Chapter 1265
A mage with meticulously groomed hair and a neatly pressed gray robe, looking every bit the composed middle-aged man, stepped out from within. He suppressed all magical fluctuations, yet the faint traces that occasionally leaked out were enough to make everyone present uneasy. The extraordinary power contained within his body induced a sense of utter helplessness in all who beheld him.
With the mage's appearance, the gathering instantly fell silent. Even Albert, who had been busy with his own affairs from the start, paused his actions and looked up at the mage standing at the entrance of the Wizard Tower.
"Greetings, everyone. I am the host of today's gathering. I believe most of you already know me—I'm Cyrus, one of the vice deans of Astral Academy. I'll now take you to see what we'll be researching this time."
Cyrus was brief and to the point, clearly familiar with the proceedings. Many mages greeted him, indicating this was not their first meeting.
Cyrus turned and entered the Wizard Tower, followed closely by a group of Creators.
Rafael walked at the rear with Leon, continuing to use magic to explain the unfinished details to Leon.
"Archmage Leon Merlin, this Cyrus did not become vice dean of Astral Academy through alchemy alone. The three deans of Astral Academy rarely manage its affairs.
The actual management falls to the vice deans, and Cyrus is one of those who guards Astral Academy. His strength is formidable—Sky Rank, level five. Rumor has it he's already awakened the Ice Domain."
Last year, one of the planes controlled by Astral Academy encountered trouble—a powerful Sky Rank magical beast appeared. Cyrus dealt with it personally, freezing the beast into an ice sculpture within minutes. Its corpse still sits in that plane, serving as a warning to other magical beasts.
If you ever run into Cyrus inside Astral Academy—especially if you've broken any academy rules—don't even think about resisting. He may seem genial, but when it comes to combat, he shows no mercy. Problems are usually solved by freezing offenders into ice sculptures first, and only then does he worry about anything else..."
Rafael stopped after a few words. Once inside the Wizard Tower, he dared not use magic to transmit his voice. This was Cyrus's Wizard Tower—a mage's semi-plane, a domain entirely under his control. With Rafael's strength, anything he said could easily be overheard.
Following the others into the Wizard Tower, Leon was surprised that instead of heading upstairs, they moved toward a location on the first floor, descending underground.
At the entrance stood two Sky Rank alchemical golems shaped like magical beasts. As the group approached, the golems opened their eyes—crystal pupils flickering with light, as if verifying everyone's identity.
Stepping through the entrance, covered by a shimmering membrane, they found themselves on a massive platform. Looking down from the platform revealed a bottomless abyss, with a passage leading underground. Glowing crystals were embedded along the sides, yet the depth and length of the passage remained obscured.
Once everyone was on the hundred-meter-wide platform, Cyrus walked to its center and took out a special mark of his own, placing it on a crystal table.
Instantly, countless alchemical runes and problems flooded the surface and interior of the crystal table. A shield of light enveloped the entire platform, and the platform began to glide along tracks deeper into the passage.
The glowing crystals embedded in the passage walls sped past, and in less than a second, the platform was moving so fast that only streams of light remained visible around them.
Yet, standing on the platform, no one felt any vibration or the sensation of sudden acceleration.
A hint of surprise flashed in Leon's eyes. When he first arrived at Astral Academy, he hadn't seen much advanced alchemical technology. But now, he was witnessing a technique that would surely be widely used in the future.
Gravity Null Array, Space Lock Array—especially the latter—are technologies unheard of in this era.
The Gravity Null Array does exist nowadays; all the floating fortresses of Sky City are equipped with these arrays. However, they come with significant limitations.
The floating fortresses of Sky City aren't fast—mainly because if they move too quickly, the floating arrays collapse.
The floating array is just a basic form of the Gravity Null Array. Only in its advanced form does it become a true Gravity Null Array.
The principle behind the floating array is simply to lift an object using the array's power. The Gravity Null Array, however, leverages the earth's own gravity—nullifying or redirecting its pull on an object.
