A Hospital in Another World? C.196

The violent explosion startled the entire Tower of Heaven.

The floor-to-ceiling windows shattered, and the magical barriers dissolved. As Master Decar’s palm thrust out, the dense clouds shielding the Tower of Heaven dispersed, tearing apart at least a quarter of them.

In the next moment, an angry female voice rose high amidst the dense clouds on the other side:

"Decar! Why did you dismantle the enchantment lock?!"

In response to the accusation, a figure soared into the air, facing Master Decar from a distance, suspended in mid-air. Inside the room, a group of mages glanced briefly before hurriedly bowing their heads:

Standing in the void outside the window was a petite girl with delicate features like a doll. Adorned with a crown of leaf-shaped ornaments, three gems in her hair emitted countless silver rays, reflecting her silver-gray eyes even more brilliantly. Around her neck, wrists, and nails, numerous streams of colored light gently danced, harmonizing with the flowing light on the Tower of Heaven’s structure.

The girl’s deep blue skirt billowed high, suspended in the air without any movement amidst the turbulent winds and clouds. Instead of jewels and embroidery, the skirt was adorned with countless faintly visible, continuously flickering runes, causing dizziness at a mere glance.

"Lady Helena." Led by Carlisle, a group of mages who hadn’t yet reached level 15, let alone touched the boundaries of legend, respectfully greeted the newcomer. Even Vincent, the archmage, who was lying weakly on the ground, managed to lower his head with the support of his friends:

Although this girl appeared youthful, she had entered the realm of legend many years ago, and was the foremost expert of the school of magic, as well as the overseer of the Igor enchantment lock. If provoked, even legendary mages would stumble within the lock’s confines.

Hence, when she voiced her accusation, none of the lower-level mages present dared to utter a word. Only the legendary mage Decar flew out of the tower, wearing a rueful expression as he apologized to her:

"Helena, I was just about to find you. Please, relay a message and gather all the legendary mages in Nevis—we’re in trouble, Helena, big trouble."

Helena glared at him. Seeing Decar’s sincere expression and somewhat embarrassed demeanor, her anger gradually subsided. The silver-gray color in her eyes also faded away quietly, turning into a light purple, which deepened little by little:

"Call everyone nearby? Aren’t the rotating Tower of Heaven guards enough?"

"Truly not enough."

Seeing the silver glow fade from Helena’s eyes, Master Decar also breathed a sigh of relief. Despite being a legendary mage himself, one level higher in mage rank than Helena, she was responsible for maintaining the entire enchantment lock—

If a real fight broke out, while he might not necessarily lose, ending up embarrassed was inevitable.

He activated his telekinetic field, took two steps on the void, and once again sincerely apologized:

"Sorry, Helena, it wasn’t intentional to cause you trouble. We encountered an unexpected situation just now. If I hadn’t vented that power, I would have been injured too."

"Someone harmed you?"

Helena furrowed her brows slightly as the color in her eyes faded once again. Decar quickly shook his head:

"No, no. Mishandling this matter is a big trouble, but if handled properly, it might turn into a good thing. Anyway, after you relay the message, come to my office to see for yourself!"

Helena gave a soft hum. She stretched out her hands, and her ten fingers danced dazzlingly, causing the dense clouds outside the tower to silently surge and envelop the Tower of Heaven once again. With a flick of her fingertips outward, seven or eight streams of light flew out from her fingertips, disappeared into the clouds, and vanished.

The teleportation array lit up and then dimmed. Half an hour later, in the oval-shaped conference hall on the 155th floor of the Tower of Heaven, legendary mages sat around the table, each with a serious expression, and a paper spread out in front of them.

"Verified?"

The first question came from a mage of the Transformation school. He was called out from the workshop by his disciples, and there were still quite a bit of crystal powder and mithril threads on his fingernails and the outer coat made of rhinoceros hide. Decar nodded heavily:

"It has indeed been verified. Vincent conducted the experiment himself, with me as an observer, and it almost—shattered my meditative world."

"Oh!" The legendary mages present were deeply moved. Beside Helena, another mage in white robes glanced at Decar with concern, making a hand gesture for a healing spell:

"Are you injured?"

"I’m not." Decar gently adjusted his monocle. A delicate mithril chain hung down from the edge of his glasses, silently flashing on the side of his face. The expression of this legendary mage darkened:

"But Vincent is severely injured. It’s likely that the position on the review committee will have to be changed ahead of schedule."

