January 17, 1615 Central Calendar, 07:00

San Redentore District, Ministry of Ancient Sorcerous Empire Countermeasures

Fiolina walked over to the parked autobike just outside the Training Ground to pick up the recording equipment lent to her for the purpose of documenting the testing. When she opened the attached luggage rack, it revealed to be a magic video recorder that occupy a large portion of the space, three film rolls, a retractable tripod, a portable magic camera, and a notepad with writing tools. Nodding in satisfaction, she closed the luggage and carried it back to the open field where the three Ancient Ministry personnel involved in the testing were already waiting.

She noticed that Professor Calvello, wearing a complete set of orange-colored protective gear and goggles instead of her glasses, was already there in the center of the field, lightly pacing around with both hands on her hips. Her two apprentices, also wearing the same piece of equipment sans the headgears that were hanging from a nearby tree, were sitting on bench-sized finely-shaped square rocks.

‘Wait, that’s not there before,’ Fiolina idly remarked. But she quickly reminded herself that this is a Training Ground, so someone must have summoned them using magic.

Seeing Fiolina had returned and carried something, Meteos stood up from his seat, tapping Walman on the shoulder to draw his attention and made his way to the beastwoman.

“Let us help with that,” he offered.

“Ah, thank you,” Fiolina responded, nodding slightly.

It did not take long for them to set up the recording equipment. With Walman holding the camera, Fiolina stood behind the video recorder to operate it, giving a thumbs-up to Meteos and started recording. Nodding in affirmation, he turned in the waiting Robin’s direction and exclaimed.

“We will now begin this impromptu and very informal testing of the Aikon Corporation’s Second-Generation Manadriver! First, we will see if it can cast the three basic spells installed inside the device without problems, and after that, you are free to do what you want! Teacher, are you ready?”

“Yeah, but wait! I’ll make some adjustments first!” Robin hollered back.

On both sides of the Mage’s waists is the bifurcated state of the A.M. Revolution Manadriver, attached to a belt. However, there’s also her old Manadriver dangling on a short chain. Since the latter device is always active, she simply took a deep breath and focused her mana on her hands, imagining the desire that she wanted to ‘paint’ reality with it. And finally, she decided to loudly call out one of the five spells installed in the old Manadriver.

“Earth Creation Magic: Tearing Earth Turning Wave!”

Robin slammed both of her hands on the ground, sending a wave of mana through the soil that then traveled to the edge of the clearing within seconds, shifting the local terrain to Robin’s desire. A moment later, numerous stone pillars instantly shot up from the ground, filling the empty clearing with uniformly-shaped makeshift dummies.

“Alright, done!” Robin grinned.

From behind the lens, Fiolina gasped in surprise the moment stone pillars started emerging all over the place. Although their position and direction were random, upon closer look, all of the stone pillars are exactly two meters in height and have a thickness of about 50 centimeters.

“What a great display of control! I never know that spell can do things like this!” she exclaimed.

“Traditional mages and foreigners usually use earth magic to break up the terrain and devour the enemy in combat, but that’s only one way to use it. In essence, the Tearing Earth Turning Wave is a technique to alter the terrain around the caster to suit their desire. It is a very well-known magic commonly used by the Imperial Army’s combat engineering units to fix damaged roads or to assist in other construction projects because of how easy and versatile it is when used correctly. With a refined control, the caster can choose between increasing the area of effect for widespread destruction of terrain or making something as detailed as this at the expense of the much smaller area of effect,” Meteos helpfully explained.

Liberal use of the Tearing Earth Turning Wave is one of the reasons why the construction projects at the Altaras Island and other small nations outside the civilization area visited by the Holy Milishial Empire’s delegation since last year progressed so fast, due to the Holy Empire’s military Mages equipped with early Manadrivers were mixed in with the construction workers as ‘special crew members’ who built harbors, airports, bridges, road, and railways within days and even mere hours. Already, legends like “One-Night Bridge” and “One-Night Road” have begun surfacing in outside civilization countries due to how roads that span miles suddenly appear overnight. However, since what exactly the Holy Milishial Empire is doing in these countries and their working methods are shrouded in secrecy, it left other countries scratching their heads whenever this topic was brought up. The recipient countries also didn’t dare to question it for fear that it will draw the Holy Empire’s ire.

Arch bridges made of stone and stone-paved roads similar to the highways during the ancient Warring Kingdoms Period are considered simple emergency infrastructure to aid disaster-affected areas by the Holy Milishial Empire before modern construction is built to replace them. But it is a good enough taste for low-civilization countries who are salivating for the Holy Milishial Empire’s technology like hungry hyenas.

Sometimes literally.

