"What in the world are you?"
At the sound of that voice, Blake stepped forward half a pace and waved a hand, signaling the others to step back. He strode straight up to the glowing sphere and posed his question. The orb fell silent for a moment, then the voices echoing throughout the chamber began to shift, morphing into different languages—some deep and resonant, others high-pitched, some soft and melodious, others bold and sonorous. After a moment of this linguistic flux, the voice settled back into its original tone.
"I am the administrator of Starlight, Artificial Spirit Unit Three, Mavi. I exist to provide you with all the capabilities and support required to activate the Möbius Loop."
"Artificial spirit?"
Blake had yet to react, but Charlotte and Ophelia gasped in unison, their eyes widening in shock.
On this continent, there was a universal truth held by all: Mana had given birth to all living creatures and their souls, yet Mana itself possessed no consciousness. It was this fundamental belief that had long underpinned a question that had haunted scholars for generations: **Was it possible for mortals to harness the power of Mana to create artificial souls and living beings?**
The idea had first emerged centuries ago, of course. The Holy Mana Church had condemned it as heresy, sneering that those who entertained such thoughts were nothing but dreamers. For the creation of life and soul was a divine, sacred power reserved solely for Mana. Mortal humans could never hope to master such a profound and magnificent ability to forge new life from nothing. Yet despite the Church's vehement denunciations, the concept had gained traction within the Mage's Guild and royal courts across the land. From the Guild's perspective, mastering the art of creating life from Mana would prove that mages alone held dominion over the very source of power in this world. For the royal houses, it promised a solution to all their nation-building woes—endless populations to populate their realms, endless armies to defend their borders. Thus, both factions poured colossal amounts of manpower and gold into researching artificial life.
But alas, ideals were beautiful; reality was cruel. Perhaps, as the Holy Mana Church had so adamantly claimed, the creation of life was an eternal, inviolable right exclusive to the divine Mana. Despite the immense resources invested by the Mage's Guild and royal families, their efforts yielded virtually no results. As time wore on, most nations abandoned these quixotic projects, with those that persisted clinging to them only half-heartedly, hoping against hope for a stroke of luck. The only ones who continued to pursue the research with any real fervor were the so-called "madmen" of the Mage's Guild.
Charlotte had been a member of the Alchemists' Guild in her former life; Ophelia had been a princess. One had personally participated in such experiments, the other had heard countless tales of them. It was no wonder, then, that both women had reacted with such shock upon hearing the strange sphere declare its true nature. For they both knew full well how impossibly difficult it was to create artificial life—let alone an artificial Mana spirit. And yet here, within this ancient device that had weathered the storms of untold centuries, slumbered exactly that: an artificial spirit.
It meant that a feat that countless brilliant minds had spent hundreds of years striving in vain to achieve had, in fact, been accomplished by someone in a distant, forgotten era.
Ophelia's mind was reeling with nothing but sheer astonishment. But Charlotte's heart was a maelstrom of conflicting emotions. She stared at the sphere, her eyes a kaleidoscope of confusion, bewilderment, sorrow, disappointment, and a flicker of hesitant hope. Though she was no longer a researcher—her beloved Alchemists' Guild long since disbanded and absorbed into the Mage's Guild—the passion for knowledge still burned deep within her soul.
"The Möbius Loop?" Blake raised an eyebrow, turning back to face the others. Unlike them, he cared nothing for artificial spirits. Such technical trivia held no interest for him. As the young lord of this domain, his sole concern was the efficacy of this Wellspring conversion device. He had no idea what capabilities it possessed, but for now, at least, none of them had been trapped within some mysterious barrier to be forced into a bloody gladiatorial spectacle. That was a relief, at any rate.
"Is that the name of this device? Who created it? What does it do?"
"The Möbius Loop was constructed in the year 912 of the Ring Law Calendar by Master Marston, the Grand Master of the Marston Alchemists' Guild. It is the third experimental Wellspring energy conversion device he designed, and its unique properties render it incapable of mass production. As a device dedicated primarily to energy research, the core functions of the Möbius Loop are as follows..."
In response to Blake's question, the glowing white sphere launched into a lengthy explanation of its origins and capabilities, its tone shifting to that of a seasoned merchant peddling his wares to a prospective customer. The more the group listened, the more their hearts raced with a mixture of awe and trepidation.
According to the artificial spirit's account—for that was what it claimed to be—this Wellspring device had the power to control Mana, confining its energies within a designated area and bending them to the will of its operator. Within that zone, the operator held dominion over nearly everything, with one sole exception: they could not create new life from nothing. In other words, as long as Blake had access to sufficient raw materials and an ample supply of Mana, he could transform the entire Twilight Forest into a sprawling, prosperous city in the span of a single day.
