* Location : 2nd floor of Level 1 restriction zone, left wing of the York Grand Library's main library building *

'Beginning of the Universes by [REDACTED]'

'Analysis of Archmage Ignis's Autobiography (Extracted)'

These books contain information about fundamental concepts of reality itself.

Atleast, that's what the librarian said when I asked him for books about relationships of mana.

"The titles don't look related to the question at all tho...and what knowledge can these thin books even hold?", I start questioning my decisions before I even begin reading.

"Let just begin reading, I've wasted too much time picking already", and so I dived into the book.

In the middle of dark library, with only a lamp to illuminate the table, there was a madman worshipping a goddamn book...

After spending close to a quarter of a day, I finally finished extracting all information.

And they completely shattered my expectations.

"Where have these books been all my life? These are freaking phenomenal!", I exclaimed.

These info are not only groundbreaking, but also shatter and debunk common beliefs with better logic-proof concepts.

Well, I do understand the gist as to why such truth are put in restricted sections.

"The Holy Empire ain't gonna like this, haha. But if not for an archmage, who would dare say such a blasphemous word? And who would even believe such words? In fact, I still can't believe that it is real. Am I getting scam by the heretics?", I speak excitedly.

Looking left and right to see if there are any church spies or any people at all. I found none so I continue blabbering what others would call nonsense.

"But all he said makes sense, like why else would the gods of mythology need worshipping and take sacrifices to survive if they are truly omnipotent? If they did not need it to survive, then why do these so-called gods care to interfere in human affairs in the first place? The only explanation is that they are not true gods in a sense that they command the world in its entirety."

'These three books are denitely banned by the church, that's for sure. haha. Wait, but why is it only in level 1 restriction tho? Must be a misclassification or more secrets are hiding in this library. All the more reasons to go to right wing of the library.'

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To understand why Baston is so pumped, you need to see what he had just read.

"A top-notch classified revolutionary life-changing monumental...", and so on. 

For now, just let Baston continue his songs of praise to these work while we took a look at a summarized version he wrote down on his notes.

"Concept of hells and heavens are just hopeful fantasy of human, atleast the portrayal of it."

- Ignis de Solvaran, 1845 AD

One church claimed "Our gods formed these worlds from nothing".

The others chimed in "No, it's our god...", "You sinner, it's obvious that our gods constructed it..."

One may not know the truth till their deaths, but O Omnipotent One, may we know the reason for our existence?

"If god does not answer our call for answer, does that mean we are insignificant? If so, why would god find a need to create life of an insignificant being?" A renowned atheist denied the gods.

"If one's god were to exist, does that mean other's mythology are false?" A devout zealot posed a question.

"Can all stories sustaining many cultures for centuries be true at the same time?" An imaginative theorist made up a conjecture.

"Couldn't it be that all gods are connected with the others behind the scene?" An intuitive divine strategist theorized.

Archmage said... ########## [REDACTED]

- Analysis of Archmage Ignis's Autobiography (Extracted)

Based on undeniable evidence, in modern magical societies...

Most widely accepted theory for creation of the universe, to this day, is "The Big Bang Theory".

Starting as explosion from a single point in nothingness, the basis of the universe is created.

From intangible concepts like time, space and consciousness...

to components that made up objects in our everyday life.

There are such five fundamental components that made up this universe...

Atomic Particle - The physical things all around us

Mana Particle - Particle expended to conjure magical phenomena

Spirit Force (Life force) - The force defining one as a living being

Miasmic Force (Miasma) - The corrupted power governed by the demons

Divine Force (Divinity) - The holy power of the divine beings*

*Gods of the mythologies are denoted as divine beings. As no theory feasibly support their claim to creation of the universe, truly possible only by omnipotent beings capable of creating oneself in the first place.

Then time passed, and the universe was separated into smaller 'realms'.

A proper comparison between 'universe and its realms' would be 'lasagna and its layers', 

(Noted that the lasagna would be infinitely wide and thick for it to held true)

Each layers of meat would be the 'realms', separated by layer of dough, a 'true universal space'.

That leads us to our realm... [Realm of the Living]

With 'Atomic particle' , 'Mana particle' and 'Spirit Force' as a foundation, the [Realm of the Living] was created. From every sun, stars, and spaces beyond the skies to the ground and soil of our planet, all of them is in the [Realm of the Living]. In this realm, its inhabitants were known as 'the Living' by the demons and the divine beings, hence the name [Realm of the Living].

(Note : Are the demons and the divine beings not a living being?)

Likewise, the demons, based on miasmic force, are originally from 'Realm of the Demonic' and the divine beings, based on divine force, are from 'Realm of the Divine'.

[Realm of the Living] is connected to two such realms, through portals from the other sides. These portals leaked substances from the other realms to us such as 'miasma' and 'divinity', none of them are created on our realm. From them, the researchers conducted test before concluding on this theory of Big Bang.

(Note : Based on this theory, there should be more realms, however no human technology could travel between realms by passing through the 'true universal space', thus there would be no way to confirm this hypothesis.)

In the entire [Realm of the Living] existed only a single planet that could sustain life.

A blue-green planet with a right temperature and a perfect atmosphere commonly called Earth.

The official name given to it by the old civilization and used by 'the Holy Alliance' was "Terra Amplificata".

'Terra is understandable but why Amplificata? What got amplified?'

Well, who knows? Its 'description' might have been bestowed by their gods since the church of the Holy Alliance use it.

'Terra Amplificata', The only habitat and home planet of every and all 'living beings' ever existed.