There was a chorus of sighs. Across from Decar, an old woman wrapped in black veil turned the crystal ball around, suddenly shivering all over, and sprayed a mouthful of blood straight onto the ball.

"Madam Endor!" Two mages from the Enchantment and Protection schools turned their heads simultaneously. The old woman waved her hand while panting:

"I’m fine. I just deduced the process of the experiment..."

In a corner, a female mage who served as a waitress hurried forward. However, Madame Endor declined her service, pulling out a silk handkerchief to carefully wipe away the bloodstains, then tucking the handkerchief along with the crystal ball into her own sleeve. Decar had been observing the old woman’s every move, and it wasn’t until she retrieved the crystal ball that he softly asked,

"What did you see?"

"The experiment results are fine." The old woman extended her wrinkled fingers, shifting inch by inch across the paper. Flipping through page after page, she finally left a half-bloodstained fingerprint on a few lines at the end of the main text:

"Here... I saw something terrible... something that could overturn the Magic Council..."

Everyone followed suit, flipping through the papers. On the last page, after extensive descriptions, experiments, and conclusions, the author of the paper left behind a bold suggestion:

"Using the theory of primal essence as a basis, we can only derive vague elements, highly uncertain, thus open to various interpretations.

If we start from the theory of primal essence and consider elements as the simplest components of matter, then, currently, we may find it difficult to determine what constitutes an element;

On the contrary, if we associate elements with the ultimate concepts reached by current chemical analysis, then, everything that cannot be further decomposed by any means available to us now could be considered as an element to us." (See author’s note)

Silence enveloped the room. Elementalists, shapeshifters, enchanters, protectors—every mage of every school, or rather, every mage stepping into the world of magic, initially encountered the world of the four elements; later, the wind gave rise to thunder, and water gave rise to ice...

However, what exactly is an element? What is the most primal, the eternal and unchanging, the foundational component of this world?

Heavy breathing echoed in the elliptical conference room. Finally, Master Decar slammed the table and stood up:

"What’s so terrifying! If it’s uncertain, then we experiment! We demonstrate! If wrong, then we overturn! When the theory of primal essence overturned the theory of fire spirits, and the theory of fire spirits overturned the theory of divine bestowment, haven’t we gone through this before!"

A spark jumped on his monocle. With a crackle, it leaped from the lens to the crystal lamp in the center of the conference room, then from the crystal lamp to the silver rods illuminating the walls. The stable lighting in the conference room suddenly flickered, resembling a haunted house.

Helena cleared her throat, raised her hand, and directed the electricity into the walls, where it dispersed and disappeared. A legendary protector mage calmly remarked,

"But this... the losses could be significant."

The path of overturning existing theories was never easy. Conflicts with new theories and meditative environments could cause casualties, even legendary mages were not exempt from injury or death. Battles with the Radiant Church, relationships with allies, development of alternate dimensions, every aspect required adjustment.

"That’s why I called you all here." Decar replied boldly. "We need to arrange manpower for rotation, pay attention to sealing off information, and gradually reveal the successful parts of the verification—otherwise, what are we here for? To rely on those little fellows in the review committee?"

Legendary mages nodded in agreement. Helena suddenly closed the paper, tilted her chin up, and smirked:

"Oh, by the way, what about that little fellow called Garrett? Leave him outside? Until he throws another paper and blows up a few heads?"

All eyes instantly focused. The priest from the Illusion school was about to speak when Madame Endor interrupted. The old woman covered her lips with the bloodstained handkerchief, coughing so violently she couldn’t raise her head:

"We... cough cough... we..."

The priest in white immediately stopped speaking, murmuring a spell as a gentle light rain fell upon the old woman. Madame Endor’s expression gradually softened, but suddenly her vision darkened. The legendary mage from the Black Crow Swamp floated up directly, under his empty black robe, the red light flickered in his skull’s eye sockets, the jawbones clacking together:

"We..."

"He belongs under our watch!" Decar interrupted loudly without hesitation. In his monocle, bright electrical sparks crackled, darting back and forth, almost shooting out of the frame:

"His papers are sent directly to me. If he stirs up any trouble, we, the Thunder’s Horn, will take care of it!"

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