Celestial Art: Model Garden (3)
Whoooooosh!!
A long-necked divine beast form with pure white feathers scattering.
A streamlined Long-Lived clad in pure white armor silently gazed down at the ground with transparent blue eyes. With its entire body forming gentle curves, it waved its fins as if swimming above the clouds, graceful beyond compare. Its sheer size was enough to fill the entire research complex located beneath the cartel headquarters.
“I think I saw that form once before in the consciousness space.”
Lennok crossed his arms as he looked at Clarisse Richellen, who had descended in her true form.
“For some reason, it seems much bigger than back then.”
“How rude.”
Back when Clarisse had first visited Lennok’s mage tower carrying the elixir.
Lennok had dragged her into the consciousness space and unintentionally witnessed her true form.
Although her current appearance was not much different from the Long-Lived form that had appeared in the consciousness space wrapped in mystical clouds and feathers at the time. The sheer size now felt far greater than what he had faced back then.
Had even the form she showed in the consciousness space been arbitrarily reduced in size, and this was her true massive body?
Craaaack............!!
As the alloy container crushed beneath Clarisse’s enormous body let out a silent scream, Olivera Ron Maize looked up at the pure white Long-Lived and spoke with a mocking smile.
[For someone who boasts an overwhelmingly massive form even compared to other Long-Lived, you lie without even wetting your lips.]
[We even emptied this research facility just so your unnecessarily heavy and oversized body could lie down, yet as expected of a divine beast that has lived long, your shamelessness knows no bounds.]
“Maize.”
Clarisse sighed as she spoke.
“No matter how much you try to provoke me, it’s useless. My Immortality Organ doesn’t activate from such stimuli. There’s no issue understanding the grimoire even without that. After briefly skimming it, I saw that the entire book has already been fully translated.”
As Clarisse slowly moved her massive body forward as if floating and shook her head, the grimoire rose into the air following her motion.
Manipulating and opening the celestial spell grimoire without even touching it, Clarisse spoke with a faint sense of wonder.
“Not only is it translated, but even difficult expressions and words are kindly annotated with footnotes. At this rate, there will be no problem teaching the Model Garden spell to the two of you.”
“Footnotes?”
“Yes. Each footnote includes a simple question under the name ‘Skull Quiz’...”
“......”
“Rather than direct explanations, it uses indirect metaphors and questions to guide the reader into understanding the answer.”
A trace of admiration shimmered in the deep eyes of the divine beast as it looked down at the grimoire.
“The one who translated this grimoire understands the essence of celestial spells perfectly. Through the translation and annotations, it conveys that the spell called Model Garden itself—”
“—is a kind of ultimate technique of indirect [Adjustment].”
“So the spell specializes more in indirect adjustment rather than direct manipulation of phenomena.”
Rather than directly producing results like prophecy, foresight, astrology, or tarot, it was a power that peeked at outcomes and expressed them in a roundabout way.
Understanding Clarisse’s explanation, Lennok immediately asked.
“Then how can we use celestial spells to find the path to Kundara?”
“That’s because the veil surrounding the central city is a stellar ritual construct formed using the shadow cast on the back side of a star.”
“The back side of a star?”
“As long as sunlight shines on this star, there will always be a shadow on its opposite side. The veil is a boundary created by borrowing that semi-permanent concept and wrapping it around the central city.”
Just as Lennok was about to question the completely unexpected explanation, Clarisse raised her mana and answered.
“Therefore, to head toward the Outer Fear City hidden behind the veil, we must quite literally twist the star’s orbit for a moment.”
“But actually changing the orbital cycle is impossible even for transcendents, which is why we need the workaround called Model Garden.”
As Clarisse spread both hands, the celestial spell grimoire slowly floated above them.
The moment she closed her eyes and focused her mind, the pages of the wide-open grimoire began flipping at an incredible speed.
A fierce light surged from within the pages, instantly enveloping and flashing across the control room.
Woooooooong......!
As Lennok and Olivera watched, Clarisse extended her will toward the celestial sphere without hesitation. She grasped the movement of the stars rising in the sky of the sphere and shifted their positions.
