The hypothesis of the "ntal seal" has been confird.
The appearance of the Holy Light Rune Baseplate allowed researchers of the Cecil Clan to observe the effects of the ntal seal for the first ti through experints.
But this is undoubtedly not good news.
Divine Arts belong to the gods, and mortals can only "pray" for the gods’ blessings through devout faith and adherence to doctrines to borrow the power of Divine Arts. This has always been regarded as an unquestionable truth. However, through analyzing the evolution of Druid theurgy, with the intelligence provided by Kal, and coupled with Wright being a living example of a "White Knight," Gawain and Pittman put forward the hypothesis of the "ntal seal" together and believe that the key to allowing mortals to master Divine Arts is to break this seal — and after seeing Amber’s test, Gawain realized even more profoundly that breaking this seal might not be so easy.
Among the people Gawain knew, probably no one disdained the God of Holy Light more than this disgrace to the elf race, but she still could not break free from the influence of the ntal seal. This indicates that the seal does not act on the cognitive level of individuals but is a kind of uncontrollable, unnoticeable instinctual reaction.
As for the situation Wright ntioned just now, where Kal is also unaffected by the ntal seal, Gawain was not too surprised — Kal was a senior researcher of the "Defied Plan" a thousand years ago and lived through a full millennium of sealed life. His mind and willpower are probably no less than Wright, and the project he studied back then was about stealing the power of gods. His ntal seal was likely already shattered when he saw the divine corpse of Amoen, the Giant Stag.
"Actually... this could be considered an unexpected gain," Gawain took the rune baseplate from Wright’s hands, unable to resist sighing, "It has beco our ’observation device’ for verifying the ntal seal..."
He then placed his finger on the purple copper dium at the edge of the rune baseplate and slowly injected magic power: "Perhaps... I could give it a try."
The pale golden lines on the rune baseplate quickly brightened under the magical infusion, and almost instantly, a mass of pure holy radiance condensed above the baseplate.
"This..." Wright was instantly dumbfounded, "You... You actually broke the ntal seal too?!"
Amber also looked at Gawain, who released the Holy Light spell through the rune baseplate as though she’d seen a ghost — the last ti she showed this expression was when she saw him crawl out of a coffin: "How can you do that too!"
Gawain rely watched the light sphere floating in front of him quietly, feeling its stable and pure magical reaction, yet he wasn’t too surprised in his heart.
Just as he expected — as an extraterrestrial visitor, himself having practically nothing to do with the local gods, naturally did not have a ntal seal.
A small, swift figure flew to Gawain’s side, and Emily reached out towards the Holy Light ball but hesitated halfway.
She looked up at Gawain with big eyes full of expectation: "Can I eat it?"
Though the little girl was simple-minded and her way of thinking slightly differed from ordinary people, she obviously knew that Gawain was a leader and that she couldn’t act recklessly.
Gawain smiled slightly, placing his hand gently on Emily’s head: "Here you go."
The little girl happily took away the light mass, while Amber continued to gaze at Gawain, as though she’d seen a ghost, inspecting him up and down: "Really can’t tell... When did you break the ntal seal?"
"A legendary hero from seven hundred years ago who fought against chaotic waves, having such determination is not surprising." Wright said from the side, though he explained this to Amber, he still had so doubts in his heart: The ntal seal is an "lock" that cannot be detected by one’s own will, breaking it requires not only strong determination but also so kind of inexplicable "awakening" and "cognitive shift," and the latter two factors actually have nothing to do with a person’s determination or strength of will.
How could a normal person have a cognitive shift under normal circumstances? He broke through the ntal seal due to long-term questioning and reflection on the God of Holy Light and the impact of the Emily incident, while Kal’s was because of the defied plan back then, and the changes in life form and thought patterns during the millennium of sealing, so Gawain...
This legendary hero of the past, could it be that he once defied the gods as well?
Gawain noticed the doubt in Wright’s eyes, but he did not intend to explain everything. Instead, he brought the topic back on track: "The ntal seal prevents users from using their own magic power to drive the Holy Light Baseplate, but if I’m not mistaken... this Holy Light Baseplate can actually still be used, right?"
"As you said," Wright nodded, "the ntal seal only affects the user’s ability to gather their own magic power, but the Holy Light Baseplate is also a type of rune board. Rune boards do not necessarily need to be driven by human magic power — it can be driven by the energy within the Magic Web, and the Magic Web... has no thoughts."
The Magic Web has no thoughts, so naturally, it is not affected by the so-called "ntal seal." Using the automatically operating Magic Web to drive the Holy Light rune is equivalent to bypassing the factor of "human," and this thod of casting spells based on the Magic Web and external devices is the foundation of the Cecil magical industry.
The Cecil magical industry inadvertently found a loophole in the ntal seal.
But Gawain knows that things aren’t this simple: "Using the Magic Web to power the Holy Light rune array... requires a very critical process in between."
Wright opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Kal’s voice suddenly ca from the direction of the church door: "It’s the Inversion Circle."
Gawain turned his head and saw Kal, brimming with arcane magic, floating over. As the Arcane Master floated closer, he said, "I was just coming to report to you about the Holy Light Foundation Plate, but I didn’t expect you’d already be at the church. I just heard you discussing the power supply issue of the Holy Light Foundation Plate outside the door."