“I heard that the Professor is born with a lightning affinity, a person who should have struggled the most when learning earth magic, I wonder what will happen if she performs with her own element,” Fiolina muttered, focusing on the lens, not wanting to miss even the slightest movement made by Robin.

“Well, the more techniques a Mage has in their repertoire, the better, but we’re going to see that soon.”

Meteos signaled to Robin to continue with the performance. Robin’s goggles somehow gleamed in the morning light that matched her feral grin.

“Now, time for the highlight. Spell number one.”

Robin quickly reached for the Runite Charger on her left waist and pressed it against her mana-covered right palm, its rapid beeping signaled the activation of the Manadriver. Without hesitation, she proceeded with the spell, her heart was pounding even faster from excitement.

“Lightning Creation Magic: SNAKE LIGHTNING!!!”

Magic particles that emanated from her body vibrated rapidly, transforming into a yellow-colored electric discharge that took the form of a serpent that briefly coiled around Robin. However, when she pointed her hand forward, the serpent quickly shot up following her gesture, obliterating a row of pillars in its path. The opening move was followed with another Snake Lightning, and another, and another, and another, each attack serving as the extension of Robin’s punches and kicks. She ran through the forms while the yellow serpentine silhouettes struck the unmoving stone pillars around her relentlessly in a wild war dance. After completing the barrage of attacks, she finished by performing a lightning-powered jumping roundhouse kick, sending the last Snake Lightning barreling through the stone pillars in a wide sweeping arc before dissipating into beautiful yellowish particles.

As Robin landed on the ground and turned back to look at her handiwork, she saw that rubbles already littered the places where her Snake Lightning struck the pillars, visible among the cloud of snow particles that the explosions kicked up. Her mind ran through the previous movements and compared the feeling to the times when she used her old Manadriver to do the same technique, clenching the Runite Charger in her hand.

‘I’m barely tired at all. So it really functions as advertised. Heh, intriguing.’

With those thoughts, she put on the biggest smile on her face and yelled at the sky, pumping her fist, visible to the three others on the edge of the clearing.

“YEEEEEEEAAAH!”

Walman, who held the camera, snapped the shutter furiously, capturing his teacher’s electrifying performance.

A wide-eyed Fiolina let out a squeal, “I never thought that magic and martial arts combined will look so awesome! Personality aside, the Professor is so cool!”

“I see you are thinking the same thing as me,” Meteos quipped from the side, a tone of amusement in his voice.

Realizing that someone had seen her breaking her neutral façade and gushing like a little girl, an adorable shade of red quickly adorned the beastwoman’s face. The boy did not say anything further to the blushing Fiolina, snorted slightly before returning to look at the clearing and yelled at Robin.

“That’s quite a fancy move you got there, Miss Robin! What happens to the ‘simplest attack works the best’!?”

“What are you talking about!? Aren’t we going to show off our moves? You cheeky brat, why don’t you come here so that I can beat you with my simple moves!?”

“Hmph, maybe later!”

Although she sounded indignant to an outsider, there was no real heat in her tone as Robin yelled back in response to Meteos’ teasing.

“Too bad, I didn’t bring my staff here, otherwise things are going to be much flashier,” Robin sighed, mentioning the one item that all Mages have. After moving toward a spot among the still intact stone pillars, Robin took a deep breath and proceeded with the next spell to be tested, bringing her clenched fists to form a cross in front of her.

“Spell number two, Lightning Creation Magic: FULL CHARGE!!”

Soon after she willed the spell to activate, the same magic particles emanated again, but this time they spread out until Robin’s entire body was enveloped in a yellow crackling aura. Like the previous performance with Snake Lightning, Robin took a similar fighting stance, but instead of launching a long-range attack, Robin brought her lightning-covered fist toward the nearest stone pillar, destroying it in a single hit.

“Look at this, Lightning Straight!”

BLAAARRR!!!

She continued the dance of destruction with the Full Charge, a lightning magic used to enhance the user’s power and speed by enveloping them in a lightning aura, wildly running around the clearing destroying random stone pillars like a knife slicing through butter. All the while, her apprentices and the guest who was recording her can’t stop marveling at the Professor who was probably venting all the stress accumulated over the work days and enjoying herself.

‘Okay, this is two spells covered, now let’s ramp this up a notch!’

Robin ran to a pillar and used it as a foothold to leap upwards. Then, while somersaulting in midair, she pointed her right hand at a faraway stone pillar, shouting the name of what was supposed to be the third spell installed inside the A.M. Revolution.

“Take this, THUNDERBOLT!!”

From that hand, a thin bolt of lightning shot up from the outstretched limb and impacted the pillar with a tremendous roar, reducing it to dust just like the other victims of Robin’s attack.

