“I feel like, more than ever, I’ve been reminded of how abnormal you are.”
“Anyone else would have died on the spot,” Ira said flatly. “Kousuke has the vitality of a dragon.”
“What if we used his blood as a magic medicine ingredient? It might be as effective as dragon’s blood in terms of usefulness.”
“I would appreciate it,” High Priestess Katalina interjected, her tone razor-sharp, “if you refrained from having such barbaric conversations so loudly in a holy sanctuary such as this.”
Well said, High Priestess. Keep it up! Ira has a bad habit of using me like a lab rat.
She’d already tried using me to run clinical trials for sketchy meds. Without my permission.
After that, High Priestess Katalina guided us deeper into the cathedral, eventually bringing us to the meditation room. This was a place reserved for talented miracle wielders who needed to train or cast high-level miracles. Normally, outsiders weren’t allowed in at all.
“The mana here is incredibly thick,” Ira observed.
“But it’s not normal mana,” Ifriita added. “It’s primarily light mana.”
The detection magic balls floating in their hands flared intensely as we stepped inside. The back of the cathedral, this meditation room, and its surroundings appeared to be thick with mana. In fact, the closer we got to the room, the stronger the reaction became. It reached its peak inside of the room.
“I’m getting a powerful response from the light-ray cross on the altar.”
“This is made of mithril… It’s like all the magic energy in the cathedral is converging here.”
I listened to the pair and thought about how this building was designed.
It looked to me like this entire building functioned as one massive magic energy-accumulation device. And clearly, it wasn’t simple in construction. The magic circuits in the cathedral’s main hall seemed to diffuse and purify the magic energy in the air, thinning it out. But here, in the most sacred spaces of the cathedral—the meditation room and its surroundings—the mana was unbelievably dense. Come to think of it, the room where Elen and the others treated me after I’d been poisoned was close to this meditation room too.
“It’s not a magic tool,” Ira murmured.
“No. I’m not seeing any formula circuits,” Ifriita added. “It’s just an ordinary mithril cross.”
Ira and Ifriita both groaned out their thoughts after investigating the light-ray cross—the holy symbol of Adolism—that was projecting thick mana.
“I feel like we’re on the cusp of figuring something out…”
The idea of intentionally having a large open area designed to diffuse and weaken mana struck a chord with me. Energy always tried to balance itself out. Leave a cup of hot water alone, and it would cool to room temperature over time. If you left ice out, it would melt. If you thinned mana artificially in one place, wouldn’t it naturally draw in denser mana from the surroundings in an attempt to maintain equilibrium?
In other words, by intentionally weakening the mana inside the cathedral, the building might be pulling mana in from the outside world. The mithril alloy—highly conductive to magical energy—would then capture it, directing it along circuits hidden in the walls and columns, eventually channeling it all here, inside of the meditation room.
In other words, the light-ray cross at the altar wasn’t generating mana, it was the end point of an enormous system quietly gathering it. Basically, it was the output destination for all the mana they collected.
“Mm. Tell us what you’re thinking,” Ira said.
“Let’s hear it,” Ifriita echoed.
I laid out my theory and the pair groaned.
“It’s certainly not implausible,” Ira said thoughtfully. “Though I’ve never heard of magic circuits being used on this scale before.”
“I’d love to ask the artisans who built it,” Ifriita added, glancing at High Priestess Katalina.
The High Priestess met her gaze, then shook her head fiercely. “If this were a small church, that might be possible. But the artisans who constructed this cathedral all reside in the Holy Kingdom. Given the current political climate with both countries, summoning them here would be…difficult.”
“Ergh.”
“Would it be possible to look at the schematics?”
“I am not particularly well-versed in such matters,” Katalina replied. “But I imagine that would be difficult. I will do my best to acquire them, but I suggest not getting your hopes up.”
“We’d really appreciate that,” I said, bowing my head slightly. You had to show respect and offer your gratitude when someone was willing to go out of their way for you.
“Couldn’t you just take this place apart and investigate?” Ira suggested.
“I mean, sure,” I said, “but imagine what that might do to the cathedral. If an entire building is operating as one large magic circuit, messing with it could disrupt the whole system. And more importantly, I don’t feel right tearing up a place that holds so much meaning for the Adolists.”
“Mm, that would be a huge problem.”
“Yeah, I suppose so,” Ifriita agreed with a nod.
High Priestess Katalina, meanwhile, looked terrifying. I really wished Ira would stop saying stuff like that out loud.
Look how angry her eyes are! I’d never do something that unreasonable, so please chill.
“Anyway,” I said quickly, “we’ve got a solid lead. We’ve learned that manipulating mana density can change the flow of energy, and we’ve seen a working example of a magic circuit that diffuses mana. That’s huge.”
“Agreed,” Ifriita decided. “Let’s be happy with what we’ve got. All that’s left is more experimentation.”
“Mm. I’ll copy down a sample of the circuit.” Ira said.
With that, our mana trap research finally took a step forward. We investigated how the mithril alloy running through the walls and columns of the cathedral were reacting to this setup, as well as the magic circuits that were diffusing the mana in the air.
When it was time to go, we thanked High Priestess Katalina for showing us around before taking our leave.