Without the obstruction of air, a mage's spiritual force spread more smoothly and with far less attenuation, allowing the range of their mental domain to encompass an area dozens of times wider than what was possible on the ground. Yet even across such a vast expanse, Lucian and the others could sense only a single artificial planet orbiting in a steady but solitary pattern. The entire environment felt vast and desolate — this was the most immediate impression the true universe beyond the atmosphere left upon a person.
On such an orbit, Lucian, Douglas, Fernando, and Helen — floating amid the void around the artificial planet — were utterly insignificant in size. Yet they radiated an aura impossible to ignore, as though each one were a miniature sun, a hidden realm of nature, a hell of thunderstorms, a universe within an atom, and an illusion forged from ice and snow.
When a Legendary Mage fully deployed their spiritual domain, their half-solidified world of cognition would, together with the demiplane, exert influence upon reality itself!
In this silent, solemn environment, Lucian smiled as he answered Helen's question. "Because I'd prefer the Church to imitate us, chase after us, and compete with us in the very fields where we excel — rather than devoting their attention to so-called theological research. The moment they focus on that, who knows when they might discover a way to fully utilize the 'Heavenly Mountain.'"
Helen nodded thoughtfully. "So you displayed the key functions of the artificial planet precisely to distract the Church from their own strengths — to draw them into competing with us in a domain they barely understand while we have deep expertise?"
"Exactly. Even if they're unlikely to unravel the mysteries of the Heavenly Mountain, it's best to eliminate surprises before we gain an overwhelming advantage." Lucian gave a slight nod.
"Aren't you worried that once the Church grasps the secret of artificial planets, the situation will deteriorate rapidly?" Douglas asked with his amiable smile. "It serves an extremely important function — what you've always called a strategic-level weapon, transforming ordinary air superiority into planet-scale orbital control."
The concept of "air superiority" was not difficult for the Mage Council to understand. The "City of the Sky" itself was a product of air superiority — it simply hadn't been formalized into a doctrine.
Lucian spoke in his measured tone. "The artificial planet's functions are indeed significant, but the portion we've currently developed and can actually utilize is still a small fraction of the whole. Until we solve the energy problem, it can only serve auxiliary roles: signal transmission, surveillance, terrain mapping — it is not the key to determining victory. And among these functions, signal transmission is the most important."
"For the Church, because they've extensively deployed image-transmission arrays, their controlled territories across the Storm Strait can already achieve roughly equivalent effects to artificial planets at the mid-level clergy tier. In the areas we and the Northern Church occupy, that was once possible but no longer. As for live broadcasts and the like — how could they possibly let ordinary people enjoy such things? For them, the less common folk know, the better."
"What they truly value is the latent potential of artificial planets for signal transmission. But what's currently usable would at most restore them to where they stood before the Battle of Lontard. For us, that doesn't represent a particularly dire change. Moreover — since we have a thorough understanding of the principles and details of artificial planets, can't we restrict the Church's artificial planets? Can't we 'invade' them and steal their communication secrets? This is a domain we know well and excel in!"
At this point, Lucian suddenly recalled a certain saying and smiled. "To put it simply: lure the enemy into the territory we're familiar with, then use our extensive experience and deep expertise to defeat them."
"Divine Arts borrow the power of 'Thanos,' which makes them more convenient in orbit. If they replicate artificial planets, they'll possess superior offensive and defensive capabilities compared to ours. Aren't you worried about being overtaken?" Fernando, who had kept a stern face ever since Lucian had "joked" about his "runaway reactor," spoke from the side.
Lucian chuckled. "If the Church were another Council — with its own Arcane system, with Arcane points and Arcane contributions that incentivize research, with centuries or millennia of accumulated arcane and magical knowledge, with deep investigations across both macro and micro domains, and with a robust culture of exploration and inquiry — then I wouldn't make this proposal."
Of course, that wasn't absolute. Even on a roughly similar arcane foundation, one could use this kind of "star wars" approach to turn the confrontation into a contest of overall economies. In short: compete with the enemy in whatever field you're strongest in, rather than the reverse.
"As things stand now, with the 'foundations' I just mentioned, I have zero concern about the Church catching up to us in the domain of artificial planets. Not in ten years, not in a hundred years, not even in a thousand," Lucian added. "Unless the Church begins building its own Arcane system. But if that happens — if they no longer rely entirely on faith and are studying arcane arts themselves — then they no longer have an irreconcilable conflict with us. We could be integrated together entirely."