It wasn’t actually changing the constellations of the real night sky, but instead moving the celestial sphere of the Model Garden to indirectly replicate the act.
Crack, crack!!
Each time the constellations shifted, violent noise erupted, distorting the celestial sphere as the grimoire shook intensely.
“The more the position of the Model Garden’s celestial sphere deviates from reality, the harder it becomes to maintain the spell properly.”
Clarisse explained as she observed the phenomenon.
“That’s why maintaining celestial spells normally requires an extremely powerful price.”
“A price?”
[The causality capable of suppressing the distortion of the Model Garden and forcibly sustaining it in this reality.]
Olivera said.
[Didn’t you possess such meaningful causality?]
Instead of responding to Olivera, Clarisse silently looked at Lennok. Realizing what the two wanted, Lennok did not hesitate and extended his hand.
Splaaat!!
The right arm of Anathema hanging from the ceiling of the research facility.
The moment he caught the blood dripping from its cross-section and carefully scattered it onto the grimoire’s pages—
The violently shaking celestial sphere filled with noise instantly stabilized.
Wooooooooong!!!
Olivera, who had been watching, nodded.
[It worked. But for now, you’ve merely suppressed the backlash using Anathema’s causality as the price.]
“Yes. To interfere with the veil, we’ll likely need one more item.”
[Kundara is hidden behind the veil protecting the central city, and we must create a gap in that veil.]
Olivera spoke as she began to walk.
[To create a gap, we must twist the star’s orbital cycle and artificially damage the veil.]
“I understand the method of indirectly twisting the orbit by manipulating the Model Garden’s celestial sphere.”
Lennok replied.
“Then why do we need additional preparations? Can’t we deploy the Model Garden near the veil and briefly change the celestial sphere’s orbit?”
The veil was a stellar construct created using the shadow cast upon the star as its medium.
As long as day and night existed on this star, the veil itself would remain as a semi-permanent boundary that could never disappear.
Thus, to create a gap, it wasn’t the rotational cycle but the orbital cycle that had to be twisted.
But since actually twisting the orbit was impossible, they intended to borrow the power of the celestial spell: Model Garden, which manipulated the celestial sphere indirectly.
In terms of spellcraft, Model Garden possessed power akin to manipulating the night sky itself.
All that remained was to bring this celestial sphere near the central veil and deceive and twist it to open a path.
[Before discussing that, there are three problems.]
However, Olivera shook her head.
[First, the gap in the veil will exist only for a fleeting moment. Therefore, we must already know the path and direction to Kundara before opening it.]
[Second, merely deploying the Model Garden near the veil won’t deceive it. To indirectly manipulate the star’s shadow, a corresponding medium is required.]
“A medium...”
[And lastly, celestial spells are among the old-world spells that the Spell Union is desperately searching for.]
Olivera’s gaze turned cold as she crossed her arms.
[As you know, the Union has an extreme obsession with certain spells. If they detect the existence of celestial spells, it wouldn’t be strange for them to intervene immediately.]
[In the worst case, if the Union Leader personally steps in, we’ll have to discard everything we’ve discussed and move in an entirely different way.]
So the Spell Union might move to recover the celestial spell of Cheoncheon.
Considering their ideology of connecting all spells in existence into a single answer, it wasn’t strange they coveted celestial spells. But then why hadn’t they borrowed it from Nox Biblio?
The sense of discrepancy between the existence of Nox Biblio and the Spell Union’s power.
As Lennok fell silent, feeling that inconsistency, Clarisse calmly retrieved the celestial sphere and spoke.
“For the first problem, I can help.”
She closed the grimoire naturally after withdrawing the celestial spell and nodded.
“If I, who remember Kundara’s location, teach you how to manipulate the Model Garden’s celestial sphere, you’ll naturally understand the path.”
“So the immediate issue is the second one.”
Lennok sank into thought.
“But... right. I understand that we need to synchronize the Model Garden’s celestial sphere with the real star’s orbital cycle.”
“To deceive the veil using the Model Garden constructed by celestial spells and produce results as if the real orbit were twisted, ultimately—”
Muttering that far, Lennok immediately realized the answer and shut his mouth.
The Model Garden constructed by celestial spells.
