While he was in the process of reaching out to everyone, Jin took the opportunity to contact Reinhard and the rest of his group as well.
Reinhard, naturally, was desperate to drop everything and come, but Berche restrained him, leaving him to reluctantly give up on the idea.
"In exchange, make sure you tell me the results in detail!" he had insisted.
"...And that is my hypothesis," Jin said, once again presenting his theory before Elsa, Saki, Toa, Stearena, and Anne.
"Hmm. So, Jin, you’re saying that free ether acts as both the source of magic and the medium that transmits it along with mental power!" Saki was the first to react.
"That's right. So, I was thinking about whether we could control free ether as we please."
"Hmm. To do that, we first need to confirm if free ether really is the medium that transmits magic and mental power." This was Toa. It was an opinion typical of a researcher.
『Regarding that, I would like to provide some data,』 Laojun’s voice rang out.
『You are all familiar with the transporter. This device requires magic to create a path to the destination, but we have found that the process becomes increasingly difficult the further south one goes, where free ether is believed to be thinner.』
It was a known fact that free ether was denser to the north and thinner to the south. The information from Laojun served to support Jin's theory.
"I can accept that it transmits magic. But mental power?...That’s, well, whether it exists or not is... a bit dubious," Stearena said, sounding skeptical about the mental power aspect.
"Un. But that’s not the issue right now," Elsa pointed out. Indeed, the goal right now wasn't a philosophical debate; they were there to discuss building a magical disruptor.
"Right, you're correct. Although I would like to research the mental power aspect myself at some point," Toa added, clearly intrigued.
"In that case, Jin, what do you believe is needed to interfere with magic?"
"To do that, I think we need to unravel the principles behind how magic activates in the first place."
"...You make it sound so simple, Jin." Saki gave him a slightly exasperated look. However, Jin continued.
"Magi convert the free ether they take in through breathing and other means into mana within their bodies, where it is stored. The amount a person can hold varies. It decreases when used but recovers slowly. It’s likely that mana is stored at the cellular level. Mental power then acts upon this mana to turn it into magic. Since mental power is involved, there are individual differences—personalities, if you will—in each person's mana and magic. This magic then utilizes the surrounding free ether to manifest a phenomenon. The total amount of mana a person possesses determines the upper limit of the magic they can use."
Jin spoke his hypothesis, diving even deeper into the mechanics.
"Hmm. So, in essence, the force that acts upon free ether is magic, and magic is drawn out from mana by mental power? Is that the gist of it?" Toa summarized Jin’s theory concisely.
"Yes. The 'magic' I'm defining here is the force that acts upon free ether. And I suspect it manipulates that ether in various ways to cause different phenomena."
"I have no grounds to object. It's logically sound."
"And based on that theory, we want to make a disruptor? That's the plan, right?" With Elsa's comment, the discussion was brought back to the main point once more. This meeting was not for the purpose of completely solving the mysteries of magic, but primarily for the development of a disruptor. They could not lose sight of their goal.
"Free ether and mana influence each other... there's no mistake about that." This was also Elsa. While she wasn't particularly skilled at forming complex hypotheses, she excelled at cutting through the noise and summarizing key points.
"The mana refined inside one's own body can be manipulated at will. This is due to mental power. Are we good so far?"
"Yeah, that's right."
"Then, couldn't we just... turn that mana back into free ether again?"
"I see..." Jin thought that if they followed that direction, they might be able to put it to practical use without having to master the very essence of magic.
"One more thing. There's the barrier. Is it okay to say that it's a barrier made of mana?"
"I see, I see..." Elsa was able to grasp the core of the matter while ignoring the trivialities. Jin thought this might be a hidden talent of hers.
One could say that a barrier is a field that uses magic to forcibly make the free ether in the air Stand Still.
In this context, free ether could be compared to cement, while air molecules could be compared to sand or gravel. In other words, a barrier was effectively concrete.
Incidentally, if it were in a vacuum, a barrier would be made only of cement—that is, only free ether.
Free ether that has been made to Stand Still—or pseudo-solidified—possesses enough strength to even block Reiko’s attacks.
"...Jin-nii, did you think of something?" Elsa spoke up when she saw the expression on Jin's face shift.
It seemed Jin had been struck by an idea sparked by those few words, which had served as a keyword for him.
"For example, there's the fire-attribute magic, Fireball. This magic converts mana into thermal energy, which heats the air to create flames and then projects them. Let's use this as an example."
Jin explained that there were several conceivable ways to nullify this magic.
"First: Prevent the supply of free ether." Naturally, if no mana could be generated, the magic wouldn't activate.
"Second: Revert the mana back into free ether." The method Elsa had suggested. One could call it a canceller.
"The third is the Magi-Jammer that's currently in use. It interferes with the trigger from the chant to prevent mana from being generated in the first place."
"Un. I understand perfectly. If we exclude the third one, which is better... the first or the second?"
"We'll find that out once we examine the implementation methods." Following Jin's statement, they decided to choose the more feasible approach.
"To prevent the supply of free ether..."
"We eliminate the free ether?"
"No, isn't that a bit reckless?" This idea, regardless of the principle, did not seem practical.
"Then, what about turning mana back into free ether?"
"If mana is generated from free ether via mental power, how about interfering with that mental power directly?"
"No, why not just..." Toa, Stearena, and Saki all began offering various ideas.
Jin was enjoying himself. The thought crossed his mind that he wished times like this would last forever, but he quickly refocused, knowing they had work to do.
"Even if it's impossible to eliminate free ether, we might be able to bring it under our own control."
According to Jin's theory, the caster's magic interferes with the surrounding free ether to create a spell. He proposed bringing the free ether under their own magic's control before that could happen.
"I can understand the principle, or rather, what you're trying to do, but..." Toa tilted his head.
"Wouldn't that require a massive amount of magic?" Saki seemed to share her father's concern.
"No, not necessarily. There's a magi-device called an ether converter, which is installed in Reiko and the others on Hourai Island. It has a function that acts on and gathers the surrounding free ether."
"It would be counterproductive if you consumed a large amount of magic just to gather the ether," Elsa added.
"I see, that makes sense," Toa nodded in agreement.
"If we greatly expand this range and interfere with the free ether, we won't need to pull all of it in. If we can just bring it under our control, the battle is won."
"I wonder if it will really go that well?" Stearena was still skeptical.
"Proof is better than theory; let's try an experiment." Jin instructed Reiko to set the output of her ether converter to one hundred percent.
"Understood, Father."
"With this, most of the free ether around Reiko should be 'captured' by her ether converter."
Jin suggested they try using a significant spell in that state.
"I specified 'significant' because there should still be some free ether left over in the vicinity."
"Right, then I'll try. Purification!"
Purification was a spell of Craft Magic, but it also functioned as an advanced-level earth attribute spell used to remove impurities from objects.
Stearena tried to remove the impurities from a magi-stone she had in her pocket, and...
"Oh, you're right. It's barely working."
She noticed that the activation was sluggish and the process was taking far longer than usual.
"I see. It looks like we can actually do it—the disruptor."
A ray of hope had finally appeared.