Chapter 126: Rescue
Evan spent a few more days at the site, and once nothing new remained to observe, he returned to Hollingburton, bringing the finished blueprints with him. He went to report to Ortlando first, finding him in his office with several legendary mages, deep in discussion over which arrays would handle the core versus the outer sections — the levitation array was a given, but reinforcement arrays and others were still under debate. Evan knocked while they were still in the middle of it.
"Come in," Ortlando said.
Evan pushed the door open and found a scaled-down projection floating in the air before the assembled group.
"Good day," Evan said.
"Good day, Wang. Perfect timing. How's progress out there?" Ortlando asked.
"Going smoothly. The base should be finished in another dozen or so days. There wasn't much left for me to do on-site, so Lord Roland sent me back to check on the technical team's progress," Evan said.
"We've run into a real problem here," said Marantel, a legendary lightning mage with a shock of unruly silver-white hair. "The core's mana output isn't enough to drive every array we need. Even after trimming things down, we still fall short."
"One core not enough — could you use two?" Evan asked, half in passing.
"No good. Only one core can exist within a mile of another — the core needs a connection to the Fire Plane, and fire element is temperamental about that kind of proximity," Ortlando said.
"Could the output be increased instead?" Evan asked again. He still harbored some private doubt about the whole business of connecting to elemental planes, though elemental plane theory remained the dominant framework in magical thought, and it explained most magical phenomena well enough on its own terms.
"This is as far as we can push it right now," Ortlando said.
Evan sank into thought. Ortlando hadn't really expected an answer from him — Evan was too young, by any reasonable measure — but his recent paper had shown some genuinely fresh thinking, and Ortlando figured it was worth asking on the off chance.
"Is the core's mana supply enough to run the levitation array on its own?" Evan asked suddenly, looking up.
"That much, yes. But we can't spare any of it elsewhere without dropping below what the array needs."
"Then that settles it. Handle everything else separately — as long as the city stays airborne, everything beyond that can run off magic crystal stones instead, switched off whenever they're not needed," Evan offered.
"Of course! We just needed to shift how we're thinking about it — that solves it entirely, and it actually extends the core's working life in the process. Let me run the numbers." Ortlando smacked his forehead, understanding dawning at once.
He tapped several points on the projection, and Evan watched him sever a number of the connecting lines, adding crystal stones along them instead. The projection shifted again, and the group threw themselves into intense calculation. Working from Hegel's mana expenditure equation, they quickly arrived at a conclusion: with a single infusion from a legendary mage connecting the core to the Fire Plane, and following Descartes' theory of mana decay after casting ceased, the array could sustain itself for close to two and a half months — two months without any trouble at all. The working time had effectively doubled.
Ortlando let out a long breath. "Wang, you really are our lucky star. Wait — I need to tell the engineering team to leave enough space for this."
"No need to trouble them," Evan said. "I already saw to that on-site. Their construction work has left plenty of redundant space built in — I suspected you might change the design, so I told them ahead of time to add extra stone chambers wherever it wouldn't compromise the structure or its function. It also cuts down on the overall weight and the volume of stone and earth needed."
"Excellent. We can design far more ambitiously now," Marantel said.
"To keep you all from getting too ambitious, I brought back a set of blueprints," Evan said, unrolling them — not ordinary paper, but sigils burned directly into parchment. The moment he unfurled them and fed in a trace of mana, sheet after sheet projected into the air at once, forming a single three-dimensional image. Unlike Ortlando's projection, this one reflected every part of the floating city with full accuracy.
Evan tapped a section, pulling a set of lines closer. The projection expanded rapidly under his hand, and a single room came into view before the group, riddled with a great many small openings.
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"This is one of the rooms — though 'room' undersells it. It's really just a hollow space, meant to hold magical items, host a magic array, or function as living quarters. What you do with it is up to you," Evan said.
Ortlando and the legendary mages studied the drawings, delighted — it opened up even more room for them to work freely. Evan continued, "One suggestion, if I may. Whatever you ultimately decide to build, keep the corresponding blueprints on file, so anything that goes wrong later can be traced back through the plans."
"A good suggestion. What do you all think?" Ortlando said, still studying the drawings.
The others nodded in agreement. A knock came at the door again. "Come in," Ortlando called.
"Honored Headmaster, esteemed professors, good day to you all. I wouldn't intrude if it weren't urgent," Billy said, stepping in and offering a mage's bow. Billy headed the department overseeing students' fieldwork placements.
"Enough, Director Billy. Get to the point," Marantel said impatiently.
