NOVEL NEXT Chapter 40: Derrick's Theory Perfected
Derrick, now finished with his teasing, finally revealed the answer. "What I've been trying to lead you towards is this: if one could create new spells through influence, then one could also bring existing knowledge into this world as well."
"Wait, you mean...?" I began, my mind racing.
"Yes, Astraga," he smirked, leaning back on his throne with an air of absolute confidence. "Exactly what you're thinking."
A wave of astonishment washed over me. Could he really have done it? It made sense, in a strange way. He was a philologist with extensive knowledge of ancient languages and cultures. Was that the key? How had he pulled it off?
He replied with a newfound confidence. "For universal resonance to work alongside ancestral authority and weight, a catalyst was needed. Something had to happen for mana to fully take effect in my favor. As you're well aware, three main components were already present in our world. We referred to them as 'that,' but I'm sure, Astraga, you can see the many references."
It was starting to make sense now, and he wasn't wrong. I did see many resemblances, but one major issue remained: we didn't have mana in our world.
"But where we come from doesn't have mana?" I asked, stating the obvious.
He nodded. "Indeed, you're correct. But let me ask you: if I were to bring a gun, as you're well aware I died in battle, would the laws of physics still function here as they did back home?"
He was right. The laws of physics might behave slightly differently here, but the core ideas were the same. Things like motion and how liquids of different densities interacted still functioned in the same way.
"I see, I get it now," I said, finally able to grasp it just as he wanted me to.
"Due to the fact that the world we come from has no mana, the only way to get our world's ancestral weight and authority to work for me here was to become the link between both worlds. I essentially became the bridge through which ancestral weight and authority could pass using universal resonance."
What I was hearing was truly remarkable. Derrick was indeed an impressive individual.
"So how were you able to link both worlds?" I asked.
"Simple," he replied. "I became a nostalgia."
"Huh? Nostalgia? What in the world did he mean by that?" I was completely baffled.
He gave that slow, confident smile, as if he'd been waiting for me to ask. "I created the merger," he said, as if naming it made it any easier to understand. "By becoming the link between our world's ancestral weight and the established knowledge encoded in words primarily Greek and Egyptian I made their authority able to act here."
"So it only works for Greek and Egyptian?" I asked. "The weight and ancestral pull are tied only to those cultures?"
He shook his head. "Not only those but those were the threads I used. My studies of words, rituals, and cultural frameworks gave me anchors I could connect to. As the anchor, my mana uses my memories, knowledge, and intent as the channel. That pathway lets ancestral weight and authority the forces bound to those memories and linguistic forms manifest here through universal resonance."
I felt the idea settle into something I could almost grasp: audacious, intricate, and terrifying. "That's... clever," I managed.
"Incredible," he agreed softly. "Serving as an anchor, I became the bridge between two worlds: one to draw ancestral authority from, and the other where universal resonance lets it take effect."
"You are truly remarkable, Derrick. I never would have thought of this myself," I said.
He only smiled.
"...and allowing this would essentially mean that words like Latin or Egyptian could be used in this world for casting to take effect."
"So you basically turned yourself into a concept that held memories of your past life, but only accessible to the Ashborn?"
"Yes," he confirmed. "By becoming the concept of collective consciousness 'nostalgia' particular to the Ashborn they could cast mana using our world's ancestral weight and authority, as long as they spoke my name or thought of me while casting a spell using Ashborn words and signs."
This whole thing felt like a crazy lecture from a fantasy novel. Why so many complications? But the only thing that mattered was that he successfully did it, which led me to a new question.
"Derrick, do you think you were the first to be reincarnated here? What if someone maybe after me, or even I myself wanted to recreate this merger?"
He replied with a confident tone. "That's where pathway blocking comes in. This is when a pathway to a discovery or idea is nullified entirely, unable to be used by anyone after it has been blocked." He then explained that the very realm we were in was a pathway for the merger he had blocked, as creating a domain was one of the ways to block a pathway. This exclusivity made the blocked pathway more potent.
"So let me get this straight," I said. "If I discover a way to turn silver into gold and I block that pathway, nobody else would be able to replicate that method after?"
"Exactly, Astraga."
That was a truly broken ability, but the fact that one had to die and create a domain to nullify that knowledge and pathway was crazy on its own. This type of advanced mana casting would be best suited for...
"I'm sure you've realized it by now?" he said, a knowing look in his eyes.
"Yes, Derrick," I replied, a chilling realization dawning on me. "Casting a curse."
You get it now: the first person to perfect pathway-blocking was the legendary sword-mage of the Second Elven Dominion. That victory only became possible because I was born into the Ash family the line that possessed a generational mana technique passed down through the ages.
That technique gave me the abilities of how to exist as a concept."The concept of nothingness" without being fully alive.
After all, ash is what remains when life or matter is consumed. The Ash method traps a person between states neither truly living nor truly dead suspended in a sort of limbo.
So that how he pull these now it was coming together.
Using the technique gotten from the Born family as well the devouring seal my wife and I developed it even more, refining it in the most perfect seal: the All-Devouring Seal
A new thought hit me. "Wait, didn't my mother also use that seal?"
I realized with a jolt that it was the same seal my mother had used to protect us from Drogan's demon. But even that hadn't been enough. The demon had been able to detect me here and during my birth. I now understood why Derrick had referred to the mage as being highly skilled. Whoever this Drogan was, he was truly impressive a thought that only fueled my anger.
"It forces mana itself into limbo," Derrick finished, "so the seal doesn't merely lock a power away it folds it into nonexistence. That is the All-Devouring Seal."