"Well then..."
Outside, the world was already shrouded in darkness; it was past nine in the evening.
"Man, I'm wiped..."
"My Lord, please leave the rest to me."
"Yeah. Thanks, Laojun."
Jin gave a long stretch and headed toward the house with Elsa. He intended to take a soak in the bath and head straight to bed.
He was still fuming over the enemy's actions, but he wasn't so hot-headed that he would charge in and attack recklessly.
When Jin emerged from the bath, Elsa was waiting for him, holding his nightclothes.
"Thank you."
Jin changed into the pajamas Elsa held out for him.
"Jin-nii, you said you were furious this time, but is it just my imagination, or do you actually seem somewhat relaxed?" Elsa asked as she helped him settle in.
"No, not really. It’s just that I can't quite read our opponent’s intent yet. At times, it feels like they’re just trying to provoke me."
"True."
"And that makes it all the more irritating to go along with whatever they have planned."
"Mhm, I understand."
"I’ve decided to see if I can make them lose their patience instead."
"That’s a fun idea."
Elsa let out a soft chuckle at Jin's words.
November 2nd.
The Konron 2 and the three disks continued their pursuit, circling high above the equator.
"My Lord, I have gathered a significant amount of data regarding the disks."
A report came in from Laojun.
"Right, let’s hear it," Jin replied, speaking between bites of breakfast.
"Yes. The hull material is likely 64 light silver. As you suspected, they utilize wind-attribute magic to create a downward blast for lift. Their propulsion is also powered by wind-attribute magic."
"Just as I thought," Jin muttered to himself, crunching on a pickle. Laojun continued the briefing.
"In regions where ambient ether is scarce, it appears they are receiving energy via remote transfer."
"I see."
That, too, matched his expectations.
Sipping his tea, Jin pondered how they were pulling it off.
"That is the extent of our findings for now. The specific mechanism for their energy transfer remains unclear."
"Understood. Thanks, that’s plenty for a start. Keep at it."
"Yes, My Lord."
"...Now then."
Jin turned his thoughts to the magi-nullification barrier generator he had salvaged the previous day.
"Father, is something weighing on your mind?"
"Yeah. In principle, it’s a combination of an ether eliminator, a Magic Canceller, and a Magi-Jammer, just as I suspected. But I have a feeling that by integrating them, they’ve produced an entirely different secondary effect."
"What makes you think so?"
"Well... remember those mana tank-type golems? They were able to wake up again even without being refilled with mana, right?"
Reiko seemed to grasp Jin's point immediately.
"This is purely speculative, but I don't think the device was actually stripping away mana or ether. I think it was rendering it unusable—making it so it couldn't be converted into energy."
That hypothesis would explain the strange behavior they had observed.
"The reverse of an Ether Stampede..."
It was a phenomenon one might call "Ether Freezing."
Jin realized that yet another mystery had been added to his growing list of things to solve.
"One thing at a time, though."
Jin stood up, eager to test a theory he had regarding energy transfer.
"Sorry, Elsa, I'm heading to the workshop."
"Mhm. I'll join you once I've finished clearing the table."
Leaving Elsa to the housework, Jin headed to the workshop inside the laboratory with Reiko at his side.
He was already in the middle of preparing his experiment when Elsa arrived.
"Did I make it in time?"
"Yeah, I'm just about to start."
Two small-class Warp Gates sat on the workbench, each about the size of a microwave oven.
"First, let me explain the concept I’m working with."
"Mhm, please."
Explaining his logic to someone else helped Jin organize his thoughts and catch any flaws in his reasoning.
"I view a Warp Gate as a device that links two distant points via a tunnel."
"Mhm."
"But its operation isn't continuous. It triggers when an object enters the sending side, causing it to manifest on the receiving side."
If it functioned otherwise, there would be a constant risk of accidents—like a person’s arm being teleported while the rest of their body stayed behind. Yet, no such accident had ever been recorded.
"Does that mean it automatically recognizes a discrete object, or is it..."
"Because that is simply the nature of the 'tunnel'?"
"That’s my take on it."
As long as it acted as a "tunnel," the objects passing through had to be, fundamentally, a single unit.
"You can send multiple objects, but you can't send half of one."
"That makes sense."
"My hypothesis is that there’s a 'spatial gradient' between the sending and receiving ends of a Warp Gate."
"...In other words, it's like connecting a high point to a low point?"
"Exactly. In that sense, it’s less like a horizontal crawlspace and more like a vertical shaft."
The analogy seemed to click for Elsa.
Jin added that once more than half of an object’s mass entered the Warp Gate's range, it was essentially "pulled" through by the gradient, much like gravity dragging something down a hole.
"Of course, things don't actually come flying out of the other end with momentum, so this is just a mental image."
"Mhm, I understand."
"Now, here’s the real puzzle. Solids behave as I described, but what about liquids? Or gases?"
In previous experiments, Jin had discovered that by creating a suction effect on the receiving end, he could transfer smoke—essentially gas. This had allowed him to achieve a rudimentary form of ether transfer.
However, the efficiency was abysmal. It was enough to power a ship, but it couldn't possibly keep up with the massive energy demands of a spaceship.
Jin suspected that the three disks currently pursuing the Konron 2 were using a highly efficient version of ether transfer technology.
And as a Magi Craft Meister, he felt that if they could do it, he should be able to as well.
He decided to strip his assumptions back to basics and start his thinking from scratch.
"I mentioned the 'tunnel' analogy earlier."
"Mhm."
"If we treat that tunnel as a vertical shaft, air doesn't 'fall' through it under normal circumstances, but water does. That’s because something heavier than the air filling the space is displaced downward."
"True."
"But this tunnel isn't 'normal.' I suspect air and liquids don't fall through it because of its specific magical properties."
That was likely why he’d had to use the brute-force method of suction to move gases, Jin realized, summarizing the facts.
"In other words, there must be a specific set of conditions required to pass through that tunnel."
"And if we find them, is that a step forward?"
"Yeah. It would be a massive leap forward."
Jin said as much, his eyes fixed on the small-class Warp Gate.
"If we're dealing with the Progenitors, it wouldn't be surprising at all if they had mastered remote energy transfer. And if the people on Onogoro Island are their direct descendants, then they likely have it, too."
"Jin-nii..."
Elsa looked at him with a pained expression, hearing the uncharacteristic note of discouragement in his voice.