Floating arrays can't support heavy loads or high speeds—they have many restrictions. The Gravity Null Array, on the other hand, doesn't have these issues. For example, the main city of Sky City could never be supported by a floating array; it must use a Gravity Null Array.
No floating array is strong enough to lift the massive main city of Sky City.
As for the Space Lock Array—it simply doesn't exist in this era. When Rafael's floating shuttle was upgraded, its biggest limitation was the intense pressure generated by sudden acceleration. Only Sky Rank powerhouses could withstand it; even titled archmages might not survive.
Moreover, when flying at high speed, if an obstacle appears, there's no way to stop or dodge in time. Even shutting down the array doesn't help—the shuttle keeps barreling forward at its original speed.
But with a Space Lock Array, none of these problems arise. No matter how fast the platform moves, those standing on it feel no pressure at all—because the space itself is moving. Anyone inside the space is shielded from external forces.
Without such arrays, the instant this platform accelerated, at least half the people here would have been thrown off.
At such high speeds, without a Space Lock Array, stopping would require a long distance—and would exert immense pressure, subjecting those on the platform to dozens of times normal gravity.
Any mage below Sky Rank would likely be crushed to death by the sudden surge of pressure...
After a minute, the streaming lights rushing past vanished in an instant, and the platform arrived at the entrance to a vast underground plaza. The shift from dizzying speed to perfect stillness happened in a heartbeat.
Yet those standing on the platform felt no pressure at all—not even the sensation of travel—before they realized they'd arrived.
But Leon knew that, even if the passage was sloped, they were now at least three thousand meters underground!
This was thanks to the alchemical arrays on the platform. In the future, the greatest weapon for conquering endless planes in Northend World—the arcane battleship—would require both of these arrays, even at its lowest tier.
After all, when conquering planes, it's not just Sky Rank powerhouses involved—most of the time, it's those below Sky Rank who do the work, and speed is usually the biggest obstacle.
If it takes a month to respond to a problem, conquest becomes impossible. With these two arrays, the speed of an arcane battleship depends only on its structural strength—not on anything else.
As long as the battleship is strong enough, it could theoretically accelerate forever.
The other Creators seemed oblivious to the arrays on the platform; even those who noticed had no idea what they truly meant.
Their attention was already captured by the enormous underground plaza before them...
A vast plaza stretched before them, its ceiling and floor gleaming like a silver mirror—cast entirely from metal, seamless, appearing as a single piece.
Alchemical golems and machines roamed everywhere, while robed mages hurried about. Everything seemed busy, yet there was no chaos—just perfect order.
Everything was spotless, not a speck of dust in sight. Near the entrance, a dust-removal alchemical array had been set. The vast plaza was divided by transparent, high-strength glass into sections, each housing alchemists conducting their own experiments.
In one small unit where a potion experiment was underway, a burst of green smoke erupted. The alchemical apparatus inside was rapidly corroded by the smoke, but when the toxic cloud touched the thick transparent glass walls, runes and intricate alchemical patterns appeared.
The poisonous fog was contained entirely within that unit. In less than two seconds, a special alchemical golem with eight tentacles appeared at the entrance, each tentacle pressed against the glass door, swiftly devouring the toxic mist.
Within four or five seconds, not a trace of toxic fog remained—only the corroded, battered apparatus. Then, two more golems entered, quickly clearing away the damaged equipment and replacing it with new ones.
Even the poisoned alchemist inside was revived and taken away for treatment in under ten seconds.
All of this was accomplished in less than ten seconds, and none of the other units or experiments were disturbed. Even those who noticed just glanced over and returned to their work, completely unconcerned.
Cyrus paid no attention to the sudden incident. Inside the vast plaza, the busy alchemists didn't approach him for greetings; they merely nodded in passing and continued their work.
No one stopped to curry favor with Cyrus because of his status as vice dean of Astral Academy. There were Sky Rank powerhouses and master-level alchemists here, but in this place, everyone was simply an alchemist. Leon even saw a titled archmage consulting a regular mage.