“Wooooh! This is it, this is the Second-Generation Manadriver’s power!” she exclaimed in realization, landing on top of a stone pillar after finishing the attack while the Full Charge was still covering her form. While normally a Mage can only cast one spell at a time because of the sheer concentration needed, which is the reason why mages rarely combine spells, apparently the A.M. Revolution’s built-in computer translated Robin’s desire to “destroy the stone pillars in a single hit” as keeping the Full Charge active at full power while she launched the powered-up ranged attack. The new Manadriver just displayed its ability to overturn yet another common sense of using magic or rather, surpassing its limitations with the help of advanced magic technology.

However, three minutes later, Robin began to feel tired. So she deactivated the lightning aura and hopped down from the pillar, landing safely on the snow-covered ground. Panting slightly, she made her way to Meteos and the others, raising a hand to signal them to stop recording.

“Hm? That was sooner than I expected, Miss Robin,” Meteos wondered curiously.

“Ah, yes. I just remembered to be sparing with my mana reserves in case you guys are running out of dummies to hit,” Robin replied, sitting on the stone bench.

“Oh. Okay,” he shrugged.

Fiolina approached her.

“Err… how are you feeling, Professor?”

“Well, I feel refreshed! Nothing beats destroying rocks after a whole week of stressful working!” Robin laughed.

At her answer, Meteos and Walman rolled their eyes as they glanced at each other while Fiolina looked mortified. She never encountered a scholar who likes to destroy things as much as she loves inventing. But she did not deny that Robin is a skilled Mage and martial artist who managed to combine the two seamlessly.

“Do you sense any abnormalities on the Manadriver?” Fiolina asked again.

“I don’t think so. However, it’s probably because I’m still using the installed spells regardless of my desire. I did not conjure a completely different magic. I just went creative with the way I’m using the three spells, that’s all,” Robin said, rubbing her nape.

“Then leave it to me and Walman, we’ll see if the Second-Generation Manadriver can truly realize a desire beyond what spell it contains,” Meteos chimed in. “Speaking of which, is it okay if we skip to the more creative part of the testing, now that Miss Robin had shown the basics?”

Fiolina pondered for a moment before nodding in affirmation.

“Yes, you may do so. However, please pay attention to your mana reserves. If you suddenly feel exhausted, don’t hesitate to signal us and we will be taking a break. This is just preliminary testing, after all.”

“Thank you for being considerate,” Meteos said. “But sideshow or not, we’ll give our all, too. Isn’t that right, Walman?”

“Of course!”

“That’s the spirit!”

And thus, the four of them took a five-minute break time to review the A.M. Revolution’s performance.

…………

Unbeknownst to Robin, her apprentices, and Fiolina, they were being observed by someone else. Some distance from the Training Ground, a black car was parked on the quiet roadside. The car’s occupants, a pair of individuals wearing black half-masks and black outfits, were looking at the whole thing with binoculars they had brought with them.

The younger of the two, a male, gasped as he observed Robin’s demonstration of high-intensity lightning magic.

“Oh, wow! Agent Flamberge is on the roll with those lightning magic! Is that what they call peak performance!?”

“Flamberge is already an Advanced Mage material in my opinion,” answered the other occupant, a red-haired female with a loose braided hairstyle who was sitting in the rear seat. She crossed her arms, impressed with what she just saw.

“I’ve never seen a Mage cast magic spells in such a short interval before in my life. Imagine if two Mages were to face off like that, instead of watching a boring chess-like match, maybe we get to see something interesting like a full-blown brawl where spells fly all over the place.”

“That’s actually terrifying to think about, ma’am.”

The masked woman chuckled at the man’s response.

These two are members of the Ministry’s Ancient Arms Analysis Tactical Operations Department. However, from the black masks they are wearing, they came from a different division than Robin, who is known as “Flamberge” among the Ancient Weapons Operators. On the day the CEO of Aikon Corporation contacted Arsene Lippin about the Manadriver he wanted to give to the company’s benefactors, Andreas Birkburn, the chief of the secret department, assigned these two to observe the proceedings from afar.

“What’s wrong, Aym, not prepared to see something out of the legends?”

The man called “Aym” coughed awkwardly, “…I don’t know, Agent Sitri.”

“Well, the future is very unpredictable, so it’s best that you prepare, adapt, and overcome any changes that will come. I myself also never thought I would witness such rapid technological advances before my fifties, but here we are,” the woman mused. “But… a device capable of realizing a person’s desire, I don’t blame you for feeling scared by it… Aym, what do you think if our technology advances further and the Manadriver is able to achieve its theoretical limit?”

Aym lowered his binoculars and looked thoughtful at the woman called Sitri’s words.

“Theoretical limit?” he repeated.

