For a full minute, the only sounds in the cabin were the frantic scritch-scratch of Lila's sweeping and the pounding of Kalagar's own heart in his ears.
He had survived. That was the primary, overwhelming thought. He, a Level 0 scholar with the constitution of a sedentary librarian, had eliminated three armed mages.
No. That wasn't right.
He, a Level 0 scholar, had babbled nonsense at a terrified girl, who had then proceeded to cleave the mountain in half.
He peeked out the window. The chasm was still there. This was not a dream. The sheer, vertical drop began not ten feet from his front porch, a new and permanent testament to his disciple's "passable first attempt."
"Master?" Lila's voice, now infused with a reverence that made Kalagar's skin crawl, broke the silence. "I have finished sweeping. The… the bodies are gone. The chasm… it is very deep."
"So it is," Kalagar said, forcing his voice to remain a placid monotone. He turned, clasping his hands behind his back. The "Annoyed Professor" persona was the only armor he had. "That was the [Continental Fracture Step]. A crude, if effective, application of targeted geo-kinetic force. You aimed for an 'attack' but achieved 'area denial.' Sloppy."
Lila flinched, her face falling. "This disciple is foolish! I failed to grasp Master's true intent!"
"Indeed." Kalagar walked to his desk. "You were meant to aim for the men, not my front yard. Precision, disciple. Not power. What good is an axe that fells the entire forest when you only need one tree?"
He was, of course, talking completely out of his-
[System: Disciple 'Lila' has comprehended [Lesson: Intent & Precision].][Disciple's existing spell [Continental Fracture Step] (Top-Tier) has been refined.][New Skill Unlocked: [Pinpoint-Fracture-Strike] (Top-Tier Derivative).]
Lila's eyes widened, a bright, sudden flash of understanding dawning on her face. "I... I see! The 'annoyance' wasn't for the attack, it was for the focus! To channel the entire concept of 'annoyance' at a single, infinitesimal 'bug'!" She bowed low, her entire body trembling with excitement. "Master, your wisdom is too profound! I have understood!"
Kalagar, who had meant... absolutely nothing, simply nodded. "Good. Do not make me repeat myself."
He needed to understand what, precisely, he was dealing with. "Sit, disciple. Tell me of yourself. These slavers. Why were they hunting you?"
Lila sat, perching nervously on the edge of a simple wooden stool. "They... they said I was 'valuable,' Master. I am from a small village, far to the south. I... I don't learn right."
"Explain."
"When the village elder tried to teach us the Level 1 Mana Bolt chant," she explained, her fingers knotting in her lap, "he would say, 'Gather the mana, speak the word, and fire.' But my mind... it doesn't do that. I would ask, 'But why does the mana gather? What is the word? Is it a request or a command? Does the mana hear me?'"
Kalagar felt a shock of recognition. He wasn't dealing with an idiot. He was dealing with a fellow philosopher.
Lila continued, "The elder said I was 'broken' and 'too stupid to learn.' But one day, I was just thinking about the 'point' of the spell—to make something hot, far away—and I just... pointed. A jet of steam came out of my finger and cooked a fish in the pond."
"Fascinating," Kalagar murmured.
"It wasn't a Mana Bolt. It was... something else. They called me a 'heretic' and 'cursed.' But the slavers... they heard of it. They said I had 'Conceptual Comprehension' and that my brain was worth a fortune to some Archmage or... or an alchemist's tower." She looked at him, her eyes shining with unshed tears. "They said I could 'comprehend new magic from nothing.' I can't. I just... get confused and things... happen."
Kalagar S. Sully stared at her. His System didn't just need a disciple. It needed this specific type of disciple. It required a lateral thinker, a "comprehension genius" who didn't just memorize rules but intuited concepts.
His "lessons," his nonsensical, panicked babbling, were abstract concepts. Lila's "broken" mind was the only thing in the world that could translate them.
This was it. This was his path to survival. This was his shield against the Archmages and Demigods of this terrifying, overpowered world.
