196 Bigger Picture

The second day, it was Sandra's turn to scout ahead, and then later, Gammie's. Mindy and Remian simply camped out and waited for their signals to move ahead, and then moved the Wasp farther along their route.

In the meantime, he studied magic. Just before coming to the war zone, they had dropped off the families of the fallen magi from Ecclesia, Father Petrov, and Sir Ivan. Father Petrov started a recruitment desk at the academy for them with a slogan saying 'Come to the Wildlands – We have Dragons!'. He also gave them access to the Church library, and pointed out the archaeological section pertaining to the Black Ruins…

Remian brought back one particularly interesting little booklet from there entitled 'The Black Ruins' Different Magic System'.

The first line on the first page was enough to convince him of the value of this booklet. It said, "According to the Black Ruins Civilization, the magic that we practice today only accounts for half of their system."

In other words, they used magic completely outside of the current system. It wasn't a matter of different spells; the very system they followed was distinct.

It was followed by a whole three pages of explanation on how expeditions in the Black Ruins have progressed over the world over the past decade or so, and then, how a group had put together their findings from seventeen different ruins, and concluded the following…

'The Black Ruins Civilization believed that there were in the end only two kinds of magic; Law, and Chaos. Law magic refers to all systems of magic that rely on laws; for example, the ever-popular fireball spell taught in the Magic Academy of Ecclesia uses the Laws of Fire and Movement. With a Sigil and an Incantation, and a burst of mana, the Laws of Fire form a shape and that shape is launched forward according to the Laws of Movement. In that sense, all magic taught in the Academy are Law Magics; all of them use Sigils, incantations, and Laws. Many of them even require formations.'

'Law magics are generally reliable in their outcome. As long as the system is followed, the result could easily be predicted with a reasonable margin for error. Chaos magics, however, are entirely different.'

'The results of Chaos Magic are often unpredictable. The reason for that is that they rely on variables, and that very reliance on variables is itself variable. For example, the practice of the forbidden 'soul boost'. The use of emotional resonance to increase the power of one's spells is dangerous, and should never, ever be attempted on pain of disciplinary action according to Section 31.5b of the Civil Security Penal Code, and Paragraph 091 of the Bylaws To Ensure Domestic Safety…'

Five pages of issues pertaining to laws and punishments regarding Soul Boost followed before it returned to the topic of Chaos Magic.

'Most intriguingly, Law Magic appears fully rooted in the natural laws and systems of this world; the environment, energy supply, the Sigil and the Incantation. Chaos Magic, however, seems to involve extradimensional factors; feelings, spirits, and apparently an entirely different space through which energy could be 'imported' into this dimension…'

Five of the members of the group who made the booklet agreed that the Draconian abilities to use Fire Magic that bypassed Sigils and Incantations was an example of Chaos Magic. The other three disagreed saying that Draconian Magic merely followed a different system of Law Magic, one pertaining to bloodline and their bond with dragons. They went on for three more pages to explain and discuss the risks and dangers of attempting to bond with dragons. Then the next five pages described nine different bloodlines with magic affectations, three types of eye mutations that also affected magic, the rumors of a Magic Hand, and the myth of a Magic Foot…

Then it went completely off topic and into the stories told of each individual author about their own experiences in the ruins and what they so credibly figured out about the Black Ruins Civilization, as pertaining to Law and Chaos Magic.

That completed the booklet. Throughout the entire thing, there wasn't even a single spell or technique offered. Remian almost threw away the booklet in disgust.

"That bad?" Mindy asked, as they piloted the Wasp to the Fifth Checkpoint that day.

"Not entirely." Remian relented. "Most of it is rubbish, but I did learn a few useful things."

"Such as?"

"Such as the fact that the Black Ruins Civilization used both Law and Chaos Magic." Remian said. "Also, that they used Chaos Magic to acquire energy from another dimension. Like the weapons we got from there, these Runic Nagamaki. Do you remember talking about how we had to manually feed those runes, that they seemed to be designed to be powered by something else? There's no slot or adapter for mana crystals, so…"

"They were supposed to draw power directly from the Chaos Dimension?" Mindy guessed.