“Yes, a Manadriver’s theoretical limit. Everybeing that is not the Muish is born with magic, energy unmatched by nothing in terms of practical utility to the point it seems able to realize any desire. You desire to burn something, you tap into your mana, and you get fire. However, in practice, using magic to realize desires at their full potential is very difficult because of the many hurdles it faces in order to control them properly. But as technology advances, we are able to achieve many milestones in using magic. While other civilizations are still scrounging magic stones, the Holy Empire is able to dig past them and found the endless stream of mana gushing deep underground. With the magic circuits, depending on how it is arranged, they can transform mana into everything. But imagine, what if even more advanced technology is able to eliminate all those hurdles and let people truly realize their desire?”

“Then are you saying that the theoretical limit of a Manadriver is…!?”

“Yes, be, and it is. The world can be as you want it to be. That is the theoretical limit of a Manadriver, and by extension, magic. Now that’s some terrifying thought. Imagine that out of all things, diligent studying and deepening our understanding of how the world works allow people to achieve heaven.”

Technology is born as a result of applying knowledge gained from learning the components of the universe, which is called science. And since this universe is one where magic exists as one component of it, magic is therefore science. To say magic is not science is a mistake that people out there still hold to this day, it’s like saying biology is not science, or chemistry is not science, or psychology is not science, and so on. Maybe there are universes out there where magic does not exist if Mu’s creation myth is to be believed, but as far as the people of this universe are concerned, science also includes magic.

How one understands magic will determine how powerful it can be. And as suggested by Agent Sitri, the theoretical limit of how powerful magic can be is basically something that maybe even the Ancient Sorcerous Empire is incapable of reaching.

Godhood.

Aym slowly turned to face Sitri.

“Ma’am, you must have thought this for some time, but please be careful with those thoughts. Did it ever occur to you that it could be heresy?”

“Why we are born with it, then? Are we going to just let our birthright go waste without exploring its full potential?” Sitri countered.

“………”

“Also remember this, we are the members of the Ministry of Ancient Sorcerous Empire Countermeasures. Our mission is to protect this world from the Ancient Sorcerous Empire’s return at all costs. If the gods are the only beings that can defeat them, then mankind, unripe as we are, must strive to achieve godhood ourselves. Besides, mankind has sinned too much since the Day of the Beginning, do you think we are still worthy of salvation from the gods? Even if we are still worthy of their salvation, the gods will not change our fate until we change it ourselves. We cannot hope that someone will conveniently appear and solve our problems.”

“I-I see…” Aym sighed, “Heh, someone who conveniently appears? Like that legend about the Messengers of the Sun God that those Far Easterners believe?”

“Yeah, yeah, like them. I loathe that legend,” Sitri spat, venom evident in her voice, “It is a tale about mankind of this world being so weak that we can only fight properly when outsiders come and help us. I despise being weak.”

Aym returned his gaze to the distant Training Ground and leaned back in his seat.

“Then you must despise the fact that we have to rely on the relics left by mankind’s greatest enemy in order to advance ourselves, am I right?”

“Hmph. That’s different. We are trying to copy the Ancient Sorcerous Empire’s relics, but we are still making the effort to become stronger ourselves, not sitting back and doing nothing while our problems are being solved by someone else.”

“Oh, okay.”

Looking at the Training Ground again with his binoculars, Aym perked up.

“Hey, look, they are done taking a break. Both of Agent Flamberge’s apprentices are walking toward the clearing.”

“Ah, yes, the youthful makers of those destructive weapons,” Sitri hummed, referring to the magic torpedo and naval mine.

As they observed Meteos and Walman, Aym and Sitri, two agents belonging to the Ancient Arms Analysis Tactical Operations Department’s Control Division, were eager to see what they, the Ministry’s enfant terrible, can do with the Manadrivers they wielded.

AIKON CORPORATION Research Data

RUNITE REDOUBLIZER

The Runite Redoublizer is a part of the Second-Generation Manadriver that holds the computer needed to process the installed magic spells and allows the user to perform instantaneous spell casting.

The Runite Redoublizer consists of the following parts:

- Access Lamp – Red and green lights that flash right and left the Runite Redoublizer when the Runite Charger is attached. It indicates that the Runite Charger is accessing the Runite Redoublizer’s internal computer. The Access Lamp turns off whenever an abnormality occurs.

- Core Circuit Loader – A reading device used to identify the spells contained in the Core Circuit attached inserted into it, read its information, and send a signal to activate its function.

- Regen Generator – An internal computer built into the Runite Redoublizer. It is equipped with a ‘Hard-Drive’ capable of storing and processing three medium-length spells.

- Hook – Used to attach the Runite Redoublizer to the wearer’s clothing.