Free Web NovelChapter 440: Chapter 437: Searching for Answers in the Chaos Tide
The weak areas in the Transformation Dust Layer Flow were observed indirectly; in fact, no one had actually penetrated the entire layer.
It began with the observatory at the Starlight Torch Tower, which detected a star deviating from its previously mapped trajectory. At the same time, dimmer stars were discovered around it for the first time.
Some scholars attributed this phenomenon to a change in the star itself, such as a split, which would explain both observations. Others, however, raised doubts, pointing out that the split-star hypothesis couldn’t explain why the original star had actually grown brighter.
There were even historical researchers who pointed out that ancient texts and star charts had recorded the existence of those celestial bodies.
Only Kano suspected the change wasn’t in the starry sky itself, but in the Transformation Layer Flow that he and his research team had been studying. This theory was bolstered by the sixteen Transmutation Dust Extractors currently operating in Valuva; fluctuations in their output occurred almost in perfect sync with the celestial anomaly.
In the laboratory, Paulina was assembling a custom glass experimental device. Its main component was a large, transparent water tank with six holes in its base.
Master Poincare was also in the lab. At a signal from Kano, Paulina began to fill the tank from one side. The inlet was specially designed to create a laminar flow of water moving from left to right. As the water passed over the holes, some of it drained out, creating turbulence.
Kano cast a Transformation spell on the device, causing the holes in the tank’s base to move. In a particular configuration, the disturbances from the holes interacted. The smaller turbulences merged, forming a larger vortex centered around the biggest hole.
"So, you’re using this experiment to demonstrate..." Master Poincare mused for a moment. "That the array of Transmutation Dust Extractors is disturbing the original layer flow, and their interactions have coincidentally produced a large vortex? And because of this, a relatively thin area has appeared near the vortex’s center, causing the celestial changes observed by the observatory."
"Exactly. It all makes sense now," Kano said. "The thickness at the thinnest point must be significantly less than normal. Otherwise, the celestial changes wouldn’t be so pronounced. It would even explain how the light from dimmer celestial bodies is able to pierce our ’shell’ for the first time."
"Not the first time," Poincare corrected. "We received a message from the Tower of Time in Istani. After cross-referencing, the so-called four newly-appeared companion stars are part of the constellation Perseus, which vanished after the ’Great Extinction’."
"Doesn’t that just prove my point even more?" Kano smacked a fist into his other palm. "After the Great Extinction in the Symbolic Realm, the Transformation Layer Flow obscured the dimmer stars. Now that a weak area has appeared, some of those stars are visible again."
The obscuring effect of the Transformation Dust Layer Flow had once dealt a heavy blow to astrology and Celestial Magic. It might also have been related to the demise of the powerful entities tied to the constellations. In any case, the news from the Tower of Time confirmed Kano’s theory.
"So, the reason you called me here is..." Master Poincare had already guessed part of it, but he figured it was best to get confirmation from the hefty man first.
Kano was practically trembling with excitement. "Help me, Jules Poincare! We have sixteen machines, and we can control both their extraction coordinates and their extraction rates. I need you to calculate an optimal solution! I want to use this array of machines to generate the largest possible vortex, creating the largest and thinnest possible region in the Transformation Dust Layer Flow!"
"Calculations? You’re an amateur in this field!" To Kano’s surprise, Master Poincare responded to the Great Mage’s request with what was almost a roar. He pointed at the water tank model and said:
"What do you want me to calculate? Fluids! A chaotic system composed of infinite motes of dust! Finding a particular solution means an infinite amount of computation! And how much do we even know about Transmuting Dust? In its raw, unprocessed state, dispersed throughout the Star Realm... what’s its equivalent viscosity coefficient? Its vortex separation frequency? And all of this in a three-dimensional system... Hah. If you could get every great mind in the world to work on this, then maybe, just maybe, it could be solved one day..."
Kano, taken aback by Poincare’s "Roar," slowly mumbled, "Well, over the past few years we’ve determined the flow velocity gradients for the lower and middle layers..."
"Hah..." Poincare let out a laugh of pure exasperation.
Despite this, every remaining Mage and Apprentice in the Tower of Stars was brought into the project.
The Tower of Stars, its true location hidden, became the "Eye of the Storm" for Valuva. Mage Apprentices who had neither joined the army nor fled to the countryside hunkered down to conduct research, focusing all their efforts on the Chief Mage’s project.
First, they needed more data. Three teams, each led by a Middle Level Mage instructor, rode in Floating Cabins from the Alchemy Department to the maximum safe teleportation altitude. There, just below the Transformation Dust Layer Flow, they released three Exploration Balls.
The Floating Cabins and Exploration Balls were all outfitted with Rorschach’s publicly available blue barriers. The very existence of a barrier capable of resisting Transmuting Dust was what made penetrating the Transformation Layer Flow a possibility in the first place.
Previously, however, the barrier had only been used inside the Extractors. The amount of Transmuting Dust teleported and gushing within the devices was vastly different from the sheer volume present in the layer flow high in the sky. This mission would also serve as a test for the barrier’s operational duration.
"Instructor, we’ve lost contact with Ball 3. Trajectory data from the other two has been collected."
"Alright, let’s head back." The Floating Cabin’s barrier was starting to fail, and the high-altitude cold began to seep through the simple, makeshift hull. Having collected their data and, as a bonus, determined the relationship between barrier thickness and survival time within the Transformation Dust Layer Flow, the cabin’s Floating Skill was deactivated. It fell naturally, and once it reached a certain speed, the Magic Circuits along its hull flared to life, and it vanished from the sky.
Using these methods, they eventually collected eleven sets of motion data from the Exploration Balls within the Transformation Layer Flow, allowing them to map out the basic parameters of the dust’s lower stratum.
Based on this data, the calculation team led by Poincare published the first simplified model of the Transformation Dust Layer Flow. Their research also caught the attention of the Tower of Time, which began to conduct similar experiments.
Poincare, for his part, identified an approximate cyclical pattern in the layer’s fluctuations. This led him to propose an idea: by altering a sufficiently small parameter of the chaotic system, they could fine-tune the target variable without affecting the system’s other variables, eventually achieving the steady state Kano required.
Countless other efforts were also underway. All calculating machines and students worked around the clock. The research labs were plastered with pages of calculations. To simulate the macroscopic flow of Transmuting Dust, they built models using water, oil, and even quicksand, all cycling endlessly under the control of intricate Alchemy Devices.
Ultimately, they arrived at a model that, in Poincare’s eyes, was exceedingly crude—a "particular solution" improved upon a configuration they had stumbled upon by chance. By adjusting the parameters of the Tower of Stars’ Transmutation Dust Extractors according to this model’s calculations, they succeeded in making that small, anomalous patch of the starry sky just a little bit brighter.
That tiny bit of progress proved their work was effective. The weak region in the Transformation Dust Layer Flow could be thinned even further!
This research, which had mobilized the full might of the Tower of Stars, had begun in the spring and was now in its fourth month. Rorschach, however, was completely unaware. Aside from the findings of Poincare’s team and the exploratory mapping group, the details of Kano’s own work had not been published, so Rorschach had no reason to pay them any mind.
But when Rorschach’s telegram arrived, it sparked an even greater ambition in Kano:
"That’s right, we forgot about the machine Rorschach can control! If we include the Transmutation Dust Extractor on his end to form an even larger array, could we achieve the optimal effect... enough for me to cross through?"
"Are you insane? You intend to risk crossing over yourself?" Master Poincare seized on the crucial part of Kano’s words.
