Chapter 75: Atalante's Struggle

The capital of the Gale Duchy, Kux.

Within the "Garden of the Mind," a demiplane connected to the headquarters magical tower of the "Mage's Home," light shifted ceaselessly between bright and dark—different at every point, different at every moment, much like the human heart itself.

"Cursed Eye" Atalante walked along the garden path—half vibrant, half dim—with his eyes closed and a cane in hand, his expression flickering as unpredictably as the demiplane's light.

"Should I confront Douglas and the others about why they're concealing the method of becoming a quasi-divine being, or should I pretend nothing has happened?" The question churned endlessly in his mind.

As the foremost authority on reading human hearts, he could more or less deduce what Viken was scheming and what designs he harbored. The "poison" wasn't on the surface—it lay within the method of becoming a quasi-divine being itself. Viken truly didn't need to do anything, because once Atalante chose this path, it was only a matter of time before differences in ideology and contradictions in their respective ways would drive him further and further from the Arcane Council, eventually leading him to defect to Viken, who controlled immense faith-based resources. After all, the Arcane Council's principle was to use Arcane knowledge to dispel religious superstition and undermine the Church's foundation of faith—they would absolutely never proactively support a powerful religious sect. Tolerating one that had splintered into several national churches was already the limit.

"Truly an open-and-above-board 'poisoning' that one simply cannot refuse. As expected of a monster who has lived so long, personally buried countless Legends, and forged the Church of the True God…"

In truth, from the exchanges during the recent Supreme Council meeting, Atalante had been able to guess the thinking of Douglas, Fernando, and Lucian Evans. The reason they were concealing the specific details of becoming a quasi-divine being was primarily because the path carried far too many hidden dangers—it was far too easy to become a devil who could no longer control their own emotions, and it would encourage everyone to secretly develop religious faith, destroying the hard-won atmosphere of Arcane research they had built.

"Douglas is broad-minded and far-sighted, and with the dawn of quasi-divine potential brought by General Relativity, he would never conceal such a secret. Fernando's temperament, while hot-tempered and impatient, has always been passionately devoted to Arcane knowledge and the pursuit of truth—he would surely look down on a quasi-divine method with such enormous risks…"

The "Cursed Eye" extrapolated their thoughts from the personalities and mental states of the two peak Legends, arriving remarkably close to the truth. "As for Lucian Evans—not yet thirty and already a second-tier Legend, proposing one subversive theory after another, establishing the two pillars of the current Arcane system—Relativity and New Alchemy. Becoming a peak Legend is merely a matter of time for him, and General Relativity will likewise give him hope of becoming a quasi-divine being. Further developed New Alchemy should do the same. A young man with such a brilliant future would absolutely disdain this particular path to quasi-divinity."

It had been only a few weeks since his return, and Lucian had successfully advanced to second-tier Legend, surpassing Brook's previous record by a full year—thanks to the gains from this adventure, especially the state transition that the "monster" Viken had allowed him to experience and the insights brought by the "Secret of Immortality."

Lucian hadn't originally intended to report his advancement, but because the intelligence gathered from the exploration of the Necromancy World was so extraordinary, Erika and Vincent had been rewarded with two Legendary spell or Legendary ritual selections each, Douglas and Fernando with five, and Lucian with ten. So while preparing to make his selections, he had casually mentioned his advancement to Helen.

After analyzing the mindsets of Douglas and the others, Atalante let out a soft sigh. "Even if I were to confront them, they would likely give a similar response. Worse, it would make them suspect where I got my information—suspect that I had obtained the true method of becoming a quasi-divine being from Viken…"

He suddenly laughed self-deprecatingly. "Greed truly is the root of all evil."

Were it not for greed—were it not for his fascination with the quasi-divine path lurking in his mind—he would certainly have confessed everything to Douglas and the others, and recommended they present it to the Supreme Council with proper permissions and protocols established. But now…

At that moment, Erika the "Transformation Master" came to visit, asking about the effort to recruit and turn Philip Bell.

"It's become rather complicated. Viken appears to have made some concessions and shown sincerity—even Cardinal Philip Bell, whose faith had already wavered, has refused my overtures." Atalante spoke his assessment honestly. As an authority in the fields of illusion and psychology, organizing personnel for such tasks naturally fell to him.

Erika's expression turned grave. "As expected of that old monster—his reaction at this juncture has exceeded our predictions."

"You can't kill monsters like him. That's why he can afford to set his sights years into the future, rather than fighting over short-term gains." As he spoke, Atalante's thoughts turned inward to his own concerns.

So far, this path had revealed far too many hidden dangers. He didn't dare attempt it rashly. Silently, he resolved: "First, I'll conduct some secret experiments to accumulate data…"

---

On the seventeenth floor of the Arlene magical tower, in the "Genetics Laboratory," Felipe stood in his long black coat, holding a cup of hot water and gazing at the latest issue of Arcane before him. His face, as always, carried a sickly pallor.

"The Lucian-Lewski space… So the debate in the microscopic domain is essentially settled. The two new Alchemy systems are simply different aspects of the same model." Felipe took a sip of water and labored through the paper. Because his research into the soul involved electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic fields, and special elements—and because the soul itself was composed of various elemental substances—he followed research into the microscopic domain just as closely, putting in the same painstaking effort.

Yet ever since the advent of matrix mechanics, the microscopic domain had become extremely unforgiving. Archanists with even slightly weaker mathematical foundations frequently found their heads splitting in pain. The introduction of wave mechanics had helped somewhat, but Lucian's proofs had once again made people curse the "mathematical devil."

Among necromantic mages, Felipe had always been renowned for his mathematical prowess—it was precisely why he advanced so rapidly. But over the past two years, his pride had been deeply shaken. The papers published in Nature, the mathematical descriptions of General Relativity, matrix mechanics, and the Lucian-Lewski space—each one was more formidable and terrifying than the last.