At this moment, Lu Kang was still keeping the library closed.
Under the slanting sunlight, the towering library stood bathed in warm gold. Bells swayed faintly overhead, and glittering dust drifted before the tightly shut doors.
Maria had not lied to Anna. Today really was the day Lu Kang intended to reopen the library.
Or rather, according to Lu Kang's own calculations—
according to the timetable he had set for himself—
[Day 320. This is the seventh day since you shut yourself inside the Kremlin library. In ancient myth, God took seven days to create the world. You are not God, but you believe seven days are enough for you to sort through all you have gained and lay the foundation of your own Mystery.]
[You do not expect to create a fully realized family foundation in so short a time. Every magical lineage requires many generations, and far more years, to establish such a base. Your time as "Lu Kang Luvister" is limited, and you are not in a hurry.]
[For you, then, seven days are enough.]
[This is the final day.]
[At sunrise, you complete the整理ing of everything you have gained.]
[You have mastered the use of "miracles." Having grown up in a convent, you are no stranger to faith, and once you understood the principle, you were able to put it into practice quickly. But you have not linked yourself to the Church's foundation. The miraculous power you wield comes only from your own heart—and not only from faith. It is not divine grace, but the expression and manifestation of your own will.]
[You realize that this, too, may be regarded as a kind of magecraft: a new form of spiritual magecraft born from the fusion of "miracles" and "magecraft."]
[It takes magecraft as its source, but what it uses is the "miracle" of the present rather than the phenomena of the past.]
[The past is fixed: fixed formulas, fixed attributes, fixed quantities of Mystery, fixed foundations.]
[But the present holds limitless possibility. The present that gives rise to miracles is not bound by the past.]
[On that basis, whatever the heart conceives can become "magecraft."]
[This is how you define your new magical system.]
[A magecraft of the mind is born in your hands. It is weak for now, like a new sprout, but one day it will grow into a great tree and sink its roots into the soil of Mystery.]
[It will become the first step in what you pass down into "reality."]
[You begin to record it.]
Inside the library, Lu Kang sat cross-legged on the smooth tile floor, its coolness seeping through his clothes.
The black priest's robe around him stirred in the autumn-touched northern wind descending from the high windows.
His thoughts were disordered and brilliant all at once.
Feeling the changes within himself after grasping both miracles and magecraft, he could not help but sigh.
He thought to himself that he really was a genius to have accomplished something like this—
and at the same time, he understood just as clearly that much of this was only possible because, though he appeared to be of common birth, he had in truth brought with him the more mature magecraft systems of the Clock Tower from decades in the future.
As far as the world itself was concerned, Mystery was always fading.
But the formulas created in order to preserve that fading Mystery had, with every passing age, become more refined and more precise.
The power those formulas could display might not rival the raw force of ancient times—
but the ideas behind them were far ahead of their age.
In a sense, Lu Kang was borrowing the formulas of the future to grasp the miracles of the present, and through them, contain the Mystery of the past.
And now, everything was about to reach completion.
Only one final step remained.
That step was both recording and inheritance.
Recording it on paper.
Recording it in books.
And also recording it upon the world itself.
Every new form of magecraft—or miracle—had to pass through such a process.
Just as a seed had to be planted in soil before it could sprout, so too did a new system of Mystery need to be properly inscribed before it could truly be used.
[You begin to record.]
Inside the silent library, the scattered books flipped open in the wind with a loud rustling.
Lu Kang opened the blank book in his hand.
He took up his pen and began to set down the theories and ideas within his mind upon the paper.
[You continue recording.]
Ink flowed from the pen, staining page after page of white.
[You go on recording.]
[You are wholly focused, and yet your thoughts seem at the same time to drift farther and farther away. You feel as though you have crossed past, present, and future alike, arriving somewhere still more distant.]
["Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of thy law."]
["What thou thinkest shall become truth."]
[You write these words.]
[Something stirs in your heart. An idea takes shape.]
[And in that instant, what exists in your heart becomes real.]
What one thinks,
what one conceives,
could become the "magecraft" that activated Mystery.
