"All right."
Vincent agreed readily. "But I have to say, this might take some time — that particular thing seems to be a custom unique to your Southern Continent."
Renet was silent for a moment, then all four of her heads nodded at once.
Then the first head suddenly spat out a gold coin, held it between its teeth, and offered it to Vincent, saying, "If you need... " "...my help..." "...activate this..." "...coin..." "and I'll come..." "...right away."
"Thank you."
The moment he took the coin, all four of Renet's heads blinked in unison, and her figure blurred and vanished.
Vincent picked up the coin and looked it over, then tried channeling a small amount of spirituality into it. There was a soft ding, and the coin rang out with a clear, crisp sound.
Almost instantly, the temperature around him dropped again, and Renet stepped out of the Spirit World, carrying her four heads. "Do you need..." "...me..." "...right now...?"
Vincent apologized, embarrassed. "Sorry, sorry — I was just trying to see how the coin worked."
"..."
Renet stared at him quietly for a moment, then withdrew back into the Spirit World.
Vincent immediately opened the "Secret Door," tossed the coin in, and then asked, feigning nonchalance, "Bernadette, do you know where I could find a mummy?"
"On the Southern Continent, the ancient highland kings were called 'Kadev.' Later, Dad translated the term as 'Pharaoh,' and named the bodies made through that special ritual 'mummies,'" Bernadette said. "At first, no one understood why he'd translated it that way — people thought maybe there was some hidden wisdom or secret behind it."
"In reality, he'd just copied the terms straight from your world — Egyptian pharaohs and mummies."
Vincent clicked his tongue. "You even know that? Weren't you spending most of your time during our swaps studying magic?"
"I came across this by chance while researching magic. I was trying to learn about wandless casting at the time, and I ran across 'gesture magic' at the Egyptian magic academy. Out of curiosity, I went and read up on Egyptian magic specifically, and that's where I saw the mentions of pharaohs and mummies."
Listening to her explain it, Vincent suddenly felt like this all must have happened a long time ago — but really, from the first body-swap to now, it had only been a few months.
"Oh, right — you were so into magic at first because you wanted to replicate our magic in your world. But this whole time we've been sharing a body, I haven't seen you make any attempts at it."
Bernadette shook her head. "Because it's simply not possible."
"The two worlds' power systems look similar on the surface, but they're actually fundamentally different — it probably comes down to each world's most basic underlying logic and rules. Here, magic just can't be used..." She paused. "Of course, I can produce a kind of simulation, but it's only ever superficial."
Vincent raised a hand like an obedient student. "Then why can your world's abilities be used in mine? Er — I know it must be related to the Nation of Disorder, but isn't the Nation of Disorder also part of your world's power system?"
"I don't know. Hasn't the other me reached any conclusions in all this time?"
"She's busy having the time of her life studying memory magic, time magic, and ancient magic. Oh, and recently she joined the Ministry of Magic to help process the 'Black Box' potion. I'd guess she doesn't have the time or energy to think about anything else."
Bernadette thought it over. "Based on what I know about her... about myself, she must have tried already, made no progress, and decided not to keep wasting time on it."
"Fair enough."
Vincent shrugged. "Honestly, even if you really could replicate magic over here, I doubt it'd be all that useful in an actual fight."
After a moment of silence, Bernadette said seriously, "The most powerful thing about your world's magic isn't any particular spell — it's two specific traits."
"First: magic comes from emotion, from the heart. It doesn't follow 'science,' and it doesn't even follow 'the occult.' In some of the early novels Dad wrote, the protagonist would always, in moments of despair, draw on love, friendship, or rage to unleash overwhelming power and turn the tide."
"In reality, that's basically impossible. Extreme emotion can strengthen a person's willpower, help them hold on a little longer in a desperate situation, squeeze out a bit more potential — but it can't create something from nothing. It can't make a Sequence 5 suddenly unleash demigod-level power."
"But your magic doesn't work that way. It... might actually be capable of the kind of thing that only happens in novels."
Vincent made a small "huh" sound — he honestly hadn't thought about it that way before. "And the second?"
"Second: a wizard's magical power is limitless."
There was real surprise in Bernadette's voice. "At first I assumed magical power was to wizards what spirituality is to Beyonders. But after research and firsthand experience, I found out that your world's wizards' magical power has no upper limit at all."
"Dumbledore's magical power is limitless. A first-year student's magical power is also limitless. The only difference between different wizards is how much effect they can produce with it — but no matter what, none of them ever runs out of magic."
"That's even less scientific, even less occult, than the first point!"
Bernadette's tone shifted. "Think about it — if your spirituality were truly limitless, then holding the Black Emperor card while standing inside the Nation of Disorder would make you practically a real 'Black Emperor.'"
Vincent said, impressed, "Huh. I guess that actually checks out."
Still, he recalled that the real qualitative leap from Sequence 1 to Sequence 0 came from "Uniqueness" — once a Uniqueness was accommodated, the ability evolved into an "Authority," and an Authority usually meant "rules" themselves.
"Maybe it's exactly because of those two traits that magic can't be used in my world."
Vincent rubbed his hands together. "Guess I'll need to remind the other you not to give up on that research. Who knows, maybe it'll actually work out someday."
He paused, then suddenly slapped his forehead, remembering something. "Anyway, that's all a matter for later. There's still something important we haven't done tonight."
Praying to the True Creator.
At 10 p.m., Vincent sent everyone at the Aurora Order's stronghold away, then made his way into the hidden chamber buried deep underground. The moment he stepped in, his eyes landed on the massive cross on the wall, and the True Creator hanging upside down upon it.
In front of the cross stood an altar streaked and spotted with dried blood, giving off an aura so unsettling it nearly stole the breath from his lungs.
"I'm going to begin."
Vincent couldn't help feeling a flicker of unease. After all, the True Creator was a god gone mad — as its nominal fellow countryman, no one could say for certain what would happen if he prayed to it.
But given the crisis ahead, he had no choice but to take the risk.
"All right."
Vincent used his spirituality to light the candles on the altar, and the whole underground chamber was soon steeped in a dim, brass-colored glow. He stepped back, raised both arms in an open embrace, and called out loudly in Old Hermetic:
"Lord who created all things;
"Master behind the veil of shadow;
"The fallen nature of all living beings.
"Your devoted believer prays for Your response;"
After a brief hush, a cold, biting wind suddenly swept through the underground chamber, howling as it scattered in every direction, making the candle flames dance wildly — the whole space filled with flickering, shifting shadows.
The next instant, as the flames guttered, the shadows cast on the walls, the floor tiles, and the ceiling split open, crack after crack, and out of them grew brass-colored eyes, one after another.
The pupils of those eyes trembled ceaselessly — flashing with madness one moment, confusion the next, then rage, then overwhelming sorrow.
"Sukabolie! Sukabolie! Sukabolie!!"
The mad, terrible whispering had arrived.
To be continued…
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