This revelation far exceeded anything any of them could have imagined. In their time, neither the Mage's Guild, nor the royal families, nor the Holy Mana Church possessed anything remotely resembling this technology. The devices they used to harness Mana were crude by comparison—simple extractors that siphoned off a fraction of the Wellspring's power to fuel their energy-hungry magical constructs, which were then used to build cities and infrastructure. But this device skipped all those intermediate steps entirely. It required no external tools or machinery. With a single command, Blake could designate a boundary, and the device would use Mana to raise the earth, elevate the terrain, harden the soil, even transmute it into solid bedrock—all to forge a towering city wall from nothing. Beyond the Mana required to power the process itself, it needed no assistance from any other magical devices or tools whatsoever.
In a sense, this bizarre Wellspring conversion device was nothing short of a game-breaking anomaly.
That said, it was not without its flaws.
Modern Wellspring conversion devices were notoriously inefficient. Both the extractors that siphoned Mana from the Wellspring and the magical constructs that ran on that Mana only utilized a small portion of the Wellspring's total output. This device, however, was fundamentally different. It could harness and utilize Mana with perfect, absolute efficiency—but this efficiency came with a steep price.
To put it in simple terms: suppose a Wellspring emitted 5,000 units of Mana per day. Of that total, 1,500 units would inevitably radiate outward into the surrounding environment, altering the soil, purifying the water, enriching mineral deposits, and so on. This ambient Mana was impossible to contain or reclaim. It meant that the actual amount of Mana available for manipulation via the conversion device was only the remaining 3,500 units per day. Mortals had long relied on this 3,500-unit reserve to power their magical machinery, but because their constructs were relatively low-energy consumers, they rarely used more than 2,000 units per day. This had given humans the false impression that the Wellspring's power was limitless, inexhaustible. But in truth, they had simply never come close to using up the available reserve.
The Möbius Loop, however, operated on an entirely different principle. It could fully utilize all 3,500 units of available Mana—but doing so would plunge the Wellspring into a state of "half-life." If Blake were to use the device to construct a city wall, for example, it would consume approximately 20,000 units of Mana. This was a far greater amount than the Wellspring could supply in a single day. To complete such a project, Blake would be forced to stockpile the Wellspring's daily output until he had accumulated the full 20,000 units, then expend them all at once. If he were foolish enough to overdraw the Wellspring's reserves, the device would drain the Wellspring dry, leaving it depleted and unable to function until ambient Mana in the surrounding area had gradually replenished the deficit. The time required for this recovery would depend on the size of the Wellspring and the concentration of Mana in the vicinity.
This was the sum total of the information provided about the Wellspring conversion device. Yet it failed to answer the question that weighed most heavily on the minds of Charlotte and Ophelia. They were desperate to know exactly what era this device hailed from, and who its mysterious creator had been. But the artificial spirit's answers left them disappointed. Though it had responded to their inquiries with perfect candor, none of them recognized the names of the nations, guilds, or individuals it had mentioned—not even Charlotte, who had dedicated her life to the study of alchemy, nor Ophelia, who had devoured every book in the royal library since childhood.
The only thing they could be certain of was that the Möbius Loop was incredibly ancient—possibly dating back to an era before the chaotic wars that had reshaped the continent.
As for the barrier that had trapped Charlotte and the other girls all those years ago, the artificial spirit provided a straightforward explanation. The archbishop who had activated the device had only used a fragmented shard of a Wellspring's power, which had been insufficient to fully awaken the Möbius Loop's true capabilities. The barrier had merely been the device's basic self-defense mechanism kicking into gear. Its purpose had been simple: to protect the device from intruders, and since the one who had activated it theoretically knew how to disable it, there had been no need to leave any means of escape.
"What do you all think?"
After listening to the artificial spirit's explanation in silence, Blake finally spoke up, turning to address the group. Charlotte frowned, casting a wary glance at the orb before shaking her head.
"I don't know, my lord. The inner workings of this device are far beyond my understanding. It would take me at least six months of research just to begin to grasp its operational principles."
"We don't have six months."
Blake shook his head, dismissing Charlotte's suggestion out of hand.
"The Sith Empire will launch its invasion of the Kingdom of Wester in three months' time. I need to ensure that the Twilight Forest has the strength to withstand their army before then. With Wester's current military capabilities, they stand no chance against the Sith's Natural Knights. We need the Wellspring's power—there is no other way."
"My lord, are you not being a touch overly dramatic?"
Ophelia arched a delicate eyebrow at his words. As a former princess of Wester, she had always taken pride in her homeland's military might. But according to Blake, all of Wester's vaunted strength would be as fragile as paper before the Sith's Natural Knights. Even if the Natural Knights were as powerful as rumored, surely Wester's forces could put up some kind of resistance?
"I am not exaggerating in the slightest."
Blake knew exactly what Ophelia was thinking. He chuckled softly, shrugging his shoulders before turning his gaze to Judy.