He had to teach her. But... what?
He knew no magic. He had no chants, no runes. He couldn't teach her a Mana Bolt if his life depended on it. He had... philosophy. Literature. History. Science.
The knowledge of a dead world.
"Lila," he said, his voice firm. "Your previous teachers were fools. They tried to teach you the branches of the tree, when you were built to understand the root."
Her eyes went wide, drinking in his words.
"They taught you what. I will teach you why." He stood and walked to the wall, where a piece of charcoal and a blank slate of stone hung. This would be his classroom. "Your education begins now. We will not start with something as mundane as a Mana Bolt. We will start... with the very nature of reality itself."
He was going to teach her high school physics. It was the most "basic" and "fundamental" thing he could think of.
He drew a large 'E' on the slate. "This," he said, "is Energy. The 'boom.' The Inferno Bolt your attackers used. Heat. Light. The capacity to do." Lila nodded, her focus absolute.
He then wrote an 'm' next to it. "This," he said, "is Mass. The 'stuff.' The rock you stand on. The water you drink. Your own body."
Then, he wrote the most famous, simple, and world-changing equation from his old home. "E = mc²"
Lila stared at the equation. Her brow furrowed.
"This," Kalagar said, tapping the slate, "is a conceptual law from an... an ancient land. It means 'Energy equals Mass times a Constant, squared.' The 'c' is just a very, very big number. The 'speed of light.'"
He warmed to his topic, the familiar comfort of the lecture hall settling over him. "What this means, disciple, is that Energy and Mass are the same thing. They are two faces of one coin. They are interchangeable."
He held up a small pebble from his desk. "This pebble. It is Mass. It is 'stuff.' But according to this law, this tiny bit of 'stuff' is a colossal, unimaginable amount of 'Energy' that is just... frozen. Sleeping. If you could 'wake up' this pebble... if you could convert its Mass back into Energy... a single pebble could erase this entire mountain range."
He had meant it as a fun, trivial, academic fact. A "gee-whiz" bit of science to broaden her horizons.
He had not meant it as a f-cking instruction manual.
Lila, the comprehension genius, was not hearing a physics lesson. She was hearing a divine mandate.
Her mind, which couldn't understand a simple Mana Bolt chant, processed Kalagar's words with terrifying clarity.
E (Energy) is (=) m (Mass)...The Master said they are the same...He said it is a Law...The Constant... 'c²'... the 'Speed of Light'... that must be the Divine Mandate! The Conceptual Rule that binds them!He is teaching me... how to change 'stuff' into 'boom'...
"I... I think... I understand, Master," Lila whispered, her voice trembling, not with fear, but with revelation.
"Good," Kalagar said, turning to sit down. "Now, for tomorrow's lesson, we'll discuss..."
He was cut off by a sound. A low, deep hum.
He turned back.
Lila was standing, her hand outstretched. She was holding a small pebble from his desk. And it was glowing.
It wasn't a red, magical glow. It was a pure, sterile, terrifying white light that seemed to drink the shadows in the room. The very air around her hand had begun to twist and warp. A soul-crushing, mind-numbing pressure filled the cabin, as if a god had just placed its thumb on the roof.
"Lila..." Kalagar said, his voice suddenly tight. "What are you doing?"
"I am proving your wisdom, Master!" she said, her face taut with concentration, sweat beading on her forehead. "I am... 'waking up' the pebble!"
[System: Disciple 'Lila' is attempting to comprehend [Lesson: Theory of Special Relativity]...][...Disciple Comprehension: SUCCESS!][...WARNING! WARNING! A FORBIDDEN CONCEPT HAS BEEN DETECTED!][...THE FOUNDATIONS OF REALITY ARE BEING CHALLENGED!][Disciple 'Lila' has comprehended: [Conceptual Mass-Energy Conversion] (FORBIDDEN-RANK SPELL #1).]
The pebble in her hand was no longer a pebble. It was a miniature, screaming white sun. The stone slate on the wall behind her cracked, then dissolved into fine dust, its molecular bonds simply giving up.