Billy didn't take offense, his face still creased in a smile. "Of course, Lord Marantel. A group of students on an expedition in the Barbarian Continent — a graduation exercise, meant to expand our magical maps a bit on the side, under the supervision of senior mage Professor Damire — has run into trouble. A distress signal came in by owl."
Evan frowned. Students in danger, and Billy could still manage a smile through it? His opinion of the man dropped several notches on the spot. Ortlando and the others tensed, clearly concerned. "Are the students all right?"
"They were, as of two days ago. Beyond that, we can't say — the owl's taken two full days to reach us. Their message described something strange happening, though they couldn't give any clear account of what. It carried real urgency, though. Five owls were sent out in total — three should have flown toward us, but only this one arrived. The others were sent toward the Solomon Academy in Tyrenese instead, since they're roughly half the distance from the expedition site. Their reinforcements may already be underway," Billy said.
"We can't count on someone else to handle a rescue. Who do we send?" Ortlando said, brow furrowing.
At the mention of the Barbarian Continent, something stirred in Evan. He remembered what the life goddess Avna had once told him — that one fragment of her soul rested somewhere in the jungle there. This was a chance. Even on a rescue mission, he couldn't go looking for Avna's temple directly, but he could at least get a feel for the region's terrain. With that in mind, he spoke up. "I'll go. I'm only the liaison for the floating city project — it doesn't really need me there day to day. Let me handle this instead."
"Evan, there's no one better suited. Here's how we'll do it — I'll assign you two assistants. Jessica, and Emma. You worked well together last time. Billy, pull together ten students, fourth tier or above," Ortlando said, then turned back to Evan. "Be careful. If the situation turns hopeless, your own safety comes first. I'm entrusting you with ten students and two teachers. Bring them back if you possibly can."
Evan nodded. "I swear in the Creator's name, I'll bring them home safe."
Ortlando gave him an odd look, and Evan suddenly remembered exactly what he was, embarrassment crossing his face. Ortlando let it pass with an easy laugh. "Never mind. Sounds a little strange, coming from you, but I know you mean it. Go get ready. We'll open the spatial passage in an hour and send you through. There's no permanent transport array reaching the Barbarian Continent, and with time this tight, a makeshift passage is the only option."
Evan shrugged, unbothered. "Settled, then. I'll go prepare."
He returned to his quarters and gathered what he'd need. Xiaoshuang was home, and once he explained the situation and asked if she wanted to come, the mention of the Barbarian Continent — and the possibility of finding Avna's temple — had her flying straight to his shoulder.
By the time Evan arrived, everyone else was already assembled and waiting. Of the ten students, he recognized six — five men and one woman: Jaymes, Peter, Sher, Carpenter, Duva, and Selena. He hadn't expected Sher and Carpenter to have already advanced to full mage status. The other four — two men and two women — he didn't recognize, though all were at least fourth tier, and the students clearly knew him. They offered him a respectful mage's bow the moment they saw him. "Honored Professor Wang, good day to you."
Evan smiled and gave a small nod, arching an eyebrow slightly in greeting. "Do you all know the assignment?"
"We do, Professor Wang."
"Good. Everyone take your places within the array here. We wouldn't be resorting to this if it weren't urgent," Ortlando said. Evan looked at the open ground before them, already covered in an intricate array — a hexagram nested within a hexagram, a great array of precious magical materials glittering at its center. Seventy-two magic crystal stones had gone into it, each cut into a perfect dodecahedron. Evan had come across this kind of transport array before, in the Compendium of Magic Arrays — a one-way transport array, staggeringly expensive to run, and for some reason still not understood, its margin of error grew sharply with distance. Past ten thousand miles, that error climbed steeply. This trip to the Barbarian Continent covered over nine thousand miles, which meant an expected deviation of ten to thirty miles — a flaw that generations of refinement hadn't managed to fix. Evan suspected the problem ran deeper, rooted in some flaw in the basic theory of magic itself.
Distance error wasn't the only concern. Activating the array required three legendary mages working together. Evan and the other thirteen took their places within it, while Ortlando and two other legendary mages positioned themselves around the perimeter. Fortunately, Hollingburton's centuries of accumulated strength meant it could call on fifteen legendary mages when needed — none of them had reached demigod status, though as far as anyone knew, Pope Clement VIII stood as the only demigod anywhere in Tyrenese. Even so, Clement's own lifespan hadn't extended with it; every pope in turn lived only an ordinary human span, unlike legendary mages, for whom living several centuries was nothing unusual.
The three legendary mages began their incantation together, and the entire array surged with light, layer upon layer converging toward the center, rising into a column of light that shot skyward. By the time it faded, Evan and the others had already vanished.