The act of synchronizing and deceiving reality so that changes in the celestial sphere appear as if they occurred in reality.
To collapse the boundary between model and reality even briefly, Lennok could already guess what kind of preparation was needed.
“No way... to deceive the veil... do we need to install a real veil inside the Model Garden?”
[Correct.]
Olivera nodded with her arms crossed.
[By placing a fragment of the veil inside the Model Garden, we deceive the veil into believing that what happens within the garden is real.]
[Of course, that alone won’t mislead the entire veil. But our goal isn’t to break through the veil and head to Ars Nova.]
“It’s enough to create a gap in the veil and locate the hidden Kundara...”
Only then did Lennok understand why Olivera had tried to borrow the celestial spell from Nox Biblio.
The celestial spell stored in the Dark Library didn’t manipulate the real sky, but created a Model Garden to control the symbols of the night sky.
If a catalyst connected to reality was inserted into the Model Garden and synchronized, it could project similar results into reality for a brief moment.
Temporarily creating a gap in the nearly inviolable veil and finding the path to Kundara through the experience of the Long-Lived Clarisse.
“So we need to obtain a fragment of the veil that could enter the Model Garden and head to Kundara while avoiding the Spell Union’s eyes.”
[That’s why I gathered you and this Long-Lived to discuss that matter.]
Olivera tilted her head back as she spoke.
[As the Assimilator said, the veil isn’t an ordinary spell but a conceptual barrier existing through the medium of the star’s shadow... something directly managed by the highest-ranking Long-Lived who have lived for centuries.]
“......”
[It’s impossible to break the veil to obtain fragments in the first place, and whether such fragments would function properly as catalysts within the Model Garden is uncertain.]
There was no way Olivera hadn’t considered these issues when she went to borrow the celestial spell: Model Garden from Nox Biblio.
Rather, the fact she was explaining this now meant she already had a solution or method in mind.
There were many interesting points about the origin of the veil and how celestial spells worked, but the most important part lay elsewhere.
[To be honest, I thought you might fail to bring the celestial spell out of the Dark Library.]
[Even if you did borrow it, I expected it would take considerable time to decipher. But thanks to you completing the translation inside the library, we’ve saved time.]
Olivera slowly waved her hand.
[All that remains is to obtain a fragment of the veil and synchronize it with the Model Garden, just as I explained.]
“So because the intermediate process finished faster than expected, you weren’t prepared yet for acquiring the veil fragment.”
The fact that Olivera had anticipated needing time to interpret the celestial spell.
And the fact that Lennok had drastically shortened that time through translation—both were positive signals for the plan.
But because Lennok had exceeded Olivera’s expectations, the plan to obtain the veil fragment itself had not yet been prepared.
“But if there were no method, you wouldn’t have even brought it up.”
“Yes. I can also guess what Olivera is thinking.”
Clarisse slightly tilted her neck as she spoke.
“The method likely lies in the First Gate.”
“The First Gate?”
“One of the very few passages that allow entry into the interior of the veil surrounding the central city.”
Clarisse explained.
The massive divine beast bent its neck and looked down at Lennok with its blue eyes.
“Since the veil is being forcibly split and held open at the gate, you should be able to obtain fragments of the veil deep within it.”
Lennok was well aware of the First Gate as well.
The first passage leading inward, located at the outermost edge of the veil.
One of the most critical strategic points, so important that wars were fought over its ownership even on the central frontlines.
[After the Blaiver Mage Tower Lord who originally guarded the First Gate stepped down, following several battles for control, the Spell Union now occupies that position.]
Olivera continued the explanation.
[The Union’s Master of Integration now serves as the gate’s administrator.]
“The Master of Integration... I’ve definitely heard that name before.”
Lennok reacted instinctively, and Olivera spoke with interest.
[So you know of him as well. Not surprising, considering the Union’s Grand Masters are all famously eccentric.]
[He’s one of the strongest forces in the Union. He proved his worth in the war against the cult, and above all—]
Behind the veil, Olivera’s eyes seemed to curve slightly as she looked at Lennok.
[Like Treadburn and you, he is also someone who killed an Apostle and earned the title of Apostle Slayer. How delightful for you.]