Chapter 263: Knowledge Across Eras
Morning found the research center busier than ever.
The largest table sat almost completely buried beneath scrolls, records recovered from the Forgotten Capital piled on one side, documents brought by the Astral Church stacked on the other.
Between them sat dozens of relics, some glowing faintly, a few floating just above the table’s surface, several already partially dismantled by Lily to see what made them work.
The room looked less like a laboratory now and more like centuries of history all trying to fit into the same building.
Kai glanced around, smiling. "...Looks like a disaster happened in here."
Without looking up from her notes, Lily answered immediately. "...Don’t touch anything."
Gabriel looked up from a nearby table and laughed. "...I was warned she’d say that."
Lily blinked. "...I say that often?"
"About every ten minutes," Gabriel said.
Even Elden smiled faintly at that.
Mayor Ko looked around the cluttered room. "...I can’t tell whether this is organized, or complete chaos."
"It’s organized chaos," Lily said confidently.
Gabriel nodded without hesitation. "...Exactly."
The two of them looked at each other and smiled at the same moment.
Mayor Ko sighed. "...I’m surrounded."
Gabriel carefully unrolled another scroll. "This was recovered beneath one of Nexus’s oldest cities."
Lily leaned in immediately. "...Mana circulation?"
"Our ancestors favored vertical flow." Gabriel pointed toward several layered circles etched into the parchment. "It made activation easier."
Lily reached for one of her own diagrams. "The Forgotten Capital used horizontal distribution instead."
Gabriel studied it for a moment. "...Less overload risk."
"Exactly," Lily said.
Silence held for a second, then Lily grabbed a fresh sheet. "...Wait."
She started drawing fast, and instead of picking one method over the other, she connected both, horizontal lines stabilizing the mana flow while vertical pillars accelerated it through the same network.
Gabriel’s silver eyes widened. "...The pressure equalizes."
Lily’s smile grew. "...Which means—"
They both said it together. "...Higher output."
Elden watched quietly from the side. "...They’ve been working together for one morning."
Mayor Ko smiled. "And they’ve already solved a problem that delayed us for weeks."
More breakthroughs followed in quick succession. A relay crystal from Nexus connected perfectly with an Authority conduit pulled from the Forgotten Capital. A healing relay synchronized cleanly with an ancient barrier node neither civilization had understood alone. An amplification prism stabilized a citywide mana network that had previously collapsed after only a few minutes of use.
Every successful pairing made the blueprint spread further across the table. Lily’s notebook filled page after page. Gabriel’s own notes grew just as crowded. Neither of them seemed to notice the hours slipping by.
At one point, Gabriel picked up a small crystal sphere, turning it over in her palm. "We never figured out what this actually did back home."
Lily compared it against one of the relics recovered from beneath Mythal. "...This isn’t the main relic."
Gabriel blinked. "...It isn’t?"
Lily shook her head. "It’s a connector."
She picked up another relic from the table and placed the sphere between the two. Both immediately began glowing, mana flowing between them in a steady, stable current.
Gabriel stared at it. "...We’ve had this for decades. And never knew what it was for."
Lily smiled. "...Because you were missing this one." She held up the Forgotten Capital relic that had completed the connection.
Gabriel laughed softly. "And we thought we were the ones helping you."
"We are," Lily said immediately. "And you’re helping us just as much."
Kai watched quietly from a few feet away. "...So this is what happens when knowledge actually survives instead of getting buried."
Mayor Ko nodded. "...Humanity finally gets to build instead of constantly rebuilding from scratch."
Hours later, the blueprint stretched across nearly the entire table, mana routes, relic placements, emergency activation sequences, barrier chains, healing relays, evacuation pathways all woven together into one sprawling design.
Lily leaned back, exhausted. "...We’re close."
"Very," Gabriel agreed.
Elden adjusted one section of the layout with a careful hand. "But theory only takes us this far."
Silence. Everyone knew what came next.
Lily looked toward Kai. "...Can you call him?"
Kai smiled. "...Already figured that out, huh?"
"We’ve reached the point where only the simulations can actually answer us now."
