Free Web NovelChapter 401: Chapter 398: The Court of the Void
Rorschach decided to take Caroline to the "Burial Place of the Clone." He had no reason to keep secrets from his teacher. After all, in Istani, they had a bond forged through life-and-death situations.
With his clone lying in that space to act as an anchor, getting there became much simpler. Rorschach imitated the various altars recorded in ancient texts, setting up a ritual in an empty storeroom.
He drew a symbol pointing to himself, then placed things he liked... Rorschach thought for a moment, then placed a soda in the southeast, and in the other directions, he set out Gold Coins, a crispy pork knuckle, and "Principles of Alchemical Engineering (First Draft)."
He didn’t exactly like the last offering; in fact, he rather loathed it. But Rorschach hadn’t finished writing it before his clone went up to take its long nap, so this was a way of settling a lingering obsession.
Caroline walked over and saw Rorschach’s setup, somewhat astonished. "What Divine Spirit are you planning to pray to?" She looked closer at the offerings. "There are no minerals or incense, just food, drink, and money? Will this even work?"
’The god you’re trying to contact seems a bit... destitute.’
Good thing his teacher didn’t say it, or it would have been a blow that struck Rorschach to his very Soul. He explained to Caroline, "Actually, the ritual is for my clone. It’s currently lying at our destination, a Vesicle situated between the Material Realm and the Symbolic Realm."
"Oh, so this is the space you mentioned in your letter. Judging from your ritual, is the method of entry similar to the Divine Kingdoms of the past?"
"I believe so. But before my clone entered, it was an uninhabited Chaos Space without a defined heaven or earth... You’ll understand the specifics once you’re there."
After he sprinkled an Alchemy Potion to activate it, a spatiotemporal vortex appeared, sucking both Rorschach and Caroline inside. It is said that objects are stretched infinitely when approaching a black hole, and Rorschach was feeling that sensation right now.
When the vertical stretching sensation ended, they had arrived beneath a "Golden Tree."
This "Tree of Law" was slender, and its branches were still sparse. Its gradually fading crown at the very top held up the rupture that his clone had blasted open. The entire sky wasn’t vast or distant; the hazy starlight filtering through the crystalline barrier seemed almost within reach.
The ground underfoot was paved with fine golden sand, which was originally Transmuting Dust. But after settling, it had been touched and transformed by the roots of the "Tree of Law," staining it a golden yellow.
Caroline’s attention was completely captivated by the Golden Tree. "Rorschach, you said before that the Chaos Space only became divided into heaven and earth after this tree appeared. Isn’t that the World Tree from the myths of the Northern Territory?"
"What kind of World Tree is this small?" Right now, the "sapling" was only as thick as a bowl, on the same scale as a roadside tree. A Black Dragon’s tooth was sturdier than this.
Caroline stuck to her opinion. "This world isn’t very large to begin with."
Theoretically, Rorschach and Caroline were standing right on top of Rorschach’s clone, but when he tried to establish a synesthetic connection, he received no feedback. This result was within his expectations.
The two of them wandered through the area, which was only about the size of a sports field. At the edges, the fine sand formed from Transmuting Dust rose and fell, preventing them from approaching the border of the space.
"You want to place the Tower Spirit’s main body here?" Caroline confirmed with Rorschach. After receiving an affirmative answer, she tried to take out the tools from her personal material pouch, only to find it empty.
"No need to test. First, we can be certain that this place leans more toward the Symbolic Realm. If I’m not mistaken, our physical bodies are probably still lying in front of the altar. At the very least, the ritual isn’t perfect enough yet; it only allows Spirit Bodies to enter."
Rorschach was about to say that his clone had entered with its entire physical body. But then he remembered that thing had first fallen from Thoth’s Divine Kingdom and smashed its way in. That couldn’t be considered a normal entry.