That was the greatest defining feature of the spiritual magecraft Lu Kang envisioned.
So long as one possessed sufficient magical energy, sufficient grasp of Mystery, even making one's wishes reality would not be difficult.
Of course, Lu Kang at present did not possess that much magical energy.
His seed had not yet been fully planted, much less sprouted.
So naturally, he had no access yet to deeper reserves of Mystery.
Much of what he had devised remained only theoretical.
At present, theory was all he had.
But even theory alone, under the joint illumination of miracles and magecraft, was enough to produce effects within himself.
Now he could cast the most basic forms of Mystery without any preparation at all.
He no longer needed to lay out a road of formulas beforehand.
A thought could become a spell.
True, only the most rudimentary magecraft could be done this way—simple illusions, the barest thaumaturgical acts.
But for now, that was enough.
He thought of the man who had first created the modern framework of Mystery:
Solomon, king of magi—
and in religion, king among saints.
And in that moment, it was almost as though he truly saw the shadow of Solomon before him.
[This is a phantom from the past.]
[This is an illusion, a record drawn forth from the image in your heart.]
[It seems as though you and the oldest of mage-kings meet each other's gaze across an immense expanse of time. You cannot see his face, nor his form, and yet through the haze, you can feel that his gaze rests upon you.]
[The oldest mage-king, the saint-king—you remember his legends. You remember that Solomon displayed Mystery only twice in his life. The first time was when he received divine revelation, and with that, established his kingship. The second time was before his death, when he created "magecraft" and "miracles."]
[Once as man. Once as god.]
[This was his path.]
[And perhaps it is also the path you will walk.]
[By now, you have already displayed your first mystery.]
[You know that the second may not be far ahead.]
[The final stroke of ink is laid down.]
[You complete the last line upon the page.]
[And the image within your heart fades with it.]
[You look at the book in your hands. Then you lift your pen again and write the final few words upon its cover.]
[You name this book.]
[And in naming it, you also name the system of Mystery you have created.]
"The Book of the Law."
With a soft thud, Lu Kang closed the book.
Holding it in both hands, he tilted his head back and let the sunlight fall across his face.
He could feel, in that moment, that the world seemed outwardly unchanged—
and yet inwardly overturned.
He thought fleetingly that perhaps he ought to rename himself Aleister.
But then he remembered that, in this era, Aleister had likely already been born.
So that idea had to be discarded.
He only hoped no one would come demanding royalties.
That was what Lu Kang was thinking.
[At this moment, the magecraft is complete.]
[It is still weak.]
[But the seed of Mystery has already been planted. All that remains is to wait for it to germinate, to grow, and for theory to become practice.]
[You firmly believe that with each of your future simulated reincarnations, it will appear in ever more ancient ages, encompass ever older spans of time, and take hold of Mystery from farther and farther back.]
[It will grow alongside you.]
[It will become older and stronger with you.]
[The older, the stronger.]
[The stronger, the older.]
[You still believe this without question.]
…
"The Book of the Law."
"In the world of Mystery, more than one book has borne that title. But the one we are discussing today is the manuscript left behind by Luvister—the man who rose to prominence in the late Russian Empire through the trust of Nicholas II."
"Luvister was called the most reckless and audacious man in the world. In this book, he wrote: 'Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of thy law.'"
"In this book, he fused together 'miracles' and 'magecraft,' powers that were supposed to stand at opposite ends of Mystery. He used the miracle of the heart to manifest the magecraft of the past. It is an astonishing idea, and an even more incredible thing to have actually attempted."
"It is difficult to imagine how he accomplished it, and even harder to imagine how a man who thereby became a heretic to both the Church and the Mage's Association managed to escape destruction from both sides."
"And yet, however much he was condemned and reviled, the ideas he left behind unquestionably influenced many magi and many members of the Church."
"He was reckless."
"A rebel against the world of Mystery."
"But perhaps he was also one of the first pioneers daring enough to step into the unknown."
—Bold remarks delivered in class by Waver Velvet, lecturer of the Clock Tower and Lord of Modern Magecraft, 2004.
-------
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