Kalagar S. Sully knew, with an animal certainty that bypassed his scholar's brain, that he had approximately one second before his cabin, his mountain, and quite possibly the entire continent were vaporized in a "boom" that would make the [Continental Fracture Step] look like a party popper.
He didn't think. He screamed.
"STOP!"
It was a raw, panicked, Level 0 yell.
Lila, startled from her profound state of concentration, yelped and dropped the pebble.
The instant her concentration broke, the light vanished. The pressure disappeared. The screaming hum ceased.
A tiny, perfectly normal-looking pebble clattered to the wooden floor, rolled twice, and came to a stop by Kalagar's boot. It was not even warm.
Kalagar stared at it, his blood roaring in his ears. He was covered in a cold sweat. His knees were weak.
Lila looked horrified. "Master! I... I failed! I am sorry! I was too eager to prove your divine truth! I lost control of the conversion! I am unworthy!" She fell to her knees, bowing her head once more.
Kalagar took one, two, three deep, shuddering breaths. He had to say something. He had to re-establish his "profound" persona.
He stalked forward, his face a mask of cold fury (which was mostly just barely-suppressed, bladder-loosening terror).
He looked down at her. "You... are a fool."
Lila flinched as if struck.
"Did I command you to attempt the conversion? Did I tell you to 'wake the stone'?" "N-no, Master..." "I was teaching you theory, child! Not practice! You are a baby trying to wield a giant's blade! You have the conceptual understanding of a god, but the control of an infant! You could have unmade us! You could have unmade the very sky!"
Lila was now openly weeping, her small body shaking. "Forgive me, Master! Forgive my arrogance!"
"This... thing..." Kalagar pointed a trembling finger at the pebble. "[Conceptual Mass-Energy Conversion]. It is, from this moment, a Forbidden art. You are never to attempt it again. Not without my explicit permission. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, Master! This disciple understands!"
"Good." Kalagar turned away, his legs shaking so badly he had to grip his desk for support. "Your first lesson is over. You are... dismissed. Go outside. Practice your [Aegis of the Stone Sleeper]. I... need to meditate on your... failure."
"Yes, Master! Thank you, Master!" Lila scrambled to her feet, bowed deeply, and practically fled the cabin, eager to escape his "wrath."
The moment the door shut, Kalagar S. Sully's legs gave out. He collapsed into his chair, burying his face in his hands.
"I almost vaporized myself," he whispered. "I almost atomized the planet... with a high school physics lesson."
Thousands of miles away, on the 12th Moon of Gaia...
In a fortress of pure, black obsidian that floated in the void, a being of indeterminate shape stirred. It was one of the 5 Demigods, known only as the "Void-Watcher."
For ten thousand years, it had not moved. It simply watched the flow of Mana between the 12 Moons and Gaia.
Until... now.
A new law had just been written into the fabric of reality. It was not a spell. It was not an art. It was a fundamental truth that had not existed a moment before: That Mass could become Energy.
The Void-Watcher's form twisted, and for the first time in a millennium, it spoke, its voice a dry hiss that cracked the very stone around it.
"A... a new Forbidden Mandate. Born... of nothing? Not of the Gods... not of the Core... but... from below?"
And, on the central continent, in the capital city of the Arcane Empire...
An old man, the 8th Demigod, known as the "Oracle of Five Peaks," was in a chamber of pure mana-crystal, scrying the future.
Suddenly, his eyes snapped open. He was jolted as if struck by lightning, and a thick line of golden, divine blood dripped from his nose.
"Heresy!" he gasped. "The World-Law has been violated! Someone... someone has touched the 'Un-makable!' The very concept of creation and destruction has been... rewritten!"
He frantically cast his divination runes, his hands shaking. "Where?! Where did this heresy originate?! Show me the source!"
The runes spun, flared with a blinding light... and then dissolved into ash.
The Oracle stared in horror.
"It... it is... shrouded? Something... someone... is hiding a power that can unmake reality? The end times... they are here."