A hint of surprise flickered in Leon's eyes. For a moment, it felt like he was back in a research center from his previous life—where skill and knowledge were paramount.
Most of the experiments being conducted by the alchemists in these units were highly advanced for this era—some even ahead of their time.
"Archmage Leon Merlin, what are you doing? This method of array construction is pure fantasy—it's impossible to complete. The basic runes can't even be constructed..."
Rafael noticed Leon watching a particular unit, where two alchemists were building a miniature alchemical array on a double-layered platform.
Sometimes alchemical array experiments are even more dangerous than potion experiments. A powerful array gone wrong can cause much greater destruction than any potion.
That's why they start by constructing miniature arrays to test feasibility. But these miniatures have inherent limitations.
Leon ignored Rafael's words. The two alchemists in question were, at best, at the Master level—perhaps just newly promoted to titled archmage, judging by the runes they used.
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Their experiment was doomed to fail, but that didn't mean their ideas were flawed. This double-layered alchemical array wasn't two arrays stacked together—it was a dual-structure array, a technology already perfected today.
What they were experimenting on was a single alchemical array!
The two layers were simply two parts of one array, requiring a new method of energy transfer and resonance. That was what they were testing.
But failure was inevitable—this technology wouldn't truly emerge for another eighteen hundred years. The current state of alchemical materials simply couldn't support it, and the runes used by titled archmages couldn't sustain the required energy transfer and resonance.
What was needed were Law Sigils, and not just any—at least twelve-rune sigils like Leon's, not the ten-rune ones. Only such sigils could support this structure.
This meant that, in this era, most Sky Rank mages couldn't complete this research. It was destined to fail, with little hope of progress.
Yet the fact that someone was already pursuing this research showed just how advanced this underground base was.
As Leon walked deeper along the central avenue, he saw many remarkable studies—some on the right track, but held back by materials or fundamental concepts.
Leon didn't speak the entire way, walking at least ten kilometers through the vast underground plaza, until he reached a huge cylindrical alchemical machine at the end.
The cylinder was mostly silver-white, with a hint of hidden dark gold, standing ten meters tall and over a dozen meters deep.
Eight such cylinders stood in a row. In the leftmost one, three people entered, and instantly, the surface crackled with electricity and intense spatial fluctuations appeared, all tightly contained.
After three seconds, all the fluctuations and sparks collapsed into the center, and the three people vanished in an instant. The cylinder returned to calm.
Leon’s pupils contracted sharply—this was a spatial shuttle alchemical device!
According to historical records, the first successful product of this kind wouldn't appear for another five hundred years—yet here it was, inside Astral Academy!
Its effect was similar to a teleportation array, but the principle was entirely different. A teleportation array can send anything to another array.
This device, however, is one-way—just one is needed to enable two-way transfer.
Most importantly, wherever this device is used, it means one thing: the destination is a completely sealed space, with no exits or spatial connections, surrounded by strong spatial barriers.
The only way in or out is via this spatial shuttle device. The internal space resonates with a specific point in the sealed area, so each transfer isn’t like a teleportation array—it’s a complete swap of two spaces, carrying everything inside across.
Unless a super powerhouse capable of shattering spatial barriers intervenes, it’s impossible to break in or out. Even peak Sky Rank powerhouses can't force their way through from the outside.
The coordinates of that sealed space are unknown to all but its creator. Even the spatial shuttle device can only swap the two spaces repeatedly.
At the height of Northend World's development, these spatial shuttle devices were used as refuges or vaults.
As Northend World's magic waned, countless treasures were forever lost in those sealed spaces.
This enormous spatial shuttle device before Leon was crude and cumbersome, utterly immobile—but still one of the most advanced alchemical technologies of its era!
It was like Leon's own natural semi-plane. After he destroyed the Path of Planes, no one but Leon knew its coordinates—or rather, the semi-plane no longer even had coordinates. Leon himself was the coordinate, and only he could open and enter it. Like a mage's semi-plane, it was the safest and most secret place.