"The truth is, even with the forces we have right now—just myself, Judy, and the others—we could march from the Twilight Forest all the way to Wester's royal palace without breaking a sweat. Not even the Wellspring's protection would be able to stop us. If you doubt me, I'd be more than happy to demonstrate right here and now."
"..."
Ophelia's eyes widened in shock, her jaw going slack. This was, without a doubt, the most audacious claim she had ever heard in her two lives combined. Though she had little knowledge of military strategy, she understood that war was not a simple matter of brute force on the battlefield—logistics, supply lines, rest and recuperation... these were all critical factors that even the greatest warriors could not ignore. Yet Blake spoke with absolute certainty of his ability to cut a swathe through Wester's defenses all the way to the heart of the kingdom. It was beyond her comprehension. She turned to Judy, her eyes beseeching for a more reasonable perspective—surely this calm, composed warrior would not endorse such a preposterous assertion? To her utter astonishment, however, Judy met her gaze with a proud, confident nod, as if Blake had just stated an indisputable fact.
"So what do you intend to do, my lord?"
Seeing that further argument was futile, Ophelia wisely abandoned the subject and returned to the matter at hand.
"Since this Wellspring device is as powerful as you say, I suppose we have no choice but to put it to the test."
Blake had clearly already made up his mind. He shrugged his shoulders, turning his attention back to the glowing sphere floating before him. In truth, he had been planning this moment for quite some time.
Ever since his rebirth, Blake had harbored a desire to expand his territory. But initially, he had not given the matter much thought. As a knight, he had never attached much importance to land or titles. At first, he had viewed the Twilight Forest merely as a place to replenish his strength—after all, even knights needed money to eat and clothe themselves; they could not wander the land like beggars. He had spent his early days here in relative leisure, content to bide his time. When he had sent that band of mercenaries to awaken the slumbering twin sisters, it had been nothing more than a fulfillment of an old promise, with no thought of the coming war.
But everything had changed with the fall of Orlut. The Kingdom of Wester now stood directly in the path of the Sith Empire's expansion, and the balance of power was grimly one-sided: the Sith Empire boasted four Natural Knights, while Wester had none. Though the Twilight Forest was no longer a border territory, Blake knew that with Wester's current strength, they stood no chance of repelling an invasion led by Natural Knights. Which meant that his beloved Twilight Forest would soon once again become a battlefield. For the sake of his own survival and the safety of his domain, strengthening its defenses had become his top priority.
But Blake was a knight, not a mage—he could not wield arcane magic to weave protective barriers around his land. Nor was he a bishop, able to rally armies in the name of the Holy Mana. He needed a way to bolster his territory's defenses in the shortest possible time. So when rumors had reached him of a potential Wellspring located in the Zach family's lands on the outskirts of the Twilight Forest, Blake had immediately set his sights on it. And when Charlotte had told him of the abandoned Wellspring device hidden beneath the castle, he had finalized his plans and set them in motion. And so far, those plans had proceeded flawlessly—far more flawlessly, in fact, than he had ever dared to hope. The power they now held in their hands exceeded his wildest expectations.
But all of this was still just theory.
Now, Blake needed to put the device to the test to prove its worth.
With that thought in mind, he stepped forward once more, approaching the artificial spirit. He gazed at the glowing sphere, a faint, elegant smile tugging at the corners of his lips.
"So, with the amount of Mana we currently have stored, what exactly can we accomplish?"
"One moment, my master."
As the artificial spirit spoke, the air around them began to ripple and distort. A flurry of intricate, unfamiliar characters and images swirled into existence, shifting and changing for several moments before resolving into the common script used across the continent today. Before Blake's eyes, the images flickered and transformed, showcasing a dazzling array of structures—towering castles that pierced the clouds, imposing city walls, grand bridges, even ancient edifices built by dwarves and elves. It was clear that the device's original creator had stored blueprints for a vast array of architectural wonders within its memory, presumably for future use.
After a lengthy sequence of transformations, the images finally stabilized. Some glowed brightly, while the vast majority remained dim and faded. According to the artificial spirit's explanation, the dimmed functions would require the accumulation of additional Mana reserves to activate.
But even the limited number of functions that were currently available—those glowing brightly before them—were enough to leave the entire group dazzled and breathless.
Blake pondered for a moment, then extended a finger, pointing to an image glowing with a soft, faint light in the center of the display before him.
It depicted a crystal-clear stream winding its way through a dense forest, its waters shimmering in the dappled sunlight filtering through the canopy.
*The River of the Contemplative—The power of nature shall forever protect those who seek tranquility, turning away all who would dare to disturb their peace.*
"This is the one," Blake declared in a firm, decisive voice.
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the images floating in the air vanished instantly. A brilliant, blinding light erupted from the stone stele once more, flowing outward like a river along invisible, mysterious pathways before dissipating without a trace.
Then, the ground began to tremble gently beneath their feet.