"Their artificial planets might possess fairly powerful offensive capabilities, but until they can truly harness the 'Heavenly Mountain,' they won't be able to conduct orbital bombardment. And our nuclear fission reactors may well succeed within a year or two. Once we achieve miniaturization, we won't be inferior to theirs."
"You make it sound like the Church can only wait for death. Our future looks wonderfully bright indeed," Douglas said with a warm laugh.
Lucian let out a snort. "The future is bright, but the road is full of twists. Actually, on this matter, Your Excellency the Council President and the rest of you surely share my view — you simply haven't articulated it in concrete terms. For example, all arcane research papers are published openly. The Church and every nation, if they have the will, can read them. But for magical techniques, only the principles and concepts are disclosed; the actual structures require the appropriate clearance to access and acquire. This lets them feel they can understand our arcane arts, that they have hope of catching up — yet they never actually can."
"In the beginning, we weren't thinking that far ahead. We simply designed the system under the assumption they wouldn't be able to understand any of it anyway," Douglas said with remarkable honesty, a touch of self-deprecation in his voice. "In my view, without your own research and exploration, without long-term accumulated knowledge, simply reading papers is useless. So the vast majority of clergy and foreign powers couldn't possibly extract anything meaningful from our publicly available arcane papers. It's just... I didn't expect the Pope to be Vican — and to have maintained such a vigorous appetite for learning."
Helen, who had been listening quietly, suddenly spoke up. "Evans, you went to enormous expense installing a 'runaway reactor' on every single artificial planet — was that to prevent the Church from obtaining them too easily?"
"Exactly. The easier the acquisition, the less they'll cherish it, and they'd grow suspicious of our true intentions. So we had to make them go through tremendous hardship and pay an enormous price. Only such an acquisition would motivate them to invest more effort into imitating and modifying it." Lucian shook his head with a look of exasperation. "Who could have guessed they wouldn't put up any fight at all? I was hoping they'd sacrifice the life of a Holy Spirit Priest to obtain the secrets of the artificial planet."
Douglas sighed too. "Then we'll need to find a way to give the Church another 'opportunity'..."
He appeared to have endorsed Lucian's thinking as well.
"But how can we guarantee the Church will be willing to take the risk to obtain the artificial planet, and that they'll definitely commit their energy to imitating and modifying it?" Fernando asked cautiously.
"If they don't capture an artificial planet and study its secrets, they'll have to watch helplessly as we gradually unleash its full potential — control the orbits, control the planet — and then be swept aside by the times. It would just take a relatively long time, with some fluctuations along the way. But if they compete with us in this domain, affairs will enter the orbit we're most familiar with," Lucian answered with a serious expression.
Douglas smiled again. "So indeed the future is bright. No matter how the Church chooses, they cannot avoid defeat. This is the march of the era. But..."
He suddenly let out a sigh. Lucian did the same, exhaling a nonexistent breath in the airless void, and almost simultaneously they both murmured with feeling:
"Quasi-Gods."
Indeed. Without quasi-gods who had grasped the secret of immortality, why would the Council need to scheme in such roundabout ways against the Church? They would have gone all out long ago and wiped the Church from existence in the shortest time possible!
"That's why the road is full of twists. Who knows — perhaps someday the Council will be destroyed by several quasi-gods acting in concert. Perhaps before we witness victory, one of us will fall forever beneath a quasi-god's hand." Lucian's voice was solemn, yet devoid of fear.
Douglas gazed at the vast starfield. "Although advancing toward quasi-godhood is important, regardless of everything, the Council's development must center on arcane research and the application of magic — because our path to quasi-godhood must, and can only, be built upon them."
Fernando and Helen nodded simultaneously, endorsing Douglas's viewpoint.
"All right, then what kind of plan should we formulate?" Douglas looked at Lucian, seeking his input.
Lucian thought for a moment. "Perhaps we can use this plan to lure out hidden dangers within the Council. Before the Southern Church withdrew from the four nations across the strait and the northern coastal corridor, the Council had quite a few Church spies. After that, things improved and the problem was largely eliminated. But ever since Vican secretly revealed the secrets of quasi-gods, I suspect that someone within the Council and the Church have reached an unspoken understanding."
Several of the idioms Lucian had long since "coined" in the Voice of Arcana, so Fernando and the others had no difficulty understanding them. Additionally, Helen and Brook had already joined Douglas, Fernando, Heatherly, and Lucian in researching the path to quasi-godhood and the secrets of immortality.
"Good." Fernando's teeth ground together at the mention of such spies — he wished he could unleash a storm to purge them all.