"Just happened to co by," Gawain nodded, naturally continuing the topic, "The Inversion Circle is a very sensitive thing. I believe if you hadn’t hit a bottleneck, you would have shown the results of the Holy Light Foundation Plate by now—after all, you’ve already produced the physical item."
"There was a Priest who tried to improve Divine Arts and use magic to directly drive the Holy Light Array, but was burned to ashes by Divine Punishnt—previous failed experiences have taught us to be cautious," Kal said sternly, "We don’t know the essence of gods, but the phenonon of ’Divine Punishnt’ does exist."
At this, he paused and looked at Wright: "Fortunately, Wright broke the Steel Stamp and awakened the ability of the White Knight. By detecting the energy flow during his spellcasting and calculating the spell moulds he sensed, we reconstructed a new Holy Light Magic Array. In it, we completely eliminated the structures that connect with the Holy Light God, blocking the judgnt process of ’Divine Punishnt.’ Subsequent experints confirm that this handling is effective, but if we power the Holy Light Foundation Plate through the Inversion Circle... it could very likely re-establish this dangerous connection."
While the pure magical energy flowing in the Magic Web is a convenient and useful universal energy source, its excessive "universality" makes it unsuitable for powering rune systems of Divine Arts. Rune systems of Divine Arts can only accept two types of energy: one is the corresponding divine magic (for example, Holy Light Energy stored in the Holy Light Crystal), and the other is magic attuned by human ntal power (magic of Priests and other clergyn, or magic of other Transcendents). The pure chaotic magic in the Magic Web, untouched by the human factor, is clearly unsuited.
Thus, if we want to use the Magic Web to charge rune systems of Divine Arts, we must employ the "Inversion Circle" technology researched by Pittman: the Inversion Circle can replace the role of the "prayer person," processing pure chaotic magic.
The Inversion Circle is a mature technology, already widely used in Alchemy Factories, but it is also a dangerous technology: it is essentially stealing the powers of the God.
Back when the Inversion Circle appeared, Gawain ordered that for now, this technology may only be applied in the realm of Druid spells—because the Druid’s God "Amoen, the Giant Stag" has already been confird dead, and its divine corpse is suppressed in the shadow realm. Even if the Inversion Circle steals nature’s divine power, it doesn’t pose the risk of Divine Punishnt, but powering other Divine Arts with the Inversion Circle is uncertain.
Other gods are still very much alive, and not only are they alive, they can even "call their followers back" (answer prayers)...
Though Gawain knows all gods have died once, various signs indicate those gods slaughtered by the zenith star people in ancient tis have already resurrected, at least sothing seems to be sitting on the Holy Light God’s throne now. Personally, Gawain really doesn’t want to attract the attention of any god on their throne at this stage...
Amber also realized the danger of this Inversion Circle thing, and she joined Gawain in his dilemma. After a long internal struggle, she rather hesitantly suggested, "Just steal a little... what if the Holy Light God doesn’t notice?"
Gawain imdiately glared at her: "Do you have a professional problem—what do you an steal a little, do you think this is like you picking pockets in the tavern?"
Amber shrank back: "I was just saying, can’t I even talk about it...?"
"The Inversion Circle retains a large amount of rune structures that simulate Divine Arts, and this structure cannot be removed. It is very likely to attract the attention of ’gods’, but on the other hand, throughout this process, the energy-providing Magic Web, energy-converting Inversion Circle, and Divine Arts-releasing rune baseplate—three units—do not involve any ’mind’ participation. What people do is rely to pull the rune trigger, so theoretically this process can still bypass the ’Divine Punishnt’ judgnt," Kal spoke of his considerations, "The only uncertainty now is..."
Gawain interrupted Kal before he could finish: "We are uncertain whether ’Divine Punishnt’ will still occur in a spellcasting process that is completely automatic and doesn’t involve ntal Steel Stamps, and whether the action of ’pulling the trigger’ also introduces human ’mind factors’ into the spellcasting process. Whether this indirect influence leads to ’Divine Punishnt,’ is that right?"
"Exactly as you said," the arcane light on Kal shimred slightly, "Humans rely pull the rune trigger to connect this system, but even such a simple action as pulling the trigger... is still a result driven by thought."
Gawain frowned, muttering to himself: "Could it be related to the Observer Effect... the macroscopic Observer Effect?"
Kal didn’t hear clearly: "What did you say?"
"Nothing," Gawain waved his hand, "I don’t think ’pulling the trigger’ should belong to the spellcasting process, because in the closed-loop system of Magic Web-rune baseplate, during the external control by humans, their ntal power does not resonate with any magic—the participation of ntal power is a key indicator of the spellcasting process. This is just my personal view, of course, concretely... we must design an experintal procedure to verify it."
Kal nodded: "It’s not difficult to design such an experintal procedure, the difficult part is how to ensure the safety of the experintation—we might attract the attention of gods, the cost is too high, we must address its hidden risks."
Gawain looked into Kal’s eyes—or rather, into the two orbs of arcane light that should be his eyes: "Do you have any thoughts?"
Kal was silent for a mont, then he slowly and firmly said: "I apply to restart a section of the defied Fortress laboratory."
Gawain did not answer him directly, but asked a question: "Are there any remaining functional ones?"
"The exterior fortress area laboratories are all destroyed, the Defense system completely offline, but inside the defied Fortress... they can still be used!"
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