"Or maybe they just had to be plugged in to recharge somewhere." Remian shrugged. "Something like that."

"Actually, when you talked about importing magic from another dimension, something else came to mind." Mindy added, frowning.

"What's that?"

"The Source of Magic. It's a crack in space. You don't think…" Mindy trailed off.

"That maybe the Black Ruins Civilization tried to create an endless source of power and created it?" Remian guessed. "That would mean that the Source of Magic is not the source of magic, merely a man-made channel to the chaos dimension. In which case… where does magic come from? Where does all the mana in our world come from, before the Crack was made?"

"I don't know." Mindy shook her head. "I don't even know if the Source of Magic was made by the Black Ruins Civilization, or whether the Black Ruins Civilization figured out Chaos Magic by studying the Source."

"We might find out the answer, if we keep studying the Ruins. There's more of those in the Wildlands than anywhere else in the world, and they're mostly unexplored because of the Wilds." Remian shifted. "If we could just convince the Wilds to let us through…"

"It's a miracle that we've made as many friends as we have already. I'm not sure how many more Wilds we'd be able to befriend." Mindy sighed. "When is the next Beast Tide arriving?"

Remian shook his head. "I'm not sure. Whenever the death toll of the Wilds reach 10,000, I guess?"

"What's it at now?" Mindy asked.

"I'm not sure. I kind of lost track." Remian confessed.

Mindy closed her eyes for a moment. Then, she said, "It has been 71 days since the last Beast Wave. The current death toll is 6129. Yesterday, it rose by 226."

"Wow! How did you find that out?" Remian asked in amazement. "Is it accurate?"

"That's Doom's count, according to Darian." Mindy told him. "That's the count that is going to spring the Beast Tide when it hits 10,000. I don't know if it's accurate, but that's the count that matters."

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"That it is." Remian agreed. "Up by 226 in a day… at the rate we're going, we'll be facing the next Beast Tide in half a month."

Half a month! Remian suddenly felt a chill.

"Are you all right?" Mindy asked, seeing his face pale.

"It's just…" Remian shook his head. "I thought we'd have years, yet. Half a month is…"

"Eighteen days, at the current death rate." Mindy calculated. "That's not good. We better alert George and have them prepare defenses, try to reduce the killing."

"I'll leave you to it, then."

***

Darian was snacking on Wyvern Berries, a rare fruit that grew up around draconic aura, when Mindy's thoughts reached out to him. [Darian! I need some help!]

[Again…?] Darian half-groaned.

[At the rate things are going, the next Beast Tide is going to happen in eighteen days! Do you want that?] Mindy asked. [We have to reduce the death toll!]

[Great idea. So go do that and let me eat in peace!]

[But we don't know what's causing it! I remember George set strict rules on hunting Wilds. How did the death toll rise to over 200 in a day? That's simply not possible!]

[It's not just hunting that's killing the Wilds. It's all human activity. This includes water pollution, losing their homes and dying without shelter, losing food sources and starving to death, poisoning due to eating human litter… as long as it's related to something a human did, the Wilds count it as a manmade death.]

[Does George know that?]

[Seeing the way the death toll is rising, probably not.]

[Tell him! Tell him, quick, before things get worse!]

Darian groaned. [It's the middle of the week, I'm not supposed to go anywhere until the weekend, and on top of that, George is at Kara-Goth, not Three Pines.]

[But you can do it. Ha'res-dras could probably make the trip there and back within hours. I'm days away even if I rushed back with the Red Fang right now!]

[Within hours, you say? It's going to take even him all night and half the morning! Plus, I don't even know if I can convince him to bother!]

[Just try! Please?!]

[No promises.] Darian growled, half-regretting that he'd told her about the Count when she asked.