Gabriel glanced between them. "...You really can summon him whenever you want?"
Kai shrugged. "...Usually."
He closed his eyes. "...Candidate."
Silence held for a moment, then blue light spread across the laboratory, reality dissolving around them. The research center vanished, replaced by an endless sea of blue stretching in every direction, the sky above mirroring it perfectly.
Gabriel froze in place. "...So. It really exists."
She’d spent years hearing stories about this place. Studying old records. Reading journals her predecessors had left behind. But standing here in person was something else entirely.
Lily smiled knowingly beside her. "...First time?"
Gabriel nodded slowly. "...First time."
The Candidate appeared a moment later, his expression as calm as always. Then his eyes settled on Gabriel, and he stopped walking entirely.
Silence lingered for several long seconds.
Finally, a small smile crossed his face. "...I see." A pause. "The Astral Church still endures."
Gabriel bowed deeply. "...Candidate. It is an honor."
He studied her quietly. "...After all these years, you’re still protecting humanity."
Gabriel straightened, her smile gentle but steady. "...How could we disappear before at least one era finally succeeds where every other has failed?"
The Candidate closed his eyes, a tired sigh escaping him. "...You’re one of the children."
"...Yes," Gabriel said simply.
"...How old?" he asked quietly.
"...Six."
Silence.
Kai blinked. "...Six?"
Lily stared at her. "...You learned everything when you were six years old?"
Gabriel nodded, unbothered by the reaction. "The previous civilizations. The Three Disasters. The Filters. The Church’s founding purpose." A pause. "I was taught all of it before I was old enough to fully understand what any of it meant."
Silence.
Kai found himself picturing Mina at six years old, trying to process the idea of entire civilizations disappearing, trying to carry the weight of humanity’s future on shoulders that small. His expression hardened.
Then Leo. Only six himself once, and forced to hold something like that.
Kai’s fist clenched slowly at his side. "...I’d be furious. If someone did that to my siblings."
Lily nodded immediately. "...Me too. Who tells a child something like that?"
Gabriel’s smile softened. "...Thank you."
Both of them looked over at her, surprised.
"...For being angry on my behalf," she said quietly.
Silence held a moment.
"...But it was necessary," she added.
Kai didn’t answer, because she wasn’t wrong. Without decades of preparation started that early, Nexus wouldn’t have united nearly as quickly as it had. The Astral Church wouldn’t hold the depth of knowledge it currently did. Her childhood, however unfair it had been, had reshaped an entire continent’s chances at survival.
That didn’t make it fair. It only made it tragic.
The Candidate looked away, his expression cracking slightly for the first time since Kai had known him. "...No."
Silence.
"...It still should never have happened," he said quietly.
Everyone turned toward him.
"...How many more children," he continued, "must inherit our failures before this ends?"
His voice carried no anger in it at all. Only exhaustion, worn deep into every word.
"...When will humanity finally reach an era that lets children simply be children?"
Silence filled the endless blue world around them.
Gabriel smiled gently. "...Hopefully very soon."
The Candidate nodded slowly. "...I hope your generation becomes the last one who has to carry this."
Kai looked at Gabriel, then at the Candidate, and for the first time he understood something clearly. The Candidate wasn’t preserving all of this history because he loved the past.
He was preserving it because he desperately wanted someone, anyone, to finally stop repeating it.
The Candidate’s usual composure settled back into place after a moment. His gaze moved between Kai, Lily, and Gabriel in turn. "...You’ve brought humanity another step forward today."
The three of them nodded.
He smiled faintly. "...Then let’s see how much closer you’ve actually come."
He raised one hand and snapped his fingers. The endless blue trembled around them, ancient streets rising up out of the light, towering walls assembling themselves piece by piece, relics appearing scattered throughout the forming city, mana circuits igniting beneath freshly laid roads.
The familiar simulation took shape around them, this time built around every improvement Lily and Gabriel had worked out together over the course of the day.
Lily opened her notebook immediately, pen ready. Gabriel’s eyes shone with anticipation. Kai drew the Fractured Blade slowly, settling into a ready stance.
The Candidate looked out over the rising city. "...Begin the next test."