This was the result Rorschach had feared most—if this place leaned toward the Symbolic Realm, it would be extremely difficult to transport the Tower Spirit’s main body here. Following the same path as his clone was too risky; who knew what other dangers were hidden in that bizarre Divine Hall.
Caroline, however, was thinking about how to meet Rorschach’s needs. She mentally searched through her knowledge related to the Symbolic Realm—things she had learned from the Tower of Stars, read in the Magic Academy’s library, or heard from her peers...
"What a god thinks, exists." Caroline suddenly blurted out a line from a Scripture. She continued, "This is the most common power a god possesses in their Divine Kingdom. Perhaps making imagination manifest is not only an expression of Divine Authority, but also an inherent property of the Symbolic Realm."
"If you are familiar enough with the device that houses the Tower Spirit, why not... try imagining it and manifesting it here?"
Rorschach did as she suggested. He began to try "3D modeling" it in his mind. The image of the processing core grew clearer bit by bit. It seemed this space had some special property; as Rorschach envisioned it, related memories began to surface, allowing him to smoothly outline the details with sufficient clarity.
However, nothing happened. When Rorschach opened his eyes again, he and Caroline were just looking at each other silently under the tree.
"You can’t remember it?"
"No, it went very smoothly. The details from my memory kept surfacing. But as you can see, I didn’t manage to manifest it." Rorschach suspected a specific type of Magic might be required.
Caroline pondered for a moment, then thought of another path. "Have you seen the blueprints?"
"Of course. I was the one who brought the blueprints back." Rorschach began to try envisioning the blueprints. Again, his memories surfaced. But this time, in front of him, fine granules of Transmuting Dust began to float and transform, forming thin sheets of blueprints.
It worked this time. These blueprints retained the golden color of the sand, shimmering brilliantly. After they had all fully manifested, they began to fold and morph, forming the shapes of components and a spherical shell.
"Just as I thought. In the Original Layer of the Symbolic Realm, all registered Magic and Divine Arts are ’perfect prototypes.’ What’s before us now should be the perfect prototype of the processing core."
At first, Rorschach had tried to manifest an artificial object. The components made by craftsmen always have tolerances, and the materials always have flaws. But only what is abstracted from the blueprints can be acknowledged by the Symbolic Realm.
Reality means imperfection; only the conceptual can be perfect.
The Golden Tree lowered tendrils from above and sent roots burrowing up from the ground to connect to the core. Seeing this, Caroline told Rorschach it was time for them to return to the Material Realm together. "Next is to have the Tower Spirit detach from its original container and enter its new shell."
Their consciousnesses plummeted, and the ground turned into quicksand, swallowing them both. When they opened their eyes again, they were lying on the cold concrete floor of the storeroom.
Rorschach scrambled to his feet and helped Caroline up.
They couldn’t have the Tower Spirit ascend immediately, because there was still a lot of work in the factories that it needed to maintain.
So, all the factories received a notice: "System upgrade in progress. All units are to suspend operations." The workers were pleasantly surprised to get a sudden day off. The Sky Knights also paused their training and patrols.
After confirming that the last boiler had cooled and the last Demonic Puppet was stowed away, Rorschach severed the connection to the Tower Spirit’s core and carried the heavy metal sphere to the center of the altar.
As the ritual began, the core, which had been running normally under the infusion of Rorschach’s Magic Power, lost something, and its gears slowly ground to a halt.
"Based on the principle of similarity, after the Tower Spirit enters the ’perfect prototype’ vessel, it can then descend into a container in the Material Realm that is manufactured based on that blueprint." Rorschach and Caroline stared nervously at the metal sphere. Time passed slowly. Suddenly, the gears inside the core started to operate again, emitting a rhythmic clicking sound.
Afterward, something shot out of the vortex and drilled into Rorschach’s body—his Soul was whole again.
The next day, Hanna began her Casting practice. At the same time, in that ethereal place, a flash of light coursed through the "little tree" holding up heaven and earth, in sync with her Casting.