Every humanoids, like elves, dwarves, dragonkins, humans, to mindless beasts of the wilderness, like slimes...

From powerful beings like dragons to the bottom of the food chains like slimes and plants...

They all originated from [Realm of the Living], specifically 'Terra Amplificata'.

* Location : Baston's bedroom *

* Time : That same night, Right before the 121st entry into 'The Capitol Fall' *

Before I learnt magic as a theory today, I performed magic using intuition and instinct...

'So, what exactly is magic? You may ask.' , said by Baston to himself.

'Magic' is the phenomena resulted from manipulation 'basic building blocks of the universe' by utilizing relationships between them.

'Shouldn't chemical reaction be considered magic then? Some might asked'.

Yes, however, by normal standard and common sense, magic is only considered 'magic' only when the act involved creation of metaphysical phenomena through 'Sorcery'. Meaning it must not be initiated through physical means or atomic particles.

For example, [Fire Ball] was initiated by spending mental energy to our 'spirit force'. Our 'spirit force', in turn, control mana in our body to inject itself outside the body, be shaped like a ball and burn bright like a bonfire, becoming a [Fire Ball] spell.

The processes and the arts of creating those magical phenomena and spells are called 'Sorcery'.

And the steps shown to create [Fire Ball] above is 'Bare Bone Sorcery', also known as 'Basic Sorcery' or 'Imaginative Sorcery'. The reason for its naming is that, to no one surprise, the magic is formed using pure imagination and visualization.

It's easy to understand the concept of 'Bare Bone Sorcery'. However, having to imagine a finer detailed magic is incredibly inefficient, using a lot of mental power to imagine a powerful spell would probably melt your brain first.

That's why other forms of sorcery existed, adapted to the physiology of their species.

'Standard Human Sorcery' - A type of sorcery performed in circle formations.

'Elven Sorcery' - A sorcery designed for elves characteristics of being more connected with natures and spirits.

'Dragonic Sorcery' - Also known as dragon tongue, it commanded the mana directly via mental power, skipping the spirit force part in 'Bare Bone Sorcery', and resulting in a more absolute and detailed control of the mana and magic.

Obviously, since 'Magic' is a result from manipulation of the 'building blocks', there's bound to be many types of magic. However, the common definition and technical definition of the word 'Magic' doesn't refer to the same thing, exactly because...

Technical term : 'Mana Magic' = Common term : 'Magic'

That's right. For whatever reasons, mankind decided to only call 'Mana Magic' as 'Magic', and referred to other types of magic in other terms. 'Or should we blame the researchers who invented technical terms?'

Since every 'Living Being' contain some amount of life forces, all of them are able to use 'Mana Magic', just at different scales and proficiency.

Technical term : 'Spirit Magic' = Common term : 'Mystic Arts'

Magic based on life forces, such as 'Eastern Style Ceremonies' and 'Ghostly Power', are considered as mystic arts. Spells that use/create "Summons" or "Elemental Spirits" are considered mystic arts too.

Technical term : 'Divine Magic' = Common term : 'Holy Arts'

Unlike 'Mana Magic' and 'Spirit Magic' that expended Mana particles and Spirit Force respectively, 'Living Beings' cannot use Divine Force on its own. As such, they used 'Divine-aligned mana' as their source of power.

Series of spells considered 'Holy Arts' are, for example, 'Healing Magic' series and 'Purification Magic' series.

Technical term : 'Miasma Magic' = Common term : 'Demonic Arts'

Similar to Divine Magic, 'Living Beings' cannot use miasmic force directly, so they used 'Miasma-aligned mana' instead. These spells recreate the original powers of demons like 'Necromancy' and 'Curses'.

For example, only a person with 'Healing Attunement' can performed 'Healing Magic'.

However, if a person was gifted 'Divine Attunement', they can perform all kinds of 'Holy Arts', including 'Healing Magic'. And a person with 'Greater Divine Attunement' will be even better at 'Holy Arts'.

That's right, even 'Spiritual Attunement' have tiers and classes, and a person's spirit can have more than one 'Spirirual Attunement', noted that those attunement must not be conflicting.

But not all kinds of magic required a certain 'Attunement'.

Just because a mage has 'Fire Attunement' doesn't mean that he can't perform [Water Blade] spell.

So, what's my attunement? what's my capabilities?

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.

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I don't know....

To be exact, I don't know all 'Spiritual Attunements' that I have.

I knew I got 'Life Attunement <Tier 1>', the lowest tier of the basic attunement inherent to every 'living being'.

I also knew I have 'Spatum Attunement <Tier 2>' the second tier of rare 'Space Attunement'. It allows me access to 'Space Magic' series and greatly enhances my 'Spatial Awareness', a crucial factor in my survivability in battle.

I also have another 'Spirit Attunement', however measurement device in my city doesn't have database to equate the last spirit attunement to... 

So my ID card basically listed my 'Spiritual Attunement' characteristics as...

* Baston Thilloburg *

* Spiritual Attunement : Life <Tier 1>, Spatum <Tier 2>, ??? <Tier ?> *

Anyway, tonight would be my 121st entry into 'The Capitol Fall'.

And this would be my first attempt that I forcibly enter while awake instead of get in by sleeping.

All components for forced entry are prepared.... Now it's time to go.

I clutched my precious belonging, my pocket watch 'Temporis'.

Using that item as a core, I casted [Gate of Nightmare].

" Memoria futuri quam quaero mihi revelatur [Gate of Nightmare] "