rachel's pupils in a horrific tableau.
Many of the surrounding archanists had killed with their own hands, but having someone collapse before them in this manner was still difficult to bear. After all, while they were all familiar with the phenomenon of cognitive worlds being overturned resulting in head explosions, actual instances in the past century had been rare. Apart from mid-to-high-level mages of the Elemental Will and Pale Hand who had witnessed it once, no one else had ever seen it. Scenes of priests and bishops turning into sacred light torches and fireworks, on the other hand, could be encountered occasionally.
Those low-level mages and apprentices who had not yet been sent out on mandatory missions showed expressions of mingled shock and fear, their mouths mumbling words like "Lucian? Evans," "the Skullcrusher," as if those names belonged to a demon lord about to crush their skulls.
"The 'Spiritual Chicken Soup' column is quite popular among mages, yet few ever seek out illusionists like my teacher and me for psychological counseling and crisis intervention. After this incident, it seems things are going to change a great deal..." Even in her extreme distress, Rachel's thoughts took a remarkably off-track turn.
However, the primary cause of the oppressive, despairing atmosphere was not this horrific sight, but rather the words written in bold black type on the open copy of Arcane:
"...Although I conducted this experiment with the intent of refuting the light quantum hypothesis, the experimental results and images perfectly match the characteristics of light quanta. I must admit that my 'attempt at refutation' has instead provided preliminary confirmation of the light quantum hypothesis..."
"—Edwin Brook, Grand Archanist, fourth level of the legendary class 'Emperor of Control'"
Rachel tilted her head slightly upward, gazing at the hall's silver ceiling at a forty-five-degree angle, as oppressed and silent as those around her: "From the day I entered the magic academy, I never imagined wave theory would face such a day. Wasn't it supposed to stand forever like this magic tower, like Chairman Douglas's and Lord Brook's theoretical systems?"
"This world seems to have become unrecognizable..."
Rachel, in a rare fit of sentimentality, quietly slipped out of the crowd amid a strange sense of grief, wandered back to the magic tower's main hall in a daze, stepped onto the escalator, arrived at the Arcane Audit Committee, and knocked on her teacher Isabella's office door like a child seeking the comforting embrace of a mother.
"Come in." Isabella's voice came from behind the door.
Hearing Isabella's response, Rachel suddenly snapped back to awareness. How had she ended up here? Normally, shouldn't she have gone to the "Brain Wave and Hormone Center" next to the "Atomic Research Institute" to wait for her teacher? Wasn't her teacher supposed to depart from the magic tower at nine?
Gently pushing open the half-closed door, Rachel saw that her teacher's mage's robe had been changed to a black long dress with a white flower pinned to her chest. She asked in shock: "Who passed away?"
"Roland, Christel..." Isabella said several names with a somewhat mournful expression. She was not a newly promoted high-level mage—she had at least some acquaintance with those stubborn old mages.
"R-Roland, the Archmage?" The image of that tall, thin, stubborn old man surfaced in Rachel's mind, but what left the deepest impression was the row of badges on his chest, each one a dazzling halo.
Isabella nodded gently, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears: "Yes, an archmage has fallen. An archmage who had received the highest honors in the fields of electromagnetism, light and dark, and thermodynamics has fallen—obsoleted by the advancement of arcane and magical knowledge..."